My Kind of Town

Blackout groaned as he awakened to the sound of a hoof knocking on his door. His vision darkened and blurred as he got out of bed and stumbled to the door.

"Geez, is normal for ponies to visit ten times a day here?" he mumbled to himself as he opened the door.

"Hey Blackout." Rainbow Dash said in a cheery voice.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, can't a friend come over to visit?"

"Dash, it's like, five o'clock, nobody goes to just visit at five o'clock." Blackout said bitterly.

"Why are you acting like there's a spur in your side?" Dash asked in an offended tone.

"Well not only is it morning and I hate mornings," he said, making it obvious that he was annoyed, "but it's also because of this stupid day."

"What's wrong with Hearts and Hooves Day?" a look of concern and confusion on her face.

"Pfft, more like Broken Hearts and Aching Hooves Day."

"What do you mean?"

"What I'm saying is that more hearts are broken on this day, and the aching hooves is from coltfriends running back and forth to find something nice. It's a waste of time and a stupid holiday."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad, can it?"

"Yeah, it is. Trust me, I know from experience."

"Oh," Dash said sadly, keeping the small gift she had for him hidden. "Well what are you gonna do now?"

"Well," he lightened up when the subject changed, "I was planning on working on a new compound."

"A new what?"

"Compound, like a mixture."

"Oh, well what's it supposed to do?"

"Follow me, I'll show you." he gestured for her to enter, walking down the stairs to his basement. Dash left the gift on a table and followed him down. In the basement there was an assortment of wires and machines that looked even more high-tech than Twilight's.

"Woah, how did you-"

"Celestia had it sent here." he said flatly as he fiddled with a rack of test tubes. "Ah, here it is." He held up a tube with a clear liquid in it.

"What is it?" she cocked an eyebrow when he held it in front of her

"Hopefully, the last ingredient to a new gas."

"Gas?"

"Yeah, a non-lethal gas that, when inhaled, impares the thought process by blocking most of the nerve signals sent to and from the brain." he explained while tediously pouring the liquid into a beaker with a yellowish liquid.

"Umm, in English please?"

"It makes people dumb so you can handle them easier."

"Oh. So it could help with crowd control or something?"

"Exactly." he let another drop fall into the mixture before setting it on the lab table.

Boom

The beaker exploded and the solution turned into a thick grey smoke and filled the entire room. Blackout blocked his nose and was waving away the smoke.

"Dash!" he coughed. "Whatever you do, cough,don't inhale the-" he looked up to see Dash stumble around and fall, "smoke." Blackout searched for the lever that controlled the ventilation. He pulled it down and the room rumbled as fans sucked the smoke out of the room. Blackout walked over to Rainbow, who was laying on the ground with a dumb look on her face.

"Great." he gumbled to himself. Rainbow lazily pulled herself up and threw her arm on Blackout's shoulder.

"Why are you always so grumpy?" she giggled. "You'd be a lot more fun if you didn't have that pole up your butt."

"Happy Hearts and Hooves Day." he sarcastically sighed to himself. "Come on Dash, we need to get you home."

"But why?" she said in a pleading tone.

"To tie you to your bed so you don't do anything stupid." Blackout dragged her out of his house.

"Ooh, kinky." her response made Blackout facehoof.

"Why couldn't it have just knocked her out?" he groaned under his breath.

Blackout flew to Rainbow's cloud mansion with Dash drapped over is shoulder, who was whistling a random tune. Blackout flew strait to the window of her room, dropped her on her bed, and tied her to it with the rope he had wrapped around his arm. After tying the last knot, and listening to Dash's perverted comments, he sat at the edge of the cloud house, deep in thought. Back in Rainbow's room, Dash was struggling to break free. She started to kick apart the cloud bed until she could slither out from under the ropes. She moved to the window overlooking the edge Blackout was sitting on. A mischievous look crept on her face as she climbed onto the window pane. She jumped and tackled Blackout off the house.

"Dash what the hell!" Blackout screamed at her.

"Tag, your it!" Dash pushed him away and flew off in a random direction.

"Damn it Dash!" Blackout shouted as her tailed her. She was fast, almost too fast for him. It only made it harder with the bright rainbow she made was somehow getting in his eyes. Dash led Blackout throughout the entire town and even through parts of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash fled to Fluttershy's house and burst through the door, startling the animals and the shy pony inside

"Oh my, what are you doing here Rainbow?" the timid pegasis whispered.

"You gotta hide me, quickly!" she said between pants.

"Why? What's going on?"

"He's after me! You gotta-" but her pursuer had cought up and tackled her into the home. They rolled and tumbled to the middle of the room. The pair came out of the roll with Dash on top, pinning Blackout to the ground. She lowerd her head to meet her lips with his. Blackout's eyes widened as Rainbow Dash kissed him, and grew even wider as she slipped her tounge in his mouth. Dash opened her eyes as the effect of the gas wore off and she realized what she was doing. She immediately let go of him, broke the kiss, and yanked her head back. Blackout shoved her off and turned over, spitting and whipping his tounge off with his hooves. Fluttershy was still at the door, shocked at the scene.

"Oh my gosh!" Dash apologized, now thinking clearly, "I'm so sorry!"

"Ugh! Fuck this holiday." his language caused the two mares to visibly cringe.

