Conviction

“Ah, tell ya what, when Spike came ta’ me for help, ah’ sure as hell wasn’t gonna turn him away. He always was the ‘lone wolf’ kind. Never askin’ for help or nothin’ but he needed a reminder about what it meant to stick yer’ neck out for someone that’s where I came in. After the hoot that went down with your boys and Spike at the fairgrounds Spike was headin’ straight to Black Box without a moment to spare. The thugs that were ‘protectin’ the place were finishin’ up and movin’ everything offsite to a secure location. But Spike didn’t care what they were takin’ out, he wanted in, not that a magically reinforced barrier for containing Megaspell testing had a lot of backdoors. All he needed was one.”

Black Box Laboratories

The autumn season brought along its changing in colors. The trees swayed and rustled in the evening breeze. The animals of Equestria were gathering food for the long winter hibernation. Fluttershy would have been ecstatic around this time of year. The endless foraging with all those cute little animals she so much adored would keep her happy until Winter Wrap-Up.

Spike laid prone on the ground grasping clumps of grass and dirt as she slid on his belly across the low lying plains. A guard post nearby was the only outside security the old facility had. It was a secret test site during the Cold War between Equestria and the Boardorean Empire. Tensions grew to an all time high putting the Elements of Harmony on full alert twenty-four –seven constantly expecting a Megaspell impact or a full scale invasion.

Celestia upheld the propaganda of the day declaring Equestria a sovereign nation free from the vague and superficial threats of the Boardorean Empire. She had to keep the peace somehow. The public’s views on the matter escalated to near pandemonium as the once civil society started to deteriorate under the constant stress of foreign political regimes invading their near-perfect land.

Luna and her personal army formed the Equestrian Secret Police to quell the unrest in the homeland. If the citizens suspected anypony of treason against the state or had significant evidence to point out a spy they would be recognized for their valiant efforts by Celestia and Luna personally.

Although this had negative repercussions. Almost all the suspected ‘spies’ and traitors were not traitors at all. Most of them were innocent ponyfolk who were arbitrarily pointed out by their neighbors. Very few arrests were made due to the lack of evidence anypony had to use against the other.

Granted, out of the nearly five thousand reports of traitors or spies a remarkable amount of seven spies were detained and later exiled back to their homeland after ‘interrogation’. However, this is what Celestia had told the media. The spies were never returned to their respective homes. They were executed just as the Boardoreans had executed Equestrians in their land regardless if they were truly there on intelligence operations or not.

After long and grueling deliberations with the Boardorean Empire a consensus came to. The Boardorean Empire would relinquish all its megaspells to Equestia on the condition that the Boardorean Empire may establish a trade route with Equestria.

The dragon encroached upon the officer in the toll booth. He was playing air guitar to a popular song by Sapphire Shores, completely unaware of Spike’s presence. The dragon chuckled to himself and slipped past the guard post. No reason to kill somepony who’s not trying to kill him.

“Applejack, I’m on the ground, where do I go from now?”

“Look for an industrial vent on the top floor. That’s where ya’ should find an entrance. From there make yer’ way to the security room just one floor down. Ah’ don’t think I need to say more than that when ya’ find the camera feeds.” Replied the cowpony.

“Thank for everything, AJ, I mean it.”

“Ah, now don’t be getting’ sappy on me now, Spike. Ah’ seeya soon.” The transmission ended leaving Spike to do what he does best. Infiltrate a secured position and extra sensitive data. At least, that was his prior job’s description as a spy for Third Epsilon.

A large stack of wood planks on the side of the building made it easy for the dragon to scale up the side. Now the hard part, scaling across the building holding onto nothing, but the rusted railing of a billboard twenty feet off the ground. Even for a trained spy, Spike still had his fears, and heights were one of them, the other was zombies.

A yellow ladder extending upwards to the roof the building was the only thing standing in his way. He climbed up the vertical structure and stepped onto the roof. It was gravel which made him almost lose his footing near the edge. A near miss for the ex spy. He could allow himself to be taken out so easily when the fun was just about to begin.

The metal fire exit door was unlocked by some odd coincidence. This was unusual for any abandoned building, especially one that housed the Manehattan Project. Back then it was so top secret just mentioning the operation would have you blacklisted and shipped off to some forsaken C.I.A (Canterlot Intelligence Agency) blacksite where you’d be detained until death.

Spike slid his snake camera under the door and held it there changing the various optics from camera to infrared and from infrared to night optics. Nothing, not a single combatant. This was good. It meant this was hopefully just going to be a quick get-in-get-out kind of job. The kind Spike enjoyed the most when he was working for Third Epsilon.

