12 - Chapter Twelve: Home Again
Chapter Twelve
Home Again
“Spare no expense! Search every corner of the galaxy! Let no mare or stallion rest until we find them! For we must find them! For Equestria! For the Empire! For our Princesses!”
S.T.A.R.S. Established by Captain Gleaming Shield - 3333 E.C.
It had been four hours since the train. Four hours filled with needles, doctors, and one especially irate security officer. After spending what felt like an eternity with the station police chief, we were begrudgingly released back into the wild. Jess had produced a warrant, which ended up delaying us even longer as the security chief verified it, before coming back with a scowl that could curdle milk and an attitude to match. I had fully expected to be spending more quality time in a jail cell after what had happened, but, true to Jess’ word, the PBJ still had some influence in the Core. She had tried to explain it to me afterward, some legal jargon about limited operational freedom and extended jurisdiction. I didn’t get it. Whatever it was, it made the chief look like we had taken a huge piss in his oatmeal.
The remainder of our time was spent in medical, getting stuffed with more needles than I care to remember. The security chief had gleefully insisted that we undergo a complete medical checkup before release. I don't think I have ever felt more sore in the flank than after that fiasco. I lost count after the nurse stabbed needle twenty into a nerve in my right thigh. She was smiling afterward. I'm pretty sure she did it on purpose.
Hooves dragging and backsides perforated, we all decided it was best to call it a day and head home—not that we really had a choice in the matter. After starting a fight in a bar, chasing a wanted fugitive through the colony, and then subsequently destroying a valuable piece of station infrastructure, the security chief kindly asked us to leave, permanently, and with all due haste. I was more than happy to oblige him; the needles were large.
Business came first, however. On our way back to the Bandit, Jess had us stop at a small plaza with an M-Net terminal, intent on beating Slide to the punch in giving her report. While she was busy making her call, I sat with Nightshade on a park bench nearby, looking over the contents of the file I had picked up on the train. My WAND glowed steadily as it projected a readout floating in the air between us while we both frowned at what we were seeing. The file was a garbled mess: letters, numbers, symbols, for all I could tell we were staring at somepony else’s nap on a keyboard.
“So, what do you think it is?” I asked Nightshade as I slowly scrolled through the document a second time.
Nightshade squinted as he scanned through the code line by line, sounding out some of the characters and muttering under his breath. Eventually, he shook his head. “Beats me,” he said with a long, weary breath. “Whatever this is, it looks like somepony encrypted it. Unless you’ve got some good hacking tools, it’s probably useless.”
“Damn,” I said. I had been hoping for something useful. I still had that small niggling question in mind about why we had been chasing Tripwire, and I was relatively certain this was the reason.
Nightshade tilted his head as he contemplated, biting his cheek. “Well... maybe not.”
“No?”
“Actually...” Nightshade trailed off, tapping a hoof on his chin before his grin came back in full force. “Yeah! I think Fritter might be able to read this!”
I blinked. “Fritter? Really?”
“Yeah, he’s an info broker,” Nightshade said, as if that explained everything. At my flat stare he continued, “you don’t get anywhere in the business if you can’t deal with a little encryption,” he explained as his grin dialed down toward tolerable. “I’m pretty sure he’s got some of the tools we’ll need and, at the very least, he should be able to tell us a bit more about it—and maybe if it’s worth something.”
I felt my smile come back. That sounded like progress.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M BEING SUSPENDED?” Jess screamed.
And that didn’t. My smile died a cold, miserable death.
Jess’ shouting drew nervous looks from nearly everypony within hearing range as she gestured angrily at the stallion on the other end. We were sitting just close enough to faintly hear the other side of the conversation.
“I’m sorry Jess, but that’s just the way it has to be!” The stallion said, now audible over the sudden quiet that enveloped the plaza. The voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t immediately place it. “I can’t let you go running around destroying things and endangering the PBJ’s agreement!”
“But I didn’t destroy anything!” Jess exclaimed, “That was Slide’s fault! He’s the one who shot the train with the cruiser! You should be suspending him! Not me!”
“And I believe you pumpkin, but you can’t-”
“Don’t call me that!” Jess cut him off.
He ignored her, instead taking the initiative, “You have to think about how this looks! Jess!”
“Looks! Looks!” Jess spat, slamming a hoof on the console, “It’s always looks with you! What about doing what’s right? That’s what we stand for isn’t it?”
“Yes, we do, but-”
“Then why are you trying to can me for Slide’s-”
“I’m not trying to fire you!”
"Then why-"
“Enough! Jess!” the stallion shouted, “I am placing you on administrative leave. End of discussion. That station chief you so admirably pissed off wants blood and I’m not willing to endanger our contracts simply because you can’t keep a lid on your temper.”
“So what, you’re gonna believe the pony who opened fire on a undefended train and blame the victim?” Jess yelled.
“No! I’m placing you on leave because you started a bar fight and made a disgraceful display of the PBJ in public! The fact that the train was destroyed only makes things worse!” the stallion yelled back.
“I didn’t start that fight!” Jess shouted back.
Who did? I could vaguely remember something about margaritas...
I glanced over at Nightshade who was suddenly fascinated by the flora in the planter next to us. A moment later I was too. The planter had a sign over it saying ‘please don’t eat the decor’. The flowers were stems.
“I don’t care who started it!” the stallion roared. “Slide will be dealt with once he returns. You are suspended. I don’t want you taking any more jobs until this entire situation is amicably resolved.”
“And how long is that going to take?” Jess shouted incredulously.
“As long as necessary,” The stallion coldly replied. “In the meantime why don’t you and your new friends try finding that police cruiser you went and lost.”
Jess stiffened, hardening her frosty glare on the terminal.
The stallion continued, satisfied with his aim, “I want you in my office tonight. We’ll discuss the details of your suspension then, is that clear?”
Jess grimaced. “Yes. Sir.”
“Good. Now get back here before you create another incident.” There was a loud clack and then the screen flashed to black. I could hear Jess’ teeth grind in the ensuing silence. Grumbling, she turned from the terminal and started storming back toward us with a sour look on her face.
“Ooh, that didn’t sound good,” Nightshade muttered, cautiously eyeing the storm cloud rapidly forming above her—Pegasus magic is weird like that.
“Sounds like my luck just rubbed off,” I said back to him, bracing for the oncoming storm.
“The Horizon effect,” Nightshade snorted, “I’m sure some researcher would have a field day with that one.”
I smirked. “Probability of disaster approaches one as proximity increases,” I replied evenly.
Nightshade looked at me with surprise. “I never took you for a math pony.”
“I’m not,” I said.
“Then how?” Nightshade trailed off, arching an eyebrow.
