Chapter 35: An Unwelcome Interruption

The two crunched through to snow and the growing darkness of on coming night. Their stomachs grumbled in anticipation of the meal they were both making their way towards. They rounded a corner and finally came to their destination, a tall, strange two legged being holding the door to the restaurant open while a pegasus mare trotted inside. He then followed her, closing the door behind him and sealing them into the warm interior of the eatery. The human talked to the hostess and got them a table for two in a secluded section of the room. She seated them both and left them with the menus to attend to another table.

"I still don't know why you didn't just cook again, you did pretty good last time."

"Because Dash, I can cook a few things really well, but that's about it." James said with a smile. "Besides, Flash is trying his own hand, er hoof, at it tonight with HIS date."

The weather mare chuckled, "He should probably leave that to Pinkie, she's real good at baking."

"Yeah, I'm half expecting to return home to a house fire." James said, joining her.

"Ooooh, then you might need to find a new place to live. Hmmm, I wonder if Twilight could find a permanent cloud walking spell?"

"Coming home to sleep on a cloud," James pondered, rubbing his chin in a mock of deep thought, "sounds tempting, but I'm afraid I'd never wake up again."

"Yeah, I remember. You loved that way to much."

"What can I say? After years of sleeping on rocks and in sand, and then jumping on that delightful fluff?"

They both laughed again. Their waiter came and took their orders for food and drink. When she left, the two resumed their conversation, reminiscing about past events and talking of future ones. Dash was wrapping up a particularly humorous story when their food finally arrived.

"I swear, I've crashed into that library so many times, I'm surprised Twilight still hasn't put up some kind of force field!"

"Ha, nice."

Two plates and glasses levitated from a tray onto their table. James inhaled the spicy scent of the curry dish he had ordered, mouth watering in anticipation. He was about to dig in when he noticed that the waitress still had not left yet. She looked like she had to tell him something.

She leaned over and politely spoke to him in a soft tone, "Uh, excuse me sir, but there's a unicorn standing out front looking for you."

"Did he say what it was for?" James asked her, fearing that his house fire joke had become an unfortunate fact.

"I'm sorry sir, he wouldn't tell me, all he said was that it was urgent and it couldn't wait."

"Thank you ma'am, I'll take care of it."

She nodded and then went off to to take care of the other tables under her responsibility, once again leaving the two alone. James turned back to his date to see a look of annoyance now occupied her face.

James sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "I'm sorry, it sounds like Sparks. He wouldn't do this unless it really was important."

"It's fine, just try and get back before the food gets cold." She said dismissively.

"Dammit." James muttered under his breath as he stood up and picked his way between the tables to the entrance.

He stepped outside into the cold, boots crunching into the freezing snow. He looked around and spotted the rust colored unicorn standing at the corner of the building. The stallion motioned for the human to follow and disappeared into the dark alley around the corner. James breathed into his palms and rubbed them for warmth as he crunched through the stiffening snow to the space between the buildings enshrouded in dark shadow. Waiting for him was Sparks, a serious expression set into his face.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your nice dinner there,"

"You're telling me...."

"But we got a message from the big boss, it doesn't look good."

With his magic he produced a letter from a small satchel slung over his side and floated it in front of the human. Quickly, James plucked it from the air and inspected it. On the face of the letter was the Royal Seal, stamped in bright red wax.

"How do you know it's bad? You haven't even opened it yet."

"Flip it over."

James did as he was told and turned it over. On the back, stamped in large red letters, was URGENT. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE IS THIS CORRESPONDENCE TO FAIL IN REACHING ITS INTENDED RECIPIENT.

"Shit, that is bad."

James broke the seal and pulled out a carefully folded parchment.

To The Capable Commander Of Our Valiant Special Forces,

I hope you are in good health and your team has been enjoying their time off. I apologize as I had intended this to be a letter to inform you of the time and location of yours and your team's pinning as bearers of the Star of Equestria. Unfortunately, I have received daunting news in relation to Captain Alister's disturbing report on the raid in the Blasted Mountains. It is with heavy heart that I urgently request your presence here in the capitol. Please make haste, as now I truly fear for my citizens' safety.

