//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: How it Starts // Story: Lunaverse X Shadowrun: First Run // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Chapter 1: How it Starts Trixie Lulamoon was not asleep. Really, she was just resting her eyes. Don’t let the way she was leaning back in her worn out leather chair, hind legs crossed on her cluttered desk, forelegs splayed out to either side of the chair, mouth gaping with a small bit of drool trailing from the corner of her mouth fool you. This is just the way the self-styled “expert private investigator” kept herself charged to leap into action the moment a customer arrived at her prestigious and not at all struggling business! Okay, she was asleep. And out of work. She was down to the last bit of soy-paste in the food dispenser, and was technically two weeks overdue with the rent on her apartment/office. She might have also owed a substantial tabs at the nearest three bars, to the point where she couldn’t even afford the cheapest synthohol on tap. Her ‘assistant’, Pokey Pierce, had taken an extended leave of absence until she could... well... afford to actually pay him. Which she might have done once, maybe twice. But Trixie wasn’t concerned. No, not at all. After all, surely a job would come her way eventually. She had excellent credentials! Graduate of the rather exclusive Canterlot Academy of the Magical Arts under a scholarship program funded by Moonrise Arcane Sciences and Technologies. The MAST President and one of the world’s two known alicorns, Luna Equestris, had personally given Trixie her diploma. Trixie should be swimming in clients! Theoretically speaking. Unfortunately it seemed few appreciated the bargain prices she offered for her incredible magical talents and investigative capabilities. That or as Pokey suggested it had something to do with her tendency to act like “self important jackass”, but what did he know? ... Well, he knew how to bring in clients, and without him around Trixie seemed to be on the fast track to living in the nearest available dumpster. So in short her life was glitched beyond repair and she couldn’t even get properly drunk to enjoy it. Spending the day in a borderline comatose state seemed as productive as anything else she could do. Hearing the soft buzz of her apartment's door chime caused the azure blue mare to snort awake, violet eyes flickering open. She glanced to her foreleg where the small silver band of her comlink fit snugly and seeing her AR glasses on the desk before her, next to a mostly drained bottle of synthetic bourbon, she levitated the glasses to her face with a glow of pale blue magic. Once the glasses were perched before her eyes she saw the icons of her apartment spring up through the comlink’s signal. Yup, somepony was outside her door, chiming it. Trixie yawned and flopped out of her chair, awkwardly trotting towards the door on the other side of the living room, which pulled double duty as her office. She had to weave around clutter that had accumulated since Pokey left, cartons of soy-noodles and empty liters of soda. Her apartment’s cleaner drone had broken down a week ago. Getting to the door Trixie examined the exterior icons in her AR glasses and frowned. She didn’t see a signal from whoever was outside her door. No comlink icon at all. The drek? Trixie suddenly felt a small grip of fear in her gut and immediately glanced back at her desk where her Street Colt 20 autoloader was in the drawer. If this was a robber should she just wait, arm herself, call plex security...? “Trixie? Trixie Lulamoon, are you in there?” said a voice from beyond the door, a female tone with an easy, smooth voice that sounded vaguely familiar to Trixie. The unicorn mare licked her lips in pensive thought, then reached a hoof to the exterior com, saying “If I am who are you and why do you care?” There was a pause, then “I’m interested in offering you a job. Don’t know if you remember me but its Lyra Heartstrings.” Lyra Heartstrings? Name didn’t strike any bells, but Trixie scanned her brain, trying to recall... wait... “Canterlot Academy, you were in some of my classes... we were in a study group together, right?” she shook her head, remembering an easy going mint green unicorn mare, but not much else. “Great, so you do remember. Can I come in?” Trixie hesitated a moment longer, then sighed, figuring that if she was about to get robbed there really wasn’t much this mare could take. She brushed the open icon on the door and it slid open to reveal Lyra Heartstrings. She was a young, fit looking mare, mint green just like