> Equestria: Agents of S.C.A.L.E
>  by Insanecrusader
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Beginings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"All right the goal is simple. Just hit every target within the given time, and you're good..." the pegasus turned away from his clipboard to look in his direction. "Got it?"

There was a tone of seriousness in his question. A marine blue unicorn stepped into the light, his ruffled brown mane shone in spite of its dullness. He had a smirk on his face as he spoke;

"Pffffft, easy as making cupcakes."

The pegasus rolled his eyes and nodded to the controller in the adjacent room. The controller was located in a large box room that overlooked the training area. A metal door slid upwards to allow access to the training area, as the unicorn passed through the doorway he felt his horn go numb. The room had been enchanted to prevent unicorns from using magic to their advantage.

“Hooves only” the pegasus said from behind him.

The metal door slammed shut separating the two of them and the unicorn looked forward. The room was filled with boxes of various sizes and shapes some were high up, while others were low to the ground. The room was rectangular in shape, it was long; maybe sixty metres in length by twenty wide. A buzzer sounded and suddenly the room filled with wooden cut-outs of Changeling drones.

"Commence" the controller said through a speaker.

The unicorn jumped into action, striking each and every one of the cut-outs down in quick succession, he darted around the room aiming to chain most of his strikes like he was composing music. He knew he had to be quick if he was going to get in; this was no run-of-the-mill military drill. This was just one of the many rigorous trials to gain membership into the S.C.A.L.E organization; it all came down to this. When he saw he only had one cut-out left the unicorn headbutted the final target, it splintered as he struck it. There was another buzz the controller had called time. A scoreboard lit up on the side of the box room the controller was in;

STORMCLOUD,
RACE: UNICORN
REQUIRED TIME: 5.45.100
TIME RECORDED: 5.43.99

Stormcloud stared at the board, he had beaten the clock by mere seconds.

“Would seconds be enough” he thought.

The metal door at the other end of the room opened up, he looked at the pegasus instructor hoping he'd be gracious. To get into S.C.A.L.E was harder than getting into the Wonderbolts. This was one of the final tests for admission and if he failed, it would make all the platform-jumping and long distance teleportations for nothing. Stormcloud entered the room he'd been waiting in, the pegasus remained silent and continued to read the clipboard. The pegasus indicated for Stormcloud to sit. He waited and waited, soon enough he began to sweat.

“Oh, Celestia please, make this my day.” Stormcloud prayed.

The pegasus got a call on his com' device attached to his ear;

"Yes...right...I see, thank you."

Most of the conversation was inaudible, except small words. Stormcloud got even more nervous at this.

“Did I not pass? What was that call for? Who was on the other side? Did it have anything to do with his performance?” All these questions swirled around in his head, but it always returned to a single thought; "Did I pass?"

Stormcloud sat in the waiting room anxious to hear the results. He flicked through a newspaper on the table in front of him. His mind was preoccupied he only glanced at the headlines.

“Bright Spark CEO of Spark Industries still missing” dominated the front page, Stormcloud flicked the page over.

“Silver Pegasus saves filly in distress”, “Party food at Grand Galloping Gala mysteriously disappears. Fillysecond to blame?” Stormcloud took no notice of the headlines and returned to his thoughts.

He had come so far, receiving the invitation only a week ago. S.C.A.L.E only recruited those of the most talented pedigree and it was so secretive that even Celestias' or Lunas' knowledge was limited. Stormcloud had been sent to a discrete location only to be drugged and a bag placed on his head so as to not compromise S.C.A.L.Es training facility. Only the direct friends and family of Princess Twilight Sparkle could control S.C.A.L.Es' activities and personnel. Stormcloud was very lucky he passed his magic exams at a level close to Twilight Sparkle herself or he may never have gotten the call.

He heard a door open and turned to see Captain Shining Armour and Princess Twilight Sparkle herself entering. He stood up and saluted to both of them, they always shrugged it off; after all he was good friends with the Princess. Before she had became an alicorn, he had met her in magic kindergarten, this was before she became Celestias private pupil. They kept in touch through letters afterwards.

"So, Stormcloud, how did you do?" asked Shining.

Stormcloud sighed in frustration, "I don't know, that's the problem"

Stormcloud paced around the room becoming more and more impatient. Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile.

"Don't worry Storm, I'm sure you passed with flying colours." she spoke softly but firmly, "We saw your time, even that is still fast for most unicorns."

“I thought that time was for all ponies?” Stromcloud asked confused.

Shining Armour laughed. “The times change for each race, pegasi have to complete the course even faster and they're not allowed to use their wings, they have to carry a winglock.”

Twilight walked up to Stormcloud. "You're going to get in, I Pinkie-promise"

Stormcloud smiled as she even did the motions, for a Princess she hadn't changed one bit since her Coronation. He had been to Ponyville often enough to know her friends, including the super party pony.

"Mister Cirrus Stormcloud?" A gold furred earth pony mare spoke from the door that led to the controllers' room. "We're ready for you." She spoke in a cold monotone compared to Twilight.

He looked back at them and gave them a weak smile "Wish me luck you guys." With that he disappeared into the controllers box room;

"Lets see if that promise holds any truth" Stormcloud thought to himself.



Stormcloud entered the controllers' room, it was filled with television screens and computers, a single desk was in the centre of the room and two ponies sat behind it.

"Stormcloud, allow me to introduce myself and my colleague" said the pegasus instructor from earlier, "my name is Rapid Fire." He gestured to the muscular earth pony beside him "And this is Falcon" the pony glared back at Rapid Fire, "THAT'S CAPTAIN FALCON!" his voice was as powerful as he looked.

The name sounded oddly familiar, but Stormcloud dismissed this. Falcon stepped forward;

"We've watched your performances, and after MUCH careful consideration, we've come to a conclusion." Captain Falcon said

His words held a tone of regret almost as if he was doubting his decision. He glanced over at Rapid Fire who threw a steely look in return, Falcon took sighed in defeat.

"Cirrus Stormcloud it is our honour to admit you into the ranks of S.C.A.L.E." he growled through his gritted teeth.

Stormcloud stood there for a moment trying to process what he just heard.

"Congrats' kid, you've earned it." said Rapid Fire, who looked a lot more pleased than the earth pony next to him.

He trotted up to the befuddled unicorn, Rapid Fire handed Stormcloud a badge with his wing.

Stormclouds' mouth was agape, "I passed?.."

He was having trouble speaking, he was so shocked and surprised.

"I'm an agent of S.C.A.L.E?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stormcloud galloped outside the room into the waiting area and started to jump. "YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!" He shouted triumphantly.

Shining Armour and Twilight Sparkle looked at the excited unicorn. Twilight smiled.

"What did I say, you passed without a hitch" they both looked at her.

"I was real close to failing Twilight, way too close." Stormcloud grimaced at his next thought, "if I had gone any slower, it would've been the complete opposite."

Twilight came around and draped a wing around him.

"But yet here we are, you're finally in!” she took Stormclouds' badge and examined it, “The admission tests are over!"

Suddenly the door to the controllers room swung open and Captain Falcon came stomping out.

"OVER?!" he bellowed, "I'D SAY FAR FROM!"

He was so loud the whole facility could hear him.

"This rookie was almost eliminated by mere seconds!"

Stormclouds' first impression was that he was short tempered. The current actions of the earth pony confirmed that thought. The pony ignored the other two ponies in the room and focussed on Stormcloud, he walked up and lowered his voice by an octave.

"If it wasn't for Rapids' spot in the Royal Guard, you'd most certainly be out!"

Falcons' words shook everypony. Everypony except the Princess, who was thoroughly ticked by this ponys' behaviour. Twilight rounded on the bulky pony.

"Mr Falcon is it?" she rhetorically asked.

"That's Cap..." he looked at her, and then realized who he was looking at.

Twilight knew of Captain Falcons reputation all too well.

"I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS NEGATIVITY TO MY FRIENDS" Twilight was not shouting but using the voice that was reserved for courtrooms.

The Royal Canterlot Voice made Falcons voice sound like that of a mouse. Stormcloud could almost feel the air started to heat up. Twilight outstretched her wings and rose off the ground slightly.

"YOUR JOB WAS TO JUDGE STORMCLOUDS' PERFORMANCE, OBVIOUSLY YOU WANTED HIM TO PASS, OR ELSE HE WOULDN'T BE HERE!" Twilight reasoned.

At this point, it seemed Captain Falcon had become frightened by her outburst and started to shrink into a ball.

"I'm sorry P-Princ-cess, it's just as a Captain, it's my duty to-" he was cut off by Twilight again.

"THY DUTY IS TO ACCESS WHO IS FIT TO JOIN THE RANKS OF S.C.A.LE" she said.
Falcon was almost to the point of running away when Twilights' brother stepped in.

"Okay Princess, calm down I think he gets it," he then gave a smirk “Captain Falcon you're dismissed.”

The lavender Princess returned to the ground. Twilight recomposed herself as if the outburst had never occurred. Captain Falcon scrambled to his hooves and retreated to the controllers' room.

"Whewww...Sorry everypony, got a little carried away there" she gave Stormcloud a comforting smile.

"Now, it's time to get packing. You may have passed the admission tests but now the real testing begins.” Shining Armour said.

Shining Armour held out a black bag with his hoof.

“I'm afraid you'll need to put this back on, we'll take you home where you'll have one day to pack everything you might need” Shining continued.

“But how will I know what I...” Stormcloud began.

“I made a checklist” Twilight announced happily.

“That's so Twilight” Stormcloud thought.

He felt a prick in his back leg like before when he was waiting to come to the facility, and soon the world around him descended into darkness.

> Chapter Two: Scales of Steel.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

     

Chapter Two: Scales of Steel


Location: Classified.

Inside a dark, square room a group of ponies looked on at an assortment of monitors on the wall. Some were displaying maps of Equestria, some showed specific ponies, and others were just seen as technological jargon that few could understand. One such monitor displayed a picture of a unicorn stallion punching a target, a label underneath the screen read ‘Subject: Stormcloud’. This screen had the attention of one particular unicorn stallion in the room. A pegasus next to him spoke, even in the darkness her voice gave her away as a mare.

"Do you think he'll be strong enough?" She said in a hushed tone.

The unicorn looked at her, then back to the screen. The image of Stormcloud now showed his cutie mark; a gusting cloud.

"Yes... I think we've found a good one."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Location: The Stormcloud residence, Buckingham.

Stormcloud awoke in his bed. Had it all been a dream it felt too surreal, his body was in pain and he was tempted to lie there longer but he had to get up and move around. He shifted out of bed and noted the time; ‘10:48’. His house was as a two story structure made from the traditional Buckingham sandstone, the architecture was that of a terraced house so the house didn’t stand out in any way, shape or form. His bedroom was on the top level of the house with the adjoining bathroom, there was a staircase that lead down to the front door. The lower level consisted of a living room, a kitchen and a staircase under the stairs. Stormcloud entered the bathroom and swilled some mouthwash around, he didn’t feel like eating just now. As he turned back into his room he saw a piece of paper on the bedside table.

Item                                                                  Check

Formal Suit (with change of ties)                                     ___ 

Reading material (trust me you’ll need it)                          ___

Sweets (banned so hide them well)                                   ___

Something to keep you entertained                                   ___

Any photos you want                                                       ___



The writing was definitely that of Twilight Sparkle.

“Guess that stuff actually happened.”

Stormcloud looked at the clock on his wall. He had a few hours to get everything he needed. He opened his wardrobe and found the suit. The last time he wore it was four years ago after the changelings had invaded Canterlot. He shuddered to shake the memory before he could relive it again, he levitated the funeral suit onto the bed and used his magic to unzip the bag. He pulled out the trousers, waistcoat, shirt, jacket and the black tie. He slowly clad himself in the clothing, he felt his mood depress as the suit smelled and felt exactly the same as it had four years ago. A tear formed in his eye but he suppressed them and continued to drape himself with the suit. It still fitted; one of the benefits of a good diet and regular exercise. He placed the suit back into the bag and pulled the saddlebags out from under his bed.

He then placed the suit-bag within the saddlebag and grabbed his fathers’ deck of cards from the bedside table drawer. He then double-checked the wardrobe but couldn’t find any other ties. He sighed and grabbed a smaller flank bag from the same wardrobe, there were a few bits still in the bag. He walked down the stairs and left out the front door. He kicked over a rock by the front door and levitated the key up from under it. He placed the key in the lock and rotated it using his magic. He returned it to the keystone and walked off.

He didn’t need to walk to the centre of Buckingham as he knew of a tailors not far away, there was also a ‘Bon-Bons’ Sweet Shoppe’ nearby he could also visit. The weather today was grey, as Buckingham was located near the coast, the local pegasi who worked at the offshore weather factory could only tame the frequent storms that hit the coast. This meant that grey weather was not uncommon most days.

He watched as a red omnibus passed him filled with foals heading to school for the day, a few black Buckingham cabs passed him also, he thought about taking one but he was enjoying the walk too much to give it much thought. He came across the local tailors in no time at all and entered the cozy shop. The young mare behind the counter smiled brightly and walked over to help him.

“And what is a handsome stallion such as yourself looking for this fine morning. Let me guess, a wedding suit lucky mare whoever she is.”

“Ha! No just some ties today.” The mare didn’t grasp the fake laugh.

She seemed more intrigued about his lack of mare-friend than the fact that he came in for ties. She passed him several different colour ties while asking him questions which he ignored. Stormcloud didn’t try them on but picked a red, a blue and another black tie. He quickly paid for his ties and left the shop leaving the mare somewhat perplexed at the lack of converse.

Stormcloud trotted along the cobblestone street towards Bon-Bons’ Sweet Shoppe, this street was one of the main roads that ran into the centre of city. A tram rolled along in the centre of the street its pantograph sparked as it passed Stormcloud. It was amazing what had happened in the past few years technology-wise, the steam engines that ran the railways were slowly being replaced by diesel powered engines. Manehatten had a massive underground network of railways that all ran on electricity. It was amazing to think that rocks like coal and the discovery of oil and radioactive elements had brought all this change to Equestria in such a small space of time.

Someponies had accomplished so much because of these advances and big companies such as Spark Industries and HAMMER Inc. had grown at a massive rate, both companies now had large towers being constructed in Manehatten. A few years ago and all this didn’t exist, and now Stormcloud couldn’t imagine his life without these technological marvels.

Stormcloud turned into the small shop and a bell rang as he opened the door. The store had a simple counter with a set of scales on top. The three walls inside the shop were filled with sweet jars, the other was the door and windows. A mare came in from a back room, she smiled. It didn’t take Stormcloud long to find what he was looking for and he levitated over the jar that contained milk bottles. A gummy sweet that was Stormclouds’ favourite, a few years ago he’d have to of gone to Ponyville to get these sweets and now they were around the corner from his house.

***

Stormcloud threw the sweets and ties into the bag and proceeded to check over his checklist again. He turned to his bookcase and tried to settle on a book to take with him. Sadly there were so many good ones to choose from.

“A new book or an old book? That is the question.”

He began pulling books out and stacking them into piles of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. The ‘Yes’ pile soon towered over the ‘No’ and he was barely a quarter of the way through them. Stormcloud opened the bedside table drawer and pulled out a hoofwatch, he checked the time and then panicked. He only had a few minutes and he didn’t know where he was supposed to meet the S.C.A.L.E agents. Stormcloud grabbed the first book he could grip in his magic and tossed into his bag. “Lord of the Flies” a very good choice the book that dealt with the concept on how really all ponies were animals by nature. The book was based on an island which focussed on some stranded foals and how they would revert back to an animalistic nature with no adult ponies were around. 

Stormcloud flung in some articles of clothing and zipped the bag shut, he took his stuff down the stairs. He dumped the bag by the front door and moved over to a fake fireplace, on the mantelpiece was a picture of a mare, he picked up the frame. He heard a noise from the sofa and went to turn around but he felt a rag over his muzzle, the strong smell of chloroform filled his nostrils.

“Shhhh... don’t struggle, just sleep.” The voice whispered.
***
Location: Unknown

Stormcloud woke up suddenly. The feeling of nausea swept over him instantly to the point where he almost fell back to sleep, he fought hard against the urge. He opened his eyes but all he could see was darkness, he could however feel something over his head, so as far as he could tell somepony had placed a bag over his head. He couldn’t use his magic as he knew for a fact that chloroform restricted magic use for a while after the subject was fully conscious. He tried to move but he could feel his legs were cuffed together, as he tuned his senses he became aware that he was on his side with his hooves out in front. He could also feel a gentle rocking motion, this meant that he was in something and moving.

"This drugging and bagging nonsense is really getting old." He thought.

He cleared his throat and tried to muster the most confident voice he could. He didn't know where he was, but he could sense somepony’s presence.

“He’s awake.” Came a familiar voice of a stallion.

"Could somepony please tell me whats going on?" Stormcloud said as his voice croaked.

As he spoke those words, he could feel the bag being lifted from his head and his hooves becoming free. His eyes were greeted by a blinding light and he shut them quickly, as the spots disappeared he slowly opened his eyes. He saw Rapid fire and a female earth pony sitting across from him on two seats. Stormcloud staggered onto all fours and saw a seat behind him where he sat down. They were in a small carriage; bigger than a Manehatten cab but smaller than an omnibus. 

"Glad you could finally join us Stormcloud, your body resisted a lot of that anesthetic." Rapid Fire chuckled. "You woke up the first time sooner than we expected."

Stormcloud stared at the two ponies before him. He was waiting for some kind of explanation but Stormcloud figured he wasn’t getting one, and drugging ponies was a standard protocol before training. As he looked around the carriage he saw the bag he’d packed a few hours ago, there were no other features he could look at. He looked up to Rapid Fire and then to the mare.

“Standard procedure, even for a Level Four agent such as yourself. Until you pass the training you’re not allowed any contact with the outside world. You’re not even allowed to know where you are until you pass the twelve week course or get promoted to Level Five. That’s why you were knocked out, we shouldn’t be far away now.” Rapid Fire said matter-of-factly.

Stormcloud nodded slowly as his head still felt woolen from the after-effects of the chloroform. He turned to the mare again she was wearing a white business suit.

"Why do I feel as if I've seen this mare before?" he thought.

The pony caught Stormcloud looking at her again.

“My name’s Pepper Pot.” She said.

It was then that Stormcloud remembered who she was. Pepper Pot was the assistant of Bright Spark; the billionaire and namesake of Spark Industries, she’d been in the news recently as reporters asked whether Bright Spark had genuinely gone missing or if she was doing a publicity stunt again. As Stormcloud thought further into it, he came to the realization that he’d met Pepper Pot before. Sadly Stormcloud could remember the day all too well. That had been the day of the Canterlot Wedding.

Stormcloud watched as the shield that enveloped the city erupted into thousands of tiny shards. High above in the sky the changeling drones descended at breakneck speed towards the castle grounds. The city bells tolled as the ground around Stormcloud shook rapidly. He watched as the changelings rose from the craters in the ground, many high society type ponies ran around screaming. Stormcloud just stood there in astonishment, a Changeling jumped at Stormcloud with its teeth bared. One quick teleportation later and Stormcloud was two streets away at the cafe he’d been to the day previously. 

“I have to find her!” He thought to himself.

There were a few explosions nearby and bricks and dust were tossed through the air. More changelings rose from the newly-formed craters while others remained in the sky and chased after several pegasi. He saw a few Royal Guards run towards the main castle.

“There’s been a break-in at the weapons vault. Somepony alert Princess Luna, she’s in charge of the Royal Armory, Princess Celestia is at the chapel so send reinforcements there.” A guard said to another.

Stormcloud looked around for her, but he had no luck. He looked all around at the street, many windows had shattered and the cobblestone roads had massive craters scattered around.

“She should be here!” He angrily thought.

A loud noise caught Stormclouds attention and he turned to see where it came from. Stormcloud watched as a tall castle tower began to topple, he quickly realised that the tower was falling in his direction. He turned on the spot and galloped as fast as he could. All around him he could see either Royal Guards fighting changelings or changelings attacking ponies. He could hear the earth shattering sound behind him and a huge wave of dust covered him. He stopped in his tracks and went into a coughing fit.

He could no longer see his surroundings, everything around him was grey with dust, most of it still lingered in the air. The buildings and other ponies he’d seen a mere moment ago had vanished in this fog of dust. Then he heard the cries.

“Help! Help! Somepony! Anypony!” The cry came.

He turned on the spot and then Stormcloud ran in the general direction of the cry when he could pinpoint it.

“Please don’t be her, please don’t be her!” He thought as he raced along the toppled tower.

As he got closer to the cry he could see the buildings of the street, it was as if somepony had painted them grey. The toppled tower had crushed several houses and shops and then he saw the two ponies. An earth pony mare was struggling to lift some stone bricks off another pony. Stormcloud recognised the trapped earth pony stallion as the CEO of Spark Industries; Luminescent Spark. The pony was in his latter years and was trapped under several large, jagged bricks. The mare was unharmed but was furiously trying to lift all the rocks off him. From Stormclouds’ position he could see that one such brick had passed through the stallions’ body. He was never going to make it.

Stormcloud shook the memory from his head. Four years may have passed but time doesn’t heal all wounds. At some point they carriage had stopped moving and the doors to the carriage were suddenly swung open.

“I’m afraid I have some business to discuss with Miss Pot, but you will see me soon enough.” Rapid Fire explained.

Both the pegasus and earth pony left the carriage and Stormcloud leapt down from the carriage as well. He was in a giant room which was lit by normal lights. The room was tall and there was a raised level beside the carriage. Stormcloud kept turning on the spot and tried to determine where to go, thankfully another pegasus approached him.

“Do you know where to go?” She asked in a tone that suggested she didn’t know either.

The mare had grey fur and had a black mane.

“Erm..no, sorry I don’t” Stormcloud replied.

As Stormcloud looked around again he saw that there were a couple of other carriages in the room, maybe ten in total. Some of the carriages were like Stormclouds’ but three of them were shaped differently; these ones Stormcloud deduced as being for pegasi. A voice boomed around the room that was of the same level of the Royal Canterlot voice. Princess Twilight Sparkle stood on a small platform in front of a stone statue of the S.C.A.L.E logo.

“Attention all Agents! You are to assemble in the mess hall that is down this corridor behind me, but once you do. You cannot go back to your old life. If you still wish to go back to your old ways, there’s your ride out of here.” She pointed to the carriages.
A small mass of ponies began walking towards Twilight Sparkle and the S.C.A.L.E logo, behind her was the huge corridor that led to this mess hall. Stormcloud and the pegasus mare followed the mass of ponies into the mess hall.
> Chapter Three: The Path of the Righteous Pony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

ward282
Chapter Three: The Path of the Righteous Pony


Location: S.C.A.L.E Training Facility.

As the mass of ponies assembled into the mess room, they began sitting at the tables already set up in the room. Stormcloud naturally took his seat like all the others, he stared around the room, there were a few noticeboards in one corner, the corridor they’d all just come in from, three other corridors and the area that was clearly where the caterers worked.

