Perspective: Skirmish

Combat Boots, for all her relative paranoia, wasn't always wrong. She was second-in-command for a reason.

The two of us had been waiting at our meetup spot for hours, making sure the teleporter stayed active while also keeping an eye out for anyone who came too close for comfort. It wasn't the most luxurious or most stable location; just the garden shed of an abandoned house in a very... "ghetto" part of town. That's the only word I can think of to describe it, sorry. Still, it was a place where no one would care enough to go searching on a whim.

We were about two hours from the prison where Winter, Chloe, and Hoof Burns were being held. The teleporter had been set up and telepathically linked after they radioed in that there was a change of plans due to the arrest. Somehow, they figured out the schedule of the prisoners before getting arrested - I assume one of them knocked a guard out and rooted through their pockets or something - and through that, figured out the timeframes they would be able to escape after completing their job.

Combat Boots tracked down this town on various maps and located the abandoned building closest to the prison. Five and a half miles away from it, sure, but still technically closest. We gave them directions, then while they got themselves arrested, we snuck to that building and set up shop in the garden shed. I understood the teleport mechanism the best out of anypony on the team, so naturally I had to come along. Boots, for her part, got it into her head I would somehow trip over a rock and break the teleporter.

Keeping the two-hour walk in mind, we started going back and forth through the teleporter, waiting in the safety of our base during the off times with the teleporters deactivated, and hiding in the garden shed with our escape route open otherwise. It was just a matter of waiting; they had to ditch their radio before "getting caught", so we had lost our method of communication.

Despite this, somehow, Boots knew when we needed to go find them instead.

"Go get them," she told me suddenly one day when we arrived in the shed.

I blinked at her, not just because the lack of light made it hard to see her. On the contrary, compared to the brown and gray of the shed, her deep purple coat and blood red mane and short tail were easy to spot. Her piercing red eyes and cutie mark of silver army boots, even more so. She smoothed out her wings before looking at me again, raising an eyebrow, as if asking why I hadn't left yet.

"What did you ask?" I clarified. I heard her fine, but I wanted reasoning.

"Go get them. Something must have gone wrong." She shook herself. "Take some bail money and your passport. Get them out and drag them back here. We'll wait for him to be released, then grab him."

"Shouldn't we let them finish their job?"

She gave me a look. "If they haven't done it yet, they won't get it done any quicker. Besides, we'll need them for other assignments."

That was definitely a good point. I wasn't sure how many days had gone by, but we had received at least one mission calling since Winter and Chloe got themselves arrested. Luckily, it was a quick one, and our resident musclehead Brass Knuckles was able to take care of it by himself before I even knew the details. Of course, being able to take multiple tasks at once is why we have a group, but with four of us occupied, we'd be wearing thin sooner or later.

After some mild arguing about why I had to be the one to go find them, I reluctantly exited the shed. I had already memorized the path they had to travel from the prison, so I just ran it backwards in my mind. Granted, it wasn't much harder than walking east and keeping an eye out for the few landmarks that would appear as I transitioned from town to desert.

Using my magic, I adjusted the piece fitted inside my left ear. "Tussle? You there?"

"Yo!" The chirpy voice of my sister buzzed back through the earpiece, far louder than I was prepared for. Apparently she heard my grunt, because the next words that came from her were at a more tolerable level. "What's going on?"

"Nothing major, as far as I know." I shrugged even though she couldn't see me. "You're at the computers, right? And not playing Tetris on them again?"

"...um... is it alright if only one of those is true?"

I sighed. "Turn that off and get the radar running. You need to keep an eye on the prison, and let me know if there's any movement outside the walls, okay?"

"Got it!" I heard the clacking of keys, followed by a pause. "...alright, got it running. But, um, I can multitask-"

"No Tetris."

"Aww..." With that, though, she turned off her microphone, going silent. I sighed in relief; putting Tussle in charge of mission control was typically a recipe for disaster. Or at least a recipe for aggravation. Shaking my head, I returned to my focus: walking and keeping my eyes open.

My quiet two-hour walk was finally interrupted by a slight crackling in my ear. "Hey, uh, I think Winter and Chloe just left!"

I blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, two ponies just walked away all casual-like, and they're the only ponies there, right?"

"Supposedly, yeah." I started to question why I came out here if they were going to be fine anyway. The image of Boots's glare flashed through my head to remind me. "Well, I'm this far out... I'll see if I can meet them and make sure they don't get lost on the way back. Tussle, keep an eye out on the guards, and let me know if they head in the same direction Winter and Chloe went."

"Kay-kay!" she replied cheerfully, flicking off her microphone.

It wasn't long after when I heard sounds of a scuffle from up ahead. I picked up the pace, worried that the guards made it past Tussle and had caught Winter and Chloe in their escape. I was half-right; instead, I found a changeling prisoner wrestling with Winter - and losing - as Chloe watched, the slightest hints of a worried expression on her face.

I would've been content to wait and see how it played out, only getting involved if things went pear-shaped, but Tussle suddenly crackled to life in my ear again. "The guards are heading west! Er... east, or... your way!"

Biting my lip, I crouched down to stay at least partially out of sight, and stepped over to the pony who wasn't currently in the middle of a brawl. "Chloe!"

She jumped and whirled around, but visibly relaxed when she saw me. "Skirmish!"

I beckoned her. "Come on! The prison guards are spreading out; they'll find you any minute now!" Admittedly, I didn't know that for sure, but I somehow doubted I'd get the two of them moving if I just said they might stumble across us if they're lucky.

Chloe glanced back at the fighting pair. "What about them?"

I looked past her. Winter was currently on top of the changeling, holding him - her? Uh, them - down to the ground. I was curious how it'd go if I left it, but we had priorities. Whistling twice, I caught his attention. "Winter! We gotta go!"

He glanced at us, then down at the changeling. Swiftly, he punched the downed prisoner in the face, and they fell limp, before he nonchalantly walked over. "Alright, ready."

"You could have just knocked him out this whole time?!"

I ignored their argument as I turned to walk. They'd follow me if they knew what was best.

"Good job, guys!" Tussle was grinning at us and speaking before we'd even shaken off the teleporter's disorientation. "Flawless escape!"

I groaned and tried to straighten my vision. No longer were we in the barren desert, or the half-abandoned town, or the wooden garden shed. Now we were in the office-like building we called our base, specifically in the small teleporter room. Already waiting for us was a lavender unicorn (we had a lot of unicorns on the team, huh?) with a combed burgundy mane and tail that matched my coat. Her orange eyes were wide with excitement, like a puppy whose master just came back from a vacation, and her tail almost seemed to wag - or maybe I was just that dizzy - above her hoof cuff cutie mark.

Chloe rubbed her eyes. "Flawless? Really?"

"Yeah! I'd give it an A-plus, easy!" Tussle smiled proudly.

"Even though we got caught by an escaped prisoner?" She moved to rubbing her stomach.

"Oh, thanks for reminding me! Winter kicked his flank! A-plus-plus!" With that, Tussle turned and practically skipped out of the room, leaving us to collect our spinning visions and turning stomachs.

"She's your twin..." Boots grumbled to me. I glared at her. "Just stating a fact."

Winter staggered to his hooves. "If anyone wants me, I'll be in my office, writing out the report..." He promptly sat back down, which slowly transitioned into lying on his side. "...in a minute..."

"We really just need to... make this thing less painful," Chloe muttered as she tried to catch her breath.

The rest of us proclaimed our agreements through grunts and raised hooves.