Deus Ex: Equine Revolution

by Melon Hunter

Chapter 6: Night In Lower Canterlot

Deus Ex: Equine Revolution

By Melon Hunter

Chapter 6: Night In Lower Canterlot

Darkness greeted Bon Bon as she stepped into the soul gem room. Or so she thought. Suddenly, the room lit up with an ethereal blue glow, illuminating a few unicorns stood around the edges of the room, and Spike, who was sitting next to the door, gazing intently at the source of the illumination.

The drawers and shelves that had once held the soul gems had been cleared away to the sides of the room, leaving a cavernous space in the middle. At the very centre of the room came the source of the glow: Twilight’s spells. The unicorn’s horn blazed brightly, although the reddish-purple aura was drowned out by a blue circle surrounding where she was sitting, various arcane symbols flickering and shifting amongst a network of sinuous lines.

The lines and symbols flowed over Twilight’s body too, causing her mane and tail to drift free of gravity, as though she had momentarily transcended the mortal plane. Her lips moved as she quietly chanted in a language Bon Bon didn’t recognise. The cream pony lifted a hoof to begin to walk toward her superior, before a purple-scaled arm was held out to stop her.

She turned to the dragon, who had a finger over his lips. “Don’t disturb her. She’s been at this for hours; you haven’t seen what happens if you mess up one of Twi’s spells,” Spike murmured. The tone of his voice made Bon Bon sure he was speaking from experience. Even number one assistants made mistakes from time to time, it seemed.

After a few minutes, the circle began to fade away, flowing from Twilight’s skin onto the floor, where it dissipated. The unicorn sagged slightly, opening faintly bloodshot eyes. She climbed unsteadily to her hooves. Her three natural legs trembled as they took her weight, the fourth, artificial leg holding firm. Concerned muttering came from those gathered around the edges of the room.

“I’ve found it,” Twilight announced in a croaking voice. The muttering gained pace a little. “The Skyport district. No doubt the thieves are hoping to ship them out before they get tracked.” A few of the MANE ponies scurried off, no doubt eager to gain the accolade from Alpha Wave for giving her the location of the missing soul gems first. “Now, can somepony fetch me a glass of water?”

The drink was located and taken up in a deep red glow. Twilight drank it down in one gulp, before walking over and sagging against Spike. The dragon wrapped a comforting arm around the unicorn. Bon Bon felt a surge of concern flow through her at the sight. How much had tracking the teleportation drained her?

I wasn’t aware you cared so much for my wellbeing, Bon Bon. The mental transmission carried a hint of amusement.

I’m just not used to seeing you dead on your hooves, the cream pony replied.

Oh, this? Just an act. The spells were pretty long-winded, but not particularly demanding. Teleport tracking’s old magic... it’s been years since I last had to use a ritual like that.

An act? Bon Bon thought incredulously.

Why do you think I’m talking to you through the Hydra? I’ve learned to play my cards close to my chest with MANE. Once they realise they can make use of you, they will do anything to take control of you. I made sure not to explicitly state your identity to Alpha Wave for that very reason, and I don’t want anypony thinking your being here is out of the ordinary. As long as everypony’s staring at me, you’re safe, Twilight explained.

Appreciated, Bon Bon replied. So, the soul gems are in the Skyport area?

No, actually, they’re somewhere in Lower Canterlot.

Wait, what?! You lied—

I wanted to make sure that the storm that’s about to be unleashed wouldn’t come down on the slums. You know how much of a tinderbox Lower Canterlot is right now: imagine the riots that will be caused if the entire Canterlot Police Force barged in! No, I’m going to deal with this like we dealt with the hostages: swiftly and discreetly.

And using me. Bon Bon pulled herself to her hooves and began to walk toward the centre of the room to investigate the remnants of the ritual, half out of curiosity and half to keep up the illusion of Twilight’s exhaustion. The magic had marked the floor, leaving the pattern faintly burned into the tiles.

I have a contingent of Royal Guards who are still loyal to Shining Armor. I know I can trust them with this task. But if we can pin this unicorn down before he or she knows they’ve been found...

I thought you wanted me to investigate the attack from six months ago, Bon Bon thought reproachfully.

I know, I know. Sympathy flowed through the mental bond, its presence marking its sincerity. In that case, there were some ponies that got into the Deep Labs without us ever seeing them. And now we have a unicorn we know can mass teleport. This attack has a lot of similarites with the incident at headquarters; I’m sure if we follow the leads... She left the sentence hanging, causing Bon Bon to let out an exasperated sigh. The candy-maned pony so desperately wanted to delve into the scraps of evidence Twilight had afforded her, but there was no denying her logic. It wasn’t as though six-month-old leads could get any colder...

Then I’ll go down to Lower Canterlot, she replied. I should have a few contacts left from my CPD days...

Thank you. I’ll have Colgate send you the location I managed to narrow it down to. Now, before we go chasing shadows, I want your opinion on something. That unicorn’s costume. Mean anything?

The question caught Bon Bon off-guard. Didn’t Twilight recognise the costume she had worn all those years ago? The Mare-Do-Well costume...

Yes... I’m glad you remember it. All five of those costumes were lost when Rarity moved to Canterlot twelve years ago. The fact one of them’s turned up again is... disturbing.

It may just be a coincidence, Twilight.

No. Why would somepony go to all that trouble of sourcing or replicating one of those costumes for attacking a clinic when they could just use any old mask and cloak? No, whoever was wearing that costume knew I would see them dressed up. There was one camera in that room left functioning to take footage of them. This isn’t a coincidence, Twilight thought vehemently.

You think they wanted to send a message? Not many ponies would know what that costume meant to you...

Exactly. What did they want to tell me, and more importantly, who are they?

