Operation: Falling Leaf

Royal Special Forces Barracks

May 5th, 1058 A.B.

4:03 PM

        Just as planned, I move down the road towards the RSF’s barracks, the rest of the Night Panthers following closely behind. Standing right outside the building was Wind Rider and the rest of Razor Team. They were giving us a no-nonsense kind of look as we came closer. Finally, when we were only five feet away from Razor Team, we stopped moving forward. Both teams stood in silence, eyeing each other as if assessing their chances in a fight. Obviously, it wasn’t going to come to that. After a few minutes of this, I decided to break the silence.

        “Well, we’re all here. Now what?” I asked, turning to face Wind Rider.

        “Well, we were wondering when you guys would show up,” Wind Rider smirked. The whole of Razor Team couldn’t suppress their laughter. The members of the Night Panthers behind me only barely managed to control themselves, but even then their faces were flushed red with anger.

        “Oh, come on, Captain Rider. We were a whole three minutes late!” Growls of assent rose from the throats of the stallions behind me.

        “Well, we’re all here now,” Wind Rider continued smirking.

Looking from Wind Rider’s troops to mine, I noticed many differences. Razor Team wore black leather armor around their torsos, their weapons held in the harnesses, and on each of their forelegs was a leg band that showed the insignia of Razor Team, a red buzzsaw blade with a hole in the middle, whereas the bands on their right forelegs showed the insignia of the Royal Special Forces. A golden shield, two crossed silver swords in the front with a stallion’s skull overlapping both, the words ‘Royal Special Forces’ were written on the topside of the shield and the words ‘For Freedom & Glory’ on the bottom side and finally, a half sun and moon meshed together as the background.

         My team’s armor looked almost identical to their’s, only bearing a few subtle differences.  Where Razor Team’s was full black, the Night Panthers’ armor was a dark indigo. Our weapons were similarly attached to our right shoulders. On our left shoulders, we had two patches stitched into the leather. The first one was a black panther head on a midnight blue background. The panther had red eyes and a silver sword held horizontally in it's mouth. This was the symbol of our team, the Night Panthers. The other one was LUNA's emblem. It was a silver crescent moon with eight black swords pointed inwards. The word LUNA is stitched onto the top. Midnight blue wings stretch out from the moon. This is all on a moderate grey background in the shape of a shield.

        “Alright, I guess we’d better start off with introductions. Night Panthers, this is Razor Team and their leader, Captain Wind Rider. I want you guys to remember that Captain Wind Rider is one of the Royal Special Forces best officers, personally trained by elite human warriors along with years of extreme experience. He has survived many things that would drop half of you dead in seconds, so I expect you to show respect to him as well as his team.” I saw some of my stallions looking warily at Wind Rider and Razor Team’s members.

        “That goes for you guys, Lunar Aegis is one of the best operatives in LUNA. He and his team have all completed highly elite missions that we’ve hardly been selected for. So I expect you guys to show respect as well, especially you, Dragonfly. I better not hear any gripes or it’s twenty miles up Hawk Mountain, am I clear?” Wind Rider loudly announced to his team.

        “SIR, YES SIR!” they thunderously replied in unison.

        I actually winced, Wind Rider was very demanding of his stallions. Threatening to send them up Hawk Mountain? That was one of the most rocky mountains in all Equestria, only the best had the ability to hike that landscape.

        “Well, enough standing around, we’d better inform the Princess of our preparations,” said Wind Rider.

        “I agree. Moon Glare! Go tell the Princesses that we’re preparing for the mission!” I snapped the order quickly and the Night Panther I had spoken to hurried to follow it, word for word if necessary. Although that wouldn’t give him much to go off of.

        “Dragonfly, go with him,” Wind Rider ordered his operative.

‘Oh no,’ that was the only thought that went through my head. The said operatives didn’t look very thrilled either. Moon Glare stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to stare in surprise at Dragonfly, Wind Rider, and myself.

        “Um... with him, sir?” he asked me.

        “Yes, Moon Glare. Although I’m sure you don’t need an escort, Captain Rider probably wants his own representative there as well.” Truth be told, I wasn’t so sure about this idea either. ‘Hey, if Rider thinks it’s a good idea, I’ll go along with it. Despite what happened earlier.’