Trixie remembered. Gold yellow eyes looked at Trixie over the rim of mirror shade glasses. Lyra was wearing a nondescript gray jacket zipped up to her neck and matching socks on her hind legs. Her mane and tail were a little unkempt, but in a way that seemed styled rather than the result of not caring, both having a shiny gossamer quality to them. “So, uh, you letting me in or what?” Lyra asked and Trixie realized she’d been staring. “Yes, yes come in,” Trixie said, shaking her head and standing aside to let Lyra walk in. Lyra entered and gave her apartment a quick look while Trixie signaled the door to slid silently closed. “Hm, nice place,” Lyra said as she gingerly stepped around the mess. Trixie frowned, wondering if she was being mocked or not, “Cleaning drone’s out of commission,” she said somewhat defensively as she made her own way back to her desk and sat down. She didn’t have a spot for a client to sit, but there was a couch up against one of the walls opposite the trid-wall, which was currently playing a random nature channel showing a picturesque forest scene with frolicking animals; the kind of scene you usually only got in well maintained parks. The wildernesses of Equestria since the Awakening were less than pleasant, the nearest one, Everfree, among the most notorious. The fauna there was less about frolicking, more about eating anything that moved. Lyra didn’t sit on the couch, instead standing relaxed in front of Trixie’s desk. “So you been doing alright?” asked Lyra, “Been, what, two years since the Academy?” “You said you were here about a job?” Trixie said, ignoring the question, and not really in the mood for small talk, feeling a little challenged by this other mare who seemed to be doing quite well for herself. That jacket looked like real leather, not the cheap synthetic stuff that was common to the lower class. Lyra blinked at Trixie, then seemed to drop the casual stance and took on a serious look, “Yes, I do. To the tune of 25,000 bits.” Trixie tried to keep her jaw from dropping. She was fairly certain she failed but she composed herself quickly, though she couldn’t keep herself from leaning forward on her desk a bit too eagerly, “That’s a... very generous fee, though usually I set my own prices for investigative work-” “This wouldn’t be an investigation,” said Lyra, “This is more a freelance task that requires your skill with magic. Particularly as an Awakened mage.” Trixie’s brow creased, “Why that in particular?” “The job will likely involve you needing to project yourself to the astral plane. You can do that right?” The snort Trixie gave was mostly of indignation, “Of course I can!” “Hey, I had to be sure. I remember you were always complaining about the classes on hermetic sorcery.” “The professors just relied way too much on symbols and form, not enough proper demonstration. I learn better by seeing things done,” Trixie said, then sighed, “Unicorn magic comes more naturally to me anyway. But, yes, I can project, if that’s what you need. Not much else though. I don’t really like using Awakened sorcery.” Lyra quirked an eyebrow at that, Trixie just shrugging at her, “The magic doesn’t come from me, with sorcery. It comes from the mana permeating everything else since the Awakening. Just feels... off, when I have to use it, alright? Should charge you extra for having to do an astral projection.” “The price isn’t negotiable. Your cut would be 25k, straight up. This purchases your cooperation, your skills, and most importantly, your discretion.” Trixie’s complaints were honestly less about the prospect of an astral projection (which she didn’t relish but could deal with), but because she didn’t want to sound too eager. Twenty five thousand bits would set her solid for over a year, but it was just good practice not to leap headfirst into any job offer, desperate or not. Besides, this sounded somewhat... shadowy. Trixie gulped, she’d seen the trid shows. Read the pulp digital novels. Lyra was playing the role to a T, with the dress, the talk. It was kind of surreal, actually. Trixie decided to play along, though she was wary of this being some kind of joke. “... Riiiiight, okay I’ll bite, Lyra, what exactly is this job?” “Can’t give you the details up front like this Trixie. I need you in, and with the rest of the team, before we talk about anything compromising. What I can tell you is that you’d be working directly with me my team to perform magical assistance to our operation, which isn’t strictly legal. There would be risks involved, but that’s why your cut is as high as it is. You feeling