//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Contra Apparatus // by DarkfireSpawns //------------------------------// I had always been someone who hated getting out of bed early. While you would meet some ponies who would walk down the stairs with a slightly groggy look on their face but upon seeing another pony they would greet them with a tired 'Good morning!' With me however my greeting was more akin to 'Fuck off'. This is probably why I don't have many friends in my life but as I always said as a kid: who needs friends when you have money?. This rule never actually applied to me seeing how I was born into a family that was so broke we couldn't afford to pay attention... but that's the joy of life right? I was rudely awoken by a loud banging on my apartment door. There was a loud digital buzzing sound and a Holoscreen appeared in front of me. "Aiden!" an angry voice yelled at me. This was my landlord Darwin. Everypony in the apartment block called him Mr Baldini because of the fact his mane had died off when he was in his early twenties. I myself always called him by a nickname I chose: Fat cunt. I don't really need to explain why, do I? My first plan was to ignore him but then I remembered that he could see me through his own Holoscreen and that he knew I was there. "Aiden!" he roared again. "Fuck off..." I groaned, turning over in my bed. See? Usual morning greeting. "I swear, if you don't get your ass out of bed and open this door I'll kick it down myself!" he said. Darwin always had this terrible habit of going extremely red in the face whenever he would yell at someone. He didn't do it naturally, it was something he did to try and intimidate people. When he does it to me though I always just laugh at him. "And I thought you were the one always telling me not to break things in this place?" I asked, cracking open a bloodshot eye and glaring at him "I think I might come out there and slap you around for a while you hypocritical fuck" "Try it kid and I'll drop you to the floor in seconds" he snarled. "You couldn't drop a shit mate" I laughed. I really shouldn't have laughed at that. My head started to pound after a while and it felt like I'd been kicked in the face by one of the Auger Soldiers. Though thinking back to some of the wilder nights I'd had in my life that probably was what had happened. "Just get out here" Darwin sighed. "Yes, Your Baldness" I grinned, bowing my head mockingly. I ended the transmission before he lost his shit with me again. He hated being called bald and he hated me even more. I think his hate is a little unfounded to be honest, I mean I only got off with his wife once. It was fair play really, the woman was thirstier than a fish and she sucked like a sponge. OK so maybe I did nail his wife at a party but I wasn't in the right set of mind when I did it. I can't use alcohol as an excuse. I was sober at the time and knew exactly what I was doing. Good times, good times. I kicked off my bed covers and got out of my bed. My hooves hit the carpet floor and I walked out of my bedroom. I looked around my little apartment, still being able Darwin arguing with somepony else outside the door, and I turned on the TV screen. The small silver box attached to the brick wall illuminated and the circle in the middle began to rotate before projecting out the news channel. "And in today's news the annual tech expo is going to be held outside city hall with the alicorn princess, Celestia watching over the function where industry titans Davin Sarif and Michael Forest will hopefully be unveiling their newest products. Sarif Industries has given several teasing shots of their new prototype that those working at the company have named the IC-AR that will apparently revolutionize the way biomechanical enhancements affect those implanted with them. More on this story after the break" The news had really caught my attention this time around. The reporter was one of the hottest mares I'd ever seen and I could barely take my eyes off her. Oh yeah, and there was something about prototypes and companies, I wasn't really paying attention. I was way too occupied with thinking about what kind of positions that reporter could fit into. I know, I'm a disgusting horn dog that doesn't respect women and only wants them for their bodies. I came to terms with that little shit of genius a few years ago. And besides you don't buy an expensive, hyper-powered Fusion Bike to hear it whine about its problems do you? No, you buy it so you can ride it everywhere before it breaks down and can't go anymore. Misogyny aside though, I got bored with the TV and went over to the door. "What the hell took you so long?" Darwin demanded when I opened the door. "Well you see there was this colossal roaring noise in my apartment and it scared the hell out of me. I went to investigate the disturbance I found out that it was only my bowels telling me that I really needed a shit" I answered, taking extra care to not even be slightly serious. The look I got from Darwin almost made me burst out laughing because