Smoke And Wings

by BronySinc

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Tragedy, Adventure, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 6931

As the war rages on, Bunnyhelm's personal assassin learns his real purpose in the war.

Bunnyhelm has been picky with who he works with, when he is done, he disposes of you, the question is how. His private assassin, Freeze Charge, is the person he calls to get the job done. What happens when an assassin realizes his virtues are wrong, what happens when his life is turned around in an instant.

Side Story To:
"Of Steam Gears And Wings"
"http://www.fimfiction.net/story/13708/Of-Steam-Gears-and-Wings"

Published 2013-03-18 15:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-18 15:30:02 UTC

Chapter 1 - Farswell’s Destiny

Smoke And Wings

=====================================================================

Chapter 1

Farswell’s Destiny

Heavy panting and the occasional sound of theft were the only noises that broke the low hum of the regular morning in Canterlot. Freeze Charge was swiftly jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He smirked as it was a mere breeze exerting his strength to jump, as easy as trotting. He could smell the hazardous fumes bellowing out of the exhaust on the back of the airships that were only a mere few meters above his head. The toxic fumes had discolored the air itself to where it was a blend of dark, muggy colors. It was enough to make his eyes dampen at the exposure.

As he was closing the distance on his target, he noticed a few Imps on the lower street levels were bursting through a door of an apartment complex with rifles in hoof and shouting orders, the thieves looking for a unlucky victim to appear, while the streets were full of candy colored equines; They had a variety of coats, not to mention stains and smudges.

His target came into perspective, he was a little late because an Imp had attempted to arrest him for suspicious acts of treason, the Imp didn’t know what he had gotten into. The airship started to slowly ascend above the tops of the buildings, he knew the fact that he had one chance as he neared the edge of the final building.

He gazed directly down while taking a deep, profound sigh; Freeze Charge took a leap of faith and as he launched into the air, nopony noticed him, he had almost made it, while he was mostly over the rail, his back leg smashed bluntly into the rail sending him sprawling across the deck. A shock of pain spiked into his lower left leg, causing the injured limb to rattle for a brief moment. He quickly recovered, he had matters to attend to despite the throbbing pain in his back leg.

Most of the deck was barren of all items, the ship was a large Intron-Class Transport, the target was a smuggler named Farswell, he was well known for smuggling the highly illegal substance zap-apple fuel, and he was also skilled enough to have twelve accounts of murder on his record.

As Freeze Charge slowly investigated the deck he found out why it was unguarded and was amazed at how easily he'd missed it, an Obediance-ClassDestroyer loomed over the sky looking for anything suspicious to aim its long range batteries at.

Freeze Charge started to scan the deck when he found a hatch. As he approached the opening in the deck. He heard a great deal of cheering coming from the inside of the hull. His ears pricked up at the new noises, curiosity forcing him to proceed further. He poked his head into the hatch to get a better sense of the situation.

“Congratulations on another successful delivery!” said a deep, commanding voice. A loud cheer followed up. As the festivities started, Freeze Charge knew that this was exactly what he needed, a distraction. This was going to be easier than he thought.

Inch by inch, he worked his way down the hatch when he instantly froze, a pony was around the corner. He was babbling random syllables, his eyes only half-opened.

A few seconds later he toppled over, the odor of his breath diffused into Freeze’s nostrils, it reeked of alcohol. Snores resonated from the sleeping pony, Freeze Charge slowly inched down the ladder again, careful not to touch the drunken pony on the ground, even though he knew it would probably take a substantial amount to wake the stallion.

He pulled a compact and silenced, but deadly pistol out of his pocket. His target, Farswell was an earth pony with a brown mane, renowned for having a large scar across his face from a flight accident many years ago. Freeze Charge peeked around the corner and looked towards a room full of about two dozen greasy, drunk smugglers, an open bar and a few cafeteria tables.

He spotted that Farswell was at a substantially larger table than the rest with seven of his advisors next to him. They were not enjoying the cider and were on full alert, sharing a laugh with Farswell. Freeze Charge cursed under his breath as he saw them, that complicated things a bit.

