Sweetie Drops slowly awakens, feeling pain all over her body. She has not felt pain this intense since that one time when she accidentally crashed into a market stall while practicing her parkour. She was intending on jumping off the sunshade but she overestimated the durability of the fabric and fell through.
Opening her eyes, Sweetie takes in her immediate surroundings. She appears to have landed in a grassy area in a place she does not recognize. One thing that she took note of, however, was the number of glowing orange crystals that were sticking out of the land from all around her immediate area. In the distance were a number of mountains which led her to believe that she was currently lying in a valley.
Sweetie closed her eyes and cringed as a painful headache suddenly made itself known to her. She has had migraines before, especially after a few of Lyra's antics where she harassed a number of the townsponies with her theories of creatures that she called 'Humans’. However, this headache was more painful than what she is used to experiencing. She was beginning to wonder if the crystals around her were radioactive or something. She couldn’t have hit her head too hard to warrant this kind of pain since her head wasn’t bleeding.
Slowly, she got up from her resting spot and began wandering around the valley searching for a way out of the field of glowing crystals while clutching her head in pain.
As she wandered, she saw what looked like a strange metallic structure in the distance and a small number of strange, moving metallic figures near the edge of the field of crystals. Moving in for a closer look, Sweetie discovered that the metallic figures were, in fact, vehicles being piloted by creatures of similar shape to herself, except that they were hairless and had no muzzle. One of the creatures, she noticed, was not piloting one of those vehicles. Upon studying him, she noticed that he had no tail and no mane. Some of the pilots had a mane, but only barely noticeable. “I wonder if these are the so called 'Humans' that Lyra has been going on about,” she wondered.
Suddenly, her instincts kicked in and she dove forward in time to dodge an attack from behind that would have made her head feel worse that it currently was. Sweetie quickly turned around to address the attacker. It was one of those creatures that she was observing.
This one was wearing a mechanical suit that made him look bigger than the creatures piloting the vehicles. The suit covered every inch of his body in thick metal while having words and images on parts of it. The head of the suit was a black dome that completely hid his face. There were also parts of the suit that were painted teal. The creature was carrying what appeared to be a large gun, one that was larger than anything that Equestria had invented.
Sweetie knew that she was in a tough situation since she was completely unarmed. She wished that she had her old equipment from her agency days, but she was forced to sell it off in order to buy the home that she and Lyra lived in. She could tell that she does not have the necessary strength to do anything to the suit so she could either flee or hope that they speak the same language. “Who and what are you!?” Sweetie asked.
The creature stood there for a moment before replying. “So, you can speak english, huh? That makes things easier. I could ask you the same thing. Ya look like a cross of a horse and a human.” The creature, who from the sound of his voice was male, paused for a moment. “How ‘bout this, you come with me peaceful-like and I won’t have to put a bullet in your head for spying on our operation.”
Sweetie considered her options. She could flee while using the crystals for cover. The creature may not be very smart, but she was not willing to bank on that chance. She was also woefully lacking on info on her present situation. All she knew was that she was in a field of possibly radioactive crystals and she has a creature, who may or may not match Lyra’s description of a Human, pointing a weapon at her. She needed more info before she could decide on how she was going to survive her current and future ordeals. Going with him would be the best choice at the moment and if these creatures prove as unfriendly as this guy, she has been known to improvise in tough situations.
She stood up straight and stared at the large-looking person and raised her arms in surrender. “Alright, I’ll go with you” she answered.
Sweetie was escorted to the site she was observing earlier. Some of the people in the vehicles spent a few moments from their work to stare at her before she was brought aboard the massive structure and thrown into a barred cell that was locked with a keypad.
The armored person closed the cell door on Sweetie and took a moment to remember the code to lock and unlock the cell. “Let’s see...it was 83019 if I remember right.” The door locked with a click and the armored person walked away.
Sweetie’s eyes widened in shock as she thought: “Is he really that stupid that he told me the code to the lock or did I just read his mind somehow?” She decided to keep the information in her mind for later.
An hour later, a door at one end of the room opened and another of the creatures walked in. Based on the body type, this one appeared to be female. She was wearing a white lab coat, a green shirt and black leggings.
The person walked up to Sweetie’s cell and began to address Sweetie. “Greetings, I am the medical officer on this ship. My name at this time is unimportant. You may refer to me as “Doctor.” We have some questions for you and depending on your answers and how truthful you are, we will either kill you where you stand or leave you on a fringe world somewhere” the doctor said as she was reading whatever message was shown on the device in her hand. “My apologies, the commander who is in charge of the operation is busy overseeing the operation and has left me in charge of your interrogation.”
Sweetie raised an eyebrow to that last part as it made no sense for a medical officer to be put in charge of a task that was best left to someone more professional. “Are these guys so short handed that they would put anyone to a task they aren’t qualified to do?” she thought.
“Ugh...Why am I being made to do this anyway? The commander has already decided to take her to Moria and have her slave her life away.” the doctor thought.
A brief expression of surprise was shown on Sweetie’s face but the doctor did not catch it in time before she reigned in her expressions. “There it is again” Sweetie thought. “I heard her say something, but her mouth didn’t move. Either she is a skilled ventriloquist or I am somehow reading her mind. And what is this about enslaving me? If that is true, then I will need to find a way out of here before we reach this Moria that she mentioned.”
