CHAPTER 1 - The Beginning of the End
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
I sat at a terminal scrolling through pages of data, most of it unreadable unless you were a nerd. My PipBuck was connected to the terminal via a cable, and the screen showed the coding that was the bridge between the hardware and the spell matrix. I poked at the keyboard changing bits here and there.
"All right, what's Crazy Daisy doing at this hour?" came a voice from beside me.
"Working," I replied as I covered the screen with a wing and glanced at the pale lavender unicorn.
"Right. secrets and stuff." she rolled her eyes.
"Eh, not so much. Just breaking the stuff your department has worked so relentlessly on for so long." I stuck my tongue out at her.
"Destroying my hard work can't wait until morning?" she prodded.
I looked at the clock on the terminal. "But it is morning," I retorted, receiving a snort in response.
"Barely. Going back to bed now," she said turning to the adjacent room, "Come in when you decide to pretend to be a normal pony." she trotted through the doorway.
I sighed and glanced at the desk next to the terminal where there was a tumbler and two bottles. I poured some hot sauce into the glass, filling it the rest of the way with banana schnapps. I gave it a swirl and moved to the window, which overlooked the Manehattan River. Along it the streets were filled with ponies that apparently didn't know it was the middle of the night. I took a sip of the muddy orange concoction. The city that never sleeps. The city that has no normal ponies.
I went back to the terminal and pushed a key. A progress bar appeared on the screen. While it was busy, I finished off the glass. When it was complete, I disconnected the cable and shut off the terminal.
"Okay. Normal pony. Sleep," I muttered, trotting to the next room. I watched the sleeping mare for a moment before laying on the bed next to her. I snuggled close to her and wrapped a wing around her. "Night, Pretty Peony," I whispered.
"Night, Darling Daisy," came a muffled response. I lay there for a time, just enjoying her warmth, until sleep took over.
~~~
I started awake to the sound of an alarm ringing. Ugh. Go away morning. Come back later. The ringing continued. I reached up with a wing to shut it off, finding empty air. I opened my eyes to see the awful pony grinning, levitating the clock just out of reach. She shut it off. "Good morning sleepyhead," she crooned, rubbing her muzzle against mine.
"No. Ten more minutes," I muttered, covering my head with a pillow and holding it down with my wings. Suddenly i was staring at the ceiling from underneath the mattress, the mare on top grinning down at me.
"Okay. Ten more minutes, Lazy Daisy," she smirked, before prancing into the kitchen.
I groaned and flipped the mattress back onto the bed. Crazy attracts crazy. I rolled to my hooves and slowly stood up. The rising sun screamed through the window. I grabbed my mirrored shades from the side table. Putting them on, I stumbled through the doorway.
"Oh, you're up," she beamed from across the room. "Going for a fly?"
"Ehhh," i grumbled, headed to the coffee maker. I put a mug under the spout and opened the top to pour some grounds in it. Something tapped the back of my head. I turned to see a banana floating in front of me. I grabbed it and put it in the coffee maker, resulting in a snicker coming from behind me.
"Crazy Daisy to Equus. We are reporting technical difficulties. Please stand by."
I groaned, pulling the banana out and setting it on the counter. I felt around with a wing for the bag of coffee. Finding it, I dumped some in the machine and started it. "Morning ponies are the worst," I muttered. I sat down and started peeling the banana.
She sat next to me and kissed my cheek. "Not as bad as nerdy ponies."
I pushed my shades forward and squinted. "Unless you're both."
She stared back aghast. "Celestia forbid." She brought a hoof to her forehead.
I poked her nose with a wingtip. I took a bite of the banana, turning to watch the stream of coffee filling the mug. When it finished, I hooked a wingtip around the handle and trotted to the small table by the window, stopping to grab the bottle of schnapps.
"Decorating for Hearthswarming already? Here, let me help." I glanced down at my wings. In addition to the things I was holding, several feathers were wrapped in a pink glow.
"Not a tree," I muttered, setting everything down and sitting in the chair. She slid into the chair across from me, a teacup hovering next to her.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" she queried, taking a sip from the cup.
"Got a show tonight," I replied, pouring some schnapps into the mug. "Nothing else really planned. how about you?" I asked, dipping the banana in the coffee and taking another bite.
"Magic." She waved her hooves in the air. "Working on new spells, just to have some nerd break everything." She punched my shoulder.
I took a sip. "Well, somepony has to make sure things don't explode." I smirked, "Accidentally, anyway. Got anything explodey to test?"
She contemplated the teacup for a moment before replying, "Not in my department. Maybe in Canterlot."
"Ooh, let's go to Canterlot then." I clapped my hooves.
She sighed and looked out the window, gazing at the huge tower that was the MAS hub. "Yeah, maybe I can take time off here and go bother the other Ministry hub. Best idea ever."
"Just say you're on official Stable-Tec business. Works for me." I grinned.
"Right. Some ponies have rules, you know." She looked at her hoof. "Speaking of which, look at the time. Time to go to work." She quickly sipped the rest of her tea, then dashed off to the bathroom. I chugged the rest of the coffee, then trotted after her, the rest of the banana in one wing. I took a bite while watching her fuss with a brush in her slate blue mane.
After several moments, she turned and asked, "How do I look?"
Of course, looking at her, only one word came to mind. I replied, "Pretty."
"Right. You always say that. Care to expound? Professional? Not looking like you just woke up? Looking like you care about your appearance?" she huffed.
"All of that," I grinned. "How about me?"
She glared at me. "For one thing, you look like you stuck your head in a thundercloud. For another…"
I pushed my shades back. "Like a pegasus that's way too cool?" She growled and stormed out of the room, throwing the brush at me.
