//------------------------------// // Something Lost, Something Gained // Story: Dream Come True // by SprocketProductions //------------------------------// I walked down the stairs of my house, stepping down into the kitchen to see Metalwing cooking breakfast. I followed my usual routine of making espresso with milk and agave nectar in it. Sitting down at the table, I was given delicious food. Perfectly scrambled eggs, amazingly done toast, and delectibly crispy hash browns. I dug in, Metalwing's food was always amazing. Within ten minutes, I had finished and was relaxing, laying back in the chair. "Hey Sprocket, when you came back, did your amulet disappear?" Asked Metalwing. I replied, "No, it didn't..." I looked down, not seeing the intricate pendant strung around my neck with a thin silver chain. My eyes widened. I looked up at Metalwing and began trembling in my seat. This could not have been happening. My amulet was gone! It wasn't around my neck! "I-it probably slipped off in bed. Yeah, it's in or around the bed..." I stammered. I bolted up the stairs and into the bedroom, quickly using magic to levitate every object in the room and search it for the item. I came up with nothing; I had lost something of immense sentimental value to me, and I had no idea how to find it. I collapsed as I put everything back. Metalwing walked in, seeing my shocked and worried expression. He comforted me, "Hey, don't do that. We'll find it, I know we will." "No... It's gone... It's gone and I'm the only one to blame." I started to tear up. He wrapped his wings around me as he hugged me, "It has magical properties, right? I'm sure it fell off during the Discord incident. Twilight collects mysterious objects with magical properties when she finds them like that, I'm sure. Let's go to the library and ask her about it." We rushed out the front door, making a sprint to the library. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer. Nervously, I knocked again, but to no avail. One more try lead to nothing in the way of an answer. Metalwing looked at me sympathetically as I sat at the structure carved out of a tree and waited. Soon, she came with saddlebags full of books. We helped her carry the heavy objects inside before asking her about my amulet. "Hey, Twilight? Did you happen to find a magic amulet? It looks like a double helix tapered at either end with a crystal sphere suspended in it." I nervously probed. She looked at me confused, "Yes, actually... I immediately shipped it off to Celestia and Luna's castle in Canterlot." My eyes widened as I froze. Metalwing put a hoof on my shoulder. Twilight looked at me concerned. I shook a bit as I started to breathe erratically, worried about the fate that might come of my previous amulet. "Are you... okay?" Asked the purple unicorn. I started walking around the room, nervously, "No, no I'm not okay. I dropped my amulet and now it's on its way to Canterlot Castle." "I can get you another amulet..." "I don't want just any amulet, I want that amulet. I went through a lot with my friends in order to get that little necklace and I am not going to give it up to Equestria Laboratories so they can deconstruct it and see w hat's inside!" I rushed out the door to the train station followed by my loyal changeling spouse and bought two tickets to Canterlot, boarding the train and heading out. I had bought express tickets, so it took less than an hour to get to the large city. When we stepped out of the train, I spotted an armored vehicle driving down a nearby street, protected by guards escorting it. I approached one of the guards, "What's going on here?" "There's an amulet in this AV. It's predicted to have a lot of magical power. We're taking it to Equestria Laboratories to find out why." Said the guard. I retorted, "You can't do that. See, that's my amulet and I dropped it in Ponyville during that whole Discord thing..." "Does that story check out?" The guard asked the driver of the vehicle. The driver responded, "Sure does. Twilight Sparkle found it on the ground shortly after Ponyville was returned to normal and shipped it to the castle." "Listen, pretty. I can't just open the vehicle and give you back your necklace. We still have to figure it out. But if it makes you feel better, you can follow us into the laboratory and make sure nothing happens to it that you don't want it to. Alright?" Informed the guard. I sighed, "Fine..." "Did you just call my wife... pretty? Listen, I'd prefer it if you hit on somepony who's not-" Metalwing's sentence was cut off by an explosion next to the vehicle, tearing a hole in it and toppling it down. The metal structure had fallen around me. The explosion tore a hole completely through the steel truck. My back legs were trapped under part of it, my robotic one keeping the natural one from being