East side
York Ave and 91st street
Catalano’s Fish Market
Margot cursed her sensitive pony nose for picking up the multiple nuances of rotting fish and shellfish. The stink was made up of a variety of rotting things like tuna, salmon, shrimp, clams, lobsters and other aquatic creatures. She almost questioned why LaShawn had them run into the abandoned fish market until the helicopters arrived with their searchlights. Bright lights stabbed down through the skylights while the helicopters hovered. Margot just crouched closer to the piled crates.
After a few moments, the helicopters flew away. A few more moments later, Skybreeze spoke up. “Who needs all of this foul smelling fish?”
LaShawn looked through the skylights at the dark blue night sky. “Some ponies.”
“Ponies eat fish?”
“A few but with the population of Manhattan it’s probably a lot. A small percent of eight million can be a large number,” LaShawn said.
Skybreeze gasped. “Eight million?”
“Give or take a few. This doesn’t count tourists or those that come into Manhattan to work.”
Margot yawned then did a quick scan of the area. So far no threats were detected. She knew that could change quickly. “Can we go now?”
LaShawn faced Skybreeze. “Yes. So Sky, besides ponies, changelings and griffins also eat fish. Just so you know Maggie, if the MA came by the fishy smell would help us escape. I doubt that the MA would be able to sniff us out among all of this stuff.”
Skybreeze tossed her mane. “I doubt after this, I will want any fish.”
When they got outside, the area was quiet. It would have been a nice night to walk around but Margot was tired and just wanted to sleep. There was also Marko, she wondered what happened to him. “LaShawn, what do you think happened to Marko? Should we still...”
LaShawn shrugged when they reached the van. “Don’t know, don’t care. If he didn’t hear all that noise, not my problem if the MA jacked up his crew. He might have decided to come for us anyway. One thing I do know, we got the cash.”
Skybreeze grimaced. “Wonderful.” The drive back to the garage was quiet as the ponies wrestled with their thoughts.
Stop N Go Garage
Guest Quarters
Skybreeze smiled as the last bits of blonde and brown hair floated down to the floor. “Now, your mane and tail don’t look singed and uneven.”
Margot looked at the pony in the mirror. If she had been human, the too short hairstyle would have emphasised how much her ears stuck out from her head. As a pony, her ears stuck out at the top of her head anyway. At least she wasn’t bald and tailless. She had to realize that there was a bit of vanity still left inside her. Even as a pony, Margot did care that she looked at least halfway decent. Margot took the time to focus and burned the bits of hair on the floor without singeing anything else. Her hair could be used against her in some tracking and offensive rituals.
LaShawn walked up. “I wish you guys could get some time to rest but things are moving too quickly. We need to find a way to make our own notches. I’ve been in contact with the resistance in the lower Manhattan green zone. They got us a ‘volunteer’ to work with but we have to get down there fast.”
Margot sighed. She just had a feeling that the notches might be too complicated for her to understand them. So far there had been no time to make equipment for studying Gleaner artifacts.
Far faced LaShawn. “Who do you need?”
“Margot and Sky.”
Skybreeze shook her head. “I’m too tired and most of my training is on energy based systems not physical artifacts.”
Nga'Devro raised his left forehoof. “Nga'Devro wishes to go and see more of this city.”
Scootaloo also raised her left forehoof too. “I want to go too. I’m tired of staying inside! I bet you too are tired!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both nodded.
LaShawn stepped back. “Hey! Hey! This is serious bizness, not a school outing!”
Margot faced LaShawn. “I think they should go. Maybe a miracle from Oonté could help us.”
LaShawn sighed. “Fine. Be at the van in a half hour. I’m not waiting for anypony.”
Digit galloped up. “Shawnie! Shawnie! Do I really have to go?”
LaShawn sighed. “Yeah Digit, you gotta go.”
“Whyyy? Get Lin to go!”
“No Digit, I can’t. Lin just knows how to make good websites. I haven’t seen her use a laptop in a while. You’re the best hacker pony I know.”
“Shawnie! What if Marko and his homies cut me with a knife? What if I get turned into a zombie?”
“How about we talk about this, just you and I?” Digit nodded while tears ran down his face. LaShawn walked off with Digit then she looked back. “Be at the van in a half hour!”
