“I have to get out of here.”
“Must break free.”
“Must warn them”
“They don’t know”
That’s all that was going through my brain, then, a rush of memories flowed through my head:
First darkness, absolute darkness, a darkness that was I could remember prior.
Then light, a blinding light.
And a voice:
“Congratulations ma’am! It’s a colt! A unicorn too!”
Oh, and my screaming.
“A fine set of lungs too!”
Another voice, a female this time, the first and last words I ever heard from my mother.
“Oh thank Faust. Im so glad he is safe. May you always be safe.”
“It looks like it ma’am.”
Silence was in the air for what felt like an eternity, the light was still blinding. 9 months of darkness can do that to you.
“Ma’am?”
A beeping noise came out of the silence, growing louder and faster every beep.
“Oh no. We’re losing her! Get this foal out into the OB, STAT!”
Wheels of a cart reached my ears as the doctors panicking grew quieter and quieter.
“Come back to us ma’am! Come back to us! “
Then there was nothing but that eerie, disturbing,
Silence
“WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS MY WIFE?”
“Sir, I’m sorry! We did everything we could. Her heart gave out from the stress of delivery.”
“WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS MY WIFE?”
“Sir!”
“WHERE IS SHE? Where is she…?
“Where is she…?”
“Sir?”
Sobbing could be heard in the hallway.
After it just so seemed as though the same noise of sorrow would last forever, it stopped.
Silence.
“Where is my child? Is he safe?”
“Y.. yes sir. He’s in t..there.”
“Thank you doctor.”
Doors opened in front of me. A slow, steady noise of hooves tapping the ground slowly approached me.
My eyes were finally able to see, and what I saw as the world’s dark maw opened up to me, was my father’s face, still wearing his gold guardsmen helmet. His blue eyes were sad a tear streaming down the path of his scar, which stretched across his face.
He removed his helmet, revealing more of his white coat and blue mane.
“Hey kiddo.” He said in a sad voice, but he managed a smile.
I never forgot that smile of his.
He reached into my crib with his fore-hooves, and picked me up. Rocking me gently, with that same smile on his face.
I started to cry, where was that female voice I heard when I entered the world?
My father said with a soft voice, “Shhh, mommy is gone now, but she is in a better place. Don’t worry son.”
My crying ceased as a smile of my own reached my face.
“I will keep you safe.”
A blur of life rushed by, as another memory kindly slowed down enough to have to relive again.
I was older now, 5 years old. My grayish coat, horn and my black mane were longer now, not as short as when I was born, my father was right there , by my side. As he always was.
“Daddy, do I have to go?” I said in my best puppy-dog voice as we walked down the sidewalk, closer and closer to our destination, a 2 story stone building. The sign on the front gate of the facility was clear enough to read:
“Manehatten School for young foals.”
“Yes son, we’ve talked about this, if you go, you can learn so many new things! You will even find your talent.”
I looked at my flank, blank. Then at my fathers, his had 2 spears crossed over a golden shield, which made sense, as he was captain of manehatten guard.
“Will I have the same as yours?”
“No, everypony has a different cutie mark, but you may have the same talent. What do you want to do when you’re older?”
“I wanna help ponies! Like you daddy! I wanna fight bad guys!”
“You don’t have to fight bad guys to help ponies, you can be a doctor.”
“I guess.”
“You’ll know when you know I guess. Well, were here sport.”
We were at the front of the schools courtyard, where in the front lawn, many foals were playing ball or chasing each other, they were having fun without a care in the world. I noticed some had their cutie marks already.
“Daddy, what if they make fun of me?”
“If they don’t have enough respect for you, there not worth your time. Just ignore them and find some friends. There’s a kid over their without cutie marks, if that might make you feel better.”
“Can’t you come with me?
“No son, im sorry, I have to go work, to help ponies remember?”
“You said you would always keep me safe, remember?”
“I am, im putting away bad guys, so they can’t hurt anyone.”
“O..Okay daddy. I’ll try, goodbye” I said nervously as I hugged him. As a kid, I hoped it would have lasted forever. But, as I know now, all good things must come to end.
“Okay son, now go play with those kids before the bell rings. And I have a feeling nopony will give you any trouble, but if they do, let me know.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because you just hugged your dad, who is in a royal guard outfit with a 2 spears on his side.”
We both laughed, and I waved goodbye to him. I ran over to the kid my dad pointed too earlier, who now sitting on the ground was trying to pull out grass with his wings. When I got close, he looked up at me with his eyes and mane which were the same color as the grass, and his teal fur.
