//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Deus Exquestria // by Lmeddy247 //------------------------------// This chapter is due for a re-write. Deus Exquestria: 1 Chapter 1 Twilight's Library - Ponyville - Equestria 'Just this one section, then I'll get some sleep.' Twilight told herself for the 5th time that evening. She glanced at the clock. 1:04 it read, the purple mare sighed, her book being the only thing keeping her awake, it's only this one section. Her pupils wandered over the title of the next page. 'Okay... Trans-Dimensional Travel.' her eyelids shot up with sudden newfound energy, 'The night's still young,' she reasoned to herself as she continued reading, 'Inter-dimensional travel is a old yet highly exciting form of magic being researched at...' Outside The Hide Nightclub - Boston - United States of America It was another mundane night for Wade Adams. Business was slow with the only part of the night worth a mention being a stag night that was evidently too drunk for 8pm. One of the group had vomited by his feet and were sent on their way shortly afterwards. He was thankful that there wasn't that many people wanting in however, it gave him chance to finish his ebook. 'A Hat Full of Sky' by Terry Pratchett. He glanced up from his vu phone to see potential customers. Two men, one short and stocky, the other the polar opposite. Wade silently chuckled at the comparison, a thin smile snuck onto his freckled face. "You have a problem dude?" the short one said. Wade pocketed the phone in his waistcoat. "Nope. I'm just the bouncer." Wade replied. "Some bouncer you are. You only have one arm." he was referring to the fact only the left arm of his shirt was in use. "Rest assured. I can still kick you out with maybe a trip to ER too." Wade growled, "I assume you both want in?" He said switching back to his normal tone, glaring at them from behind his pitch black shades. "Y-yeah." The tall one stammered, blinking rapidly and refraining eye contact as much as possible. Wade noticed this, as did the stocky bloke. 'New visual augs perhaps?' Wade thought. "How much?" the shorter one asked, a little too quickly. Wade turned his head back to the short man. "Ten quid each." there was a brief pause. "Ten dollars..." Wade corrected himself. The taller one opened his jacket to get his wallet. Wade saw the shape of a handgun. This wasn't exactly unusual, Wade himself had a gun of his own in a leg holster. A Zenith, perfectly legal with a noise suppressor, won't make his shots silent, just so they only disturb the building next door as opposed to the precinct down the street. "There." the taller one said thrusting the notes into the bouncer's hand like he was glad to be rid of them. "Have a nice day, sirs." Wade replied, exaggerating his accent and putting on his trademark smile, made the men uneasy and often earned a slap from the ladies. "Whatever, limey." the short one barged ahead, his jacket temporarily flapped open and revealed his gun. Wade recognised it as a Hurricane machine pistol, very illegal. The tall man with a nervous disposition followed close behind him. 'This night's turning out rather interesting after all.' Wade thought as he followed them in after a few moments. Sweet Apple Acres - Ponyville - Equestria "Hey! Applejack!" Twilight hissed as loud as she dared to the second floor window. No response as expected. She saw a few small stones and decided to throw them at the bedroom window instead. Her horn glowed a lilac colour and soon three of the fragments of rock were engulfed in the same glow as they levitated. She 'threw' one and got a satisfying "plink" in response, nopony came to the window. She threw another. She threw the third as an orange mare began opening the window, the stone sailed through the air and bopped her on the nose. "Ah-!... What is it Twi?" Applejack whispered, stifling a yawn. "I want to show you something." "Now? It's one in th'a mornin'. Can it wait?" "No, now come on! It's exciting stuff, you'll love it!" Twilight replied, bouncing up and down. Applejack doubted that highly, but her friend wanted her for something this early so it was probably important. She grabbed her hat from the peg by her door and made her way downstairs, careful as to not wake up anyone else. Granny Smith would have her hide if she woke her up at this hour, Big Macintosh wouldn't be all that pleased either now that Applejack thought about it. Applebloom would probably be giddy with excitement, maybe see if she could get her cutie mark as an insomniac with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She could picture it now, a full moon appearing on her sisters flank. Applejack shuddered at the thought. "Are ya' goin' to explain why I'm awake at this here hour?" She asked after closing the door