//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: X for Extreme Pt. 2 // Story: Life as a Pony // by Tray Hunter //------------------------------// Chapter 10: X for Extreme Pt.2 A few hours before, at the door of the holdingcell 'You think what I am thinking?' "Ponies in need of help! Mighty morphin powerhuman to the rescue!" 'Oh great, more oportunties to get ourselves killed. Could you at least try to be stealthy?' Smokey sighed "Fine, I will need every memory about sneaking we have! Especialy those that include takedowns from behind!" 'Well, I don't think you could just snap their necks but...would you mind taking a look at the pile of scarpmetal over there?' "Sure." the pegasus cantered over to the recently defeated irons and took a closer look at them. "Thats nothing but garbage! They totaly destroyed each other!" 'Yeah, and with what did they destroy each other?' "With their blades...Oh, of course!" He detatched one of the sharp instruments from the robotic forelegs. "And how am I suposed to wield this? It's not like I am crafty enough to build a hiddenblade or something." 'For once, you have a point there, you aren't crafty enough! Maybe we can attatch it to your hooves.' Smokey took a look at the blade. It was alomst as long as his foreleg. "I could strap it to one of the wristbands but how am I suposed to walk with a large metal piece sticking out of my hoof's end?" 'Maybe if you turn it around? You know, like slicing them into pieces with an elbowsmash!' He tried so and the blade fitted just perfectly. Probably because these were designed to fit an enqine foreleg anyway. "Great, but not enough! I will need some more stuff if I'm going to survive against these things." With that he took another blade from the pile and strapped it to his other foreleg. Next were his wings. Although the blades were way to big to fit(eventhough that would have been totaly awesome), he managed to fixate some small pieces of metal with his rings. Thank Luna, he still had them. 'Mmh...could you take a look at the heads of these tincans? Maybe we can find out how they see.' "Probably with cameras!?" 'Of course they use cameras! But what if they have nightvision or such a thing? Then sneaking around would be totaly useless!' He took up one of the severed heads and examined it. The frontplate of the face was detatchable and featured a small hole that looked like for a unicornhorn. Forunatley it also had some leatherstraps to it. Smokey straped the mask to his face and suddenly it sprung to life. A message appeared before him saying "Unit 658499 failout! Starting in offline mode!" a red tint covered his field of vision, highlighting the irons before him and some of the pieces on the floor. "Great! We have a faceplate to protect my charming little visage and a scannervision!" 'And to hide your face from others! Not only that they would be gratefull, they maybe wouldn't recognize you.' "You think I should try hiding under the robots?" 'Sure, why not? I was getting tired of life and existence anyway.' "So, thats a no?" 'Sometimes... You really think, just because of some aditional pieces of metal and a mask, they will mistake you as one of them?' He sighed and left for the door. The sounds he heard before, meanwhile turned into screams. And the fact that these robots don't scream (or feel pain, still unconforting) meant there was a pony being tortured. Smokey sneaked through the corridors, using his blades as mirrors to check out if a corner was safe. All these hours of videogames and spymovies finaly paid off. After about five minutes of stealthing, through completely empty hallways, he came to an open door. The screaming died short before he arived. A bright black light and a quiet puffing noise could be noticed. "Damn it! We missed Greenhorn!" 'But we can still save this pony!' "Oh, right! The pony." He entered the room and was met by two irons standing side by side in front of a hogtied and blindfolded pony. Without a second thought he jumped between them, cutting through their armor and electronics with his blades. The guards colapsed to the ground. "B, did you see that? We should find a name for that move! How about DoubleSupriseSlasher? Or TwinbladeJumpTakedown?" 'How about you untie that pony?' "Mmh, I don't think that would be a good name for it but- Oh you mean this pony!" He cantered over to the unicorn and removed his blindfold. The pony's eyes sprung open in shock and he tried to kick around. "Hey, whats your problem?" 'Ahem...the mask!' "Oh, right" with that the pegasus slipped his new faceplate up his forehead. The unicorn's expression filled with relief as he saw Smokey's grinning face. Suddenly his eyes went around the room, down to the irons lying on the floor and back to the pegasus before him. "Eyup, and you're welcome!" "Mfftfpft?" "Uh, pardon me?" "Mftftpstft!" 