Dreamtwist

Dreamtwist I

Night dove for cover behind a wall and heard the hail of bullets that flew past him. The black pony uttered a few choice words and peeked around the corner. The security force was numerous and annoying. The uniformed ponies were ill trained, but well equipped and their constant rain of machine gun fire was forcing the black earth pony into a corner. Night was getting annoyed. When he had gotten the black envelope from his unknown employer, he assumed it would be a quick smash and grab, not a full firefight against 20 fully armed guards! His train of thought was derailed when a loud buzzer screamed through the sparsely- lit warehouse. “The alarm” he thought angrily, “Now it’s 30 armed guards”.

It was simple, the letter said. Go to Canterlot Mail and Freight, sneak in, and kill that corrupt son-of-a-bitch they called a CEO. Night had grabbed his pistol, his knife, his shotgun, and a couple choice trinkets then tried to sneak into the depot. He tried. Despite his black coloration, Nightrunner the unicorn was not subtle and he walked into what seemed like a practical firing squad of goons. They started shooting and didn’t stop until Night agilely ducked behind cover.  Now he was stuck behind a shipping crate with 30 armed guards bearing down on him. They had stopped firing and demanded that he come out and drop his weapons. Night sighed and straightened his eternally tousled mane. The blue mess had black highlights in it, just as he planned. He threw his weapons into the aisle with the trigger-happys, and strolled out as casually as possible. He walked towards the one who seemed to be in charge, a brown colt, whose uniform had the most adornment.

    “Freeze scum!”, The colt barked: “Hooves in the air! And no magic!”

    Night rolled his eyes and complied, rising to his hind legs.

    “Cuff him!” The officer blustered.

A hesitant subordinate, obviously new, moved forwards with a quad pair of hoof cuffs and gestured for Night to lower his hooves. The unicorn complied, but as he slowly lowered his hooves he ran his hoof through his mane once again and pulled out one of the highlights. Then threw it in the subordinate’s face. The flash bang worked perfectly, disintegrating the young colt’s face and blinding the others. Night pulled another strand of his mane off and used the garrote he had planted there to strangle the nearest blinded guard, who went down quick. As he fell Night grabbed his pistol with a quick magic tug. Instantly cocking the gun he emptied it on the guards and dropped it. “Ten down, 20 to go,” Night tabulated, “Not a bad start.”

After pulling his pistol and shotgun to his side, he ducked around a pile of cardboard boxes, then waited.

The guards slowly recovered, and choked at the carnage that Night had caused. One even threw up a little. Night didn’t blame him. Losing one-third of their number in a minute did that to ponies. But he was losing focus. The boss was the target, not them. He clenched his teeth and moved. The office was in the back of the warehouse and he needed to beat the guards there. So he ran, ducking and diving between piles of letters and packages, even sliding down one massive heap. Which didn’t give him a little thrill of childlike glee. At all.

He eventually found the office and slid beside the door. He pulled out his pistol but paused. Somepony was shouting at a probably more ruffled pony. He put his ear to the door.

“AND I’M SAYING I CAN'T JUST PULL ALL THE INFORMATION OUT NOW!” an old but strong voice reverberated through the wood,”I’VE ALREADY SPREAD IT THROUGH THE SYSTEM! AT YOUR REQUEST I MIGHT ADD!”

“Inconsequential.” Night had to strain his ears to hear the silky whisper of a significantly non-ruffled mare. “The nightmares will hunt you down if the information leaves this warehouse in any hands but mine own.”

“Fine.” The colt obviously feared this mare, his voice was trembling”I will get the documents myself.”

“It is too late for that, they are already here.”

“Who? Who’s here?’

“The seekers send their assassin, this place will burn.”

Night could feel her glaring at him through the walls, and took a breath.

“What! Why?!” The colt wailed.

Night burst through the door and got a glimpse of a dark colored mare who faded into the shadows. Meanwhile, the pony Night assumed to be the CEO cowered before the spot the mare would have been. He turned and stood. “He’s going to beg for his life.” Night thought. “And by the look at that gemstone paperweight, he’s going to offer money. Lovely. I can’t stand beggars.”

The CEO opened his mouth “Please don’t-”

   Night shot him in the head.

     The shot blasted loud enough for even the incompetents to hear. The guards started yelling. Very loud, they were close, Night moved on instinct, and grabbed the paper weight. Then he pulled two of his highlights and left them on the desk. Then ran out of the room leaving one more black streak. Hearing the guards on his tail he ran to the exit. And then he heard the shouts of discovery. They were in the office. Night grinned as he pulled out one of few remaining Highlights and shook it. The bombs he placed in the office went off. Perfectly. Night found the exit and slipped out, framed by the harsh firelight.