"Okay, our intelligence places the hostage here," the leader explained, pointing at a spot on the crudely drawn map of a house, "on the second floor, in this bedroom. Our informant said that the hostage is being kept in a large chest, at this end of the room."
The second member of the team, a pegasus, ceased adjusting her eye patch. "Are we sure about that?" she asked.
The squad's third and final member, a unicorn in charge of intelligence, nodded. "She managed to get into the house by offering to help someone from the house with a school project."
"Hah. That probably means doing the homework for her," the pegasus said, interrupting the unicorn. "How's she know it is in the chest though?"
The unicorn glared at pegasus and continued. "She said, and I quote, 'Thith ith thah room, in that chetht.' She risked much going in, and I trust her."
"Ah do as well. We were best friends once," the leader said, before turning her attention back to the map. Carefully, she folded it up and placed it within her saddlebags. "Okay, so we know what we need to know. Tonight is the night," the leader said, looking at the chest sitting along the wall and the gap in the ranks that sat atop of it. "We'll get you back where you belong," she said softly. Turning back to her team, she slid both of her team members a list. "These are the items we'll need. See you girls back here at nine o'clock?"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" both answered.
The grappling hook clattered to the ground. Again. Three times they had thrown it upwards, hoping it would catch on the roof, and each time it had not. Once again, all three team members held their breath, waiting to see if the occupants of the large two story house were alerted to their presence. Luckily, all was quiet within.
"This would be so much easier if I could fly," the pegasus muttered.
"Or if I could just lift the rope," the unicorn said, smacking her hoof against her horn. "Dumb magic!"
"Shhh!" the leader said, while the pegasus reeled in the rope for another attempt. "You might wanna try it without the eye patch though."
"But it makes me look all cool and tough!" the pegasus complained.
She had to concede the leader had a possible point, however, so she slid the eye patch upwards. This time, she spun the end faster, hurling it upwards with all her strength and a loud grunt. The hook sailed upwards, higher, and landed with a clatter on the roof. Carefully, she pulled the rope. It pulled taut. The hook had caught.
"Yes!" all three cheered, before quickly jamming hooves in their mouths to silence themselves. Eyes wide, they looked at each other and then at the house. Hopefully, nobody within had noticed. Without the element of surprise, they were sunk. But alas, either the clatter on the roof or the shout had drawn attention, for the light inside in the nearest room suddenly turned on, visible through the drawn curtains.
"Hide!" the leader ordered, sending all three team members diving into the bushes nearby.
Cautiously, the leader peeked out from underneath her cover. Inside, she could see a pony holding aside the curtains while he peered out the window. She offered a quick prayer to Celestia that their black stealth suits would be worth the bits they had paid for them. On second thought, she hoped they were worth more than the bits they paid for them, since they had not actually bought them. It was more like they had been "liberated" from a local shop, but they fully intended to make it up to owner. They were sure though that, if the owner had known of the nature of their mission, she would generously have donated the suits for the cause. At least she had not filed charges in previous cases. Still, it was better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
Inside, the pony let the curtains fall shut. The leader breathed a sigh of relief, a sigh echoed on either side of her. They had not been spotted. When the light inside the room went out, the three ponies cautiously counted to ten, before crawling out of the bushes.
"Okay, up we go. Quietly now," the leader said, removing some leaves and twigs from the red bow in her mane.
The pegasus went up first, for she was the most athletic of the three, and, should the hook slip, her wings would let her slow her descent. Once she reached the top, she signalled by pulling the rope three times. Quickly, the leader followed her up, and once she made the roof, likewise signalled.
"Um. I need some help please, girls," the unicorn softly called.
The leader and the pegasus looked down over the edge to see the unicorn completely tangled in rope, swinging softly from side the side. The unicorn struggled, but without any luck, having only a single foreleg free to work with. "How?" uttered both members up top, before deciding they really did not want to know. Instead, they pulled their trapped team member up and set her free.
With all of the team safely on the roof, the leader pulled the map and a flashlight out of her bag, while the pegasus untangled the unicorn. "Okay, we are here," she said, pointing at a corner of the building. "And we need to be here."
"Aren't we here?" the pegasus asked, pointing at a different spot.
"No, see, this one has the big tree and a giant bear, and there's no bear here."
"I don't remember a bear anywhere. And what's this then? Isn't that the tree over there?" The pegasus was quite confused. "It doesn't make sense!"