You want me to be honest? Bon Bon asked. An affirmative feeling came from the other unicorn. I think they wanted to give you the same lesson you gave Rainbow Dash. Humility.

Humility? That’s... why would they want to teach me humility? Twilight sounded incredulous. She shifted herself, sitting up and looking straight at the cream pony with her violet eyes. Bon Bon turned to face her.

They raided one of the most prominent MANE clinics in the capital of Equestria, right under your nose, and abducted one of your oldest friends. And you know as well as I do that with the neuromancer gone as well, Canterlot will run dry of soul gems in less than two weeks. I think... whoever this pony was, they wanted to show you what being helpless is really like.

That’s a possiblity... but again... what have I got to do with it?

Bon Bon let out a small sigh. She was afraid she would have to explain this. We’re supposed to be ethical. That’s the ethos you founded Sparkle Industries on. And yet we’re making weaponised augs and helping chain ponies financially to MANE... The violet eyes narrowed slightly, and a thread of irritation began flowing through the mental link. An exercise in hypocrisy. Just like in Ponyville, when you used that costume.

The stony silence that followed her assertion told her all she needed to know about its reception. Her golden gaze fell to the floor behind the shaded lenses, trying to avoid Twilight’s glare.

I am quite aware what some... ponies.... say about the company. And what some of them said about the costumes. I didn’t ask you to dredge up some misguided lesson from nearly twenty years ago!

It’s making you angry though, isn’t it? Twilight let out a long sigh, pulling herself out of Spike’s grasp and walking into the middle of the room. Where she sagged before, the unicorn now positively bristled with tension, short, staccato clicks emanating from her hooves as she trotted back into the centre of the room. Anger makes you do stupid things. Bon Bon felt a twinge as she remembered the wake of destruction left by her own rages: the ruined trinkets, the snapped words, the ache of self-loathing afterwards...

Twilight had fallen oddly silent, examining something balanced upon her artifical forehoof. As Bon Bon walked closer, she saw what held the other unicorn’s attention: a discarded pale yellow feather, crumpled as if it had been mishandled. I know. Like losing a friend’s trust. Twilight rotated her limb, letting the feather fall to the floor. Find the one who did this, Bon Bon. I need to make arrangements if you can’t return the gems. Or her... Twilight stared at the yellow feather unblinkingly.

Of course. As she turned to leave, the purple unicorn spoke up.

“And Bon Bon?”

“Yes?”

She felt the violet gaze boring into her once more. “Don’t ever call me a hypocrite again.”

-------

Half an hour later, Bon Bon found herself in the depths of Lower Canterlot, far beneath the castle and the more salubrious areas of the city. Some regarded the district as a stain upon the visage of Canterlot, a breeding ground for crime and misery. Others merely viewed it as a necessary evil to quarantine the upper eschelons of society from these ills. And yet others called it ‘home’.

The bridge above her rumbled as a train passed overhead, carrying passengers to the very summit of the mountain. The street beneath was rough cobblestone, not marble slabs, and the air was thick with scents, from the pleasant smell of street food cooking to the stink of uncollected refuse. Sounds rang out in the chilly atmosphere, mostly vendors still hawking their wares at this late hour, punctuated by the odd shout or scream in the distance. It may have been dirtier, but to Bon Bon, it felt so very genuine compared to the stuffiness of the upper city.

She nodded to a patroling policepony as she trotted past a vent in the pavement, steam billowing out and forming white clouds that drifted upward. While her destination was some distance away, the cream unicorn was here for another reason. Parts of what now constituted ‘Lower Canterlot’ extended into the mountain caves and catacombs and even the precarious makeshift structures of the Under Warrens, slung on the supports of the city above. However, this segment had once housed the lower-class ponies of Canterlot: the servants, cooks, and clerks to the once-dominant nobility.

And, as in any genuinely ancient part of Canterlot, the nobility had left their mark. Here, it came in the form of ‘nests’: tiny apartments cut into the mountain rock, their entrances deliberately secluded from view and protected by a slew of enchantments. Once upon a time, a noble could have engaged in a secret romantic tryst here without fear of discovery; nowadays, the occupants and their activities were somewhat less salubrious. The want for secrecy, however, was unchanged.

Bon Bon had inherited a nest from a retiring officer in the police force just as she was being transferred into the black market augs division. She’d found it to be the perfect safehouse and home while on long investigations down in the district, and had kept ownership after leaving the force, well aware of its extreme rarity. However, she’d never thought she would be returning to it like this.

The augmented unicorn hesitated at the doorstep. She could try and fool herself into thinking she’d temporarily forgotten the pass phrase needed to unlock the door, but Bon Bon knew the real reason. Last time she had been here, four years ago, she had been a perfectly normal earth pony, a future career at Sparkle Industries beckoned, and Lyra had been alive. Now...

The cream pony huffed and tried to banish the thoughts from her head. Later. I can dwell on this once I’ve caught them. She stared at the door for a moment, before looking around furtively. Bon Bon wasn’t concerned about who saw her at the door—more who would overhear her. Seeing nopony around, the unicorn rolled her eyes and cleared her throat.

“I didn’t put those in my bag.” Bon Bon cringed at the voice she had to pull for the enchantment to recognise her. What had she been thinking when she set that? Nonetheless, the ventriloquism worked, and the door shifted ever so slightly, almost as if it had been fused to the mountain stone. Her horn flared and pulled the portal open. From inside, stale air poured out, bringing the musty smell of a room long unoccupied.

Bon Bon kept her magic flowing, using her horn as a light source. On the wall was a small yellow gemstone, which she pressed with her hoof. Several glass orbs scattered about the room burst into soft light, illuminating the nest. The accommadation was even smaller than she remembered, having been used to living exclusively in a large, airy apartment for the past few years.

