Rainbow's heart was racing. She thought she was nervous when she met Soarin, but she was twice as nervous now meeting Maverick. His bright blue eyes were like shining crystals. She tried to remain eye contact with him, but that proved to be even more of a challenge. The look he was giving her didn't help either; however, after a short time she eventually was able to remain direct eye contact with him. For some reason the simple presence of him made Rainbow feel relaxed and more comfortable. She was lost in Maverick's eyes unable to look away from them. She was drawn to them like a moth to a light. The air around her began to get warmer.
"Uuhh...are you gonna let go of my hoof?"
It took Rainbow a while to process what Maverick had just said to her and again she realized she had made herself look completely stupid.
Rainbow yanked her hoof away. "Oh! Uh...yeah sure...I was...uh...um..."
Before Rainbow could finish the rest of nonsensical babbling Maverick reached out and put his hoof on her shoulder. Rainbow's body tensed. Every muscle stiffened and locked and her heart froze.
"Relax." He said in the smoothest most gentle tone. "You look like you're about to pass out. You ok?"
His touch began to feel more comforting the more she looked into his eyes, but she did her best not to get lost in them again.
"Y-yeah I'm fine it's....it's just the drink I had kinda...messed with me." Rainbow wasn't sure if he would buy that, but she was pretty sure she was doing a bad job at hiding it.
What more could she say she thought this Maverick guy was cute.
"I told you that stuff would mess with your head." Soarin chuckled.
Soarin then turned to Maverick.
"So Mav." He started. "What say you and I catch up a bit. What have you been doing these past eight years ever since you were kicked off of the Wonderbolts?"
Rainbow heard this as she was gulping down her drink and almost spat it out when she heard that Maverick was a Wonderbolt.
"You're a Wonderbolt?!" Rainbow eyes shined with glee.
"Was." He corrected. His tone was low and was close to a growl. He sighed, "Look, I don't wanna' talk about it."
"Meh, fair enough." Soarin shrugged, "I assume you want to forget your extremely violent history, not to mention your colorful criminal history. Actually, did you get that cleared up?"
"DAMMIT SOARIN!" Maverick slammed his hoof on the table.
Everyone around him fell silent. Soarin had a smirk on his face, as if that were intentional. Maverick finally raised his head level with Soarin's and mimicked his stupid looking smirk.
"Got anything more you have to say that's old news?" Maverick chuckled.
Rainbow wasn't sure whose side to take here. She hated being the middle pony.
"The fact is Soarin," Maverick stated putting his hoof down on the table. "I've changed. Yes, I was an immature delinquent who liked to starts fights for stupid reasons, but that was 8 years ago. A lot has changed since then and I've felt guilty about myself ever since especially FleetFoot, but let's not get into that."
Maverick relaxed in his seat and sighed.
"I came to have a nice time and have a few drinks, just like everypony here so I would appreciate it if you would stop bringing up shit I did when I was an asshole and didn't know any better."
Rainbow Dash felt a sort of sympathy for Maverick. She knew ponies could change and turn their life around anytime they want to. She figured Maverick was one of those ponies. Maybe he's just a lonely guy with no pony to turn to for help. Instead of his friends forgiving him they shunned him and never looked back at him. He must have done something really bad. As much as anypony would say this was a bad idea she would be happy to have Maverick as a friend;however, she secretly hoped he would be more than a friend.
"Hey Soarin leave him alone cut him some slack. Ponies can change you know." Rainbow Dash budded in.
Maverick turned to Dash with a warm grin on his face.
"Yeah come on give him a chance!" Pinkie seconded. "I'm Pinkie Pie by the way! Sorry for the late introduction."
Rainbow had forgotten to introduce Pinkie to Maverick, then again Maverick hadn't thoroughly introduced himself either. Maybe it was because Soarin said his name so much. Rainbow didn't think a formal introduction was necessary now especially with how embarrassed he must have felt.
"YO! Bartender dude! Over here!" Called a voice further down the table. It was a bunch of irresponsible college colts with punk looking hair and college sport jerseys.
