Mare Do Well: Rebirth

by MagnetBolt

Black Mark, Part 2

Six to one odds weren’t good at the best of times, and when each of those six was a deadly fighting machine made of armor plating and hydraulic muscle, the odds were more like an elaborate and probably very expensive suicide.

“One of these Buster Shadow synths was able to go right through you,” Black Valentino said. “The thing about the future I see for Equestria is that we’re not going to have just one of anything! Mass production is the future. No more isolated geniuses making one-offs, no more innovations dying with their creators.”

“Are you trying to make me a sales pitch for the weapon you’re threatening me with?” Mare Do Well asked.

“It’s a habit,” Black admitted. “Boys, if you would?”

The six machines lurched into motion. They wordlessly spread out, evenly spacing themselves around Mare Do Well. The display in her cowl tried to track them, outlining them and showing warnings at the edge of her vision as they surrounded her.

“Okay, fancy suit,” Mare Do Well muttered. “You don’t want to be scrapped, I don’t want to die, just help me out here.”

One of the machines in front of her lowered its head and moved. Mare Do Well jumped, and a second machine caught her from behind, knocking her back to the ground. The dazzling light on her armor’s chestplate flashed, and the synth about to trample her skidded to a stop. Mare Do Well rolled to the side, but a third machine caught her ribs with a metal hoof, hard enough to dent the armor and her ribs under it. She slammed into one of the exposed beams from the ongoing construction, one of the ponies working to rivet things together falling from above and landing hard enough to break something. Even as dazed as he was, the fallen stallion rolled on the ground, clutching his leg and hissing in pain.

“Woah, woah, careful!” Black said. “You could break something important! I want her dead, but keep the collateral damage to a minimum!”

“That’s really nice of you,” Mare Do Well groaned. “I’m pretty important, how about they don’t break me?”

Before she could come up with a really great plan for beating all six of them at once, Mare Do Well realized she was only looking at five of them. A steel hoof grabbed her from behind, pulling her into a chokehold. One of the other five launched itself at Mare Do Well. She raised a hoof, launching a net that caught the synth in a tangle of almost-unbreakable cables, then kicked back, hoofblades raising sparks on the unit holding her but not making it let go.

“Okay, we’ll have to do this… the hard way!” Mare Do Well grunted. She braced herself and pushed as much energy into her legs as she could, fighting to get leverage and pulling at the hoof on her neck.

The synth behind her froze up when it started to leave the ground. Mare Do Well gritted her fangs and, the suit’s built-in muscles kicking in, threw the heavy machine over her shoulder. It crashed into two of the others, knocking them over.

“That was harder than I thought it would be,” Mare Do Well said, panting for breath. “Do you think maybe I could just fight you one at a time? I need a little breather.”

The Buster Shadow unit in the net tore free, trailing bits of the sticky lines as it stood. The ones that had fallen in a heap got back to their hooves without any real apparent damage.

“Is that a no?” Mare Do Well asked.

A new sound cut through the construction, a high-pitched whine crossed with a bass rumble, like nothing Mare Do Well had ever heard before. The cowl helpfully pointed out where it was coming from, alerting her to movement to her right.

Something in bright red and white flew through the air, leaving a contrail as it cut through the rainy sky, the noise getting louder as it approached.

“Steel Braver?” Mare Do Well asked in confusion.

The synth flew through the open wall to the outside, the noise reaching deafening levels as he got inside, hovering on rigid metal wings, fans in the center throwing hurricane-force winds and keeping him in the air. He dropped down, the noise cutting off as the wings folded, moving like origami and somehow turning an impressive wingspan into just a backpack.

“It seems I got here just in time!” Steel Braver flashed Mare Do Well a neon smile and struck a pose. “Mark-2 Watches were banned from the PrinTecca building, so my support crew was unaffected. I was concerned I would have to resolve this without your assistance. Can you fill me in on the details?”

Black Valentino clicked his tongue. “Didn’t take that into account. Probably missing a lot of good ponies just because they don’t want competitor’s products running in their buildings. That’s a good note to make. Going to have to open up that market aggressively later.”

“He’s evil and trying to take over the city,” Mare Do Well said. “He’s also got a team of killer machines.”