I looked in the mirror, taking off the shades. Yeah, maybe she's right. My light green mane was a scraggly mess. My purple coat wasn't much better. Probably could use a good preening too. Hey look, a banana. I finished it off, tossing the peel in the wastebasket. I picked up the brush, straightening the left side of my mane. Before continuing to the right side, I pulled off my hair clip. I finished brushing, my mane hanging straight down over my eyes. I pushed the right side back, pinning it with the clip right in front of my ear, where it always goes. Okay. Good enough. I set the brush down and put my shades back on before leaving the room.
I trotted through the bedroom to the main living area. "The mare of mystery has entered the room. Yeah, baby."
She covered her eyes with a hoof. "More like 'mare of misery'. So you won't cause any problems or fires or explosions while I'm at work, right?"
"Nope. Definitely not," I stated. "Wait. I have an idea. How about I go to work with you, then you come to the show tonight?"
"Right. So you can break things before you get your hooves on them. Not your best idea."
"Well, if they can break, they won't be very much use to the stable ponies that hypothetically will use them. Somepony has to make sure. Besides, if you say no, I'll just sneak in the back." I grabbed my PipBuck, putting in on and locking it in place. "You really should get one of these. Makes sneaking easier."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't get me fired."
"Tally ho and such," I declared, pulling the door open and dashing into the hallway. She stepped out and closed the door behind us. She locked it and trotted to the elevator. "Umm, no thanks. Race you down the stairs." I flew off toward the stairs and down the central shaft headfirst, waving at anypony that was actually walking on them. Moments before crashing on the bottom floor, I twisted around to land on my hooves. "Twelve seconds flat. Could shave off a couple." I trotted into the lobby and sat next to the elevator. Those things are slow.
After just about forever, the car reached the bottom. The doors opened and several ponies stepped out, including the one i was waiting for. "Took you long enough."
"Yes. Not all ponies are speed freaks like you. Some have standards."
"You mean lame," I corrected.
"If you say so," she countered, trotting to the exit. I followed her out.
We stopped just outside. "Speaking of lame..." Ponies were lined up halfway down the block waiting for a taxi. "You waiting two hours for a taxi to take you half a dozen blocks? Nope, didn't think so." I wrapped my forehooves around her barrel and took off above the crowd before she had a chance to respond.
"What in Celestia's name are you doing?" she shouted.
"Oh, right," I retorted, "You like to be on top." I let go of her and ducked underneath.
She scrambled to grab onto my neck. "I should strangle you right now!"
"Better not. You'll be late." I went into a glide toward the ministry tower. "Aw, yeah! More awesome than a taxi, right?" I looked back with a grin, getting a scowl back. "No?"
"Maybe if you ask first or something," she grumbled.
We neared the tower. "We are now approaching our destination. The captain would like to thank you for flying Crazy Daisy Airlines. Please keep all hooves inside until we come to a complete stop. As you disembark, please--" my wing suddenly snapped back, and i went into a spiral toward the ground. On impact, she jumped from my back. "Thank you for your cooperation," I muttered into the pavement.
"Any time," she scoffed as she cantered toward the entrance. I looked around for my fallen shades. Finding them, I put them on my forehead, and galloped after her. I caught up to her. "Suppose we're even now?" she harrumphed and kept looking forward.
The main entrance was guarded by a pony on either side. One of them greeted, "Morning, Miss Peony, And miss..." his eyes darted to me.
"Fleur. But you can call me Daisy. Don't worry fellas, she's with me." I beamed.
She groaned. "Morning. So, surprise inspection from Stable-Tec. who knew, right?" I waved with the leg holding my PipBuck.
"All right then. Have a nice day," the guard replied as the doors opened. We stepped into the lobby, the doors closing behind us.
"See? Mention Stable-Tec and you get in any door," I grinned and trotted to the reception desk. "Good morning..." I glanced at the nameplate on the desk, "Amethyst. Hope you're ready for a surprise inspection."
The pink unicorn behind the desk looked up from her terminal. "Oh, hello." She paused a moment, looking me over. "Fleur, right?"
"Yup." I rested my knees on the table and leaned forward. "But my friends call me Daisy," I said with a wink. There was a tug on my ears and i fell away from the desk onto my haunches.
"Morning, Amethyst. Sorry about that."
"Morning, Peony. Another surprise inspection, huh? Don't let her break anything this time." She glowered in my direction.
"But I didn't..." I stammered, "It was... The guy tripped on his own hooves... I..." They were both grinning at me. "Right. Okay." I stood up, muttering, "Dang unicorns."
"Have a good inspection." Amethyst smiled and waved as we trotted toward a corridor.
We moved down the brightly lit corridor, passing various offices. I tried one of the doors, which did not open. Of course it would be locked. There was an access panel next to it, which I passed my PipBuck over. "Access denied," scolded a robotic voice.
"Y'know this isn't Stable-Tec right?" questioned the mare that had stopped, turning to glare at me, "Besides, nothing interesting is this close to the entrance. Wouldn't want to get kicked out after two minutes for trying to steal a mop anyway, right?" she smirked.
"Eeyup, that one works," I said, grinning, "That is probably the safest mop in Equestria. Can't even hack the door." I received an eye roll in response. "Right, onward," I said spinning on my hooves to continue down the hall.
"Right. Say hi to Amethyst for me. I'm going this way." she marched off in the opposite direction.
"Umm, yeah." I turned around and quickly caught up to her. "Couldn't have designed the building like a maze or anything now, could they?" I muttered.
"Don't be jealous that where i work is bigger than where you work." She made sure to put as much sarcasm into the last word as she could.