'Now cut that rope around his muzzle already!' "Oh, right!" with that he removed the string and got a reliefed sigh from the unicorn. "Thank you. Those things have been beating me pretty hard." he looked around the room "Where are we? And who was that other pony? I heard somepony yelling at me. He wanted me to tell him something about a foalhound or something in the way." "Beats me, dude. I have no idea where exactly we are. All I know is that this twerp is named Greenhorn and that we won't stay for the night!" the pegasus said with a determined grin. He helped the unicorn up on his hooves again and took a closer look at the two Irons, he just defeated with pure skill and, well, luck. "So, who are you? Why are you dressed like some sort of warrior?" the unicorn pointed at the machines, which now were lying limb on the floor "And what are those things?" "I'm Smokey. Got those blades from one of those buckets here." he kicked the robot with a hoof "I guess they are some kind of robo guards. Pretty badflank but I'm better!" "Well, my name is Lore. Lore Venture. I guess I..." he chuckled "I guess, you just saved me." "Don't mention it. We're not out of here yet." he dissassembled some parts from the irons and looked at them "Now let's get you armed!" Lore looked at the pieces of metal, a confused expression on his face "But... I'm no fighter! I'm an explorer! I can't kill anypony even if I could fight!" Smokey rolled his eyes, shooting him a sceptic look "I wouldn't count those toasters as ponies. They are, as far as I know, just a bunch of circuits and scrap. Plus they won't take easy on us!" 'Hey! I have an idea!' "Let's hear it, B!" "B?" Lore looked around the room and then back to Smokey, who seemingly just spoke with himself. 'Maybe he can see for us when you use that magicsensor!' "Good idea, dude!" he smiled at Lore "Alright! If you can't fight with me, than you can see for me." The unicorn, now completely confused by the strange pegasus, cantered towards him and waved his hoof in front of his eyes, getting an unamused look from the pony. "This will be a long night..." Several hundred kilometres away, behind a small pile of dirt "So, thats the wall? Thought it would be bigger." Berry Punch asked. "As long as we don't find another, 20 m high, piece of concrete to stack on top of it, this one will be it." the blue unicornmare anwered. The defensepost was guarded by at least a dozen turrets, each equipped with machineguns and flamethrowers. The situation was fierce. As in "We will never even get close enough to be met by the turrets!" which also was Ticks' response as he noticed the patroling Ironsquad in front of the wall. "Could you please all be quiet? I can hear you all the way over to the frontdoor!" Ditzy said via com. While the others argued about how to not go there, she made it to the entrance of the controlbunker without being seen. Did you finaly figure out what her position in this mission was? She's the stealth expert! Or, if you want it more precisley, the mailninja. "Ditzy when did you-" the blonde unicorn stuttered. "When you weren't looking. Now, Demo, how do these new charges work?" "New charges?" Punch's eyes shrunk to the size of pinheads as she looked through her gear "Oh Buck!" The shockwave of the explosion got them and tore a giant hole into the place were Ditzy stood a second before. 'Connection to Specialist Doo lost!' Ticks looked at the demolition site and yelled "No! Not on my watch!" His horn glew as he traveled about five minutes backwards. When he reentered the usual stream of time, he noticed that he went too far. The horses arived seconds after him. "Ticks? But you were behind us all the time! Why are you here already?" Vinyl asked. He looked at them and answered "Ditzy, you mustn't go there! And Punch, you should mark your explosives with an index in megatons!" As he explained the situation, the suprise and mindblow went rising from pony to pony. The correct order from meh to whaaat was: Captain "Cool" Burst, Specialist "Awesome" Scratch, Specialist "ORLY?" Safe, Ditzy "Ok, but how do you do time?" Doo and, last but not least, Berry "But I was going to drink these!" Punch. "...and thats why you folks should listen to me when I tell you about stuff like that." he smiled "And don't be suprised if I just disapear or reapear with a bunch of scratches on my face." Burst was the first to break through the silence "Alright team! New orders! The rookie has voice in the planning phase!" "But how do we proceed? Obviously, stealth wouldn't work." Colgate countered. "Thats right, Safe. So we need a distraction while you and Demo go in there." Starberry thought for a moment "Maneuver Oscar Motel Gammaray!" They all agreed, shouting (or better neighing) their battlecry. Only the confused stallion asked "Whats my part in this?" 