I stopped a few feet from him and sat down on the grass.
“Hi…” I said nervously, I half expected to be made fun of, but he just replied, “Hi.” With a voice a bit higher than mine.
“What’s your name?” I asked kindly.
He winced a bit, as if he was hoping I wouldn’t ask that question.
“I don’t like it, so please call me Kross.”
“Kross?”
“Please don’t make fun of it!” He said with water rising in his eyes.
I replied quickly, “Im not making fun of it! I think it’s really cool!”
“You do?”
“Yeah!” I did, and still do, think it was a badass name.
“What’s your name?” he replied eagerly, his hint of sadness that was around him was fading.
Just then, the bell rang, and a collective groan of disappointment could be heard around the yard, but then the sound of a few hundred hooves racing to the front door of the school could be heard for a few blocks of the huge city.
Me and Kross got up and ran with the others, it was fun, it was kind of like a race, to see who would be first, me or Kross, We were the behind everyone else, but we didn’t care, we were having fun, and for the first time in a while, I didn’t have a care in the world.
“I won!” Kross shouted with victory as he touched the doors.
“Good Job.” I said.
“Hey, I never got your name.” He said disappointed.
As we both opened the doors to join the chaos of the first day of school that could be heard inside, I replied,
“My name is Smith, Smith Wesson.”
My memories fast forwarded another 4 years, when I was 9. On my last day of elementary school, Kross an I, who were best friends, walking down the steps of the school, eager to finally go home for the summer.
“Remember to come over sometime in the summer Smith.” Kross yelled out to me as we started two split paths to go towards our houses. Our homes were on different sides of town. I lived on the wealthy side of town, because of my dad’s position. And Kross on the…not so wealthy.
“I will!” I waved to him as we turned or backs to each other and went on our way. Kross got his cutie mark a few weeks ago, it was crosshairs, like on a archery target. He got it when he got 10 bull’s-eyes in a row on his grandpa’s archery range. I was happy for him, but I still didn’t have my cutie mark.
I walked for about 10 minutes down the sidewalk until I reached our house, a stone one-story manor on the river. We had a fountain out front, and a huge forest behind it all, and the right side of or house overlooked the river. From our viewpoint room, an all glass room, you could see the peak of Sky mountain, a mountain so high that it looked like it touched the sky. And below the summit was Canterlot.
I never have gone there. In fact, I had never left Manehatten before. But from what I could see, the city was beautiful, peaceful.
I didn’t know how wrong I was back then.
As I got closer to my house, I saw the Viewpoint room windows, and one of them was gone. At first I thought it fell out, that had happened before, but it was shattered, like someone had broken in. I wasn’t worried yet, since I thought my daddy could have warded off the intruder, or kept our house safe, I thought my daddy could protect our house.
Protect me.
I wasn’t worried till I noticed my dad was not outside our front door to great me, like he was every day to welcome me back from school and wonder how my day was.
I started to panic a bit so I ran into the house, into our kitchen.
“Dad? Are you home?”
I walked into our living room, then into our Viewpoint room , and on the floor by the broken window was something red.
Blood.
Now I was freaking out.
“DADDY? WHERE ARE YOU?” I screamed.
I ran into the bathroom.
No pony.
My bedroom?
No pony.
Backyard?
No pony.
My fathers room?
My father.
I stared with horrid eyes at my father’s body on the floor next to his desk, I ran over to his body and yelled:
“Daddy! Wake up! Wake up please!” I was shaking his body in a panic attack. I knew it was hopeless. There was blood on his stomach and stab wounds in him. I sat my head down on his bloody stomach and sobbed.
My father, the one who promised to protect me, to keep me safe, was dead.
After what felt like hours I looked up at the wooden desk. There was a piece of paper on it. A note, it was messy, but it was my father’s handwriting.
Son,
Im sorry. I can’t protect you anymore. But you’re a fighter, I know it. You can protect yourself. Use this.
I love you.
My tears were dried up. But right next to note was a dagger. A golden dagger with carvings of the sun and the moon on it, and a carving of Celestia, and another Alicorn who I had no idea who she was.
I stared at the dagger for a few minutes.
“Be quiet kid, or you will end up like your old man.”
A deep voice came from behind me. I panicked and levitated the dagger and turned around, to see a pony who was in all black, with a red X on his chest. I levitated the dagger up to eye level, with determination in my eyes, but it was false.
“W..why did you do this to my daddy?” I asked
“He was preventing our plans from taking effect.”
“Plans?”
