Foreword: no one commented on last week's chapter? Da fuq, brah?

Chapter Twelve
Red Dragon

“Kill them all... They are your sworn enemy... They stand before the might of our Empire, threatening to kill all they can in the name of “peace”. Kill them... Kill any Peace Fighter you see... Kill Lieutenant Strong Spear... Kill her... Kill...”

No...please... Please don’t make me do it... Not anymore, please. Please don’t make me kill anymore ponies.... Please please please please... I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it... I’ve killed so many ponies... I’ve killed SO many of them make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop... Plea-he-he-heaaaasee... Somepony...ANYPONY......

...Help...me... Stop the voices please I don’t want to hear them anymore home I wanna go home please please please please PLEASE...

“Kill them...I want you to kill them all...I want you to kill any and all you see that aren’t allied with the Empire... Kill them, Red Dragon... You have to kill them all, for Equestria, for us Princesses, to end this violent and bloody war... Kill them... Kill them all... Kill kill kill kill kill kill them... Kill them all...”

“Kill... Kill them all... Kill all of them... Kill everyone you see not allied with us... Kill... Kill...”

...Please....

~~~~

Red Dragon moved quietly and hidden across the rooftops of the buildings in the Canine city of Howloon, moving in to intercept Lieutenant Strong Spear at an apartment building deep in the city. He had lost contact with Major Nightshade when her DRAVM’s transmission tag ceased functioning, and was making his way to the target without any known support.

It was thanks mostly to standard infantry in the city that RD even knew where the target was, otherwise he’d be spending most of his time searching high and low all across Howloon to find her. And avoiding the occasional battle would sooner or later become nigh impossible the longer he was in city.

Reaching the end of one rooftop Red Dragon could see no way to cross to the next, and realized he would have to get down to street level. Descending a nearby fire escape the dragon assassin crouched low in the alley below and checked the street before turning around, seeing that the alley was vaguely T-shaped and that he needed to go left.

While in the alley he heard a scraping noise from up ahead, and stopped moving, tensing and preparing himself for an ambush. Several long seconds achingly ticked by, with nothing happening in them.

Now more cautious and slow, the dragon eased forward in the alley, hearing a very muffled whimpering coming from behind a large trash bin. Drawing his M6 RD approached the area and looked over, seeing a pony huddled low around some cardboard boxes. She had been shot in the leg, and was presumably scared out of her mind.

She looked to be civilian.

The mare nearly screamed when she saw the taller beast standing over her, but didn’t as she saw the Imperial symbol embedded on RD’s left shoulder. She shakily breathed a sigh of relief.

Scanning her Red Dragon determined that she was Lyra Heartstrings, age 42, and a former resident of both Ponyville and Her Majesty’s Royal City of Canterlot. Her horn was broken, and blood was seeping out of her eyes.

A quick fact-finding mission through his suit’s information stores revealed that unicorns cry blood when their horn is violently shattered.

“...Help me...” Lyra whispered.

Red Dragon crouched in front of her and looked her over, knowing she was intently staring at his menacing helmet and red visor. The dragon pulled out his knife and moved the cardboard away from the mare’s injured leg.

“Is the bullet still in there?” RD asked, thumbing along the edge of the blade to see if it was sharp.

“Y-yeah, I think it’s stuck in my bone” Lyra replied, earning a nod from the dragon.

“Good.”

With a flick of the wrist and fingers Red Dragon’s knife was sent into the air, the blade glittering in the moonlight. When it came back to his hand the blade was pointing down and in one deft move he buried the knife hilt-deep into Lyra’s neck, violently pulling it out and ripping the veins and arteries inside to shreds with the serrations on the back as he did.

Standing up Red Dragon watched curiously as Lyra coughed and sputtered and gurgled, blood pouring into her throat. She held in her hooves to her neck to try to stifle the flow and looked up at the dragon with undiluted terror in her eyes.

The combination of blood in her lungs and blood pouring out made Lyra pass out in all of seven seconds, and the Dragon kicked her onto her side so the blood would continue to pour out of her.

Knowing she would be dead within a minute RD grabbed the mare’s leg and stuck the knife in the bullet hole, flicking the round out with a turn of the blade and snatching it out of the air, looking it over. The bullet was a round for an SPR-16.

Reaching into a compartment on his suit the assassin pulled out an empty shell casing from an SPR-16, and with a few more tools provided by the suit Red Dragon reloaded the round, reactivating the magnetic collimators and recharging the bullet itself. Once everything was properly seated and filled the black bullet instantly took on its usual orange glow, signifying it was ready to be fired.

Removing the magazine in his M6 pistol Red Dragon thumbed the new cartridge into place and slid the mag back into the gun, now giving him 8 rounds plus one in the chamber. He was grateful that the SPR-16 and M6 pistol shared ammo.

“Thanks, Lyra” Red Dragon commented, returning the pistol to his side and continuing on his way, heading to the neighboring building and ascending its fire escape to get to the roof.