"Duty calls." Soarin sighed. "Catch you folks later...oh, and Rainbow Dash before you leave I need to tell you something. It has to do with your Wonderbolt training."
"You got it." Dash called back as he went down the table to serve his other customers.
"You're a Wonderbolt Cadet?" Maverick asked.
Rainbow Dash had been in the Wonderbolt academy for 4 months now. She had two months to go and the final selection process to go through before she would fulfill her life long dream. As much as Dash wanted that thought to cheer her up, it did next to nothing.
"Yeah, I just passed Nightmare week about 2 weeks ago." She answered as her cheeks flushed red again.
It was starting to piss her off how she couldn't stop that every time she talked to him. She felt like one of those stupid prep girls from Flight School who would blush every time a cute boy talked to them. Rainbow never had that experience until now and it was strange because she had recently worked out that he was probably older than her and seemed to show some sort of interest in her, but why? What was so special about her? She didn't care at this point because she may leave here tonight with her first coltfriend.
Don't get ahead of yourself Dash! Just play it cool and everything will be fine.
"No way! You made it through Nightmare week?!" Maverick seemed somewhat surprised. "Well, I don't know if they changed the training since I was gone, but after Nightmare week, it should be smooth sailing for you."
Nightmare Week was the 3rd week in the 3rd month of a Cadet's training. It was seven days of non-stop physical training with only 3 hours of sleep in between and two shitty meals a day. It was designed to weed out the ponies who didn't have the mental strength to be a Wonderbolt. It was more a mental test than a physical test.
Rainbow Dash actually found the week to be fun. It was the ultimate test for her physical abilities and made her push past her limits and she didn't really think it was that bad. This was something she had wanted to do her whole life and she would never give it up when it was so close.
Maverick chuckled, "Wow, so you're tough and pretty. Who would've guessed?!" He flashed a charming grin.
There was an awkward silence between the two. They just sat there and looked at each other for a while. Dash was getting lost in his eyes again. She wanted to be lost in them forever and never be found again. Her heart began to pound more and her face flushed red, the air around her grew extremely warm and her wings twitched. She squeezed her wings tight to her sides in order to keep them from popping out. That was the usual sign of a pegasus that's excited.
She hadn't noticed that Maverick's hoof had been sneaking it's way towards her's. She didn't care at this point, because she knew it and he knew it. They were in love.
"Well!" Pinkie broke the awkwardness between them. "I see what's going on here so I'll leave you two alone. I might go talk to Vinyl it's been a while since we talked. Catch you two love birds later." Pinkie giggled as she walked away towards the DJ's booth.
Dash saw Pinkie briefly turn around to mouth a few words to her. She gestured a hoof to Maverick, "You got this." Dash read her lips. Pinkie winked and happily trotted off.
Rainbow Dash should have known Pinkie Pie would do something like that to embarrass the both of them. It's how she rolled.
"Well.....that was awkward." Maverick finally spoke. "You know....that thing we had going on when we just stared at each other."
"Yeah....that was....um..." She giggled nervously, "Awkward..."
Dash's face was completely taken over by red and the air around her grew to a scorching temperature and her wings began to fight back more at her struggle to keep them to her side. She noticed Maverick's wings twitched a little bit too; however, his wings looked a bit strange. They were more thick and bold than that of an average pegasus, but it seemed normal to him considering he was pretty big.
"So..." Maverick started, "Tell me a little about yourself Rainbow Dash."
"Well....like most Pegasi, I was from Clouds Dale." She began with a nervous chuckle.
She continued to share more information about herself with her supposed new Coltfriend, unaware that the very Colt she was in love with was making mental notes in his head to give to the Enlightenment Intelligence Office once they kidnap her. She was falling into a trap that she would never see coming.
Despite all of the emotions Dash was feeling, she had this overwhelming sense telling her that something was watching her.
******************************************************************
Shroud had noticed that Maverick was taking his sweet time reeling the girl in. She had never seen first hand how long this process of his took, but if she had known earlier that it took this long, she would have listened to other alternatives.
