With The White Berets

Chapter II

Operation Skyline

    Roy would be the first to admit that he was very drunk. He was aware that he had downed several pints, if not gallons, of berry mead. The fact that he was aware of this however indicated one of two things;

1. He hadn’t had enough,

2. He had the amazing power to tell how much he had drunk. This power made him the chosen one from prophecies of old, indicating that he must train with the drunken masters on the highest peaks of the griffon mountains to slay the giant dragon araghlytmionasghl the unpronounceable.

The pony was inclined to believe the second. After several proclamations of his prowess in dragon slaying he was kicked out of the bar. As he wandered down the streets of canterlot he wondered where his home was exactly and he was checking the starry sky for it when he ran into large heavy object. Namely a cloaked earth pony twice his size.

“Mr. G Biv?” The tall pony asked without any emotion.

“Thats my name!” Roy replied, giddy in the fact that he had remembered it.

“I’ve come to deliver a package.”

“Weee! is it a present?”

“No.”

“Flowers?”

“No.”

“A pony?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t want it.”

“Sir!” the colt exclaimed, “This is your latest assignment”

“Ew. Definitely don’t want that.”

“Sir!”

“NO!” Roy turned and ran. After a full 40-yard dash, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and knew no more.

Roy woke up the next morning with a hangover, a bruise, and a mission briefing on his bed. He skimmed it and galloped out of his apartment. As he sprinted he reflected on how it wasn’t the worst way he’d ever received a mission.

He entered Canterlot castle through a kitchen door and stole a poppy seed bagel. after pausing before the exit to straighten his spiky hopeless hair he entered the castle proper. Moving quickly, but with care enough to not offend anyone more important than him, Roy proceeded down deeper and deeper into the castle’s bowels until he was well below street level. Opening a service door he entered a small room barely lit by a dim light bulb. Dirty flagstones and a constant dripping leak overhead made the room seem depressing. Its only feature was a rusty grate covering a small portion of the back wall. Roy sighed walked to the back wall, spun and kicked the grate as hard as he could. Its rusty screws gave and the grate fell. Roy grinned and flung himself into it. He fell into a irrigation tunnel and cannonballed into the water. He recovered and swam to the surface, gasped for air and swam to the edge of the river of water. He climbed out, shook himself off, walked down the dark tunnel and stopped when he found a service door. He tried the handle, did the retinal scan, the hoofprint scan and the DNA scan. He tried the handle again and it opened. He entered the headquarters of the White Berets.

It was information central. Countless ponies worked like ants in a huge brightly lit work space, all checking information, reacting, and trying to stay on top of everything.And tose were just the ponies playing video games. Roy walked in, rubbed his Hooves on the welcome mat and took his beret from the hook assigned to him. He walked through the office, nodding disinterestedly in greeting to ponies he knew. He entered his cubicle, sat down, spun around and opened his computer. However as soon as he opened the internet, a single message displayed onscreen, ROY GET YOUR LAZY FLANK UP TO THE OFFICE NOW. Well that was a little direct. Roy sighed, so much for his last haven.

Control was where she always was, her elevated “Supervising platform.” Watching everything. Her light pink eyes constantly moving, screen to screen, pony to pony. “Roy,” She said icily, after pretending to notice him for the first time, “You’re 15 minutes late.”

“Ooo, sorry,” Roy said flippantly, “Was time of the essence?”

“Luckily I always add a 20 minute Roy delay to my schedule.”

“I’m early then aren’t I! I’ll just slip away...”

“No you won’t. We have a problem.”

“You look serious. Why do you look serious?”

“Baron Redwing is having a parade.”

“So?”

“He is about to become the grand duke of Hoofnia.”

“SOO?”

“You told us you had a degree in international relations when we recruited you.”

“I thought that was the lie portion!”

“...Whatever, the point is that Hoofnia has recently reformed after almost 10 years of civil war and north Hoofnia lost. The duke has decided to hold a parade in the recently recaptured north Hoofnia.”

“So let him die. What do we care?”

