The Book Master
Prologue
Hello. My name is Peter. Though most people call me ‘Pete’ or “The Book Master”
You may be thinking “Who the hell is this guy and why should I give 2 bits about him?”
Well maybe its because you ended up here because you were bored or because of all the hype about My little Pony, or for that matter; My little Dashie, interested you in this story.
I first heard about My little Pony when I first began my job at the organization, it was a common place for the agents to go. Mostly what they said was it was a milkrun most of the time. So I guess I was lucky enough to get this as my first operation
But let me back up and explain myself to you.
I was born on the 20th of August, 1983. I had a rough time growing up and was bullied and eventually turned to shoplifting, alcohol and then one day in a drunken stupor.
Assault. Now imagine yourself 17 years old, on rough withdrawal from alcohol, in prison, awaiting trial for something you can only vaguely remember.
Scary? You bet it was. It was even scarier because my parents had died in the Oklahoma bombings and I had been “adopted” by a gang.
But when I was younger I used to love books. I had gotten 2 library cards (one in my name, the other in my parent’s) I would soak up books like water in a sponge. Even now I was reading a book in my cell about the possible transmutable properties of aluminum.
I was a smart kid but I never really did well in school. I had these ‘ideas’ for all sorts of things: solar panels, sustainable buildings, military weapons and the like. So all in all, I never really focused much on school. I could read, write, do math and basic science, know the difference between my shoulder and my leg, and that was about it.
As I was siting in my cell wondering what to do. I was suddenly blinded by a bright light (it wouldn't be much of a story if I went to prison and stayed there, got out and learned my lesson and then had a normal life, now would it?) A large purple-ish portal opened.
“Meh, what the hell” and I walked through.
As I entered the portal I felt a sort of stretching, but to cut to the actual story and skip a whole bunch of backlog.
Blah blah blah, client, blah blah blah, Book Master, blah blah blah, equipment, blah blah blah, redemption.
“Now get out there!”
Ever watch “Doctor Who”? Yeah, the weird space alien time-traveler.
I, at this stage, am pretty much him minus the Tardis.
What a book master’s job entails is working for “The Client” in obtaining something, whether it be from a TV show, book, or even a video game.
“Wait, wait, wait. So you can travel in time and space, AND transport yourself into media works?”
Well not exactly.
A book master’s job (as I said before) is working for an anonymous client who pays the organization I work with for obtaining a sample of DNA or part of an item. For instance: a sample of blood of a character within a book, or a chipping of say a piece of armor that someone was wearing.
I also have this glove. It is a wondrous managery of science: quantum physics, DNA imprinting and just hardcoded nuclear plutonium technology. It looks like a fingerless bikers glove. Black with red trim. It also has this readout with a projector built into it. Sorta like a mobile computer. It provides me with a readout that I can use to scan people. It’s quite helpful in identifying targets.
It also has a small compartment in which samples can be scanned, sample read It could also turn into any item that I had collected a sample of. For instance if I had a sample of a shield I could turn it into a copy of the shield. It could also teleport us to any point in time and space within a dimensional plane within range of a day or two and about a mile.
To move from plane to dimensional plane we had these aircraft that are fitted with a special reactor that allowed us to move around different dimensional planes. I don’t know the direct science of it, I just know to just stay away or else, kgggh! I was also provided with a Glock 19, 3 clips of ammo plus the one in the gun, plus a shoulder holster. I was to choose my own outfits from their selection.
I finally chose a black, light combat shirt, tan cameo pants, and running shoes and socks.
After a few weeks of training, which involved me training my eyes, ears, and trigger finger, my partner was picked and we started training and eating together. His name was Daniel. He left the army and was a bit older than I was. Since the organization's main base is orbiting a black hole, people come on and out all the time. On the base you barely age which keeps us all fit, and clear of any disease.
It was calm until “The Boss” told me I was going on a mission.
I began the long walk up to his office, most people don’t see his face but I did,
I shudder now just thinking about it, but I digress
“The Boss” told me I would be dropped into a place that I wouldn’t like.
“Not worse than anything else in my life” I muttered
“What was that?”
“Nothing! Nothing..”
And so my mission, My first in fact, began
The Book Master: The Dashie Chronicles, part 1.
