When Lightning Strikes- From the Shadows
Maretropolis, Midnight
“So Humdrum… Can I ask you something?” The power pony that went by the hero name of Zapp asked her teammate over their communication line as she looked down on the city from the top of Power Pony HQ. Humdrum was inside the control room for the Power Ponies base of operations, watching over Zapp as she began to drift down from rooftop to rooftop. “Why are we here?”
“Uh… that’s kind of a difficult question to answer Zapp… I mean, why are we here in this world to begin with-”
“No, I mean… why are we here in Maretropolis having to run midnight patrols?” Zapp clarified for him. “I mean, couldn’t any of the other girls be able to do this instead?” That had Humdrum pause for a moment, a little bit caught off guard by what his teammate just told him as he began to clear his throat.
“Are you telling me that you didn’t get the memo?” The dragon asked her, before continuing to speak as Zapp reached a rooftop for an apartment complex a few blocks over. “Radiance is visiting her sister and her team in Centrail City, AJ’s checking on Coloratura at Solace Asylum to see how her recovery is doing, Pinkie’s still inactive and Fluttershy’s keeping an eye on her.”
“You forgot about the egghead.” Zapp reminded the sidekick as she landed on another rooftop. However, as she landed, what Humdrum told her next almost made the pegasus trip and fall on her face.
“Oh yeah… Twilight’s on a date tonight-”
“Woah woah woah!” The hero replied back, startled by the sudden bit of news. “Hold up… She has… a coltfriend? Since when!?”
“Since you and Lance rescued him and also when Blaster got blindsided by Anti-Zapp,” Now things were beginning to make a little bit of sense. Humdrum must have been referring to Reaper given how he was phrasing everything. However, Rainbow didn’t honestly think that a relationship with Reaper… especially on that kind of level, was somehow possible. The undead stallion blamed himself for what happened to Stopwatch and thought that it would be better for him to be in personal isolation than to be with his teammates. “Trust me… according to Tenderheart, Twilight’s helping Reaper be himself again.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Rainbow sighed, before recalling something that she had wanted to ask Humdrum. “Though… now that you mentioned it, why isn’t Lance out here? Couldn’t we have asked him for some assistance? I mean… he was part of the team before he formed his group.”
“Already tried,” The dragon sidekick told her in response, shooting down Rainbow’s thought of asking the Azure Striker for help. “One of his teammates, that girl named Katy, told me he was doing a favor for a friend of the power ponies tonight so he wouldn’t be available. Not to mention that some of the other members on the team still need some proper training before they can be out here on their own.”
Upon hearing that, Rainbow stopped for a moment. Even though part of her wanted to keep on looking for opportunities to perform heroic deeds, the pegasus decided to slow down and instead ask Humdrum a question. “Uh… which friend? I mean, the power ponies have so many that I’m surprised Twilight can keep track of them all of these years.”
“It was one of Radiance’s friends, Coco Pommel,” Humdrum told her over the comline. “She’s the current owner of the Power Pony Pizzeria chain and given the string of incidents involving some ponies ending up… well, dead… business is taking a bit of a nose dive. Especially since one of the victims was a close friend of Radiance and Coco. So, Lance decided to help by doing one of the night guard shifts for a night to try and find out some kind of clue to what has been going on.”
“Well… best of luck to him… I guess,” Zapp shivered at the thought of that, stretching out her wings because her feathers were a bit ruffled. “The thought of having to do what he’s doing now just gives me the creeps. Almost like somepony’s watching me.”
That… didn’t really set so well with Humdrum as he cleared his throat and began to talk to her. “Uh… Zapp… not to throw you off guard or anything… but there is somepony directly behind you. I thought it was just a system glitch… but the radar is picking up somepony on the other end of that roof.” Immediately, Zapp turned around and found herself looking at… somepony she had not seen before.
It was a mare wearing a full body suit that covered everything but her light blue mouth and darker blue spiky mane. Over her eyes were a pair of yellow goggles that almost glowed in the darkness.
“Uh… Who are you and why are you stalking me?” Zapp asked the mare, unsure if she was a threat of some kind… or somepony new to the hero scene that she had not met before.
The mare just grinned before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Which… left the pegasus rather puzzled. “Uh Humdrum? That pony that was behind me just disappeared.”