“Let’s just say the piloting exam was very comprehensive,” I said. His mouth formed an ‘o’.
“Ugh… I can’t believe him!” Jess groused.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“That was my boss, the Chief of police and also head of the PBJ’s hunter corps,” Jess replied sourly, her wings shuffling irritably.
So that’s where I had heard that voice before! Although, admittedly, not quite that angry.
“Pumpkin?” Nightshade inquired.
Jess groaned, covering her face with a hoof. “It’s… complicated. Can we just go? The sooner I get back to the office, the better. What’s that?” She pointed.
I realized that I was still projecting the file. I flipped it around so she could read it. Judging by the confused look on her face, she didn’t understand it either. “I picked it up on the train," I explained, "I think it came off Tripwire."
Jess wearily cradled her head with her hoof. “Great… more paperwork.”
“It looks encrypted, but we think a friend of ours would be able to crack it."
She passed me a measuring look before looking back at the readout and thinking for a moment. “You know, I might just let you do that,” she said.
“You’re okay with that? Isn’t it supposed to be, like, evidence or something?” I replied.
Jess blew a raspberry. “Nope! I don’t care anymore! I just got suspended! If the boss wants it so bad then he can buy it from your friend for all I care. After all this shit, I’m willing to indulge a little karma.”
I smiled as I turned off the projection. We might be getting paid after all.
*****
The Bandit was quiet when we returned. After making sure the airlock was still sealed and powering on the engines, Jess got right to work. We got our clearance and throttled up with a low rumble as we powered out, overtaking another mining barge in the process. I sat on the floor of the pilot’s cabin, contenting myself to doing a diagnostic of the shipboard systems while we prepared to jump. Three minutes in, I blinked.
“What?” I muttered under my breath, staring at the readout I was getting.
“Something wrong?” Jess asked, glancing over in my direction.
“Several somethings,” I said with a frown, “I’m running a diagnostic on the shipboard systems.”
Jess’ hoof froze over the console, right over the spot where I would normally power up the Sparkle Drive.
“All systems green,” I assured her, “it just looks like there are a few more greens than I remember. Somepony calibrated the Sparkle Drive.” It was true, among a small number of other things, the Sparkle drive was running at more power than I thought equinely possible. Several of the other less critical systems were reporting small fixes as well, most notably, the drone controller, which had gone from ‘offline’ to ‘needs maintenance’.
Jess relaxed. “Maintenance probably mistook your ship for one of the work crews,” she said, activating the charger for the Sparkle Drive. In the background I could hear a high pitched whine as the drive came to life. “Given the… interesting design of this ship it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them thought it was a wreck.”
I groaned. Times I’ve heard that joke, plus one. “Whatever, I’m going to go check on it and see if anything else broke in the meantime.” I said.
“Don’t hit your head on the way out,” Jess replied, returning to the controls with a smug grin. I rolled my eyes in response, and then activated the door control. The door slid neatly open.
I will never get used to that. I thought, taking a proud breath and smiling at the doorway before sauntering back into the corridor. As the door closed, I was greeted by relative calm. The thrum of the engines rumbled contentedly in the background over the building whine of the Sparkle Drive. The sound gave me pause. Odd, I could have sworn the ship had been louder than this—deafening, in fact.
“Oh no! Oh nononono! No! No! No! No! No!”
It didn’t make that noise either.
I heard a frightened yelp as a sky blue unicorn shot out of the ladderwell leading to down the engineering level, followed by a very entertained Nightshade. As the unicorn whirled around, she spotted me and panicked, scrambling backward until she bumped into the airlock, passing fearful glances between the two of us while attempting to hide behind her mane.
“We seem to have a passenger,” Nightshade remarked.
Passenger. Station. No return. Eyes widening, I bolted for the cabin door, slamming a hoof on the door control and shouting, “Jess! Stop the-”
Blinding light followed a lurching sensation as the Sparkle Drive activated. A momentary sensation of light-headedness washed over me as we all passed through a certain somewhere and reappeared light years from our original position.
“-ship,” I finished lamely.
“What? What’s wrong?” Jess said, leaning sideways around the chair. Her eyes glazed over me and froze on the sky blue unicorn, who was now accompanied by an amused Nightshade. “Oh, piss.”
We had at least an hour before the Sparkle Drive could jump us back, and the security chief had made it very clear what would happen if we tried. Visions of glowing shrapnel danced in my head as I imagined the station defense turrets blasting apart our hull. And now we had a passenger, probably by pure accident. I groaned. Intentional or not, we had just abducted a citizen of the UCW.
“I’m sorry!” The sky blue unicorn nearly shouted, prostrating herself before us, her eyes squeezed shut while protecting her head with her forelegs. I had to fight to keep my irritation from showing as I looked her over. She looked like a mechanic. She was wearing an ugly green utility barding with a topaz WAND around her neck and had grease smeared in places where she tried to wipe her face with her sleeve. More grease marks marred her face underneath a chocolate and mint striped mane that flowed down in front of her face and parted to the side, framing the large, round glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose.
Her next words came in unfiltered panic,
“I'msorryI'msorryIthoughtthiswasoneoftheminingshipsandIthoughttomyselfhuhIdon’trememberseeingthisoneonthelisttodaybutthenIsaw-"
I felt myself frown, unable to keep up with her. “Hey… uh-” I said, tentatively reaching out with a foreleg.
“baditwasinandIcouldnthelpmyselfsoIsaidIlljustfixituprealquickbutthenrealquickturnedintoareallyreallylongtimeandthen-”
I looked at Nightshade who merely shrugged in response. Jess had entered the corridor as well, coming in to see what the commotion was about. She glanced over at the mare with a look that was one part confusion, two parts humor.
“Ilosttrackoftimecausetherewassomuchtofixandohpleeheeheeasedontkillm-”
“Stop!” I shouted, loud enough to get her attention. It didn’t help. She shrank even further into her corner with a squeak, looking up at me with frightened, wide eyes, which were suddenly getting wider for some reason. Green, her eyes were green, just like the stripes in her mane, if a little more rich in color. Focus! Horizon!
The unicorn’s mouth worked for a moment as her brain visibly restarted. “I-I-I mean... um, hi?” she said, sitting up and straightening her disheveled glasses with an awkward smile.
Nightshade snorted, hiding his muzzle in the crook of his foreleg.
“Let’s start over,” I said, taking advantage of the sudden silence. I tried to give her the gentlest, most natural smile I could manage. It was probably even more terrifying. “My name is Horizon Seldat. Who are you?”