"W-what's wrong with Hearts and Hoov-"

"You wanna know what's wrong?" the angry stallion hissed at the yellow pegasis. The room was filled with an awkward silence and the two mares displayed looks of confusion and sorrow.

It was a dark night and Blackout had called his team for the raid. He was working with the other Aces and a special forces unit called the Specters. They weren't as experienced as the Aces but had done plenty of missions in the past and is actually older than the Aces. Their team leader was a stallion named Thistle, he was green with a purple mane and pegasis like most who served in the military. His first lieutenant was a beautiful mare named Rosemary. Her color was the inverse of Thistle, her fur was purple and her mane was green.

The mission was simple, there were two buildings, Aces infiltrate one, and the Specters enter the other. A quick in and out mission, well more like in, kill whoever resists, find anything useful, blow the building up, then out. This was the fourth mission the two teams did together, and in those missions Blackout had developed a sort of something with Rosemary. The others always teased him about it and Blackout always denied it, but how could he? It all added up, he loved her, she probably loved him, and seeing how Hearts and Hooves Day is literaly less than an hour away, he would admit it to her. Though when he thought about it, getting cheesy after a raid would be kinda wierd, but war was wierd like that.

Blackout's team lined the wall next to the door of one building and Thistle's team did the same on the other building. A small explosive charge that was supposed to blow the door's hinges had been placed and the fuse was lit. Half of the door was sent to splinters and flew into the building. Blackout moved in, drawing his 1911 and sent three rounds into the gargoyle at the center of the room. Spurts of blood were sent from his chest and he fell lifelessly to the marble floor. Blackout noticed a barrel over his shoulder. Mig was right behind him and dropped two more. The weapons were silenced but the sound still reverberated throughout the foyer of the building. It was well lit and looked like a mall, with an empty ceiling and levels of walkways that hugged the walls. Gear Head moved into the building.

"Specters are in." he reported.

"Good, tell them to wire the place to blow, then move to target." the Colonel ordered. The target, or targets, were a group of high ranking officers that were meeting in one of the buildings. Blowing them up just served the purpose of giving the gargoyles a hard time. The three proceeded to the center of the foyer were a four-way intersection was made by the tall halls. Gear placed a large amount of explosive material on the floor.

"Which room was it?" Mig asked, looking at the rows of doors.

"All we could find out is that the meeting rooms would be on that side." Gear replied, pointing to the left. The group moved through the hall, killing a gargoyle that stepped out of a room on the way. The searched the levels for any indicator of a meeting room.

"Found it." Blackout called back to his team members. Mig flew up to the third floor and stood in front of the double doors, a sign reading "Meeting Room" in gold letters above it. Gear Head scaled the glass window next to it and joined the two pegasi. He reached in his array of packs, electronics, and wires to pull out a hoof-held screen. He plugged a small camera in it and slipped it under the door. The screen displayed a large room with a big wooden table, a window behind it, and nicely dressed gargoyles sitting in fancy chairs.

"That's them in there." Gear Head said quietly. He stood up and pulled out what looked like a lock pick. He wiggled the object into the lock and pulled the end of it off. Seconds later it exploded with a pop and the three rammed through the doors. They all raised their rifles to hip level and mowed down the occupants before they could react. Thunder clapped as the last officer fell to the ground. Blackout walked over to the table and picked up a folder holding what could be very important documents. Mig was checking the bodies and Gear had set up explosives on the walls.

BOOM

The three fell to the blood stained floor when the other building suddenly burst apart. When they pulled themselves up, groups of gargoyles burst out of the doors.

"Gear! Blow it!" Blackout ordered. Gear Head pushed the button of his detonator and the foyer was engulfed in flames. They closed the door in time before the napalm could reach them. Blackout ran to the window to see gargoyle officers flying away from the burning building adjacent to the one he was in. The roof was missing and several injured ponies were sprawled across the meeting room. On the ground near the window of the burning building laid a purple and green mare. His heart sunk as the impact of the situation fell upon him. He hated loosing soldiers, but this was completely different. Blackout burst through the window, small shards cutting his exposed flesh. He landed and sprinted through the mud to Rosemary, she was covered in blood and was burnt. Blackout keeled down to cradle her. Her body was cold and lifeless, her purple eyes didn't blink. He couldn't believe it, she died, just like that. No teary eyed confessions or heart felt feelings shared, just cold and silent death. Gear Head looked at his watch.

12:00

"Shit." he whispered to himself, looking at the gloomy scene below.

Rainbow was teary eyed and Fluttershy was sobbing lightly, Blackout just sat there, glaring at the ground. He suddenly got up and left, leaving the two mares behind. He walked through the rain to his house, thinking about what had happened.

Love sucks. He mused. But Rainbow's right, I can't keep acting like a jerk because of it. He sighed as he approached his door. He stepped inside and noticed a card with hearts on it. He opened it and read.

Dear Blackout,

I know you aren't the angry and bitter pony people say you are. I wish you wouldn't act like it though. You would be a lot more fun if you just lightened up. Even if something happened to you in the past, it'd be best to just let it go. I guess what I'm trying to say is, could you come by and hang out sometime, I think it will really help.

Your friend,

Rainbow Dash

Blackout folded it and placed the card in his vest pocket.

Happy Hearts and Hooves Day.