Prologue - Unexpected Company
The night was still and quiet, the glassy entrances to the Canterlot banking district reflected the dim moonlight far, far above. A lone head poked out from an alleyway, a Stetson shielding the owners’ face from any witnesses. She glanced around before turning back into the alley and offering a silent nod to her compatriots, the three of which nodded solemnly and slithered out onto the street, keeping to the shadows and looking around warily.
To be spotted this quickly would be an insult to their skills and their objectives. It would almost certainly provide their boss with an excuse to take a more… personal interest in their activities. A feat none of them wanted to accomplish at any point in their near future. Their colours were dimmed to a light grey against the darker shadows that covered them, allowing them the freedom to move quickly.
Once they’d drawn level with one of the larger buildings, the glass front was all that stood between them and the room beyond.
The pony in the Stetson turned to one of the others. ‘Alright… you all know the deal. Clean and careful, remember?’ she spoke in hushed whispers, the barest hint of an accent shining through. Each of the team nodded grimly and took their positions on opposing sides of the door.
One of their number, the only unicorn there, stepped up to the door and cast her gaze over it, clicking her tongue thoughtfully. The others looked around warily for any movement. The unicorn started murmuring under her breath, her voice regal and measured. ‘My, my… Three deadbolts and an electromagnetic lock… how... easy.’
Before she’d finished speaking, there was a rather large ‘ker-thunk’ from the doorway and the lockpicker stepped away, allowing the door to swing open. ‘All yours ladies,’ she said, smiling.
The apparent leader of the team rolled her eyes. ‘How nice of you, Rares… come on, I don’t want to have to explain to the boss why we’re late,’ she said, stepping away from the wall and entering the building, closely followed by the rest of her team behind her. The final two of them turned and slid the door shut behind them, the click almost inaudible even against the silence.
‘Alright…’ the sigh of relief was barely hidden, ‘y’all know where you need to be. Five minutes time should be enough.’
Once again, they all offered one-another solemn nods before splitting up and going in different directions. The Stetson and a pegasus went towards the stairs upwards while the unicorn and the last member of their party went towards the back room.
The unicorn and the last member, a black-clad pony with night-vision goggles, pressed themselves up against the wall next to the door, staying silent as they went through the motions again, the unicorn testing and teasing the door until a small ‘click’ was heard. Someone paying attention to the two of them might have heard the small relieved sigh as the door gave way and they slipped through.
Again, they shut the door quietly behind them before turning to the room at large. Once again, it was deserted, the black marble floors echoing their footsteps eerily. They spotted what they were looking for very quickly. In between one of the numerous filing cabinets and a well-worn desk, a dark-grey door with the words ‘Employees Only’ printed on it, stood.
The unicorn pursed her lips as she looked at the new door. She held out a hoof to her companion, studying the door and its keyhole, embedded into the doorknob. A moment later, she felt the comforting weight of her lockpicks against her hooves and she smiled slightly, using her magic to make the small rods of iron dance in the air.
She set her focus on the small keyhole, manipulating the picks with minor adjustments and a practiced technique. Less than thirty seconds later, the lock had given up the fight and allowed the two ponies past.
The light was dimmer down here, the silvered walls doing as much to aid their vision as the halogen bulbs far away. They crept down the stairs, further and further towards their eventual goal at the end of the tunnel. Their breath began to fog against the air, creating pearly clouds that hung around their muzzles as they went deeper still.
The stairs stopped. The hallway in front of them stretched ahead, the steel walls only echoing the hum of the bulbs above.
‘How cheery…’ the unicorn murmured, her expression grim. Her companion simply nodded, scanning the hallway in front of them sceptically. ‘We’re running somewhat early…’ she observed, ‘we have another few seconds before the alarms are taken care of.’ Once again, her companion simply nodded, no hint of emotion coming through the mask.
‘Five.’
The whisper echoed against the walls, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
‘Four.’
The black-clad pony’s mouth extended the mask slightly with each syllable.
‘Three.’
The lamp above them flickered, buzzing loudly for a moment before returning to silence. The unicorn withdrew her own pair of night vision goggles, pressing them against her face silently.
‘Two.’
A loud ‘Crack’ echoed around the room, followed by a slight rain of glass above them as the light fused.
‘One.’
Another crack echoed ominously down the hallway, followed by another, and another, the lights shorting out and their casings cascading to the floor.
‘Zero.’
A gut-wrenching shriek of metal-on-metal rung out through the hall as they started running. Everything electrical exploded simultaneously, their casings raining down upon the ponies as they raced towards the end of the hall. Almost an instant later… it was over. The screech stopped as the two of them reached the door at the end of the hallway.
