#433. A Routine Run
The Prompt: Reimagine My Little Pony as cyberpunk.
------
It was dark. Well, as dark as the streets of Canterlot ever were, considering the flickering neon signs and LED billboards plastered across every other building. The skyscraper Vinyl Scratch had her eye on, however, bore no signs, no billboards, nothing of any kind to draw a pony’s attention to it. But looks deceived, and she knew this innocuous little building held exactly what she wanted.
Or more accurately, what her employer wanted. Which was basically the same thing.
“Everypony knows the plan, right?” She looked over her team, four other ponies lending their unique skills in the name of fun and profit. (Mostly profit.) “We split up into two and two once we’re inside. Lyra, you’ll be out here making yourself highly visible.”
“I was born for this role, DJ!” Lyra cackled, raising one hoof in a salute. A fireball flickered to life in front of her horn, giving her eyes a dangerous glint.
“Just what I wanted to hear.” Vinyl glanced up toward the top of the skyscraper. “How’s our eye in the sky, Double D?”
A perky voice chimed over her crackling earpiece. “All clear! Nopony seems to suspect a thing yet.”
“Excellent. Let’s move, team! Remember, Bon Bon and the Doc hit the security. Tavi, you’re with me up top.”
“As usual,” Octavia huffed, shifting the bundle on her back. “Let’s do this before I come to my senses.”
Lyra split off from the group, and the others slipped into the shadows of the alley. Two pegasus security officers stood by an ordinary-looking door, but an explosion from the main street pulled their attention away. They stared at each other in a panic, then dashed around the corner to see what was up.
“Typical hired security,” Vinyl snorted. “Doc, you got the door covered?”
The Doc pulled out his little multi-tool and scanned the door. “Oh dear, it’s a tricky one. Seven separate levels of security! They really don’t want us coming in here, that’s for certain!” A few moments later, the tool beeped and flashed, and the door slid open as smoothly as silk. “But I suppose nopony gets what they want all the time, do they?” he chuckled.
Vinyl snickered on her way in. “One of these days, I’m gonna finally figure out how that thing works.”
The halls inside were simple to navigate. The maps Ditzy Doo had gotten them were as accurate as could be. Before they reached the split-up point, though, two more guards, earth ponies this time, bumped into the group. “Hey, what’re you doing here?” one of them snapped.
Bon Bon beamed at them, pulling a pair of candies out of the pouch around her neck. “We’re handing out free samples! Here, try a taste!” She tossed them to the guards, who backed away suspiciously—and rightly so. As soon as they hit the tiled floor, they exploded in a burst of sleeping gas. The guards were out before they hit the ground.
“This is where we part, yes?” Octavia noted at the stairs. “Good luck at the security station, Bon Bon, Doctor.”
The Doc nodded. “Not that we need it, but much appreciated all the same. Good luck keeping the DJ under control.” With no further words necessary, both pairs were on their way.
“As if anypony can control me,” Vinyl cackled. “But you’re welcome to try it some time!”
Octavia sighed and shook her head. “Remind me, Vinyl, why I still choose to associate with you, let alone work with you?”
Vinyl allowed a lecherous grin to slip onto her face, but delivered her answer in the most matter-of-fact tone she could. “Because the pay’s good, and I’m even better in bed.”
“Tch. Debatable.” The red on Octavia’s cheeks was the only hint that the jibe had affected her. But Vinyl loved that about her—the harder she was to rattle, the better it was when Vinyl managed it.
The laser grid blocking their destination shut down just as Vinyl and Octavia stepped onto the floor. “Flawless timing, as usual,” Vinyl said. “He can’t even see us, there’s no cameras on this floor.”
“If he weren’t such a fool at times, I might actually fear that stallion,” Octavia added. “Is that the computer?”
Vinyl crossed the room and looked over the innocuous beige box. “Gotta be. No route into the server except through here. All I gotta do is run the software our employer gave me, then track down the files they wanted.”
Octavia nodded, turning to face the door. “Good. I’ll never understand your work, so just do what you have to do, and I’ll see to it nopony interrupts.”
“Love ya, Tavi,” Vinyl purred. “Back in a flash!” She tucked her sunglasses up over her horn, her artificial red eyes focusing on the computer screen. Her neural plug emerged from the back of her neck, and she clicked it into the computer easy as could be.
Just as planned.
------
Not just as planned.
Vinyl’s virtual self cursed and leapt clumsily to one side, just dodging a blast of pure corruption. The defenses around the data she needed were good. Way better than Double D’s intel had suggested. She hated to admit it, but this Manticore virus might be too much, even for a decker like her.
“Vinyl—!” Hearing her partner’s voice, she pulled a screencap from her eyes. Much to her horror, it displayed Octavia with her katana out, clashing with another samurai—a unicorn hovering two blades in the air at once. “Whatever you’re doing, finish it quickly!”
“I wish I could, Tavi,” she hissed, knowing Octavia couldn’t hear her. She threw a blast of code at the Manticore and groaned as it bounced off the virus’s skin. “I think this might be it for me. Well, one out of two ain’t bad, right?” She called up the software her employer had given her, using all the resources her deck had left to set it running. “I hope whatever this is wipes your damn servers...”
The Manticore growled and leapt at her, claws out and tail lashing forward.
And then an explosion of green flames tore it into shreds.
“Geez! Are you okay?” Vinyl could only stare in astonishment at the figure before her. A dragon, one of those mythical beasts that had supposedly existed thousands of years ago, before magic had begun to give way to tech. It hovered before her, tail lashing behind it. “Why didn’t you run me first thing?”*
Vinyl pushed her jaw back up with one hoof. “And what the hell are you supposed to be?”
“I’m Spike!” the dragon said. “Mom was sure the security here was better than advertised, so she sent you a way to let me in to help. Now that her back door’s running, I can get to this server through the net!”
“Okay, that doesn’t answer my question, but whatever. Thanks for the save, kid.” Vinyl shook her head, virtual mane shaking. “Can we go get those files before my marefriend gets herself bisected?”
Spike nodded and waved toward the center of the pixellated landscape. “That’s what I’m here for! Let’s move!”
------
And from across the city, Spike’s “mom”, Twilight Sparkle, watched the images her artificial intelligence was sending back to her. And she smiled.
Vinyl and her team had done even better than she’d hoped. With the anti-viral codes they retrieved from the server, Twilight would be able to eliminate the Paraspite virus that had been taking so many decker lives in the past weeks. And once that terror had been cleared away, perhaps she could bring Vinyl’s team on with Equestrian Innovations in a more permanent sense.
There would be a lot to explain to them, of course. But if she was going to rescue the company Celestia had left her, Twilight Sparkle would need all the allies she could find.
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
615 users online
1,145,862 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Pretty awesome.
... I know this is JUST a short. But damnit, I wanna see this become a reality!
I JUST CANT EVEN!