--Princess Celestia

"What's it say?" Sparks inquired as James dropped his hand to his sides.

"Well, you're wrong. It's not bad."

"It's not?"

"No, it's worse. Does everyone else know yet?"

"No, I came straight to you as soon as this arrived."

"Ok," James said with a heavy sigh, "go ahead and track them all down. Let 'em know we're leaving early tomorrow. Flash should be back at the house, but be careful about how you tell him, he's with his lady friend. I'll meet you back at HQ later."

"Got it."

Sparks galloped off, intent on completing his task. James turned around to head back into the restaurant, head down and running a hand over his short cropped hair. Then he took a deep breath and smoothed out his clothes before putting the most convincing fake smile he could on his face and stepping back inside. He picked his way back to his table and sat down to his food. Dash had already begun to eat hers so he hastily took a few bites of his own.

"What was it about?" She asked him.

He looked up into her face and flashed his faux smile, "Nothing too bad, he just needed to ask about acquiring some more equipment. Stuff we need." He lied.

The rosy eyed pegasus sitting across from him looked unconvinced. "That smile doesn't reach your eyes. You're leaving again, aren't you?"

James swallowed the food he was currently chewing and put his fork down. His smile had disappeared.

"Yes."

"Why? You practically just got back!"

"I'm sorry, its the nature of the beast. They call, I answer. For now, let's just enjoy the time we have. Ok?" A small sincere smile formed on his mouth.

"Ok...."

====================================================================

It was dark, the sun not having yet risen. Out in a secluded clearing, just a few miles away from Ponyville, five figures exited a building clad in heavy cold weather gear, white as the surrounding snow. On their backs, they carried heavy bags packed densely with gear. The rest of it was already packed into a large metal contraption sitting on two skids not far from the building the night before. In silence and under the cover of darkness, they walked over to it and opened a large side door. One by one, they filed inside. The last one, a biped, stopped with only one foot in the door, the other still on the ground.

He looked out over the nearby trees where he could just see the tops of buildings in the slowly intensifying light that heralded the coming dawn. In the back of the vehicle he was about to board, an engine hummed to life. He inhaled sharply through his nostrils, the cold air slicing it's way down his throat and into his lungs. With a loud puff, a cloud of warm vapor exploded from his mouth. Next to him, two loud bangs of a hoof striking the metal bulkhead caught his attention. Then, with conviction, he pulled himself into the compartment, the airship lifting into the sky as his boot left the ground. He closed the door behind him and took a seat next to Flash on one of the benches.

"How'd it go last night?" The dark pegasus asked his friend.

"Probably about the same as it did for you." James responded.

"Yeah, it went good at first, but that news really put a damper on the mood."

"Yup."

Absent mindedly, James put his hand in his shirt and fingered a small round object that was attached to a simple aluminum chain, much like the one that held his dog tags. His dog tags he left at home, this hanging in their usual place. It was a small clear gem that would be normal in every way, save for the fact that in the center a swirling burst of color featuring every shade of the visual spectrum. Every time he looked at it, he almost thought just see the faintest amount of luminescence hiding deep inside. Every time he tried to focus on it, the ethereal glow would mysteriously disappear.

Last night, before James left to prepare for his trip, he had walked Dash back to her home. Underneath her fluffy floating residence she made him wait while she flew up into her house. The returned shortly with the gem and gave it to him. Before she let him go, she made him promise that he would bring it back no matter what.

"What's wrong with your chest, got an itch?" Feather asked him, instantly bringing him back to reality.

"What? Uh... yeah." He let the trinket drop back down his shirt where it hung. "Hey, Myst, how's the weather looking?" He called to the cockpit.

"Lookin' good, ETA about forty-five minutes!"

