Page 1
I woke up to the annoying sound of my alarm clock going off, and in a daze I hit the button to make it shut up. I thought briefly about going back to sleep, but I remembered that I had to be up when Celestia's sun is rising to be ready to respond to anything throughout the day.
I only just recently came back from a previous mission to take out a target, and I came back to my "home" when Luna's moon was on it's decent. I ended up dreaming about the mission itself so I had little chance to get decent sleep. I was up now, and there is no way in hell I'd be able to go back to sleep again.
I rolled out of the bed and landed on my hooves and stretched. Moving the curtains out of the way to let Celestia's sun in. However much to my dismay Celestia had her sun be rather bright, and I had to shield my eyes for a moment before they readjusted to the light. I turned around to start to head to the kitchen when I saw my reliable rifle with scope with wooden framing and stock sitting on the floor. I sighed as I picked it up and slinging it back around my back. The rifle itself is a favorite of mine, reliable scope with magnification of 100m × 8 to 100m × 40 and a smooth fast bolt action lever pull. Some ponies may question my choice of weapon, but it's a weapon made for long combat.
The other sort of weapon I remembered to pick up was my closer ranged weapon, a pistol. It was a simple metal color and had none of those fancy golden details that some ponies happen to love putting on them, but it's saved my hide more times in the past than should be healthy for any normal pony. Then again, I was not really a normal pony anyways after taking up my current job.
After making sure my equipment was secured in place I started making my way to the kitchen before I paused to look at a mirror I had on the closet. I saw my own reflection of a dusty brown fur and my dark brown eyes. I noted the bags below my eyes for only a moment before I moved on into the kitchen where I pressed a button on the coffee maker to make a brew so beloved of those who work late night shifts and went to sit on an old two-seater couch and picked up a newspaper that I brought in the night before.
Most of the headlines on it were just meaningless chatter and idle speculations or gossip. I had to chuckle slightly about some of the headlines, especially the ones talking about the newest princess. She was a favored target of many newspapers to have multiple gossiping about her, and I doubt she would ever have it stop anytime soon.
The sound of beeping drew me away from the newspaper so I left it where it was upon one of my old coffee tables and headed back to the kitchen, grabbing a cup out of the cupboard as I went past it. I poured myself a cup and took a long drink. The bitter drink was quite helpful in waking the rest of the way up, and I started to head back to the couch when I was interrupted by knocking on the door. I let out a sigh and headed over to the door and opened it.
Standing in front of the door was one of the favorite messengers for Princess Celestia: a pony who's so similar to most of her guards that it's hard to tell them apart.
"I see you're awake, good," he stated.
"Unless you're here for small talk, give me the message," I responded simply. He pulled out a package and gave it to me, I gave him a nod in return and shut the door. I didn't need to see him leave since most likely he has other important things to do, like stand stoically in front of the throne room of Celestia and glare daggers at any who try to approach.
Inside, I set the package on the table and started opening it while taking a sip of my coffee. The paper around it fell away easily enough, and it revealed a familiar brown box. I knew what this meant, another mission is ready for me. I opened the box up and pulled out a paper written in it's clean cursive writing, obviously from the sun princess herself.
"Dear Sharp Scope,
I am pleased about the success of your mission, however you must ready yourself for another mission.
Rumors have been spreading about the safety of Twilight Sparkle, and I wish you to investigate them, for a week I need you to watch my student to ensure her safety, She and her friends must also not know of your mission unless in the most extreme circumstance.
I wish you the best of luck.
Celestia."
I sighed to myself, a mission to guard the newest princess? She must really be concerned about something, or perhaps a threat of reprisal from my previous mission has been brought to her attention. I knew Celestia and Luna could take care of themselves, and Cadance is a ruler of another country entirely. That only left the student of Celestia in the town of Ponyvile. The mission sounded simple enough, but no doubt that Celestia wants me to make friends with the townsfolk. I didn't need friends much, and the less ponies who knew about my work the better. But denying the mission given is treason to the crown, and would get me hunted down by my fellow angels, and would possibly endanger the new princess. I had my doubts about things, but I decided that the mission is most likely needed.
