Standish hated daytime espionage with a passion for many reasons. As he sat on a rooftop above Brass Bolt's Smithy, his cloak flickered in the sunlight, which was one reason. The other was the fact that Standish wasn't really a day person, more of a night owl.

Which suited him just fine. As he surveyed the street below, he saw his target approach the door below him, Standish jumped to the ground, using his axe as an anchor to slow his fall. As he snuck in the back entrance, he saw Brass Bolt collapse on the front desk when he had been standing moments earlier.

Standish slowly took out his First Wave Vector ACP, and approached the blacksmith, scanning him with his ISAC Module.

"No lifesigns detected. Subject deceased." ISAC said in reply.

"Damnit!" Standish cursed, beginning to search the body, only to stop at the base of his neck, which was covered by an apron. Standish reached in and pulled out a small poison dart, which was loaded with a syringe injector.

Standish raised an eyebrow underneath his mask. As he searched the smithy, he eventually found Bolt's business office. Taking whatever purchase orders he could find as well as his records, he then exited the building and cloaked for the return to Canterlot Castle.

====

"You get anything from Brass Bolt?" Twilight asked as Standish mantled over the windowsill and sat down.

"No, he's dead." Standish said, tossing the dart onto the table. "Some fucker nailed him in the neck with that. Plus his purchase records are incomplete."

"Damn." Lyle said. "Any world from Paulson?"

"I just got off the radio with him." Jacobs said from the corner, where he was maintaining his MK46 with a weapon cleaning kit. "He and your friend Pinkie are returning soon. Marble said he bought the orichalum after they...well, I won't say it. She's pregnant, and no birth control pill is fixing that."

"Fucking brilliant." Standish said. "What about the Blueblood kid?"

"You mean Majesty?" Lyle replied. "She's camped out at the Blueblood family safehouse. I left her something that might help us."

"What did you do?" Standish asked his fellow Hunter.

"I may have left her a spare radio." Lyle said. "Tuned to my SHD tech. And before you get mad Standish, I took some precautions."

"What kind of precautions?" Twilight asked.

"I made sure she can't access our database or any other SHD Tech we have." Lyle said. "Took a bit of reprogramming, but seeing as we're still technically Rogue, it didn't take that long."

"Well, fine." Standish said. "Where'd you leave it?"

"That's up to Majesty." Lyle smirked. "I also rigged it with some C4 on a trigger linked to my SHD Tech. If we need to destroy it, I can do it remotely and without a trace."

"Good thinking." Twilight said. "Anyway, once Paulson returns, we should figure out a plan of action for moving forward."

"Agreed." Standish replied. "By the way Lyle, how exactly do you know that Majesty's going to find that radio?"

"You'll see." Lyle replied cryptically.

====
Blueblood Family Estate
Majesty's room
====

As Majesty Blueblood sat down at her desk for another session of studying combat magic, she felt something bite into her flank. As she looked down, she saw a small device with an antenna sitting on her chair.

Picking the device up, she could see the outline of a rising phoenix in orange painted on it, along with a set of buttons. As she pressed one, a blue light appeared on the side.

After a few moments, she set it down, only for a voice to speak.

"This thing on? Hey, Majesty, talk to me. Press the little blue button."

She scrambled to pick up the device and spoke after following the voice's instructions.

"Who is this?" she asked.

"Name's Lyle. I'm one of Twilight Sparkle's new guards. Majesty, I'm glad you found my little present."

"What do you mean by that?" she questioned.

"I've wanted to talk to you, Majesty." Lyle said. "I figured from the way your dad spoke about you that you were his main method of taking over Equestria if Twilight died ?"

"Quite so. It's supposed to be my destiny that I rule Equestria." she said. "My flank it is.."

"I take it you're not happy about that?" Lyle sounded surprised. He didn't figure the daughter of Amadeus Blueblood to think or speak like that.

"I couldn't care less about my father or his delusional fantasies of Equestria's future." she replied. "I'm not like my father in the slightest, I assure you. In fact, the only time he pays attention to me is when I'm studying magic or listening to his lectures. Other than that, he won't give me the time of day. And my mother and brother are even worse."

"Geez, I take it that frustrates you?" Lyle asked.

"It infuriates me!" Majesty replied bitterly. "I don't understand why father or mother won't even read Princess Twilight's reforms, let alone support them. I've read them, and they seem reasonable enough. And don't even mention my brother. He's a completely different problem in my side."

"I'll take your word for it, then." Lyle said. "Majesty, I'd like to make a deal with you."

"Oh?" she asked. "Do tell."

"If you spy on your brother, mother, and father, plus all the other Traditionalists that you can and tell me what you find every so often, my teammates and I can guarantee your safety once they're brought to justice." Lyle said. "I'll also put in a good word about you with Princess Twilight. I think you might like her if you meet her sometime."

"Well, here's hoping." Majesty said with a smile. "Alright, Lyle, I accept your offer."

"Then welcome aboard." Lyle said proudly. "Whenever you find out something of interest, write it down or memorize it discretely and tell me as soon as possible. Keep that radio with you at all times, it's your only method of communicating with me or my teammates. Finally, allow me to speak freely about how I think of you."

"Shoot." Majesty said.

"I like how you think, Majesty. You seem like a good kid, unlike your batshit-crazy family." Lyle said.

"You don't know the half of it." she said with a roll of the eyes. "What happens now?"

"I'll be in touch soon. Lyle out. Hit the blue button to end the connection, by the way."

As Majesty pushed the blue button again and the radio went silent, she moved to the brick wall above her bed. Cutting a brick loose and hollowing it out with her magic, she placed the radio inside before replacing the brick and resealing it.

"It's time to make my own destiny, father." she smirked. "Whether you like it or not. And in this...I won't fail."

====

Back in Canterlot, the Hunters were putting away their research when Paulson returned from the Rock Farm.

"So, Marble Pie is pregnant?" Twilight asked, though she figured that she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, and she's nearly due by the looks of her." Paulson said. "Also, the birth control pills she got from Blueblood were just placebos."

"What kind of fucker does something like that?" Jacobs said in disbelief.

"Somepony like him." Twilight replied angrily. "Lyle, what are you doing with that?"

The Hunters turned to see Lyle putting away his radio.

"I just got off the line with Majesty Blueblood. Turns out she's not on the same page as her dad. Like, she's a completely different pony. We've got a spy on the inside of the Blueblood family, and she'll be sending us a stream of intel from now on." Lyle said proudly. "Is that good news or what?"

"I say pretty damn good." Standish said. "I'm not sure we can trust her yet, but now that we've got a spy in Amadeus's inner circle, I think that gives us the advantage."

"So what's the plan?" Twilight asked.

"I think it's time we played our next hand." Standish said. "Twilight, can you tell Princess Celestia that we've got something to say in a couple of hours?"

Twilight raised her eyebrows, but nodded as Standish and his team left the room to prepare for whatever it was they were doing. Twilight also noticed Standish had a smile on his face as he and his team walked out.

Author's Notes:

Update!