Eyes of the Accused

“will this pegasus be spared or will he join the punished?” a snow white mare shouted, Ace was badly hurt after the fight, his wings where broken and he had cuts all over his suit and most of them bleeding.

Ace looked through his smashed goggles and could clearly hear the crowd below shout the word in unison. “Punishment!”.

“as you ask he will be punished by my hooves.” she replied to the cheering crowd before pushing him over the cliff sending him down the gorge where all other shadowbolts who where to be punished had been pushed.

Ace could barely react as he noticed the bottom of the gorge before he hit the ground and felt as his ribs where broken in the fall.

He knew that didn’t die off the fall but he noticed that a few rocks had went through his already crushed wing, suit and coat when he landed on the side and as the shallow water below turned red he felt himself passing away.

Ace woke up in terror and found himself at the old factory where he had fallen asleep.

“just another nightmare.” he told himself quietly trying to calm his fear.

“worst one yet for sure.” he continued to himself.

Ace hadn’t gotten a good night sleep for days now and the nightmares got worse every time he tried to sleep. “four days and even if  all the earlier combined this would still be the worst by far.” he told himself before getting out of bed, ever since he locked up Rainbow Dash in that room all alone but he knew that it was the best for them both.

He wasn’t sure if Rainbow would ever bare to look at him again but he knew that she wouldn’t survive much longer without food but he couldn’t just bare the pain of being the one to feed her himself.

But that problem was solved when he came up with the idea to let Hawkfeather send some mare to do it and he wrote a letter to Hawkfeather with a request for a mare to make sure Rainbow Dash got food enough to survive.

Maybe an hour or so later a light green pegasus mare arrived. “Im here as you requested, don’t you worry, I've been instructed to make sure she will get food once a day.” she told him with a gentle voice.

“Good, she hasn’t eaten in a few days to do give her a little extra food will you.” Ace told her before watching as the mare walked towards the room where he had moved Rainbow Dash to make her feel what he felt when he was all alone.

Ace watched the mare enter the room.

“you know why this has to be the way it has to be Rainbow.” Ace whispered to himself before he left, the mare had been carrying a message from Hawkfeather telling him that they need to talk.

Ace started to walk towards where the commander wanted to talk to him, the local café, didn’t take long for Ace to get there and soon he was facing Hawkfeather again.

“hello there Ace.” was the first words he spoke as Ace arrived.

“what do you need me to do?” Ace asked as a reply. “let’s take a walk you and me, this is important.” Hawkfeather told him and they began walking.

Ace didn’t get time to ask any questions before Hawkfeather looked at him.

“As you may not know they are running low on medical supplies in Ponyville and need to get more, if we want them to provide attention to those shadowbolts who get hurt we must deliver this to Ponyville, with some luck t will greatly improve our relationship with the ponies living there too. But there is one problem, we have everything we need to send however under the impression that wonderbolts will be attempting to intercept the shipment I want you to take a group of pegasi to protect the shipment.”

“Would be my pleasure commander, if Ponyville needs supplies I will make sure they get there.” Ace replied to his commander without thinking much. “good, I will notify them and the shipment will be leaving when you and your team is ready.” Ace watched as the commander took flight and left him.

Ace knew he was already prepared for the mission, he was always wearing the shadowbolt suit now a days unless he was at home or had any other reason not to wear it but he still had to find pegasi to help him.

Ace considered himself lucky as he happened to know a place in Cloudsdale where no pony in their right mind would dare to go, in that place there was only thugs all around, Ace walked towards the place ignoring a sign saying “If you wish to keep your hooves clean TURN BACK NOW!”.

Ace knew very well what kind of place he walked into but he knew that those you find there are good at stealing from shipments when no pony is looking but Ace knew very well that they aren’t stupid to even think about stealing from the shadowbolts.

He arrived at the building he was looking for, where the big boss lived, Ace took a deep breath before entering.

The building was packed with thugs and in the back he was.

the big boss wearing one of those expensive suits that even hid the cutie mark, he had at least five bodyguards around and Ace walked towards the boss, he knew what to say, he knew that they wanted.

“stop!” another pegasus whispered to his ear, Ace stopped as he knew, one mistake would get him killed faster than his nightmares could ever wake him up.

“what are your business here?” the pegasus asked, “I wish to speak to your boss, and I know he is right there.” Ace replied with a cold voice before watching as the boss got a whisper from a bodyguard before looking at Ace, “what are you business here shadowbolt?”.

“A deal that Im pretty sure you are interested in.” Ace told the boss who didn’t seem interested at all. “and why does this, deal. interest us?” he asked still uninterested, “Because it will give you information about all upcoming wonderbolt shipments for the next month.” Ace replied keeping his cold and emotionless voice.

Ace noticed as the boss was starting to get interested, “will the shadowbolts care what we do with those wonderbolt shipments?” he asked.

“Not at all and you may keep whatever goods you find in the shipment, all we want in return is that you send us a list of what you found and nothing else.” Ace replied as he knew what to say once the boss was interesting, “and may I ask what you wish in return for this?” the boss asked with a now huge interest.