The Landing.
Day 1
0900 hours. The Sky over Equestria.
Foxtrot Team.
1st Operation.
Current Dimensional Plane: My Little Dashie Stories. Post book 2. Equestria.
Client Requirements:
Client requires blood samples from the following:
Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy,
Princesses Celestia and Luna.
Client pay $5,000 Bonus per sample of horn of the following:
Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Princesses Celestia and Luna.
Client will also pay $6,000 for 1 feather per, from each of the following:
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Princesses Celestia and Luna.
Allowed Time for Operation: 2 months.
Budget for Operation: $10,000 in Equestrian Money (bits [5,000]).
Client Pricing: Blood Samples only, $25,000. Complete set, $75,000 plus bonuses.
$3,000 tips for operators will be provided by client.
Operators: Peter (codename Fox).
Daniel (codename Rabbit).
Coms Officer: Laurena (codename Eagle).
Secured Safe-houses in place: N/A.
Equipment: Personal Guns, Supplies for 2 weeks, 3 GLOVEs. 3 SYRINGEs
Notes: Operators are not to harm persons in this world unless deemed as an act of self defense vs lethal intentions, stun darts have been provided if sample hosts are deemed ‘difficult’.
Codename’s are not required in this operation
Signatures of Operators:
PETER
DANIEL
Laurena
“Peter? Peter!”
“Wha-? hmmm?” I mumbled drowsily.
“Pete!”
I feel a shove and I fall out of my bed. I open my eyes and I see my friend Daniel. Daniel is my partner when I do my operations and we have become friends. We have many of the same interests: pranks, drinking, and, well, drinking.
I feel the plane banking and I slide a bit to the left. Daniel chuckles as he walks over to the large conference table in the middle of the plane.
“Good, you’re up” says a young woman as she strides into the room, oblivious to the plane’s banking with two cups of coffee in her hand and a small sized file in the other.
“As are you, Laurena” I say as I bring myself to my feet.
“Yeah, you usually sleep till noon most days,” Daniel quipped.
“Oh, I always get up reeealy early before an operation.”
“So, Laurena, this is your third operation right?” I say as I check my gun.
“Yessireebob. And my first one on the ground,” She said with an air of excitement.
“So Laurena, as this being our first operation and all. Can you give us a lowdown of what will happen,” Daniel asked.
“Here, read this.” she said and took a sip of her coffee and then slid the file over to me.
“What did we do to get assigned this shit job? I mean ponies? Really?! What are we? Little girls?” Daniel muttered.
“Well the, as you say, ponies; are quite peaceful as long as . The only hard ones to get blood, or for that matter anything from; are these two ‘Princesses.’ O.P.I. (Operational Intelligence) says they are called Alicorns, or ponies with both horns and wings. There is only 1 known human in the area, or for that matter; this Equestria place.
I skimmed over the file and saw all the targets. I looked at the pictures and they did all look peaceful. The problem was is that I heard that these ‘Unicorns’ could use some sort of magic. Other than that it shouldn’t be to hard. With the GLOVE’s and SYRINGES, we should be fine.
“I wonder if their so called magic can penetrate the GLOVE’s shield?” I thought out-loud to myself.
“Oh no, Daniel modded the glove’s with an anti-magic shield that we acquired from a different ops. We tested it and it worked fine,” Laurena reassured. “By the way did you watch the first 3 episodes of ‘My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic’ and then read the two ‘My little Dashie stories.”
“Too tired,” Said Daniel as he got his coffee. Daniel was one of the few morning persons we knew. And from training in the morning till the sun set at night (if we didn’t have an Operation that is); he was just plum tuckered out by then. The only real time we got a break was from 8-10 PM. Leisure time. Then it was lights out by 11. Daniel liked to sleep so much, well; he slept during Leisure time and was up before even the dawn most mornings.
I myself was more of a night owl. I always kept a flashlight on my bedside to read at late night as the lights went out at 11 automatically and there was no real way to turn them back on. So, as in my childhood; I read. A lot. I read up on our weapons, tactics, even hardcore strategy. But seeing as this was ponies I just couldn’t be bothered. I mean, the files do tell us everything we need to know.