A few minutes passed and Stormclouds stomach began to grumble in anticipation of food, Stormcloud was unsure of how much physical time had passed while being unconscious. Then he heard the clopping of hooves, everypony who had been talking was now silent. An earth pony walked down into the middle of the mess room. The stallion was wearing a large black trench coat that covered nearly all of his brown fur, his cutie mark wasn’t visible, but his most noticeable feature was the fact he wore an eyepatch over his right eye.

The pony stood on a free table to address the entire room. He had no mane but kept a small black beard. Twilight Sparkle entered the room alongside a few other ponies that Stormcloud did not recognise, they didn’t follow the pony in the centre but remained at the sidelines. 

“Alright listen up.” The brown-furred pony said loudly.“My name is Director Righteous Fury, you however will be addressing me as Director Fury. Welcome to the Strategic Centre for Aid and Law Enforcement, you are here because you have been chosen to be agents because you are the best of the best. Don’t let that go to your heads though as some of you however will not make it through the tedious twelve week programme.”

While Director Fury spoke he rotated on the table to address the entire room, or maybe it was because he only had one eye and couldn't see everypony.

“While you are here, you will eat, sleep, learn and train within this facility. You will not be leaving this building unless you aren’t good enough for S.C.A.L.E or if you’ve passed the training course. The course has been designed to test your general knowledge and increase your specialist areas including engineering, science, data analysis, field work or if you’re really lucky; the specialists . Each of you will have several training sessions during the day and some free time in the evening. You will all be divided up into races for physical training and by your field for your academic training and for some of you that will be more physical training.” Director Fury explained.

At that moment Rapid Fire, Captain Falcon and some other ponies entered the room, they stood not too far from Twilight Sparkle.

“You've each had your bags placed in an individual room which is for your use only. If you are caught after hours with another in your room you will be leaving S.C.A.L.E, if you do anything to compromise S.C.A.L.E you will be interrogated. Understand this ponies, you are here to be whittled down so that we only have the best left. Tomorrow you begin your training with these ponies here.” He gestured to Rapid Fire and Captain Falcon. “If you are lucky then we will see each other again.”

With that Director Fury stepped off the table and headed towards the corridor that led towards the carriages. Twilight Sparkle and a few others followed him out of the room. Rapid Fire held up a checklist and stepped to where Director Fury had been.

“Okay listen up, I’m going to start reading names and you are going to head to your personal room!” Rapid Fire said loudly drawing their attention.

It was about fifteen minutes until Rapid Fire called out Stormclouds’ name.

“Cirrus Stormcloud!” Rapid Fire shouted awaking Stormcloud from his daydream.

Stormcloud got up and walked towards Rapid Fire, there were only a few ponies left in the mess room, the pegasus which he’d walked in with had left some time ago.

“Room number three-seven-two, head through the double doors…” He pointed a hoof behind him. “Head through the recreational area and you’re on the second level.” Rapid Fire handed him a lanyard.

Stormcloud draped the lanyard over his neck using his magic and proceeded through the double doors. Beyond the doors was a short corridor that led into a large open space, this space was the recreational area which was just a few seats, a few ponies were wondering around aimlessly. Ahead of him and separated from the large room was a corridor running perpendicular to him. The corridor was extremely tall with doors at regular intervals along its length.

Stormcloud stepped aside as a pegasus walked beside him, the mare took flight and rose up two levels where she then landed on the wooden walkways that lined the upper level. There were four levels in total and three of them had wooden walkways, the ground floor was the only exception. A unicorn passed Stormcloud in the opposite direction and turned to him.

“Staircase is back there.” The unicorn said pointing down the corridor.

“Thanks.” Stormcloud replied and the friendly unicorn walked towards the recreational area.

Thankfully the numbering system was easy to understand so Stormcloud walked up the second level. Room three-seven-two was easy to find and Stormcloud pressed his lanyard against the scanner by the door. The metal door slid open to reveal a small room, somepony had delivered his bag to his room just as Rapid Fire had said.

The room was bare except for a simple cot-style bed, a bedside table, a chest of drawers and a tall wardrobe. His bag had been placed on the bed and there was a strange device sitting on the bedside table. There was an envelope beside the device which Stormcloud took the letter out to read.


______________________________________


Dear Agent 

Congratulations on your successful entry to the Strategic Centre for Aid and Law Enforcement. You will find next to this envelope a device called a Trojan. This device will upload your unique magical aura to S.C.A.L.Es’ system, this means you will not be required to wear your lanyard to gain access to rooms. This also means you will be the only pony to access your personal quarters and access other areas such as the purpose built unicorn training room.

Please note that once you upload your unique magical aura you will only be able to access areas of your clearance level.

Once again congratulations on your success.

Director Twilight Sparkle.


______________________________________


Stormcloud looked at the device it was medium sized and cylindrical with a flat square area for the lanyard. At the top was a deep hole where Stormcloud was supposed to place his horn. Stormcloud took a deep breathe and place the lanyard onto the square face, it clicked in place. Stormcloud then lowered his horn into the device and slid the device along its length.

The experience wasn’t painful but it felt like somepony was forcing information into his head, it only lasted thirty seconds and there was a *Ding!* to say it was done. Stormcloud took the device from his horn and stared at the metal door, he was slightly tired and also slightly hungry. Thankfully there was clock on the bedside table that showed the time to be ‘21:34’. Stormcloud focused his magic to the scanner by the door, the door slid upwards and Stormcloud left the room with a satisfied grin on his face.

In the time that had passed using the Trojan somepony had set up a large buffet table in the recreational area. As Stormcloud walked down the stairs a din of chatter reverberated all around him. The mass of ponies from the mess hall were now gathered into the comparisonly small recreational area, some ponies who wished to escape to the blackhole of social convention had spilled into the narrow corridor to chat among themselves.

Stormcloud eventually made it through the swarm of ponies to the buffet table in the room and was surprised to see how much food was still left. The table was filled with a variety of cakes, salads, biscuits, hayburgers and chips, punch, water and a selection of pretzels and crisps. A few paper plates and cups were stacked at the end of the table and Stormcloud levitated a pair over to him, he began using his advanced telekinesis training to lift several items of food onto his already levitating plate.

All the ponies around him were already talking amongst themselves but Stormcloud had never been one for large social gatherings. At that moment he felt a party hat being placed onto his head, as he turned to see who was there he only saw a pink cloud scatter in the space beside him. Stormcloud smiled, he only knew of one pony who was capable of arranging a party of this fashion and magnitude in a short time; Pinkie Pie. He caught sight of the party pony placing more hats on other ponies, some saw this as humorous while others (blatantly more serious ponies) discarded the hats like cheap tat. There were a few stone columns in the room, one of which had a note attached to it:


Attention Agents in-training!

The recreational area is for your benefit during down-time. Each pony will have their behaviour monitored and compared with their report. If reports and behaviour are good then the recreational facilities will be furnished.

If ponies decide to break S.C.A.L.Es’ rules, these furnishings will be removed with immediate effect.


At that moment Rapid Fire came up to Stormcloud, he had clearly been talking to all the other ponies in the room as he had adorned some crumbs on his chest.

“So did you find your room okay?” He asked.

“Yes.” Stormcloud replied after swallowing his crisps and turning away from the letter.

“Good, good.” Rapid Fire seemed to search for something else to say.

At that moment Pinkie Pie joined the group and placed a hat on Rapid Fire.

“Thank you Miss Pie.” Rapid Fire replied although the tone of his was not one of joy.

“Please everypony can call me Pinkie.” She turned to Stormcloud. “I’m not surprised to see you here, well I am surprised but not that I didn’t know you were here. I mean Twilight already told me you got in, it’s just I was surprised to see you right here right now.” 

Before Stormcloud could respond to the sentence he’d half followed, Pinkie Pie had already disappeared again. Rapid Fire coughed to get Stormclouds’ attention.

“Just because you know Director Sparkle doesn’t mean you are getting a free pass. You will address me as Sir or Agent Rapid, never Agent Fire though, we’ve had a few problems in the past with that.” Rapid Fire explained.

“I was never expecting a free pass Sir.” Stormcloud responded.

“Good because you’ve been assigned for Specialist training.”

“Specialist?” Stormcloud asked confused.

“The tests you’ve been doing have shown that you are a pony who fits into a specialist trend, it means you have more than one special talent whereas normally most ponies get grouped into field agents, engineering, R and D and then all the other minor roles, but you. You were one of the few who didn’t fit the trend so you are deemed a specialist and trust me it has its perks.”

“What sort of perks?” Stormcloud asked intrigued.

“I’m afraid I don’t even know, its too high a clearance for me to know. However I would consider getting an early night, training for you starts at ‘07:00’.” Rapid Fire smiled and left Stormcloud.


And with that Stormcloud polished off the last of his food and left for his bed.


***


Stormcloud was awoken by a knock on his door at six o’clock the next morning. He slid the door open to be greeted by the muscular mass that was Captain Falcon. Stormcloud felt his jaw drop in disbelief.

“Ain’t no Director to save your flank this time, get yourself cleaned up, your room cleaned up and get some oats down your mouth hole. Training starts in one hour. You won’t need to wear any attire.” Captain Falcon left without waiting for a reply.

Stormcloud proceeded to brush his mane and do some warm-up stretches before making his bed. He’d slept soundly that night but seeing Pepper Pot had caused some unwanted memories, he knew he’d woken up in a cold sweat during the night but couldn't remember anything about it.

He left his room and had to try and remember the way to the mess hall. He hadn’t stayed awake too long last night but with all the events of the few days Stormcloud was thoroughly exhausted. Stormcloud saw a few others head towards the mess room including the pegasus mare he’d met yesterday, all the other ponies looked equally as tired.

The mess hall was a large room that had one wall in a large ‘U’ shape, this was to allow food to be served through the gap. Stormcloud collected his oats, orange juice and coffee, he then sat down at one of the numerous tables that lined the hall. He ate in silence and once he was finished, waited for Captain Falcon.

The earth pony with the boxing glove cutie mark turned up at precisely ‘07:00’.

“Alright listen up! Now agents with a higher clearance level than me have decided that you pathetic excuses have what it takes to be Specialists. Now I think they’re wrong and there are far better choices than you lot. Your job is to prove me wrong!” He barked.

Captain Falcon turned on the spot and led the group down one of the four corridors that led from the mess hall. The corridor led the group down a set of stairs and then led on for quite some distance, the walls on either side were bare white and they only passed the occasional door. Eventually the turned left into a giant room that was far larger than the mess room. The room was oval in shape and contained a running track that followed the circumference of the room. In the centre were sets of weights and some items Stormcloud recognised from his foal days when he was just learning magic.

“Line up on the starting line!” Captain Falcon ordered.

The track was ten lanes wide and there were eight ponies taking part. Each one chose a lane and found their own starting position. Stormcloud stretched out his limbs as Captain Falcon draped a whistle over his neck.

“Okay, listen up! You are going to run fifty laps, pegasi will be grounded for this exercise! If I catch any pegasi flying you’ll have to run ten extra laps!” With that he blew the whistle.


***

He must have been on lap forty-six or was it forty-seven? It mattered not Stormcloud was exhausted and his stomach felt as if it was tied in knots. Thankfully Stormcloud had done laps at high school so he knew to keep a slow pace for most of the laps then in the last few laps pick up the pace. He knew for a fact that pegasi were naturally athletic so he wasn’t surprised to see all of them leading the herd around the track. Stormcloud held onto his sixth position for the time being. 

He took notice of the two ponies behind him, a unicorn and an earth pony, both seemed to be struggling to keep pace, he’d remembered that they’d held pole position for the first few laps. As ponies ran past Captain Falcon he shouted their laps left to them.

“Five Stormcloud!” He shouted as he ran past.

Stormcloud lowered his head and picked up the pace. He went up to fifth in no time and soon he took fourth. There were three pegasi in the lead now all of whom didn't seem to be breaking a sweat. He held his pace for a lap and half and then dropped back into fifth. He retained this pace for a quarter of a lap and then galloped into third. He smirked to himself as the pegasi stallion stared at the unicorn in disbelief when he overtook him. He could feel a stitch form in his side and slowed his pace, ensuring that he slowed his breathing down. The pain subsided and he was now in seventh position. He only had a lap left so Stormcloud charged with all his might.

“It can’t be her, it can’t be her.”

Stormcloud looked around at the buildings covered in dust, he could hear someone calling for help, but couldn't tell where. He could hear changelings behind him and ponies running in various directions. He focused for the cries and then ran towards them. That's when he saw the toppled tower near the shops. He saw two ponies, one being Pepper Pot the other being Luminescent Spark. Luminescent Spark had a stone brick all the way through him. Pepper Pot hadn't seemed to have noticed.

“He’s got a brick through him.” Stormcloud said.

The mare ignored him and continued to pull bricks off the elderly pony.

“He isn’t going to make it! You need to stop and get out of here!”

The mare turned. 

*Slap!*

Stormcloud shook his head, he was in front now, the end in sight. He tried to shake the memories from his head, he could feel his left forelegs catch the ground and he could feel the air flow faster around his face. His face hit the ground and his body quickly followed turning Stormcloud upside down and dragging him several hooves.

In a matter of minutes he was patched up, he was lightly bruised and his hooves and back hurt. Thankfully they were done running and were taking a short break. Two other ponies entered the room; Rapid Fire and a unicorn mare. The mare had fur a similar colour to Stormclouds, she also had green eyes and a long black mane her cutie mark was two stars.

Each of the ponies assembled with the instructor of the same race as them, the earth ponies and unicorns walked into the centre of the room where the weights were and the pegasi left the room. Stormcloud and the other unicorns waited for some time as other agents in-training entered the room. 

He thought this was the only logical conclusion.

When Stormcloud was at magic nursery all unicorns were given an exercise to help them with magic. The toy was made of wood and was a plank with three wooden shafts jutting out. One of these shafts had stone rings of ascending sizes on it. The aim was to move the entire tower from one shaft and rebuild it on another, but the catch was that you could only place a smaller ring on top of the lower rings. There was a trick to solving the puzzle but as Stormcloud stared at the massive structure he’d forgotten what it was.

Before him were three giant stone pillars, each must be at least fifteen meters tall, around one of these pillars were seven giant rings, each larger than the other as Stormcloud looked down from the top. The rings were made out of cast iron and weighed several kilos each, several kilos was quite heavy for magic. Stormcloud knew he lacked strength when it came to telekinesis he was far better at what was known as scatter*.

“My name is Etiam Vitae.” She said with a Prance accent. “I will be your instructor over the next twelve weeks. What we’ll be working on today is increasing the weight of what you can lift. All you have to do is transfer this tower from this shaft to the one at the other end.”

She looked at a checklist.

“I guess we’ll begin then.” She said while smiling.

Stormcloud groaned.


***

The morning had been spent watching other ponies try and move the ring from one shaft to the other, the most he’d seen one pony move was three. Stormcloud had only been able to move the one and he’d struggled with that. Luckily they had an hour for lunch and he began feeling a bit more livelier after he’d consumed some food.

The afternoon was rather dull, they’d been grouped into their specialisms again rather than by race and were now in a small classroom. Rapid Fire was teaching the lesson on how to knock out different ponies. He explained how unicorns could easily pull up a stun spell and fire whereas pegasi could place their wings around their foe, this allowed the pony to fall asleep without losing any air, as a small amount of air could pass through the feathers to their foe. Earth ponies had to rely on hitting pressure spots on another body or by simple strangulation, the tip was to let go just after they went completely limp but to wait a short period in case they were feinting it. 

The class finished at teatime and after that there were no more training exercises for the day. Stormcloud ate his hayburger quietly and then went to find the communal shower. The shower room was unisex and there a few others in the room. Some mares held their mane in a towel bun and were leaving when Stormcloud entered. He turned on a shower and felt ice cold water hit his back like somepony had punched him with a knife. He toughed out the cold water when he realized there was no hot water left.

After his ice shower Stormcloud walked up to his personal quarters. He unpacked his bag which he’d forgotten to do this last night and didn't want to do this morning. He placed the cards on his bedside table along with the one book. He lifted out his suit and hung it in the wardrobe, he placed the four ties beside it. He placed his sweets in the top drawer and folded up the bag and put it in bottom drawer he stopped midway as he felt something square and hard still in the bag. He pulled out the framed photo he’d been clutching when he’d been knocked out. He placed the frame face down on the chest of drawers, ensuring he didn’t look at the photo within, he wanted to sleep that night. He flopped onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.


written by ward282

> Chapter Four: Thundercloud
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4: Thundercloud


Location: Stormclouds’ Personal Quarters, Top Secret S.C.A.L.E Training Facility.

3 weeks into S.C.A.L.E Level Four Training Programme.

He was tired, no one could deny that. It had been a tough three weeks since he’d joined S.C.A.L.E and the training hadn’t let up. Thankfully though it was Sunday, the one day of the week where Stormcloud and the other agents-in-training could relax. A pony had to be Level Five before they could address themselves as Agents. Stormcloud had slept-in that morning, it was around 11:47 when a knock at the door woke him up. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and realised he was lying on his back, half on the bunk, half off.

He righted himself and looked in his mirror; his dull, brown mane was completely messy and his eyes were bloodshot. He used his horn to activate the door, it slid upwards to reveal the pegasus mare he’d briefly spoken to over the past few weeks.

“Hey ya little hermit, why dontcha get up and socialise with the rest of us?” She said too joyously to have been training for three weeks.

“Well I’ve nothing better to do.” He thought.

“Sure. I’ll be right out.” He said at the smiling mare.

After he groomed himself he left his room, but not after he made his bed, Captain Falcon had already been on his flank twice this week about it. Instead of joining the other ponies, Stormcloud thought it was time to eat as he’d not eaten for the past eighteen hours. His stomach sounded in agreement.

He started eating alone in the mess hall but as lunchtime reared its ugly head, more ponies began sitting around him. He levitated the fork and twirled the spaghetti forming a nice spiral, he was about to place it in his mouth when the pegasus mare who had awoken him sat opposite him. Stormcloud couldn’t help but stare at her, she had grey fur and long flowing black mane that was in a similar style to a famous Buckingham cellist.

“You going to eat that?” She said with a small giggle.

Stormcloud lost concentration and the fork dropped on the plate with a clatter, Stormcloud blushed furiously in his embarrassment. The pegasus mare just giggled and began to eat her salad.

“Get your head in the game Stormcloud!” 

It was almost like Captain Falcon was in the room with him as he thought about the pegasus.

“Mmmm...mmm my name is Stormcloud.” He finally said.

The pegasus looked at him and dabbed the left corner of her mouth, which was odd because she had nothing there.

“She’s pointing it out to you, you idiot.” His conscience said.

Stormcloud quickly levitated a napkin up and dabbed his mouth, as he pulled it away he could see the remnants of the tomato sauce that had failed to enter his mouth.

“Water Lily.” The pegasus said.

At that moment two unicorns joined the table; one mare and one colt. The mare had a long blue mane and a lighter shade of blue for her fur, her cutie mark was two conical flasks. The colt had a short-cut red mane and orange fur; his cutie mark was of two gears meshed together. The table was joined by a few more ponies: two earth pony colts, a male and a female pegasus and a mare unicorn. The noise at the table was loud and Stormcloud felt that a conversation with Water Lily was impossible now.

“Oh swee’ Celes’ia, look who i’ is!” The unicorn with the gears exclaimed after some time had passed.

His accent was Northern Equestrian and Stormcloud nearly asked him to repeat that had it not been for all the ponies looking in one direction. Not wanting to be the odd one out Stormcloud turned in his seat to look. By the door was a white furred unicorn his black mane was short and completely covered the top of his head, the most distinguishing feature was the fact he was dressed in a suit.

“Is that Agent Coltson?” An earth pony beside Stormcloud asked.

“Yup, you know he was there when they found Captain Equestria not long after the Crystal Empire returned.” This was the unicorn with the conical flasks, she spoke in the refined accent of Buckingham.

“Wonder why he’s here, he’s a Level Seven agent isn’t he?” Water Lily asked to no one in particular.

“Yeah he was hoof-picked by Director Righteous Fury himself.” A voice said, Stormcloud didn’t see who said it.

Agent Coltson trotted towards a noticeboard where he stepped up on top of a table so everypony could see him. He had their full attention.

“Okay listen up everypony, I have orders from Directors Fury and Sparkle themselves to hoofpick one of you to come on an assignment this evening!” He said loudly.

There was a murmur between everypony at the table.

“Wonder wha’ i’ is?”

“Are we even trained enough to go out on assignments?”

“Who cares? I’m ready to kick some flank”.

“As I said.” Agent Coltson continued, “Only one of you will be coming on this assignment. So make sure you have everything you own with you, because if that pony successfully completes this mission they will be reassigned!”

“What if they’re not successful!?” Somepony shouted from behind.

“You’ll be either be dead or a deserter of S.C.A.L.E.” Coltson replied.

The room went silent.

Coltson stepped down off the table and made his way to a pegasus mare who was wearing a tight leather jacket and black trousers. They both left the mess room in the direction of Rapid Fires’ office.

“Was that The Cavalry?” Water Lily asked the pony with the gears.

“Aye i’ is, bu’ she doesnea like bein’ called The Cavalry.”

“You got a speaking problem there mate.” An earth pony said to the gear-pony.

The pony was muscular and snickered to himself, he was sitting on Stormclouds’ right.

The orange pony seemed to retreat behind the pony with conical flask cutie mark.

“Hey that was a bit uncalled for” Stormcloud said.

“What are you doing! She’s not going to be impressed when that earth pony flattens you.” His conscience said.

“I’m not doing it for her, I’m doing it because its the right thing to do.” He countered.

“I’m sorry was I upsetting your colt-friend?” The earth pony mocked.

The earth pony had the same fur colour as Captain Falcon and the cutie mark; Stormcloud gulped; it was also a boxing glove.

“He’s not my colt-friend. Rock for brains!” Stormcloud said raising his voice.

“Really that was the best insult you could come up with?” His conscience quipped.

The scenery suddenly changed as if it was moving, then he realised that he was moving and quite quickly at that. In that moment he understood why pegasi enjoyed flying so much, but the moment was cut short as Stormcloud hit the ground several feet from where he had been sitting. He rolled over. The ponies at the tables around him scarpered. They seemed to automatically form a ring around the pair. 

Stormcloud righted himself just in time to see the earth pony charging at him. Stormcloud closed his mind and pictured the lunch room facing the other way from where he was. *Pop*. Stormcloud teleported out of the charging pony’s path, there was a crash as the pony crashed into the lunch tables.

“Stay still unicorn! Or don’t you want you colt-friend to see you get beaten to a pulp?!” The pony shouted and charged again. 

*Pop*. He fell for it again, Stormcloud allowed himself a small laugh.

“Okay, so he’s obviously bigger than me so he’s got the strength. Thankfully not the smarts, I’m going to have to land a few punches at some point.”

