The Sunseekers

by Candypony

Chapter 3 - The Inventor

Patrol... why did I have to get stuck with patrol duty tonight? The lonely Lunar Knight sighed, his chestplate heaving slightly with the movement of his breathing. He stood in the overwatch tower of an Imperial scrapyard, where pieces of anything ranging from rusted rifles to aircraft sections were dumped to be recycled or otherwise disposed of. The scrapyard was closed for now, leaving the pegasus guard all by himself, and he blinked his eyes with fatigue and boredom as he scanned back and forth for any stupid punks who thought it might be worth a laugh or two to go dumpster-diving in an Imperial facility.

The Knight lowered his head and closed his eyes just for a moment, daring to try and get a little shut-eye with nopony else around. It wasn’t like anypony ever came to this old junkyard, anyway.

A loud crash woke up the guard with a start, and he shook his head to get rid of the sleep in his eyes. He mentally cursed himself. How long had he been asleep? If somepony was here after all... but all evidence pointed to the contrary. He could see some junk in the distance had toppled onto the dirt path, but otherwise all seemed calm.

Must have been the damn wind... The guard sighed again, almost closing his eyes completely when he noticed a cyan blur shooting around near the back of the compound. Each time it moved, he swore he could hear the sound of a small thunderclap, almost similar to that of a kinetic rifle discharge. The guard blinked twice to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, then took a snapshot of the blur in motion. His eyepiece corrected for the blur, and what he saw made his jaw drop.

The blur was a unicorn, in a running stance. Her white coat shined through even the dirt clinging to it. Her hair was unlike anything he’d seen before; most of the electric-blue mess was shot backwards into spikes, looking as if her hair and tail had been struck by lightning. No, as if they were lightning. Her eyes were concealed by a small pair of dark blue goggles, likely to protect her eyes from the wind. Electricity discharged in random directions from her hooves, which all glowed a soft cyan and appeared to be hovering above the ground. Must be some sort of hoof... augmentation, the Knight supposed. But what finally drew his attention and shocked him into action were the saddlebags the mare carried. It wasn’t that they were full of stolen Imperial material; It was the symbol that adorned her saddlebags: an orange circle with eight radiating spokes.

That mark! The guard immediately went into full alert, his wings beating furiously as he leapt from the watchtower, and locked his light kinetic rifle onto his firing hoof, unfolding it into firing position. The uppity unicorn just wouldn’t stand still long enough to give him a good shot.

“Why don’t you make this easy and stand still? I’ll make it quick and painless,” he called. To the guard’s surprise, the threat actually worked, and the blur stopped mid-run, the electric mare entering back into the visible spectrum with another thunderclap. She stared up at the pegasus through her azure goggles, waiting for him to make a move. “That’s it, you little...” Quickly acquiring a lock on the intruder, the pegasus let loose a volley of three kinetic rounds in quick succession, his weapon whining and overheating with the expenditure of energy. Surely the mare wasn’t fast enough to dodge kinetic rounds. Nopony was.

The Knight’s jaw almost hit the dirt when the mare effortlessly sidestepped each of the three rounds, impacting harmlessly in the dirt around her. She had moved so fast that the pegasus hadn’t actually seen her move, but he could clearly see the holes where the otherwise perfect shots had impacted. “You’re going to have to try harder than that, buck-o, that was foal’s play,” she teased, waving her bolt-like tail at him in a taunt. The pegasus gritted his teeth and re-acquired a lock, quickly firing another three-round burst, but the annoying unicorn was just too quick for him, dodging each and every shot he fired. She turned tail and ran, disappearing back into the electric blur and dashing throughout the yard.

The Knight gave chase as fast as his wings could carry him, his weapon discharging three-round bursts each time it had cooled down. The process repeated itself for what felt like hours. Soon the pegasus began panting with frustration, and his weapon quickly exhausted its ammunition. He landed on the ground harder than he should have, and his spent weapon slid back into a compact position at his side. The knight bent a hoof outward, sliding out his backup, a simple curved lunite blade, easily enough to ground that lightning storm.

“Aw, you look so tired. Poor baby. Here, let me help you out.” The pegasus’ ears perked at the sound coming from his right, and struck out in that direction, only to feel something run into his left side, quickly tapping various locations on his armor. She was already gone before he had struck out in that direction. The unicorn reappeared before him, her horn glowing dark blue.

The enraged pegasus didn’t have to wait long to find out what spell she was casting. With all of his armor buckles undone, nothing held the plates together, and they flew off piece-by-piece with a simple telekinesis spell, floating into a neat pile to her right. Unfortunately for the pegasus, his blade was attached to the armor that covered his right foreleg. He now stood naked and unarmed before the unicorn. “That’s better,” Sapphire Shock commented with a smirk.