crushed. Dazed, I looked around and saw a case clipped to the rear of the cargo area. On the case was a picture of my amulet. I pulled out my natural leg and tried to get my synthetic one out. It really hurt, but I realized I could teleport it into the separate dimension, so that's what I did. I brought it back to return to having four legs after I was freed. Looking up, I saw a cloaked figure hit me with something. My vision went black and my ears rang. When I could see again and the ringing stopped, Metalwing was pulling me out of the fallen automobile. I looked around as I climbed out. I looked down into the hole at the case, or the lack thereof. I wasn't surprised that my amulet was gone, but I was still angry. "Who was in there other than me?" I asked. One guard replied, "Must be that thief that's been causing trouble..." "I want to know everything you know about them." I stated. The guard argued, "We can't give out information to you, it's a top secret operation that only the royal guard and anypony who has an attachment to the case that knows." "That's my amulet! There's my attachment!" I snapped. The captain of the team spoke up, "The thief's a she. She's been reported around the market district, in the alleys." "She's part of the black market?" I asked. He replied, "Yeah. And none of us are alowed to go there. Though you could help us out." "Im in as long as I get my necklace back." The captain nodded and gave me a map of Canterlot with the market district circled. I made my way there, followed by Metalwing and spied on by the royal guard. When I arrived, it was crowded and full of ponies buying and selling. I folded up the map and poofed it away into my minidimension. I scanned the crowd, having no success at finding who stole the item until I caught a glimpse of a hooded mare walking into an alley nearby. I waited a few moments and followed her. Metalwing stood outside the alley, guarding it behind me. Outside a fire escape was a table with various questionable items. There were the standard drugs, and illegally acquired weapons, but there were also severed unicorn horns and pegasus wings. I sneered, looking at the expertly cleaned parts, imagining how some ponies probably woke up fairly concerned if they woke up at all. A cloaked mare slid down the ladder and stood behind the table. She spoke with a Manehattan accent, "What can I getcha? I've got weed, shrooms, weapons. For a limited time, I've got lucky severed parts. Yeah, you could fly with those wings." "Anything like magic items?" I nonchalantly spoke. She locked her icy blue eyes with mine, pausing for a second, "Ya came to the right place. Follow me up this ladder." She climbed up the ladder of the fire escape followed by me. We walked into the living room of her apartment where she had set up many magic items on display. There were gems, emitting glows that signified different properties, wands of different shapes and sizes, hoof rings, tiaras, horn rings, even wing rings, which I didn't even realize existed. I scanned the items until my view locked on my necklace. I aproached it and was about to pick it up when the mare put her hoof on mine, locking eyes with me again. "Aaaahhh haha, that one's already reserved. You can look at anything else here though." She nervously informed. I deadpanned at her, "How much?" "It's reserved, so drop it." She said. I glared, "How much?" "Listen, I like you, so my client's lookin to buy it for 100,000 bits. If you can gimme double that, it's yours." She replied. I said, "You don't understand, I NEED that necklace." "I agree, it suits you very well. Even matches your eyes. So 200,000 and you can have it." She remarked. I replied, "I don't have that much on me." "How about 150,000?" She offered. I'd had it at that point, I materialized my chakram and aimed it at her throat, "How about give me back my damn necklace?" "Whoa whoa whoa! We can work it out. Listen, I was on contract to get it for somepony by the name of Killer. He wanted the thing and said he'd pay me that much." She informed. My eyes narrowed as she snatched up one of the wands and tried to blast me with it. I dodged and picked up a rune, generating a shield. We circled for a moment when I channeled the shield into a pulse that sent her out the window, crashing into her table below. I dropped the rune and jumped down, tackling the miraculously still intact mare. I raised my chakram, poised to stike. Her eyes widened as she looked above. I saw a shadow pass over us and disappear as if... going into her house! I stuck my chakram in the table through her cloak, pinning her against the display, "Stay here." I climbed back up the ladder to see a brown alicorn putting my necklace on. He turned around, making eye contact with me before flying out and sending me falling off the fire escape and