//------------------------------// // Vegetables, In-laws, and Crafting // Story: Her Knight in Faded Armor // by Doccular42 //------------------------------// “Okay, good job, everypony! I’ll see you all tomorrow!” Button waved to his coworkers as they all walked past the bar and toward the door. The other shift had already taken their positions, and Button smiled. He could practically feel his game calling his name after such a long day. “See ya later, Button!” Berry Punch grinned at him as she walked by. “Don’t work too hard!” “Oh, it’s a bit late for that,” Button replied. “Thanks, Button!” Petunia scampered by, her mane waving through the air. “You too, Petunia! Say ‘hi’ to your folks for me!” One by one, they all passed him. The job might not be the greatest in the world, but the ponies here had become like family to Button. “Okay Button, I think I’ve got it from here,” his co-manager, Snips, said to him. “Did you get the register balanced?” “Yep, I’m good. We’re about half a bit short, but that’s because our ‘X’ drop was off this morning. You’re ready to go!” Button wiped off his forehead and sighed. “It was a pretty slow day, but it felt like it took forever.” “Doesn’t it always?” Snips asked. “True, true,” Button laughed. “Oh well. I just want to go home. Got stuff to do!” “All right then!” Snips hoofbumped Button. “Get outta here!” Button wrote down his time on his punchcard and then headed for the exit. The late night crowd wouldn’t arrive for another hour, so the lounge was on a downtime. Soft music played through the speakers, and none of the ponies glanced at him as he stepped out the door. Button breathed in the crisp air. The night was a very beautiful one, as they had been for the last several times. He’d always loved the nighttime. The soft beauty spoke to him, and he appreciated the wonderful contrast of the sky to the shining celestial bodies. “Oh, hello, Button!” a familiar voice called and broke his reverie. Button turned to see Pip walking toward him pulling a cart loaded up with carrots. “Heya, Pip.” Button squinted at the cart. “Well, I guess if you want carrots, you just gotta get some carrots.” Pip shrugged. “Ah, that. Apparently, Apple Bloom wants to make carrot cake jam, so she needed carrots. At nine o’clock. At night.” Button chuckled. “And you were volun-told to come get them, is that right?” “Eeyup,” Pip said. “But hey, that’s what husbands are for.” “If you say so,” Button replied. “I can’t really say anything on the matter.” “Don’t worry Button. I’m sure you’ll be able to experience the pure bliss that is matrimony soon enough.” Pip nodded wisely. “Relish your freedom, Button. Relish it.” The two ponies walked together down the street. Button’s house was on the other side of town, as was Sweet Apple Acres. Pip trotted over to Button. His cart bounced over the worn road, and one carrot fell off the top. “Oh, rats!” Pip turned to the fallen vegetable. “Button, you mind giving a poor stallion a helping hoof?” “Poor stallion my flank.” Button laughed as he picked up the fallen carrot. “You make Filthy Rich look like some waiter living off tips at this point. How many different businesses do you own at this point? Seven?” “My lawyer has advised me to say nothing on the matter, so my lips are sealed.” Pip made a zipping gesture over his lips. He paused before adding, “It’s actually eight now. I just bought a mane salon in Manehattan.” “Oh, Celestia. Why did you do that?” “Well, if I said that I did it out of the goodness of my heart, would you believe me?” Button shook his head. “Nope.” “Drat. Okay, I’ll tell you.” Pip smiled. “This ought to be good,” Button replied. “So, Apple Bloom has this aunt in Manehattan, and whenever she goes there for a visit, that pony will try her hardest to get Bloom to go see her stylist because she’s the, and I quote, ‘Best darn tootin’ mane cutter in the whole city!’ Unfortunately, the aunt’s sense of style is, shall we say, lacking.” Button snickered. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that one time you two went to the city and she came back with that awful manecut, would it?” Pip squinted at Button. “You’re a sharp one. Exactly. So, Apple Bloom was not happy when that happened. Her mane was butchered and she had to borrow one of her sister’s Stetsons for a month.” Button snorted. “It was kind of funny, yeah, but she didn’t see it that way. She was fine afterwards, but we haven’t been back since. But we’re planning on visiting in a few months, and the topic came up again. What if she talks about that stylist again? She wanted to tell her aunt to her face exactly what she thought about the manecut, but the aunt isn’t really for taking disagreements well. So, I came up with an alternative. We buy the salon, and then we spend a few thousand bits on renovations whenever we visit so that Apple Bloom never has to worry about being