'Loading Specifications for OMG! Tactical Map Updating!' A route apeared on his map and a bunch of lines pointed in the direction of the wall, everyone in another color. As he turned around he saw a 3D model of each path on his HUD. They indeed led from every pony to the wall. 'Tactical Map ready! Good luck!' "Alright, everypony! Let's kick some metalflanks!" They galloped towards the wall. After a few metres Ditzy took off and flew right into the line of the turrets. Vinyl and Ticks made their way towards the Irons while "Team Berry+Colgate" dashed to the frontdoor. "Scratch! How do we defeat these things? And why do I have to be in the team with the hardest job?" 'Battlemode loading!' "The hardest part? Don't make me laugh, kiddo. Do you have any idea how many of these buckets will be in this bunker? Actually, we get the fun part!" she looked back at him and smiled "Lemme show you ma moves!" She jumped right into the first mechanic crowd. A second later, the first pieces of metal flew up, with a deep, almost earbursting bass and almost hit Ticks. 'Battlemode activated! Moveset adapted to Agent Ticks! Hit something!' "You think this will work?" 'Who of us is the advanced combat AI, huh? Just hit them as hard as you can and they will be down before they even know! Literally!' He jumped into the bulk of enemies and suddenly a metalic head apeared out of thin air, falling to the ground. "Oh, now I get it!" Ticks kicked the first Iron right in the chin, when suddenly his head disappeared. 'Timeswitch-Punch operating at 100%!' As he looked around to find the next closesd robot, a mechanic foreleg popped out before the one left to him. "Gotcha!" Meanwhile at the hold- I mean, Frontdoor "Demo, what did you have in mind about that door?" Colgate asked as they arived. She smiled widely, then closed her eyes and trotted as elegant as she could towards it "Today we recomend the BOOMbalaya in a tomatosauce. In addition we serve a glass of strongflank booze enriched with a bit of magnesia to intensify the temperature." with that she pulled out a small, dripping package with some cables coming out of it and threw it at the door. Burst and Colgate already got some distance to it as the charge went off. The door literally melted out of the wall. Demo simply smiled at them and said "Bon Apetit!" Ditzy came closer to the turrets when suddenly one of them turned in her direction, its servos soaring and the gatlings heating up. "Catch me if you can!" she dodged the first salve with a simple roll and pulled a bunch of letters to Celestia out of her bag. The mailmare threw them at the turret, striking its sensor and rendering the machine blind. You see, there is a reason Twilight doesn't use the regular mail to send her reports to her mentor. They tend to get lost. Vinyl stomped her hooves on the ground, sending a massive shockwave towards the next group. Her beats were also beat, dig? Suddenly an Iron landed on her back, pressing her to the ground. "Hey! Get off! Security!" Sound rolled over just to see nothing more than the body of the robot. She looked around and saw Ticks, hitting one of the guards with an uppercut to the stomach (basically these things don't have stomachs...but I think you get the idea) before its middle part disappeared and limbs and head fell to the ground. Vinyl got up and stared at the timebending unicorn, blasting another Iron's forelegs a few seconds back. And then the head of the next one. Suddenly his strikes got weaker, judging by the decreasing time between apearence of the parts and his actual hits. 'Timeswitch-Punch operating at 3%! Please rest!' "I can't rest right now!" he said in exhaustion "I can't let the team hang! I can't let Smokey hang! They trust in me!" 'Energyreserves at 0%! Vitalsigns orange! Switching off Battlemode!' Ticks fell to his knees. He was at his end. Two Irons cantered over to him, their servos soaring like chainsaws in his ears. Suddenly a shockwave got them and literaly folded them together. The unicorn looked in the direction the force had its origin. Vinyl smiled at him "Hey rookie! You alright?" he returned a weak smile before he passed out. "Sound and the new guy seem to keep them busy pretty well, huh?" Punch asked as they made their way through the bunker's hallways. "Probably it's just Sound and the rookie is out or something." Safe countered "I hope Derpy is alright though." Suddenly a door opend before them, behind it a large terminal. Colgate galopped towards the workstation and began to decode their system, using her magic to operate the keyboard. "Would you believe it? Those idiots seriously use one of the old Trottec systems! I'll have this baby cleaned, powdered and diapered in no time!" she stated, a proud grin on her face. Suddenly the constant clacking of the keyboard stopped and Burst cantered next to her. "So, what do you got for me, Safe?" she querried "Anything that can help us in the mission?" "Let's see!" her horn glew blue and a number of maps and documents showed up on the screen above the terminal "This could be usefull. Seems like it's a map of the enemy base but it's an old one." she pointed at the a small note saying "Area not usable before November 956! ANNM (This meant 'After Nightmare Moon' and thus this map was at least 45 years old)". After a short while Punch cantered up to them, a really concerned look on her face. "Those walls are thick enough to withstand most of my stuff! How do we get in there?" "Pfft! We just use this ol-" suddenly Colgate was interupted by the flashing alert on her HUD. The others apereantly noticed it aswell, as it was a global emergency call from Gladi herself. 