Chapter 1 -
 Problems

"...havior is just not normal."

"As I have noticed. The reports from all the observers show signs of something... Unnatural at work."

"Elaborate, if you would?"

"Of course, dear. You see, Zerfyyx, is very... Good, at what he does."

"Aren't all of the Shades that way? I trained them all to be better than the best. And if they are not comp-"

"YOU didn't train Zerfyyx..."

"I.. I could not. It just wouldn't seem right...

"So you let Princess Celestia do so? Why would you allow a secret as big as this possibly fall into the hands of a larger society such as the ponies...?"

"You're not understanding my reasoning Harbinger Gossmin. He isn't just different... He's my child."

What the hell? Gossmin was talking to my mother? I don't even know who she is. I was born and woke up the next day in the care of Princess Celestia, of all beings. Sadly, I didn't have a chance to dwell on it I, as I wanted to catch the rest of the conversation.

"And what significance does this bear in a business situation? Maybe it was a bad idea to entrust you with the responsibility of training my soldiers? I should have you revoked and exiled for what secrets you have possibly released into pony-kind."

"Then what must be done, my leige?" A long pause ensued as (my mother, previously unbeknownst to me) was awaiting a response.

"... Remove him... In any way possible." Sneered the Harbinger.

I stood there for a moment, Gossmin's words reverberating through my mind. Why would I need to be taken out? I've done nothing wrong. I figured it would be best to sleep on it.

I began the trot back through the seemingly large air ducts to my room, when I was rudely interrupted by a rather unwanted problem.

"Oh Zerfyyx, I have something for you..."

Dammit... What now? "Yes, Kynill? What do you want? I'm in the middle of something important here."

Kynill, an -admittedly cute- female zebra with emerald-green eyes, very few stripes, keen ears, and a nack for my flank. Whilst she longed for me, I had my eyes set on a mare, of all things; of course, she didn't know this. She comes into contact with me almost every chance she gets. Also, kind of dangerous, if you screw her over.

"Sheesh, rude. I think you'll like this gift, hmm?" She cut into my train of thought. "This better be damn good. Where are you?" A fair question, seeing as I was nowhere to be found. "The lounge. With nobody else..." She teased. "Not going to happen, Kynill." I retorted. Yet she still jabbed at me. "Think that all you want you sexy beast..." I simply switched off my comm channel and went for the lounge vent instead.

I need a vacation...

I think I'm in love...

"Is that for-"
"You? Yes." Kynill quickly cut me off.
Ahhh! Ohmahgosh! I feel like a total filly right now! "Where, how, when?" I hastily asked, my curiosity overwhelming my usual stoic self. "This," she said with a studious attitude, "is the Mark V I.E.S. or Intelligent Exoskeleton Stealth armor. Only 3 were ever manufactured by Intelli-Hoof."

I'm not a zebra for material possessions, but this would quickly earn a special place in my heart.

"You still didn't tell me how you obtained it, if you are willing to disclose that information given the nature of thi-"

"My brother, and father work for Intelli-Hoof," Kynill interrupted, "and recently, the soldier whom it was intended to be assigned to- being my brother- was injured to the point of being ineffective in combat. And they wanted you to have it, in honor of your promotion to the Leader of the Shade's."

"Well, my regards go out to them, not only for his injury, but for letting me have..." I let out a little squeak, "THIS!"

"Don't mention it." She said, almost like she wanted something... I fell for it anyways. "How could I repay you?" Might as well have shot myself in the hoof. The kind of favors she asks for. Ughh...

"Welllll, one thing you could do for me.." she said with extreme lust as she crept up to me and stroked my chin.

"No.", I bluntly rejected. "Fine then, I'll just take it back."

"And I'll misplace a round in you.", I threatened. "Oh, you wouldn't shoot a lady now, would you?" Oh, I'll shoot anything and anybody..."I guess you don't remember Hoofington..?" I challenged back. A long silence cut in, with piercing glares being exchanged.

"UGH! Fine! You win! But I'll get you someday." She stormed off to her room like a child, as well as I, to get some peace and quiet. And to try on the Mark V I.E.S.

'Mark V OS is active. Reading Vitals... Complete. Enabling HUD... Complete. Testing operational status of all system functions. Stealth cloak... Functioning. Sound suppressing hoof gauntlets... Functioning. Compatibility with built in ARGENT project devices. Functioning.'

How in the hell did it know about the Argent project? It's classified to only the shades and Harbinger Gossmin. Oh well, shouldn't be that big of a deal...

'Mark V Intelligent Exoskeleton Stealth System is fully functioning, Honor Guard Zerfyyx.' Oh what the hell? It knows my name? I'll have to chat with Kynill's father and brother about this, but later; I have things that need doing.

As I grabbed the M5A14 rifle custom made for me, the suit's A.I. cut in; 'Weapon compatible with tactical back mounting rail system.'

"What does that mean?" I asked myself out loud.