But he was not quite helpless. He still had his speed and his hooves. The pegasus stamped at the ground twice before charging forward, screaming with a terrible fury, his wings boosting his ground speed. The mare remained where she was, watching the pegasus with an impossibly cocky grin. “Bad move, boy-o. I thought you’d be smarter than that.”

His outstretched hoof almost made contact with the unicorn’s smirking face, but he never quite got that far. In an instant, the pegasus was propelled backward several yards, lying on his back and convulsing as his body was turned into a conductor, electricity shooting through his nerves. It only lasted a few seconds, but after that, the pegasus was too fatigued to fight anymore, and tossed his head back into the dirt with a pained groan.

***

“One comin’ in,” a voice crackled into Dusk Dancer’s ear. The next instant, the unicorn picked up the trace of another unicorn aboard her ship, the distinct feel of a teleportation spell.

“Welcome aboard, Inventor. Got a good haul this time?”

“Ooh, plenty. Got enough rifles and parts now for a special project, and I’ve got a little somethin’ extra.”

“‘Something extra’? What do you m—” A soft groan echoed into her ear, one that definitely didn’t come from any mare.

“What was that?”

“Oh, him. I brought a guest. See?” On a nearby viewscreen, the camera from Sapphire Shock’s lab opened up, revealing the scene currently taking place: The unicorn stood triumphantly near a bound pegasus, though nothing looked out of the ordinary about him besides his size and the crescent moon tattooed onto his chest and flanks below his nightcap cutie mark.

“No. No, no, no! Don’t tell me you just brought a damned LUNAR KNIGHT ABOARD MY SHIP!” Dusk Dancer practically screamed, causing the unicorn in the picture to wince and hold up a hoof to her ear.

“Well, this could go one of two ways. Librarian’s friend is still MIA, yeah? Maybe this guy knows where he is. Or we could just use him for target practice after my project is complete. Your call, boss.”

“Librarian’s friend? What are you on about?”

“Big boy-o said he had a best buddy that went missin’. Poor guy’s been tryin’ to get some leads on where his friend might be.”

“I’m going to have a talk with Librarian, but go ahead and lock that spaz up for now.”

“Sounds good, boss.” The connections closed, leaving the bridge in silence. In the white mare’s lab, the unicorn turned to her captive and grinned. “Welcome aboard the Eventide, baby.”

The pegasus groaned again and looked at his captor with a hatred that almost made the unicorn flinch. Almost. “I’ll tell you nothing, you filthy traitor.”

“Aw, no need to be so snippy, sleepyhead.” She turned sideways and used her tail to tickle under the bound pegasus’ chin, tickling at first before sending mildly painful shocks through his skull. “After all, you might as well enjoy the last few days you have left. Food for thought, eh?”

That managed to crack him. A glint of fear registered in his eyes, but he refused to show any more than that. He laid his head against the cold metal of the wall and sighed. It didn’t take long before the prisoner was sound asleep in his new cell, which had been constructed hastily from scrap metal. Even if he was bound, she didn’t want to take any chances. Sapphire Shock then cast a muffling spell over his cell, ensuring no sound could enter in or out unless she wanted it to.

“Finally, some peace and quiet,” the unicorn grumbled with a sigh, lifting her goggles up from her dazzling azure eyes, lifting a hoof to shield her eyes a bit as white, unfiltered light met them instead of the usual blue light she perceived through her goggles. She sat them down on the desk and sat down, leaning back in her chair and losing herself in sleep.

Sapphire Shock soon found herself drifting among a sea of ponies going about their daily routine in Eclipse’s traditional marketplace, going from store to store or even the old-fashioned stalls. While browsing the selection, a growing noise caught her attention. Somewhere nearby, she heard screaming, followed by a cloaked stallion running straight in her direction, followed by two Knights.

The closer the stallion came, the slower time seemed to flow. He eventually passed right by the Inventor, and for an instant, his head turned and from underneath his hood stared two bright blue orbs. After only a moment of eye contact, he nodded his head almost imperceptibly before turning forward to continue running. After almost galloping into a brick wall, he took to the sky before taking a stun spell to the wing, and all Sapphire Shock could do was watch him plummet. Her hooves were rooted to the ground. Her eyes tracked his falling body, and she cringed when he hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

Sapphire Shock bolted forward so hard she smashed head-first into a prototype helmet that had been laying on her desk, giving her a throbbing ache and sending the helmet crashing to the ground.

“Oy, there I go dreamin’ about mysterious colts, again. Maybe I should take a cold shower, or somethin’.”

Comments

[Dr.Shiny]

Looks like a very interesting story. Keep it up.

[Candypony]

952039
Thanks. Still working on reworking a few more chapters to fit my current vision. After that, it'll be a lot longer in between chapters since I'll be starting from scratch. Sort of.