asked to go again and Aunt Peel doesn’t get mad. It’s genius!” Button frowned. “Wait. Lemme get this straight. You spent a ton of bits buying some random mane salon in Manehattan and plan on spending even more every time you visit just so that you don’t have to face a confrontation with your wife’s aunt?” Pip nodded. “Basically.” “You’re nuts.” Pip grinned. “Yeah, but I also don’t have to deal with the crazy half of my in-laws this way!” Shaking his head, Button replied, “I think you have more bits than sense, Pip.” “If you had the bits and the in-laws, you would do the exact same thing, I promise you.” “Well, I don’t really have in-laws, so I can’t be sure.” Button smiled lopsidedly. “It’s a funny plan though.” “It is, isn’t it?” Pip laughed along. The pair walked quietly side by side for a while, but Pip broke the silence after a few moments. “So, I heard something from Apple Bloom about you meeting a mare in Canterlot when you go to visit. Who is this mare who has finally caught the fancy of the perpetually single Button Mash?” Button’s head snapped up. “What? How did Apple Bloom find out?” “Ah, so it’s true! Apple Bloom loses the bet!” Button shook his head. “Don’t change the subject! How did she hear that?” “Well, you apparently said something to Spike, who talks in his sleep. Sweetie Belle overheard him talking one night, and she told Apple Bloom what she heard. Then Apple Bloom bet me a cheesecake that it wasn’t true and that Spike was just dreaming.” Button grimaced. “Good to know that my friends have so much faith in me.” “Hey! I was on your side, and Apple Bloom thought you were still stuck on Sweetie Belle. She didn’t think any other mare would catch your eye.” “What? Sweetie Belle?” Button panicked but tried to hide it. “What are you talking about?” “Oh, come on, Button! You know exactly what I mean! You’d liked her since school. It was almost as bad as Rumble and Scootaloo, but I know that you’ve at least moved on.” Button sighed. “Great. So now everyone knows everything about my life. Thanks.” “Button, you didn’t exactly keep it a secret. I think the only ponies who didn’t know about it were the two of you. But then she and Spike got together, and you handled it amazingly well. Unless you’re a way better pony than me, you must have moved on. If it had been me, I would have either moved on or challenged Spike to a duel. Actually, scratch that. He would have probably won. I’d have just moved away.” “Uh huh,” Button growled. “Yeah, I guess I did move on.” Pip eyed him suspiciously, and then his jaw dropped. “Oh, crap. You haven’t moved on?” Button stopped walking and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath before replying, “Nope.” Pip stopped walking as well and turned to face him. “Oh, Luna. I’m sorry, Button. I didn’t mean to—” “It’s fine,” Button said. “I’m trying to move on. Hiding from her, or even talking about her, won’t help. That’s kinda why I’m going to Canterlot. I just need to get away.” “And maybe meet somepony else?” Pip inquired. Button shook his head. “I dunno, Pip. I’ve known this mare for a while, but I don’t know if I feel that way about her. She’s probably my best friend. She’s smart, funny, sweet, but I also don’t really know anything about her. I’m just gonna go there and get to know her. If anything happens, it happens. I’m not getting my hopes up for no reason again.” “Well, it sounds like she’s a nice mare,” Pip said. “What’s her name?” Button sighed. “I don’t know. We just call each other by our usernames.” Pip raised an eyebrow. “That’s… not a good sign, Button. How do you know that she’s not some psycho, or a stalker, or something?” Button shrugged. “Pip, I talk with her for up to eight hours straight some nights. We play games every night. I’ve known her for over a year. If she were crazy, it probably would have come out by now.” “Okay, if you say so. But does she know your name?” Button shook his head. “Oh, boy. Button, how does she know that you’re not a psycho or something?” “I dunno. I guess we just get each other. I can’t explain it.” Button sighed. “Come on, let’s keep going.” The stallions resumed their walk. “Well, I hope it goes well for you, Button. You deserve somepony who can make you happy. You’re one of the nicest guys that I know, and you’d be darn near perfect if you could lose that stupid fedora.” Pip smirked. “Hey! I like the fedora! It was a great replacement when my mom said that my old hat was too juvenile when I went to college!” “Celestia, I’d forgotten that you wore that old propeller hat all the way through highschool.” Pip snickered. “You are a nerd now, and you were even more of a nerd then.” “Meh,” Button replied. “Since you mentioned your mom, how is she? I haven’t seen her around town in a few days.” Button frowned. “She’s okay. She’s sick right now, but it’s just a cold or something. You probably haven’t seen her because