Eyes of the Accused

Ace was waiting for the mail to arrive in the morning, he hadn’t been able to catch much sleep last night.

It began with a nightmare waking him up only minutes after fall asleep first time and the rest of the night wasn’t easy either, his thinking was suddenly aborted as he heard the mail being delivered.

He decided to wait a few minutes before waking outside to get it, the only things he wanted was Equestria Daily and a letter from Hawkfeather.

He found both but decided to read Equestria Daily first.

“Insane Pegasus escaped from hospital, Now a shadowbolt!” was the headline with a picture of him as he was taken inside the hospital, he could see as they was transporting him him unconscious.

Ace decided to save that news magazine and moved on to the letter he had been waiting for.

Hello Ace.

The time is right for the prisoners to talk and I have chosen you to do this. I want you to report to me in the old shut down factories. From there no pony will hear their screams and prayers.

Commander Hawkfeather

Ace knew what this meant, he would be in a closed down factory causing pain to prisoners of war and to Ace they where his enemies.

He hid the news magazine in his desk, it had a secret drawer on the side and was almost impossible to spot.

Ace placed the news paper in the drawer next to his most prized possession, a picture of Cloudmane, he told himself that she must never know about the drawer, not only would it reveal his emotional side that he wanted to hide away entirely.

But it would reveal exactly how deep feelings Ace had for her, Ace closed the drawer and reached for his shadowbolt suit and the goggles, he could feel it somehow, a feeling that told him that Rainbow Dash was the second prisoner of war as she wasn’t in Ponyville with her friends nor had they heard from her.

But he couldn’t break now, even if he was right he had to continue down the path he had chosen and as the voice had told him before abandoning him, there is no turning back now.

Ace took flight heading for the old factories and not long after he arrived to the old factories.

“Im glad you made it Ace.” Hawkfeather looked at Ace as he arrived to the old factories. “you got free hooves, just make them tell us what we want to know.” he continued.

“will do” Ace replied before watching as the commander left.

Ace entered the old factory, he needed to know who they where and there he found them, strapped to tables just like he had been in the hospital, he had a not too surprising discovery.

One of them being the wonderbolt Soarin’ he had captured, the other one being a mare with rainbow colored mane and tail, Ace knew her from earlier, the prisoners had both been blindfolded and tied still wearing their wonderbolt suits.

“Time to get to business here.” he thought to himself and walked towards Soarin’ who still sleeping. He reached the table keeping Soarin’ with a medical syringe he had taken from a table.

“wakey wakey little wonderbolt” he whispered to Soarin’ before injecting a shot of adrenaline from a syringe.

Soarin’ woke up with a terrified look when he realized that all he could se was darkness and a shadowbolt.

“I take it you had a pleasant night, everything but that is what I have been forced to take.” Ace told the wonderbolt, “now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, either way you will tell me what I want to know...” he continued.

“I will never break my word” Soarin’ talked back.

“...sounds like its the hard way then” Ace told him before walking over to the table where he had some more of the syringes before walking over to Rainbow Dash.

“wakey wakey.” he whispered before injecting them adrenaline causing the mare wake up wide eyed, but she was only wide eyed for a second until he looked around and her eyes went back to being wide open, now it was fear and not the adrenaline.

“so Soarin’, will you talk or will you make me hurt your friend Rainbow Dash here?” Ace asked while looking at the wonderbolt with a sadistic grin.

Ace noticed that Soarin’ was a lot tougher than he had expected.

“So you rather wish your friend here to get hurt than tell me what I want to know peacefully.” Ace told him before turning to Rainbow Dash.

“You hear that Rainbow? your so called friend here rather let’s you get hurt than telling me what I want to know.” Ace walked over to another table.

“So how about we cut to the chase don’t you think?” he asked and when he turned to the two wonderbolts he was holding a small knife. “this knife will cause wounds that bleed little and hurt very much.” he told them.

“But first I have some unfinished business with your friend.” and he began pushing the table that held Rainbow Dash and pushed her into a room without windows, one door and barely any light.

“You see Rainbow, your betrayal left me in a cell like this. but the bed I got was a lot more comfortable.” he told her before he walked away closing the door and leaving Rainbow in nearly total darkness.

Ace walked back to Soarin’, “now, let’s see what we can do about your stubbornness, I think we could get an agreement, either you talk willingly or I will force you to your breaking point.” Ace told the wonderbolt as he got the knife he had told them about before and began to cut a small wound on Soarin’s flank across the cutie mark, Ace watched as blood started to slowly pour from the wound but Soarin’ kept silent.

Ace couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy it yet, it wasn’t as fun as he wanted, he wanted Soarin’ to scream in pain and beg for mercy.

Ace walked over to the table and left the knife where he had taken it and turned back to Soarin’.

“so you think this is all I can do?” he asked before walking towards the wonderbolt and he placed his hoof onto the wound and began pushing it into the would he had caused on Soarin’s flank and started giving small electric shocks, enough to cause infernal pain but not enough to kill.