She seemed to mouth the last word in my name before her brain caught up with what I had asked her. “T-Tick-Tickintime,” she stuttered. She took a moment to regain her confidence and cleared her throat. “I-I’m one of the station mechanics, sorta. I was doing some repairs on the ship and I… guess I sorta lost track of time.” Her cheeks pinked as her grimace grew ever more uncomfortable. “Please don’t hurt me?” she mumbled, her ears bending downward.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” I said evenly. She relaxed. “Why were you doing repairs? I don’t recall putting in a request for them.”
“I’m sorry,” she sighed, “I thought it looked like one of the mining ships that normally came through the colony, so I thought I would get a head start on repairs before one of the other teams could… ruin it.” A little spite leaked into the end of her sentence. “I should have double-checked the roster before I got started. I’m sorry.” She bowed her head low to the deck.
I started counting the number of times she had apologized. Was it three? four? Shrugging off the thought, I responded, “Not a problem. The ship is a salvager so I can understand the confusion,” I explained.
“Oh! So that’s why you have a drone bay!” she said, perking up at the revelation, “Although for drones they didn’t look like they were in very good shape. They were all damaged, like somepony had taken shots at them or something. You haven’t been trying to do anything dangerous with them have you?”
“Uh… define dangerous,” I said cautiously.
She was silent for nearly four seconds as a dark, discerning look crossed her face. “Why did I find carbon scoring in the engine room?”
“It’s a long story,” I chuckled.
“One that involves two cruisers and a battleship,” Nightshade offered.
Tickintime’s face darkened further, one eye twitching dangerously. “What?”
“The repair shop nearly junked the thing from what I heard. The damage was really bad,” Jess chimed in. She smiled at me, you know, that smile, the one normally associated with a species of dangerous predators.
“What?” Tickintime said louder.
Oh dear…
“How dare you!” The unicorn roared, stomping her way toward me. “How could you do that to such a beautiful machine!”
“H-Hey! Hold on a sec!” I blanched, backpedaling away from her until I hit the corridor wall. Did she just call the Bandit ‘beautiful?’ I suddenly thought, frowning.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!”
My attention snapped to where it belonged: the purpling face of undiluted rage uncomfortably close to my person “W-whu-” I choked.
“You!” She jammed a hoof hard into my chest nearly winding me, and repeated the action with every word. “You. Are. Awful!”
“What?” I said.
“You took a salvage barge into combat?” I leaned back, trying to put as much distance as I could between myself and the madmare. Sadly, I had run out of space to retreat to, bumping my head against the bulkhead. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”
I looked to Nightshade for help. All he did was smile. Jess was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the laughter coming from behind the door to the pilot cabin, I had a pretty good idea where she’d run off to.
Jaw tightening, I felt a wash of old emotions start to crop up. “Like I had a choice!” I roared back at her, “I didn’t choose to get shot at by a fucking warship! Hell! We didn’t even have fucking weapons!”
She matched me, tone for tone, louder and angrier than before, “Then why did you even go there in the first place?” she yelled back.
“Because I was hired to!”
“That’s still no excuse for all the damage to the systems! You are neglecting your ship!”
“Hey! For your information, Miss, I didn’t even own this ship until yesterday!”
“Oh! So you stole it? That makes it sooo much better!”
“I didn’t steal it!” Well, actually, “I mean, ugh. It’s mine now and I was going to get it fixed! Wait, no, I did get it fixed!”
“You call this fixed?” She said, gesturing to the ship in disgust. “I’ve seen better work in a junkyard!”
“Well that’s hilarious because that’s where it was built!” I shot back.
“Maybe it’s time you two calmed down,” Nightshade interjected.
“Shut up!” we said in unison. Nightshade started laughing again.
It was enough to blow off some of the steam. I grumbled for a moment before saying, “Look. I didn’t ask for this. Okay? If I had my way I’d leave all this,” I gestured to everything, “behind and do trade runs in the PC.”
“So what’s stopping you? Did you blow up somepony else’s ship instead?”
This was getting old, fast. “No! I had my license suspended because somepony framed me for murder and then I got away with barely even my tail!”
“Wait, what?” The unicorn’s rage broke, replaced by confusion.
“You heard me, I was framed for murder,” I said again. “I don’t know if you’re familiar with how things go in the PC, but that’s a death penalty from where I’m from. And since it was my boss that ate it, it wouldn’t take a genius to think that I might have done it.”
“But that’s…”
“This ship? It belonged to my boss. I was his pilot before everything went to hell, and when I found him dead in the office one morning I had to get the fuck out before the cops showed up and baked me.”
She was just staring at this point, mouth agape. I took it as permission to continue.
“I don’t care what you think I was responsible for doing to this ship. Before my life exploded—you know that thing I do to everything?—I had control. Sure, I was a cog; I was a damn good cog, actually. Hell, maybe I even liked it. But that’s not important, because that was all before my life turned into a living nightmare.”
The door to the pilot’s cabin as Jess reentered the corridor, much more composed than when she’d left it. Nightshade was recovering as well, fading back into his usual, smug grin.
“Now, I have no control. I’ve been going along with whatever plan ponies could come up with because frankly I either: ‘A’, didn’t have a choice; or ‘B’, didn’t have any better ideas.
“So before you jump on my ship. Get in my face! And try to tell me what I should do with my life! Understand that maybe, just maybe, I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!”
I felt a hoof on my withers. I glanced back to see Jess give me a disapproving look and nod her head toward the unicorn, who was now sitting on her haunches with tears in her eyes. The unicorn stared at me, mute, her mouth working soundlessly as she fought for words.
Her head sank, “I… I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I-I didn’t-”
I huffed. “I know, and I’m sorry for blowing up at you.” I paused for a moment as I remembered why we were there in the first place. “Although, you being here does pose a bit of a problem.”
“Why is that?” Tickintime asked, looking up at me warily.
I looked at Jess, who was suddenly interested a blank section of the corridor paneling.
“Before we took off, Jess and I,” I indicated the white and silver pegasus standing next to me, “were hunting a thief.”
“And me,” Nightshade added.
“And Nightshade,” I conceded.
“You’re a bounty hunter?” she asked incredulously.
“Well, not any more I hope,” I said glancing at Jess. Jess was intensely interested in that blank section of corridor paneling. “She’s an officer of the PBJ, I was just tagging along because… oh, nevermind. The important part is that we got in trouble with the colony and they kind of… kicked us out.”
Tickintime’s eye twitched again. “What. Did. You. Do?”
“We didn’t do anything,” I explained hastily, “But... one of Jess’ uh, let’s say, coworkers, might have blown up a train. That we were on. Like, in the same car.”
She choked, her eyes bulging. “What?” she said breathlessly.