she works even more than I do. Without my dad, she really needs all the bits she can get to afford the house. I try to help, but she keeps telling me to just save my money. She’s pretty stubborn sometimes.” “That she is. You take after her more than you think. Do let her know that I hope she gets better, won’t you?” Pip smiled. “I will. Thanks.” Button nodded at his friend, but something that Pip had said a little bit ago pulled at the back of his mind. “Pip? Can I ask you something?” “Sure, but you might get a smartflank answer.” Button chuckled. “I’ll take the risk. Pip, have you heard from Rumble lately?” Pip’s smile faded. “No, I haven’t. The last time I talked to him was at the lounge when you were there with us. He and Scootaloo had to go back to the Academy the day after.” “Oh. Okay.” Button winced. “I don’t know if you know, but…” “Yeah, I heard from Bloom. Button, that wasn’t your fault. He was being a total ass, no offence to our donkey friends. He was drunk and didn’t stop when you asked him to. You just reacted.” “But I hurt him, Pip. I may have destroyed his dream of being with Scootaloo. I’m an idiot.” Button sighed. “I just wished I knew how he’s doing.” “Button, you need to stop beating yourself up. Yeah, you’re an idiot, but not because of what happened with Rumble. I’ve been calling you an idiot for ages because it’s true.” Button smiled despite himself. “Great pep talk, Captain.” “Oi!” Pip cried indignantly. “I only wore that outfit a few times, and it was a long time ago!” “You were wearing it every day, and you wore it just last month,” Button countered. “Ah, whatever.” Pip waved him away and then cleared his throat. “I’m serious, though. You can’t change it, so you just need to let it go. You guys have been through a lot together. I mean, he was there for you in some of the hardest times of your life, and you were there for him when he lost his brother. That’s not something that just disappears.” “I just don’t know, man.” Button looked down at the ground. “I really don’t know…” Pip nudged him with a hoof. “Hey. If you don’t know, then don’t jump to conclusions. And trust me. Rumble won’t hate you for it. He might be pissed for a while, but he’ll be fine later. Just give it some time. And take that vacation.” “That’s the plan,” Button replied. “Thanks, Pip.” “No problem! And you can repay me by finding that creepy stalker mare and kissing the crap out of her. After you buy her dinner, of course.” Pip winked. “Oh, jeez. It’s not like that!” “But it could be! You don’t know!” Pip threw his head back and laughed. “Button and the stalker, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S—” “Are you still five? Cut it out.” Button socked his shoulder. Pip rubbed his side and groaned. “Hey! That kinda hurt!” “Big baby.” Button looked off to the right and saw that they were approaching a familiar house. “Well, I guess this is my stop! Thanks again, Pip. Even though you are clearly the one who is the idiot, talking to you helped.” “No problem, idiot!” Pip said cheerily. “Say hello to Bloom for me!” “Can do!” Pip trotted off further down the street toward Sweet Apple Acres. Button turned away from the stallion and shook his head. A smile crossed his face. “Paying so many bits just to not talk to in-laws. And I’m the idiot…” ~~~ Button knocked on the door to his mother’s room. He could smell her humidifier running and hear her coughing. “Mom? May I come in?” “Oh, come in, Button!” Button gently opened the door. He peeked inside and saw his mom lying on her bed under an immense pile of blankets. Her humidifier ran on her bedside table and she held a book in her hooves. She was wearing her reading glasses, and her slightly graying mane was pulled back into a sloppy bun. She smiled as she saw him. “Hey, sweetie. How was work?” She coughed after she spoke, but her eyes were shining. “Eh. It’s work. Could be better, could be worse.” Button trotted inside and sat on one of the chairs in the medium sized room. His mom kept it clean and uncluttered. She had very little inside of the room. There were two dressers, one that she used and one that had been Button’s father’s. It had stayed untouched for six years except for the occasional dusting. She had a few chairs in the room as well as a small table where she would sometimes write or read. “Well, at least you have a job. Did you see any of your friends?” Button nodded. “Yep. I walked with Pip on the way home and we talked about some stuff. Did you know that he’s spending thousands of bits so that he wouldn’t have to talk to some of his in-laws?” His mom lowered her glasses. “Really?” “Really.” “Huh. I suppose I probably would have done the same if I’d been as wealthy as him when I had to deal with your father’s family. Or some of them, at least.” She laughed. “No way. You agree with him?” Button raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t