Chapter 11
They sat in an Marés Dragon. The spinning rotors of the aircraft purred as Candy grinned out the window. Nearly silent, the double-prop cargo rotorcraft slipped through the air as it was piloted by expert hooves.
“I want one soooooooo bad!” Candy groaned, fogging up the window that looked out on the neon-lit city of Canterlot.
“Candy,” Gem scolded, “You’re leaving marks on the glass, back up.”
“But...but it’s so pretty, Gem!” Candy whined.
Twilight shook her head as she watched the two, and adjusted her parachute as they made their way through the night sky. She tugged on the straps, checked the grappling hook, and hoped this went at least as well as their assault on Flimflam.
Unfortunately, the cabin of the dragon was rather small, there was perhaps enough room for another two ponies if they clumped together. Her gesture didn’t go unnoticed.
“‘Fraid of heights, Rookie?” Wingmare asked.
“Oh, no,” she replied, “It’s just the last time I was in a Dragon, I kinda hijacked it, and I didn’t know how to fly.”
“You’d still be working off that debt, Miss,” the pilot said over his headphones.
“Thanks, Plate,” Twilight muttered.
“Well, at least you had fun.”
“Fun? I nearly died! That and I crashed a very expensive piece of equipment.”
“As I said, had fun.”
“Did it have mods on it?” Candy asked, suddenly crossing the cargo bay.
“What?”
“Did it have mods? A rigger sling? Secret compartments? Stealth capabilities? I need to know!”
“I...I don’t know, Candy sorry.”
“Aw…” Candy pouted, before looking back to the window, only to be held back from squishing her face back against the glass.
Twilight sighed, leaning against her wall of the rotorcraft, before she heard Web chuckling behind her.
Looking behind she saw Web likewise leaning against her wall, smiling as she watched something on her AR glasses. “Web? What are you watching?”
“Hm? Oh, it’s just a show. It’s pretty funny.”
“Oh? What’s it about?”
“It’s about a guy who hates goblins.”
Twilight blinked.
“Alright, ladies,” the pilot said, getting their attention over the intercom. “We’re approaching the target building, and we are one the edge of Ahuiztechnology airspace. We will begin the final ascent now, and as we do, now is the time to make final checks on equipment, because we’re approaching the point of no return.”
Steel began running through her final checks, and Wingmare began stretching. She and Web were in charge of landing first and clearing the roof of any security teams before things went bad. If they didn’t make it, then they were in charge of warning everypony to land elsewhere.
Twilight, meanwhile, began wondering which outcome she preferred as she checked her harness for the tenth time. She wanted to get the job done, of course. Her boss was trusting her to get this done. She needed to get in there, and mess up some Ahuiztech personnel. Besides, it’d serve those bloodmages right.
On the other hoof, this was walking right into the belly of the beast. The rumors floating around the corporate circle about Ahuiztechnology were as numerous as they were terrifying. Built on the backs of native earth pony tribes, the whole company was rife with tribal ritual and ancient superstition. Ponies all the way up the ladder swore loyalty to old, bloodthirsty gods, as their leader, a beast unlike all others, sacrificed life for power.
The truth, according to Spikarunz himself wasn’t so far off. A creature of some description, either born from, or improved upon by the Awakening, took control of several tribes in the jungle to the west and used their old superstitions to begin a cult of bloodmages.
Twilight shivered at the thought.
It was old, dangerous, and powerful magic, enough to give any mage reason to pause, and she was moments from entering what amounted to a coven of the things. Honestly it made her skin crawl.
“Alright ladies, we’ve reached the optimum height. Jump is in five minutes.”
The pegasi nodded, and stood before they both became invisible with a careful cast of a spell. The cargo door slid open, and both Web and Wingmare slipped out of the vehicle.
Twilight gulped as the door closed before she checked her grapple gun again.
“Alright, everypony!” Gem said, standing. “Ten seconds, no more. Let’s get ready to jump.”
Steel, Gem, and Candy all stood up, and moved to the cargo door, before Twilight slowly followed after them.
“Five, four, three, two, go, go, go!”
The door opened, and the four ponies leaped out of the Rotorcraft.
Twilight felt her eyes fly open, and the wind rushing past her face was too strong to close them again. The building was getting close, way closer than she thought as the darkness only accentuated the bright lights on the roof of the building.
“Pull the chute, Rookie!” Steel yelled over the comms. “Pull the chute!”
Twilight grabbed her release cord and yanked, releasing the chute before she felt her stomach drop as she felt that she was pulled up in the air.