'Alert! Agent Ticks just passed out! Agent Sound is requesting a medevac asap!' "Couldn't you just call Derpy? We are busy here!" a very annoyed blue unicorn asked. 'Negative. Agent Derp is currently "Sorting some letters".' "Alright. Alright. I'll go and look after the rookie. Safe! You and Demo try to get every intel you can find and get it into our system! The boss will want that data!" with that Burst galloped towards the exit of the facility. Meanwhile in the Holding Cell "And thats why I need you to see for me, you see?" "It's still strange but I can do that." Lore nodded. Smokey had explained the magic sensor to him, but he never heard of a spell like that. Leave away the fact that the pony in front of him was in no matter a unicorn. "Oh! I have a spell that could help me with that! It enhances my reflexes and lets me think faster." 'Pfft! His brain must be pretty slow, if he needs magic to make it faster.' "Sounds good. But now we need to get out of here. They probably found the guards, I took out already. Won't be long before they arrive here." with that the winged pony cantered towards the door of the cell, peaking his head out of it to check for potential threats. "Alright! Coast's clear!" he waved the unicorn to follow before he rolled out of the cell, towards the wall. He pressed his body against it in order to be as sneaky as possible. Or at least he thought, that would sneaky. No actual stealth expert would search cover in an open hallway. "Do you know where to go?" Lore asked, slowly following his wicked saviour. "Uhm..." he cracked his eyes open in realization "Actually, I didn't think I would make it this far." 'Suprise, suprise! You did not think...' "Shut up! You're not helping!" "What? I didn't say anything." the unicorn wondered as Smokey slid his new mask down to cover his face. "Not you. My b-" he hesitated. What pony would follow a pony, who was talking with his brain? "Your what?" 'Ok, it's not like I didn't think of that possibility! Maneuver Phi! Shamanpony!' "Seriously?" the pegasus whispered, followed by a long sigh "My brother!" he said to Lore. "Your brother? But there is nopony else in here." "Well, you can't see him. He's dead. He's a spirit! And only I can see and hear him." he stated in a very monotone and obviously acted tone. Heavens know why the unicorn actually bought it. "Oh, so you can comunicate with him? What does he say about me?" 'Oh, look at that naive little foal. It's a mystery how he actually made it through that torture. If we get spotted, throw him at the robots and run!' "He says that you...uhm...seem very nice and that you will be of great help in our escape!" the winged pony said with a sheepish grin, fortunately covered by the mask. "Well, I could be of better help if I had my bag. Those 'things' must have taken it from me when they captured me." "Then let's get your stuff! Thats a way better idea than just running around without a clue." An hour later in front of the defense wall Ticks' vision was blurred. His head did hurt as if somepony was constantly stomping on it. The only thing he could hear was the sound of hooves. It weren't his own. No, the feeling on his chest indicated that he was being carried. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a clear view of the hooves under him. Black cloth. "Good. At least none of those Irons." he thought. Suddenly a familiar voice in his head came to life. 'Welcome back, Agent Ticks! Rebooting subsystems! Please wait!...Subsystems online! Minor head trauma detcted! Repairing!' A pain in the back of his head set in. The suit seemed to grow into his neck. Suddenly his vision got better. He now could clearly see the pony, who carried him. Ticks moved his head a bit, just to be met by a multicolored mane. "Are you finally awake?" the mare asked before she stopped in her tracks. "Burst? What happend?" he answered as he shackily got off her back. 