Re-engineering

by dark ganymede

I

"Fifty bits on Spark!"

"Twenty-three bits on Spark!"

As different ponies of the crowd were placing their bets, Spark and his opponent were circling each other in the crude ring. The ring itself was wooden, splintered and partially burned. There was only one door for entry and exit, it's once white coat of paint was reduced to a mixture of blood, soot, and the underlying color of wood.

The wooden circle was tall, about two ponies tall, and had a metal fence on top. The metal was quite worn as well. Everypony both in the cage and in the near filled room was used to this sight, and that of dozens of sweat covered audience members, eager to make some bits at the expense of others.

Spark lunged at his unicorn opponent and knocked him to the ground. He stood over his opponent and waited for him to surrender. Instead he replied with fireball that singed Spark's eyebrows, and burnt the metal grate above them.

The crowd let roared, the match had just went from first pony down loses, to first pony who dies loses.

Spark prepared his spell, as the other unicorn charged with his body ablaze.

He sidestepped the attack and released a deadly bolt of lightning that tore apart his opponent. Blaze (or whatever his combat name was) was dead. Nothing more than an extra crispy pony without a torso.

The "referee" walked into the center of the ring to the cheering of the crowd. It wasn't all positive, there were a few boos of those who just lost their bits.

"Spark is tonight's winner! As you exit collect your winnings or pay your debts!" She turned away from the audience. "Nice match out there champ." She whispered.

"Would have been better if he had stayed down." Spark said as he checked his blue coat for any blood stains.

"Your opponent? It was his fault not yours, you had to toast him. Now help me close up shop eh?" She flew up to the top of the grate and collected the discarded bottles of alcohol, and herded the crowd off. She wasn't just Cloud Kicker or the referee, she was also the owner of the controversial club. With a grey coat and a sky blue mane, she always had the crowd's attention.

Down below Spark magically drug out Blaze's body to be incinerated, just like every other loser who left a body. Luckily for Spark there was no need to worry about cleaning the trail of blood that dirtied the ring or the rest of the collosseum. 'It added atmosphere' according to Cloud Kicker.

After passing through the ring's door, he walked a few more steps before feeling the furnace's heat.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. He thought as he tossed the body in. Blaze's blood started to boil and he became even more disfigured. Spark turned away, he already knew what the end result would look like, another pile of scrap metal.

Blaze wasn't an ordinary pony, he was cybernetic. Pure artificial intelligence.His magic however, was indeed real magic. Blaze had used real spells before he died, even though he certainly wasn't a pony or unicorn for that matter.

How was this possible? The real question is how could something not be possible in the land Subscape? Androids and cyborgs were engineered every day by large corporations, with additional upgrades at privately owned stores. Even griffons and other pony like creatures had access to immortality. There were still deaths of course, both synthetic and natural, and their minds were reassigned to synthetic bodies if they had lived good lives, or left in purgatory if they had done a great deal of crime.

Spark waved goodbye to Cloud Kicker and walked outside of the building properly known as sector 86, one of the few buildings large enough to have it's own sector.

The rest of the sectors were multiple skyscrapers, with dark exteriors and mechanical interiors. Sector 86 was the only place lacking a modern design in Subscape, and it attracted a lot of attention as a window to the past and the ultimate fight club.

Elevators and escalators connected both the buildings and the separate sections crisscrossing through the little space that wasn't already consumed by the skyscrapers. Spark stepped on the 86 to 82 elevator, a one way trip to his section. The elevator itself was glass and was devoid of buttons or markings, besides the 86-82 that was engraved on the outside doors.

The doors shut silently as the elevator began it's journey down. He got a glance at sector 193, one of the poorer sections of Subscape. He smiled and tried to imagine what life was like there.

Poor souls.

The elevator slowed to a halt, and Spark stepped out. The buildings were arranged from greatest to least, making Spark's complex just a few steps away from the elevator in building 28. Nopony was outside, they were probably watching a replay of his match on their telescreens, or some televised nonsense.

He stepped to the retinal scanner, and stared at it's red center. A few beeps and he was cleared for entry. The metallic slits in the door shifted and formed his shape, and went back in position after he passed.

