Andrew opened the door to the police station, and the lights turned on as soon as he entered the lobby. The lights emitted a very white, ominous glow that lit up the room, instead of the incandescent yellow tinted glow the regular light bulb let off. He turned around to see that the girls were covering their eyes, probably due to the brightness of the new lights.

“Why is it so white in here?” Scootaloo asked, squinting her eyes due to the brightness of the room.

“Because these are fluorescent lights, they glow brighter at the cost of less electricity. From what I can tell most street lights use natural gas or regular light bulbs.” He dimmed the lights from the remote control in his tacpad, and changed the color from white to an orange-yellow tint.

“Better?” They all nodded their heads, and Andrew facepalmed.

“So, what are we gonna do this time, Crusaders?” Scootaloo asked. They cleared the coffee table and made it their own, Andrew was left to clean up the mess.

Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin, to think, “I have an idea...”

Canterlot Castle

Helena shut the door behind her, so no one else would get inside of the room. There she met up with Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Night Shade, and both Nick and Jhon, inside of a meeting room. She eyed the people to her right, and looked back at the ponies to her left, and calmly sat down in between the two.

“I bet you all are wondering why we’re here today.” Night Shade started out, he stood up from the table and put a loaded file on the table, full of pictures, evidence, and records of a Griffon, named Black Talon.

“This is our target, Black Talon. Drug lord, mass slave trader, and so called ‘god among ponies.’” He described Black Talon as if he had a bad taste in his mouth, which was understandable due to the massive size of the file, and how many nations this guy’s wanted in.

“What do you plan on doing?” Jhon asked, he took up a picture and studied Black Talon, not a very pretty sight either.

“We’re taking you off the front lines, that’s one thing. Another thing, we’re gonna take out Black Talon.” Night Shade snickered, a grin grew upon his face when he said those words.

“With Andrew out of the playing field for a little while, we can’t execute a direct approach, I suggest we take it slowly, to try and lure out Black Talon.” Luna advised, everyone in the room seemed to agree with the idea.

“The only problem with that is; how are we going to find one of his drug deals or slave trades?” Nick asked, the map of previous findings was laid out before him on the table, he studied it with a keen eye.

“We can predict their movements, either that or we can sneak into their Dodge City Base and gather intel.” Celestia explained the map in front of her, there was a red “X” over Dodge City, much to her disappointment. There it also showed where most of her forces were stationed, like the nearby Appleloosa, or the Griffin Empire border, luckily most of the Equestrian Army are stationed here, in Canterlot.

“I would like to play spies, playing spies is fun.” Jhon pulled a black mask over his face, making him look like a ninja-spy hybrid, the only thing exposed on his face was his eyes.

“We need to do some more planning before we go ‘play spies.’ We need a game plan.” Helena laid out yet another map, but this one was a map of Dodge City, a recent map of the Mercenaries’ new fort.

“How’d we get this?” Celestia asked, Helena only chuckled as a response.

“Pinkie Pie, she just threw paper at us, all of them being random maps. I don’t really know either, to be honest...” Helena sighed.

She checked her updates on the tacpad, seeing she got a message from Andrew. She tapped on the message to find a video, and she played it with enthusiasm. She didn’t know what to expect, but if it’s a video it must have something important.

“Hey Helena, I’m just calling to say-HEY! Put that down, Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle, don’t touch that! Scootaloo, you better not be in my room!” Andrew paused for a minute and looked back at the video screen.

“Sorry about that, Rainbow asked me to watch over the CMC’s for a little while, they’re more rambunctious than I expected. Anyways, I’m really bored here, and I really miss going out in the field. Hopefully I can join you guys soon!”

“Well, I can see he’s having a good time.” Luna giggled, followed by the whole room laughing.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Andrew’s usually good with kids!” Nick assured.

“So, back on topic, we need a plan to infiltrate Dodge City, any ideas?” Night Shade asked, both Nick and Helena raided their hands. They looked at each other and nodded.

“I’m up for playing spies.” They said in unison.

“Alright then, let us make a plan and hopefully we’ll have you for briefing by 2100.” Night Shade opened the door to let Helena, Nick, and Jhon out. They went out the door one by one, Jhon followed Helena out the door, Nick being last, closed the door behind him.

“Alright, it’s that time of year again boys, time to be stealthy! Get your gear together.”

“Andrew, is something the matter?”

“I don’t know anymore, Spike,” Andrew leaned back against the wall, his head tilted towards the ceiling of the library, “I think it’s just that I’ve been on edge lately, being here. Alone. Without my team.”

“You still got me, don’t you?” Andrew raised up his fist, and with Spike copying the motion, they did an epic brofist, “I mean, I need a guy in my life to be doing manly things with. I can’t be doing girly stuff all the time.”

Andrew chuckled, and smirked as a response, “I guess so, huh? Remind me to take you shooting one day, I’ll let you shoot my toy pellet gun.”

“That sounds like fun!” Spike jumped up and down happily, smiling wide, “when can I shoot that though?”