The pony charged again, this time Stormcloud cast a spell between two tables, a rope appeared; tied between the two. The pony tripped and pulled the tables with him. The pony made a noise that was somewhere between rage and pain. This was followed by a table sailing through the air towards Stormcloud.

“Think soft!” His brain shouted.

He fired a spell at the table and it erupted into a stream of feathers. Stormcloud was blinded and quickly wiped the feathers from his eyes and spat them out of his mouth. His eyes narrowed as the earth pony was charging at him again, this time a hoof raised. Stormcloud couldn’t think, he didn’t have enough energy to teleport again. He shut his eyes waiting for the impending doom. 

*CLANG! CRACK!* Was all Stormcloud heard.

“If you enjoy takin’ the piss outta somepony’s accent then perhaps yer on the wrong course Private Falcon.” There was only a whimper to suffice as a reply.

“Does everypony have a Northern Equestrian Accent here?” Stormcloud thought.

Stormcloud opened his eyes to see why his muzzle was not facing through the back of his head. He was confronted with a metal wing, not a pegasi wing but that of the size of an alicorn. Stormcloud looked to the pony it was attached to.

“Nope definitely a pegasus.”

The pegasus folded his metal wing to reveal the earth pony known as Private Falcon, his hoof was still in a striking position. The pony slumped to the ground and two nurses rushed to him and  tended to the fallen pony.

“Th...th...th-”

“You’re welcome.” The pegasus said, “Why didn’t you just step to the left though?”

Stormcloud drew a blank.

“Well he mus’uve hitchu hard if you’ve got amnesia.” The pegasus said.

“He was defenden’ me sir!” The orange gear pony piped up from the crowd.

The pegasus turned to face Stormcloud.

“Sweet Luna!”

The pegasus was covered in scars. His white fur made them stand out, they seemed to be all over his body. They were all over his chest, his forehooves, his flanks and his backhooves. There was a scorch mark on the left hand side of the pegasus’ face. Stormcloud tried to focus his attention to the pegasus’s eyes; they were bright blue.

“Yes Sir its true.” Stormcloud said.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON!” Captain Falcon had arrived, “WHICH PONY BROKE MY SONS’ LEG?!”

“Aye, that would be me Cap’an.” The pegasus said loudly as the crowd parted.

Captain Falcon stared at the metal winged pegasus, it was the second time Stormcloud had seen Captain Falcon at a loss for words. The last being his confrontation by Twilight Sparkle.

“You an’ I need tah have a wee word.” The pegasus said cooly.

With that the two ponies left the group. Stormcloud looked around, the room was a mess, tables were strewn everywhere and worst of all; Stormcloud hadn’t even finished his lunch.

***

Stormcloud lay on top of his bunk an hour later, he wondered about what Agent Coltson and The Cavalry would make of the affair in the mess hall. Stormcloud levitated a set of playing cards into the air. Using his magic he pulled the cards from the box and dismissed the two Discord cards, he then began shuffling them. As he lay on his back he set the cards up for a game of solitaire, the cards floated in midair as he played. 

As he reshuffled for his third game there came a gentle knock from his door, the knock caught him off-guard and the cards fell to the floor and all over the bed.

“52 pick up it is then.”

He levitated the door open to reveal the orange furred, red maned unicorn from earlier.

“Thanks for whatchu did earlier.” He said quickly; it was almost hard to make out the words.

Stormcloud was unsure whether the pony was conscious of how he spoke of whether he was just shy.

“It was nothing.” Stormcloud replied.

“My name’s Fritz.” He held out a hoof.

Stormcloud shook it, “Cirrus Stormcloud.”

The pair stood in silence for a few seconds.

“O’ eehm, ah’v got tea get back to mah work now, ah just wantead tah say ‘hanks.”

Fritz left as quickly as he’d arrived. Stormcloud turned and looked into his room, even if Agent Coltson considered him for the assignment Stormcloud still needed to clean up his quarters. 

Stormcloud remained in his quarters while he neatly packed everything away, once he’d finished he left the room. The recreational area was filled with a few ponies but no one paid him any notice. There was a pool table in the middle of the room with two ponies playing a game, on the far wall were a few armchairs with ponies reading books. There was also a television in the corner on Stormclouds right, the channel was showing the news the headline at the bottom read;

“Bright Spark announces Spark Industries to cease weapon manufacture.”

This was just one of the few breaking news headlines that drifted along the bottom of the screen. Stormcloud didn’t want to watch tv and planned to do something else.

“Hey.” A feminine voice said behind him.

It was Water Lily, she was wearing sweat bands on all four hooves and one around her head that held her mane directly behind her. Her mane was no longer styled like the cellist, but instead was pulled back behind her.

“Really? She trains on her day off!”

“Oh hi.” He replied realising he was just standing there.

“I’m going to the Aerodrome to fly a few laps.” She said, drawing a circle on the floor with her hoof.

“Oh I was…er..” Stormcloud searched for he was going to do.

“What was I going to do again?”

“Feel free to come and watch me if you’re not doing anything.” She said smiling.

“Erm sure, I honestly forgot what I came here to do.” Stormcloud said as rubbed his mane back.

“Great!” She said as her wings flexed out for a brief second.

Stormcloud had never been into the Aerodrome; he’d never had to really. The training facility had three large rooms for each race of ponies, however the Aerodrome was the largest of the three. He quickened his pace to join Water Lily so they could talk. She led him through to the mess hall, it had been cleaned up since earlier.

“So why are you flying again, haven’t you been doing that for three weeks?” Stormcloud asked.

She giggled.

“Do you know nothing about pegasi?” She smiled at him, “Pegasi need to fly. Its a natural thing like walking, we pegasi need to stretch out our wings everyday and flying is the best way to do it.”

From the mess room they took a left and walked down the narrow corridor, this was where the classrooms and training rooms were. Water Lily folded out her wings and flapped to a hover. She kept pace with Stormcloud while remaining off the ground.

“I love to keep fit and I love flying. Its hard to describe what it feels like.” Water Lily continued.

She didn’t seem to be talking to Stormcloud but rather to herself. They walked down the corridor until they reached the door to the Aerodrome. Stormcloud opened the double doors with his magic and the pair entered. In front of them was a small room. The room was completely tiled white, there were two rows of wooden benches in the middle of the room. Some other pegasi were already in the room but took no notice of the unicorn. It was then that Stormcloud noticed the shower heads in the walls and the drain running along the middle of the floor. The pair walked through another set of doors on the other side.

This next room made Stormcloud feel uncomfortable. They were walking along a metal walkway which ran alongside a convex wall, on the other side the wall was perfectly straight but quite some distance away from the walkway. This made the room feel small and yet large at the same time which made Stormcloud feel slightly ill. Stormcloud looked down to settle his stomach and he immediately wished he hadn’t; there was nothing but darkness below him. He froze. Water Lily hovered on ahead but then turned around when she saw she was alone.

“Don’t worry all Level Four pegasi agents have to put up with it.” She said reassuringly.

“Why? And I’m a Level Four unicorn agent, we don’t have don’t have to put up with anything like this when we go to training.” He said, his voice quivering as he said so.

She took his hoof and guided him towards a door located within the curved wall.

“Why is that there?” Stormcloud asked again.

“Hmm.”

“The walkway, why is it like that?”

“Weeeell I guess its to remind pegasi that just because we can fly doesn’t make it easy to navigate, its there on purpose to throw your senses so you can recover quickly. Like if a pegasi fell from the sky, you have to right yourself quickly before you hit the ground, but if you’re too high up all you see is blue. So its like a test within a test.” She smiled once more as she said this.

The pair of them were in an odd room. It was a narrow corridor that ran at ninety degrees to the doors. Both of the walls were curved and the other two didn’t seem to exist. 

“Here, I’ll show you where to go.” Water Lily said.

Between the two walls were more metal walkways, but these ones had rows of benches on them. She led Stormcloud to a bench and gestured for him to sit. As he sat on the bench he saw the window in front of him. The window looked into a massive room, even Stormclouds’ viewing area didn’t show the entire room. Inside the massive room were pegasi, they flew around the outer edge of the room above the curved wall.

“That explains why they’re curved.”

At that moment the wall vibrated, Stormcloud started to panic a little. He wasn’t sure what was going on and even less aware that he was holding Water Lilys’ hoof. The vibrations ran along the wall until they met the window, then Stormcloud saw a multitude of colours fly past the window. He turned to Water Lily to say something and saw they were holding hooves. He quickly retracted his and Water Lily blushed.

“Or did she?”

“Well I’m going to get warmed up, I don’t mind if you get bored and leave.” She smiled again and left Stormcloud to his own devices.

***
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting there, he’d lost count of how many times the pegasi flew past the window.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” The voice caught him off-guard.

He turned and saw the suited unicorn.

“Yes it is Agent Coltson.” Stormcloud said.

The unicorn sat beside him and watched another group of pegasi fly past, the wall reverberated as they flew past.

“So I heard what happened in the mess hall.” He continued.

“Oh right… I can explain…”

“No need, Thunderer told me what happened.”

“Thunderer?”

“The scarred pegasus with the oversized wings.”

Stormcloud recalled the pegasus with the unusually large wings made of metal.

“What you did was brave.” Coltson continued, “Stupid, but brave.”

“Stupid, how?” Stormcloud said taken aback.

“Well Private Falcon clearly has more strength than you and more endurance, not to mention higher pain tolerance.”

“Oh.” Was all Stormcloud could say.

“Although that spell with the rope was smart and you did have speed and tact on your side. Normally most ponies would have just let him slander Fritz.”

“I’m not most ponies.” Stormcloud said smugly.

“Well done Storm, could you come with a more cliched phrase.”

Colt-son laughed.

“You all packed for tonight?” Coltson asked.

“Tonight… you mean?” Stormcloud asked confused.

“We leave in five, don’t mention anything to anypony just grab your stuff and Rapid Fire will take you to the hanger.”

“Keep it together Storm, its only the most important mission in your life that you’re about to go on.”

“Will I need to be drugged again?” Stormcloud asked.

***
Location: Unknown

“Wakey wakey!” a Northern Equestrain accent said.

Then came the most horrible smell that Stormcloud could imagine, it wasn’t even a smell it just burned his nostrils. Stormcloud opened his eyes quickly, he was greeted with a white face but the the fur on the right side was slightly burnt. It was the pony Agent Colt-son referred to as Thunderer. The pegasus lowered the smelling salts and turned his head.

“Yes he’s up!” The pegasus shouted.

“Odd his accent was much stronger earlier.”

The pegasus turned back to face him, this time with a torch in his mouth. He shone the torch in both of Stormclouds’ eyes.

“Yup, you’re fine.” He said.

“You’re accent..” Was all Stormcloud could muster.

“Surveys show that ponies are more influenced by the Northern Equestrian accent next to the Royal Canterlot. It was a necessary play so Captain Falcon doesn’t get wise to the fact I’m not S.C.A.L.E.”

“You’re not?…”

“Ah Stormcloud you’re finally awake, good. Follow me.” Agent Coltson said as he entered the room.

As Stormcloud stood he felt a strange sensation in his hooves, like he was moving.

“You’re in a dropship, its a fast moving aircraft.” Thunderer explained.

“Where’re we going?” 

“All in good time.” Thunderer passed Stormcloud to follow Coltson into another room.

Stormcloud followed Thunderer and saw that the white pegasus had a wrench for a cutie mark. The room they walked into was square with cabinets lining one wall, a staircase leading upwards and a table in the middle, there were documents scattered all over it. They were the only three ponies in the room.

“Cirrus Stormcloud, you’ve been picked to undertake this two-pony mission.” Coltson began.

He moved a blueprint forward. The paper showed the layout of some medium sized building which had four floors. He tapped at what was the second floor, to a large circular room.

“Your job is to enter this premises and gain access to the main server room, where you will then copy all the documents into a flash drive.”

Coltson pushed forward the small device.

“Shouldn’t there be more?” Stormcloud felt this was too easy.

Thunderer laughed. “You gotta love recruits on their first mission.”

Coltson paid him no heed.

“No, this base is used by a group of mercenary ponies, we want the information they have. That’s why you’re going in, you’ll infiltrate the main server room while Thunderer takes care of any resistance.”

“Don’t think I’m taking care of everpony though, I’ll need your help too.” Thunderer added.

“I’ll be dropping you half a klick from the base itself, its located on a cliffside so your only entry is by the main gate or side window.”

Coltson pointed to the lower floor to show the perimeter.

“You’ll need to cut through a wire-fence, incapacitate any guards patrolling the area and get inside the building. On the ground floor there is a security room where you’ll need to disable all the cameras in the building. Then you’ll have to work your way around the ground floor to the stairwell. Get to the first floor. Now the blueprints put the staircase to the second floor at the other end of the building, so you’ll need to get there. On the first floor you’ll need to find somepony with clearance to the server room. Take their ID and use it to get in the server room. Any questions?”

“Breach perimeter, disable patrols, disable cameras, find ID, copy all files….what about getting out?” It the was the only point that hadn’t been mentioned.

“That’s my area, there’ll be a team on standby outside. I give the signal and we’re home free.” Thunderer said.

“There is one thing you can’t do…” Agent Coltson began.

Stormcloud turned his attention from the blueprints and photographs of the server room.

“This facility has had every effort made to make it look like a legitimate business this means we can’t harm anypony, even if they try to harm you.” Coltson explained.

“When do we start?” Stormcloud asked with a smile.

“Like making cupcakes.” Stormcloud smugly thought.
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter Five: Operation Flashpoint
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5: Operation Flashpoint

Operation: Flashpoint





Location: Eastern Coastline; 30 miles North of Baltimare.

Stormcloud felt the straps bind tightly. The tactical vest had to be a snug fit but did Coltson have to be so harsh with the straps? It felt like he was trying to cut his forelegs off. The three of them were in the armoury of the dropship, the metal walls were racked with tac-vests and other assortments of body armour. The dropship was a small aerial vehicle used for as the name implied; drop ponies from the air. There were few areas to the dropship, at the front was the cockpit where Stormcloud hoped somepony was flying this thing, then there was the storage room where Stormcloud had awoken and lastly was the armoury where he now stood, behind him was the large metal ramp where pegasi took off and other ponies jumped out of.

“So I assume you already know where everything is on the tac-vest?” Coltson asked.

Stormcloud used his left forehoof to touch the equipment.

“Knife, compass, blueprints, flash drive, energy bar, oxygen mask and sleep grenades.”

He dropped his hoof from the two cylinders located near his right leg. Although the oxygen mask was around his neck, Stormcloud still felt better for listing it. Agent Coltson handed Stormcloud a pair of goggles.

“One final thing.” Coltson passed Stormcloud what looked like two sweet. “Two-way radio. You and Thunderer may spend some time apart, you’ll need to keep in contact.”

Coltson tucked the small round disk between Stormclouds’ chest and tac-vest and placed the small ball into his right ear.

“Just press with your hoof and speak normally, Thunderer can respond to you and you to him.”

“Testing, testing. Seira. Hotel. Indigo. Echo. Lima. Delta. Six. One. Six. Over.” His ear buzzed.

Stormcloud held his chest as he had been instructed to.

“Roger that Thunderer. Over.” Stormcloud.

“Its Silver-One on comms. Over.” Thunderer sounded slightly ticked.

“Copy that. Over and Out” Stormcloud relaxed his hoof.

“Well now that that works, you’ll need a codename.” Agent Coltson picked up a piece of paper with his magic.

_________________________
Kestrel
Magpie
Kingfisher
Robin
Eagle
_________________________

“I’ll take Kestrel, its not permanent right?” Stormcloud disappointed he couldn’t have anything cooler sounding.

“No they change for every covert mission. Just so you know; if for whatever reason you need to contact me on this mission you’ll address me as Overlord. Thunderer and I are the only ponies who can speak to the extraction team.”

“Why can’t I?” Stormcloud asked.

“We’ve had ponies bottle it on these types of missions before, got in too deep or not cut out for field work.” he explained.

At that point Thunderer walked in. He too was wearing a tac-vest but his was different, it was split into two halves to allow his wings to move.

“He doesn’t look like the type to bottle it.” Thunderer said reassuringly.

“Thanks.” Stromcloud replied.

“Just don’t prove me wrong, its my flank on the line too.” Thunderer said in a darker tone.

“Five minutes to drop.” A female voice said over the dropships’ comm.

“You have done a parachute drop before haven’t you?” Thunderer asked.

Stormclouds’ eyes widened and he gulped. He’d only done dry runs never a wet run, he could pull the cord and pack the chute up but that was all he’d been taught, he’d never actually used one.

“Guess you’ll have to learn like a pegasus foal.” Thunderer replied.

“How do they learn?” Stormcloud regretted asking as the words left his mouth.

“We get shown how to do and then our mother drops us from a cloud.” The pegasus explained.

“That probably explains why you have all those scars.” He thought bitterly.

“Coltson help me with this.” Thunderer called as the parachute was levitated onto Stormclouds’ back.

Coltson levitated a large disk-like object onto Thunderers’ back, he then wrapped straps around it. A red light filled the room and two orange lights rotated near the metal ramp. These lights signaled the lowering of the ramp. The temperature dropped rapidly and the howling wind was all Stormcloud could hear. The two ponies stood side-by-side at the top of the ramp. Agent Coltson took Stormclouds’ hoof and placed a device around it. It was a watch with two dials; one told the time; the other had numbers in their thousands.

“Pull the chute open at 500 hooves, aim for a clear area and light your horn!” Coltson shouted over the wind. “Thunderer will meet you there, he may not be an Agent but you can trust him!”

Stormclouds legs began to shake, he knew for a fact that the light would go green soon and his legs shook furiously. Thunderer pressed his comm which was located under his left wing.

“Although pegasi are dropped we have our mothers to rescue us if we fall. I’ll be a few seconds behind you. Just remember to breathe, you’ll only be scared for the first half.” Thunderer said.

It was hard to get a vibe from the pegasus, at one moment he could be cold hearted and then the next he’d feel like an old friend. He wondered how Twilight Sparkle had learned to fly, she’d be born a unicorn and gained wings, surely it’d been harder for her not learning from a young age?

“Was yours there?” Stormcloud asked over the comms.

“Was mine what?” Came the reply.

“Your mother, was she there incase you fell?”

Stormcloud looked at him as he hadn’t had a reply.

“I don’t know.” Thunderer eventually said.

The light went to green.

“Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Now walk.”

Stormcloud walked forward, his legs slowly taking on the rigidity of jelly.

“In. Out. Now...Run!”

Stormcloud galloped. He closed his eyes as they began to water and then he remembered.

“GOGGLES!”

He used the magic to lower his goggles but his vision was already blurred. He felt his hooves come into contact with the air outside and he felt himself dive headfirst.


***


Coltson and Thunderer watched as the unicorn fell off the end of the ramp. Thunderer facehoofed and groaned as he slid his own goggles down.

“Wait! Give him a chance!” Coltson shouted as Thunderer flared out his wings.

The room was now in red light again, Thunderer watched the clouds part as the dropship sailed through them.

“Remember what you’re here to do, and I promise I’ll get you the stuff you requested!” Coltson shouted.

“Make sure the device works and keep an eye on the green horn!” Thunderer shouted back.

The room went green again and Thunderer darted out into the open space.


***


He was spinning quickly, too quickly to determine which way was up or down. He could feel the rushing air all around him. He was breathing quickly too, which felt odd because the air was being forced down his throat.

“Oh Celestia! Celestia! Celestia! Luna! Luna!” Was all that was running around his head.

Stormcloud stuck all four hooves out. He could feel the air surging past it, running from his back and to his front.

“Wait, didn’t Thunderer say to remember something?”

Without noticing Stormcloud began taking slower and deeper breaths. Then it occurred to him, if he was falling and the air was hitting his back then he had to be upside-down. Storm tucked his left legs in and slowly he began to rotate. His vision was blurred by the by the tears in his eyes but he could see lights in the distance. He looked at the watch Coltson had given him. The hand pointed at one thousand and was dropping fast. Five hundred was the magic number he was looking for, he concentrated and gripped the cord of the parachute in his magic. He watched the dial intently, the hand spun around quickly and then…

“Five-Hundred.”

He pulled the cord and his body jolted. His descent stopped being so fast and now he just drifted slowly. His body was in an upright position leaving his rear hooves dangling free. Stormcloud looked up and saw two hoof sized metal rings. He gripped both of them and pulled the left; he moved left, then he pulled the right; he moved right.

“Well that didn’t take an egghead to solve.”

Stormcloud scanned the surrounding area which would’ve been easier if it was daytime and not nighttime. Luckily Lunas’ moon shone brightly and Stormcloud could make out the tops of trees, then he saw a clearing which he could land in. He pulled the appropriate rings to change direction and eventually he landed in the clear area.

He felt odd, and some part of him wanted to do it again. He checked the nearby area to see if anypony was around, unsurprisingly nopony was. He folded up the parachute and then remembered what he had to do. He light his horn, it shined a pale blue aura.


***


Thunderer was standing on a cloud a few hundred hooves up in the sky. He savoured the feel of the cloud beneath him, it had been too long since he’d had the luxury and part of him wanted to sleep on it. It was then that he saw a pale blue light shine from the forest below him. He pressed his comm with his hoof rather than his wing this time. He had two buttons to make calls comparer to unicorns or earth ponies.

“Silver-One to Kestrel.” Thunderer said.

“Kestrel here. Over.” Came the reply.

“Pale blue? Over.”

“Pale blue. Over.”

“I’ll be right there. Over and out.”

Thunderer left his slice of heaven and glided down to the unicorns’ position.


***


Stormcloud was unsure of what he had to do with the parachute now he was on the ground. He had folded it up and repacked it but it was awkward to carry; the bag it was in was very large and squarish in shape. He could hear the pegasus land behind him with a soft clatter of hooves.

“We need to head South.” Thunderer said

Stormcloud simply nodded and picked up the parachute.

“Leave that there but take the goggles.” Thunderer said.

Stormcloud dropped the parachute and used his magic to pick up the goggles he’d left on a rock. He pulled them over his head and down his neck, the goggles bounced against the oxygen mask that was already there. The two started walking with Thunderer taking point, occasionally he’d fly up to the treeline and then return to the ground and adjust their course. They walked in silence which was only broken by the goggles rattling against the oxygen mask.

“The parachute was a use once affair, you have to throw them when you’ve used them.” Thunderer said, breaking the silence.

“Won’t somepony find it?”

“They will, but after we’re long gone.”

They walked in silence some more until Stormcloud wanted to ask something.

“What did you mean when you said you weren’t an agent?”

“I’m not part of S.C.A.L.E.”

“Then why are you here if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Coltson and I have a mutually beneficial arrangement. I do odd jobs for S.C.A.L.E, I get stuff in return.”

“What do you mean odd jobs?”

Thunderer sighed. “Small missions, sometimes building new gadgets other times just as an intimidator. Anything else you want to ask? We’re nearly at the perimeter fence.”

“No.” Stormcloud quickly responded.