The four parachutes glided down into the roof of the Ahuiztech building, and the moment Twilight landed she peeled the harness off of her, and thanked the sun that she hadn’t been born with wings.
A team of six ponies lay dead at the hooves of Web and Wingmare, their helmets pulled free, keeping them silent. “Alright, Gem,” Wingmare said. “Get us in.”
The unicorn answered with a smile, before she reached to pull her maglock key, before pausing and grabbing one off of the guard. The door beeped as soon as she slid the card across the sensor, and the six ponies quickly made their way inside, where a pair of elevators waited for them. “Steel?” Gem called, before the Earth pony used her cybernetic arms to pry the doors open, revealing a shaft that stretched down into the earth. “Alright, everypony, like we practiced,” the decker said again, before the pegasi both hooked four of the six grappling hooks to the frame that held up the massive processor in charge of activating and deactivating the magnets in the rails of every elevator in the building.
“So, we had to buy these, right?” Twilight asked as Web took her hook.
“Yup, no Boss to buy it for us, it’s gotta come out of our own pocket,” Steel said, sounding oddly proud about the declaration.
“So why didn’t we save money and only buy four? The other two can fly, right?”
“They’re backups, Rookie,” Steel said, smiling knowingly as she patted the mage’s back. “Ya know, just in case if’n they get hurt and can’t fly, or if one of the hooks break, that kinda thing. Web always gets backups.”
Web hooked the last one on, broke their conversation with an order. “Gloves on, it’s time to go.”
Steel nodded, before she slipped on a pair of black gloves, and swung into the shaft, pulling the almost-invisibly-thin wire taut and hanging safely in the air.
“These wires will cut you without the gloves,” Wingmare said, hovering next to the street sam by her own wingpower. “Put them on, and let’s get climbing.”
Candy swung into the elevator shaft a split-second later, followed by Gem, and then finally Twilight herself, who stared down into the depths of the building with a slight gulp.
“Ya alright, Rookie?” Steel asked.
“Y-yeah, just remembering the last time I was in an elevator shaft.”
Steel chuckled. “You’ll be alright. ‘Sides, we got out o’ that one alright.”
She nodded, but didn’t reply.
“Wingmare!” Gem called from her wire, holding onto it with a delicate hoof, while holding the guard’s Maglock key in the other. “Would you do me a quick favor and return this to the guard outside. They might be monitoring when the door opens and closes, so this gentlecolt needs to get back to his post.”
She nodded, before she dipped into the hallway, opened the door, and tossed the card out on the bodies outside.
“Web, help me close the door,” Wingmare called, before the two pegasi slid it shut, locking them in.
“Alright, we’re looking at five hundred meters to the ground floor. That’ll give us another hundred meters of wire to find the basement before we need to rest and re-attach,” Web said, explaining the situation. “Hopefully, we can get low enough that we reach the basement without having to take the time to find a place to rest, but in case things go poorly, we need to be ready for that.”
Gem nodded, already sliding down her wire as the winch in her grapple gun began to unwind. Candy joined her a second later, humming the theme from a spy trid, followed by Steel, and then, finally Twilight.
The winches went to work, slowly lowering the four ponies down into the depths of the building. The seconds slowly passed, and Twilight felt increasingly on edge. In ten minutes she was floating in the air, surrounded by nothing as hung there, completely in the open, and a long fall beneath her.
“I’m not afraid of heights,” she whispered to herself. “I’ve never been afraid of heights. This is ridiculous.”
A one-ton box of steel and plastic shot past her, inches from her face, followed by a terrible wind that sent her swinging in the air, nearly hitting the opposite wall. Twilight grabbed her wire with both hooves, nearly hugging the incredibly sharp monowire as she paused.
Web flew down next to her, steadying her to stop her swinging. “Are you alright, Rookie?”
“Fine…” Twilight squeaked. “Never better.”
“Hang on, we’re almost halfway to the ground,” Web said, before she moved to steady Steel, while Wingmare took care of Candy and Gem.
Another elevator shot past them at terrible speeds, powered by the rails of magnets on either side of the cab, shooting them up and down the shaft at the speed of bullet trains.
Twilight gulped as they continued to lower herself further and further down the shaft.
Another twenty minutes passed, and they finally made it down to the second floor. Wingmare took a second to drop further down before she came back up. “It looks like we’ll make it to the first basement level,” she said, smiling.