"Tenpony may be bigger than Stable-Tec HQ," I quipped, "but Equestria is my office. Don't be jealous that my work is more fun."
She harrumphed and quickly trotted to one of a bank of elevators, pushing the call button. As I approached, she already had the doors open, and stood inside, waiting. "Today sometime, maybe?"
I stood next to the elevator, peering into it. "Uhh, maybe stairs would be a better idea? This box is really small," I noted anxiously.
"Get in here you big chicken. It's not that far. Also there aren't any stairs down, anyway. You should know that. You've been here before. Probably even got the floor plan of the whole tower, right?" She had her face up to a panel on the wall, which was scanning her eye. The panel let out a ding, and the doors started to close. "Stable-Tec Co-op," she said into the panel. "Better get in. Ride's leaving."
I gingerly put a hoof over the threshold, the doors reopening. Hesitating a moment longer, I stepped inside, closing my eyes. I heard the doors close. Okay, box of death. Not falling. Soaring through the sky. The big, open, unconfining sky. Feel the breeze under your wings. Hello, Miss Sun. looking good today. Hello, happy clouds, nice to see you. How's the weather? Good? Okay, That's great. You know what else is great? Ding. The elevator doors opened, and I dashed out... almost. My apparently outstretched wings impeded my progress, crashing into the wall on either side of the doorway, landing me on my rump. Hearing a snort from behind, I opened my eyes and looked back.
"The ever so graceful pegasus," she snickered.
Getting to my hooves and retracting my wings, I muttered, "Buildings are the worst." I trotted out of the horrible enclosure with as much dignity as possible.
"Maybe if you spent more time inside it wouldn't be so bad."
"Yeah. Make cloud walls and install fresh air and real light and it wouldn't be bad."
"Right then, grumpy wings. Come to inspect or complain?"
"Why? Are they mutually exclusive?" I grinned, having regained enough composure to do so. "I can do both simultaneously."
"Whatever. Just as long as you don't simultaneously break anything." she trotted out of the elevator nook into the mane foyer. I followed close behind.
"Once. Just once, and you never hear the end of it," I grumbled.
The room wasn't nearly the size of the entrance upstairs, but it definitely wasn't small. The place was brightly lit from florescent lights striping the ceiling a good 5 meters above the floor. On the back wall was a doorway leading to offices, with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences logo on one side, the Stable-Tec logo on the other. On the left, there was a bank of half a dozen terminals and a stairway toward the back, leading down. On the right, there were a couple of tables ringed by several chairs with a large terminal screen on the wall behind them. The rest of the room was wide open. I took a deep breath, finally being able to breathe at all after that horribly tiny elevator.
Looking at the logo of the star with the wings and horn, I grinned. "One way to hide the fact that this is actually a Ministry of Awesome gig."
"It just wouldn't do if ponies found out there was a branch of the MAw operating from a MAS hub now would it?" a voice questioned behind me.
I turned to see a rust colored mare with a white mane. "Suppose not," I replied, "We would both be out of a job, eh Spanner?"
"Well, the one of us that has a real job, anyway," she quipped.
I groaned. "Not this again. I should just go back to Cloudsdale." I moved past her to the elevators and stopped. "Actually, never mind. Just got out of that awful box." I turned back to the giggling unicorns.
"Oh, come on Daisy, lighten up. You don't want to go back. It's way more fun here." Spanner countered, booping my muzzle.
"If it's so fun, let's see some," I retorted, grinning. "It's been a while. You should have some new toys, I hope?"
Peony rolled her eyes. "Should I find you two a room or something?"
I poked her in the side with a wing. "No, silly. Can't have fun without all three of us."
Spanner chimed in, "Especially with that thing you've been working on." She winked at Peony, whose face was suddenly a lot more pink than usual.
"Speaking of which, I actually have a job to do," she huffed, trotting to the stairs.
"You two are a couple of grumps," Spanner stated, following after her. I followed, bringing up the rear.
At the bottom of the stairs was a long corridor lined with doorways. On one side were labs full of electronic equipment in various stages of assembly. On the other were chambers used for creating and testing spells. As we were passing one lab, I noticed a familiar stallion working on a piece of equipment. I poked my head through the door and called out, "Spaghetti!" He dropped his screwdriver and ducked under the workbench, covering his head with his forelegs.
"I see you still remember each other." Spanner smirked, appearing next to me. "It's okay, spark. No spaghetti here." She turned to me. "Right?"
I glanced back. No saddlebags. "Nope. Oh wait..." I poked at my PipBuck screen, bringing up the settings, and scrolling through. "Nope. no noodle module." The mares rolled their eyes in unison. Spark peeked between his hooves. Upon deciding the coast was clear, he slowly stood up, glaring at me the whole time. I smiled and waved at him.
"So, how you coming along there?" inquired Spanner, pointing a hoof at the device.
"Great. Awesome even. I've gotten the memory spell matrix into a terminal memory module, so anypony can view a stored memory from a terminal. This modified memory recollector can transfer from an orb to a memory module. Though terminals only show the visuals for now, eventually full immersion should be possible. Though you might be better with a recollector that can read from the memory modules, Leaving the terminal out completely. Okay, maybe that was a half good idea." He rubbed his chin with a hoof.
"Maybe not the most useful idea, but promising anyway," Spanner offered.
"Right. Umm, you probably have more interesting things to look at, right?" he suggested tensely.
"I don't know. This room has a couple of pretty interesting things to look at." I met his eyes and batted my lashes.
"Chalk up one broken pony," she gibed, looking at the poor pony apparently turned to stone. "All right, miss cockatrice, time to go." She gave me a nudge toward the doorway. I left the room to continue down the hall.
