The Runners

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 27

As agreed, Rarity arrived at the Final Regret for drinks. Though her perhaps-not-as-chance-meeting with Thundr5tep had lingered in the back of her mind, she still walked into the dingy old bar with all the confidence she ever had. It wasn’t that she wasn’t worried about her one-time idol showing up knowing a little too much about her, before offering her a place in a cryptic technomancer club, but she sure as drek wasn’t going to let anyone know that she nearly had a heart attack that night.

She strode in, kissed her sister Sweetie Belle on the cheek, much to the joyfilly’s annoyance, and took their normal seat in the back, where a few of the others were waiting on her, specifically Web and Flashpoint.

“Have either of you seen the bouncer?” Rarity asked.

“Scootaloo is taking the day off,” Sweetie replied as she served her sister a drink. “I hope the lack of security hasn’t put you off your sandwich.”

“You laugh, but it is a serious issue, Sweetie.”

“I know,” she replied with a sigh.

“Wingmare hasn’t shown up either,” Flashpoint said. “She sent a text message to let us know she was going to be late, though.”

Rarity nodded. “Very well, thank you for keeping an ear to the ground, Flashpoint.”

The mage nodded, returning to her drink before a few more ponies of the team wandered in from outside. Candy and Steel walked in soon after. The former bounced and smiled as usual, while the latter peeked at the world from underneath the brim of her stetson. “Howdy, ladies.”

“Hello, Steel, Candy,” Rarity greeted. “Everything went smoothly this morning?”

“Slept like a baby, if that’s what yer asking,” Steel said.

“So you woke up crying in the middle of the night?” Flashpoint asked with a grin.

“Har-dee-har-har,” Steel grumbled. “Anypony seen Scootaloo?”

“Yes, Sweetie told me she took the day off,” Rarity explained.

Steel shrugged. “Alright, as long as we know what’s happened to her.”

“Where’s Wingmare?” Candy asked with a grin.

“Running late,” Flashpoint said.

“Again,” Web added.

Steel rolled her eyes. “How is it that mare can barely keep time when she’s off the clock, but can count down 84 minutes and 13 seconds in her head perfectly?”

“We all have our gifts, I suppose,” Web said with a smirk under her hood.

Candy chortled, and took a seat, bounding onto the bar stool.

Sweetie came back with a few more drinks, and a couple of more sandwiches, before a deep thud thundered at the front of the store.

All of the ponies peeked up at the front, where Wingmare sat, pressing against the wall, an orange pegasus draped over her shoulder.

“Tap, you gotta lock the place down!” Wingmare said.

“Wingmare!” Web said, a slight panic in her voice. “What’s happening?”

“The Quickfeather gang!” Wingmare yelled, “they’re after Scoots!”

“Quickfeaher?” Flashpoint asked.

“So you led them here?” Tap asked angrily as he hit the button to drop the metal shutter over his windows and door.

“I didn’t have much choice!” she argued back. “Besides, they know where she works!”

“Who’s the Quickfeather gang?” Flashpoint asked again.

“A pegasus supremacy gang,” Rarity answered back. “They’re a fairly large player out here and do well as paid thugs if you don’t mind things going missing.”

“They tried to bring her back into the ranks,” Wingmare explained, before handing over the limp body of the bouncer. “She told them to frag off, and they started shooting off syringe rounds.”

“Get her on the table,” Web said. “I’ll take a look at her; in the meantime, you need to get this place set up and ready for a siege.”

Tap, grumbling, had already grabbed a shotgun. “I told you you could only keep coming here as long as you didn’t get anypony shot!”

Wingmare dropped the young pegasus on the table. “Look, I didn’t start this with them!” she yelled at Tap. “This was Scoot’s problem; this would have happened without us!”

Rarity sighed before turning to their shaman. “Web, can I borrow your pistol?”

The pegasus slid it across the table as she summoned the small healing earth elemental. Rarity took the gun, checked the barrel, and handed it over to Sweetie Belle. “Remember that time I took you to the gun range?” she asked.