“I just don’t give a damn,” I said. I kept reading the file. Though it was small there were a lot of pictures. Apparently with this ‘pegasus pony’ called Rainbow Dash we would have a bit of trouble. There was a human (the only human in fact in this nutzo world) that claimed to be Rainbow’s father and was very protective of her.
“Well, some of us do!” Laurena spat at us.
“Oy, you three back there, keep it down. We are almost at the drop point. I can’t stay here for long as the CHARGE reactor won’t hold for more than 20 minutes,” Says the pilot.
“Ok, I’ll get the parachutes. You get your equipment ready,” Laurena orders us.
“I’m opening the doors in 3 minutes, you best get ready,” the pilot tells us.
I check my gun and my supplies that I have on me. I get my GLOVE and my SYRINGE.
A SYRINGE is an advanced blood sampler. And oddly enough it looks like the 11th Doctor Who’s Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.
“Ok, here is your parachute,” Laurena tosses it to me, “And yours Daniel”
“Thanks,” I say.
Daniel mumbles something under his breath which he tends to do when he’s thinking. I scan the file with my GLOVE and put the file back on the table.
“Alright, I’m opening the doors now,” says the pilot. The side door near the wing opens slowly and rolls flush against the fuselage.
We start to strap on our parachutes and are getting ready to jump.
“I’ll send the supplies in roughly 2 days along with long distance dimensional CON. If you haven’t found a place say ‘code 3-code 3-code 3’ If you have, but its too close to other people to drop without attracting attention say ‘code 2-code 2-code 2’ and then tell us where you’d like us to drop the supplies. Say ‘code 1-code 1-code 1’ if you found a place and its ok to drop supplies near there. Got all that?” asks the pilot.
We nod. Laurena goes to get her own gun from her bunk area, (a customized and personalized 3.5.7. magnum) We hear a sonic boom and then look out the side door while fighting the wind. We see a rainbow and I just have enough time to say
“Well, Fuck”
The cyan and rainbow object tears a hole straight through the wing near the hovering-rotors leaving a large hole smoking badly as we start to lose altitude.
“I’m going to put her down in the forest over there! You three just jump!” Yells the pilot.
And so, we jump.
After three seconds we pull the rip-cord and we check to make sure our in ear coms are working properly.
“Fox, checking in.”
“Rabbit, checking in.”
“Eagle, checking in.”
We watch as the hover-plane spirals towards the forest.
“There goes 2 mil, down the drain,” moans Daniel.
“Well, John (our pilot) is one of the best. If anyone can put her down without severe damage; he can,” says Laurena.
“Where are we gonna land?”
“I think we should land as close to the plane as possible” I say.
Just as I make the statement we see a small explosion in the forest. Shit.
“Whew,” says Laurena.
“Whew? WHEW?! Our goddam plane just exploded!” ranted Daniel.
“No, It didn’t explode,” says Laurena calmly. “Well, at least not totally. It wasn’t that big. It was probably only an engine, not the main fuel tank.”
“Well, ok, if you say so,” I say as we land in the forest.
We walk a bit towards what we thought where the wreckage was.
As we arrive on scene we see, as Laurena predicted, only the port engine exploded and the rest of the plane was relatively intact. We saw John trying to put out the fire.
John looks towards us.
“Hey you guys. A little help?” John offers us the fire extinguisher and we each take a sample of the foam with our GLOVEs. We activate the GLOVEs and we put out the fire quickly.
“Whats the damage, John?” asks Daniel.
“Well, other than the hole that...Thing; made, and the damaged engine and a little bit of scarring on the hull; she is airworthy as a bird.” Laurena, without a word to us; walks inside the plane for a few minutes and then comes back out with her gun. She loads it and puts in her thigh holster.
“What?” she looks at us as we stare.
“Nothing.” I say “So, John, what will it take to get her fully airworthy again?”
“A lot of repairs that’s for sure, but the radio is fully intact so Laurena can stay here while I repair the engine and inform HQ of our problem. There are also supplies for about 1 week for the four of us.”
“Houston; we have a problem,” chuckles Daniel.
“I’ll go scout out the area,” I say as I move off.