Shroud had already seen that somepony had already recognized him. He called him Soarin and even Shroud at this distance could tell that he was suspicious of him. The way Soarin would clean glasses and then take a moment to glance at Maverick with a look of scorn as he continued to flirt with the girl made him look either jealous or he was on to Maverick. Hopefully he was just jealous.
The pink one had just now walked away from the duo hopefully making Maverick's job a little more easy.
"Oh shit...." Shamrock muttered.
"What?"
Shamrock's head was slightly lowered to the table, but he was looking left out the corner of his eye.
"He's watching us. Whatever you do don't look to your right."
"You mean Demon Face? Where is he?" Shroud said, resisting the urge to look for him.
"He's in the booths adjacent to us, located by the dance floor." He continued to mutter in a calm tone. "He's looking right at us."
"Do you think he knows?" Shroud asked.
"Quite possibly......he knows I see him. Whoever this guy is, he's not a push over."
"Well we need to do something about him Three." Shroud urged.
"I thought the Rules of Engagement were defense only, therefor we can't make a scene."
Shroud was well aware of that; however, she felt that something needed to be done soon. There's no telling what his objective is or R.O.E. is, and he was showing obvious hostile intention towards them. It's only a matter of time before he does something and they need to be prepared in case shit goes critical.
She sat there resting her hoof on her forehead trying to think of a way to get rid of this guy without attracting attention, but she was finding no solution to her current situation. She always hated these kinds of assignments, where she can't be seen by anypony and must go incognito to complete an objective that she had no idea of it's serving purpose. She hated to admit it, but she was stumped. In all her years of service in the special Storm Hoof Division, she has never been in a situation where she had to make such a critical decision.
Shroud nearly jumped when her hidden earpiece squawked.
"Azure actual this is Emerald actual, how copy?"
Shroud's eyes widened in shock. Emerald team wasn't assigned this task, and worst of all it was Emerald team. They were a bunch of loose cannons who don't know the meaning of the word stealth, they're more of a go in guns blazing kind of crew. There better be a good reason as to why they were here or else Shroud would probably tear her mane out with stress. They were the last ponies she would want to hear from.
Shamrock looked like he heard the COMs just now as well, he too seemed confused.
"Emerald, this is Azure actual, I read you Lima Charlie. Interrogative, what the fuck are you doing hear, were in the middle of a covert OP, over." Shroud replied gritting her teeth in anger trying to keep her voice in a whisper.
"Azure actual, The Great Leader's patients has grown thin, he figured it's about time we let the ponies of this troubled Kingdom know who we are, he's given us permission to initiate code Black-Jack on your mission. This is our gig now, out."
"Oh shit!" Shroud almost shouted.
Code Black-Jack was a code used when a covert operation has gone critical and you were to drop everything and go in loud, in order to complete your objective as quickly as possible. The strange thing was, was that this Operation wasn't THAT critical right now. For the Great Leader to hastily order something like this meant that something was going wrong, something he hadn't planned for.
At this point Shroud had about 10 seconds to warn Maverick of the situation at hand, but he was still talking to Rainbow Dash.
'Fuck it!' She thought, 'He's gonna have to make a hasty snatch n' grab.'
5 seconds left, and no other options. Shroud raised her hoof to her earpiece and came eye to eye with Shamorck. They nodded to each other, understanding what was going to happen.
She drew a deep breathe and began to transmit on squad COM's.
******************************************************************
Maverick couldn't believe how easy this was becoming and he first thought Soarin had fucked up everything for him, but it turns out this girl was more gullible than he had ever imagined even though she was slightly intoxicated, which made it even more easy. In fact it was getting so easy that he might be able score on her before he knocked her out cold.
Hmm....You know she's not that bad looking, besides the weird white stripe in her mane, but yeah I think I'll bang her, why not? That is if Soarin doesn't fuck it up again. You know what I think I'll just kill him if he does that again, whatever it's about time I rap this up. She's already piss drunk from all the drinks we ordered. Man just lookin' at her makes me a bit jealous, I haven't been able to get drunk in years because of these stupid augmentations, wait...is that who I think it is?