behind her. "Well I threw a stone at your window." Twilight said. "An' wah was that?" Applejack yawned. "To get you up?" Applejack facehooved. Despite being easily the smartest pony she knew, Twilight could be so clueless. "You want to see what I found?" Twilight asked. Applejack nodded, she figured it was best to stay quiet. The Hide Nightclub - Boston - United States of America The Hide wasn't exactly the best of places to be in Boston. It wasn't the worst by a long shot either though. Here the tables were clean and you had a sixty percent chance of not running into one of the more dodgy folk that inhabited the city's slums. Wade wasn't so sure of the men he was tailing were part of the forty percent, although based on the gun that the shorter man was carrying he wasn't one of the pleasant kind. It wasn't hard to spot them, there was only ten or so people besides staff there. "You doing okay tonight?" a woman asked. She was behind the bar, wiping it down. "Yeah. Just going to deal with a bloke in the possession of a Hurricane. Mind starting to get some of the less sober people out just in case he starts shooting?" She nodded and began to usher the people by the bar out. The two men were sat at one of the tables and were talking to another set of individuals at the opposite side of the table. Three other men, all in suits, only one had any visible augments they most likely had firearms too, legal or not Wade didn't know yet. He blinked through his various vision modes till he got to what he dubbed as his 'X-ray vision'. Standard issue for law enforcement and the military, basically it highlighted bones and anything else metal, firearms labelled in red, augments in amber and bone as blue. From this new perspective he saw that all of the suits had an augment of some kind, only two of them had ones that would help in a combat situation, the two men that Wade admitted earlier had no augments at all. All of them had a firearm of some sort. Only the tall man's gun was legal. 'Yay... More trouble.' Wade thought as he decided to break the get-together up. "Closing time gents." he said, approaching the table. "Pack up and go please." "Oh great the limey's back." the short man muttered. Wade frowned. One of the suits spoke up. "We're attending business here, shove off." "Oh well that's me told." Wade said, sarcasm dripping from every word. "I repeat. Leave. Now." "I see two options here." a second suit said, one of the ones with combat augments, "Either A) you leave us to business or B) I put a bullet in your head. You pick." he stood right in front of Wade, sizing him up and obviously going to make good on option B given half the chance. The suit was at least a head taller. "I like option C," Wade said as he brought his fist up and into the suits jaw. He fell back into the table and whacked his skull on the edge, rendering him unconscious. "you all getting the hell out." the tall man ran for the door. One of the suits drew their weapon. Twilight's Library - Ponyville - Equestria "So Twi," Applejack said, "Explain wah I'm here again?" "You're going to help me with a spell. I have all the elements needed, it's just that the spell allows two ponies travel to another dimension, and Spike is in Canterlot. Besides, you like travelling to new places right?" "Ah guess." Applejack said. "Great!" Twilight said with a smile on her face. "Just stand there and we'll begin." "Okay then, ah trust ya." Applejack began to have second thoughts as soon as she said it. "Don't look so tense Applejack," Twilight said, "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine." "Pretty sure?" Applejack repeated. Twilight ignored her and began casting the spell. To anypony outside the library they'll have witnessed a spectacular purple light show emitting from the library windows to end in a brilliant flash of white light and then darkness. The Hide Nightclub - Boston - United States of America Wade dove behind the bar as the suit opened fire, tearing the place apart. Bottles and glasses shattering under the hail of bullets, spilling their contents out and showering Wade in all sorts of liquors. Wade pulled out his sidearm and thumbed off the safety. After 10 seconds the fire died down and Wade popped out from behind the bar, the pistol almost spluttering as each bullet left the chamber. Despite the rather pitiful sound the bullets still tore through the cover that the short man was using. A red spurt erupted from behind the table. Nobody else decided to try and discharge ammunition in his general direction. "I surrender man! Don't shoot!" the second suit came out from behind a different table with his hands up. Wade had to be careful since the suit's arms were augmented. Metal where there was once flesh. 