Shellstrings

by shortskirtsandexplosions

Lightning and the Stud

Manehattan – West Docks – Jasmine Enterprises Warehouse

Lighting Dust stood in the crosshairs of four separate manarifles. Despite the tense situation, her amber eyes kept darting towards the massive sliding doors of the building. A sliver of starlight bled in through the crack.

The thugs beside her pleaded for their lives:

"Bruno, take a chill pill! We're all loyal to the boss!"

"Sure, we've had a rough patch—some of us more than others—but give us a break! It's tough as shit out there in the streets!"

"Loads of moronic ponies have been trying to creep in on Jasmine's turf—but have we turned tail one bit?! Nosiree!"

"How do you even expect to make so many hits and keep it clean?" one thug hissed. "Not even Ms. Jasmine could stop the fuzz from tracing those manashots!"

"Shows how stupid you are," Bruno muttered. He patted the barrel of his gun. "All of these are custom-made. Shipped in from Stalliongrad." His slimey eyes narrowed. "It'd take a lifetime for the cops to figure out where the delivery came from. You think they're even willing to work that hard on what little money they get? At least the honest money?" He spat. "Now let's have it out."

"Have what out?!" A lackey shrugged. "I'm telling you, Bruno, we're no stoolies! We're in with Jasmine all the way!"

"Bullshit!" Bruno snarled as his fellow cohorts nodded down the lengths of their weapons. "Then how do you explain the sound stone enchantment Francis detected upon arriving here?"

"I dunno! Pffft... maybe a senator's hiding out here doing long distance hanky-panky with his mistress!"

Lighting Dust gulped. "Heh heh heh!" Her voice cracked as she bore a sweaty smile. "A sound stone enchantment, huh?" Another breathy chuckle. "That would be one upstart idiot! If I were them..."

---

Manehattan – West Docks – Second Story Fire Escape

"...I'd get the Hell out of Dodge right away!"

The sound stone lying beside the crumpled receiver flickered with residual enchantment. Lightning Dust's voice came out distorted and fragmented.

"I mean, come on, Bruno! Nopony's dumb enough to try double-crossing the boss!"

Satin Cinders winced, glanced nervously behind her shoulder.

A shrill whistle.

She looked up ahead.

The unicorn thug perched on the railing beckoned at her once again with the dagger. "I'm only going to ask this one more time." His eyes glinted menacingly. "Come... into... the light."

Satin bit her lip. She stood in place, trembling.

"Hmmmfff... very well..." He levitated the dagger between them, hopped down onto the fire escape platform, and marched icily towards the mare. "...guess we'll have to identify you by the dental records... just as soon as I carve those molars out of your pretty mouth."

Satin stumbled backwards. She fished through her bulky cloaks for her cans of mace—

The unicorn descended on her, dagger twirling. "Rghhh—"

FWOOOOSH!

A streak of orange feathers. Then—

Clank! An agile hoof knocked the floating dagger so that its blade faced the unicorn, and then—Thunk!—the same hoof bucked the weapon so that it embedded into the thug's fetlock, hilt-deep.

"Aaaaaaaaaugh!" The stallion reared back, bleeding all over the catwalk. Before he could finish his anguished exhale—WHAM! SMACK! TH-THWACK!—three massive hoof-strikes pummeled him across the face and jaw. Breathless, he teetered backwards—until a nimble figure landed in front of him and bucked him with two rear legs. WHUMP! He flew through the railing, rattled off a street lamp, and fell hard to the concrete alley below in a meaty slump.

Satin Cinders panted and panted. "Omigosh! Omigosh!" She brushed her disheveled bangs aside. "You j-just saved my life!" She looked up, blue eyes sparkling. "Whoever you are, thank—"

One of her cloaks was stripped off her body and hoisted in the air.

Satin blinked. "Huh—?" Thwoomp! The dark fabric was suddenly thrown over her upper body. "Mrmmmmfff!" Whump! A relatively "soft" kick propelled her off the fire escape. Before she could let loose a muffled shriek, her obscured body fell into a dumpster below, landing on a stack of crumpled papers and dead fish. SLAM! In an orange blur, the lid of the dumpster was closed behind her.

A deep breath.

Deeper.

And...

Thwoooosh!

...the figure flew towards the warehouse across the way.

---

Manehattan – West Docks – Jasmine Enterprises Warehouse

"Bruno, what is this gonna accomplish? Really?" a thug asked.

"Not my idea," Bruno said. "This is all Jasmine. Through and through."

"I..." A stallion beside Lightning trembled. "I just don't get it." He gulped. "I've met her twice! Personally! She told me that Jasmine Enterprises was all about caring for 'the little ponies.'" He gritted his teeth. "She said that her empire was built all upon trust!"

"Shows how much you know the boss," Bruno said. "But don't fret. By now, Francis should have found the source of the signal... and he's gonna tell us just who here gets to sleep with the fish tonight."