“We extended diplomatic ties to them after they reformed, the duke gets assassinated, we’re in a foreign civil war.”

“Well what do you want me to do?”

“Get to the city. Watch the parade, keep him from being killed. Simple.”

“It’s not going to be simple is it?”

There were over 3000 ponies at the parade. The duke was in an open carriage. The parade had a twisting winding path. It was surrounded by ten story buildings. There were obstructions and distractions everywhere.It was definitely not going to be simple.

“Roy are the glasses working? Can you hear me?”

“No Control. No I can’t.”

“Cut it Agent, Don’t get distracted.”

“Your lovely voice is doing that.”

“Just... test the glasses.”

Roy was a little weirded out. He had his knife belt like normal, but other than that Control had completely revamped his equipment. He had a hoofheld crossbow strapped to his foreleg and a chainmail shirt, made of some light but incredibly strong metal, protecting his torso. Control’s coup de grace however were the sunglasses. Infrared, 40X zoom, motion detector, and for some reason, X-ray. Roy wasn’t sure why X-ray was included. They must’ve had budget and time to burn. He flipped through all the settings, even X-ray.

“Everythings working.”

“Good. No mistakes now.

Roy watched the parade. They were making a show of it and the Duke looked very happy. Suspiciously so. Despite the rabble raisers. Roy counted 40 of them spread out at almost even intervals through the crowd. They were inciting the crowd, bringing them to a riot, but always seeming to just fizzle them out before things turned violent. Interesting enough but not his job. He kept his eyes moving. Pony to pony. Building to building. He took just as much care to not be seen. The Duke had four security teams posted on rooftops. They had crossbows and what were probably unicorn battle mages. Fun. They could fry him in a half a second if they wanted to. Roy kept watching.

Roy was getting bored. At least that was his excuse to start checking out the fillies. This one was quite nice. White coat. Grey mane with a red stripe in it. Flank that wouldn't quit. She was carrying a huge case with her magic and didn’t seem very interested in the parade. She ducked into one of the buildings that had a guard post. He ducked behind the raised wall to hide from one of the guards. He lost sight of her.

“What are you doing up here?”

Roy turned. There was a security team for this rooftop too apparently. Well. No choice then.

“I’m just watching the parade,” He lied as convincing as he could with a knife and crossbow in his hooves.

“We’re going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Control? You listening?”

“We have other problems Roy,” Control nearly yelled, “Look across the street!”

Something was definitely wrong. There wasn’t a security team there anymore. That could be problematic.

“Sir!” the Guard was shouting now, “Please leave the premises!”

Roy was running out of options. He needed to get across the street five minutes ago and he didn’t have time to go to street level and cross the street. He was going to have to do something crazy. He looked to his left. There was a long line of banners leading across the street from the slightly shorter building. That would have to do. He took a deep breath and jumped off the building.

He landed in a roll and sprinted. He took a moment to recover, hearing the shouts of the guards running off the roof behind him. Across the lane he saw a crossbow being aimed by red energy. No time to rest then. Lovely.

He swung onto the line of banners and climbed hoof over hoof, swinging himself across the street quickly.Thankfully the crowd was focused on the Dukes car. He swung up to a small decorative alcove right below the roof and turned on his goggles. Infrared showed the sniper was crouched right behind the wall and hadn’t noticed him, across the street the security team had gone inside the building, their blobs of red light moving quickly down the stairwell. He took a deep breath and pulled out his knife. He was going to have to do this right the first time. He put one hoof on the alcove and flipped over the wall. He flew over the edge of the building at the would-be sniper, tackled her and put his knife at her throat.

“Miss, it would be easier for both of us if you would come quietly,” Roy said with exertion.

    The mare flicked her grey mane. Roys eyes, trained to follow any movement, flicked with it. In that second she kicked him in the stomach. The agent felt all of his breath escape him as the mare shoved him off and ran into the stairwell leading into the building.

“So thats how its going to be. Fine,” Roy said, his breath returning. He got up as quickly as he could and ran after her.