know Button. In-laws are either an amazing thing or the scariest part of life. I’m sure you’ll figure that out later…” She gazed at him. “Hopefully. Though, one usually needs a spouse in order to have in-laws.” Button blushed. “Man, everyone is talking about my love life! Isn’t there anything else worth discussing besides Button’s lack of a marefriend?” “Button, I don’t really care what the town talks about. I do want grandfoals before I’m too old to play with them, you know. It’d be awful if I had to chase them around in a wheelchair while they crawled around the room.” “Aw, Mom. You’re not that old. At least, not yet.” He stuck out his tongue. She laughed, but then she coughed again. Button frowned in concern. “Are you okay, Mom?” “I’ll be fine. I just need to get all the junk out of my system.” She looked over at her bedside clock. “Well, I may as well get to sleep soon. You have tomorrow off, don’t you?” Button nodded. “Yep!” “Good. Maybe we can talk more over breakfast?” Button pursed his lips and pouted. “Oh, so you don’t want to talk to me? I see how it is.” His mom laughed but then immediately coughed very hard. After a moment she stopped. “Oh, Button. Don’t make me laugh. It huuuuurts…” She winked at him. “Okay, okay. I’ll let you get some rest.” Button strode over to her and kissed her on her forehead. “I love you, Mom.” “I love you too, baby.” She pulled him into a weak hug. “And I was just teasing about the marefriend. Take all the time you need. I just know that there’s some special mare out the, just waiting for you. And I don’t want you to settle for anypony, so you just keep waiting. You’ll get your princess someday, and she’ll be worth the wait.” Button returned the hug. “Thanks, Mom. You get better, you hear?” “Sir, yes sir,” she replied. “Good night, baby.” “Good night, Mom.” ~~~ “Do you have any extra scrap tinantium?” Memory asked Button. “Give me a sec, I’ll check…” Button and Memory stood in their guild’s crafting hall. The enormous metal room included a vehicle bay for maintenance, a vendor requisition table, and row after row of tables for the creation, modification, and development of weapons and armor. The pair stood side by side working on their own projects. Button stood over a prototype of a new burst fire submachine gun. His old guns had been significantly weakened by the latest update, and the introduction of several new types of powered ammunition had opened up the possibility for new approaches to medium ranged combat. Button figured that the experiment would be worth the small cost in materials. Next to him, Memory stood over her own project, a new suit of heavily powered robe armor. It was something of a challenge since powered robe armor was notoriously hard to balance. Very few viable end-game builds were able to use robe armors unless they were almost completely dexterity based, which Memory was not. But after spending some time on the wiki, she and Button had come up with a recipe that might completely change that, so long as they had all the components. Button looked into his inventory. “Yeah, I’ve got eighteen of them. How many do you need?” “I only need seventeen! That’s perfect!” Memory cheered. She walked over to him, and the components traded hooves. “Thanks!” “No problem.” Button returned to his station, but something nagged at the back of his mind. he turned toward Memory and cleared his throat. “Hey, Mem?” “Hmm? What is it?” Memory kept working, but she glanced over in his direction. “So, we haven’t really talked about my trip to Canterlot since we first decided to meet.” Button paused for a second. “So, I was thinking…” “Yes?” Memory said after a moment of silence between the two. “I’ve never told you my name, have I?” Button said quietly. Memory didn’t reply for a moment. “No, we’ve always just used our characters’ names.” “Well, if we’re meeting up in real life, I figured that we may as well use our actual names at some point. And we’ve only got about five days until we meet, so I was thinking that we may as well start now.” He cleared his throat. “Mem, my name is Button Mash. I’m an earth pony. I live in Ponyville, and I’m a manager at a jazz club, but you knew that part. I have a brown coat and an orange mane, and I usually wear a hat of some kind. Mostly a fedora, haha. My cutie mark is a bronze colored shield..” Memory sat still and processed for a moment. “Button Mash… that’s a nice name. I like it.” “Thanks,” Button replied. “I just didn’t want you to think I was some creepy stalker or something. Or something worse.” “Well, I never thought that,” Memory said with a laugh. “Fa— Excuse me, I’ll have to get used to this. Button, you are my best friend, and I would not have thought something like that about you. I would have been severely disappointed and probably would have called the Royal Guard had it been true when we met, but I was never