• Published 12th Oct 2015
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Arête - Princess Alicorn of Hackers - Lise



Ever since the creation of the Dream Web, Dinky's lived a double life. A bored filly in Ponyville, a dream-hacker in the Web, she lives a quiet life, until one day she comes across something that just might prove that Web deities are real...

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9. Luna's Army

"Shady," I went to his desk. I could feel the entire classroom stare at me. Way to make it awkward, all! As if I wasn't nervous enough already! This was the first time I dared act so openly. Also I had put a teensy bit of effort into getting my mane done this morning. "Can I have a word with you outside for a moment?"

Shady said something in response, sadly my attention was focused elsewhere. A few desks away, Sweetie Belle was looking at me, her hooves in front of her mouth. I swear, I could see tears of joy forming on the edges of her eyes. Beside her, Scootaloo mockingly sent me an air kiss. Buck you too, Scoots! And don't think I have forgotten about the DD incident!. Most shocking of all, Apple Bloom made the unmistakable 'yes' hoof gesture. Really, Bloom? You too?

Trying my best to appear calm, I strolled my way out of the room. Apparently I must have overdone it, because I heard a wave of whispers behind me, along with several 'congrats, colt'. Focus on the task! Focus on the task! My pulse had already quickened to the point it was difficult to breathe. It would have been nice to get a few moments to get back to normal. Sadly, that never happened.

"Quite dominant this morning," Shady joked as he joined me in the corridor, causing a rush of blood towards my face. Damn it, Shady! Why couldn't you be a jerk today?

"I j-just..." I started stammering. Not now! Celestia, please not now! "You told me to tell you when something happened," I mustered all the Harpy that I could. His expression quickly changed, a faint fancolt sparkle in his eyes. Thank the stars!

"I knew it," he whispered. "You caused the sector going dark yesterday." I could see admiration streaming from him. This, I could get used to. "Celestia in a barn, you really..."

"Anyway," I quickly cut him off. "Bolt quarterfinals are tomorrow, right?"

"Uh-huh," he replied blankly. Probably wasn't registering a word I was saying.

"Hey!" I said sharply. "I need you to do something for me. I want you to set off a virus during the tournament."

"What?!" He blinked. At least that got his attention. "Are you crazy?!" He whispered looking around panicky. "I could get permabanned from Bolt for this! Last time somepony was caught with code enhancers they dropped off the list faster than an instant respawn. And you are talking launching a virus during the quarterfinals!"

"It's important," I looked at him with my best Dinky face. Doing so was cheating, I know, but if that got him to agree, so be it. "Web scale important," pausing I looked away. So far, so good. Give him a few moments to consider. Four... three... two... one... "It's not like you'll be the only one. I asked Scoots to lend a hoof. But if you are unsure, guess I could ask Belle."

"Hey, now, I didn't say I wasn't going to do it," he said defensively. Comparing colts to Belle had that effect. "Just that... How important is this exactly?"

"Very," the word shot off out of my mouth on its own accord. "For me personally as well." There was no need to add that, but I wasn't lying.

"Riiight," he said trying to look hesitant, but I could tell I had won. For that I would have to suffer through some theatrics. Stallions. Worse than foals sometimes. "You do know that we are checked for avatar enhancements before the game, right? Any suspicious code or modification and we won't even be let to the play sector."

How cute. Shady thinks he understands hacking. Well I better not bruise his ego too much.

"That's why you'll inject the virus before that," I smiled innocently. "I don't want to ruin the tournament, just infect the observer stands. And since it's a cron virus, it won't start till mid-game."

Shady opened his mouth to say something. Before he could I gently placed a hoof on his lips. Either he was going to say something and embarrass himself, or start a charming routine. Either way, that was something I could do without.

"Just do it, please," I said quietly, then turned around and walked down the corridor. My heart was still racing, and it was so damn difficult to resist the urge to do a tail flick. For a moment I thought I heard him utter a ‘wow’. I didn't turn around to look. At least this was over. One down, one to go. I took a deep breath. The second one was going to be more difficult.

Still trotting stiffly, I made my way to the mare's bathroom. Class was due in less than a minute, so it was supposed to be empty. Almost empty, that is.

The inside seemed dark and cold, almost like the last time I was here. I could feel the tension in the air, only this time it was of a different sort. Celestia give me strength. Both of the mares I was to meet were there, as I knew they would be. There was something off, though. Had they been fighting?

"Hey, Dink," DD quickly rushed towards me. "All ready for the big night?"

Behind her, Silver Spoon sighed. I still couldn't wrap my mind round this. This was way awkward — discussing a Multi Run in front of a Conglomerate VIP. I glanced multiple times towards the grey pony.

"What's wrong?" DD asked with unadulterated surprise. Taking the hint she looked behind her only to turn her head immediately back. "Pfff," she waved a hoof. "Silver's fine. It's not like she doesn't know. Although, somepony could be a bit more supportive."