For a few moments, the only sound in the tunnel was that of heavy breathing as the two ponies caught their breath. The unicorn watched the door in front of them analytically as she drunk down great lungfuls of air. The doors to the vault were much, much more refined and secure than any other door they’d seen so far. She knew that it was home to a much more powerful electromagnetic pulse which could only be unlocked by an eight-digit keycode and retinal scan on the terminal next to her. But that would only be a problem so long as…
‘Clank’
And like magic, the door swung open in front of them.
The unicorn chuckled, sometimes it paid to remember that to lock a door with new technology was all well and good… but it was no good if there was nothing to power it.
The masked pony spoke up over the groan of the opening door. ‘Two minutes until the police notice.’
The unicorn nodded, stepping daintily across the threshold and into the vault. She took a moment to scan the room, casting a lazy glance across its contents. She already knew exactly what she was to look for, and more importantly, what their boss was interested in. Their own personal interests were secondary concerns.
Her partner had a different, much easier job though. She’d set about pilfering all she could find. Anything gold or shiny went within the folds of the cloak silently. Once more, the unicorn pursed her lips; she knew that they were running out of time, and she did not want to explain to Falcon why she had failed. Few ever did.
Gulping nervously, she started forwards, scanning the shelves thoroughly for a single file out of the folders and stacks of paper.
‘Ninety seconds.’
The unicorn nodded, furrowing her eyes and moving across the room. But soon enough, it became apparent that something was wrong.
‘It’s not here.’ She muttered.
‘What?’
‘The file, it’s not here.’ She stated, her expression grim.
‘Of course it is,’ the other pony said, a hint of desperation playing around her voice, ‘This intel was straight from the pony’s mouth herself.’
‘Well it’s not.’ The unicorn replied flatly, ‘Obviously she must have been…’ her voice tailed off and her light coat paled further.
The silence was blasted apart by the sound of a megaphone, far, far above them.
‘We know you’re in there, come out now and we will not harm you.’
Each one of the team heard the unspoken threat hanging around that sentence.
‘We will not harm you… much.’
Back in the basement, the unicorn growled savagely. ‘She knew we had spies, she set us up.’
Her companion only shook her head slightly, ‘Congratulations for figuring that out, it doesn’t matter. We need to get out of here now, we’ll find the others if we can… then we’re leaving.’
The unicorn fumed silently, grinding her teeth silently before she nodded. ‘Let’s get out of here.’ She agreed.
She let her companion leave first before she allowed herself a smile. ‘Alright Celestia… if that’s how you want to play…’
Her horn lit up once more, creating an icy blue ball of energy in midair. She grunted in exertion, this was far more magic than she had expected to use… but it would be worth it. Somewhere in the ball of energy, atoms fused, and the fireball was born. With a savage smile, the unicorn flung it into the nearest stack of documents, already turning away and leaving the fire to crackle and creep behind her.
The black-clad pony was stood at the foot of the stairs, waiting for her patiently. ‘Remind me never to get on your bad side.’ She murmured, the mask as unreadable as ever.
‘Come on.’ The unicorn muttered, ‘We were escaping weren’t we?’
Instead of replying, her companion simply started up the stairs, leaving the unicorn to follow in her footsteps. They climbed the stairs at a furious pace, ever aware of the timer, ticking down around them. Eventually, the door loomed up in front of them and they raced through, shutting it behind them.
‘Alright… the others are probably waiting at the secondary exit-’ the unicorn started.
‘-Which is next to the stairwell, across the hall.’
The unicorn bit her lip in frustration, eyes furrowing down in an intense look of concentration. Sadly, the officer with the loudspeaker deigned to deny her just that.
‘Alright, have it your way… Ready or not little piggies, here we come.’
The sneer was unmistakable and the unicorn grimaced, wandering over to the door to the main hall absentmindedly and re-locking it.
Next to her though, the black-clad pony lifted her night vision goggles and the mask from her face. In the dim light afforded to them, she appeared almost purple in colour. ‘Plan C it is then…’ she murmured, reaching into her cloak and bringing out a small package, her baby-blue eyes scanning it over quickly before she nodded, satisfied.
‘You’re not…’ the unicorn started, watching as her partner simply placed the package on the floor, withdrawing a remote as she stood back up and backed away. ‘Pinkie… you’re seriously not considering-’
Whatever else Pinkie would not be considering was lost to time as she flashed a grin at her companion and pressed a large red button.