me, chummer?” Moon, she’s even using the slang... Trixie blinked. Was this for real? “So you want me to help you do something that’s... how shall I put this... best done in the shadows?” Trixie was smiling somewhat sarcastically at this. Lyra sighed, and Trixie could see the eye-roll behind the mirrorshades, “Look, you want me to drop the act? I’ll drop the act if this makes this go faster. Yes, I’m a shadowrunner. No, its not polite, or professional, to actually use the damn terms. Blame popular media for making how our business works public knowledge. But, yeah, you’d be hired to help my team take care of an illegal task me and my team been commissioned to do.” Trixie snorted, “You’re kidding? You’re kidding right? I mean, I can accept that there are ponies who do that kind of work, but it actually works the way it shows in the trids?” “More or less. The trid shows make it sound more dramatic than it is, but the terminology is mostly accurate. Now are you interest or not?” Trixie squinted her eyes at the unicorn across the desk. She barely remembered much of anything about Lyra, other than she was basically laid back and into music. They hadn’t been friends, barely been acquaintances actually. Now her she was, in Trixie’s home, offering her a large sum of bits to help with basically committing a crime. Now there were few ponies who were in any way connected to modern Equestiran pop-culture that didn’’t know about shadowrunners. They were the worst kept secret in the world; the glorified, romanticized, deniable-asset career criminals who worked dangerous illegal tasks for anypony with the bits to pay them. The unofficial pawns in the battles of espionage and greed between the Megacorps. The soldiers of fortune for the wars between everypony from the street gangs to the largest Metroplex crime syndicates. Even normal everyday citizens could possibly hire a shadowrunner for any kind of clandestine task they wanted done, as long as they had the connections and bits to arrange it. And apparently Lyra Heartstrings was a shadowrunner, and was offering Trixie a job. She was still half convinced this was a joke. One of those reality prank blogs. It just didn’t seem possible that this was serious. That old saying about how things being too good to be true. “Let me guess, if I say yes, then don’t like the job, I can’t just back out of it,” Trixie said, more statement than question. Lyra had a entirely straight look, golden eyes going serious as cold steel and her voice matching, “You got doubts, you say no now, because you’re right, once you’re in, you can’t back out. Too risky for my team to have anypony who knows the details of our job but isn’t on the job.” Something in that stock stone tense stance, the unblinking way she stared right into Trixie’s eyes, gave Trixie pause. Lyra wasn’t joking. She was dead serious about this. That took Trixie a moment to absorb. She was jobless, borderline homeless, and there were no reason to think that was going to change in the near future. Twenty five thousands bits would... turn a lot of things around. And just how dangerous or illegal could this job be? “... Well... then when do we meet the rest of our team?” ---------- Right away, apparently. Trixie had locked up her apartment and followed Lyra down to the elevators, which went down the seventy two floors to the bottom of her apartment tower to the flashy streets of the Canterlot Mextroplex. The neighborhood Trixie lived in was a standard issue lower-middle class residential zone, nearly identical chrome living towers identical to the one Trixie and Lyra just left lining one circular band around the mountain that had once been bare, some five hundred years ago. A vista of similar towers ranged down the mountainside, all the way to a sprawling cityscape of lights that spread for miles into the hills and valleys to the south, east, and west. The moment Trixie hit the wide concrete sidewalk her AR glasses were lit up with a plethora of icons from advertisements from the local cafes, bars, and shops, to open channels to radio stations, trid stations, taxi services, and personal icons to anypony walking the street who wasn’t hiding their comlinks. The ads for businesses competed in a practical war of images across her vision and she had to quickly adjust the filter settings on her comlink to get rid of most of the irritatingly colorful pop-ups that rushed her vision. “You alright?” asked Lyra at Trixie’s irritated grunt as Trixie followed the mint green mare down the sidewalk, weaving through the technicolor crowd. Equestria had always been a colorful place, but the