The first floor was mostly an open tourist area with various memorabilia and other Equestrian historical items. A wide and opulent marble staircase decorated with a red blue silk rug led to the elevator on a higher level, and at the entrance was the secretary's desk. Gizmo had no trouble whatsoever, and he made quick work of the thirty terrorists who guarded the area. He sat in a lobby chair, nonchalantly eating a banana as five of his turrets fired electrically charged rounds into the terrorists, immobilizing them. However, a terrorist with an Uzi did manage to sneak past his blockade, but he was dealt with quickly as Gizmo shot him with his pistol that fired potent blasts of electricity.

"Honestly... are you ponies even trying?" Gizmo sighed as his turrets folded back up and flew back into the empty slots in his cybernetic limbs. He activated his communicator as he walked up the massive grand staircase. "Fae, I'm done here. How are your floor's inhabitants faring?"

"They're pretty tough! But I'm beating them up really badly!" Fae giggled as she pushed a terrorist through a cubicle with her telekinesis. "Also, I'm really hungry! Can we get something to eat after we're done pretty-please?"

"Fae, this is not the time!" Shining Armor snapped back at her through her communicator. "And what did I say about damaging the building?!"

"Sorry, Shiny!" Fae frowned as she knocked a terrorist out with a psionic blast from her antlers "I won't do it again!"

The second floor was mostly an office space for governmental workers; bland gray cubicles mostly dominated the area, and tattered documents and other papers littered the ground. Fae skipped about the narrow hallways between the cubicles, looking for enemies to toss around. A terrorist roared as he charged at Fae with a tomahawk and a revolver, but she just laughed to herself as she grabbed him with invisible hands and tossed him into a group of his comrades with tremendous force. A terrorist popped out of a cubicle with a revved minigun and fired it at Fae, laughing maniacally as he tried to get a lock on her. She hovered about, avoiding the gunfire, then she placed a psychic barrier around her body, rendering her impervious to their attacks. She charged up more psionic energy in her antlers and let loose an omnidirectional wave that flattened everypony in the immediate vicinity.

"All done-... oh, wait, nevermind," Fae corrected herself as she saw terrorists armed with rocket launchers exiting the elevator at the end of the room. "This might take a bit."

****

"Shadow Dancer, you there?" Shining Armor said through the assassin's com system attached to her visor. "How's it going in there?"

"Good. I'm making my way through the third floor. So far I haven't run into anypony too nasty," Shadow Dancer replied as she found cover behind a corner leading into the meeting room. "I think they're all held up in the meeting room..." Shadow Dancer went fully invisible and peered around the corner. "Yeah, they're there. They've killed at least two foreign ambassadors."

"Shit... you still have to go non-lethal. We need these guys alive if we're going to get answers out of them," Shining Armor ordered her.

"No shit, Sherlock," Shadow Dancer scoffed as she reached into an ammo pouch in her utility belt for taser rounds. "I'm switching to volt rounds."

"Alright, but please be careful; don't let anything happen to my sister or the other two princesses," Shining Armor said in a worrisome manner. "I'm shutting the com system off on my end. Good luck."

Shadow Dancer activated her visor and a sheet of jet black glass formed over her face. The visor toggled through its various modes until it activated its X-ray function. Shadow Dancer then stood still as she heard somepony approaching fast from her right down the hallway; it was a terrorist armed with an assault rifle. She let him pass; it would have been foolish to take him out during his patrol as the others would have become suspicious with his prolonged absence. And, if her guess was correct, that terrorist on patrol would ask the leader of the group to bring more reinforcements to the lower floors, making her job far easier. She peered through the wall with her visor, watching skeletons sit silently in the next room. There were seven armed terrorists, eight if you counted the guard who had just arrived. The commander sat in the center of the room guarding the hostages. Shadow Dancer leaned forward and listened to his conversation with the one panicked patroller who had just passed a few moments prior.

"Chi, that green chick and the cyborg guy are tearing up our reinforcements downstairs! What the fuck are we gonna do?!"

"I'll tell you what we do. Once they clear the lower floors we bag the rest of the ambassadors, toss the royals out the window, then set fire to this shit heap!" Chi answered him with frustration. "Get back down there and stall em'! I'll lay down some incendiary charges and wait for your command. Once you're the last stallion, you give me the signal and we'll burn this place to the ground."

"Understood, sir," The terrorist nodded as he ran towards the corner Shadow Dancer hid behind; this was her chance to provide a little extra time for her comrades.

As he passed Shadow Dancer she uncloaked quickly, wrapped her right arm around his neck, then covered his mouth with her left hand, allowing an anesthetic gas to flow through a tube in the forearm of her suit to a nozzle in her palm, knocking the terrorist out cold without a sound. She dragged his unconscious body and placed it behind a sizeable potted plant next to a support pillar, propping it up so that the eucalyptus plant could cover his upper half. She ducked behind her corner cover again as she heard movement on the other side of the wall; the commander was placing incendiary charges around the third floor, and if she didn't act now he'd surely find the corpse.

