Supermare: The Rising

by Alsvid

V.

An hour later, at the Revolutionary Army’s garrison in the tenement block building in the Northern region of Manehattan, the food has been eaten and the plates have been cleared away.

Shadow and Alsvid are sprawled out on the decrepit old couch, playing videogames and unwinding a little while Leo’s having a post-workout shower; 2C is sitting in front of them, her holographic display active. A pair of game controllers are plugged into 2C’s neck.

“So tell me something, Shadow.”

“What?”

“You’re the second Pegasus I know who uses a sword.”

“Yeah, they’re a lot more precise than guns. That a problem?”

“Nope. I’m just wondering if it’s a thing with you lot. The Professor uses a sword too, but she prefers a dueling rapier. You should see her in action. She’ll skewer you like a piece of meat before you can blink an eye.”

“Mm, I never could get the hang of that. Fencing’s a difficult art,” Shadow says, scrunching up his muzzle, tensing up as he grips the controller harder, his fingers practically a blur over the analog sticks and buttons. “Yes! I win, again!”

Alsvid blows out a tiny sigh, letting her controller drop to her thighs. “Buck. I almost had you. Best out of three?”

“Sure, why not? If you want me to slap your flanks good and hard again, that is.”

“We’ll see about that,” Alsvid says, with a mocking smile.

Leo emerges from the bathroom, his dark skin glowing, the scent of soap and shampoo clinging to him, rubbing at his raven-black hair with a towel, clad only in a pair of navy blue boxer briefs and sandals. “It’s your turn, Shadow. Get washed up. We leave in fifteen minutes,” he says, his resonant voice terse.

“Looks like the Commander saved your flanks this time, Alsvid.” Shadow bounces up from the couch, tossing his controller into his seat and striding into the bathroom.

Alsvid glances up from the holographic display to gaze at the sharply defined musculature of Leo’s body; the topography of his iron-hard abdominals, the rigid plates of his pectorals under his taut, dark skin. She rises from the couch, moving closer to him, their bodies close together, pinning him back against the wall, pressing her soft body against his own; Leo could feel her warm breath upon his skin. Her bright green eyes gazed into his own; she placed her hands, palm-down, upon his chest; Leo wrapped his arms around her slender body, feeling her trembling with pleasure at the feel of his embrace, her breath quickening; she pressed her hips against him, pinning him back against the wall, and he arched his powerful back in response, running his hands over her hips, her thighs, feeling her roll her hips against him. He, too, had begun to breathe harder; he dug his fingers into Alsvid’s soft black-and-white coat, squeezing her, and she gasped in response, her mouth opening.

Leo pressed his mouth to her snubby little black muzzle; Alsvid’s eyes widened as she felt his warmth, the softness of his mouth upon her own; she thrust her tongue into his mouth and felt his own rise to meet her, feeling him salivating with pleasure as she stroked the hard, muscular length of his tongue with the tip of hers, felt him gripping at her own tongue with his, rubbing the rough, hot, slippery flesh of his tongue upon her own. She could feel his powerful hands on her thighs, her belly.

Leo drew the slender-bodied Zebra mare closer to him, feeling her eager, warm breath as she arched her back and pressed her warm, wet mouth closer to his. He cupped her heavy, round breasts in his hand, sinking his fingers into her soft, warm flesh, kneading it, and felt her gasping in response. He squeezed harder, feeling her shuddering and raising up on tip-hoof in delight, then he ran his hands over her slender, muscular belly.

He pulled away from her, gossamer threads of saliva linking his mouth to hers, and gazed at her; she was panting for breath, her large, liquid eyes moist, entranced.

“You’ve been so brave,” he said, quietly. “I’m very proud of you.”

“Oh!” Alsvid dashed at her cheek with one hand, wiping away a tear almost angrily. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Why?”

“You suffered far more than I did, Leo.”

She placed her head upon his chest, tears rolling down her cheeks.

---

They readied themselves for battle.