“Good,” Gem said, “I don’t know how much longer we’re going to go unnoticed. They’re going to notice the camera loop eventually, and once that happens, the roof crew will be noticed.”
The shaft was suddenly flooded with red light, and the elevators above them screeched to a halt. “Ya just had to say it, didn’t ya Gem?” Steel asked.
“Let’s go ponies, we need to drop lower,” Gem ordered, and Twilight began unwinding her winch faster, her vertigo forgotten in the face of corporate violence.
She didn’t need to open her astral sight to know that the mages in the building were going to start summoning search spirits, no doubt made of blood. “Let’s go! We need to get out of here before they get the elementals down here!”
The others agreed, and began dropping faster, the winches whirring as they unwound faster and faster before they finally dropped to the basement level. Wingmare hovered in front of the elevator doors before a sudden burst of strength let her rip the doors apart. “Let’s go, ponies!”
Gem began to swing forward, with Web giving her a push.
She landed in the hallway, her submachine gun raised and ready to fill anyone full of holes. Steel landed next to her, hitting the ground in a combat roll before coming up with her gun leg up.
Candy was next, deploying her rotordrone, which buzzed as it leveled its small gun around, tracking for targets. Twilight landed after them, and Web followed right behind her, holding a fetish, and beginning to chant.
“Wingmare, in the circle!” Gem yelled, keeping her gun level before they clumped together, and Web finished her incantation.
“By the powers of the earth, I summon you to protect us!” she called.
A deep part of Twilight felt an urge to roll her eyes but decided to wait to get out the soon-to-be warzone first. It helped that her appeasing of the “powers of the earth” were, in fact, raising a defensive wall.
“Alright,” Gem said, dropping her gun to pull the locator device from her pocket. “According to this, the gem’s somewhere in front of us.”
“Then it’s time for us to start looking,” Twilight said.
Gem nodded. “I’ll start working my way into their matrix system. Steel, Candy, and Wingmare will make sure our bodies will be alright. It’s up to you now.”
Both mages nodded, and they quickly slipped their mortal bonds and flew into the Astral.
<><><|><><>
The astral was hurt here.
Twilight shivered as she felt the space around her, feeling it reach into her soul as the dead and tortured cried out in agony. Beside her stood the faint forms of Candy and Steel, the bright, awakened form of Wingmare, whose magic flowed through her body, and the surprisingly warm glow of Gem.
This wasn’t the first time Twilight had seen the aura of Gem. She still felt horribly confused that a pony with enough magical talent to compete with either Web or herself would go into Matrix work, but she knew better than to ask by now.
“Alright, are we going together?” Web asked, breaking her train of thought.
“Yeah, we need to head straight, right?” Twilight asked.
“That is what Wingmare said,” she agreed.
Twilight nodded. “Let’s go then before the elementals show up.”
The pair of mages began to move, searching through the dead concrete and the warped pits of pain and depression that peppered the place. “Wow, they really did a number down here,” Twilight muttered.
Web didn’t reply.
They floated through the bowels of the building when they suddenly came across a mass of glowing figures. The security teams of the Auizhtech facility were mobilizing against them. Twilight knew they couldn’t hide their presence forever, but this was too soon for her taste.
“Come on,” Web said. “We need to keep moving. We planned for this, there’s nothing outside normal operation. We keep going forward.”
Twilight nodded, and followed.
Further and further back they traveled, wandering through the dead walls, and avoiding any of the brilliantly-glowing mages they came across, along with any twisted astral space created by pain and suffering.
Passing through another wall, before both mages suddenly stopped.
While the other rooms around them had been the dull greys of computers and concrete, this room was filled with the vibrant colors of magic. Macuahuitls, the ancient, tribal club-swords of the original tribes, of various sizes hung on the walls. They shone in the astral space, each a powerful weapon foci, along with obsidian knives and fetishes.
Web let out a low whistle. “We might need to come back this way.”
“You want one of these?” Twilight asked. “These were probably enchanted with blood magic.”
“Yes, but if we grab it, then it’s free,” she said, “and that’s not something to be scoffed at.”
“I thought you’d be against blood magic. You’re a shaman, you’re all about life and stuff like that.”
Web turned to her. “If this is blood magic, then the poor ponies that died for this would want nothing more than to get back at their murderers. I know I would. If I pick up those weapons, its to avenge them.”
“The both of you talk far too much.”
Both astral ponies spun, just in time to see a blood spirit behind them, grinning theoretical ear to theoretical ear. Unfettered by the neurons in their bodies, both of them managed to leap out of the way as the monstrous tornado of sanguine fluid slashed at them both, ripping the astral air in two.