He knew he had about two hours before the ship would officially leave Canterlot airspace, and they still had to go through a checkpoint to receive authorization to leave, if they got that far then he would have to abandon his mission, but he was not about to let that happen.

As he started to trot down another hallway heading towards the back of the large room, the hallway itself was dimly lit, making it difficult to even see his own hooves in front of his face. Everypony was celebrating in that room which made a tight fit for him, since he was a bulky, teal earth pony, mane white on the parts touching his body then evolves into a light blue color, it resembled the appearance of frost.

As he neared the first door at the back of the room he took a quick glance around the place, his target was leaving the room with two well adorned advisors. They quickly went behind a large iron door, the only way through was to walk through the room full of workers, and he was forced to take a chance.

He put his gun up and started to slowly walk out the door and into the lobby. Nopony noticed him, he was halfway across the room when he realized that a majority of them were drunk. The ones who weren't intoxicated were in a surreal trance, ignoring everything happening around them.

As he approached the iron door, analyzing it, he noticed that it was locked. It had a card scanner that was probably only accessible to the officers. He looked back at the table full of high ranking officers and advisors and one of them had a their card sticking out of their pocket, held on to by a long metal chain, it dragged on the floor while the advisor sat.

As Freeze Charge took notice to this he started to inch his way back to the table. He had devised a plan on how to get the card off the chain. He started to walk around the tables looking for the perfect victim. His smile widened as he found the perfect candidate.

“Washh whr yer goin!” grumbled a drunken earth pony who slurred over his words as Freeze Charge brushed into his body. Freeze Charge simply spat in his direction, thoughts of violence then were instigated in the other pony.

The red earth pony threw a slow, clumsy punch towards Freeze Charge; He easily dodged it. After the drunk started to regain his balance, Freeze Charge simply meandered off, acting like nothing happened. The drunk did not appreciate of his actions. He howled while stumbling behind the blue earth pony, “Geshh back hre!” Freeze Charge just ignored him. As he approached the advisor, he started to tease the drunk.

Freeze Charge stretched a hoof out in front of the lush, causing the drunk’s legs to fold, thus, making him fall flat on his face. When the drunk stumbled up Freeze Charge had gotten the effect he had planned for; The drunk charged him. Freeze Charge planned this perfectly, and as the stallion rushed towards him, he side stepped out of the way and the red and grimy stallion collided with one of the perfectly clean advisor on the table, knocking the green pegasus across the table with a dull thud.

Freeze Charge rushed to the green pegasus and helped him up, stealthily taking the card in the process. As the pegasus got up, he looked, nostrils flaring, at the red earth pony who was looking very startled at the moment before taking a deep breath and walking away.

Freeze Charge looked at the card for a moment, running his hoof over it slightly as it twinkled in the dim light. Then he slowly trotted back to the door, holding the card in the reader, when it didn’t open instantly, his heart started beating rapidly. Then with a loud CLICK, It started to slowly open. He walked in and it immediately shut behind him, beads of sweat running down his forehead as he took a large breath in realizing he was in.

As he walked through the long, perilous hallway, he noticed that the corridor was for the elites of the business. They had nice beds, the hallway had decor, the lights were fully illuminated; They seemed empty though, there was noise behind a couple of closed doors, but almost all of the officers were participating in the festivities.

As he started to walk down the passage his ears perked up. A noise in one of the adjacent rooms, it sounded like Farswell and another pony. He looked over the edge to get a good look. There was two armed pegasi guarding him while they had a conversation. Freeze Charge pulled out his silent pistol as a precaution. He heard them approaching even faster, and he immediately hid behind the closet in the closest room, pistol in grip.

It sounded as if Farswell was saying goodbye to the officers as they left, he walked into the room he was hiding in. He shut the door to the room. Freeze Charge thought to himself on how perfect this was going to be, there could not have been a more ideal situation than this.

