//------------------------------//
// Burns 
// Story: Dreams 
// by Vocal 
//------------------------------//

	Tension filled the air. The room was dark, even though it was day time; the blinds had been drawn over all the windows. Snow Luck peeked out between the blinds, letting a small stream of light in as she peeked out. The door opened and everypony in the room, those being Snow Luck, Zephyr, Archer and Pearlshine, looked to the door.
In trotted Stripes, backwards. “You were right, Snow.” He said. “The Flame Bloods are here. They didn’t see me, but I saw Flare there. His mane’s still singed from our last encounter.”
“You’re welcome.” Zephyr said. She was the one who cast the spell that set him on fire. “Without me, you may not have seen him before he saw you.”
“So, the Flame Bloods really are here… I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t really sure.” Snow Luck said. “Stripes, go get the others. They’re just outside of town. We’re not going under until night.” Stripes nodded, then headed back out once more. “The rest of you, we’re going to have to prepare for tonight. We’re going out under cover of fog. I’ll provide the cover with clouds from the Everfree Forest.” Snow continued. She paused, looked at the three other ponies. “Any questions?” She asked. The others looked to each other, then back at Snow Luck. Nopony said anything. “All right then.” She said. “In that case, Zephyr, come with me” She turned and trotted off into an adjacent room.
“Oh boy, this can’t be good.” Zephyr said before following her. She entered the room slowly. She was intimidated by what might follow. Intimidated, but not scared. “Yes, Snow Luck?” She asked.
Snow turned around and looked at Zephyr. “Zephyr, I need you to teleport back to Manehatten. Our client is expecting a status report. Tell him…” She paused then paced back and forth infront of Zephyr for a while. Eventually, she said “Tell him that we’ve arrived in Ponyville, that we’ve found the hideout for the Diamond Dogs, and that the Flame Bloods have spread to Ponyville. Tell him we don’t know why just yet. Also, right before you leave, be sure to tell him ‘Rook to G7’. If he asks what it means, just tell him to keep it in mind.”
“All right then.” Zephyr said, nodding. “I’ll be back in a flash.” Zephyr turned, facing the direction Manehatten was. She closed her eyes and focused. There was a flash of light and, poof, she was gone.





Zephyr arrived in Manehatten, on the ground floor of a skyscraper, an apartment complex, which the Snow Crypts, Snow Luck’s gang, had great influence over. They used one of the upper penthouses, this time number 13, to hold meetings with their clients and, if need be, house them. She walked up to the front desk, and said “I’m here to meet with a client.”
The receptionist, recognizing Zephyr merely said “He’s already in number Thirteen.” And handed her a key card.
With a nod, Zephyr closed her eyes once more and appeared in front of the penthouse marked with the number thirteen. With a swipe of the key card, she opened the door and walked in, seeing a brown fedora-wearing colt in a black hoodie “So, I finally get to meet the Employer... And all I see is you? I expected some big, tall, mysterious stallion... But...” She scoffed.
He turned to look at Zephyr, looking impatient “And I expected a progress report, but it seems all you have to offer is a waste of my time. Get to it before I decide somepony else is more suited for the job.” He said flatly.
Zephyr rolled her eyes. This was typical of many clients, but the tone of voice the colt was using made Zephyr realize, this was the infamous Disello. A notorious hassle as an Employer. “Yeah, Yeah. I understand. Well, First off, we're busting into the Mayor's supplier's base tonight. Some gang called the Diamond Dogs.” She explained. “Second, the Flame Blood presence around Ponyville has sky rocketed. One of our members, Stripes, even said he saw Flare himself which may explain why there's so many of them.” She looked at Disello, questioningly. “Have you made any... Enemies that might know about this? You do know how we feel about the Flames, right?”
Disello trotted along the outside wall, out of it again. “I'm sure I have many ponies who would love to see me broken in the gutter, but none of them are stupid enough to do anything seeing as I'm often signing their paychecks.” He stopped, pausing. He looked at Zephyr’s reflection in the window. “Are these Flames going to be a problem, or are you capable of handling them?” He asked harshly.
“Most of the Flames are ants compared to us.” Zephyr defended. “The thing is, there's alot of them. Useless alone, but, thing is, they're never alone.” She paused this for a second. She hated to admit it but, not being new to giving progress reports, knew she had to. “However, there's Flare himself. He's a toughcolt. A hardmule. One rugged marebu—” Zephyr stopped herself, shaking her head. “You get the idea. He's going to be trouble.
Disello sighed. “Exactly how much trouble? Can you handle it or am I going to have to find some other ponies to do this?”
“Snow seems sure that we'll come out of this alive.” She lied. “Well, at least it seems that way. She's not very good at showing fear, or any other emotion for that matter.” Zephyr added
Disello stared back at Zephyr for a moment before going back to looking out the window. “It seems that I need to take care of the Flames myself. Any other problems I need to know about?”
Zephyr looked around before speaking. “Well... One on my team... Stripes... He seems a bit shifty lately.” She said. “If you see him around after this, push him for info... I know he's got something in store that you probably won't like. I can feel it. Just... You didn't hear it from me.”
“As long as I get my gems then you get paid. Your internal gang problems are none of my concern. Just keep in mind that any missing gems will be coming out of the fee.” Disello replied, turning to give Zephyr a hard stare. “And I'm not paying for any of the cheap trash gems.”
“That's understandable.” Zephyr said. “Now, would you like me to be on the look out for any specific type of gem? Diamond? Ruby? Anything?”
“Not really, but I've been known to pay extra for important gems.” Was Disello’s response.
“All right then. If that is all, I've got one last message for you from Snow Luck. I hope you know what it means, because I sure don't.” Zephyr paused, trying to remember what it was. “Oh, Yeah. `Rook to G7`”
Disello simply stares with a half interested look. “Figures... Oh, and while you guys are in the area, see if you can find out what exactly the mayor has on those dogs... would be nice to have them in my hooves instead of hers.” He turned away. “Now if you would excuse me, I have to contact our Flame friend, I have just thought of a job that will keep him busy while you complete yours”
Zephyr nodded, and left. Once she was safely out of earshot, she groaned. “I hate going over jobs with clients… It takes everything I have to stop myself from burning them, freezing them and pretty much seriously hurting them.” She took the elevator down this time. As she trotted into the lobby, the receptionist said “I trust everything went well?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Zephyr just said, flinging the key card back into the desk before walking through the front door and disappearing once more.





Zephyr reappeared back in the house at Ponyville. Everypony was back. Everypony except Stripes and Snow Luck. “Where’s Snow and Stripes?” She asked.
Alleycat looked to Zephyr and said “Snow left just after we got back. No explanation. She just left.” Alleycat paused briefly, hesitant. “Stripes never came back, said Snow needed him for tonight. Said he felt there was some sort of aura about the caves. He said he couldn’t teleport inside of it and that he was going to try to find a way to teleport out of it.”
“Great. We can’t escape once we go in.” Zephyr groaned. “This smells like a trap.”
“Yeah, but what can we do? We’ve gotta finish this mission.” Ryder spoke up. “There’s nothing we can do.”
Zephyr groaned again. “Wake me up when it’s time to move out. I’m tired from all that teleporting.” She sighed, walking into the other room. “You all should rest up too. We’ve got a big night ahead of us.”