After a few more minutes walking in silence they exited the dense forest and were confronted with a large metal fence. The building itself was bigger than Stormcloud thought. He saw a few ponies walking along the fence line. Thunderer was holding a small metal tube, he was watching an earth pony walk the fence and neared their position. There was a small *whoosh”*and the pony clamped a hoof to his neck and then fell to the ground.

“Sleeping agent, he’s fine. Start cutting the fence.” Thunderer ordered. “Overlord this is Silver-One, beginning perimeter breach. Over.”

“Copy that Silver-One, best of luck Kestrel. Overlord over and out.” Coltson said over the comms.

Stormcloud pointed his horn at the fence and used a high powered heat spell, he moved his head to cut a shape out. Thunderer leaned over and pulled the fence down so there was a gap they could navigate. The pair sneaked through and now they were in the grounds of the building.

The two of them hunched down and used the long grass to remain hidden. They approached the building, Stormcloud levitated the blueprint out and orientated the map so it was exactly the same way as the building. He looked at the left wall, there were three main rooms; two toilets and a storage room. Stormcloud counted the windows on the blueprint and then at the ones on the building. The only room they could get access to was the storage room.

“We have to go into the storage room, its the only room with big enough windows to get through.” He whispered to Thunderer.

Thunderer nodded in reply and the two slowly moved up the building to the rear wall. The rear wall was the only part of the building that overlooked the cliff. Stormcloud could hear the crashing waves in the distance. By the moon they could only just see inside the large storage room. The window was the perfect size for them to fit through. Stormcloud looked the window over and saw the catch on the inside. Thunderer seemed to be looking at exactly the same thing.

“What are you waiting for?” Thunderer whispered harshly.

“I figured if this is a covert base then they’re bound the alarm the windows especially ones this large. There by the door!” Stormcloud pointed a hoof to the door.

Beside the door was an alarm system.

“I’m going to teleport in and disable the alarm.” Stormcloud said quietly.

“Good thinking. Go for it.”

Stormcloud focused on the alarm box and pictured it in his head. *Pop!* He opened his eyes and said box was now in front of him. He jabbed the box with his hoof and the panel fell off, he caught it in his magic and put it gently on the ground. Inside the box were three wires, it was an old alarm system; he knew this from training. There would thankfully be no hidden system so pulling all the wires would disable the alarm without any consequences. He pulled the wires.

He pulled the catch on the window and raised it with his magic, Thunderer entered through the narrow gap and fluttered down the floor, a few cardboard boxes moved in the gust but nothing made too loud a noise. They both walked to door when they could hear a set of hooves clop outside. 

“Hide.” Thunderer said calmly.

With his heart racing, Stormcloud hid behind a few boxes near the door, using his magic he lifted the alarm box panel back onto the box.

“What are you doing?” Thunderer quietly asked.

“We want it to look like we were never here so everything we move has to go back.”

Stormcloud was starting to get fed up with the pegasus challenging his every action, Coltson had assigned them both but Stormcloud had the more important job. At that moment a green furred pegasus stallion entered the room. The pegasus flicked the lights and the room was illuminated, Stormcloud knew they wouldn’t stay hidden for long.

The was a white dash beside him and Thunderer was behind the green pegasus. Thunderer draped a wing around the pegasus’s head and held it there. Using his hooves Thunderer managed to keep the green pegasus grounded and the two tossed around on the ground but remained in their position. Eventually the green pegasus fell still and Thunderer rolled out from under him. Thunderer then walked to the door and Stormcloud started to regret his previous thoughts on the pegasus.

“You coming?”

Stormcloud stood up and joined Thunderer who was pulling what looked like a metal cable out from his vest. He bent the stiff cable and put it to the gap at the bottom of the door. He appeared to be looking through the cable and rotated it. He put the cable back in his vest and opened the door. 

“Lets go.” Thunderer said.

Stormcloud followed, now it was time for the cameras. The two walked down the corridor and entered a room on the left. Stormcloud walked in and they were in a boiler room.

“Blueprints.” 

Stormcloud levitated the blueprints out. Thunderer pointed at a small rectangle above the room they were in.

“This room has an air shaft that leads directly into the security room. I want you to crawl through the duct and drop a sleep grenade through. I’ll hold the door so no one gets out.”

“What if I inhale the gas?” Stormcloud asked.

Thunderer looked around and picked up a cloth, he offered it to Stormcloud. It was dirty and part of Stormcloud didn’t want to put it near his mouth. Stormcloud must of pulled a repulsed face because as he looked at Thunderer he was given the Beggars-Can’t-Be-Choosers face.

The pegasus scanned the boiler room and found the vent cover. He stood on his hind legs and placed his forehooves on the vent cover. He seemed to focus intently on the flat grill and then he pulled it out, there was a tiny clatter on the floor as the four screw heads rolled around.

“Takes a lot of strength to snap a screw in half, even I couldn't do that with magic.” He thought to himself.

The pegasus pushed a box under the vent so Stormcloud could climb into the shaft. Stormcloud did so and he just had enough room to maneuver but by Celestia was it hot.

“Kestrel. Let me know when you’re in position, I’ll tell you when to drop it. Over.” Thunderers’ voice said over the comm.

Stormcloud pressed the button with his magic to reply.

“Copy that Silver-One. Over and Out.”

The air vent was small and moving in it was difficult, especially for a unicorn whose horn was scraping on the top plate. He crawled along as slowly and as quietly as he could, paying attention to any noise outside. He could hear two voices which he knew were ahead of him, the voices were coming from the grate that was further ahead. As Stormcloud positioned himself above the grate he could see two ponies in the room below. Using his magic he levitated one of the sleeping grenades and rested it on top of the grate.

“Silver-One in position.” He whispered.

Stormcloud focused his magic to cover his mouth with the cloth and to also hold the grenade above the grate.

“On one… Three… Two… One!” Thunderer said.

Below him the guards seemed to scatter to the door, one of them had grabbed a baton from somewhere Stormcloud couldn’t see. Stormcloud pulled the pin and dropped the grenade. It clattered on the ground but the two ponies didn’t seem to notice as they were both, by the sounds of it, trying to open to door. The grenade hissed out gas and the two ponies began to cough but remained at their task. After a few moments the sounds ceased and were replaced with two slumping noises. This was followed by a door opening and a gentle clop of hooves. 

“You can come down now.” Thunderer said from below.

Stormcloud pushed the grate out with magic and placed it on the floor below he then slowly left the air vent, taking his time so as to not fall. Once on the ground he looked around the room. One side of the wall was filled with screens and keyboards, there was a broom closet near the door but everything else was bare. Thunderer dragged the two unconscious ponies from the door and placed a plastic tie around their hooves.

Stormcloud began his search for disabling the security, sadly it hadn’t been on of his classes during the training programme. He searched intently on the one computer in the room but nothing was coming up.

“Do you know what I’m looking for?” Stormcloud asked Thunderer.

“No, but I do know you’re over-complicating the issue.”

Stormcloud rolled his eyes as he turned to face the pegasus.

“If you’re not going to help don’t just stand there and criticize.”

“Look, you know cameras record right?” Thunderer explained.

Stormcloud stared back giving Thunderer the Do-I-Look-Like-An-Idiot? face.

“Now we obviously aren't on any of the cameras or an alarm would've been raised.”

Stormcloud continued staring.

“So we aren't in any of the recorded footage…” Thunderer changed his tone to one where Stormcloud was supposed to work the rest out.

Stormcloud turned on the chair to stare at the screens.

“So we aren't in any shots and the cameras only shoot what they see, but if they don’t see anythi-”

Had he really been that stupid? Stormcloud pushed the chair back so he could see under the table. Yes he had. Stormcloud held the plugs in his magic and pulled them all out, the screens responded by going black.

“C’mon we need to get the ID from the living quarters before we can gain access to the server.” Thunderer said.

They left the room, closing the door behind them and immediately headed left. The staircase up was straight in front of them and they climbed it together. The first floor seemed to be like the S.C.A.L.E training facility; it was open plan with sections for different activities and sleeping quarters. Luckily no one was around, from the staircase they entered the kitchen/dining area. From here they crept into a locker room which was filled with lab coats, Thunderer grabbed two coats with his mouth, he draped one over his wing and tossed the other to Stormcloud.

“This is where most of the civilians will be, we should try and blend in for as long as possible.” Thunderer donned his labcoat.

Stormcloud followed suit and soon the scientists left the locker room. They now walked into the living area of the building, there were two ponies in this room but they paid them no notice. Thunderer and Stormcloud trotted up to the noticeboard to pretend to read the notices.

“Neither of them have the clearance we need.” Stormcloud whispered.

They were looking for green lanyards, the building used a colour system to designate clearance level. Thunderer appeared to be looking elsewhere as Stormcloud spoke.

“Did you ever get taught how to render a pony unconscious?” Thunderer asked.

“Yes.” Stormcloud replied still keeping his voice low.

“There’s a pony in the kitchen, knock her out. I’ll take care of these two.” Thunderer left before Stormcloud could agree.


***



As Stormcloud entered the kitchen he watched the mare make some coffee. She was an earth pony so everything task she did to make the coffee she did by hoof or mouth. Stormcloud didn’t want to harm the mare so he’d have to hold her until she passed out. Suddenly there was a noise from the two ponies in the next room.

“What in the name of Celestia-” the mare said walking through.

Stormcloud tackled the mare and they both scrambled on the ground, the mare righted herself quickly given that she was not wearing any tactical vest. She raised a hoof to strike Stormcloud when he quickly fired a stun spell in return.

“Oh right, I forgot I knew stun spells.”

Annoyed his brain hadn’t told him this earlier, Stormcloud returned to the living room to find two ponies sleeping on the sofa they’d been sitting on. Thunderer exited a room with a green lanyard in his mouth. He used his wing to drape it over his neck.

“I’ll check this room, you check the other.” He said.

Stormcloud watched as Thunderer entered the second of the three doors the lined the wall. Stormcloud kept low and was about to open the door when suddenly, the door flew forwards and hit Stormcloud in the face, he staggered back. Tasting blood in his mouth he saw an older stallion charge at him with a kitchen knife. Stormcloud teleported away from his attacker who was also a unicorn. When Stormcloud reappeared some hooves away the knife was thrown at him, he dodged it but the knife ripped the labcoat and cut his shoulder. The other unicorn levitated the knife back and tackled Stormcloud. Stormcloud was pinned on the ground by the heavier unicorn who then raised his knife. Stormcloud thought of a piece of wood and using his magic; one appeared. The knife was jammed in the wood.

Stormcloud used his forehoof and struck the stallions’ stomach, the unicorn winced and fell to the ground. Stormcloud picked up the knife and pulled it out from the wood. In the heat of the moment the pain made Stormcloud angry and using his magic he raised the knife to strike the older stallion. He was about to plunge when the knife was thrown from his magical grasp. The knife, along with another item clattered to the ground some hooves away. Stormcloud turned to see his new opponent but was surprised to see Thunderer with one hoof raised.

“We don’t kill unless we have to.” He said, the tone being somewhat cold.

Stormcloud stepped away from the stallion on the ground and Thunderer walked over.

“Where’s your lanyard?” Thunderer asked the stallion.

“On mm...my bed!” The stallion said quickly.

Thunderer reached over to help the pony up and then quick as a flash, he struck the pony in the face. The unicorn fell to the floor in a daze.  Stormcloud couldn’t believe what he’d been about to do, he’d never taken a life and the heat of the moment he nearly had. Stormcloud looked for whatever Thunderer had thrown and then he found it. There were two knives on the floor, the kitchen knife and another which had an odd blade and as he inspected it closer it also had a cutie mark on the hilt; the cutie mark of Twilight Sparkle!

“What are you doing with this knife?!” Stormcloud said forgetting to be quiet.

“Thats my throwing knife, designed to sail through the air.”

“This cutie mark isn’t yours, why do you have a Princess’s knife?”

“Did he steal this knife, why would he keep it and on second thoughts why did Twilight need a knife, she was an alicorn for Celestias’ sake.”

“I’ve always had it, since as long as I can remember.” Thunderer said.

“Really? And how long ago was that?”

“The first thing I remember was hearing about Queen Chrysalis failing to take Canterlot.” Thunderer said as he swiped the knife from Stormcloud.

Stormcloud watched as the pegasus tucked the small, angular knife into its sheath on his tac-vest. Thunderer led the way to the second staircase so they could get into the server room.

“You were there, when she attacked Canterlot?” Stormcloud asked.

“I don’t know, I remember being in Princess Lunas’ tower. The guards told me that Queen Chrysalis attacked a week before and I’d been in the tower since then.” Thunderer seemed reluctant to tell Stormcloud any more.

As they reached the second floor the two crept along the corridor they found themselves in. There were several doors off to the left and right but their destination was straight in front of them. The door that led the main server room spanned from floor to ceiling, it was a round door constructed of stainless steel. Beside the door was a small black box where the ID had to be scanned, there was one camera above the door. The two walked up to the door, Thunderer tapped the door with his hoof and then listened with his ear to the door.

“Hmmm... As I suspected. Bright Spark Industries security door model number 376596, one hoof thick steel with stainless steel finish. Alarmed; one minute timed lock.” Thunderer said.

“Meaning?” Stormcloud asked.

“If the alarm goes off we have one minute to get out of the room before the door seals us in. But there is one advantage there’s a weak-spot on the otherside.”

Stormcloud nodded and let Thunderer place his pass on the scanner. The scanner beeped and the huge metal door swung open. As the two entered the room they were greeted with rows and rows of metal black boxes, this room was two stories high compared to the others.

“You know where you’re going?” Thunderer asked as he took flight.

Thunderer had pulled the large disk object that Coltson had loaded onto him.

“Main office.” Stormcloud said pointing to the one room that overlooked the servers.
Thunderer placed the disk at a precise spot on the back of the metal door. Then Stormcloud noticed some writing on the disk, the first word had been etched into the disk itself and read ‘HAMMER’ below this on what looked like masking tape read ‘The one that knocks!’.

Stormcloud trotted up into the office space. It was empty, all that was in there was one computer with a desk and chair, there were no pictures or posters it was as plain as can be. Stormcloud pulled out the flash-drive and plugged into the port. He then started up the computer which wasn't locked.

“Who’d need to when you've got two massive doors on either side of the room.”

Then it hit him. The blueprints showed one entry point, the one which they’d come in. The other door wasn’t on the blueprints, it was at that moment that said door began to open. Stormcloud tapped away quickly and started the file transfer. There was shouting as Thunderer was confronted with some security ponies.

“Alarm! Alarm! Intruders in the main server room.” One shouted into a communication device.

The klaxons blared through the entire building. There then came the sound of the mechanical doors beginning to shut.

“Silver-One to Rainbow-One, come in Rainbow-One!” Thunderer shouted into his comm.

“This is Rainbow-One. Over.” A feminine voice said back to Thunderer.

“Our cover is blown, expect immediate package delivery. Over.” Thunderer replied as he dove for one of the security ponies.

Ponies were now filling into the room, Stormcloud counted seven enemies of different races. Thunderer weaved through the air as unicorns fired spells at him and pegasi flew after him.

*Bing!* The upload was complete. Stormcloud pulled out the flash-drive and pocketed it. He teleported into the middle of the room and struck a unicorn with his hoof. Stormcloud dodged an incoming baton strike, he reared up and struck his assailant twice. Stormcloud was about to fire a spell at another pony when a grey pegasus was thrown into him, the two ponies were thrown aside. Thunderer took a low dive over Stormcloud, another pegasus was on his tail. Stormcloud fired a stun spell which hit the pegasus in the head, the Pegasus crashed into the floor and Stormcloud leapt over him. 

“Kestral, let’s go!” Thunderer shouted from the doorway.

The doors were nearly shut and Thunderer was trying to force the door they entered in open. Stormcloud ran to the door, he didn’t have enough energy to teleport but he did have enough to pull out his remaining sleep grenade and pull the pin. Stormcloud dove through the gap in the door and flung the grenade behind him, the door sealed shut behind him.

The corridor which they’d walked along was filled with security ponies. Thunderer had already seen this though, the pegasus used his forehooves to pull out the two sleep grenades and using the pegasi natural ability of magnetism he pulled both the pins. The two grenades flew straight up and then began their descent. Thunderer had pivoted around and took a bucking position, he then bucked both grenades straight into the group.

A few coughed and fell to the ground, they’d tried to take cover in the rooms on the left and right so none of the bodies fell in the corridor. Stormcloud fired two stun shots at two unicorns, the first missed but the second struck a pony on the staircase. He was magicked out and exhausted. An earth pony jumped with a baton to strike Stormcloud and for the second time today a metal wing blocked the attack. It seemed to happen in slow motion, as the baton struck the left wing of Thunderer, the pegasus jumped up and pivoted left in the air. The right wing sailed faster than the body and the wing punched the earth pony who was thrown through the wooden door on Stormclouds’ left. 

It was odd, normally pegasi wings were soft but as the baton struck the delicate wing there was no follow-through. In theory the wing should have pushed back but the metal seemed to absorb the energy and vibrate the wing.

More ponies filled the corridor, this time mainly unicorns. Thunderer pushed Stormcloud into the newly broken door and the two ducked as unicorn spells ricocheted off the walls.

“Do you trust me?” Thunderer asked.

Stormcloud had to really think of an answer to that, on one hoof the pegasus was cold towards him but then again, he’d also saved Stormcloud’s life; twice!

“Nevermind, did you see the window at the end of the corridor?”

Stormcloud nodded.

“I need you to put your goggles and oxygen mask on and then jump out of it.”

Stormclouds’ eyes widened. To get to the window he’d have to pass the narrow corridor beside the stairs and then get to the end of the hall and then bust open the window which led-

“Oh Celestia, the cliffs!”

Before Stormcloud could reply Thunderer was already giving him more orders.

“Left pouch, right flank, take it out and count to five, then press the button.”

Thunderer sat on his haunches and Stormcloud could see the four pouches on his back. Finding the right one, Stormcloud used his magic to pull out a long cylindrical device which had a red button on top. Thunderer then opened out his wings and shot off out the doorway. The unusually fast takeoff speed had left a small crater in the wooden floor.

“Okay breathe. Five! In, out. Four! In, out. Three! In, out. Two! In, out. One, In out.”

Stormcloud depressed the button and began to run, he felt his heart race so fast that time seemed to slow around him. His ears began to ring as he ran towards the doorway, his heart hammered his ribcage as he got closer and closer to the door. A scarred pegasus flew through the doorway over Stormclouds’ head, as his head exited the doorway. He felt something pull sharply on his tail. The doorway reappeared as he was pulled backwards, his hooves scrambled for purchase on the ground. 

Then he saw it. A massive metal object tore through the wall and bounced between the floor and ceiling, everything in its path was being demolished and Stormcloud would’ve been one too if he’d left the room. He flopped to the floor and panted, his ears still ringing. He could just make out the two voices in his ear.

“Silver-One to Rainbow-One, two packages enroute. Collect second package only, copy!”

“This is Rainbow-One copy that!”

The two voices disappeared as Stormclouds’ hearing came back. Stormcloud pulled the goggles down over his eyes and respirator over his muzzle. This time he’d remember to jump, he could feel the pulse of adrenaline pump through his system. The pegasus offered a hoof but the unicorn rolled over. The two stared at each other and both nodded.

They exited the room at the same time, there were still a few ponies trying to attack them. The corridor was barely recognizable, the walls were destroyed like an Ursa Major had ran its claws through it. The stairwell was missing and the back wall was completely gone. Thunderer took flight and flew beside the unicorn who had taken to a gallop.

“Whatever happens, just run.” Thunderer said calmly.

An earth pony was charging at them with a bit of wood. Stormcloud watched as Thunderer flew forward, he went low to the ground as a unicorn fired a spell at him. Thunderers’ hooves connected with the earth pony, as the pegasus had greater speed the earth pony was lifted off the ground. Thunderer then began to change his hold of the earth pony and began to rear up. It was almost as if Thunderers’ real talent was ballet. Thunderer took a hold of his earth pony partner, and then reared up and curved his wings to his direct the airflow as he pirouetted on his rear hooves. As Thunderer turned a full circle, the pegasus threw the earth pony down the corridor. The earth pony collided with the unicorn and both fell to the ground.

Stormcloud jumped over the two ponies sprawled on the ground, a pegasus flew overhead to attack Thunderer ignoring the fleeing unicorn. This was it, the cliff was ahead.

“Breathe.”

As Stormcloud breathed in he jumped through what had been the rear wall. For a few beautiful seconds he felt like a pegasus but what goes up must come down, and so the feeling of ecstasy was quickly replaced with a gut-wrenching fear. He began falling, he flailed his legs in utter hopelessness. Below him he could see the waves crash against the sheer drop of the cliff. He could see the faint glint of stainless steel in the sea. 

Then he felt a warmth around him, he could feel two sticks around his chest as the tac-vest was pressed to his body and his entire back felt warm. He could feel two streams of hot air on the back of his neck. But the fear of below took hold, he could see his impending doom. Over the crashing waves below he heard the faintest *Pomf.*And then he felt something else, his stomach kept falling but his body was moving upwards, he began to curve away from the nosedive and into a glide. Then he felt himself rise as two gusts of wind pushed down on the fur of his withers.

“Thanks Thunderer.” He said breathlessly, now feeling a lump in his throat.

“Ha!” Came the reply of the feminine voice he heard earlier which felt oddly familiar.

The pegasus mare who was carrying him gained altitude.

“Rainbow-One to Silver One. Package is secure.” Said the mare on the comms.

There was a pause and then came the reply.

“Copy that Rainbow-One. Change designation to Rainbow Leader. Over.” Thunderer replied.

“Overlord this is Rainbow Leader. Package is secure. Mission is a success.” The mare said to Colt-son.

“Copy that Rainbow Leader. Your coordinates are X-ray, one, three, zero, zero…..Bravo -”

In that moment Stormcloud allowed himself to relax. His body was exhausted and his magical energy depleted. He enjoyed the firm grip of the pegasus mare around him and soon enough he was asleep.

***

“Should we wake him?” Came a voice.

“It was his first mission I’m not surprised he’s tired. He’s earned it anyway.” Came another voice.

“Next time Thunderer you’re carrying him, he’s heavy.” Came the feminine voice.

“What’s wrong Rainbow Dash? Can’t handle a little weight.” The second voice mocked.

“Oh yeah Thunderer when S.C.A.L.E give you free time you’re on!” The feminine voice shouted.

Stormcloud opened his eyes, he was sitting awkwardly on a chair. There was a desk in front of him and three ponies stood on the other side; Thunderer, Agent Coltson and Rainbow Dash. They were in a dark room which seemed to be mainly constructed of a dark metal.

“Oh good you’re awake.” Agent Colt-son said to Stormcloud. “I was just debriefing Thunderer and Rainbow Dash. Congratulations on your first mission success.”

Stormcloud smiled and got onto all fours. His tac-vest had been removed and he felt a bit sore all over.

