Through a Mirror, Darkly

"Nice shooting by the way Buttercup, you and that cannon-"

"Reginald!"

"-Of yours really helped keep them on the back hoof." Turncoat looked around, "I don't see your can-er-Reginald, did you leave him back up the road?"

Buttercup shook her head, "Nope! I used the storage enchantment to pack him up so Reginald and I could never be apart." She sighed dreamily, a misty faraway look in her eyes "He was so good for his first time..."

Leaving the smitten mare to her daydreams Turncoat carried on walking down the path, making her way towards the guards convoy, wondering at the mechanics of such a relationship, then promptly trying to remove such thoughts from her head by thinking about anything else.

Before long Buttercup had caught up and was bouncing along at her side, "So Turncoat," the hyperactive mare began, "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

Thankful for the distraction from her thoughts Turncoat answered, "I was taught how to survive when I was still a little filly, before I even got my cutie mark." Turncoat stopped and stared at Buttercup, "Fighting and hiding were just two of the lessons my parents and granny taught me. Apple Nomad's have to fight to survive."

The pair continued in silence, finally arriving at the guard convoy where Thunderhead was already waiting for them, as they approached she waved them over. "They've got a fair bit of stuff here," The pegasus began, "But there's one problem, they've got d-dogs with them too."

Turncoat swore under her breath, this made things a little awkward as far as 'retrieving the goods' went. "All right Thunderhead, go ask Hurricane what she wants doing with the dogs, me and Buttercup will start shifting the other stuff."

With a nod Thunderhead shot back down the road towards the others.

"You not kill us?" A gruff voice asked from nearby, looking to the source Applejack saw a large Diamond Dog observing her with great interest, "Why? All ponies hate Diamond Dog, ponies take from homes, make slaves." he supplemented in broken Equestrian.

"That's those bitches on the throne Dog, we want them dead." Buttercup answered him.

His brow furrowed in confusion, "Bitches are on throne of pony-land? Diamond Dog for harem then?"

Turncoat facehooved, "What she means is the princesses are responsible, and that we want them dead." She laughed, "Though I wouldn't be surprised if they had to force others to give them a roll in the hay."

She was joined in her laughter by Buttercup and the Dog, who had realised the slight mistranslation. Their laughter stopped though when Thunderhead dropped back in.

"What'd I miss?" She shook her head, "Nevermind, Turncoat, Hurricane says to" She formed air quotes with her hooves, "do what you like, she isn't interested in them."

"If I free y'all would you just leave and not give us any grief?" Turncoat looked at the surprised Dog.

The dog had been expecting enslavement or death, but her one of the ponies was offering him freedom, "What catch?" he growled, wary of the pony's games.

"We keep this stuff," Turncoat waved a hoof at the laden carts, "Other than that you're free to go, If I kept y'all from your families I'd be no better than the princesses." Buttercup raised an eyebrow but said nothing and Thunderhead nodded in approval.

The diamond dog shrugged, the trinkets didn't matter and gems were plentiful, "Deal." he growled and held out his manacled paws. A key was inserted and the manacles fell from his wrists moments later thumping dully into the road below.

A tense moment passed before the Dog nodded in thanks massaging his wrists as he did so, "Maybe not all pony bad like I thought, I remember you all, need help ask Earthclaw pack." He lumbered away towards the rest of the Dogs, barking gruffly as he went, causing many of the Dogs to adopt looks of happiness.

No Dog complained when they were released many in fact offering their thanks to the three ponies, before long all the dogs were free and running back towards the dragon lands, leaving the three ponies to look over what they had 'acquired' from the guards.

"So any of y'all got a bright idea on how to carry this?" Turncoat asked her two companions, "All six of us couldn't pull more than half if we tried."

"Why don't we just load it all onto three carts then?" Thunderhead suggested, looking over the five carts now lying abandoned in the road.

"It'd weigh to much to pull anywhere," Turncoat prodded one of the carts with her hoof, "also the carts would likely break from the strain." she muttered, scowling at the poor quality of the carts.

"You know we could just use magic," Buttercup suggested, "Reduce the weight, make it easier to pull, or just teleport the whole lot back to the base." she glanced at her two companions, "you know you guys suck at finding simple solutions."

Turncoat scowled but conceded the point, as Thunderhead flew away once more with their plan for Hurricane, Turncoat couldn't help but feel a little put out, at one time she had lead this team through thick and thin, now here she was, taking orders off a manic little pegasus fresh out of the slammer.

"You know when I met her I didn't like her either." Buttercup's sudden breaking of the silence almost caused Turncoat to jump out of her skin, "She was softer back then, that changed quickly though. Before I knew it I had a contender for top pony in the prison." Buttercup sighed, "Unlike her however I had no loyal minions to throw around, the bitch steamrollered me. But do you know what happened afterwards? She invited me to a tea party, a fucking tea party."

"What did you do?" Turncoat asked.

"I turned up, she commended me as an adversary, we had tea and discussed the finer points of getting what you wanted. In all it was.... nice. I was sour at first about the new pony beating me, but I quickly realised how much better she was at the job than I was. In a few weeks if Queenie wanted Queenie got, didn't matter if you were a prisoner or a guard you couldn't hide from her." Buttercup smiled at the memory, "She treated me as her equal though, I was the only pony inside she didn't treat like dirt." Buttercup met Turncoat's gaze, "if she didn't like you, trust me, you'd know about it, albeit briefly."

As they sorted through the goods they were joined by Opalescence, who Hurricane had sent to aid in the transport of the goods. Before long the goods were magically marked and sent to a beacon under the base where it joined the weapons and armour that had been removed from the prisoners.

Their job done, they returned to where the others were who had finished dealing with the guards. Hurricane gave them a nod as they walked by, before returning to providing her instructions to the guard captain.

"You remember the message, because if you don't well I won't be very happy with you meat," She told the bound captain who fumed silently from his embarrassing position.

Thunderhead had to but a lid on her mirth again when she looked at him, the stallion looked so ridiculous hung up like that, 'I wonder if we hit him hard enough would sweets fall out?' she thought as she looked at the bound stallion, 'There is never a bat when you want one'

Confident her message would be delivered Hurricane turned to the others, "Circe? Are you ready?" The unicorn nodded from where she stood, not answering in case it diminished her concentration, "Do it then."

Acknowledging the command Circe bent her considerable power into the space in front of her, for a moment nothing happened, then the air rippled. With a noise similar to the sound of thunder a pillar of energy appeared before the pony, only a few hooves taller than an average stallion. The pillar split in the middle forming an opening in the air a void of white outlined with purple hung just above the road. Her task mostly done the unicorn finally spoke, "Ready."

The others didn't hesitate for a moment as they dived into the open portal with the other five through the unicorn followed. As the guards looked on the shimmering portal collapsed in on itself with another dull boom leaving them to struggle to escape their bonds.

Fluttershy turned to the others, none seemed the worst for wear after the teleport, except Twilight who was being supported by Rarity, "Good job everypony," Fluttershy congratulated the others, "Operation Informer was a great success."

Pinkie looked at her, "Your mission names suck almost as much as your code names do." her mind briefly going back to earlier that day.

"While we're doing this we can't use our real names," Fluttershy told the group, "As such I came up with codenames for each of you based on your skills, when on a mission you'll refer to each other by these names, understand?"

The other mares nodded, it seemed logical.

"Okay, I'm Hurricane, since I'm in charge of this thing."

She pointed a Applejack, "your brilliant job with the disguises and general knowledge of infiltration and espionage mean you're now 'Turncoat'"

"You already have a codename so giving you one now is unnecessary, 'Opalescence'." Rarity nodded, smiling slightly at the mention of her familiar alias.

Next in line was Rainbow Dash, "From what I remember of our time together at flight school, 'Thunderhead' seems to fit you best Rainbow." The other pegasus considered for a moment then nodded, satisfied that her name was suitably awesome.

"Velvet you only really have one specialisation, and that is magic so you can be 'Circe'" Twilight nodded her expression showing her indifference to the entire exercise.

Finally Fluttershy's gaze fell to Pinkie, "and you, Pinkemena, can be....." The pink mare looked at her attentively, hanging on her every word, "Buttercup, because it's the only thing I could think of." Fluttershy finished quickly, before steering the conversation onto another topic leaving Pinkie to fume silently over her name.

Fluttershy shrugged, "You didn't object at the time," she turned away before Pinkie even opened her mouth to respond, "Now onto more important matters, Applejack."

The orange mare looked up from where she'd taken a seat, "Yes Fluttershy?"

"You let all the dogs go, I wanted to know why exactly you did it the way you did." Fluttershy's tone was neutral, as was her expression, leaving Applejack completely lost about how she felt about it.

"Because I'd be no better than the Princesses if I didn't, you saying I should have left them? Made them pay to be released?" Applejack stated defensively, deciding honesty was the best policy when dealing with the yellow pegasus.

Fluttershy scowled, "I was never arguing the validity of that decision, I just wanted to know exactly why you decided to do it how you did."

Applejack looked withdrawn for a moment, she leant back and waved a hoof at the other seats scattered around the meeting room, "Then sit down it's a long tale."

As the others took their seats Applejack shifted so she would be comfortable, "To know why I released all the D-Dogs without getting anything out of them you'll have to understand why I even joined this organization, so sit back and I'll begin..."