Cloak and Dagger: Breakdown

“You totally fell over just now.” I snort out, laughing at the tipsy Cloak who was stumbling about. It took three glasses of red wine to get her here, three glasses.

    “I did not! Shut your mouth!” She snips, a little drool falling out and stretching from her muzzle, “I’m completely fine!”

    “About as fine as a mouse in a trap. You can hardly stand straight goofball.” I chuckle and stand, helping her to my sofa. I look around my small apartment with a smile adorning my face at the humor in this situation. Now I just need to confuse the poor thing.

    “Wait here for me Cloak, and try not to vomit over my new sofa, I wanna recline in it without the chunky bits.” I smile. She hiccups.

    “Go fuck yourself.”

    “Love you too.” I retort, going to my dresser and getting out my hologram projector. These little puppies are an Agency gem, first in it’s class to mix magic and metal so us sky and ground lovers can do the wizard stuff too. I trot back out and turn a dial for the hologram opacity to it’s highest setting.

I press the button and a hologram me appears to my right. It had next to nothing in emotion, but I think Cloak may be too drunk to notice slight details.

“Hey Cloak, you think I’m annoying by myself right?” I hold a snicker, knowing this would throw her off. “What about two?”

She stares at me and tilts her head a bit, mostly in confusion, a little bit in intrigue. She swivels her head and looks at my hologram before her face goes serious.

“Dagger, I’m not stupid, that’s a hologram.” I frown

There goes my fun for the night

“How do you know?”

“The gray of your coat is too light, it should be a darker gray, like wet flint. Your black mane is gray, entirely off. And the biggest problem is the eyes, they are magenta here, but no matter how many times I have to stare at your mug, all I can see afterwards are those blood red eyes of yours. It’s clearly a fake.” She looks at me with this smug, shit eating grin on her face. I applaud.

“Bravo, you told me what I see in the mirror when I’m taking my morning bath”

“And jacking off?”

“And jacking off.” I smirk at her.

Love you too, creep

I check my clock. A bright red two a.m. blinks it’s little colons at me, as if ticking away the remaining life I have. I sigh.

“You spending the night or just forget the time?” I ask her. She taps a hoof to her chin, then smiles.

    “I’ll go home after you play a little game of Truth or Dare.”

    “And if I say no?”

    “I’m the one with the knife throwing skills, I’m sure a wine glass isn’t too hard to chuck at your head”

    “Touche.”

    I sit in a chair across from her in my weird, laid back position. I always hung my hind legs down off the seat and place my fore hooves along the arm rests. Kinda like a monkey, kinda like that weird mare who runs around talking about mythical creatures.

    Never did get that one’s name…

    “Truth or Dare?” My partner squeaks, her words mixed with a hiccup.

    “Dare.”

    “Dare you to flip the table.”

    “I was planning on doing that when you began chucking objects at me.”

    “Smart boy.”

    “Yeah yeah.” I get back up and use a single hoof to launch the table over her head, feeling my bones shift. See, when you enlist, The Agency puts you through these tests, and for the sake of your sanity, you do them as quickly as possible.

“Lay down” the little mare says, pointing to a large metal bed. I look at her and to a shadow in the corner.

THE shadow. The one who I call Mask.

Mask is my supervisor slash completely psychotic bitch who ruined my whole fucking life. Like all of it.

I lay down and the little mare, whose name I still don’t know to this day, straps me to the table firmly.

“You may feel pressure and some pain.” she turns a saw blade on, “And some nausea.”

“Yeah, no shit” I say shakily as the blade slowly comes down to greet my chest.

“Dagger!” Cloak shouts

“I’m back.”

“Flashback?”

I nod at her. I smile at her.

“You ok? You look shaken.” She says with this worried expression. God I wish I could just tell you Cloak… all the horrible shit these messed up freaks put me through for the goal of perfection. That was what those cunts wanted, a perfected pony that they could use to wipe out other species and sentient life. Zebras, Changelings, Griffons. Gone, wiped out by these assholes. Only thing standing in their way was me.

    I never really knew what I was signing up for, but damn it, when I found out, I did everything I could to set them back. Stealing, sabotaging, and even killing. The only good thing The Agency gave this world and to me was Cloak, guns, and technology. But underneath all that, they work around the clock to capture and test on innocent ponies, kill off anything that isn’t a pony, and do horrible shit to ponies for no reason and without them knowing.

    I’ve spent three fucking years here, only three. And already want to puke from all the evil shit they’ve done. And it's not like I can simply quit either, at least, not without receiving a complimentary bullet to the skull.

    “Hey Cloak, I think you better head home. Need me to walk you?” I ask. She raises a eyebrow.

    “Uh… sure” she blushes.

She blushes…

    The portal to Tartarus must’ve opened and the oceans froze over because that never ever happens. I poke her cheek.

    “Why is your cheek discoloring?”

    “A-alcohol.” she stutters out, barely keeping her composure.

    “Right, and Celestia raises the moon now.” I joke at her.

    “She used to.”

    “Yeah, then the moon shat Luna back out and here we are.”

    She giggles. I feel my heart skip a beat. She never laughs at my jokes either.

    “Are you feeling ok Cloak? You’re acting odd.”

    “Alcohol.”

    I snicker a bit and help her up, carrying her to my door and going outside. Luna’s peaceful moonlight kissed our fur. Crickets chirped and fireflies whizzed by and taunted us with their glow, as if asking to be caught. I look at Cloak. It’s only been a year with her. At least, this her. That’s something I’d rather just forget. Too complicated to talk about false lives.

    “It’s a beautiful night outside…” She coos to me. “Perfect mood for a pony that has no fear to make a move.”

    “Was that a challenge?” I ask, eyeing her questionably.

    “Maybe” she teasingly replies

    I smirk and grab her.

    “Ok”

    Her eyes widen

    “I was kidd-!”

    And with that, our lips greeted each other. I held the kiss, waiting for her to pull away and give me a well deserved smack across my cheek.

    But oddly it never came.

    We kissed what seemed like several minutes, deepening it as time went by. I was surprised, Cloak must be incredibly drunk. I thought I blew my chance to be with her in more of a plain partnership a long time ago.

    She breaks the kiss, breathing in and looking at me, and gives me the sweetest of words.

    “If I remember that, your balls go on my wall.”

    “Noted.”

    And back to regular Cloak. I sigh. I was rather enjoying that moment, but it seems to have sailed off now. I keep walking, down the cobblestone path to her flat. She looks at me and gets her keys.

    “Goodnight Dagger.”

    “Night Cloak.”

    She opens her door up, then stops. Suddenly, she was wrapped around me, kissing me again. I hardly saw how she got there. But honestly I didn’t give a shit.

    I kiss back, enjoying this small moment with her, feeling her break the kiss.

    “A proper goodnight.” She says, smirking and giving me a wink.

    “Yeah, thanks.” And with that, her door closed.

    I look out at the stone buildings of Canterlot, gleaming in the moonlight shadows. I walk a little, whistling a small tune. Something vania, can’t remember the name too well. But the tune was iconic to me, it sounded angry and vengeful. Two words to describe me coincidentally. I feel the eyes that watch me when I’m alone put their gaze on me again as I walked back home to start the next day.