        “Is there a problem with that?” Dragonfly asked, raising his eyebrow.

        “No not at all. It’s just-” Moon Glare didn’t get much farther before Dragonfly cut him off.

        “Just what? You don’t want to seen dead in my company? You still think you’re too good to be followed around by some lowly RSF operative? You think being seen walking, or flying, or running, or however you’re going to get to the Castle, with me is going to damage your precious reputation? If that’s what you think then I’m going to prove you wrong. Let’s go!”

        “Lock it up, Dragonfly!” Wind Rider cut in before the conversation could get out of hoof. “Just get your plots to the throne room and get back; and I better not hear any complaining, am I clear?”

        “Yes, sir!” Dragonfly saluted. “C’mon!”

        He motioned to Moon Glare as he quickly began trotting away. Though he seemed to be able to perform his order with no problems, I couldn’t help but feel some animosity from him. My logical side deduced that Dragonfly had most likely had a negative experience with LUNA operatives at some point, if his mannerisms were anything to go by.

“I apologize for Dragonfly’s attitude, he’s got a bit of a gripe with LUNA, as many of my stallions do,” Wind Rider said to me.

        “Eh, no big deal. To be honest, that was expected beforehoof,” I replied.

        “Well, it’s not really a rivalry ordeal. Let’s just say most of the LUNA operatives we’ve worked with have been... less than cooperative, if you know what I mean.”

        “You’re basically telling me that the LUNA operatives you and your stallions have worked with were too stuck-up to help you with the heavy lifting. Correct?”

        “Not quite ‘stuck-up’, more along the lines of an unnecessary superiority complex. In their own defense though, they tried to be as professional about it as they could.”

        “Yeah, that sounds like a couple of the other LUNA agents I know,” I respond, before chuckling slightly.

        “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened earlier. Let’s just say the last time a LUNA agent gave us a speech along those lines... it wasn’t exactly polite, y’know?”

        “I know altogether too well. I do hope you understand that I meant well, though. I was only trying to boost Razor Team’s confidence. I guess it kinda backfired, huh?”

        “A little bit, but it’s all in the past,” Wind Rider smiled.

        I smiled back, looking over to the other stallions as the two teams began to mingle together. As expected, the Razors were a tad weary of my stallions, though it wasn’t obvious by any means. As for me, I was professionally trained and experienced for reading emotions.

“So, how’s Arrow Dancer, Rider?” I decided to make small talk as we currently had nothing to do but wait. “I haven’t seen her for a while.”

        “She’s doing fine, she’s on a job escorting an ambassador in Saddle Arabia, nothing too dangerous,” Wind Rider laughed.

“And you don’t expect her to get on your case for going on this potentially hazardous mission?” I smirked while cocking my eyebrow.

        Wind Rider simply continued his laughter. “Hey, after every life threatening event the two of us have gone through together, I don’t expect her to freak out too badly at what we may face.”

        I started laughing as well. “You have a valid point, my friend.”

        Arrow Dancer, my adventurous, arrow shooting cousin; and Wind Rider’s wife. When those two met, they were practically at each others throats, how they actually had feelings for eachother, I’m still trying to figure out. It wasn’t too long ago Wind Rider proposed to her, she reacted like a little filly getting a new doll. Unfortunately for them, Wind Rider’s job with the RSF and Arrow Dancer’s job as a Private Military Contractor made it difficult for them to make time together. I myself had not seen either of them for some time because of my duties.

        Just then, two of my Night Panthers approached us, particularly eyeing Wind Rider.

        “Captain Wind Rider, sir?” Midnight Nova said as he and Shadow Flight gave a salute with their wings.

        “Yes?” Rider replied.

        “We were simply wondering,” Nova began. “is it true... you were trained by elite humans?”

        Wind Rider glanced at me, bearing an expression that silently spoke, ‘seriously?’

        “Am I to presume that you don’t believe your own CO... Master Sergeant?” he said after glancing at Nova’s rank insignia.

‘Oh, dear Faust,’ I struggled to resist the urge to facehoof while cracking up with laughter. I had known Wind Rider for years, he was married to my cousin for Faust’s sake, I knew where this was going.