Wrong. After engaging multiple hostiles Spike found himself in a small amount of pain. A bullet grazed his calf which let a blood trail down the hallway leading to a catwalk. That’s where he finally noticed the path leading directly to him and he cauterized the wound with his own fiery breathe.

A soon found himself inside the security room. Which was empty at the time leading him to question where the security really was. Flipping through the channels he spotted several non combatants. Scientists working on the mega spell and a certain someone he remembered from Las Pegasus, Gilda the Gryphon. She was here and after listening to her conversation over the security feed he had to kill her.

The sadistic bird had killed a scientist in cold blood. The unicorn tried to stand up to the ferocious beast only to be met with a grip of death to his throat and then a snap even the dragon heard through the microphone system. The pony fell onto the ground limp and lifeless. Gilda had killed him and threatened the others with death if any further uncooperative behavior arose.

She exited the area leaving with two of her armed personnel. Spike climbed a nearby metal pipe that extended over the large, spacious area. Two guards quickly met their fate as Spike dropped to the ground in front of the remaining scientists.

“P-please, w-we need more time! D-don’t kill us!” begged the unicorns. They leaned back on their haunches holding their forehooves together and shaking them in front of the dragon.

“Answer my questions and we’ll see about you living.” Replied the dragon coldly. He didn’t care much for the scientists, but he wouldn’t really kill them. Even a killer has ethics about murder. Only do it, if it’s justifiable. This was not justifiable. The unicorns here were just being used a slave labor to complete the Megasplls.

“Who’s running the show here?” He asked looking at both unicorns.

“G-gilda is. She’s the boss around here. A real bitch if you ask me. She forces us day and night to work on thes-“

“I’m not interested in your personal life,” interrupted the dragon, “where can I find her office?”

“One floor up, the door is always locked though and she is the only one who has the key. Y-you’re not one of these ponies are you?”

“No, I’m not. Now how do I get up there?” Spike didn’t have time to play twenty questions with the unicorn. This may be one of the very few chances he’d ever get to kill that gryphon once and for all.

“The elevator, here’s my keycard, you can access the next floor with it.”

“Thanks, now get out of here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” exclaimed the unicorns as they trotted out the area looking for an exit.

The evaluator raised its metallic structure up one floor and opened its doors with a familiar chime. A dead unicorn lied slumped over himself against the wall to Spike’s left. Three bullet holes in his chest indicated his demise had come quickly. The blood was fresh and warm. He could tell because it was still seeping down the pale blue coat of the downed equine.

Chatter in the room in front of him sent Spike’s back up against the wall with his pistol drawn at chest height. He slid the snake cam under the door and tagged four addition guards and a triggered his EMP backpack.

The fluorescent lighting fixtures above shorted out and the long tubular bulbs busted showering fragments of glass onto the ground below. He opened up the door pushing a body back as he stepped on the shards of glass. A sound similar to chips crunching in somepony’s mouth.

After searching the area three to four times the dragon finally noticed the inconsistency that lead to the discover he had been searching for all this time. Gilda’s office. The ‘door’ wasn’t really a door. In fact. Gilda’s office didn’t have a door! The only way to enter was from the skylight above. A crafty trick the gryphon thought would keep anypony from snooping around in her office, but not Spike, he was going in.

After a series of nimble acrobatics the reptilian ex spy made it to the skylight. It was opened and unlocked. Gilda must have thought her clever idea of an entrance would never have to be locked because she was the only one who could get in there, and out, but she was wrong.

An incoming transmission through Spike’s earpiece caught him a little off guard, “Spike, this is Twilight, I need you to set up a link from Gilda’s computer to me wirelessly. Just do what I say and I promise you another phone call with Rarity.”

“Oh you again, you better make this phone call a little longer or I might just botch the next mission.”

The unicorn sighed, “fine, you win, you’ll get your call as soon as I’m done uploading all of Gilda’s files, now get to her computer. I’ll walk you through it from there.”

A few less than interesting diagnostic tests later and an uplink was established from Gilda’s computer to Twilight.

“Great job, Spike, it’ll only take one hundred eighty seconds for the full download, but in that time everypony in there will know you’re there. You MUST keep the connection established. Don’t let anypony disrupt it. They won’t be able to backtrace me, I’ve already taken the necessary precautions.”

A disgruntled grunt from Spike affirmed he was ready and the download began.

“Attention, attention all combat personnel, we have an intruder in Col. Gilda’s office. Use extreme prejudice when engaging the enemy.” The loud intercom system rang throughout the facility. Armed and armored pegasi swooped into the gryphon’s office only to be met with the absence of any intruder.

They all stood around searching the room looking for any sign of the combatant. None of them even bothered to stop the download that was still in progress. Spike had shut the monitor off making it look like everything was still intact and the intruder ran away scared from the threatening message.