As much as Maverick didn't want to see him, Demon Face was over there sitting in a booth adjacent to Boss and Three looking at him, he seemed to have a rather amused look on his face. It was a rather content expression that just screamed, "Do it, I dare you!"
The strangest part was that nopony seemed to notice him at all. It was quite obvious that Boss and Three could see him, but ponies would just stroll right by him and not display any sign of acknowledging his existence despite his easily noticed menacing appearance. Maverick didn't dare make direct eye contact with him, for looking into his eyes was like staring into a mirror of your soul, opening a gate way for him to enter your mind and stimulate every single aspect of discomfort and fear. He did his best to keep him in his peripheral vision.
Maverick had thought that he spent enough time taking notes on her during their conversations and now it was getting to the point where this chick was so drunk she couldn't stay on topic for 5 seconds, plus he didn't want Demon Face over there constantly looking at him; however, he feared that taking her alone with himself was just what he was waiting for. Too late, he already had a plan in motion, he would just have to wing it. Time for the sweet talk.
"You know Dash," He began,"There's something about you that makes you different from the all of the other mares and it's because you understand me and I can't thank you enough for at least just giving me a chance."
He slowly crept his hoof over to her's, again she went red.
"Maverick," She began hesitantly,"I....I really enjoy your company and I was wondering maybe.....we could....I don't know, do this again sometime? Maybe keep in touch?"
BINGO! She trusts me 100%! Maverick you sexy beast you've done it again! Now for my final act!
With a sly grin Maverick connected his hoof with her's and spoke, "Why don't we go somewhere a little more private and I'll give you the answer."
Maverick didn't think her face could get any redder, but it was now a scarlet color, her wings were visibly twitching.
"Uuummm...." She tried to reply.
Maverick's grin went away quickly when he nearly jumped from his seat as he heard a squawk from his hidden earpiece.
"All Azures, all Azures, this is actual, Code Black Jack! I say again Code Black Jack! Go Loud!"
As soon as the message ended a loud clang could be heard from above. Two vent grates crashed to the floor and five black figures gracefully landed in the middle of the club. They wore The Enlightenment's Storm Hoof division combat uniform, which consisted of the Enlightenment's standard Combat Flight Suit or C.F.S. donned with an urban camouflage scheme consisting of a digital pattern of blacks and greys. They also sported light Kevlar saddle vests and even bothered to wear the combat helmet; however, what really set Maverick off was the weapons they had on them.
"EVERYPONY DOWN!" One of them shouted with a rough female voice.
She raised her hoof into the air and two very loud bangs along with short flashes of light followed. Everypony dove to their bellies screaming in terror, Maverick grabbed Rainbow Dash and threw her on the other side of the bar table where they both hid. The terrorizing pegasus leaped off the ground and hovered above the other four operatives, this time she brought two hooves up and aimed them directly at the DJ's booth. A thundering chatter rumbled throughout the club that tore into Maverick's eardrums. The DJ's booth was torn to shreds as projectiles turned the sub-woofers and turn-tables into swiss-cheese. A white unicorn scrambled out of the booth and tumbled end over end down the steps leading to the booth.
The firing stopped, two small trails of smoke could be seen exhausting from oddly shaped metallic brace that extended half way up her two forelegs. Maverick recognized them, they were HM-45's, prototype weaponry that was modeled from ancient weapons recovered from what The Great Leader called "The Verschollen Wars" centuries ago. The very wars that modeled the Enlightenment. These forbidden weapons were in every way crude and could kill a pony in the blink of an eye, but Maverick knew exactly who these people were, Emerald Team. They were one of the only squads in Storm Hoof Division to be issued these kinds of weapons and were essentially the guys you send in if everything has gone wrong, but to Maverick, everything was going as planned. He was as every bit as confused as Dash looked.
The white unicorn, who was presumably the DJ. Frantically righted herself to get a good look at the five masked and heavily armed pegasi that just destroyed her thousand Bits setup. Her purple shades had shattered at her hooves she looked down at them with astonishment then back to her booth and a furious looked came about her. Her eyes, although magenta, seemed to flare bright red with anger.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" She barked, tears now streaming from her eyes, "YOU KILLED HER!"