“Yeah, I know. They’re not picking up on the radar now… just who was that?” Humdrum asked the pegasus, sounding awfully concerned.
“I don’t know… I tried asking her about who she was, but all they did was grin and then disappeared,” Zapp replied back before deciding to change course. “I’m coming back. Something about this isn’t right… Are there any teams open for communication right now?”
“The only one open right now is MIST in Manehattan. Why?”
“It could be possible that they’ve seen the same pony I’ve encountered. Hang on, I’m coming inside to join you.” Zapp replied as she soared back over to the top of Power Pony HQ. By the time that she had gotten in the elevator and made her way down to the command center, she found Humdrum connecting the communication line with that of MIST and was currently waiting for a response.
The screen lit up with the familiar face of a tired looking Firefly. “What...?”
“Uh… Firefly, right?” Humdrum asked for a moment before clearing his throat. “This is Humdrum from the Power Ponies. I’m currently with Zapp right now and… well…”
“Let me explain,” Zapp replied back, her turn with looking at the screen. “We wanted to ask if you happened to see a strange looking pony recently while out on patrol. A pegasus pony with a dark full body suit, yellow goggles and can be able to disappear into smoke.”
Firefly looked a bit shocked. “That was… that was my uniform back in the academy. And the powers sound like a member of the Shadow Guard, but… ugh, this makes no sense…” The exhausted mare rubbed her eyes. “But it’s impossible, the Shadow Guard were a group of heroes who lived in Prance around the golden age, but were killed in mysterious circumstances.”
Suddenly, Firefly was pushed out of the way by a mare that looked identical to Fluttershy but without wings. “I-in our t-t-timeline, th-there was an a-academy that u-used the Shadow G-Guard’s uniforms to pay-ay omage to them-them.” She stuttered.
“The hay do you mean by timelines-?” Rainbow asked, before hearing another set of hooves come to the door.
“Rainbow, what are you doing?” Turns out, both Humdrum and Zapp didn’t notice that at the time that they were calling MIST, Twilight and Reaper had just come back to HQ. Much to the shock of Rainbow.
“T-twi? I thought you two had that… date tonight?”
“We did. It was rather wonderful actually,” Twilight replied back as she and Comet stepped into the control room. “Though, when we came back, we noticed that you two were talking to MIST and wanted to know what was going on.”
“Zapp encountered a pegasus mare in a dark colored flight suit and goggles that was able to disappear into a puff of smoke. So, seeing that MIST was the only team that was up right now, we thought that we would ask them if they saw anypony like that while over in Manehattan,” Humdrum caught both of them up to speed. “However, when we told Firefly, she said something about… some shadow… guard thing…?”
Twilight looked at Comet for a moment, before turning to Rainbow. “Zapp, we’ll take care of this from here,” She said, having the pegasus return to her quarters for the time being before looking to the screen as Posie was still there. “Posie, is Mist there at the moment?”
Posie looked nervous. “Well, uh… She’s kind o-of s-s-s-sick. Ever since she finished Aurora’s body-ody. I c-can assist.”
“Well, first… you mentioned this ‘Shadow Guard’ right?” Twilight first asked her, hoping to try and simplify things and not confuse Comet. “Was there any record of what came before it?”
“I know this! I actually excelled in this course!” Firefly cut in and shoved Posie to the side. “The Shadow Guard were originally known as Luna’s guard, founded in nineteen thirty five, and were entirely made up of pegasi with shapeshifting abilities that were practically limitless, as they could turn into anything. In nineteen forty two, Luna ordered them to change their name and safeguard an artifact until two thousand and three, where the entire faction, families and all, were found skewered in their sanctum in Prance.” The mare looked proud, and Posie looked genuinely surprised.
“Okay, but if all of them were skewered, then how does that relate to right now?” Twilight asked. “Because hearing that makes me think that there were no survivors to such a horrific incident like that.”
“Th-there wer-weren’t. The wives and hus-husbands, the ch-children and n-newborns. It wa-was-...” Posie stopped mid sentence.
“It was one of the most vile things to have ever happened. The Shadow Guard were tasked with guarding an artifact that they lost, but took up roots in Prance to help. The Shadow Guard were some of my heroes which is why I wore their suit with pride!” Firefly stated.