“What you’re feeling is normal, let’s take a walk shall we?” Agent Coltson opened a door.

They walked down a light grey corridor until they entered a large open space. The area was huge, there were several aircraft dotted around this area. One of which looked as if it was being prepped to take off. The room they were in had one missing wall which opened out into the outside. Although it was early morning now, Stormcloud could clearly make out that they were at sea. 

“So I’m done with all the eggheadedness, catch ya later Thunderer. Agent Coltson and..” Rainbow Dash turned to Coltson. “You told him yet?”

“No.” Agent Coltson replied.

“Well catch ya later kid.” The rainbow maned pegasus took off at great speed through the open wall.

“Tell me what?” Stormcloud asked.

They began walked down a metal staircase so that they were on the same level as the aircraft, they moved towards the one being prepped.

“You passed the test.” Agent Coltson said.

“What test?” Stormcloud stopped in his tracks.

“The mission. It was all a test. The intel you recovered doesn’t exist.” Thunderer said.

Coltson shot him a look.

“You mean I got attacked for no reason?” Stormcloud asked slightly angry resuming his walking.

“No, the point of the test was to see how you handled yourself in the field. How you’d react to other ponies giving orders and taking risks. You passed.” Colt-son explained.

The trio had arrived at the aircraft. They stopped to finish their conversation.

“The other reason was to test that device I had. See how practical it was, whether it would actually work.” Thunderer continued. 

“Anyway Director Righteous Fury has awarded you with Level Five clearance.” Coltson said resuming the track of the conversation.

“Meaning?” Stormcloud raised an eyebrow.

“You’ll be working under me now. Agent Stormcloud.”

“Agent Stormcloud as a title. Squee intensifies.” Stormcloud couldn’t help but smile.

Thunderer snorted. “Don’t let it go to your head, you’ve got responsibilities now. Granted it has its advantages; rent free accommodation, travel around Equestria, free tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, three square meals a day-” Thunderer was cut off by Coltson.

“Which reminds me, I filled out those requests for you. Thank you again for your service, but you know what comes next.”

Thunderer nodded.

“Get it over with then, you’ve already taken everything off me again.” Thunderer shouted to the plane.

Two fully armoured unicorns stepped forward. They were levitating some strange devices as they approached the pegasus.

“Wait! What’s happening?” Stormcloud asked Coltson.

No reply. The unicorns lowered a white device over Thunderers’ wings, there was a mechanical click as the Winglock tightened. Then Stormcloud watched as the unicorns levitated hoofcuffs towards the pegasus and cuffed Thunderers front legs together and then his back legs. Then came a horrible device that Stormcloud had read about in a history book. The blinder was lowered over Thunderers head. The device had two ear holes and two eye holes but there was guards over the eyes, this meant that Thunderer could only see forward. Then a unicorn levitated a plastic muzzle over Thunderers’ muzzle. The device was completely transparent and there were holes cut into it so he could breathe.

“Easy way or hard way.” Said one of the guards in an expression of deadpan. The guard held a metal chain.

Thunderer simply turned and walked slowly towards the aircraft. Two two unicorn guards boarded the aircraft and the ramp they walked up was raised. Agent Coltson turned to head back to the platform they’d been at moments ago. The aircraft slowly ascended and headed towards to open wall.

“What was all that about!” Stormcloud raised his voice this time.

“Thunderer and S.C.A.L.E have mutually beneficial arrangement. He helps us design things and builds them, helps us with operations when discretion is needed and in return we make his prison conditions better.”

“Prison?” Stormcloud asked. “Why is he there?”

“Unfortunately that’s above your clearance level.” Coltson replied.

“So where exactly is that aircraft going, if he is a prisoner then shouldn’t he be held in a brig?”

Stormcloud was assuming they were on a boat rather than a S.C.A.L.E facility built into a cliff.

“Thunderer is kept in the most secure prison in Equestria by order of Princess Cadence.”

This was the first Stormcloud was hearing of any of this, Princess Cadence was known for her gift of love and compassion, sending a pony to prison was the last thing she’d be expected to do.

“What prison is this?” Stormcloud pried.

Stormcloud knew of only a few prisons and none of them he would label as ‘Most Secure’.

“Tartarus...”
> Chapter Six: The 22:30 to Fillydelphia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Six: The 22:30 to Fillydelphia


Location: “H.M.S Ascension”, three miles off Equestrias’ West Coast.

H.M.S Ascension was the name of the ship that Stormcloud found himself on, it was the largest in Equestrias’ newly formed Navy. The ship had been commissioned by Princess Twilight Sparkle herself not long after Tireks’ uprising, but construction had only finished a few days ago. Ascension was a ‘Carrier’ class; one of two, this meant that planes and newly designed helicopters could take off and land. Not only could it launch aircraft into the sky it could also store them in the hangar deck where Stormcloud had awoken the previous day.

H.M.S Ascension was one of four ships that was dedicated to a Princess, the others were “H.M.S Heart of Gold”; the other carrier of the fleet, “H.M.S Solar Sailor” and “H.M.S Lunar Eclipse”. The Solar Sailor and Lunar Eclipse were both ‘Battleship’ class ships and contained more guns than the two carriers. There were other ships in the fleet but these four were the names that most ponies knew.

Stormcloud had been allocated a room on the port-side of the ship, the room was small which was to be expected. The room only contained; two cots, two footlockers and one larger chest. As Stormcloud had been up late on his mission he’d been allowed to rest during the next day, this unfortunately meant that he hadn’t met his bunkmate. It also meant he’d missed breakfast when he awoke in the late morning. As he cleaned himself up for the new day, he yearned for some food and thought he better try to find the galley.

***

For a ship commissioned by Twilight Sparkle, there were no maps anywhere that Stormcloud went. He searched along the narrow metal corridors but was unsuccessful in finding any information telling him where to go. The only fact that Stormcloud could gain was that some doors required specific clearance levels, these were indicated by large numbers painted onto the doors themselves. As he continued searching he found new emblems painted onto the doors. He was unsure what they meant but he slowly deduced that only ponies with specific jobs could enter these areas regardless of clearance. 

One such example he saw was a door with a ‘6’ painted on, beside this was a wrench emblem. After a few minutes a pony passed him, the stallion wore a lanyard around his neck with a large ‘4’ on it, this pony was able to open the door with ease by using the scanner beside the large door. It unlocked and swung open and then slammed shut behind him. Stormcloud then tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge for him.

Eventually Stormcloud found his way to the galley but to his disappointment, lunch would not be served for another half an hour. He chose to wander the ship and learn the routes he was allowed to take and where he wasn’t authorised to go. After the half hour passed Stormcloud felt he was able to successfully navigate a small portion of the large ship, at the very least he could now get to his bunk and the galley. As Stormcloud began his lunch an earth pony sat beside him; the stallion had cream-coloured fur, brown eyes and a shaggy black mane. He was wearing a black polo shirt that had the S.C.A.L.E insignia over the breast pocket, he offered Stormcloud a hoof.

“Agent Duke Hazzard, I’m your bunk-mate.”

“Oh… I’m Cirrus Stormcloud” he shook his hoof, “nice to meet you.”

“I know who you are, Agent Coltson is my handler as well.”

“Handler?”

“My boss for want of a better word… Yours too from what he’s told me. Hoofpicked, quite impressive for somepony so new to the programme.”

Stormcloud could detect the genuine admiration in his voice, but beneath that were some tones of doubt. Agent Hazzard was clearly a pony who had been with S.C.A.L.E for a long time, the earth pony was also of a stockier build than Stormcloud. This most likely meant that Hazzard had been in the military or a labour intensive job before.

“So as we’re bunkmates, we should probably talk about ourselves?” Stormcloud suggested.

“Pfft, that formality, we’re with S.C.A.L.E all that should matter to you is getting the job done!”

Stormcloud had met ponies like this before, typically former Royal Guards or smaller regiments. These were ponies who’d seen combat a lot and had witnessed loss before, they ended up having a tendency to forego personal connections.

It was then that Agent Hazzard broke into a bellowing laugh, a few ponies nearby turned to stare at him. Hazzard continued laughing and rapped his forehooves against the table.

“You should’ve seen the disappointment in your face kid.” Hazzard wiped a tear from his eye.

“Well I thought-”

“Kid, I used to work private security, did that since I was a teenager. Few years after that I joined the 4th Solar Regiment and served six tours in the Griffin Wars. When they ended, I was kept as a reserve, I worked in demolitions for a short while until Nightmare Moon returned. After that I was recalled into service where I served up until Tireks’ uprising. When the new Princess defeated him I was asked to join S.C.A.L.E.”

Stormcloud took a bite of his food before Hazzard continued.

“What about you?” Hazzard asked taking a bite of his own.

“Well… I mostly grew up in Fillydelphia and joined the weather team.”

Hazzard looked at him in confusion.

“Weather team? Doesn’t seem to fit with a secret agent” he said.

“You’d probably be right, when it comes to things like fighting I have a more technical, strategical approach. Unicorns like me are made more for the thinking than the pure horsepower for fighting. I excelled in weather manipulation and I got my cutie mark ‘cause of it. 

“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?

“It means…” Stormcloud tapped his hoof on his head, “I’ve got a lot more brains than I do brawns” he smirked feeling good about himself.

Hazzard laughed.

“You sure are cocky, kid” now it was his time to smirk.

Stormcloud knew he was holding something back. 

“And?...”

Hazzard was chuckling now.

“But brains aren't bulletproof.”  

Stormcloud laughed. 

“I know, I joined the Royal Guard before the Changeling Invasion, I wanted to follow in my dad’s hoofsteps and join the military.”

Hazzards’ expression changed.

“Where were you stationed?” he said in a stern tone.

Stormcloud had walked right into this one, Stormcloud dropped his good humour.

“Canterlot initially, after the Changeling Invasion I took some personal time and rejoined. I was stationed at Buckingham after that.”

“You saw action in Canterlot?”

Stormcloud paused, fours years had passed and Canterlot was still hard to to talk about.

“Yes.”

“I feel for you kid, I really do.”

From then on, the two ate in silence, Stormcloud was thankful for the quiet but thoughts stirred in his mind.


***


After a few days aboard the Ascension Stormcloud was called to the briefing room, luckily Stormcloud had discovered where this room was and was easily able to find it. Over the past few days everypony had expected very little from him, so he’d chosen to spend his days in the gymnasium on the lower deck. He’d spent his time there working on his speed and telekinesis powers. The call to the briefing room had come as a surprise to him.

As Stormcloud entered the briefing room he saw that a few ponies were already here. The room was square in design; contained a simple square table in the centre, chairs lined the table and at the head, was a computer screen with the S.C.A.L.E insignia rotating around. Out of the four ponies in the room, Stormcloud only recognised Agents Coltson and Hazzard; he sat between them in an empty chair. As he sat down the door behind him opened again and everypony went silent.

Director Twilight Sparkle entered the room and everypony turned to look at her, she marched with determination to the head of table and stood in front of the computer screen. She used her magic to tap at the keyboard located within the table and the screen behind her changed to a building that looked like a bomb had gone off. Twilight stepped to the side so everypony could see the screen, she then swished her tail, fluttered her wings out and then took a deep breath.

“Listen up everypony!” She said in a stern tone once she’d composed herself.

“A few days ago, The Order successfully managed to infiltrate a S.C.A.L.E safe house and steal an asset of ours...”

“Who are The Order?” Stormcloud whispered to Coltson.

“An extremist mercenary group who believe that the Princesses should not hold power over Equestria.” Coltson whispered back quickly.

He then snapped his attention back to Twilight and Stormcloud thought it best to follow suit.

“Our sources aren’t clear..” Twilight continued, “but it is very likely that Arrow Head is behind this. What we know for definite is that The Order have booked three carriages on the twenty-two-thirty to Fillydelphia. We believe they’ll likely be holding our asset with one of these two carriages and have mercenaries scattered throughout the train. Coltson as the highest ranking agent here, you’ll be leading the ground team on a Search and Retrieve mission.”

Coltson stood up and moved to where Twilight Sparkle was standing, at that moment Twilight made to leave the room but not before she whispered something to Coltson. Coltson nodded in reply and stood at the head of the table, he used the magic from his horn to alter the computer screen behind him. The image changed from the house to what looked like a blueprint of Canterlot station. Stormcloud thought it was quite odd to see a blueprint of the newly built Canterlot station, only a few years ago Canterlot was a one platform station.

Coltson levitated a few sheets of paper over to each pony, the first consisted of the profile of a pony; Arrow Head. The second was a smaller blueprint of Canterlot station, the print showed the eight platforms; three terminus style platforms and five through platforms. The plan showed the full extent of the building including all the doors on the small shops located in the concourse. Stormcloud was fairly confident he’d be able to navigate the station as he’d been in Canterlot a lot.

“Okay listen up” Coltson began, “this is a covert mission so we’ll be in plain clothes, this also means we’ll have no weapons and no external support. Each of you have tickets for the train all of which are in separate carriages.” 

Coltson levitated over the train tickets, they were rectangular with a perforated section which was given to the inspector on the train, other than that the tickets were plain white and contained the details of the journey. As Stormcloud turned to face Coltson again, he noticed Coltson was levitating an odd blueprint. The blueprint was of the station, but this one was large in design; nearly the entire length of the table. Coltson levitated it onto the table.

“Move your stuff.” Agent Hazzard whispered to him.

Stormcloud levitated his documents off the table as Coltson draped the transparent blueprint over the table. Then Coltson pressed a button at his end of the table and suddenly a 3D model of Canterlot station appeared in the centre of the table. Agent Hazzard pushed Stormclouds’ jaw shut. Above the projection of Canterlot station a clock appeared showing the time as twenty-two-hundred; half an hour before the train left. Five dots of light appeared at the front door of the station, beside the clock the names of the Agents appeared in their respective colour; Stormcloud was orange.

“At twenty-two hundred myself and Agent Stormcloud will enter the station, we’ll spend approximately four minutes checking the timetable, at that point Agents Hazzard and Sabre will enter carrying the relay. The relay will allow us to remain in communication on the journey, you two will check this into the mail carriages. This will take you most of the time so you’re to head straight onto the train after that. From the timetable Stormcloud and I will head to the branch of Star-Bucks. Agent Stripes you’ll enter the station at twenty-two-twenty-five, you’ll then run for the train and make out that you’re a late-runner.”

As Coltson explained this the dots on the model followed the intended paths, the timer counted down as he explained this too. The design was quite intricate, to a passing pony they’d never guess that the Agents were there, they were acting like normal ponies with normal problems. There were two ponies; friends who were arriving early and grabbing coffee and talking about their lives. Two more ponies perhaps on business; they’d be booking in their luggage and boarding the train. Then there was the late runner, the one pony who’d be moving fast to get where they’d need to be and nopony would bat an eye.

“The train is nine coaches long, the front three will be the TPO…” Coltson looked to Stormcloud, “Travelling Post Office.” He said for clarity.

Stormcloud simply nodded.

“Mail coaches would’ve been easier to say.” He thought.

“Behind these are the two booked out by The Order, an hour into the trip we’ll be making our way up to these coaches, we’ll need to incapacitate any Order members quietly. Which is why two of us we’ll be wearing these.”

Coltson levitated up two pairs of glasses, they looked like ordinary glasses; clear lenses and thick, black frames.

“As some of you will know these glasses are connected up to S.C.A.L.Es’ criminal database, we’ll be using these to determine Order members. Once we’ve made our way up to the Order coaches we’ll then infiltrate the coaches and recover our asset. As you know Arrow Head is highly dangerous and is an expert in firearm use. There’s no doubt he’ll use lethal force on us which is why we’ll be throwing in sleep grenades. Once we secure Arrow Head, we’ll move forward into the TPO coaches, I’ll then load the asset into the TPO apparatus. The good news is that the trains’ first drop is at Ponyville so a S.C.A.L.E Agent will be expecting our delivery. Our mission time is three hours and failure is not an option. Any questions?”

“Yes, what about our extraction?” The earth pony named Stripes asked.

“The steam engine will change at Baltimare station, we’ll use that window to escort Arrow Head from the train to a safehouse, as far as we’re concerned, that’s our mission.” Coltson replied.

Stormcloud looked at the profile of Arrow Head. 


_______________________________________________


Name:

Arrow Head, “The Redskined Pony”

Physical description: 

Dark yellow coat, reddish-orange mane and tail. Cutie mark is that of three arrow heads. Bullet wound on left foreleg near the base of the shoulder.

Race: earth pony

Known Associates:

High ranking member of The Order, Cloud Former (Deceased), Hijinx (Detained).


Previous Occupation: 

Special Operations Unit of Equstrian Army, Soldier Number. 567

Crimes: 

Wanted on account of a Capitol degree murder.
Tried and found guilty with attempting a Royal assassination.
Murder on multiple counts.
Conspiracy to commit murder on multiple counts.
One charge of ponyslaughter. 
Evading arrest on multiple counts.
Escaping from Prison twice.

Mental Profile:

Arrow Head is proficient in use of firearms and has been known to use them without warning. Dishonourably discharged for insubordination, Arrow Head has formed a hatred of the Royal Sisters and their subordinates, including S.C.A.L.E. Most likely suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had been reported with “twitchy hoof” Arrow Head should be approached with caution.

Current Status: 

R.E.D (Approach with caution).



__________________________________________


Stormcloud winced as he came across the last line on the profile.


***


Location: Canterlot Railway Station

Stormcloud and Coltson entered the large building throughs its ornate glass doors, the sight within was just as impressive as the exterior. Before them was a large black board held aloft, the board itself was littered with orange lights making words and times for ponies to read. There was quite a number of ponies around the station even at an hour this late, a few pegasi were hovering in front of the board to read their desired train time. Stormcloud and Coltson both walked up to the board they were immediately surrounded by groups of benches of which a few had ponies perched on top.

Stormcloud looked up at the board the writing was in a simple electronic font. The board was split into sections each containing two lines of text. The first line had the departure times for the trains followed by its final destination, below it was a stream of scrolling text; this showed all the stations the train called out. At the end of both lines of text was a large number indicating the platform.

“We are sorry to announce that the…. oh-ten-fifteen service to...Manehatten has been delayed by approximately… six minutes.” A feminine electronic voice rang out across the main hall.

Coltson had adorned a simple green turtle-neck and wore blue trousers, it occurred to Stormcloud that he’d never seen Coltsons’ cutie mark. Stormcloud himself had simple opted to forego any clothing in reality no-pony would really notice, it was common of pony-folk in large cities to wear clothing at all times and also common for ponies to not wearing clothing. Coltson checked the departure board and then headed to the station branch of Star-Bucks.


***


At the main entrance two more ponies entered the station building, between them they carried a huge trunk, it was brown in colour and looked a little worn around the edges. A unicorn porter had seen the pair enter and levitated a square device over to them. The device was small and made from box-sections of steel, on each of the four corners was a wheel. The two Agents lowered their load onto the box and thanked the unicorn, they then proceeded to move the box to the luggage check in.

“Sweet Celestia, what exactly is in this box it feels like we’re pushing a pony around.” Agent Hazzard complained.

“Ugh!.. Stop talk… more push.” Agent Sabre grunted as she pushed forcefully with her head.

The earth pony and the pegasus mare continued to push their heavy load to the luggage check-in. Both of them wore no clothing and this revealed their cutie marks; a scroll for Agent Sabre and a dagger for Agent Hazzard. The load they were carrying was incredibly heavy, the box contained a portable radio set up, this would allow the agents to communicate while on the train. It would be handled by the station staff and loaded into either the guards’ carriage or the mail carriages of the train.

The two ponies reached the luggage check-in and a pegasus mare smiled at the two of them.

“Going away for a long weekend?” The pegasus porter asked.

“Yes, we’ve been working hard of late, thought a nice romantic weekend away would be good.” Agent Hazzard replied.

The tone in which he declared this false story would put many stallions to shame, there was utter confidence in his tone and Agent Sabre couldn’t help but blush. Agent Sabre or Red Sabre as she was better known. Red Sabre was a blue-ish grey in colour and had a crystal white mane in a jagged style which she took after her cousin; Cloud Chaser.

“So did you pack this bag yourself?” The porter pony asked.

“Yes we did.” Agent Sabre replied.

The porter pony signalled for two unicorns to come over, the two of them lifted the trunk onto a metal scale. The hand moved around and the pegasus made a note.

“Where about are you two heading?” She asked.

“We've got a nice B and B to stay at in Fillydelphia, overlooks the beach.”

“Definitely sounds romantic. That’ll be thirty-six bits for your trunk” the pegasus replied.

“Honey, could you fetch them out of my saddlebags please.” Agent Hazzard cooed.

Agent Sabre lifted the flap with her wing and dug her head in to retrieve the bag of bits, they hoofed over the correct amount of bits. The pegasus then placed a sticker on the trunk and then the two unicorns took the trunk to the train. Agents Hazzard and Sabre stood for a moment and then followed the unicorns to the train.

“Is there actually a B and B in Fillydephia?” Agent Sabre asked in a sultry tone.

“Yes there is, its got a nice view but I’m really only there for the mares.” Hazzard teased.

Sabre blushed as the two stepped through the metal turnstile. 


***


From across the main hall, Stormcloud watched as the two ponies struggled, part of him wanted to help but he knew he couldn't. Instead Coltson placed a large hot coffee down in front of him.

“Drink up, you’ll need it.” He said and began to down his drink.

Stormcloud was quietly impressed as his mentor continued to pour hot liquid down his own throat and not falter. The two sat at one of the tables that could be called al-fresco as it was outside the actual store but within the station premises. Stormcloud levitated over a few of that days’ newspapers he flicked through them

“Equestria Daily, Daily Bugle, Neigh York Times, Hoofington Post. You know I actually can’t be bothered now.”

He tossed them to the side a little bit disappointed at the selection. Coltson looked around at the architecture and then focused on Stormcloud.

“So why’d join S.C.A.L.E?” He asked in a low voice.

“My dad has always been a rough ‘n’ tough kind of stallion. He worked for the Royal Air Guard in Canterlot. While he and I never saw eye-to-eye, after working for my towns’ weather team I wanted to follow him in his hoofsteps.” Stormcloud took a swig of the hot beverage.

“Weather team? You must be very talented in magic in order to perform that kind of manipulation.” Coltson grinned

“Yes, I've always been fond of magic. My dad however... thought differently.” Stormcloud sighed.

“You two didn't get along?” Coltson said with a perplexed look.

“No no, we got along… We just saw the world in two completely different ways. He saw the world for its many flaws, never the good. I thought differently, he could never truly accept it, but he still cared for me the best way he could.”

“I can see why your dad was so defensive.” Coltson took a sip of his coffee, “when there are so many unorthodox ponies out there and such heinous criminals, it can be hard to see the few that are good. Some may still seem different but that is only one in a million!”

Coltsons’ voice broke in the last sentence so cleared his throat and settled again.

“Your dad was only trying to protect you from what he saw… I’m sure of that…”

“I guess you may be right, Sir.”   

