Lyra surveyed the bar, her current inebriation pleasantly obscuring the generally poorly-maintained nature of the establishment, but not quite managing to dilute the foul smell of bile and sweat that pervaded every surface in range of her unfortunately acute olfactory senses.
Two stallions were making an honest effort to beat each other senseless near the door, fighting over a not-particularly-interesting mare who now seemed to be watching with an amused gaze. Dozens of other ponies meandered around the dance floor, the occasional yelp of surprise echoing around the room as one got daring enough to intrude upon another's personal space in an intimate fashion. Still more simply sat around, trying to drink themselves into a stupor.
Lyra may have been slightly inebriated, but she was not drunk. If she had wanted to get enjoyably drunk, she wouldn't have used a bar that obviously had ambitions of playing host to many unspeakable biological contagions. No, she was here on a mission, having elected to drink only in a futile attempt to mute the horrid surroundings to a level that permitted her to ignore them and focus.
A stallion sidled up beside her, taking the seat with a smirk. He was drunk, and quite obviously so, judging by the pervasive smell of ethanol and regurgitated stomach acid. Lyra almost gagged as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Ca- cnnn..." He sputtered, faculties quite clearly impaired. "Can I get ya a drink?"
"I will buck you in the face," Lyra replied with false cheer, fixing the stallion with what she hoped was a sufficiently creepy smile.
"Oooh th- that! that sounds like funnnn," He slurred, leaning over to rest his hoof on her withers. "Fun mare. Barkeep! Two ovr- over here!"
"Get your hoof off me." Lyra growled, her smile slipping slightly. "Or I will break it off."
"Oh? And wherr- where would you put it afterwarr- after?"
"Oh for Luna's sake." She dropped her head to the bench as two shotglasses stopped in front of them, filled with a pungent white liquid. Without giving the stallion a chance to respond, she grabbed both glasses and downed them, wincing at the foul taste.
"Hey! One of those was mine!"
"Too bad, so sad. Now go away."
"You drink mah shot, ah- ahthinkyouoweme." He mutilated the last few words, trying to hold his stomach contents in place.
"Not a chance, bucko. Not that kind of mare."
"Oh? Y- ya into fillies then? I can dig that."
She turned to him, irritation making her eye twitch uncontrollably. "Okay. You want something from me? Let's step outside."
The stallion's eyes widened in anticipation as he almost fell backwards off the stool, drool dripping from his slightly-open mouth. Lyra nearly gagged as she walked past him towards the door, ducking past the two stallions who were still duking it out.
She sighed as the night air hit her face, fragmented moonlight shining down through the scattered cloud cover. It was an otherwise pleasant night, and she would have been enjoying it if she wasn't here.
"Come on little filly," The stallion gestured to a nearby alley, wobbling on his hooves. "Come show me a good time."
Lyra groaned, cracking her joints in preparation as she followed behind him. "Oh, I'll show you a good time alright..."
She stopped short as she heard the sound of a bag of coin being thrown to the ground.
"There. That's fifty bits. Now get lost, I can't stand your breath."
The stallion dashed from the alley with the bag in his mouth, a well-dressed unicorn mare emerging behind him.
"I really don't know why you insist on meeting here of all places, Sierra," Rarity drawled, looking disdainfully at Lyra. "It's disgusting."
"Not all of us can get lucky enough to get a permanent post in the Interior, Rare," She countered, smirking. "Though I'll take any chance to get your prissy little flank out into the Ruins."
"Quite."
"What was the deal with the colt? Not game to come talk to me myself?"
"You expect me to enter that reprehensible establishment? Dear, are you mad?"
"It's just a bar, Rare."
"Oh, I've seen bars, that is not a bar. That is a dive."
"You think I want to be here?" Lyra accused, gesturing at their surrounds. "This is, quite simply, the only Ruin I know of that's safe and easy to get to from the Interior. Unless you feel like dashing along an opening into the Void, or dealing with the other stuff out here."
"Why not just come to the Interior when you need to talk? It has to be better than this."
"You know, Rare, sometimes I wonder if you're secretly an Insider for how much you go on about how good the Interior is."
"That's harsh, Sierra," Rarity said in mock hurt, pulling a small grate away from an opening in the side of the building and stepping inside.
"Wouldn't surprise me, really." Lyra replied, stepping through and closing the grate, halting for a moment before stepping sideways.
The pale moonlight gave way to midday sun, an endless desert stretching out in front of her as she stepped through the breach. Piles of rubble dotted the sand where structures used to stand, some more complete than others. Lyra looked up at the sky and took in the vista, a malevolent red sun hanging perpetually overhead, countless scattered fissures of un-light searing through the atmospheric haze like scars. No matter how many times she came here, it always managed to take her breath away.
"Please don't dawdle, dear," Rarity prompted, walking towards an archway similar to the one they had just emerged from. "I'd rather not stay here long."
"Gee, I wonder why."
"Sarcasm is unbecoming of you."
"Oh, deal with it. Unlike you, I happen to like it here. I don't have to deal with all the usual crazy that being on the Exterior brings."
