The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

The pair slowly approached the huge rusty door, the lock swayed gently against the door in the strong wind sweeping through the area. The soft thunk of the lock against the door was the only sound that could be heard aside from the thumping of Jet’s heart in his ears, his body was still on fire from the electricity coursing through him from the pylon before. He stepped forward and examined the lock on the door closely, stroking his chin in thought. After grabbing the lock and giving it a jiggle, he stepped back and stared at it suspiciously.

“This seems too easy…” Jet said, still staring at the lock.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked curiously.

“He went to the trouble of cloaking and electrifying this place to defend it. So, why only use a standard padlock on the doors? Something isn’t right about this.” Jet replied with a look around the area.

“Hm, that does make sense. There doesn’t seem to be any other way in though. What do you suggest?” Luna asked again, trying to use her mask to locate any magic barriers or spells placed on the door.

“I feel like this door is a trap, an obvious one. We’ll need to find the real entrance if we’re going to succeed here.” Jet replied, making his way around the warehouse and examining every inch closely.

“The mask isn’t revealing any hidden spells or anything. Maybe he’s just not as smart as we thought?” Luna suggested, following him as he made a lap around the warehouse.

“Royal Knight’s code number one, never underestimate your enemy. There’s some kind of trick here.” Jet said, still walking around the warehouse in an attempt to spot anything out of the ordinary.

“Perhaps we should try the door just to be sure?” Luna asked, giving it another look as they passed by it.

“I very much advise against it, Royal Knight’s code number 2, never fall for an obvious trap. Another thing that makes that door an obvious trap, the supply trucks that he uses come and go in an instant.” Jet responded, his gaze shifting up to look at the roof.

“Ok… That means what?” Luna asked, scratching her head slightly.

“It means that with as quick as those trucks come and go, they don’t have the time to get out and unlock a padlock to get in. So, there’s definitely a way in that we just don’t know the location of.” Jet replied, still looking the building up and down.

“Oh, right… I guess that does make sense.” Luna said, a bit embarrassed that she hadn’t come to that conclusion herself.

“Hm, strange…” Jet said quietly as he stopped in front of one of the walls.

“What is it?” Luna asked, looking around curiously.

“This wall… There’s something not right about it…” Jet replied, looking closer at it.

“Looks like the other three to me.” Luna said, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

“No, look closer. There’s not a spot of rust on this wall. And directly across from this specific wall is a road.” Jet replied, turning to point at the open road that was situated between a couple of crumbling buildings.

“Oh… You really do have a keen eye, Jet. That explains how you were able to find my hideaway so easily before…” Luna responded, noticing the rust free wall and the road he had pointed out.

“We found our door. Now, that just leaves the question of how we get it open.” Jet said, stepping back to get a wider view of the suspicious wall.

As he stepped back, his foot weirdly pressed into the ground a bit. He lifted his foot up and looked down, seeing nothing but plain dirt. Kneeling down, he took a closer look at the ground under his feet. He ran his hand over the ground and found one spot to be cold as ice. He put some pressure on the cold spot and it shifted downward, just as it had when he accidentally stepped on it. With a smirk to himself, he stood and turned towards the road, examining the ground further down from where he was. Sure enough, he found another pressure plate a few feet from the other one. He made his way back to the first plate he found and walked a few feet across the road and found yet another pressure plate there.

“I think I found our way in, Luna. Stand here and give me a minute.” Jet said, pointing to the pressure plate he had just been standing on.

Jet then walked off back to the grocery store, picking up two bodies and slinging them over his shoulders. He then headed back outside to rejoin Luna. She had a bit of a shocked expression upon seeing him carrying the corpses. While she watched in shock, Jet used his boots to decipher where the pressure plates were, depositing the bodies onto the two plates that were furthest from the warehouse. He then stepped forward and stood on the plate across from Luna. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the ground shook lightly as the false wall began to rise up like a garage door. It creaked and groaned on its worn hinges, slowly opening up to reveal the interior of the warehouse to them.

“Wha… But how?” Luna asked incredulously as she stared at the newly opened door.

“Hidden pressure plates that he assumed would only be activatable by his supply trucks pulling in. But, as you can see, I found a way around that with the help of his flunkies.” Jet said with a smirk.

