There was a great difference between falling and floating. The former was accompanied with a great rush of wind and more often than not, screaming depending on the circumstance. The latter though was a brand new experience for Chance.
As he looked into what could only be described as a view of the night sky that the city hid from him, he saw hues of dark blue, intertwined with flashes of white representing stars that scattered and moved in real-time across the sky.
Chance didn't want to move, he felt safe. And Despite the night sky bearing no warmth, he felt it anyway. But he felt a presence of some kind next to him, and curiosity won him over as he looked over. A blue pony, with both wings and a horn. It was already looking at him as if waiting for him to acknowledge her existence.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" It said, with a distinctly feminine voice.
"Hm?" He replied, being lowered to the ground.
"The Dreamscape."
"Is that what this place is?"
"Aye." Chance looked away from her and back up to the sky.
"It's beautiful."
She trotted over and sat down next to him, lying down on her back as well.
"Aye, I come here whenever I feel my duties overwhelm me. It helps that I am the warden of this place." They stared up at the sky together.
"Luna, I assume?"
"Correct."
"What happened?" Luna sighed.
"You were gravely injured."
"How bad?"
"Multiple broken and fractured bones. Severe burns coupled with extensive tissue damage. We had to keep you in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks."
Chance felt himself begin to sweat as he tried to get up off the ground, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Wait, where am I?" He asked.
"Chance, please calm down, I can explain everything, but not if you panic like this!" Luna commanded rising up off the ground and approaching Chance. He backed away, his vision began to blur and fade, slowly being replaced with that of a tile Ceiling. Immediately he began to move around, trying to rip off the medical devices. He noticed his arm, the skin looked like it had been through an acid bath of some kind due to its scarring
"He's awake!"
"Where the fuck am I?" He croaked, looking over to the voice, in its place he found a unicorn wearing medical scrubs and a stethoscope. "Where in the fuck am I!" He asked once more his heart pounding as he tried to rip off the various medical devices.
"He's becoming maniac, administer sedatives." He heard another voice call out, as he felt hooves press him down firmly on the bed. He felt a pinch in his arm, and his view slowly faded, being replaced with the sky view of the dreamscape. He immediately shot up and backed away from Luna.
"Chance, you need to calm down, I will explain everything but I can't if you don't calm yourself!" Luna said, walking towards him, only for him to walk backward away from her in fear.
"Two fucking weeks? I was out for two fucking weeks?"
"Chance! Please! Just listen to me." Chance slowed down and looked at Luna.
"You've mostly recovered, except for intensive scarring. Your injuries as of right now are only cosmetic."
"Everything will be alright?"
"For the most part yes. And if I recall correctly, weren't you the one that said scars get you laid?" Luna asked with a small grin. Chance chuckled a bit.
"Yeah, to be fair I was high on painkillers." Chance sat back down. Luna walked over to him and enveloped him in a hug with a wing.
"You can't go back to Earth right now, though. Due to the risks associated with those that are hunting you."
"I thought as much. That's why I'm here right?"
"Aye." They sat in silence for a few more moments.
"Why did you rescue me? You had no obligation to, yet I'm still alive."
"From a fiscal perspective, we did not want over 5 and a half million dollars to go to waste. But from an emotional perspective, Nova stated that he would refuse to continue work on this mission if you were not given adequate medical care." Chance said nothing as he let himself fall deeper into Luna's side, He let the soft fur shield him from the world as he lost himself in thought. "Are you ready to awake? I'm sure he would like to speak with you."
"...sure." Chance heard something akin to multiple windchimes as his vision faded. The feeling of being enveloped by feathers and fur faded as well as his vision went white.
</>
[This plays softly in the background (Central Heating - Heatwave)]
Chances eyes fluttered open. His eyes lazily staring into the ceiling as he tried to regain his sense. He looked around hearing the sound of some music come from his right. He could immediately tell it was funk of some kind. He tried to remember what he saw earlier. While he couldn't remember the exact details of the conversation he had in the dream, or who he had the conversation with. He somehow knew he was not on earth anymore, and that the ponies had apparently been attempting to take care of him and heal his injuries. It was odd, he knew this information, but he wasn't able to recall how exactly he gained that knowledge.
Chance tried to push himself up and out of the bed, but he soon noticed that he was strapped down. His memory came flooding back to him and he soon realized the reason why he was strapped down. He settled back down and looked over for the source of the music.
There was a small music player next to him that was currently running, but more importantly, was the pony sitting next to it. A grey pegasus with a white mane littered with a couple of orange streaks. The pegasus had a cigarette hanging in his mouth, and his eyes were closed as his head bobbed up and down softly in tempo with the music.