Roy sprinted down the steps keeping his eyes to the left down the spiral stairs hoping to catch a glimpse of his quarry. He did, and almost too late. Roy saw a glimpse of her mane; and had to throw himself into a roll to dodge a magically sped up arrow shot at him with alarming precision. Roy stopped his roll breathing heavily, he was getting tired. She was too, if she was desperate enough to take a shot. As he threw himself down the stairs Roy realized that doing stupid things had been his path to success lately. So, time to do something stupid. Roy stopped running and flung himself off the stairwell.

He fell down a level then grabbed the railing, hung for a split second then swung head over hooves another level. He found himself hanging upside down, not a foot away from the sniper. He aimed with his hoof-held crossbow and fired at her leg. She moved at the last second and the arrow stuck in the post behind her. She turned and pulled it out then moved to stab him with the pointed tip. He fell from the railing above her dodging the wickedly sharp tip. He pulled his knife out and split the arrow with the pommel. Then he flipped the knife in his hoof and went in to stab her. She pulled out her own blade and parried. They dueled knife to knife down the stairs, the white pony constantly on the retreat. Roy was getting irritated. This lady was good. The fight continued as they went down 3 floors. They burst into the lobby wrestling for control. Roy thought this was probably the only time he didn’t like wrestling with a women.

Then by lucky chance he ended up on top. He stuck his knife to her throat and pinned her to the ground. “Now can I question you?” He gasped.

“You can try,” She gasped just as tiredly.

“Who hired you to kill the Duke?”

“No idea. Don’t ask questions about the job. Bad for business.”

“Damn assassin. Tell me!”

“Assassin is such an ugly word. Try mercenary, hired gun.”

“So a political agenda then.”

“Maybe.”

“So who hired you?”

“Earth pony. Maybe Pegasus. Unicorn. Blue red or green. I forget.”

“So a changeling then.”

“Two for two! Possibly. If I told you the real score they’d kill me.”

“Dangerous organization of changelings with a political agenda.”

“I said nothing.”

“Anything else you want to squeal?”

“Stalling is spelled S-T-A-L-L-I-N-G.”

Roy saw the magic aura around her horn too late. He glanced behind him and saw her crossbow; just as it fired its bolt into his side. He felt his body tell him in a not polite way something was not supposed to be there, and knew no more.

Roy regained consciousness slowly and painfully. He opened his eyes with effort and looked around. Same lobby he had collapsed in. Same riot outside. He looked at himself; the arrow had stuck in his side, and he was bleeding badly. He grunted and reached back I’m really going to have to lodge a complaint about this chainmail, His agony ridden mind wondered deliriously, It’s obviously not arrow proof.  He swore and clenched his teeth as he removed the arrow. Thankfully It wasn't barbed, He examined the bloody tip. It was designed to be aerodynamic and kill from the initial shock of impact from long range, Roy noted looking at the teardrop shaped tip. Custom job. Roy would use it to track her down later. He put it in his own quiver and stood up legs shaking. He limped to the door and shoved it open with his shoulder. Through blurred eyes he saw the scene in front of him. The ponies were being brought to a boil again. They began to riot, lashing out at guards and each other. Roy heard glass breaking from behind him, somepony had crushed a window with his bare hooves. Roy focused on looking for the instigators he had picked out before. He picked out one and started to stumble over to him. The green pony had stepped back from the riot, obviously proud of the chaotic scene before him. Roy stumbled a little closer. He moved his arm back to his quiver and pulled the crossbow string back. He aimed It his arm weaving back and forth. He shot.

The recoil sent him back on the ground. His eyes began to flutter, his vision hazed. He saw black hooves with holes approach him.

And a flash of red.

And he sank into a peaceful sleep.

Roy’s eyes flickered back open. He groaned and heard ponies move, a white one with a red cross ran through his field of vision. A grey pony with a coal-colored mane and pink eyes swam into his line of sight. Control. “Is this heaven?” He asked groggily, “‘Cause you’re definitely an angel.”

Roy could have sworn he saw Control grin. He must be delirious. He sank back into sleep.