'If he swung a fist and it connected then it's night night Wade.' he thought as he approached slowly, looking out for anyone to come out from behind any of the other tables. Thankfully no one did, although that didn't stop the man with his hands up bringing a fist down when Wade was in striking distance, he stepped back and the suit's arm collided with the table instead, smashing it into pieces. Wade ducked under the next swing and grabbing a table leg as he came up so he could smash the suit in the nuts with it. The suit fell to the floor, winded and gasping for air. 'Idiot.' Wade thought kicking the Suit in the face for good measure, knocking him out. Nobody else was around or conscious to try and attack him. "Damn it." Wade said, realising that the last suit had probably bolted out of the door too. Then he realised what the manager would say when he saw this mess. "Damn it!" Unknown Location - Unknown Location - Unknown Location "What in tarnation's happening Twilight?!" "I don't know! Can you see anything?" "Just white... Wah? What d'you see?" "The same... I'm a bit scared AJ." "Same here Twi." Applejack responded. "Do yah feel like we're fallin'?" "Now you mention it yeah... wait. We're falling?!" Twilight screamed. Applejack screamed as well. The Hide Nightclub - Boston - United States of America "Let's see that's... three wrecked tables, countless bottles and glasses, some of those drinks were 150 a bottle Wade! One-Fifty! Then we, no I need to get the bar re-surfaced... again... Do I even need to mention that this'll be coming out of your pay-check?" "No Geoff." Wade said solemnly. Geoff paced up and down between Wade and the wrecked bar, hands repeatedly running through his hair in frustration. "I'm not normally an angry man Wade, but this... how am I supposed to stay calm about this!?" he sighed, "This is the straw that broke the camel's back. Forget about this coming out of your pay-check, you're fired." Wade expected the words 'you're fired' to pass his boss's lips sooner or later. Although he didn't expect it to hurt that much, or was that just the adrenaline wearing off? He couldn't tell. "You're entitled to one last drink at what's left of the bar. Company policy and all. I've got to make some calls about replacing all this... collateral damage. I expect you gone when I get back." "Okay Geoff." "I heard that 'Shoal' were looking for a bouncer. You're a good kid, maybe look there before word gets round eh?" Geoff said as he closed the door to his office. Wade grabbed one of the only remaining bottles standing. "Jack Daniels." He read the label out loud to nobody. It was unopened so Wade decided to take it back to his apartment. He opened to door to the cloakroom, grabbed his bag and stuffed the whiskey inside. He took one last look at The Hide before opening the door to leave. 'Rain... How cliched.' Wade thought as he trudged out into the street. Outside Wade's Apartment Block - Boston - United States of America After five minutes of walking and moping and walking some more Wade was approaching his apartment block when he caught sight of a man in a suit down an alley, the same man who was at the shoot-out and bolted when Wade was behind the bar. "You." Wade growled, pointing at the man. The suit looked up and his face turned as white as a sheet. "You cost me my job you bastard." The suit turned on his heels and ran. Wade gave chase through the alleyway. Wade reached out and grabbed the suits suit. they responded by slipping out of the jacket, punching Wade in the nose, thus stunning him and running away again. "You son of a-" Wade started before a large white orb of crackling energy materialised in between him and the suit, floating just above the floor. 'What the-?' Wade reached out to touch it, he received a blast of electrical energy from it, thrusting him to the floor 'Ouch, not getting through that.' "Wait. We're falling!?" screamed a voice, female. 'What the-? Did the ball just talk?' the sphere was large, Wade could have fit in it if he wanted to, after the experience of almost touching it he didn't want to, but if he did, he'd be able to fit inside. A second scream was heard alongside the first. The screams were getting closer. Wade stepped back, a little fearful as to what would come out. "Who's there?" he asked. Sure enough his answer was delivered when both of the 'whos' flew out with the force of a cannonball. 'What the he-' and collided with Wade, 'ck?' Him and the whos slid along the ground for a little. Stopping just shy of the road. Wade sat up and shrugged them off of him. They were women, one had blond hair tied in some kind of two stage ponytail and wore a cowboy hat. The other lay curled into a ball with purple hair with two distinct pink streaks in it. Both of them were buck bare and had scratches and some definite bruises come morning.