Conviction

“It was obvious somepony was lookin’ for a chat with Spike. That’s why they spent all those bits buyin’ off Silverblood to lure him in their trap. A trank’ later an’ before he knew it Spike was headin’ home… back to Equestria. He had to be sedated, otherwise that dragon woulda’ tore that place apart buildin’ by buildin’. After unloadin’ him at Las Pegasus Airstrip that’s when things got interesting.”

Las Pegasus Airstrip

Spike’s eyelids felt like weights pulling his vision away from him. He struggled to stay conscious as the remaining tranquilizer was wearing off quickly. He still felt a bit sluggish from the long trip. Tied down to a gurney with a protective magical barrier around his mouth to prevent him from torching the plane wasn’t his idea of a lax cruise ride. Though, he had been in worse situations.

A bright, piercing light cracked from the top of the metal ramp that slowly lowered down. The loud sound of the chopper’s blade slicing the air was quickly bringing him back from his long rest. He could hear voices near him and he soon felt himself being pushed off of the machine and rolled onto the airstrip. The powerful blades forced a constant wave of cold air that blasted his eyes causing them to dry up, making him blink profusely.

“I’ll be a lot more happy when the sleeping beast is out of my bird.”

“So will Blueblood. I saw a couple of his stallions out by his chopper, he must be impatient.”

“I got here as quick as possible. I topped out my bird’s speed.”

“Yeah I can tell, featherweight. Good job. We don’t want to keep Blueblood waiting. He’s a busy pony after all.”

Spike passed out after that and soon woke up to the sound of chatter again.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I will need more compensation.”

“Wasn’t Silverblood suppose to be handling that?”

“Well, uh, yes Col. But you see these unforeseen changes of more ponies to carry with extra gear and that extra two hours on flight…”

“Tell ya’ what Featherweight, Blueblood will be here, he’ll take care of you.”

The two ponies talking had stopped as they reached a hanger. Two armed equines guarded the facility and stood ramrod straight to the sides and opened the hanger doors for Spike and his captors. The dragon’s eyes closed once more as he couldn’t resist the remaining sedative anymore.

A familiar face all to come was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. Twilight Sparkle. The grown mare was looking well for her age. Even if this situation Spike thought the lavender unicorn was very attractive. Spike noticed three ponies behind her. He could only identify two of them. One was Prince Blueblood and the other was a surprise to him, Filthy Rich.

Blueblood walked over the dragon with a look of disgust on his face. Spike shared the mutual looked of animosity as a voice from behind caught the prince’s attention.

“Fuel isn’t free, Blueblood.” Said Featherweight. It was the wrong answer as Blueblood levitated a pistol out of his saddleback and shot the fragile looking pony in the chest several times. His body crumpled under its weight as blood pooled on the floor. The other ponies in the room didn’t even flinch at the sight of the heinous crime.

“Filthy Rich, Gilda, no time for talking, we need your people to move now.” Said Blueblood in a distasteful tone.

“Everything’s going as planned Prince Blueblood. We started offloading troops at nine in the morning today.” Replied Gilda looking confident. Spike wasn’t expecting the Griffins to be in on this too.

“Excellent. I’m going back to Third Epsilon to finish things up there, now if you two would pardon me I need a moment alone with Ms. Sparkle. There’s a loose end that needs to be cut off before we can proceed any further.”

“Yes, sir!” Replied Gilda and Filthy Rich as they exited the room through a chainlink door.

“Good Job, Ms. Sparkle. You caught him, you get to interrogate him, he’s all yours. Find out what he knows about the Megaspells , how he knows it and why he’s been hunting out ally Mr. Silverblood.” Said Blueblood sounding impatient.

“It’s going to take some time, Blueblood. He’s been trained to resist interrogation until death. He was the first agent to join Epsilon back when Pinkie Pie was Director.” Said Twilight scratching her chin with her foreleg.

“I’m authorizing any means necessary. Chemical, magical, physical, I don’t care I just want answers then
get rid of him, and don’t make such a damn mess this time.” The self righteous pony held his head up high as he exited the room leaving just Spike, Twilight, and one remaining guard who had been filling a syringe with an unknown substance.