Spike was pointing to Andrew’s sidearm, the Desert Eagle, chambered for the .50 Action-Express ammunition. Andrew took it out of his holster and held it in his hand. Spike was about to get his hands on it, but before that could happen Andrew pulled it away from him.

“Sorry Spike, only military personnel and police officers like me can shoot this. This is strictly off limits.” He smirked, putting the Desert Eagle back into his holster, “if you ever become a police officer, then I’ll think about letting you shoot this thing.”

Spike seemed sad, but his mood brightened again at the sight of Twilight walking through the door. She was surprised to see Andrew in here, chatting it up with Spike, but it seemed logical due to the fact that Spike got lonely sometimes. With Andrew’s team gone in Canterlot, he was sure to get lonely too, due to the fact that it was only Tuesday. Andrew greeted her with a hello, and grabbed the groceries from her, like a boss.

“Andrew! I didn’t know you were coming, I’m sorry the library is such a mess, usually Spike cleans when I’m out.” She glared at Spike, who only shrugged at her back.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Twi. The library doesn’t look like it’s a mess though...” He looked around the room, and almost as expected, the whole library was spotless. He set down the groceries in the kitchen, where Spike entered shortly after to separate the food.

“It would’ve been if you wouldn’t have been there when Apple Bloom and her friends almost wrecked your police station with that fire, considering how close you are to me.” She deadpanned, only for both Andrew and Twilight to end up in laughter.

“Yeah, well I seriously underestimated their abilities to cause fires so easily. Luckily it was a small fire.” Andrew sighed.

“Well, I should get goin’, Rainbow’s gon’ kill me if I stayed for any longer.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Picnic dinner on the hillside, you’re welcome to join if you want. It’s fine if you can’t come really, but it’s been awhile since I’ve had quality time with her.” He sighed.

“If it’s okay then, I’m gonna stay here, you two deserve some alone time together.” She winked back at him, and Andrew was left with some furious blushing to try and get over.

“Okay then, Twi. I’ll see ya later then, it’d be best if I was on my way. Oh, and Spike?” Spike peeked his head from around the corner in the kitchen, “I’ll pick you up sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

“Whoa whoa, what do you mean by that? Are you taking him somewhere?” Twilight asked, all Andrew did was smile as he headed for the door.

“Spike and I decided we should have some ‘manly bonding’ time together. He says hanging around with girls messes with his manliness.” Andrew put air quotations around the “manly bonding” part, because it was just him taking Spike out on the shooting range underground.

“As long as it doesn’t involve anything having to do with your other ‘job.’ He’s still a baby y’know.”

“Alright mom, I’ll see ya later.” Andrew left the library as soon as Twilight stopped talking, and surprisingly she didn’t try to bug him about anything concerning him and Spike either. What she would do was bug Spike, because that was the next closest thing to know what was going on while she was gone.

“What did he say to you exactly?” Twilight asked, Spike just laughed and continued to laugh while he went to his bed upstairs. Twilight was beyond curious to find out now, but it could wait for later.

Andrew flattened the soft grass under his size fifteen boot, slowly and carefully making his way towards the hill under Rainbow’s house. It was around 5 o’clock, just about dinner time, a little bit early though, all things considered.

He had a basket of food being carried with him, that he made himself. He had simple sandwiches, vegetarian of course, and a fruit casserole. The basket itself was steaming, because the fruit casserole was still hot, but not hot enough to burn through the basket.

Andrew saw Rainbow sitting on a picnic blanket, and she seemed to be sleeping too, perfect timing. He hurried on over to set up everything, he positioned the plates and took out the food, putting it right at the center of the blanket. He nudged Rainbow, who woke up moments later.

“How long have you been here?” She moaned, as a response Andrew yawned and stretched his limbs.

“I waited a good half an hour before waking you up. It sounds way better the way it was before.” He teased, but Rainbow would have none of it, she smacked him straight in the arm. He yelped and covered his hand over the possible bruise.

“Did I ever tell you hooves hurt more than punching?” He said through clenched teeth. Rainbow nodded and smiled back at him.

“Good, that means you know what’ll happen if you make me mad.” She winked at him, and nuzzled him in the place she hit him.

“You’re really lucky y’know?” He said slowly, trying to wrap a bandage around his arm while he was eating at the same time.

“Lucky how?”

“That I’m not deciding to shoot you.” He laughed, which gave Rainbow a deadpan expression. She actually thought she was in trouble, because this whole time, she could’ve gotten shot.

“I’m just kidding, chill. I will never shoot you, or any of you. Unless I have to, and that’ll only happen if I’m given orders to.” This wasn’t making the situation any better, both Rainbow and Andrew knew this for a fact, so as a solution, Andrew quickly changed the subject.

“I think we should change the subject.” Rainbow pointed out. Andrew smiled sheepishly as he rubber her already wild rainbow colored mane.

“I agree...” He picked up a plate and passed it to Rainbow, he also gave one to himself, “let’s eat, I’m starving.”