East 47th Street and 2nd Avenue
1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
65th Floor
Late Afternoon
Golden late afternoon sunlight gilded the fences covered with razor wire. Alert Metropolitan Authority enforcer ponies kept watch from inside the fence. Other enforcers with black goggles kept watch from inside their white and blue police cruisers. Margot was quite sure the only protecting they did was for the MA. Serving was also reserved for the MA too. She was also quite sure there were other defenders around the gate she didn’t see. Somepony tapped her and Margot looked away from the telescope.
Krake, a reddish brown earth pony stallion with brown hair and mane smiled. “Um, we have a volunteer now. You need to get to work.”
Margot was sure Krake wasn’t his real name.
Another voice joined the conversation. “LaShawn, are you sure these new ponies can do what you said? We’ve been trying to crack notches for years.” The speaker was a blue female unicorn with a white mane and tail.
LaShawn shrugged. “Maybe? We won’t know until we try.”
Nga'Devro was looking through the telescope at the guards.
The SHC were a few steps from the windows gawking at the different buildings.
Krake had yelled at them a few times when they stuck their faces against the dark tinted windows.
Blanco had to explain that they had an illusion spell on the windows that showed an empty room. Even though they were on the sixty fifth floor, the resistance was afraid a guard might see something.
A blue unicorn walked up to Margot. “Name’s Blanco. You got an hour and a half. After that we have to put the volunteer back before the MA notices. The work area is downstairs, use the elevator it’s faster.”
Margot nodded then looked around.
The room was just a meeting room. A large dark wooden table stretched down the middle of the room. There were some dark wooden cabinets on one side of the room. When LaShawn and her group arrived, they used the rear elevators and stayed away from the side of the building that faced the fence.
Margot understood their caution. All it took was one lucky guard with a set of binoculars and things would go south. She left the room to go to the elevator. The beige carpet felt soft under her hooves.
Blanco and LaShawn followed her. Blanco pushed the call button and the doors opened with a soft chime.
Downstairs, Blanco and LaShawn hustled Margot to another meeting room that was away from the windows. A brown skater pony with white spots lay on the black table. Behind the pony, Digit sat in a chair with his laptop in his lap. He didn’t look up when Margot entered the room. A pile of writing pads were on the table.
LaShawn sat in a cheap gray metal chair facing the volunteer.
Blanco stood in the doorway for a moment. “Your hour and a half starts now.” Then she closed the door and left.
Margot walked up to the pony and looked at the notch around her neck. It had a smooth white finish with a center that glowed a dim green color. She focused her will and scanned the Gleaner device.
An hour later, Margot came up for air. The device was too complicated to duplicate or hack without more equipment. There was just too much to remember. Maybe if she had more time, Margot could make diagrams of all of the different parts but not with a half hour left. Her tail and ears drooped.
LaShawn frowned when she saw Margot’s ears and tail droop. “What? I’m counting on you.”
“I can’t do it. Notches are more complicated than I thought. I either need more time or some sophisticated equipment.”
“You heard Blanco, they have to take the volunteer back. Can you hack up something?”
“No. Not with our lives on the line.”
“Can you do something? I’ve been hearing news that in the South Bronx green zone more foals and oldtimers are choking. We need to head up there real soon! Can you make some notches?”
“Yeah but I saw parts that communicate wirelessly. The notches will fail that test.”
“Don’t worry about that. The security is kinda lax. Nopony really cares about a bunch of poor zebras and other ponies up in the Bronx. Most of the enforcers that check notches are at the checkpoints. We’ll have to find another way into the Bronx though. Can you make notches that just look like the real ones?”
“Yes. Wait, maybe Apple Bloom could help?”
“The magic fillies?”
“It’s worth a try.”
A few moments later, Blanco opened the door. “Half hour left.”
LaShawn yelled. “Blanco, can you come in for a sec?”
Blanco walked in. “Yeah. LaShawn?”
“Can you bring in Apple Bloom? You know the yellow earth pony filly?”
Blanco grimaced. “Why would anyone bring fillies to this place? Okay.” Blanco left.
Margot focused on getting the look of the notches right and drawing diagrams of the systems she remembered.
After a few minutes, Blanco came back with Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed her.
Scootaloo looked at the pony’s orange and purple inline skates. “Cool!”
Margot stopped writing to look at Scootaloo. “I need help with the notches.”
Scootaloo smiled. “Sure.” Her right forehoof glowed with a blue aura then she touched the pony’s notch. A blue glow covered the notch and it fell to the table with a clunk.
