The following morning the alarm clock once again clattered against the floor, after waking its owner with the loud alarm. Ruby got up and went about her morning routine, making sure to write down a note about buying more daffodils.
At the library Ruby sat at the reception while going over a list of which books needed to be replaced and which of those that did were too damaged to give away to charity. She had made it halfway through the list when she noticed an orange earth pony standing at the other side of her desk. "Pard'n me Ma'am." He said.
Ruby quickly put the list of boooks away and greeted the stallion. "Hi. How can I help you?" The pony had been looking off slightly to the side but righted himself when spoken to. "Well y'see. Ah' was supposed to find a book, but Ah' can't rightly find it. Looked all over the shelf. Figured maybe you could see if it's been loaned out."
"I see." Ruby replied and walked over to the library terminal. "What was the name of the book?"
The stallion hastily replied "Uh, 'Cumulus Correction Sumthin' Sumthin'." Ruby looked up from the terminal. "Cumulus Correction: A Beginners Guide to Weather Work?" She questioned. The stallions face lit up. "Ah yes, that's the one!" She eyed him for a bit. She was used to ponies borrowing all manner of books, but an earth pony borrowing a book about weather work was new. Noticing her confused expression the stallion spoke "It's for, uh.. research. Yes! Research." Something was off about this pony, but Ruby was all too familiar with wanting to know more about something. "It seems it's still in. It must have been misplaced. I will go take a look."
"Thank'ee kindly Ma'am." The stallion said as Ruby trotted off in search of the book. It didn't take her long to find it. She found it lying on one of the reader's desks. There was no sign of anypony still using the desk so she picked it up and brought it back to the stallion waiting at her desk. "Here you go." she said as she levitated the book to the pony on the other side. The pony took the book and flipped it open.
Suddenly the oaken door thrust open as three pegasi wearing the distinctive emblems of BlackWing entered the building. Two of the muscular armored ponies spread out and loudly started interrogating the patrons, one by one. Ruby was just about to raise her voice as the stallion standing at her desk quickly hands her the book back. "Seems that wasn't the book I was after, after all. Gotta run along now, you have a nice day Ma'am."
"You're welcome I guess, but be careful about those..." Ruby looked around, but the stallion was gone. 'Where did he go?' She asked herself.
"You there!" a gruff voice growled as the third pegasus approached her desk. He stood before her and looked at her with dead, cold, cybernetic eyes. "You see any suspicious pony recently? A stallion, perhaps?"
Ruby felt her front legs involuntary grip around the book tighter. "Well... " She said nervously. "There was a stallion here... but I don't know where he went. Why?"
"None of your concern, citizen." The pegasus replied coldly. As the stallion started walking past her, Ruby found her voice again. "Could you please not terrorize the patrons?" The pegasus simply looked at her shortly then continued on his way. Most likely to search the back rooms, where only employees were allowed. Ruby harrumphed and sat down at her desk and waited for the pegasi to leave.
After having searched the entire building, the pegasi determined that whoever they were looking for was long gone. They left in their wake a mess of turned over tables, scattered books and a few patrons needing light medical assistance, having been shoved around harshly by the BlackWing pegasi. Ruby helped as much as she could. The library had a medical kit and a resting room, in case of emergency. After tending to the patrons, apologizing for their inconvenience, Ruby sought to the mess of books and tables. Luckily she wasn't alone on staff that day so cleaning up the mess was not as big an ordeal as it could have been. Though she'd prefer it if there hadn't been a mess to clean up at all.
Cleaning up took the remainder of the work day and Ruby was just about to leave when she remembered the list she had been going through before all that. She was not supposed to leave papers like that list lying around when she left, so she hurried back to retrieve the list. She then noticed the book that the earth pony had asked for.
'Might as well put this in its place while I'm at it.' she thought and grabbed the book by it's spine. As the book left the table something fell out of it and clattered against the desk. She took a closer look and saw what seemed to be a data drive of some description. She engulfed it with her magic and brought it up closer, inspecting it. There was no label to signify what it was, or who it belonged to. The turned it over and around, several times over. No serial number either. She could see circuits running to and fro. There were at least to different pin connectors, and some other jacks she couldn't identify. 'Did that stallion put that there?' It seemed likely, but why? And also, how did she not notce it earlier? For a drive it was spectacularly thin, but still bulky enough that she felt she should have noticed it tucked in the book at some point or another. She pondered it some more before putting the thing in her bag, then returned the book to its shelf.
The walk was long and cold. Her thoughts racing back and forth between the gruff pegasus, the strange stallion and the drive lying in her bag. Ever since the BlackWing officers had torn up the library she'd been tense and there had been so much to do. Now that everything was over, her tension started to loosen up.
The BlackWing had probably found the pony they were looking for and wouldn't bother her again. Right? Did the drive have anything to do with it? She shot a quick glance at the skies. Nopony in sight. 'But if they aren't there, they must be somewhere else. Maybe they're just waiting for the right time to...' She could feel her body tensing up again. Ruby stopped and slapped her face lightly with her hooves. "Keep it together Ruby. They weren't even looking for you then! Why would they now?" She shook her head and neck in an effort to clear her thoughts. Her matted locks flopped from one side to the other as she did. Having collected herself she continued home.