The room was square, roughly six metres a side, although a bed, desk and several storage containers intruded upon a significant proportion of that space. A wooden door at the back of the room led through to a small bathroom. As the augmented pony walked through the apartment, her artificial hooves sent up tiny clouds of dust.

Her eyes cast about the room for the object she was looking for. Bon Bon’s horn flared again, pulling out storage containers left and right. Most were bare, having been emptied when she left the police force, but one lid opened to reveal a wealth of bric-a-brac that had either been not valuable enough to take away... or something that was better left hidden.

Items began to lift slowly out of the chest, each held in a pale blue glow, until Bon Bon clucked her tongue in annoyance. She may have had fine motor control with her horn, but there were some things earth ponies could just do better. And until a few days ago, she had been an earth pony, damn it. She put her forehooves on the lip of the chest and began tugging out items at random. After a minute or so, she gave a small cry of triumph as her desired object revealed itself.

Bon Bon gazed at the silvery sheet she had pulled out of the box with a hint of reverance. The holoscroll was a valuable enough item for communication and organisation; however, this particular scroll had more important information on it than most. Information important and sensitive enough to leave it buried down here, too valuable to be destroyed, too dangerous to be unsecured.

She activated the scroll, tapping at it with a hoof until the list she was looking for opened up. A list of every informant she’d ever had ties with in her time as a black-market aug detective. Bon Bon’s eyes scanned the list carefully. Despite spending several years in the department, there were barely two dozen ponies here. Building the trust required to make a pony an informant took an inordinate amount of time, and the aug black market was a dangerous thing to be involved in. Consequently, the cream mare’s hopes were not high.

As she scanned the list, her heart began to sink. Each entry listed a name, cutie mark and race, along with the last time they’d been available to contact. Every entry listed a time long before she’d arrived back in the nest, from just after her resignation from the force to roughly six months ago. All her contacts were either dead, gone from Canterlot’s underbelly or had had their tracking enchantment removed. In any case, they were all lost to her.

The augmented pony gave a heavy sigh. After four years away, the odds of any of her contacts still being alive and loyal to her were slim to none, but she’d hoped there would have been something to help with finding the missing soul gems. Bon Bon flicked absently to another, shorter list of informants who had broken contact while she was still a police officer.

As her eyes scanned this page, her heart skipped a beat—or it would have, had it not been artificial. There was one entry still active, last traced only an hour ago. She pulled up the entry. Slipstream. A male pegasus, with a three wavy blue lines for a cutie mark. Fairly low ranking, his black market activity merely a sideshow to his job of retrieving anything that fell into the nets slung beneath Lower Canterlot, be it anything from detritus to a unicorn or earth pony who’d misstepped.

Bon Bon tapped the entry again to get his attention, silently cursing how the police force dealt with its informants. Only allowing informants to contact officers directly, and not vice versa, kept the moles from resenting their handlers, but it also meant Slipstream, if he still remembered her, was completely free to reject her summons.

The augmented unicorn paced around the apartment impatiently, waiting on the reply. She knew there was no guarantee the pegasus would get back to her soon, if at all, but any information he could offer her would cut down significantly on the time it would take to retrieve the soul gems. Bon Bon tapped her hooves together, trying to come up with a way to pass the time, although her restless mind stopped her from concentrating properly.

In the end, she resigned herself to pacing once more. After a few minutes, Bon Bon felt a mild buzzing from her saddlebag. She snatched the scroll back out of the bag telekinetically. Holding it in front of her, the augmented mare cleared her throat nervously and activated the device. The scroll lit up to reveal a maroon pony looking at her, his dark brown mane hanging down and nearly covering one of his blue eyes.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he said carefully. “I heard you quit the force.”

“I did. Four years ago,” she replied.

“And you’re still pestering me?” he chuckled. “Y’know, I didn’t even get a goodbye from you!”

“Because you ran off to join a merc company! How was I supposed to know you would come back?” Bon Bon said irritably. “Why are you back down here, anyway? Last I heard from you, you wanted to make your living completely above the board.”

“Did I? You’ve a better memory than me. Well...” The pegasus rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He shifted his body, revealing not the feathered wings Bon Bon was expecting, but augmentations that looked like they’d be more suited to Luna’s guards. Translucent material was stretched between thin metallic ribs, and the flesh where they joined to the stumps of the original appedages looked more badly scarred than she would have expected from augmentation surgery. “I guess that’s a long story, filled with sighs. It’s OK. I’ve found my niche here. What about you?” He indicated her horn and lenses.

“None of your business,” the cream pony snapped.

Slipstream said nothing, merely raising his eyebrows in surprise. “OK, no sharing. Fine. What do you want from me, then?”

Bon Bon checked herself, not wanting to let another pang of anger shut off this valuable lead. She took a deep breath and said, “I take it you heard about the attack on MANE last night?” He nodded. “Well, Black Dawn took along a unicorn who could mass teleport items and stole every last soul gem. Fortunately, my employer tracked the teleport to an area of Lower Canterlot. I was hoping you may have heard something about this.”

The stallion said nothing for a moment, merely narrowing his eyes at her. “And who’s this employer?”

The augmented mare pondered whether it was worth admitting who exactly she was working for, before concluding she didn’t really have much to lose to the skeptical pegasus. “Twilight Sparkle.”

He snorted. “Don’t you mean Alpha Wave?” In response to Bon Bon’s confused frown he continued, “Yeah, yeah, don’t give me that. Even us unfortunate souls have heard of that manticore. Keeping us all poor while she fattens her profits, and damning the ones who can’t afford it? All while Fillydelphia subsidises all MANE treatment as standard? No wonder that place is practically its own city-state these days.”

“I am not a MANE agent.”