~~~~

Red Dragon had finally gotten into a good position and set up with his EWFRL-M400, the rifled perched on the partition on the roof that prevented accidental walk-offs. He had found that the building was in a perfect position, just across the street from where the target was supposed to be.

Grabbing the large rifle the dragon assassin took aim through the scope and slowly scanned along the many windows facing him. There were about 7 floors to the apartment complex that Lieutenant Strong Spear was in, but she was supposed to be on this side of the building.

Normally a spotter would be there to assist him, but with Nightshade missing it was up the dragon alone to eliminate the target.

Finally, on the fourth floor, in the direct center and front of the building, stood Lieutenant Strong Spear of the Peace Fighters. She and her companions were clustered around a table, looking at what appeared to be a map.

Pressing the rifle into his shoulder Red Dragon lined the scope’s reticle up with the target, the center dot drawing a bead right on where her heart is. Racking the bolt to chamber and ready the weapon RD put his finger near the trigger, the tip of his steel-covered claw mating with the power to take another being’s life.

His radio crackled to life, and an Imperial DRAVM screamed by.

“Red Dragon! You out there? Can you hear me?” the voice of Major Nightshade asked, distracting Red Dragon from the target.

“I confirm: Major Nightshade, on the radio. What do you require?” the dragon responded.

“Have you found the target?”

“I confirm. Lieutenant Strong Spear of the Peace Fighters is at the Golden Leaf Apartment Center here in Howloon. Red Dragon was about to terminate the subject when you contacted” RD stated.

“Deny. Wait for my arrival. I got shot down-- Rather, cut down, by some unknown aircraft and had to hike into this place. Repeat: wait for me to get there” Nightshade ordered.

“Red Dragon confirms.”

The assassin lowered his rifle and merely watched the target and her Peace Fighters move through and across the top of the apartment complexes, entering a burning one as they went.

Please get back on the radio! Please call her again and tell her to kill you-- I mean me. Us... Oh Goddess, please let someone kill me! Please, I beg of you. I want to die I need to die I need to stop hearing the voices oh Goddess they won’t stop talking someone make them stop talking help me please make it stop make it stop make it stop the conscious mind of Red Dragon screamed and pleaded, his body failing to cooperate.

“Kill them all... Kill them, Red Dragon... You must kill them... You need to kill them... You need to kill them all... Kill them all... Kill them... Kill them all... You have to kill them...

Pick up the gun and just put it to your chin please oh Goddess please just kill me I have to die I can’t take this anymore I’ve killed so many ponies and I’m about to kill another one how many more do I have to kill please don’t make me kill anymore of them please stop the killing please make it stop I want it to stop I want to go home.

The conscious mind of Red Dragon could do nothing but watch through his own eyes as he stood up and grabbed the rifle, hope lancing through him as he believed he was finally about to die.

But fate continued to deliver unto him cruelty.

Red Dragon shouldered the rifle and took aim on the flaming apartment complex, Major Nightshade telling him she was in position outside the window to a hall and that he was going to need to take the shot soon.