The guard looked down at Spike and opened his eyes to check his pupils and pulled back tapping the tip of the needle with his hoof. A squirt and trickle of the clear liquid slid down the sterilized, metallic needle. Spike was preparing for the worst.

“Understood. Anything else, Blueblood.?” Replied Twilight.

“Just hurry up Twilight! I’ll be back at Third Epsilon, call me when you have information.”

The purple unicorn extended her neck watching Blueblood leave and turned around. The guard was about to inject Spike with the foreign drug when dragon caught a glimpse of Twilight pulling out her gun. A suppressed round later and the guard slumped over the gurney onto Spike dropping the possibly lethal needle onto the ground as it shattered leaking its contents onto the concrete below him.

Twilight holstered her weapon and walked towards her dragon companion and began unshackling his restraints, “pay attention Spike this is important. I’m working for Celestia as a mole inside Third Epsilon. Prince Blueblood is the new director and he’s working with these goons here. A PPMC (Private Pony Military Company) called Equines in Arms. They’re running an op for stolen Boardorean Megaspells and Blueblood is setting up a brick wall into any investigation into this affair.”

“He’s stone-walling Celestia?”

“The stallion has serious connections. The Princess is unable to find out anything through her channels. All we know is they’re almost ready for their final plan. The crescendo of this op is upon us, but we don’t know what they’re planning, where’s it’s going to hit, or even when.” Twilight was trying to stress the severity of this operation. It truly was a matter of National Security.

“Really?” Said Spike sarcastically, ”you sure, you seem to be doing a lot of field work these days. Whatever happened to the diligently, studious mare I knew?”

“Dammit Spike, this is serious. I need you, Equestria needs you, more than ever right now. I can’t make a move. I wish I could, but the second I do my cover is blow out of the water. But you’re done with Third Epsilson, you can act however you like and as you see fit.” Twilight was obviously trying to coax and manipulate Spike into this mission, but the dragon wasn’t buying it. He didn’t care about the Equestria anymore.

Spike was sitting up and looked over the right noticing the chainlink door was still open, “I don’t do this shit anymore. I’m a washed up spy, Twilight, find another one of your lackeys to do it.” He stood up and was about to exit the door when the purple pony caught it attention once more.

“Tell that to the ponies you decimated in Tapirus. Now punch me. As hard as you can. If it doesn’t look like you escaped and attacked me I’m dead. Now do it.” Twilight was beckoning the dragon to punch her. He saw the reasoning behind it and contemplated the thought.

“Twilight, let me refresh your memory. I’m out of this.” Said Spike sternly.

The mare chuckled a bit, “you’re now out. All it took was one hint about her; just a single crumb from the trail and you dove right.” Twilight was playing on his emotions. She knew what would make him think.

The dragon turned around and walked towards the mare and cornered her against some metal lockers. The dragon stood only inches away from Twilight as she kept her face as emotionless as possible, “what do you know about Rarity?”

The purple unicorn crossed her hooves and Spike grew irate by the moment slamming his claw into the locker as it punctured through like a hot knife through butter. Twilight smacked the dragon and walked around him as the reptile she was manipulating rubbed his cheek from the pain.

“She’s alive Spike.” Said Twilight.

“You’re lying! Pinkie told me she was dead. Pinkie would never lie to me!” Spike exclaimed clenching his fists tightly.

“She’s very much alive Spike and I know where she is. I’ve known all this time.” Twilight’s words were so coy and confident.

“Fuck you, you’re lying. Why the fuck should I believe you over Pinkie?” snarled the dragon.

“Because the ponies I employ are keeping her safe… for now. You help me, you get Rarity. If you don’t… there’s nothing I can do to help you Spike.”

The dragon grabbed Twilight’s mane picking her up onto her hind legs, “If I find out you’re lying… I will kill you. Understand? I WILL END YOU!”

“Spike, I’ve been hiding this from you since it happened.”

The dragon pulled his right arm back and unleashed it smashing in into the unicorns face. She hit the ground, spitting out some blood.

“Ok, th-“ another sharp blow to her face as she stood up sent her stumbling to the table as some more blood dripped from her face. Sharp claw marks were dug into her cheeks exposing the pink, unprotected flesh.