'Biorepair complete! Loading logfiles! Restoring! Error! Systemcrash detected! Syncronizing with "Horses of the Apocalypse"! Continuing log! You passed out. Agent Sound saved you. I recomend, you learn to listen to me, next time I tell you to take it slower.' "Will keep it in mind, Gladi." the blue unicorn said, still a bit shaky on his hooves. He turned towards Starberry and asked "How long was I out? Did we succeed?" "Afirmitive! Demo found a way to shut off the last guards." "Berry?" he chuckled a bit "Don't get me wrong, but thats a bit hard to bel-" he was interupted by sudden window, popping up on his HUD. "And you are sure? You don't want any?" he heard Berry Punch's voice, as he saw her hoof, holding a small bottle towards a seemingly busy Colgate. He saw the scene as if he was looking right through her eyes, what also meant that he saw how she was shaking on her hooves. Apereantly, she drank ateast four of those bottles, as he could see some empty ones from the corners of his eyes. "No, Demo! Now stop bothering me! This system is not gonna crack itself!" the blue unicorn in the video huffed. "You're such a lame-o, Safe!" the bottle came closer to the camera, when suddenly it fell out of Berry's hoof. A loud electric sparking could be heard, before she looked down, the video now showing a smoking, black console. With that, the stream stopped as apruptly as it started. "She destroyed the controlunit. Every Iron, conected to this outpost, ceased its function and fell limp." Burst explained as she continued her way into the defensewall and down the hallway, Ticks following her. As they arived at the control room, the other horses were already readying their gear, some of them having small scratches and bruises on their faces. "Hey, rookie! I heard you colapsed like a cardhouse!" Colgate mocked, getting an unamused look from, not only Ticks himself but also Vinyl, who was working on her hoofpad. Derpy was busy sorting a couple of letters and Punch...was drinking again. Apereantly her latest succes taught her that they only had a chance when she was as drunk as could be. "Horses! Attention!" Burst yelled into the group, being met by everypony's eyes and ears "Specialist Safe found a route that will lead us straight to the enemy's base! We will strike as hard and silent as we can!" she nodded at Sound and Safe. Last of them grinning proudly at her finding. "You can count on us, booz- I mean, Boss!" Demo hollered from her position. "What kind of route is this? Won't we need some aditional information?" Ticks asked just to get a laugh from Scratch. "Don'cha worry, newbie! I basically own that kind of route!" she slid her glasses down a bit and glared at him "Time to get underground!" Meanwhile, in yet another hallway of the bad guy's fortress "I'm a 21st century digital...mmh mmh" the pegasus sang under his breath, slightly bored by the seemingly increasing number of corridors they had passed in the past hour. And not any clue of either an exit nor of the gear of the unicorn, who had been pretty quiet. Probably he was either shy, used to live alone or, what B suggested, he had no idea what to say. "So, Lore. Uhm, how did they get you?" our winged protagonist querried to both, get a clue of his companion and kill the awkward silence that surounded them. "I was on a journey in the Everfree forest. They must've taken me when I was sleeping." "Mmh, they took me after a party I think but your story sounds more epic." Smokey grinned sheepishly at his comment. Still he was curious about why they were captured at all. Would they enslave them? Were they just labrat- well, labponies? Was their whole escape plan just an experiment of this Greenhorn guy? And who was this dwerp with the napoleon-complex anyway? 'Hey! Eyes ahead! You can think about such stuff when we have some time on your hooves!' "Shut it, B! We have more than enough time!" "What did your brother say? Are we short on time? Are there others?" 'Your /brother/ says that a pony with a thinking-spell should've figured out my real nature by now!' "He said that we should hurry an-" he hesitated for a second as he went through the unicorn's questions "Wait. Others? But of course! None of us seems important enough to be their lone hostage. There must be other ponies." he thought for a second, unwillingly scratching his neck with one hoof "The cells we passed so far were all empty, so they must've been brought somewhere else!" Meanwhile somewhere else "Damn it! My head!" Lyra cursed, her eyes still closed "How many drinks did I have last night?" she slowly moved her eyelids upwards but the first image caused her to crack them open like loose shutters. This wasn't her room, not the parkbench she would usually pass out on and most definately not the Eatery and Drinkery! (Although Cider and Chef were there aswell.) She looked around, shocked, as she realized that she was trapped. A sheer endless number of small holdingpens, each equiped with electrically sparkling fences and a barbwired ceiling to hold the numerous ponies, seamed the dusty ground. Some of them seemed to still be out, some were already panicingly screaming and yet others were just sitting there as if they