Spark Wars - New Change

by AverageSMILEnjoyer

Chapter I - The Hors Homestead

Chapter I - The Hors Homestead

*BEEB-BEEB-BEEB-*

"Nghhh-nooooo... It's too eeeeeearly..." I whined into a pillow and smacked at the offending device till it stopped.

I felt like I barely fell into bed and the buzzer embedded in the wall of my bunk bed started screaming. Spent the entire night trying to figure out what went wrong around the homestead!

Reluctantly, I sat up in my bed like a rising zombie and rubbed my tired eyes.

My sleeping quarters were very compact with about three square meters across, and just a small cozy bed inside of a hole in the wall, plus some other furniture.

Cramped for most races, but a perfect balance of space and practicality for a pony. And there was my much bigger workshop just next door.

I begrudgingly threw away my blue striped bed sheets and stumbled out with my limbs landing on blue synthetic carpet, which would otherwise be a cold metal floor which doesn't exactly feel nice on pony hooves.

Basically blind from exhaustion, I made my way past a desk with a chair and some study material on top of it I downloaded over the Skale yesterday. Or was that still today? Either way I stepped towards the exit which helpfully opened on its own.

The other room was a mess I called my workshop. Floor was littered with a mess of spare copper wires and electronic components, which got only worse near the other side of the room. And I had to dodge a couple of haphazardly balanced empty cans of Fire! Cola.

My bedroom and workshop were both a part of a 'D' shaped room, with my sleeping quarters being on one edge separated by a door, and my workshop taking the whole other three quarters. Two doors then lead out on the hallway by the straight side of the wall, plus the third door leading to my bedroom.

Dead on my hooves, I walked across the landscape of salvage, dismantled speakers and shelved devices with no care about what got under my clumsy limbs.

I made my way directly to my workbench on top of which sat a partly disassembled core of Miner6 which was the thing that gave me so much trouble yesterday. The moment I sat at the chair, my head and hooves collapsed on top of the desk.

Too tired to move any part of my body, I lazily fired up my horn with my face still on the desk, and red magic levitated a HoloPone, which to this moment ran tests on the core, towards me. The holographic datapad designed to be worn by ponies lit up and a sheet of holographic display rolled out of it.

<Test of 'Miner6' found 0 errors. Diagnostic return: NEGATIVE

Aw... Come-on.

"Nghhhh..." I groaned and dropped the device.

I wondered whether I should run the diagnosis again, but after a quick thought, I decided against it. No sense doing the same thing over and over.

It was the third time the Miner class-X emerged empty from the gasses below and it was better to know what caused the bug, else we ignore it and next time the Miner wouldn't return at all.

I just had absolutely no idea what went wrong with the drone, it seemed just fine the other week and all hardware and software diagnostics returned negative. I tried to think, and hard, but my mind just went blank after yesterday's brain workout.

In the end, I just gave up and disconnected the HoloPone before wrapping it around my left hoof.

Then I walked away in the same manner I woke up. Like a zombie.

Once I reached the closest door of the two in the room, I poked the thing with my horn till I remembered I had to press the panel beside to get through these ones. The door slid open and I stumbled out onto a long hallway running parallely between my room and the two bedrooms of my uncle and aunt, and walked through the corridor till I reached a bathroom at the end.

Once inside, I made my way to the sink right away and began my daily routine. First, I looked at myself in the mirror.

The mare in the mirror stared back. My otherwise snow-white hide had grey smudges all over it from my work on the Miner6. Auntie always hated when I got it dirty, and to be honest, I would have definitely cared about my looks more not there for the... obvious reasons.

My electric mane was disheveled into an unrecognizable state, with the white and blue stripes sticking out into random directions. Likewise, my tail was in a similar state of disarray.

It was... not that different from my usual manestyle.

And my face? Circles under eyes, check. Stuffy nose, check. Spots of droll down my jaw, check. Blood red iris now accompanied by visible blood vessels, aaaand check!

Simply elegant.

It was pretty much obvious with just one look into my face I was standing on my last legs, but nothing that a cup of Fire! Cola couldn't fix. Plus, I could always get some sleep on the way to the city.

Well, that was one face anyway. Now the other.

*WHOOSH*

My whole body was encompassed in green flames. Burning away all the transformation magic that hid my real form.

The flames started from my forelegs and stopped at the tip of my horn, leaving behind a black monstrosity which was... very much in the same state of disarray as my disguise.

My blue and white mane still was a mess, though now its texture resembled more to silk full of holes than hair, same as my tail.

My body is what has truly changed. I no longer had the white fuzzy hide like usual, instead, from my hole-filled limbs, all the way to my face, I was covered by black chitin. It looked like tough biological armor, but the amount of hairline fractures I've acquired would disagree with that.

At my midsection were two pairs of insectoid wings hidden under an outer shell. I opened the elytra and spread those babies wide open. I then flexed before the mirror both the forewings and hindwings respectively. I loved those things. I could fly, and shoot frickin' lazers from ma face!

Speaking of my face. My muzzle was a little bit longer and filled with very much carnivorous fangs, pointy teeth, and generally a look which kids would be imagining they would find under their beds. And then laugh when instead of a 'Hisss' I would say 'Five more minutes.'

And then came my horn and eyes. My horn was now curved and sharp like a dagger, instead of the stubby straight point of a regular unicorn. My eyes however, were now completely pink with a blood red iris and a black cat-like pupil in the middle. Stuff of nightmares!

All for all, I was... a walking zombie bug-pony still in need of a shower.

I still pretty much looked like dead meat, the pink edges of my eyes still had visible veins, and I very much stinked.

I stepped away from the mirror and went for the shower where I let the water soak me and proceeded to scrub myself with a brush levitating in my red telekinetic grasp. Then I praised whoever laid me for being born with chitin instead of hide when it came to drying.

After the quick shower —in which I only once successfully fell asleep— I was out again. I now looked like a zombie bug-pony after a shower.

"Meh, good 'nuf." I murmured to the mirror.

*WHOOSH*

Once again, I was enveloped by green flames and a white unicorn with an electric mane stood before me.

This time she looked MUCH better. Like if after a good night's sleep and a spa session full of grooming.

I stepped to the side and looked at that sexy flank in the mirror. I even gave a look at the cutie mark I've chosen for myself.

A single black note on my white flanks. There even was a real one, white note on my black chitin, under my disguise. Though I am not sure it was worth the trouble to get it, if no-one was ever going to see it. Other than my family, that is.

But I had enough of my shenanigans in the bathroom. I was now hungry.

The trip to the dining room brought me across the hallway and down via intersecting stairs, which ended in another hallway below. The whole homestead was built that way. A round five-story dome, with stairways and hallways in the middle, flanked by two 'D' shaped rooms. Overall there were seven rooms each serving its own purpose, including an observatory on the top.

At the end of the stairs, I skipped to the left and passed through a door which revealed the dome's kitchen quarters.

I was pleasantly surprised when food was already on the table, including my favorite algae bread and a mug of Fire! Soda.

The shape of the room was the same, if not identical to my own room. There was the main body, with a dining table where I walked off to and sat down on a flat cushioned stool on the ground, right by my food. And there was the kitchen right behind a low wall where I could hear something good bubbling on a plasma stove. Then there was the secondary room which was used for storage.

I placed my left foreleg on the table and activated the HP on it. I then browsed over the Scale Network for anything interesting while I levitated a cut piece of the green bread in my crimson aura and crammed it in my muzzle. Mmmhmm! Yummy!

I reached for the mug and took a sip. Then immediately cringed in disgust when I found out that instead of the orange drink there was a purple liquid in it.

"An Eridian juice?" I whined. My nightbite was so close to being perfect! I would love me some of that dragon energy drink right about now...

"It's bad for you!" A mare's voice came out from the storage. "It's about time you started drinking something more healthy!"

I rolled my eyes and pushed the drink aside. Why was everyone so worried about my health? If I took on the correct form, I could literally eat and drink anything! Plus, I could easily just burn away any side effects of long-term use by a single transformation! I literally couldn't get even fat!