“Equestria is dying kid, your princess is weak. New leaders are in order. Great, now I have to kill you, you know too much. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
I was scared for my life. My father’s voice rang in my head;
You’re a fighter, I know it, you can protect yourself.
“Now, just drop the knife kid, or I’ll-“
That’s all he could say before I swung the knife in panic, cutting his throat. His eyes formed an expression of pure shock as his body fell to the floor.
“Oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no.” I panicked; I thought I was going to jail. I didn’t understand that it was self-defense.
Then, I heard the front door of my house slam open, and a command,
“This is the Manehatten guard! Come out into the hallway with your hooves free of weapons!
I slipped the dagger into my backpack, which I was still wearing. I was crying as I ran into the hallway and hugged the one of the three guards and sobbed into his shoulder as he hugged me back. I think they were surprised to see a kid covered in blood run out crying.
I was crying as I spoke.
“Im sorry! Im sorry!”
“It’s okay,” The guard spoke, gently “What happened?” He asked as the other guards went to my father’s room.
“I came home from school and the window was broken and I found my daddy’s body and I cried and cried and then some scary pony came out of the shadows and he threatened to kill me so I panicked and grabbed a knife and I killed him! I know it’s a bad thing but he kill my daddy!”
“It’s okay.” He replied, saddened a bit. “You were brave to do that. No regular kid like you could just defend himself like that.”
Another pony walked into the house. He was in a black business suit, and had a brown coat and black hair, with dark sunglasses on and the best poker face I’ve ever seen.
The guard stopped hugging me and saluted him, “Agent Remington, sir!”
“Where is he?” Remington asked the guard.
“He’s gone sir.”
Remington sighed, “Go search for clues, we need to find the man who did this.” Remington looked at me. “Is this his son?”
“Yes sir, this is. But the body of the murderer is here too.”
Remington looked impressed. “So you got here in time to subdue him?
“No sir, we got here early, but the kid killed the attacker with a knife.”
“Really? Hmm, go help the other guards clean up the mess. I want to speak with the kid.”
“Yes sir.” The guard replied as he went to clean up the mess.
Remington looked to me and sat down in front of me.
“Im sorry this happened to you. I really wish we could have stopped it.”
“I do to.” I replied, still crying.
“My mission is to prevent things like this, to help ponies. To prevent things like this from happening.”
“I do to.”
“It was very courageous of you to stop that pony from doing more harm. I’m proud of you, and Im not proud of very many things in this world.”
“Thank you I guess. Can I help you help ponies too? I don’t want any pony to go through this.”
Remington smiled. “Of course, when you’re older though.”
I managed a weak smile. Remington looked over at my flank, so I did too.
And on my flank was my cutie mark, but, it was just three letters.
“FPI”
Letters? What the hay? I’ve never seen a cutie mark with letters.
I was about to jump up in happiness, but then two guards were carrying my father’s body outside in a body bag.
Why?
Why life, why do you have to have my happiest moment and my saddest moment within an hour of each other?
The guard who I hugged walked out of the bedroom and said to me, “Come on kid, let’s get you to the barracks.”
“Okay.” I sniffled.
As me and the guard walked out of the house, Remington said to me with a smile;
“Im hoping to see you real soon kid, as my helper.”
And from then on, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to prevent pain like this from happening to any pony else.
I was going to join the Federal Pony Investigators.
To protect ponies
My dad and Remington made it look easy.
I now know it isn’t. Dear Faust, it is not easy.
‘Dear Faust, my head burns.’
I gained consciousness, and noticed I was upside down. I was blindfolded, but I could see a through a crack on top of my blindfold. My rear hooves were tied to a pole a few feet above the ground, my head was inches from the cement floor. There was blood on the ground.
My blood.
It was dark. There was little light. Like light from lanterns and torches. I tried to use my magic to teleport. But my magic would not work. I strained against my bindings without any success.
“Yo! Boss! He’s awake!” I heard from across the room, then, a door slamming open.
“Finally! The little cocksuker has been making me wait. Those mares are worn out. You can have them boys. Leave me and Smith alone for a moment.”
Cheers could be heard.
‘That voice, I know I have heard it before. I can’t remember. All I know is I hate it. Where am I? Some kind of prison? No, no, I wouldn't be there. All I remember is the cave and Agent Barret. Does he have the document? Where is he?’
My thoughts raced. I was starting to panic.
I heard hoof steps coming towards me. They sounded just like my father’s hoof steps in my memories as he was walking towards my crib in the hospital.