"Outstanding. Everyone get some rest, we got a meeting to attend and I want you all to be alert. I'll wake you guys up when we're fifteen out."

=====================================================================

They stood at a large square table with a gigantic map spread out on it. To James' right sat Admiral Darkwing and his staff. On his left, was the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor and two representatives from the Day and Night Guards. James had elected to remain standing with his team between the two groups. A heavy silence filled the room as the waited on the last member of their meeting to arrive.

After a few moments, two large doors at the far end of the room swung open to admit both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, each of them looking rather distressed. After they both had entered, Celestia flared her magic and closed every door and drew every curtain of every window. At the same time, Luna flared hers, but with less visible effects.

"Thank you all for coming. We have ensured that no ears can hear us nor eyes see us. We have a very sensitive matter to discuss." Started off the Princess of the Sun. "Luna, if you will?"

"Certainly dear sister. Through my guards of the night, it has come to my attention that very sinister things are afoot in our nation. At first there were only whisperings, but after I ordered the guard to investigate, they found this:" she produced a photo of a restrained earth pony, face down on the ground. In the photo, four familiar softball sized orbs were in a padded box lined with straw.

"He was found in Manehatten with these in his possession."

"So sorry for interrupting, but if he was found in one of your cities, why are you including me?" The Admiral asked Luna.

"Because we also found this on his person:" she produced another photo, this one of a scrap of paper.

The griffon took and examined it, a look of pure shock spreading across his face. He threw it upon the table. James picked it up and read the writing on the paper in the photo:

Manehattan
Fillydelphia
Las Pegasus
High Tower
Canterlot

"Where's High Tower? I'm not familiar with it." The human asked.

"It's the largest griffon colony in Equestria. It's also the first one founded when our empire crossed the great sea in search new lands. It is here in the Foal Mountains, very close to the town of Whitecrest." The admiral explained, pointing to a region of the mountain range just north and east of the settlement they had both defended.

Luna continued with her brief, "When interrogated, the pony made mention of others like him spread through out the country in many of our cities. We believe this means there are groups of these ne'er do wells embedded in our population centers. What exactly they have planned, we do not know."

"So we flush them out! We find out where they're hiding and saturate the area with guards until we catch them all." Shining armor suggested.

James chuckled to himself at the suggestion, but it did not go unnoticed.

"Human, why do you laugh, do you find this funny?" The unicorn chastised.

James regained his composure before responding, "No this is horrible. But you want to flush them out? That's something an amateurs would do."

"Oh? And I suppose you have a better idea?" The Guard Captain scoffed.

"Not to offend you, but you have no experience in this. That ONE pony was found with FOUR explosives. It stands to reason that there are more. Given the fact that they have a list of cities they're obviously smuggling explosives into. Cities with high populations. An attack is being planned. They tried head on assault, that didn't work. Now they're resorting to terrorist tactics to cause panic and confusion." He explained.

"Commander, if I may ask, how do you know this?" Celestia asked him.

"Ma'am, this is what I was primarily trained to fight. Training that I passed on to many of your own citizens. Domestic attacks on civilians will just be a part of it. We know that there are ponies now working with the Lotkin. That means there will be cells in the cities waiting on a signal to detonate the explosives. In the ensuing confusion, the main host will attack, we just don't know where. That said, if we find the cells and saturate the area with guards, they'll just detonate the ordinance anyway."

"What solution do you propose?" Asked the Admiral.

"We send in small teams to each of the cities on this list. We move covertly and catch them off guard. We take them out before they even know what's happening. The RSTG can handle this. If I'm correctly informed, then we now have thirteen fully trained teams ready for tasking. We send two teams per city and hold the other three in reserve in case anything pops up. The teams will track down the threats, neutralize them, then gather any and all intel they can find in the process."

The room fell silent as they all waited on the decision of the Princesses.

"Very well, Commander," Celestia said, "see to it that it is done."

"Yes ma'am."