“Sixty seconds Spike, just hold on.” Said Twilight over Spike’s comm..

“Hostile has not been found. We will remain here until further orders!” Yelled one of the masked pegasi into his radio.

As the seconds pasted by Spike held his position directly outside the gryphon’s office hanging onto a window that had little purpose other than another exit for the bird. The only view was more metal fixtures and pipes that cascaded in all directions pumping various fluids, fuels, and all the other commodities used to run the facility.

Spike peeked his head over the window just barely spotting ten guards. The pegasi all stood together in a tight group making them an easy kill for the dragon. He had one chance to get rid of all of them. A fragmentation grenade he’d been saving for a special occasion had just made its mark and he knew this was the perfect time to use it.

“Ten seconds, Spike!” yelled Twilight over his comm.

The dragon bit the metal pin that slid inside the grenade preventing the fuse from igniting. He pulled his head back and with a small ‘ching’ the handle of the grenade flicked itself off falling down below him. He tossed the metallic orb inside the room as it collided against a concrete pillar alerting all the guards as they rushed over to see what the noise came from.

Only a few yelps were heard before the initial blast send all ten pegasi into a bloody carnage splattered across the room. Organs and limbs busted out the nearby window Spike had been hanging onto. The dragon climbed inside the room and slipped immediately. He caught himself against a bookshelf before slipping into the disgusting mess of mutilated bodies before him.

“Upload completed, good work Spike.” Said Twilight Sparkle with a little enthusiasm, “I’ll have my analysts get to work immediately and find out exactly what they’ve been making there and about your phone call…” the line went silent before a familiar face brought tears to Spike’s eyes.

“Rarity! Thank Celestia you’re alive. Are they hurting you? Are you okay?”

“Oh darling I’m so glad to hear your voice again! I’m just fine. Nothing a lady like myself can’t handle, but are you okay, Spikey?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, I- I love you Rarity.”

“I love you too Spi-“

Twilight’s voice disconnected the transmission between the two lovers, “you get longer phone calls when you complete more objectives, Spike.”

“Watch your fucking mouth, Twilight. I’ll tear you in half if I so much as see a split hair on her head.” Snarled the dragon.

“Noted,” replied the unicorn, “now get out of there, and one last thing. Kill Gilda. She’s become too much of a hazard to our operation to allow to live.”

“Fine.” Said the dragon ending the transmission.

The dragon made his way to another large area. It was a the size of a hangar. Gilda patrolled up on the main platform to the far north entrance yelling at ponies and ordering positions.

“Dammit you worthless ponies! Fucking kill Spike! I know he’s here! I know it! Agh!” She was seething with anger storming back and forth as she swung around a large machine gun nearly as tall as herself.

“You there! Yeah you! Stop looking so stupid and check the storage rooms he could be hiding anywhere!” She was losing it and fast. Spike had to take her out quickly. He knew he couldn’t afford a firefight with that bird. She was packing more heat than most of the guards combined inside the facility.

Four guards scoured the room looking in all directions even the roof for the dragon. He crouched behind a wooden crate waiting for the stallion walking his way to come by. The guard put up little resistance as Spike took him down, cutting his throat with his sharp claws. His hooves protruded out of side of the crate, but only enough to be recognized if somepony where only feet away from the corpse.

Spike maneuvered his way past the remaining guards killing each one silently and before she knew it Gilda was slammed up against the wall staring into the predatory eyes of Spike the dragon.

“I heard you wanted to kill me,” said the dragon, “I can’t have that.” The gryphon’s eyes began to bulge out of her head and her beak opened as if gasping for air. Seconds seemed like days to the dragon as he continued to strangle the gryphon until he finally felt her trachea crushing under the force of his powerful claws.

Gilda’s head went limb, brushing her soft facial plumage against the dragon’s hardened scales. He dropped the gryphon’s body panting a bit and pulled her ID card off her neck. It was a security clearance card and the only door requiring the swipe of a card was at the very back.

A green light flicked on when Spike slid his card through. The metal gating in front of him began to rise upwards into the building exposing the outside world. He stepped outside breathing in the fresh air that filled his lungs. It felt good to be outside.

Another transmission came through, “good work, Spike. You’re on a roll.”

“Thanks, now I want to meet Filthy Rich. He was there at the airstrip in Las Pegasus.”

“Are you crazy! Spike that’s Filthy Rich. Don’t lay a claw on him until I can set up something. In the meantime my analysts will find out what they were doing here.” Twilight knew she had to follow through with Spike’s request. If she didn’t set up a meaning with Filthy Rich, Spike would find him.