To Chance, the colors were a dead giveaway for identifying who was sitting in that chair, so he acted accordingly.
"Turn that bullshit off." He muttered, just loud enough for Nova to hear. The pony's eyes shot open and immediately focused on Chance. Nova froze for a few seconds, his eyes locking with Chances. He took his cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it in the ashtray next to the music player before pressing a button on said player, turning off the music, all while maintaining eye contact. After that, he leaned back into his chair, still focusing on the human in front of him.
"So this is what you look like?" Chance muttered.
"Yup."
"Looks good."
"Thanks." Nova responded. They sat in silence for a few more moments.
"Mind getting me out of these things?" Chance asked, looking down at the straps that were holding him to the bed. Nova nodded and pressed a button that was on the wall. A few seconds later, a nurse walked into the room. She froze when she saw that both Nova and Chance were staring at her. Quickly shaking her head, she began to walk over to them.
"I see you're awake now, sir." The nurse stated.
"It would seem so."
"I'll go ahead and get those restraints off of you now." The nurse said, walking over to his left side, and removing the straps that kept Chance down on the bed.
"Thanks." Chance muttered.
"No problem, do you need anything else?" Chance was about to ask for something to drink but was interrupted by Nova.
"Can we have some privacy for a bit?" Nova asked softly, attempting to remove any perceived hostility from his tone.
"Of course, However, the doctor will be here in the next few minutes for a checkup." The nurse backed away from the bed and began trotting out of the room. As soon as she was out of earshot. Nova spoke up once more.
"You look like shit."
"I feel like shit, holy fuck. What the hell happened?" Chance instantly responded, looking down at the intense scarring on his left arm.
"The leg too." Nova chimed in. Chance looked under the cover and grimaced. The entire side of his left leg was ripe with burn scars. "Muscle damage. Don't try walking on your own for a bit."
"Holy fuck." Nova dropped the covers and his arms before leaning back. "And I'm in the fucking magical horsey land too."
"Yup."
"It feels weird because you're like twice my age and you're so fucking adorable."
"You're not the first to say that." Chance froze at that, something was odd about that statement.
"...Nova, how long?" Chance muttered.
"How long what?"
"How long have you guys established contact with Earth?"
"Just me, or...?" Nova asked, trailing off.
"Both." Nova gave a sigh at that
"For me, I came sometime around '72 when I was around 8. But Equestria established stable contact with your world sometime in the 20s."
"You were 8? Why so early?"
"Well, mostly to act as a sleeper. Plus the rapid rise in technology during the 70s and 80s prompted Princess Celestia to learn more about our technology. And it just so happened that during that time, a little pegasus colt got noticed by the crown for making a fully functional airship out of spare parts in the recycling bin. So they sent him to earth to learn about the technology. What their researchers couldn't understand, I could. And it was like a slice of cake. It was enthralling. And it's a good thing too because that drive to learn anything and everything translated over.
"So that's why so many IRC vets think you're an old-timer."
"Because I found the world at 8, and didn't let go." Nova leaned back into his chair with a smug grin on his face as Chance just stared. But soon that smug grin fell, and Nova found himself failing to make eye contact with Chance.
"I'm sorry." Nova muttered.
"For?"
"I let you get hurt."
"We knew what we were getting into. This is not your fault, alright?" Chance asked.
"Yeah, for now." A few knocks to sound from the door.
"Come in." Chance stated. A pony wearing a doctors gown along with a stethoscope appeared through the door.
"Hello there Mr. Rockwell. I am Doctor Goodhoof. If you don't mind I'm just going to perform a quick check-up, and then I'll be on my way."
"Sure thing." as the doctor began to work on Chance, he complied with everything that the doctor asked. Every so often shooting Nova a glance. Nova seemed to be intent on staring into the ground as the doctor worked. Not even looking up, as if something was eating away at him.
"Alright, everything seems to check out. I'll be on my way now. If you need anything, don't be afraid to call for the nurse."
"Got it." The pony trotted out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Nova continued to stare at the ground. But somehow he summoned the courage to look up and speak.
"IRC is out for blood."
"What?"
"The attack on your place is all over the news. Didn't take much to put your two and two together after your 48 hour failsafe kicked in."
"And how did the take it?"
"Not too well. Nice job saying anybody with questions should contact me though. Because while it did help to get the 'facts' out there, it also meant that a few of your friends wanted my head because they now had the assumption that hanging out with me might be hazardous to your health."