The intelligence officer, who had drawn the map, looked at where the pegasus was pointing on the map. "That's not a tree. That's that statue over there. See? This is his foreleg, and that is his tail." She looked at them like it was the most clear and obvious thing in the world.
"Oh," the pegasus said, looking up and to the right. "I can, um, totally see that now."
The leader nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "The tail makes it perfectly clear," she said, nudging the pegasus, who, with quite the confused expression on her face, was busy trying to look at the map from various angles.
"Okay, so then we're actually here," the leader said, pointing to a third spot on the map, "and we want to go here." She traced a line from that spot to where they needed to go. Satisfied, she rolled up the map and put it and the light away. "Okay, this way," she said.
She took a big step forward, only to fail to encounter the roof. Her hooves flailed and she let out a screech as she dropped down two feet. She landed rather ignominiously with a thump, her face planted on the roof and her rump sticking up on the air.
"You okay?" the unicorn called down. "The drop off was on the map."
"Ah'm thinking we'd best be usin' our flashlights," the leader mumbled.
"Good idea," the pegasus said, her light turning on as she landed beside the leader and helped her up.
With the aid of the flashlights, they arrived at the designated spot. Ropes were tied, and the team prepared to descend to the second story window. If their intelligence was correct, this was where the hostage should be. If it was not, they would have tipped their hoof and odds are the hostage would never be seen again.
"Ready?" the leader asked her squad. They nodded grimly in return. They were at the point of no return. With that, the three went over the side, coming to stop beside the window.
"Okay, now we break the window, throw this here blanket on it so we don't get cut, and bust in," the leader whispered. "Ready?"
The unicorn reached out and pulled on the window, opening it just a crack..
"Or we could check that it isn't locked first," the leader whispered.
"Aww," mumbled the clearly disappointed pegasus, returning a rather large hammer to her belt.
The leader tapped a countdown, and the team burst into the room, rolling on the ground and bouncing to their feet. The leader and the pegasus pulled pies out of their packs, pointing them in the direction of the room's sole occupant, the suspected kidnapper, who sat up, wide-eyed in fear at the intruders bursting into her bedroom.
The pegasus quickly covered the kidnapper's mouth with a hoof, stopping her from screaming, and whispered harshly, "We're just here for the bee. Keep quiet, keep your eyes closed, and you might get out of this un-pied. It's apple." She menacingly waved her pie in front of the kidnapper's face. "Nod if you understand."
The kidnapper squeaked in fear, clenched her eyes shut, and nodded. Satisfied, the leader left the pegasus covering the kidnapper and joined the unicorn in pulling items out of the chest. The victim had to be in here somewhere, buried beneath all these toys. Just when it seemed that the mission would be a failure, she spotted black and yellow stripes. With a surge of joy, she redoubled her efforts.
"Yes!" she said, freeing the victim from her long captivity. She had been missing since the group had temporarily lost control of their headquarters, but they had never stopped looking for her. And now they had found her. Her squadmates shared her joy, grinning at the sight.
The kidnapper took advantage of the distraction and cautiously opened one eye just a crack, sneaking a peek at the invaders. She gasped, opening both eyes, and pointed at the leader. "Hey, wait a minute. I know that bow. You're Apple—"
Scootaloo flung her pie at Diamond Tiara, striking her full in the face. "We're blown! Get Mrs. Buzzy out of here! Go, go, go!" she cried out.
Sweetie Belle grabbed the stuffed animal in her mouth, ran to the window, and slid down the rope. As soon as Sweetie Belle was clear, Scootaloo went out the window, wings flapping, clambering up the rope. The last to go was Apple Bloom, who paused just long enough to throw her own pie at Diamond Tiara, before diving out the window, catching a rope in her teeth, and sliding down to the ground.
Behind them, they could hear the bedroom door slam open as Mr. Rich called out, "What's going on in here?" While they did not see or hear a glop of apple pie dripping off Diamond Tiara's face, landing with a splat on her blankets, they did hear Mr Rich yelling, "Diamond Dazzle Tiara, what have I told you about eating in bed?" and the subsequent "But daddy!" from the pied filly.
Quietly, or as quietly as these three excited fillies were capable of, they disappeared into the night.
Back in the clubhouse, the crusaders did a celebratory hoof bump.
Mrs. Buzzy, a gift from Twilight Sparkle (and a far better received one than Smarty Pants), was no longer missing. For the first time in a long time, she sat back on the toy chest, where she belonged, amidst the other stuffed animals.