I glanced into the rooms as we passed, noticing them all vacant. I stopped to glance toward both ends of the hallway. "So shouldn't there be a few more ponies here, at least? This place seems a bit empty."
"Oh, they're probably at lunch or something. Must not have known about the surprise inspection." She nudged my shoulder with hers.
I groaned. "I'm really not that bad, right? There was only one incident last time."
"And two before that, and one before that…"
"Hey at least you got safety issues worked out of things. can't fault me for that."
"Suppose not, but other Ministry branches would be shut down, or audited at least." She trotted to a doorway. "You'll probably like this one. Just don't cause an incident."
I followed her through to one of the test chambers. Peony had a large machine in the center, attached to several weird bowl things covered in blinking lights and knobs. "I can't put a hoof on it, but this seems a bit familiar," I indicated.
"The basis of it is from some of Twilight’s schematics and notes, but goes a step further," Peony asserted, "The helmet reads brain waves from the pony wearing it, and the machine forwards it to the ponies wearing the other helmets." She put on one of the helmets, gesturing for the two of us to follow. As soon as we did, she flipped a switch, the machine humming to life.
"So does this thing actually have a use, or is it just for fun?" I inquired.
"It has plenty of practical applications. For example…"
Spanner interrupted, "Just for fun."
Peony shot her a glare, and suddenly I felt angry enough to kick something.
Spanner replied with a bigger grin than I thought possible, and I felt like being in the clouds with the sun shining down, wanting to kick something.
"Okay, my turn." I wiggled my haunches, looking around to see the others blushing profusely.
"Now if that isn't an interesting combination," Spanner mused.
Peony took off the helmet and stormed out of the room. I called after her, "Works great! You're awesome!" I turned to spanner. "Hey, imagine this thing with group therapy sessions. Can you say record time?"
She chuckled. "Yeah, except for you two. Maybe you could get the record for longest therapy session ever."
"Eeyup." I wiggled my haunches again.
She removed her helmet. "Okay, then. Enough of that for now."
"Yay. Last hoof on the daffodil sandwich. What did I win?"
"I'll buy you a Sparkle Cola." Just like old times.
"Yay. My favorite!" I also didn't bring any bits. What a silly pony.
We made our way back upstairs to the breakroom. Peony was there steeping a cup of tea. I waved as we entered. She found something interesting on the fridge.
There was a vending machine on the wall, on which Spanner pushed a button. A cold bottle of Sparkle Cola was dispensed. She picked it up and held it out to me. "You're welcome."
I took it with a wing. "Thanks, but that means you still have to buy me one later, right?"
She facehoofed. "Because you won't give up otherwise?"
"Nope." I sat next to Peony. "Your thingy is really awesome. Works better than any other projects, too. Why so mad?"
"Because everything i do is pointless. Sure, theoretically, the thing can be applied to some practical purpose, but it's so out there, nopony wants to touch it."
"Well, isn't proof of concept basically what this department aims for?"
"Well…"
"Hey, is this a mare's party, or what?" Spark appeared in the doorway. "Never invite poor Spark to parties," he said with a frown.
"We thought you were too busy working," Spanner responded, "We were just talking about 'mare things'. You can join if you want." I winked at him.
"Okay, just getting a soda and leaving." He dispensed a cola from the machine.
I turned back to Peony. "Does it matter what the machine does if it's awesome?"
"Not really, but…"
"Also, is furthering the MoM's agenda the cool thing to do now or something? Or are you just using their work for personal projects?" I queried.
"Well, it's been the only Ministry really doing anything exciting enough to rip off and improve," Spark replied with a smirk, "Although some are more personal than others." He nudged his eyebrows in Peony's direction.
"Yeah, but some are more than 'let's just put two random things together and hope something sticks'."
"Yeah..." he began.
Suddenly the intercom came to life. "Attention, all personnel. Equestria is under attack. Canterlot is currently under fire from zebra missiles. They currently are protected by a shield the Princesses are casting. No other attacks have been reported. Plans for evacuating the city have begun and any personnel able to help citizens reach the hub are urged to do so. It is probable that we will be hit soon, so let's hurry, ponies."
We all stared at the speaker for a moment, then looked at each other. "Well, they finally did it," Spanner stated glumly, "Better move out, then." She stood up and trotted to the door, the rest of us following after. We reached the elevator, which, surprisingly enough, wasn't there. She pushed the call button. "Well, guess we're stuck here while they are occupied elsewhere. Dang off the book departments and their security over safety."
"Or we could use the back door," I said, grinning. "There's always a back door, right?"
"Teleportation's out. Magical barriers blocking off restricted areas. Only one way out that I know of."
"Prepare to be amazed." I brought up security tools on my PipBuck. "Okay, door... override..." I waved my hoof over the panel. "Do the magic." The elevator door opened. I beamed. "Mare's best friend right here." I peeked into the shaft. "Hello, ladder. Nice to meet you." I turned back to the group. "Good news everypony. There's a maintenance shaft beside the elevator. You all good at laddering?"
Peony groaned, "I don't think that means what you think it means. Still, it's a way out. We doing this?"
"Probably faster than the elevator," I stated, "and less box of death. Also, mind the gap." I darted across the chasm to the landing.
"Right, then," Spanner declared, teleporting across. "Huh. No barriers where nopony's supposed to go. Who'd have thought?" The other two followed suit.
"Upward and onward," I proclaimed, dashing up the shaft. I paused on a landing several levels up, looking around. Hmmm, 'b3'. How many levels does this place have? I looked down to the climbing ponies. "Almost there. Can you teleport to other ponies, or just places you've been before? Never really figured that one out. Also assuming you've never been here before."