The concussive blast shook the room, dropping a large number of files to the floor as the unicorn’s ears rang. She groaned, slamming a hoof into one of her ears to try and clear them. She turned to reprimand her colleague, who’d already re-applied her mask and goggles when she noticed the hole.
The blast has been directed largely downwards, blowing out a great chunk of the masonry and giving them a clear exit into the sewers below. The unicorn stared, slack-jawed, at the creator of their exit before the shouting broke through to her. The police outside had heard the explosion and were very eager to investigate by the sounds of things.
Her companion was the first to move, diving towards the hole and leaping down into the sewers, closely followed by the unicorn, even as the police started hammering away at the door.
In a matter of moments, the door had been smashed in, three burly officers leading the charge into the back room. In a matter of moments, several officers followed the two ponies down the hole, looking around warily for any sign of them.
But from the moment they’d announced their arrival, they’d lost them.
‘You could have given me a little more warning dear.’
The two of them had beaten a hasty retreat, galloping full stop through the sewers until they could no-longer run. That was where they stood now, gasping down deep breaths of the fetid air.
‘It got us out didn’t it?’
The unicorn paused, her chest still rising and falling dramatically, but she ceded the point. ‘True, it was just a mite… unexpected.’
Her companion just shrugged, letting the silence fall around them again.
Once again, it was the unicorn who spoke up, her nervousness creeping into her voice now that the adrenaline had died off. ‘So… what now?’
Her partner sat down heavily, leaning back against the walls and taking off her mask. ‘We stick to the plan.’ Pinkie said eventually. ‘We report in to the boss and hope that Applejack and Fluttershy made it out ok.’
Rarity nodded again.
Rarity sighed, ‘She’s going to be mad, you know.’
‘Completely apoplectic.’ Pinkie agreed solemnly.
In the darkness of the sewers, the two ponies started laughing, a few giggling snorts that rapidly escalated into guffaws as they revelled in their situation.
They’d managed to completely fluff what was supposed to be a simple infiltration, burning down a whole room of documents in the process, and leaving via an inconspicuous hole in the floor.
‘Now what in the hay are you two so happy about?’
Stifling their giggles, Rarity and Pinkie both turned to face the newcomer, neither of them fit to fight off a puppy. ‘Hey AJ,’ Pinkie chirped, still grinning wildly, ‘The boss is gonna kill us for this.’ She managed before rolling back into the wall, cackling like a madpony.
Applejack’s face remained impassive, focussing instead on Rarity. ‘What the hell happened down there girl?’ she demanded before turning her head and snapping at someone behind her, ‘An’ can you deal with Pinkie? She’s gonna bring the whole force down on us if this racket continues.’
From behind Applejack, a dark brown pegasus emerged, her sunrise-orange mane tied back in a ponytail. Rarity watched the newcomer until she went out of sighed before she turned back to Applejack.
‘It was a trap,’ she sighed, closing her eyes, ‘we were set up.’
‘Ah gathered that…’ Applejack replied tartly before she slumped back against the wall. ‘We screwed this up didn’t we?’ Rarity’s silence was confirmation enough for her. Applejack sighed again, ‘Well… apart from that disaster, what was the haul?’
‘You’ll have to ask Pinkie, I was a little too preoccupied looking for what wasn’t there.’
As if named, the laughter dropped off sharply and the quiet of the sewer closed in on them again. Rarity was vaguely aware of the other half of their team joining them.
‘Pinkie?’ Applejack prompted.
‘Seventeen gold bars, six silver and an infodisk or two,’ her reply was quiet against the tunnels, any trace of laughter long gone.
Applejack nodded her approval, ‘Oh good, we’re only going to get half-skinned then.’
‘Or maybe, um… maybe the boss will listen to reason?’
The quiet voice was met by three sets of derisive snorts. ‘Flutters… for someone with your long-standing history… I’d have thought you’d know better.’
‘But… it wasn’t our fault we were set up.’ The quiet voice protested again.
‘But it was our fault they knew we were there in the first place,’ Rarity pointed out, ‘we should never have cut that generator.’
Fluttershy remained silent this time.
‘So…’ Applejack started eventually, ‘we’d better show our faces sooner rather than later. I’d rather not think about what the boss does to operatives who’re never seen again.’
Rarity and Fluttershy nodded, the former getting to her hooves slowly and starting on their way towards the exit. Pinkie, on the other hoof, stood still for a moment, eyes furrowed.
‘What do you think happens to the ponies who leave Applejack?’ she asked slowly.
Applejack got to her hooves, immediately business-like. ‘Ah just said didn’t I? They’re never seen again.’