modern age had only increased the factor by tenfold with the addition of skinart, AR avatar vanities, and dyes so easy to use a foal could walk around glowing neon green if they wanted. Trixie felt almost under dressed for the street with her simple purple magician hat and and cape, almost antiquated... but they were personal. “Fine, fine,” Trixie grumbled, “Just haven’t... gone out in a while, forgot to buffer half this drek they want to pump through the airwaves.” Lyra just chuckled lightly at that and said nothing, walking on, Trixie close behind. After a moment Trixie noticed they weren’t heading for any of the taxi pools along the sidewalk, instead making for one of the stairways leading down into a vast underground parking garage. Trixie wanted to ask questions, but decided to let Lyra lead on this. She’d gathered her Colt 20 and slung it in a barrel holster under her cape, the snub-nosed light caliber autoloader a comfortable weight on her side. She didn’t like using it, but the streets weren’t always safe, and illusion spells sometimes failed. Rarely, for one as skilled and amazing as Trixie, but it could happen. Lyra led her to a slim white two door street car, the windows tinted silver. The interior was plain but comfortable and Trixie eased into the seat while Lyra got into the drivers side and got the car started with a soft hum of magic. Trixie blinked, noticing Lyra putting her front hooves on the grooves of the wheel. “You’re driving personally? Not using the grid system?” Lyra glanced at Trixie, “Harder to track a car that isn’t using the grid,” she said simply as the car pulled out of the garage and went up a spiral ramp to the surface streets and joined the thick but smoothly moving lines of traffic. Above them up the mountain slope the towers of metal with their shining lights got even higher, the high rise residential apartments and office towers of Megacorps, the most prominent of all the ivory spire that was Moonrise Arcane Sciences and Technologies headquarters. At the base of that spire Trixie could just barely make out the much smaller but somehow more... elegant towers of stone that had once been the ancient Canterlot Royal Palace. Now a closed off site where none were allowed to go. Trixie didn’t even begin to guess as to why MAST’s mysterious alicorn ceo had an issue with anypony entering the old relic; she hadn’t ruled there for centuries. Equestira had no Princess’ anymore; one lost to madness so long ago that most just believed the existence of Celestia and her fall into a power crazed tyrant was little more than a myth, the other to the advancing social changes brought on by the Awakening and the need to adapt to a modern age that no longer needed or wanted a single monarch in charge of things. Of course its not like Luna still doesn’t run half the country with the power MAST has at its disposal. The biggest fish in the Megacorp pond, she runs Equestria as thoroughly as any sanctioned ruler would... dropping the Princess title was just a formality, replaced with Madame President, Trixie thought idly. Trixie silently enjoyed the ride, watching the neon cityscape flash by outside the window until she noticed that they were taking a large winding freeway that rolled down the side of the mountain towards the south and east, where the lights glittered less and the landscape was more a patch of rolling darkness in the waning sunlight. Raising her head from where it’d been resting on one hoof propped on the armrest of the seat. “Where are we going?” she asked. Lyra didn’t take her eyes off the street, her eyes hidden behind her mirrorshades. “The Ponyville barrens,” was the deadpan reply. ---------- Ponyville... Trixie had never been, and had never particularly wanted to. It was a place somewhat apart from the expansive Canterlot Metroplex, just on the edge where the skyscrapers of polished steel and glass receded to squat warehouses, offices, and small privately owned businesses and apartments. It would have been a quaint suburban zone if not for the fact that it was also a crime ridden gang zone where every other building was an abandoned, graffiti covered haven for those who cared drek-all for the laws of normal polite society. ‘Barrens’ was the term for places like this, where plex security feared to tread, corporate security wasn’t paid to care, and the laws were made by whichever gang held sway in the territory. The kind of place a civilized unicorn like Trixie would never go intentionally... unless twenty five thousand bits was on the line. Trixie didn’t know how the Ponyville barrens came to be, exactly. She