Leo had changed into his faded blue jeans, leather jacket and combat boots.

Alsvid was wearing her old, repurposed Equestrian Royal Space Marine uniform; a form-fitting, pressurized, skin-tight black bodysuit that hugged the curves of her hips, breasts, and thighs, black high-leg jackboots, a close-fitting helmet equipped with an environmental control system and heads-up-display, monitored by a miniaturized computer that fit into the back of her helmet, the size of a postage stamp. She had chosen a black hijab for combat, a simple thing made of cotton, wrapped around her head and shoulders.

Around her torso is a Tachyon Belt; an impressive piece of Equestrian engineering; it looks like an ordinary metal harness strapped to her chest.

She has chosen a simple black leather bomber pilot’s jacket. Slung over her shoulder is a long grey Solar Arms Company AM-12 Pulse Rifle with a Holographic Sight; next to that, an MRM-2 Nova Cannon, a tall, stovepipe-shaped weapon half as high as a pony, bristling with electronics. A GM-48 railgun similar in shape to an exceptionally long-barreled, futuristic revolver with a red dot sight, hangs off her right hip.

“How’s Shadow’s gear going? You get him set up yet?” Leo asked.

Alsvid nodded, watching 2C’s holographic screen as she typed in commands from an ordinary Bluetooth wireless keyboard. “Just about. I installed all the necessary upgrade packages so he can communicate with us and see what we’re seeing.”

She waved a hand at Shadow, who was watching her, clad only in his snug black briefs. “Go ahead.”

Shadow placed his hand on what looked like a slim black leather attache case.

In response to his touch, the case opened and unfolded like a lotus blossom, extending many slender blue steel plates that covered his hand, then his arm, then his upper body.

“Don’t resist it,” Alsvid warned him, as he bent his head away from the tight-fitting cybernetic exoskeleton creeping up his neck. “Breathe. It’s got a fully functioning life support system.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“‘Course it is. The Professor spent the better part of a year and a half getting this one.”

Shadow tried to relax, stretching his legs and arms as the exoskeleton’s visor covered his muzzle; he could feel the steel plating pressing against his chest and wings, pinching them slightly.

He could see nothing at first, then the visor glowed a bright red and his vision was restored; he felt the exoskeleton loosening as it reconfigured itself to adapt to his body; suddenly it felt like he was wearing a very light cloth robe. He inhaled deeply and found that the neutral scent of the apartment has been changed to a sharp, sterile, clinical scent.

Words flashed over his vision, in bright red.

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES
TYPE 02 ARMOR, EXPERIMENTAL
VERSION 1.03 FIRMWARE
灰色狐

“What do these Japanese characters mean?” Shadow said, sounding bemused.

“Gray Fox,” Alsvid answered.

Shadow gazed down at his own body; he was covered head-to-hoof in a tightly fitting gray steel exoskeleton, beautifully made of many smaller steel plates, aerodynamic and angular in its design. Red LED lights glowed intermittently along his arms and legs. He gave his wings an experimental flutter.

His exoskeleton whirred, jet intakes opening under his wings.

“Be careful with those, kid,” Leo said, instinctively raising a hand over his head to protect himself from the backwash of hot air from the intakes. “You don’t want to set this building on fire, it’ll burn like a match.”

Shadow twisted his body, trying to get a look at the jet engines attached to his wings. “Wait...you don’t mean…”

“Thrust-vector control turbofans with afterburners,” Alsvid said. “Those were meant for a human pilot, so you should find them even easier to control, since you’re a natural-born aviator.”

Shadow was silent for a moment, taking all of this in. Then he struck a victorious pose, pointing at Leo, then at Alsvid. “Henshin, baby, henshin!”

Alsvid laughed. “That’s right.” She threw a faded-looking, worn black leather jacket to Shadow.

As the jacket flew through the air, a red targeting box appeared around it on Shadow’s field of view. He felt the exoskeleton’s motors pushing at his arm, propelling it towards the jacket, and he reached out to snatch the jacket effortlessly, guided by the suit’s auto-targeting mechanism.

