Jet Stream sat in his office, scratching his head at the order forms on his desk. "Some ponies really need to work on their penmanship," he said to himself as he tried to decipher the chicken scratch.
"I hope mine was never that bad," a voice from the shadows said.
Jet Stream was startled from his work, his head snapping to the cloaked figure in the dark corner near the door. "Ghost?" he asked beginning to calm down. "What are you doing here? If somepony sees you, I could get arrested," the business pony inquired, annoyed.
"Oh that's not a problem," Ghost said, earning a questioning gaze from Jet. "You see, you've already been found out. We eliminated the officers sent to arrest you, but if you don't disappear it will have been pointless," the white clad stallion explained.
Jet began to sweat as he got up from his chair. "Then I need to be hidden," he guessed. He turned around and his face paled as he noticed the sword in the assassins hand.
"Not exactly the plan, but I can assure you won't be found, if that's any comfort," Ghost stated as he slowly approached Jet.
Jet backed away fearfully until his back met with the window behind his desk. "No wait. I can pay you," he said, almost whimpering. Ghost hesitated for a second and Jet took that as a sign to continue. "Whatever she's paying you, I can double it. Triple it even," he explained.
Ghost tilted his head in confusion. "Is that it?" he asked, as fear quickly returned to Jet's eyes. "You seem confused. You see it isn't about the money for me. No it goes back many years," Ghost said taking a step closer to his victim. "You see I actually used to work here. Military development. I created a stealth system unlike any other," he explained holding up his hoof, showing off the repaired controls on his suit.
"I can enter a locked room without a key or even a lockpick," he said taking a step forward. "And without anyone knowing as well. But that wasn't good enough apparently. The board said it wasn't suitable for military use. I persisted and demonstrated by robbing them while they sat in their chairs," Ghost said, stepping right up to Jet and placing the sword at his throat. "And they fired me. I showed them they were wrong and they fired me," Ghost said angrily, pressing the blade a little harder.
The assassin took a moment to calm himself. "So I'm sure you can see how insulting it is to me that you would pay me not to kill you with the technology you didn't want to pay for," Ghost stated, a hint of his former anger in his voice. Jet was sweating bullets and on the verge of tears. "Oh don't be like that," Ghost said. "At least die with some dignity." Ghost drew his blade back before driving it into Jet's heart.
The stallion's body slid to the floor with a thump as Ghost wiped the blood off on Jet's blazer. "That's one problem down. Time to check on Caramel," he said as he left the room
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Caramel sat in his office unsure what to do. He'd spent the whole day debating whether or not to tell General Hurricane about his revelation. Caramel knew he had a legal obligation to inform the General, but he'd known Rainbow for years now. He couldn't just turn her in after everything they'd been through. Rainbow had made mistakes recently, but was starting to discover a side to herself none of those close to her knew she had. On top of all that General Hurricane never seemed to have his mind all there. There were rumors he even had a black ops unit dedicated to hunting myths.
Caramel was brought out of his thoughts by a soft knock on the door. "Who is it?" he called curiously. After a few minutes of no response the stallion got out of his chair and approached the door. "Ms. Pen, I swear you forget-" Caramel began as he opened the door, only to be met with the barrel of a gun and a smiling Diamond Dog.
"Surrender pony. We need you alive," the dog said as it pushed the door open revealing at least four more dogs, all with guns pointed at Caramel. Caramel froze in fear, unsure what he could do against such odds.
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Rainbow looked at the clock in her kitchen and tapped her hand impatiently on the counter. "Where is Glory with that food?" she asked herself. She had been sitting in the kitchen for almost an hour waiting for the unicorn and Rainbow's hunger was starting to make itself known.
The pegasus heard a knock at the door and jumped up, hoping Glory had finally returned. "It's about- Spitfire?" Rainbow asked, not believing that her fiery maned friend had shown up.
Spitfire rubbed the back of her head, feeling awkward. "I got your message. So.... you wanna talk?" Spitfire asked.
Rainbow nodded dumbly before recomposing herself. "Yeah. I also have something I'd like to show you," she said leading the way inside. Spitfire followed her friend down stairs, her curiosity piqued.
"Not to be rude, but you mentioned food in your message," Spitfire reminded.
Rainbow laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, Glory should have been back by now. Not sure what's taking her so long," she said, not seeming to worried about it.
"You don't wanna go look for her?" Spitfire asked as Rainbow opened the door to the workshop.
"Nah. Glory's a big mare. She can handle herself," Rainbow said, walking up to the display table and turning it on. Spitfire rolled her eyes at Rainbow's lack of interest. "T.A.N.K., pull up the new design in full detail," Rainbow said almost instantly an image of an armor popped up.