I turned to look at the old fashioned clock on the wall. 8:30, and the train would leave for Ponyvile from the station at 8:50, so I had to leave now if I wanted to catch the train. I chugged the rest of my coffee and set it in the sink before putting the box and paper into the fire. I needed to make sure I left no trace of the message in case anyone decides to search through my house. I then opened the door and walked out into what some may call a beautiful day.
I'd call it more of a day of blood, if there were actual threats. Especially theirs when they find out that one of the guardian angels has come into the town.
An interlude
Ah, before I continue on with the story I should probably inform you about a few things about the place. It shouldn't take me too long hopefully, but it may help you understand a bit more about the place. Lets start off with the most obvious, if they have hooves then why do they have guns? The truth is, it all goes back to a bit of time in the past. Back to the days before the equestrians knew about the existence of gunpowder they utilized the most obvious weapons of the time: Spears, swords, crossbows. The sort of things that have been used before.
All that changed when a unicorn scientist created, or more accurately, accidentally made gunpowder. I couldn't find too much information about the unicorn him or herself but they were the one to cause a small spark of revolution for the ponies.
Gunpowder has plenty of uses today actually: Fireworks, explosives (if only rarely), and sometimes in the occasional mixture. Truthfully the ponies themselves never thought of a gun being possible at the time. Would have stayed the way were it not for a unicorn by the name of Test Shot. Originally he was going to make the first gun that could be used by only unicorns, but he eventually scrapped the research in favor of something else that was more interesting, or perhaps he didn't have the time he really needed for the research.
The research surprisingly didn't end then and there though. The notes of the gun made its way to the west to the deserts of Appaloosa, where it was picked up by sheer chance alone by an earth pony by the name of Colt. His full name was Little Colt, but he was far from little. Upon looking over the notes he decided that he wasn't going to let the unicorns take all the glory for a new invention, and started up his own research. He looked for ways to make it so anyone can use it without a need of magic or mouth to fire the gun. I'll be honest here, he took quite a long time to discover the method of using the gun, about five years to be exact. During that time he did find out how to compress the gunpowder into a smaller projectile, making a projectile that is more dangerous that an arrow from a bow or crossbow.
He also discovered a rather interesting fact: Earth ponies have a slight magical field around the hooves, but it is a passive sorts of magic instead of a active magic such as used by unicorns or pegasi for flight. Upon this discovery, Colt devised the framing of the first ever gun to be usable by any and all ponies. It is what you'd call a revolver, but they called it the Colt Revolver. A high recoil and slightly weighted, but would deal a powerful blow to anyone hit by its projectile. The first use of it was by Little Colt himself when a tribe of buffalo raided the town. Unlike the buffalo you know of today, these ones were extremely violent and were likely to run you over than to talk with you.
The weapon itself was a slight accidental use, but upon firing the revolver he caused the fatality of one of the raiders. The other raiders did not stay long within the town, and Little Colt was hailed by the townsfolk of Appaloosa as a hero. Heroes are the ones who's names are more remembered than those who began it all.
A year afterwards, other ponies have started creating their own sorts of weaponry based off the Colt Revolver. Weapons such as the semi-automatic pistol, the longer ranged rifle which would eventually lead to the invention of the sniper rifle, and even the most conventional weapon that is commonly used by many today: The Bolt.
The bolt is a pistol that fires about as fast as you can 'pull' the trigger, and it is a semi-automatic form of pistol with a frame ranging from either wood to metals to plastics. The most commonly used frame is the metal frame, as it's most reliable for shooting as straight at close range as possible without damaging the frame itself. The bullets and the ammunition would be sold separate from the gun itself, but it is more concerns of safety instead of concerns of race. Even Celestia herself along with her sister Luna acknowledged the danger behind the weapons, but still commonly trained their soldiers in the use of spear and bow. If just for show.
On the subject of Celestia and Luna, both of them realized the dangers of using the modern weapons and drafted up a few laws involving them, stating that killing with such weapons is still equivalent to a murder unless done in self defense. They may not have needed to make them as the ponies are mostly peaceful and would only rarely actively use such weapons, but they agreed that it's a better idea to have such laws in place than to have nothing in place if they became more common.
