//------------------------------// // Act 3 - Chapter 5: The presence of greed // Story: Friends like these // by Istaran //------------------------------// The bank of monitors surrounding them were completely superfluous, but they did help a bit with the ambiance. The nanotechnology living in their bloodstreams could, and did, instill knowledge of what was going on in all of the places pictured directly into their consciousness, including helping them filter all the data, and figure out what was actually relevant to them. But the place had to look like something, so it might as well be covered in monitors showing the city below them from a thousand angles. "That one," Sombra suggested, pointing at a couple of thieves escaping from a jewelry store with a bag of stolen goods. "We can make an example of them, and enjoy the spoils ourselves," the unicorn suggested. Istaran rolled his eyes, but stood up and started stretching. "Alright, looks like they're heading toward their house... here. If they're smart they won't go there, but we can always catch up with them elsewhere before they can skip town. Worst case, we have the spiders stop their car on the freeway before they can leave our territory." He placed a hand on Sombra's withers, and gave his manic grin, the one Sombra had learned to associate with anticipation of battle. "Let's go," the unicorn said unnecessarily before dragging them both into the shadows, leaving their tower behind. When they emerged back into the physical world, he immediately regretted his timeliness. The thieves' home reeked of garbage, dirty laundry, and probably mold. Ugh. So disgusting. Just one more reason to remove them from his city. They waited in one of the bedrooms, while they mentally watched the getaway vehicle wind through their feeds. People still had no idea how much surveillance the pair had at their disposal, but perhaps they would start to get a clue after enough incidents like this. The tower was essentially a massive supercomputer the size of skyscraper, and could easily spare the clock cycles to brute force its way through most forms of encryption, gaining access to all kinds of feeds from around the city... but it also coordinated trillions of small spy bots scattered throughout the city, most resembling perfectly ordinary spiders. Quite a few of those had gotten eaten by the local fauna, only to infect those birds and other wildlife, and convert them into cybernetic spies, granting them quite a few literal birds-eye views. Most were oblivious. The organized criminals, however, were not. They had equipment to detect 'bugs' by their radio transmissions, and that equipment had started to go haywire, convinced that more or less the entire city was infested with bugs, and they had wisely decided to find another place to ply their trade. They didn't know if the police had gone to unbelievable new heights, or if this new face in town was spying on everyone and everything, but they did know it wasn't worth it. The ominous new tower in downtown was reason enough to take his threat seriously. The organized criminals were gone. Many of the other smart ones were as well. But a lot criminals weren't smart. They were neither well equipped nor well prepared, and honestly if Istaran and Sombra didn't get involved, they probably would get themselves caught before long. The good thing about that is that it wouldn't take too long for the cops to find the aftermath. It seemed like it took forever, but eventually they did arrive at their house, and slipped inside, closing all the blinds before settling into the living room to start dividing out their haul. They had beers in hand and were celebrating among themselves when Sombra stepped out in front of them. "Gentlemen! Is this your tribute? So nice of you to bring me all this finery!" the King suggested, grinning at them. He watched as a half dozen gun barrels raised to point at him. There were only four thieves, but two imagined that wielding a gun in each hand would work better for them. Perhaps under other circumstances. It was a simple trick, hardening a bit of darkness into a solid form. Istaran's enhancements made it easy to do it several times over all at once, and to easily track everywhere it was needed. Five guns went off as Sombra approached. Five bullets got trapped in their respective chambers, the energy ripping their handles apart and the hands that held them. One thief had been too smart, or too cowardly, or too hesitant, and managed to get through the exchange without firing. "Oh? You mean to say you thought to steal from our city without our permission?" Istaran asked with a condescending grin of his own as he strode up beside Sombra. "How well did you think that would end for you?" The thief who hadn't fired his gun now thought to use it as an improvised projectile, hurling it at Istaran's head. He swatted it aside easily, but allowed it to serve as distraction enough for the thief to bust through the front door and flee. After all, someone had to serve as the witness. The other thieves were in too much shock