"Well, it is kind of hard if you've never seen the place, but teleporting to somepony else generally works if you can see them."
"Right. I'll go up while you get to the next landing, then we'll do a science. You all like science, right?" A collective groan came from below. "Okay. Sounds like a yes." I flew up a few more levels. Okay, '2'. I looked back down, hovering above the platform opening. "Science time. Teleport, go!" After a moment, the three of them appeared next to me, dropping the short distance to the platform. Wait, now there's two. I looked down to see Spark falling back down the shaft. I raced down past him, catching him as he passed. We flew back up to where the others were waiting. "Look what I caught, Mommy. Can I keep him?" I looked down to the blushing stallion.
"Aww, how adorable," Spanner quipped. Spark, clearly not amused, jumped from my hooves.
Peony just glared at me, pointing at the wall, which had a big '2' printed on it. "My bad, should have been looking for 'm'," I grimaced.
"You turkey." She continued glaring.
"Okay, you can kiss later. Let's get out of here now," Spanner suggested.
I flew down to the elevator door on the main level. "I'll open the door and you jump." I waved my PipBuck around next to the elevator until the door opened. "Open caraway."
The other three teleported into the lobby and i flew in after them. The huge room was full of ponies, and was still filling. Most were in various states of panic, but some close to the elevator were staring at us like we appeared out of thin air. Well, we kind of did. "How about them elevators?" I quipped.
I looked around the room. "So, thousands of ponies. How's this place for supplies?"
"Well, supposedly, we could handle the whole town for at least a week, but this should only last a couple days, tops. Though, if the surrounding towns evacuate here, things could change," Spanner surmised.
"Okay, then we tell everypony to grab what supplies they can before they come. Problem solved," I stated. I turned to Peony. "Supply run time?"
"We may have time, we may not." she shrugged.
"Be right back." I took off above the crowd toward the reception desk. Amethyst was busy with organizing the chaos, delegating tasks to a group of ponies around her. As soon as she was finished, the group split up to perform their assignments. I landed beside her. "So any news?"
"Wow. good thing they have the best coordinator from Ponyville," she muttered. "Oh. No, nothing yet. The Princesses' shield is still holding, and there's no word from anywhere else... yet."
"So, supposing there's still time, would it be a good idea for a bunch of panicked ponies to return home to grab what supplies they can?"
"Supposing there's still time. It's a risk either way. Most likely less just waiting it out, and if we do get hit, send out parties after."
"This war just keeps getting better." I groaned. "All right, I won't keep you from your job then. Good luck."
"Thanks. We'll probably need it."
I flew back to our little group. "So no news is good news, right? Canterlot still has the shield up, and it appears nowhere else has been attacked yet. I need to grab a few things. Anypony coming with?"
"Whoa. Slow down there, Crazy," Peony chided, "Not really a good idea to go out while there's a chance of missiles raining down."
"A little rain never hurt a pegasus," I replied.
"And a big one?" she challenged.
I shrugged. "Ehh, maybe. Though it looks like they're just trying to send a message. If they were going to hit us, they would have done it already."
Spanner chimed in, "Being the biggest city in Equestria doesn't exactly paint a target on Manehattan or anything. I would give it until Canterlot's shield comes down at the latest. I second the 'not a good idea'."
"Okay, you're the boss, Boss," I returned, "So into the chaos, then?" Wow, that's a lot of ponies, and they just keep coming. I grinned. "Huh. The whole city showed up for my show tonight." Three facehoofs was the reply.
"Great. The zebras led us into a trap. The city's doomed for sure." Peony punched my shoulder.
I stuck my tongue out. "Somepony jealous they didn't get a gig at Tenpony?" She rolled her eyes.
"Yup. There's the headlines now, 'Manehattan leveled by sonic blast. Cause: unknown. Point of origin: Tenpony Tower.'" We all stared at the stallion, who had remained silent until that point.
"Not with my gear at Hoofbeats." I frowned. "Well, anyway, got a venue change to take care of." I dashed off to the reception desk.
When I was sure I wouldn't be noticed, I snuck through the crowd toward the exit. Outside, the air was filled with the sound of sirens, and the streets were filled with ponies scrambling to get to the tower. I hovered above the crowd. Looking toward the club, I noticed a stream moving toward it. I flew over and blended into the crowd. Entering the building, I noticed the crowd moving past the club and into the Ministry of Morale hub above. Hmm, i wonder if they are still up for the gig tonight here. Well, they won't miss one DJ, right?
I moved across the dance floor toward a back hallway, coming to a door on which hung a plaque with my cutie mark on it. I ran my PipBuck over the panel next to the door, opening it. I stepped inside and looked around. It was a fairly small room, just big enough for a small table along the back and a couch to the side. My saddlebags sat on the couch. I opened them, seeing the mixer in one and turntable in the other. I took them off the couch and put them on. Moving to the table, I looked in the mirror on top. Okay, mane won't need much work, already got the stress look going. I grabbed my tam from a hook and put it on at a considerable cant. Next were the headphones around my neck. "Aww, yeah." I shot a winger gun at the mirror.
"Right, probably shouldn't do the dallying." I scooped the rest of the contents of the table into my bag--necktie, brush, various mane products, shades. The cap followed. "Very inconspicuous thing." I stopped at the framed picture of Vinyl Scratch, my inspiration and friend. I sighed. "Senpai, doushita no?"