He pulled it on over his shoulders, casting a curious glance at Alsvid. “What about Leo?”

“What about him?”

“He’s not armed.”

“Think so?” Alsvid said, cryptically. Shadow caught a glimpse of her face under her helmet, bearing the smallest hint of a smile.

Leo closed his right hand into a fist.

Bright red light burst from his arm, spreading up his fingers and his upper body revealing a gleaming red ruby buried in his chest; to Shadow, it seemed as though the ruby in Leo’s chest was burning with an intense rage.

There was a noise like a distant explosion; a low, discordant sound that struck Alsvid and Shadow in their stomachs.

Red armor plating covered Leo’s entire right arm, wickedly sharp and hard, with long, bloodthirsty fins, small fans lodged here and there in his armor whirring softly as he flexed his fingers.

“There,” Leo said quietly, a note of triumph in his voice.

Alsvid strode towards him, a red helmet in her hands. “Here. The Professor got you something, too.”

Leo took the helmet from her. Constructed of light alloy plating, shaped like an angular, mechanical-looking jaguar’s head, its jaws open, baring long steely teeth like knives, the eyes glowing a bright green. He slid it on over his head; the inside was padded with a soft, cool, breathable surface. He heard a low whirr and felt the rim of the helmet forming a tight seal around the base of his neck, pressing down firmly on his skin. He inhaled deeply; the air was clean, cool, and faintly astringent.

His field of view bore the faintest green tint; a blue targeting reticle in the center. Blue words were projected before him:

KOMATSU LIMITED
PERSONAL ARMOR SYSTEM VER. 3.1

“Looking sharp, boss.” Shadow’s voice was loud, crisp and clear, as if he were leaning over Leo’s shoulder to speak to him, emitted through a tiny speaker in Leo’s helmet.

“You should be able to communicate with us now,” Alsvid said. “On the right side of your helmet, just beneath the jawline, is a switch for the Infrared and Night Vision settings.”

Leo grasped for the switch and touched it.

The words “INFRARED” flashed in blue over his vision, and suddenly he found himself gazing at a brilliant field of blue, over which red figures - humanoids and small animals - pulsed and shone. He glanced above him and saw nothing but an array of humanoid figures, moving about as they underwent their daily tasks.

“Great. This will come in handy. It’s like I can see through walls.”

“Right?” Alsvid grinned. “Now they can’t hide from you. I mean, you could probably have cast a spell to detect them, all the same.”

“It’s one less thing for me to do. This way, I can concentrate on fighting, not finding the enemy. It was good of the Professor to think of this.”

“She included another little surprise in your helmet, too. It’s enchanted. You’ll see a prompt on your viewscreen when it’s ready to use.”

Leo watched two figures straddling one another curiously as he listened to Shadow and Alsvid bickering quietly in the background.

“How come he gets to see in infrared?”

“Your suit can do the same thing, Shadow!”

“Oh, now you tell me.”

“I was just going to!”

“How do I do that?”

“There’s a small switch just on the right hand side of your neck. Give it a try sometime.”

Shadow tapped the side of his neck, and gave a little surprised jump as his vision changed. “Whoa. It’s like I can see through walls!”

“But of course. We can all see in infrared. It’s standard kit for Royal Marines, and androids like Prophecy have machine vision so they can do it any time they like. We also have night vision, though I don’t think we’re gonna need it much in this operation.”

Leo cut through their conversation, switching his display to normal mode. “Now listen.” He snapped his fingers sharply.

Shadow and Alsvid turned to face him. 2C was already facing him, her expression flat, neutral.

“You’re about to fight against a truly merciless enemy. She will use everything in her ability to destroy you. She’s a dangerous bitch who attacks her rivals with the corrupt Manehattan police officers she’s got in her purse. Those officers are going to do everything in their power to kill you. You must not let that happen.”

He waited.

Shadow and Alsvid watched at him, expectantly.