didn’t know how any barrens did. Seemed a waste to let what otherwise had been decent neighborhoods just... go, like this. More than half the street lights were out, or flickered on and off in spurts. Most buildings had graffiti on them in bright neon paint that glowed with all the colors of the rainbow in the fading light. There was hardly a door to a storefront of apartment housing complex that wasn’t made of thick steel with clear mag-lock bolts on it, and the ones that didn’t have this were either blackened abandoned husks, or had so much gang tags covering them that was a form of security onto itself. There was hardly a street corner that didn’t have ponies, and even a few griffons or minotaurs, in various color forms of leather clad dress, not even trying to hide the weapons they wore. Trixie’s nervousness must have been showing because Lyra glanced over at her. “Relax Trix,” Trix?, Trixie frowned but said nothing, “We’re not going to be walking far in this sprawl, and the gangs on our street know me. Long as you’re with me you won’t have to worry about anypony messing around with you.” “I’m not worried,” Trixie said, perhaps a little too fast and harshly, “I mean... I can take care of myself.” “Sure, chummer, sure. Look, unplug from the soycafe and quit twitching. Took some convincing to get my team to even agree to bringing in an outsider for this job. Try to act professional.” “I am professional! I’m the very definition of professional and together and completely in control!” Trixie snapped, then realized what she’d just said and took a deep breath, “I’ll be better once I know just what it is we’re doing.” Lyra pulled the car into what looked to be a circular pavilion of stores surrounding one... very odd building. While everything else was concrete or steel, this round three story structure was, of all things, made of wood, with a antiquated feel to it. Trixie stared at it and Lyra chuckled, “Ponyville’s old city hall. Kept as a historical antique by the district. The Dashers use it as their base of operations now and keep the place remarkably well maintained.” “Dashers?” “One of Ponyville’s top street gangs, though they’re more in control of the airspace than anything else; pegasi exclusive and all, though they’ll let posers into the crowd,” Lyra said casually, like she was playing tour guide. Trixie just nodded, noticing that there were some darting pony shaped forms hanging around the top balconies of the city hall, pegasi hovering and flying about, mostly just talking with each other but more than a few eyed the passing streetcar and hooves caressed holstered guns. Trixie saw one particular pegasus whose wings gleamed with metal wing razors. None of the pegasi looked like posers to her; ponies who tried to act and look like other pony tribes. Modern cosmetic surgery and bio-tech implants meant an earth pony could sport wings, albeit far less effective ones than natural born pegasi wings. Some unicorns or pegasi got muscle implants to look more like earth ponies. Trixie even heard of horn implants that, while not able to confer any magic, could still make a pony look the part of a unicorn. Then there were the alicorn posers, who got both wings and a horn. Trixie didn’t get it, but then she didn’t like the idea of implanting any augments or alterations into her body. Lyra parked the car on the north side of pavilion and hopped out, Trixie following. Lyra paid the Dasher’s no mind, even as a pair broke off from the city hall and buzzed overhead, laughing derisively as they did so. Trixie gulped, trying to not to show her nerves though she felt eyes on her from all sides. Lyra led her down a side alley, moving in and out of pools of light cast from building lights like a phantom flickering in and out of reality. Trixie kept close behind. Soon they found themselves outside a three story building with a metal girder large enough to fit a truck next to a simple metal door. Lyra didn’t say anything but Trixie noticed the unicorn’s mouth twitch a bit. Subvocalizing something probably. Trixie surmised Lyra must’ve had an internal comlink, an implant, directly controlled by her mind. Trixie suppressed a shudder. There was a barely audible click and the door opened, Lyra and Trixie trotting inside. The interior was brightly lit, a garage with benches of tools lining the walls. Most the space was dominated by a steel gray van larger than some pickup trucks, its wheels the heavy off road type and its windows tinted black. Trixie saw the bright yellow legs of a pony dangling from underneath the van’s carriage, with a poofy