Twilight landed on the oil rig, her knees burning from the hard landing. The others were quick to follow, raising weapons and readying spells to hit anypony they needed to. Despite that, the platform was clear, cleaned out by Wingmare’s efficient shots.
“Let’s move, Darlings,” Gem said, her voice calm despite their location, “we don’t have much time.”
The five Runners converged onto the main building over the “drill” of the platform and took their positions. “Wingmare, are you coming?” Steel asked into her comm.
“On my way,” she said. “Just give me a minute.”
Half a minute later, she was there, drawing one of her pistols. “We ready?”
Nods went down the row.
Gem moved her hooves, casting whatever “magic” the decker had on the keypad. Perhaps literally, in her case, before the “drill chamber” opened to reveal a pristine hallway. Twilight sighed, and stepped inside, followed by the others.
Then, with a strange sense of finality, the doors of the elevator hissed shut. Wingmare immediately hit the ground and began to disassemble her rifle, breaking it apart into its base pieces, before carefully sliding them into place in large, foam blocks. Once she packed everything away, she pulled her second super warhawk and checked the revolving cylinders.
The silence in the elevator stretched on, and Gem sighed. “Are we all still clear on the plan?”
Nods all around. “We split up when we hit the labs, find the ruby, call Spike for extract,” Web recited.
Nods again.
Another minute of silence passed by and Twilight took a second to calm herself. She was about to hit a high priority laboratory with so many secret projects that she herself may not even be allowed into any of the Harmony Inc. equivalents. She had to be ready.
She took a second to cast a spell on herself, focusing on the electricity running through her synapses, shortening her nerve cells through magic to increase her reaction time. It wouldn’t last long, but it would last long enough.
She cast another spell, flooding life into her neurons before cutting her Glutamate and SP stores for almost all of them through her body. It would keep her from feeling a lot of pain in the short term, but her body was already trying to recover.
Still, it would last long enough.
The elevator slowed, the first motion that any of the Runners in the small cab noticed before the doors began to open.
“The automated signal’s been sent,” Gem said. “I tried to hold it, but we’re on our own now.”
Steel nodded. “Twenty minutes.”
The doors of the cab slid open, and hell broke loose.
<><><|><><>
Twilight dove behind a massive centrifuge and bullets tore through the heavy metal side but protected her from cover. She cursed under her breath, before standing, and unleashing a napalm spell. It tore through the lightly-armored but heavily-armed security pony that idiotically stood in the doorway, burning and boiling the pony as he screamed in agony.
Wingmare hovered nearby, her hooves thundering into the body of another security pony, crushing his barrel in seconds.
“Anything?” Twilight yelled into her comm.
“Not yet!” Web responded.
“We’re finding a whole lot of nothing over here!” Candy chirped.
The moment the doors opened, the plan had almost gone FUBAR. Any attempt to break up into the agreed-upon groups failed. Gem and Web had determined the ultimate pairs for this part of the infiltration: Candy and Web, Wingmare and Steel, and herself with Gem. It was supposed to cover all the bases, with both magical and physical offense and defense.
Instead, the Runners were met with a burst of fire from opposite them. The barrage split the team apart within seconds of coming through the door, almost immediately. Spread in almost every conceivable direction, the team was forced to make new pairings that were then forced down the different hubs of the lab, each with an impromptu partner.
Twilight found herself with Wingmare, a decent choice, but it meant her “team” was very magic heavy, which meant that there was a good chance that the team that lost out on magic was going to have a tough time dealing with any Elementals they might find.
It was too late now for that, though.
She cast another spell, heating the air in front of her before it shot a stream of flame directly into the middle of a group of pony coming behind her, roasting a few alive, before Wingmare shot across the room.
She frowned as she stared at the biometric scanner, before grabbing a pony that still groaned with pain, and shoving his hoof into the scanner.
By some stroke of luck, it wasn’t damaged enough to keep it from opening the door, and it slid open. “Flashpoint, come on!” she yelled, dropping the soon-to-be-dead guard. Twilight slipped around the centrifuge, taking cover from the opposite direction, before sending a manaball down on a corp mage that thought he could grab her from behind.
