//------------------------------// // Wub Hub // Story: Equestria Besieged // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Streets of Canterlot 2000 Hours The two sphinxes had just landed in a somewhat busy thoroughfare looking for a dinner. Several ponies took notice of the extraterrestrials and most gave them a wild berth. Even though they had been announced as welcome visitors the odd monkey aspects of their forward half put most of the natives on edge. A fact Ashni took notice of, although she felt more attention had been drawn to her, because her landing was more akin to a spectacular crash that Rainbow Dash would have even cringed at. Daria materialized a hand and pulled her kin to her feet. "Well, your gliding is progressing well enough, but your take off and landing still needs some work." Ashni was glad the commander had insisted on a heavy green shirt that blended the grass stains rather well, but did little to protect the friction rash she knew she's develop soon enough. "I think I might have to walk back to the tower." The arm disappeared again. "Nonsense, you've been learning to fly all week and you need a little RnR. Since you're not military I'm not putting you through the standard training regiment. Now, were can we find a place to get some grub." While Ashni tried in vain to brush away some of the smeared grass on her shirt, but had some success with getting it off her fur. Meanwhile Daria scanned the area for a café and her eyes fell upon a giant sign that read 'The Chrome Fish.' "Ha bingo. That looks like a good place." She said pointing at the restaurant. Ashni could not deny her hunger after they abandoned the Gala they had been invited too by Prince Blueblood. The Royal Sisters knew full well the Gala would be far outside the commander's interests and did not bother with an invitation of their own. Celesta was surprised to see them arrive, but was not when they left not more than ten minutes later. "I still say we could have given that soirée the noblemen invited us to could have been better than you made it out to be." She said evenly as she was led over to the seafood joint. "Trust me, I've seen parties like that, not that they deserve the term. The business conglomerates host them all the time and invite military officers like me." She turn back to face Ashni. "The only bonus this place has over those back home is that you don't have paparazzi taking pictures through the window screens." Ashni wanted to inquire further but stopped herself when they were standing in the café. A nervous looking earth mare with a green coat and purple mane walked over to them. "You must be the sphinxes we've heard so much about. W-would you like an indoor or patio seat?" Daria was not offended by the demeanor of the mare and took it in stride. "Patio is fine." The more these ponies see us, the less nervous they'll be. I hope. Soon enough they were seated and ordered two large meals at the expense of the royal treasury. Daria manifested a holographic knife and fork so it looked as if she was eating in a similar manner to a unicorn with real silverware. Ashni however, was struggling to keep the holographic utensils stable, and they fizzed out constantly. Barrane was already through half her meal when she noticed her companion had only managed a few bites. "I know you wish to learn control ASAP, but do you at least want some help in cutting it so you only have to focus on a fork?" The holo-emitters on Ashni's recently made harness gave several warning messages to the commander when Ashni's poor control started to create short circuits. She tried one last time to cut the tough fish, but much to her exasperation, the knife flickered before dissolving into formless light again. The trainee let out a gasp of tired exertion. "Please. If it's not too much trouble." Daria was only happy to help and even reversed the utensils to make it look like it was still Ashni controlling the knife and fork. "Granted you’re my first convert to teach, but I'd say you're making fast progress. At this rate, you'll have all the basics within a month." Ashni felt her mood improve at the praise. "If we were still back in the Empire, would we still take the whole year?" Daria finished and let Ashni take back over with just a fork. "I'd say so. Even with the basics down, you'd still need the whole year to refine your flight and your telepathy. Remember, your physically about twenty years old and you have two decades worth of experience to make up for. But enough about that, the next step is finding some night life." "We could always go back to the Gala." Ashni suggested hopefully. Barrane suppressed a groan. "I said night life. No, I've seen these ponies have better technology than their military equipment would have us believe. I'm convinced we can find something crazy down here." Still having little of her previous life's memories to go on Ashni was somewhat dubious. "What makes you say that?" Daria smirked as she tapped her nose with a fork. "All the posh and class of a city like this can't hide the fact that there's a lower class that holds the nobles up. It's the middle and lower class who always throws the best parties or if we're lucky, I can sniff out a dance club." Ashni looked down at her plate. "If it's all the same to you, I’d rather go practice back in our quarters." "Who says you can't mix work with pleasure. You can walk and run well enough, but now you gotta learn how to dance. Men love a female who can dance. Who knows, you might even catch the eye of a local...stallions I think they call the males." Her kin's face turned bright red at the idea. "I-I haven't really had time or desire to think of that right now." "Which is why you're coming with me, life is not all just work. If for nothing else than to gain better control by dancing." With their meal done, Daria pulled out a bag of bits and paid for the meal when the waiter came over with the bill. "Say, stud. Where can I find some entertainment around here?" The unicorn did not acknowledge the flirt. "If it pleases you madam, the Royal Canterlot Symphony is playing at the Upper