“I missed every shot,” Sweetie answered, taking it.

“Hopefully, they’ll be standing next to each other,” Rarity said. “Tap, hold down the bar, if anyone gets within ten feet of it, blast it. Candy, can you set up anti-personnel charges at the doors and windows?”

“On it!” she replied.

“Steel, if anything makes it past the charges, you’re slicing them up!”

“Yes ma’am!” she replied, as her blades ejected from her legs.

“Flashpoint, you’ll be frying them before they get in.”

Flashpoint nodded and moved to her new position.

“Let’s get ready for a siege.”

Bullets shot through the grate, and Tap ducked behind the bar.

“They’re here already?” Rarity said, turning over tables for some kind of cover.

“I said they were coming!” Wingmare replied.

Candy had only set up one of the charges before she scooted back, a bullet buried into her shoulder. Web was pulling Scootaloo off the table to cover, Wingmare ducked beneath another table, and Steel was forced back to another corner of the room.

“Sweetie, are you alright?” Rarity asked.

“I...I think so?” she said. “I don’t think I’ve been hit.”

“Good, stay down,” she said before turning to the others. “Well, ladies, it looks like we don’t have the time.”

“You’re telling me!” Candy said as she wrapped her bullet wound with some gauze.

Another burst of gunfire rattled the steel door, shattering the glass of Tap’s windows and forcing the team back into cover.

“Web, you have a plan for us?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t do on-the-fly!” She responded, slapping Scootaloo with stim patches.

Rarity figured that’s what Web would say. “Alright, then. Shoot straight, conserve ammo, and don’t be a hero, ponies!”

Another burst of gunfire kept the team pinned before Rarity’s cyber eyes began searching for nearby devices. A handful of RFID chips marked three dozen refrigerators heading their way, and even if she wasn’t a technomancer, Rarity knew it was a poor attempt to hide some illegal weapons. “I have thirty-or-so contacts.”

Flashpoint was concentrating, focusing as she muttered her incantations. It took only a moment or two, but eventually, a large, pony-shaped creature made of fire answered her summons. “Go, wreak havoc.”

The Elemental “cheered?” Though to Rarity’s ears, it sounded like the snapping and popping of firewood. It rushed forward, dipping through the astral for only a second as it made it through the wall before it took a true solid form. It roared like an inferno, and a panicked cry of “Oh, drek!” sounded before both sounds was drowned out by gunfire.

“That’s bought us a little time!” Flashpoint said.

“Great!” Rarity said, “Web, pull back until you can Scoots back on her hooves, then get back here with some hoof-waving.”

Web nodded and obeyed, grabbing the pegasus and pulling Scoots on to her own back.

“Reposition!” Rarity yelled. “Find new cover!”

The team scrambled, searching for new firing points to fire from as the “refrigerators” outside fired wildly at the Elemental outside. They double-checked their ammo as they moved. Candy took a flank on the left side of the door, keeping wood, plastic, and as much steel as she could between her and the street. Wingmare jumped back, between the tables, pulling out her pistols as she steadied her arms with magic and will. Steel jumped over the bar, pushing Tap back. “Head to the other end, you have better coverage that way.”

Rarity, meanwhile, cursed to herself. None of the gangers coming at them had anything she could have fun playing with. The guns lacked a smartlink she could use to jam them, they had no drones to hack, and they had some of the cheapest coms she had ever seen in their pockets.

It disappointed her, honestly.

“Ah, well. I’ll have some fun at least,” she thought before a single keystroke caused those very same coms to overheat their batteries and explode.

Ponies screamed outside the bar, most lighting on fire either from the elemental or the exploding coms. They fired wildly, and Rarity sat back for a second, before smirking.

Sweetie shivered beside her. “What’s going on out there?” she asked, concerned.

“Those are good sounds, actually,” Rarity replied. “Once they start hitting the storefront again, that’s when things are going wrong.” She glanced out again using her AR Vision, looking for more devices.