The other thing in response to the rising wave of gunpowder weapons being used is create a new branch of guards trained in use of it. They knew that if knowledge of the branch got out to the public there would be a possible outrage among the ponies. So they decided to have them trained in the art of longer ranged combat. The branch would be eventually known as the Guardian Angels due to their ability to defend a target at long range without being revealed themselves. In my opinion they are more akin to snipers than they are to angels due to their brutal efficiency at their jobs.
A bit of digging on my part revealed some simple rules of the Guardian Angels:
1. Do not reveal yourself to anyone that you are a guardian angel except when circumstances are dire enough to require it.
2. Maintain a low profile. Don't try to be a hero to save the life of one pony unless they are related to who you protect.
3. The princesses orders are absolute, failure to follow them intentionally is treasonous.
4. Guardian angels may only retire upon reaching a certain age, or health limitations restrict them from their work
5. Only angels may deal with rouge angels. If an angel is suspected to be rogue, you are to eliminate him or her at any cost.
6. Do not harm innocents both directly or indirectly unless left with absolutely no choice.
These aren't all the rules of the Guardian Angels of course but these are the most important ones that are most likely to be followed. A majority of them do try to follow the last rule, harm no innocents directly or indirectly, to a surprisingly high degree. Most of the Guardian Angels distance themselves as much as possible from the civilians as they can, even from the guards as they can. So most tend to lead isolated lives, much to the dismay of Princess Celestia herself. She in a way wishes them to have friends, but they refuse to make them just simply due to the risk that they could become involved if they were close. It's a sad state of affairs that they willingly put themselves in, but it does somewhat help them out when they take on missions in other countries such as Griffonia, Yakkistan, The Crystal Empire, and even further beyond.
Ah, I must have talked your ear off about history and technicalities enough. I shall end my explanations here but I may speak up again sometime later on. Especially considering how Sharp Scope fares in Ponyvile.
Author's Note
From here on, I'll try to make a chapter every single week. I'll be involving in these interludes if questions in the comments ask of the same thing, or if there's something that I want to expand upon. However this will be possibly the only interlude chapter I'll do for this story.
To be honest this is the first time in a long time that I'm writing a story based off an older story I've written, so I'm going to be blunt. I'll get obvious dislikes from this point on, and will keep getting those since no one will bother to explain why. If you dislike the story for any reason, TELL me why so I can possibly improve upon it. As of this point on, I'll be writing most of this story on my own but I'll be watching the comments and my PM box.
If you feel you could help improve the story in any way, then I'd be happy to talk with you over PM and get ideas or what could be done in the future. It's not entirely set in stone.
Page 2
I stepped off the train and took a look around the place. I could agree that it was a rustic look, but that just made it both easier and harder on me to move around because of how much of the town could be presumed to be made of wood. The train ride to this quiet town was simple, but most of the ponies were either wary of me, as they should be. Or they were curious about why I was carrying a rifle and a bit of equipment to a quiet town where I was to take my vacation. It was the best excuse to explain my reasoning for going to Ponyvile without drawing too much attention.
I could also hear the quiet whispering if I pushed my hearing to its limit, some of the nearer ones tried to ask one another what I was carrying, but they had no clear answers at all. In fact, some of them were still watching me as I left the train as it pulled into the station.
I had no reason to stay around on the wooden platform for any longer than I needed to be, so I took a few steps off. Almost immediately I was face to face with the sight of a pink pony with cyan blue eyes. I refrained myself from reaching for either a knife or my pistol, I wasn't fond of surprises at all. She suddenly backed up slightly and smiled at me, a surprisingly genuine smile.
"Hi there! You must be new to Ponyvile, and I would know because I know all the Ponies in Ponyvile. What's your favorite cupcake flavor?"
I was caught off guard by her sudden questions, but I figured she was just a civilian and relaxed slightly.
"I am new to Ponyvile actually, and I don't really eat cupcakes," I told her as level as I could make myself be.
"Then why don't you come with me to Sugarcube Corner? I know you'll love the cupcakes, I made them myself!"
"Again Miss..." I realized I have yet to get her name, but she caught on rather quickly, maybe even surprisingly quick.