“Oh, come on, Sweets.” The mare grit her teeth. She hated that nickname. “Just look at yourself. Who can afford that many augs and the neuromancy needed to keep ‘em going? You’re telling me Sparkle Industries just threw all of that at you?”

Bon Bon opened her mouth to give a retort. She wanted to scream at Slipstream, to see if he would be so snarky after finding out exactly why she was so heavily augmented. But she knew that would do nothing to re-build his trust with her. Instead, the cream pony clenched her eyes shut to keep any tears from flowing, glad of the darkened lenses that obscured them from view.

A ferocious sigh escaped her lips. “There’s MANE agents tearing the Skyport apart right now looking for those gems, because Twilight sent them there. She doesn’t trust the clinics. That’s why she sent me. Is that enough?”

“Huh. Is that so? Excuse me a moment.” Slipstream went silent, and Bon Bon cracked eyes open to see what he was doing. The stallion had a vacant look in his eyes, as though he were in a trance. She wondered whether he had some communication module installed. A pang of panic hit her as he came back to attention.

“What was that?” she demanded.

“Just talking with a friend up in the Skyport.” Hydra, then. Or something similar. “She’s had a few suspicious types poking around.”

“So you trust me now?”

“Maybe... depends what questions you ask.” The pegasus took one look at the exasperated expression on Bon Bon’s face and changed his tack. “Look, Sweets... I don’t know what to tell you. Yeah, I hear about illicit soul gems and pretty quickly at that. The Dreadnoughts always get the griffon’s share. Y’know, being the big bad augmented ponies down here. This one’s no different.”

“I know where they are, though. How often do you hear exactly where a treasure trove of gems is?” The pegasus shrugged, causing the augmented mare rattled off the rough location she had to Slipstream. His eyes went wide.

“Mercy...” he mumbled.

“Mercy? Is that the unicorn’s name?” she asked quickly.

“Uh... uh... yeah! Like, a codename!” So, absolutely not the unicorn’s codename, then. Or maybe not even the name of a real pony at all, if he’s deflecting that quickly.

“Slipstream, if you know anything about this... Those gems need to be returned. The neuromancer was killed in the attacks, and Canterlot—”

“Will be just like the rest of us? Oh dear.” Slipstream looked nonplussed.

“So you’re angry about the Augs left down here. You’re sure you want to condemn every augmented pony in this city to that fate?” She slid back her lenses, staring down the buck with her golden eyes.

He stared back for a moment, before letting out a long sigh and dropping his gaze to the floor. “Fine... I’ll tell you what I know. But I want to meet you. See your cutie mark. I want to know this is really you. I trusted you once, Sweets. Maybe I can trust you again.” He looked around, before grabbing a piece of paper. “You remember our old meeting place, right? The coffee house near the Under Warrens?”

“Yeah...”

“Meet me there in an hour, alone. I’ll tell you what I can about... a-about Mercy.” He cleared his throat and broke eye contact again. “See you there,” he said quietly, just as the link closed.

Bon Bon rolled up the scroll, taking up the bag of food. Hunger was now mixed with trepidation at the pegasus’ demeanour after his verbal slip. Who or what was Mercy?

-------

After hurriedly locking up the nest, Bon Bon trotted through the chilly streets of Lower Canterlot. This close to the edge of the mountain, there was virtually no protection from the wickedly cold winds that blew up from the plains below. It would be even worse out in the Under Warrens, precariously built outward from the mountain itself rather than carved into the rock, but the cream mare would have considered herself unlucky if she had to venture into that ramshackle district anytime soon.

Her memory served well enough, and she found the coffee house without incident. How long since I last came here? She was pleasently surprised to find it practically unchanged, a traditional little cafe like one would find in Ponyville. It had always amused Bon Bon that some of her informants insisted on meeting in a place that sold giant, pink cupcakes and served tea in dainty china cups when most usually did business in derelict warehouses and shady back alleys.

Shrouded in nostalgia, the cream mare didn’t pay attention to the door as she walked closer, and consequently ended up on her rump as a customer exited the shop and bumped into her. Bon Bon began uttering her apologies before looking up to see who she’d collided with. A pair of astonished green eyes looked down at her, framed in a black-and-white striped face.

“Bon Bon! This is a surprise!” Zantos said, laughing mirthfully and extending a hoof. The pony took the offered limb, pulling herself to her hooves.

“Zantos. I could say the same,” she said slowly.

“Well, I live not too far away. You take what indulgances you can, no?” The zebra guiltily wiped a few crumbs from his muzzle. “So, I hear my training came to fruitition last ni—”

“Shhhhhh!” Bon Bon hissed. “Nopony’s supposed to know about that!” She frowned. “How did you even find that out...?”

Zantos moved to one side to allow ingress to the shop and rubbed the back of his neck. “There were rumours I heard of a single pony on the rooftops before the police raid. And bomb collars on the hostages. And a Sparkle Industries sky carriage. I wondered, who have I met at SI who could make their way through that carnage?”

The augmented unicorn let out a sigh of relief. Nothing too easy to put together, then. “I see. Well, yes. Thank you. I think things would have been even worse had I not been trained by you.”

The zebra nodded. “I’m glad you kept your cool. I’m proud of you.” The unicorn’s lips twitched upward in a rare smile. “Now, what brings you to this part of Canterlot?”

Bon Bon opened her mouth to answer, weighing what she could tell Zantos. She settled for a half-truth. “There was a unicorn in the attack who teleported away with some important... technology. Twilight tracked their destination to somewhere in this district. I’m meeting with a friend who might know something.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Do you trust me so little? I am not one to spill my secrets readily,” he said reproachfully.