from the loss of their hands to be nearly as proactive. Not that there was much they could have done. By the time the police arrived, Sombra and Istaran were long gone, along with the jewels. The remains of the thieves were barely recognizable, and some of it had been used to write on the walls. The handwriting itself was illegible, but the message was clear: this is our territory, and we will defend it. "That was a lot of fun," Sombra said from the shower, as he cleaned the blood from his mane. "But I do worry we're sending the wrong message. If we only attack criminals, won't people start to mistakenly think we're some kind of heroes? Or at the least, vigilantes?" Istaran leaned against the wall outside, patiently waiting his turn. He hadn't gotten nearly as messy, preferring to strike from a distance with his shadow magic, focusing on those who tried to escape Sombra's vicious hoof work. "I'm not too worried about that. We've done plenty to disabuse anyone who might come to such a mistaken conclusion. Besides, we wish to rule here, do we not? You cannot rule if you cannot convince people of your ability to enforce your rules, and I feel we have been very convincing in that regards." "Still..." Sombra said, trailing off as he got to thinking. He wanted something more, and with a bit of thought he realized how to get it. He tapped into the surveillance network again as he finished cleaning himself. "Are you up for another one? I have another target in mind." "Of course. Who next?" Istaran replied, raising an eyebrow curiously. Ashley paused as she parked her car, eyeing her rear view mirror nervously. The car that had been following her seemed to be going awfully slowly, but then it sped up a bit, and soon it had turned the corner. She let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, and finally opened the car door, heading for the front door of her townhome. She stumbled a bit in her high heels just before reaching the door. She had just finished her shift at a local strip club, and hadn't liked the look of one of the customers. She'd seen him eyeing her while she was on stage and something in his leer had unnerved her, nearly caused her to mess up her routine. It wasn't just a normal lustful look: those were what she was being paid to elicit. It was darker, more predatory. When she'd seen him heading for his car at the same time she did, it made things worse, and she wasn't quite certain if he had followed her home or if that'd just been paranoia. Either way, he wasn't here now. She hurried to unlock her door, taking longer from being in a rush as the key didn't want to quite go in right. But she got in, turning the deadbolt and latching the chain behind her. She took the time to check all the windows and doors were secured, before heading upstairs and starting the shower. As the layers of makeup washed off her ebony skin, and the stress of the day slowly flowed away, the sound of the shower drowned out the quiet sounds of the lock picks working on her back door. As she toweled off, the creek of a stair was the first warning she had that she was not alone. As she peeked around the corner, the barrel of a gun pointed at her head was the next. She raised her hands, begging for mercy, letting the towel fall away, tears streaming from her eyes. It was the man from the strip club. Her instincts about him had been right, but her precautions had been inadequate. He directed her into her bedroom, made her kneel across the end of her bed. She could hear him working on his belt, and thought she knew what was coming next. As much as she didn't want it, though, she was even more afraid of what would come after. Her mind reeled, trying to come up with a plan to escape, to figure out how to get the gun away from him without getting her brains splattered in the process, but soon she was distracted by movement coming from the shadows. More specifically, a unicorn. The glowing green eyes and razor sharp horn, along with his sudden appearance in her bedroom, would normally have been quite terrifying to Ashley, but under the circumstances, her mind latched onto it as a ray of hope. She rolled onto her back, even as her assailant moved to point his gun at the new target. A sharp, desperate kick to his hand left a bullet striking her wall instead of her savior, and the gun clattering to the ground. The disruption left him wide open for that horn to thrust straight into his gut, tearing organs as Sombra dug it up under the man's ribcage, before pulling out, letting the man fall to the ground. Istaran followed sedately afterwards, lightly kicking the gun farther away, lest the would be rapist got any ideas. He tsk'd lightly at the man, squatting to look him in the eyes. "You didn't really think you could get away with shit like this in our city without our permission did you?" "You saved me!" Ashley exclaimed, wrapping her arms Sombra suddenly, and pulling the unicorn a bit off balance. "You are mistaken," he replied with a cruel grin as he shoved her back onto the bed, pinning her under his weight. A satisfying