"And if he doesn't?" Lightning Dust asked.

Bruno snorted. "Then I guess we'll be having to paint the floor of this place red in the morning." He nodded to one of his three cohorts. "Call him."

A pony picked up a sound stone. "Francis, come in. Did you trace the leylines?"

Silence.

The six thugs squirmed nervously under the crosshairs.

Bruno and his companions glanced at the stallion with the sound stone.

Brow furrowed, the pony spoke into the item once again. "Francis? Francis, did you find the sting operator?"

Bruno's lips slurred. "What... the buck...?"

"Francis, are you there?"

"Uhhhh..." Lighting Dust smiled crookedly. "...maybe you're holding it the wrong way."

"Grrr!" The stallion snarled at her. "Shut up!" He glanced at Bruno, paling. "I-I don't know what's wrong. He's not coming in!"

"Shit..." Bruno snarled. "This must be bigger than I thought. Alright... uhm... one of you go out there and look for—"

Just then, there was a loud crack, like thunder—only smaller and localized. The lights of the warehouse flickered—then blew out completely. The building was cast in darkness.

Both sides of the standoff stammered in fright.

"Whoah!"

"What the buck was that?!"

"The power box! Somepony hit it!"

"What do you mean somepony hit it!"

"You really think that happened by accident!"

All the while, Lightning Dust glanced left and right. As worried eyes swept the shadowed interior, she ducked low... and slowwwwwly inched her way backwards.

"What the Hell is going on here?"

"Everypony shut up!" Bruno hissed. He glanced aside at his cohorts. "Boys! Prime 'em!"

The other stallions nodded, then cocked their rifles with extra vigor. The combined crystals of their weapons glowed brighter, casting an eerie green glow across the wagons parked inside the structure.

"Okay... now..." Bruno exhaled turning about. "Keep an eye out for—" His moving lips pivoted right into a savage right hook. WHAM!

Stallions gasped.

Bruno's body went sliding backwards across the concrete, coming to a stop beside his partners. The shocked stallions looked up.

A nimble figure stood outside the penumbra of their weapons' glow. He spread two orange wings and flung them forward. Fwooosh!

The airblast knocked the stallions back. They fumbled for balance, then immediately started firing at the figure's last known position. BL-BL-BLAM!

The mana-powered muzzle blasts illuminated a pegasus' figure sailing overhead, darting around concrete pylons, and gliding past several stacks of crates. The wooden containers exploded with bullets and plasma discharge. Soon—behind the figure's rippling tail—the warehouse filled to the brim with scattering debris and burning embers.

"Dammit!"

"Get him! Get him!"

"He's too fast—!"

"Rrrrngh!" Bruno convulsed on the ground, clamping two hooves over his ears as the deafening thunder echoed from the discharging weapons. "Stop firing blindly, you idiots—!"

"Where..." One stallion clutched his steaming rifle, looking all around as the mana-glow faded. "...where did he go?!"

Bruno sat up. "You mean you lost him?!"

"I told you we had nothing to do with this!" One of the cowardly five stammered, staring at the stallions with guns. "You see how that guy moved?! That's royal guard training! None of us punks have those kinds of connections—!" Just as he said this, a pair of blue eyes glinted from behind. A pegasus sailed in, hoisting two stallions off the ground by their manes and swinging them into Bruno's cohorts.

Wh-Wh-Whump! "Ooof!" "Sonuva—"

"Httt!" Flash Sentry landed. Without wasting a second, he savagely kicked two of the collapsed thugs across their foreheads, knocking them cold. Pivoting his weight, he blocked a third thug's attack from behind and suplexed him hard to the floor.

"Shit-eating..." A bloodied stallion squatted, aiming a rifle. "...feathered turd!" Blam! Bl-Blam!

Flash Sentry backflipped—dodging the first blast—then landed at the wagons, swinging an open door towards him to block the second. Chunkkk! The wooden panel was shot off its hinges. "Hnnngh!" He propelled the thing off him with two bucking hooves.

Swooosh! The dislodged door flew towards the rifle-toting stallion. The thug hopped up to his hooves, side-stepping it. He raised his weapon again—only for the glow of the manacrystal to reveal Flash's angry snarl flying straight at him. "Gah!" He fired impulsively. BLAM!

Flash barrel-rolled—missing the projectile by a hair. He landed, cartwheeled towards the thug, then grappled with the rifle in his hooves. The two fought and struggled for dominance of the weapon—until Flash viciously headbutted the pony. Whump! As the thug's weight was thrown off, Flash twirled the rifle until it was aimed point-blank into the crook's forward fetlock. BLAM!

"Aaaaaugh!" Flailing a bleeding stub, the stallion stumbled back. Three remaining stallions rushed the pegasus.

"We got him, Bruno!"

"We ain't no stoolies! Just you watch!"