I move through the forest like a shadow and I climb a tall tree to check my surroundings. I see the smoke from the wreckage starting to dissipate. I give a small sigh and jump from the tree to a nearby maple thats a bit lower down. I jump from tree to tree like a monkey till I reach the tree-line. I see a town not too far away and decide to try out the teleport to see if it will work. I point it at the steeple of the main building. A weird church maybe? And I flex my wrist. The glove is hooked into my own brain via a chip in both my head and the glove; so in essence it can read my mind and know what I want to do with it.
I am teleported to the steeple and have to grab onto it to keep from falling off the steep roof. I see ponies everywhere. Most are just regular but some fly or have horns. I pull up the file on my glove and check to see where everything is. I’m quite surprised the inhabitants don’t notice me. This building I’m standing on is apparently the town hall. I scroll through seeing the targets houses and doing a mental check.
Thankfully my glove has some preloaded items such as a grappling hook and an eye display telescope. I hook myself into the steeple and I point my glove at the library window. I see multiple entrances and exits witch in the event of her calling for help I’ll be able to get in and out quickly.
“Too bad for this Miss Sparkle, then,” I chuckle to myself.
I then point at a place that looked like a sweet factory had an accident. I focus in on a large window and I see the target. A pony by full name of Pinkeamena Diane Pie. Jesus H. Christ. She has had waaaay to much caffeine.
I then point my glove at something that looks like a carousel but see nobody in there.
I detach my grappling hook and fire at a building and reel in. I start jumping from building to building. Those long hours of blisters on the freerunning course help me know. I look around to make sure the coast is clear and then check in.
“Fox, checking in.”
“Go ahead, Fox.”
“I found three of the target’s homes and am on my way to the other two that are supposed to be in the area.”
“Keep up the good work, Base out.”
I walk along the path towards what’s called the Apple Valley Ranch. I hear voices, I jump into a bush and hide.
“Y’know, Twi, I’ma gettt’n worried about Brian. I heard he ain’t doing too well.” says somepony
That must be Applejack and Twilight Sparkle; two of my targets. Oh, how simple it would be to just hop out of my bush and just take a quick sample of their blood.
‘No, no. Not yet. Each of them has to be alone,’ I think
“I’m sure he will be fine, AJ. He just needs to rest.”
As they pass I take a quick scan. (I wasn't able to do this with Pinkie Pie because windows inhibit scans.) Thankfully they don’t notice and I start walking up the path. I see the apple family ranch and take a quick look around and then teleported back to town (the glove is limited by teleportation range.) It is now nighttime and most of the residents are sleeping. I hop down to the road and then into an alleyway, but when I start to walk down the alley I hear voices from the main road. Again its Applejack and Twilight Sparkle but I hear another voice chime in as they pass.
“As Twilight says my dear, you have nothing at all to worry about.”
That must be Rarity, the other Unicorn pony I need to get samples from. I take a scan and then move on towards Fluttershy’s supposed home as I hear their voices fade into the distance
“I just don’t know Rarity, its just that Rainbow’s so attach.....
I arrive at Fluttershy’s home at dark. Its a simple cottage with a thatched roof, surrounded by plants and to my dismay only a single door that I can see. I decide to take a look around for a alternate entrance when I hear a voice behind me.
“W-w-w-who is there” I hear. I freeze, not daring to move a muscle.
I see a dark shape flutter out the door with a candle in hand. She starts to fly over to me. ‘Now’s the time to act’ I slowly take out a stun dart bullet and load it but she hears the click of the magazine. I cock the gun as she comes towards me with my back turned and she is startled by the odd sound.
“Who-o-o are y-y-you, a human?” she stutters.
“No” I calmly say. “Just a dream.”
I slowly turn round and put my finger on the trigger and fire.
“But how can y-GAKL” she doesn't have time to finish her sentence as the dart reaches her.
I check for signs of bleeding. Theres a little blood around the dart but nothing to worry about. She’s fast asleep and hopefully she’ll just think it was a weird dream. The bang from the gun wasn't too loud thanks to my silencer. I take a scan and take out the dart and break the needle, dripping what’s left of the sedative into her mouth and throw the dart away. I eject the cartridge and smash it on the ground. No evidence. Ever.
Day 2 .
The First Targets.
Coms Officer Laurena’s log.
Crash Site, The Everfree Forest, Equestria.