"No, you just have your own brand of crazy that comes from living in the Ruins for most of your life. This place is horrific!"
"Not as horrific as some places in the Interior. At least out here you can have legitimate safety and solitude."
"Not for much longer, I'm afraid."
"Oh cut the ponyfeathers, Rare. It takes effort to get around in here, and you contacted me for a meeting. What do you want? Does Administration want another update again? Because I can tell you now, nothing is going on out-"
"You can tell them yourself. You're being recalled. That's what I'm here for, to collect you and bring you back to Bastion for pickup."
Lyra stopped short, eyes narrowing. "Horseapples. I'm not leaving. It's quiet, and peaceful, and I get plenty of exercise, and I get to explore. This is the last remaining place in existence that is even slightly interesting."
"Be that as it may, you just said that nothing was going on out here. Not much point having you out in the Ruins keeping an eye on things if there's nothing to keep an eye on, is there?"
"I... but... you..." She plonked onto her haunches, pouting. "Not leaving."
"Oh stop being such a foal." Rarity ignited her horn, surrounding the uncooperative unicorn with a field of magic, lifting her along ahead of her. "Celestia above, sometimes I think living out here makes you stupid."
"I. am. not. Stupid!" Lyra struggled against the field, ineffectually. "Put. Me. Down!"
"Oh stop flailing."
Lyra snorted, glaring at Rarity through the field as they approached the archway.
"Glare at me all you want, I'm not putting you down until I hand you over to Operations."
Lyra stopped struggling and fixed Rarity with an inquisitive stare. "Wait... I'm getting transferred to Ops?"
"Yes, didn't I mention that?"
"...No. You said I was being recalled, not transferred."
"Oh. So sorry."
They proceeded in silence for the next few minutes, passing through the archway and off the sun-blasted desert, into a lush tropical forest.
"Why Ops, though? Don't they have enough ponies to go around as it is? What use would they have for a Runner?"
"Apparently there was an 'incident' with a retrieval mission, and one of the teams needs reinforcing to deal with the aftermath."
"Okay, so why me?"
"Something about needing a pony that can find her way around quickly. A Pathfinder."
"Makes sense," Lyra pondered, a hint of anticipation entering her voice. "Know what team they're putting me with?"
"Sorry, my ears must be deceiving me. It almost sounds as if the unabashed, outspoken Ruins inhabitant was excited about getting dragged back to the Exterior."
"Oh, eat horseapples Rare."
"Fifteen." Rarity replied, chuckling. "Team fifteen. They bungled their retrieval and lost one of their team in the process."
"Fifteen... fifteen... Oh! Walleye and Woona! They're doing retrievals now?"
"Lunatic."
"I'm sorry?"
"Fifteen's Luna goes by 'Lunatic' now."
"Oh? Well, she did always hate being called 'Woona'."
"She's also the one that they lost."
"What? Woona's dead?"
"Missing, as far as I know. Details are need-to-know at the moment."
Rarity turned another corner, through a thicket of branches, emerging into daylight out of a mouldy crack in the side of a hill. Three guards in heavy Outsider armour sat there, playing cards and plainly bored.
"Oh, wow. They sent the Shining Squad to get me, don't I feel special."
The three stallions looked up, fixing Lyra with identical goofy grins as she was gently set down by Rarity.
"Lyra! How've you been?"
"How's it feel to be back in civilisation?"
"Not too demented from all your time out there, I hope?"
"Oh Celestia above I've missed you three." Lyra grinned, glancing between each of them. "Always a fun time."
"Oh you dirty mare."
"I know just the sort of fun you're looking for."
"But you know we're married to the job."
Rarity groaned, rubbing her face with a hoof. "I'm going home. Do any of you gutter-minded ruffians need anything else from me?"
"Oh, there's plenty of stuff, filly-"
"-but I think you'd be more likely to hit us-"
"-than oblige us if we asked."
With a huff, Rarity ignited her horn, teleporting away. "Disgraceful!"
"Love you too, darling." One of the Shinings threw Lyra a nondescript gray band with an inlaid green jewel. "Your beacon. Bit bland, I think."
"Yea, well not all of us get to have suits of full armour and customised cutie-mark beacons, can we?"
The three Shinings merely shrugged.
"So what now? Do I just head back?" Lyra looked at them, waiting for instructions. "All I know is what Rare told me, that I'm getting reassigned to Fifteen."
"We've got some work to do here blocking up that Ruins breach, so you're heading back by yourself."
"The guards know you're coming."
"They'll take you where you need to go. Admin is a bit tight-lipped about the new team makeup, very hush-hush."
"Yea, I heard, Woona went missing." Lyra examined the beacon. It had been years since she'd seen this, and even longer since she'd first made it. "I'm replacing her."
"No, that's not it. You're not replacing her."
"It's to do with a candidate that they're also considering putting with Fifteen."
"She just arrived on the Exterior."
Lyra groaned, triggering the beacon. "A newbie Outsider? Just my luck they'd get put with my new team."
The three Shinings chuckled simultaneously. "She's not an Outsider."
"What?"
The world went sideways.
