I had heard the horror stories; the moment an agent's cover was blown. It had happened in tense, psychological standoffs, and it had happened in the most mundane of places. Sometimes it had to happen, to save the lives of the civilians around the agent in question; sometimes, it was a foolish blunder that could have been easily prevented and, as a result, endangered far more ponies than an agent intended to save or protect.
I don't entirely know what category my particular situation fell into; I like to think it was the first one, because by the end of it, Princess Twilight Sparkle still had a pulse. However, I freely admit I had put myself into the situation I quickly found myself in on a rather ordinary Tuesday afternoon, on what was supposed to be a formal visit with the Mayor of Los Pegasus; a knife in my mouth, coated in blood, with two would-be assassins lying dead on the floor in a bloody heap.
The moment I looked over at Twilight, the target of the two gentlecolts who I had just terminated, I went straight to her eyes. Wide, terrified, but, most importantly (and not surprisingly), shocked. Time itself froze as I stared into her pupils, which had shrunk considerably, and I could see every moment we had ever shared together; Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Discord, the Grand Galloping Gala, everything, replaying in her mind, and I could tell exactly what she was thinking at the very moment our eyes were locked. She was questioning every moment of our friendship as she replayed it in her head, and I didn't blame her for it one bit, because I knew it was all a lie.
There was a joke we had in the agency. We had a list of clichés of the wall, and we'd make a tally mark every time we came back from a mission having said one of them; "What are you up to?", "I didn't sign up for this", that sort of thing. So when time unfroze and the reality of what I had just done hit me like a freight train, I regrettably uttered another one.
"We need to leave. NOW," I barked in Twilight's general direction, arranging the knife in my mouth just right so that the words came out clearly. She looked back down at the bodies before her, trembling like a filly at a horror film, completely unresponsive. I rolled my eyes and quickly rushed over to her, placing my hoof on her shoulder and shaking it violently. That worked; she blinked a few times and brought her attention back to me. I waved my hoof violently in the direction of the hallway in front of us and began walking at a brisk pace. After hearing footsteps behind me, indicating she was following me, I sighed in relief; this wasn't going to be as hard as I anticipated.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a straight shot; The hotel hallways were an absolute labyrinth, but thankfully, with the soft, red carpeting and beautiful art pieces hanging upon the stark white walls every few feet, it was a rather pretty one. We were currently on the 4th Floor, and I sure as Tartarus wasn't about to take the elevators; the stairs would be long, but, in the end, so would our lives.
"Fluttershy--" began Twilight, speeding up her pace to walk beside me. I wasn't going to let her get any further.
"Now is NOT the time!" I screamed as we finally broke free from the confinement of the hallway. We had gotten to one of the few hub areas of the hotel; there were three elevators directly in front of us, and a very expensive looking couch resided just to the left of them in the corner of the wall, crafted from a fine red fabric I could not identify to match the carpet below it. I was about to make a quick scan for the stairwell, but as I had just began to get a good look of the area, the center elevator opened.
It was a stallion. He had light blue fur and a dark blue mane with eyes to match, donning a hotel staff uniform; I almost mistook him for a normal civilian infringing on the scene. However, when he saw us, particularly me with a knife in my mouth and blood all over my face, he did not act surprised or horrified; instead, he narrowed his eyes with alertness and I saw his horn light up with a blue aura.
I made sure he never got the chance to fire. I tightened the grip on the knife and, with expert precision achieved through years of training, let it fly. The knife sailed straight through the stallion's neck and pinned him to the elevator wall, causing him to cough up a considerable amount of blood. I heard Twilight gasp behind me.
"That went better than expected," I muttered to myself, quickly taking the time to admire my accuracy before quickly looking around the room. The stairwell was awkwardly placed on the right wall at the beginning of the next hallway, but that wasn't too much of a hassle; I quickly led Twilight to the door, opened it, and made sure we were both at the base of the stairs before quickly slamming the door shut behind us and turning to face Twilight.
"Okay, Twi, I need you to listen to me," I began. I had only just realized that I had been talking in my real voice since the incident upstairs, and I mentally scolded myself for letting it slip so easily before continuing. "There's a spell called "Shatter Illusion" that you should have learned at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns; can you cast it?" I asked her. She was still in shock, but managed to give a dumbfounded nod. "Okay, good; cast in on me now." What I received in response was exactly what I didn't need at the moment; hesitation.