were waiting. The unicorn could see high walls in each direction, although they must have been at least 500 metres away, and in the cell next to her she identified the orange colt who made foof for her on so many evenings in the pub. "Hey, Chef! Wake up!" the mare yelled at the dozing cook, just to be met by an anoyed wave of his hoof and a turn-away "Great. Get up already!" with a smirk on her face she concentrated her magic on him, willing to just poke him, when suddenly a lightarc from the fence struck her horn and interupted her spell. Confused by this strange contraption, anoyed by the still sleeping Chef Sandy and foremost concerned by the fact that she was trapped, only Luna knows where(once the intel was analyzed ;) ), without her magic, she sat down and frowned. A few minutes before at a place, Luna knows pretty well where since Vinyl sent a report about their route to Datacon After about twenty minutes of trotting through the tunnelsytem that led from the defensewall into enemy territory, Ticks wondered if this actually was the right direction. Not that he had any doubt in Sound's navigational talent but even she could only work with the intel they had. And said intel came straight from the bad guy's mainframe. "What if it is a trap?" he asked to state his concerns to the others. "If it was a trap, we would know by now." the captain answered dryly, her expression stern and concentrated as she not even cared to turn around to him. "Yeah. The Cap is right! We would've never made it this far if it really was one. Besides..." the white unicorn turned around to the colt, her sunshades covering her obviously rolling eyes "I am in control of our radar and if any boogey or woogey is trying to sneak up on us, they will be sentenced to a quick end!" This statement not only caused him to sigh in relief but also made him wonder how she could even see in there with her eyes shaded. He, for one, could barely see his own hoof and basically just followed Burst's signal light which she would generously radiate from her horn. After a short while, they came to a sudden stop as a massive wall blocked their path. "What now?" Derpy asked. She had been more than just quiet since they left the wall's controlroom. In fact, the pegasus seemed concerned and even a bit frightend which in her case meant that her eyes were wildly wandering in their sockets. Yes, more than usual. "Step aside and let me do mah mag*hicks*!" Punch ordered them, her struggle to stand straight on her hooves clearly visible to everypony else. Already known to her antics and warnings, they did as they were told and cantered back a few metres. Six loud explosions, several minutes and three bottles later Demo returned to the squad, saluting in front of Burst "Specialist Demo reporting! Wall is withstanding all of my booz- I mean, bombs!" The pink unicorn facehoofed and nodded slowly "Yes, Punch. We noticed by now. Safe! One mint for Specialist Demo!" she turned towards Colgate and smirked. Ticks never before saw her show any emotions that weren't related to their plan. And this expression was just to mock her, as Gladi entitled her according to the files, "liquorition-pony". "Pah! Mints? You gotta be kidding me!" Demo countered as she downed a bottle of peppermint liquor "Cap, your jokes were better when you were still dating that OC!" this caused their leader to switch her expression back to a stern, cold mask and Ticks' eyebrow to raise. What was it between her and his friend? Out of the awkward silence that followed after Demo's statement, a wide grinning unicorn spoke up "Alright, little fillies! We tried the drunk's plan, now the DJane is in the house!" and cantered towards the wall, getting an unamused by said drunk. "Hey! Please don't tell me you're using it!" Colgate plead her as Scratch vanished in the dark. The missing response was answer enough for her "Damnit! Gladi, activate the A.P.S.!" 'Initializing Audio Protection System! Loading!' What do you mean? What is she using?" a rather uncomforted blue colt asked. 'Activation complete!' "The Dubinator! She'll use it an-" Ditzy explained when suddenly the world got silent around Ticks. As the A.P.S. was in full function, his suite's textures seemed to grow right over and into his hearingorgan, rendering him deaf. ___________________________________________________________ I know I often stated that this story wasn't over after chapter 10 but...I grew tired of this. So, this is probably the last time you will read about Smokey, Ticks and the gang. Some most likely won't even care as it has been way too long since the last update. As always you all are free to use my characters but I would be happy if you'd let me know whats happening to them. EDIT: This story will be continued. Thanks to you guys, I realized how many ideas i still have for it. It won´t be quick updates but there will be updates.