Months ago, Stable 29 had been conducting a 'drill', letting a select group in, Vinyl included, and shutting the door behind them. The door is still closed, which wouldn't be a big deal, except after a few months we lost contact. In our conversations, she never mentioned anything wrong, then suddenly nopony inside could be reached. I'll find out what happened if I have to break in. Actually that has to wait until the current problem is past. Another sigh. I carefully put the picture in the bag and looked around one last time, hopefully not the last ever, before leaving and closing the door.
I watched ponies stream through the entrance. Might be a bit harder to get back out. Making my way back across the floor and pushing though the crowd, I was back outside. I took off in the direction of Tenpony. Arriving, I pushed through the crowd to where Amethyst and Spanner were talking.
They turned to me, their conversation apparently interrupted. "I see you never learned what 'not a good idea' means," Spanner said with a frown.
"Nope," I retorted, "Just got a few essentials. Also not dead." I pointed with a wing to my bags.
"Clearly. Do we need to go over the concept of essentials, too?"
"Yeah, i need to be able to access the PA system. How do you do that?" I grinned. two pair of eyes rolled.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Amethyst replied, "Well, a morale boost would be good. Most ponies here have never been to the club, so maybe take it easy, though?"
I was busy poking at the screen of my PipBuck, going through available access points. "Wow, this building has a lot of connections. Hope we're stuck here for a while. Lots of fun to be had by all." I found 'reception public address' and tapped it. In my best zebra mafia voice I said into my PipBuck, "Relax. Take it easy." Suddenly the room was quiet. "Got 'im." I hovered above the crowd, waving. "What up, pones? DJ 'Daze', that's 'D-V-Z-3' for those of you that can't spell." I giggled. "Hope you're ready for awesome tonight." Putting on my cap, I continued, "Was supposed to be at Hoofbeats tonight, but they probably still have enough over there. Hopefully they can spare the awesomest for you. Well, carry on whatever you were doing, ponies. DVZ3 out." Dropping back to the ground, I stated, "Yup, it works. Let's try 'general public address' next."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see the glare of Peony. "Good news, everypony. We have a special guest. Care to say a few words, Dear?" I lifted my PipBuck to her. She continued to glare. "Right, maybe next time. Sorry folks." I shut off the transmitter. "Yes?"
"Serious much? You know there is a war going on right? Also the situation is critical, and you don't seem to notice."
"Of course, none of us would have these 'awesome' jobs without the war," I said with a wink, "and reducing panic levels is generally a good idea in these situations."
"Yes. I suppose that is true. Just don't do anything to make ponies think it's safer outside." she forced a grin.
I pulled my tam off and held it to my chest. "As if I would ever." I feigned insult.
"Right. Never." Sarcasm practically flooded from her words.
I returned the cap, turning away, and stomping off in a huff.
Spark was at the reception desk with a radio. "Hey, how are the waves?" I inquired.
"Quiet. Too quiet," he replied, spinning a pen with his levitation. "Connection to Canterlot has been lost. Emergency channel is silent."
I pulled up the connections on my PipBuck. "Canterlot: signal jammed. Emergency channel isn't. They would have to jam all the repeaters." I commandeered the radio. "Tenpony to any station: radio check."
After a few moments came a reply, "MoM Fillydelphia to Tenpony: we read you."
"Any news from Canterlot? We lost the signal. Seems to be jammed."
"Negative. No signal from Canterlot."
"Ponyville to Tenpony. We can't reach Canterlot, nor can Cloudsdale."
"Ponyville? What is happening? Are they still under attack? Are the shields holding?"
"Both affirmative. Attack is holding steady, as is the shield."
"What about the signal? Is it being jammed remotely or from inside?"
"Seems to be inside or it would probably affect us too. Though the shield isn't doing it or we would have lost comms earlier."
"Understood. What about--" I was cut off by a blast of static.
"Its... gone. We lost Cloudsdale."
"Their signal jammed too?"
"No, the city is gone. Just evaporated. We felt the blast from here." I stared at the radio for what seemed like forever. My trance was broken by the voice returning. "Tenpony, do you read?" Cloudsdale. Gone. No words to say. The voice repeated, "Ponyville to Tenpony: do you read?"
I replied shakily, "Affirmative, Ponyville. We read you." Don't cry on the radio.
"S'pose that's the beginning of the end, then? Next step: mutual annihilation."
"Right. Radio's yours again," I said, on the verge of tears. I darted up to a nook near the ceiling, where I curled up and let the tears flood out. I felt a hoof running down my mane. looking up through tear soaked bangs, I saw Peony sitting in front of me, wearing a concerned look. I reached my forehooves around her shoulders and buried my face in her chest fluff. For some amount of time, I sobbed into her soft fur while she continued to stroke my mane.
I looked up into her eyes. "They're gone. I told them I'd be back soon, but they're all gone."
"Sorry. I just don't know what to say. I'm just glad you stayed here. I need my special somepony." I hugged her tightly and buried my face again. "Even if she's ruining my coat. Good thing mares don't have cooties."
I looked back up, almost making a grin. "Yeah, good thing. We'll have to fix your coat. This place has showers?"
"I'm sure we can find one somewhere."
"And then we send the world off with a bang," I grinned, momentarily forgetting the loss of my home.
"Oh, you are incorrigible," she chided.
"Well, it's that or stand around moping," I stated, "and that sounds like a terrible idea."
"If you say so."
"Eeyup, I do." I brought up the floor plans on my PipBuck. "There's one right there." I hovered above her and swooped down to grab her in my hooves, receiving a startled gasp. I tore across the room above the crowd toward a maintenance wing. After clearing the obstacle, I set her down and landed beside her.
After sufficiently regaining her breathing, she huffed, "Don't know why I'm still surprised about this. Warning would be nice."