Subconsciously, my body shivered. Being nearby during a Silver-Diamond encounter was never a good idea. So far I'd witnessed two of those, and they were two too many.

"It's all set up," I said hesitantly. "After the thing you'll be made official — direct line with MaDster and the rest... Are you sure it's alright talking about this? I mean..."

"You won't get in any trouble, Dinky," Silver groaned. That was nice to know, but not what I had in mind. Being a plus one in something you knew nothing about, and didn't even like, had to be painful. I knew from experience. "Just say what you have to say."

"Right." I swallowed. Both were avoiding eye contact with one another. "Well, I'll pick you at eight at the Golden Oak statue? MaDster said it might be better if we don't log on from our usual connection."

"Great!" DD danced excitedly. Way to excited for my taste. "Then we go and find Arête! I can't wait to see what she's like!"

"Me neither," I said far less enthusiastically. Even now the whole notion was bothering me. "Say, DD, do you think we should free her? I mean she did make a deal with Nightmare Moon and..." I stopped. Diamond was looking at me as if she were a filly who had just been told her birthday party was cancelled. I swear, a few more moments and she would start to cry right here and now. "Ignore me, I'm just a little tense," I lied.

"Hey, don't worry," she poked me in the side. Quite the quick rebound there. "You'll do it, you always do!"

"Yeah," I fashioned something similar to a smile. "I always do. You better get to class, DD. Might be suspicious if we both aren't there."

"Sure," she nodded. "And I'll be extra mean to you in your absence."

"Thanks," I managed to say as she trotted happily out of the bathroom. Cheerilee was going to be so pissed with me. I suppose, I could use Shady as an excuse, but that would only increase the feeling of guilt. And Amethyst was going to freak. My first night outside home unsupervised. When she finds out, and she always does, she'd probably gallop through Ponyville trying to find me, and when she does...

"Dinky," a sharp voice broke my train of thought. "Stay a moment longer, please."

Not good. Silver Spoon terrified me on a normal day. Her saying please made me feel like I was in for the slaughter.

"You're doing the Multi Run tonight, aren't you?" Her voice was lacking its usual edge. It almost seemed... concerned?

Carefully I nodded.

"The Conglomerate is expecting you," she said. "Teams of specialists have been called on overtime. Over a dozen hacker mercenaries have been contacted. Thankfully the mercs know something is up, so they boosted their prices so much that it would take a while to clear the expense with Budgeting. From what I know they are expecting your 'attack' to go down once night starts. If you can do any of your Dream magic before that, do it."

"Oh," I only managed to say, did she just share classified Conglomerate information? What the hay was going on? "It's about DD, isn't it?" I asked. "You are worried she'd get caught with your gear."

"Buck my gear!" she snapped at me. "They aren't playing anymore! This is all out war. I am not even involved with this Web stuff and I still know! This Arête thing has everypony going crazy. If they get any of you, prison might be your least concern. Hay, I got a message telling me not to log in the Web for the next few days. And all I use the thing is to send scroll messages!"

I didn't say anything.

"I tried to talk Diamond into skipping this one out, but she wouldn't listen." She hit the ground with her hoof. "The idiot she is, she doesn't think of consequences. Just like when we were fillies! Used to money, she thinks she is invincible, that whatever happens her father will rush in with a mountain of bits and fix everything. This time there might be no fixing!" Silver took off her glasses. I couldn't tell whether she was about to cry or not. On the outside she seemed as she always did — a statue of cold silver. What was on the inside, though?

"There's a new ICE being developed," Silver went on. "Blue ICE they are calling it. I have no idea who built it or where it came from. What I do know, is that it's capable of turning a pony into a cucumber."

Blue ICE? That's the second new type in two days. The Web definitely was getting more dangerous.

"You mean it freezes the avatar?" I suggested.

"No," Silver put her glasses back on. "It affects the pony wearing the gear. One of my idiot suitors was trying to impress me, so I took advantage. From what I made out it paralyzed a pony so they end up in an eternal state of sleep. He went on with some technical stuff, but that's the gist of it."

Dream locking? Damn it, Silver! Couldn't you know the basics at least?! There have been rumours of dream-locked ponies ever since the creation of the Web — unfortunate souls, whose consciousness was locked away so where, leaving their real life bodies in a vegetative state. It was every hacker's nightmare. Telling me that the Conglomerate was about to use these, made me tremble in my horseshoes.

"If you see anything blue, get DD and get the hay out of there." Silver took off her necklace, then removed a single orb and tossed it to me. "I'm giving you a Phoenix escape protocol," she said as I used a levitation spell to grab it. "It's factory set, so you should have no problem copying it to anything you wish. Just keep a single copy in the Web and all will be fine."

Whoa! I never expected to hold one of these. Hay, this would be useful! It was just one protocol, but what an advantage! This was the hay! There were hundreds who would sell their homes to get one of these for a day, and here I was holding one in my hooves!