Twilight’s hooves began to glow as mana flowed through them, and with her mental strength backing the attack, she stood ready to beat the blood elemental down. Web was next to her, her own mana manifesting as claws that dug deep into the astral surrounding them, ready to rip and tear.
“Oh, this is going to be fun…” the elemental growled, before shooting forward, straight into the waiting claws of Web, who went straight for the eyes. Twilight followed close behind, slamming hooves into the back of the blood beast, trying to smash him into a stain.
The elemental tossed Twilight aside with the back of his hand before he ripped Web off of his face. “Feisty little one, aren’t you?”
“I always was,” Web replied.
The elemental chuckled. “You will make a fine addition, dear.”
Web crouched, ready to pounce. “I’m going to give you a chance to leave. We don’t need to fight tonight. This is your only chance.”
“Nice try,” the elemental said.
Web nodded, and leaped, claws outstretched as Twilight came from behind, both mages slammed into the elemental, throwing empowered strikes at the elemental as they began to rip at each other.
Limbs of blood and mana swung through the air in a fast, terrible flurry. Though, the power of both mages made quick work of it, even if they did walk away with a few mental wounds.
“At least we won’t have to worry about catching a disease,” Web said.
“Why did you do that?” Twilight asked.
“What?”
“Why did you offer it a chance to leave?” she asked. “It would have given us away, worst-case scenario, but it was just an elemental, and not a nice one either.”
Web nodded. “I know, but a spirit once showed me more kindness than ponies, so I do my best to try the same.”
Twilight blinked. “Really? Are you sure it didn’t just want to serve you? Spirits and elementals are naturally predisposed to service.”
Web smirked, and her aura appeared amused to the mage. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Twilight shrugged. “Well, we need to keep moving.”
Web nodded. “Operation Sapphire won’t wait for us.”
They shot off, flying through the walls, before entering a large, domed room. In the corners of the room hung massive cylinders filled with blood that echoed with the faint screams of the previous owners. More importantly, however, a podium took the center of the room, with the pink gem sitting on it. The gem burned like a star in the astral space, and Twilight had to look away. “Alright, we found it, now what?”
“We take care of the guard,” Web said.
“What guard?”
“You need to learn to look up more.”
Twilight glanced upward, and immediately wished she hadn’t.
A terrible, twisted mass of mana, pain, and hate clung to the ceiling of the room and stared down at the two mages with the eyes and faces of countless victims of Ahuiztech’s cruelty. Long, terrible legs spanned the room, locking the beast in place as it stared down at them. “Beast-pony,” one of the faces whispered, “beast-pony,” another agreed. “Why have you returned, Beast-pony?” the collective asked. “Were you not free?”
“Beast-pony?” Twilight thought, confused. That was a strange choice of words, especially considering spirits very rarely chose their words for no reason.
Web stepped forward. “I was.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow toward her.
“Free,” a face repeated. “Free, free, free,” the faces agreed before the spirit spoke. “Yet you return? Why?”
“I…” Web began. “I have a job.”
“Job, job, job,” the faces said, condemning her with their tone. “So, then you did not return to help?”
Twilight looked over at Web. She knew how to play this, right? You say of course I was, help the spirit, and move on. Anytime you faced a massive thing like this, it’s the only real response. She has to know that, right?
“No, I did not,” she admitted.
Twilight’s eyes bulged. “Web!” she hissed, trying not to be heard by the thing that began to roil across the ceiling.
“Didn’t come to help? Not here to help? Left us! Left us all!”
“You would have left me!” Web yelled. “Any of you would have done the same, but just because I didn’t come here to help doesn’t mean I won’t.”
The spirit quieted and watched as Web stepped forward. “I did not come to help you, but I will. I will do what I can to avenge you now that I am here, but I will need your assurance.”
“What? What? What? What assurance do you need, Beast-pony?”
“I have a team,” she said. “This mage is one of them, we need your assurance that you will not hurt us when we enter the room. In exchange, I will release the blood, and kill their sorcerers. The magic chaining you will be released, and you will be free.”
The spirit gurgled and grumbled.
“Do we have an agreement?” Web asked.
“Yes, yes, yes...So be it, Beast-pony, we have an accord.”
Web nodded, before turning to Twilight. “Come on, Rookie, we need to get back.”
<><><|><><>
Twilight’s body shot up, panting as her spirit returned. The sound of small arms fire ricocheting off the dome told her that the Ahuiztech security team had found their little earthen shelter, and they were doing their best to break through.