“Incredible… I’m beginning to think that perhaps you should have gone into detective work instead of guard duty.” Luna replied with a smile.

“Sometimes the two fields cross into one another, so it helps to be avid in both mental and physical prowess. Let’s head inside, I don’t know how long this door is going to stay open.” Jet said, moving to step forward and into the warehouse.

Luna nodded and followed him inside. As soon as they were in, the door closed down behind them, leaving in nearly complete darkness again. Once the door was completely shut, a series of flood lights flickered on around them. The sudden light blinded them briefly, but their eyes quickly adjusted to the change in lighting. They both looked around the warehouse curiously. The interior was surprisingly empty, with only a few pieces of old rusted machinery scattered around the dirty floor. Running along the center of the warehouse floor was a nonfunctioning conveyer belt that had a few pieces of dust covered equipment. Above them, on either side of the warehouse’s second floor, was a decrepit steel walkway that was barely holding onto its foundations. On one end of one of the walkways was a control booth of some kind. It was a small square room with a broken pane of glass that looked down onto the warehouse floor. This was clearly a repurposed factory rather than a warehouse, but there didn’t seem to be any sort of workers or even a source for the supplies that Sombra had been accumulating for use in building up his empire. Jet drew his sword and made his way across the factory floor and towards the control booth.

“I do not understand, should there not be some enslaved workers or some kind of working machines at the very least?” Luna asked, thinking aloud.

“Just be on guard, Luna. This might be another distraction or trap.” Jet said as he found a decently sturdy ladder that led up onto the walkway.

Luna stayed on the ground floor as a lookout as he climbed the ladder, taking care not to make any sudden movements that might make the ladder give out under him. After a few grueling moments of steady climbing, he reached the top and stepped out onto the walkway. It swayed uneasily under his feet and he stumbled a little from the feeling. His mouth went dry and he gulped roughly, steeling himself as he slowly made his way towards the control booth. It felt like it took ages to reach the booth, but Jet persevered and got through the unsteady walk. Once inside the control booth, he looked over the various controls. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, just a few standard levers and buttons, but one caught his eye. It was a large red button that was barely distinguishable from the others, save for the fact that unlike the rest, it wasn’t layered in dust. This meant that this particular button had seen recent use. Jet moved his hand forward and pressed the button down. As soon as he did, the factory began to rumble and shake under their feet. The conveyor belt shook violently and began to sink into the floor, leaving a long opening in the floor that spanned the length of the factory. Jet hopped down back to ground level and walked over to the opening. The conveyor belt had slid down into the floor at an angle, creating a pseudo staircase that led into the ground itself.

“Another hidden entrance, hm? He’s consistent, I’ll give him that. Welp, wanna see where this leads, Luna?” Jet asked rhetorically as he stared down into the opening.

“Do we really have a choice?” Luna replied with a shrug.

“No, not really.” Jet said as he made his way down onto the conveyor with Luna following behind him.

The pair descended down into the Earth itself, the conveyor shortly giving way to a set of stairs that were crudely carved out into the rock of the Earth. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, nothing but dirt and patches of stone to either side of them with small torches embedded into the walls to light the way for Sombra’s lackeys. Eventually, the thin tunnel opened up into a cavernous area. A quick look around revealed that this area was some kind of mine, the walls were dug out in vast patches around the cavern. Scattered around the area seemingly randomly were several steel staircases and walkways that led up and around the area. There was a variety of workers around the floor and walkways. Some had pickaxes and were chipping away at the dirt while others pushed and pulled mine carts full of gems and metals around the area, they were clearly under some kind of mind control spell as they seemed to move like zombies. All of them had on the same brainwashing helmets as Sombra’s soldiers and were dressed in tattered rags that barely covered their unmentionables, let alone provide any kind of protection against the elements down here.

“Jet, down there! Is that…” Luna yelled out as she pointed towards the ground level of the mine.