“This seems relatively straightforward, then,” Steel Braver said. He moved next to Mare Do Well and struck a fighting pose, ready for the bigger synths to advance.

“Know any secret techniques for taking them out?” Mare Do Well asked.

“The analysis of the unit we destroyed showed that it was designed with an extremely rigid frame. A large enough shock will disable them, but lesser blows have no real effect,” Steel Braver said.

“All or nothing, huh?” Mare Do Well asked. “Okay. I can work with that.”

They moved at the same time without needing to say a word. Mare Do Well ducked left, Steel Braver running right. Mare Do Well had already spotted exactly what she needed. She shoved one of the ponies cutting steel with a torch out of the way, grabbing the tank of acetylene they’d been using it and throwing it at the nearest Buster Shadow unit. It caught the tank, snatching it out of the air easily.

“Gotcha,” Mare Do Well said, following it up with a precisely-aimed bolt of magic to the valve. She wasn’t much of a pyromancer, but she didn’t need to be. The tank ruptured, blowing up in the synth’s face and sending it to the ground as a burning heap.

“Please be careful!” Steel Braver said. “Explosives might injure innocent ponies in the area!”

“At least he cares about them,” Black said. “But you know, hero, maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to kill your brothers and sisters, either! I arranged that little sabotage at PrinTecca to cover up how many components and designs I had smuggled out of there. Turned out your creators didn’t pay their interns very well!”

“What?” Steel Braver asked, confused. He took a punch thanks to the distraction.

“These six -- well, five -- are basically like your half-brothers!”

“Oh. I see.” Steel Braver grabbed the next hoof before it could land, pushing it back. “Thank you for telling me.”

His wings flipped out, and he jumped, going over the Buster Shadow while still holding its hoof, the machine’s joints squealing and finally breaking, hydraulic fluid exploding out.

“I know that if I was being used to oppress ponies like this, and I had to follow your orders, I would want to be stopped!” Steel Braver said. He grabbed the Buster Shadow’s head from behind, engines in his wings going to full power. His rear hooves pressed hard into the machine’s rigid back.

With a shower of sparks, the synth’s head tore free.

“That’s all we can ask for,” Mare Do Well agreed. She waited near the edge of the floor and ducked to the side when one of the remaining units charged her, dazzling it with her chest flare and sending it skidding over the edge when its hooves found that enough rain had gotten inside to turn the floor into a sliding hazard. It launched grappling daggers as it fell, trying to catch the edge. Mare Do Well sliced its lines with a hoofblade, letting it fall and explode on a balcony forty floors below.

“You know, those things are expensive,” Black said.

“Maybe you should call them off,” Mare Do Well suggested. She ducked to the side, avoiding a wild swing. Steel Braver grabbed that unit’s tail, the armor on his fetlock opening up and launching a grappling line, the cable wrapping around the bigger synth, then lighting up with sparks as he delivered an electrical shock that crashed its systems.

The last two Buster Shadows moved back to back, their dagger-like line launchers snapping to a ready position.

Braver looked at Mare Do Well and nodded. They jumped at the same time, avoiding the red-hot spikes the synths launched at them and coming down on them from above, kicking the back-to-back Buster Shadows into each other, the shock from the combined impact breaking something inside them. They collapsed, smoke and sparks trailing from every joint.

“Nice work,” Mare Do Well said.

“I believe there’s only one thing left to do,” Steel Braver replied.

They turned to Black Valentino in his gleaming golden chrome armor.

“Wow. Just… wow,” Black sighed. “You know, with how much I spent on them between the development costs, reverse-engineering PrinTecca gear, paying ponies to keep quiet about what they were doing… I really expected to get a better return on my investment.”

“You should give up. If your toys couldn’t win, you don’t have much of a chance,” Mare Do Well warned.

“Any other time, you’d be right,” Black agreed. “I’m not much of a fighter. But you know what? Today, I feel pretty lucky.”

Mare Do Well rushed him.

Black tapped the black crystal plate on his wrist. “Boxer,” he said.

He ducked under the punch Mare Do Well threw with shocking speed, moving like she was in slow motion. The golden plates on his flank shifted, showing another screen there. A cutie mark showing a pony in silhouette throwing a punch blazing in neon green.