he had given me such a scrunched up scowl that I thought his face was being sucked into his eyeballs. Though being the lovely man he was I'm positive he has a lot of experience with balls and sucking. "Your rent's due" he said angrily. "And I'm not pulling that 'falling down the stairs' shit on you?" I asked with an inquisitive look. "What?" he asked me, getting angry already. "Sorry" I chuckled, obviously not meaning it "That's an older movie reference, before your time of course" "I'm older than you" he snapped with a bemused expression. "And boy do you look it!" I chimed happily. "Where is my money?" he demanded, quickly changing the subject. I knew that he was really getting tired of my shit at this point but I thought 'Fuck it' and decided to continue pissing him off. "I'm sorry Mr Brando, please don't get a bat and breaka mah fohkin legs!" I begged, putting on the most pathetic and racially insensitive Italian-Equestrian accent I could muster. "If you don't stop fucking around kid I swear..." he growled with a vein popping out on his face. "Are you gonna make me an offer I can't refuse?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. It was at this point I knew I had pushed him too far. The vein on his head nearly exploded as he roared loudly. He swung for me with a wide arc. I practically had enough time to turn around with how much air he put into his punch. I raised up my foreleg and blocked his strike before twisting it around his elbow joint and straightening my leg. This caused his leg to bend at an extremely awkward angle and he yelled out in pain. I cocked my head back quickly before slamming my forehead into his nose, a loud crack coming from his nasal cavity as the bone broke. I stepped forward and shoved him back with my now released leg. This knocked the stunned old colt onto the floor, where he remained with a whimpering sob. "Wow" I said in a loud voice, grinning widely "That was fucking embarrassing" With that I closed the door to my apartment and flipped over my right wrist. Like everypony in existence at this point I was equipped with an Omnitool. It was a small device, like a watch, that could function as a communication device, voice recorder, hologram projector, camera and pretty much anything else that used an electronic signal that would not be useful in killing and or blowing ponies up. I used the Omnitool to lock the door of my apartment and headed down the stairs. This was because the shitty elevator in the block was busted again. I'm not sure if there's even an elevator carriage in the shaft but I really can't be arsed to find out for myself. I could fix the thing up if there was one in there but Fat Cunt wouldn't pay me for it. And like a great man once said 'If you're good at something, never do it for free'. I checked the time on the Omnitool, it was able to project a digital image of a watch face in front of me so I could see the time without having to stop and look at it, and saw that I was almost late for work. My day job was as an underpaid technician at Sarif Industries who had to help program and fix the machines that were either busted or had a screw loose in them. I'm fucking serious about that, there was one time where somepony sent back a thirty million dollar Ionic Defusor with the claim that it wasn't functioning properly. This was because they hadn't screwed in the activation lock. The lock was nothing more than a loose, black screw that had to be turned four times before it would activate. At the office my boss had a name for those people, he likes to call them the Uninitiated. My co-workers and I just call them retards. It was as I made it out of my apartment block that I realized I wasn't wearing my favorite jacket. It was a plain white piece of clothing that was made out of a tense and durable neuro-fiber that would take and remember the wearer's shape for a perfect fit. My favorite thing about it was the back and shoulder stripes. They were designed with an emitter material that upon registering body heat would begin to glow whatever color they were custom made to produce. I picked a nice midnight blue because it went with my mane pretty well. I'm a vain son of a bitch I know but don't hate me cause I'm beautiful. Deciding that I couldn't be bothered to go up the stairs again to get it I ignored it and headed to the Skyrail platform. The Skyrail was a special vehicle that operated on suspended rails of charged particles that only became physical when in contact with another material called Corelium. Corelium was designed and used on things like the Skyrail to avoid things coming in contact with the rails that could damage them like birds. This also stopped them from eroding or being worn down from transporting the Skyrail carriages because the same particles were repaired by the electrical current that was emitted by the central hub in the center of the city. Ready for another day of boring work and tedious shit are you? Great, if you are then can I switch places with you? I really don't wanna go into work today. No? Alright, let's go.