SHIELD Outpost Kokytos, The Frozen North.
Sirens howled as ponies ran through the complex with a barely restrained panic. In the distance, a booming explosion echoed and drove the ponies onwards.
Agent Sunny Days ran with the herd, trying to keep everypony on point. “Leave it!” she snapped at a group of scientists trying to pull equipment up a flight of stairs. “Just run! They’re coming!”
One of the group turned to glare at her, probably with some speech about the importance of science, but a series of bangs down the tunnel interrupted him. The explosions were much closer now, just behind them in the tunnel itself. Sunny gave up on giving orders and just let them run.
The group congregated inside a huge panic room, enchanted to be totally indestructible. Everypony would be able to hold out for weeks once inside, but the doors were closing. Sunny forced herself to slow down, to ignore the panic and let everyone else in first. Normally, they’d seal the doors from the inside, but that wouldn’t be enough today. These weren’t ordinary criminals or terrorists.
It was A.I.M.
Arcane Incorporated Mechanics was a Unicorn supremacist organization that combined magic with technology with the intent of conquering the world. Some version of the group had existed ever since the original had been defeated by Captain Equestria at the end of the Crystal War. In the modern day, they were terrorists that wanted to subvert the government through a combination of fear-mongering, political intrigue and magic robots.
Sunny skidded to a halt outside the doors, watching them slide shut. Her magic flowed forwards, pushing heat into the control panel and destroying it. She took a step back and the metal turned red and began to melt, dripping down and cooling the instant it hit the floor. She didn’t let up for a moment, forcing the flames inward as the wires and circuitry exploded. The harsh scent of burning plastic hit her, driving her back as much as the flames. Sunny staggered back, nearly tripping as she bumped into someone standing behind her.
“Well, that’s a nice way to say hello.”
Sunny spun around, but with a solid wham was sent staggering back. She growled as her vision cleared. “Taskmaster.”
The mercenary wore a dark grey suit and light grey cloak that helped him blend in with the walls. His mask was a blank, white skull that leered at her like a gargoyle. Behind him a group of soldiers wearing yellow armored suits and holding various crossbows and bladed shields moved in tight formation, splitting up to search the rest of the facility and surrounding her. Sunny gritted her teeth as restraints were fitted around her horn and legs. “I should have known that you wouldn’t dare face me without an army at your back. Your magic doesn’t let you cheat enough?”
Taskmaster shrugged. “Heh. No, what you think of as cowardice, I think of as simple… professional courtesy. After all, you’re a dangerous mare. My magic makes me the greatest fighter in the world, but this mission ain’t just about fighting.”
“Oh, please,” Sunny threw as much condescension into the sneer as she could. “You've stolen everything you know about fighting with your magic. You couldn't—”
“Gag her,” Taskmaster ordered. “She’s just trying to get me to monologue. Where’s Blizzard?”
“Coming now, sir,” one of the ponies said as he tied the gag around Sunny’s mouth. “He’s aiding one of the other groups up the tunnel from here.”
“Why?”
“Because of WO-HOO!” A Pegasus colt wearing a blue and white bodysuit flew in and landed with as much ceremony as one can manage without actual talent. His suit had small piping wrapped around it and a small pack in between his shoulders that occasionally spat out steam. “Oh, you should have seen me! At first, I was freakin’ out, I mean, I was FREAKING. OUT. But then one of them hit me in the face and I was all “you ain’t touchin’ me—”
“At what point,” Taskmaster asked dryly, “did it sound like I wanted to hear an entire story? I’m asking so I don’t make similar mistakes in the future.” He waited for Blizzard to begin to protest and then whipped his foreleg out. The small concealed spurs extended to their full length, spinning inches away from the other stallions eyes. “You are here to do one specific task. If you fail, then our mission is meaningless, at which point I lose a check and take it out on those around me. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
Blizzard’s trembling could be construed as a nod.
“Good. Now get to work.”
With another shaky nod, Blizzard trotted over to the door, staying well away from Sunny and the still sparking control panel. He took a deep breath and raised his wings. Steam poured from the pack and floated across the door on the wind he made with small flaps of his wings. Sunny shuffled back as the steam grew denser. What is he trying to do?
After a few tense minutes, there was a veritable wall of steam between the doors and the troops. Blizzard took a step forward, raised his hoof, and every iota of heat near the doors was shoved away.