suspicious.” Button sighed in relief. “Well, that’s good to know. I—” A text message popped up on Button’s HUD, and the blip interrupted him. >Silver: All members to guild call, stat. Raiders incoming! “Oh, crap!” Button said. “Okay, I’m leaving this chat! I’ll see you in the other call!” Button quickly changed over into his other internet chat. He pressed the large blue join button and scanned the texts as all the players messaged each other. >Silver: Check in! >Noble: here! >Jexxc: eeyup >Memory: I am present. >Fawkes: sup Button quickly sent his own message. >Fade: Here Several other players checked in, and then the call appeared on his HUD. Button pressed the accept call button, and several voices started talking through his com. “—kay, everypony. Our sensors just detected a group of twenty-five plus PCs approximately five minutes away from the south side of our base. We don’t have any reads on their stats, but they’re definitely headed right for us.” Button recognized the voice of Silver Feather, the guild leader. He played as a griffon Shadow who specialized in damage. He was second only to Memory in tactics, and he had designed what was considered the best, and most expensive, base defense strategy in the history of the game. “Hmm, all right.” The next voice belonged to a mare who played a draconequus named Noble Rain. Noble was the only officer in the guild who played a character who was a different gender from her own. Her male character was one of the best healers in the game, and that made her a very valuable asset to the team. “I’m moving to turn the defenses on right now.” Memory spoke next. “Fade and I will get into position on the south wall and try to slow them down. Have the new members had the raid drill yet?” She and Button left the crafting hall and ran to their positions as quickly as possible. “No, we didn’t have time yet. I guess that the best practice is in the application.” Silver cleared his throat. “Fawkes, Jexxc. I want you two to follow me. We’ll be heading down to the closest false entrance. Odds are that they’ll attack that first unless they have inside information. Noble, I want you headed to the treasury. If we need you, we’ll call you. I want two fighter types to join her there. Everypony else, you all need to get to the entrance. We’ll be ready.” “Can do,” another voice replied. Button didn’t know who this was, but a quick glance at the chat showed that it was Fawkes, one of the new members that Memory had recruited a few days ago. More orders sounded out through the chat, and Button concentrated on preparing his weaponry. “Mem, sidebar chat.” He switched back over to the other call, and Memory came with him. “What is it?” she asked. “I don’t want to interrupt the rest of the group, but I’m not set up for being up on the wall. I’m close range. If you want to snipe, I’ll just try to draw their fire and identify as many of their classes as possible.” “Okay, that would work,” Memory replied. “I’ll keep them off you.” The two of them scrambled up a flight of stairs until they got to an elevator. They ran inside and quickly activated it. After a moment, the door opened once more. They dashed out onto the top of the base’s wall just in time to see three winged characters land on it. Button reacted instantly by using a command to switch back into the main call. “They’re on the wall! They’re gonna try to hit from above!” He then opened fire with his submachine guns. The foes, a griffon, a pegasus, and a winged dragon, all dodged his bullets, but Memory took advantage of their preoccupation to enter stealth and flank them. “They’re down at the false entrance too!” Silver shouted. “I’m outgunned down here.” “We’re under attack at the main gate!” one of the other guild members cried. “Where are those bloody defenses?” “I’m on it!” Noble replied. Button ignored the rest of the chat and focused upon his foes. Channeling his earth pony magic and overcharging his cybernetic augments, Button activated his full defensive mode. His armor glowed a brilliant gold covered by shimmering blue light. His foes opened fire. The dragon fired a shotgun, the pegasus used his own machine gun, and the griffon charged him with two massive swords in his talons. Button stood his ground and allowed the attacks to strike his shields. The shotgun was a kinetic weapon, but the machine gun was laser powered. Button grinned. Perfect. His augmented shield absorbed the laser attacks. The shields took the power that it leached from the laser beams and transferred it to Button’s own augments. Button allowed the rounds to continue to impact him and waited for the griffon to get into range. As soon as the blade wielding foe neared him, Button released his overcharged augmented shield. The energy overloaded his augments, and his hooves shot out toward the griffon. The enemy tried to flinch away, but it was too