Jet looked to where she was pointing and let out a small gasp. Luna was pointing directly at an emaciated bright pink pony that was slowly chipping away at the dirt like the others. Jet couldn’t believe his eyes. It was covered by a thick layer of dirt, but there was no mistaking that bright blue crystalline heart on her exposed thigh. It was Princess Cadence, somehow still alive and brainwashed into being one of Sombra’s worker slaves. Jet was sort of grateful for this, as it meant she wasn’t being forced to fight Sombra’s army like the others he had encountered so far. That’s when Jet noticed something strange, there were no guards down here, though perhaps it made sense. After all, these workers were enslaved and brain washed, they didn’t really have any hope of rebelling against their captors. Jet and Luna made their way down a nearby set of stairs and onto the ground floor, quickly making their way over to Cadence. Jet pushed the cart she had away and delicately removed her brainwashing helmet. She simply stood there for a moment, her eyes hazy and nearly colorless. Just as the Jet was about to start worrying, the color slowly came back into her eyes and she blinked several times, putting a hand to her head as she lightly stumbled on her feet. She shook her head a couple times and looked around briefly, before her eyes fell on Jet and Luna.

“Luna, you free the others. I’ll handle this…” Jet said softly, eliciting a nod from Luna as she set off to do just that.

“Jet Stream? W-What’s g… Shining! Where is he?! Oh Gods, please tell me he’s ok!” Cadence yelled out in a panicked manner as her memory slowly began to come back.

“Cadence, please try to stay calm. You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but you need to stay calm. In your condition, you can't handle a panic attack.” Jet said, keeping his voice calm.

“W-What is it?! Just tell me, I can handle it!” She screamed, her breathing growing shallow and tears forming in her eyes.

“Cadence, you and Shining both have been presumed dead… For nearly a decade…” Jet replied slowly, trying to keep her calm.

“A d-decade… N-No… That can’t be… We were just… And then Sombra… No, no, no, no, no…” Cadence started to hyperventilate, reeling backwards on her feet as she started to have a full on mental breakdown.

“Cadence, just breath. You have to calm down. In your current condition, your body can’t handle this much stress.” Jet said, still keeping his tone calm.

“No… I c-can’t do this… P-Put me back under… Please… I beg you…” Cadence pleaded as she grabbed Jet by the shoulders and shook him lightly.

“I hope you can forgive me for this…” Jet replied with a heavy sigh.

“W-What are you t…” Cadence began to ask, but was cut off when Jet slapped her hard across the face.

“Get a hold of yourself! This is no time to panic!” Jet yelled out at her, hoping he hadn’t made things worse.

She stood there in silence, her head still turned from the slap and her hand holding her cheek. Her eyes were wide with shock, but the tears still streamed from her eyes. As Jet watched, her breathing slowed back to normal and turned back to face him. She wiped her tears from her eyes and cheeks. After a final deep breath, she looked up into Jet’s eyes, he could see the pain deep seated within her light purple irises.

“Thank you, Jet… I needed that…” Cadence said softly as Luna walked back over to join them.

“You’re welcome, Cadence.” Jet replied before turning towards Luna.

“I have freed the others, Jet. Is… Is Cadence alright?” She asked, looking over to Cadence.

“After some rest and something to eat, I should be fine… Relatively speaking at least…” Cadence replied with an obviously forced smile to try and reassure Luna.

“Well, we can get you those things at the bunker. We gotta get out of here first though.” Jet interrupted, looking up at the stairwell.

“Wait, there’s something else. Sombra… He found the artefact that was hidden inside the castle…” Cadence said, looking over at Luna.

“H-He found the mirror…?” Luna asked, leaving Jet confused on this one.

“Yes… And there’s no telling what he has planned for it…” Cadence replied, a tone of worry heavy in her voice.

“Uh… What mirror? I don’t remember any mirror from my mythos studies.” Jet interrupted again.

“No, you wouldn’t. It wasn’t recorded in books due to its dangerous nature.” Cadence said softly.

“How dangerous are we talking here?” Jet asked, his curiosity peaked.

“It is the artefact that Starswirl the Bearded used to banish the sirens ages ago. It acts as a bridge between normally separated worlds. With the correct spells… It could be used to access any world separate from ours…” Luna explained with her arms crossed over her chest, hinting at her increasing worry.

“So that means that could potentially…” Jet started to say, his mind reeling from this new information.

“Gain access to powers unheard of in our world…” Cadence finished Jet’s sentence for him, knowing where he was headed with it.

“Do you know where the mirror is?” Jet asked, looking between Cadence and Luna.

“Hm… Well, I doubt he would keep it in his own castle in the Crystal Empire. That would be too easy.” Luna said, scratching her chin in thought.