Spitfire quirked an eyebrow as she noticed what looked like rockets in the forehooves and shoulders. "You're making new armor with weapons?" Spitfire asked with concern.
Rainbow nodded. "I've had a little closure with my dad and I'm done competing with him," she stated. Spitfire didn't seem convinced though. Rainbow looked back at the design and sighed. "This armor and the reactor are the first projects we ever worked on together," Rainbow continued, putting a hand to the blue light in her chest, shining through her shirt. "I felt connected to him for the first time and turns out he felt the same way. I know I probably shouldn't get back in the armor, but it's all I have of him. I can't give it up either," Rainbow finished, looking at Spitfire, who seemed surprised. "What?" Rainbow asked.
Spitfire shook her head to clear it. "Sorry, but this sounds like its coming from a completely different pony than the Rainbow Dash I know," Spitfire said. Rainbow looked down in shame, but Spitfire pushed her chin up. "I didn't say that was a bad thing."
Rainbow smiled and both pegasi turned back to the armor design. "It could use some color," Spitfire commented, a little put off by the silver. "Hey T.A.N.K. can we see it in yellow," she said and was greeted by the hologram changing to an almost gold hue.
"I'm not flying around in that," Rainbow stated, giving Spitfire a playful shove. A red lock of Rainbow's mane fell in her face, the blurred color blending with the armor's. "Hey that's not bad. Put some red in it," she said. The armor rendered again, this time a with red covering most of the suit, complemented by the yellow rather nicely. "How long will it take to finish it now?" she asked.
"Approximately twenty minutes," the A.I. announced from above.
Spitfire looked at the armor impressed. "It looks great," she complimented.
Rainbow was about to say thanks when the power in Rainbow's home suddenly went out. "The hell?" she asked out loud, concern in her voice. It only took a few seconds for the emergency backup generator to kick in, but Rainbow still had a worried look on her face.
"What's wrong?" Spitfire asked.
"The emergency power only supplies power to vital systems in case of a black out. Those systems are T.A.N.K., the phones and the doors," Rainbow explained. Spitfire still looked confused. "The security system is off," she stated as though it were obvious.
"Why did you design it like that?" Spitfire asked, baffled by Rainbow a lack of foresight.
"I never thought about getting attacked at home," Rainbow replied. Just then a gunshot was heard upstairs followed by the front door getting kicked in.
Spitfire looked around and noticed the armor hanging up on the other side of the room. "Can't you use that?" she asked pointing at it.
Rainbow glanced at it and shook her head. "I need the assembly pad to get it on. Besides its too damaged to work right," she said. "We need to hide," Rainbow stated looking at her desk. Spitfire nodded and the pair made a quick dash for the desk, slipping behind it just as the door was blown off its hinges by explosives.
"Search the room," a voice said. Rainbow remembered the accent and knew it was the Diamond Dogs. She and Spitfire stayed still as flash lights lit up the workshop.
There wasn't a lot to search and Rainbow knew they'd be found quickly if they didn't do something. She peeked over the desk and saw four dogs searching the room while a fifth inspected the armor hanging in the corner.
"This is it," he said. "Contact the chopper, tell them we have the armor," he said.
"Hang on," another said looking at the chest piece. "It looks like something goes here. Maybe the power source," he suggested. The dog scanned the room with a flashlight mounted on an assault rifle. Rainbow ducked as the light passed over the desk and stopped. "What's that?" he asked.
Rainbow heard footsteps approaching. "Looks like the thing Dash had in her chest. Think its what we need?" Rainbow's eyes widened as she realized they had found her old ARC Reactor.
She looked at Spitfire to tell her and was surprised when Spitfire leaped over the desk to tackle the dog. "Weapons down or I kill you friend," she ordered, trapping the dog in a headlock. The dog responded by slamming Spitfire into the desk causing the mare to lose her grip and fall to the floor. Just as the dog was about to shoot her, Rainbow jumped out from behind the desk.
"Don't shoot!" she yelled, holding her hooves up. "You need me right? Let her go and I'm all yours," she said.
"Rainbow no," Spitfire said.
"It's either that or they kill us," Rainbow argued.
"We actually don't need you though," one dog said raising his weapon, surprising Rainbow.
"Wait!" the leader said approaching Rainbow. "Look at her chest. She has a new power source. There must be something wrong with the old one," the dig reasoned, pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Rainbow's head. "How do I remove it?" he asked. When Rainbow didn't answer the dog pointed the gun at Spitfire.
"No wait," Rainbow pleaded. Seeing no way out she answered. "Push it in, turn it to the left and pull it out," she instructed. The dog followed her instructions and removed the reactor.