The humming fans and the slight buzz from the monitor was a welcome return to familiarity in contrast to the days rather unpleasant turn of events. She tapped her hoof against the desk impatiently, waiting for the machine to load up the operating system. The machine was fairly new, for the most part. To save bits she had built it with parts from an older machine she had. It was days like this she regretted that decision. The drive hang in front of her, slightly to the right side of the monitor, suspended in midair with her magic. She eyed it lazily, suspiciously, as she waited.
Eventually the computer was ready and she opened up the chat client and started typing.
"Crimson1: Hoof! You there?!"
Again, she tapped her hoof impatently against the wooden desk. 'C'mon... '
"Hoofst0mpR: yea."
"Crimson1: I found something."
She took out a camera from a drawer and took an picture of the drive and sent it to her friend.
"Crimson1: Do you know what it is?"
"Hoofst0mpR: Looks like a drive of some sort. Weird one at that."
"Hoofst0mpR: Where did you find this?"
She leaned back in her chair a bit, pondering how to best describe what happened. Should she mention the stallion? And BlackWing? She knew that like her, Hoofst0mpR wasn't exactly fond of BlackWing. But if this really had something to do with the BlackWing and that orange pony from earlier, then she would be dragging Hoofst0mpR into it too. She brought her attention back to the monitor and typed.
"Crimson1: I'll tell you if you really want me to. I'm not sure if it's safe."
"Hoofst0mpR: Well now you HAVE to tell me! XD"
Rubys ears flopped a bit. He was right. The way she'd put it only made it sound more interesting. 'Stupid.'
"Crimson1: Ok, ok. There was a patron at the library. Some orange pony, had a really thick country accent."
"Hoofst0mpR: Go on."
"Crimson1: He told me he was looking for a book, so I got it for him. A weather work guide for pegasi."
"Hoofst0mpR: k"
"Hoofst0mpR: Wait, what?"
"Crimson1: Yeah, I know. Anyway, I think he snuck it in the back of the book somehow when I wasn't paying attention. Not that that was difficult."
"Hoofst0mpR: How so?"
"Crimson1: When I gave him the book, BlackWing burst in and started harassing everypony. I think they were looking for him, but I'm not sure. Thing is, the guy just up and disappeared. No clue how."
Ruby waited for a response. This was weird. Hoofst0mpR usually relished getting into heated discussions about how terrible BlackWing were. She had expected a reaction close to that, not... nothing.
Ruby waited for a reply from her friend. When ten minutes had gone by and nothing had come, she'd begun preparing dinner. She had just finished slicing carrots when she heard noticed a slight flickering coming from the light of her monitor. Hoofst0mpR had made a reply. She finished up the carrots and put them in with the rest of the food to cook, and trotted over to the computer.
"Hoofst0mpR: Could you take another picture of the drive for me? I'd like to get better look at the ports."
She did as he asked and took out her camera to take another picture. She turned the drive over with her magic, locating the area, placed the thing on the desk and took the picture. She fed it into the machine and sent it over to Hoofst0mpR. The reply was quick and short.
"Hoofst0mpR: oh."
Ruby settled down in front of the monitor and wrote a reply.
"Crimson1: What?"
"Hoofst0mpR: You see the circular port? At the left side, near the pin connector?"
She inspected the port. It was the one she hadn't been able to identify. It looked like a simple headphone jack, but slightly larger.
"Crimson1: Do you know what it is?"
"Hoofst0mpR: uhm, yeah..."
"Crimson1: Well? What is it?"
"Hoofst0mpR: Bad news. This is bad news Crimson."
"Crimson1: explain"
Rubys brow furrowed and her body tensed up. Everything about this suddenly felt wrong. Hoofst0mpR was behaving really weird. Even for him. She didn't like it.
"Hoofst0mpR: You know how some... ok, a LOT, of ponies have augmentations? Replacement legs, eyes. That kind of thing?"
Ruby's mind once again turning to the large, imposing pegasus pony. The one with the cybernetic eyes. Her coat hairs stood on end at the thought.
"Crimson1: Yes, it's not like it's something secret."
"Hoofst0mpR: Well, this thing kind of is."
"Hoofst0mpR: It's a head jack. Underground tech. Mostly used by hackers, or illegal couriers."
"Crimson1: Wait, 'head'? As in plug into your brain 'head'?"
"Hoofst0mpR: Pretty much. Well, not this one in particular. This is the other end. The tech was proposed years ago. But because of speculations of negative side effects such as impaired mental faculties, as well as rumours about experimentaion gone awry with fatal results, the thing was scrapped and buried. Buried deep. But the tech found its way onto the underground market and then spread."
"Hoofst0mpR: Look, whatever's on that thing is either illegal as buck all, or dangerous. Most likely both. Get rid of it. Now."
"Crimson1: wait"
Ruby paused for a second.
