My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro. All characters not original to this story are property of Hasbro.
This is a companion piece to 'Guardians' by WarHorse72. I suggest you read that first.
Operation: Pony Express
Captain Dirk Frost of the Canid Special Forces, colloquially known as 'Black Ops' stood up from the woodland undergrowth in which he had been hidden and out into the cool night air. He paid no mind to stealth because, unlike the preceding three weeks of infiltration and one week of covert surveillance, the time for circumspection was over.
A dozen wolves emerged from the woodlands around Dirk. His slighter frame, floppy ears, and mixed white, tan, and liver-coloured coat marked him as one of the few non-Wolves in the Black Ops units. Of course, all of that was hard to tell, given that the Captain was mostly covered up by his black infiltration armour and tactical gear. Dirk had been given command of this unusual operation precisely because of his Catahoula Cur breeding.
Taking point, Dirk trotted to the crest of the hill overlooking the village of Hoofington. His Wolves formed a line ahead of him, facing the village and waited for Dirk's signal. The signal in question was one of the most ancient and distinctive methods of communication known to Canids, and it would serve a dual purpose this evening.
"Bar-rar-ROOOOOOOOOO!" Dirk howled into the dark stillness. His voice was immediately joined by the dozen Wolves arrayed before him.
In the village below, Ponies spilled from their houses into the street, confused by a noise they did not recognise, but chilled with fear by some instinctive imperative. This was just as Dirk had planned. The Ponies were herd animals. The hunting call of a Wolf Pack would send them huddling together for collective security, eschewing the safety of their homes for open spaces where they could run.
"Execute Phase 1," Dirk commanded the Wolves, who broke into a run directly toward the Ponies massed in the town square while Dirk loped along behind.
The Ponies in the village below spotted the charging Wolves and ran towards the far side of town as fast as their legs could carry them. That was Dirk's indication to start the next phase of the operation.
"Bar-rar-ROOOOOOOOOO!" He howled again, but this time his dozen Wolves didn't join in, as they were too busy with the chase. The howl was echoed, though, by two dozen dogs of herding Breed positioned to flank Hoofington from either side. The combined squads of Catahoula Curs, German Shepherds, and Australian Cattle Dogs set to work corralling the herd of terrified Ponies into a steady stream headed towards the meadows on the opposite side of Hoofington from Dirk's position.
There was a small hitch in the otherwise flawless operation, though. A single Pony wasn't running from the Wolves; a Unicorn mare with a matted blue coat and tangled mane and tail with a look on her face that said she had nothing left for which to live. She appeared to be muttering to herself. As the Wolves were almost upon her, she looked up with a glare of determination and reared on her hind legs.
"You! Shall not! PASS!" the blue unicorn shouted.
As she slammed her front hooves back to the ground, a line of explosions erupted directly ahead of the charging Wolves, causing many of them to halt their advance with a yelp of dismay. Those not deterred by the pyrotechnics ran through the resulting smoke were tangled up by a trip-line that simply had not been there moments before.
"I'll take care of the unicorn," Dirk said quietly into his radio. "Continue the operation." He ran down the hill and took to the shadows of the village.
"You see residents of Hoofington?" the Unicorn mare called out in a loud stage voice, her confidence restored. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will always be there to protect you from harm!" She smiled arrogantly at the downed Wolves and waited for the applause. There were none. "Um, residents of Hoofington? Where did you go?"
"Looks like you lost your crowd," Dirk taunted from the shadows of Hoofington's eclectic architecture.
"What? Who dares mock The Great and Powerful Trixie?" She spun in a circle, searching for the heckler. Dirk darted to the shadow of a different building when Trixie was looking in the opposite direction.
"What's the problem, witch? Can't zap what you can't see? Maybe you'd be better at this if the gods had graced you with better night vision."
"Trixie will show you night vision!" the Unicorn declared as an orb of light erupted above her head.