Crust Concert hall later tonight in roughly half an hour." The words symphony and upper crust turned her off from that idea. "What about a place with more-" She tried thinking of a word that would translate well. "Spirit." The posh stallion eyed Barrane for a moment and ascertained her meaning by looking at her uniform. "Ah, a soldier. While I would never go there myself, one of the more popular venues for the…younger generation seems to be a place called Wub Hub or some such." The name and demographic intrigued her greatly. "Can you point us in the general direction?" The unicorn did just that and sometime thereafter the pair found themselves outside a converted warehouse with a throng of ponies and several griffins lined up trying to gain entry. Through the open door the aliens could hear a gut wrenching bass and flickering multicolored lights. "Now this is the place to be." Ashni sat on her haunches to cover her ears. "I don't think I was a party person in my previous life, and I don't think I am in this one either. This is way too loud." Daria was scanning the crowd looking for a way to circumvent the line. She turned back around to see the poor state her pupil was in. As if I'd let my hearing get damaged by this. She activated a subroutine and a transparent holographic film covered her ears and brought the noise down to a much more enjoyable level and commanded Ashni's harness to do the same, then locked it so it would require no further input to maintain the sound levelers which would keep louder noises down, but would not affect softer sounds. "That better?" The student slowly uncupped her ears upon realizing the noise was lower and stood back up. "Much, thanks." Daria looked her companion over and then at herself in a reflective window across from her and noticed something was missing. "We can't go in yet." Ashni cocked her head. "Why not? You're the one who brought us here." "Hold on I'm trying to find it." Barrane replied as she flipped through her circlet's archives. "Ha! Got it, and one for you." Activating her harness's holographic emitters, Daria made it look like her uniform was replaced by a bare midriff sleeveless shirt with the emblem of the Sol Force navy on both top and bottom. Along her wings, flanks, and tail were lines of light that pulsed back and forth in the full spectrum. Her blue hair and the blue lines in her wings were made to look as if they were luminescent. She completed the ensemble with a pair of red lensed black framed goggles. She paced between the reflective window and her pupil a few times to take stock. "Perfect as always." She fixed the hologram on repeat so she did not have to think of it again, but she did cut the lights off to save them for the dance floor. A few passing ponies noticed the whole thing and ran over. "Wow, I've never seen magic like that before." A black pegasus stallion exclaimed. "You have to teach me how to do that!" A unicorn mare pleaded. "I'll pay you a hundred bits for that outfit." A purple earth mare gushed. "Hey you're those uhh…aliens. Did you bring a bunch of spaceships?" Asked a tan pegasus with three basketballs for a cutie mark. "Don't you know anything featherbrain?" A dark chocolate pegasus with a dumbbell on his flank remarked after hoofing tan over the head. "They got sucked here by a portal." Daria was glad that some of the ponies were starting to warm up to them, even if not all of them were the sharpest knives in the drawer. "I can't sell it, sorry. But we were just on our way to join in on the Wub Hub." "Good luck with that one. The unicorn proclaimed. I doubt even Blueblood could get in, even if he did flash a few hundred bits." Ashni balked at that. "Is it that expensive?" The earth pony shook her head. "Naw. It's just so crammed with ponies that the bouncers couldn't let him in even if they wanted to. Management wouldn't allow it." Daria looked a little crestfallen at that. The black stallion had been rubbing his chin and spoke when he finally remembered what he was searching for. "I bet they'd still let you in though since fliers can dance above the floor, it's part of the reason the warehouse is so tall, so more unicorns and earth ponies can get in. Daria leaned over to Ashni and spoke in English. “See? Mixing work with pleasure can always happen.” Ashni looked dubiously at her wings. Now if only I could manage more than just gliding. The unicorn jumped up and down a couple of times in ecstatic glee. “There’s no way they wouldn’t let us in if we walked in with you. Please please please help us in.” Ashni was at a loss, so Daria stepped in. “If they let us in right off, I see no problem with it.” The ponies started hooting and cheering at their new heroines of the hour. Ashni looked at the ponies and noticed all none of them wore clothes per say, but all of them had some kind of cosmetics like glow rods, funky hats, and the unicorn had several enchanted gems that oscillated colors back and forth. Looking at her stained green shirt, she would be rather out of place. “Could you make me an outfit like that?” She asked in English. “Only…a little more subdued?” The commander chuckled while nodding in understanding. “No problem, I think I have something.” Much to the amazement of a growing crowd of ponies a more reserved, yet still festive for the occasion, outfit of a full shirt with a few dim glow lines arced around her contours. “There, now come on the night's not getting any younger.” As predicted, the high status afforded by being close to the princesses and the rather outlandish outfits made the bouncers allow them in without question. Ashni was glad the noise suppression kept the ambient noise to an enjoyable sixty decibels, but one look at the commander told her the officer kept it much higher. As per the ponies’ warnings, the actual dance floor was a mosh pit so packed in tight that she feared some of them would be trapped in there. In the center of it all, was a circler DJ tower surrounded by speakers with an alabaster unicorn with a mane strikingly similar to Daria’s hair in coloration. The four story open area above the tower was filled