“Yes. He’d keep it somewhere solitary away from the heat of any possible battle, but also somewhere nobody would think to look.” Cadence continued as she chewed her lip anxiously.

“Hold on… I think I know where he’s keeping it!” Jet exclaimed, remembering some of the intel reports he had read.

“What? Where?” Cadence and Luna asked in unison.

“One of the intel reports I read said that Sombra had some kind of energy field surrounding Canterlot Castle ruins.” Jet replied.

“But why would he keep it where it already was? That doesn’t make much sense…” Cadence stated, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no. It makes perfect sense. It is the last place anybody would think to look, he has it under heavy protection, and he would not have to risk it being broken in transit as it is just a mirror after all’s said and done.” Luna replied, her arms relaxing back to her sides.

“I guess that does make sense, but still, how would we even get in?” Cadence asked again.

“We’ll figure that out later. For now, let’s get all of you back to the bunker.” Jet said, looking over at the workers.

“They will need masks to last at least long enough to get us there.” Luna pointed out.

“Hm, we might be able to fashion makeshift one’s from their shirts?” Cadence suggested with a light shrug.

“Not a bad idea. Let’s get to it then.” Jet said, moving towards the workers.

It didn’t take long to make some pseudo face masks out of the shirts of the workers. They may not have been pretty, but they would suffice long enough to make it to the bunker safely.

“Alright, everybody got a mask now?” Luna asked, looking around and getting nods and muffled responses from the workers.

“Good. Let’s get going before any reinforcements show up.” Jet said, making for the stairs as the workers made their way as well.

“Right. Let me help you Cadence.” Luna said, wrapping one of Cadence’s arms over her shoulder and followed behind Jet.

As they headed up the stairs, the other freed workers from the mine formed a line and followed them up the stairs. They made it across the walkway, back up through the tunnel, and into the rundown factory. Jet looked around for a way to open the door and spotted a switch beside it. He made his way over and tugged the switch downward. There was a soft mechanical whirr as the door slowly slid upwards, opening up to the wasteland outside. Several of the freed workers let out loud gasps as they laid eyes upon what had once been their home. Jet ushered them out, Luna and Cadence heading out first with the rest in tow. Once they were all out, Jet headed out behind them. With a nod to Luna, he headed off in the direction of the bunker. They made it to just outside the town limit when Jet stopped in his tracks and looked back behind them.

“What is it, Jet?” Luna turned to ask, realizing he had stopped.

“Take the others and get out of here. This will guide you to the bunker.” Jet said quickly, taking off his mask and handing it to Luna.

“Is something wro…” Luna began, but was very quickly cut off by Jet.

“No time to argue. Just get them all to safety.” Jet replied in a hurry, taking off back towards the town.

“But you need this!” Luna shouted, but he was already out of earshot.

Jet wasn’t sure what his HUD had picked up, but it was something huge making its way towards them. As he got back closer to the town, he felt a series of rumbles shaking the ground under his feet. Once he was back near the factory mine, he stopped and awaited whatever was coming. The rumbling slowly grew more and more intense, to the point that you could visibly see the small rock scattered around dance and vibrate along the ground. Then suddenly, it stopped altogether. Jet drew his sword and looked around cautiously, feeling that something was off about this. It grew eerily quiet, even the wind itself stopped blowing. Jet’s heart raced, thumping loudly in his ears as his body surged with both adrenaline and the electricity still contained within himself. Just as suddenly as the silence had begun, it was broken by what sounded like an explosion somewhere in the distance. Before Jet could react, a large mass crashed down right on top of the factory, collapsing it in on itself and kicking up a huge cloud of dust. The force of the impact shook the ground hard enough to make Jet stumble on his feet and fall to one knee. Through the dust cloud, Jet could only see a silhouette of something that stood as tall as the old factory itself. He quickly got back to his feet and leapt onto a nearby roof, deciding it best to get off the ground for now. As he watched, the silhouette began to shift, standing upright to itself full height. Once it was fully upright, it stood another story taller than the factory. It turned and faced Jet, evident by the large glowing green lights now fixed on his position.