Twilight herself scratched the bottom of her muzzle with one of her wings as she looked back at both of them. “But if that’s the case, then this mare is more like an imposter than an actual member… for right now, we should call them by a different name so they don’t get confused and keep each other informed if something does happen. Any ideas?”
“How about the Night Mare? We’ve only seen the sightings of one, so…” Firefly trailed off.
“That… works,” Twilight replied back. “Though, it’s possible that there’s more than one… I’m going to cut the communication line now. But make sure Mist and Aya know about this, alright?”
“Alrighty ma’am.” Firefly responded, while Posie nodded. That lead to Twilight cutting the com line as she looked towards Comet, all while Humdrum had already left the room.
“Well… I’m definitely tired after tonight and need some sleep. Care to join me?” She asked, looking back at the unicorn with a bit of a smile as both of them began to walk to her own quarters.
Location: Unknown
Ever since she began her search for answers, she did not think that it would lead to anything like this. But even though she had some of the answers she was looking for… there was more that she wanted to learn. A lot more.
First, it was the locals. Police, governments, corporations… it started by just analyzing towns, but then it moved to cities and spread quickly. All to where she had information on every country in the world and everypony who lived in those countries… right in the grasp of her fingers. It was an information network on a global scale.
But more importantly, it was her information network. And in making it, Sombra had not tipped anyone off as to what she had taken or stole. And it her, all of this was… child's play to say the least.
Over the time that she had been here in Equestria, Sombra had taken the old warehouse that Time had her appear in and set it up as her small base of operations. Something to which she could be able to project with a snap of her finger… and also disappear. She had access to the security features of the old facility as well as the camera’s to alert her if anypony happened to come too close to her hiding place.
But… there was one thing that she didn’t quite prepare herself for... Visitors.
“Wow this place is a dump!” A young feminine voice shouted, her words echoing throughout the mostly empty building. Sombra herself, from her position in the back of the building, thought the voice was from outside. But the sound of footsteps told her otherwise as she activated her cloak and began to move closer to where the footsteps were coming from.
However, she was not expecting who had entered the building. Mostly because… they weren’t Equine at all. In fact, the girl that wandered in here… almost looked like that of a human. But Sombra still didn’t want to take any chances… and had her Machine Pistol ready as she aimed it at her and approached the subject from behind.
“Who the hell are you? And why are you here in my hideout?” She asked, weapon drawn at the girl’s head. Even though the girl herself couldn’t see her.
The girl, who was a brunette with matching eyes looked towards Sombra. “Name’s Roach. Misaka “Roach” Mikoto. That center part was my father’s name.” At that point, Sombra decided to holster her weapon as well as dismiss her cloak so this… Misaka can be able to see her fully.
“You can tell where I am, even when I’m cloaked, Niña?” She said, smirking a bit at the last part. “Impressive…”
“Your voice gives away your position. It isn’t that hard.” Misaka Mikoto stated, smirking before looking around casually. “Wow, this is a nice place. It’s even off the radar!”
“And just when she called this place a dump a minute ago,” She thought to herself for a moment. Before realizing what she had said earlier… and remembering what Time had told her as she looked back at her. “Yes… however, I’m not sure if I’m really… well, comfortable with you being here…”
“Why?”
“Well… To put it simply Niña, the one who had me come here… was also the same person who told me to kill the one you call your papa,” Sombra replied back. “So-”
“Oh, I have no love for my Padre… He left my mother, sister and I before I was born.” Misaka said with a shrug. “Quit calling me a girl, I’m about as old as you are…”
“Okay, Amiga,” Sombra sighed, before looking back at Misaka. “So let me see if I understand this correctly… You have no love for your Padre… and you would want to help me in killing him?” To Sombra, this sounded like the most weirdly twisted form of wanting revenge on your parents that anyone can think of.
“I honestly don’t care about him or what you do with him. I’m here to help you specifically, through and through.” Misaka said, grinning. “Killing my father would be easy for you if I helped, though. You wouldn’t even have to leave the safety of this trash bin.”
“Hmm…” That had Sombra scratch her chin as she thought it over for a moment. “Well… before you think about doing anything… let me show you something.” With a snap of her finger, all the information that she had collected over the course of the few weeks that she had been here appeared all around the hideout. Taking the form of what looked like a geographical map of Equestria. Each one with particular points that Sombra used to condense large amounts of information. “Now… where did I put it… ah yes, here we are.”