The earth pony mage screamed as he went down, covered in mana burns that stuck to his very soul. Twilight peeled out, galloping for the door, even as bullets ricocheted off of the stainless steel floor tiles.
“Quick check?” Twilight asked.
“Not yet!” Steel replied.
“I’ll let you know when I find it, Darling,” Gem said.
Twilight sighed, before Wingmare pulled her to the side, just as another security team appeared opposite them in the room. Dragged under a nearby table, Twilight barely had time to take in the room she had just run into.
A large square room with a wall of cables sat to their left, electrode nets to the right, and a set of thick tables that would provide decent cover in the center. On the other side of the room was the door, and that’s all Twilight had a chance to see before a shotgun blast ripped into the top of the counter.
Twilight sighed before she reached into the cables with her will and pulled an Elemental of lightning and fire out of them. She could feel that her control over this one was shaky at best, but she’d have him for a few moments before he returned to the astral plane. It crackled and popped as it ripped out of the cables, and fired into the security teams before it pulled back.
Twilight forced the Elemental back into play, using her will and energy to keep him on the physical plane, before it shot once more, and left. Twilight sighed before she leveled her pistol at the security team that just broke through.
“He’s gone already?” Wingmare asked.
“Look, not everypony can talk to Elementals like Web can, alright?” Twilight said, before placing another few carefully aimed shots, trying to limit the drain that was starting to creep up on her.
“Well, not like you have to keep worrying about it, right?” Web said.
“What?” Twilight asked, confused, and wondering why Wingmare was talking about this sort of thing now. She sighed, before raising her pistol to fire at the security ponies again. “Do you really want to talk about this now?”
Wingmare sighed back. “No, I get it, I’m just…”
She was cut off by a shotgun blast that nearly scalped her before she dove into cover. “Hey! Watch it! I’m having a moment over here!”
“Like I said Wingmare, do you want to talk about this now?”
“Okay, you’ve got a point,” she conceded, before firing with each of her pistols.
Twilight sighed, before she cast another spell, throwing up a wall of fire next to the cables and swinging it across the room. The fire passed harmlessly over herself and Wingmare as she carefully shaped the spell before it began to enclose on the security ponies. The heat of it caused many of them to back up as approached, while a few more tried to squeeze past the edge of the flame.
Those few were picked off with pistol fire, as both Runners focused down on the enemy. The virtual choke point made their shots all the more effective before the sprinkler system shot to life.
Twilight cursed. “I thought Gem disabled that!”
As the wall of fire fizzled out, Twilight could see a pony appear through the parting curtain of flame. He lay slumped against the wall, an electrode net attached to his head. They could act like a datajack, she knew, but good quality ones were hard to come by. He must have used them to jump into the matrix and turn the sprinklers back on.
Twilight shot him where he lay.
“Well, I guess that just rains on our parade,” Wingmare said with a smirk.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Come on!” She charged the door, sending a few bullets into the dying wall of fire for good measure, before rushing down the door.
She slammed into the door first and was happy to see that it only had a simple maglock. Looking back, she found a pony, laying not too far away from her, with a card that she could pilfer, and with a tug, pulled it free.
Wingmare held the door, firing at the ponies that had been standing behind the wall of fire.
Twilight swiped the card across the reader, and the door beeped open. She ran inside and saw two doors each on opposite sides of the new room. The rest of the room was filled with more tables, each one stocked with labeled vials and chemicals, half of which read “trial” with a three-digit number on its side.
“Wingmare, check the left!” Twilight said, before turning to the right-hand door. She opened the door and immediately ran into a small, unadorned room. Twilight had just enough time to realize that the room was empty before the door slammed shut behind her.
“Flashpoint?” Wingmare called through the door.
Twilight blinked again.
“Flashpoint?”
“I...who puts a trap in a secret facility at the bottom of the ocean?” Twilight asked, before jumping on the comm. “Girls! There are lockdown rooms! Be careful with the doors!”