"Crimson1: if it's secret, how do you know about it?"
"Hoofst0mpR: ... crap."
"Crimson1: Tell me. How do you know?"
She waited as her friend tried to decide what to write. She could tell from the little icon showing when he was typing. She observed the icon as it flickered in and out of existence. At least fifteen minutes had passed and she could hear the hiss water hitting the hot stove from the kitchen as her soup boiled over. She paid it no mind, still focusing intently on the little icon. Finally a new message appeared on the screen.
"Hoofst0mpR: Ok, fine. I'll tell you."
"Hoofst0mpR: You know my day job?"
"Crimson1: Yeah, freelance software engineer."
"Hoofst0mpR: Well, that is my 'day' job. I also work nights, sort of. Look, I'm not comfortable talking about this over the grid. I can tell you, but in person."
"Crimson1: I don't know."
Ruby hesitated. She had known Hoofst0mpR for so long, but they had never actually met. She didn't even know where he lived. Under normal circumstances she would trust him and already have agreed and started scheduling a meet-up, but now she was unsure. She scrolled up and re-read their discussion, looking for any hints that he was pulling her leg and this was all a joke.
Detecting sarcasm or other inflections through text was difficult, sometimes nigh impossible, but she had chatted with Hoofst0mpR for so long. She knew his quirks and ways of writing when being sarcastic or otherwise facetious, at least she thought she did. She went over the lines again and again. Nothing looked like lies to her. Her unease growing with every line. She mulled the situation over in her head. While curious about the drive, exactly how far was she willing to go to find out what it was? Would it be worth it? If there was something dangerous or illegal on it, or it itself was, wouldn't it be better to pony up and hand it to the proper authorities? She turned her attention back to the screen.
"Crimson1: I have to think."
She didn't wait for a reply and shut the machine down. She sat down on the edge of her bed, pondering.
She wasn't really trying to make sense of the situation anymore, she couldn't. Instead she just sat there, trying to figure out the emotions swirling about in her mind.
After sitting like that for a while she grew restless. She stood up from the bed and paced around the room for a bit. Her horn glowed with magical energy as she once more picked up the drive and levitated it in front of her. She regarded it coldly. It was really an unremarkable thing, if you didn't look close. You might mistake it for a spare computer part or something to that effect. But up close it was very different from an ordinary drive. She was still confused as to how it could have been hidden in the book so well.
Her pondering was brought to a halt as she felt something. There was something else about the thing. Something strangely familiar. It almost felt magical. Why didn't she notice that earlier? Maybe she was so proccupied with the situation in full that this detail had gone her by at first? Her unease was replaced by intrigue, and any hesitation was blown away by a her innate curiosity. She didn't know how to access the thing, and didn't want to risk plugging it into her machine. But this was magical, wasn't it? She gambled and reached out with her magic. Extending the grasp of the thing to reach inside, for whatever was the source of this familiar feeling. As she probed, the feeling got stronger. Ruby figured she was onto something and pushed further. As she did, she felt an odd sensation. Not only was she pushing towards something, but she was being pulled in as well. Like a piece of metal drawn towards a magnet. Her hesitation returned, but it was too late. Her mind began to race and her vision blurred.
It was like being tossed into a wild tornado. A torrent of memories and feelings surrounded her. She had no control, no way to direct the flow. All she could do was watch. She saw ponies and places she did not know.
'No wait!' She did know this place. She had seen it somewhere before, but couldn't recall. Trying to recall memories of her own felt impossible. She saw glimpses of books, something purple and green, and leaves. She saw blue against blue. A speck of cyan quickly moving against sky blue, trailed by bright colors. Then she saw a pink blur, and something yellow. She saw more colors. Orange and yellow, white and purple.
The flow grew more focused and she could make out clearer images as the events unfolded in her head. She saw a city atop a cliff. A huge throne room loomed over her as she found herself amongst a crowd at the city square. Light shone down on her and she looked up, holding a lilac hoof in front of her face to shield her eyes. She saw wings. They stretched out, spread to the full width. Each feather pristine and glowing, filtering the glorious light shining from behind. Or maybe the light came from them, it was hard to tell. She also saw a flowy mane in various colors. They felt warm, like a morning sun, as she found herself tiredly leaning against the white fur, an open book in her grasp. She felt content and snuggled against the figure. She had never felt more calm or happy.
Then with a violent rush the scene changed. The soothing warmth was exchanged with harsh cold. The wind howled around her as snow whirled in every direction. She was cold and exhausted. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked upon a towering inferno. Something screamed at her, but she couldn't make the words out. She saw figures lying in the snow between her and the inferno. More colors. The inferno roared as it charged at her and she felt it scorch her entire body.
Her hooves pressed against something cold and hard. Chips of ice splintered off as she slammed her hooves against the surface in front of her. It was fruitless. The surface wouldn't budge and there was nothing she could do. She slid down and curled up against the cold ice, sobbing uncontrollably
Then she saw nothing more as her mind clouded, pulling her into a deep slumber.