"Pinkie Pie, what's your name?"
"Sharp Scope," For some reason, I figured if she smiled a lot like that and sounded so cheerful all the time, she had no experience at all in combat. It also confirmed to me that she was indeed a civilian, so I could at the least trust her slightly.
"Ooh, cool name!"
"Weren't you going to give me the tour of the town?" I asked, hoping to distract her from attempting to get me to eat a cupcake.
"Only once you've agreed to have a cupcake," She stated. The way she said it was almost as if it were a fact that I was going to do it anyways. I sighed softly, knowing that ponies like this who are smart enough to not get too distracted wouldn't give up so easily on their intended goal.
"Fine, but if you know the town well then could you tell me where would be a good place to sleep?" She hopped once in joy before suddenly dragging me to a building that looked like as if ice cream decided to die on the roof without melting. I glared at her once she let me go.
"Don't do that again to me,"
"Oops, sorry! I'll show you around the town and introduce you to my friends after!"
"I don't need to meet with your friends," I stated to her. I wasn't about to tell her that I was actually not here to make friends, she sounded so innocent enough. But innocence can sometimes hide the sights of blood.
"Why not?" She asked me in what sounded like genuine curiosity.
"Not too many good experiences with friends" I said, although most of my 'friends' were either hostile forces that I put a bullet in their head to survive, or my fellow angels. But I had more experience with the former over the later due to the fact that we do not contact each other in case of capture.
"Well you can trust my friends!" She insisted once again.
"It's either the cupcake with the tour or meeting your friends and the tour, I will not do both." I could see that my statement had an effect on her, and she thought about the decisions for a bit before smiling at me with that wide smile of hers again.
"I'll give you the bonifide Pinkie Pie Ponyvile tour and let you meet my friends during it!" She said with excitement. I nodded at her and she took off seemingly fast, but I was able to follow her. Or perhaps she slowed down just enough to let me follow, I couldn't tell. I did sigh in relief internally because by sheer chance I was able to convince this excited pony to not make me eat a cupcake. I was afraid if I did eat one, then I'd be too attached to the town and leaving it would be all the harder once my mission was fully complete.
The first stop was the most important one: the town hall. I didn't exactly meet with the so called mayor mare, but my 'tour guide' instead introduced me to someone else. When I say introduced, I'll admit that nearly choking out a rainbow maned cyan pegasus who just attempted to tackle me at high speeds was not how I'd picture an introduction. Luckily for the Rainbow Mane, Pinkie told me that she's a friend of hers, and convinced me to let go of her before she was knocked unconscious. I did get her name: Rainbow Dash, a current Wonderbolt member and a part of the Ponyvile weather team.
It was a rather rocky start, but I would have never imagined a Wonderbolt living in the town, so I apologized rather hesitantly. Of course after coming up with a quick explanation about why I nearly choked her out, which involved a 'brother' who I never had and a 'game' that we always played, she believed me and apologized about attempted to tackle me. We chatted for a bit, which was honestly more of Pinkie Pie trying to get us to talk but failing to get much of anything out of me, before moving on with the tour. I did not miss the way that Rainbow glared at me before flying away to do something 'important'. In reality, I saw her lay down on a cloud and nap where she thought I wasn't going to see.
The... ugh... the next place she introduce to me was the Carousel Boutique. I was never fond of Boutiques or fashion, just another thing that the nobles in Canterlot loved to lord over to each other. It was by luck that I didn't meet the one who lived in it, yet Pinkie told me to watch for a marshmallow colored unicorn with ladylike mannerisms and a surprising generous heart. When I asked her name she told me her name: Rarity Belle
She also told me of Rarity's younger sister: Sweetie Belle. A white unicorn foal. I kept that in mind, but only if just to know who to avoid, since on the subject she told me about the Cutie Mark Crusaders and all the antics they have done in the past. They had their cutie marks by now, so they tried to help other ponies understand their own mark. That wasn't a problem to me though, I knew my mark very well: the cross hairs that you would see when you looked down the scope of my rifle. It meant that I was very accurate and more likely than not heads will find bloody holes in them. I wasn't going to mention that fact though, so I had an idea of what to explain to them if they ever do get curious.