“Nevertheless, you’re going to win. Don’t let her scare you. Survive at all costs. Remember the mission. The Professor entrusted me to bring her a victory, and I don’t intend to disappoint her. Keep it together. Watch your six, your squadmates, and your surroundings.”

He lifted his right hand, closing it into a fist.

“Let’s move.”

---

Alsvid’s car is a long, low-slung, menacing-looking black Ford Thunderbird ‘71: wide-bodied, with an array of four headlights and a chrome grill that looks like a snarling, fierce bird of prey’s beak, jutting out in a vee-shape, fat tires.

Alsvid thrusts the key in the ignition, twisting it; the Thunderbird’s vast engine turns over with a dull mechanical roar, so furiously the entire car shudders, the tachometer needle briefly spiking upwards before falling back down. She lets the engine idle for a bit, relishing the way the big-block V8 engine makes the car’s frame vibrate.

Leo clambers into the roomy rear seat, followed by Shadow and 2C..

Alsvid places her hand on the stick, throwing the car into first, her other hand effortlessly resting on the Thunderbird’s compact MOMO steering wheel. She guides the Thunderbird out of her parking space slowly. Then she guns the engine, and the Thunderbird shoots down the alleyway.

Shadow picked up his katana, closing his fingers over the grip. He gives the blade a quizzical glance; it is a long, lethal looking piece of equipment, the blade showing an interlaced design like carbon fiber, a steel trigger embedded into the handle so that it can be squeezed while the handle is being gripped.. “This isn’t my normal weapon.”

“The Professor thought you might like something to match your new outfit,” Leo said. “Don’t play with it just yet.”

“What is it?”

“A high-frequency blade.”

Shadow shook his head. “High-frequency? I don’t get it. What is that, can I listen to the radio on this thing?”

“Means it vibrates real quick. One side is sharp, one isn’t. It’ll cut through almost anything like butter and deflect most small projectiles. Hit someone with the dull end and they’ll be stunned for a good couple of hours, since the nervous system can’t handle things like that.”

Shadow grinned. “Awesome. Can’t wait to give this a test drive.”

He glanced out the window of the car, watching the city streets rolling by.

"Hey, Leo.”

“Yeah?”

“What did the Professor mean when she said she would kill us if we squealed, though? She says we're valuable to her...but she'd also kill us? Why? I don't think that makes sense!"

"She’s your superior officer. Ask Alsvid what happens if you disobey your officers. She’s a former Marine.”

“Death,” Alsvid said, shortly. “That’s why our officers wear sabres on their belts. Your superior power of life and death over you. Did you think the Professor wore her rapier for decoration?”

---

The lower levels of the Morgan Building is a quite normal financial institution situated in a pleasant borough of Manehattan, an entirely ordinary place with automated tellers and a small suite of offices where one can open an account, take out a loan, and conduct other business with the financiers within.

In one of these offices, a junior Financial Advisor named Exchange Rate was blithely explaining to a devastated-looking little Earth Pony family that the bank was about to take their home away.

"No, I'm sorry, we've extended you enough time, and we have no choice but to put a sale date on your property. You have exhausted all your options and you can't secure any funding, so, I'm sorry, but..."

Exchange Rate, a thin young Earth pony mare with a bright red mane, yellow eyes, and a soft purple coat, spread her hands wide on her desk. "That is the action we have decided to take."

"You can't! We've lived there our whole lives...I raised my foals in that house..." protested Goodwife Intent, the matriarch of the family, an unkempt-looking middle-aged mare, grey-coated, white-maned, with dull purple eyes, the lines of stress and worry stamped harshly upon her face.

Her husband, a tan-colored Earth Pony stallion with strong shoulders and powerful arms, sat slumped in his chair, looking like someone who had already resigned themselves to death, his eyes closed.

"My parents are very sick and old...moving them out might kill them, the shock, the stress..." Goodwife Intent protested.