I turned my attention back towards my HoloPone and looked up the weather forecasts and other city news.

Huh, looks like the Lamia got to eat again. Guess someone didn't pay the Dragon Lord in time...

I heard the door to the storage room open. Immediately, my special powers detected ‘not-this-again’ filling the room.

"Come on, Violet. I told you not to wear that face when home!" The voice coming up to me said.

I looked up and saw an older pegasus mare coming up from the storage, depositing a metal box from her back onto the kitchen counter. She wore a brown jacket across her pearl white hide which concealed most of her form and her cutie mark, and a black ribbon which decorated her red mane.

I sighed and rolled my eyes that I had to drop my disguise again, though I obeyed my aunt.

No one dared to argue with a mare named Red Sky Hors, and no one dared to go head to head with my uncle, Blu Sky Hors. And then there was me, Violet Sky, minus the obvious horse pun thank you very much!

Whoosh! The disguise went off.

"Ah!" Auntie Red's face shined, and her ‘that’s-what-I-like-to-see’ tingled my senses, "There is my favorite Bedbug."

She then proceeded to invade my personal space with far too affectionate hugs and nuzzles.

"Ngh, Aunteeee!" I whined in embarrassment, but she ignored my pleas and basically spoon fed me with her affection, which I couldn't help but to gobble up.

Guess that's the other dietary need taken care of...

Eventually auntie Red took a step back and returned to the kitchen to make her own food, to which I resumed my own. Even the Scale provided some interesting information.

"Seems like tomorrow evening there will be a storm." I noted.

"And an electromagnetic one at that!" Red replied, walking around the table with more food balancing on her wings. She then deposited it and sat down across from me. "But at least tonight’s wind speed won’t pass thirty miles. Blu went to make sure the shields could take it."

"Uh huh."

One more round of ‘not-this-again’ filled the room. I looked up to see what I did wrong, just to see Auntie Red pointing with her wing towards my untouched mug.

"Drink the Eridium, Violet. It's good for you." She ordered.

"But auntie! It's disgusting!" I objected.

"It is that or the Blue Milk from now on." Red finished with an aura of ‘not-taking-shit-from-you-now’.

I grumbled and took a sip from the gem mixture, trying hard to not think about whose digestive tract it had to go through for it to become refined for a non-dragon consumption. It was coarse and tasted like cooling liquid, but it was far better than to be confined to the same fate like uncle Blu.

The room fell into a silence as auntie Red pulled out her own HoloPone and we both lost ourselves in the Kitein wide web network.

My eyes widened when I found that my best friend published a new track. Sweet!

"So," Red took a sip of her Blue Milk. "About the drone. Found out something?"

I groaned, "Don't even ask. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with that drone." I then munched on one last piece of the bread.

"Ah." She bit her lip, "Then I suppose you wouldn't be happy to hear that another returned to the docks prematurely."

I looked up from my leg in shock.

"What?" I stared at her, "When? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Calm down Violet." Red she rolled her eyes, "It was just a couple of hours ago and I decided you needed the sleep more."

I sighed, "Alright, I can hook it up on my HP, run a diagnostic and find out what they have in common—"

"No need, I already found out what is happening." Auntie interrupted me again, waving her own wrist device.

I looked at her in surprise. "You have?"

Red nodded, "It is our server managing the new MX-14s. It can't keep up with the demand of processing power those new drones require to operate. The drones have a failsafe which returns them to the docks."

I bit my lip. "But... we can't cut down on how many drones we have out, else we fall behind the Tibanna minimum." Then I sighed, "Damn, if the Exo gets a whiff of this, they won't hesitate to write us off as unproductive."

I was a little bit confused when I didn't feel any worry from her over our livelihood, but the absence alone gave me a little bit of reassurance.

"You have a plan?" I took a guess, "Can we squeeze a bit more out of the server?"

Red shook her head with reconciliation, "No it's too old. The new MX-14 drones are simply too much for it to handle."

I looked down in shame. Buying those new drones was my idea. I even came up with a clever scheduling system to minimize the pressure on our outdated server. Both aunt and uncle were skeptical of my suggestion to invest into more expensive drones, but in the end the two trusted in my instinct, and where did it lead? "I... I am sorry auntie..."

An aura of ‘it-is-fine’ and ‘nothing-to-worry-about’ enveloped me when Red smiled, "You have nothing to apologize for, Violet. On the contrary! You were right!"

I lifted an eyebrow.

"Look at this," She said and tapped on her HoloPone. Next, my own foreleg beeped with a new message.

I clicked on the link within the message and a website from the Scale network opened up. It was a graph along with a short blog. It didn't take me long to figure out what it was about.

I looked up at auntie with widened eyes, "The Tibanna minimum went up again."

Red nodded, "We were already lagging behind the Tibanna minimum with the old MT-series. Me and your uncle planned on hooking up three more of the MTs and hope for the best, but with this rise we would be—"

"In deep shit." I finished. Auntie frowned at my choice of words, but reluctantly nodded.

"I can't believe I am saying it..." She bit her lip, while I grinned, "But your deal with that zebra saved our hides. You not only found those great drones on her market, but you also delivered a little bit of a revenge after she ripped us off with that server when we were starting our business, and on top of that, you came up with an efficient schedule that let us use all of the new drones even with the limits of our old server."

Red nodded to herself, "How I see it, the only thing that holds us back from swinging up with our production is the server. And considering it's been running on overclock for over five years, I am surprised it didn't simply go up in flames."

I felt Red accepting her own words, "I suppose it is simply time to get a new server too."

I nodded. "Do you have any ideas?"

Immediately, I felt a kind of 'here-it-comes' or 'the-big-reveal' which made me lift an eyebrow at her. Auntie Red in turn only smiled at me. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Auntie turned her attention towards her HoloPone and tapped on it for a moment. Right on clue, my own HP pinged me.

I took a look at my own foreleg, "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, "Is that...?"

Auntie Red nodded, a taste of ‘you-deserve-this’ filled me. She was proud. Not just proud, but proud of me! I never felt her feeling like this before, and this is the first time I felt something like this aimed at me. It was kind of energizing!

"Access to our family bank account." Red only smiled at my gaping maw, "You are a part of this family just as much. Me and your uncle have talked and... I know we didn't always trust your unique judgment... And sometimes I feel we didn't entirely integrate you into our family..." There was a bit of regret in the air, before Red continued.

"Violet," Red stood up from the table, "You have proven yourself to be an integral part of our little business, and it is about time both me and Blu properly acknowledged that." She nodded towards my HP, "We now officially give complete trust in your competence and experience to acquire the next piece of hardware." Then she rolled her eyes with 'Yes-I-admit' rolling out of her, "And considering your empathic superpowers... it makes you unlikely to get robbed silly."

I grinned at that.

I also stood up and this time it was me who walked around the table and hugged the other, "I promise I won't fluke all of it." Then I smirked mischievously, "All of it. Perhaps I'll take a detour in N's vehicle section, that sleek Turbo-Feeder reeeeally caught my eye!"

"Do not even think about that, young filly!" Red immediately scolded me, but the ‘not-amused-but-kinda-amused’ I felt betrayed her expression, "This is our livelihood we are talking about!"

"I know that!" I replied, and then mischievously looked to the side, "Buuuut, perhaps I could look around for a cleaning unit. Or a cooking one!"

Now that caught her attention. I grinned when auntie paused to think about it and I felt her brainstorming, though she quickly shook it off. "Absolutely not! I am warning you, Violet, if you spend more than twenty thousand credit units on that server, it's going to be blue milk for you for the foreseeable future!"

"Not the milk!" I melodramatically called out as I walked out of the kitchen. "Anything but the milk!"

My departure was quick and just as I was about to walk down stairs into the garage, the doors into the kitchen opened again.

"Violet?" Red's voice carried out from the kitchen. Once again, I could feel the hints of ‘not-this-again’.