Maverick glanced over to Dash who's face was stricken with a sudden horror of realization.
"Ma-Maverick..." She stuttered.
"What?"
"P-Pinkie Pie was up there with her......"
Friggin' morons, what was Emerald Actual thinking!? Civilian casualties are absolutely unacceptable! No....wait a minute, that bitch looked like she did that on purpose!
"SHUT UP OR YOU'RE NEXT!" Emerald Lead heartlessly yelled at the unicorn.
"FUCK YOU! SHE WAS MY FRIEND!" The DJ cried back at her at the top of her lungs.
Emerald Lead swoop down at the DJ and struck her with a hind leg, knocking her cold.
Maverick wanted to know so badly, what was going on, but there was no way for him to find out without blowing his cover. Whatever they were here for they obviously meant business if they were showing no regard for civilian life, and Maverick didn't want to find out why.
Wait a minute...Boss called Code Black Jack what am I still doing here? I could just whack this bitch up the side of her head and get out of here. No wait, how about I pretend I'm saving her. I'll grab her and fly as fast as I can out the door and take her around to the back alley where I stashed my gear, I'll be her big hero, bang her, and then knock her out, mission accomplished. I just hope they know Azure is under cover here, plus this entire mission has taken far too long already! I just wanna get this over with fuck it!
Maverick looked over at Dash, surprisingly she wasn't shedding a single tear, but looked as if she were trying to be sad; however, her sadness quickly formed into anger. She growled loudly and then began to mumble to herself. Although Maverick couldn't hear what she was saying, she began to shake uncontrollably and violently. Her face became so twisted with anger that it almost made her not look like a pony anymore. It looked quite disturbing.
Maverick let out a hoof to her.
"Hey, Dash are you o-"
Dash swiped his hoof away with blurring quickness, she looked up at him and what Maverick saw nearly made him shit himself. Dash gnarled at him with razor sharp teeth, her eyes showed the same horribly disturbing inside out colors as the unicorn had.
"HOLY SHIT!" He screamed.
He had no time to think, at this point he had to do. Maverick swiftly knocked Rainbow Dash in her temple, her eyes rolled back as she fell unconscious. There was no time left he had to get out of here, it was now or never. Maverick touched his hidden earpiece with his hoof and began to transmit on an open frequency hoping Emerald and Azure would both hear this.
"All callsigns be advised, this is Azure, I'm pulling out with the objective now! Watch your fire!"
Maverick grabbed Rainbow Dash who was returning to her normal look, once he had her in his forelegs; however, all hell seemed to break loose. A black aurora of magic struck near Emerald team, they spun towards the source of the magical discharge only to be met with a wicked looking black unicorn who shared the same horrifying demonic attire as Dash showed a few seconds ago, only this time, tribal marks glowed along his body, they seemed to trail up to his horn which was glowing bright red.
"It's him! Open fire!" Emerald leader barked.
Within a split second, the entire club erupted into into a hail of gunfire along with red and black bolts of deadly magic causing chaos the likes of which Maverick had never seen. He didn't wait another second, he kicked off the table and flew as quick as he could for the doors. He burst through them and swung around the building into the alley where he set Dash down beside the dumpster while he quickly collected his gear. He hoped the rest of his team bugged out of there in time.
He silently cursed to himself as he frantically began putting on his Combat Flight Suit, then came the Saddle Rig. When Maverick reached back into the dumpster for his helmet; however, he saw something out of the corner of his eye at the end of the alley that he didn't want to see. An all too familiar bright blue pegasus, Saorin.
Oh, crap, that's right! Soarin was behind the table as well when I was hiding with Dash. He must have saw me knock her out and followed me out of there. Great, now I got a new set of problems!
"MAVERICK STARDUST!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, "I should have known you were up to no good! You haven't changed a single bit, now you let that girl go or I'll make you wish you-" He froze mid-sentence to get a good look a Maverick, realization had struck him.