As Farswell sat down next to his table, he opened the laptop on the desk that had a encrypted comm’s network loaded on it. He was arranging another transaction. Freeze Charge halted all of a sudden, his mind burdened down with curiosity at the opportunity to learn what was about to go on with this exchanging of information.

“As I see, your shipment went perfectly Farswell,” whispered a dark, ominous voice from the computer. Farswell had a grin appear when he heard that.

“Same as ever, we didn’t even have to go through an Imperial ship to get here. Clear skies the whole way.” replied Farswell in a jolly tone.

“Well, you know your next shipment is not going to be easy; it is not only in Canterlot, but it is to be delivered to Ergo Industries, if it does not make it in time, then dozens of rebels are going to die, which will put a blotch on our record of perfect deliveries.” said the ominous voice on the computer, his words now almost a grumble.

“Doesn't matter, we had an Obediance-Class Destroyer above us, and we didn’t get caught! We can easily ship next to a Imp ground base.” smirked Farswell with a hint of pride. So that was it, they were going to convey the next shipment to Ergo Industries. They produce high quality rifles that are often used by rebels. Freeze Charge opened the closet slightly ajar, taking aim. Then all of a sudden, he heard a pony running through the entrance, he inched back.

“Sir! Sir!” said a orange unicorn who was panting from loss of breath as she dropped a stack of papers on his desk.

“What is it Trinica?” replied Farswell in an irritated tone. He had shut the laptop off already and so she had his full attention.

“Sir, a blue pony has snuck on board. None of the staff at the congregation could identify him. He had helped Jinx up, who found out that his key card is missing!” said Trinica, her voice a reflection of the sweat pouring down her forehead . And with that he slowly walked out of the room, she slowly walked out behind him, he ordered her to go to the bridge and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. As they left the room Freeze Charge started to inch out, pistol ready to fire, he had an eye on the already open door the whole time.

He heard no pony outside the hallway, they must be looking around the ship for him already. He noticed that the noise of the party that he could faintly hear had stopped, there was loud calls of orders being yelled in that room right now.

The job was still unfinished, his mind dictated that it must be complete. Freeze Charge had to plan his escape as it was. He walked outside of the room walking in the opposite direction since the door to the congregation was not an option anymore, they knew what he looked like.

“All personnel onboard, a large blue earth pony with a mane that evolves from white to teal is currently on board the ship, if you find him, capture him dead or alive.” said a mare over the PA system.

Freeze Charge knew this was going south. Not only had he been identified already by the crew, but now every pony on board knew that he was wanted, dead or alive. He trotted down the hallway in a frenzy; he heard ponies in their rooms start to rustle about, arriving at another locked door. He inserted his card and as he pressed his hoof against the door it refused to budge. The card didn’t work.

They must have locked him out of the system already. He ambled back down the hallway, taking caution, but was spotted by a wide awake officer. He looked at him and yelled, “Hey! There he is,” before Freeze Charge put a bullet out towards him.

The body of the equine dropped to the floor with a dull thud. A few other ponies started to stir since the pistol wasn’t completely silenced, he grabbed the card on the officer and ran towards the door, where he then inserted it and ran out of the room. As he exited the officer’s hallway he found a group of mechanics covered in grease talking to each other as he ran by, they pretty much ignored him.

As he neared a turn in a hallway he saw two armed guards walking around the corner, one shouted and they point their rifles point blank. Freeze Charge quickly unloaded two bullets in a quick succession, both hit their mark; They were kill shots.

The two guard ponies dropped instantly and Freeze Charge jumped over their bodies while skidding around the corner. He already was discovered and had killed three ponies, he needed to finish the mission and get out of there.

“This is your Captain speaking, we have found officer Derek dead in his bed, a bullet to the head, kill the rogue at any costs. He is to be proceeded with extreme caution, fire on sight.” said Farswell over the PA system. Freeze Charge knew where Farswell was now; He was in the bridge of the airship, flying it.