I stopped to turn around and after a bit of hesitation I tentatively called back, "Yeah?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

My eyebrows furrowed. I checked myself out, but I pretty much had everything I needed to go down in my own airspeeder.

"Some clothes?"

I rolled my eyes, "I'll go naked!" I called back and made my way downstairs.

"Violet?" Auntie called out with that no-debate tone, but it was that ‘not-taking-shit’ which really made me stop.

*WHOOSH*

And I was in my other body. Along with my favorite white hoodie. What can I say? White on white is my favorite combination!

"Some real clothes Violet."

"Aw, c'mon!" I complained, but complied and went back up into my room to dress up.

It didn't take long to head back and dress up. Turns out, I have forgotten something behind. My favorite pair of purple windshades! Soon, I stood in the garage with the now real white body-sized hoodie and a pair of DJ glasses covering my eyes which no one could ever separate me from.

Wearing white hoodie and the purple windshades underneath for little variety made me look pretty cool, but that was its only positive.

Stooopid nudity ban, ponies had natural coats! Sure, I wouldn't like to stare at alien junk anytime I pass one, but why do we have to put on clothes too? They itch, and sweat, and grumble, grumble, grumble.

The homestead's vehicle garage was the second lowest part of the whole structure, just above the server room along with the generator.

I skipped the stairs and turned left into a wide open area where the homestead's three vehicles sat dormant, right before the garage’s large hangar door on the other side.

There was the Hoverlifter which Uncle only rarely ever used anytime the homestead's repulsorlifts needed maintenance, or we needed to haul something heavy around the farm.

In the middle was the family speeder with a sharp nose and windshield, with three raised repulsor lifts in the back. It was a currently broken grey V-35 Courier which was... kind of my fault. Lesson learned, don't dive with a modified landspeeder.

The third vehicle then was my blue M31 Airspeeder. It was a long pointy ship with two peaks upfront of which one was ripped off, a transparent cockpit in the middle and a repulsorlift engine in the back.

Imagine the surprise when little-me got her hooves on a discarded wreckage of this luxury vehicle just chilling in the waste disposal truck on its way to Thunderhead. Years later, after fixing, replacing parts, and some paint job, I finally got it working just a couple of weeks ago.

Then there was the cargo holder settled down behind my speeder. Since the family airspeeder was out of commission, it was up to the blue M31 to haul supplies back and forth between the city.

It was a large grey oval thing about the same size of the airspeeder, with all of that size being the cargo space inside. Two cylindrical shafts were set beneath it, hosting the two energy binders with which I could hook it up to the speeder.

I looked towards the hangar door on the other side of the room and lifted my HoloPone. With a single swipe of my magic, the hangar began to slide open.

Screeee! Shut. Screeee! Shut.

A thick sheet of metal on the left side separated from the wall and slid into another which then did the same, slowly opening the massive hangar door. The power of the Kitein winds which the metal door held back till now rushed in, but with the purple windshaders isolating my eyes it wasn’t much of a bother, and so I watched as the dark expanse slowly revealed itself before me.

Screeee! Shut. Screeee! Shut.

With the final part of the hangar door hiding itself by the side, the room was cast in a silence interrupted only by the whistling of the wind coming from the vast expanse spanning towards the horizon and further. The cold air of the Kitein night crawled inside the garage and I let it play with my mane and took a deep breath of it.

It was pretty dark outside, with the farm's artificial lighting being the only illumination for the ring platform around the entire perimeter. The sun had yet to come out and wouldn't for another fourteen hours, leaving only the stars and an eerily darkness of the depths beneath.

I stepped towards the blue Airspeeder and tapped on my HoloPone once again. This time it was the cockpit that opened. It popped up and slid right across the hull, showing the interior.

"Authority recognized. Welcome, user Violet." A female electronic voice came out from my HoloPone.

"Sup, Liara." I wasted no time and climbed up.

The inside had a plethora of small compartments by the sides, a manual steering-control in front, and a comparatively tiny seat to it all, way high up from the floor. The floor in turn was then cushioned with a single fluffy pillow for the rare times I took Red out to the city.

The interior was nowhere near resembling the luxury it was advertised for, but then again, I found it on a junk pile. But I am sure that some day I'll get around to properly equip the speeder with more pillows and what not. And definitely make a replacement for the one missing peak. I am just glad I can show off the years of my work.

"Liara, set course for the big city." I ordered.

The Virtual Intelligence picked up its name and immediately fulfilled my command. "Establishing a course for the Thunderhead. Estimated time of arrival, four hours and thirty minutes."

I made myself comfortable in the small cockpit. It was a one person Airspeeder, which meant two ponies could probably have a round of Blackjack in there comfortably. Seriously! Being small was awesome!

"Make that five," I replied, pushing a few buttons and controls. I could hear the start of an electric buzz from behind as the cargo holder's energy binders latched onto my vehicle, and then the transparent windshield slid back into place around me, cutting off the sound.

"Randomize both trajectory and speed." I added. The worst thing anyone can do is to make a beeline between their home and a city. That would be just asking for pirates to follow the trail. "And plan the route on the lowest safe level." Just to make it harder to detect me. The chances of meeting anyone on Kitein, even with sensors blaring miles in radius, are one in million, but you can never be too sure.

"Understood, user Violet." Liara's voice once again informed me.

Glad I managed to hook up the autopilot with my virtual Liara account, else I wouldn't be able to do this!

Whroom...

I heard the repulsorlift engine spring into action behind me, and the next moment, the entire vehicle started floating without me doing shit.

Slowly the airspeeder turned in place a half a meter above ground. When the front turned towards the open hangar door and the sky beyond, the propulsion thrusters at the back roared and the entire thing lunged forwards.

The unending abyss of the Kitein now spread out before me. Thousands of miles of just air and gasses were ahead of me, below me, and above me too.

I turned my head around in the cabin to take a look at the departing homestead. Just a few lights illuminating a small metallic island of the complete darkness of Kitein night. Already I could now only faintly make out the closing hangar I have left from.

"A nap is in order." I yawned.

A single tap on the console before me and the small seat I sat on lowered a hoof's length and leaned all the way back, leaving me more than enough space to relax for the long journey ahead.

I laid back in the spacious cockpit and put a headset that was stashed by the side and plugged it into my HoloPone. I adjusted the windshades on my eyes, then brought up the new track from the Scale I spotted earlier and let it play.

Sweet beats started playing into my ears and I couldn't help but to nod my head into the rhythm.

It wasn't long before I nodded off too. In a transparent cockpit, speeding across the bottomless sky filled with stars.

\            /
>==°o•o°==<
/            \

*Bleep*

"Estimated time of arrival: Ten minutes."

"Ngh. Already?" I groaned and rolled over. My headset fell out of my ears and I already missed its sweet beats. My windshades also fell off sometime during my slumber, and so I levitated them back onto my eyes.

*Yaawn* "Are you sure we are there yet? It felt like minutes to me."

"Negative, user Violet. You have slept for—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I waved her off. I sat up in the small cabin and finally looked out of the windshield. "No shit. We are here."

Up ahead on the dark horizon was the slightly darker shade of a big floating city. The Thunderhead.

It was the capital city of the whole Kitein and it let itself show by its sheer size. Thunderhead was the largest structure on the planet, with around a hundred miles in diameter and thirty in its height, not counting the massive pylons which hung from beneath it, sucking in air and condensing Tibanna stright out of the atmosphere, getting more Tibanna a pleb like me has no chance seeing in a hundred lifetimes.

Damn. Having just one of those things and we would be set for life. And the Thunderhead had seven, evenly distributed around its center.

"Warning. By the order of Exo directive, no autonomous entity is permitted to control an airborne vehicle within the Thunderhead borders." Liara reminded me.

"Change to the manual." I said. The driving wheel in front of me unlocked and I took over the controls from the autopilot with my hooves.