"I gave you a good two seconds," I stated, trotting ahead of her down the hall. She groaned, following behind at a distance. Maybe a good thing because i kind of like my extremities still attached.
The room was close by. I approached the door, pushing it open. "Hey it's not locked. Not a broom closet," I smirked, ambling through the doorway. I looked around the room, my eyes stopping on the objective--a good size shower with six heads. "Quick. Go find four more ponies," I proposed, "Or ten if we double up."
She rolled her eyes. "Totally what one should do while the world ends."
"Why not, right?" I trotted to the shower, turning one of the knobs. Nothing happened. The next one. Nothing. Four more, each nothing. "Dang. water talisman must be on emergency lockdown. Makes sense." I trotted to a sink, turning it on, watching the stream emerge from the tap. "Well, okay. Suppose that's enough." I looked in the mirror. Wow, that's awful. salty streaks covered my face and my mane was a half crusty mess. I looked over to her. Other than her slightly disheveled mane and matted coat on her chest, she was gorgeous as ever, all the way to her shapely flanks... she cleared her throat, bringing me back to the room. "Oh, sorry. got distracted."
"What else is new?" she asked, splashing water on my face. I retaliated with a wingful of water, soaking her mane. "Oh, it's that way, is it?" she cackled, collecting a large sphere of water, hovering it over me. As the sparkles surrounding it disappeared, gravity took over, soaking me from mane to tail. "Whoops, looks like we both missed. Have to try again." she pushed her mane to the side out of her eyes.
"Hey, I'm having a thought here. Can you make a cloud?" I asked.
"Says the pegasus," she snickered.
I waved my hoof around the small room, "We don't exactly have a sky to work with here."
"Right. How?"
"Easy. Just need elevation, obviously not enough here. Just start with steam, then decrease temperature and pressure, then suddenly cloud. Then i can start it."
"Okay. Not the weirdest thing I've ever done." She turned the sink to hot, gathering the steam with her levitation, transferring heat away from it as it reached toward the ceiling. Gradually a small cloud started to form.
"Look out weather team!" I cheered, "Got nothing on this!" Soon we had a nice fluffy cumulus a few meters across. She turned off the water. I tugged the cloud from the ceiling and hugged both of them together. "Your very first cloud. She's totally a cutie." I nudged them toward the shower. "Be right there." I set my saddlebags off to the side, as well as my... um, well, PipBuck's not coming off, didn't bring the key. I took off my headphones, hair clip, and hat, setting them on my bag. I returned to the shower. "Hey, you want to start her up?"
"Yeah, by falling right through? Should work great."
"Well, maybe since it's made with magic it has a built in cloudwalking spell," I suggested. "Not like the ground is that far away either."
"Right." She jumped on top of it, her weight held for a moment, suddenly slowly sinking through it.
"Nope. Guess not." I jumped on top as she stepped from beneath it. I began pronking, causing a few drops to fall. After several, a light downpour was emanating from the cloud. "Tada. It's lots of fun and super fluffy. You really should get that spell." I hopped down and pushed the cloud to the ceiling.
After the nice, relaxing rainshower, I grabbed us a couple of towels from an nearby nook. She intercepted both, rubbing me furiously with one of them, until I was a big fluffy ball of static. "How adorable. I'm going to love you and hug you and squeeze you and call you George!" She gave me a big choking hug.
Wheezing, I tried to escape from her grasp, the struggle tightening her grip. "No, George. can't escape hug time." With my wings I tried to pry her forelegs off my neck. "Oh, George. you've turned purple." She loosened her grip, and I pulled back quickly, evading her. Gasping for breath, I fell back. "George doesn't like hugs?" she frowned.
Ignoring her, I trotted to the mirror. Every bit of fur and hair was radiating wildly. "Oh, no!" I exclaimed, "What ever shall I do without my hairbrush?" I threw a hoof over my brow.
She giggled and began drying herself off slowly, and carefully, and... Oh, I'm staring again. Oh well, just enjoy the show. When she was finished she inquired, with a grave tone, "You do have a brush, right?"
"Eeyup. Outside pocket." She opened the pocket, pulling out a glossy photo of her in a sultry pose.
"You... What?... Evil..." she stammered.
"Nope, other pocket." I grinned, taking and replacing the photo in the pocket.
She pulled the brush out of the pocket, and began straightening her mane and tail. The peach highlights materializing out of the blue. Ha, that's a good one. When she was finished, she turned to me, giggling. "Okay, George. You next?"
"Nope. I think I'll just go like this," I beamed, putting my tam on with the brim facing back. "Oh, wait. Almost forgot." I put on my hair clip and headphones. "There. Done." I looked in the mirror. "Yeah. One-eyed ball of fluff definitely good look."
"Eh, maybe not so much." She levitated the brush to me.
I set my accessories aside, and began brushing down my chaotic coat. After some semblance of order was achieved, I moved to my mane, brushing it straight, clipping the right side back. I replaced my tam and headphones. "Yeah. Awesome instead of parasprite."
"So, what now, Miss Awesome? Going to kick some radio in Canterlot?"
"Probably. Just staying here doing nothing is a great recipe for anxiety." I returned the brush to the pocket and put the bags on. I pointed to the door. "Sisters in war, to the skirmish must we hence! Shall we hence?"
"Tally ho! Henceforth to Canterlot."
We made the short trip back to the reception desk. Spark was still directing his attention to the radio. Spanner was talking with a small group of ponies, probably the ones 'at lunch' when we showed up. "Oh, you're still here. I thought you'd dashed off to Canterlot," she said, slightly surprised, "Where were you then?"