There was a pause for a while as time passed, neither pony spoke as their coffee’s cooled and were eventually drank.

“What’s the deal with Thunderer?” Stormcloud asked after a while.

“What do you mean?” Coltson replied as he sipped his coffee.

“He works for S.C.A.L.E but he isn’t an Agent, he must have a story…”

“Thunderer is… well unique. He’s committed crimes but he seems to have either lost his memory or is pretending to have lost it. S.C.A.L.E found him locked in Tartarus before S.C.A.L.E took ownership. Thats’ when we found out about his brain, although he has no memories before the Changeling invasion fours years ago. His mind is… well I suppose you’d call it technologically advanced. The very first interview I had with him he was able to explain how to create electricity by passing a copper wire through a magnet.”

“So he’s kept on because he’s smart?”

“That’s one reason yes, the others… well they’re classified.” Coltson lifted his cup to see if any liquid remained inside it.

“Surely he has a family?”

There was a pause as Coltson looked deep in thought.

“We weren't able to find any, Thunderer was in the epicenter of the changeling invasion when he was found, after that he was arrested by Princess Luna. All S.C.A.L.E knows is that he was kept there for a week and then he was released with no charges against him. A month later Princess Cadence and Shining Armour returned from their honeymoon… that was when Cadence demanded he be rearrested.”

“Does he have any friends?” Stormcloud inquired, a look of disappointment crossing his face.

“The Princesses requested any information about him, but nopony came forward.”

“I’d like to see him…” Stormcloud said.

“Why?”

“He needs a friend.”

“Thunderer has never requested that, besides your clearance isn't high enough.”

Coltson looked at the clock that hung from the ceiling. It was time to go.

“I know your heart’s in the right place and being friends with Director Twilight Sparkle has probably influenced that.” Coltson continued, “Thunderer is a loner by nature, he’s adapted to confined cell with little interaction. If we get wind of him changing his demeanor then I will inform you, but we have a mission to complete and I want your A-game.”

The two ponies finished their conversation and with warm coffee in their stomachs they marched onward to the platform. The platforms were located behind the departure board, they were segregated by the large wall which could only be passed through turnstiles. Coltson led Stormcloud through the barrier which at this hour was only patrolled by one pony. The two unicorns levitated their tickets into the machine and once they’d stepped through the barrier they collected them on the other side.

The platforms were located under a great, glass ceiling the structure was convex from their position was constructed from steel and glass. There were two ceilings that met at a long wall in the centre, on either side lay all the platforms and some small shops that had closed for the night. Stormcloud and Coltson walked along the hoofbridge to their platform, as they walked Stormcloud could just make out the engine shed at the end of platforms. Even though it was dark Stormcloud could just make out the warm glow from the steam engine cabs.

Coltson drew Stormclouds’ attention and they both descended a set of stairs to the only platform with a train in it. The steam engine at the front was a Brunswick Green Equestria Class steam engine, directly behind it were the three Royal Mail carriages, behind them were a rake of seven blood and custard liveried carriages. Stormcloud watched as two porters loaded the heavy relay into the leading Royal Mail coach. Both of those ponies were unaware that the box they were loading contained S.C.A.L.E equipment. Another announcement sounded but it was barely audible over the hiss of the safety valve being lifted on the steam engine. 

Coltson led him to the fifth coach in the set, as Coltson opened the door Stormcloud noticed a pony running along the hoofbridge; Agent Stripes. Stormcloud closed the door behind them with a slam and levitated the window up into its closed position. The coach they were located in was a corridor coach, this meant it had compartments lining one side compared to the open coaches which had tables and chairs their entire length. Coltson led Stormcloud from the vestibule along the narrow corridor and into the third compartment they came across, they were the only ponies in it. From outside a whistle sounded and then a much louder whistle sounded in reply. The train jerked ever so slightly and then began to slowly leave the station.

Stormcloud levitated open the tiny window at the top of the main window, he watched the train snake its way out of the station. Once the final coach left the station the train began to pick up speed, Stormcloud had read a few books on steam engines and he could hear the hiss and wheeze of the two outer cylinders. As the city lights began to become distance the steam engine broke into a bark and they rapidly picked up speed.

Stormcloud sat down in the chair as Coltson placed his special glasses on.

“Comm check.” Coltson said as he tapped his chest.

“Agent… Sabre… Reporting” Agent Sabre replied breathlessly.

“Agent Hazzard reading you loud and clear.”

“Agent Stripes in position, I have one confirmed sighting.”

“Agent Stripes sixty minute timer begins now, do not engage.”

“Yes Sir, understood.”

Coltson flicked his forehoof in front of his face and looked at his watch.

“Sixty minutes ‘til go time.”






 
> Chapter Seven: The Night Mail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7: The Night Mail


Location: 22:30 Canterlot to Fillydelphia.

Stormcloud felt himself launch forward as his head slipped on the window, the feeling caused to him to wake with a start. The gentle rocking of the train had lulled him to sleep and Stormcloud was surprised that Coltson hadn’t woken him, they were far away from any city or small town, at least that’s what Stormcloud thought as nothing but darkness swept past him.

“It’s nearly time to start” Coltson said from the other side of their compartment.

Stormcloud rubbed the sleep from his eyes and gave a hearty yawn. Even with his military service Stormcloud still struggled to wake his head felt woollen and he needed a pick-me-up.

“We move out in five minutes,” Coltson said as he levitated the special glasses onto his face. “Stick your head out of the window if you still feel tired.” Coltson suggested.

Stormcloud rose groggily and stretched his legs out, he slid the door open and walked to the vestibule area. The corridor rocked gently and the dim lights were soft on the eyes much to Stormcloud’s pleasure. As soon as he was at the window, he slid it down and reared up to stick his head out. The wind whipped his muzzle, he enjoyed the feeling but at the same time his system was shocked due to the sudden temperature change. He felt the train round a corner and then he could hear the distinctive change in sound as the train began to slog up an incline. He withdrew his head knowing full well that smut would likely get in his eyes, he also felt fully awake and should really get back to Coltson.

There was a buzzing in his ear before several voices all started speaking.

“This is Agent Stripes, I’m located at the very rear of the train, I’ve identified two known members of The Order.” A deep male voice said.

“This is Agents Hazzard and Sabre, we have three members in our carriage, one of which is a high ranking member. Sending his photo now.” 

Stormcloud entered the compartment as Coltson replied.

“Agent Hazzard, thats Quick Retort. High level enforcer, S.C.A.L.E archives have him as committing several acts of murder, prefers to use his hooves rather than firearms, do not engage alone.”

“Understood, Agent Coltson.” Hazzard replied quickly.

“...is is Agen... Sabre... comm unit... suffering from in..feren..! Plea.. advise!” The female voice of the pegasus exclaimed.

“You are to remain with Agent Hazzard, Agent Sabre.” Coltson replied.

There was a pause before a different voice replied.

“I’ll keep an eye on her Agent Coltson.” Hazzard replied.

Coltson removed his hoof from his earpiece and looked to Stormcloud.

“You remember the plan?” he asked.

“Yes, Agent Stripes will move up from the rear of the train and meet up with Agents Hazzard and Sabre who are in the carriage behind us, they'll then make their way up here and from there we'll move up and clear the next carriage, followed by the guards carriage and then retrieve our asset,” Stormcloud recited.

“Good work, but I want you to go down a carriage to the buffet car, there are two Order mercs in that car. You were trained with a sleeping spell yes?”

“Yes. Week Two of training,”

“Then go!” Coltson said.

The sleep spell which Stormcloud had learned could only be used on consumable goods. Stormcloud knew what he had to do and part of him thought this was another training exercise like last time, but something didn't feel right. Their situation felt too real and there were other more experienced agents with him. Stormcloud slowly made his way to the next carriage and it then occurred to him that he didn't know what the two ponies would look like. He thought about turning around but the sound of a door sliding open behind him made him press forward.

The buffet car was similar in design to the other carriages, from the door between the two carriages, there was a door straight in front of him; this he presumed led to behind the counter. The corridor was narrow like all the others except on one side was a counter where ponies could order food and drink, beyond that it what appeared to be the last third of the carriage were some tables and chairs. There were two customers sitting at a table, both of whom happened to be zebra's. Both of them were sitting opposite each other playing cards, from the hoof that Stormcloud could see the zebra with his back to him was likely to win.

“Wanna join?” The zebra who was facing him asked.

Stormcloud looked behind him to see if they were talking to the other pony. The pegasus who had followed Stormcloud was waiting patiently behind him, not for Stormcloud to move out of his way, but for somepony to come and serve him at the buffet car. In that moment Stormcloud took a chance.

“Sure, I'll join.” He replied.

The zebras finished their hand and shuffled their cards, it was quite a sight to watch as the hooves dropped a select amount of cards into the other. The zebra slammed the deck down on the table, taking Stormcloud by surprise. There was a long pause and Stormcloud saw that each zebra had two drinks between them.

“Cut.” One of the zebras said.

Stormcloud used his magic to lift almost half the deck of cards and place it down beside it. The zebra picked up what was the lower half of the deck and began to deal five cards each, he placed one card in the centre. The zebra who had had his back to him started to scrawl on a piece of paper with a pencil between his teeth.

“Name?” The other zebra asked.

The question knocked Stormcloud for six. He hadn't expected to be asked his name and giving his real one seemed like a stupid idea, but equally he hadn't thought of a fake one.

“Er... Brass Pitch?” Stormcloud said, and then realising how it sounded after it came out.

“You sound like you don't know your real name.” The zebra with the pencil said.

“Damn, damn, damn” he thought as beads of sweat began to form.

The two zebras broke out into laughter and the zebra who dealt slapped Stormclouds' back several times. The force of the slaps made his teeth clack together.

“Next you'll be saying you can't play cribbage!” The zebra beside him joked.

Thankfully Stormcloud could.

The pegasus at the bar gave up trying to get somepony’s attention and joined the group at the table, he didn't request to join in and the zebras didn't seem to mind an audience. The first hand went quickly and Stormcloud pegged two points and scored a reasonable seven, the two others didn't peg anything but held very high scoring hands of twelve. There were some loud noises nearby and the pegasus got up to investigate, the two zebras didn't seem to care. The pegasus made it as far as the door and then backed up as two ponies entered. Stormcloud seemed unaware of the two ponies until some heavy hoofsteps entered the buffet car.

“Ah Quick Retort, care for a... oh” the zebra began.

The pause caught Stormclouds' attention. The pony before him was huge, he recalled Twilight Sparkle mentioning such a pony to which Stormcloud had then seen compete in the Equestria Games, this pony was bigger than Bulk Biceps of the Ponyville Relay team. The pony was a unicorn but the size of the muscles made the horn seem relatively small. Quick Retort stared blankly at the zebras and the pegasus. Stormcloud then realised that they're drinks weren't being watched. Under his breath he muttered the incantation and focused on the two purple liquids, for a brief second they turned blue and then returned to their ordinary purple.

With his incantation successful Stormcloud began to formulate an excuse to return to his compartment but then something made him stop in his train of thought. Beside the massive unicorn was a small earth pony, one of which he knew, one of which he had met recently. Agent Stripes was standing beside the massive unicorn a black eye adorning his face and several bruised along his body.

“There are two S.C.A.L.E agents further down the train, a few of the others have taken hostages. Get down there while I tell Arrow Head.” he said in a deep voice.

The pony then stared at Stormcloud.

“And tie him up while you're at it!” He ordered and walked off, taking Agent Stripes with him.

There was an awkward pause, Stormcloud prepared himself for action.

“Sorry 'bout this mate, but yanno'. Just business.” One of the zebra said and picked up his drink.

Stormcloud felt a sigh of relief, as soon as he swallowed that, there would only be one pony to deal with.

“Wait!” A cry came.

Stormcloud swore in his head.

The pegasus who Stormcloud had briefly forgotten about stepped forward.

“He drugged your drinks!” He said.

“Oh did you now?” The zebra with the pencil said.

“My guess is, he's an Agent of S.C.A.L.E too.” The pegasus said.

“Well that changes everything.” The zebra stated.

Stormcloud teleported quickly but in that instant he forgot one of the most basic rules of teleporting. Never teleport while moving quickly. As Stormcloud reappeared he hadn't moved much of a distance, infact he had only teleported several feet. He felt his body launch backward and he slammed his spine on a table, he sunk to the floor in pain and quickly tried to summon another spell. In that moment he felt something cold and metallic press against his throat.

“Uh uh uh,” came the taunt, “Unless you want to become an earth pony, I'd power that horn down” the pegasus pressed the knife to emphasise his point.

“So you thought you could drug us? Well I hope you like to sleep.” The voice of one of the zebras said.

A shadow passed over him and he could feel a glass press against his lips, the glass was tipped and the liquid began to fill his mouth. He held the liquid in his mouth but a pair of hooves clamped his muzzle shot and soon it was difficult to breathe. He could quickly feel his body's' reactions slow and eventually he gave in and swallowed the liquid. He felt himself drift off into sleep in a matter of seconds. The last thing he remembered were the hooves leaving his muzzle.


***


Arrow Head walked around his prize. It had been easy to take the asset from the S.C.A.L.E safehouse, he still recounted how easy it had been. He couldn’t believe that a S.C.A.L.E Agent had stupidly fell for the fake delivery act, he recalled the moment when he heard the door click open and then Boom!, the shotgun shell had ripped through that pony like a hot knife through butter. It had only taken six of them to enter the house and steal their asset, and now here they were, undisturbed and racing across the country Arrow Head would have his private time with this pony.

“Okay gents, it’s time” he said to two unicorns who were also present in the empty carriage.

Luckily, Arrow Head had booked three whole coaches so he could attend to his ‘private’ matters, he’d ordered three of his underlings to seize control of the two Royal Mail coaches that led the rake, now nopony would interrupt him. The two unicorns levitated a metal bath tub into the centre of the coach, this was followed by a chair which they placed in the centre of the tub. At that moment a pegasus entered the room.

“The mail ponies are secured two carriages down sir” she said.

“I ordered you to put them next door where I can deal with them later” Arrow replied with a hint of anger.

“My orders are with Quick Retort!” came the sharp reply.

It was bad enough that the powers that be had decided he needed a partner, but Quick Retort? He was a power hungry pony, always had to have everything in control and the way he planned it. Arrow Head had half a mind to shoot him and be done with it, but right now, he had his prize to focus on.

“Fine! Now get outta my sight!” Arrow finally replied.

The pegasus left out of the door he came through, hopefully Quick Retort and his four underlings would keep out from under his hooves now, Arrow had business to attend to. He nodded to the two unicorns who then lifted his ‘prize’ onto the chair, one unicorn then removed the black cloth from his prizes’ head while the other used his magic to tie ropes around his ‘prizes’’ hooves. The two unicorns then left the carriage and made their way to the head of the train.

Arrow Head moved so he looked straight at the bound unicorn, the unicorn was of a deep purple coat and held three lightning bolts as a cutie mark.

“Do you know who I am? Star Bolt.” The use of the pony’s name caught his attention.

“...No” he eventually replied.

“Hmm, perhaps I’ve not made as big an impact as I thought, or maybe S.C.A.L.E just don’t see me as a threat yet.” He raised a hoof to his chin in thought.

“So that’s what this is all about? So you can make a name for yourself, gain a reputation?” the unicorn known as Star Bolt said weakly.

Arrow simply laughed.

“Oh Star Bolt, Star Bolt. I don’t need a reputation, I already have one.” His voice took a sinister turn towards the end.

“Then what do you want?” the unicorn half shouted.

“What I want? I want to take down S.C.A.L.E and everything they stand for, I want to see four tyrant Princesses riddled with bullet holes, I want to make Equestria a better place for everypony.”

“Then why keep me?”

“Oh ho ho, you don’t think I know your little secret, what makes you special.”

“I’m not special.”

“Oh don’t treat me like a foal, I did my research. I know all about your mishap, your research into electricity generation, ring any bells?”

“I don’t know what your talking about.” Star Bolt said through gritted teeth.

“You don’t? Well perhaps a science lesson will change that. You know electricity and metal conduct don’t you?”

“Ye-”

“No don’t reply, teacher is talking.” Arrows’ head twitched quickly, “Well you see electrical currents are present in the pony body, every action we take, every thought we have, we owe it to electricity. But you! You thought differently, your body harnessed that electricity and created an extension of it, quite remarkable really. I know unicorns have natural magic, but this is something else, so lie to me again and I’ll make you wish you never thought about delving into science.”

“I don’t-”

At that moment Arrow Head picked up a bucket of water that had been stored in the carriage. He threw it at Star Bolt. And then, then the most amazing thing happened, in an instant Star Bolt was enveloped in an electrical current. He screamed out in pain as electricity ran through his body and caused him to jerk rapidly, in that same instant sweat dripped through his fur and matted his coat, Star Bolt clenched his teeth and held back the pain he was in.

“Now Star Bolt do you understand that I know all about you, but the one thing I don’t know is that project you’re working on. So here’s the deal, you’re going to tell me all about it.”

“And. If. I. Don’t?” he replied between breathes, his heart thundering louder than the pistons of the steam engine.

“Well. I have all night and if I don’t break you… There are ponies worse than me.”


***


“Now class, today we’re going to learn about teleporting.” Miss Inkwell said as she wrote on the blackboard.

Cirrus Stormcloud leaned forward in his chair to listen intently to his primary school teacher. A few ponies nearby snickered and not for the first time since he started school, he wish Twilight Sparkle was still here. She wouldn't have snickered, she too would've been leaning in to hear what the teacher had to say, but she wasn't here. Stormcloud had left Canterlot just before the Summer Sun Celebration to move to Fillydelphia and his father had him enrolled in the highest level school he could afford. Stormcloud thought about, staring at his newly acquired cutie mark; a gusting cloud.

“Alright children,” the teacher continued. “What is the first rule of teleportation?”

“Don’t talk-”

“Miss Lulamoon if you finish that sentence you can take yourself to the Principal's’ office.”

An azure unicorn lowered her hoof and a few ponies snickered at her, while the teacher looked away a spitball landed in her mane.

“Mr Stormcloud?”

Cirrus froze.

“Um… er… To not teleport while moving at a high speed.”

“Good, does anypony know why?... No?”

The teacher erased the board and began to draw fresh image. She started by drawing a straight line and a stick pony at one end. She then drew a horizontal dashed line and placed a ‘Y’ above it. She then drew an arrow leading from the pony to line Y. At the other end of the large line she named it Y1. She then marked the arrow with an X.

“So a pony can travel at speed X and teleport at point Y, this means that at point Y1, the pony is still travelling at speed X.”

The teacher then drew a wheeled platform below the pony on the board, she then marked this with an arrow and named it X1.

“Now if a pony is on a platform then that pony is travelling at speed X1 so X will equal zero. This means when the pony teleports at point Y the pony is still travelling is speed X1. Once that pony is at point Y1 he will decelerate. But. If that pony is travelling as well, then the two speeds cancel each other out at point Y1. This was one of Starswirl the Bearded’s first magical theories, he discovered that short range teleporting was complex and only highly skilled unicorns could do it, he also learned that external factors; those that are outside of the unicorns control can’t be teleported.”
All the ponies in the room stared blankly at the teacher, everypony; even Stormcloud, had difficulty following what his teacher said. Luckily the bell rang and everypony wanted to leave the room.

“Now remember kids, don’t teleport while in a moving object and always let the mass times acceleration be with you!” She shouted as the ponies filed out of the room.


***


Stormcloud woke on the floor of the rocking train carriage, he tried to move around but he could feel his hooves were tied up. A pony then walked over to him and propped Stormcloud onto his haunches, all four of his legs were tied together in front of him. Stormcloud recognised the pony that moved him from the pictures he’d seen earlier that day; Arrow Head. The pony was standing on three of his legs, the fourth was holding an unusual metallic device which also had wood fused into it. In an instant, Stormcloud recognised the device as a double-barrelled shotgun the barrels of which had been sawn off. It was odd to see a firearm, Equestria had gone so long without needing them but since Tireks’ Uprising ponies wanted to defend themselves. Guns served that purpose, they were made in vast quantities and became easy to get ahold of that Celestia herself couldn’t control it. Eventually after much opposition guns became legal but getting ahold of one was expensive and required a lot of licences, even with his time in the Royal Guard, Stormcloud had only ever seen two of these things.

Arrow Head was wearing a strange attire, he wore no clothes of the normal sort, instead there was some form of belt wrapped around his midsection. The belt was odd because it had several small canisters hanging around it, the exception was the section that ran along his back which held none, on the right shoulder Stormcloud could see the wound and below this a holster which contained a small pistol. Arrow Head looked straight at Stormcloud, he had retrieved the special glasses Coltson and Hazzard had taken with them for the mission. Due to the closeness of Arrow Head, Stormcloud could see the electronics working on the lenses, he couldn’t make out the information it was displaying but he knew it wouldn’t be good.

“Agent Cirrus Stormcloud, Level five agent, only one mission though. Bit disappointing, I thought S.C.A.L.E would’ve sent their better agents for me, especially with what I stole” he said.

“Arrow Head, the others are waking.” A voice said from Stormclouds’ left.

The pony trotted off to the other agents who were sitting against the wall. They were all in a different carriage, Stormcloud guessed they’d been moved further up to the ones that The Order had booked. The carriage itself was a guards’ coach and it was very open, at one end were the seating compartments, next to this was the corridor that led to the door that was midway along the length of the coach. On the other side of this was the small guards’ compartment where a guard would record the times of the train, beside this was where Stormcloud sat, they were in a small caged area which small parcels would’ve been placed. These parcels were placed on the shelves in front of him and all seemed to be destined for the same place and sent by the same pony, all the boxes were big and grey and seemed to be made from some sort of hard plastic.

Stormcloud watched as Arrow Head walked up to the large pony known as Quick Retort.

“You missed an agent, a pegasus named Sabre. Take care of her.” Arrow ordered.

He then walked over to one of the metal boxes and opened it. Stormcloud watched in awe as a large gun was lifted from it and given to Quick Retort.

“S.C.A.L.E already knows we’re here. Make sure theres’ no survivors. Speedy go with him, I need somepony in the air if that agent gets out.”

The pegasus that had exposed Stormcloud stepped up and took another gun from the box. The two ponies left the carriage and Arrow Head turned to two unicorns.

“You know how the vacuum brake works on these things?”

The two nodded.

“Follow them and detach their portion of the train, I’m sick of dealing with them.”

The two unicorns followed the other two.

“Why are you doing this?” Stormcloud heard himself say.

Arrow Head turned and rounded on Stormcloud.

“This pony here wants to know why.” He laughed and the two zebras from earlier joined in although they were out of sight.