Slowly the Thunderhead changed from an outline on the horizon, into an actual structure which was fast approaching. Still it was a couple of minutes away.

I think it is a shame that autopilots are banned in the city. The best one can do is a dedicated driver droid, though that’s a bit expensive and not all that worth it in the end. I still think it is stupid, but I suppose autopiloting algorithms aren’t exactly built to react correctly when an idiot skips the traffic in front of the speeder.

I steered the airspeeder around and aimed for my usual drive in. I watched with a silly grin on my face how the city grew closer and closer, until it was just a massive wall of metal platforms and entry points that just blocked the horizon. Already when I looked to the left and right, it felt like the walls of the Thunderhead go on forever.

There were thousands of cars and airspeeders just like mine, slowly concentrating into a single stream of traffic fast approaching the dragon superstructure. I even spotted a few spaceships descending from above and entering one of the larger entrances of the Thunderhead.

Suddenly, the endless expanses of Kitein just vanished and were replaced by the rushing insides of the big city.

I always enjoyed entering the city. There was just something about approaching it at high speeds only to see everything just vanish and reveal itself at the same time.

A massive corridor highway opened up before me, spanning across the entirety of the Thunderhead. Houses, streets and businesses, all standing and attached to massive walls and pillars in the insides of the big city, with numerous giant platforms and tunnels connecting them all. Large tunnels followed my highway in parallel by its sides, where I could see plenty of pedestrians behind a window shield going about their business.

I wasn't the only one using the highway however, countless various vehicles of every type were flying with me with their own goals in mind. Some were flying at the same height as me, and some sped by above us.

There were of course few people who flew under their own power. Being the homeworld of dragons, of course many species would sometimes prefer to stretch their own wings. There was for example a gryphon who just joined the line a few cars ahead. He wore a turbopack on his back aiding his wings, which meant they had no problem keeping up with the traffic.

Maybe that's why autopilot is banned? I did hear something about a griffon being smacked by an airspeeder ‘cause the system did not detect them.

Or perhaps it has something to do with cyber security. Wireless slicing is a thing now, unfortunately.

Right at that moment, a massive dragon decided to show off his wingspan. He flew above us in a line for large vehicles and easily sped past. The dragon wore an enormous suit bearing green colors of Kitein security patrol, along with a set of turbo engines under his wings which propelled him forward and illuminated my cockpit with blue light along the way.

So. Frickin’. Cool.

Man, I love this city!

\            /
>==°o•o°==<
/            \

I drove my airspeeder down into a dock. A spacious hall carved inside one of the massive pillars. My spot was marked by several lit up lights which dimed as I hovered above and snuffed out just like the lights around other vehicles parking in their own spots.

The landing was smooth and once I touched down I opened the cockpit and jumped out on the metal floor below. The ever consistent buzzing of the cargo holder stopped as soon as it came to rest on the ground and the energy binders turned off.

I wasn't too scared someone would come and bind them to different vehicle and fly off. That thing wouldn't move an inch without a repulsor lift, which could only come online by binding with an authorized speeder.

But before I locked everything behind me, I reached inside the airspeeder with my magic one more time and picked up my personal blaster holster.

Inside was a cheap stubby Model 57 Blaster Pistol, it wasn't the prettiest thing, but it was a reliable sidearm and would do the job if it came to it.

I checked out the weapon before strapping it to my right foreleg.

Theoretically, I wouldn't even need it, because I knew a neat little horn trick that lets me shoot laser blasts right out of my forehead, but one can never be too sure! Especially where I was headed.

Finally I adjusted the windshades on my eyes and levitated the hood of my white hoodie over my horn which then straight up disappeared underneath it. Really sweet enchantment I learned to do. It made any hat easy to use, and as a bonus made me look like an earthpony.

Ooo? What she gonna do? She got no horn— BAM! Lazer to the face.

The Higher Tropo was a shady part of the Thunderhead. It was located nearly at the bottom of the city, with Lower Tropo being the engineering heart of the whole structure and where most of the Tibanna mining and refinement operations took hold.

I was walking across a street of massive pillars through a tall and wide glass tunnel connecting two of them. Anytime I looked up, about a mile of just space and as many ad signs as traffic vehicles speeding by stared right back at me, before a huge roof cut the view off, riddled probably with more streets and passages.

The whole city was split up like that. There was the Exo, where all the richest and important people walked around under the sky, and it is where the Dragon Lord himself resides.

Then there was the Thermo, Meso, Strato and then Tropo. All with their own layers and streets, though the former three had no specialized use and so it was the place where most of the population and businesses of the Thunderhead resided.

“Hey!” Someone yelled behind me.

I turned around, but noticed the call wasn’t at me. A young drake decided to spread his wings and fly, and someone else took offense in that.

“No flying in the tunnels!” That someone was some alien which I had hard time describing, but it quickly gave up as the drake didn’t give a damn and disappeared at the end of the tunnel.

I couldn't blame the fliers. If I could, I would also use my two pairs of wings to travel fast anywhere. Unfortunately, these tunnels are sealed from the outside for a reason. The wind caused by the fast flying traffic, is insane.

Sure, the glass tunnels themselves were massive, as it wouldn't make sense that a dragon city on a dragon homeworld would have traversable passages the size of a pony. Unfortunately, flying inside was also banned. Probably because of some idiot who didn't look where he was flying and went straight down the gullet of a dragon who was yawning at the moment.

At least the walls of the tunnels were transparent with a pretty awesome view across the Tropo. So good, I couldn’t help but to stop for a moment to look.

Tropo has the highest level of traffic in the city, with it being the main dock of Kitein and all, plus where all the Tibanna mined from the gas giant congregated before being loaded onto starships and shipped offworld.

The entire thing was built around visitors. Highways built like a grid, from roof to bottom, with the massive pillars each acting as a town or a vertical street on their own. Holographic ads were at every corner, hundreds of small ones decorated every tower, propagating to new arrivals a new soda flavor they’ll taste nowhere else, to entire space ships ready for hire. Then there were some truly massive ones, embedded in the face of a tower and reaching all the way towards the ceiling, showing a dragoness in all matters of dresses and eye-catching actions throughout the day. Usually these were hosted by towers solemnly built for entertainment, both casual and risque.

Certainly one of the most colorful places on Thunderhead.

Tropo was pretty cool, but Meso was like on a whole ‘nother level. The dragons designed it to look like a massive cave with every building being either its stalagmite or stalactite and a slow traffic moving through the middle. Entire buildings hanging from the ceiling! With a sea of spikes littering the floor.

Though I had enough sightseeing. A moment longer and I would definitely fail to resist taking my new speeder for a tour of the city and spend the entire day just driving around. Auntie wouldn’t be happy if I got side-tracked for forty-eight hours… again.

And so I stepped away and continued on through the tunnel.

\            /
>==°o•o°==<
/            \

Finally, I arrived at my intended destination.

A holographic sign welcomed me as I entered a district which led all the way through one of the enormous city pillars. The shop the neon sign belonged to was then pointing me to a door right around a corner.

'Scrapyard at Feathered Zebra'
Parts, Droids, Sometimes Ships!

*ping* *ping*

An electronic chirp announced my arrival at the shop the moment I stepped through the pair of self-opening doors.

"Violet!" Said the shop owner behind a cage on the left side of the shop, "You are someone I haven't seen in a while!"

"Sup, N." I greeted her.

The Feathered Zebra was, unsurprisingly, operated by a zebra with a pair of white wings by her sides.

Neither I or my Auntie really knew the zebra's real name nor whether the pair of wings by her sides were real, or mechanical. But I wouldn't be surprised they belonged to some unfortunate pegasus and attached by less than legal means.

Junk was at every step of the place. Only a single walking path was spared of the mess, safe for some of the bigger parts at the far side of the room, which had wide clear circles. Just as I entered, I spotted a junk rack full of parts on my right side which none of I recognized nor looked for.

At the left side was a curved counter, a slab of metal full of exposed panels and piping. The top was however covered by a metal cage reaching to the ceiling behind which the zebra stood overlooking the shop.