From one particular point on the map of Equestria, she yanked out what looked like a small cube to Misaka. But with a snap of a finger, multiple pictures and documents were portrayed. Some that showed a highly secure compound that took the form of a huge black structure.
“That’s so cool…! What is it...?”
“This whole thing… is what you would call my information network…” Sombra replied to her. “Over the past several weeks, I compiled information from all across the world here in a single database that I can hold right at my fingertips. It’s part of the tech that I have…” She then focused more specifically on the images in front of her. “This specifically though… is a Black Box site called the Zero Zone. It’s said to be the most highly secure prison compound in the world… however, it’s computers… not so much.”
Then, Sombra shifted through a few images of the interior of the complex, until she got to one specific one of a certain inmate inside the Zero Zone. “And this right here… is the bastardo we’re looking for…”
Misaka stared at it for a second before she spoke up. “No, something’s off.”
“I’ve looked through the prison’s files and from what I know, over the course of the years he’s been there, he’s been weakening in his abilities… and doesn’t look the same as he once was,” Sombra told her, holding up a picture that she found in the original case for her weapon. What looked like a photo Time placed of Roach when he last saw him. “However…”
“No, I mean the schematics in general look off. I’ve been in the Zero Zone for bad behavior, and these aren’t all of the cells.” Misaka pointed to a far off elevator in the back of the prison. “That should be labeled the ‘Prisoner Zero’ lift, cuz’ it leads to their first ever prisoner.”
“Hunh… Well, that starts to answer one thing…” Sombra added, having a second screen pop up. This time of a local news broadcast.
“Good evening and we have breaking news tonight. Several Prisoners that were originally locked up in the Zero Zone have escaped while officials were transferring prisoners to a second facility. Among those that have escaped were a group of six ponies known as the Power Copies,” The reporter replied as the mugshots of six ponies have appeared on screen. “However, what has baffled investigators tonight is that one of the most dangerous criminals, who goes simply by Roach, did not flee with the other escapees and instead stayed with the downed transport. Even allowing authorities to transfer him to another vehicle so he could arrive at the second facility.”
“Perhaps your memories of the Zero Zone were of the first facility, Amiga?” Sombra questioned.
“Yeah, well the two facilities are still functioning. This is the first one. The other’s a joke to be honest.” Misaka said. “They keep Zero off the books, and alter things in coded ways. For instance, unless they finally after two years moved Roach to a new cell, he should be here.” She pointed at the other side of the map, as if the entire thing was inverted.
“Well, no wonder the security was a joke then,” Sombra chuckled. “You happen to know a lot about the facility… I believe that we should form a partnership. We both want the same person dead, so it would be better overall if we worked together.”
“But afterwards?” Misaka asked, crossing her arms.
“Who said it was a one and done thing? You can still stick around with me afterwards.” Sombra smiled back. “There’s a lot more things that we can be able to do other than that… did you know that I happen to know a friend that’s a hero? He could be our chance to get close to him.”
“Hmm… I think I’ve formulated a plan. Care to hear it out?”
“Sure thing… but whatever plan you have… we should keep in mind that we’re going to need more than just the two of us.” The hacker replied back, having Misaka follow her over to what looked like an old desk as she began to organize everything that she was showing her. “We’ll need a team… and I believe that I got a name for it.”
“It’d be a problem finding others of like minded… ness…?” Misaka seemed confused about her wording, but shook it off. “I might have one pony that’d be willing.”
“The more the merrier,” Sombra replied back to her after hearing Misaka’s statement. “Now… for the name… Los Muertos… That sounds perfect given what we’re going for… and what Roach will become once the team is all prepared.”
“I suggest we hurry though. Your hero friend could find a way to cure Roach.” Misaka said, resting her chin in her hand.
“Oh, he’s not interested in that…” Sombra replied back. “Knowing him… Time told him to do the same thing he told me… I’m just quickening the process… Tell me, have you heard the name ‘Gunvolt’ before?”
Misaka grinned. “How could I not?” The brunette sat on a nearby empty crate. “Now… For my plan to work, you need to infiltrate the facility. Either use your friend or go in by yourself, your choice.”