        “Wha... ah... n-no sir!” Midnight Nova stammered as he and Shadow Flight were clearly caught off guard.

        “Then what’s the deal?” Wind Rider said, raising his eyebrow.

        “Well, sir...” Shadow Flight spoke. “... humans have the most extreme training in the world....”

        “And?”

        “.... and they are known to increase the difficulty of the training, depending on the species of their trainees...” Midnight Nova asked.

        “And?”

        I barely managed to suppress my snickering. I could clearly read the expression on Wind Rider’s face, he was about to pull it off again...

        “Well........... how difficult did they make the training for you sir?” Shadow asked after much hesitation.

‘Faust bless their souls.’ I thought to myself as my urge to burst out laughing intensified.

        Wind Rider just blankly stared at the two of them for a moment, while I struggled not to laugh.

        “You really want to know?” Wind Rider’s face grew into a wry, sinister smile.

‘Here we go.’

Nova and Shadow glanced at each other nervously.

        “Yes... sir?” Nova replied.

‘Colt, you just sealed your fate.’

        “Well, in all honesty, the training I was given wasn’t too hard,” Wind Rider’s face suddenly reverted back to normal.

Nova and Shadow turned their heads to each other, their faces bearing highly confused expressions.

        “They only knocked me unconscious, dumped me in the snowy mountain with no food or water, sent me across dangerous terrain, only communicating with me through letters, only appeared to me once and awhile, made me hunt wild animals with little more than a knife...” I gradually began to lose my composure as Rider continued his rant with the most snarky face you’ve ever seen. Poor Nova and Shadow, their faces were priceless, shocked by the information they were hearing.

        “Oh... and they forced me to eat meat,” Wind Rider finished, smiling like a mad-stallion.

“WHAT!!!????” Nova and Shadow simultaneously chorused as they recoiled.

        I could no longer help it, I burst out laughing.

        “What?” Wind Rider asked. “It tasted like daisies.”

        Every single pony in the area was now staring at him, except for those of Razor Team, who were well aware of what Wind Rider had gone through in training.

        “Hey, Rider?” I said. “You’ve gained quite the audience. Why don’t you tell them the details?” I finished speaking and a huge, maniacal grin quickly spread across my face.

        Rider turned to me, bearing an identical grin.

        “Very well,” he said, adjusting his headband. “So, they cut open this dead bear...”

        He got no further, due to there being nopony around to listen besides Razor Team and myself, who couldn’t stop laughing even if our lives depended on it.

        “Alright, enough fun n’ games!” Wind Rider shouted after regaining his composure. “Aegis, get their flanks back over here.”

“Alright,” I ran off in the direction all the Night Panthers had gone. Once I judged I was near them, I stopped, stomped a hoof on the ground once and waited. The Night Panthers quickly ran out of hiding and gathered around me. I started back towards where Rider and Razor Team were. “That wasn’t too hard.”

That fiasco proved to be rather embarrassing for the Night Panthers, the Razors were all over them with taunts, though Wind Rider quickly ordered them to lock it up. Dragonfly and Moon Glare finally arrived about that time, the Princesses had given us permission to launch the mission, which they had codenamed, Operation: Falling Leaf.

Outskirts of Whitetail Woods

May 5th, 1058 A.B.

6:23 PM

        The Equestrian Sky Corps transported us three miles outside of Whitetail Woods via a small airship. After making our way to the outskirts of the woods, we readied weapons and prepared to move in.

        “Alright, pegasi to half tree level!” Wind Rider ordered the pegasi of Razor Team, composed of five pegasi (Wind Rider included), five unicorns, and five earth ponies, the ideal structure of a Royal Special Forces team. “Razor Team! Offensive formation Bravo, move in!”

        “Night Panthers! On me!” Considering the fact that my team consisted exclusively of pegasi, we were flying between the trees, trying to proceed as quickly and quietly as possible through the woods. “Skirmish Formation!” I called out as we continued forward.

        Our combined unit began our trek into the woods. In all my years as a LUNA operative, I couldn’t help but feel a slight presence of fear. We had no idea what we were about to face... and I had no idea how close I would soon come to an agonizing death.

A strange screech rang out from a long distance within the woods, nothing like any animal or sapient I had ever heard.

“What was that?”