Silver gale sat down at her desk and buried her head in her hooves. it had been a tough week for the Canterlot guard and she was starting to feel the effects of the past days. She brushed some of the silvery strands of hair that had gone askew back and turned her head to the newspaper that lay upon the clutter of her desk.
"Crime in an all time high as unforeseen crime wave sweeps through Equestria's capitol. Royal sister's reassure masses that the guard is more than capable to deal with the threat and tha..."
The rest of the article was obscured by more paperwork landing on the pile as the courier passing by. She leant back in her chair and searched
for a quill and ink to start filling the triplicate arrest forms.
"Excuse me Miss Gale?" She turned around to see a member of the elite guard standing behind her, a slightly anxious look on his face.
"Yes" she replied, tapping her back hoof while she waited.
"you have been requested in the palace immediately" he said glancing round the room.
"And what is so important to call me from my work?"
"You have been requested by the royal sister's themselves!" he answered in a hushed voice.
Silver straightened in her chair and tried to make sense of his answer. She couldn't think of anything she had done wrong and she was certain that her family hadn't done anything.
"We must leave at once Miss Gale."
"Hmm. Oh yes right let me get my watch."
Outside was a carriage and the guard motioned to get inside and soon they were at the doors to the throne room and Silver's stomach had never felt so tight and her wings felt like iron clasped to her side and pressed hard against her light blue coat. As they entered she was announced and at the end of the room was Celestia and Luna waiting patiently for her. As she reached the bottom of the throne's she bowed but Celestia stopped her halfway through.
"There is no need Miss Gale."
She felt the knots in her stomach tighten.
"I'm afraid that time isn't our ally right now, Hunter has made that clear." Luna interjected standing up with her sister.
"We have read your records and it seems that you are the best candidate for our proposal."
"If you may? What proposal?" Silver asked.
"Equestria is under threat from old force's and it is time to reinitialize a task force that has been non-operational since the time Discord ruled Equestria." Celestia expanded on her previous statement.
"And you want me to be a part of this new team?"
"Precisely!" Luna said, "We want you to be the lead investigator on the Equestrian Defence Agency or the NEXUS program!"
"But this job will come with a price, you must not talk about the true nature of the agency only that you are part of an investigative branch for the unusual cases, you must not abuse the equipment provided and collected. If you accept this job you will be sworn into a highest secrecy and breaking this will result in your permanent incarceration! Do you understand?" she said the final sentences with a sterner tone than the previous.
"Yes I understand" Silver replied.
"Very well. I shall take thy to meet the rest of the team and Hunter." Luna said walking down from her throne.
"Follow me."
As Silver followed Luna down a side corridor from the room and down stairs she had no idea how crazy her life was going to get.
As Princess Luna descended further into the depths of the tower Silver couldn't help but ask her the questions running round her mind.
"Excuse me Princess, but what is Nexus? I mean, what will I be doing?"
"Well in short Mrs Gale, Nexus is a shield against extra-ordinary forces beyond the creatures that the general populous is aware of, there are such beings out there that are more dangerous foes that our side would be powerless against. That is where Nexus comes in, a force of specialists to combat these enemies." She replied, her pace unfaltering till she came to a halt.
"Were here."
She tapped a small brick in the wall of the tower with a few scratches encased in a circle.
A section of the wall retracted and slid to the corners as a new corridor was revealed of pale white brick with sharp blue lines running along the corners.
Luna smiled at the brick and lines.
"Hunter redecorated, Tia isn't going to be happy."
Silver Gale wondered who they meant by the 'Hunter' they mentioned before and followed Luna down the corridor.
They came to a door that Luna pushed open leading to a large circular room, reminiscent of an underground observatory where there were two ponies sitting in chairs in the middle of the room, silent and seemingly waiting. The taller of the two was a light brown unicorn with two gears with a lightning bolt cutie mark and what looked like welding goggles pushed into his ginger mane, which was well kept but looked like it would catch fire at any point. He was tall and skinny and had an air of sensibility around him, he also had what looked like a faded burn on his left fore leg. He wore a dark blue jacket that had multiple pockets which looked to be filled with tools and other things she didn't know about. His startling blue eyes turned to the door and he sat up straight and nudged the second, smaller earth pony, He was about the same size as her but had a buffer build, he had a short and black mane with tail to match, his eyes seemed different in contrast to his dark crimson coat as the green seemed to shine brightly', his cutie mark was partially hidden but she saw what looked like the top of a pick.
They both seemed like the last two you would see together, and they walked over to them where Luna materialised two more chairs and gave one to Silver Gale and sat on the other.
They all sat in silence for a few seconds till the tall unicorn spoke.
"Excuse me Princess, but why exactly are we here, beside the whole Nexus defence thing?"
Luna cleared her throat and straightened before answering.
"You three are here as the prime candidates for the program, Mr Works, as each of you posses one of the key factors of running this program successfully.", She paused for breath,"You for example, are amongst the top minds of Mechanical / Magical, and more recently, Electrical technology making you a fit for being the brains of the program."
"What about me?", the other colt asked.
"You Mr Comet aren't just one of the leading archeologists in the fields of recovery location of ancient ruins and civilisations long before the founding of Equestria but have proven yourself to be more effective than the equipment brought for the expeditions, as I remember you dug half of the way to a cavern which contained the 9th most hard to find ancient tribes on the day it took for the drilling machine to arrive and proceeded to power it by yourself, And despite all your accomplishments you have opted to remain in the shadows. Your achievements direct you to being the stronghoof of the program."
"And finally..." she said turning to Silver.
"You Ms Gale, one of the best graduates from the Royal Guard training facilities where you excelled in hostage, kidnapping, bomb alert, hijacking, hoof to hoof and stealth situation training and went straight to public service where you were fast tracked to the rapid response teams in under a year. All your training puts you in for being the skill of the program, and also you will be the one to direct what happens in the field. You will be Hunters main point of contact on operations."
"Yeah, erm excuse me princess, but who is hunter?" she asked, finally giving in to the questions.
"Ahh that would be me!" a voice called from across the room, near another set of doors that opened as another colt walked in.
Luna stood up and turned to him.
"You three this is Hunter!"
She almost seemed to be more relaxed speaking this time in the presence of this colt.
"He will be your leader and chief whilst you work for this program"
"Yup, and i already have your first assignment, should be a simple one, these kinds are easy once you understand them a bit better, now off you go, quicker we deal with it the sooner you lot can ask questions."
He walked over to a small table near the middle and lifted three bags onto it.
"This is your gear packs, each contains the kit you will require for this case and your own skills have been taken into account now off you go, the trains waiting, off to Applewood, the trains leaving soon so i suggest you hurry."
They picked up their bags and began for the door talking about what had happened and about what was going to be in Applewood waiting for them.
As she followed the two colts through the door she heard Luna talking to Hunter but didn't realise what she heard.
"Are you sure it will be safe, i don't want them to be in danger till they know about it?"
"Relax, if it's the mission, once they're on the train ill explain in greater detail but if it's the other thing then i'm unsure, as long as i don't draw attention to myself i should be fine."
Hunter quickly ran up to a room that overlooked the room before running back down with a bag of his own, more worn and faded that the ones he gave to the ponies that had just left and headed out to the three ponies waiting at the door.