A separated head of a droid sat by the side, hooked up to an in-built console display on which the zebra seemed to have been working on till I came. She turned it off, before giving me her attention.

"So, what's bringing you here?" N placed her forelegs on top of her counter.

I smirked when I already felt her brainstorming. Undoubtedly about how to rip me off this time.

"Please tell me you finally got an AIR type T-14 repulsorlift core." If I could get hooves on something like that, I could finally repair the Courier back at the homestead.

Unfortunately, the Zebra shook her head. "Sorry, only have the land types. Ever since the reptiles up top pissed off the stripes back home, there has been a shortage of air types."

I sighed, "Sucks, but not the only thing I came here for."

The zebra’s shop had a small feel to it, but I was well aware that the Zebra had some serious deals going on behind the curtain. Scrapyard or not, officially N’s little business specialized in repurposing discarded equipment people sought to sell, either to be then used in another department or to be stripped into base components, melted to ingots, and sold that way.

Unofficially? Well… let’s just say that the day Wind Raiders found out where I live and got past our ring-shield… Would be the same day N is selling our remains to others.

Other noteworthy features of the shop were the armies of droids and robots N was famous for. If you want a droid or a drone, N is the one to go to if you know how to get around her ridiculous pricing. And that's the reason I came to her instead of a common and more reputable vendor. You can't bargain on prices with those.

Already my eyes were drawn towards some two-legged units exhibited at the walls. Though I knew for a fact N kept her good stuff in the back.

As I was looking around, the only thing out of the ordinary and also what caught my eye, was a tall cylindrical device stationed in a corner next to the entrance. A green light shined from its center and I immediately recognized its purpose.

“Is that a mind scrambler?” I pointed at the device.

“Uhh… Yea!” N paused for a moment. Her ‘shit-she-noticed’ gave me a clear idea why she had it here. Guess she got a little bit paranoid when the last time I was here, I completely ignored her recommendations for a new drone and went straight for the good stuff.

“Cool! Never seen one of those!” I nonchalantly exclaimed. “You scared someone would just waltz in and politely ask for a one-hundred percent discount?” Then I grinned at her, “Is it because of me?”

“Nah,” N denied, “I heard one of the clerks in Strato got robbed by some mind freak. If one comes here, that thing will cause a racket.” She pointed at the Mind Scrambler.

“Uhuh…” I slowly nodded.

Quickly I lifted my hoof and locked my eyes with hers. Before she could realize what I was doing, it was too late. “You will give me a discount...” And I circled with my hoof in an enchanting manner. N’s eyes widened in panic and I basked in its aftertaste of fear.

Figuratively speaking. That shit’s disgusting.

A second passed, then I saw her eyeing the mind scrambler behind me which was just chilling there. Then I fell to the floor laughing like a maniac.

“AHAHA-HAHA! You should have seen your FACE!” I laughed.

“Screw you, kid.” N’s panic was replaced by annoyance. Then she scowled at me when I kept laughing, “Are you done?”

Suddenly I remembered the story about the zebra's wings and decided that being a contributor to her zebra pega-corn visage was not my life goal.

“A-Anyway,” I stood up and got over with my laughter pretty quickly, “Eh-Ehm, do you have any servers? Preferably one with legs, or something else fancy?”

The moment I mentioned I was looking for a new server, I felt an excited ‘oh’ before I heard it.

“Oh?” N exclaimed, her annoyance was replaced with sudden nosy-nes, “Did something happen to your old one?”

“Not really?” I said truthfully. I didn’t see any harm in telling her, “It’s just pretty old and can no longer keep up with our new drones.”

“Hmmm.” N mused, “Well anyway, we can look for something. I’ve got a whole junkpile worth of processors in the back. If it comes to it, I can get one of my droids to whip something together for you.”

Ah yes. N's famous 'Whip-togethers'. No thank you!

N then lifted a HoloPone on her left foreleg and nudged it with her snout.

A part of the counter revealed itself as an entrance as it sunk into the floor and allowed access behind her cage.

“I believe you can behave yourself.” N have me a glare.

As a response, I gave my best saint face and topped it off by liting my horn and made a little halo appear above my head. The winged zebra just rolled her eyes and waved at me with her hoof to follow her.

With a show of her HoloPone, a door at the back of the cage slid upwards and revealed a corridor leading deeper into the establishment. I then followed N inside.

“By the way, just putting it out there,” N spoke as she led me through a long corridor littered with piles of crates, “If you decide to sell that server of yours, you can swing by me. I am sure I’ll have a use for it.”

It was a nice deal to have, but what took me by surprise was how... giddy the zebra was when she mentioned it. She was... looking forward to buying our server? Maybe she expected to mine some juicy data out of it? Or... hmmm. Either way, I took a mental note to not do exactly that.

"You are in luck, you know? A new haul just came in and I got some real special stuff!" She started again when we stopped by a wide door on our right, which slid apart and opened as soon as N waved with her HoloPone in front of an access panel.

On the other side a huge hangar revealed itself. Shelves full of devices stacked on top of each other, large mechs lined up by the walls next to each other, and a huge pile of junk on the far side of the room where I could see a small army of small one-eyed DUM droids loading the junk on to a nearby conveyor belt. I even spotted an entire space shuttle, partially stripped for parts.

“Alright,” N turned towards me and she gave me a serious look, “You know the rules. If you take something, I’ll cut something. And keep that thing dark." She pointed at my forehead, "I don’t wanna deal with you levitating shit around and disguising it as 'just looking through my HP' either, capish?”

I gave a salute, “Aye aye, Capt'n.”

The Zebra nodded and led me deeper into the hangar. We ventured into the right side between a few wider shelves filled with disabled droids and drone parts. I looked around and noticed far behind us a wall covered by a wide grey curtain, which was further concealed by a pile of crates. I had a feeling that’s where N hides the good stuff.

"Now this baby is exactly what you need," N spoke and I almost bumped into her.

What N recommended to me this time was a large bulky thing towering three meters above us. The thing had to weigh at least five tons and if it toppled that would be the end of it. It did come with a pair of rubber threads which would allow it to move around, which was sweet, but still a bit too large for my tastes.

“Thirty thousand units and it’s yours.” N finished.

I made my decision known just with my expression, “Eeeeh… I mean, it’s impressive and all, but...” I shook my head, “It is way too tall and heavy, and the threads don’t make it look any safer. I have a feeling the threads will move, the top won’t and the whole thing comes falling down, squishing me like a bug.”

N looked into space in thought, “Huh, that would explain the blood and brain matter on the side of it.”

A brain WHAT? I looked at the zebra and tried to get a read on her emotions to confirm she was kidding.

She wasn’t kidding.

N shrugged to herself and I then followed her towards the next in line. “What do you have in mind then?” She continued and pointed around the shelves.

I shrugged off the shock, “Something small that walks,” I said, “What I had in mind is a mobile server which would take instructions from our main server and physically connect to docked drones to run maintenance. Our server runs just fine, it's just outdated and needs the processing pressure off of it.”

N shook her head at me, “Interesting idea, but that won’t work. You need something solid and powerful.”

I would have tended to believe her, not for her blatant ‘smart-kid’ and her earlier interest in our older server. It meant I was on the right path with my plan.

*CRASH*

A sudden thundering sound spread across the hangar.

We both whipped our heads around towards the looming server, which thankfully was still standing tall. I quickly determined the real source being the large junk pile at the front, as I could clearly see that an entire section had slipped down in a landslide.

"Oh for fuck’s sake, again?!" N exclaimed and made a motion to run up to the commotion, only to remember I was still here.

She hesitated, but looked towards the landslide in urgency. N then gave me a glare, "Stay here and don't do anything stupid."

I rolled my eyes, "You got cameras around."

N paused and gave a glance towards the ceiling, then she pointed at me and slowly nodded, “That I do...”

Then she spread her wings and took a flight. Well what do you know! They were real!