“What the--” Mare Do Well asked, before an uppercut hit her chin and sent her reeling back.

“I’m not a fighter, but there are plenty of fighters out there,” Black explained. He tapped his wrist again. “Judo.” The cutie mark on his flank changed to a black belt.

Steel Braver jumped at him, and Black caught him in midair, twisting his hoof and throwing him backwards like he was weightless.

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” Black sighed. “See, I can call on the best of the best. When I raise a hoof against you, it’s with the strength of a million ponies behind it. When I tell you to give up, it’s with a million voices. Nopony, not even one of the Princesses, has ever had this kind of power!” He laughed, snorting, and shaking his head. “It’s a little intoxicating.”

“I don’t care what special talents you pull out, you’re going down,” Mare Do Well said. “Go ahead. Judo. Boxing. Maybe you want to try Tai Chi and get some inner peace before I drag you off to prison.”

“You know, I think once this is over I will try that. It’s a really good idea, sort of a treat to reward myself and recenter,” Black said. “What I’m going to try first is much more exciting.” He tapped his wrist. “Pulse.”

“Pulse?” Mare Do Well asked.

A cutie mark of crossed lightning bolts appeared on his flank. Bright blue lines appeared in the air around Black like a lion’s mane, tracing out the runes of a spell.

“Oh buck--” Mare Do Well swore, just before the technomagic went off. Her vision went black before filling up with error messages. She felt the suit twisting like a pony having a seizure, the mechanical assist firing at random. Mare Do Well fought against it, struggling and finding the seam, loosening it up and changing shape, slimming herself down to slither free like she was shedding an armored shell.

“Electrothaumatic Pulse,” Black explained. “Your synthetic friend didn’t like it much either.” He motioned to the synth, who was lying prone with red text scrolling across the curved screen that made up his face.

“Cute,” Loopy said. Without the costume, she didn’t feel much like Mare Do Well. She stood up, brushing herself off and shifting back to normal. “You’d better hope that’s not permanent, or you’re going offline for good too.”

“Wow, that’s quite a threat from a hero,” Black said, amused. “This almost feels unfair. I took away all your fancy toys, and I’ve still got all the power of Seasaddle behind me!”

“I’m not scared of you, Black,” Loopy said.

“That’s okay. We’ve got all night to work on that.” Black tapped his wrist. “Karate.”

Loopy watched him take up a stance and waited for her moment. She had a bad idea. A really bad idea.

Black threw a straight punch, and Loopy grabbed his wrist. Instead of twisting it into a hold or trying to hit him in his smug face, she tapped the crystal panel.

“Plumbing,” she said, in Black’s voice.

The cutie mark on his armor changed to a plunger and a wrench. The strength left his stance, and he blinked in confusion. “What are you--”

She hit it again. “Swimming.” Again. “Ballet.” Again. “Medicine.” Again. “Baking.”

The cutie mark on Black’s flank flashed, static crackling on the display. It switched from one cutie mark to another at lightning speed, trying to accommodate all the requests at the same time.

“Stop it!” Black screamed. “I can’t--”

“Sleeping!” Loopy continued, adding more cutie marks. The screen was mixing them together, trying to display them all at once. “Cleaning! Ratcatching! Hatmaking!”

“Stop it!” Black pulled away, clutching his head. His armor was heating up, the cutie mark display on his flank just a blur now. “I can’t-- it’s too much! I need to-- I need to--!”

“You need to shut up,” Loopy said, punching him. Black’s eyes rolled up, and he fell over.

The ponies working around them on the construction all stopped at the same time, freezing in place before coming to their senses, looking around like they were coming out of a waking dream.

“Is this what it’s like when ponies are drunk?” Steel Braver asked. His face flashed back and forth between his face and a long list of error messages. “I do not like it.”

“It’s probably more like a hangover,” Loopy said, helping him up.

“I see you defeated Mister Valentino,” Steel said. Loopy patted his back.

“We defeated him. You get to do the hero walk with me. Especially since I can’t carry him on my own. You get to sit on him in the elevator to make sure he doesn’t act up.”

“I will be an excellent weight,” Steel said, saluting.

Comments

[Dorath]

“I will be an excellent weight,” Steel said, saluting.