The massive silhouette came into view as the dust slowly settled, revealing a hulking mass of armor plating that was black in color like the other assassin's armors, but this one had green trimming and panel lining that matched the glow of its eyes. It was sort of egg shaped, not having shoulders or a head really, meaning this was likely just some kind of machine or power armor. Each of its limbs were around the size of an oak tree. Mounted around each wrist was a series of large jackhammer devices and along each leg were a large set of springs, presumably shock absorbers. As Jet stood on the roof, staring at this massive chunk of metal, he shook with a combination of fear and adrenaline. He recognized this one from the intel reports before, it was the largest and most destructive of Sombra’s assassins, Earth Shaker. Without warning, the assassin drove its massive fist into the ground, the jackhammers rearing back to ready a strike. The tools all slammed down into the ground in unison, immediately opening a massive fissure in the ground. The fissure made its way forward and towards the house Jet was perched on, only growing in size as it went along. He barely had time to react before it was upon him. Thinking fast, he leapt into the air again and landed on a roof down the street from the previous one. The fissure ran along the ground and under the house he was just on, almost immediately swallowing the house into the Earth.

“H-Holy shit… I have to finish this fast. Or I’m going to run out of ground to stand on…” Jet said to himself in disbelief, thinking out loud.

He tried to get a good view of the monster he was fighting, looking for any kind of weakness. Before he could even catch his breath, it slammed its other fist into the ground and opened another fissure that once again snaked its way towards him. He managed to get off the roof and into the air just that house too was swallowed up by the Earth. He decided to try and land on the armored beast itself, kicking off some rumble in the air and launching himself towards the metal monstrosity. As he glided through the air towards the ‘head’ of the beast, he hoped there wasn’t any kind of defensive shield or anything on its body. To his luck, he landed cleanly on the rounded spot above its eyes. He was quick to get a bearing on his immediate surroundings, it was mostly just a rounded plain of welded together sheets of metal. There was something glowing a faint green on the opposite side of where Jet was standing. With slow steady steps, he made his way towards it to take a look. As he did, the monster under him groaned loudly and began to shake violently. Jet was knocked to his ass and began to slip down the back of the slick metal surface, he moved quickly and rammed his sword into the metal wherever he could hit, giving himself something to hold onto against the otherwise flat surface.

The monster thrashed about back and forth for several moments, before finally stopping with another loud metallic groan. From his spot hanging off the back of the monster, he could see the source of the glow a few feet in front of him. It seemed to be the power supply for this thing, it was some sort of roughly hewn gemstone structure that jutted out in small spires and was humming quietly against the still night air. Whatever it was, it seemed to be as safe to touch as the rest of this thing. Before the monster could recover from whatever had made it stop thrashing, he used his sword as a bar and started to swing back and forth on its handle. After building enough momentum, he let go and was propelled towards the power supply. He grabbed onto it and found that it gave off a slight static-like charge. Luckily, it was rough enough to give him footing to hold onto. Using the rough edges of the gem, he started to climb up to the top of it. As he climbed, Sombra’s words echoed in his mind, ‘that much electricity should have stopped your heart’. This gave Jet an idea, a risky one, but an idea nonetheless. Once at the top, he placed his hands on the spire he stood on and took a deep breath. Just as he had felt when Discord hit him with the blast before, he concentrated and focused his mind. A moment later, he felt his hands start to tingle violently as sparks began to slowly form at his fingertips. Focusing harder, he forced the built up electricity in his body to be discharged through his hands and straight into the weird staticy gem. Eventually, he had managed to fully discharge it through his palms.

He panted slightly from the exertion it took, his arms trembling a bit. At first nothing happened, but then, the lumbering behemoth of steel slumped forward. The gem began to glow brighter and ebbed far more intensely. Jet took this as his sign to get the hell out of there, he took a chance and leapt from the behemoth. He did his best to get at least a couple of his wing thrusters to reform in order to break his fall. Despite the thrusters, he still landed hard enough on one of the roofs to crack the shingles around him. He looked up to see the enormous gem glow bright enough to briefly blind him, just before a deafening boom rang out and echoed in the valley. The blast force of the explosion knocked Jet backwards and off the rooftop. He landed hard on his back on the ground behind the house he was standing on, knocking the wind out of him for the moment. There was a sudden loud crash as the enormous metal monster fell forward and crashed into the ground, taking out most of the remaining buildings and houses with it. Jet staggered to his feet while he tried to catch his breath, making his way back in front of the building and towards the fallen behemoth. By the time he made it back over to the decommissioned machine, his breathing was back to normal. He clambered up onto the back of it thanks to some crumbled remains of crushed buildings. Once up top, he found his way over to his sword, which was still wedged deep within the metal of the machine. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and yanked it free of its metallic prison.