“I need a group of pegasi to help me protect a shipment from Cloudsdale to Ponyville as there is a risk of wonderbolts trying to stop it, I will not guarantee that those coming with me to protect it will make it back and as soon the shipment arrives in Ponyville the need for their assistance is solved, simple as eating cupcakes.” Ace replied to the boss.

“How many pegasi do you need to protect this shipment?” the boss asked, he was obviously willing to risk pegasi for the information.

“About 4 would do.” Ace replied and soon the boss went up on some sort of podium.

“My brothers and sisters, my friend shadowbolt here needs four pegasi to help him protect a shipment from Cloudsdale to Ponyville, you help him to protect it and we will all be rewarded for our courage. who’s first?”

Not long after Ace could see as three ponies raised their wings.

“I can see six wings, where are the two last?” the boss asked the crowd, and two more wings was raised, “those who raised their wings, please come forward.” Ace heard the boss speak over the crowd.

Ace could see three mares and one stallion coming out from the crowd. they where all wearing some sort of jacket and the stallion also had a pair of goggles. “you do know that you may not return from this.” Ace told them with a cold voice.

“we know what we are getting into” the stallion spoke and the mares agreed.

Ace couldn’t help recognizing he voice but he couldn’t remember from where he heard it. “just remember who’s in charge when we are flying out there.” Ace told them before continuing, “alright, let’s go then”, and the pack left.

Ace soon noticed an approaching messenger mare.

“stay back you, it’s just a messenger.” he told the pegasi following him and not long after the messenger stopped when she reached where Ace was standing.

“Hawkfeather has some interesting information for you.” Ace could see a worried look on the messengers face.

“are these the ones you will be protecting the shipment with?” she asked obviously worried.

“yes and they can be trusted.” Ace replied to the worried messenger.

“Go tell Hawkfeather to prepare the shipment.” Ace told her before going airborne with his group of thugs and they soon reached the shipment with Hawkfeather looking at Ace as they landed.

“What? never seen a group of thugs helping out?” Ace asked his commander, “no, but I got information that wonderbolts have prepared an ambush, there will be five of them waiting.” Hawkfeather told him.

“only five? geez, I could beat them alone with tied wings” Ace replied.

“be careful I don’t want to loose my finest commando.” Hawfeather told Ace with a serious face.

“take it easy, they won’t get me.” Ace replied before he told the thugs to follow him and follow in formation and keep looking for the wonderbolts before notifying the stallions pulling the shipment that it was time to get going.

It was just about halfway though the trip to Ponyville Ace heard one of the mares yelling “Wonderbolts on the left.” Ace looked and there they came, towards a would be fiasco, “what should we do?” he heard a second mare asking.

“go get them, but keep your hooves away from the leader she has an orange mane and tail, she’s mine.” Ace recognized her.

Spitfire, he told the stallions pulling the shipment to keep going, he and the thugs would deal with the wonderbolts before he left to have some fun harassing wonderbolts and not long after he slammed into a wonderbolt, he stunned her in the blink of an eye before watching her fall into spin towards the ground.

He didn’t care for her as he soon chased after Spitfire knocking another wonderbolt down in his chase and as the wonderbolt stallion screamed in pain from getting his ribs broken by the impact Spitfire looked back and realized that Ace was pursuing her.

She obviously knew who he was as she called for immediately called for retreat before Ace told her that she was all alone and she would never get away. Ace soon crashed onto her less violently but still fast enough to break her wing and then he clung onto her and began steering them both down towards the ground and they both crashed into a river below.

Ace watched as the mare began to regain consciousness, he noticed that her goggles had been lost in the crash, he walked up to her and leaned his head before whispering to her ear. “I have no reason to kill you, but let this be a warning, stay out of my way.” and tossing her a first aid kit he had taken just incase before jumping into the sky to make sure the shipment would arrive in Ponyville safe.

“What did you do to that mare?” Ace heard the stallion ask him.

“None of your business but she won’t bother us again today.” Ace replied and the pegasus group soon arrived to Ponyville.

“you can go back to Cloudsdale, your part of the deal is done.” Ace told the ones who had been helping him.

Ace landed on the hospital roof and looked down as the shipment was unloaded and the goods was taken into the hospital and he decided that his work there was done and went towards Ponyville.

There was rumors about an uprising being planned but when he couldn’t see any signs of it, sure there wasn’t as many ponies outside anymore but considering all that was going on it wasn’t a big surprise and everything had been calm until the moment he saw her down the street in the market.

The snow white mare from that nightmare he had been woken up by last night. Ace felt the fear rising within, “strike her down, she will kill you as soon as he get’s the opportunity.” Ace heard the voice in his head tell him but he knew, it wasn’t right to just charge and kill her without any reason.

“you have a reason, she killed you in your nightmare, she must be killed.” the voice kept telling him, Ace knew he couldn’t resist the voice much longer and maybe if he ignored it too long it would take control of him by force.

He did the only thing he could have done, he jumped into the sky and used his ability to get away from Ponyville as fast as he possibly could, he headed towards Cloudsdale as he knew there he could fight back against the voice.