Sunny winced. The heat was moving up across the ceiling, but enough of it escaped to make the tunnel uncomfortable. Ice slowly spread across the door and grew thicker. It didn’t stop once it’d covered the entire door; it sank deeper, clawing its way into the metal. The door began to creak ominously. Sunny’s breath caught. He’s freezing the door to weaken it. If it gets too cold…
There was a huge crack, but this one came from the ceiling above them. Everypony took a step backward, pointing weapons and shielding themselves as a series of booms echoed in the small room. Sunny lay her ears flat against her skull to block out the noise as cracks began to spiral out from a single point. For a moment, she was afraid that the ceiling was going to come down on top of them, but the noise ceased. All was silent for a moment, and then—
Kreeeeee!
Sunny gasped as a huge magic field stabbed through the rock, grabbing an entire section of the ceiling. It should have taken an entire team of ponies to do, but she could only make out one field. The multi-ton hunk of rock floated up, slowly revealing the figure responsible.
She wore a suit of armor, with smaller silver plates underneath the more prominent maroon segments. Great silver wings lay folded on her back, gleaming in the moonlight. On her chest was a simple triangle that didn’t glow with power so much as leak it, scorching the very stone around her.
The ponies around her stared in shock, too stunned to raise their weapons. “I… I—”
“Iron Mage,” the figure said calmly. “It’s very nice to meet you too. Now, I’m going to need you all to drop your weapons before I’m forced to drop all of you to the floor.”
“Open fire!” Taskmaster shouted.
All around her, soldiers let loose with whatever weapons they had, to no avail. Iron Mage let the field around her horn disperse as crossbow bolts and thrown weapons bounced off her suit. Her wings snapped open, teal magic flowing across them as she floated down the hole.
That was one of the problems with Unicorns. On paper, they were easily the master race, but even trained Unicorns had severe limitations. Most magic fields couldn’t wield more than one weapon effectively, and it wasn’t uncommon for somepony to be unable to fight with one at all. The only spells a Unicorn could cast were ones relating to their Cutie Mark, so while one that had a fighting Mark wasn’t one you wanted to meet, an army of only Unicorns wasn’t as big of a threat as an army of Pegasi or Earth Ponies would be. A.I.M’s biggest weapon was their magic-incorporated devices, most of which they’d already used.
The emblem on Iron Mage’s chest began to spin. Sunny felt something tug at her magic, and the A.I.M soldiers panicked as it began to reach them as well. They re-doubled their efforts, pulling out odd pieces of equipment and beginning to turn them towards her.
Before they could, a pulse of mystical energy rammed itself through the room. It was like being punched in the eye with a ball of light. Sunny screwed her eyes shut and tried not to scream.
The A.I.M soldiers staggered incoherently around, not sure what do without their magic. Iron Mage landed in the middle of them, lowering her wings and lighting her horn. The huge rock she’d removed from the ceiling split apart, flying back down and re-forming to block the tunnel behind them. The leftover pieces of rock were used to restrain the soldiers and the Blizzard. The enemy disposed of, Iron Mage took a moment to rest. Sunny frowned. Did the lights on her suit just flicker…
There was a series of cracks as the rock pile holding Blizzard froze over and exploded. “Nice try, but I ain’t no Unicorn.” He stalked forwards, steam hissing around him. He drove an intense burst at Iron Mage, coating her armor with a thick sheet of frost. “I’m the Blizzard. Whadd’ya got on me?”
Iron Mage shattered the ice with a mere flex of her muscles. “A few brain cells, I’m assuming.” She fired a hornbeam at Blizzard, but it didn’t even reach him. This time, Sunny was sure she saw the lights on the suit flicker. Worse, Blizzard saw them too.
“So, you ain't got much juice in the suit, huh? Me, I don’t roll like that. I take water from right outa the air, so I never run out.” He threw another gout of steam, this time using it to create a huge boulder of ice twice as tall as she was. Iron Mage dove out of the way, walking right into a hailstorm as Blizard advanced on her. She tried to raise her wings and bring them around, but Blizzard had pinned them to her side.
Blizzard raised his wing, creating an ultra-shard blade of ice as he approached the mare. “Any last words?”
A panel on her shoulder opened, and some kind of disk thrower snapped forward and fired. Blizzard ducked behind a wall of ice, but one of them still damaged his backpack. Iron Mage kept firing, as she moved closer to the other A.I.M scientists. Her emblem began to spin again, taking the scientists magic for herself.