"Yeah, don't worry about them. Worry about that 'facts' bit." Nova sighed once more.
"Well we can't go and say that you're getting medical treatment in some magical horsey land now can we?"
"No, I suppose not."
"Anyways, this shit has gotten out of hand. Somehow they have everything on Sombra that we could want. All of his lieutenants, his bases of operations. Everything. And I can only hold them off from going public with all that data for at the most, a month. So that's how long we have now."
"Well, I'm in no state to get started as you can see."
"Actually, we can get you out of here in a snap. There's just one thing I want you to ask about."
"Sure."
"Remeber how you said something about a Russian drug-op?"
"Yeah what about it?"
"What exactly was that contract?"
"Destroy a specific operation going on at the fuckin west side and make sure that the leader of the operation dies as well."
"And you said that you did both of those things, and escaped with some of their stock?"
"Yeah, it was an inhaler of some kind. The cans usually had something like SLT scratched into the... side..." Chance trailed off as the exact thing he was describing was slid into his view on the table.
"Seems you know quite a bit about this drug." A new voice said from the doorway. Both of them looked up to see Princess Luna standing there.
"Has Sombra been ramping up drug operations of a drug that I killed off?"
"Its started a week ago."
"And I've been out for two. Nova, what happened to my safe." Chance asked with a bit too much calm Luna was unaffected by this type but Nova flinched.
"You mean the safe sized hole in the wall that we found in your bedroom?" Chance slammed his hand down on the table.
"Your reaction confirms what we fear. Somehow Sombra has acquired production instructions for SLT inhalants." Luna said softly.
"Looks like he fucking did." The three either stood, as in Luna's case or sat, like Chance and Nova's situation.
"Well on the bright side, we do have most of their distribution and production points. It seems to span most of the united states and a bit into Mexico."
"And we have established connections with your nation's authorities on the subject." Luna chimed.
"Hold the fuck on, what?"
"We have established connections with the authorities in your nation." Luna repeated. "And we have informed them of thous helpfulness in attempting to kill Sombra."
"Why the hell would you think that's a good idea?"
"It might have something to do with the fact that the news crews picked up on some agency going through the entire street with Geiger counters after Luna's light show."
"There goes keeping a low profile." Luna muttered.
"You made contact with the government, understandable. But you also informed them that I am helping you. Why?"
"That was one of the stipulations of gaining their trust and assistance."
"And what else did they ask?"
"The known location of all of our citizens on their soil. We declined, for obvious reason. But we also made sure that no harm would come to you. One of our requirements for working with them is that at no point during, or after, this mission are you to be detained. Any such attempts to do so will result in Equestria severing contact with all government entities for the foreseeable future."
"So you stonewalled them for my safety?"
"Aye."
"I gotta hand it to you guys, you know how to protect an investment."
"Alright, we can brief him more when he's not in a hospital bed."
"I must take my leave for now, there is work to be done. Do not hesitate to call for me if any of you have questions pertaining to the current state of the operation." Luna stated, before teleporting away in a flash of magic.
Nova hopped out of his chair and pushed the nurse call button before trotting over to Chances left side. The nurse entered the room just as Nova was passing by the foot of the bed.
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah, can you fetch a wheelchair?"
"Certainly." The nurse left the room before quickly reappearing with a wheelchair meant for a human. She rolled it over to the side of the bed and stood next to Chances legs. Nova began to flap his wings and hovered in the air while the Nurse took hold of Chances legs.
"I feel like this is a bit demeaning. I mean I am a bit hurt but I'm not a cripple."
"Shut it, this is only temporary. Alright on three." Nova said, Slipping his front legs under Chance's armpits.
"One, two." The nurse replied before grabbing Chances legs with his magic, Nova lifted Chance off the ground and brought him over to the wheelchair, setting him down gently.
"I can take it from here." Nova stated, The nurse nodded and left the room. Nova stood on his hind legs, using his forelegs to wheel chance out of the room. "Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to see much of Equestria, hell, the fact that you're here, to begin with, is unexpected.
"When do I go back to Earth?"
"Tomorrow, and you'll be meeting with representatives from the government as well."
"Fantastic, just what I fuckin needed." Chance grumbled.
"Calm down, it's not that bad, you pretty much have immunity right now due to our demands."
"Yeah, that's a plus. Do we have a ride set up?"
"After we get out of the portal?"
"Yeah."
"Yup, but you're not going to like who gave it to us."
"Takumi." Chance stated with a deadpan.
"He's not happy."
"I could imagine, first he sells me a car that I give back to him riddled with bullets. And then he loans me a car that I return with bloodstains all over the interior."