"Very impressive," Dirk admitted as he stepped into the light. "But can you do anything that will actually stop me?"
Trixie glared at Dirk as her horn lit with magical power. The orb of light dimmed to nothing and a localised storm cloud formed above the street in which Dirk and Trixie stood. Dirk felt the hairs on his back stand up with static electricity and nimbly dodged to the side just before a lightning bolt scorched the ground where he had stood moments before.
"That was pretty good. How good is your aim at moving targets?" He quipped, then broke into a sprint straight at Trixie, his mouth gaping open to display the impressive dentition there-in.
Trixie dropped lightning bolt after another at Dirk, but all fell behind him, as her aim at moving targets turned out to be quite poor. She did have the innate reflexes, though, to dodge the vicious snap that Dirk aimed at her neck. Unfortunately for Trixie, the bite was a feint and Dirk achieved his true aim of smashing her to the ground with his chest.
"You got anything else?" Dirk taunted the fallen Unicorn as he pinned her to the ground with his neck across hers.
Trixie didn't reply verbally, but her horn lit with magic once again. Dirk was battered by a sudden gust of wind, but held his ground.
"That will be quite enough, I think," Dirk sneered before clamping his jaws around Trixie's neck. Her horn lit again, but he growled and tightened his grip, indicating his unwillingness to put up any longer with her magic tricks. The glow of Trixie's horn died out and Dirk yanked a black bag from one of the pockets of his tactical vest with a paw and put it over her head.
Dirk looked up and noted that the Wolves were gone. They had filtered around Dirk and Trixie as they fought and returned to coursing the Ponies as Dirk had ordered.
"Ice Dagger to Croc Hunter. Status report, over," Dirk demanded into his radio.
"Croc Hunter to Ice Dagger. All the Ponies have been rounded up and are in position for pick-up, over," Master Sergeant Bruce Outback reported.
"Standby for transport, Croc Hunter,' Dirk glanced at his watch. "By my calculation we've taken a bit longer than scheduled, but the gyros look to be a bit behind as well, over." The schedule was of paramount importance because the distraction in Stalliongrad that drew the attention of the Equestrian Army Air Corps would only last so long.
"Understood. Out," Bruce concluded the radio conversation.
Dirk turned back to the collapsed Unicorn beside him and grabbed her by the mane. "Time to get moving, witch," Dirk said before guiding Trixie to the meadows.
When they arrived on the far side of Hoofington, Trixie was shoved into the corralled mass of Ponies with little regard for her well-being. Dirk trotted over to an Australian Cattle Dog who was obviously in command of the corral.
"Casualties?" Dirk inquired of the other Canid.
"One down with a busted leg," Master Sergeant Outback replied. "Some hot-headed bronco decided to defend his filly-friend and bucked our boy but-good."
"I take it the stallion has been taught why this was a poor idea?"
"Aye. That dumb pony won't be pulling a stunt like that again."
"I hope you didn't kill him. We were sent to capture live villagers, not corpses."
"We beat him up a bit, but he'll be fine. A broken jaw and two black eyes aren't going to stop him from getting on the gyro."
"You're right about that," Dirk laughed. "Walk with me. I want to inspect the troops."
Dirk took about 15 minutes to make a circuit of the corral and talk to his troops. He had just finished when a rhythmic thudding filled the air.
"There we go," Dirk muttered to himself as he looked up at the two Condor heavy transport gyrodynes approaching the meadow. Ponies began to balk at the buffeting winds from the huge transports' wingtip-mounted rotors, but the herding Breed troopers held them in line.
"Mares and gentlestallions, please make your way aboard the gyros in an orderly fashion," Dirk called out in his best parade-ground command voice. "You will be directed to your seats and strapped in by our friendly flight attendants. Thank you and enjoy your Air Canida flight," Then he addressed his troops, "Load 'em up!"