orange tail swaying as a mare’s voice hummed to the beat of mechanical tinkering. A cutie mark of carrots adorned the grease stained flank of the mare. “Hoi, CT, I’m back,” said Lyra and the mare beneath the van rolled out from under the vehicle. She had a pretty face, brightly smiling, with a pair of some of the brightest green eyes Trixie could recall seeing. Her mane of puffy orange curls was only slightly marred by a shaved portion that let the chrome jack-ports stick out, one of them connected to a cable that still ran underneath the van. “Welcome back Lyra! The other’s are waiting up top. Was just finishing touch ups on the Carrotmobile Vers. 4.8, she’ll be good to go in an hour,” the mare said, then looked over at Trixie, unplugging the cable from her head jack and trotting over. She was an earth pony, Trixie noted now, and had a weird scent to her, a mix of machine oil, freshly turned earth, and... carrots? “Hoi, chummer, names Carrot Top, but everypony just calls me CT,” she said happily, extending a hoof towards Trixie, “So you’re the wiz our illustrious and fearless leader’s signed up for this run?” “Seems that way,” Trixie said, hesitating a second before taking the hoof, honestly not eager to get any grease on her otherwise clean hoof, but wanting to get these introductions off properly. Her grandfather had told her the first impression on the crowd was the most important, “My name is Trixie. Investigator and magician extraordinaire!” Carrot Top blinked at that, “Uh-huh. Good to meet ya Trixie!” Trixie couldn’t be sure but Carrot Top had definitely just given her a worried look. The earth pony mare hid it well, but it’d been there. Trixie frowned, huffing slightly, but Lyra was already heading for a set of stairs leading the next floor. “C’mon CT, Trix, let’s get everypony together. Need to get our newest member up to speed.” “Okay, can we not start calling me ‘Trix’, please?” Trixie asked, “It sounds like a stage name for a exotic dancer.” Carrot Top and Lyra exchanged glances, then both said almost in sync, “So does Trixie.” ---------- Lyra reflected that perhaps it wasn’t a good start to a working relationship to comment on how a pony’s name made her sound like she spent her evenings getting intimate with a pole. Trixie was fuming, her face a thunderhead of annoyance as Lyra and Carrot Top led her to the living room on the second floor. “Sorry, sorry, Trixie is a really good name and I totally see how it could relate to your abilities as a magician,” Carrot Top was saying, her apologies somewhat ruined by her still amused smile. “I have never, and never will, lower myself to... to... stuff like that!” Trixie snapped back, a rose tint blazing across her face as she glared at Carrot Top. “We’ll call you Trixie for now, just calm down,” Lyra said, gesturing out with a hoof, “Now let me introduce you to everypony.” The living room was a comfortable if sparse affair, with a large round coffee table taking up the center with a set of simple plush cushions in place of chairs surrounding it. A couch shoved into one corner of the room was occupied by a jasmine coated pegasus mare, her straight teal mane obscuring part of her face as she laid on the couch, foreheads folded behind her head, eyes closed. Forelegs, Trixie noted, that were mostly bright chrome metal, difficult to tell where flesh ended and cybernetic implant began. The metal plating extended to her barrel, though less pronounced, leaving most of her back and hindquarters as flesh and blood. “The snoozing lump of chrome on the couch is Raindrops, our close combat specialist,” Lyra said. “I’m not asleep,” the pegasus mare said, one eye opening, “Just resting my eyes.” At the coffee table a couple of open cardboard boxes contained partially eaten pizza’s and Trixie’s nose twitched at the rich scent of what was, to her surprise, fresh smelling cheese; not artificial. Sitting at the table a magenta earth pony with a well groomed and slicked back mane of two tone pinks reclined with a slice of pizza halfway in her mouth as she gestured and waved her hoof through the air, playing some kind of Neighponese tile game on the trid display projecting from a node in the table. She glanced over at Lyra, Carrot Top, and Trixie entering and waved, setting aside her pizza and coming around the table to meet them. “Ah, let me welcome you to our merry band,” the magenta mare said, coming straight up to Trixie with a sauntering trot, flanks swaying in a smooth, casual gait. Her eyes were bright, her face a polished smile that put Trixie at ease even as she realized that was the point of