“Oi… Slow down, Amiga…” Sombra replied back. “Rome wasn’t built in a day… and the best laid plans take time…”
“Unless you’re the daughter of a schemer.” Misaka replied. “But whatever. Just tell me if you need something obliterated.” Though… it was as she said that, Sombra happened to notice something new pop up on her small bubble around where Maretropolis was located. Separating her fingers, she began to read through what looked like a transcript before dismissing it and looking back at her and nodding her head. To Sombra though, what she found… could turn into something that she could use as a bargaining chip.
All she needed to do was give it time to develop first.
“Ugh, Saffron and Sparkler still haven’t made up...?” Aurora groaned as she lounged on QUILL’s new couch. “It won’t look good that the team leader’s always running off and the right and left hooves of the team are trying to kill each other...”
It was as she was talking to herself that Aurora turned her head and happened to notice Katy coming into the room. Wearing what looked like a set of pajamas and a fluffy bathrobe as she turned to notice her. “Oh. Good morning, Aurora. Did you sleep well?”
“Was I up all night…?” Aurora looked at her hand with a confused look. “I… didn’t sleep.”
“Really? Well, I didn’t hear you moving around or anything, so I thought you were.” Katy replied back, taking a moment to hop on the couch next to her.
“Lance finally back so he can straighten out his new right hoof and his telepath?”
“Oh he is… but he was… well, he told me that last night he was working a shift as a night guard for… Coco Pommel I think it was…?” Katy replied back, scratching her chin at the last part.
“I know, I watched the recordings all night. I don’t get why he wouldn’t tell me face to face though… I can’t see what you see in him.” Aurora huffed.
“Well, he really cares for others and… wait, there were recordings?” Katy asked, raising an eyebrow. “Teal told me that she couldn’t reach Lance or Lumen because they were deep underground. How did you get recordings of them?”
“I watched the recording of them leaving and followed their digital trail until they arrived at the company.” Aurora said casually.
“Oh, I see…” Katy replied back, now understanding what she meant. “Well… For Lance, he always sees something through to the end and… sometimes, he goes to great lengths to make sure and achieve the goal at the end. Heck, he did everything he could in his power to help me when I lost control of myself once and I was forced to fight him… and he went to great lengths in order to get you your new body.” The last part had Katy booped Aurora on the nose with index finger as she looked back at the girl. “Sure, there are times where he can overdo it… but he wants to be able to help those no matter what… Does that explain it?”
“Yeah, but I wish he wouldn’t leave the team… The tensity here is so thick that a sharp knife couldn’t cut it.” Aurora replied in a sulking manner.
“Hey… it’s a learning experience…” Katy sighed, before looking back at Aurora. “Humdrum told me that at one point, Mistress Marevelous and Zapp couldn’t stand each other and now look at both of them. They’re able to work together, side by side.”
“But dad was always there, helping them as best he could. Lance is just never around. The only thing this team’s done is get attacked and Bumblesweet lost her forearm… I’m just worried the team’s going to fall apart.”
“It’s not going to fall apart…” They both heard a voice and turned to see Lance standing there. Not in his normal clothes, but in something a little more casual this time. “Not while I’m still here.”
“Lance, I thought you were going to get some rest…”
“I was… then I heard Aurora talking to you and thought that something needed to be done about it,” He replied back to Katie, before looking directly at Aurora. “I’m sorry that I didn’t get to it sooner… But now that I’ve freed up a few things, we should focus on what’s going on here first… at home.”
“How are you going to start?” Aurora asked, genuinely interested and hopeful.
“First, we need to determine what is causing this in the first place and work from there,” The Adept replied. “We can’t just have them both put in a room and forced to settle their differences. We need to hear both sides of the story on this…”
“I talked with Saffron shortly after our mission in Whinnyapolis,” Katy then spoke up. “She said that she was trying to talk to the pony that killed that Hard Light pony and was trying to be peaceful, even when they were trying to choke her. But when Sparkler saw what was happening, she saw it as someone trying to kill a teammate and attacked her.”
“But that can be anypony. Why would she want to try and talk to her specifically?” Lance asked. Only for Katy to tell her something specific.
“Because it was somepony that she knew… and she feared that if she told Sparkler the truth, she would set off like Ash back in New Yoke.” After saying that, Katy looked down a bit and then looked to Lance. “Of course… Saffron didn’t say that… but with Sparkler being a telepath, it’s more than likely that she read her mind.”