Twenty of the “refrigerators” were down, with the last sixteen or so firing wildly at what Rarity assumed to be the Elemental. “Well, it looks like the first wave of ponies has been taken care of.”

“First wave?” Sweetie asked.

“Always assume there’s more,” Wingmare said.

“Because there’s already another thirty ponies coming this way,” Rarity said, watching a herd of toasters make their way closer. “We have more incoming,” she noted, as she lifted her submachine gun, and readied another spike command to blow up more comms.

The gangers continued to fire, hitting the Elemental, but doing little to its body.

Flashpoint cursed. “They have a mage, I can sense him.”

“Geek him first then,” Steel said before Wingmare unleashed a single shot from her pistol. It rocketed across the bar, passing through the door, and out into the street.

“Mage down,” she replied with a smirk.

Steel rolled her eyes. “Ya know, at some point, it’s just showing off.”

“Unfortunately, the elemental’s down too,” Flashpoint said. “We’ll have to finish this ourselves.”

“That’s never stopped us before,” Rarity said.

A hail of bullets hit the storefront again, shattering more glass, and digging into the wall behind them. The team had just managed to stick to their cover as they were showered in lead, staying safe from the volley, before Rarity sent a quick text to the others. “Stay quiet, play dead.”

The team obeyed, going to ground behind their cover while the gangers continued to shoot outside.

After another three or four bursts, and the shots died down. After another few seconds, a pony asked outside. “Are they dead?”

Rarity sent another text to the others. “Not yet,” she posted, as she kept Sweetie close to her.

“I don’t know; they’re really quiet.”

“Shut up, you two, get up there!”

Something slammed against the shutter, and Rarity sent another text. “Almost.”

Another few bodies slammed into the shutter, before another burst of fire cut across the room.

“I...I think they’re dead!”

“Well, go check,” the first voice said.

They heard some struggling on the other side of the shutter, and after a long second, one of the ponies cried out. “I can’t get it open!”

The voice that was barking out orders earlier sighed. “Get the cutter out!”

“Wait for my signal,” Rarity sent to the others. “We wait for them to get inside, then let it loose.”

“They’re cutting through our defense, though!” Candy texted back.

“I know, but if they keep shooting us like this, we’re fish in a barrel. With their ponies inside, they might not be as interested in shooting back.”

Rarity hoped, anyway.

“Flashpoint, can you hide us for a bit?” she sent.

Twilight gave a noncommittal shrug and began to cast a new spell.

The spinning up of an electric saw screeched against their ears, followed by the incessant grinding of metal against metal as they began to cut holes in the shutter.

The team stayed put.

The saw buzzed and screeched, cutting through the shutter slowly, before finally, a pony could fit through.

One of the gangers slipped in, and he glanced about, searching for any sign of life. “I don't see anypony,” he said.

Another stallion came in, following the first, before the third pegasus crawled in. “There’s some blood over here,” the second one said. “Somepony was down here.”

“Any sign of Broken Wing?” The third said.

“Nothing yet. I—”

“Now!” Rarity yelled, popping up from invisibility as she unloaded her submachine gun into the gangers. The rest of the team followed suit, firing everything they had, into the three ponies.

The moment they went down, Candy leaped forward. “Grenade out!” She said with a smile, tossing the explosive out past the shutter before bouncing back behind cover.

The Krumpf of the explosive sent gangers screaming as they dove for cover from the shrapnel that showered the street. “Pull back to the stairs!” Rarity said, “We’ll let them file through and come to us!”

“Sounds fun!” Candy said, tossing mines into the foyer behind her as they all began to rush for the stairs.

“Let’s go, ponies! Go, go, go!” Rarity said, standing between Sweetie and the door.

“Let’s go Tap, we ain’t got all day!” Steel said.

“Get them!” Someone yelled outside, and the gangers began to move toward the storefront.

Steel fired a shotgun blast behind her, sending gangers scattering from the buckshot.

“What are you doing up here?” Web asked as Rarity and the others filed in.