wave of fear flowed out of her as she realized what she was in for. Istaran realized it almost as quickly, shaking his head and sighing. He took the dying intruder by the ankle and began to drag him off, closing the bedroom door behind him. Sombra was frustrated. Not sexually... Ashley had seen to that. But the King of Shadows had wanted to feast on her fear, but it had evaporated all too quickly. He had taken her roughly, but she had expected that, and though she obviously didn't appreciate it, she came to accept it. He had tried to lash out at her, to strike her with his hooves, bite her, even sear her with pain with his magic... but he found he couldn't bring himself to do so. He could think about it, but the moment he tried to put those thoughts into action, they evaporated from his mind. 'She trusts you,' the little voice in the back of his head told him. 'You can't betray that trust.' The voice wasn't his conscience. He had one of those, ill used though it was, and he was quite adept at ignoring it. This was different. For one, it was much more matter-of-fact in its statements. For another, he couldn't ignore it. For a third, he was fairly certain it was Istaran's doing. When he had tired of abusing her, and lay himself on her bed for a bit of rest, she had had the audacity to initiate a third round with him. He had been too surprised to stop her, and truthfully he enjoyed it, though not as much as she apparently had. Now she was lying snuggled atop him, sleeping peacefully while his emotions warred within him. No mare he had been with had ever treated him like this. They had wailed, trembled, screamed in pain and fear, and he had gorged himself on their terror. But this? Radiant Hope might have treated him like this, if things had ended differently between them. A twinge of regret made itself known. Ah, now there was his conscience. He squashed it easily, as always. She had had her chance, even the offer to join him as his queen. The mare, no- woman, on top of him stirred lightly, and that stirred Sombra to action. He gently pushed her off of him, leaving her to sleep atop her bed without him as he headed downstairs to confront his partner. The human was enjoying a stolen beverage out of Ashley's refrigerator. The trail of blood from the intruder let out the front door, and across the street, to where Sombra could see him hanging from a wall by his wrists, struggling to lift himself for another breath. The sound of sirens and flashing of lights approaching suggested he may be set free before he perished, but it was also visible from here that he had been very crudely rendered a gelding, ensuring he would not repeat be a repeat offender, at least not in this sort of crime. "You're back, just in time. We should take our leave," Istaran commented, before taking one final swig, and then littering for good measure. "We need to talk. What you've done to me, to my head. It's not acceptable," Sombra began, ignoring the approaching cops for now. "It saved your life," Istaran said, matter of factly. His tone reminded Sombra of the voice in his head, but it was noticeably more aggravating. "Saved my life?! From what? What possible danger could I have been in from teaching that whore to respect and fear me?" Sombra demanded. "She trusted you. And not blindly, it was a valid trust. She was yours for you to claim, and you did, but she surrendered to you. And in so doing she had a right to trust you not to harm her unnecessarily. She never defied you once, or withheld anything from you," Istaran explained patiently. "So?" Sombra demanded. "If you had betrayed her, I would have killed you. I don't let betrayers live. Also, strictly speaking, she's a stripper, not a whore," Istaran pointed out. Outside, the cops had begun to gather, and looked ready to actually make a move, so the pair finally slipped into the shadows and disappeared, returning to their tower to continue their argument in private. He had called to her. Or, more specifically, the fractal spiders infecting him had called to those infecting her. They had new orders for her, and she had no choice but to obey. Istaran had found a way to command her, even from another world. It was infuriating, but the Princess of the Sun had no choice but to obey. Her guards were not so slavishly bound by the orders she passed on to them, but they were dutiful and obedient, and so they did as she commanded, taking the unicorn Flam prisoner as soon as his condition had been stabilized at the hospital, and taking him out into the middle of the woods in Apple Vale. Another pair of guards retrieved her old mirror, the portal mirror, much to Twilight Sparkle's concern. But she was a model citizen, even to a fault, and would let her ruler do as she would, despite her concerns. The other guards carved out the patterns she proscribed, though it was long, grueling work, marking out a region 20 miles across. They could have refused her orders, or even silently failed to carry them out, but they failed to live up to that hope, and far too soon all of the pieces were in place.