“I heard that Saffron suggested that Sparkler would go back to her villainous ways.” Aurora added. However, it was around that time where one of the mares they were talking about… just happened to wake up and walk into the room.
“I suggested what now?” They all turned to see Vixen standing not to far from them. “Because there was no way I said anything like that.”
“Well, maybe you can clarify on what you were trying to tell Katy then?” Lance suggested to the unicorn as he took a seat.
“When I mean ‘set off’, I mean it in a different matter… For you see, the one responsible for what happened that night was somepony I knew and I thought I lost because of what Ash did…” Vixen clarified to her. “I did not want Esper to go on a destructive rampage like what Ash did back at New Yoke and get anypony killed. That’s what I meant when I said ‘set off’.” The Unicorn clarified, looking at Aurora to see if she understood what she meant.
“Ash and Esper couldn’t be more different. Ash is a hot head while Esper’s more reserved, but easily irritated. Like when she struggled to open that peanut butter jar because she was turning it the wrong way.” Aurora said, “She’s also condemned Ash’s actions- wait, are you saying Cupcake’s alive!?”
Vixen closed her eyes and took a deep sigh, before looking back at all three of them. “Yes she is… I thought she was gone, but… You know how we found out that she can absorb the powers of other adepts she kills?”
“Uh… yes?” Katy replied. “I think so…”
“Well… I think one of her abilities as some kind of soul transfer… something like with Lumen’s soul being merged with Lance’s…” Vixen began to clarify, recalling what she remembered from her brief encounter. “The difference is that unlike Lumen, I think her host can let Cupcake take control for a brief amount of time. I’m thinking it’s this because her body wasn’t the same as before and the only way I could tell it was her was because of her voice.”
“She’s a psychopathic killer who took off Bumblesweet’s foreleg! And she killed my-” Aurora began tearing up. Causing Katy to hold her closer in order to calm her down. Trying to keep her composed.
But for Lance… that just confirmed something else to him. “Geez… that just makes me remember my shift from the other night… for a completely different reason.”
“What makes you say that?” Katy asked.
“Well… Vixen, in those video logs that you had… did she ever mention a pony named Willow?” That… immediately had Saffron’s eyes widen in response as she looked back at him. The unicorn had no idea about this… because she only showed him just one of the small entries out of all of the ones she got.
“H-how do you-?”
“That’s the thing…” Lance replied back, before looking back at them as he rubbed his eyes for a moment before telling them. “I met her last night during my shift for Coco.”
“What the heck is going on!?” Aurora shouted.
“I don’t know either… there may be one person who knows, but I’ll worry about that later,” Lance replied before looking at them. “However, what is important is that when I was on my shift last night, I found what looked like a victim of another attack at one of the Power Pony Pizzeria facilities. However, this time when I looked at her memories… I was able to see who was the attacker. And despite the fact that they looked like a completely different pony, the way the attack happened was like that of Cupcake…”
“Okay, so we know the reason why Vixen was worried about before… and Vixen, during that moment in Whinnyapolis…” That was when Vixen sighed in response, looking back at Katy and nodding her head.
“In Whinnyapolis was when I encountered her again. And then, I tried talking to her… however, when I mentioned Willow, the daughter that was taken away from her… she snapped. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to explain something this crazy to Sparkler in a way that she would understand though. I mean… Cupcake may be my friend, but she’s done so much damage to you guys already that…” The unicorn herself, frustrated herself because of how personal this was, just had her head hanging. “It’s almost as if I’m asking for you to forget what she did to Bumble… or to Ash… or to Aurora. I just don’t think it’s possible at all.”
The door opened once again, and in came Sparkler with a softer expression than usual. “You don’t have to. We’ll take her down and make her pay for her crimes within the law. We’ll never forgive her for what she’s done to us and countless innocents, but we won’t become the judge, jury and executioners.”
That was when Saffron looked up, seeing Sparkler’s expression this time as she was immediately caught off guard by her tone and what she was saying. “Y-you… mean it?”
“I’ve done terrible things and was given a second chance. QUILL is my sentence, which I happily carry. I do whatever I can to make my parents proud and won’t ever abuse my powers or kill another.” Sparkler said, smiling slightly. “Murder and harming somepony like Bumble is a terrible crime, but taking action like Ash will only prove that I’m still the monster Lance met it the Metro.”