"Fuck me... guess I go in guns blazing..." Shadow Dancer cursed as she popped her earbuds in and cocked her machine pistols. She then reached into her pocket and tossed a flashbang into the meeting room. "Boom."

*"It's Just Forever" by Cage The Elephant begins to play through Shadow Dancer's earbuds*

"Ah! Fuck! Flashbang!" The commander was stunned first, just as she hoped. "We've got a ghost in here, fellas! Find em'!"

"Oh, you ain't findin' me..." Shadow Dancer sneered as she rolled a smoke grenade into the meeting room; she had to be quick or the commander would surely set off the incendiary charge he placed on the other side of the room.

Shadow Dancer ran inside the smoke-filled area with her thermal vision on, and she reacted as soon as a terrorist ran at her through the smoke. He swung at her with the stock of his gun, hoping to surprise Shadow Dancer, but she saw it coming from a mile away. She ducked, then drove her elbow into his clavicle as she stood back up, shattering his collarbone. Then, she gave him a swift chop to his neck to stun him, then finished him off with a taser round to the chest, electrocuting him until he fell to the ground in a heap. The next terrorist fired blindly at Shadow Dancer's silhouette with his revolver, but she skilfully dodged his point blank gunfire with casual ease, quickly closing the distance on her dazed attacker. She spun in the air and delivered a devastating kick to the stallion's jaw, flattening him instantly.

"What's going on?" Luna wondered as she frantically looked for some figure within the smoke, but she only saw the flash of guns and enraged screams.

Another terrorist sprang at her with a bayoneted assault rifle, firing at her chest. But Shadow Dancer ducked just in time, cloaking just as she did a dive roll to the side. She grabbed two of her twelve throwing knives and slid under the stallion's legs, plunging them into his thighs and bringing him to his knees. She turned around and drove another two knives into his shoulders, and he quickly dropped his rifle as he groaned in agony. He was rendered unconscious instantly as Shadow Dancer smashed the palms of her hands against his temples. The fourth terrorist with a submachine gun was dispatched quickly as Shadow Dancer gave him a palm-heel to the bridge of his snout and fired a taser round into his stomach. A fifth terrorist swung at Shadow Dancer with twin machetes, flailing wildly like an enraged berserker. He swung low, then high, but every swing was evaded. Shadow Dancer then got inside his guard as she slid past him and sunk two throwing knives into his back, then finished him off with an elbow to the head.

The sixth terrorist was armed with a grenade launcher. Shadow Dancer attacked him swiftly and without hesitation; firing off an explosive weapon in such a contained area would seriously damage the building and endanger the hostages, and Shadow Dancer was determined the prevent that. She knocked the weapon out of his hands with a firm kick to the back of his right hand, and she followed up with a jab to the throat with a kick to the jaw; he crumpled as soon as she landed her hoof on his jaw. As the smoke dissipated, Shadow Dancer turned to the commander, who had just recovered from the effects of the flashbang. He grunted angrily as he pulled out the charge detonator in his pocket, and he drew his pistol before Shadow Dancer had the chance to react. He had her frozen in place, and they stood still with the immobilized Twilight, Celestia, and Luna between them.

"Don't move, sweetheart. I've got my finger on this detonator— I hit this and we all go up in flames," The commander said as Shadow Dancer put her hands up at her head level, then proceeded to grab the hidden blade on a compartment attached to her neck. "But you won't get the chance, pumpki-!"

Shadow Dancer tossed the blade into the barrel of the gun, causing it to backfire and explode in his hand, shredding the flesh to pieces. She then moved in for the knockout strike, and spun in a circle, launching a spinning back kick that slammed into his forehead with expert precision, causing him to drop the detonator. However, the commander was hardier than expected, and he regained his wits quickly. Though, she did not get the chance to retaliate, because as soon as he got back on his hooves, Shadow Dancer pinned him against the wall with her elbow against his throat, preventing him from reaching the detonator on the ground.

"Don't try it, you-!" Shadow Dancer gasped as the commander bit down on his tooth, releasing the cyanide inside his hollow tooth.

"Made you... look..." The commander wheezed with a wicked sneer as his eyes rolled back into his head; he was dead in seconds.

"Damn..." Twilight muttered as the commander's corpse dropped to the floor.

"Fuck! Shit!" Shadow Dancer cursed her own stupidity as she deactivated her visor. "Shining Armor, Twilight and the other two princesses are okay but the leader cracked open a cyanide tooth. He's dead."

"Dammit," Shadow Dancer could hear Shining Armor slam on something in an outrage. "He was our only easy way at finding out who orchestrated this."

"So what now...?" Shadow Dancer asked as she removed the princesses' restraints.

"Wait until Blue Thistle handles the armored squadron outside, then we'll get an extraction team there pronto to get you guys home," Shining Armor answered.