“Well Cirrus, mind if I call you Cirrus? Well nevermind that now.” Arrow lifted the shotgun and rested it over his shoulder. “Several years ago I was part of the Royal Guard, I was stationed all over; Manehatten, Appleloosa even went to where the Crystal Empire now is but that’s not important. Anyway when the Changelings attacked Canterlot I was on patrol several miles away, so I volunteered to go back and help Canterlot. Afterall I did have family there, but my C.O. thought differently, we were to apparently stay on the sidelines while the Changelings chipped away at the orb. So one night I grabbed this here boomstick and galloped over to Canterlot. I got there an hour before the shield fell. After that, it all went to shit.”

Arrow Head walked around while he recounted his story, he stopped to smile at Agent Hazzard.

“Nice to see you again Duke, how is the sister? Still recovering from the last time we met?”
Hazzard spat at Arrow Head who simply wiped it from his face and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

“So basically I was arrested as soon as I set hoof in Canterlot, they kept me locked up and when I was released I found out my family died. ‘Compassionate Release’ they called it. That was the first time I realised the Almighty Celestia couldn’t save everypony, from that moment I took care of myself. Then when Tirek turned up: Oh! I had a great time during that. You see The Order had a network that hardly anypony knows about, well except S.C.A.L.E so we changed things around after that. The Order decided that S.C.A.L.E had to go too.”

“What are you going to do with us Arrow Head!” Coltson called from far away.

At that moment there was a loud whistling of air and the train jolted for a moment. Arrow Head regained his balance and laughed at Coltson.

“Well your asset had interesting information, and I’m guessing a kill order will now be placed on me and thanks to these new device of yours, I know S.C.A.L.E are waiting at Ponyville for us. Luckily though we were already planning to steal the train so now we’ll just keep you as hostages, maybe trade you for a few of our own.”

The two unicorns returned from the end of the carriage.

“Why kill those ponies if your fight is with S.C.A.L.E?” Stormcloud asked.

While Arrow had been monologuing Stormcloud had tried to loosen his bounds, he’d nearly managed to free himself but he needed more time. Only Agent Stripes who was beside him had seen this, he’d passed a message to Hazzard and Coltson when Arrow wasn’t paying attention. The boomstick sat idly on his shoulder and Stormcloud slowly started to form a plan on how to take down the five bodies there.

“Well its simple. I just don’t care.”

In that instant Arrow brought down the shotgun from his shoulder and then- 

*BLAM!*.

The sound resonated all around the small carriage. Stormcloud watched as Arrow Head lifted the shotgun back onto his shoulder. It was then that Stormcloud felt something warm and wet in his left side of his face. He then felt something slump against him and he turned to face it. The lifeless corpse of Agent Stripes had fallen against him, there was a massive hole in his head. Stormcloud fought hard not throw up.

“Take them to the compartments. And somepony clean up this mess!”

Stormcloud felt himself being lifted in somepony else's’ magic. The ropes that bound his legs slowly slipped off. The boots were off.


***


Agent Sabre felt the train jolt hard and then the loud grinding sound that followed. She fell forward and had to brace as her body hit the floor. After a few moments she could tell that the train had stopped, she looked to the several ponies who had boarded the train, all of whom were scared after the shootout that had ensued not long ago. Luckily she had hid with the civilians when The Order agents had passed through Hazzard was very strict with that order. When he surrendered willingly she fought hard not to act, her emotions were conflicting so she bit the bullet and remained with the other ponies.

Some of the other ponies in the train started to panic, she could hear conversations in fits and starts but the general consensus was that ponies wanted to escape and run as fast as they could. Agent Sabre wanted to sneak up to the front of the train but there was a light buzzing in her ear. The voice was quiet so she stuck two hooves to her ears.

“Code Black. Code Black.”

The voice came as a whisper but the words may have well of been shouted. Code Black was a mission compromised, this could mean a range of things but most importantly it meant that she wasn’t safe.

“Agent Coltson, I’m at the very rear of the train I’ve got ponies here panicking.”

“Code Black. Code Black.”

Sabre facehooved as she remembered her comm link was damaged. She would have to move fast, she knew she was compromised and time was against her, it wouldn’t be long before The Order agents would find her. She looked to the other passengers who had been forced into the rear-most carriage, somepony had managed to open a door and ponies were filing out. They most likely didn’t have any idea where they were going, it was pitch black outside, the only light was being emitted from the carriages themselves. Sabre dismissed the thought of helping the ponies no matter how much she wanted to, the mission came first.

She slinked her well toned body against the walls and pressed forward into the next carriage. The next carriage was a stark contrast with the previous one; it was riddled with bullet holes and magic scorch marks. Luckily there had been a few ponies here when The Order opened fire, this had been where Quick Retort had taken Agent Stripes. Sabre opened her wings and hovered through the carriage, the flight was short but the destruction could be seen along the carriages’ entire length. She was about to enter the third carriage when she heard two voices, quickly she dropped to the ground and crawled under one of the few intact chairs.

“I can’t believe he ditched us.” A soft male voice said.

“I can” replied a relatively deeper voice, “you really thought Arrow wanted us around?”

“I thought he’d obey orders. This was supposed to be a simple delivery mission, we’re only here to keep an eye on things.”

“And now he wants us to execute civilians. That’s not what I signed up for when I joined The Order.”

The door slid open and a pegasus half-entered the carriage.

“Then why are you following his orders? You and I are more respected than he is, why not just head back and tell the leader what happened.” This caused the pegasus to stop and turn.

“Because we have an Agent of S.C.A.L.E onboard and we can’t have S.C.A.L.E interfering now, not when we’ve nearly accomplished our goal.”

“Do you honestly think that S.C.A.L.E agent is still here? Do you think he or she would stay here or do you think they would've fled and called for reinforcements?”

“... They will have gone for reinforcements.”

“So lets not mercilessly kill innocent ponies, lets get out of here and regroup at base. Our goal is the Princesses and S.C.A.L.E not some holiday-goers on a train.”

There was a pause as the pegasus thought the proposal over, this was followed by the sound of something heavy and metallic dropping.

“Let’s get outta here before S.C.A.L.E show up with bigger guns.”

The door slid shut and Sabre remained hidden for five minutes, from there she got up and left the carriage. In a quick gallop, she took off and flapped her wings hard as she followed the railway line to Ponyville and the rest of the train.


***


It happened so fast that Stormcloud could barely remember the events, he recalled the rope slipping from his hooves and summoning a teleportation spell. He felt the gut-wrenching feelings as he teleported in a moving object, he was tossed aside from the difference in forces and tumbled to the groups The Order barely had any time to react. Agent Hazzard was tougher than Stormcloud so a Hazzard bucked the unicorn levitating Coltson. Coltson dropped and galloped forward, diving into the first compartment as Arrow Head levelled his shotgun and fired the remaining barrel. Stormcloud ducked as the spray flew overhead and shattered the wooden wall.

The two zebras began opening two more boxes on the shelves, without thinking Stormcloud stood up and smacked his hoof against the nearest box. Due to the transfer of forces, the boxes all moved forward and the end-most box flew off the shelf and made contact with one of the zebras, knocking him aside. The other however had picked up a small gun and fired a few shots, most of which made contact with the strongboxes which plinged chimed as they were struck.

To his side, Agent Hazzard grappled one of the unicorns and pirouetted around him to then lift up his rear hooves and strike the other. As the other unicorn reeled backwards Hazzard threw a knife at the zebra with the gun, the gun was tossed aside as the zebra was thrown against the wall. When Stormcloud dared to peek out he could see the knife had gone straight through the forehoof and buried itself into the wall. The other zebra which Stormcloud had knocked to the ground had galloped over to him. The zebra stomped where Stormcloud had been, however Stormcloud had seen this and rolled onto all fours, the zebra then reared. He made two jabs, the first of which connected and Stormclouds’ senses were thrown off kilter, the second he’d managed to dodge; somehow.

The zebra then rounded a hook which Stormcloud ducked to avoided and jabbed in return, he struck twice, once in the groin, the other in the stomach. The zebra then uppercutted and Stormcloud was dazed, he fell backwards and the zebra raised his forehoof back. In an instant he was cut down as a unicorn was thrown at him. Agent Coltson had returned from his cover and used his magic to thrown that pony. The other unicorn fired to magic shots and Coltson which missed. Arrow head un-holstered his sidearm and fired three shots. All three were purposely wide and were made with the intention to cause the three ponies to duck as Arrow entered the carriage.

“Quick follow him!” Coltson ordered.

The door then exploded into splintered as another shotgun blast came through, Arrow must’ve thought they’d been directly behind the door as he’d fired both barrels. The pony quickly reloaded but not before Coltson through one of the sleep grenades in. The gas hissed out and Coltson ordered the other two to head to the compartments. They ran into the second one as the gas filled the carriages as the first one had a huge hole in it.


***


Using the moonlight that glinted off the rails Agent Sabre zoomed along the dark night, flying at this hour was always difficult and most pegasi didn't bother at this hour. Luckily Agent Sabre had passed the rigorous trials that all pegasi agents had to go through so navigating was easy, she listened hard for disturbances in air pressure around her and adjusted her flight path. She kept low to the ground so she could make use of the reflected light and the air rebounding off the railway sleepers to keep her on course.

As she looked ahead into the dark horizon she should could see a flash of light further ahead, this caused her to slow to a hover and eventually land. From her current distance the light flashed in fits and starts but seemed to remain in the same position. Sabre slipped down off the ballast and onto the shallow embankments that lined the railway, she crept forward whenever the flash wasn’t present. After a few tense moments the occurrence in question began to take on a more solid and distinguishable form.

Since the technology advancements all over Equestria, it was found that conveying mail by train and airship was much faster than pegasi delivery. This meant that trains such as the one Sabre had been on traversed the country with mail for every town or settlement the railway passed through, instead of stopping the train at each town, carriages were designed to drop large bags into nets. Ahead of Agent Sabre was such a device, in the flashes of light she could make out the large vertical pole that held out mail for sorting, on the other side of the two railway lines was the net for catching mail. This was a frame built at ground level with a large rope net contained within. Amongst this net was a pony. 

Agent Sabre closed the distance between her and the apparatus, the pony was evidently tangled in the net and every once in a while the pony would try moving and light would flash, at this distance it looked like the tangled pony was emitting this light but Sabre dismissed this thought. As she was about walk over the line and help the pony she felt a heavy blow against her side. As soon as she felt the blow she opened her wings to take flight but felt a warm sensation envelope her, she was brought to the ground. She tried to escape the magical grasp but the castor was strung to keep her contained.

Agent Sabre turned in the field of grip to face her captor.

“Director Sparkle!” She exclaimed in a mixture of panic and safety.


***

The gas cloud dissipated quickly and Agent Hazzard took point as the trio walked over to the carriage door, Stormcloud couldn’t hear any noise from the next carriage which worried him, the gas could’ve knocked out everypony or they could be faking it. Agent Coltson ordered the other two to not take the weapons in the strongboxes and it was only in that moment of calm that Stormcloud realised how many boxes there were in that small area. Agent Hazzard entered the next carriage closely followed by Coltson and Stormcloud. There were a few bodies lying on the floor, all of which looked unharmed except for some minor bruising.

“Must’ve hit themselves when they passed out.” Coltson remarked as he studied the nearest pony.

“No sign of Arrow Head.” Agent Hazzard pointed out.

“All the more reason to be on guard.” Stormcloud thought.

This carriage was an ordinary passenger carriage; it had tables and chairs on both sides, the only exception was the small number of ponies and one zebra, and the number of strongboxes.

“Agent Hazzard check the toilets.” Coltson ordered, “Stormcloud flank him.”

They walked up to the far end to where two small rooms protruded from the walls, one of which had the door open and was empty. Hazzard pressed ahead past the other door and turned his head.

“Ready?” He asked as he lifted his rear legs to buck.

“Er… yes?”

Stormcloud didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

“Grab him maybe?” He didn’t have much time to think as the door was bucked open.

Thankfully it was empty.

The two agents looked to Coltson for orders but both of them knew it was to move upwards and clear the next carriage. Hazzard opened the door to meet Arrow Head on his hind legs the pistol aimed for him.

“GET DOWN!”

Stormcloud dove to his right as he was still in the vestibule, he felt the ground rush up to greet him his shoulder took the brunt of the force. There were three shots altogether all of which missed their intended targets, Stormcloud looked for Coltson but couldn’t find him. Stormcloud quickly rose and checked for Coltson. He didn’t want to find another body, nopony else could die today. He pushed the thoughts of his fallen comrade to the back of his mind like he had done so many times before.

“I’ll mourn them later.”

There was a scuffling noise from the carriage and Stormcloud turned to see Coltson and Arrow Head locked in hoof-to-hoof combat, Arrow Heads’ gun lay on the floor some distance away. At that moment Hazzard blocked his view and jumped at Arrow Head, knocking him to the floor and freeing him from Coltson or was it Coltson from Arrow Head? It had been hard to tell.

Hazzard had somehow managed to get behind the Arrow Head and was holding him in a chokehold on the floor. Arrow plunged his forehoof back striking Hazzard in the ribs, Coltson used his magic to pick up the gun and held it to Arrows’ head.

“Hazzard release him.”

Hazzard obeyed and the two slumped on the floor, Arrow rolling off Hazzard to be met with the barrel of the gun.

“Well I must’ve pissed you off if you’re going to kill me?” Arrow laughed.

“The order is for your capture, not your death.”

“Thats a bit lenient considering I killed a lot of your agents to get that Asset. Which by the way did S.C.A.L.E tell you what it is?”

“I know what my orders are.” Coltson replied cooly.

“Heh, you know Stormcloud you can’t trust S.C.A.L.E, they don’t tell you all the facts. I bet you know nothing about the Maelstrom project, quite interesting given what happened. Or even better why don’t you ask your Director about the Element of Kind-”

Arrow Head fell to the floor as the butt of the gun struck him across his head.

“It was boring conversation anyway.” Coltson replied.


***


Location: Ponyville Station

An hour later.

S.C.A.L.E agents were waiting for them when what remained of the train pulled into the station, the two footplate crew were rushed from the engine with some story about a gas leak at the station. Director Fury and Rainbow Dash met the three surviving agents when the train arrived, the station had been locked down by S.C.A.L.E before their arrival, although it wasn’t necessary at this early in the morning.

Stormcloud sat on one of the few station benches with a foil blanket around him, somepony had hoofed him a coffee and he drank the hot liquid only becoming aware of how cold he now was. He sat alone with his thoughts as two agents unload the relay box he’d watched Agents Hazzard and Sabre loading earlier that night. Agent Hazzard slumped down beside him with a Trojan device.

“So we lost two Agents for this.” He slammed the device down on the hard platform. “A fucking Trojan, all that bloodshed for what is basically a key. You know what the worst part is?”

Stormcloud thought about replying but he knew Hazzard was going to tell him anyway.

“Its not even a high level Agent, S.C.A.L.E were never going to compromised for this. Do you think Arrow Head was right?”

“About?” Stormcloud took another sip of his coffee.

“About S.C.A.L.E not telling us everything. I can’t believe we went through all that for a lousy Trojan!”

Hazzard was quiet for a few moments for which Stormcloud was grateful.

“Would S.C.A.L.E really lie to us? No! They couldn’t have known about the clearance of the Trojan-.”

Stormcloud was brought out of his thoughts by Hazzard poking him. He then looked up to where Hazzard was pointing. A gurney rolled out of the carriage, a black body bag on top of it.The two of them walked over to it and looked over the bag, Fury, Coltson and Dash soon joined them and saluted in silence. The gurney was then rolled out of the station as Dash raised a hoof to her ear.

“Agent Sabre has been found.” She said

“Well I suppose that’s some good news.”

“Agents Hazzard I want you to conduct a final sweep before debriefing and let Agent Stormcloud help you, he could use the experience.” Director Fury ordered.

“Yes Sir.”


***


“So what does the debrief consist of?” Stormcloud asked as they entered the leading coach. They hadn’t entered this before knocking out Arrow Head but afterwards the three of them had moved forward and dropped Sleep grenades through the doors. This carriage had consisted of tied up Royal Mail workers who had since been removed.

“Mainly paperwork, you just tell write down what happened and then Fury or Sparkle read over it, it must be a bore to read because all four of us will have to do one.”

Hazzard continued down the mail carriage, these carriages were odd in their design, one side appeared to be tiny pigeon holes each with address for residents of Equestria, this took up one complete side of the carriage leaving only a small space to walk down, that space also contained the TPO apparatus which was a huge moving net that was attached to the wall.

They finally moved into the carriage where they’d taken down Arrow Head, Stormcloud wasn’t sure what had happened in here but there was a wooden chair sitting in a metal bath tub which was filled with water.

“What do you suppose this was?” Stormcloud asked Hazzard who was looking at a pony with a bloody face.

“Nothing good. When somepony interrogates Arrow Head, S.C.A.L.E. will find out.”


***


An hour later they finished their search of the train, they’d found nothing new but some S.C.A.L.E agents would remain here and sort out the minor details. The mission was now no longer Stormclouds’ concern and when the dropship arrived to take him back to Ascension he felt like sleeping for a thousand years. As his weary head began to surrender itself to sleep he thought to agent Stripes and how quickly his life had been taken, like snubbing a candle. Stormcloud decided he’d try and make friends, he had his bunkmate; Hazzard, his mentor; Coltson but one pony stuck out, one who needed friendship; Thunderer.






> Chapter Eight: The Night Mail (Declassified)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days earlier

Location: H.M.S Ascension, Director Twilight Sparkle’s Personal Quarters.

Twilight Sparkle sat in her moderate sized room reading over the latest status report when a knock came from the door.

“What is it Spike?” Twilight called, annoyed that she was being disturbed yet again.

The latest mission report was bad enough and Twilight didn't want to read over yet another report until she'd dealt with this one. A plan was formulating within her head when the knock at the door had derailed her train of thought. Her dragon assistant entered the room with a unicorn in tow; Twilight had be so wrapped up in mission reports that she'd forgotten she'd requested Agent Coltson.

“Agent Coltson, I forgot you were coming!” she shrieked.

Using her magic, the stacks of documents that littered her room, disappeared and a small calendar reappeared in front of her. She flicked through the pages frantically.

“Meeting with Celestia, weekend away in the Crystal Empire, plan next weeks check-list... ah yes! Thursday two-fifteen to two-twenty-seven; meet with Agent Stirrup Coltson.”

The calendar disappeared and Twilight looked to the clock on the wall; it was exactly two-fifteen.

“You wanted to discuss Cirrus?” Coltson offered after a few moments of silence.

“Ah yes, that's right! So? How is he settling in?” Twilight gestured for Coltson to sit.

As Coltson sat down on his haunches Twilight levitated over a tea set for two and began pouring.

“He is settling in quite well given the circumstances, he is progressing well despite not having completed the training.”

“My brother personally vouched for his performance in the field, I also read yours and Thunderer’s' debriefing files. It seems that neither of you are wrong, he's taken to S.C.A.L.E like a duck to water.”

“That certainly seems to be the case-”

“Can he handle another mission.”

“What!.. I mean.. Why?... Why so soon? He's barely been aboard Ascension.”

“Because The Order are stepping up, they're getting bolder and more dangerous. We can't go to Celestia or Luna about this and my brother says he can't help with the disappearance of Bright Spark.”

“Why Stormcloud?”

“He has potential and you're one of the best agents to train him. Do you think you can handle it?”

There was a pause and Coltson sipped his tea.

“I can handle it, yes.” He said finally.

“Good, I'll be briefing your next mission tomorrow.”

“Wait. You want Stormcloud and I on a mission tomorrow?”

“Yes, we can't be tardy about this one, timing is of the essence. There will be other agents with you to help you, but we need to get Stormcloud in the field more.”

“Director Sparkle, Stormcloud had barely been with S.C.A.L.E. I mean the training mission was fair enough, but I don't know if he should take on another mission before completing his advanced training.”

“He needs experience as well as training Stirrup and right now...” she sighed, “We don't have a choice, The Order have infiltrated a safehouse of ours and taken an asset. I'm generating a mission just now, it'll be ready for your briefing tomorrow. While we are on the subject of Stormcloud I want his training to be split between you and Thunderer.”

“How exactly will Thunderer train him?”

“I've already gone over the details with the guards at Tartarus. Thunderer although he won't admit it, needs S.C.A.L.E.”

“So why is he training Stormcloud?”

Twilight paused.

“Thunderer claims he can't remember what happened to him on the day of my brothers' wedding and my sister-in-law wishes him to be tried for his alleged crimes.”

“Which none of the Princesses have been able to prove, even Luna who can search through somepony’s memories.”

“As you know S.C.A.L.E. agents are subconsciously trained against Luna's dream powers, if these ponies can do it, then why not Thunderer? The reason I want him training Stormcloud is so that the two eventually become friends then hopefully Thunderer will open up to him. Failing that then we have another way of keeping an eye of Stormcloud”

“And what then? The issue with Stormcloud is something that needs monitored.”

“That is a problem for later, we have to focus on the problems we have now.”

“If you want them to be friends then why not move Thunderer onto Ascension?”

“Because through my studies, I have learned that if there is a will, there's a way. If Stormcloud ever asks to see Thunderer you are to deny him.”

“Then he'll look up to me less and not follow orders.”

“So lie and say that its above his clearance or something.”

“Director Sparkle I can't do that, its against my principles.” Coltson replied raising his voice.

“Stirrup you've been with S.C.A.L.E, since before I started it and you've followed my every order, everything I do, every order I give is for the good of Equestria!” Twilight raised her voice to a near shout.

Her assistant had left the room as the shouting started but Coltson sat there, he did not rise to Twilight, nor did he make a comment. He waited until she calmed before speaking.

“This isn't me Director Sparkle, I don't feel good following these orders. There has to be another way?”

“I'm afraid this is the best way.” Twilight looked away so Coltson couldn't see her tears forming.

She'd already divided her friends with one going into hiding, she couldn't do it again. Her agents would have to form the bonds of friendship themselves if S.C.A.L.E. were to achieve its goal.

“Stirrup you've been with me a long time and with Fury for even longer, when was the last time you had a break?”

“I've never taken one.”

“Well perhaps you should, go down to the Maribbean or the Summer Isles or Tahiti. Just... just somewhere where you can relax.

Coltson set down his tea as Twilight looked to the clock.

“You're dismissed,” she finally said.


The following day

Location: Briefing Room, H.M.S Ascension.

“Listen up everypony! A few days ago, The Order successfully managed to infiltrate a S.C.A.L.E. safe house and steal an asset of ours. Our sources aren’t clear, but it is very likely that Arrow Head is behind this. What we know for definite is that The Order have booked three carriages on the twenty-two-thirty to Fillydelphia. We believe they’ll likely be holding our asset in one of these three carriages and have mercenaries scattered throughout the train. Coltson as the highest ranking agent here, you’ll be leading the ground team on a Search and Retrieve mission.”

Agent Coltson stood up from his seat and walked to the front, Twilight followed suit and walked past Coltson.

“Wait here after you've briefed everypony, I'll give you the full briefing of the mission.” She whispered.

Coltson looked perplexed after all Twilight had briefed him that morning on what would go down that evening, but he merely nodded and continued to the head of the table.