Exchange Rate lost her temper. "Well, you should have thought about that before falling back on your mortgage payments! Now, I'm very busy and I have other clients to discuss business with."

Having signaled an end to the discussion, Exchange Rate folded her arms over her chest and went silent.

Goodwife Intent's children began to cry. Goodwife Intent threw Exchange Rate a look of utter loathing, and scooped her offspring - a thin filly and a bony little colt - up into her arms, and left. Her husband trailed behind them, a forlorn-looking shell of a stallion, utterly dismayed that he had failed his family in this.

Exchange Rate stood up, stretched, and walked out of her office after them.

As she passed by another office, she heard one of her co-workers busy with another client.

"No, your credit rating is too low for a student loan! It's impossible, so don't even ask!"

In front of her, a young colt was slamming his fist against the ATM screen.

"Dammit! How can there be no money in this thing...I just got paid yesterday!"

Exchange Rate chuckled at the display of incompetence that the young colt was showing.

"People really need to figure their lives out," she thought to herself. "It's not our fault they don't have control over themselves..."

She strode over to a window, watching the family she'd just seen off piling into a dilapidated old sedan. Another car was approaching outside - some ugly-looking black muscle car.

The car began picking up speed. Exchange Rate wondered if the brakes had gone out on the old lead sled.

Then she realized it was going to ram them, and she ran aside, screaming.

"Look out!"

CRASH.

The monstrous black car smashed through the front facade of the building with a tremendous explosion of sound, shattering glass, and metal shrapnel.

---

Back in Professor Deborah’s office, Shizuka winced as she watched the black muscle car smashing through the building’s front facade. “They rammed it?”

“That’s right. Don’t worry, that car is heavily reinforced. They’ll be fine. Let’s link up their comm systems so we can hear what they’re saying...look through their eyes, too.”

Professor Deborah drew the laptop back towards her, typing a few commands. “There.” She pushed the laptop back to the front of her desk, and settled back in her chair.

---

Alsvid leapt out of the car, with Leo, Shadow, and 2C hot on her hooves, and grabbed Exchange Rate around her waist, thrusting the barrel of her railgun against Exchange’s belly.

"Avast there, you bilge rats! Clean yer lugs out and hear me!" the Zebra mare bellowed. "We're taking the ship! Don’t try to fight us, unless you want me to spill this pretty young mare’s guts all over the floor!”

Exchange Rate began to cry. “No! Please! I don’t want to die!” She struggled to no avail, trying to prise Alsvid’s arm off her throat, but the powerful Zebra mare’s arm was like a band of iron. She fought to breathe, her vision blurring.

Instantly, the bank turned into a scene of chaos. Ponies ran for the exits, screaming and shouting and pushing and stamping in a mad rush to leave the building.

"Dear Celestia, why?!"

"Help me! Help!"

"Noooooo!"

"Dammit! This is why we shouldn't let Zebras and humans in our country! I told you something like this would happen!"

Alsvid glared at the Unicorn stallion who had just said that, her face contorted with rage, her eyes blazing. "What was that? You want to die, too, you scummy landlubber?!" she screamed, pointing her weapon at him.

The Unicorn stallion gibbered, collapsing to his knees.

Shadow ran forward, his exoskeleton boosting his speed so that he was practically a grey-and-red blur, raising his katana in one hand, grabbing another banker - a young Unicorn mare - and holding his katana to her pretty young throat. She blinked up at him in fear, feeling the cold steel tickling her flesh.

"Get out of here! Go on!" he shouted at them. "Or I'll open her throat right here!"

The frightened bankers hastened to obey, scrambling for the exits.

Leo strode over to one of the tables, standing up on it resolutely. 2C followed him, escorted by a Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle hovering about her shoulders like a white bird. It was shaped like a white block, with an aperture in the center glowing a bright red.

“2C, go to Point Defense Mode,” he ordered her.

2C nodded, unsheathing her own High Frequency blade and taking over behind a stone pillar. “Point Defense Mode engaged.”