Red Dragon’s mind felt and saw it all; he could feel his arms moving to pick up the gun, he could feel its weight in his hands, he could feel the steady beat of his heart as his eye took in the reticle of the scope and his fingers felt the grips and trigger.

He could see and hear and smell and feel everything he was doing, but couldn’t stop himself from doing it. He was truly a prisoner in his own mind, his psyche forced to sit and watch as its body committed horrible atrocities.

~~~~

Five minutes later

~~~~

The plan had gone a bit awry, but hadn’t changed. Major Nightshade engaged the target, and Red Dragon was being forced to relocate to a new position. The target’s companions had been ordered to retreat, whilst the target stood bravely against Nightshade.

“I can’t deny that she has courage” RD whispered to himself as he darted across the street to the burning apartment complex, slamming the front door open and heading immediately for the closest staircase. The dragon ascended as far as the stairs would allow before entering the floor, rushing across it and heading up the rest of the way to the roof.

Once out there Red Dragon raced to the closest edge and took aim down in the courtyard, seeing Major Nightshade and Lieutenant Strong Spear fighting.

It was too risky to fire.

Standing tall on the roof Red Dragon saw Major Nightshade toss the target across the courtyard, who landed on her back and looked up at the assassin, looking deep into the glowing red of his visor. RD took aim on her with his rifle, noting nothing of her physical form except that she was the enemy and that he must kill her.

NO! NO YOU DON’T HAVE TO KILL HER!! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP YOU CAN STOP THIS ALL RIGHT NOW IF YOU LET HER LIVE DON’T PULL THAT TRIGGER OH GODDESS DON’T DO IT I CAN’T STAND IT ANY LONGER I WANT TO DIE SOMEBODY PLEASE KILL ME JUST FUCKING KILL ME!

A missile struck the wall below Red Dragon’s position and he leaped back in surprise, looking up to see a Peace Fighter DRAVM hovering over the courtyard and looking right at him.

Dropping his rifle Red Dragon looked up at the DRAVM and scanned it over, noting it was an improved gunship model. The aerial vehicle pulsed its thrusters and RD sprinted to the left, the DRAVM turning to follow. The guns on the chin opened fire, their combined thunder echoing across the city of Howloon.

A plan already cooking in his mind the dragon reached the other side of the roof and drew his SPP-M6, taking aim on the aircraft. The rifle-caliber rounds fired from the smaller gun would likely be enough to penetrate the cockpit window, but the only time RD could fire on that part of the DRAVM would be when it was facing him and firing in full.

He would have to board the aircraft to destroy it.

Running to the left side again Red Dragon idly fired at the aircraft, trying to goad the pilot into flying it closer to the roof.

In response to his gunfire the pilot launched several more rockets at the assassin, who waited until they were almost on top of him before tensing his legs and leaping forward through the air, rolling forward once he hit the floor and getting back to a full sprint without missing a step.

Reloading the M6 Red Dragon paused for a moment to watch the DRAVM turn to face him again, firing more of its rockets at him, which the assassin dodged. From his position RD could see the young Peace Fighter private in the cockpit, directing the assuredly higher ranking pilot.

Note: in the Peace Fighter Air Corps, lower-ranking individuals can order higher ranked ones in a battle zone. Speculation: the lower rank soldier is acting on orders given to him by a soldier whose rank supersedes that of his and the pilot’s.

Though his missions had always been and will always be ones of killing, Red Dragon knew when to acquire vital information that could aid the Princesses.

The private himself was one of interest, too. His file had been made freely available to RD, and he had looked it over in great detail. His mother, Heavy Bullet, had lead one of the Empire’s largest fleet of airships against the Spider People of the Northern Isles during the first contact war against them, and was a well-respected officer of the Imperial Army. And now her son, Gleaming Bullet, fights against her Princesses and their grand Empire.

Private Gleaming Bullet’s record was also unique, if for the fact it raised some questions.

Gleaming Bullet was, for most intents, a veteran of the Empire. He had served during the Minotaur War, the Great Conflict, and even the Mid-Morning War, turning to the Peace Fighters three months after the Mid-Morning War.

