The Marine

With heat week over and me settling down, the girls met with Zecora at a cafe to discuss her joining the herd. I was just glad to be out of my cellar, I moved my weapons back into my house and made my cellar back into my hidey hole. I moved a wall aside in my cellar and revealed the entire map of equestria, it was the classic conspiracy board. Strings and thumbtacks into a map with pictures on it. They were, ponies of interest there was Trixie Lulamoon. She's a harmless street magician, I asked Twilight about her and she talked about a small history with her. She pops up from time to time, doing magic tricks at birthday parties and things of that nature. She and I write each other, after all I am sort of a rebel celebrity. I told her that if she wanted to talk at any time, just come to me.

Starlight Glimmer, the leader of a place called Our Town. It looks harmless enough but where the ponies live in bliss, I kept tabs on her. I haven't told Twilight or the others about this, I know she's planning something. I looked over to another picture, Queen Chrysalis queen of the changelings however, something of note. There's a changeling that is living outside of the hive, in the Crystal Empire. I've been here for 3 years and I've set up a network, people that I trust. Former military that is looking for a little more action than just fishing, they report to me and I give them the extra cash that I make by making things. I don't charge out the ass and sometimes I even take some money out of my personal paycheck to pay them for their efforts. Money is money, that can be replaced however, intel wins wars.

My cellar is my base of operations where I keep files on every and any pony that could be a threat, my biggest file is on Celestia. Her history is relatively unknown which is a big disadvantage, Discord isn't going to give up anything about her and I'm not willing piss off a chaos god who can make reality his own personal playground. The things I know about her is that, she's a politician through and through. Master manipulator and has used the girls for her own means more than once. She's been around for at least a thousand years, but her true age is unknown, she's asserted herself, her sister, her niece, and her student as the rulers of Equestria, The Crystal Empire, and Ponyville. So, she's Nepotistic as fuck. Her magic can theoretically move the sun but there's been no real proof, I've planted a seed of doubt into the elements. Made them require answers from the princess, and when they get answers, I'll get some answers. I'm not aiming to put the entire kingdom to its knees, I just want people to open their eyes. The more someone keeps a secret the more devastating it can become. She could be hiding secrets about an even more destructive enemy.

I was deep in thought until I heard a shout. "HEY MICKEY! YOU HERE!?" I knew by the voice it was Rainbow.

I turned off the light, put my files back behind the fake wall, and came out of my cellar. Pinkie was looking around the corner, "I found him!"

The rest of the girls came around the corner with Zecora in tow. "Hello girls," I said as I left my cellar.

"What were you doing in there?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, just moving some things around after heat week." I said.

"Yeah, Zecora told us of what you two got up to during heat week." Twilight crossed her arms.

"Oh, don't give me that look. I just started dating all of you and you expect me to bang you during heat week when we got together a week beforehand?" I argued.

Twilight uncrossed her arms after hearing my reasonable argument. "So, what do you have down there?"

"Spare bed, non-perishable food, and books," I answered. "Basic stuff."

"Okay, so we thought about going up to Canterlot and confrontin' the princess about makin' us do everything." Applejack said.

"I got a better idea," I said. "But we'll need some help."

"From whom?" Twilight asked.

"Tell me Fluttershy, when is your next tea time with Discord?" I asked my new butter yellow pegasus girlfriend.

Fluttershy tapped her chin, "It's tomorrow. I'm guessing you'd like to talk to him?"

"Oh, I'd love to." I grinned.

I told the girls about my plan, now I would go into detail about it right now. However, I'd rather just wait the suspense is worth it. I can hear some of the voices in my head saying that the kingdom should be abolished, I ain't going to do that. I want the truth, not anarchy. If I bring the kingdom down then it will cause total panic among everyone else and people might even die. I ain't having that, I signed up to protect innocent people not get them killed.

I walked around Ponyville, just thinking about what I was about to do. I was gearing up to extract information out of a ruler centuries older than me I was going to need the mother of all game plans. I had to rely on the fact that I was a wild card, I had to stay unpredictable. I needed to become the world's best interrogator in a few days and there wasn't anything that was going to stop me. The day went by quite fast actually, I walked back to my house to find that my door was unlocked. I never leave my door unlocked, I took out the knife I had on me and slowly entered my house.

"This is a quaint little place you have here," A voice called from my recliner and I whipped around to see it was...Luna?

"Luna, I could have killed you." I said as I threw my knife into a target on the wall.

"We both know that was never going to happen." Luna said.

"Why are you here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be with your sister? Manipulating the public?"

"I don't understand why you detest my sister so much." Luna said.

"I don't hate her, I want the truth." I pulled up the singular chair I use in my small dining room and sat across from her. "That doesn't answer my question, why are you here Luna?"

"I know what you're preparing to do, while I don't agree with it entirely. I understand why you must do what you have to," Luna said and then she pulled out a file similar to what I had in my cellar. "I know about your little spy network, it's very ingenious getting retired guards to run security to keep tabs on potential ponies that might cause trouble in the future." Luna handed me the file. "This is a file on my sister."

"Why give it to me?" I looked up at her. "Isn't this treason?"

"Because, you're right. You deserve the truth, and it's not treason if I say it's not." Luna smirked and began to exit when she stopped at the door. "Mickey, I know about your dreams, the spell around this house is just for show."

"It gives me peace of mind. I know you don't want to see the terrible things that are in my dreams, I appreciate you for that." I said as I looked down. "Sometimes peace of mind is all you can afford in the world."

"Yeah it is." Luna looked out into the forest then turned back to look at me. "You don't hate me, in fact it feels like you have some amount of respect for me. Why?"

"We were both monsters at one point, I know that Nightmare Moon is still with you. Just like Iraq and Afghanistan are still with me, we did things. Things that were wrong for reasons we thought were right, no amount of time can ever make up for that. So yeah, I respect you because we're similar, we have burdens and we carry them. We put a smile on our faces and do our fucking jobs because no one else will." I said.

"Some might say that Tia had her burdens when she banished me to the moon." Luna looked sullen.

"That doesn't excuse her from using her student and five of her citizens to deal with her problems on a constant basis. She's a ruler, she should put herself before her citizens, make sacrifices herself before others. She should be upfront, and not play fucking chess games with people. It's worked out so far, but one of these days. Someone's going to die, then who will she blame?"

"By the stars, I can't imagine if something like that happened," Luna looked at the door frame.

"I can, which is why I'm prepared for it," I said. "Thank you Luna. If you want to talk again, send a letter ahead of time. Then maybe us monsters can have a chat and a spot of tea."

"I prefer coffee actually," Luna said as she walked out the door. "Goodnight Mickey."

"Goodnight Moon." I said as she spread her wings and flew back to Canterlot.