“Yeah, we kinda… can’t take you back.”
“So that’s why your flight suit looks blackened…”
Blackened? Oh! Huh, didn’t notice that. Sure enough, my flight suit looked a little crispier than I remembered it. Wow, that really was a close call! At least I was still breathing.
“We’re heading back to L6-C in the Pegasus Cluster, you might be able to catch a shuttle there back to your home, but as far we go, if we show up there again, we’re scrap.”
Tickintime braced her head in her hooves and groaned. “Just what I need.”
“Horizon effect,” Nightshade echoed with a smile. I shot him my dirtiest look.
“I’m sorry if this little accident has caused you trouble.”
“No, it’s okay,” the unicorn sighed. “It’s my fault anyway.”
My wing twitched. “Well not entirely, we should have checked for passengers before we took off.”
Tickintime shook her head. “You had no reason to. No. I’ve decided,” she announced. “I’m going to make this up to you.”
My thought process ground to a halt. Huh?
“I… said some things I shouldn’t have, and in order to make it up to you, I’m going to fix your ship.” She smiled genuinely.
I arched an eyebrow, staring for a few solid seconds. “Do you have any idea what exactly you’re promising?”
“Yes,” she simply said. “I already did some repairs, and once I start a job I always finish it. Notice the noise level?” The noise of the engines was a steady, healthy thrum. The entire ship seemed to be silent compared to what it had been before. My eyes widened as the realization hit.
“I’m guessing some of the previous damage you took cracked the plating in the acoustic dampeners for your main thrusters. That’s why you had that noise problem. I patched it up real quick with a welding spell and it took care of most of the problem. The rest of it was the miscalibration in the Sparkle Drive and breaches in some of the other systems.”
“You fixed all that? By yourself?” It was my turn to gawk.
“Yep!” she said, beaming with pride, “Fixing things is my special talent! Especially machinery.”
A pang of jealously came and went. I stood on the spot, chewing my lip while working it over. “Huh.”
“There’s still a lot to fix, but I figure it shouldn’t take too long. Especially after… well, I’m sorry.”
“You do realize I can’t afford to pay you, right?” Much, anyway.
“Nono! It’s okay! I can take care of myself, I’m not exactly strapped for cash,” she chuckled uncomfortably, scratching the back of her mane with a hoof. “Besides, I could use the vacation anyway.”
“Work... is a vacation?”
“I’ll be fine, trust me,” She smiled, and then looked thoughtful. “Although, having a free trip sometime might be nice.”
And we’re back to favors. I groaned. “Why don’t we think about that later,” I said, hastily trying to head off the conversation before she gave it too much thought.
“Deal,” she replied with a cheerful nod.
*****
The trip back was fairly relaxing. Despite the early hiccup with our new mechanic, the healthy thrum of the engines in the background provided a steady, relaxing ambiance to the ship, instead of the deafening roar it had been before. I still marveled at how much had been done in the short time we were onboard the station. Thanks to Tickintime’s calibrations, we were able to improve the accuracy of the Sparkle Drive by at least a third, shaving off a modest hour of our travel time since we wouldn’t have to adjust for as much variance. This wasn’t to say that we were busy, however. Unless you were making fixes or updating systems the Bandit was a dull place to be, made only tolerable by the new, lower noise level. Boredom ruled.
During the hour long breaks between the Sparkle Drive’s cooldowns, we each busied ourselves with whatever tasks we could find. While Nightshade kept watch on the bridge, Jess and I took trips down to the cargo bay for target practice. After my stellar accuracy on the Mag Rail, Jess all but volunteered to teach me how to use Fritter’s pistol a little better, with and without a WAND. Lesson one was the strapping mechanism which I had somehow missed the first time around. The pistol had several small hooks planted in the side so that it could be secured to a foreleg safely. It was missing the straps, but Jess had some spares on her and after some awkward fussing, we managed to get the damn thing connected. She spent a total of two hours patiently working with me on it, picking a nice blank wall in the cargo hold to serve as my target, between making trips back to the pilot’s cabin to key the next jump. By the end of two hours, I had succeeded in creating a nice mural of black marks on the blast door, none of which overlapped, and the end result looking more like the wrong end of a shotgun than any sensible grouping.
Halfway through our training, Tickintime walked in. She had been contenting herself to tuning up the Bandit’s backup systems while Jess and I were doing target practice, and when she walked in to check on a faulty shunt, her jaw nearly blew a hole through through the floor. Now, I’ve heard some pretty acerbic lectures working for Junkyard, and I’d be lying if I said hers didn’t rank a close second. It took both Jess and myself to get her to calm back down. My ears probably rang for minutes afterward. Whatever Tick’s deal was, she seemed to have some bizarre motherly instinct that seemed to kick in whenever machinery was involved. Frankly, I found it kinda creepy. A little later as I trotted past her on my way to see how things were coming along in the cabin, I found her crooning over a drone she was fixing, whispering small comforts to it over all the small dents and wiring problems she was working out. She never noticed me stop and stare, nor did she when I quietly slipped out, feeling a tad bit more uncomfortable than moments before.
The rest of the trip passed in quiet boredom, but it was a nicer boredom, thanks to the mercifully reduced noise level. I could thank Tick for that at least, weird as she was. The trip out had been miserable. This, at least, was a step in the right direction.
It was late in the day by the time we got back to L6-C.
“Docking Authority, this is Lieutenant Jess Silvermane, requesting permission to dock under priority command.” Jess’ voice was clear as she spoke over the C-Band. It took a few moments for the tower to respond.
“Officer Silvermane you are currently flying a ship designated, ‘Scrap Bandit’ which is not a regulation cruiser, could you confirm your credentials please?”
Jess sighed, “Credentials on the way.”
I stood next to Jess in the pilot’s cabin as she worked out our docking permission with the Tower, waxing nostalgic over the long lines of starships snaking their way into the hangar. The best I could manage was a grimace. The last time I had seen this view, Junkyard had died the following morning. Mood souring, I frowned and looked for the services node. We were still out of range.
“Credentials approved, Officer Silvermane,” the tower replied, “please proceed along track seven to Priority Two. Welcome home.”
“Thank you, tower.” Jess said. The line popped as the connection closed.
“Well that was easy,” I commented, still watching the starships outside. The ship heaved as we started moving forward again, slowly burning toward the beacon marking our entrance vector. I smiled as we passed ships, happy we wouldn’t be caught up in a yet another legendary wait.
“Like I said earlier, being part of the corps has its perks,” Jess said as she levelled us with the beacon, after a moment she continued, “You know, if I put in a good word with the boss, I might be able to get you a spot on the force if you’re interested?”
