"How....How are we gonna break into a prison?" my eyes twitched.
"Not as easy as it used to be," Neon agreed. "Captain Caramel and I used to do it all the time. That was when prisons were just basically holes in the ground."
Vinyl gestured for us to be quiet. She still had her devilish grin and her eyes flashed with mischief. Scoots, Neon, and I waited with excited patience for her answer.
She finally answered. "Come on guys, we're Sons of Discord, we got this. If we do this right, none of us will get into trouble."
"But the prison is Equestria, not Ahuizotl. Aren't we kinda attacking our allies?" I asked worriedly.
"Pfft, Equestria's been against us since our existence. We have no allies where governments are concerned. If ya gave me the opportunity, I would shoot the president twice. One bullet for each eyeball," Vinyl told me. "If we cause Chaos and maybe a few cops die, it ain't our problem."
"I see," I sighed.
Vinyl continued. "Now, what we should do is set up the van outside the prison's fences. Ya know, get us in good range of the control inside the place. There are some Erebus hackers in Baltimare, and we'll get them in on this too. Every plan has a backup plan. If our hacking of the control room doesn't work, we'll have guys by the Baltimare Bay generator. We still have advantage in no electricity."
Vinyl started to mess with the computer. Soon enough, she had a 3D model of the prison up on the monitor. Surely this was classified information, but like always, that never stopped us. Equestrian cyberspace security sucked. She expanded the model for us to see. The prison was massive, one of the largest and best guarded places in Equestria.
"The gate's over here. Now, it'll get pretty hard to get in anywhere but the front door. We'll, only confront the guards here after we hacked into the place. Make sure the guards can't call backup while we slice their asses open. Me and Akay can lead the charge into there. But before we get there, we should have some cop uniforms because any moment of hesitation from them is worth it."
She went on, but the length of it was far too long for me to listen to at that moment. I lost track of her about halfway through it and simply nodded in false understanding. The longer she went, the faster she spoke, and the less I could comprehend. I could guess this was why Octavia loved the quiet so much.
In a few hours, we already started our packing for out little expedition to the south. From Manehatten to Baltimare was about an eight hour drive. Well, that was with good traffic. What took some days to travel in Octavia's time was shortened to a third of a single day. Yup, and that was even with Vinyl's garbage can on wheels.
We spent one more night at the small base before departing early in the morning. The snooze button was smacked pretty hard and Vinyl basically dragged me to the van. We suited up, gunned up, and was ready to fly. Since no one was allowed to drive the van beside ol' Vinyl, she drove us and blared her rock n' roll.
The ride was pretty boring. Of course, when talking about traveling, that was a good thing. Neon spent most of the time talking on his phone to other Sons of Discord and those Erebus dudes they all kept mentioning. From what I could gather, there was one named Double Diamond and another simply named Favor. The cracker we were getting was a former member of this hacker group. They sounded like they were anarchists from how they talked, but then again, I only heard their voices over the speaker of the phone. There was another mentioning of the Krystal Blu. Apparently there was a Fixer in Baltimare and the Erebus guys warned us.
We also would listen to the radio whenever we could actually convince Vinyl to turn down the music. Our exploits in Manehatten were being reported like usual. Nothing was mentioned of me chucking the rapist into the truck. This odd exclusion of stories felt weird to me, prompting me to ask what I thought was a valid question.
"So what's up with the media? Why don't they, you know, expose us? Expose the Sons or Ahuizotl?"
"Two things," Vinyl answered. "One is that not many know the truth of our secret war. Second is that Ahuizotl wants to keep the Sons hidden. Why? Well, because that would draw attention to themselves. If the public knew what the Templar did in their corporate towers, Equestria would try to drive them out of business. So revealing us would be like blowing a bomb up in their home. Yeah, it'd take us out too, but the damages to Ahuizotl would be too great to recover from. The Templar require public favor. If the people don't like them, they don't have power."
"Then why don't we tell everyone 'bout Ahuizotl?"
"Easy. Who would believe a group of hacking terrorists? We'd be sending ourselves to the firing squad whether they believed us or not. We're criminals, Akay, no one'll listen to us."
"I'm not a criminal," I huffed.