Pinkie gulped before turning and following the other two, Applejack bringing up the rear.
They made their way through the sewers silently, even more mindful of the noises they were making now. Twist after turn they followed, the maps of the labyrinth planned out in their heads as they made their escape.
Soon enough, the natural light in the tunnel got a little brighter and the sound of running water got louder and louder. Another few turns and they found their exit, the grate leading out from under Canterlot heavy with rust and disuse. The watery sunlight of dawn shone through.
‘Right, let’s get this grate open.’ Applejack murmured to herself before raising her voice, ‘Rarity?’
Rarity snorted, ‘You know as well as I that it’s going to take something a little more brutish than a few lockpicks.’
Applejack nodded, sighing wearily. She took the lead, moving up towards the gate and turned around. Without saying a word, she leant forwards onto her front hooves, lifting her rear ones high overhead before sending them shooting backwards.
The grate broke away with a resounding clang, parting from its supports cleanly as Applejack balanced herself. She turned back to the others, ‘Come on, if that didn’t turn at least one head, then I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.’
They left quickly after that, jumping out from the grate onto the hard rock of Canterlot Spires. Once they were all safely out, they started running, eager to distance themselves from Canterlot. The sun was already rising through the sky, casting long shadows into the valleys and around the mountains.
Soon enough, they had descended from the mountain, now running on the flat moors around Canterlot, straight into the Everfree forest where the darkness engulfed them.
Once within the relative safety of the treeline, they all breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like the night had been one disaster after another and the sooner they were back at base, the better.
‘Can y’all remember where we were told to be?’ Applejack asked the group, glancing back at them.
Rarity replied automatically, ‘The den, half a click due north-east into the forest.’
Applejack nodded her understanding, her face impassive as she set off towards their new destination, closely followed by the others.
A cool breeze blew around them, the sounds of the Everfree breathing setting each of their hackles on end. Applejack shivered unconsciously as the leaves rustled around them. Far away, the sound of a lone wolf howling pierced the quiet.
‘They’re more scared of us than we are of them…’ she muttered under her breath, repeating her mantra religiously, as if the repetition would make it true. She heard the rest of the team pick up the words almost immediately, joining in with her.
‘And they’re much, much more scared of me.’
The voice floated down to them lazily, self-assured and confident, causing the team to stop dead in their tracks. After a few moments of silence, Applejack cracked a smirk, ‘How nice of you to meet us at the gate, Falcon,’ She offered, looking up and scanning the canopies warily.
‘I wouldn’t call it a nicety,’ Rarity muttered from behind Applejack.
A dark chuckle echoed around the four of them with no discernible origin, ‘My, my… you should learn to relax more, Rarity,’ the voice said, this time from deeper within the forest, ‘if I wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, would we?’
Applejack sighed, rolling her eyes, ‘Alright, enough with the games, Falcon. We’re here, that’s all that matters. So can you cut the crap and let’s get this over with.’
The sound of a twig snapping behind them echoed, deafening, through the silent forest. The four ponies spun around, focussing on the sound. Despite Applejack’s bravado, she knew about Falcon’s particular skills, and her reputation with them. The four of them scanned the treeline, their hearts in their mouths.
After a tense few seconds of searching wildly for the origin of the sound, they breathed out their respective sighs of relief before turning back again and their breaths hitched.
In front of them, the silhouette of a female pegasus was stood, garbed much as Pinkie was, except the newcomers attire was a mottled grey colour and much sleeker. Her face and mane were uncovered, revealing a cobalt blue coat and rose eyes that glittered in the darkness. The age of the newcomer was indiscernible, the only clue being the mane upon her head, seven shades of grey which only served to obscure any further guesses.
‘Falcon,’ Applejack greeted ambivalently.
Falcon’s eyes flickered over her before she addressed the team as a whole, ‘The boss wants to speak to you.’
Her voice was impassive and emotionless as she fixed each one of them with her cold gaze. None of them replied, their throats drying up as Falcon’s gaze passed them by. ‘You all know the drill by now,’ she continued, a smirk playing around her mouth as four shadows detached themselves from the forest. Her grin widened and the four shadows swung four bats into four ponies.
Once Falcon was sure that none of them were still conscious, she let out a small chuckle, throaty and dark. The four shadows loaded the ponies onto their backs and set off, carefully ignoring the pony behind them, even as her chuckles whispered amongst the trees, quiet and sinister.
‘I have to say… I’m disappointed in the four of you.’
Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity groaned in unison, blinking their eyes wearily and trying to ignore the splitting headache behind their eyes.