I shook my head and laughed softly. “After a day like today I think I’d rather stay away from law enforcement thank you very much.” I paused, admiring the speed which the others haulers were going by, “Still, thank you for the offer. If I change my mind I promise you’ll be the first to know.”
Jess seemed to accept that. “I understand. Today really could have gone better,” she admitted as she brought us into our final straightaway with a smooth turn, “but I can promise you that not every job involves getting blown up.”
I smirked. “So are all your colleagues like that?”
Jess set her jaw. “No. but, there are enough crazies on the force to make me wonder some days. The beat cops are usually pretty level headed, it’s when you get to the hunter corps that you start worrying.”
I frowned.
“I like to think I work in the interest of justice, Horizon. I put the bad guys where they belong and I take a certain amount of pride in that, but there are plenty of others who do it just for the kick. Some love it, hunting ponies. They’re criminals, or so they tell us, but… some days I have to wonder if we’re the real bad guys.”
I really frowned.
“Slide’s only one of them, if the most vocal. There’s more, some even worse.”
“Worse?” I asked, genuinely concerned
“Worse. I know a few who don’t even take ‘em alive, regardless of what they did. They make excuses, lie about their actions. I’ve seen them gun down ponies without a care in the world, outside of results anyways.”
I swallowed. “So your offer…” I said, uncertain of how to proceed.
“Is just an offer. Having another friendly face around the office is nice sometimes,” Jess said with a sad smile.
My WAND beeped. I checked my readout to see that we had just hit the services beacon, and that there was a transmission request already waiting. Judging by the callsign, it was coming from Junkyard’s office.
“Looks like somepony wants to talk,” I said, accepting the transmission request. The C-Band flared back to life.
“Huh? Oh! Hey! It worked!” A stallion on the other side said. I recognized him immediately.
“Still kicking around the office, Fritter?” I said with a smirk.
“Yep! Still here! I wanted to dive a bit deeper into your boss’s mainframe for a bit but I ran into a firewall. Progress has been slow, but I think I should be able to get if you’ll lend me that fob you had yesterday. You still have that right?”
“Yeah,” I said, checking my pack to make sure. The fob was still there, safe and sound. “Yeah, I still have it.”
“Awesome. That should make life a bit easier. Oh! I made some contacts here too. Lots of interesting ponies to talk to. I also tried to contact you by mail earlier but I then I realized I didn’t have your M-Net info,” Fritter laughed.
I chuckled sheepishly. “Well, that’s because I don’t have an account,” I replied.
“You what?” Fritter nearly shouted. “How can you not have an M-Net account?!”
“I never needed it,” I said, shrugging.
I could hear him facehoof, it actually sounded painful. “Oh my godde- Have… have you even used the M-Net before?”
“Um… no?” I said sheepishly.
Fritter took a long time to respond. “Okay. Horizon, as soon as you dock, come see me at the office. We’re getting you set up with an account. Now.”
“Fine,” I answered.
“Oh! And don’t forget to bring that fob of yours so I can finish unlocking the mainframe.”
“Alright,” I answered again, smirking. “Anything else?”
“Nope, that should do it. See you when you get here.”
“Right, see you soon,” I replied. The C-Band cut out again with a pop.
“You really don’t have a M-Net account?” Jess asked after a moment, looking at me with an amused look on her face.
“No,” I said honestly, “I never really needed one. I was always too busy working to really bother with it. Besides, who would I contact?”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe Prism?”
“She has one?”
Jess’ eyes nearly bulged. “Are you kidding me? Everypony has one, idiot! She’s been waiting for you to contact her on it for years!”
I blanched, suddenly feeling weary. “I screwed up, didn’t I?”
She laughed, “Well at least now I can tell her you weren’t ignoring her on purpose.”
I cradled my head with one hoof. “Yet another stellar performance,” I groaned.
Jess chuckled, shifting her focus back to the Bandit’s controls as we approached the docking shield. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll see if I can’t smooth things over with her later. Why don’t you go back and check on the others? I’ve got to guide us in.”
I nodded. “I’ll do that.”
I left her to it. Heading back through the pilot cabin door, I descended the ladderwell leading to the lower level. I was greeted by an odd sight. Nightshade stood at the bottom of the ladderwell, watching several parts float away toward the aft section. Coming out onto the deck, I started staring too. A veritable cloud of parts and tools floated above an open floor grate where Tickintime’s tail poked out, waggling back and forth as she muscled something into place. Nightshade’s head turned as I descended, giving me a cursory nod before returning his gaze to the spectacle with muted interest.
“We’re pulling in,” I said, loud enough so the unicorn could hear. “Tick, are you still working on that?”
The tail disappeared into the floor, promptly replaced by a bespeckled head. Tickintime adjusted the glasses on her face with a smile. “Yep! Lots to do!” she said cheerfully. A fresh streak of grease had somehow smeared its way onto her face, looking more like war paint than an accident.
“She’s been at it the entire trip,” Nightshade commented.
“Yeah? So?” Tick replied before taking a moment to wipe her face with a rag. She had only succeeded in making the smear longer. “I’m making great progress! I just need to tweak some of the dampeners in the flooring to clear out some of the fluctuations in the power grid. Whoever set them up really did a number on it. I found a feedback loop in one of the gravity plates which is why you might have noticed parts behaving weird when they get loose.”
“Did you understand any of that?” I asked Nightshade.
Nightshade shook his head. “Bits and pieces?” he offered.
“Ugh,” Tickintime facehooved. “Power problem. Artificial gravity. Fixing it? Honestly! How did you pass the engineering portion of your pilot exam?”
“Blind luck,” I replied with a smile. Hurray for multiple choice questions.
Tick scoffed as she dived back into the deck, darkly muttering something about ships and maintenance.
“This is going to be a thing, isn’t it.” I muttered.
“Probably,” Nightshade agreed.
“Tick,” I called. There was no response, the tail was in the air again. “Tick!” I called again, louder this time.
“Z-wha-huh?” she replied, her head peeking back out of the hole in the floor.
“Why don’t you give it a break? You’re gonna burn out at the rate you’re going,” I said.
Tickintime blew a raspberry, hefting a small box of tools onto the deck with her TK and procedurally stuffing tools into it from the cloud above her. “Yeah, right. You’ve obviously never seen me work. I could do this all day!” she gestured at everything while tool after tool filled the box.
“You have. It’s nearly ten at night.” My sentence was punctuated with a dull metallic thud as a docking clamp locked into place. Two more followed it, jostling the ship as it finally came to a rest. “And we’re here anyway. Pack it up and get some rest. It’ll be there in the morning.”
“Aw, but there’s still a lot of stuff to do!”