“O-ok, Spike, that’ll work nicely. Good job.”

“Shut up.” Retorted the pissed dragon.

“Here,” the unicorn levitated a piece of paper into Spike’s claws along with his comm. device and a snake camera, “the airstrip has a magical barrier around it preventing anypony from teleporting inside or out. You’ll have to escape the airstrip at least one hundred hooves out of maximum range for the teleportation spell on that piece of paper to work. You know what to do with the snake cam and comms unit. Keep it on at all times Spike.”

“You miss me that much?” Said the dragon sarcastically.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “so I can setup a call with Rarity to prove to you she’s alive and well. Now we need to get you out of here and make sure they don’t follow. They’re some explosive just outside place them on the heli and comm. tower so they can’t track you.”

“Not even a weapon?” said the dragon.

Twilight levitated her silenced pistol to the scathing dragon. He held it in his claw pointing it at her throat with a look of pure hatred and malicious intent. He wanted to kill her right now.

“Point it the right people, Spike.”

“You can count on it.”

Spike walked from the small torture chamber. The chainlink gate between him and the outside world opened. The whole facility was going to know he escaped soon and dawn was only two hours away.

Upon approaching the explosive the ex spy killed a typical unsuspecting guard. He was a ghost in the shadows creeping from hanger to hanger eliminating guards left and right with precision and lethality.

He found the first hanger, walking up the steel stairway to a another metal door. He placed the snake camera under the door and looked at the display screen. Two guards on the floor he was on and on down below working on the downed helicopter. The pulled the camera back and opened the door and quietly closed it behind him. He leaped up grabbing onto the long pipe and shimmied down the pole the lined up all three target and lowered down to take the shot. Three shells later and the released his legs falling to the ground. He curled up absorbing the shock into his legs crouching.

He placed the explosive on the aircraft and exited the hanger. His silence was undetectable as he slide cover to cover not bother to kill the guards. They were just a waste of his time. A loud speaking voice came over the intercom system in the airstrip altering all the gaurds.

“Attention, we have an intruder. Spike is lose take extreme caution. Lethal force is authorized.”

“Dammit.” Whispered the dragon under his breath the lights overhead beaming on him. He dashed to the side of a building and slithered his way onto the large runway. There wasn’t light out to cast a shadow of his presence in this area.

He trekked his way through another building bypassing guards as scurried through the complex looking for him. Killing just one could lead them on a trail to him if the body was found too soon. The large rotating dish was outside swirling slowly. Spike planted the bomb and ran as fast as he could climbing the chainlink fence that enclosed him from the more vast outside world.

The grassy plains would not help him if they got the chopper working again. It’s radiant spotlight would shine upon him exposing him to full fire from the deadly mercenaries searching for him. He ran faster than he possibly imagined adrenaline pumping through his body. He was far past one hundred meters when he finally slowed down and detonated the explosives. A large fiery blast came from two areas of the complex and Spike called Twilight to receive his phone call as promised.

“Twilight, the bird is down now where’s my damn call.” He was going to tear that airstrip into a crater if she was lying to him.

“Good work Spike, as promised I’ll patch her through. Hold on.”

A voice came through, “Hello?”

“Rarity!” Exclaimed Spike with glee.

“Spike! Darling you’re alive! They told me you wer-“

“No! Dammit Twilight put her through or I’ll come back there and tears your intestines out of your mouth!”

“Sorry Spike, that’s all you get. Contact me tomorrow and we’ll discuss your next mission. You put the whole damn facility in lockdown be fucking happy I even managed to put her through.” The transmission ended and Spike screamed into nothingness as he tried desperately to recall Twilight.

He needed help. He could only think of one pony that could truly help him in a time like this. Back in the skirmish Equestria had with Camelu. He dialed the only number he could think of to reach Applejack.

“Sweet Apple Acres, this is Applejack speaking.”

“Applejack, this is Spike, I need some help.”

“Huh, if ya’ need help this is serious. Meet me at the Celestia Statue in Canterlot. And what in the hay is that sound in the back!”

“Remind you of somewhere…” the dragon’s voice trailed on.

“Yeah, Dromedor, Camelu, those were dark times.”