As soon as he had freed his sword, a hiss of air caught his attention. He looked to see that there was smoke emanating from around the ‘head’ of the monstrosity. As he watched, the entire rounded head piece of the behemoth began to shift upwards, opening like a beast opening its maw to catch its prey. Jet readied his sword in preparation of whatever this was. Soon, the hatch was fully open and the smoke started to subside. Everything was quiet for a moment before a smaller, but still fairly large figure emerged from within the machine. They wore armor that matched that of the behemoth machine he had just taken down. Without any warning, the figure turned towards Jet and began to approach him. It charged at him with an intent to kill, leaving Jet just barely enough time to dodge out of the way. Before moving any closer, the assassin ran his fingers along his gauntlets, which proceeded to momentarily glow a bright white. With a quick and smooth motion, the assassin's fist collided with a chunk of debris behind Jet, creating a massive crater in it. Before he could react, the assassin used their free hand to backhand Jet. The hit sent him flying sideways and tumbling off of the metal surface and back onto the ground below. Jet’s head ears were ringing from the impact of the hit. He tried to shake off the stunned feeling as he slowly got back to his feet, just in time to roll out of the way of the assassin who was coming down at him like a comet. Upon colliding with the ground, another massive crater was left in the assassin’s wake. Jet backed up, trying to put some distance between himself and this assassin, but he quickly hit a literal wall behind him. That was when he noticed that he was boxed in, broken chunks of wall surrounding the small area he was in and creating a makeshift arena. There was no running from this guy, meaning Jet would have to come up with a plan, and fast. While Jet was trying to think of a way to beat this guy, he almost didn’t see the fist coming right at him. It caught him in the chest, pushing back into the wall roughly and caused him to drop his sword. The impact made Jet exhale and cough harshly, a small spray of blood shooting out of his mouth and causing his vision to blur momentarily from the pain. He managed to look up just in time to see another strike coming at his face. Moving fast, he shifted to the side along the wall, causing the assassin’s fist to embed itself into the wall where his head had just been. Yet another crater was formed from the impact. Jet turned his head to look at the near death situation he had barely avoided. His eyes were drawn to the forearm of the assassin, his arm buried into the wall up to the wrist. With a small gasp to himself, he noticed the silver vambrace with intricately etched runes that was covering the arm from wrist to elbow. He recognized these as one of the many relics of Equestria that he had dreamt about throughout his schooling. Noticing that the assassin seemed to be stuck in the wall, Jet fought through the pain in his chest and moved fast, bringing his own fist back and plunging it into the gut of the assassin. The impact knocked him free of the wall and sent him skidding backwards along the ground. The assassin briefly doubled over and let out a few harsh coughs into his helmet. Before he could recover, Jet slipped behind him and grabbed his arms by the wrist, pulling them backwards.

“You know, you seem pretty fond of these arms of yours. One could say that you’re pretty… Attached to them. Allow me to remedy this!” Jet yelled out as he started to tug hard on the assassin’s arms.

The resistance was heavy, but with an increase in his pulling force, the assassin’s arms suddenly let out a pair of loud snapping sounds as they were pulled free of their sockets at the shoulder. The assassin let out a guttural cry of pain from within his helmet. Jet let go of his arms and hopped backwards, the assassin’s arms going limp at his sides. The assassin turned towards him. Jet could feel a sense of bloodlust emanating from him, which sent a chill up Jet’s spine. Without warning, the assassin charged him again, swinging his arms like wet noodles at Jet. In an attempt to block the strikes, Jet crossed his arms in an X shape in front of him. The limp fists of the assassin collided with his crossed arms, the attacks weaker but still enough to send Jet skidding back on his feet and giving some more distance between the two. Jet was breathing hard, one arm wrapped around his chest to help lessen the pain. That hit had definitely broken a rib or two judging from the way he couldn’t get a full breath in. The two stared each other down for a few moments, a dead silence hung in the air.