He immediately peered around the bend coming up, which said that the bridge was to his right and up a flight of stairs. As he rounded the next turn he saw a flight of stairs guarded by two unarmed pegasi. He shot his last bullet into the one on the top of the stairs and then charged the one at the bottom.

When he came into contact, an audible crunch noise echoed as the two collided, he had knocked the yellow pegasus over and he was struggling to get up. Freeze Charge put his hooves on the guards wings and pressed, increasing the tension building up within the bones until a sharp snap was heard. When the wings broke, the pegasus instantly went out cold from shock.

He ran up to the door and swiped the key card, it gave a red light and didn’t budge. They must have locked this card out of this system too. He swore under his muffled breath when the only option left was that he had to find another officer to get into the bridge. He ran towards the large lobby where the ponies and where the congregation was going on earlier.

As he neared it he could hear orders still being ran around the lobby. There were two lines of smugglers lined up in front of three officers. He had no chance of getting the cards of them without killing almost every pony in there, which he would have to do.

He ran back to the hallway where he had killed the two guards and he grabbed one of their rifles then slowly trotted back to the lobby filled with smugglers, he aimed the rifle at the first column and then pulled the trigger, he had been in this kind of situation many times before. As he swept the lobby clean as the bullets passed through the rows of smugglers, he had already in the first few seconds killed majority of the ponies in their.

As he had reloaded the clip with the only spare clip of ammo he had, they started to return fire. He hid behind the wall as he reloaded. Once he fumbled the clip in the gun he immediately started to blind fire the gun behind him, and as the clip neared empty, most of the gunfire in the room stopped. It sounded as if only two able ponies were in the room; The rest of the voices were cries for help.

Freeze Charge looked around the corner and saw the two officer ponies around the other one who was injured on the floor, crawling for the other door. Freeze Charge pulled out his pistol and aimed it directly at his head. He pulled the trigger and it hit its mark. As the two remaining officers realize what had just happened, they opened fire on Freeze’s location, he fired two more bullets in quick succession that hit their marks.

He walked into the room and picked up all three of the tags from the officers. After that he cautiously started to listen... He heard reinforcements coming! He flipped the stained metal table he was next to on its side and grabbed two rifles from some dead smugglers next to him as another group of untrained smugglers burst through the opening to the lobby firing at anything that moved, including the injured smugglers on the floor. He quickly leveled the first wave of smugglers.

He then started to strategically pick off the rest. They realized that it was no point in rushing when they were going to get killed. They started to shoot around the corner. All of a sudden Freeze Charge heard a loud BEEP, causing him to stop firing for a second he looked around wondering where it had come from. BEEP, there it was again. BEEP, it was starting to go BEEP faster. BEEP, he realized what it was and he jumped away from the table as it made its final BEEP and the table shattered into millions of pieces of shrapnel.

He probably had about an hour left before they left Canterlot. He grabbed the nearest rifle and started to unload in the ponies who were now rushing the room. Soon they all fell dead, while he was left uninjured. He looked at the now blood red floor, he knew he was doing this for the Empire; These ponies deserved to die for smuggling.

As he got up he noticed the doors were closing. All of a sudden they smashed shut with a loud bang before he could run out. He was trapped in the lobby now. He walked to the door and banged on it to no avail, the officer door to his left was damaged in the explosion.

He started to search the bodies of the soldiers, in one of them he found a pack of explosives, he grinned as he looked at them. A few minutes passed and he had rigged the door to explode, he trotted to the back of the lobby and aimed one of the rifles at the explosive, he pulled the trigger and it instantly went off, the door flew off its hinges and fell on two unlucky ponies behind it. He ran out the door when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head, his knees gave way and he blacked out.

He woke up in a prison cell, how long has it been? He looked up and saw a clock on the wall, it was only ten minutes since he had been unconscious, not too long he thought. A brown earth pony with a scar on his face entered the room, it was Farswell.

“Well well well, look at who we have here, an assassin? To what do I own the pleasures of you killing more than half of my crew?” said Farswell in a more than happy tone. Freeze Charge stayed silent.