“Lockdown rooms?” Gem asked.
“They’re a new thing,” Twilight explained. “There was a whole board room meeting for it back at Harmony. They lock behind you to separate teams.”
“Who puts a trap room in a secret facility at the bottom of the ocean?” Steel asked.
“Oh no, it makes total sense,” Web said.
“Don’t worry, Flashpoint,” Wingmare said. “I’m going to get you out!”
Twilight shook her head before remembering that no one could see her. “Wingmare, we don’t have the time,” she said, checking the mission clock. “We have eight minutes, and at least another three rooms to check, you need to get to find the ruby.”
Wingmare slammed into the door. “I’m getting you out of there.”
“Wingmare! You need to find the mark!”
“It’s not going to take—”
“The door has an orichalcum core! It’s magic resistant and pure metal! You’re not going to get through and still have the time to get the mark. Go. Find. The. Rock!”
There was silence for a long second. “O-okay. I’ll be back, though.”
Twilight sighed. “Just find the mark.”
She stood in the room for a second or two, before trying the door herself. She knew it was pointless, but she wanted to give it her best attempt, at least. The door had nothing to even grab onto on this side, and Twilight knew that now that the door had been locked, it would need some serious security clearance to open it again.
She sighed and sat down again, before speaking into her comm again. “Let me know when you find the mark. I have Spike on speed dial at this point.”
“We’ll keep you posted, Flashpoint,” Steel said, her voice somber.
They probably already came to the same conclusion she had. She was stuck here. Stuck for who knows how long until the corp security found her, and at best, shot her dead while she stood here.
She was not...not going to make it out of this.
Sure, they could find a way to open the door again, but between the time it would take to break her out and find the gem, she was stuck. Besides, they had to finish the job first. It was Runner law that the job came first, even if the world’s fate didn’t hang in the balance.
The fact that this one did only help make the point.
But still, she was going to be left behind. She knew it at this point. There was no helping her.
“I’ve found the gem!” Wingmare cried over the comms.
“Meet back the elevator!” Gem called.
“I’m calling Spike right now!” Twilight called, before putting the call through.
Spike immediately appeared on her comm’s AR. “Sir! We’ve found it!”
“Good job, head to the elevator. My team will breach it and pick you up. See you in three minutes.”
Twilight only nodded, before hanging up. “We have three minutes, ladies. You need to head to the elevator. Spike will pick you up there!”
“Alright,” Gem said.
There was a long pause on the comm for a second, before Gem spoke again. “Honestly, Flashpoint, it was an honor working with you.”
“I never thought I’d like a corp mage,” Web said, “but then I met you, and you did a really good job. I’ll miss you, Flashpoint.”
“Ya did right by us, Flashpoint,” Steel said, “and that means a lot to me. When we get the farm back, I’m going to try to and get a cider named after you.”
Twilight felt strangely honored with that comment.
“It was fun to have you with us, Flashpoint,” Candy said. “I’m going to be very sad that you’re not going to make it.”
“Thank you, girls,” she replied. “If it makes a difference, you are better ponies than most, and I hope your lives after this job are filled with everything you could hope for.”
Her eulogy given, Twilight sat down, ready to wait for the end.
The door shuddered.
Twilight glanced up. “Wingmare is that you?” she asked on her comm.
“I’m not leaving you behind!”
“Wingmare! You have the mark! You need to go!”
“I’m not leaving you behind!”
“Wingmare! You’ve got to finish the job! Don’t mess it up now!”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“The literal end of the world could happen! I’m not worth it!”
“You are worth it to me! All of you are! I’ve got your back, no matter what!”
“Wingmare, you can’t get through the door!”
“I’m going to try!”
“Wingmare, you don’t have the time!”
The door shuddered again, along with the sound of rending metal.
“Hang on one second!” Wingmare said.
“Wingmare, it’s too thick, you can’t—”
A burst of bullets rocked the door, causing the entire room to fill with the sound of rattling that pierced Twilight’s ears.