“And it will be waiting here tomorrow,” I said. “You’ve already done more than enough already.”
“Can’t I just finish this adjustment on the-”
“No,” I said louder, trying to add a little command to my tone. “Tools. Storage. Now.”
She grumbled, ducking down and levitating out a few more of the tools she was using, setting them inside the toolbox and closing it with a clack.
“We’re all set up top,” Jess announced as she descended the ladderwell behind me. “You all ready to- what’s wrong?”
“We acquired a workaholic,” Nightshade commented, glancing over at the open floor grate and the unicorn crawling out of it.
“Hey Jess? could you do me a solid?” I asked as she pulled up next to us.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I’m pretty sure Tick doesn’t have anyone here to help get her set up with shelter for the night and I don’t want her staying here.”
“What? are you worried she might run off with the ship?”
“Or marry it,” I said shaking my head. Nightshade snorted. “Just make sure that she gets some rest tonight. She’s been working all day and I’m pretty sure she’s not familiar with how things work here.”
Jess nodded, “I’ll take care of it on my way back to the office. I’ll need to get her registered anyway.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“I do have one condition.” Jess added smugly. I quirked an eyebrow in response. “After you see your friend, come over to DJ’s tonight with me and Prism. I want to make sure the two of you get back on good terms. She’s been really down on herself since she started working there and I want her to know she’s still got other friends who care. Got it?”
I sighed. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Good,” she smiled. “Shall we?”
*****
We all broke up from there. Nightshade headed off to do run some errands and said he would be back later, while Jess took Tick over to the customs office to get her registered and start work on her report. We bid farewell and went our separate ways. Twenty minutes and a cab ride later, I walked into Junkyard’s office alone.
The heat was on, for once, and aside from the slightly musty smell I’d come to associate with the place, nothing seemed too different. In fact, it felt more like another day at work than anything else. The only thing really missing was the squeaking of a chair straining under far too much weight that normally followed somepony’s entry through the front door. Instead, I heard a soft rustling noise coming from around the corner, followed by a hollow bump and a curse. “Fritter? You in here?” I called out.
“Yeah! Over by the desk!” Came a reply. I peeked around the corner to see what damage he’d done to the office while I was gone. What I found was… surprising.
In my absence, Fritter had cleaned Junkyard’s office. The floors were swept, the shelves emptied and dusted, even the computers looked like they had been recently wiped down and sterilized. Gone was the old box of stale donuts, as well as nearly every indication that Junkyard had ever set foot in the building. A somewhat scruffy Fritter sat behind Junkyard’s desk, leaning back in Junkyard’s chair and sifting through a mess of wires connecting a small laptop to the desk console. At my entrance he looked up at me with a beaming smile.
“Hey du-” Fritter blinked, giving the state of my flight suit a once over. “Dayumn! You look crispy.”
“I feel crispy,” I replied with a smirk. “I’ve had a hell of a day. Though, by the looks of this place you’ve been rather busy yourself.” I indicated the trash can, where the majority of the old crap had been thrown. Judging by the quantity inside, it had recently been taken out.
Fritter gave me a broad, sheepish smile. “Yeah, I find it’s hard to concentrate when there’s crap everywhere,” he said, scratching an itch in his mane with a hoof, “well, other ponies’ crap anyway,” he qualified. “You got the fob?”
I nodded, pulling out the little black box with my WAND. “Yeah, right here,” I said, floating it onto the desk. Fritter swept it off the desk and into his foreleg with a wing.
“Perfect,” he said, plugging it into his laptop.
“What do you need it for, anyway?”
“Firewalls, mostly. Your friend Junkyard’s database was too heavily secured to crack with my normal tools, and I didn’t bring better.”
“You never told me you could hack.”
“It didn’t seem important. Besides, what kind of info broker would I be if I couldn’t crack a little protection?” he said, then returned his attention to the small screen on his laptop. “Aaand bingo! Nothing like administrative override!” Immediately, text started scrolling across the screen. Fritter glanced back and forth through the output stream and then nodded, leaning back into his chair and stretching while the machine did its work.”
“So what’s this you were saying about some kinda mail account?”
“Oh! Right! The M-Net! Well, part of that is why I needed this fob. What I’m doing right now is getting access to Junkyard’s M-Net account. Once I do, I should be able to move it over into your name and we’ll have access to all his files, mail, and whatever else he was using it for.”
“Is that… legal?” I asked.
“Well you are the owner of all Junkyard’s things now, so… yes?” Fritter thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “I dunno. Either way, it’s a step toward getting our answers. I still can’t believe you’ve never had an M-Net account before,” he said, shaking his head.
“Too much trouble,” I simply said.
Fritter rolled his eyes, “Some ponies…” he muttered. Just then his laptop chirped. “Hah! looks like it’s ready, can I see you WAND for a second?”
“Uh, sure?” I said, carefully unstrapping the item in question. I hoofed it over to him and he placed it next to his laptop, running a wire from his laptop into a hidden port near one of the earbuds. I watched as he hummed some tuneless song while he worked. A few keystrokes later and he smiled.
“Done! You now have an M-Net account,” Fritter said proudly. “Welcome to the future Horizon!” he laughed.
“Hardy har, har,” I leveled. “What’s it do?”
“Everything,” he simply said. “Though, now that you have your own account you’ll be able to access things like the messenger service. Very useful! Here put this back on and try it.”
I strapped my WAND back on, unsure of what to expect. I’d used the M-Net before, but most of it was just for the low level functions like data transfer and downloading programs. I’d never used its fabled simulation technology or any other other time wasters that cost both bits and time. So far as I could remember, I never really had either.
“Okay, now what?” I asked. Fritter merely hit a key on his laptop.
My WAND beeped. A new notice popped up on my WAND’s readout, a small envelope looking icon with Fritter’s name attached.
<Sup dude! You’re now using the M-Net’s messenger service! Cool! Huh?>
“Huh, I suppose that is cool. Uh… how do I respond?”
“Oh! uh… I think it’s just like regular use, just think it or something. I still can’t believe you’ve never used this before.”
Bearing that in mind I started thinking about answering the question Fritter sent me. Immediately a text prompt opened.
>Huh. Cool.<
“Like I’d want my boss breathing down my neck?” I replied.
>Huh. Cool. Like I’d want my boss breathing down my neck?<
Whoops. I deleted the message.
“Well when you put it that way,” Fritter said thoughtfully. “Man, your boss must have been a real pill.”
Said the pony who is sitting in his chair. I chuckled. “You have no idea. So, did you find out anything about Nightshade yet?”