late. With a sickening thud, Button’s massively overpowered attack hit the griffon. He broke through the shields instantly and also managed to inflict massive damage to the weaker player’s armor. When his second blow, also overcharged, came crashing down, it was too late for him. The griffon fell to the floor, dead. At that exact moment, Memory came out of stealth right behind the dragon. Her Chaos swords flared into reality and then burned with the power of the sun. The blade cut into his scales, and he turned to face her. Button charged the pegasus, guns blasting. The pegasus leapt into the air. He flapped his wings several times, but he didn’t get away. Button activated his jetpack and caught up with him immediately. Button grasped at his foe and caught him in a headlock. The pegasus gasped for air as Button activated his energy gauntlets and squeezed. The pegasus, unable to breathe, stopped flapping his wings, and Button smiled. He turned back around to the wall and flew at it at full power. He came closer and closer, and he didn’t slow down. Just before impact, however, he activated his overcharged shield. The impact rattled him, but it had done very little damage. The same could not be said for the pegasus, who lay in a bloody puddle on the floor. He reappeared as a hologram and winked out of existence as he allowed himself to respawn back at his base. Button glanced up just in time to see Memory stick her blade into the dragon’s skull. The dragon lay facedown on the floor, and he too disappeared when he respawned at his own base. Button nodded to her, and she spoke into her com. “Okay, that’s three dispatched on the wall.” Memory glanced down toward the ground far below their perch. “We don’t have any vantage from up here. They’re all inside. We’re going to powerlock the wall entrance and fly down to hit them from behind.” “Okay, hurry!” Silver yelled into the mic. “I’m pinned, and Jexxc is almost dead.” “We’ll get there!” Memory said. She switched over to the private call. “Fa— Umm, Button, I can seal this. Can you get down there and help them now?” “No problem,” Button replied. “I’ve gotcha.” Button took a running jump off the wall and dove down toward the ground. The wind whipped past him as he accelerated while he fell. A mere moment before he hit the ground, he flared his jetpack just enough to slow him down. He landed lightly on his hooves and took off running toward the false entrance. Silver’s defense strategy seemed very odd to new players. Instead of building walls that attempted to be impenetrable, Silver focused on using player’s tactics against them. He made dozens of entrances along the walls of the base. Only one of them at a time would be an actual entrance, and Silver would change it after each attack. All of them were heavily shielded, fully guarded by automated canons, and they were completely indistinguishable from the actual entrance. The same was true up on the wall. Many elevators went down from the wall, but only one at a time would open out into anything other than a blank wall. This made the defenses and the constant reconstruction extremely expensive, but the unpredictability bought the defenders enough time to flank their foes and usually left invades helpless as they had to fight in and out of many layers of defenses before they even got inside the base. Button charged into the first false entrance where Silver and his troops had made their stand. They’d come in through the one-way door on the roof of the cavernous room that was the false entrance. The door then shielded and sealed itself after they used it, leaving only one way into the base, the real entrance. Button arrived just in time to see six enemies still standing inside the room. They all fired upon the three figures who huddled behind one of the only remaining pieces of cover. Button slammed a hoof into his first target, a donkey mage. The mage flew into a wall from the force of the blow, and Button struck at his next enemy. He delivered blow after blow at his foes, and soon their fire no longer arced out at the three heavily damaged defenders. Button jetted into the air and yelled into his mic, “Where are the defenses?” “Somepony’s done something to them! I’m trying to get them online, but I think they’re jammed locally! It’s going to take me ages to hack it from here,” Noble said. “I’m coming down there now! I’ll try to find their Hacker and counter him!” Memory cried. Button refocused on his enemies. They leapt at him left and right, and it took all of his coordination to keep them at bay. His shields slowly drained further and further down as their attacks got past him, but he scored at least as many hits on them. Silver flew out of his cover in a solid gray blur. He had focused his character upon speed, and it certainly showed. He raised his talons behind one foe and struck. Then he moved onto another, and