As soon as it left her body, Rainbow dropped to the floor in pain. She could feel the shrapnel pushing through her body trying to get to her heart.
"Rainbow!" Spitfire shouted trying to get to her friend, but a dog held her back. Just outside she could hear what sounded like a helicopter and moments later the bay doors slid opened, pushed by more Diamond Dogs who had arrived by the helicopter hovering at the end of Rainbow's landing strip.
"Get the armor onboard and call Ghost. Let him know we're done and heading back to base. Hopefully he's finished in Canter lot by now," the leader commanded, before glancing the ponies. "Kill them," he ordered as he started walking to the helicopter with the ARC Reactor.
The dog holding Spitfire shoved her to the ground and Spitfire looked at Rainbow who had begun shaking in pain. She then heard a gunshot, but instead of pain, Spitfire felt the Diamond Dog fall on top of her.
All eyes in the room turned to the door as Glory rolled into the room, two pistols held in her magic. The unicorn fired three more shots in quick succession before the dogs could retaliate and the rest of the dogs around Spitfire dropped to the ground.
Spitfire heard something clink and saw the old ARC Reactor roll out if a dead dogs grip. She leaped towards it and dogded behind the desk just as the rest of the dogs got over their surprise and started shooting back at Glory, who dodged behind the holographic display table.
While the unicorn fended off the attackers, Spitfire started pushing the reactor into the hole in Rainbow's chest. She twisted it into place and Rainbow gasped as the magnet was reactivated.
"That's not comfortable," she said, almost hyperventilating. Spitfire pulled her into a hug and nearly started crying.
"Don't ever scare me like that again," Spitfire said, wiping her eyes.
"I hate to interrupt the moment, but I could use some help!" Glory shouted over the gunfire. "Rainbow, can you get in your armor?"
"T.A.N.K. can you get us connected to the power grid again?!" Rainbow shouted.
"Already working on it. Power should be restored momentarily," T.A.N.K. replied.
"Work fast," Glory said as she popped out from cover and fired three shots, taking down another dog in the process.
"Keep them busy!" the lead dog shouted. Rainbow peeked out if cover to get a look at him and immediately noticed the machine gun mounted on the helicopter. The gunner opened fire and Rainbow ducked back behind the desk as bullets whizzed by them.
At that moment the lights flickered back on and alarms started going off. "Dammit," the lead dog cursed as he jumped into the helicopter. Get us out if here," he said to the pilot.
"But we still have dogs on the runway," the pilot argued.
"Just do it!" the leader shouted. The pilot nodded and started steering the helicopter away from Rainbow's house.
As soon as the machine gun was out of the picture, Glory jumped out of cover and shot two of the remaining dogs, leaving just one more. The dog raised his weapon, but Glory shot him in the leg and grabbed the gun in her magic, ripping it out of the dog's paws. She was just about to pull the trigger when Spitfire stopped her.
"Wait," she said, before turning to the dog. "Your leader said someone named Ghost was in Canterlot. Who is he and what's he doing there?" Spitfire asked.
"I won't talk," he spat at them.
Rainbow trotted up behind her friend. "Ghost is the pony that held me and my dad captive. We only need to know what he's doing," she said. She turned to the dog. "Talk or my assistant is gonna put a cap in your knee," Rainbow ordered. Glory pressed a gun to the dog's leg to drive the point home.
"Wait, wait," he said fearfully. "He was ordered to kill Jet Stream and capture a pony named Caramel," the dog stammered.
Rainbow's eyes widened. "T.A.N.K. is the armor ready yet?" she asked urgently.
"Ready and waiting ma'am," the A.I. replied.
Rainbow stepped onto the assembly pad and the mechanical arms sprouted from the floor and started assembling the armor.
"Rainbow, what are you going to do?" Spitfire asked, watching in amazement.
"Save my assistant," the armored mare replied.
"I'm your assistant," Glory said confused.
"You also know how to take down a room full of terrorists. I'm thinking you weren't completely honest on your resume Glory," Rainbow told the unicorn who laughed awkwardly in response.
"Point taken. On that note I'd like to inform you my name is Rarity actually," Rarity informed rubbing the back of her head. Her former boss' jaw dropped at this. "I work for a world peace keeping organization," she said.
Rainbow shook her head as the helmet was placed on her head, the face plate falling over her face with a cling. "We'll talk later," Rainbow replied as she activated her thrusters. "Right now I have some place to be," she said, as the thrusters propelled her through the room and out of the bay doors.
Spitfire stared in awe. "That was pretty bad ass," she commented. Rarity nodded in agreement.