"Doing science. You know--psychology, meteorology, biology," I stated.
"I see. Clearing your cache, were you?"
"Eeyup. But now we are going to Canterlot before it corrupts again."
"Really? You're going into an active strike zone, just to maybe fix a radio, that is behind an impenetrable shield?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Wanna come?"
She tapped her chin with a hoof. "Let's see... possible death, or guaranteed... No, not really."
"Okay, good. We need somepony to watch over Peony's baby anyway." I winked at Peony, who winked back to Spanner.
"Right. Do I really want to ask?"
"Of course you do." I smirked. "She made the prettiest little cloud." I threw a hoof around Peony's withers, hugging her close.
"All right. Why exactly?" she inquired, raising a brow.
"Because the shower talismans apparently are on lockdown," I stated.
She giggled. "You know, there are some things ponies don't do in front of their kids."
I shrugged. "It was more below really," I beamed. Spanner rolled her eyes and Peony punched my shoulder. "Actually, would you mind watching a couple more?" I inquired, motioning with a wing to my bags. "Not such a good idea to take kids on dangerous assignments."
"Oh, so I'm the designated foalsitter now?"
"If you're not coming with us. Besides, back at Stable-Tec we always talked about having foals. Almost the same thing."
"Right. At least yours aren't loud and obnoxious foals," she stated with more than a hint of sarcasm.
"Nope. Not at all." I pulled out my turntable and mixer, setting them on the desk. "Should be back way before the show anyway." I looked at spark. "Hey. If we're not back in time, maybe you could run the show. Just don't break anything. That's my job apparently."
"Uh, yeah," he replied, before turning back to the radio.
"Right. Arrangements made. Onward." I turned to the exit.
"Have fun storming the castle," Spanner sang out as we headed off.
"So, we're really doing this?" Peony questioned.
"Unless you have a better idea. Oh wait. You don't. Nope." I insisted. "Need to make a small side trip, though."
"Of course you do."
Back outside, I looked around. "Hey, we got plenty of taxis now. Want to take one?"
"Sure. Might as well."
Peony hopped into the seat of one nearby, I sat next to her. "Uh, I don't think this is going to work." she motioned to the empty harness at the front.
"Okay, so get up there." I suggested, receiving a nasty glare. I grinned and hopped down, slipping into the harness. "Better hold on tight then." I flapped my wings, leaving the ground. The carriage angled upward, the wheels not leaving the ground. "Right. earth pony contraption."
I trotted to the road. Upon reaching it, I went into a full gallop. Only half a dozen blocks. Won't take any time at the speed of awesome. Using my wings to gather speed, we careened through the streets, dodging abandoned carts scattered throughout. Approaching an intersection, I announced, "Last stretch. Here comes the awesome." I swung left and planted my hooves, the carriage swinging around, still moving forward. Facing the new direction, I bolted off to the destination. Approaching the apartment, I slowed to a trot. I stopped in front of the door. "Your destination is on the left," I crooned.
"I'm calling the cab company. You're so fired."
"Wait, I work for the cab company?" I smirked, removing the harness. "So you coming up, then?"
"Somepony has to wait for the cab. Don't want the driver to leave without us," she giggled. "Yeah, right behind you."
"Right. See you in an hour." I dashed through the door into the lobby, up the stairwell, and down the hallway, stopping at the door of our unit. I turned the knob, the door not opening. Right. Of course it's locked. Pulling a key out of a pocket, I unlocked the door. I opened it and stepped inside.
"Hey." Peony was sitting at the table sipping a cup of tea. "Took you long enough."
"Okay, cheater," I scolded, "What was that thing about not using magic for trivial things?"
"Beating you isn't trivial," she plainly stated.
I changed the subject. "Right then. You got everything you need?" I glanced around for anything useful.
"Everything except sanity," she replied, "Wouldn't have any of that on you, would you?"
"Nope. Never had that ever." I moved to the fridge. Opening it, i removed a bag of carrots and a bottle of schnapps, putting them in my bag. I turned to her.
"Obviously. So, maybe pack for a possible extended stay?" I pulled out another bottle of schnapps with a grin. She snorted. "Point confirmed."
I put the bottle back and closed the fridge, moving to the cupboards. I grabbed a case of protein bars, dumping the whole thing into a bag. "Okay, that's comestibles handled."
"Portable and effective doesn't really outweigh nasty, but whatever. You do you."
I moved to the workstation in the corner, which was strewn with various PipBuck modules and attachments and other gadgets. "Toolkit definitely would be useful. Can’t fix a radio without tools." I picked it up, putting it in the bag. "Well, that should be it. You packed?" I sat at the small table across from her.
"What do you think? I just got here." She sipped her tea.
"You mean you didn't use a time travel spell? Lame." I snickered.
"Yeah, considering most ponies can't even teleport."
"Speaking of teleporting, you can get us to Canterlot, right? I mean, we don't have a bypass for the shield otherwise?"
"My talisman will get us to the MAS hub, but the question would be if i can teleport from here, or if we need to be closer to Canterlot. I can get there easy, maybe not so much with a passenger."
I frowned. "I'll have you know, I'm light even for a pegasus my height. You probably won't even notice."
"Except for the screaming like a foal." She finished her tea, getting up and moving to the kitchen. She set down the cup. She moved toward the door where her bags were sitting and put them on.
"You sure you didn't do a time spell? No way you packed that fast."
She grinned, lighting up her horn. Her magic wrapped around us. The world disappeared into pink sparkles.
Level Up! Level 2 Reached
New Perk: Iron Resolve
Destruction of your home has given you a driving motivation. You gain +1 strength and +1 endurance.