"You're.....you're working with the same people that held up the place, fucking Celestia, you've gone from doing petty crimes to terrorism?! What the hell is wrong with you?! Who are you working for and why are you kidnapping her?!"
Maverick burst into laughter, he couldn't believe he was just called a Terrorist.
"Ahahahaha, ooohh shit! A Terrorist?! Really, that's what you think I am?! Oh, Soarin my old friend if only you could understand, but you can't, you never will. Now I'm giving you one last chance to turn around, walk away, and pretend nothing happened because otherwise I'm gonna have to kill you."
Soarin growled and gnashed his teeth.
"I won't let this turn into another Fleet-Foot incident, her life will never be the same because of you! I won't let you do the same to Rainbow Dash you sick bastard!"
Again, Maverick exploded into a fit of laughter, in fact he nearly doubled over on his side he was laughing so hard. He thought Soarin couldn't get anymore ignorant.
"Oooh, crap dude, don't get me wrong she's OK looking, but I don't think I would go that far with her! We need her for a different purpose." Maverick replied catching his breath.
"We?" Soarin asked confused, "Who are you working for dammit and why do you need her?!"
Maverick paused for a bit. It was a good question, a question he had been asking himself all day. Why was this girl so important? It had to have been for that weird stuff she pulled on him when she snapped, there's something strange about this mare that The Great Leader took notice of, but how did he know about her in the first place and why the hell did Emerald team bust in an open fire on an innocent civilian, and what was up with that black unicorn? The events just didn't add up and although Soarin was being a complete pain in the ass right now, Maverick had to admit that he brought up a really good point.
He nodded solemnly, and then spoke, "To be honest, I don't know. I'm just following orders and even if I did know what makes you think I would tell you?"
"Maverick you either tell me everything right now or I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill! I should have done it long ago!"
*SHING*
Maverick deployed his augmented blade wings and got into a low defensive stance with a challenging smirk. Soarin's eyes widened in awe and terror.
"I'd love to you see you try Soarin. I'm twice your size, specially trained, and physically augmented! What makes you think you can kill me?! I could kill you in half a second right now if I wanted to!"
Soarin began backing away in fear.
"If I were you right now bro, I wouldn't try to be a hero. In fact I would just fly away while I still could." Maverick slowly began creeping up to Soarin.
Soarin somehow seemed to build up the courage to stand his ground. With a look of determination, he planted his hooves on the ground.
"NO!" He shouted, "I won't let you take her! I won't let you ruin her life, she has too much to live for!"
Maverick gave a curious chuckle.
"Why do you care about her so much anywa-" Maverick stopped mid-sentence, realizing the connection. He was surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier.
"Aaaaaw, Soarin has a crush." He teased. Soarin's face turned red with anger.
"Well let me tell you something my old pal, love makes us do crazy things, believe me I know, but think about it, is she really worth it? She probably doesn't even care about you in that way, other than the fact that you're famous. Either way it doesn't matter, I'll have my objective complete, you'll be dead, and the whole world is going to change in ways you never thought possible."
Maverick inched his way closer to Soarin, wings blades at the ready. He began laughing maniacally.
"There's a storm coming my friend, a storm that will change this fucked up Kingdom forever, and the best part is Soarin, I'll be doing you a favor because you won't be around to see it!"
Maverick lunged at the defenseless pegasus; however, when he was about a meter away from Soarin, a dark voice blared through his mind, "And neither shall you!"
The black unicorn materialized out of no where shielding Soarin. Maverick was stopped in mid-air as he was trapped in its insanely strong magical grasp. It felt like he was crushing him slowly.
"You ignorant fool," the unicorn spoke again. He didn't speak with his mouth, but telepathically. His razor sharp teeth were gnashed and his eyes glared into his soul. For a moment Maverick was scared shitless.
"There is another storm on it's way Sergeant Stardust, and you know what the best part is?" The unicorn leaned in close, and let out a demonic chuckle. "This storm has already begun."
White light flared Maverick's vision, excruciating pain shout through his body, his ears rang and he could no longer hear his scream, then there was nothing, but silence and a blackness.