“Wingmare, you can’t—”
The door thudded again, as Wingmare threw her weight against the door.
“Wingmare, Wingmare, just go…I stuck here, alright? I’m not going to make it out of here, that’s all there is to it. Just take the mark and get out of here, please.”
“Wingmare,” Gem’s voice cut in. “She has a point. I’ve looked at the matrix lock on that room. It needs two users to open it, at least. My sprites can’t spoof the credentials for it, and no one else on the team can help in time unless you get into VR.”
There was silence for a second.
“I’m not leaving anyone behind,” Wingmare said.
Twilight sighed. “Wingmare, you can’t help me. Thank you for trying so hard, but I’m a lost cause. Just go, please.”
She didn’t get an answer, back.
Twilight sighed.
She must have listened, finally. Well, at least it meant that they’d go save the world now. Besides, only one casualty isn’t that big of a deal. She, sure wouldn’t make it, but that was probably expected with her being a Runner now and all. Spike would understand, she knew. He’d probably make sure that her family would be taken care of with her gone.
With a sad smile, Twilight turned off her comm, and lay on the floor, ready to accept her death. Perhaps she’d take a quick nap before the end. There wasn’t much else to do anymore.
She heard the hiss and rattle of a door opening.
She immediately sat up and found her door open.
She stood, and checked the room, which seemed empty, though she could hear the sound of scrambling security ponies rushing down one of the doors. She turned her comm back on. “Girls?”
“Flashpoint! You have to grab Wingmare and get back here!” Gem’s voice said.
“What happened to Wingmare?” Twilight asked.
“She’s suffering a lot of dumpshock right now, you’re going to have to help her get here.”
“Dumpshock?” Twilight thought. “Wingmare’s not a decker, how did she—?”
She was already moving to the next room, where she found the pegasus in the corner, surrounded by dead ponies, slowly plucking the individual electrodes of a net off of her head. Her nose was bleeding, and she looked exhausted. “I told you, I’m not leaving you here…” she said weakly.
“D-did you just try to hack your way to the door?” Twilight asked.
“Not...leaving you…”
“You idiot!” Twilight yelled. “You’ve never dived VR before, and you decided to do that now! Here! In the middle of a Marés facility!”
“I don’t…” Wingmare said, shakily getting to her hooves, “I don’t leave anypony behind…”
Twilight sighed, before getting Wingmare’s leg beneath her. “You idiot. Let’s get you out of here.”
The door behind them opened, and a security pony barked an order before Twilight unleashed a ball lightning spell that ripped through the chokepoint of the doorway. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”
“Wingmare, Flashpoint, where are you?” Candy asked.
“We’re coming!” Twilight said.
She carried the pegasus forward, through the rooms and past the bodies they had fried or short earlier until they made it to the main room. The rest of the team stood at the elevator, holding everyone they could at bay, before Steel yelled. “There they are!”
Web shot across the room, slapping a stimm patch onto the delirious pegasus before she helped carry them across the way. “Come on! We need to go! Do you still have the gem?”
Wingmare reached into her coat and pulled a small ruby. “Right here,” she said, not more lucid thanks to the patch.
“Let’s go, ladies!” Gem said, looking immaculate, despite the hacking she no doubt had to do.
They rushed into the elevator, which closed behind them.
“I hope Spike gets here in time,” Twilight said.
The entire elevator shuddered suddenly, water began to fill the elevator cab. The ponies panicked for a moment before the whole thing pitched sideways. An invitation to a conference call popped up on the whole group’s AR interface, even as they were thrown around the small room. The fact that it got hit at all as they tumbled about was a pure accident, but nonetheless, Spike joined the call.
“Hello, Ladies. It’s good to see you all made it out alive,” he said.
The cab shuddered, now sitting upside down somehow.
“Welcome to my personal submersible,” Spike said, before the elevator door opened, letting the Runners spill out into a small room, manned with Harmony Inc. ponies. “Go ahead and take a seat, we only have a few hours left, and we don’t have much time.”