Eyes of the Accused

“why did you let her live! she will kill you later, is that what you want?!” Ace heard the voice yelling at him from inside his own head.

“You are hurting me brother, letting the likes her live to kill us.” the voice kept yelling at him. Ace could barely keep himself from yelling back at the voice but he knew that all those pegasi around Cloudsdale would probably think he was crazy if he couldn’t refrain himself.

Ace was heading towards where Hawkfeather had his command center, he had asked Ace to attend a special meeting and as Ace arrived he was greeted and it was obvious, Hawkfeather who usually was always against happiness considering it a weakness, looked at Ace overfilled with joy.

“Look, here comes my finest commando who has also gotten himself a good name in the world of thugs and criminals, I used to be mad when he told me but now I know they are willing to help us with taking down wonderbolt shipments.” Ace knew this couldn’t be good in any way.

“Today is the day when we will end the rule of the solar tyrant Celestia and YOU Ace have been chosen by me to plant the bomb in her castle, once the bomb explodes the entire castle will crumble and her empire will be scattered.” Hawkfeather kept telling him getting more and more exited by every word.

Ace knew that anything like this would be dangerous, the bomb could malfunction and explode too soon if it even exploded at all.

“Don’t you worry about the bomb, my own daughter made it so it will work perfectly, you will take it there in a pair of saddlebags, it’s simple, just place them together and then once you hear a click you know, you got forty seconds before it explodes.” Hawkfeather told him as the worry in Ace eyes was clear.

Ace knew this would be dangerous but he also knew that if this was successful the war would be over and he could have a happy relationship with Cloudmane and they could raise a filly together without any war threatening to take one of them away from the other. Ace accepted the mission and Hawkfeather seemed to get more and more happy by the second.

Ace left the meeting, he had to tell Cloudmane about what he was about to do, he knew she would be worried but he knew exactly what to tell her.

Ace knocked the door and when Cloudmane opened she cried tears of joy, “I thought you would never return for me, but here you are.” she rushed forward and hugged him. Ace whispered into her ear.

“there is something you must know.” Cloudmane backed off and invited him into her home, “there won’t be time,” he continued.

“what is it?” she asked him with a slight worry. “Hawkfeather is taking Canterlot tonight, I have been asked to bring a bomb and plant it in the castle, then I escape before it goes off.” he told her.

“why do you always take those jobs where one mistake will get you killed?” she asked him now in fear.

“I will make it back to you, I promise and then this war will be over and we will never have to worry ever again. Im doing this for you Cloudmane.”

She once again hugged him and he could feel her fear of loosing him, ”Promise me you will escape as fast as you can, don’t stay and try to become a hero by helping the others fight off wonderbolts, just plant the bomb and run.” she told him.

“I promise.” Ace replied before he left her once again.

But he couldn’t leave to take part in the invasion yet, there was still something he had to do. knowing that he would be charged with betrayal towards the shadowbolts if Hawkfeather found out, but he had to do this.

Ace took a deep breath as he entered the old factory where Rainbow Dash was being imprisoned. He walked inside the factory and found that the mare had kept her promise, stay there and make sure to get Rainbow Dash food every day.

The mare noticed him she told him that she had just finished feeding Rainbow Dash and left the room. “hello there Rainbow.” he spoke as he entered the room that Rainbow Dash was still kept in, still strapped to the bed.

She looked back at him, “I think I know what you went through in that cell now.”

“Good, and I hope you know what direction to fly,” and he began removing the straps holding her and as Rainbow Dash got up from the bad and began walking towards the exit Ace stopped her and gave her a Shadowbolt suit before looking at her.

“take this or you will be recognized” and once Rainbow had gotten herself into the suit Ace used some old paint to color her mane and tail blue much to her disagreement.

“Now they will never recognize you, don’t worry the paint isn’t made to resist water so take a bath once you get to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash I need you to go back and stay hidden until all this is over...” Ace looked at her. “...tell Twilight that I’m sorry, Hawkfeather is launching an invasion on Canterlot tonight, I have been tasked with planting a bomb in the castle.” he continued.

Rainbow thanked him for what he was doing and hoped that if he would face punishment like the other shadowbolts she could stop it.

Ace watched as she left and he could hear the mare who had been there to feed Rainbow Dash spoke to him, “you know that this is treason purified”.

“I know but whatever Hawkfeather wants me to be I am not the merciless commando he wants who doesn't feel anything when killing relentlessly.” Ace replied to the worried mare before he left to play his part in the invasion of Canterlot.

Ace landed on the cloud Hawkfeather was standing on.