‘I can accept that this was a trap, I’m not an unfair pony in that regard.’
Applejack winced, raising her head as she tried to locate the voice. The four of them were in a large oblong room, a large fireplace at one end and the door behind them.
‘However… what I cannot accept is the complete and utter failure in which you went and sprung it.’
Rarity turned towards the voice, seated somewhere behind a large and imposing mahogany desk. Groaning slightly, she got to her hooves, helping the others to their hooves before focussing on the desk again.
‘I thought that your team had planned for, what was your phrasing? A “clean and careful” break-in?’
The desk was mostly empty, a few scrolls and sheets of paper laid across it the only contents. Behind the desk on the other hand, a tall sage-leather chair stood, facing away from them.
‘So tell me…’
The chair turned around, revealing a purple unicorn, her eyes covered by a set of mirrored spectacles.
‘What part of “clean and careful” didn’t get interpreted carefully enough?’
The unicorn’s voice was icy as she addressed the team before her, her cold rage washing against each and every one of them. Wisely enough, they all stayed silent as the unicorn leant forwards, her eyes on the papers in front of her.
‘I have reports that you took down a generator, cutting the power to that building, and the block around it. Do you deny that? Applejack, Fluttershy?’
She looked up, staring straight at the named ponies and almost daring them to contradict her. They didn’t. She grunted, turning back to the report in front of her.
‘Then we have another report about smoke from the basement. Tell me, Rarity my dear,’
Rarity gulped, meeting the gaze of the boss and hoping against hope that her heart wasn’t thumping quite as loudly as she thought.
‘What did you think setting the whole vault on fire would accomplish?’
Her voice was sweet and mellow, but Rarity could hear the venom beneath as clearly as any of the others. She opened her mouth to speak, trying vainly to think of a reply, but their boss just shook her head, turning back to the papers.
‘And as if that wasn’t enough, I have heard rumours about a… secondary exit that a Miss Pinkie Pie… “Found.” Care to spread any light on that?’
Pinkie simply shook her head slightly, not trusting her voice to remain level. The boss tilted her head at Pinkie for a moment before turning to focus on all four of them again.
‘You do know… by all rights, I should have told Falcon to find a way to prevent any further… disturbances from you four. I understand she can be quite creative in that regard.’
Four pairs of eyes widened at the threat, their owners minds turning blank in panic.
‘But obviously I haven’t or else you wouldn’t have woken up,’ the boss continued, keeping her eyes on the team. ‘It seems that you managed to pick up something while you were attracting the whole of the Canterlot police force onto you.’
She reached down behind the desk, withdrawing a small disk of silvered glass, using her magic to levitate it over the desk in front of her.
‘Let me make this abundantly clear,’ she started, ‘This infodisk is the only reason you are still alive. Had you simply returned empty-hooved, you would be dead.’
The words hung in the air, as the team processed that.
‘Don’t let it happen again.’
The dismissal was clear, as was the threat tagged onto it. The four ponies nodded their heads silently, accepting the lucky escape for what it was. The four of them turned and left the office silently, filing out and shutting the door behind them.
Once the door was shut, the pony behind the desk turned to the infodisk, looking at it carefully before she shut her eyes in exasperation, taking off the spectacles.
‘As much as I appreciate your concern, you can come out now, Falcon.’
From within the rafters of the room, one of the shadows detached itself and fell to the floor, landing silently on the carpeted office. In the well-lit room of the oblong office, her coat was much lighter, a sky blue instead of cobalt. Her mane had also changed, the dye being washed out to reveal the seven colours of the rainbow.
The smile on her face was good-natured this time, the artificial light in the office only accentuating the glimmer in her eyes. ‘You know,’ she started, her voice joking, ‘if it was anyone else, Twilight, I’d suspect that you were just guessing my position.’
Twilight Sparkle smiled slightly, even though it never reached her eyes. ‘We have ourselves a problem, Rainbow. Tell me… how long has it been since you went out in the field?’
Rainbow Dash let out another dark chuckle, ‘Far, far too long.’
‘Then I have a… task for you. One of our informants has gone rogue. I would like you to teach him the error of his ways,’ Twilight said, spinning the infodisk in the air absentmindedly. ‘But…’ she paused, setting the disk onto the desk and smiling properly at Rainbow, ‘after the little… problem our team caused, I think you might relish this challenge.’
‘The informant being?’ Rainbow prompted, eagerly anticipating the task ahead.
‘Prince Blueblood.’
Rainbow nodded, storing the information in her mind before she moved towards the door.
‘And Falcon?’
Falcon paused.
‘Make an example of him.’