"And, Dink—" she moved a step closer "—try not to get caught."

That was all she said — five simple words, yet they had an effect of an anvil to the head. For a moment it almost seemed like a Discordian trick. Silver hated my guts, that much I could tell. She always had, especially after the creation of the Web. And as nice it was to have her lend a helping hoof, I knew two things — that this was a fragile truce at best, and that now I owed her a favour.

The school bell sounded, marking the start of another school day missed. At least that also marked the end of my real life meetings. It was Web-only stuff from here. Waiting another few minutes for good measure I sneaked out of school. From there I went directly to Derpy's forward base of operations. It was agreed this was where I and DD would be during the Multi Run. The hacker part of me admired how cool and secure hideout was; the unicorn part only saw a little more than a hole in the ground. It wasn't even a cave, for Celestia's sake! To top it all, it was technically in the Everfree Forest.

Buck it, Dinky! You could spend one night outside! You did when you were a filly. Not to mention most of the time would be in the Web.

Suppressing the feeling of unease, I went inside. The smell of mould hit me like a brick. It was a single room with two bunks. A basket of muffins served as a kitchen and a bucket of water as a bathroom. Apparently I would have to do my natural needs in the forest. So this is what real life is for a big name? I cringed at the thought.

It was an enormous relief when my surroundings changed to the familiar landscape of the Dream Web. Now I could finally breathe easily.

Alright, time to get to work. First thing, I checked my scrollbox. Seventeen messages — three of them from Shady. That colt sure acted fast when he wanted to. I skimmed through them briefly, then placed them in the 'Read Later' folder. Eight were redirects from news sources I followed, mostly the Everfree forums. One glance was enough to see the discussions about the Sombra virus were still going in full strength. I deleted the messages without a second's thought. And finally there were the other six. By the stars!

Six positive replies! Six! That was more than half I had sent out! All huge names to. Hay, FLT had even bothered to write a few personal lines. This felt almost as incredible as getting to meet MaDster! How I wish DD wasn't at school. She was going to be so envious once this was over.

Quickly, I typed in location coordinates and sent them off. Following MaDster's advice, I had chosen the Barterzone. If the Web had a hub for questionably legal activity, this was it. Everyone who wanted something went there — scriptponies, hackers, even Conglomerates. As the saying went 'if it exists it could be bought there'. Very much like the Rainbow Falls Trader Exchange, one could find anything here. Only difference was, that — unlike the real world — rules didn't apply. Most of the things were either stolen or illegal, and if you got tricked there was nothing to be done about it.

"Hey, Harpy," I heard a yell the moment I appeared in the sector. "Interested in some ICE-breakers? Hot stuff! They could destroy a hundred flakes per minute!"

Street vendors. I used them quite a lot. Most knew me by name, and as such were always eager to sell me stuff — junk in most cases. As the inevitable law of the Web went — some ponies just never learned.

Ignoring the wave of offers, I made my way to Spider Forest. It was a small forest construct smack in the center of all the bustle. The moment I arrived I knew I was not the first. The scan upgrades MaDster had given me clearly displayed an aura bubble encasing part of the forest. So this was it — the big meet. Taking a deep breath I walked through.

The inside was way different to from what I expected. There was nothing flashy or special about it. Actually there was nothing at all - as if all code constructs had been deleted, leaving an empty sphere.

"Hello, Dinky," the unmistakable avatar of FLT greeted me — custom Pegasus Build whose colour constantly shifted. "My, you certainly have grown in the Web."

The compliment was nice, but I felt uncomfortable being addressed by my real name.

"Don't worry," FLT giggled. "I've known for months. You and DD make quite the combo. So how does it feel? I remember how excited I was during my first run. MaDster kept a close eye, of course, but I expect you are familiar with all that."

"MaDster was your mentor?" I couldn't keep my surprise.

"Well, if course. Did you think the name was a coincidence?" While FLT laughed again, I thought back to what Derpy had said. 'Luna's Web General'. Buck it! Why didn't I see this earlier! Luna's bucking general! No wonder they called her the Master!

"Anyway, are you ready for this?" FLT's tone suddenly changed, her real life persona replaced by her Web equivalent.

Slowly I nodded.

"Then let's get started." For a moment the aether bubble surrounding us flickered, then expanded in every direction. I watched in amazement as a pocket Web zone formed around us. There was no mistaking it, FLT was using source code.

Login cones started popping everywhere. Celestia there were dozens of them! By the time all avatars had formed, I could count over fifty hackers — from rising stars to some of the biggest names in the Web. Celestia, what had you done to me?

"So, Harpy," FLT began loudly, "what does MaDster want of Luna's Army?"

Buck it, Derpy! You didn't say anything about this!

Author's Note:

Luna's Army - Confudential The largest organized hacker collective, believed to exist in the Web. Currently there are 67 confirmed members on record. When facing, deal with extreme caution and always contact your direct supervisor.