The cream mare considered her options. She had been forthcoming enough with Slipstream, and she knew she trusted Zantos further than the pegasus. “The unicorn took the soul gems. All of them. I can’t let that powder keg become common knowledge. I need to get them back, and fast,” the unicorn explained. An idea came to her. “I’m meeting with a pegasus stallion called Slipstream. He’s the only informant I have left from being a police officer and he seems to know more than he’s letting on. Mentioned something called ‘Mercy’.”

“Hmmm...” The zebra looked thoughtful for a moment. “I have heard the name, but when I enquired further, I received a... rude response.” He gazed sadly at his augmented hindlegs. “From both citizens and the more approachable gang members. I suppose one who can afford care at MANE is not welcomed by Mercy. However, I do know about Slipstream. An odd one. More moral than most ponies around here, but he has an strange way of showing it. Be careful around him,” he said darkly.

“I will. Thanks, Zantos. I’ll see you around.” The unicorn nodded to the stallion and went inside. Even at this hour, the shop buzzed with activity, ponies gathering for food, caffeine or companionship. Her eyes scanned the room, until she saw a maroon pony with a pair of translucent batwings seated at a booth. She walked closer slowly, taking care not to do anything to alarm her informant.

“Interesting choice of venue,” she said quietly, slipping into the booth’s other seat. As she did so, Bon Bon pushed her coat aside slightly, revealing the three wrapped sweets on her flank. Seeing her cutie mark, the pegasus shifted and looked up.

“Not like I’m gonna bump into one of my associates here,” Slipstream replied with a shrug. “So, you turned up after all? You must be desperate if I’m the first pony you turn to.”

“Well, not a lot of choices to be had, really. Black market’s a dangerous place,” the unicorn replied nonchalantly. Eager as she was to get her information, Bon Bon had already resigned herself to the lengthy verbal dance all informants led their handlers through, skirting around the issue until there was nothing else left to say.

“I’ll say. Lotta ways a pony can end up in trouble, even for just saying the wrong thing.”

“Like the word ‘Mercy’?” Slipstream glared at her.

“Are you gonna drop that or not? It was a slip of the tongue, that’s all!” he snapped, batlike wings extending outward in agitation.

“Mmhmm.” Bon Bon retracted her lenses, staring down the irritated pegasus. In the awkward pause, Slipstream gave a waitress who had been hovering nearby a dismissive hoofwave. She left momentarily and meekly returned with a cafetiere full of hot, black coffee and two cups, before fleeing to another, more amiable table. “I’m sure it was, Slipstream,” the cream mare continued calmly, pouring the beverage with her telekinesis.

The pegasus ground his teeth, ignoring the cup of coffee now set in front of him. “What? You still gonna try and pull some mind game with me?”

“I’m not the one making a big fuss out of this,” Bon Bon said. “If it’s a slip of the tongue, why so anxious?” Seeing the look on his face grow ever more thunderous, she decided to change her approach. “I’m not trying to trick you, Slipstream. I’m just curious as to what’s so important about where the soul gems are.” The unicorn reduced the intensity of her gaze, and raised one forehoof to rest her head upon it. “I know you’re a good pony really, Slipstream. Otherwise you wouldn’t be in this... line of work.”

The stallion sighed and rubbed at his eyes with his forehooves, a vague expression of regret showing. “Appreciated. Sorry. Just a little wound up over this.”

“I get it. We all have our secrets.”

“Yeah, but some secrets have a habit of killing the ponies who spill ‘em, don’t they?” he said resignedly. “What’s it matter? You know where those gems are. I don’t see why you need me around.”

“Your reaction was enough, Slipstream. I don’t need a social aug to tell it’s an important place. Other ponies I’ve talked to know of something called Mercy. The name’s no great secret,” Bon Bon said, grateful for the little tidbit of information Zantos had given her. “I’m assuming if I go there, I’ll find out what it is anyway. I just want to know if my turning up there is... going to cause anypony to be upset.”

The pegasus sniffed, and sat back for moment, contemplating. He took a long swig of coffee, still in silence. Bon Bon indulged him his stalling; there was little to be gained from pressing an informant who wanted to take their time, as frustrating as the balance of power was. For all she was able to do, Slipstream could sit there all night. Fortunately, he eventually piped up, “OK. OK. Come with me. If I’m around, there shouldn’t be any upset. This place... it’s place for ponies to go if they’re sick, or injured.”

Bon Bon raised a surprised eyebrow. “That’s it? That’s what you were getting so shifty about?”

“Well, there’s not many doctors ‘round these parts, and you just try getting a filly running a fever or a worker with a broken leg all the way up to the Upper City. Ain’t easy,” Slipstream explained. “And you know, we Lower Canterlot types get suspicious of somepony official-looking poking their nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“Not to mention whoever runs it is willing to run the risk of stealing a whole clinic’s worth of soul gems. Doesn’t seem to quite add up...”

The comment earned her another glare. “It’s expensive to run, and the Dreadnoughts will pay well for soul gems, what with them being auged up to and including the eyeballs. Now, do you want me to come with you or not?”

The cream mare bit her lip for a moment. It was painfully obvious to her that Slipstream knew more than he was letting on, but aside from outright threatening him, she doubted there was a way for her to weasel it out of the pegasus. If only I had Rarity backing me up here... The thought raised a smile as Bon Bon imagined the notoriously prissy unicorn making her way through this dirty part of town. “Fine. Let’s not waste any more time.” The pair drained their cups of coffee, and the unicorn levitated a couple of bits out of her pocket to pay.

The two ponies left the coffee shop, Slipstream looking around in what seemed like mild paranoia. To Bon Bon’s surprise, Zantos was still hanging around the coffee shop, speaking with an earth pony mare quietly. He glanced at her and nodded slightly as the unicorn passed.

The maroon pegasus led her down an alleyway toward the location of the gems, looking around nervously. Something about the situation felt so very wrong, Slipstream having quickly relented after her inquiries raised such ire. And yet, one would have to be either oblivious or very stupid not to feel at least a little trepidation in the darker half of Canterlot.