The doctor began asking Sweetie a number of questions about her species, her homeworld, and a few trick questions to see if she was working for a rival guild or if she was a Confederate spy working to undermine the organization she worked for, which was called the Kel-Morian Combine. Needless to say, Sweetie got a lot more information from the doctor than the other way around due to Sweetie’s information management skills from her agency training. The doctor was convinced that Sweetie had a ship that crashed in a distant location and she somehow wandered into the mining operation. She also learned that these people were indeed Humans and that she ended up on a world that had life but no civilization.
After the “interrogation,” the Kel-Morians packed up their equipment along with numerous crates of the strange crystals and launched the ship into space. Soon, a strange feeling took hold of Sweetie; as if her body was moving faster and her insides were trying to catch up. The feeling soon faded and she soon concentrated on biding her time for an opportunity to escape from these people.
As she was waiting, her thoughts turned to Lyra. Concern filled her as she wondered if Lyra was going to be alright without her. She soon put those thoughts into the back of her mind as her own safety came first for now. At least her headache was fading away.
A few hours later, two crew members walked through the room discussing their plans on refueling on some fringe world called Mar Sara. Sweetie figured that her chance to escape was close at hand and waited for the ship to land.
The ship landed at a fueling station on the planet that the Kel-Morians mentioned called Mar Sara. As the crew was distracted with the fueling, Sweetie slipped her hand through the bars of her prison and typed in the code for her cell that she obtained from that Marine, who was also mentioned during the interrogation. Upon opening the cell door, Sweetie quietly snuck out through the opening in the ship that the crew used to leave the ship, taking note and scoffing at the lack of proper security systems and grabbing a tarp to cover her form.
After successfully sneaking away from her captors, Sweetie began taking in the sights around her. The air was hot and dry and the city appeared to be built in a desert. The people took measures to protect themselves from the overbearing sun. She also noticed a number of people in Marine suits and some occasional Marine suits that were equipped with metal cylinders on their backs. The structures around the city were mainly made of metal and some merchants were selling their wares outside these buildings under makeshift sunshades. The city, overall, had a lower middle class feel to it. In a sense, the city reminds her a little of Appleloosa.
Sweetie entered one of the structures and saw what appeared to be a bar. Seeking a break from the sun, Sweetie walked into the bar and had a seat about 2 places from a tough-looking man with long black hair and wearing a white tee shirt and a sleeveless grey jacket, blue jeans and dark leather boots.
The bartender walked up to Sweetie and addressed her. “What’ll it be?”
Sweetie looked up at the bartender, doing her best to keep her form concealed. “Nothing for me, thanks,” she responded. “Just taking a moment to get out of this sun. I’ll be on my way soon.” She knew she didn’t have any acceptable currency on her so she couldn’t order anything.
The bartender raised an eyebrow at the fact that she kept her face hidden and her lack of tolerance to the heat. He shook his head. “You must be new to Mar Sara. Most folks here can usually take the heat. What brings you to these here parts?”
“Probably find some work for the time--” Sweetie said as there was some action going on in the bar.
Some of the patrons were really drunk and started causing a ruckus. One of the patrons pulled off Sweetie’s tarp by accident. Soon, everyone was staring at Sweetie since they have never seen anything like her. Although, for some who remembered their Earth studies, a few were making comments about how she resembles some of Earth’s equine species.
The exhibition was put on pause, however, when one of the drunk patrons who were not paying attention to the atmosphere of the bar smashed a whiskey bottle on the head of another patron.
The scene at the bar quickly turned violent as more drunk patrons started fighting one another. The tough-looking patron got out of his seat and started punching out some of the patrons while dodging some thrown bottles.
Sweetie had enough of the scene and got out of her seat to fight her way out. She dodged every punch thrown at her as well as a number of bottles that were headed in her direction. Sweetie has been in her fair share of bar fights in Canterlot and Manehattan and she knew how to deal with drunken idiots. One of her punches knocked one of the patrons through a number of other patrons and into a wall.
Soon, the only ones left standing were Sweetie and the tough-looking man. The person lowered his arms and commented “You sure know how to make a scene.” The man chuckled and held out his hand. “Howdy, I’m Jim Raynor. I’m the local Marshal ‘round these parts.”
Sweetie was taken aback at the fact that Jim wasn’t showing signs of being weirded out by her equine form. “You’re not concerned about my appearance?” she asked.
Raynor simply shrugged. “I usually keep an open mind about these things. All I know is you’re part of some alien race from some unknown world that we haven’t found yet since your species ain’t in the database. Truth be told, you look like a two-legged version of some little girl’s dream creature. You seem friendly, so I’m willin’ to see if you’re trustworthy. Anyway, I saw how well you fought and I heard you were lookin’ for work. How ‘bout this, I can get the local Magistrate to hire you on as my deputy. We can get you an ID to let you live around here as a citizen until you’re ready to move on somewhere. The Magistrate is new to his position and has more important things to worry about so gettin’ you registered shouldn’t be hard. How’s that sound?”
Sweetie could see plenty of benefits in accepting Raynor’s offer. But, on the other hand, she knows next to nothing about him and has no idea if he is trustworthy. However, knowing the alternative will lead to more struggle than necessary, she was willing to take the risk. She grabbed Raynor’s outstretched hand and they shook to affirm their deal.
Raynor smiled as he stared at his new deputy. “Now, how ‘bout I buy you a drink. You look like you need one.”
Sweetie smiled at the thought at getting something to drink. “I could go for something strong. I have had a long day.”