The three others started laughing at my words. Scoots, who was sitting next to me, nudged my shoulder playfully and her red eyes gleamed with silly mockery.
"Oh yeah? Then what are ya?"
"I'm...I'm..." I couldn't convince myself for long. "Yeah, I'm a criminal..." I sighed.
"Great to be comfortable with yourself, am I right?" Scoots chuckled. "Once ya start accepting yaself, everything gets better, right? Well, at least that's what they say."
"I'm not sure that's what they mean, Scoots," Neon frowned.
Due to some plan made before we left and Vinyl's laziness, we decided to stay in a motel in Fillydelphia. It was actually my first time in that city, but it was pretty generic and not memorable at all, but that could of been because of the dull part I was in. The motel was nice, far better quality than I expected. I thought it was going to be like in the movies where the low thugs get the rooms with blood on the sheets and constant smells of meth. Don't forget the magazines with lingerie women. However, this place was decent and clean, so I did not mind it at all.
When we checked in and had a guy from Appleloosa pay for it, we went up to our room. This was some special room, according to Vinyl, as it was a drop spot for Sons of Discord. A sort of "hideout" as she put it. Well, once we opened the door, there was another already in the room.
"What's up?" she asked with a gruff voice.
Sitting on a seat in the middle of the room was a woman with thick arms and a manly complexion. Her hair was grey and spiked up in a wild manner. Her clothes were a simple pair of loose jeans and a simple white tanktop. Lines of tribal tattoos lined her muscular arms and her hands were broad like a farmer's. Even her neck was thick and hard. Her skin looked hard and lumpy like that of a boulder. She looked over at us while wearing thick red sunglasses. No smile formed on her angular face, but a soft frown was present.
"I see you guys are finally here," she grunted and removed the sunglasses to reveal glowing red eyes.
"Nice to see ya too," Vinyl chuckled. "So, how's it been down here?"
"Boring like usual," the woman said and looked at me. "Guess this is our newest member? Hmph, they keep getting weaker every generation."
"Are ya sure you should be in here?" I asked her. "Cause I don't think cows are allowed in the rooms."
"Har. Har. Real funny, jackass," she snarled.
"Good to see ya two are on a good start!" Scoots interrupted. "Akay, this is Lime. Lime, this is Akay."
"Lime? Ya named after a fruit?" I continued to mock.
"Nah," she stood up and walked over to me. She then stretched out her large hand to mine. I hesitantly took and then I instantly regretted it. Her skin was hard and jagged, but not coarse. It was like touching tempered glass. I could not move it at all. I felt my hand started to be crushed under her strength. As she saw my misery, she smiled, revealing unusually white teeth.
"I'm Limestone. I'm named after a rock, smartass."
"I can see why..." I breathed as she squeezed my hand.
"That's enough, Lime," Neon said. "I think the rookie's got the idea."
Limestone smiled and let me go before throwing herself on the bed, which sagged like she was three times the weight she looked. My hand was not awfully bruised and throbbing as blood finally flowed back into it. I wanted to scream out in pain, but I dutifully held it back and simply grimaced.
"So ya guys are gonna get that crazy cracker out of Baltimare Bay, eh?" Limestone said to create conversation. "I wouldn't waste that much effort on her."
"That's because ya don't understand hacking, Lime. Never have and never will," Vinyl replied.
"All this fancy technology ain't worth my time," Lime huffed. "Humans have always been about the direct and humble approach. Guess ya can call me a traditionalist."
"So what do you want, Lime?" Scoots questioned. "I know it's just evening, but I wouldn't mind hitting bed early."
"I jus' really want to know if ya serious about releasing the loony in Baltimare Bay," she answered.
"Of course we are," Vinyl told her. "Lemon Zest needs her in Canterlot. She needs all of us."
"Vinyl, that cracker is out of her mind, even by our standards!" Lime protested severely.
"Am I missing something? What's the cracker done that's worse than ya guys?" I asked them all.
"Well, we've stopped her most of the time before she didn't anything...insane," Scoots told me with a shrug. "She did hack into a government facility and electronically locked it down before disabling the fire safety stuff. Yeah, some propane and her cigarettes caused that place to fall pretty fast."