Which leaves me to my own devices...

Don’t do anything stupid, eh? Pfft, no worries. I’ll just… take a look around!

And with that I turned one-eighty with a shit-eating grin.

"I SWEAR TO MY STRIPED ASS, I'LL TURN YOU INTO SCRAP! AGAIN!?"

As N was berating her robotic workforce on the other side of the hangar, I made my way towards the boxes I spotted earlier. I looked back before inconspicuously moving the boxes out of the way to get a look behind the grey curtain.

My suspicions were proven correct. There was a room on the other side, concealed by the curtain for it to look like there was just a wall behind. With one last look back, I slipped underneath it..

It was a little bit darker on the other side, with the only illumination coming from beneath the curtain. Plus, my windshades did not make seeing in the darkness any easier, so I moved them up behind my horn.

"HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TO TELL YOU! DO. NOT. DIG. HOLES! MOVE THE JUNK FROM THE TOP!"

From what I could see, the place was kind of creepy with the low ceiling and deactivated droids scattered all around.

I hated narrow spaces. Not on the level of claustrophobia, but I hated narrow spaces either way. It was embarrassing, and a shiver went down my spine. Especially when I passed a mech looking like a skeleton of a dragon. Dim red eyes and all.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME, DIG THEM OUT!"

I felt like at any moment everything would suddenly turn on and start slowly crawling towards me with words ‘Kill me!’ and ‘Give me your flesh!’ and other cliche horror one-liners.

Then I spotted a two legged white and blue astromech about my size. "Sweet!" I whispered. It was exactly something I was looking for!

I was just about to whip out my HoloPone to look up its specifications on the Scale, but then I noticed a small cylindrical device embedded in the droid’s side.

A limiter. Slowly, I walked away.

I looked around in dread and sure enough, all of the droids inside had a limiter on some part of their body.

"Uhh..." I bit my lip, "Suddenly the crazy idea of crazy killer bots is not as crazy anymore."

*crash*

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD”

I heard stories of people electrocuted by their robots, because their neighbor thought it would be funny to program the autonomous intelligence in their droid to understand its place in the world. There is a very good reason why that is a very bad idea. If I suddenly woke up and realized my head was being used to hammer down nails, I would start hammering people down too!

I had a feeling that if I took any of these guys home, they would strangle me in my sleep. ...or more likely yeet itself off the farm.

I took a stroll through the back lines to try and find something that would be useful and without the limiter on it, but luck was not on my side.

Still, it was quite a journey. There were some really weird mechanisms I never even heard about. There was a large bulbous mech sitting in the background with tentacles spread out beneath it and a limiter just dangling on one of its limbs. It looked somewhat like a Beldon, so I had a feeling the thing was made by some nerds studying Kitein's wildlife.

Then I spotted one in the shape of a Terran. Two legs, two arms, and golden plating. Short Scale-ing later, and I found out it is a protocol droid. Man, even the large ball with tentacles was more interesting! Then I noticed the thing had like, five different types of limiters widely spread out across its surface. Well shit...

There were heavy mechs for lifting, armed droids for manufacture, robots for handling shit. Literally. And bots looking like a...

Like a...

“What in the world...”

“AND I SWEAR IF YOU DO THIS AGAIN, YOU’LL BE A PART OF THAT PILE!”

I’ve never in my whole life seen another member of my own species. Safe for the one in the mirror. Ever since I was just a small squirt I kind of figured I was some kind of secret undiscovered species or something, since my disguise was virtually impossible to distinguish from the real thing. But considering I also possessed some kind of emotional mind-reading, I figured I would simply know when I came across another… me-species.

I barely even knew the name! It was something like… Different, uh… -ing.

But the resemblance was unmistakable. Just the black shell and the holes in its four legs made it immediately clear.

I was looking at a Differentning.

Or at least a droid version of it.

I made my way closer around the line of other droids, to take a better look.

It looked deactivated and in a sitting position, its holey forelegs kept it upright with its head slumped over. Its eyes were either dim or closed, I wasn’t sure. Unlike my natural form with my silky mane, the droid was completely bald, safe for some kind of cosmetic black fins on the back of the droid’s neck. On the sides of its neckline were two buttons or something. Could be a cosmetic, or it could shoot lasers for all I knew. On its back, In place of its elytra was some sort of black glassy looking cover, but it wasn’t see-through, I could tell that much. And from what I could see, it had no tail.

My attention was brought back towards its head. The droid’s ears were designed to look like tattered black antennae decorated with their own little holes. I poked one of them and the thing moved on its axis. Finally there was the horn, not as sharp as mine, it was more of a slim straight thing with two black stripes of the same glassy material along its length.

Overall, I really did dig the look. It was all polished and smooth. Fancy all around with the whole hole-ey decoration. Guess my species really do dig the hole concept, hehe. It even had a cute little mouth with two tiny fangs sticking out of it.

I kinda… wanted the thing. No, not kinda. I really wanted it. Who knows what kind of things it knows about my kind! Though I hope N won’t spontaneously learn to hear my thoughts, else she would scrub me of every credit. Though, a glance towards the limiter firmly embedded in the mech’s side really had me reconsider.

Speaking of the devil, I felt the distinct ‘There-she-is’ coming off from behind me before I noticed the shadow crawling up to me.

"You do realize how the Dragon Lord feels about slavery," I turned around. "Right N?"

N looked like she was about to speak when I interrupted her. She glanced towards a near corner before noticing the droid I talked about. Interesting...

"What? Oh no! Nonono. It’s not what it looks like, Violet." N pointed around the shady room packed with potentially dangerous droids, limited only by a small cylindrical device which could fall off just by looking at it too harshly. "This is my storage room for all the droids scavengers find and bring in." The Zebra started explaining, “Most people don’t really care what’s in the head of the droid. They just find it, shoot it with a limiter and bring it here. I then place them here to wait till I have time, then one by one either reset them or place them on the shelves. Depending on what I find inside.”

I nodded in acknowledgement. I pretty much figured that’s what was going on here, though it was nice to have a confirmation. I tried to take a look towards the corner N gave a glance.

“And this cute little guy,” N then walked past me and blocked my view before patting the black droid on the head, "Is Black Empire tech!"

Black Empire huh? Cool. Sounds ominous though. Wait… Please don’t tell me my species are bad guys!

“I...” I paused. I had to think through what I wanted to say. I wanted her to know I was interested, but also needed some more info, “I won’t lie, that thing looks awesome. But… I am not entirely sure if it even does what I need it to do.” I shrugged and pointed at the droid, “What does it do?"

N bit her lip, “Well… To be also completely honest, I am not one-hundred percent sure what it’s capable of either,” Seeing my lifted eyebrow, N proceeded to quickly reassure me, “But! The things I’ve heard about Black Empire tech and from my own initial scans and tests, this thing is supposed to be the main workforce maintaining their starships. I am talking here about military grade technology. Communication, construction, maintenance, even security!”

That caught my attention, “Communication you say?”

“Yeah!” N nodded, “Though don’t expect it to host an army of drones like that Master-Class server I sold your aunt. I can guarantee...” She paused in thought. “One. Maybe Two drones simultaneously. You’ll have to try more by yourself.”

Damn. And she wasn’t bullshiting. If she was right, I could rig the droid to host a few drones and do maintenance on the main server and docked drones just as I wanted…

I started liking the drone more and more...

I bit my lip, “What about compatibility?”

N had a wide grin on her face. “It has all the compatibilities.”

My eyebrow went up, “You kidding...”

N pointed at its forehead, “That horn is not just for show. It is its main access key, just point it at a socket and it will do its magic. And I mean literally! This thing can fling spells around like it’s nobody’s business!” She really looked really excited about the droid. And who could blame her, that thing sounded amazing! And expensive…

“Does it turn on?” I asked my final question.

“Oh absolutely!” The Zebra quickly nodded, “I hadn’t tested it much as it came on a short notice, but I am proud to say the limiter works flawlessly! Just have to clear its head so there are no issues.”