Ace could hear as Soarin’ screamed in pain and started begging for mercy saying that he will say everything he knows, all he asked for was for the pain to stop and when Ace pulled his hoof out from the wound giving him some bloodstains on the suit and walked over to the bucket of water he had asked for in case he had to do something that caused bloodstains on his suit.

Ace looked at his reflection, his shadowbolt suit reminded of the one his uncle’s brother used to wear, all that was missing was the blood stains from the broken wings and the torn holes. Ace didn’t care and turned back to Soarin’.

“Now my unfortunate friend, tell me, where to strike, when to strike.” Ace told the sobbing wonderbolt and Soarin’ opened his eyes, looking at Ace.

“The best time to strike is during the day when the sun is high in the sky, there won’t be as many guards at that time and a defense force will take time to assemble and they will assemble at Canterlot castle.” Ace made sure to write everything Soarin’ told him in a letter to Hawkfeather in which he also wrote his own theory about the number of guards during the day being increased after the prisoners being captured.

But it would still be the best option to strike during the day as the defense force would probably not be fully prepared anyway.

Ace finished the letter with a request that he would be given more time as he had unfinished business with the other prisoner.

Ace soon began writing a second letter, this one was addressed to Cloudmane, asking her to not come looking for him, promising he would come back for her when he was done, but he never had it sent knowing that it was a mistake sending that type of letters, not long after a group of shadowbolts arrived to take Soarin‘ back to the prison camp.

Ace looked as they left before he told himself.

“time to get to business” before he went to the door leading into the room where he had left Rainbow in almost total darkness, he knew that for Rainbow to even see her own hooves would be a challenge.

Ace opened the door. Rainbow Dash was sleeping again, probably out of boredom. “wakey wakey Rainbow,” he whispered to the sleeping mare before injecting another shot of adrenaline into her body instantly waking her up.

“what are you hoping to accomplish here? Soarin’ won’t break his word and neither will I.” she told him seemingly very confident.

“Are you really saying that you don’t recognize me? how about we change that?” Ace told her with a grin.

“let’s see how you can handle knowing who I am as you won’t see the light of day anytime soon.” he continued before illuminating the room with light, he noticed Rainbow Dash closing her eyes to avoid getting blinded by the sudden illumination.

Ace looked at her as she began opening her eyes again.

“You abandoned me to darkness and hoped I would never see the light of day again.” He told the mare before he moved his goggles to reveal his eyes.

Rainbow looked at him with a sad look, “why Ace?” she asked him.

“because of you and your friends Rainbow, you betrayed me.” he replied to the sobbing mare struggling with her sadness.

“As far as I consider it we are now even, but you have yet to suffer the loneliness I suffered the difference is that you will not see the light of day until this war is over.” he told the mare before he turned his back on her, pulling down his goggles, he turned off most of the lights.

Knowing she would probably never forgive him he closed the door and left. But once he had closed to door he couldn’t hide his shameful feelings about what he had done to her, no matter the perspective it it only ended up with him thinking his betrayal towards her was much worse than her betrayal against him.

Ace left the factory and there was only one place where he felt he could go right now, he had kill his thoughts about him causing Rainbow Dash more emotional pain than she caused him, good thing it wasn’t a long walked back to where he lived.

The walk felt like it took forever but he felt too ashamed to fly, Ace began thinking about Cloudmane, her heavenly smile and those beautiful eyes.

Ace unlocked his door and walked inside.

He couldn’t allow himself to get to sleep like this day had never happened and as he walked in his home he made his decision and removed his goggles placing them on his couch as he walked past it.

He pulled down his hood as he walked towards his desk and opened the secret drawer, he took the picture he had of Cloudmane.

He looked at it for a long time before putting it away and looking at the news magazine only reading the headline above the picture he hated more than ever, he hated it so much because it make him think like he would probably never be able to live like a normal pegasus, ever.

Not after his accident and all the mistakes he keeps making, he couldn’t hold his sorrow back and placed the photo and the news magazine back in the drawer before hiding it again. Ace felt a tear running down his cheek, sure he managed to hold back everything but the tears and he spent nearly the whole night by his desk crying before he decided to leave for the old factory again.

“better hurry to make it there before sunrise.” he thought to himself but was suddenly interrupted by some pony knocking the door and when he opened he found the only mare he felt like he could talk to who would understand him but he felt like this was nothing he could talk about.

“where did you go all day Ace?” she asked him curiously, Ace looked back at her.

“Special assignment from Hawkfeather, you know those take at least a full day to complete.” he told her, “what happened Ace, I can feel something is troubling you, I sense it when I'm talking to you.” she quickly replied.

“it’s nothing alright.” Ace told her slightly annoyed before he walked outside and locking his door. “I have some personal business to attend to for now so don’t follow me.” he continued before taking flight towards the old factory where he had been before he went back to his Cloudsdale home.

Ace arrived at the old factory but he decided not to open the door to the room where Rainbow was being kept, instead he went for the bed that Hawkfeather had placed there in case the work with getting information about Canterlot would take longer than expected. Ace was exhausted when he laid himself down on the bed, he felt like sleeping but was still thinking about whether he had earned it or not, but his thinking was aborted when he fell asleep without warning.