Time: 1500 Hours
Location: Ponyville
STATIC
"Agent Hooves, Agent Hooves, Do you read me?" a voice clouded in static spoke.
The agent in question turned and opened a drawer in her desk and removed a wooden panel revealing an assortment of gadgets and weapons and picked out a small black object and placed it in her ear.
"Copy that HQ. What's the problem?" the agent in question answered.
"Do you have visual contact with Agent Sparkle?"
The agent placed the com on the desk she was sitting at while standing up to her window and looked around in the direction of Golden Oaks Library only to see Spike exiting and getting the mail. She sat back on to her chair and put the com back in her ear.
"No HQ, she hasn't returned to her home since. Did something happen to her?" the agent asked.
"Agent Sparkle has been reported missing during a trip to Canterlot. We believe it may have been the work of Blueblood's guild." the com-link answered. "Unfortunately we can't trace her location because her tracker isn't responding."
The agent raised her brow at the mention of the Prince's secret crime guild and rapped the desk with her fingers.
"I've always known that rat was up to something, even though he may be untouchable in politics he's just flesh in my book." She said with a tired expression on her face. "HQ, are you sure though? Agent Sparkle is one of our top ranked members and just a bunch of Blueblood's thugs can't take her down that easily. I remember when she had ran into trouble with a bunch of Prench gang-members on an assignment." the agent thought aloud as she looked through her window and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders trying to catch Angel-Bunny in a butterfly net. "She kicked one of them in the balls, gave the leader a black-eye, and knocked out the others with her stun gun in 10-seconds flat! And there were 18 of them!" she said excitedly.
Chuckling at the outburst the com replied, "As much as I would love to lament on Agent Sparkle's past exploits we'll have to presume she was kidnapped." the com-link said with a slightly serious tone. "We believe that this was an inside job involving a mole in the agency. We're running a security check on our database and are questioning any agents we believe who may have defected."
The agent's eyes widened in panic and suddenly turned angry.
"WHAT! A mole is in the organization! That can't be right! We've been running this show without a mole for years and now we have another case of corruption! This is just great!" the agent replied in an irritated tone as she threw an apple outside the window.
"You tell me Agent. Meet up at Base 2 for further analysis into Agent Sparkle's disappearance. It also seems Director Halberd has taken this rather personally and is calling all class 6 members and above to pitch in and help. We may have yet to find the mole in our agency and stop Blueblood from whatever he's planning against us." the com-link said urgently. "Oh, and make sure your team is dressed well for the Grand Galloping Gala tonight. We need extra security since Agent Sparkle is absent and I think Blueblood might be planning something BIG tonight, I don't want to clean up after a mess like that." the com-link said with a worried tone.
"Copy that, they'll be looking at anything suspicious. Agent Derpy Hooves over and out, but make sure there's muffins at the meeting. Pinkie Pie ran out of stock this morning and I'm craving some right now." she said as she rubbed her belly and started walking toward the door.
"They're already in the oven agent so get to flapping those wings. HQ out."
Derpy then placed the com back into the drawer and walked over to her vanity. She opened a knob on the rim of the mirror and pushed a small button to turn on a screen that popped onto the gleaming surface of the mirror, showing a desktop of a computer. Rubbing her eyes, she touched a symbol that said "Contacts" and a list of names showed on the screen.
"Time to go to work."
Time: 2100 Hours
Location: Canterlot
The Prince himself was currently reading a thick romance novel in the ballroom of his mansion with only a set of tea and biscuits, a small reading lamp, and Luna's moon illuminating the rest of the large chamber with its silvery light. Just then the doors to the ballroom creaked open and revealed a rugged Earth pony with a slightly surprised look on his face who proceeded to shuffle quickly toward the Noble.
"Prince Blueblood, Twilight Sparkle has awoken from her "nap". Your orders?"
Blueblood looked up from the book he was reading and rolled his eyes in annoyance to stare at the intruder of his teatime. He checked the pocket watch that he carried in his vest and saw as the hour hand pointed at 9:00 exactly. He reached over to the small table next to him and grabbed a Royal Blue colored ribbon, placed it on the page of his book, and set it down on the table with a small thump.