Inside an occasional rainbow colored light traveled through the walls like a pulse. The light itself was a form of data that could tell you exactly what a building's residents had done. The path of light passed through the two ground elevators and back into the wall.

Spark stepped in the right elevator, as the left one was designated for trips to the underground floors, and a holographic interface materialized.

"Thirty-fourth floor?" As the soothing female voice suggested this, the display shifted from a list of floors to the suggested floor number and a question mark.

He made a check mark motion and the holoscreen blinked twice confirming his decision. As the elevator went upwards the display dropped through the floor and sent holographic pieces flying.

The elevator doors opened and he walked out with part of the light path following him. His door was a black monlith, but after he placed a hoof on it, it de-magnetized and split into strings of metal. His apartment was was simple compared to outside. Glass windows provided light and displayed the inventory and temperature of each room.

Spark glanced at them and decided to take a shower.

The water flowed through his coat and washed the dirt and blood from his last match away. His shower was surprisingly primitive compared to the rest of his apartment, it was a simple water spout.

He turned it off and dried off with some magic, while his body started to relax.

"Telescreen, news." He said calmly.

The windows projected the image of a news pony standing in front of a burning building. Suddenly the ground shook, and Spark stumbled as he tried to regain balance.

There was a large explosion below, and the shockwave sent Spark into the wall. There was another explosion, followed by gunshots. The building lurched forward and there was a sickening crunch of glass, plastic, and metal.

Spark cleared his mind and teleported out of the building. He was shocked to see it collapse in a matter of seconds.

The top half of the building slammed into the ground, while the bottom half dropped down from the floating city into the abyss below. A dust cloud from the wreckage started to crawl towards him and the dozens of ponies and griffons who were watching from a distance.

"Wow that sure was something..." A griffin said aloud.

"You see what hit the building?" Spark asked.

"Wait, you were in there?"

Spark nodded, and the griffin knocked him to the ground with his claws. He countered with a spell that sent the assailant on his back. All the other citizens around them had started to flee for their lives.

Spark prepared another spell and aimed at the griffon's forehead, just as several bullets struck the colt in his stomach and legs. He collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. The griffon stood up on his hind legs, and pointed his revolver at Spark's face. He smirked and pulled the trigger.

Comments

[KingoftheOnions]

hmmmmmm, looks interesting, i'll read this later, but for now you have piqued my interest

[Regret]

Hey, if you keep going with this, i'll keep reading. Great story, almost feels like "ghost in a shell".

[Sirius Dreams]

Not bad, not bad at all. I would say more?
As for that, one favorite for you.

[Bachelor 2]

its a interesting concept and i will read it later but you are getting positive feedback so i guess you should continue.

[werewolf435]

I noticed no real errors in this. Thumbs up for you, this is a good story =3

[dark ganymede]

730666
I was going to do a crossover but there was one, so I just did it in that style. I'll continue it.

[Mr Ignorable]

..I literally have nothing to say.

But since we're both working on cyberpunk crossovers;

wanna do a co-op?

[PhoKingAzn]

Nice one Dark pulled off a fast one there!

[Gytrash]

I'll watch this, one thing... Is there going to be explanation of how we went from "Magical land of Equestria" to "Dystopian (or at least something resembling dystopian) future of Subscape".

I'm just assuming that it's going from Equestria to subscape, it it's AU equestria then that's cool too

[koentju2]

some minor istakes but i guess that's just me nit-picking

otherwise it's a good story.

[ProfessorArgon]

I am intirigued. Proceed.

[dark ganymede]

730990
Yes I would like to.

731063
Ill be sure to explain.

[dark ganymede]

731030
Thanks. Wasn't fast to upload though.

[Thefreakery]

Top class amateur style, no mistakes added

[ChaosMedler]

Interesting, has a flavor in some of the darker parts of sci-fi: disponia, cyber-synthetics and some fight scenes, in terms of style, its straight to the point, in my opinion i think there should be more explanation to build some more impact or descriptions of the 'world' your building, didn't find much to pick at, just continue and expand and you'll do fine. Good luck

[dark ganymede]

733392
Right, I'll try I guess.
Next chapter has a lot more background information.