“Cat got your tongue? No matters, we can always just throw you over the ship!” Farswell said with a glint of happiness in his eyes. Freeze Charge stayed silent while staring into his glaring eyes.

“Fine, have it your way, Guards? Throw this pony overboard the rails when we leave Canterlot airspace.” and with that he trotted away and put the cell keys on the shelf, silently laughing to himself the whole time. Freeze Charge was now in this cell with two pegasi guarding him, they each had a more high end combat shotgun, produced by Ergo Industries.

He started to plan in my mind on how to escape, he took notice to the keys on a shelf just out of his reach. He could see no other way out, the guards were too far away to hold through the bars, they were facing their back to him so that was good if the time came.

There was an odd jittery purple pegasus to his left, he was making some spasm noises, the pony to his right was a calm red pegasus, they both refused to talk. All of a sudden the ship lurched sideways as a turn was made, the keys slipped off the desk and slid towards Freeze Charge, his luck was spot on as they slid right into his cell, the guard ponies were too busy fumbling around to realize what happened.

He grabbed the keys and while the guards were preoccupied talking, they didn’t see it coming, Freeze Charge slowly kicked the back of one of their knees and he fell sprawling the floor, he dropped his weapon, Freeze Charge immediately thrust the back of his left hoof into the jaw of the second pony knocking him unconscious, after that he jumped up and then landed on the pegasus on the ground instantly knocking him out.

He grabbed one of the Ergo Industries Combat Shotguns and trotted out the door ready to shoot at anything that moved. He had thirty minutes before he had to get off, he started to trot to the locked door and found an officers key conveniently lying on the table next to the door. All of a sudden the jittery one in the cell screamed, “WAIT!” and stood up, the more calm one stood up too.

“We can help you, we know this place inside and out. We have been studying it for months.” said the more calm pegasus, the jittery one nodded in an extremely fast pace after he had said that. Freeze Charge thought of how they could benefit, they could always turn on him, then again, they looked like they were in a bad position.

Freeze Charge decided to ask something important and said, “Why are you here?” and as he said that the calm one smiled.

“We are here because we were trying to take some of that zap-apple fuelzap-apple fuelfor our own.” said the calm one in a more controlled manner, the jittery one looked like he was in another world.

Freeze Charge decided to trust them, “I’ll let you out, if you help me kill the captain.” and with that the jittery one grinned a maniacal smile while the calm one nodded.

“This is my brother, Nuts, and I’m Bolts, good to have an friend in this situation.” said the calm pony. All of a sudden the door behind me had a huge knocking and yelling. Freeze Charge immediately grabbed the keys and unlocked Bolt’s cell first.

When he finally opened it, the other door was being shot at, it sounded as if it wouldn't last much longer, Bolts grabbed a rifle from one of the unconscious ponies. Freeze Charge then unlocked Nut’s cage, when the cage opened, the door broke down, Nuts only smiled, he rushed towards the ponies at the door and smashed his front two hooves into their face, it made a sickening crunch that made Freeze Charge cringe at.

The pony at the door went limp and fell down, Nuts didn't stop there, he started to beat the unconscious body, Freeze Charge had to pull him away to get him to stop. Nuts frowned as he was told to get off the already unconscious pony.

Bolts had watched the whole thing, he smiled at it. All of a sudden hoofsteps could be heard down the hallway leading to where they were at, Freeze Charge thought that this was probably all that was left after the massacre he had created earlier, he had killed dozens of ponies to finish his mission, he would bring the whole ship down to complete the mission.

Nuts smiled as he heard the hoovesteps and ran towards them, Bolts said to let him do what he wishes, there was little that they could do to prevent what was going to happen, let alone keep up with him, he disappeared into the hall, you heard a few screams of mercy, crunching, gunshots, then nothing but laughing. Eventually he had returned with a smile and a smudge of blood smeared across his face.

“How do we get to the bridge from here?” said Freeze Charge in a more angered manner, trotting towards the next turn.