"NO!" Somepony shouted. Dirk's head snapped towards the noise to see the black bag upon Trixie's head ripped apart by telekinesis. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be driven into slavery! Residents of Hoofington, join me in throwing off these invaders!" Trixie backed up her words by pushing to the edge of the hemmed-in herd and pointing her horn at the nearest Canid soldier.
"I don't have time for this," Dirk snarled as he removed a boxy black object from his back. Grabbing the object's pistol grip in his right front paw, he sat back upon his haunches. With his left paw, he flipped a small switch on the top of the object from its left-most position to its right-most position, and then pumped the slide along the bottom of the weapon forward then back. A small red cylinder was ejected from the side of the black box and fell to the ground. Dirk raised the object to his shoulder and pulled the object's trigger.
BANG!
In the blink of an eye Trixie went from belligerence to gasping in pain on the ground. Dirk picked up the small red cylinder before sauntering over to Trixie in a practiced three-legged gait while holding the black boxy gun in his free paw.
"You probably think you're dying," Dirk said to her. "But you aren't. I hit you with what's called a beanbag round. The worst that I've done is broken a couple of your ribs. What I've got here is the last word in Canid shotgun technology. Just by flicking this little switch," Dirk did as he described and flicked the switch back to its left-most position, "I can change the rounds that feed into the chamber from beanbag to slug. A slug round is designed to blow big holes in things, like monsters' heads or brick walls, from short range.
"Now I'm going to give you two options. The first option is for you to come along quietly and give me no more trouble. The second one is for me to demonstrate to all the good residents of Hoofington what happens when a slug round goes through a Unicorn's head from point-blank range. If you choose the first option, I save a bullet. If you choose the second option, my boys and I get fresh snacks on the way home." Dirk racked the slide of the shotgun forward and back again, ejecting the spent beanbag cartridge and loading a fresh slug cartridge, before pressing the muzzle against Trixie's brow. "So what will it be, my little Pony?"
Trixie muttered something with a shudder.
"I'm sorry. I didn't catch that."
"I-I'll g-go quietly," Trixie sobbed.
"That's a good mare," Dirk cooed. Then he turned to the nearest soldier. "Get her in the gyro and tied down."
"Yessir," the soldier snapped out.
"Anybody else want to play hero?" Dirk demanded of the crowd while pointing his shotgun in the air. Nopony moved so much as a muscle. "That's what I thought. Now get in the gyros!" The Ponies almost overwhelmed their Canid captors in a rush to board the huge transports.
Each Pony was brought aboard and made to lie down, then tied to the decking. Dirk paid special attention to Trixie's accommodations, placing her in the foremost position of the first transport, directly behind Dirk and six Wolves. Across the aisle from Trixie, where she could be perfectly seen, one of the Wolves tied down a filly.
"Now, Trixie, I know you'll remember our deal, but I just want to give you a little reminder," Dirk said conspiratorially as he crouched beside the blue Unicorn after all the other Ponies were loaded. "If you make any sort of attempt to escape during our flight, the precious little filly beside you will get her throat ripped out before you can blink. I've already informed the poor foal's mother, so she understands that her daughter's life rests solely in your paws. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Yes," Trixie whispered.
"Ah, I knew you could be reasonable," Dirk said, standing and moving to his couch for the flight. He put on his intercom headset and addressed the pilot. "Airedale, we're all ready to go back here."
"Roger, Ice Dagger. Brace for take-off." The twin rotors of the massive cargo gyrodynes began to turn, kicking up an unnatural and ill-omened wind. They lumbered into the air and set off toward the Equestrian coast.
"So, Ice Dagger, you finally going to let the brass promote you out of this dog and pony show?" Master Sergeant Outback asked over the intercom from his position guarding the cargo ramp at the back of the Condor.
"You know, I just might, Croc Hunter. I'm getting too old for this shit." Dirk took a moment to glance back at the scores of broken and depressed ponies that filled the transport. "And I always wanted to go out on a high note."