Her ears pricked up at something half-said by the stallion in front of her. “What?”

He turned to her, green eyes glistening. “I said, I hope you understand this at some point.”

“Understand what exac—” Bon Bon’s question was cut off by a sudden burst of pain in her left flank. She fell to the ground, more from instinct than any real damage. A few warnings flashed in her augmented vision, but none of her manifold implants had ceased functioning. A cursory glance upward showed several figures stepping out of the shadows, holding various melee weapons. Oh. He meant that. He really is that stupid.

“OK, tie her up, quickly. Dunno how long that shock’s gonna last,” came a voice from behind her.

“It’d better last long enough!” Slipstream sounded frantic. “The sooner we turn her over at the Foundry, the sooner I’m not at risk!”

“Ah, quit shakin’ in yer saddlebags. You’re acting like a filly goin’ in for her first implant,” another voice said, eliciting a wave of chuckles. Come a little closer and try to tie me up. Then we’ll see how tough you are. Bon Bon’s augmentations were ready to go, her lying on the floor an act.

“Hey, she knows where I live! She wakes up, she’s gonna, she’s gonna... Oh, Celestia...” Slipstream trailed off, his eyes wide and wings drooping as he stared beyond Bon Bon. There was a yell, and an earth pony went sailing overhead, landing heavily in a pile of refuse further down the street. The augmented mare turned her head to see what had happened.

There, at the entrance to the alley, stood Zantos, an expression like thunder upon his face. He had bucked a fully grown pony a full thirty metres through the air, and for the first time, Bon Bon truly appreciated the power of those augmented limbs. I become death incarnate. She remembered those words now.

“Hey, hey! Back off!” exclaimed the first voice, a quaver of fear running through it. “The hell do you think you are?!”

“Just a friend of the mare you’re attacking,” the zebra said, cold anger colouring his voice.

“Oh yeah? You don’t wanna mess with us! We’re Dreadnoughts!” came a retort. To her surprise, Zantos smiled mirthlessly at that remark.

“Do you really wish to pull that rank? With your sorry excuses for implants?” he asked them. The only answer came in the shape of a small rock that bounced off the stallion’s head, although it may as well have been cotton candy for all he flinched. Zantos snorted and stamped a hind hoof, so hard that the paving stones beneath it audibly cracked as it came down. He began walking forward.

“What are you waiting for?! Get him!” Slipstream’s voice nearly broke with panic, and his wings twitched in agitation. To her dismay, Bon Bon realised the pegasus was about to fly away. With the rest of the ponies distracted by the menacing zebra, she swung her head around to get her bearings. Behind her stood a blue unicorn, a small, pistol-like device held in his pink magic.

The augmented mare’s foreleg shot out, jabbing at the unicorn’s horn. The stallion stumbled back with a cry, falling to his haunches. His magic petered out from the blow, causing the gun to fall to the ground. Bon Bon caught the stun gun in her own blue glow, turning and catching Slipstream with a blast of electrical magic just as he took off. His wings instantly went limp, sending the pegasus crashing to the ground with a cry. He feebly scrabbled on the ground as the cream pony pulled the weapon closer to her face. She grunted in surprise as her action ejected a smoking sapphire from the side of the device.

Unable to ascertain quite how the unfamiliar weapon worked, Bon Bon fumbled at it with her magic, earning a strike on the shoulder for her troubles. The blow sent her back down to the ground. Abandoning the stunning device, the cream mare pulled herself back up to face the blue unicorn from before. She feinted with her left forehoof, before delivering a blow to his chest with her right, winding the stallion and dumping him on the ground.

A flash of motion in her peripheral vision alerted Bon Bon to another pony closing on her right, an earth pony with a baseball bat held in her teeth. The other mare was apparently experienced in using the bat, easily swinging the length of maple wood with motions of the head and neck. However, the cream unicorn paid it little mind. Having legs made of carbon fibre and steel made one somewhat impervious to opponents with blunt instruments.

The cream pony let the attacking mare swing her bat, reaching up and catching the wood in an unfolded hoof. Keeping the momentum, Bon Bon yanked the pony forward with her weapon, before slamming her other forehoof into the mare’s chin. The unfortunate pony screamed as the teeth gripping the baseball bat shattered from the force of the blow, and she went down, spitting blood and fragments of enamel.

Bon Bon picked up the weapon with her magic, swinging it lazily to parry the lead pipe carried by a pegasus. He held his makeshift club in the crook of a hoof as he fluttered just above head height. The augmented mare was surprised the gang’s resolve had held this long; ponies this far down the food chain would never fight this hard for their masters, particularly not in the face of such odds.

As the bat clipped the pegasus’ wing, a black-and-white blur passed Bon Bon, sending the unfortunate gang member across the alley to slam into a brick wall. Despite his bulk, Zantos was able to move as quick as a snake, evidenced by the half-dozen ponies he’d left groaning on the floor in his wake. All that were left were the still-stunned Slipstream and an orange earth pony with enough muscles to rival the zebra’s and a brassy-coloured artifical right foreleg.

In her mouth she held a pair of fang lances, a fearsome weapon used in days of old. A crossbar connected two viciously curved blades that extended on either side of the face like metallic tusks, designed to stab on the bearer’s charge, then slash when up close. The orange mare let out a snort, pawing at the ground as she eyed up the pair facing her.

“Let me handle this. You grab the pegasus if he moves,” the augmented unicorn murmured. Zantos moved back slightly, just as the lance-wielder made her charge. The attack was a touching, if ultimately futile gesture, Bon Bon reflected, positioning the bat with her magic. The other mare made no effort to change her path as the unicorn dodged left, bringing down the baseball bat hard.