“That…” Lance was at a loss for words after hearing Sparkler say that. “Sparkler, I… I’m really glad to hear you say that. I’m proud of you.”
“Living with my parents taught me a bit about humility. The rest I learned on my own.” Sparkler looked away awkwardly. “Why do you think I never read any of your minds, even when I was fighting you Saffron?” That… had Saffron blink for a minute as she looked back at her, realizing what she meant.
“I… never thought of it like that…” Saffron said, before getting up and trotting over to Sparkler. Pulling her in for a brief hug. “Thank you… this means a lot to me.”
“Trust your team next time, okay?” Sparkler said in a humorous tone. Causing Saffron to nod.
“In any case…” Lance spoke up, before deciding something. “We should keep together any information we have here regarding any future encounters with Cupcake and set up a profile. That way we can be better prepared for her. Does that sound good?” Saffron nodded in response as well as Katie.
“I’ll write down what we know- oh! Can my codename be Archive!?” Aurora squealed.
“I… think that can work for now,” Lance nodded his head in agreement as he looked at the rest of his team. Shortly before he heard a small beeping sound as Lumen appeared on his shoulder. “Hmm? What is it Lumen?”
“Lance, Humdrum left you a message on your communicator…” She mentioned to him, while also looking at everyone else. “I know that most messages from the power ponies are… not really that severe, but this one seems urgent. I can put it up on the main screen for you guys.”
“Alright,” The Adept replied, before looking back at his team. “Let’s archive everything on Cupcake in a minute. Humdrum sent us a message while we were talking, so Lumen’s going to put it up on the main screen for us.” It took a couple of moments in order to get it all set up, but after a moment, everypony could see Humdrum on the screen as the message began to play.
“Hey guys, it’s Humdrum… Last night when Zapp was on patrol, she encountered a strange pony that was able to disappear into shadows or something mere seconds after we detected her,” Humdrum was then seen holding a rough sketch of what looked to be a pegasus with a dark suit and yellow goggles on her. “For now, we’re calling this pony the ‘Night Mare’ and we want you to keep a lookout for her. We don’t know if this is one pony or it’s part of some kind of team… but we would like for you to keep your eyes open and contact us if you do happen to find anything. Twilight or Firefly from MIST can fill you in on the details. Humdrum, out.”
Esper looked a little worried, almost panicky. To which, Katy noticed and then asked her a question. “Sparkler, are you alright?”
“I know that ability… Back when I was a puppet, there were these outsiders who could do that.” That had gotten Lance’s attention almost immediately as he looked back at her.
“Outsiders? Like you mean not from Equestria?” He asked her, curious about how much did she happen to know… and if there were some details that may be important.
“But Humdrum said that this was one pony. Are you sure there’s more than one?” Saffron now asked, picking up on something that Sparkler had said a few moments ago.
“Outsider meaning not from the Puppets… And I know it was a different pony because it was a stallion…” Sparkler replied. That, caught all of them by surprise. Especially Lance when he heard that. Causing him to get himself off of the couch as he looked back at his team. Hearing all of this just now made Lance rather concerned. Especially since what Sparkler said basically confirmed that the mare that Rainbow encountered wasn’t alone… and that she may be part of an organized group. Just like Sparkler and Ash were when they were still with the Puppets.
“Hey… If you said that you remembered them from within the Puppets… Could it be possible that Ash might remember them too?” Lumen then asked, looking towards Sparkler as she waited for the Unicorn to reply back.
“She was practically the second head. She and our old boss used to have meetings with them and the Sumeragi Group, but I never understood what was actually going on. Ash said they were mostly ‘peace treaties’, and never actually learned anything about what the groups were planning, so we never brought it up.” Sparkler stated.
Hearing that made Lance rather… curious about everything. Mostly because he wanted to think about how to proceed from this point… and who could possibly know about it. He had one potential thought, but didn’t want to resort to it unless it was absolutely necessary. So the only other possible options were to either find Ash, try to piece together the details on his own… or ask his informant.
Out of all three choices, the last one seemed more efficient. “Alright… I think I know someone that I can talk too that might have some answers… Sparkler, Saffron. Can you two hold down the fort while I’m gone?”
“Probably.” Sparkler replied, looking towards Saffron. Who nodded her head as well in response to what Sparkler had said.