"He said something about teaching you a lesson when he sees you. Three guesses as to what that lesson entails and the first two don't count."
"This job keeps getting worse and worse."
</>
Both Chance and Nova stepped out of the woods wearing jeans and hoodies. The portal about a quarter-mile behind them. Nova wore Wayfarer sunglasses while Chance opted to wear simple jet black aviators as he limped towards the car with a cane, he did not like what he saw. Takumi and his bodyguard standing next to a simple sedan, and an elegant Rolls-Royce was right behind said sedan. Chance shifted the duffle bag he had in his hand and continued to walk towards Takumi. Takumi noticed, and flicked the cigarette out of his hand and onto the gravel road.
"Chance, what are normally my thoughts on leaving my home turf?" Takumi asked, despite the bored tone of his voice, Chance could tell there was an undercurrent of anger laced within.
"Unless its a car show, you don't like to leave."
"Right, so why do you think I came to Wisconsin, in-person to meet you?"
"Three cases come to mind."
"Oh do tell."
"One, you are concerned about my wellbeing and wished to make sure I was alright like some complex abusive father figure."
"No way in hell."
"Two, you came to beat the shit out of me."
"Yup, but you said something about a third?" Chance sighed.
"Three, you were expecting this." Chance tossed the duffle bag, it landed a couple of feet away from Takumi. Takumi looked at his bodyguard before gesturing towards the bag. As the bodyguard approached the bag Chance spoke. "In that bag is payment for repairs on the STI, the estimated cost of repair for the interior of the SUV, the forced requisition payment of the sedan after the attack on my apartment, and a little extra on top as a peace offering."
"Just call it what it is, a request for me not to beat the everloving fuck out of you until you're a pile of fucking mush."
"Tomato, tomahto." Chance said, bouncing his head from side to side.
"It's all here." The bodyguard said, picking up the duffle bag.
"I know better than to ask how you managed to get all of this in cash, so I'll just say this. Please, for the love of all that is holy, return this car in one piece without major damage."
"I make no promises, but I will try my best."
"Knowing you, that's all I can ask for." Takumi tossed the keys over to Nova, who managed to catch it. "Well, gentlemen, that concludes our business, I hope the next time I see you it is under better circumstances." Takumi began to walk over to his Rolls-Royce, The bodyguard quickly ran over to the backseat and opened the door for Takumi. Once Takumi was seated, the bodyguard rushed over to the driver's side of the car, and began to drive away from the pair. It was only after they were a good distance away that Chance finally spoke.
"No bodily injury, I think that went pretty well."
"Were you expecting to get hurt."
"A bit. You're driving by the way. Its a long drive down south, and I'm not about to drive that far."
</>
As Chance stepped out of the car, he used his cane to prop himself off the seat and onto the pavement just outside the warehouse. Nova quickly made his way to Chance.
"So when are we meeting these guys anyway?"
"Right now, actually. They're just around the corner. Cmon, I'll introduce you to them." Nova said, guiding chance outside of the warehouse and around a corner.
"Hold on, hold on." Chance said stopping suddenly and facing Nova, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I really don't like this. I know I am basically immune to whatever they want to do to me, but this whole thing has me on edge.
"And I understand that, but one of the stipulations was they the need to meet you, and the sooner you do that, the better." Chance looked down at the ground before looking back up at Nova.
"I'm not mad about the fact that this forces me into retirement because I was planning on retiring after this mission anyways. But I am mad that you're making meet these assholes because you know how well I work with authority."
"You're saying that as if it was my call to make, I'm just following orders."
"I know, I know, it's just..."
"You never thought that you would be working with governments of any kind during your career."
"Yeah." Chance ran his free hand through his hair as he looked around the barren lot. "I suppose I should just go and meet them, right?"
"That's what I would do."
"Alright then, let's go and face the wolves." Chance said. Nova stepped aside, allowing Chance to walk right in front of him, towards where the other Men would be, with Nova following closely behind.
As Chance rounded the corner he saw six men wearing what could be described as casual clothes. He froze for a second as he eyed the men suspiciously.
"You know, when they said the G-Men wanted to talk, I expected more suits. Not, well, this." Chance gestured with his free hand.
"Suits draw attention, its the last thing we need."
"Right, especially considering we're dealing with extradimensional entities. I'm surprised you boys didn't arrive in fucking hazmat suits after you swept my goddamn apartment with Geiger counters right in front of a fucking news crew. I thought you boys were supposed to be subtle."