(good chapter)
I think the chapters are too short, but with the action jumping around so much I know it wouldn't work to combine them.
Any explanations coming soon on how one is considered/becomes an Outsider?
And we meet our fourth and … final, maybe? … member of the team. I predict sparks. (Of the fiery sort, not the romantic sort.)
I can totally see Lyra as the grizzled, cynical scout. Reminds me a bit of Bradel's vision of her in his Culture crossover (the one with ”Robot Dog” in the title). Though if your Lyra has to deal with the Cutie Mark Crusaders like his did, I predict a lot more than sparks.
… are the Ruins the places where the CMC found their Marks a little too enthusiastically?
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If i were to guess if you get to Exterior on your own or something like that?
Also reading this story makes me thing of one thing. Submachine. They are living it one big Submachine!
Hope Twilight (Insider one) will not find Exterior version of Submashine Loops. She would never break rules to escape
Hope Lunatic is ok
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When I write, I tend to aim for about 2k words per chapter (it's short enough that I can burn a complete chamber out in an afternoon and not feel completely drained afterwards). Just a personal thing.
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It will be explored, yes. Twilight will be asking many questions.
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Cutie Mark Crusader World Destroyers! YAY!
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What exactly IS Submachine? A few people have mentioned it, but I haven't the foggiest what they're referring to.
Lunatic's fate will be explored in the next chapter.
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You don't know Submashine? Freaky how close you got to describing it
Wall of text warning
Submachine is a series of Point-And-Click games in witch player explores said Submachines solving puzles and exploring realy twisted and wierd plot along the way. It is created by polish writer/programmer/graphic designer named Mateusz Skutnik (also named Murtaugh by his fans after the in-game character)
Few snippets from the submachine wiki explaining what Submashine is (or is understood to be):
Link to wiki
Submachine is an non-homogenous agglomerate of buildings, that is constantly expanding. There are two known methods of expansion to this date: creation and adoption.
In creation a submachine is created and built by submachine itself, without a model, seemingly randomly. Known locations of this type are The Basement, The Edge and The Loop. All of these locations are repetitive, simplistic and lack complexity.
In adoption, however, existing terrain is adopted into submachine chambers. Known locations of this type are The Lighthouse and the Ancient Ruins. These locations are all complex and have significant differences between chambers.
The Subnet is composed of individual submachines, which are areas connected to each other by portals, physical pathways[3] and possibly other means. The submachines can have a variety of physiognomies, from ancient temples to futuristic laboratories.
Some submachines have been seen freely floating in the empty void that can be seen from many submachines. Most individual rooms of submachines are cubical, which makes it possible for them to move in relation to each other, an ability which was exploited in the Edge. It also makes it much easier for the different submachines to agglomerate.
There are some recurring themes that submachines can have, such as The Basement, which might form bigger entities in the network. The two biggest main parts of the Subnet are The Outer Rim and The Core. The Core is the original, natural submachine, which is known to include many adopted locations. The Outer Rim on the other is a mass of rapidly expanding submachines created by mistake when humans managed to build submachines. It includes many created and adopted locations.
I have not included whole layers part of explanation cause it would get 8-9 times longer with layers or reality part
So, if this Rarity ever stopped to make things, would the be RareWares?
I love the idea of Shining Armour Triplets finishing each others sentences. Makes them feel like a hivemind.
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Never heard of that either, looked it up and checked out that wiki, that is crazy! A ton of concepts for such a seemingly innocent looking point and click game.
And I very much enjoyed the Shining Armor Triplets finishing each other's sentences as well. Made their character(s?) unique and stand out.
Wait, how do new Outsiders get recruited if Insiders aren't allowed into the Exterior?
The Shining Squad were rather funny. Apparently, the Shinings are more alike to one another than is normal even by the pony-replicating standards of Outside, and this lot of them is thrilled about it. I bet they have a lot of fun at D&D night.
so the plot thickens. ideas forming but I need more evidence before I come to any conclusions. keep up the good work.
in an futile attempt
Wouldn't it be A?
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The word "tattoo" has a secondary meaning, which is a little more obscure, of "a rhythmic pattern of drumming". It's derived from the military.
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Posted earlier comment from smartphone; now that I'm back at a computer, here's a link to 'Robot Dog'.
So far this reminds me of the movie "The One" for some reason. Probably wont once I get a better grip on what is actually going on.
Don't know what kind of cover art you're looking for so i'll throw my attempt into the ring:
th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2014/124/7/c/to_by_thepristineeye-d7h2cru.png
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'Half again' or 'half as much again' is an English phrase that essentially means 'one and a half times'.
So the rifle she's using is almost one and a half times as long as she is.
It's a long rifle.
Core dump, eh?
$ ulimit -c unlimited
4336137 dat apostrophe
4336137 yeah, just so you know, the 's is for possessive, and the s is for plural
that apostrophe really shouldn't be there.
Other than that, I like it.
our theory is that the exterior is a single TARDIS but everyone is exeadingly deep and the outside is a small cardboard box floating in space as all the time circuits and movement mechanisms are broken... It is probably incorrect but a fun notion
he
he
filly."
"Yeah,
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Gone.