"Well, I think you should call in that chopper..." Shadow Dancer said as she peered out the window, watching Blue Thistle tear through the armored stallions. "Cause I think Blue Thistle just yawned a couple times. She's kinda just takin' her sweet time at this point."

Outside the parliament building, Blue Star was annihilating her attackers— if one could even call them 'attackers'. Blue Star tore off the helmet of one stallion's armor, then proceeded to knock him out with a light flick to the forehead. She then grabbed the hoof of another stallion, tossing him into a nearby boutique and caving-in the entire building. Blue Thistle then grabbed the rocket launcher from another stallion, broke it in half with her bare hands like a toothpick, then shattered his entire armor to pieces with a single jab to the chest.

The mecha then sprang into action, loading its fist back for a powerful right hook to Blue Thistle's face. However, the attack did not yield the desired effect whatsoever. Instead, the mech's whole arm exploded as it made contact with Blue Thistle's face; it was as if the machine had tried punching a mountain. Blue Thistle just stood in one spot, not even moving an inch nor flinching as the mecha tried for another punch to her chest; again, nothing. It's left arm shattered into a thousand pieces from the sheer force.

"You are sad machine..." Blue Thistle scoffed as she drove her fist into the mecha's power core, crushing it in her grasp. "Red Tsars make much better robots than this piece of wet tissue paper."

Another member of the armored squad ran at Blue Thistle with a combat knife, malice in his eyes. He stabbed at her chest, but it only managed to cut a wide hole through the top portion of her tank top, almost exposing her left breast.

"You cut hole in clothes!" Blue Thistle growled as she covered her chest, smoke billowing out of her ears. In a rage, she grabbed the sides of the stallion's armor, tore it right off his body, then fell the poor fool with a light smack across the face. "Why do stallions not know manners in this country?!" She sighed as she tore open the mecha's cockpit, revealing the driver inside. "Now... where were we?"

"Fuck you, bitch-!" The terrorist tried biting down on a cyanide pill, but Blue Thistle shoved her hand in his mouth and tore out the fake tooth before he could even blink. "Rraagghh!" The stallion screamed as he cocked back his fist, striking Blue Thistle right on the snout. Though, all that did was fracture his whole hand. "Arrggh! You stupid fuckin' bimbo!"

"Says stallion who failed at moving me single inch with robot punches, then uses regular punch and breaks hand on my face," Blue Thistle shook her head in disappointment as she dragged the flailing stallion of the mecha and tossed his tooth aside. "You make me sad watching you squirm. It is time to give up now."

"Wow... that was kind of boring," Shadow Dancer groaned as she watched Blue Thistle sit on the heap that once was the mecha and hold her captive stallion in place by gripping his hair. Shadow Dancer tilted her head at just the right angle, snickering as she peered into the hole in the buxom mare's tank top. "On the bright side... that's some good under-boob."

"I can hear you, Shadow Dancer..." Shining Armor grumbled through her communicator. "Can you stop ogling her?"

"F-fuck, I'm not gay! I just am acknowledging the obvious fact that she has great tits!" Shadow Dancer's face turned beet red as she tried to explain herself. "Shit, that does sound super gay..."

"Shadow Dancer I wasn't questioning your sexual orientation for Celestia's sake. Can you please just check on Twilight and the others?" Shining Armor asked her as he let out a sigh of exasperation.

"How you doin', fellas?" Shadow Dancer looked back at the remaining hostages who were all just regaining their composure.

"I'm okay..." Twilight shook her head as she closed her eyes, reluctant to look at the two corpses on the ground. "But they killed two ambassadors... shit."

"Okay, so on a scale of one to ten, I'd give your sister like a solid eight in terms of how well she is physically. But as for mentally... I'd give her something around a four..." Shadow Dancer answered Shining Armor.

"Yeah, well, she doesn't see ponies' heads explode on a regular basis, Shadow Dancer!" Shining Armor screamed at the top of his lungs in a fit of rage. "Everypony, get back to base... I think we all need a break. Let the authorities sort out the rest."

"Will do, Shining Armor," Shadow Dancer nodded as she deactivated her communicator, turning to Celestia and Luna. "I'll let the police handle the rest, your highness-... es? Shit, I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough to save those two..."

"Nonsense, you performed admirably. The other twelve ambassadors would've surely been dead if you and your team hadn't stepped in," Celestia reassured her.

"Tell me, what organization do you represent, Vanishing One?" Luna wondered.

"Uh..." Shadow Dancer forgot the name, but she turned to her right side, showcasing the silver ensign on her shoulder.

"The Equestrian Knights...?" Luna's eyes widened as she marveled at the iconic symbol, one that she thought she would never see again. "Perhaps the stars have aligned on this day... they have returned."

Author's Note

Twas a bit dysfunctional... I think they still need a little experience...

As always, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!