“Steel, hold the stairs, everypony else, get ready,” the decker said before turning to their shaman. “They were staying outside, so we had to lure them in.”

“That’s a terrible idea!” Web said.

“They’re easier to—” one of the mines exploded, leaving a pony screaming. “—to shoot in here.”

“Yes, sure! But it’s closer to us!”

Another mine exploded.

“Well, if they’re as eager to run into our bullets as they are the explosives, then we should be fine,” Rarity said.

Web sighed. “Look, holding out in a bar like this isn’t going to keep us safe, we need to evac!”

“And leave my bar?” Tap asked.

“Yes!” Web said. “We’re caught between a force of gangers that are going to keep coming and the back wall. Sure, we can shoot them now, but how many are coming for us? How many more in the next day? We need to go to ground, regroup, and take care of this the smart way. Especially because right now, our best plan is to let them in.”

That...did make her plan sound worse. “I thought bottleneck was a decent idea,” Rarity said.

Web sighed. “For shooting them, yes. But it’s shortsighted.”

Wingmare shrugged. “I dunno, I thought it was cool.”

“I’m not leaving my bar!” Tap said again. “It’s been in the family for generations. I’m not letting these gangers burn this place down to the ground without a fight! I—”

“Look, Tap,” Wingmare interrupted. “I’m doing some jobs right now that are going to pay me ten million. I will pay you every single nubit for a new bar if I need to, but we need to get you out of here.”

Tap blinked and looked at her. “Ten Million?”

“It’s a big job,” Wingmare said. “But I will pay to have literally everything replaced, down to the floorboards, if I need to. I might even spring for upgrades, but if Web says we need to go, we need to go.”

Tap looked at her.

“I promise Tap. I’ll replace everything down to the floorboards, and foundation.”

Tap sighed. “Fine...fine…”

Steel fired her shotgun again, blasting a pony into the third mine. It exploded in a burst of fire and shrapnel that shook the building. “I’ve got a place for the kids to lay low!”

“Sounds good to me!” Flashpoint said. “Candy, can you bring the van out back?”

“I don’t have a back,” Tap said.

“No, but we can get there!” Flashpoint said before she began to cast a spell. The wood and stone in the back wall began to bend and shape, as a hole was carved in the back wall and into the neighboring skyscraper. “Let’s go!”

They didn’t need to be told twice.

They rushed through the hole in the wall, passing through just in time for Steel’s last shotgun blast to keep the gangers at bay long enough for Flashpoint to get everypony through, and seal up the wall behind them.

“Okay, we can’t waste time, let’s go!”

The moved, heading down the hallways of the office building, excusing themselves past every single pony they met as they met along the way.

“Pardon us! Just coming through!” Rarity said, hoping that her natural charm would keep the questions at bay just long enough for them to leave. “Excuse us, we were just leaving!”

The nine ponies, including Scootaloo’s unconscious form, passed through the whole building without much more than a shocked gasp. Rarity offered small smiles as she went until finally, that made it outside.

The Van was waiting for them, and they all quickly filed in, and the door slammed behind them as tires screeched against the pavement, leaving the skyscraper, and the bar behind it in the dust.

“Alright, where are we heading, Steel?” Candy asked.

“Here’s the address,” Steel said. “It should be a Harmony Inc facility.”

“A corp place?” Tap asked, confused.

“It’s a long story, Tap.”

“If you say so…”

<><><|><><>

Scootaloo was conscious again, barely standing next to Sweetie Belle as Rarity, Steel, and Wingmare all stood in front of the door.

“What’s going on?” the bouncer asked, blearily.

“We’re laying low,” Sweetie replied.

“Eyup,” Steel replied. “You should be perfectly safe here for a couple of weeks, and well, honestly, I think the pony here could use some friends her age.” Without saying anything else, she knocked on the door.

“Coming,” a voice inside called, before the door opened to reveal a young mare with a yellow coat and red mane. “Hello, can I help you?” she asked, her voice quiet, and subdued.

“Hi, Apple Bloom,” Steel said. “Do you know who I am?”