'You can mount the weapon on the back of the suit to allow for hoof and mouth-less firing through the neural interface system.'

"Oh.. wait, you can understand what I say and provide intelligent output?" I queried the suit's A.I.

'Yes, and you don't need to talk to me like I AM just a program. An emotion, cognitive thinking, and many other chips were implemented to make me a smarter system overall.'

"Well, as long as you don't go crazy like in the movies, I'm fine with you being in control of all of the electronic mumb- jumbo." She, whom at this point referred to herself as Azmith responded with a rather smug 'likewise' and just stayed silent. It must have a crude humor chip too..."Well, uh... Run me through everything I would need to know, and the primary system functions that would otherwise help me in combat." I commanded as the system silently accepted my rifle that was slung onto my back, and attached it to a rather complex system.

I began my short walk towards the briefing room while the Azmith ran me through the basics and abilities that the suit would enhance

Perhaps I could grab a drink on the way there.

As I walked into the break room across the hall from the briefing room, things became very clear, that this was going to be a very good day.

Whiskey. Lots if whiskey. Maybe a trap? Kynill set it.

"Before you ask, no, I did not set this up."

"What the? Are you able to read my mind?" I asked, quite taken aback by the fact that she, Kynill no less, knew what I was thinking. "Nope," she cut into my train of thought, which was one of her customs, "It was the look on your face. You should've see it! Ha!" She broke into laughter on the floor.

"Oh. Well, that still doesn't explain where all of this whiskey came from. Not that I'm complaining..." I trailed off, staring at the 5 boxes of bottles of whiskey, which held 25 each.

"Gossmin ordered them, silly!" She said it like it was funny. "Oh and I see you're fitting into the suit well." She added.

"Yeah, it's rather nice." So much whiskey... I could just imagine the kind of fun that would be had with all of this. Spitfire likes whiskey. Maybe I could pay her a visit sometime soon… No sooner did I finish that last thought did I hear the door open behind me.

"...Zerfyyx, are you alright?" Gossmin had walked in, catching a bit of my ramblings about all of the whiskey. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. But, where did all of this whiskey come from?" I was abruptly cut off. "Oh,had it all ordered for you."

Hnng! No way! I tried my best to keep my cool. "Oh, thanks. A lot... Can you have it shipped to my room?" I questioned innocently. "Of course, but first, we have work to do. Come, to the briefing room."

We glided into the briefing room and took our respective seats. After a short silence, Gossmin spoke.

"I see you're fitting into that new suit quite nicely. It's a work of art, that is." He chimed in. "Yeah, it's great. Especially this," I did what Azmith had instructed me to, and simply willed the suit to ready my M5A14 forward. "This is a damn cool feature, no?" I questioned him rather unformally.

"Yes it is. In fact, I have something else for you." He got up out of his seat, and walked over to the wall. With a press of a button, a short tunnel down about 2 stories was opened up.

"Oh? That's new." I said, taken by surprise. "Rather the opposite, in fact. This has been here for nearly a whole decade."

As we descended into the dark tunnel, I began to wonder what exactly the Harbinger had in store. Thinking back to the conversation I had overheard while in the restricted high-class prison. Perhaps something down here led to my demise? My worries melted away as we emerged into an armory, about fifty square meters large.

"Holy shit..." I stared in awe of the massive room, filled from top to bottom with gear, armor, weapons, and accessories.

"There was something in particular I wanted to show you. Come." He gestured me over to a wall on the left, and opened a crate. In it, was a multitude of attachments specially made for the M5/S5 line of rifles. "Pick what you want. You're currently the only soldier we know with that model rifle, so don't hesitate.

After grabbing all that I deemed useful, I requested that the both of us leave. "I'm choking up down here with all of this dust. Let's go." We quickly returned to the briefing room, and agreed not to speak of this room, or warehouse, you could say.

"Back to business." Gossmin was quick to get on, "Reports say that our Target at Hoofington a few years back, Light Breaker, has made himself public in a speech to his company. One of our spies just happened to be in the area and overheard the whole thing. Afterwards, she followed him to his office and discovered that he would be traveling to Canterlot for a visit with the Princess."

"And you want me to intercept and capture him?"

"Yes. Before he kills somepony. He has small missiles ready to target his location when he is near Luna and or Celestia. Obviously, this cannot happen. Bring him back, preferably in one piece, and with the GPS removed from his body and disabled. Feel free to pursue whatever you want to while there, just stay in touch with me at all times. Are we clear?"

"Crystal. Consider it done. And one more thing..."

"Yes, Zerfyyx?"

"Do you know how to fly?"

Little trivia for you readers, however few, or many, that care.

Whisky, or Whiskey, are in fact two different things, in a sense. The device that I write this story on recognises the spelling of it with an "E" before the "Y." This is because Irish and American whiskey is spelt Whiskey, with the "E."

On the other hand, Whisky, with no "E" is the Scottish spelling.

Seeing as I'm American, I spell it respectively, Whiskey.

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