POV: Allen, 1st Person

Three days after the counter-assassination assignment, Leon and Jackie still hadn't cracked all of the command files. We'd decided not to occupy a Canterlot city district for an indefinite amount of time, so we'd just hauled the hard drives to Alpha Base.

They'd gotten a lot of the important stuff, though. Information on CJ officers of various levels of authority, for example. That, I passed down to Firestar. He, in turn, did one of two things: Go himself, or delegate the field work to Jackie, and commanded from the War Room of either here, HQ, or Beta Base.

I was in the middle of a requisitions form for construction materials when my radio desk spoke in Celestia's voice. "Commander?"

I scrambled over to it. As I did, my office door opened. I held my hand up in a 'stop' gesture without a glance. I pointed at the radio, and the door shut. The person stayed in my office.

"Princess?" I spoke.

"Allen. I have a request."

"Go ahead."

"My student, Twilight Sparkle, is soon-to-be on her way to Ponyville, to coordinate the Summer Sun Celebration, for this year. I won't say what, but something big will happen. I'm afraid that Twilight will be in danger, as well as her soon-to-be companions."

"And you want us to provide security?" I asked.

"Quietly and subtly." Celestia replied. "I'd suggest only two-to-four operatives. She has no knowledge of Wolfhound, and I fear for what she'd do, if she found out. She's quite a stickler for rules, and she knows most of Equestria's laws as well as any judge. She's also not very good at keeping secrets."

"And we don't want to be public, because then you'd have to shut us down." And lock us up, and possibly even throw away the metaphorical key.

"Correct."

"We'll do it. I'll organize a team. Middle count." Three people should do it, considering the numbers she's suggesting.

"I'll see you after the Celebration."

I flicked off the radio and turned. Firestar. "Back from Beta, huh? How is it over there?"

"Aside from lack of materials, all we need is time."

I smiled. "Good." He doesn't know it, but ever since our first Canterlot operation, he's been as good a leader as I could ask for. And he's only gotten better, since.

I got up from my seat. As we walked out, I said "Grab a buddy. We're going to Ponyville. I want to be en route within the hour." If we're going to have any decent chance of protecting someone, we need to know the lay of the land. Two days in advance should be enough to get at least most of the town mapped out, and memorized.

"We'll be ready." Firestar walked off.

As I headed to the armory, I thought about the mission, and what we should bring. Considering we'll be on the down-low, we'll want small weapons with silencers. SMGs and Pistols.

Just to be safe, I disassembled my silenced sniper rifle, and stuffed it into a backpack. I also grabbed a small SMG and a pistol. I made sure that they all had attachable silencers, then waited.

Not ten minutes later, Firestar and Leon popped in. We ended up with pretty much the same loadouts, except for my sniper and Leon's personal thievery gear.

We were lucky enough to find a spot to ourselves on a train to Ponyville. Celestia had somehow managed to forward a file on our VIP to the Appleloosa Police, and a Deputy had brought it to us. We spent the time familiarizing ourselves with the face, name, and general physical traits of Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Note

WOO! Finally gotten into the TV series' episodes! Wolfhound isn't going to be involved in the majority of them at all, and some of them are only mentioned. But there are a few that I do have in mind that they'll have a big part in. Like this one.