With The White Berets

With the White Berets

1. Operation Black Spire

        A dark blue earth pony  crawled on his belly up the snow-covered hill his red eyes scanning the barren tundra around him. A blizzard was gathering and he wanted to use it to hide his approach.

        “Agent Roy?” His earpiece buzzed .

        “Yes, Control?”

        “You’re about 15 kilometers from the castle; is it visible?”

        “Nope. Blizzard’s coming; I can barely see the next hill.”

        “Alright castle’s, to the northeast; you have your mission?”

        “Get to Castle Blackfrost, kill any rebels inside, get out. I’ve been over it a hundred times.”

        “Good luck, agent.”

        “Bye sweetie, see you at dinner.”

        “Hilarious. Control out.”

        Roy sighed, someday Control would respond to his advances. What was not to like? He was tall, athletic, good-looking and smooth as silk. He may look a bit chaotic, his mane and tail didn’t match and his hooves were a little yellow, but he could always take home the prettiest filly in the bar. Control must be crazy, he thought as he trudged to the northeast.

        The blizzard was truly raging now and Roy caught sight of the castle, a huge twisted structure of black metal, the polar opposite of Canterlot, with imposing fortifications and gates that dominated the surroundings. Roy raised an eyebrow. Someone was compensating. Oh well. He ran to the wall, keeping his eyes and ears open for any movement, almost wishing for something to show its ugly head. Nothing. Just the sound of wind and blowing snow. He couldn't find an entrance so he braced himself against the wall and climbed. It was hard going and he felt his hooves slip multiple times. There were no hoofholds so he had to brace himself against one face of the uneven wall and push himself up with his hooves. It was arduous. He reached the top and took a moment to look around the ramparts as he rested on the cool flagstones the ramparts looked and felt barren. A small door on a tower was the only visible entrance to the castle. He ran over to it and put his ear to the door. Silence. The door was unlocked. He opened it and entered.

        The interior was dark and gloomy. What a surprise, Roy thought, “Just once,coudn't I be assigned to somewhere nice, sunny, warm, and filled with fillies?” Not that he expected that, of course. the White Berets always operated in the meaner, darker, colder, and considerably less filly-filled parts of the world. Like this dreary castle.

At least it was lit.

By glowing blue torches lining the wall.

Blue.

Magic fire torches... something must be powering them. Roy resolved to find the power source; blue flame indicated a crystal base power source and to power the castle the crystal would have to be huge-- probably in the dungeon then. Ponies had a tendency to put large but needed things underground. So he kept moving and looking for stairs.

        After an impossibly long hallway he came to a symmetrical set of stairs leading down to the ground floor. Keeping as close to the railing as possible he moved to the ground floor. He was standing in what appeared to be a great entrance hall. Pillars supported the ceiling and iron chandeliers lit with soft blue flames creating dancing shadows along the walls. Nothing moved. Roy slowly walked to the center of the hall, keeping his eyes moving. He heard nothing but the hiss of the flames. Then he blinked.

Magic flames supposed to be silent.

He realized this the second a huge mass slammed him into the ground. Roy grunted as he rolled onto his back and flipped out his commando knife. He aimed for the closest piece of flesh he saw, stabbing his knife into the creatures leg. It sprang back and screamed at him. Roy hopped to his feet and appraised his opponent, a black and vaguely pony-shaped creature with long fangs and insectoid features.

A changeling. The changeling hissed at him again and sprang. Roy caught the black creature on his shoulder and flipped the changeling over his back. With lightning speed he pulled his knife from the creatures leg and plunged it into the changeling’s throat.

That did the trick, Roy thought. H re-sheathed his knife and whipped his eyes from side to side, looking for more changelings. Nothing moved, nothing hissed. Roy moved on.

         Choosing to proceed into a smaller hallway leading to the east, Roy walked slowly taking in his surroundings. Blue light, imposing architecture, stone floor-- it had a carpet though. A nice bit of variety. There was a door, tall and wooden, placed halfway down the hallway. Roy tried the handle: locked of course. He kicked it open. The door slammed open and black smoke poured out of the room. Roy coughed and shook but walked in anyway. The room was a mess. Broken screens lined the walls and smoking computers covered the floor. Whoever ran this place had gotten the heck out, probably quite recently. He’d need to report that, but not until he investigated the entire building. Hopefully the rest was changeling-free. He closed the door behind him. There was one more door in the hallway

It was bloody red, and stuck out like a sore thumb. Definitely the dungeon, Roy thought. Surprisingly the door was unlocked, opening to a poorly lit staircase. Roy glanced behind him and started to slowly down.

        The dungeon was nauseating, to say the least. Torture racks lined the circular wall, each seemingly competing to be more disturbing and blood-covered than the last. If Roy hadn’t seen worse he would’ve lost his lunch right there. The room smelled of iron and something else. Something sticky and acidic. He moved towards it and looked, mixed in with the dried blood. He put his hoof in it and felt it squelch. It was green against his hoof-- changeling goop. Gross. It was interesting, though. Where was it coming from? There wasn’t any on the stairs or torture racks. He inspected the walls. No goop. His hoof caught on an indentation, and felt around it. It indented, and half the wall swung open. Roy was shocked at the sight. The wall revealed a beautiful hall, brightly lit by iridescent crystals sprouting like flowers from the wall. The floor was made of clean white flagstones that seemed to give off their own light. Roy gaped at the amazing contrast between the dark blood covered stones of the torture chamber and the bright cavern surrounding it. His training took over, However and he inspected the floor finding more changeling goop.  Roy followed the trail of green liquid down the hallway. The hallway forked eventually, with the green ichor leading down the right. Roy turned to face the trail but as soon as he did he felt a tingle go through him. Then a shake. Then a spasm that made him feel like his entire nervous system was shutting down. He felt his legs collapse from under him. His head hit the ground. The buck was that? he thought. Whatever it was it came from the left hand hallway. Roy unsteadily got to his feet and ran to the left.