"Springlock, do you not see that I'm enjoying my book at the moment?"
The stallion looked nervously at the Prince while the royal stared at him with an expression not known for him to possess.
The stallion tried to walk away until he heard his superior call, "You've ruined the moment already. Get back here and tell me what has happened."
Springlock walked with trembling hands to next to the table in which the menacing royal sat and cleared his throat to speak, "S-She wants to know where she is and why we have her in captivity sir."
"All will be explained to her in time, but unfortunately that's something we don't have at the moment. We need to keep her there for as long as possible so as not to disrupt our plan at the Gala. She's dangerous though, even one slip up and she could kill us all if she so pleases."
"S-Shall I double the men posted near her cell just in case?"
"Very well then." he stated as Springlock was starting to walk away from him he spoke again, "Oh, and one more thing, will you please tell the torturer not to be too rough on her. I want to make sure that she is still able to talk when we pry the information we need out of her." he replied carelessly.
"At once sir." Springlock said as he strolled briskly out of the room they were in.
Once the henchpony was gone Blueblood slumped into his chair and sighed deeply, "Plotting a coup is rather tiring. I hope that E.L.I.T.E. doesn't catch on to my plan so quickly."
"Indeed, it would be a shame to have so much potential wasted in a minor coup at a big party." a shady voice spoke.
The astonished prince dropped his teacup in surprise and listened as it shattered in the empty Ballroom that he and the mysterious voice inhabited currently. The chamber had darkened visibly and the reading lamp flickered with a malicious nature.
"W-Who dares to disturb me again! I'll send my guards on you I swear it by Celestia's Honor!"
"Look at the traitorous prince. Already praying to the God that he is supposed to usurp!"
S-Shut Up! I am a Prince and I deserve to be treated like one!"
"Please, with that attitude I'm sure the moment you get your filthy hands onto some real power you'll end up six feet deep pushing Daisies the next day."
Blueblood's shivered as if the being's words made icicles form on his spine. After a minute of mustering whatever courage he had, he used his magic and illuminated the room a bit to find the source of the voice.
"Ah, trying to find me aren't you"
"Show yourself Coward! Hiding in the shadows is not the way to act like a civilized pony!"
"Hiding? Cretin! I am the shadows! Killing you would be easy if you weren't on one any of my contracts."
"A-And what are these contracts supposed to be?!"
"Hitman things, you know: Somepony drowned here, a few ponies dead there, a lady choked here, and a father shot there. In fact, so many of my colleagues have been given assignments to go and stick your head on a long pike somewhere and set it on fire that they draw straws to see who get's the lucky honor, but look where they are now. Death greeting them all with a swipe of his scythe."
"N-No one tries to mess with Prince Blueblood! T-That's probably why they're all dead, thanks to my best bodyguards and security measures." he said, trying to retrieve a slim measure of confidence in the sentence.
"No, they didn't even get a chance to bread into your compound in the first place."
"Then my guards must be better than I thought!"
"Again, No. I killed them all myself."
"Y-You mean the Assassins or my guards?" he shuddered."
"Both"the voice replied. Only except that Blueblood felt that the voice was speaking right in front of him now.
Blueblood backed away from the dark and sat in his chair for some measure of comfort. That was until he felt something wet on the cushion. It was a knife, coated in deep crimson red. He jumped up in surprise and used his magic to throw the horrifying object away and started hyperventilating.
"Let's shed some light onto the problem shall we?"
At that moment, the light in the room started to slowly some back as the prince watched in silence as the gentle blue light of Luna's moon shined through the glass windows of the ballroom. He sighed in relief as the light continued to illuminate the ballroom until it shined on something horrible.
"W-What have you done!" the prince yelled.
The thing that Blueblood yelled at was a horribly mutilated body. A body that belonged to a certain henchpony that left left the room only a few minutes ago. The body looked like it had went through a meat grinder and had been glued back together by a group of fillies.