Of course RD had wondered why he would turn to the revolutionaries after fighting three intense wars for the Princesses and was on his way to being a sergeant.

There had been more to his file, much more. Most of it was the usual things like weight, age, height, etcetera. However, there was one part that stood out. One part that singled out Private Gleaming Bullet as a unique individual and one whom the Princesses greatly wished to see again.

He was still the son of a respected Imperial Officer.

Returning to the present and looking up into the cockpit of the DRAVM Red Dragon saw Private Gleaming Bullet staring down at him, the haunted look buried deep in his eyes faintly betraying his feelings; Gleaming Bullet had learned the truth behind the Princesses, and in his guilt joined the Peace Fighters. He knew that he had betrayed his loving mother, but firmly believed that he was fighting for the right reasons.

“You stand before the Princesses, you die before the Princesses” Red Dragon whispered, dodging the very last of the DRAVM’s missiles. Now all the enemy vehicle could offer were its machine guns.

Opening fire with the guns the DRAVM followed RD as he sprinted along the roof, ahead of the bullets by mere inches.

Ceasing its attack the pilot pulsed the thrusters and the DRAVM soared closer to the roof, and Red Dragon knew his chance was now. Holstering his pistol RD rushed for the edge of the roof, leaping off of it and landing on the windscreen for the cockpit, gripping on it with his limbs stretched out and menacing red visor glowing bright like he was a violent insect.

Scrambling up to the roof Red Dragon got to his feet and looked down at the single rotor in the middle of the aircraft, speedily spinning in its gyro-brackets to keep the DRAVM afloat.

Hearing a hatch behind him open Red Dragon leaped down to one of the struts that stuck out from the rear of the vehicle and firmly kicked his foot down, snapping the rotor from one side of its mount.

Unsupported on its one side the rotor, still spinning, was ripped free from its other mounting and slashed through the strut on the other side, both events causing the DRAVM to dip down into the courtyard, slamming into the earth and kicking up massive plumes of dirt and soil.

Leaping off the ruined DRAVM Red Dragon landed next to Major Nightshade as she approached a wounded Lieutenant Strong Spear, who was pinned under a piece of the aircraft. Nightshade drew an antiquated sword from her back and spun it around in her hoof, preparing to stab the target through the head.

“I’m not gonna beg you for my life, bitch!” Lieutenant Spear declared, snapping at Nightshade. The Major looked down with apathy and raised her sword, the blade pointing down and reflecting the light of a nearby fire.

Just as she was about to stab Strong Spear the sound of an engine going into overdrive caught everyone’s attention, and it was coming from somewhere above and behind the apartment complex. Red Dragon and Nightshade turned around to see a massive aircraft come into view, edging forward until it was above the roof and looking down at the two Imperial agents. It had wings like a normal airplane, but had the thrusters of a DRAVM making it capable of vertical take-off.

“That’s it! That’s the aircraft that slashed my DRAVM in half on the way into this city!” Nightshade declared, pointing her hoof up at it. Red Dragon scanned it over and sent the photos directly to the Princesses.

“'They' love to help...” Lieutenant Spear chuckled, just as the aircraft opened fire on the Imperial agents with the same orange laser that had nearly slashed Nightshade in half when she was on her DRAVM.

Nightshade and Red Dragon retreated to behind the crashed DRAVM as the enemy aircraft descended, pulling out Lieutenant Spear and the rest of her Peace Fighter cohorts and leaving the two Imperials in the middle of a courtyard, their mission unfulfilled.

Growling, Major Nightshade turned to RD, who was merely standing there stoically, staring at the DRAVM wreck. He soon turned around and headed back for his sniper rifle, leaving Major Nightshade to wonder just who the hell owned that mysterious aircraft.

And to wonder just who Red Dragon really was.

Author's Note

Legal note: Princess Celestia and all related characters belong to Hasbro. Lieutenant Strong Spear, Private Gleaming Bullet, and all related characters belong to me. Major Nightshade belongs to Kirlia481. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro.