STAND DOWN
As Applejack made her way out of Secretary Wind Rider's office at the Triskelion, she couldn't help but feel a nagging sensation in her chest. She was Equestria's symbol of truth, liberty and justice, so lying always felt like a knife stabbing her repeatedly in her chest. She had not too long ago watched her very good friend, Shining Armor, director of NEIGHS, give up the ghost on a hospital bed following a brutal attack, and as if that wasn't hurtful enough, he had given her a little flash drive with his last words being, "Trust no one". That meant she had to make sure no one knew about the flash drive, in other words, Applejack had to lie.
As a result, she had to put maximum effort into maintaining her composure when she was called to the office of the new director, Wind Rider. He had asked her if Armor had told her anything of note before he died. Of course, she was suspicious of the fact that he knew that she had gone to see Armor on his deathbed, but she had held firm, insisting that the former director didn't tell her anything important.
As she left his office, he had given a little warning. He knew her every move, and he would send all of NEIGHS after her if she tried anything suspicious.
The mare gave a disgruntled snort as she approached the elevator. She already knew what her next move would be. She had hidden the drive Armor gave her in a vending machine at the hospital. She would simply go there, take the drive and find out what secret was so important that Armor had to give his life to protect. But to get there, she had to stay as far away from NEIGHS as possible.
Speaking of which, as she entered the elevator, still deep in thought, another pony walked into the elevator. He was a silver-coloured unicorn stallion with a grey mane and tail, wearing combat gear. The most prominent of his features was his horn which was abnormally sharper and pointier than normal. This was Agent Pokey Pierce, leader of S.T.R.I.K.E., an elite force of specially trained NEIGHS agents who went on special missions that usually involved the captain herself.
Pierce nodded his head as a greeting to the mare, "Captain."
She nodded back with a wary look on her face. "Pokey"
He pressed the button and the elevator began to move down. A few seconds of awkward and tense silence passed as the two ponies silently stared at the door of the elevator.
Suddenly, the elevator stopped, not because they had arrived at the ground floor, but because someone else wanted to get in. At that moment, the elevator doors opened and two NEIGHS agents walked in. One was a unicorn mare with a teal coat, blue mane and tail, and green eyes. She stood directly to Applejack's left. The other agent, an earth pony stallion with a dark brown coat, black mane and tail, and yellow eyes, stood to Applejack's right.
Applejack raised an eyebrow suspiciously at this new development. She had noticed that immediately the two ponies had stepped in, Pierce had moved so he was standing diagonally to her right.
Something felt fishy about all this but the captain decided to see what would happen next. She took in a deep breath as the elevator continued its journey down.
The elevator slid down for about fifty seconds before it stopped again. The doors opened and in walked four more agents. Three of them were stallions and one of them was a mare.
If Applejack wasn't wary before, she definitely was now. For these agents had taken a little bit of a formation around her. The second mare and one of the stallions had gone to stand directly behind her while the other two stallions stood directly in front of her. It was like lions encircling their prey.
And to make things worse, one more mare entered the elevator. This one was dressed in more corporate attire; she was wearing a suit and levitated a briefcase, drawing Applejack's attention to the fact that she was also a unicorn.
As the elevator finally began to move, Applejack began to observe her current situation. This was something she had learned to do from all her years in battle.
The first thing she noticed was that absolutely none of the ponies initiated any attempt to talk to her. Now, she didn't like to brag, but considering the fact that she was a widely recognized historical and heroic figure from the past who had suddenly emerged in the present, she tended to draw attention everywhere she went. Even among the hardened NEIGHS agents, there were those who would come up to her with giddy smiles and stars in their eyes, asking her to sign autographs.
But these very ponies were all avoiding eye contact with her. She noticed the mare to her left averted her eyes very quickly the moment she glanced in that direction.
This meant they were clearly uncomfortable being in this elevator with Captain Equestria. That was never a good sign.
The second thing she noticed was that two of them were gripping their briefcases tightly. As if they held something valuable inside. Or rather...something dangerous.
Finally, she noticed they all stood in battle stances, sweat dripping off the faces of the stallion to her right and the mare behind her.
She also noticed that they were gripping their weapons tightly. It was like they were waiting for an enemy to attack them. But there was no enemy in the Triskelion. This could only mean one thing...
Applejack sighed and then cracked her neck. This was bound to happen eventually.
"Before we start," she began with a very blank expression on her face, "Anyone of y'all wanna get out?"
Pokey Pierce sent a very brief glance across the entire elevator as if to send a message to the other ponies.
Immediately, he turned sharply to face Applejack and drove his right forehoof into the raised hoof of the captain, knocking her famed shield to the elevator floor. Almost as soon as this happened, all 8 ponies in the elevator swarmed Applejack at once, punching and jabbing her from all sides as she tried her best to block any punch aimed for her head and stomach.
The mare that was holding a briefcase suddenly detached its handle, revealing it to be a magnetic handcuff in disguise. She reared back and went straight for Applejack's right forehoof, cuffing the super soldier to the wall successfully.
Applejack grunted as she kicked one stallion in the hind knee and used her free hoof to jab at Pokey Pierce. She then tucked in her free hooves and spread them out, using her super soldier strength to push her adversaries away and give herself a little room. She then went to remove the cuff that was holding her right hoof to the wall but no sooner had she lifted her hoof up than the agents rushed her again. It was very obvious that they had prepared for this fight beforehand.
They had intentionally surrounded her on all sides and attacked at once because they believed they could overwhelm her abnormal strength with numbers. They were also trying to cuff her hooves in order to further inhibit her movements and give them a higher chance of victory.