“Ugh, I wish. Progress on that has been a mess! Do you have any idea how many ponies out there are named Nightshade?”
“Uh… a lot?”
“Try a tenth of the sector! And half of those are Thestrals! It’s gonna take me years to sort through it all at this rate, unless you’ve found some info that might help.”
I thought for a moment. “Jess mentioned something earlier, actually. Apparently he’s had some military experience that he shared with her.”
Fritter hummed. “I can start there, I guess. At the very least, it should narrow the search a bit. Provided he wasn’t lying, anyway.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he was lying. Military seems to fit with what I know of him—mannerisms and whatnot.”
Fritter nodded. “I’ll keep looking then.”
My WAND beeped again. This time with a message from somepony named LT Silvermane.
<DJ’s. Now.>
“Oh, don’t tell me the ads found you already?” Fritter said in disbelief, “I knew they were tenacious, but damn!”
“It’s from Jess, actually. Apparently I’m wanted at DJ’s.” At Fritter’s proud smile I clarified, “Not like that. I agreed to meet with her and Prism there in exchange for a favor.” I winced. That was what I did, wasn’t it?
Fritter laughed, “I am so going to win that bet. Say, you wouldn’t happen to need company would you? I’ve been so wrapped up in work here that I forgot to get food.” As if on cue, Fritter’s stomach growled. I stared at him for a few seconds. His smile only broadened.
“Let me guess… I’m buying?” Fritter simply kept smiling. I sighed, “Figures. Sure, whatever. A little extra testosterone shouldn’t hurt too much.”
*****
DJ’s was packed. Dinner was already in full swing, and the ponies there for clubbing had formed a line leading out the door. Apparently some big celebrity was supposed to be performing tonight, judging by the excited whispers of some of the ponies in the line. We spotted Jess standing next to the bouncer. She was out of uniform, her stark white coat easily identifiable from the distance and her silvery mane drawn back into a relaxed ponytail. Her WAND glowed softly on her forehead, eyes lighting up once she saw us.
“There you are! I was beginning to wonder if you were going to skip out,” Jess called out over the crowd.
I waved back. “I considered it, but then I remembered what would happen if I let Prism down again,” I said with a smirk.
Jess smiled. “So you do learn new tricks. And brought company?” she made a impassive glance at Fritter who simply grinned back at her.
“I agreed to feed him,” I quickly explained “He’s been doing some research for me and forgot to eat something.” I paused long enough to pass a suspicious glance in his direction, “or so he said.”
Fritter wisely said nothing.
“Well as long as he knows when to keep his mouth shut then I suppose he’s fine.”
“He doesn’t,” I said.
“I don’t,” he admitted, “but I do make a mean fritter.”
“He doesn’t,” I said with a grin.
Jess remained unfazed. “Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. She nodded to bouncer who stepped aside, “I’ve got us a table inside, come on.”
It then occurred to me that somepony was missing. “Hey Jess, where’s Tick?” I asked.
“Sleeping,” she said quickly. “I let her crash at my place for the night. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. She was more worn out from today than she let on.”
“Who’s Tick?” Fritter interrupted.
I felt my wings twitch uncomfortably. “She’s a unicorn we… met, on our way back here. She’s a little, uh, different.”
“Oh?” Fritter’s eyebrows climbed scandalously.
“Would you stop with that already!”
“What? I’ve got twenty bits on you!” he laughed.
“Only twenty?” I said in mock offense.
Fritter coughed, “well I’m not about to bet the farm on ya.”
“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence buddy,” I muttered.
“It’s what friends are for,” he replied cheerfully.
Together, we all went inside.
Finding our table wasn’t hard. Hearing each other, on the other hoof, was much harder. The inside of the club was a deafening volume, the MC, whoever it was, had packed the house so tightly that outside of the dining area it was hard to move.
“Some crowd.” I muttered as we moved further and further toward the back. “Hey Jess, do you know who’s playing tonight?”
“Huh?” Jess said, looking over her shoulder toward me. I had to repeat my question a little louder before she could understand me. Jess shrugged, “I dunno, last I heard it was supposed to be somepony name gravedigger or something.”
“Tombstone,” A new voice corrected, “and you’re sitting over here.” Ruby Prism, in all her brilliant red glory stood in a waitress’ apron with a drink tray balanced precariously across her withers. Her wings twitched as her eyes glanced over me, and then locked onto Jess with a look that quite thoroughly demanded an explanation. “Alright Jess, what’s up? I’ve got a few other customers that I need to serve.”
“Hey! Hey waitress! Over here!” some obstinate bastard called.
A sour grimace crept onto Prism’s face. “Excuse me for a moment,” she said, quickly trotting around the corner.
WHACK
Prism came back smiling. “Okay what was it you wanted?” she asked sweetly amid the background sounds of startled ponies. Fritter and I exchanged worried glances.
“I was hoping you could take a few minutes off work so we could all talk for a moment.” Jess said with a warm smile.
Prism took one look at me and made a disgusted sound. “Really?” she asked Jess pleadingly. Jess merely nodded, her smile fading to something of a grimace. “Ugh, fine. Let me go talk to my boss really quick so I can get somepony to cover.” With that she headed off toward the kitchens.
We each took a seat inside the corner booth, the noise level being mercifully lower inside rather than out. I had a good view of the entrance, and while we waited for her to get back I watched more and more ponies filter in through the main entrance toward the dance floor. A few minutes later, Prism returned, taking a seat as far away from me as possible and bringing a tray full of water with her as well. Jess and I passed the drinks around with our WANDs and together we settled in for a rousing period of awkward silence.
“So…” Fritter asked idly tapping a hoof on the table.
“Shut up, Fritter,” Jess and I said in unison.
It was enough. Prism snickered slightly, a hint of a smile coming back to her face.
“Well?” Jess asked, a smug grin working its way onto her face.
Prism sighed. “Alright! Alright fine. Horizon,” Prism fixed me with the most unapologetic glare she could manage, “I’m sorry I blew up at you for what you did a few weeks ago.” Her glare softened a bit as her eyes started drawing a zig zag across the tabletop. “It… I know why you did it, and I-”
“No,” I Interrupted her. Prism looked up at me, a cautious look forming on her face. “Let me start first, okay?” I asked. She huffed, then sat a little straighter.
I cleared my throat, trying to find the words I needed.
“This is gonna be awkward, and, ah, fuck it. I am so sorry for what happened,” I said, “I used you and I know it, and frankly, I’ve felt like dirt about it since then. I don’t expect you to forgive me, nor should I. I cost you everything when I got you to let me go early, and everything that followed… all this,” I said gesturing to everything, “It’s my fault and I know it.”