Once again, Pinkie showed me another place I'd really not use at all: The Spa. I honestly didn't see the absolute need for it because of how long my missions go on and how often they can become, but I had to really convince Pinkie Pie that I didn't need to get a spa treatment. She only agreed because of the most inane reason I've given her: My mane would cause a lot of customers to faint at the sight of it. There's nothing excessively wrong with it in my opinion, but I barely could give it a wash because more often than not I never had the time to do so. Pinkie did mention to me about booking an appointment with me at the spa sometime just because, but I refused her outright. I had no desire to do anything of the sort, even though she gave me the largest case of Puppy dog eyes. By Celestia, I didn't even think a grown mare could even make such eyes.
After convincing her to give up and making her do her Pinkie Pie Promise, which she claims she never breaks, I continued on the tour with her. She tried to hide a slight frown, but when she saw me looking she put the smile back on her face. I could tell then she tries hard to smile, even if there's nothing really to smile about. I only somewhat hoped that she wouldn't break down over such a thing.
As we traveled through Ponyvile and I was mentally noting all the perfect spots to climb onto roofs from, she talked with me about her other friends. Applejack: An orange mare who is about as charming as her family in Appleoosa were, and always wore a stetson. We only just briefly met before she went back to her work at the apple stand. She gave me a rather mistrusting look at me before going back behind the stand, but I paid it no heed.
Fluttershy: A butterscotch yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, I never met her in the tour that Pinkie gave me. It was for the best since Pinkie described Fluttershy as an extremely shy pony who is somewhat easily scared. I made a harsh quip about how I'd probably look like some monster to her. Pinkie stopped in her tracks and looked at me with a strangely sad look before replacing it again with a cheerful look immediately. I didn't know why she gave me that look, but I never asked before she went on about her other friends as if nothing had happened.
Our last stop was at a giant crystal tree house. I wish I were just seeing things, but it was a giant tree made of crystals that was used as the castle of Pinkie's last friend: Twilight Sparkle. I questioned about why would it be a giant tree yet Pinkie shrugged, saying that it was how the writers of that episode put it as. I gave her a confused look, but she went on to knock on the door of the castle. Shortly afterwards the door opened to reveal a small dragon standing there with a rather amusing looking cooking apron on.
Most dragons I've met and seen were either hostile, proud, or downright menacing, and they met the same fate: a well placed bullet to the eye, or multiples of them to their soft underbelly. This small dragon was very different, after a conversation with Pinkie Pie he introduced himself to me as Spike. I introduced myself as Sharp Scope in return and we both went into the castle.
I know of castles before, by Tartarus I even knew about the old castle of the two sisters. It made for a great temporary sniping nest for when I needed to stop a foe in the Everfree forest nearby to be forever lost to the wild forest, but the crystal tree castle? It had excessively so many doors that one would actually get lost in it if they didn't have a guide. Spike even admits that he himself gets lost sometimes. I told him that oddly enough, the expanse makes for a great defensive position and when I get the inevitable question about why, I told him that I read strategy books every now and then.
Eventually we reached the place where Spike told Pinkie that Twilight was, along with her student. I wondered who the student was, but put it out of my mind for the time being, Pinkie was rather excited and once Spike knocked on the door and the answer rang out he opened the door for us to see the vast library. There were shelves and shelves of books all along the walls, and I couldn't tell exactly how many books she owned.
What took my attention the most was at the center of the room. I saw Twilight Sparkle, the one who I was supposed to protect by any means. She was a Purple or lavender Alicorn with nearly the same color mane but with a pink streak through it. I was never supposed to meet her, but there was something else more pressing to me. Standing next to her with just about as equal of a curious look but almost a frightened look was someone familiar to me. I had to refrain from pulling my weapon out then and there because I couldn't forget the look of a pony who I failed to capture. The one pony who was able to elude me for so long before I was ordered by Celestia herself to stop hunting her down. She was pink, had a purple mane and tail with a teal streak through it, and purple and white star with blue glimmering streams as a cutie mark.
Starlight Glimmer