“Hey!” Blizzard fired a cloud of icicles over his barrier, arching downwards towards Iron Mage. None of them broke the suit itself, but the disk thrower was snapped off.
“You want to be the stallion who takes down Iron Mage? Come and get me.” Magic flowed across her wings, melting the ice and sending her racing through the ceiling. Blizzard cursed and followed.
It was a clear night outside, and Sunny had no trouble seeing the fight. Following it was another story. They moved quickly across the sky, retreating to meager pinpricks of light only to suddenly draw close. Sunny was trapped on the ground, forced to watch as Iron Mage was knocked around.
Eventually, it ended the only way it could. Iron Mage was slammed down through the hole, landing in a crater right in front of Sunny. Her wings swung around, projecting her Pegasus magic was a beam of energy to push back the ice coming from above. Slowly, she gave ground as Blizzard came closer and closer. “Do you have any idea what I could get for your armor!” he shouted. “I’ll be set for life! And that don’t even count whatever your cold, dead carcass can get me!”
Iron Mage’s scream of pain was buried under the screech of metal as she slid across the floor. Blizzard landed in front of her, wings poised to deliver the final blow. “Any last words?”
“...Just take the shot.”
He snorted. “Tch. No problem.” With finality, his wings snapped down.
There was an awkward silence as nothing happened.
Slowly, Iron Mage pushed herself to her hooves. “What’s the matter? Take the shot.” Her voice was a trifle smug, but it went well with Blizzard’s utter panic. “Your suit takes water out of the air— but we’re in the Tundra. There’s not a lot of water to go around. You blew out your suit’s vaporator system.” She took a single step forwards. “I’ll say this one time: Surrender.”
“...M’okay.”
Iron Mage sighed. She leaned against the giant door, suit flickering and beginning to fade. Her chest emblem tried to spin again, but for a long moment, it looked as if it were dead. Slowly, it began to move faster and faster as it ate through the enchantments on the door. Only after the last piece of magic was gone did it stop, turning what was originally a state-of-the-art security system into a particularly large and heavy door. Iron Mage nodded to herself, and then glanced at Sunny. Her field carefully floated over her restraints and pulled them apart, taking care not to hurt Sunny in the process. Sunny took an uncertain step backward. “T—thank you. On behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D, I would like to extend the utmost gratitude.”
“Don’t mention it.” Iron Mage ignored her and walked towards Blizzard. Ignoring the various cowardly noises coming from his mouth, she began roughly pulling the equipment from his suit off.
Sunny took an awkward step forward. “As the highest ranking S.H.I.E.L.D officer here, I must ask that you allow us to take custody of this equipment.”
“No.”
Underneath the mechanical intonations, the voice sounded young. Or was Sunny just getting old? She shook her head clear of such thoughts and stepped forwards. “I realize I can’t exactly force you to give this up, but are you sure this is a good idea? S.H.I.E.L.D would be more than willing to work with you if you were willing to make some concessions—”
“I work alone.”
“Why?”
Iron Mage didn’t say anything for a long moment, letting the air be filled with the sound of her field prying a trembling Blizzard out of his suit. “I trusted somepony once. I loved them. They betrayed me. I won’t let that happen again. You shouldn’t either,” she continued as she turned to leave. “After all, how do you think they found your base?”
Sunny frowned. “That’s something we’ll take care of ourselves. Look,” she tried to say before Iron Mage leaped off, “look, would you at least take my card? You can check me out and if you think I’m on the level, maybe we can meet later?”
Iron Mage hovered in the air for a long moment, before sighing. She took the offered card without looking at it, before blasting off. Sunny watched her go, her magic visible for what seemed like miles before she finally vanished.
A loud creak interrupted her thoughts. Sunny turned to see the door slowly slide open as a dozen ponies worked to pry it open. Her second in command, a tan Earth Pon with a black mane named Mayflower, approached her and saluted. “Ma’am? All reports indicate that none of our agents here have been harmed and the Triskelion is sending back-up. It’s half an hour out. What are your orders?”
Sunny surveyed the scene, noting with no surprise that Taskmaster had vanished. Probably when Iron Mage first showed up. “Send multiple teams of three or more to survey the base. I want any survivors either in the medical bay or in the brig. If they see a fugitive called the Taskmaster, they are not to engage without backup. I’ll take some ponies to see what’s been stolen from the labs.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Mayflower saluted and trotted away. Sunny held in another sigh as her ponies began to trot out; she couldn’t let them see her uncertainty.
The Director won’t be happy about this.