Stronghold: New Beginnings.

Chapter 9:

Surprise, Sucka!

I've made it to the castle, it seems. And man it is pretty high up. And when I say 'pretty high up', I mean the height of exactly Mt. Everest and the Freedom Tower back on what used to be Earth combined. I guess he knew that one day, somepony would climb it. But I guess he should've made it a little higher because, like I've said, I'm a great climber.

I grabbed on to a pipeline attached to the outside of the castle, Broke off a long piece, and put it in my special holster #1. The costume felt great;

A black-satin hoodie with a silk ninja mouth cover sewn onto the front of the hood, a Black leather Jacket with a thin white line running along my collar-bones, two special holsters made of Leather-built to fit anything from rusty pipes to 6-foot long katanas, Black Leather Gloves with White lines running down towards the end from in between my knuckles worn over my hand, which I wrapped in ace bandages up to my elbows, black cargo pants made of black leather, and Belted Combat Boots with a white line that shows the contours of my foot.

If you asked me if I was prepared, I'd fist pump and scream “TOGA, TOGA!”

So anyways, I then climbed the pipeline all the way to the top, where I looked above the roof. I saw two strong colts with knives strapped to their sides. They seemed to be chatting. I managed to overhear what they were talking about;

Colt #1: …“Yeah, I see your point. But what I don't understand why we have to secure the roof entrance. It's not like anypony would be dumb enough to attempt breaching our top of the line security. We've got some awesome toys, so to speak. We've got a bunch of Security-colts, infrared laser beams, motion sensors, and the most recent model of code alarms. nopony would try guessing it, because they don't even know it. Hah!”

Colt #2: “But what if they do make it past all that, hmm?”

Colt #2's got a point, I thought.

Colt #1: “Then if the system feels it's been successfully hacked, it will send the Pony-robotron model 1, a destructive robot that will kill anypony stupid enough to go against it.”

...Good thing I have this rusty pipe, I thought shortly afterwards. I slowly took it out, but they must've heard it, because Colt #1 said “Who's there?” I improvised by making an owl noise. “Don't worry, Drake. It's just that noisy owl Twilight Sparkle owns. What, are you afraid Owlowiscious is going to give the rebels an advantage? Twilight wouldn't understand owl.” Said Colt #2. “Lets just check anyway, Garret.” Said Drake.

So I quickly looked around for anything to help me, and to my left I saw another pipeline. I jumped towards it, grabbed on, and got onto the roof. I waited until they reached the edge where I was standing, and slowly crept up behind them. I took out my rusty pipe, and whacked them both on the head. When I hit them, I heard the thunk noise you only heard in comedies. Afterward, I guess I knocked them into sleep, because then came some snoring.

Making sure they were out cold, I then went through the roof entrance. I guess I forgot to mention that I stole a few things from the two colts; a knife holster with a knife in it, a decoder, a taser, sticky gloves, and those special sprays used to reveal the infrared laser beams Drake mentioned.

So first, I sprayed the floor, and saw lasers shooting across the floor and walls, starting from in front of me. I put on the sticky gloves, which were made of a stretchy fiber, and crawled to the ceiling. I then put the mouth cover over my mouth and nose, and started to crawl above the lasers. Then, I reached the motion sensors. Since the wires connected to the sensors ran along the ceiling, I took out the taser and jabbed it against the ceiling. I then heard a power down sound that told me I was able to walk along the floor now. But first, I sprayed the floor, making sure I was safe for walking.

No beams.

I'm safe.

I pushed away from the ceiling and landed on my back. There I threw my legs forward and got up like in those awesome spy movies I watched at 11 years of age. I walked slowly, making sure nopony would be ambush me. I reached the end of the hallway, where a door was unlocked.

'#Geniusmoment scoreboard shows; Villains, 1. Max, 0. For once, having a zero as your score is a good thing' went through my head as I opened the door to reveal a flight of stairs heading down the hallway. I went down them, and when I reached the end, I saw an alarm system. Time to use the decoder. I took it out and plugged it in the bottom of the alarm, where four numbers appeared on the decoder screen; 8425610101.

I pressed in the numbers, and the two iron bars in front of the door slid into the walls. I was about to go through to the next room when I heard a clanking sound. I turned around, and saw it...the Pony-robotron. And mam, was it...short. The freaking thing came up to my knees, and the Security-colts on the roof said this was a killing machine!?! When it charged, all I had to do to break it was smack it with my pipe. Then I stood above the broken machine and went up and down over the machine, saying “T-baggin', T-baggin'.” Then ran into the next room.

Due to my outfit, nopony would see me, which is good, because there were a ton of Security-colts having a party. Though for what I don't know why. Then I found out shortly afterwards when I saw Reggie about to make an announcement on the stage at the other end.

“Hello, My fellow villainous Phillies and UN-Gentlecolts. It's an honor to have you all here. I'd just like to make a toast to a successful two years of ruling the world. Huzzah! Now, I'd also like to announce that my beautiful wife Chrysalis and I are having a baby. I've thrown this party for her, because tomorrow, she will be giving birth, so I thought 'Hey, why not celebrate? Seems like the best thing to do.' And here we are, enjoying ourselves, having lovely entertainment, eating, drinking and-Let's be honest here-being merry!

“Oh, and before I forget, if someone would please go get Drake and Garret and bring them down, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you, and have a wonderful night.”

'Time to climb', I thought. I faced the door and jumped onto the wall above it. I crawled above everyone in the room, and reached the other end. I jumped down, and whacked the guards at the same time with my pipe. I got off the stage, and went through a door. I crawled along the wall, and waited above two colt-spies, then when one of them turned around, I grabbed the other one and snapped his neck. Then I dropped him, which caused the other one to look up just in time to see a fist of black and white. Checked his pulse, and it was very faint. Out cold.

I ran along the hallway, and stopped immediately, because there were cameras. I jumped onto the wall, and took out the knife. I sliced one of the cameras down, and jumped towards the other side. I took the pipe, and smashed the other one.

Meanwhile, my fellow readers, while Max was taking out the cameras, a Security-colt in the surveillance room was sleeping, when all of a sudden, He heard a loud 'Tshhhhhh' noise that meant the cameras were down. The Security-colt woke up, and took out his walkie-talkie. He spoke into it, saying “Reggie? I think we have a security breach.”

I was reaching the end of the hall when I heard the sound of hot air coming through the air vents I was crawling on. It was coming closer, so I crawled even faster, out-crawling the hot air, and pushed away from the wall, this time landing on my feet. I ran down two flights of steps and I saw the door locking, so I charged the door, and broke it, splintering the wood.

'Great. Now my damn shoulder hurts', I thought. But I didn't have much time to recover, because then I got whacked with a huge mallet-right across the back, too. “AAH!!!” I said as I flew across the courtyard. I turned, and saw Reggie. “Max, this is gonna hurt you...a lot. But believe me, it won't even make me flinch.” And he swung at my already throbbing shoulder. I heard my shoulder crack as he hit me. “AUGH!!!” I looked up at him, and my vision was blurring.

But my hearing wasn't fading.

I heard him say “Dump the waste, John Mare! While he's down!” And right after he said it, I felt some green slime run down all over me. I coughed, because some of it got in my mouth. I puked blood as I got on my hands and knees. The waste chemicals were coursing through my veins, and it didn't feel good.

I then felt a hand on my throat lift me from the ground. Reggie was right next to my ear, and he said, “Think of this waste as a gift, White hair. Don't give up on me” And I had time only to say, “Wha—” before he threw me so far in the air I crashed into the center of Ponyville. My blurring vision became black as I passed out.

But the last thing I saw before my vision went black...was a Medi-colt and three nurses.