1100 hours.
Repairs on the plane go steadily, thankfully John has found a spare engine, though just in parts, in the emergency repair kit. The hole has been patched up and the severed fuel line fixed. Daniel has found a source of fresh water in this creepy forest and we have managed to stay hidden. A few Pegasus flew over about 0900 hours and we could just hear them talking here is a recording
[static]
“I thought I saw smoke around here”
“Well, Lyra said she saw something fall from the sky about 10 o’clock.”
“Yeah, but whatever it was, the smoke, and it; are probably gone now”
“Good, Lets head back to town. I heard Pinkie had made some fresh [voices fade]
[static]
We are planning to take our first 2 targets today. Daniel will take Fluttershy and Peter will take Twilight Sparkle. It will be a quick in and out operation and hopefully nobody will get hurt
End Log
“Alright, lets go and get our stuff done. In and out.” Laurena instructs us. “First though, Peter needs to check on Fluttershy to make sure she didn’t blab.”
I take the route to Fluttershy’s cottage along the treetops and find that in fact she is still sleeping
“What did they put in that dart?”
I called in to Daniel and tell him he can go in to get the samples. I hop down from the tree to the path and start on my way to the town. I see the steeple of the town hall and teleport to it. I just see Twilight enter her library as I land on the roof of the town hall. ‘Good, now, I’ll land on the balcony and get the sample of both horn and blood quickly’ I teleport to the balcony and open the door as quietly as I can. It still creaks.
“Spike? Is that you?” Damn, not as quiet as I thought. I hide behind her bed as I hear hoof-steps up the stairs
“Spike? I heard a noise and I thought it was you,” I see her come up the stairs ‘closer, closer, just a little closer’ I pounce on her. I knock her to the ground and pin her.
“What are you doing? Who are you? How did y-mmmff,” I cut her off and gagged her.
I took out my syringe and said “You’re going to be quiet, and your not going to say or do anything.” I feel her neck for a pulse, suprisingly soft. I feel around for a neck vein and found a pulse.
“This is going to hurt. A lot.”
She tried to scream but then I drove the needle into her vein, drew what blood I needed, and patched the wound. She continued to struggle but did not scream through her gag, a look of confusion on her face. Well I figured that if someone attacked you and then patched you up, that would be confusing. I then flipped my syringe around to the small grinder tool on the end and started it. She struggled even more as she saw the grinder come towards her horn, complete fear on her face. ‘Was it going to be this way with everybody?’ I had to hold her down with my knee on her neck but kept only enough pressure to hold her down so she wouldn’t choke. The last thing I had to deal with was dealing with a dead body. I figured she would try to kick me so I activated my glove and it glowed a bit. That must have scared her because she tried to use her horn. I held her horn and the glow decreased. She had a look of confusion on her face and also one of determination as her horn grew only faintly brighter. I started the grinder and moved it towards the tip of her horn. Her horn’s glow cut off completely as I looked to her face. Resignation. She managed to spit out her gag but before I could shove it back in she said.
“Just do it already, kill me.”
“Silly pony,” I said “I’m not going to kill you.”
A look of confusion came upon her face and she tried to say something but I put the gag back in her mouth and went on with getting a sample. As the grinder touched the tip of her horn a look of pain and oddly enough, pleasure crossed her face. I finished my grinding and had gotten what I needed for a sample so I took out a stun dart while still holding her by my knee. I loaded and cocked the gun and fired it into the vein.
Thankfully, even from this range, only the needle went in and not the body of the dart. I stood up, took the gag out from her mouth and picked her up and set her up on the bed and then took out the dart.
“But why? she asked. She was now having trouble with saying these words as the sedative took over.
“My job,” I replied simply.
She murmured affirmatively and then her eyelids started to flutter. I closed them with my hand and then cleaned up, making sure to leave no evidence. I liked what I had done with the cartridge at Fluttershy’s so I ejected it; the engraved casing with our seal on one side tinkled to the floor. I smashed it with my foot and went out via the balcony. I teleported (as always) to the steeple of the town hall and then to the tree-line. I saw Daniel also coming back from Fluttershy’s cottage.
“What took you so long?” I asked “She should have been sleeping.”