The new mare glanced at her, her orange eyes staring at her curiously. “You’re familiar...but I don’t remember, no.”

Steel’s posture sank as she said so. “I’m your sister, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom nodded, as though she had just been told that the weather was sunny today.

“These ponies are Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo,” Steel continued. “Is it okay if they stay with you a bit? I think it’d be good if you had some friends.”

Apple Bloom stared at Steel for a long second before nodding. “That sounds exciting,” she replied in her same, subdued voice. “Has it been cleared with my therapist?”

“It has,” Steel said. “I wouldn’t do anything to risk your recovery, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “You sound like a nice sister,” she said before she opened the door. “Come on in, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”

Both of the younger mares glanced at Rarity and Wingmare, looking for some kind of cue that it really was safe.

They both nodded.

With a sigh and an enormous amount of trust, they both stepped in.

“You only need to be here a week or so,” Rarity said. “We’ll come to pick you both up when it’s safe.”

They waved the girls off, as Sweetie closed the door behind her, and Rarity double-checked the comm they left Tap, making sure it still wasn’t being tracked. With the last goodbyes given, such as they were, the three mares piled back into the van. “Are you sure they’re going to be safe here, Steel?” Wingmare asked.

“They will be,” She answered back. “Apple Bloom’s safety is a part of my contract. Our big Ringo will keep her safe just to keep me on the payroll at this point.”

“Good to hear,” Rarity said. “I couldn’t risk losing Sweetie.”

They climbed back into the van, where the rest of the team was waiting for them, including Flashpoint, who was giving Wingmare a look.

“What?” the adept asked, confused.

“What’s the deal?” Flashpoint asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You ask for ten million nubits, and then immediately offer it to help Tap buy a new bar.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Why?” Flashpoint asked. “If you’re in it for the money, then why give it away?”

“That’s a little personal, don’t you think?” Wingmare asked.

“Honestly, we know Web’s being hunted by Ahuiztech because she’s a werebat, Steel has a grudge with Flimflam because they bought her family farm and split her family, Gem is a technomancer and wanted by literally every corp on the planet, and Candy...well, she’s Candy. We’re all way past personal at this rate.”

Steel smirked. “Now I ain’t sayin she’s right. But she does have a point.”

Wingmare sighed. “Fine...fine…” she said. “I’ll let you know once we hit the safehouse.”

Comments

[Undeadking243]

It always makes my day when this story updates.

[Booster Spice]

I was thinking a nice welcome roast would be useful with the pepperwork, and lo and behold, we get a Fire Elemental, instead of having to have a spare Boomer on Tap.

Oh well. Theyre all out of bubblegum.

[Iron Comet]

And I think it is fate that these three are finally together. Just took a firefight to do it!

[Undeadking243]

Now I want a chapter/side story dedicated to the adult CMC.

[djthomp]

Scootaloo being mentioned twice makes me concerned.

All of the ponies peeked up at the front, where Wingmare sat, pressing against the wall, an orange pegasus draped over her shoulder.

Figures.

The Elemental “cheered?” Though to Rarity’s ears, it sounded like the snapping and popping of firewood. It rushed forward, dipping through the astral for only a second as it made it through the wall before it took a true solid form. It roared like an inferno, and a panicked cry of “Oh, drek!” sounded before both sounds was drowned out by gunfire.

It's good to enjoy your work.

“Ah, well. I’ll have some fun at least,” she thought before a single keystroke caused those very same coms to overheat their batteries and explode.

Same.

Flashpoint cursed. “They have a mage, I can sense him.”

“Geek him first then,” Steel said before Wingmare unleashed a single shot from her pistol. It rocketed across the bar, passing through the door, and out into the street.

“Mage down,” she replied with a smirk.

Nice.

“They’re easier to—” one of the mines exploded, leaving a pony screaming. “—to shoot in here.”

“Yes, sure! But it’s closer to us!”

That's fair.

The CMC, united at last.

I had totally forgotten that the ten million was Dash's reward from Spike.