"She killed a building's worth of people? Why?"
"She's an anarchist, anything that has any authority she despises. Real insane if ya ask me," Limestone finished.
I shook my head. "Why am I not surprised ya guys allowed her into the Sons of Discord? What happened to the integrity of the Assassins?"
"Went out when those damn Bearers died," Limestone harshly shot back. "We ain't the Brotherhood kid, so stop comparing us to them. If ya want that pitiful excuse of an organization again, then go make a Brotherhood of ya own. Ya should be thankful about the Sons. We're the only reason why the Templar don't control the world."
I didn't know what to say to this. So I did as the husky Survivor of Chaos told me to and shut up. As I continued to rub my aching hand, the others talked about how the operates of the past went. It seemed like Limestone was one of the only Sons of Discord in the city. As she talked with them and they talked with her, I started to get a sense that I knew who this woman was. There was something oddly familiar about her. My guess was her smile and her cheeks. I had seen someone with a similar facial structure.
I suddenly interrupted their conversation. "Um, Limestone, what's ya last name?
"Pie..."
Yup, that's what I thought. Her facial structure was similar to the Bearer of Laughter, Pinkie Pie. Limestone must have been one of Pinkie's sisters that never went into the Brotherhood. This made a myriad of questions rise in me, but from the growl in her voice and how Vinyl treated me when I asked her about the past, I respectively did not ask any of them.
"Oh...Alright," I merely muttered.
"Don't ya get any ideas by it!" she snarled. "Remember that ya only in the Sons because ya-"
"Heyo!" Vinyl interrupted loudly. "Can't waste time on such pettiness, can we? Hey, Lime, I think it's time for ya to head out."
"Why? We haven't even discussed the important stuff yet," the large woman stated.
"Maybe some other time. Now, as your leader, I tell ya to leave."
"Fine."
Limestone grunted and got up from the bed, making the furniture spring's moan. With a glare to all of us, she promptly left and the room became quiet. When the door was shut, Vinyl let out a massive sigh of relief.
"What will we do with her?" she asked the air.
"What's her problem, well, besides being Pinkie's sister?" I asked.
"Crap, ya know," Vinyl sighed again. "Well, Lime was pretty swell before Pinkie fell off of Canterlot. She was actually the first one to find the Bearer's mangled body. Octavia and I found her crying over Pinkie. I was the one to separate her from the corpse and I don't think she's ever forgiven me. She rightly blamed the Brotherhood."
Scoots took over the story. "Yeah, we didn't see her much after that. Not until it was found out she was the last Pie sister left. Maud disappeared in the sea and Marble died of disease. The Sons of Discord were about seven years old by then. Lime came crawling to us, trying to find something worth living for. Vinyl and I rejected her offer as she wasn't right in the head, but Discord overruled us. He saw somethin' in her we didn't. She instantly decided to become a Survivor and well, that's that."
"Just another poor sod washed up," Neon commented. "There's two kinds of Sons of Discord: those who fell under tragic times and those who are just damn insane. Most fall under the first category."
If those were the only two categories, then I must have been insane. This short but sad tale caused us all to be quiet. It was apparent Vinyl was tired of speaking and threw herself on the same bed Limestone had been laying on. As I expected, the bed hardly moved.
We unpacked and settled in quite nicely. Pistols were by the TV and the lamps, laptops on the coffee table, and our clothes thrown about everywhere. If our mission was to trash up the room, we accomplished it with honors. I couldn't help but wonder if the damage we created was reparable, but I refused to comment on it.
Vinyl and Neon took one bed while Scoots and I took the other. I'll say, it was not a good night for sleep's sake. Something was going on in my head. Every time I fell asleep, I would soon awaken with a start. My back would be sweaty and my breathing hard. It started to annoy Scoots so much that she went to the van to sleep.
These dreams were bizarre and unrealistic. Every time I dozed off, I seemed to awaken with a new dream memory. Most of them I forgot upon my arrival to reality, but some stayed there. My only guess was that my time with the Elements of Harmony were doing a number on me. My eyes felt heated and my throat was dry. These dreams were but dreams, but they fascinated me.
I shall do my best to recall them.
*.*