Well, that was obvious. Why would they leave the door to a strategically valuable location unlocked? That's just inviting anypony to walk in and take whatever they want!

Thankfully for me, Pipp voiced the exact same sentiment. "Urghh, that's kinda obvious, Hitch! Why would they leave the door to a strategically valuable location unlocked? That's just inviting anypony to walk in and take whatever they want!"

Well, that was thankful. Pipp just saved me some breath.

"Well, we need to find a way to get in," Hitch said. "Can anybody see a key? If not, pass me a bobby pin and a screwdriver. I may be able to pry the lock open manually."

Seems like somepony has been playing Fallout. I'm not sure busting open doors is quite that easy, mind you. My eyes started to scan the area for an obvious opening, and after a while I continued to try and locate it. Mind you, this building didn't exactly match the definition of guarded. I had expected they'd be posting soldiers outside, and trying to ward us off that way. That was always an option, mind. But I was determined to find a way in. This wasn't too different to what I was doing back when I first arrived in Zephyr Heights, just a lonely mare trying to make her way in the world.

I scanned about, keeping my goggles in the up position to ensure I could actually see. Night vision in the day produces this very strange, ghostly effect that makes you look a bit weird on film.

Suddenly, I spotted something that I thought could be useful. There was a small grate on the side of the building which didn't seem to be bolted on too well. I trotted over to it and tried to open it, but was having some difficulty pulling it off.

"Hitch, could you lend me a hoof? These screws are a bit stuck!"

Hitch saw me, and he dashed over. "Sure thing, Misty. Let me just set the screwdriver."

He stopped next to them, and I got to work on the screws on my end. They were pretty tough, mind you, but I was determined to cut through no matter what. I was a mare on a mission, a better one than the one that had first brought me here mind you, but a mission nonetheless.

After what felt like hours, I finally had it off the wall, and I smiled. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem," Hitch said, and looked in the tunnel. "Wow. Looks pretty narrow in there. You sure you're gonna fit down there?"

"Not an issue," I said. "I am smaller than you. I'm used to squeezing down tight tunnels." I'd done it plenty of times before, so this was going to be a cakewalk. Or so I thought.

"It's also really dark," Pipp said. "Aren't you going to need a torch in there?"

I looked back, smiled, and dropped my night vision goggles down over my eyes. "Who needs a torch when you've got night vision goggles?"

"Where did you get those from?" Hitch asked.

"I'll explain later," I replied, before shuffling into the tunnel. Time to put these moves to good use.

Sure enough, I began to shimmy through the tunnels. They weren't that wide, so fitting down them wasn't that difficult. I'd struggle to fit down these as a human, but not as a pony. One of the few upsides of being turned into a pony, I suppose, was that it'd resulted in me shedding quite a lot of weight. I hadn't exactly been the slimmest of humans.

Partway through my infiltration, I encountered an upward section. I quickly activated the suction boots and started to climb up into the tunnels. This was actually pretty exciting to be honest. I felt as though I was in a spy movie!

But I also had to focus. This building was filled with dangerous ponies, all of whom were armed and capable of doing very dangerous things. I had to keep my guard up and avoid getting into scrapes, or else I might be killed. Or worse. Those guards who had sexualised Sunny that I'd overheard were more than an indication they'd be prepared to do that to me.

I continued to sneak upwards, my goggles allowing me to see the way. My horn wasn't causing me any issue- had this passage been any narrower it would probably have been scraping against the ceiling. But thankfully it was not. As that would have been very awkward indeed.

The tunnel pattern then switched to a horizontal plane, with the route branching off in multiple different directions. I focused my ears to suddenly overhear a conversation coming from down below.

I listened closely.

"So, door duty huh?"

"Tell me about it. This is probably the easiest job in the world."

"So, want to take a quick break? I doubt anything will happen in the meantime."

"Sure. I could do with a coffee."

I then realised which tunnel this was coming from. The tunnel to the right was guiding me towards the position. If they were guarding the door, there was a good chance they would be near controls for the door. Controls that I could use to let my friends in.

I dropped down and found myself in another set of tunnels. These, at least, would get me closer. They were also smaller in width, so a bigger pony would probably get stuck.

Good thing I was quite a small pony, then. Under average height, if my build was anything to go by. I snuck through the tunnels and found my way into another room, before I was able to drop further. The control room was right below me, and a small vent was right in front of me. I chose not to stay on it, having seen enough spy movies to know that sitting directly on top of that was a bad idea.

So I held back and waited for the noise to stop, then slipped it open. To my surprise the vent was unlocked, and I dropped straight through it and landed on the floor.

"Still got it!" I said.

My goggles were now blinding me owing to the amount of light in the area, so I flipped them into the up position and moved forward. I had my goal directly in front of me, and I had to throw that switch.

I stopped at the desk and positioned myself carefully. I had a number of different buttons to push, and each seemed to do a different thing. If I pushed them in the wrong order, it might set off an alarm or something. And that wouldn't end well for me.

I took a closer look at the buttons, and began to experimentally consult them. Handily, I then noticed labels that were sitting on the buttons, which told me what they did. How had I not noticed that before?

I shook my head. Now was not the time to be internally beating myself up. I opened the display up and clicked on the button to disable the alarms, followed by the other button to disengage the door locks.

Just then, I heard noise coming from the corridor.

"That was a good coffee, glad you got me that."

Oh no! They were back! I had to hide, and fast!

I quickly snuck under the desk and moved backwards, making myself as small as possible. I hid myself, desperate to ensure I was able to fit under that desk and not be seen.

The soldier sat down at his display whilst another moved out of the room to elsewhere. "Huh, that's funny. The buttons are set differently to how I left them."

My cover was blown. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I feared it would explode!

But then he spoke again. "Clearly the electricals are playing up again." He then moved the buttons to reset them. I might be sitting here quite a while from the looks of it.

But then my luck broke again. "I think I drank too much coffee. I need to use the bathroom." He got up from the chair and went out of the room again, taking his kit with him.

Now was my chance! I dashed across the room and moved into position next to the desk and clicked on the button to disable the alarms, followed by the other button to disengage the door locks. I then flipped up the switch to actually open them, then moved out of position to try and avoid getting stuck between the guards and myself. I then dashed for the door and pulled it open, with my friends on the other side.

They dashed through and stopped on the other side. I then quickly closed the door and reset all the controls to where they should have been before dashing back to my friends.

"Let's go," Hitch said. "Lead the way, Misty."

Author's Note

Halfway there now for this week's leg of Misty Brightdawn. :3