A small green map of the immediate area flickered into view on Leo’s Heads-Up Display within his helmet, showing the layout of the lobby, with a green dot right in the center, displaying a small white wedge before it, the point towards the dot, showing his field of view. He could see three green dots nearby him. Outside, a cluster of red dots were quickly converging towards him.

Shadow let out a low whistle. “That’s a lot of enemies.”

Leo gathered from this that his squad could also see the minimap on their respective displays.

“Good.” Alsvid’s voice was grim. “The more landlubbers, the better! I’ll…”

“Remember the Professor’s command! She warned us not to cause a bloodbath! Shadow, Alsvid...both of you, use stunning attacks only on these police officers.”

“Why?” Alsvid snapped. “Those ruddy pigs would kill us if they had the chance.”

“Do as the Commander says, Alsvid,” Shadow said.

Alsvid made a wordless sound of annoyance, but she threw Exchange Rate to the ground. The frightened banker scrabbled to her hooves, practically crawling and running at the same time, until she got clear.

Alsvid slung her railgun back into its holster and pulled her pulse rifle off her back, snapping the safety to “STUN”.

“Take cover! Take cover! Prepare to attack!” Leo shouted, gesturing at Shadow and Alsvid.

Alsvid sprinted over to one of the hard marble counters, dropping to one knee behind it. “Aye, Commander!”

Shadow followed her, pushing his captive away, vaulting over the counter - he marveled at how the exoskeleton he wore augmented his movements, it was almost as though he were merely willing himself to move, at such speed the world became a blur - and putting his back up against it.

They peered over the counter. A host of police cars were screaming towards the bank, their red-and-blue lights shining brightly, their sirens howling.

Leo narrowed his eyes, grinding his jaws together, the muscles standing out in his neck. “Come on, come on…” he growled, clenching his armored hand into a fist. Red fire blazed along his armored right hand.

Shadow felt Alsvid’s hand on his shoulder, and turned to look at her, surprised at how gentle her touch was.

“Be careful, Shadow.” Alsvid’s voice was full of emotion. He could see her bright blue-green eyes gazing at him steadily through her helmet. “Don’t let them kill you.”

Shadow gripped the handle of his High-Frequency blade tightly, and nodded. “I won’t,” he said, resolutely.

---

Officer Copper Top, an industrious young Earth Pony police mare, was driving her car down the street, and happily chatting with her squadmate. She wore the standard Manehattan Police officer’s uniform; a tight blue t-shirt leaving her muscular arms bare, tautly stretched around the globes of her breasts, clinging to her firm abdominal muscles, navy blue pants with black knee-pads, black jackboots, a black utility belt with a holster for her gun, handcuffs, a collapsible baton, extra magazines, a blue officer’s hat, and mirror shades.

She was relating a story of her most recent arrest with great relish.

"So then he was like, "I want my lawyer!" And I was like, "Stop resisting!" These criminal types crack me the hell up, I tell you."

"Hilarious!" her friend, Officer Quickshot, a tall, muscular stallion, similarly clad in the Manehattan Police uniform, agreed. He chuckled appreciatively.

"Next thing you know, I slapped the cuffs on that no-good, and I was...wait a minute."

She pulled up in front of the Morgan Building, surveying the chaos and confusion and the general disarray surrounding the place, the ponies fighting and screaming and stampeding to get away, and the black muscle car lodged in the front fascia of the building.

"Quick! Get County on the line! We've got a robbery in progress!"

Her squadmate hastened to obey, grabbing the comm unit and shouting, "26 to county!"

"Come in, 26," the dispatcher responded, smoothly - an impeccable mare’s voice.

"We've got a 10-65 in progress at the Morgan Building!"

"You sure about that, 26?" The dispatcher sounded shocked.

"Affirmative! We've got a visual on them right now! There is a 10-65 in progress at the Morgan Building! I need every available officer here now! Do you copy?!"

"10-4. Officers are en-route to your position, 26. Standby."

“Get ambulances here too!”