“good, your here and we are just about to begin the invasion.” he told Ace, he was back to his normal cold emotionless behavior.

Ace knew more than well that Hawkfeather was nothing but a corrupt stallion wanting nothing but personal gain, Ace watched as the sky above filled with shadowbolts rushing towards Canterlot and some was even carrying bombs to bring destruction and chaos.

“Alright Ace, the battle is about to begin and the chaos will be at its top once everything begins, time for you to take the bomb.” Ace nodded to his commander and he felt as the bags where placed on his back, and he jumped off the cloud knowing what he had to do, right now he only wanted the war to end and this was far from the bast way but it was the fastest.

Ace noticed Canterlot castle as he aproached his target, to avoid crashing into the walls he used his lightning ability to strike a hole in the wall enough for him to pass in though and he was glad at his discovery.

The room was empty and he gently placed the bags on the ground before he opened them, and placed the bottom part of the bomb on the ground before he took the top part and as he held it in his hooves he felt like he shouldn’t do it.

But the voice in his head returned, “do it, after the bomb has exploded it will take at least a minute before the castle crumbles and turns into dust along with all those not worthy.”

Ace yelled at himself that enough was enough. He placed the bomb top on the floor beside  the dropped bags and focused on finding where the voice came from.

“You are trying to find me but you never will, I am you.” the voice told him. Ace had located where it was and he knew it was extremely dangerous but he didn’t care, this or he will soon tie his own wings and jump of a mountain.

He sent a lightning shock into himself to kill the voice, and he could clearly hear as he got a direct hit, and soon he heard the voice again, “please, don’t kill me, all i’m trying to do is help you.”.

“SILENCE!” Ace yelled to himself before sending another shock into himself but now he couldn’t hear the voice again.

Ace looked at the bomb top knowing he had to do it to make sure Hawkfeather wouldn’t find out that he wasn’t the one Hawkfeather imagined anymore, right now he just wanted to end the war.

Ace assembled the bomb and tried to sneak out, he didn’t want to see Hawkfeather again but suddenly he saw her, Spitfire running towards him dressed in her wonderbolt suit, Ace looked at her.

“I told you to stay out of my way!” he yelled at her before he rushed towards her, “Let’s see what you learned from last time” before jumping airborne for more powerful strike but she had learned, to his surprise she dodged and Ace passed her but her plan to make him crash failed.

Ace noticed the wall and stopped before turning around but he didn’t get much more time before she crashed into him from an unexpected angle just like he had done to her and they both fell down the stairs and ended up in one of the corridors no pony visited and most of them probably didn’t know about it.

Ace was mad at her, and he used his lightning ability to throw himself towards her and the wall behind her intending to crush her between it and himself.

Seconds later they both slammed though what seemed to be a solid wall. Ace noticed that his goggles had been smashed in the crash but he also noticed that he wasn’t alone about getting the goggles smashed, but he noticed that Spitfire seemed to recognize the room as she looked down into the ground, her wing seemed to be hurt as she still had bandages around it.

But it seemed as being in the room was more painful at that time. Ace looked around and then he could see the picture above the bed, a happy and proud Hawkfeather in wonderbolt suit standing beside Celestia and next Hawkfeather he could see another familiar pegasi, Spitfire, Ace had no idea why Hawkfeather tried to destroy Canterlot castle if he had once been a proud wonderbolt, his wondering was aborted as he noticed a document on the bed,

Dear Hawkfeather.

I am hereby excluding you from the wonderbolts, you have been preforming unauthorized stunts and shown aggressive behavior towards...

Ace reading was aborted by the sound of an explosion, he knew exactly what it was.

“That wasn’t forty seconds, that wasn’t even close to forty seconds” Ace told himself before the ground started shaking making it impossible to focus on anything and Ace knew he had to get out of there before everything fell apart crushing everything below. Ace knew he could make it out and he was halfway out the room before he decided that he couldn’t leave Spitfire back there before going back and he managed to get her on his back much to her objection but Ace ignored her and told her to hold on.

He would either get them both out of there or he wouldn’t make it either. Ace felt like he tried to lift an entire shipment of stone and rubble on his back and soon he couldn’t hold them up in flight and tried to make a landing which turned into a disastrous attempt as they crashed heavy on the ground and they both rolled on the ground and ended up not much more than a meter from each others, Ace looked up and realized that they had only gotten them outside the room and halfway though the corridor, Ace closed his eyes and hoped that he would get hit by falling debris before Spitfire so he wouldn’t need to hear her scream in pain as she got crushed, he could still hear and feel the violent shaking as the castle began crumbling.