//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Shadowrunner: Equestria 
// by law abiding pony 
//------------------------------//

My life for the past five years has been about prolonging the amount of time between pitfalls.  That is, until I met her.  I just didn’t know it at the time.  But well…  as I’m sure you might have guessed already, I’m a shadowrunner.  Shadowrunner.  The title means so many different things to so many different ponies that it’s a wonder how we managed to fixate on a single word for us.  But since you’re here, let me tell you what being a shadowrunner means to me.

To start, I suppose I could say the moment you become one, the pony you used to be is dead, but that’s not really true now is it?  No, I died when my System Identification Number was purged from the matrix.  Everything the system knew of me, my identity, my mark on society, was erased.   I may still draw breath, but as far as my family, friends, my… old enemies, are concerned, I’m dead.  Sure, I could go see any of them again, to show them I’m still physically alive, but I’d rather not cause them any more trouble.

But this world is not without a chance at resurrection, in a sense.  I’ve actually made some new friends in this second life, oddly enough.  I knew about us in my old life of course, shadowrunners, that is.  Nothing but the usual propaganda. Criminal scum, every one of them.  A good many of us runners are. The media has some pretty low hanging fruit to cherry pick from.  I’ve had to put down my fair share of runners who crossed the line, but often times, that’s only because I’m getting paid.  A friend of mine once said, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” That doesn’t stop me from going out of my way to look for somepony willing to pay for them to die.  A mare’s got to eat, ya know.

I like to think I’m still a good pony beneath the soot and grime.  I need to tell myself that every time I kill somepony, or rob from some mook whose only crime I know of is that he didn’t want to sell some bauble and that they had it coming… somehow.  That in some way, I’m helping balance the harmony of Equestria one kick at a time.  I try to think of who else my vict — my opponents would have hurt if I didn’t put them down when I did.  Or how some other team of runners would be more destructive in stealing that bauble.

It’s been getting harder to believe that though.  Am I still telling the truth, or have I crossed the line and can’t even tell anymore?  If the old me, when I first became a runner, saw me today, would she see the need to put me down?  I hope she would say no.  Dear Celestia, please let her continue to say no.


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