another. He stunned two of the enemies before he was finally attacked in return. Jexxc was too weak to leave cover, but he did his best to help by peering around the corner and taking shots at enemies who tried to move in to flank the two melees. Fawkes lit the air with glowing purple fire, blinding everyone inside for a moment. The energy seared his foes, and their shields dropped temporarily. Button smiled and struck swiftly. “I think I know where the Hacker is…” Memory said over the com. “He’s inside our own base! He’s tapped into the mainframe!” “Great!” Noble spat. “Okay, I’m headed there. Memory, can you meet me at the mainframe? We can get him together.” “Gotcha!” Memory replied. Button continued his battle. Outnumbered, the four warriors held their ground. Their foes may have had a numerical advantage, but Button and Silver had worked together as tank and DPS for over a year. They fought as one cohesive unit, and they held back the less disciplined enemies. Silver struck the mage from behind while Button absorbed his fire and distracted his comrades. When the mage turned to face Silver, the griffon disengaged and Button struck at him as quickly as he could. Fawkes kept them supported with medium ranged area of effect control spells, and Jexxc got into a shootout with two of the enemies. The fight continued, and the seconds stretched into minutes as the combatants fought each other. “We’re at the mainframe!” Memory called out. “He’s in stealth, but I’m tracking him. Getting closer… closer… Got him! Quickly, Noble! Stop him!” Button struck at his enemy once, twice, three times. The mage’s shields fell, and Button bludgeoned him until he stopped moving. Silver slashed through two foes at once and fired his dual shotguns into a third. All four of the enemies stopped moving at the same moment, and their holograms appeared. Just as quickly, they released and returned to their base. “Got him!” Memory shouted triumphantly. “Okay, moving to activate defenses!” With a sudden whir, the automated turrets in the false entrance powered up. They swiftly acquired their targets and fired off a long burst of explosive rounds. The few remaining invaders fell. Silver cheered. “Great synergy guys! Let’s get over to the actual entrance and help everypony else!” “Did you just compliment our synergy?” Fawkes asked. “Yes. He does that a lot,” Button said. “That’s possibly his favorite word.” “That or cohesion,” Noble added dryly. “Oh, shut up! Let’s get over there and finish them off!” After a quick flight out of the false entrance and toward the main battle, Button landed just in time to see the final enemy collapse into a lifeless slump. “Yes! Got him!” Fawkes cheered. He had teleported to the other entrance instead of flying or running and had arrived in time to be of assistance. “Not bad for our first raid, eh Jexxc?” Jexxc didn’t reply with a microphone but instead typed into the guild chat. >Jexxc: eeyup. good job everypony “It’s not over yet, everypony…” Silver muttered. “We’ve got a spy. Someone had to have let the hacker in. There’s no way he could have just gotten past all of our defenses.” Memory sighed. “I agree. Does this mean we’ll need another investigation?” “Yes,” Noble said. “We have to be sure.” “Great. Just great,” Button muttered. “Okay, I’ll go get the records from our cameras and try to get everypony’s location information. Can someone else review the activity log to see when everypony was online? That would help.” “I’ll go,” Noble said. The draconequus alchemist slithered up toward the entrance. “This is going to take a while.” “Yep,” Silver said with a sigh. “Okay, good job everypony. I’ll make a note of our kill counts, and rewards will be distributed accordingly. Everyone who wants to help asses the damage to the base, stay in the chat. Everypony else go do what you need to do.” “Roger,” Noble said. She left the chat immediately. “Okay, I’ll check out the records. I’ll be in touch.” Button left the phone call and returned to his original call with Memory. “You here, Mem?” A moment later, the reply came through. “Yeah, I’m here.” Her voice sounded quiet. “You okay?” he asked. “You sound a bit off.” “It’s nothing,” Memory replied. “Just thinking about stuff.” “Eww, thinking,” Button joked. “Stop that!” Memory laughed. “Easier said than done.” Button pursed his lips. “Do you wanna talk?” “Well, I kind of have to. It’s about… well, it’s about you giving me your name.” “Oh.” Button swallowed. “What’s wrong with it?” “Actually, it’s not so much your name as it is mine. I… This is hard for me. I’ve never given my name out to somepony over the internet before,” Memory said hesitantly. “I’m just a bit uncomfortable.” “Hey, it’s okay, Mem. There’s no pressure.” “No, but I feel like I need to tell you. So, here goes…” Button waited for a second until Memory spoke once more. “My name… is Starry Skies.”