Conviction

“ Now don’t be tellin’ him nothing, but I knew from the start that’d be where he’d go. Every bit of illegal activities came out of that little fuck’s place. ‘Daddy’ got it for him, heh. Silverblood was paranoid, always thought pony’s were out to kill’m and he was right, at least, not a pony, but a dragon. He turned that place into a fortress. He lined the place with thugs and ex convicts looking for a fix or a mare to rape. But… Spike knew he was in there. He knew Silverblood might have some information on what happened to Rarity. Spike was goin’ in there, ain’t nothin’ that could stop that dragon.”

Silverblood Mansion

“Spike, come in, are you there… dammit, don’t ghost out on me now.” Twilight’s voice sounded almost desperate for Spike to return a comment.

“Yeah, I’m here, going to pay my new friend Silverblood a visit. Talk to ya’ later Twi.” Spike shut off his comm. and walked down the alley. The smell of must, bile, and sweat filled his nose. The dark corners of the walls seemed to reach out to the dragon beckoning him to come in and hide, but he knew he couldn’t hide now, he had come too far to back out into the shadows. Silverblood knew something about what happened to Rarity and he was going to answer to him.

The dragon walked down the alley way to a street running perpendicular to his position. He saw three possible guards. One guarding a side entrance and two guards at the front of the mansion. This was filly’s play to him. The guards wouldn’t know what him them until they were all dead.

Seven, maybe eight civilians crowded the sides of the road as passing carriages made their way through the darkened streets of Tapirus. The two guards at the entrance were calling out to a couple mares across the street trying to flaunt their muscles. The mares stuck their heads up walking the other way leaving the egos’ of both stallions unscathed as another mare walked by and their primal call continued.

“Hey there little filly, like whatcha’ see? Betcha never sucked a real stallion’s cock.” Said one of the depraved guards.

“Mhm, I’d like to tank those flanks hunny.” Retorted the other perverse guard.

The mare looked a little frightened like she was a tourist perhaps unfamiliar to the ‘bad’ section of town. Though, the whole town was bad. Silverblood’s father was the King of Tapirus. Granted, the Equestrian Embassy was here to establish good relations with the foreign country as well as help Equestrians who’ve come to visit the little island, get back home, or search for any information about the country.
She took off once the guard stepped off the curb and onto the road approaching her. The mare ran directly into Spike knocking him onto the ground. He wasn’t expecting anything like this to happen, but he stood back up and helped the mare to her hooves. Even a killer can be a gentleman.

“Are you alright?” Said the dragon
The mare was a little embarrassed about running into a complete stranger and knocking him flat on his back. She blushed and backed up a little lowering her head. Both guards had started walking over towards the dragon that was helping the mare. They bulked out their shoulders trying to look more menacing, but Spike had no fears about these punks.

“Aye, what you think you’re doin’ lizard?” said one of the guards.
Spike paid no attention to the guards and looked into the mares eyes and whispered softly in here ear, “run.” At that moment the mare dashed off down the street becoming a small blur as the echoing of her trotting became distant.

“That wasn’t cool lizard, what the fuck you think you’re doin’ scaring off are girls?”
Spike said nothing. He stared at the two stallions waiting for them to attack or retreat. Even though he was a lethal weapon, causing a scene without justification would make his job a lot harder when it came to getting out of this hellhole.

“Wait… I know you! Silverblood want you de-“ the dragon saw his opportunity before they could draw their weapons and quickly incapacitated both of the thugs. Plunging his claw into one of the pony’s throat while the other dangled in the air as Spike held him high above the ground. As the pony’s struggle to survive stopped he let go of the ragdoll and noticed the civilians around him weren’t run in fear. They were cautious of the vigilante, but they seemed happy the goons were dead. He didn’t care about them though. He just wanted Silverblood.

Spike made his way to the main entrance, but paused before opening the door. It would be suicidal to just walk in there. He noticed a drainage pipe leading up the second window and took the idea. With one more obstacle in his way he was closer to reaching his target. The remaining guard walked back from around the corner and spit his cigarette onto the ground stopping it out with his hoof. The dragon slowly crept up beside him pushing himself against the wall as must as he could. The darkness aided in his stealthful approach. The earth pony didn’t even noticed spike behind him until the barrel of a pistol pressed up against his head.

“If you want to live drop your weapon and run as far away as you can.” The earth pony dropped his submachine gun and took off running without looking back. He was too afraid of dying to care who it was. Spike smiled devilishly and looked to the large metal tube that scaled the wall to the roof. He started to scale it until he got a firm grasp of the ledge and shimmied to the side near a window he heard two guards talking inside.

“Shit, did you hear what happened in the market?”

“No, what went down?”

“Fuck, man, Switch got fucked up. He was tryin’ to go after that dragon, Spike. Silverblood put a huge bounty on him.”

“You’re shittin’ me! Switch got beat?! Man, fuck this I don’t wanna fight this Spike dude. If he can take on Switch and live then he’s one dragon I’m not goin’ to fuck with.”

“I hear ya’ on that one. I’m quittin’ after tonight. Silverblood can fuckin’ save himself if he pissed off a dragon. That dumbass is still strung out on that Hearts Desire.”

“Really? That shit again, fuck that. I’ll stick with the salt lick bars. You wanna hit ‘em up and say fuck it?”