“If you give up now, I will spare your life.” Jet said, breaking the silence.

The assassin said nothing in response, he simply exhaled deeply, twin mists of smoke releasing from the nostrils of his helmet. Jet took this as a negative reply and gave a shrug, figuring it was worth a try at least. He took as deep a breath as his broken ribs would allow and suddenly sprang forward, with the assassin following suit. They both ran at one another with the intent to kill, but just as they were about to collide, Jet dropped to the ground and slid under the assassin. He easily slid between the assassin’s legs and over towards the wall that he had previously been up against. Picking up his sword, he got back to his feet in one swift move and turned to once again face the assassin, just in time to see him spin on his heels and charge back towards Jet again. Jet knelt and readied his sword and waited for his moment. The assassin showed no sign of stopping, coming at Jet at full speed with more smoke streaming from his nostrils, the scene reminded Jet of a locomotive barreling down the tracks it was on. When the assassin was mere feet away, Jet sprang up, propelling himself towards the assassin with a speed that countered his. The speed at which the two collided sent a huge wave of compressed air around the area, kicking up dust and small bits of debris in the process. The two now stood opposite of where they started, each waiting for the other to drop. Jet coughed and sprayed yet more blood onto his lips and chin, while Earth Shaker staggered on his feet for a moment before falling to his knees and then face first onto the ground. His helmet struck a nearby rock and cracked open, revealing half of the face within. As much as Jet dreaded it, he had to know who he had just been forced to kill, so he made his way slowly over to the dying assassin. He knelt down and with a good deal of struggle, he rolled the assassin onto his back. Upon seeing the exposed face beneath, Jet immediately turned his head away in heartache. Beneath the ebony armor and green eyes, a coat of thin red fur and swathe of orange-ish blonde hair stuck out. Jet forced himself to turn back, looking down into the green irises of a pony he had once called friend.

“Big Mac… I…” Jet started to say, but Big Mac simply shook his head in reply.

“N-No worries… I-It was either you… Or m-me…” He said slowly, his breathing already quite a bit.

“I swear, I will make that monster pay for all of this…” Jet promised his dying friend, holding back the tears in his eyes.

“I-I know ya will… Take m-mah gauntlets, y-you’ll need ‘em… And… T-Tell Applejack… Ah’m s-sorry… A-And Applebloom… Tell h-her… Ah’m proud of her…” Big Mac said softly as his body went limp, his eyes grew dim and colorless.

“I’m so sorry, Mac… None of this ever should have happened… That piece of shit has so much to answer for when I get my hands on him…” Jet stated softly, gently removing the vambraces from Mac’s arms.

Jet bit back an enraged scream, moving to gently close the eyes of his dead friend. With a shaky and painful deep breath, Jet stood and slipped on the vambraces. He ran his fingers across the runes that were etched along the tops of them and immediately felt a surge of strength course through his body. He wondered just how much strength these relics actually provided. Moving over to one of the walls of the area, he reared back with his fist and drove it into the wall with all of his might. The wall quickly gave way under his strike, cracking and crumbling to give way to an opening that led back to the road he had sent the others away on. He cringed at the pain in his chest, wrapping one of his arms around himself and started heading off in the direction of the safety of the bunker. The walk back was cold and lonesome, the wind having picked up again on his journey. It seemed to take ages to reach the entrance of the bunker again, but he did eventually make it. He went to open the hatch, nearly ripping it entirely off its hinges by accident. With a groan of pain, he descended the ladder to find Rainbow and Luna both standing at the bottom. Before he could say anything, Rainbow embraced him in a tight hug, eliciting a loud groan from him. She pulled away and looked him over, he looked so much worse for wear than when she saw him just a few hours ago.

“Jet, what’s wrong? Are you ok?” Rainbow asked quickly, possibly giving Pinkie a run for her money in the speed talking department.

“I’m fine, just a couple broken ribs from the feel of it.” Jet replied with a weak smile, Luna stared at his forearms.

“Are those…” Luna began to ask.

“The Earth Pony Bracers, yes. I got them from… An old friend…” Jet said, trying to keep his tone flat but wasn’t hiding his hurt very well.

“I see… I hope it was not too much to bear for you, Jet…” Luna replied, not wanting to push for any more information than that.

“What are you two going on about?” Rainbow asked, looking between them.