"Fluttershy--" she began again, but I shook my head in anger.
"CAST IT ON ME NOW!" I shouted. I hated to use such an aggressive tone for the third time today, but then again, I wanted to leave the hotel alive. Reluctantly, she cast the spell, and the last of the personal bond I had created with Twilight Sparkle over years and years of our friendship proceeded to melt away before her very eyes.
The spell washed over me like a wave, as it always did. As it went down my mane, the light pink coloration began to turn raven black. I couldn't see it, but I knew that my light blue eyes quickly turned lime green. My fur was same yellowish color, and always had been; the agency required at least one thing in regards to physical appearance to stay exactly the same in order to lighten the magical burden of the spell in the event it needed to be cast quickly. My cutie mark was the last thing to change; I looked to my flank to see the butterflies disappear to be slowly replaced by a simple, black hourglass. Fluttershy had been erased; she'd come back soon, I knew, but not the same. There was one more change, however, and one that I considered was an extremely helpful bonus to the spell; the blood of the two ponies upstairs I had been covered with would go away with Fluttershy, allowing me once again become inconspicuous.
Twilight didn't get much time to take it in, though; almost immediately after the spell was over, the door opened again. I was prepared for the worst, but as soon as I got a look of the mare who had opened it, I knew she was no danger; she was merely a hotel guest who had been caught up in the mess.
"Come in, quickly," I told her, and she did as she was told. I began to lead the two of them down the stairs as fast as I could, and it seemed like only a second had passed before we had made it to the bottom of the staircase, surprisingly uninterrupted. Once I opened the door and made sure the two of them were out safely, I began to briskly trot towards the street, leaving the other mare in the dust behind us.
"Thank you!" she called out from behind me.
"Please, don't mention it. Ever," I muttered to myself. As soon as I knew we were out of earshot, I started to lay out the situation to Twilight whilst walking on the sidewalk in the direction of the Las Pegasus docks.
It was a beautiful day outside. The sun shone brightly than I think I'd ever seen it, complementing the bright blue sky perfectly. The temperature was just the right warmth; it was little warm, but the sea breeze coming in from the Las Pegasus Bay created a wonderful contrast. Strange, I thought, That such a catastrophe could occur in such conditions.
"Okay, here's the deal. By now, they already know that their little attempt failed, and they've notified everyone by the docks. It's the fastest way out of here, so they'll have ponies there, too. This escape won't be pretty, I'm gonna tell you now, but If you follow my instructions exactly, you'll be alive by the end of it. Clear?" I asked her. Twilight eyes were still as big as Luna's moon, but she was able to give the affirmative.
"C-Clear," she answered shakily. I gave a quick nod as I continued to walk forward. The crowded harbor of Las Pegasus was actually already in sight, and I could hear the seagulls ominously beckoning us towards it. The attack was coordinated well; the dock looked to be at it's absolute busiest of the day, which was certainly going to slow us down. Ugh! Where in Tartarus is everypony going? I thought.
"I picked a good hotel," I told Twilight, not turning around. "The docks are right up here. We're gonna have to steal a boat, regrettably, but that'll be the easiest part. When I tell you to run, I want you to start running as fast as you can behind me," I told her. She stayed silent, but I knew she got the message.
As soon as we set foot on the wooden platform that made up the entrance to Los Pegasus Harbor, I knew something was wrong; there were two stallions in blue working jumpsuits who appeared to be working on a broken light post at the entrance to the docks. As soon as Twilight and I got close, they stared at us, carefully dropped their tools, and began to follow us from a distance. Twilight noticed it as well; she was about to whisper something, but I cut her off.
"Not yet," I told her. I looked up ahead; there were tons of ponies in the area, and the bright blue water of the Los Pegasus Bay was mesmerizing, but I wasn't looking around merely to admire the scenery. It was the boardwalk to each ship that concerned me; sure enough, there were those ponies in the blue jumpsuits guarding every pathway. I tried to duck my head down, but it was too late; they had already seen me, and began to move in towards me. Now that we were being completely flanked, the next words were easy.
"Run. Follow me and shove everypony out of the way," I instructed. I took off running, and began moving my hooves in front of me to push away the crowd; as expected, the ponies in blue jumpsuits copied me exactly.