The weapon slammed into the orange mare’s artifical leg with enough force to shatter the maple wood, sending shards across the alley and leaving naught but a splintered stump held up in Bon Bon’s blue glow. The charging pony fell to the ground with a yell of surprise, and took another tumble when she tried to get up. Her augmented leg was bent at a horrific angle between elbow and shoulder, a huge dent in the brass.

“You... you bitch! You broke my leg!” the orange pony howled.

Bon Bon threw the ruined baseball bat to the ground, stood over the mare and prodded experimentally at the limb. “Oh, hush. A broken internal structural member and a dented casing. You can have that welded and re-shaped in half an hour,” she said dispassionately. “Can you keep an eye on her?” the cream pony then said to Zantos, who nodded and walked over. The orange pony silenced her griping and gulped as she looked at the zebra’s massive frame and fearsome hindlegs.

The augmented unicorn stepped around the groaning bodies of her would-be assailants and pulled out her tranquiliser rifle from her saddlebag, pointing it at Slipstream as it unfolded. The pegasus seemed to come around from his stupour as Bon Bon advanced, almost going cross-eyed as he stared up the barrel.

“Slipstream...” Bon Bon asked in a dangerously quiet voice. “What was that?”

The stallion seemed to be more ashamed than terrified, his batwings unfurling and slumping to the ground and his entire body trembling. The pegasus’ gaze dropped to the ground. “I... I’m... I’m sorry. I had to do something. I can’t be the one who ruins everything!”

“‘Do something’? You attacked me and you were going to give me to the Dreadnoughts!” the mare retorted.

“Well... it was just to keep you from poking your nose where it doesn’t belong,” he said sullenly.

Bon Bon let out an infuriated snort and stamped her forehoof. “The Dreadnoughts would have stripped me of my augs. You know that. Do I look like I would have survived that?” Slipstream said nothing, looking more and more like a little colt being admonished for a schoolyard misdemeanour. “Just get out of here.”

“W-wait... let me take her to the clinic...” Slipstream mumbled, pointing at the mare with the broken leg. A flurry of profanities still emanated from her mouth, the lances having been discarded on the floor. Bon Bon was about to refuse the request, before she had an idea. The unicorn nodded, and the pegasus gingerly made his way past his incapacited compatriots, helping the mare to her hooves.

Zantos came and stood by her as the pair made off. The augmented mare stared at the two ponies, trying to will a half-remembered spell into activation. Just before they made their way around the corner, a small red triangle appeared over each pony in her enhanced vision, along with a distance tracker. Bon Bon smiled. Now, they could lead her straight to the clinic.

Once they were gone, the unicorn let out a long sigh and sank against the zebra, suddenly weary. “Thank you,” she said. “Probably would’ve been in a lot of trouble if you hadn’t shown up.”

“Nonsense. I saw you fight. Very impressive. I’m glad to see you have contained your anger in battle,” Zantos replied. “I was merely exacting my own retribution. Too many ponies are antagonised by these... gang members. I would hope a smattering of bruised ribs will show them the error of their ways. If not, perhaps I shall use the full force of my augmentations next time.”

The unicorn nodded and stepped back. “In any case, I appreciate the help. And the warning earlier. He always had his contacts, but I didn’t know Slipstream was capable of doing that.”

The stallion frowned. “In his own mind, I am sure that beating you and leaving you to be crippled by the Dreadnoughts’ surgeons was tantamount to keeping MANE away from this clinic. I believe his time amongst the mercenaries gave him a rather bizarre skew to his morals. Nevertheless, he is cowed and you are free to proceed.” He peered down the alleyway. “Although quite why you allowed him to leave when you could have broken him to your will, I cannot say.”

Bon Bon tapped one of her lenses with a hoof. “Don’t worry, I know exactly where he is. And he’s gonna lead me straight to Mercy.” She swept the stun gun off the ground with her magic and placed it in a saddlebag alongside her folded tranq rifle. “Care to join me?”

Zantos’ eyes gleamed as a wolfish grin crossed his face. “It would be an honour.”

-------

To Bon Bon’s satisfaction, Slipstream proved as unwittingly helpful as she expected him to be. While she roughly knew where the soul gems were, the exact location of the clinic would have taken a good deal longer to find by searching than simply being led to it. To her chagrin, progress through the streets was slow, the pegasus propping up his crippled partner, who was stumbling along on three legs.

“Why use augmentations? We could follow them simply by how blue the air was,” Zantos quipped, as a fresh wave of profanity came from the mare ahead of them.

“I bet she was really proud of that leg,” Bon Bon grumbled. The pair were hidden behind a pile of cardboard boxes, eager not to have any more altercations from being spotted by the pegasus they were tracking. Things were not made easier by Slipstream loudly telling anypony who would listen about his assailants, the descriptions becoming more and more embellished as time went on.

“I believe we would be fully cybernetic beings if your friend’s story was to be believed,” the zebra said. Bon Bon said nothing, instead leading him toward the next load of cover. She was quite grateful for the twisting of words; nopony in earshot would really pay attention to such ramblings. The unicorn did worry that they might be challenged anyway, but the streets seemed to be oddly devoid of gang members.

“Isn’t this place Dreadnought territory? Shouldn’t we have seen some others hanging around by now?” she asked. Zantos simply shrugged.

“I could not say. Perhaps we met them all back in the alleyway. Perhaps they believe this area secure and far enough away from Everfree territory to be left alone.” Ahead of them, the pair of ponies they were tracking walked out from the end of the street. To Bon Bon’s dismay, the street opened out onto a square, with little cover and a good deal of ponies milling about, although not enough to cover two equines as distinctive as her and Zantos. She wasn’t entirely sure of the range of the tracking spell, and the last thing the unicorn needed was to lose Slipstream in the crowd. The spiral staircase of a fire escape caught her eye.