“Well, judging from how loud those engines are, we are at the lowest floor, about three levels below the bridge, if we work together we can make it up there in an hour.” said the calm one, Freeze Charge got angered, he needed to be there now, he was going to show them how fast he could actually get there. “Follow me, I'll get us there in ten minutes.” said Freeze Charge, Nuts smiled and Bolts just sighed at hearing that, this was how ponies get killed he thought.

As they ran around the hallways navigating through the maps that they found on the walls, Freeze Charge stopped them at a map around the corner, “We should sabotage the generators, maybe we can bring the ship down,” said Freeze Charge in a more than happy manner. Bolts replied saying, “That is a great idea, get some revenge on those blood thirsty smugglers.”

They started to dash down the long hallway towards the core of the ship. When they were almost there a group of guard ponies burst out the hallway with their guns blazing, bullets grazed everything in sight as Nuts, Bolts, and Freeze Charge jumped into the nearest open doors.

The guard ponies laid down fire into the hallway with a constant barrage, giving them no time to pull out from the corner to pick them off, Freeze Charge looked over to Nuts to see he had a huge smile on his face, he was holding a small but deadly Ergo Industries Grenade, Freeze Charge had wandered on where he had got it when all of a sudden Nuts threw the grenade behind the door towards the guards, five loud beeps went off, a large explosion, then nothing.

Freeze Charge looked around the corner to see pony limbs and blood splattered the walls, Bolts and Nuts were already picking themselves up. The three escapees started to trot down the final hallway to the generators room, Nuts had said that he had tons of explosives, Freeze Charge didn't even want to know where he had got them from.

The generator room was full of researcher unicorns, they all had white lab coats on and clipboards. They pretty much ignored the newly arrived ponies until one of them yelled, “The prisoners are out!” and they all started to run, Nuts tried to chase them down but Freeze Charge had to jab him into the gut sending him across the floor, he coughed up a small amount of blood and looked at Freeze Charge with a frown on his face, Bolts only smiled at the scene that unfolded.

As a red pegasus approached the control console of the generator, he had put down a small plastic device, hit a red light on it and set the timer, it was set for twenty-five minutes. After the device was placed, the three equines started to retreat from the room and gallop to the next floor.

“Captain, we are five minutes to the checkpoint.” said a pegasus on a small control console. The Captain looked at him with a forced smile on his face, in the back of his mind he was congratulating himself for capturing the assassin that had tried to destroy his ship and kill his crew. The door all of a sudden had one loud smash against it and all the noise in the bridge stopped. They stood frozen waiting for somepony to break the ice.

DING, DING, DING. Bullets were bouncing off the door, the Captain was starting to put the pieces together now, the assassin pony escaped. All of a sudden a loud buzz could be heard and then as if in slow motion, the doors burst open with a burst of light. The heavy door landed on a poor and unlucky pony standing in front of it, the pegasi on the consoles to the sides of it were burned beyond belief, and out came not one, not two, but all three ponies from the brig, they had rifles at hoof and were firing blindly at anything that moved.

The Captain jumped behind his assistant trying to take cover, all of a sudden he was splattered with blood as the bullets went into the assistants back and he saw the life drain from her now fading eyes. He immediately jumped behind a column and pulled out his small pistol.

“Farswell! Get out here! You’re on my list and there is no escaping it!” said a deep and ominous voice.

“Heya! No escape! None!” said a more maniacal voice at a fast pace.

“Just get up and we can finish this off painlessly, if you don’t then I will have to let Nuts after you,” said a more calm voice.

“Your pick.” said the deep voice again. The whole time you could hear the maniacal pony laughing and breathing hysterically. The Captain took his chances and stayed down. He was thinking that he could take that Nuts pony on if he could take him by surprise.

“You picked it, Nuts, let him have it.” said the deep voice. With that being said, the maniacal pony immediately jumped forward and started to sniff around, he started to get closer and closer to Farswell with every passing second, he had a long iron bar in his hoof which was already dented from an earlier pony’s head.