"Cut the shit, let's just get this out of the way." One of the men said. "DHS"
"CIA" Another man said.
"FBI"
"DEA"
"Secret Service."
"Air Force."
"Air Force?"
"Flew in from Nevada for this."
"Flew in from Neva- Area 51?" Chance asked, putting two and two together. The man nodded. "Fuck me jogging." Chance muttered, He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before turning to Nova. "Can you go for a couple of minutes. I wanna talk to them in private for a sec."
"Sure." Once Nova was out of earshot Chance turned to them and spoke.
"I assume you all know who the fuck I am?" He got various nods. "And I assume that there is some kind of bonus if you snag me?"
"It's not really a bonus." One of the men muttered.
"Point being, I'm sure you're chomping at the bit to try and get me once this whole thing is over. So before any of you get uppity and decide to try and cash in to get that rank bonus or whatever the fuck it is. Please consider if doing so is worth completely severing connections with our extradimensional friends who have technology that you can't even fucking imagine. In fact, have you seen the kind of shit they can make?"
"We, uh, we've seen a bit." The man from Area 51 muttered.
"And you don't want to lose that tech, do you?" The man shook his head. "That's what I thought. If it makes you feel better, this is my last mission anyways, I'm retiring."
"Why?" Chance looked at the man from the DHS before looking down at his leg, and back to the man. "Good point."
"From what the doctors said, I'll be lucky if I can even walk without a cane. One more thing, if any of you even try to come after me, not only are you risking severing relation with Equestria, but you are guaranteeing that everyone that comes after me also goes home in a fucking body bag. I may be a cripple, but I still know how to use a fucking gun. And let's say you do happen to get me, I have a dead mans switch. Remeber operation Panther?" The man from the CIA winced, and Chance pointed at him. "Smart man, you don't want that info getting out now, do you?"
"Listen, you can cut the threats, No one here is planning on trying to grab you, not after what the blue one said." The man from the FBI interjected.
"And how the hell am I supposed to know that you will keep up your end of the bargain?" None of them responded. "That's what I thought. I'm doing this not because I want to, but because I need to in order to secure my safety."
"Look, it's not all fire and brimstone here. So long as you leave me alone, none of that is gonna happen. So if you can manage to do that you have literally nothing to worry about when it comes to my plans after this mission. So, can I trust you guys to leave me alone once this is all over?" The men looked over at each other for a few seconds before the man from the FBI spoke.
"We make no promises, but we'll see what we can do, especially considering the..." The man from the FBI looked over at the man from the CIA. "new circumstances that have arisen from our conversation."
"Good, now are there any other question?" The man from the Secret Service tilted his head up at Chance. "Go ahead."
"No offense, but why are you still here? It seems like you're majorly outclassed. You're dealing with what is essentially an entire criminal operation and you want to help take them down, even after what I assume is the damage that you sustained during the attack on your apartment." Chance inhaled deeply before speaking.
"None taken, and in fact, I'm glad you asked. I'm not gonna lie, the past few weeks have not been good to me, and even though this is the best paying mission yet, it is adding up to be one of the most consequential to my health. That being said, as the FBI knows, my motto is the see the mission through the end, or else you will get your money back. And I'm not about to refund over $5 million. Not only that, but circumstances have arisen in the last few weeks that I feel personally responsible for." Chance turned to the DEA agent. "In this case, its the renewed production of SLT."
"You're the reason why that's back on the streets?" The DEA agent stammered.
"And I was the reason why it disappeared two years ago. Fun fact, while Chemists may be geniuses at creating new drugs, they are fucking horrible at covering up their tracks. The person that was creating SLT back then was no Walter White, that's for sure, it made him easy to find, and easy to kill. It was during the final stages of that operation that I managed to snag the recipe for the production of SLT. I should have destroyed it, but instead, I kept it. After the raid on my apartment, my safe went missing. I don't think I need to spell it out for you."
"So you feel personally responsible for the fact that SLT is back on the streets?"
"Yeah, so now it's my responsibility to do whatever I can to get it off the streets. Now, are there any other question?" The men said nothing. "Good, now come inside, we have some planning to do, and less than a month to do so." Chance said, turning around and walking back towards the front of the warehouse.
"Wait, why do we have less than a month?" One of the men asked.
"Because that's how long we have until the secrecy of this operation gets blown out of the water. We've had some help from friends of mine, but they won't stay quiet with the info they gave us for long. If we don't begin to act on it by the end of the month, they will go public with everything they have gathered. And when I mean everything, I mean literally everything that we can use to destroy Sombras operations. So move your asses, the clock is ticking."