“Alright. I’m going to get changed and then head out. I’ll fill you guys in on what I learned once I get back.”
Roach yawned in his cell. “I know of them…”
For Lance, it had been only a few moments since he had arrived at the Zero Zone and even less time since he had begun talking to Roach. But the adept was rather surprised that he actually had an answer for him so quickly. “You do? What do you know about them?”
Roach stared at the back of his hand. “You haven’t repaid me for my help with the Cupcake incident.”
Lance sighed, looking back at him for a moment. “I had already taken off the band that Max forced on you. What else would you like for me to do?”
“I said I didn’t care about the band. I wanted something else instead but you ran away.” Roach replied.
“I had a bit of an emergency at the time. Would you care to give me a refresher?” The adept asked him in response. “I’m already doing what I can to make sure I meet my weekly quota with you.”
“Don’t be a smartass, Walker. Besides, you won’t have to worry about me much longer.” Roach suddenly sounded as if he were an old man trapped in a younger body. Rubbing his hands together, he continued. “I want you to look after my daughter.”
That… made Lance blink for a moment as he looked back at him. “Hold up… You… have a daughter?”
“Long before I arrived in this universe I meddled in the affairs of the human world. Most of the Displaced here besides you, your friends and family were my doing. But I got distracted and had a child.” Roach sounded casual, like he didn’t seem to care. “Family has a way of finding you, whether you want them to or not.”
“You… make it sound like family is the least of your concern…” Lance sighed, before looking back at him. “So, why do you want me to look after her? Out of all the people you could ask, why me?”
“I have my reasoning.” Roach smirked. “Besides, you’re the one whose family is their undoing.”
Lance raised an eyebrow at that and folded his arms. “Okay, look… if I’m going to look out for her, I need to know who she is first. Do you have some kind of picture or a name? Because I’m willing to do it… I just need to make sure that I’m not going off to find a needle in a haystack.”
“All I’ll say is she’s quite the Railgun.” Roach smiled. “Now, onto your problem. I can’t help you. Someone else will come along and lead you to what you seek.”
That had Lance grit his teeth a little. Thinking that he was out of luck… but, he thought of something based on what Roach had told him and then asked him a question. “Would you know who that someone is or will I know when I see it?”
“They’ll come to you… but I do see a lot of purple.” Roach said in a joking manner. Lance raised an eyebrow for a moment, before he unfolded his arms and deeply sighing.
But, before he was to turn around and leave, he had one more question to ask. “Was there anything else you would like me to do? Just to be certain…”
“Maybe a burger?” Roach jested with a weak but hearty chuckle. Lance sighed, before taking a moment to teleport out of the room. Only to arrive back with what looked like a bag from a fast food restaurant and a drink.
“I didn’t know what you exactly wanted, so I just got a regular burger, fries and a drink. Hope you’re hungry,” The adept told him, before walking towards the exits. “See you around, Roach.” He continued to make his way throughout the building, trying to piece together the results of Roach’s personal riddle as he was coming up upon the entrance to the facility. Walking past both of the sliding doors and heading outside.
“Hmm… they’ll come to me… purple… I highly doubt that he’s referring to Twilight. She couldn’t possibly know about it given what Humdrum said…” Lance thought to himself as he continued to make his way back over to QUILL’s base. But, the closer he made it back, the more likely that another possibility began to form in his head. “Wait… is he… referring to Sombra somehow? How would he even know about her?”
“Uh Lance, you do realize that by ‘a lot of purple’ he could be talking about someplace instead of somepony specific? Like a place to meet the person that would have that kind of information?”
The Adept stopped for a moment, before looking back at Lumen as her spiritual form was resting on his shoulder. “Lumen, did you forget the part that Roach said that they would come to me?”
“Yeah, but there are times where I wonder if he’s actually telling you what you want to hear… Besides, this is the same roach responsible for what happened to Time,” Lumen reminded him as they approached the sliding door to the back side of the facility. “I’m just trying to look out for you. That’s all.”
When they got to the door though, that was when Lance noticed that it didn’t slide open like it normally would if you were returning from outside. And the door controls were inside the compound. Which lead to him thinking that if someone were to tamper it, it would be from outside. His mind raced for a moment, just as a reflection in the door began to flicker. Causing him to turn around and find out who exactly was watching him.
“Hola amigo… It’s been a while.”
End Strike 58