All of a sudden the comm’s went off with a mares voice, “This is Imperial ship Lyris speaking, please prepare to be boarded, stay halted in the airspace you are at.” and after the comm’s went out there was a large metal on metal sound that came from the ceiling, the ship lurched sideways as they were being boarded. Captain Farswell immediately got a shocked look on his face, he knew that there was now no escape, he had been exposed, he was about to be killed.

A brown stallion started to gallop across the room as Nuts slammed a crowbar across his head, the earth pony fell over while Nuts repeatedly hit him with the crowbar.

Freeze Charge and Bolts knew the dangers of staying, they had to get off the ship, at that very moment four Imps came to the doorway of the bridge and yelled, “Halt! You're under arrest for smuggling!” and without thinking Freeze Charge grabbed Bolt and Nuts then shot one bullet through the front window of the airship and jumped out.

Nuts and Bolts knew figured out what he was doing, they all of a sudden started to fly and grabbed Freeze’s shoulders as they flew him to a nearby rooftop. Behind them were bullets being fired and missing by mere inches. As they crashed on the rooftop, they started to tumble into a swirling mess. As they came to a halt, they all looked back at the ship, it was still being boarded by an Obediance-Class Destroyer, if they had been on that, they would have been dead because the timed explosives on the Generator decided to explode at that very moment.

The sky lit up in purple, red, and pink sparks. They flew everywhere and two airships were starting to explode compartment by compartment, ponies were jumping off to avoid the death that awaited anybody on the ship, majority of the ponies did not make it. Some Vanquishers left the hanger of the Obediance-Class Destroyer, but not many had the time to take off.

Yellow and Pink airships started to arrive, they were trying to find injured ponies that they could save, the group hid to avoid being discovered. They started down the stairs to get to street level, it was a long walk since this was a tall building. The group of ponies all of a sudden starred at each other.

“Thanks for getting us out of that situation!” said Bolt in a joyful way.

“Anything to kill that scum Farswell,” replied Freeze Charge in a deep gruff voice, Nuts had a beaming smile on his face.

“Listen, I may need help on things later in the future, is there any way that you three would like to get a real paying job.” said Freeze Charge in a serious tone. The two brothers looked at him in confusion.

“What exactly do you do?” asked Bolts with a questionable attitude.

“Its a lot more prestigious than your job you currently have trying to steal a smugglers loot, ok here is the getup, I work for somepony named Bunnyhelm, one of Prince Blueblood’s top advisors, I need some right and left hand ponies for missions like these, I kill ponies for a living, that should sum it up for you now? I bet the crazy one will love this job.” and all of a sudden Nuts got a glorious look on his face, he even started to drool a little bit, Bolts took this a little more seriously.

Bolts angrily yelled at Freeze Charge saying, “You work for the Empire? Why would we want to help you out, your kind has been tracking us down for ages!” and Freeze Charge smiled at that.

“Because, I don’t work under the Empire’s rules, I play by my own book, there is also a mighty fine pay for it. Now, do you care to actually make a living, move up in the tree of life?” said Freeze Charge with a evil grin. Nuts started to bob his head up and down furiously while Bolts still questioned his reasoning. Bolts did not want to work for the group of ponies that has been trying to kill him for years, yet he knew this was the offer he and his brother had been looking for.

“Listen, I see how your putting this Bolts, you don’t have to work for the Empire, just me, they won’t even know you’re working with me, this pay is from me, cash.” and with that the red pegasus started to loosen up, that is just what he wanted to hear, he would have a well paid job while he would be safe from the Empire’s eyes. The blue earth pony looked trustable and had a good point.

“Ok, we are in,” said Bolts with a bit of attitude, Nuts just started to jump in joy. Freeze Charge all of a sudden realized he had to contact Bunnyhelm, he said, “Listen guys, meet me at SeriTech in three hours. The two brothers started to fly off in happyness.