“I’ll explain later, for now… Somebody please get me a doctor. I can barely breathe…” Jet said with a small chuckle.

The two mares helped Jet to the infirmary, where Nurse Redheart was finally just getting to sit down and take a break. As soon as her rump hit the chair, the trio walked in. She looked up and let out a loud groan of annoyance.

“You again? Weren’t you just in here a few hours ago?” She asked, impatience seeping into her voice.

“Yeah, I was. You did such a good job, I thought I’d come back to see you.” Jet replied with a smile, trying to make light of the situation.

“Ugh… Go find a cot, I’ll be with you in a moment…” She said, wanting to be made at him for interrupting her break, but it was hard to stay mad at this charismatic asshole.

“Alright. I think I can take it from here, ladies. Thank you.” Jet said softly, pulling away from the pair and making his way further into the infirmary towards an open cot.

He flopped down on it and disengaged his armor, letting out a deep sigh, his thoughts ran wild with everything he had dealt with over the course of the past twelve hours. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, the images of those he had once called friend flashed in his mind. Tears started to well in his eyes once again. He bit back his sorrow, focusing on the hatred and contemptment he felt for the one responsible. Even if it killed him, he vowed to make it his goal to avenge those he had been forced to kill. He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard Redheart push open the curtain covering the cot he was.

“So, what’s the problem?” Her voice rang out, causing Jet to jump up from his lying position.

“Oh, uh, it feels like some broken ribs. Other than that, just some cuts and scrapes…” Jet replied, rubbing the tears from his eyes.

“Hm, with an injury like that, you’ll be out of the game for a few days at least. But with some rest, you should heal up nicely. You always seem to heal fairly quickly.” Redheart said, referencing the past times he had been in the hospital as a hard headed teenager.

“A few days? But there’s still work to be done. Every moment we waste is more time for Sombra to prepare and come back stronger.” Jet argued, rubbing his temples lightly.

“I’m sorry, but with broken ribs you won’t be much use against even the lowest of Sombra’s ranks. Besides, I think it’ll be good for you to get some rest. You’ve been going non-stop since you came out of that coma.” Redheart replied, giving him a slight glare as she dug in a medicine cabinet, producing a couple of small pill bottles and some gauze.

“Ugh, fine...” Jet said, giving up on arguing with the nurse.

“Good, now, hold your arms up so I can get those ribs of yours set properly.” She replied.

Jet obliged and lifted his arms up as far as they would go. She unrolled the gauze and began to wrap it around his chest, pulling tightly to ensure it was wrapped up nicely. Once his chest looked like that of a mummy, she fixed it onto itself so it would hold in place and popped the tops off the pill bottles and took out one of each. She handed the pills to Jet.

“Here, take these. They’ll help with the pain.” Redheart said as she turned towards a small sink and filled a tiny paper cup up with water.

“What are they?” Jet asked, rolling the pills in his hand and eyeing them over.

“One is a pain suppressant and the other is a muscle relaxer. Now shut up and take them.” She replied, handing him the tiny paper cup.

“Gods, I hate taking pills…” Jet said as he reluctantly popped the pills in his mouth and swallowed them with the cup of water.

“Good boy. Keep on being good and I might consider giving you a lolly.” Redheart said with a small smile.

“Oh? You do have a sense of humor buried under all that stress after all, huh?” Jet replied teasingly.

“Of course I do. I’m just not in a field where humor is appreciated that often.” She said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. Hey, uh… Can I ask a favor?” Jet asked, rubbing his ribs lightly.

“What is it?” She asked suspiciously.

“Don’t look at me like that, it’s not what you’re thinking. I just need you to bring Sunblast here, and tell him to bring the files one the assassin’s with him.” Jet replied with a roll of his eyes, imagining what she could possibly have been thinking.

“Very well then. Anything else?” She asked again, a look of almost disappointment on her face.

“Something to eat would be nice, I guess.” Jet said with a chuckle, remembering that he hadn’t eaten in a long while.

“Alright. I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t go anywhere.” She replied playfully with a giggle, to which Jet just rolled his eyes again.

“Another joke? You’re on a roll, Redheart. Careful or Pinkie might start to get jealous.” Jet said with a chuckle as she headed out of the infirmary to fetch what and who he had requested.