“Roger that, 26.”

And, just like that, as if by magic, a swarm of police cars, backed by ambulances, sirens screaming, converged on the bank, setting up a blockade and cordoning off the area. Officers poured out into the street, guns drawn, barking orders to the civilians.

"Keep back! All of you, keep back! Stay away!"

"No closer!"

---

In the luxurious penthouse suite of the Morgan Building, Jane Morgan was listening to her secretary outlining the benefits of acquiring Vanguard Financial Group’s assets.

“...that holding alone is approximately worth two-point-one million bits. Therefore-”

A shudder ran through the building. Jane neatly intercepted her pen as it began to roll off her desk.

“What was that?” little Erytheia squealed, nearly dropping Jane’s teacup.

Competitive Advantage frowned. “It sounds like something hit us.”

“A terrorist attack?” Amicus Curiae said, sounding frightened.

“No. We would probably have been dead already if that were the case. Let’s see what’s going on, shall we?” Competitive Advantage walked over to the screens upon the far side of Jane’s office. She pressed a button, and one of the screens changed to a live feed of the security cameras in the lowermost floor of the building.

Jane sprang up to her hooves, fury all over her beautiful face as she surveyed the scene: a muscle car lodged in the front end of the building, ponies milling about in fear, a human, an android, a pegasus clad in some kind of armor, and a zebra in a spacesuit, bristling with weapons, threatening her employees.

“It looks bad. Should I have your helicopter summoned?” Competitive Advantage said.

“No.” Jane sat back down, brushing a stray strand of her long blonde mane out of her face. “Filthy zebras...human garbage...I’ll teach them a lesson myself. Prep my security detail.” Her voice dripped with venom.

“At once, my Lady!” Competitive Advantage hastened to obey. She strode out of the door.

“This is why we need a strong and powerful border wall,” Jane said to Amicus Curiae, folding her slender, ladylike fingers together, fixing her with a level gaze.

“We should deport everyone who isn’t an Earth Pony, a Unicorn, or a Pegasus, then things like these wouldn’t happen. When I’m finished with them they will wish they were dead, you’ll see.”

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “That’s if the police don’t kill them before I can get my hands on them. Let’s watch this, shall we? It should be very interesting.”

---

Ponies began gathering around on the city street, holding up their smartphones, jostling to get a better look at the crime scene, gossiping.

"What happened?"

"Someone's robbing a bank!"

"Cool, I always wanted to see that."

"Right? You only see it happening in the movies! This is exciting!"

---

Not too far from the bank, a large body of protesting ponies were facing down a contingent of Manehattan’s finest; an intimidating array of black-clad, heavily armored Riot Control Police, their clear polycarbonate shields raised, backed up by two large Armored Personnel Carriers bearing the word “MANEHATTAN POLICE DEPARTMENT - RIOT CONTROL DIVISION” on their sides. They were wearing gas masks and shielded helmets, looking very similar to one another, a faceless wall of black.

Captain Steele, leader of the riot control detachment, shouted through a bullhorn at the protestors.

“Disperse now! This is a public street! Get off the road or we’ll shoot!”

She waved a gloved hand at her squad. “Get those rubber bullets ready!”

“Yes, Captain,” one of the heavily armored Riot Control officers responded, racking his shotgun.

“They won’t move back. Deploy the gas!”

Another officer stepped forward, bringing a grenade launcher up to her shoulder. There was loud thump as she pulled the trigger, a gas grenade hurtling into the protesters, spewing white fumes.

Screams and yells came from the protesters as they scrambled away.

Joyous Heart, a slender, athletic, pink-maned, white-coated Earth pony mare, clad in black pants, black boots, a black hoody sweater, her face wrapped in a red bandanna, ran over to the grenade, picking it up and lobbing it back at the Riot Control Officers.

“No fascist cops in our Equestria!” she shouted, raising her fist. “No fascist regime on our shores! Take back our city! Manehattan belongs to its ponies!”