Freeze Charge just started to pace, he needed a ride. He started walking from alley to alley looking for some airship that could be a prime target, eventually he came across this opportunity, a Noble was leaving his airship in his yard to prepare for a festivity he had later, it was a small civilian version of the Vanquisher. Freeze Charge jumped over the hedge of grass to get to it, he saw that it was already running, he smiled to himself as he opened the cockpit.

He ran his hooves over the controls gathering the feel of the airship, all of a sudden with a pull of the yoke, he was taking off. He slowly but surely eased onto the throttle as he sped out of the airspace he was in, his destination was not SeriTech but the capitol building. He had to speed through traffic, he was on the other side of Canterlot so it took him quite some time to get to the capitol.

“Please turn back this is restricted airspace, to proceed will lead to engagement.” said a mare’s voice over the comms system.

Freeze Charge flipped a switch and said, “This is Freeze Charge, special ID Verification 10691, I have an appointment with Bunnyhelm.” and the operator went silent for a good three minutes.

“Please proceed to hanger four.” said a stallion operator this time, Freeze Charge wondered what happened to the other one. He expertly pulled the yolk until he was heading straight for the hanger, two militarized Vanquishers pulled out of nowhere and flew in front of him.

They were escorting him to his landing spot, they pulled into the hanger and started to fly near the back until they slowed down and hovered above a red circular zone that was marked with a flight operator waving them in, Freeze Charge took that as the place he needed to land and slowly navigated the ship to its destination.

Outside of his ship were two muscular guards who stood like sentinels, waiting for him, as he jumped out of the ship they walked towards them. Without saying anything, they dragged him towards a metallic door that was marked as “Exit” to the hanger. As they walked down the hallway Freeze Charge eyes widened out in realization at what hangar he was in, four, that was a long trip on the elevator to get to the top floor where Bunnyhelm was.

All three ponies entered the elevator and the guard next to the panel pressed his hoof against the button that said Top Floor, it didn’t even have a number on it. As the minutes inched by, the elevator music was starting to jitter Freeze, it was repeating itself in an never-ending loop. The guards slanted their eyebrows out of frustration as it penetrated their ears.

As the door opened the guards bunted Freeze Charge out, closing the door behind them; he looked forward to see Bunnyhelm standing in front of him. The room had lavish sofa sitting in next to the windows that looked out towards Canterlot, a bar that was fully stocked with top shelf libations, and a large communications center meant to communicate all over Equestria, its range was incomprehensible.

“So, how was the mission my friend?” said Bunnyhelm, a hint of malevolence in his diction.

“It was a full success, I had to eliminate the whole ship to get to the captain though.” replied Freeze Charge, chuckling as worry was heavy in his tone of voice.

“I know, you also decimated one of our cruisers on the mission, do you know how much I had to go through to cover that up? We cannot have mistakes like that made, not even once!” yelled Bunnyhelm.

“That was a complication, I had escaped just in time as a few Imperial ponies started to rush me. I had planted a few charges on the Sparkle Generators for my escape and did not have time to change my plan as the Imperials boarded the ship; I had to escape, it was either that or kill the Imperials one by one with the same effect sir.” Freeze Charge retorted, squinting his eyebrows.

“Well you should have then, at least we wouldn't have medical ships flying around the place and reporters trying to figure out what caused the sky to light up halfway across Equestria if you didn't realize that yet.” Bunnyhelm only smirked after saying that. Freeze Charge knew what it meant, it was saying that the conversation was over.

As Freeze Charge meandered towards the elevator but Bunnyhelm had one last word, “Do not fail me again, you know what happens when ponies cross me.” and he took off in the speeding elevator back to Hangar 4.

Author's Note

Written by Bronysinc

Detailed And Revised By Citrus

Idea and Helped By RavensDagger

Side Story Of “Of Steam Gears And Wings” By “RavensDagger”

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/13708/of-Steam-Gears-and-Wings

Huge thanks to Chris Thorpe, RavensDagger, and Citrus Greenplate for helping on this project.