being caught midair by Metalwing. He brought me to a soft landing on the ground for me to look at the cloaked mare. "You're going to tell us where he's going." I spoke calmly. She snickered, "Nah, I don't wanna do that." "Well do you want to die?" I spun the circular weapon slowly, pulling her clock and in turn her closer to the blades. She shot me a terrified look, "Okay! Okay! I'll show you!" I stopped and released her, dematerializing my weapon. She got up, trembling and began to lead us to where the alicorn had headed. We went through a system of alleys full of shifty ponies selling various taboo commodities. We arrived at a house, which looked surprisingly well kept. She knocked on the door and a series of locks could be heard opening on the other side. The same brown alicorn stuck his head out. "You... I've gotcher payment. Who are these flankholes?" He spoke in a southern accent. She responded, "They're with me. They're cool." "Cool, huh? Then I don't reckon that fight was serious?" He asked. She chuckled a bit, "Nah, it's fine." He scoffed a bit and opened the door, letting the three of us in and abruptly shutting it behind us. Inside was as visually clean as outside, if a little dark. There was a smell of cigarette smoke all around, making it unpleasant to breathe. There was a corkboard with various wanted posters tacked on. It was obvious that this man was a bounty hunter. He likely wasn't one of the more respectable ones, judging by the fact that he was working with a thief and black market dealer. We followed him into his living room where a silver case was laying on the coffee table. We looked at it and looked back at him. I starred at him right in the eyes. "Something up?" He asked. I remarked, "Pretty awkward situation to be talking to a mare who's dealer stole that amulet from, huh?" "Heh... heh... hahaha! So that's why she brought you two along. Listen, I've got a poster with a pretty high bounty on your head. If you leave without the necklace, I can forget about the bounty. If you're not gonna leave, well, that's a different story." The stallion threatened. I stepped toward him, "Then I guess we're at an impass." "How about twice my dealer's pay? Would you leave me for that?" Asked the alicorn. I glared, "I'll leave with your head." Killer fired a blast which I dodged. A gaping hole opened in the wall behind me. I brought out my weapon and fired it at him. He ducked and pulled out a knife. I dematerilized my chakram and prepared a pulse as he began to lunge at me. The mare tackled me and Metalwing, teleporting us out and back to her apartment. The rune she had used then shattered. "Are you crazy!?!?" Screamed the pony. I yelled back, "I want that thing back!!!" "Well then too bad. None of us get what we want." She climbed out the window and sat on the fire escape, obviously crying. My eyes widened as I followed her and sat next to her, "Hey, I'm sorry. I should've been more rational." "You know why I wanted that money?" She asked. I looked at her eyes, "W-why?" "It was my ticket to a new start. I could get rid of my illegal stuff, pay off my felonies, and then live a normal life." She sniffed. I put a hoof on her shoulder, "Hey, it's okay. You'll get another chance. And if we turn that guy in, we could get you a pardon." "No, we can't turn Killer in. He'll hunt us down." She said. I turned her toward me, "He'll have a life sentence. And they'll use magic dampeners." Within a few hours, we had all the illegal and stolen items freely transferred to another dealer who didn't care. We then began planning our actions. I slipped out to tell the royal guard what we were thinking. "You're going to do WHAT!? Whith who!?" The guard spoke, shocked. I put one hoof on his shoulder, "I just need some armor and two swords. So we're prepared to take him on." The captain gave me the armor. It was much like mine. I walked back into the alley and climbed up the ladder, dumping the weapons and armor in the window and materializing my normal armor. The two put on the armor and equipped the shiethed swords. I used magic to teleport us back to the bounty hunter's home. I charged up my horn for a blast, releasing it into the front door which flew into the structure. The shocked bounty hunter looked around the corner for me to send another pulse in, incapacitating him. Royal guards showed up with formal pardoning paperwork and took Killer in. We searched the alicorn's whole house, not finding the amulet. I was sitting outside the house when the mare walked up to me, "Sorry we couldn't find it..." "Gave up a memory of old friends for a new friend. I think that's a good trade. I'm Sprocket, by the way." I answered. "Iron Forger." She said. Iron and I talked for the rest of the evening, to possibly still get the amulet back. For the time being, I didn't really care.