-1- Preparation
The Siege of Red District 3: Unicorn Protocol
((( Preparation )))
It was three days before I realized the unicorn wasn’t allowing anyone to leave the Box.
As acting community leader of Red District 3 in the city of Syria Planum Alpha, it is my duty to keep tabs on all newcomers in our city block. Mars can be a dangerous place if one’s not careful. And with rival drug gangs, corrupt law enforcement and unstable atmospheric engineering, it’s no wonder that R.D.3 is still mostly intact.
Mostly.
And now we have a unicorn in our midst? The world may be crazy, but I didn’t think it was that crazy.
I received a piece of digital mail from one of the local law enforcers:
To Comm. Leader Jericho “Unity” Oswald,
It has come to our attention that a repulsive defensive wall has been constructed around the perimeter of Red District 3. As you know, such a wall is only to be activated upon sighting of armed intruders who are actively threatening the safety of the citizens. After such an activation, a report must be made to the S.P.A. law enforcement so that we may send officers to the location, apprehend the suspects and shut down the wall after the situation has been resolved. However, the repulsive defensive wall has remained up for nearly half a week now. City technicians have been unable to disable it from the exterior and current overflow in crime reports has stalled law enforcement activity resulting in longer-than-normal response times. We have sent officers to the perimeter twice these past few days and due to constant engagement with local gangs and troublemakers, they have been unable to make any progress into the Box. It has taken us several days to simply get a message through to you, as something is wrong with the message delivery systems as well. We now hold it upon you, Community Leader Jericho Oswald, to lower the repulsive defensive wall and allow our officers access to your defense grid system. After which we will determine if any suspects should be charged for impeding justice. We ask that you turn over any such suspects to the authorities for quick and efficient processing. Once this request has been completed and all the necessary interviews and investigations have been performed, you will be contacted at a later date by law enforcement officials to discuss new policies for activation of your defensive grid.
Thank you for time and consideration in achieving a prompt response to this situation.
-Detective John Harrison
Replicant Reclamations Officer
City of Syria Planum Alpha
I found it strange that such a specialized officer would be so concerned with our predicament. Detective Harrison specialized in tracking synthetic intelligence. I bet he’s totally unaware that a unicorn has anything to do with this.
Rarity. She said her name was Rarity.
“You may call me Unity,” I told her. I didn’t feel that the name Jericho had enough of a ring to it. I decided my nickname would match her own quite well. “I’m the one in-charge of the citizens in Red District 3.”
“A pleasure to meet you, my dear Unity.” Rarity’s voice sounded like one of those actresses in the Earth movies. Someone from the 1950’s with a focus on high society and lofty romantic goals. “I’m fascinated by your human culture here on Mars, but I was completely unprepared for the hooligans stationed outside the city block. Don’t worry, though. I have constructed this elegant barrier to deflect all of their uncouth behavior back out into the rest of the city.”
“You did all this?” The wall was massive and covered an entire city block with no sign of fading or wear-down.
“Of course I did.” Rarity gestured a hoof at the revolving bands of light traveling through the electric sea of color and static sound. “You’ll notice it is also an exquisite shade of velvety aquamarine to offset the dreadful rust tones of the housing on your city block. I must speak with your housing planners, for I hate to say it, but they are failing miserably when it comes to design and color theory.”
“Rarity, I am impressed by your ability to uphold such a powerful blue shield…”
“Aquamarine.”
“…aquamarine shield around this part of the housing district, but this is only one of several questions I have for you. First of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way: are you a unicorn?”
Rarity smirked. “Why yes, of course! My horn and my magic should be obvious to anypony who sees me.”
“But you see, there is a problem with all this: Unicorns don’t exist.”
“Ah yes. I have been told this before by a few humans on this world already. But to be honest, unicorns don’t care if you think they exist anymore than you care if they think you exist. I am here and that’s proof enough.”
“I think I read something you said on a playing card for a game once. Did you happen to read that somewhere?”
“I certainly don’t know how I could have. But if somepony else believes it, then that just shows how forward-thinking they were. Anyways, maintaining this wall is very taxing to my constitution and I require more food. I’m sure the children will be back soon with something for me to it.”
That caught my attention. “Wait, have the district children been giving you food?”
“Only a small amount each day. A lady needs not much if she sets her mind to the task. By the way, it’s cold out here and if I might kindly ask you for some provisions, I would like a blanket, a bed, a pillow, no make it two so I may place one under my aching hooves, and also a canopy for the top of the bed and some sort of makeshift harness system to suspend the aforementioned canopy…”
I’m sure my frustration was obvious with the white pony because I made no sign of hiding my groans at the mention of the food the children were giving. “Rarity, we are on a strict set of rations here in the red district. We can’t afford to be giving out too much. In fact, we shouldn’t be giving any away at all.”