That was it then. I was sold. No matter what, I had to somehow acquire that black insectoid droid else everything that droid has in it will be scrubbed clean. Though, I had absolutely no doubts that N would make sure I wouldn’t get it for cheap.

Time to wave my bullshit card.

"Hmmm." I mused, "I'll give you five thousand units for it."

N bulved out her eyes, "Pfff HAHaha, w-what?" She laughed, "Hello? Are you deaf or something? This one is worth at least five hundred thousand units!"

I waved with my hoof, "I mean, yeah, maybe." I shrugged, "But no way anyone would be buying a slave and then have the Dragon Lord breathing down their necks."

N rolled her eyes at me, "Come on, kid. I thought we cleared that one out." She pointed at the mech, "I would know if I had an Artificial Intelligence or KI in my hangar. It's the first thing I check! This thing is autonomous, not alive. None of them are! It's just a piece of equipment. Five hundred thousand units is the price, if you don't have the credit bugger off!"

I gave her a shrug, "Tell that to the Exos when they come down here, looking for some of the 'new rare tech' they've heard about."

That shut her up.

I felt a little bit of panicked 'shit' followed by N's brainstorming. Just a little push and I should have a sweet new bug bot just for myself.

"Seriously!" I shook my head at her, "I can already imagine some kind of chubby short official from Exo, waltzing in with an armed escort and just taking shit with a bullshit reason like I just said." I waved towards the mech, "I am telling you right now that this thing is painting a big fat target at you. I am pretty much doing a service to you! Three thousand units!

N gave me a death glare and I backtracked from her 'I-don't-need-your-shit-right-now'.

"Don't push it, kid." The Zebra growled, then returned to her brainstorming.

I tried to take a good read on her, but the storm of emotions moved around in her head a bit too quickly to get anything specific. All I could feel was ‘panic’ ‘panic’ and more ‘panic’. It was pretty entertaining seeing her trying to keep a straight face.

"Twenty thousand units." N suddenly exclaimed.

I sucked in air and then it was me who began brainstorming.

Twenty thousand credit units was a lot. There is no way I would have enough to buy a good server from N on top of this mech, and auntie definitely wouldn’t like it. Fortunately, I had one more negotiation point to spend on her.

“Ten,” I said and N began to shake her head, “And I’ll take it off your hooves today. Limiter and everything.”

The zebra gave a glance towards the droid and kept looking at it.

Only one small push remained, “C’mon. Knowing you, you bought it off a scavenger for a thousand units or something ridiculous.”

That did it.

“Twelve thousand units.” N said.

"Deal." I stretched my hoof towards her.

The zebra sighed but lifted her own striped hoof for a hoof shake.

"How do you want to deliver it?" She went straight for the business part of the deal, no longer as upbeat. I would have felt bad, but the bitch deserved it.

"The usual." I nodded, “I have a cargo, so I’ll come for it in my speeder around the back.”

The zebra nodded, lifted her HoloPone and started fiddling with it with a feather tip.

Seeing her distracted, I took my chance and inconspicuously made my way around her and towards a near corner. Before N realized where I was going I was already gawking at the one thing she was anxious about me finding.

There in a corner was a compacted robot sitting on the floor. I immediately recognized it as the Mr. Handy type of Nebulan shell of the Terran design. Pretty common, and I’ve seen my fair share floating by the streets. I heard Nebulans like to change their forms like clothes. Which… I actually can relate to!

It was probably empty though.

Nebulans were a very much sapient race. A formless mass of electro-magnetism, but sapient nonetheless. One being here, with a limiter no less, would have quite the interesting implications.

"Holy shit, is that a Nebulan shell?" I announced that I found the Zebra’s little secret.

N whipped around and pointed with one of her wings at me, “Don’t even think about it, kid. You cost me a lot already.”

I ignored her and examined the shell from all sides, "Man, the things I could do with an empty Nebulan shell..."

I paused, when I felt her dread.

"It is empty,” I turned to her. “Right?"

N was glowering at me with one twitching eye.

I grinned, "Oh, N… What was that about slavery?"

\            /
>==°o•o°==<
/            \

Holy shit! I can’t believe I just did that!

Oh she was so mad. But I got two droids for just fifteen thousand units! Aw man, that was like my best deal yet! I just… I just had to brag! There was no way around it!

I was almost at the docks where I had my speeder parked when I could no longer put off the part where I had to brag to someone about my escapades. But it was still a few blocks away so I decided to walk on my three legs and lifted my left foreleg on which I had my HoloPone. With a quick flick of my horn, I texted my best bud.

<DJ_Pon3-115214TH
yo Rig!
you wont believe what just happened to me!

It took a few minutes before Rig responded, but eventually my HP gave out a chirp.

115642TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
Hey Pony! Tell me aaaaall about it. Exaggerate if you can!

<DJ_Pon3-115705TH
i just robbed n!
she was so mad!
there were guns blazing and everything!

115734TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
Nevermind XD
That's a little too much. What did you do?

<DJ_Pon3-115743TH
XD
ok
so basically
i walked inside and bought myself TWO droids for 15ku

115758TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
Kid you got SCAMMED

<DJ_Pon3-115820TH
thats the thing!
n wanted 200ku for one
i convinced her to drop it by that much!
she was so mad about it too!

115841TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
Now it's getting interesting.
How mad are we talkin?

<DJ_Pon3-115846TH
She. Was. LIVID!

115901TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
Oooh~
I can tell how serious you are by how your grammar is improving.
Still think you got scammed. Why would a droid cost a frickin space shuttle?

<DJ_Pon3-115925TH
XD
dude.
you got NO idea
the thing is all sleek, polished and everything
n spent twenty minutes giggling about all the fancy features it had
and when she was finished i took it for penies!

115932TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
S A V A G E
But the bitch had it coming.
How did you convince her though?

<DJ_Pon3-115951TH
i said that fancy tech would paint a target on her back and she buyed it!
though she looked pretty worried
ancsd
and accepted my deal pretty quickly afterwards now that I think about it.
Maybe I wasn’t bulshiting as much as I would have liked...

115959TH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
oof
Can I take a look? Now I am pretty curious too!

DJ_Pon3-000000NH
Sorry. I—

*RAM*

A blur of grey passed right in front of my face. Before I could react, I was laying on my back, dazed from an impact. I was so thoroughly caught off-guard that I just laid there on the ground just dumbly staring off into the transparent ceiling of the tunnel, trying to comprehend what just happened.

When I finally came to my senses, I figured I had to walk into something face first. Though, that something had to run me over and stayed there as I noticed a whole new weight settled itself on my chest when I tried to move.

Then when I looked down, I found a pony laying on top of me.

It was an earthpony. Her narrow feminine features clued her gender as has her face covered by a light grey hide and a styled black mane. Black jacket covered the rest of her body, with only her likewise black tail poking out on the other side.

There was a painful groan and then the mare's eyes fluttered open, showing violet iris which quickly focused on my own.

"Hello there..." I exclaimed.

I could feel the mare's confusion, panic and embarrassment which I could only decipher as 'I-can't-believe-this-just-happened'

A flash of panic and realization she's still laying on top of me later, the mare jumped up and started apologizing.

"Er…” The mare started. “I terribly apologize, I was in a hurry and wasn't paying any attention. I just looked elsewhere for a spell and-"

I also got up to my hooves, only to realize my windshades slid down my face. Then I made the mistake of not adjusting them with my magic and instead lifted my left hoof to set them in place around my eyes. A hoof that still had my blaster holster attached to it.

“—and OHSWEETCELESTIAITSAGUN!” The grey mare suddenly shouted.

I couldn’t help but to jump a little, then I leaned backwards with widened eyes from her sudden outburst.

"Whoa." I noted, "You are definitely new in Tropo."

The way she was still glancing at my holster on my foreleg and then for an escape route, with the combination of ‘I-AM-IN-DANGER’, had me worried she would run away screaming, though she held it in pretty well.