mostly with pegasi and numerous griffins. The ponies they walked in with thanked them for the entry before running off. Given that even standing in the entryway was clogging the area, both sphinxes jumped to hover several feet in the air. Even with such a simple thing Ashni was still having trouble keeping herself in a stable hover and was bouncing up and down erratically. Now that they were inside and saw the writhing mass moving to the gut wrenching bass, Ashni was feeling extremely self-conscious about her inexperience. I highly doubt I would have been subjected to a dance club eight days out of the tube if we were still back in the Empire. Daria had flown off, but remained close enough that she could keep an eye on her pupil while, said pupil, decided there was nothing for it and tried to stabilize her hovering a little better and followed the leg movements of the griffins and pegasi. She started to see the merit in the exercise after a few minutes. Maybe if I try to think of my wings as little as possible, I can start hovering on nothing more than instinct or muscle memory. And that would free the rest of my attention to actual dancing, a sort of multitasking without actually thinking about each task. Just how direct memory access works with computers. The last thought almost made her stop her somewhat feeble dancing. When did I start thinking about computers like that? She shook it off and resumed her enjoyment. Daria on the other hand made her way through the throng towards the DJ tower, flying level with the unicorn mare behind the turntables. While both the pony’s and the sphinx’s faces were concealed by glasses or goggles, they still managed to make eye contact. Barrane tapped into the turntable to better predict what sounds and music was going to play. With her TNP fully encompassing the soundboard came compete, yet temporary, understanding of what each knob, dial, and lever did. With that done, she had the three routers follow her own program that would follow her lead and keep all three cameras fixed on the DJ so she would know what was coming. The result was Jedi like reflexes every single note. Barrane was not satisfied going with the flow of the music, but to be the one with it. The routers dances and twisted in the air to the beats that were too fast for her to physically move to. It did not take long before ponies started to take notice. The DJ took notice of this and accepted the unspoken challenge. The music increased it tempo at first, just to see how this alien interloper in her club would respond. Those are some wicked new moves. But there’s a reason this is my club. She stepped up her game bringing both the music and the crowd into a fevered pitch. Every warble and scratch was matched move fore move by either the sphinx herself, or by the routers. This continued on until the mare built up for the bass drop. Much to her surprise, a moment before she was about to do it, Daria started to move into a dive. The alabaster DJ was not so competitive against a dancer and apparent fan as to ruin the music for the sake of a victory and dropped the bass. As soon as it hit, the routers created several hard holograms to which Barrane was able to land on instead of hitting the crowd. She used them as platform to continue before using an interlude to fly back to her original altitude. Ashni was enjoying the show along with over half the crowd rather than actual dancing to music she only tolerated. She assumed it was an acquired taste and flew over to a wall where a bar that catered to the fliers and was glad that it had actual stools rather than just clouds. The aliens found that whatever natural magic the natives had that allowed them to stand on clouds did not extend to them. The pegasi bartender gave the tired looking alien a wary eye but kept his tone friendly. "What'll it be stranger?" He was able to keep his voice low because of a sound damping spell over the bar's seats. "Do you have anything with electrolytes?" She asked with ragged breath. The stallion gave a puzzled look. "Electra what?" "Electrolytes." She repeated louder. What he heard was Electric Lights, a powerful alcoholic drink. "That'll be five bits." She handed over the coins and the tender got to work. Not everyone at the club was there for entertainment. A group of twin unicorn mares, a pegasus and an earth pony lounged at table and watched a pegasus fly to each of the griffins to speak. Each one of them showed a variety of expressions, but the result was that all of them quickly left the premises. As soon as the last one left the group of four ponies walked into the back storeroom at the admittance of an employee. The lone earth stallion spoke once they were out of sight from the crowd. "Were you able to plant the stones?" The pegasus produced a mana stone from a small saddle bag and tossed it at one of the unicorn mares. "As if there should have been any doubt. Everypony is too busy relishing in that filth to notice me." The other twin gazed at the employee who was watching for service staff and shooing away anypony that got near on the grounds of a big clean up. She walked over and produced a curved blade from a satchel and impaled him on it. The death was quick and clean. Before the body even fell to the floor her sister cast an illusion spell that concealed them all into griffins. "Set the timer for thirty seconds starting now." With the disguised earth pony taking the lead they muscled through the dense crowd making as much of a commotion as possible before bursting out into the street and sprinting away to get out of sight of the grumbling crowd and bouncers. Daria noticed the commotion and flew over to land near the entryway. She helped up a dazed earth pony. "What was that about?" "I don't know, but it looked like they were in a-" His sentence was cut off by several explosions throughout the club, shattering its structural supports and collapsing the whole building down on top of the occupants. Everypony on the outside ran for safety as soon as the club because to crumble. The only thing that remained of the Wub Hub was a mound of debris.