LaShawn’s eyes widened then narrowed. “Oh hell no! Please tell me that you didn’t break that notch!”
Scootaloo’s eye narrowed. “Using Oonte’s power, I freed that pony!”
“Really? Now she can’t go home! She’s stuck here in the yellow zone now!” LaShawn and Scootaloo started arguing.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom chimed in to support Scootaloo.
Margot scanned the inactive device. She couldn’t detect any energy coming from it. The security spell and the other parts seemed intact. Margot hoped she could take the device back to the garage and study it at her leisure.
Blanco stuck her head in and saw the notchless pony. Her eyes widened. Then she walked into the room. “How did you do that?”
Apple Bloom smiled. “Oonte gave us the power to free that pony.”
Blanco’s eyes moved from the notch to the pony on the table and back. “Cool.”
LaShawn faced Blanco with narrowed eyes. “The volunteer can’t go home anymore. How’s this cool?”
“Do you know how many times we tried to cut a notch off? They failed all of them. One time we used magic and the MA showed up and caught the entire resistance cell. I know they went to the Tombs.”
Margot looked up. “The Tombs? I thought those were jails in lower Manhattan.”
LaShawn looked at the notch. “Yeah, they were. Then the MA turned that precinct into the last stop for troublesome ponies. If you are not with the MA, you are not leaving the same pony you were when you came in. Most ponies disappear after going to the Tombs.”
Krake came by and his eyes almost popped out of his head with surprise. “Really Blanco? They did it?”
Blanco shrugged. “Yeah they did it but we need to know how. We have to wait a bit. Krake do an evac of this building now. I wanna make sure that the notch is not sending an alarm to the MA.”
Krake nodded and cantered off. “You guys gotta go before the MA gets here. Please find a way to make something that will help us remove notches. This is not as good as making our own notches that work but it’s better than nothing.”
Margot faced Blanco. “What about the pony?” She pointed to the still sleeping pony on the table.
“No problem. We’ll get her up.”
LaShawn got up from her chair. “She’s stuck in the yellow zone now. What about her parents and or friends?”
Blanco pointed to the pony with her left forehoof. “Liza Morris knew there was a chance things might not work for her. Liza doesn’t have family here in Manhattan. We will take care of her. Now get your stuff and get going!”
Margot packed up her notes and the deactivated notch into her saddlebag and followed Blanco out of the room. LaShawn and the SHC followed her. They headed downstairs using the elevator. The drive back to the garage started off being quiet. Margot tried to think of ways to make a power generator so she could make more equipment. Her equipment required more power than what she could get from a power outlet. There was also the risk that the MA might detect the huge power drain.
LaShawn spoke, pulling Margot out of her thoughts. “Magic fillies, I’m sorry that I was rough on you. I was hoping that we could hack the notches so we can go to the Bronx and help out. I also want to thank you for healing Steve and Bart. I was a bit too busy to thank you earlier.”
Apple Bloom looked away from the window. “That’s okay.”
Nga'Devro also looked away from the scenery. “Nga'Devro wonders how we will get to the Bronx.”
LaShawn sighed. “Well, N. There are three ways to get to the Bronx. One way is very dangerous and I need to find out more about it. If Maggie came up with a way to hack the notches, we could just sneak into the lower Manhattan green zone and take a bus convoy to the Bronx. Another way would be to take a boat across. The MA used to have patrols on the water but it’s possible to slip past them. Now, I hear that somethin is in the water and the MA stopped patrolling. I heard the resistance tried to send a group across but they didn’t make it. You guys might have enough power to take whatever it is out but all that fighting will attract attention.”
Margot looked at LaShawn. “How dangerous is the dangerous option?”
“Maggie, I don’t want to talk about it until I hear more.” Silence descended inside the van as it drove back to the garage.
Stop N Go Garage
Guest Quarters
Margot yawned while eating her lunch. Burnie had made a tasty cabbage and hay salad with corn and black olives.
Nga'Devro walked up. “Nga'Devro has been talking to Lenny. He thinks that the best way to get into the Bronx is through the subway tunnels. Unfortunately there are a lot of threats there like zombies and Gleaners.”
Margot sighed, she wished she had more time to study the notch instead of traveling around. One day would be good enough she thought. The idea of tromping around underground in the dark with the smell of rotting ponies and zombies didn’t thrill her either.
Margot just shrugged. “We do what we have to.”