Her comrades took up the cry, surging forward in a mass of bodies towards the phalanx of Riot Control Officers.

“Bash the fash!”

““Push forward! Let’s go, ponies!”

“Hey! Hey! Fashy cop! How many colts have you shot!?”

The phalanx of Riot Control Officers was met with a headlong rush from the protesters as they threw themselves bodily against the wall of shields. Captain Steele heard them grunting and straining to push back as the protester threw their weight against them, digging their boots into the asphalt to try to stem the flood of angry ponies.

Some protesters began pelting the cops with anything they could get their hands on - pebbles, pieces of garbage, stray rocks, bottles. Captain Steel swore as a bottle exploded against her helmeted head, falling to one knee.

---

"Let's go!" Officer Copper Top leapt out of her car, branding her pistol. She thumbed the safety off, running towards the Morgan Building, with Officer Quickshot flanking her.

The uniformed officers of the law swept down on the bank in a wave of blue. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see her fellow officers running in unison with her, readying their weapons.

“Police! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!” Officer Copper Top shouted.

Leo grinned under his helmet humorlessly, baring his teeth. “¡Chinga tu madre, puta!” he shouted back.

“Right, that’s it. They’re resisting! Open fire! Shoot ‘em! Shoot ‘em down!” Officer Copper Top shouted.

Some of the Morgan Building’s employees were still struggling to get out, and they began howling at the police officers.

“Wait! Wait, don’t shoot! Some of us are still in here!”

“Let us out!”

“Don’t shoot us!”

Copper Top ignored them.

The officers around her dropped to one knee, raising their service pistols, flicking the safeties off with loud metal snapping sounds.

Copper Top planted herself on one knee, bringing her pistol up, lining up her sights, flicking her safety off in turn with a clank.

She squeezed the trigger. Her gun roared, kicking back against her hand; she squeezed the trigger again and again, her fellow officers did likewise, firing indiscriminately. The sound was deafening; a cacophony of gunfire, shot after shot after shot, a relentless volley of bullets.

A veritable hurricane of bullets shot through the lobby. The Morgan Building’s employees let out fresh screams as they were cut down by the incoming fire, dropping where they stood. Cries and pleading filled the air, some of them trying to crawl to safety, trailing bright red coppery blood on the floor.

Bullets whizzed and flew, smashing into pillars, spraying stone and metal everywhere, shattering glass in tiny explosions of shrapnel, chewing up wooden chairs, bursting ink-pots, snapping pens, tearing up paper, slicing through computers and leaving them in sparking, sizzling ruins, cutting through cloth, bursting cushions.

Shadow raised a hand over his head reflexively as shards of wood, metal, and stone showered over him, briefly forgetting his armor. His heart pounded in his chest. “Buck…! Commander! They’re shooting at us!”

Leo was facing the hailstorm of bullets calmly; they rebounded off the red forcefield around his body harmlessly. “Wait for it, Shadow,” he ordered the young colt.

Alsvid was calmly singing a little song.

“Mach Nine! Manehattan’s best radio station!
Mach Nine! Spread your wings for the sky!
Mach Nine! Mach Nine!”

She snapped her fingers, and smiled.

---

“She’s so relaxed, even when they’re shooting at her,” Shizuka said, marveling at the steadiness of the Zebra mare’s voice from the Professor’s laptop.

“See how invasive the power of the Capitalists are, Shizuka?” Professor Deborah said, shaking her head slowly. “That’s an advertising jingle. At no point in time are you free from their spell. They envelope you entirely. Tell me, can you count how many advertisements you’ve seen alone today?”

Shizuka took her lower lip into her mouth slowly, thinking. “I...can’t recall.”

“You see?”

Comments

[Alsvid]

8659918

And so it is.

We're getting closer to the confrontation with the Evil Empress.

[Alsvid]

8674247

There are lots of fun little references to pop culture in this chapter, as well. See if you can spot all the Quentin Tarantino references, the Metal Gear references, and such.