Twilight exited the room to be immediately greeted by Director Righteous Fury.

“Is she ready?” Twilight asked.

Fury who had been leaning against the wall stood up before he replied to Twilight.

“Black Widow is ready, she knows the full brief, she's waiting for you and Coltson.”

“That'll be all Fury.”

Fury simply nodded and left Twilight by herself.


A while later she saw agents Hazzard, Stripes, Sabre and Stormcloud leave the briefing room. She quickly entered to find Coltson sitting at the side of the head of the table. Neither said a word as they waited. Thankfully the wait wasn't long and the door opened again as a mint green unicorn entered the room.

“Agent Heartstrings,” Twilight said acknowledging her presence.

“Director Sparkle, Stirrup,” she replied

“Lyra,” Coltson replied quickly.

Lyra took her seat opposite Coltson and leaned back casually.

“You're both here because both of you will be operating on this mission, but each of you will have separate roles. Coltson you'll board the train with the other Agents, as you know your job is to clear out The Order members in the passenger carriages. Heartstrings you'll be located in a radar box in the mail carriages. I assume you've done a dry run of how you'll fit.”

“I have, I can fit but I'll need two small air tanks with me.”

“Thats been taken care of. Both of you will have to work together on this one. Coltson the other agents can't know of Black Widows' involvement.”

“Why?”

“The asset they took was Star Bolt. He helped with the Maelstrom project.”

There was silence for a while as Twilight let the news sink in, both Coltson and Lyra had been involved with Project Maelstrom and knew what it meant.

“So failure isn't exactly an option then?”

The look Twilight gave in reply said it all.

“Lyra your mission is to take out the mercenaries in the mail carriages and retrieve our asset, you'll then prepare him for extraction.”

“How?”

“At milepost fifty-nine there is a TPO apparatus, the train will be going slow enough for Star Bolt to safely be exchanged.”

“How can you be sure?” Coltson asked.

“I've ran the calculations and conducted several experiments, Star Bolt will survive.”

“And what do I do after that?” Lyra pressed.

“You'll place a Trojan in the mail carriage and then return to the box for collection at Ponyville. The idea is that nopony sees you except the enemy.”

“Then what am I doing?” Coltson asked.

“You'll be the bait, we can pretty much guarantee that Arrow Head will do anything to get information from Star Bolt. Your team will distract him allowing Lyra to get in and out in a matter of minutes.”

“Seems simple to me what sort of firepower do they have?” Coltson asked.

“We don't know. What we do know is that Arrow Head normally carries some form of firearm with him so be cautious. Any other questions?” Twilight asked looking between the two.

“What happens to Star Bolt when he's been extracted?” Lyra asked.

“I will meet him. Both of you will rendezvous at Ponyville station.”

“How will I know what Agent Heartstrings is doing?”

“Please Stirrup its Lyra or Black Widow,” she said slyly.

“You and Lyra will have closed link communicators, Coltson you'll have to change your frequency to speak to Lyra.”

“So my team are being led to find a fake asset? So we can bait away a dangerous criminal for Lyra to hide the real asset?” Coltson deadpanned.

“Yes those are your orders for this mission, you both move out in a few hours time. I assume you can work together?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

***

Location: 22:30 to Fillydelphia, Frontmost Mail Carriage

The box rocked violently for some hours, it wasn’t a new sensation that Lyra Heartstrings felt but the time that it lasted which made her uncomfortable. She was currently curled up within a small box, an air tank was held against her muzzle and every-so-often she’d emit a small amount of light from her horn. It was times like these that she wished she had her lyre to pass the time, but she had to make do with combing through her tail for split ends or counting how many hairs of each colour she had.

As she reached the eighty-seventh hair of her white streak she felt the box be levitate in unicorn magic, she savoured the weightlessness sensation for the few moments that it lasted and then felt the box be slammed down onto something, she then felt the box rock again as they moved on. She summoned the “Tell-me-time” spell and a small clock appeared in front of her; it read twenty-two-fifteen. 

It was hard for many to believe that Lyra Heartstrings was one of few ponies to pass through the Baltimare University for Science and Advanced Magic with straight A’s, Lyra had earned herself the reputation of being a bit lazy, a slacker and had somewhat odd habits, such as the way she chose to sit. Lyra however knew different, she’d excelled in her natural magic classes because she learned to play the lyre, which she could do with her hooves while nearly every other pony couldn’t. She’d also had a knack for dancing and pushed her body hard, resulting in her slim build and flexibility, this was how she could comfortably sit inside a small cramped box for hours. It hadn’t been easy at University, she left after the first year to make a living and had spent all her free time finishing her qualifications.

“Well only an hour and fifteen minutes to go,” She thought, “Well better get this over with… one… two… three…”

***

Coltson watched as Stormcloud slowly drifted off into sleep, he personally hated drugging ponies but this was the only way he could privately talk to Black Widow, or Lyra as she preferred to be called. Stormcloud slowly sank his head as he went into a deep sleep, he nearly fell off but Coltson used his magic to prop him back up. He then proceeded to change his communicator to Lyra’s channel.

“Agent Heartstrings. Status report.”

“Well I’m still in the box, thankfully nothing has been placed on the lid this time.”

“Your orders are to move out in an hour, yes?”

“That’s correct Coltson, were you paying any attention in the briefing?” Lyra joked.

“Which one? I was told about three of them.” Coltson joked back.

“Well you know Twilight, you can’t argue with her organizational skills.”

Coltson cringed as Lyra referred to the Director by her first name.

“Anyway I’ll update you as I get on, just stay quiet and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Heartstrings out.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Coltson out.”

***

Lyra summoned the clock again; it was nearly time. She pulled the air tank from her face and set it beside the other tank that was in with her, she then used her magic to pick the lock of the box and when she heard the clunk, she slowly lifted it. As she’d expected there was nopony around which wasn’t that surprising as she was in a carriage reserved for luggage only. The lid of the box slipped up and the mint green unicorn stepped out, she checked her surroundings and once confirming nopony was there she stretched out. After feeling her bones click and crack she pulled onto her rear legs and stretched her sides out.

“Agent Heartstrings is now in play.” she said allowed, knowing only Coltson could hear her.

From her mission directive, she knew she had three coaches to pass through excluding her current location. Lyra returned to all fours and slinked up to the adjoining coach, she cracked the door open and could see a few ponies tied up together, most of whom had bloody faces.

“Knocked out.”

She heard hoofsteps coming up the narrow corridor, she leaned into the slide and used the reflection in the window to watch her assailants. There was one earth pony and one pegasus both of whom were chatting to themselves, Lyra noted that the earth pony carried a pistol in his waist holster. The two ponies reached the end of the corridor and turned on the spot, they then began walking back down the carriage length.

Quick as a flash, Lyra slid the door open as quietly as she could she tiphoofed up to the two ponies at a speed Rainbow Dash would’ve been jealous of. As she closed the distance, she opted for less stealth as she’d near raw power to take down both ponies. She noted both ponies walked side by side and she knew how to use that to her advantage. Lyra flattened her hooves and then sprung up, placing her forehooves on the flanks of the pegasus she rotated ninety degrees and brought her hindlegs around the neck of the earth pony. While she sailed through the air she grabbed the pegasus in a headlock using her forehooves and squeezed all four of her legs tightly. The two ponies who had been taken by surprise were quickly dragged to the ground and Lyra proceeded to hold them there as they both tried to scramble away from her. After a short while both bodies went limp and Lyra loosened her grip, a few feathers fell in the air as she stood up.

“Piece of cake.”

She removed the pistol from the stallion and tossed it out of the window, she heard the clatter as it hit the window-frame on its way out, but the sound was soon dominated by the train beginning an incline. Lyra turned on the spot with a smug grin on her face, she moved to the door connecting the two carriages and slowly slid it open. She heard the click of the gun pointed at her head.

“Damn it,” she sighed.

***

Arrow dropped the bucket of water over Star Bolt once more. He smiled as the light show made Star Bolt scream in pain. Arrow threw the bucket to the side, he was now out of buckets hopefully Star had come to his senses and would talk.

“So Mr Bolt. Infact, do you mind if I call you Star? I mean we’re practically friends, I think we should skip the formalities.”

Star merely panted in reply.

“So Star why don’t you tell me about your work with S.C.A.L.E? We both know why you were kept in a safehouse so why don’t you tell me how you got there?” Arrow sat on his haunches.

“I told you… I stay there because of what I can do, I-”

“Star we both know that’s not true. You weren't always able to do that. You studied at the Baltimare University for Science and Advanced Magic under Professor Infinity Lutece?”

That caught his attention, Arrow could see the way Star looked up at him, that moment of recognition.

“Yes.” Star whispered.

Arrow got up and leaned towards Star, “What was that?”

“Yes!” Star shouted in Arrow’s ear.

Arrow rocked back onto his hind legs from the din.

“Oh finally we’re getting somewhere.” Arrow said through gritted teeth.

Arrow was finding this tedious, there were easier ways to get this done, Arrow looked to the sawn off shotgun located on a workbench by the wall. He picked it up.

“Do you want to play a game Star? Because I certainly do,” he loaded two shells into the barrels. “Here’s how it works, you tell the truth, and I won’t make your head explode.” Arrow placed the barrels near Star’s head.

Arrow was not stupid, he knew if the barrels touched Star he could be electrocuted, he also knew he couldn’t kill Star; his boss wanted him alive. But Star didn’t know that.

“You studied advanced magic mainly focussing on carrier spells and how to convert their energy. Yes!”

“Yes!” Star replied looked straight at the barrels.

“You were offered to work on a project by Twilight Sparkle. Correct?”

Star nodded, beads of sweat flew off his face as he did so.

“Tell me about Project Maelstrom.” Star’s eyes went wide. “That’s right I know of Project Maelstrom and I bet you can never guess who told me about it?”

Star was silent, Arrow wasn’t surprised. Few ponies knew of Project Maelstrom, it was one of S.C.A.L.E’s many dark secrets. Arrow nudged the barrels closer.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Arrow rolled his eyes, “Very cliched. Let me remind you.”

In one quick movement, Arrow tossed the shotgun in the air catching it by the barrels he then swung the butt around striking Star across the face. A few sparks flew as the gun made contact, which only added to Star’s pain more.

“Remember now?” Arrow said as he flipped the shotgun to hold it normally.

“I worked on Maelstrom, I was told it was to help provide free power to the six main cities, it-”

“It wasn’t actually for that, was it?”

There was a pause, “No, my brother said it was for something else.”

“Ah yes, the great Alpha Bolt. I forgot you were brothers,” Arrow leaned in again, “he was very vocal on the matter.”

Star lurched toward Arrow, Arrow leapt back in fright.

“Well,” he said once he’d composed himself. “It seems you do have a pair after all.”

“Now why don’t you tell-”

There was a knock at the door. Arrow sighed.

“This better be good.”

A large pony entered the room along with a smaller pony with a black eye.

“We have a problem.” He said in a deep voice.

Arrow turned back to Star.

“Guess it’s to be continued.”

Arrow followed the larger pony out into the next carriage.

“One pony is our problem, Quick?” Arrow asked raising an eyebrow.

“There’s more than one, I found this on him.”

Quick retort tossed Arrow a black wallet, inside was a photocard and a silver medal. Arrow read the inscription.

“So the Strategic Centre for Aid and Law Enforcement are here, well now its a party. Go and round them up!” Arrow barked.

Arrow turned to the few ponies who had been in the carriage before Arrow had started talking to Star Bolt.

“Guard him in there, nopony gets in without me. Understood?”

The ponies nodded in agreement
***



Lyra could feel the cold metal against her head, she was being guided forward into the next carriage where a few more ponies stood around. They looked at her and her captor in a look of surprised panic. There was one sight above all other that caught her attention, there was a unicorn tied to a chair, one she recognised all too well; Star Bolt. Lyra took a few deep breaths.

“Four ponies in total. One behind me with a gun aimed at my head. One pegasus near the stacked boxes, appears unarmed. Two other earth ponies; one by Star, the other near the door. Outgunned and outnumbered.”

She looked at Star who was still tied to the chair, he looked like he’d been soaked with water. There were bruises across his face and upper body.

“Assume Star Bolt is out of commission. That makes it one on four, plan of action?”

Lyra allowed a few deep breathes, her mind geared up as the adrenalin pumped through her.

“Step one; remove gun.”

Lyra reared up nudging the gun further into the back of her skull, she’d taken the owner by surprise, he’d never have a chance to pull the trigger. 

“Step two; disable pony with sudden blow to the head.”

With her left hoof she swung it backwards and connected with the pony’s face. Lyra, now on her hind legs jumped and rotated her right hind leg connecting with the pony’s face again. He fell to the floor.

“Step three; avoid pegasus, use control of speed to my advantage.”

Lyra heard the flutter of wings and the rush of noise behind her. She ducked down and pushed her hind hoofs against the door, she watched as the pegasus flew overhead as she glided along the floor. The pegasus slammed against the door.

“Step four; re-evaluate situation, convert plan of action.”

The pony near Star Bolt pulled out two knives and was making for Lyra. Lyra twisted on the floor and locked the charging pony in a scissor maneuver, she clenched hard and the pony dropped the two knives he was holding his mouth. Lyra caught these in her magic, she threw one to where Star Bolt was sitting, making sure it passed against the rope binding him. The other she threw to the other earth pony.

“Step five; reduce variables.”

While all this had been happening the pony and unlocked a crate and was withdrawing a sub-machine gun. The knife caught him in the trigger hoof, the force of the throw pushed the pony back onto his hind legs and pinned him against the wall. The gun clattered somewhere near him.

“Step six; increase pressure, incapacitate pony. Remember pegasus.”

In one final swift move she clenched her legs once more and the last breath escaped, she felt the weight press against her. She let go and returned to her four hooves. She was then winded and thrown forward. She knocked Star Bolt over and the chair he had been sitting on. Lyra turned to see the pegasus rear up to strike her face with both hooves.

“Step seven; drastic action.”

She lunged her hind hoof straight hoof straight up catching his stallionhood. The pegasus fell to his side in the fetal position. Lyra stood up.

“Shit.”

That was all she had time to stay as the pinned pony raised the submachine gun once more. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. In all her training as a Black Widow agent Lyra had never made an escape, and now she was staring at the pony who was about to gun her down.

“Get down.” A soft voice said, she couldn’t tell if it was her own, but she obeyed.

Lyra ducked down as another pony stood up, this was followed by a blinding light. Lyra had heard this sound before, not too long ago in a hospital ward. She kept low as the electricity flowed all around her. She heard a slumping noise and she looked up to see her hero.

“Thank you Star.”

He looked weak, that was no surprise, he’d clearly been tortured and he’d most likely dispensed the last of his magic defending her. She dived under him and jacked him up taking the weight of his hooves. Lyra began to move over to the TPO apparatus, she had six minutes by her count for the drop.

“Its okay I got you now.”

They weren’t okay, as the room went quiet she could hear ponies talking next door.They were going to enter the carriage. Lyra was in no condition to fight and neither was Star Bolt, she only had one choice and it was a dangerous one as far as the mission was concerned.

“Agent Coltson, I need your help. Now!”

***

“Alright I’ll buy you some time.” Coltson said.

He was tucked in his compartment that he had been sharing with Stormcloud, he could hear the members of The Order moving around outside. He’d received a distress call from Sabre and Hazzard a few moments ago, he would’ve left his hiding place but doing so would have compromised his cover. He could hear heavy hooffalls outside. He summoned a knock-out spell and slid the door open quickly. He saw a zebra carrying Stormcloud along the corridor, quickly Coltson fired his spell, sadly it missed and ricocheted on the wall. The zebra dropped Stormcloud to the floor and launched at Coltson.

Coltson used his telekinetic grip on the door to slam it shut on the zebra's forehoof, the hoof flailed in its wooden grip before the door was wrenched open. Coltson had nowhere to go.

“Should’ve stayed hidden Agent Coltson, Arrow Head is going to be pleased that you are here.” A voice said before a spell hit him in the chest and he was knocked unconscious.


***

“Do you trust me!” Lyra shouted over the sound of the passing surroundings.

“Yes!” Star Bolt shouted in reply.

It was too dark to make out anything past the ballast.

“Twilight is coming to get you, just stay where you are and don’t panic!”

“Lyra I’m scared!”

“Star Bolt you have been through far worse than this!” She turned him around to face him, “You are one the bravest ponies I know,” she whispered into his ear.

She pulled back and then planted a kiss. She tried to forget the feelings she’d once had for the stallion, it had been a year since they’d last met and Lyra had been clear on her emotional state. She pulled back from the kiss and seeing Star in a confused state, she pushed him into the net. The net swung outwards with Star barely clinging on, a ringing sound could be heard and then Star suddenly disappeared.

Lyra smiled to herself.

“Black Widow to Agent Coltson, asset has been extracted.”

There was no reply, which was very unlike Coltson. She shuffled her hooves as she debated whether to move down the carriage and find him, but the mission came first. She couldn’t comprise herself. Then she heard it; the loud distinctive bang of a gunshot. It was close so Lyra ducked down and rolled behind a seat, she quickly looked around to see if she hadn’t fully incapacitated the ponies in the carriage. None of them moved. More gunshots followed and a few sounds of bullets penetrating wood.

Lyra looked up from her hiding position just as Arrow Head entered the carriage and closed the door, he had the shotgun unholstered and was looking around the carriage.

“Fuck!” He shouted loudly.

He must’ve realised that Star had escaped, either in his anger or for some other reason Arrow turned around and fired both barrels through the wooden door, splintering it as the bullets passed through. Lyra moved across from her hiding place, Arrow Head completely unaware of her presence. Arrow head then moved from his position at the door, he rolled to the side until he was level with Lyra. There was a few moments of silence as the pair stared down at each other. The silence was broken when a metal clinking noise could be heard. Lyra with all her experience knew it was a sleep grenade, however Arrow didn’t. He was drawing out a gun with his forehoof as he looked to the sound. Lyra was quick. She thrust her right forehoof forward and struck the gun out of Arrow’s hoof. With her left hoof she struck Arrow in the muzzle, he toppled over and Lyra pounced on Arrow, she punched both hooves at Arrow’s stomach winding him. She darted quickly escaping the hissing gas.

As she passed the many ponies on the ground she tore a rag from one of them with her magic. Lyra snuck out of the door making sure to hold the rag close to her muzzle as the gas filled the carriage. She walked back along the carriage to her box in the leading carriage. She discarded the rag out of a window and folded herself up as she closed the lid of the box

***
The train roared passed Twilight, she watched as the mail drop snatched the pony. She waited for a minute after the train had passed, she watched as Star Bolt sparked off from the net. In the brief instances of light she could make out a pony moving on the other side of the tracks. No it couldn’t be another pony, only two ponies knew of the actual mission briefing. Twilight kept low as she snuck up the mail drop.

She watched as the other pony crept up to Star Bolt before the other pony got close, Twilight sprung from her hiding place and caught the other pony, who happened to be a pegasus in her magic.

“Director Sparkle?”

“Agent Sabre?”

Twilight dropped the pegasus to the ground.

“I’m sorry I thought you were somepony else.”

“Director why are you here?”

“I’m afraid that’s classified.

“Twilight?” Star called from the postal net.

Twilight sighed as her cover was blown. She could hear Star Bolt scramble inside the net.

“Wait you know that pony? Should his magic be giving off that much lightening? He needs help!”

“Agent Sabre!”

Sabre, who was about to fly to Star stopped and looked at Twilight.

“This is an asset of ours; Star Bolt.”

“But I don’t understand...”

“How would you like a promotion?” Twilight said suddenly.

“A promotion?”

“Yes I need ponies for a private detail, you now know about Star Bolt and with your mission experience you’ll be perfect for guarding him.”

Sabre was given little chance to reply as Twilight pushed her towards Star Bolt.

***

Rainbow Dash watched as the last two guards loaded the final crate into the back of the aircraft, she dismissed them and pressed the button to raise the ramp. She then pressed a smaller button beside it and spoke into the intercom.

“Okay Agent Thunderlane, take us back to Ascension.”

“Copy that Commander Dash.”

She took her hoof off the button and flew over to the crate which contained Lyra Heartstrings. She quickly flipped the locks and the lid for the box opened revealing the mint green unicorn tucked up into a small ball. Rainbow offered her a hoof and Lyra stepped out and began stretching.

“Good work Lyra.”

“Yeah thanks,” Lyra replied as she stretched out her hind legs.

“I thought Director Sparkle was going to be here?”

“There was a complication, she found Agent Sabre and Star Bolt so she’s been dealing with that.”

“We’re still in Ponyville aren’t we?” Lyra asked, changing the subject.

“We were, those boxes we found turned out to contain guns and ammunition so we had to count it all. Now we’re heading back to Ascension.”

“I thought we would have stayed a few days, I really wanted to see Bon Bon again.”

“I know how you feel, but this is how we live now.” 

Rainbow Dash would’ve looked out of the window had there been one, but sadly there wasn’t. It had been five months since she’d last been in Ponyville and before that it had been touch and go. She heaved a heavy sigh and lay back on some boxes, it was going to be a long trip home.

***
Location: H.M.S Ascension

Hours later.

“Twilight… We need to talk about The Order.” Rainbow Dash said as she laid back her chair opposite Twilights’ desk.

Twilight sat behind her desk and placed her forehooves together, she knew it was bad news she’d seen the reports and had been there herself.

“The Order are getting braver and bolder... The recent attacks? I think this is the beginning of something much bigger than we anticipated.”

“I’m putting plans in place for if it gets worse, but I’m hoping to get rid of the threat before it gets out of hoof.”

“There was an awful lot of guns on that train for this to be something small.”

“And those guns are now ours.”

“They’ll make more you know. We have a lot of agents now Twi, we need to act against them now!”

“No.”

Rainbow Dash sat up in the chair.

“Twilight last year we lost a research base and had a single pony rise against us, and look at us now a year later, I mean one pony broke into a safehouse and took an asset of ours. They nearly broke Star Bolt! Imagine if they reconstructed Maelstrom and got the same effects again. We need something now Twilight.”

“I’m working on it!” Twilight shouted slightly irate.

“Well work harder or let me do something, you’re doing everything by yourself Twi.”

Twilight sighed, she used her magic and pulled something that Rainbow Dash couldn’t see from where she sat. A folder was dropped onto the desk, there was nothing special about it only that it came from Twilights’ secret drawer.

“You know that cube we found a few years ago?”

“That blue one?”

Twilight nodded.

“What has that got to do with it?”

“I’m setting up a research lab to discover these things we keep finding, the trouble is there’s only one pony who knows about these artifacts. Well at least one pony who is likely to help us-”

“Wait are you talking about who I think you’re talking about?”

“Open it and find out.” Twilight replied cooly.

Rainbow Dash opened the folder to find a mugshot of a pony she knew all too well.

“I want you to do it Dash, she’ll listen to you.”

Rainbow Dash studied the photo carefully.

“How can you be sure?”

“She has before.”