“My word! If I’m not fed, besides the fact that such a concept would be incredibly rude and uncomprehendingly inhospitable, I would starve! Am I not worthy of at least the smallest of morsels? Also, who else would be able to maintain the shield wall?”
“That’s just it. We don’t need it. I want you to shut it off now so the police can get in here and see that nothing is wrong.” I decided not to mention they would probably take Rarity away and lock her up somewhere. I felt sorry for her, but she was causing more trouble than anyone else ever had in the history of the block. Well, save for some of the gang fights earlier in the year…
“I’m sorry but I cannot comply with your command,” Rarity said. “You see there are about a dozen human men out there who accosted me and made it a point to try to humiliate me. I incapacitated one of them and another won’t be walking straight for at least a week. But the rest are still hunting me and I will not put myself back in such danger.”
“Rarity, if you don’t do this, law enforcement will find a way to storm in here and then you’ll have to answer to them.”
“Pardon me Unity, but there is one small detail you must keep in mind before considering that.”
“And what’s that?”
“I saw several of those law enforcement officers working with the scoundrels when they surrounded me.”
It took several minutes for Rarity and I to scale a building and peer through the semi-transparent layer of the defense shield. But after only ten minutes of searching, we spotted a group of twenty men and women stationed on a building across from us. Eight of them were police officers. The rest were thieves, muggers and drug dealers from the surrounding districts. I was disgusted to see Tony Mark Three, a pharmaceutically enhanced drug lord from Red District 5. He and three of his henchmen (including a brawler named Tula Tranquil), were conversing with one of the officers I knew who had sworn to protect my district from these punks.
“Officer Rigo…you lying piece of trash…” An ache traveled up my hands. I was gripping the edge of the building so hard the blood was turning my skin red. Hard to see much change in the red Martian light, though. “How long have they been out there, Rarity?”
“Two days. The kids from your district noticed the ruffians, but it was only today that the officers and crooks made contact with one another.”
I sat down next to the unicorn and away from the edge of the building. I didn’t want any of those lying officers to see my form. “Rarity, I need you to be completely honest with me: did any of the officers try to harm you when you came in here?”
“Yes. One of them shot at me! Can you believe it? Me! Who shoots at unicorns, really? I’ll never forget his face as long as I live!” She narrowed her eyes and pointed with a hoof. “That one!”
I spotted a female officer checking the sights on her pulse rifle. Rarity obviously had not learned to tell the difference between male and female humans yet. The officer seemed tougher and more fit than any of the others in the field. I knew her. “Officer Wise. Best sniper in the nearby precinct. Why is she involved with this? She always touted how much she cared about this city!” I felt my heart sink. “There’s a lot more to this we’re not seeing.”
“You’re telling me,” Rarity said. “And what’s even worse is that my friends are still out there! Lost in the big city somewhere.”
“There are other unicorns?”
“Not all of them. Earth pony and pegasus too.”
“I don’t know what that means. But we have more important things to worry about. Rarity, how long can you hold this wall?”
“I am so glad you see the necessity now! Well, with ample food and decent sleep, I can go indefinitely! I just wake up every few hours to reset the shield.”
“Good. Now I must ask this since I don’t know your world, but have you ever been part of a siege? Because anytime from now until those officers attack, we are going to have to fortify this place until we can find a way to push them back and outwit them. We are cut off from the outside world. I haven’t been able to get any messages out and that means we have no reinforcements and no supplies to help us in case of an emergency. If the police are working with the gangs, then we are in worse trouble than I thought. We need a plan, Rarity. I’ve had all of today to get used to the idea of a living, breathing unicorn, but I cannot stomach the thought that the people under my charge will die if we don’t protect them.”
Rarity nodded and then spoke. “I sensed the dire nature of this situation, but I didn’t quite understand what was happening beyond the shield. Now that I know how complicated this has all become, yes dear, I have been part of a siege. My capital city of Canterlot was once raided by invading forces while I was still inside, but you have yet to see the fierce heart and glorious elegance in battle that is Rarity, vanquisher of Changelings and fashionista extraordinaire!”
“I applaud that first part, but I don’t see how fashion is going to help us.”
“Well, we simply must look our best when we fight off waves of minions. Nobody likes a tacky-looking underdog.”