Web’s body spasmed as her own spirit returned, and she shot up, yelling. “They’re bringing explosives!"
“Gem’s almost got the security drones hacked,” Candy said. “We’re about to have reinforcements.”
“If we don’t get blown up, first!” Steel yelled.
Web was already on it, summoning a spider made of concrete and steel from inside the wall. She waited until the firing slowed, giving them a second to set the bomb before she turned back to the spirit. “Push the wall that way, please,” she said, directing the elemental of ponykind before leaving it loose to slam into the dome wall and crack it open.
With a mighty heave, the spirit began to push, shoving the wall down the hall, along with the explosive, closer and closer to the line of ahuiztech security.
And then drones opened fire. Screams echoed from the other side of the wall as their own security measures were turned against them. The explosive went off, blowing backward into the corpses, even as it shattered the wall.
In seconds, the hallway was quiet, up until Gem returned to her body. “Alright, good work, team. Web, Rookie, good to see you made it back. Lead the way.”
“Rookie will have to lead,” Web said. “I have a deal to keep.”
“What?” Gem asked.
“I bought safe passage from the spirits, and I have work to do in exchange.”
“Alone?” Gem asked.
One of Web’s bones popped out of place. “I suppose so,” she said, teeth elongating.
Everypony else took two steps back as the feathers in her wings began to drop onto the floor.
Twilight watched, eyes wide as saucer as Web transformed in front of her, even as all the pieces slid into place.
Web’s eyes went red, and her ears perked up, pushing her hood back to reveal a scarred, furious face. Her wings, now skin stretched thin against long, bony fingers, flared as her muscles and sinew popped into place.
And then she was gone, rushing down the hall at terrible speeds.
Twilight blinked before she turned to Gem. “She’s a werebat?”
Gem stared back at Twilight for a long second, before she hefted her deck on to her back. “Come on, we need to go.”
“She’s a free werebat?” Twilight repeated.
“Come on, Rookie,” Wingmare said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Are we all just going to ignore the fact that she’s a werebat?” Twilight yelled.
“Yup,” Steel told her. “Now come on.”
Twilight blinked, mouth agape, as she slowly realized that Web was a werebat, and not just any werebat, but one previous owned by Ahuiztechnology. She had to be, that’s the only explanation.
“She’s a werebat…” she muttered to herself.
“Rookie, let’s go.”
Twilight led them forward, still reeling from the news, up to the point where they crossed the first massacre. Blood ran along the walls and dripped from the ceiling, onto the ripped arms and legs of the security teams.
After that point, Twilight focused on the job.
She led them down the hallway, past the room with the weapon foci, and down to the large, domed room.
The great cylinders that occupied the corners of the room were shattered, and a large pool of blood sat in the middle of it, surrounding the pedestal and the rose quartz at its center. Twilight reached out a grabbed it with a telekinetic spell and held the small gem in her hooves.
“Well, I guess we have to go deliver this, huh?”
“We do,” Gem agreed. “Alright, ponies, we head back, climb up to the ground floor, and get out in the van. Hopefully, Web will join us before we get back to the elevator, but we need to go.”
They quickly made their way backward, toward the elevator, and Twilight was surprised to see Web already waiting for them.
“Web, are you finished?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I took the opportunity to pick a new weapon focus while I was at it.”
“You just picked up a focus?” Wingmare asked.
“Two. I got one for the Rookie,” she said, pulling up her hood. “Besides, I need something to do while I wait for this to blow over.”
“That, Web," Gem said, hooking herself to her grapple, "sounds like the most reasonable thing I’ve heard you say since you came out of the astral. Now let’s go.”
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what crossover is this from
9368890
Shadowrun.
This is a Shadowrun crossover, right?
9369097
Thanks😁👍 i'd just googled it and it look like a good game now i'd just have to go to gamestop to see if they got it 😕
9369101
Yes, it is.
Man, Ahuizotl is bad news.
This place needs to be burned down to the ground.
No kidding.
Web unleashed is scary. I wonder what sort of Focus she just picked up from this place.
Got a feeling she just picked up Zephyr.
This is an amazing story so far! I only have one question. If Spike is the CEO why is Twilight's cutie mark, specifically her starburst, on the building?
9418647
Because magic. Literally. My understanding of her cutie mark is that it is a recognized symbol of magic. Spike's company symbol is literally "We're magic."
9419376
That makes sense.