Flash Sentry took a deep breath, watching the bodies rushing in through the darkness. Suddenly—a streak of green rushed in from the side. Fwooosh!

Wordlessly, Lightning Dust slammed two hooves upside the chin of an unsuspecting thug. The other two lost their momentum, scuffling to a stop as they looked to see what had hit their companion.

Flash Sentry didn't waste the opportunity. Woooosh! He flew in, mercilessly pummeling one thug after the other.

Lightning Dust joined him, and soon both ponies were rushing side by side, punching and kicking the last few conscious stallions before they had any opportunity to visualize what was happening to them. A frenetic twenty seconds of meaty impacts and pained shrieks consumed the warehouse, and soon all of the thugs were lying on the ground, groaning into unconsciousness.

Lightning Dust panted and panted... smirking from the thrill. She heard a stirring sound and looked over to the side.

Bruno was crawling towards the cracked sliver of starlight leading outside the warehouse. He hissed in pain, reaching for the lid to the sliding door.

Inhaling deeply, Lighting Dust did a running start, flew, and landed with a savage drop-kick across Bruno's spine.

"Ooooof!" The criminal's eyes bulged... rolled back... and soon he was out like a light.

"Whew!" Lightning Dust flung the sweat from her brow. "Yeah! Alright!" She spun towards the orange shape in the center of the room. "Flash! Mr. Badass Extraordinaire! I knew you'd come in handy when I needed ya—"

Fwooooooooosh! Flash crossed the distance between them in an angry blink, shoving Lightning up against a concrete pylon.

WHUMP! "Ooofa!" Lightning Dust wheezed, nevertheless smirking. "Hooboy... this brings back saucy memories—"

"Shut it!" Flash growled into her face. "What you need, Lightning, is a damned straitjacket!" He heaved. "All I'm doing here is saving your stupid, worthless flank!"

"Oh... that's right..." Lightning droned through a coy smile. "...it's you."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, that went better than expected. Not sure why I wasn't expecting a Big Damn Heroes moment, but still. Plus, Flash now has to confront the reality that Lightning's story was, in fact, reality. The question is what he's going to do about it.

Meanwhile, the Blue Crescent literally could not appear more evil if they had rented the Legion of Doom headquarters for that meeting. I'm hard-pressed to believe this next step will go quite how they envision.

[terrycloth]

And we have confirmation that Jasmine's a crook. As if we needed it.

[The Portal Passer]

7530834 maybe the docks were used without jasmine knowing?

[Dinode]

Okay, this is how you do a summary. This is so going on my read later list.

[UniqueSKD]

This is the day-to-day saga of the pony known only as the Shell

That is the dumbest name for a hero I have EVER heard...

...and I love you author so much for it. Like, I think I've gone gay for you for writing this story.

10 out of 10. Megapone, get out of here with your crappy clopfics. Meester, stop being a grump moderator leech latching on to our buttholes. I want to see this story stay in the featured section for the next two months. Congrts to the author. Well done.

[Booster Spice]

Flash really was pent up there.

[QueenMoriarty]

Gosh, abundant onomatopoeia is fun.

And Batman/the Punisher returns in the nick of time.

[bloons3]

So Jasmine industries is legitimately evil, and their plans for the league are... evil...

[Aurum]

And thus a new hero (sort of) is born.

[IceKitsune]

There he is! The savior of the day Flash Sentry! Well I knew that he would show, and he kicked some serious ass again so that was pretty cool.

[FloydienSlip]

Aww, and here I thought the Royal Grand Biv was making an appearance.

[Lightning Bearer]

If nothing else, Lightning Dust was right about Jasmine. Now someone just needs to get the word to Bon Bon.

[Jern]

I love the dynamic between badass, take no prisoners, loose cannon Flash and headstrong, act first and deal with the consequences later Lightning Dust. I'm hoping these two stick around as a pair for awhile, they make for a great mechanism to inject some excitement into the story.

[Razzy]

That went well.

Vote for the changelings, they're the lesser evil!

[Leftover of Saikano]

Flash is using his anger well.

[terrycloth]

7530959 The thugs called her their boss.

[Scorch215]

Ah wished LD got grazed or something so it could possibly be a wake up call to how stupid she is but oh well, the Reporter was less stupid as I can see where she is coming from and motivation plus she took precautions and such but LD was just a moron.

7530806
I think theu would look less evil actually of they jad rented the Legion of Doom headquarts as it didn't scream "we are evil" nearly as bad as Blue Crescent does.

[Hap]

meaty impacts

heh

[Spiritus Arcane]

THAT'S royal guard training? Why are thay all usually bucking useless then?

[Telaros]

Royal Guard training alright. That never gets shown because those guards are far too complacent in the peace and tranquility of it all that they never seem to be useful when actual danger arises. xD

“This reminds me of saucy times.” Do tell!