“She woke up when I took the blood sample and flew back inside her house before I could get one of her feathers,” Daniel explained “I had to break the lock on the door and shoot her with another stun dart to get the feather.”
“Did you leave any evidence? I questioned.
“No,” he said “Other than a smashed casing.”
“Good, lets head back” I told him “I heard Laurena found a small cache of Booze in the plane”
“Race you back!” he said and was off like a rocket; jumping from tree to tree like a squirrel hunting an acorn.
I laughed and started after him.
Day 3. The Trouble in Town
Day 3.
Trouble in Town.
Coms Officer Laurena’s Log
River, The Everfree Forest, Equestria
1300 Hours
After a report from John telling me that his ‘baby’ is almost ready to fly so we started to pack up out stuff onto the plane so we could scout out a possible permanent base for this operation. Daniel and Peter have told me that they have the samples that they need for the client from Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. They had some difficulty with these ponies and they might have found out there are dangerous humans in the area but luckily the sedative has a light memory eraser. Peter and Daniel are going to try the GLOVE’s cloaking abilities and see how the two targets are coming along.
End Log
“Well, that’s just brilliant, just Brilliant” Laurena shouted. She had heard about how we had gotten the samples and was now pacing back and forth thinking up a plan.
“Laurena, you know we have a limited number of stun darts. We can’t use them all on just the first targets” I told her.
She sighed and said, “Ok, then, have a day off and see how the targets are doing. You did place bugs right?”
Shit I knew there was something I forgot.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
We hung our heads.
“Well, the least you two could do was go and check on them and make sure they haven’t locked down the area.”
“Same people as last?” I asked Daniel.
“Sure.”
“See you later, Laurena.”
She sighed and watched us leave.
Daniel started off towards Fluttershy’s and I activated my cloaking system and started into town, ducking into alleyways to avoid large crowds if possible. I approached the library and opened the door. Thankfully it didn’t creak and I placed a bug above the door. I see Twilight sorting through her books with Spike helping her.
“Spike, do you feel a draft?” ask Twilight.
I froze. Damn it.
“No. Why?”
“Thought a window was open. Never mind.”
Whew.
“So, Twilight. Oof. Why did you want all these books about humans anyway?” asked the always curious Spike.
“I can’t exactly remember but I remember a human coming into my room last night and then.....something. Ugg, it’s so hard to remember exactly what happened.” Twilight started to page through a book rapidly and I was able to see the title.
‘Humans, their world and ours.’ by someone by the name of Princess Celestia and Bryan Dash
That name rings a bell. Of course! She is another one of my targets. And judging by the book size. A accomplished writer as well.
“I had a talk with Bryan and he said I should look at this book. He says it explains a lot about his world. Some of the things scare me. The war, famine, crime. It makes me shudder sometimes, Spike.”
I inch around the wall, placing bugs and then up to her room/loft. I place three bugs there and sit down on the edge. Watching the pony trying to remember what happened last afternoon. It was about 4:00 PM when I left. She had learned much about my world and that troubled me. She was starting to vaguely remember what happened. Bits and pieces. My gun for example. When she read up on that she remember that a gun had been involved.
I left and tuned my ear coms to the library and listened to her talking for a little while before I was called back to base.
I decided I would pop into a nearby bar and take some booze before I went. I found a bar by the town hall and went in the back way. I grabbed some bottles without looking at the label headed back to base.
By that time it was 7:00 clock and more ponies apparently had arrived in Twilights library. Thankfully she hasn't gotten farther much farther since I was there.
“Radio to Glock. Radio to Glock. Come in Glock.”
“This is Glock.”
“John has the bird up and running and we are planning to liftoff in an hour to scout about for a good place to settle down. John has been able to take some of the sap from the nearby trees to use as fuel.”
“How’s he managed that?”
“John was looking for some maple trees to tap for some syrup. He tapped the wrong tree and wanted to see if it was useful in any way. Apparently its highly combustible.”
I made it back to base and sure enough the bird was in the air. She looked as good as new.
“Hop on.” Daniel told me.
Daniel gave me a hand and I jumped aboard.
“Please fasten your seat-belts and make sure your seats are in the proper and upright position, thank you for flying John’s Airline.”
We laughed and the plane took off.