Pokey Pierce grabbed hold of Captain Equestria's left hoof and began pushing it towards the wall of the elevator which, mind you, was still going down. As he did this, the other ponies had grabbed hold of Applejack and pinned her to the wall except for one stallion who pulled out another magnetic cuff and was trying to cuff her left forehoof to the wall. At this point, it seemed like their plan was going to be a success and they would be able to restrain the great Captain Equestria.
Unfortunately for them, there was a reason why this particular mare became the great and inspirational figure she was today. She never stayed down. Pokey's triumphant grin slowly morphed into a look of astonishment as Applejack slowly but surely pushed his hoof backwards.
She then shook him off of her left hoof and punched him straight in the forehead, leaving the silver unicorn dazed for a few seconds. And that was all the captain needed to turn this fight around.
She used the same forehoof that had knocked out Pokey to bonk the head of the mare holding her right hind hoof and used that same hoof to kick the stallion holding it straight into the side wall of the elevator.
She then swung the hoof across her body, taking two more stallions out in one roundhouse kick. The remaining two mares charged her but all she had to do was throw her hind hooves out and take them down with a double drop kick. She then kicked another stallion in the gut as he tried to punch her, following that up with a backhand punch to knock him out. The last stallion tried aiming a punch at her stomach but she blocked it with her left hoof and immediately blocked the follow up punch that was aimed for her head. She then grabbed the pony with that same hoof and kneed him in the face, knocking him out.
And just like that the fight was over. She had just knocked out 8 highly trained agents, on her own, in an elevator, with one hoof literally tied behind her back. But she knew she had to get out of the Triskelion as soon as possible. It was clear that there would be more agents coming after her and while she wasn't scared of taking them on, she still had more important things to take care of.
All these thoughts ran through her mind as she pulled off the cuff with her teeth and spat it on the elevator floor.
She looked around briefly at the unconscious agents before spotting her shield which had been knocked out of her hooves during the fight. Pokey Pierce clearly targeted her shield first in order to prevent her from using it to overwhelm the agents during the fight. Whoever sent these guys clearly knew a lot about her fighting style.
Applejack stepped on the curved edge of the shield making it jump up into the air, flipping end over end until she caught it in her hooves perfectly.
At that moment, the elevator finally stopped and she walked out calmly. She briefly looked around at all the other agents of NEIGHS going about their normal business.
Suddenly, the alarms began to blare and instantly, Applejack knew she had to get the hay out of this place. Immediately, she began to sprint towards the exit as some STRIKE agents chased after her. A voice blared from the PA system, "All agents! Do not let Captain Applejack escape! I repeat! Do not let the captain escape!"
As more agents were on her tail, Applejack made a beeline for the parking lot where she jumped on a motorcycle, placing her shield on her back, as she briefly turned to look up at Wind Rider's office, where the director stared at her with a frown on his face.
She then revved up the engines and took off towards the gate of the facility. At this point, there were a lot of agents trying to catch her. There was even a fighter jet flying above her towards the gate.
Speaking of which, said gate was automatically closing as the captain approached it. The fighter jet flew ahead of her towards the gate, then made a 180 to face the unfazed captain. A gatling gun descended out of the jet's underside, pointed directly at the incoming captain.
"Stand down, Captain Smith! Stand down! I repeat, stand, down!"
The captain clearly did not intend to heed this warning as she kept on driving towards the jet. The gatling gun revved as it opened fire on the captain.
Applejack swerved the bike to the left and then to the right as she evaded the bullets with unnerving ease. Then, as she drove the bike closer to the jet, she began to do what most wouldn't even dream of attempting.
She pulled off her shield from her back and threw it at the engine of the jet's left wing, causing it to tilt towards that direction. Then, she drove at full throttle towards the spinning aircraft and jumped off the motorcycle at the very last moment, doing a front flip to land on the nose of the jet.
The pilot could only look on in shock as the mare ran towards the wing and pulled her shield out of the engine. Spinning around to give herself momentum, she then threw the shield at an angle towards the right tail engine that allowed it to ricochet and hit the opposite tail engine with a 'clang' before it went up in the air. This caused the jet to go into a full tailspin as the engines had all been knocked out.
Applejack then waited for a few seconds while her shield was still in the air and galloped towards the side of the plane that faced the outside of the facility.
She then dived forward and off the battered jet, catching her shield in her front hoofs before flipping over and landing perfectly on all four hooves. She turned back for a moment to observe as the jet crashed down in the compound in a huge ball of smoke and flames.
Noticing that the pilot had ejected a few moments earlier and was calling for backup, she quickly galloped into the woods where it would be very difficult to spot her.
This encounter had made one thing clear to the captain; nowhere was safe and no one could be trusted. NEIGHS wasn't all it appeared to be and there was something sinister lurking underneath its supposedly "benevolent" wings. From this moment on, she was a fugitive and had to keep a low profile.
Her next move was to head to the hospital and take the flash drive but she had to visit someone important first...
CAST
Applejack – Steve Rogers/Captain America
Wind Rider – Secretary Alexander Pierce
Pokey Pierce – Brock Rumlow
It's really been a long time. I know I said I would try to get a regular publishing schedule, but medical school is more hectic than I imagined. Anyway, this year, for sure, I'll definitely establish a schedule. I'll try and get a new chapter uploaded every week from now on. In the meantime, I'll also be working on an original fanfic very soon and I'll tell you guys when it'll be published. About the story, I feel like my description of the action scenes is a little bit bland. If you have any tips on how to make them better, I'd appreciate it a lot.