"Why. Why are you doing this to me! If you want my money just take it! My guild just take it! Anything at all just take it! Guards! Please help me!"
"Your pleas of mercy are useless to me. Like I said before, I killed all of your guards. Now say hello to them for me."
"NO!!! WAIT!!! I-"
The room fell silent as the begging prince's words were cut off. Literally. The prince's head rolled off of the body as it fell to the ground in a puddle of blue blood. Then out of the darkness a faint and slow clapping was heard, which was soon joined by more clapping and soon the ballroom erupted with cheering and whistling. The lights of the ballroom were instantly turned on as a crowd of watching ponies were looking in awe at the mess that the assassin made. Then sitting on a small stool, was Prince Blueblood. The real Prince as he continued to clap slowly at the scene.
"Excellent work! Not only have you proven your worth to me and my guild but you might have also scared me if I was really in there! You may show yourself now!" he proclaimed.
The room brightened even further as a large and unearthly shadow of a pony started forming onto the floor until a unicorn clad in black emerged from the shape. He was outfitted with a thin black cloak which fit smugly over the dark grey jumpsuit he wore underneath along with black leather gloves sewed with emerald thread and a grayish pauldron cape over his right shoulder which displayed a mysterious green symbol in the middle of the cloth. He was holding a very long and curved grey knife by the handle in his right hand and had a small cloth cleaning the jagged blade of the blueish blood which stained it in his left. He swiped the remaining drops of the magical fluid from the blade in a swift motion and dropped the cloth onto the Blueblood clone. Which after doing so, disintegrated into red flakes of raw magic which floated into the air and into Oblivion.
"Congratulations! You have passed the test! I hope that I get to see more of your work in the future and that-"
"I don't see how eliminating this cheap magical clone of yours was supposed to make a legitimate test for me." the assassin interrupted.
"Why it's your initiation into my guild! Keep up that work and you'll be paid handsomely in the future."
"I didn't wish to join your guild in the first place Blueblood, or take part in any luxuries that you nobles seem to enjoy so much."
Blueblood looked on with a raise of his eyebrow and stood up from the wooden stool he sat at to approach the shadowy assassin. He was about two more steps ahead of him until he stopped abruptly and took a cigar from his vest pocket.
"So tell me then sir. Why did you come here in the first place?" he questioned as he took out a lighter and tried to lit the cigarette.
"My master wishes to make sure that your latest scheme is put in action successfully without any problem. That is all."
Blueblood continued to try to light the cigar only to find that every time the lighter displayed a flame it was snuffed without so much as a small spark left.
"And why should your master be interested in the affairs of my guild at all?" Blueblood said with frustration.
The assassin did not say anything as he reached into his cloak and revealed a small letter with the mysterious symbol emblazoned on the seal. The prince snapped his fingers and a servant came to him with a small, sharp letter opener on a silver platter. He grabbed the blade and removed its stylish sheath while putting it gently on the platter. He took the letter from the assassin and with great finesse, swiped the blade across the seal in one move and placed the blade back onto the platter. He opened the letter and read its contents with a careful eye. After what seemed to be hours in his head he snapped his fingers and another servant appeared with an inkwell, a piece of parchment, a container of blue wax, and an envelope on another silver platter.
"Set it down over here." he gestured to the small table.
The servant set the platter down and bowed along with the other one as they both left the ballroom.
"All of you! Leave us!" he shouted to the crowd of nobles.
The members of the guild all exited through the doors of the chamber and soon the room was a empty as it appeared to be at first. Leaving Blueblood and the assassin in the same room. The prince sat down on the now cleaned chair and started scribbling a response on the parchment. After a few minutes he used his magic and put the note into the envelope while sealing it with the blue wax with his magic leaving a monogrammed stamp of his own creation. He approached the waiting assassin and gave the letter to him.
"I see that we'll be working together often on this scheme aren't we?" he said carelessly.
"I didn't choose this task, he did."
"By the way, what am I to address you as?"
"Simply call me Mellowshade." and with that he melted into the shadows again and vanished.