        The crystal lined hallway went on for an impossibly long time. Roy had to stop and brace himself multiple times as the waves of energy washed over him, growing more and more intense. He kept running until he nearly ran into a heavy wooden door. He opened it and braced against a wave of energy more powerful than all of the others. Shaking off the effects he went inside.

        The room seemed small and cramped compared to the cavernous hallway. It was circular and dominated by an enormous crystal that seemed to impose itself over him. Well, I think I found my powersource, Roy thought. Now how do I deactivate it?

He inspected the crystal; it seemed to be made of diamond, something he was sure even Celestia could not break. But when he looked closer, he saw something interesting-- Black spiked wire embedded in the jewel. It burned to the touch and wrapped around the crystal. Roy followed it around and what he saw made him jump. A pegasus, legs tied to the crystal by the wire. Roy immediately felt pity for him. He ran to the pony and tried to untie its arms when the barbed wire sparked and the pony spasmed, releasing a wave of intense energy that knocked Roy back. Most of the energy was absorbed by the crystal, though, and it in turn sent a wave of power through the other crystals, which reached into the chamber outside of the door.

Well that solves where the power’s coming from,Roy thought. Thinking quickly, he ripped off his leather knife sheath and wrapped it around his hooves. He rushed over to the pegasus and,using the leather to insulate himself from the worst of the burning, untied the dark crimson pony. However the pegasus did not drop to the floor and was obviously still anchored to the crystal. Roy looked at the pony's head until he found what was still tied; His antlers.

Antlers on a pony. Roy was utterly dumbfounded. What the heck is this thing,he wondered as he slowly lowered him to the floor. Smallish, rust red coat, black mane, with antlers. Roy was not getting payed enough.

         Antlers, as Roy had taken to calling him, was also bleeding. Roy pulled out his small field first aid kit and bandaged the pegasus’s hooves, cut by the barbed wire.

What now? Roy needed a plan. His mission was to search and destroy, not search and rescue. What should he do?

        Luckily, the castle answered for him. The wire flashed and without a pony to connect to, it completed its circuit with the crystal. The big crystal turned red. The small crystals turned red. A huge hiss seemed to reverberate through the halls.

Changelings.

Hundreds of them.

Roy moved in a flash. He re-buckled his sheathe, slung the pony over his shoulder and ran.

        He ran down the hallway and came to the fork and swung in the direction of the torture room. Sparing a glance behind him he saw at least twenty Changelings running from the other side of the fork. Roy kept running.  He sprinted up the stairs and burst into the ground floor hall. Antlers moaned in his state of blissful unconsciousness.

“You are no help at all!” shouted Roy as he burst into the grand hall. He ran to the stairs but froze.

Close to a hundred Changelings were swarming down them. He looked right and left, more were pouring in from all sides. Roy backed up away from the stairs. he was pinned between the wall of stone and the wall of changelings.

Antlers’ antlers flashed. Light poured from the ground, forming a circle around Roy. The circle emitted lines that raced in all directions across the floor. when they struck the wall behind Roy. The wall split in two and swung open. Roy didn’t question it. He just ran into the open air and activated his radio.

“Control! I need evac NOW!”

“We can pull you out in one minute. Get to the evac point.”

Roy looked back. A couple hundred changelings were still on his tail, running through the snow like a black wave. He wasn’t going to make it. “Well, Antlers,” he said, his breath ragged. “This is it.”

        Antler's eyes shot open and glowed with black energy. His antlers started to emit black light like a black star. Roy felt a chill wind shoot through him. And he stopped dead in his tracks. A blizzard formed around him in an instant, and its white wave of snow, wind and ice collided with the black wave of changelings. “Okay. What the flying buck is that!” Roy shouted. Antlers then wavered and collapsed on Roy’s back, declining to answer. Roy swore a couple of times and then trudged to the evac point.

         A carriage pulled by two pegasi awaited him. He heaved Antlers onto it then got on himself. Seating himself next to a gray unicorn filly that he realized he had dropped Antlers onto in his haste to get on the vehicle.

“Hello Control, you’re looking beautiful. Are you taking me to dinner in this?”

“Agent Roy, report.”

“Explored incredibly drab castle, found and killed a changeling, found a bunch of abandoned equipment, found the generator, found Antlers, took Antlers, ran from changelings, got to evac and asked you out.”

“ Very well done, not exactly to our objectives but...”

“Hey, I saved Antlers’ life! you can’t court martial me!”

“As I was about to say, he, or “Antlers” as you call him, was pretty much the reason we came. So job well done.”

“ But what is he? And why changelings? And...”

“That’s classified. Rest knowing you did well.”

Roy thought about it. He looked at the castle. He looked at Antlers. A job well done. He was fine with that.