There were plenty of boats in the harbor, but I could easily tell which one was the fastest; a medium sized vessel sporting three sails, crafted from what I could easily tell was a very strong and expensive wood, tied up at the edge of the harbor. This was, however, at the edge of the harbor, so I had to get there quickly. Twilight was keeping good pace so far, for a mare who had just discovered one of her greatest friends was nothing more than a sham, and eventually, we were able to make it to the dock where the ship I was hoping to snag had been stationed.
I quickly rounded the corner and hightailed it down the wooden dock; at this point, I was certain I would make it without a problem, so naturally, the universe had to prove me wrong. When I turned the last corner to head up the ramp to the ship itself, I was greeted by an absolutely massive earth pony that wore, of course, a blue jumpsuit. It actually went well with his black fur and grey mane and tail, but what it didn't go well with was the knife clutched in his teeth.
"End of the line!" he snarled, though it carried a considerable muffle. Before he had time to react, I charged, ramming my head into his chest. Unfortunately, it didn't knock him down as I had hoped it would; instead, he only staggered back a few feet on the ramp. This apparently made him angry, because he gave a yell and ran directly at me down the incline; a mistake I knew he'd come to regret in the last few seconds of his miserable life.
As he was just about hit me with his charge, I leaned to the side; at the same time, I jammed a knee from my front left leg into his chest, causing him to keel over. The pain was already magnified, as I had hit the spot with my headbutt just seconds earlier, so he was bent over just a second longer than usual, which was the only second I needed. I grabbed the knife from his mouth with my teeth and brought it over his head before plunging it straight into the back of his neck, causing him to cry in pain. With great effort, I shoved him to the side while withdrawing the knife from his neck, causing him to careen into the water below us.
As soon as I looked up, I saw the rest of the henchman running towards us at full speed. I quickly hopped on the ship, and, thankfully, Twilight followed. I flapped my wings and took off towards the front of the ship as fast as I could manage; once I arrived, I quickly cut the rope that was connected to the ship's anchor, causing the ship to begin drifting away from the dock and the ramp I had just dueled the stallion on.
I knew at that point it was over. The stallions chasing us weren't as close as they'd like to have been, and by the time they got to the ramp, it was too late to board; a poor fellow tried to jump from the tip of the ramp, and he actually got pretty far before completely whiffing and tumbling into the bay below him. I laughed at the sight of it; at least he could tell his boss he tried.
Once I was certain we were in no danger, I casually trotted to the wheel of the vessel.
"Twilight!" I called as I reached the steering mechanism. "I'm gonna need you to help with the sails!"
It took effort, but with Twilight's help, I was able to completely turn it around a hundred and eighty degrees to set myself on the course to our destination; Vanhoover. As we began to sail away from the harbor, I was greeted with a sight no agent ever wanted to see; the masses of ponies gathering at the place where we took off, pointing and whispering as we sailed away. As we did so, one heartwrenching thought rang through my head.
I'm going to get deactivated for this.
Once the ship was well on its way, the Los Pegasus Harbor merely a speck on the horizon, I turned and met Twilight by the edge of the ship. While she was still clearly nervous, she appeared to be calming down a bit. I sighed in relief at the sight; this next talk wasn't going to be easy in the slightest.
Upon seeing my face up close, she quickly ducked her head over the rails and began to vomit.
So much for that, I thought to myself. I didn't blame her, for three reasons; one, I knew Twilight suffered greatly from sea-sickness; two, the face she was staring at was not her friend Fluttershy's, but rather a mare she had never seen before in her entire life; and finally, thanks to the stallion back on the ramp, I was once again covered in blood. I waited for her to come back up, and when she did, she was immediately ready to say something, as was the nature of Twilight Sparkle; Luckily, I was able to cut her off for what had to be the billionth time in the last fifteen minutes.
"Before you say anything," I began, "I want you to know that you have every right to be absolutely furious with me for what I've done to you, but I also want you to know that during my time assigned to protect you, I broke a very important rule; you've become one of my best friends, Twilight, and I can assure you that our friendship is very real to me. With all that out of the way, I'm also willing to answer every question you many have, now that my cover is completely obliterated, but before I do--" I held out a hoof to her.
"I don't think we've met. The name's Rose. Emerald Rose. I'm an agent in Celestia's Equestrian Intelligence Program, Sector Zero. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Princess," I said, donning a wide grin.
Instead of shaking my hoof, Twilight decided to slap me in the face.