Prism huffed. “Damn right it’s your fault,” she muttered. I winced. She sighed. “But, you’re right and you’re wrong. Jess talked to me about the whole thing, and I have to admit, it’s my fault too. I chose to let you out when I shouldn’t have, and I bear the responsibility for that decision.” She bit her lip. “and the consequences,” she added glumly.
“It might not help, but, I’m grateful you did. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Prism stared at me with something akin to awe. “You’ve changed… haven’t you?”
I chuckled, “well, getting nearly beaten to death in an alley probably helped.”
“Oh my gosh! what?” Prism said in surprise.
“Oh! You haven’t heard about my little adventure! Have you?” I said, laughing.
Shock and awe was the order of the day. Prism sat through it with a blank face as I told her everything that had happened since I left the station that fateful day. From my encounters with the gang, Nightshade and what we did to get my WAND. The events on the cargo ship and our escape, even getting caught by Jess. Though, Jess had a few points of her own to interject on that note, particularly the shot me with a stun rifle bit. Halfway through my story Prism stopped me.
“Wait. Y-you’ve... killed ponies?”
I blinked as I worked through what she had just said. I had, hadn’t I? Mentally, I started doing a body count. There were those in the gang fight, the cargo ship, the… cruisers. Holy shit, I had killed a lot of ponies. Depending on the number of ponies onboard the cruisers that attacked me, that number could have been over a hundred. Granted I wasn’t directly responsible for all of them but… damn!
Horizon effect, Nightshade’s words echoed in my head. I was starting to believe it.
“I… I suppose I have,” I muttered as I worked through the revelation with a newfound disbelief, “but they were all bad ponies?” I offered, giving her an awkward, lopsided grimace. I hoped they were all bad ponies, anyway. What was really sad is that I didn’t feel that shocked about it. It was mostly in self defence, right? It wasn’t like I could have helped it or anything!
“If it helps at all,” Jess said, breaking into the conversation, “I’ve seen him in action. He wouldn’t hurt a fly if he had a choice.” A sort of knowing look crossed Jess’s face as she passed a glance back in my direction.
“Wow…” Prism said, breathlessly. “This is a lot to absorb. I mean I never thought that you’d- Wow. When did you get so cool?”
“Probably around the time I stopped being such a huge asshole.” I muttered, my ears wilting.
Fritter snickered, “Lots of progress on that front.”
“Oh, shut it, you.”
“So what did you do with Jess today?” Prism asked.
“I took him on a bounty job out in the Core.” Jess said, then suddenly grimaced. “That didn’t… um. Turn out well.”
Prism stared at her, face flat. “Jess? what did you do?”
“Well we kind of… um-”
“-blew up a train,” I finished for her.
Fritter spit his drink.“Pfft-what?”
“Well not intentionally!” I said, attempting to clarify.
“Technically it was Slide.”
“Oh my gods, that jerk?” Prism nearly shouted.
Someone cleared their throat in front of the table. Prism glanced up and suddenly jumped to a hover, nearly knocking the table over in the process.
“Whoops! Um, sorry guys! I need to get back to work,” she said sheepishly. Her boss trounced away.
“I understand,” I said nodding to her. The others murmured their agreement.
As she turned to leave, Prism paused, “Horizon?” She said, studying her hooves for a moment while she worked out what to say, “I don’t think I’m ready to forgive you for what happened a few weeks ago, but, I’m willing to at least talk again. That sound okay?”
I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I sighed, feeling better than I had in weeks. “Yeah, that sounds great, Prism. Thank you.”
Prism peered at me, watching me as if she was really seeing me for the first time. “You really have changed, haven’t you?” she said distantly. She smiled. “Keep it up." With that, she grabbed the empty tray and flew back to her boss, who was waiting impatiently by the door to the kitchen.
A different waitress came by a short time later. I ordered dinner for the three of us, my treat. While we waited I listened to the background noise, noticing a dip in the noise as one set ended and another began. Eventually our order came, and halfway through eating I remembered something Nightshade had said before our trip back.
“Hey Fritter, Nightshade said something that got me thinking earlier today.”
Fritter’s mood soured. “After all that, you want to spoil my night by talking about him?”
Jess suddenly frowned. Fritter must have noticed by the way he suddenly straightened in his seat.
“He’s… maybe we’re overreacting a little about him,” I said.
Fritter frowned. “Maybe,” he said skeptically, “I still don’t like it when ponies feed me false information, however.”
I sighed. “Regardless, there’s something I’d like you to take a look at, if you don’t mind. Nightshade said you might be able to crack it.”
I turned on my WAND’s projector, displaying the file I had received from Tripwire. Fritter looked at it and blinked a few times, eyes suddenly widening.
“Whoah,” he muttered.
“You know what it is?”
“Pfft, no,” Fritter laughed, “are you insane? No one can read encryptions just like that. Unless you’re a computer, anyway. But, yeah, I’ll take a look at it. Just send it to my laptop with that messenger service I showed you earlier. I’ll start working on it in the morning.”
I shut off the projection. “Great. Thanks Fritter.”
“No problem! Thanks for buying.” He grinned.
We finished up our meal shortly thereafter. I left a very generous tip for Prism and the other waitress and we went our separate ways. Jess left to go work on her report, and the rest of us decided it was time for bed. I rented a room at a cheap hotel near the office while Fritter ran off to do his own thing. I slept in that night; it was glorious.
Late the next morning I got a new message from Fritter on my WAND. He wanted everyone there, surprisingly, even Nightshade. The message read:
<Morning sleepyhead! I’m not sure when you’re going to get this since you looked pretty tired last night, but when you do, get over to the office as soon as you can. I think I just solved the mystery of where Junkyard got his money. Bring everyone.>
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This chapter should be called "Horizon Factor" or "Horizon Paradox." He kind of reminds me of the boys from South Park in which whatever bad can go happen, will happen, regardless of his intent. Maybe it's his friends? He attracts rogues like a black hole.
when I first started reading this fic, I got a whole space opera vibe from it. I'm pleased and surprised to say that I couldn't care less if Horizon and the gang save the universe or not. It's just a good story. Not every fic has to be about the doom of the world or stopping the forces of evil. Sometimes it's about a group of ponies just trying to get by in a big universe.
And can I say how much I love Tick? Her obsessive nature makes her seem somewhat normal among this group of outlaws.
Dear Luna on a stick, Tick is adorable.
This story is just fun. Great universe, man.
8422109
Thanks!
7062347
I agree, I love seeing maintenance ponies. Mainly because I work maintenance.
So far I really like Tic's character. She actually reminds me of myself. Says sorry way too much and works on fixing things. Being a technician I like reading about maintenance ponies.