“I need to go up... I can track them from there,” she said.

“Then go. I’ll stay down on the ground and watch the square. Two figures atop a roof are much easier to notice than one,” Zantos replied. “Don’t worry, I can hold my own if things turn ugly.”

Bon Bon nodded, and concentrated, adding the the zebra to her tracking. Once the red triangle was hovering over his head as well, she turned and galloped up the staircase. As she reached the roof, she began cantering, careful to avoid any skylights or particularly weak-looking areas. Her golden gaze picked out the alley Slipstream was heading down. To the unicorn’s annoyance, it was in the far left corner of the square, with another alley between her and her target.

The cream mare pawed the roof, calculating the width of the alley and force required to jump it. She galloped and vaulted gracefully across the edge, rolling on the other side to absorb the impact. Bon Bon moved close to the surface of the roof, prowling along in parallel with pair of ponies. They continued for a short while longer down the street, before abruptly halting. The augmented mare peeked over the edge, seeing Slipstream and the mare standing outside a pair of double doors, looking around furtively.

She felt a pang of annoyance as she looked at the building. It was a storey higher than the one the cream mare was currently on, and every window facing the alley was boarded up. No clue came from within about what the venue hosted, but Bon Bon knew this had to be the place. This had to be Mercy.

The unicorn spotted a drainpipe leading down the edge of her own roof. With no other way of safely reaching the ground, the augmented mare unfolded her hooves into talons, flipped herself around, and slid down, gripping the pipe lightly. One storey up, Bon Bon disengaged, landing with a loud clatter behind the pair, just as the doors opened. The pegasus spun around in shock.

“No! What... Where did you come from?!” Slipstream yelled. He turned around to the now-open portal, where a mountain of a pony stood, clad in a loose, hooded black robe that covered and obscured his body and face. Despite that, the sheer size of him belied his augmented state; the stallion could almost have stood eye-to-eye with Princess Celestia herself. “I... I swear! This wasn’t my fault!” the pegasus begged.

The hulking stallion said nothing, simply shifting his pose slightly and raising his head to look at Bon Bon. His eyes glowed augmented gold, same as hers, and as he surveyed her, a smirk appeared across his face. The slight change in position was enough to make Slipstream whimper in fear. Tellingly, the mare with a broken leg had fallen utterly silent.

“Oh, don’t be scared of Charity. Unless you try and damage my clinic, he won’t harm you,” a female voice said from a speaker over the door. Bon Bon frowned. It sounded ever so slightly familiar, but with the distortion, she couldn’t possibly identify it. A camera next to the loudspeaker swung around to regard them. “Now then, Charity, I’m sure you can take Silk to get her leg fixed. And Slipstream, bring our longcoated friend to my office. Do be sure to answer any questions she asks you. I have some rather more important things to discuss with her.”

Bon Bon felt her forehooves unfolding involuntarily, and swished her tail back and forth. Somehow, this voice knew who she was. Likely as not, the teleporting unicorn was sequestered here and had told all about the augmented mare who had nearly foiled their plans the night before. Struggling slightly, Silk limped up the steps to the door. The augmented stallion, presumably Charity, reached out with a tree trunk of a foreleg and hefted the mare onto his back as though she were naught but a bag of flour.

As they retreated inside, Slipstream looked back at Bon Bon, licking his lips nervously. “Well, you heard the lady, I guess,” he stammered. “That zebra around?”

“He’s waiting back in the market. Don’t worry. I’m not looking for another fight this evening,” the cream mare replied. The pegasus nodded, and led her inside. They passed through a small lobby of sorts, before walking out into the clinic proper. The sight made Bon Bon gasp. Her Hydra link to Twilight activated.

Twilight? I’ve found it.

And...? The other mare’s thoughts strained with anticipation.

I think you’re gonna want to take a look at this.

-------

Augmentation Activated

Cranium: Tag ‘n’ TrackA popular implant amongst overprotective parents and snooping employers alike, the Tag ‘n’ Track applies an almost undetectable tracing spell to up to three other ponies at will. A visual representation and rangefinder will then be transmitted to the user’s augmented vision. Higher-grade versions can track more ponies simultanously, and give additional data. Sparkle Industries accepts no responsibility for surprise parties spoiled by tracking friends acting suspiciously.

Author's Note:

Many thanks to Burraku_Pansa and to Darth Rex from SALT for pre-reading, and to KibugamiKenzo for the incredible cover art.

Questions, comments, critiques? Get in touch at [e-mail]

Comments

[HMage]

Yay new chapter!

[repoman]

Twilight don't take no sh*t from nopony Glad to see a new chapter!

[TundraStanza]

Ah, Bon Bon's first "canonical" voice. Heh heh.

[pointyknives]

I always get a kick from the unlocked augmentation descriptions.
And in before distorted voice is

[Silvernis]

Equine Revolution updated? Today is a good day.

[Shantara]

Both DE:ER and Aurora updated within a single day after a long(er than readers would have preferred) delay! Time to celebrate!
My semi-random thoughts are below.

Even though Zantos was nothing but a helpful friend to Bon Bon, I have a strong feeling their meeting was far from coincidence.

Once again it was underlined that MANE clinic has its own agenda and how feared their director Alpha Wave is. Interesting contrast with Human Revolution, where LIMB was a convenient puppet for other corporations, with director only briefly mentioned in one of the documents. I wonder how will this affect overall balance of power...

Why did Bon Bon choose to perform levitation in cafe if Twilight insisted on tight security around operability of horn aug? Did she get so used to it, she was doing it unconsciously? And shouldn't Slipstream be surprised to see Bon Bon with a working horn aug and make some kind of remark about it?

Thank you for updating, I really enjoyed this chapter!