“Wakey wakey, sunshine.” The voice said, in a maniacal way.
I groaned, but my mouth was gagged. I felt a hoof strike my face. Hard. I was surprised I did not black out.
“I SAID WAKE THE BUCK UP!”
I yelled loudly, “Im awake! Im awake!” but it came out as; “MMMph MMMph.”
“Oh good, I was getting worried. Now stay awake. I can’t scan your memories when you are asleep.”
I yelled again, “Back the hay up!” but, it was muffled once again.
“Oh? What was that? Hm? Hm? I can’t hear you? Hehehehe.”
I felt my mouth gag get ripped off by magic.
“WHAT THE BUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME?” The voice screamed, as if he were right in my face.
“I said get the hay away from me! Why the hell do you need my memories?” I said with frustration, but my voice was weak.
“Oh, I thought you could piece together that one by yourself. Tsk Tsk. I expected better out of you. But if you want to be a foal, I’ll explain it to you simply. Now, who are you? “ He said the last sentence with a mocking tone.
“Smith…ugh… Wesson.”
“And what do you doOoo?”
“…”
“Come on, answer me. This is real simple.”
“…”
Shit, shouldn't have ignored him.
I felt my face get punched 2 times. I swear even harder than the first time. I tried to swing back, but my hooves were tied.
Blood was seeping out of my cheeks and out of my mouth.
“Does that bitch Celestia really trust you with taking us down? She is more oblivious than I thought."
Okay, if you Insult me, whatever. Insult my friends, buck you. Insult the Princesses? The only reason this isn't a war torn land? It gets personal.
“Im asking nicely, calm down.” I growled, though, in my position, it was hard to be intimidating.
“Calm down? You want me too bucking calm down? IS THAT IT? Or do you want me to make sure you never reproduce again? Im suree that will make me calm down, watching you BLEED! Now, answer me, what.Do.YOU.DO?”
Jesus, this guy is on some sort of drugs. His violent behavior is unprecedented.
“Im..Im the director of the FPI. They protect Equestria from ponies like you.”
“Wrong. They try to. Because, based on the fact we have you, their leader, they failed. Now, do you still need me to explain this to you? We have you, now what does that mean for the FPI?”
It dawned on me, “Buck, no leader.”
“And what does that mean for ponies like “me.”?”
It means that the FPI will be too busy looking for me, instead of prepping for…
“Answer me!”
These ponies could easily get away with anything. I was the leader of the FPI, If I was gone, they can’t just replace me right away. Especially since before the cave, I sent them a letter, saying that I have Priority 1 Intel. That means sacrifices can be made in order to receive the Intel. But I could not risk sending the document me and Barret found thru magic. It had to be hoof delivered.
“A distraction.” I replied with dread.
“And Bingo was his name-O! C-day is only 7 days away. You've only been here for 2, time flies when you're having fun. And when C-day happens, Equestria will see a new day.”
I have not heard that term, but I do remember voices talking about an invasion, now, I know the voices belonged to the two guards.
“I heard your goons talking about that. Invasion, war, whatever you goons want to call it. You really think you and your band of thugs can take on the entire Equestrian military?”
“What? You think it’s just us? You really?- oh man this is rich!”
I heard laughing, a maniacal laughing.
“You think we are that stupid? After all we've done?”
I felt him get in real close to my face. His warm, smelly breath reached my nose. He whispered in my ear, “This is not just some revolution, this is nations coming together to bring down an empire.”
What is he talking about? Equestria has great relations with every nation. Well, the griffons are a little iffy, but still.
He laughed as I felt him pull away his face. “ Your memories are sure to provide us with all we need to know.”
“You won’t win this, I swear on my life, I WILL kill you.”
“Oh-oh. That’s cute. You think you can do anything to me? Hm? You’re my bitch. In Canterlot, with your little, “Agency” friends, you thought you could touch me, but no. In my BUCKING kingdom, I rule. You’re lucky I haven’t sliced you open yet. Now let’s get back to putting you through mental torture, hm?”
I felt my face be lifted up; I could feel breath on my face, and then my blind fold was ripped off. And right there to meet me, were two white eyes with golden pupils. And black as night fur. With a dark golden magic aura. But there was one thing I noticed more than anything, on his chest, in red ink was a tattoo, a tattoo that I have not seen since the night my father was killed.
A red X.
“Sweet dreams, Smith”
His horn glowed with more intensity as the aura wrapped around my head, and I began to drift off into my sea of memories.
Then I realized, he was my target, the madpony.
Sirus Night. Code-named : “Siren”