“Sure man, sounds good.”

Spike smiled and laughed a bit. Word travels fast it seems in this town. It was only hours ago he was beating down the pony known as ‘Switch’ and now his crew was disbanding before Spike’s very eyes.
The two ponies walked down the spiral staircase and the dragon climbed inside. Fine art and historical monuments decorated the mansion. A fifteen foot tall statue of Silverblood stood in the main lobby where the two ponies who deserted their posts were coaxing three of their comrades to join them in another night of debauchery and intoxication. The dragon watched from afar as he scaled some piping above them and began to follow it into what could only be an exhibit room. Old weapons from past civilizations and ancient texts carved in stone where held in glass displays for the public to view. Well, the public was never really allowed inside the mansion. Silverblood to it upon himself to ‘buy’ the country’s national treasures from the museum for his own personal collection.

The sound of machinery rang through the extravagant room and the fluorescent lights above him turned on. He had to squint to avoid being blind by how close he was to the lighting fixtures. He could see four ponies storm inside the room and begin searching the area. None of them bothered to look up where Spike was carefully hiding as the clenched the pipe with his legs and let his torso hang down from above.
He followed the pony in the far left corner with his sights on his pistol preparing to fire when his concentration was broke by the intercom system.

“Fuck! Is this thing on? It is? Well no fucking shit it’s on why the fuck do I need you to tell me?! Never mind! I know you’re here Spike, come out, come out where ever you are.” He laughed manically; no doubt the drugs he was taking were clouding his judgment, “you think you can fucking kill me? Ha! You’re gonna be sorely fuckin’ mistaken lizard! Oh, and you’re precious Rarity, your one true love… I killed her! Hahaha! I did it! I ‘d fucking do it again!”
Spike tried to contain his rage and shot the guards patrolling the ground below him. He dropped down turning himself backwards as he landed on his feet. A moan from one of the guards indicated he wasn’t dead and the dragon quickly took care of that shooting the bleeding pony once more.

Spike was seething with anger. He made his way to a pair of large double doors. He could hear chatter through the walls. Silverblood’s guards were scared, terrified, and the deranged noble was threatening them with death if they were to abandon him now.

SMASH! The wooden door flung open and every pony within that room shot at the doors. Friendly fire killed two of the thugs on two more plus Silverblood remained. Spike had created a little diversion and while the two guards were advancing towards the door Spike was scaling the side of the building and climbed through a window on the side directly behind Silverblood.

The crazed pony was waving around an assault rifle firing off rounds randomly and Spike finally had his chance. He stabbed his combat knife into Silverblood’s shoulder causing him to drop his weapon. Spike wrapped his forehoof behind him and pressed his pistol to the side of his head.
Silverblood’s guards had heard the commotion and entered the room only to be shot dead once Spike had spotted the intruders.

“Now, what were you saying about Rarity?” Spike said pushing the hot barrel against the nobles cheek burning his fur. Silverblood whimpered a bit and tried to for a reply.

“I-I didn’t mean it, come on, S-Spike, I-“ the dragon dragged the pony over to the grand piano that so eloquently displayed its usefulness as an interrogation device. The dragon slammed his head on the keys and pounded his fists into the back of Silverblood’s head. The wooden piano shattered under the force sending splinters and shrapnel into Silverblood’s face. The dragon picked the bloodied pony up by his throat and jabbed him in the ribs making his victim cough up some blood.

“Who ordered the hit? And don’t lie to me.” Spike said as sternly as he could.

“I-I can’t tell you, they’ll kill me!” pleaded the pitiful pony at Spike’s mercy.

“What makes you think I won’t?” That piercing glare Spike shot into him was almost as effective as the stare Fluttershy used, but to no avail.

“I… just kill me, they will if you don’t.” Silverblood’s response only angered Spike more.
The dragon dropped the pony to his knees and stood behind him with the barrel of his gun pressed to Silverblood’s neck. The noble was crying profusely, begging for mercy, but none would be shown to the malicious bastard that killed his love.
The sound of glass breaking first alterted the dragon as shards of the transparent material reign down from above him. Ten ropes descended down as ponies in black steal suits Spike used to wear slid rappelled down all aiming their weapons at spike. All the red laser sights pointed on the dragon made it look like a small rave going on inside the building.

“DROP THE WEAPON! DROP IT NOW! DROP THE DAMN GUN!” The persistant chanting of the ponies that surrounded him didn’t faze him at all. He was ready for death even if this was the way he had to go.
Spike’s comm. was remotely activated and the same voice spoke into his ear, “Spike, do what they say. You won’t be harmed, I promise you.”

“How about I kill Silverblood and every agent in here you sent after me?” retorted the dragon with some arrogance in his tone.

“You know you wouldn’t survive. Trust me Spike, I know what I’m doing.” Twilight sounded so calm and collected. Probably because she wasn’t doing field work like Spike was doing all over again.

“Fine, but if you set me up I’ll kill you, I promise you tha-“ the dragon felt a sharp pain in his neck. A dart. They weren’t going to kill him from the start. He started feeling light headed and weak. He stumbled backwards and dropped his gun.

“Package secured ma’am returning to base.” Said the soldier and with that Spike was unconscious and in their care.