“Lady chill!” I exclaimed, trying to calm her down, “It’s fine. I wasn't paying any attention either.” Then, I lifted my other hoof towards the mare for a shake and gave her a toothy grin. “Violet Sky. Nice running into ya!”

“Er… Quite.” The grey mare gave my hoof a glance, before trying and failing to replicate my expression. “Uh… Olivia.” She said, then bumped my hoof with her own instead, “Olivia Walker is the name.”

The mare then did a short breathing exercise, after which she visibly calmed down. She also made an attempt at adjusting her black frazzled mane with mixed results, but overall stood a bit straighter with a facade of… kinda stuck up professionalism now that I noticed.. "I uh… I apologize for my outburst. I am certain that you are a completely respectable pony. I simply… Er, I heard about this area of the Thunderhead and assumed…"

I stopped her, "If the things were about Tropo, they are most likely true. You really should be careful around here."

And there goes her collected ‘higher-than-thou’ demeanor. Wasn’t all that big of a fan of it anyway.

I grinned and poked her in the chest before she spiraled down into panic and paranoia, “Hey, wanna hang out?”

The mare jumped at my touch, but immediately made an attempt at calming down, before she acknowledged my words. "W-what?"

“If you want to hangout?” I repeated myself, “You know… walk around, talk about stuff, and get to know each other!”

Suddenly, the grey earthpony stepped back with a bewildered expression, which wasn’t exactly how I expected her to react. Eh? Was it something I said?

"I just mauled you, and you want to… ‘hang out’?” The mare looked at me strangely, though it was more in ‘genuine-surprise’ than ‘I-think-you-will-lead-me-into-an-alley-and-murder-me’. I suppose no one has ever interacted with her in such a way before.

"What can I say?" I shrugged and grinned, "Not many ponies around here in Thunderhead to get mauled by!"

A plethora of emotions I could feel going on through her head. Most notable was the ‘not-sure’ and some form of doubt slash suspicion, and a round of ‘genuine-interest’, but all of that was quickly swept aside by a surge of 'I-have-places-to-be'.

“I uh… I cannot right now...” The mare nervously scratched her leg.

“No problem," I waved her off, "I also have places to be. Here." I lifted my HoloPone and sent her a message. "An address for a club where I work part-time. It's a pretty chill place and doubles as a cozy cantina in sound-isolated places if the loud music isn't your thing."

Her own HoloPone chirped and she lifted an eyebrow at me, "A Cantina?"

"Yeah!" I grinned, "They even play real bangers, neat place to relax and party!"

She looked down the corridor, thinking about it, "I suppose..."

"I'll see you there then, Olivia Walker." I said and made a motion to walk away.

The mare nodded and tried to match my smile, "I'll see if I can come by… Violet Sky."

I gave her a small salute and went on my way.

Nice girl! Her unique nasal accent is pretty cute too.

I didn't wait a single moment and started walking on three legs again with my face in the HoloPone.

<DJ_Pon3-000000NH
Sorry. Idrtdfdhgv

000006NH-R1ggleMeTh1s>
NO WAY AGAIN?
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
LOL
YOU EVEN NAILED THE TIMING!
HAHA!

I let my hoof fall right back down and groaned in embarrassment.

<DJ_Pon3-000317NH
shutup

After that minor embarrassment, I decided to walk the rest of the way, actually looking where I was going.

I rounded one more corner and found myself in a familiar dark and enclosed corridor covered by graffiti and stains, which led into a metallic gate that opened as I approached.

Behind was another gate and I had to wait till the one behind me closed before I could proceed. The gate checkpoint was here just so the wind speed and pressure difference in the docks and the outside didn't make a mayhem down the tunnels.

Nothing dangerous, but the wind rushing through the streets wouldn’t be pleasant either.

Finally the gate opened and revealed the docking hall beyond.

It was a long and wide hall, supported by a plethora of columns and lights in the floor marking empty spots.

One massive hole was in the place of the entire left wall, through which I flew in earlier. My airspeeder was in its spot too, still waiting for me along with its cargo holder. So that’s where I trotted off to, and as I walked around a few other docked vehicles, I was already lifting my own HoloPone to start up my blue airspeeder.

That's when I felt something.

'There-she-is'

I always could recognize when someone was thinking about me. Everything was unusually clear and easier to read, where if they felt something for someone else or even just to themselves and no one in particular, it was like trying to read in a mist.

I discreetly glanced around with the corner of my eyes and did my best to monitor my immediate surroundings. Thankfully, no one was trying to sneak up on me just yet and even managed to find the source of the feelings.

It was the same drake I saw earlier flying through the tunnels. Just chilling by the far side, leaning against a wall and smoking. He wasn't really hiding. On the contrary, he literally had neon lights in his hoodie illuminating his scaly face with yellow haze, and even his spines glowed in purple along his back down his tail which was lazily sliding across the floor.

He was a common punk. There were plenty of street gangs and other territorial groups around the Thunderhead, but thankfully they kept it to just some vandalism, and at worst smuggling. When you have notoriously known territorial and hoarding species and then you add in a growth spurt, you end up with an army of teen kids that want to join up with the baddest gangs and be all cool and bad. The neons were a dead giveaway.

So far he didn’t show much interest in me, and was far on the other side of the hall to try anything if he suddenly changed his mind. Which I took full advantage of.

I approached the airspeeder and gave a signal with my HP to open the cockpit. When the punk didn’t move, I crawled in and started the engines. All the while the drake did nothing and kept smoking like it was nobody's business.

And then I flew away in my airspeeder. No-one jumped me, no-one came to rob me. Nothing.

Honestly? He was probably just watching my ass.

/         \
|>--(XXX)--<|
\         /

*chirp* *chirp*

A familiar sound welcomed a new customer in the Scrapyard at Feathered Zebra.

The zebra merchant was absent. Replaced with a droid head on the counter which observed the newcomer tentatively looking around the entrance, "W-Welcome." It spoke in a broken electronic voice, "Look around and sss- and see if there is-s anything you like."

The customer took a quick look around the displayed devices before making a beeline for the head behind the cage.

"I am here for something specific."

"If you require as-s-assis-s-as-s..." It paused. "Assistance, please wait till my mas-s-master returns." The head replied.

"And how long—"

*Shut*

That's when the winged zebra returned and took notice of the new customer.

"Do you need anything?" N approached as the door to the backroom closed, then unplugged the droid head which promptly powered down.

"I am looking for a lost drone. Black, with fangs, and holes in his legs."

The zebra lifted an eyebrow at the newcomer, "Ya mean a droid?"

"...Yes."

At the answer, N briefly threw a glance around the shop to make sure they were the only ones present, then turned back.

"I have no idea where you got the info, but I don't care enough." The zebra glared, "Either way, you are out of luck. I just sold it, and the droid left the building... a while ago."

"However..." The winged zebra lifted her forelegs on top of the counter and leaned forward, "Depends on how much you are willing to pay... I might just tell you who bought it."

The newcomer on the other side of the cage briefly glanced towards the corner next to the entrance.

“I am certain we can come to an agreement…”

The zebra failed to notice the customer discreetly swung with their hoof, but that might have been because of her glassed over eyes staring into the other set of violet eyes. “I uhh… I’m listening?”

“Hmmm…"

"…I see…"

"…Thank you for your cooperation. Would you kindly edit the footage on your cameras too? That would be swell. Make sure that you don’t remember me…"

"…It has been a pleasure.”

As the newcomer turned away and left, they stopped by the left corner besides the exit. The cylindrical device there sat dormant, not even its usual green light was glowing. A hoof slid down and picked a small disc from underneath, at which the device sprung to life once more.

Then the customer left.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why is this called “New Story”? Is this a reboot or something like that?

[AverageSMILEnjoyer]

11797168
Now that you pointed it out, I don't really know.
When I first started writing this, I just wanted a parody of New Hope. I suppose it will be a subject to change in the future.