it. “My name is Cheerilee. Think of me as the team’s... facilitator. Normally it would’ve been me to go and take care of potential recruiting, but since Lyra was familiar with you she decided to bring you in herself. I take care of our teams negotiations, logistics, and ensure things go smoothly. Which means if there’s anything you need,” Cheerilee’s eyes locked onto Trixie’s, and the smile deepened into a playful grin, “You just tell me, okay?” Trixie gulped, then composed herself, remembering that Lyra had told her to act professional. Trixie was a professional! “Of course. So, is this everypony?” Lyra glanced about, “Not quite. Where’s Ditzy?” Cheerilee looked over at Lyra and tilted her head towards one of the back doors out of the living room, “In her room, fully meshed.” Lyra’s eyes narrowed slightly, “She isn’t hitting the target system already is she? Didn’t she scope it last night?” “No, no, no, she’s just checking up on her muffin. You know how she is,” said Cheerilee, “Ever the vigilant mother.” “Ha, I feel bad for whichever colt or filly tries asking that kid out for a night on the town first,” said Carrot Top, “They’ll have eyes on them day and night.” “How Ditzy runs her personal life ain’t our biz,” said Lyra, heading for the door Cheerilee had indicated, “But I want her out here. Need everypony up to speed.” As Lyra went through the door Trixie was left somewhat awkwardly to stand between Cheerilee and Carrot Top, and noted out of the corner of her eye that Raindrops still had just the one eye open, and was staring at her. It made Trixie’s hide itch, a primal fear of being sized up by a predator coming to mind. The pegasus mare didn’t blink, just stared, cold and unreadable. “W-what are you looking at?” Trixie asked defensively, holding her head high despite the way the pegasus’ stare was causing a chill in her spine. “You,” Raindrops said bluntly, unapologetic and not explaining further. Cheerilee sighed and stood in front of Raindrops, “Rains, stop scarring the new mare.” “I’m not scared!” Trixie said immediately, “I just don’t know what she thinks she’s staring at.” Raindrops slowly rose into a sitting position on the couch, craning her neck left and right with audible popping sounds. She ignored Trixie, looking up at Cheerilee with a deadpan stare. Trixie was at once glad to have the pegasus’ focus off her, and insulted at being ignored. “Just getting a feel for her,” Raindrops said calmly, “We’re going to be relying on her. She folds from being eyed, how she going to do when the shooting starts?” “Shooting?” Trixie asked. “Lyra brought her in,” Cheerilee said, apparently not hearing Trixie’s question, or ignoring it, “I think we can give her the benefit of the doubt.” “Again I ask, shooting?” Trixie asked, somewhat more anxiously. She felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked to see Carrot Top smiling at her. “Don’t worry, you probably won’t have to worry about getting shot at in this run,” Carrot Top said, continuing to pat Trixie comfortingly. Trixie would appreciate it more if the earth pony wasn’t getting a little grease on her cape. “And I know that how? Lyra hasn’t explained anything about what I’m here for other than an astral projection.” “Well the wait on that is over,” said the mare in question as she exited the back room, another pony trailing behind her. Lyra trotted up to the table and sat at one of the cushions, giving everypony in the room a look, “Gather round everypony, let’s get this gig going.” Trixie and the others congregated at the table, Carrot Top snatching up a slice of pizza, and another she hoofed towards Trixie with a friendly grin. Trixie blinked in surprise, then gave a grateful nod and floated the slice to her mouth for a nibble. She gave a small whine of delight. Her palate was so used to synthetic soy products with just the standard flavor pastes that she’d forgotten how good real food could be. “Hi.” Trixie turned her head to the mare who spoke and nearly dropped her pizza. Eyes. Bright yellow eyes, more stark than even Lyra’s. Not looking at the same spots. One eye was focused on Trixie, but the other was rolling up towards the ceiling like gravity was reversed. Trixie composed herself, taking in the rest of the mare. She was a gray coated pegasus with a light blonde mane and tail. She had a silver smoothly implanted into her left foreleg, with a pair of datajacks. Her flank bore a cutie mark of... bubbles? Trixie blinked, for a moment not sure where to look and settling for just staring into the one eye that was looking at her, “Hello.” “That’s Ditzy,” said Lyra, “Our resident hacker.” Ditzy got a pouting look, “I still prefer the term decker.” “Ditzy, nopony’s used an actual cyberdeck in twelve years,” said Carrot Top, munching away at her pizza, offering the gray pegasus a slice, who happily accepted and starting munching away as well. “I know, I know, but it just sounds cooler. Hacker sounds, I don’t know, like I’m some kind of criminal.” “Ditzy, we are career criminals,” said Raindrops, one of her ears twitching. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... whoa,” said Ditzy, holding one hoof out with each ‘whoa’, “I’m a professional systems security analyst who just happens to occasionally help my friends with little side jobs they do, which to my knowledge are completely legal.” “That’s your story and you’re sticking to it?” asked Cheerilee with a small laugh. “Mmmhmm,” Ditzy hummed while eating her pizza. “Anyway,” said Lyra, “While most of you already know what I’m about to go over, the refresher won’t hurt, and Trixie needs to understand the job to also understand the part she’s to play in the job. So with further ado...” The mint unicorn mare floated out an object from one of the pockets of her jacket, and Trixie found herself curious at seeing it. A data chip. Quaint. Most information was just transmitted wirelessly between devices these days. Ponies rarely kept information on hard sources unless they wanted to put specific encryptions on it and to keep the data off a hackable device. Lyra plugged the chip into an access port built into the table and the trid nodes brought up a display of a three dimensional topographic image. Trixie noticed a forest of thick trees nestled against a range of hills. In a large artificial clearing in this forest was a facility of buildings, a three story L shaped one surrounded by a number of smaller dome shaped buildings, all encircled by a concrete perimeter wall. A single road led to the facility, snaking out into the forest. Trixie noted that on top of the L shaped building there was a clear landing pad for VTOLs or other aerial craft. “This is a research installation owned by Aurora Heavy Industries. Our client has hired us to extract an individual from this research facility. According to Mrs. Johnson this pony should be in the main laboratory. We don’t have a name but we were told she’s the only earth pony at the lab, with a gray coat, and black mane. Should be easy to spot” “Wait, who is she? And why does the client want her?” asked Trixie, and looked left and right as everypony stared at her. She hunched down a bit, “W-what?” “Usually considered bad form to ask questions about details like that,” said Carrot Top, “Clients hire us to get jobs done without prying.” “Isn’t there a similar client confidentiality with doing investigative work?” asked Lyra. Trixie frowned, drawing herself up under the stares, “Not to the point where you don’t ask questions about what you’re doing and why. I wouldn’t just start investigating some random pony at the behest of another without asking why. I’d refuse any job where I felt the client wasn’t giving me enough information to clearly understand the consequences of the job.” “Doesn’t work the same here,” said Raindrops, “We’re paid not to ask questions.” “Back on track,” Lyra said, “Ditzy’s initial recon of the facility showed fairly tight security, with a least a dozen on site guards and a similar number of security drones. Place has the standard array of motion tracking and heat sensors that can trip the alarms, security cameras, and at least one mage on patrol.” Lyra looked at Trixie, “This is why we need you. We’ll need you to astral project to locate the facility’s mage. You don’t have to neutralize, them, just find them and give us a location so we can take care of it. Also find any wards or defensive spells the facility might have. Again I got something of my own to neutralize that stuff with, but I can’t find them. I’m hoping you can.” “I...” Trixie took a deep breath, “I should be able to do that.” She didn’t like the situation. This sounded like a foalnapping, only minus the foal. How had Lyra even gotten into this kind of work? How had any of them? From what Trixie saw the only pony here who seemed to fit the role was Raindrops. Trixie kept the opinion to herself though, not wanting to make herself look even more out of place than she was already feeling. Easier to just think about the twenty five thousand bits she could earn just by doing a quick astral projection and finding a few wards. “Good,” Lyra said, “So with that settled here’s how I intend for the rest of this to go down..."