> inFAMOUS: Of Hoof and Smoke > by LegendHeart > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: The Conduit Threat > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes Rainbow Dash was well behaved, and as awesome and perfect as she thinks she is. Most of the time she was an average delinquent, tagging buildings and stealing small packs of gum. Rainbow never had many friends, only the two she had from childhood. They were both dead. Her two late friends, Fluttershy and Shooting Star, were killed by bio-terrorists. Bio-terrorists were ponies with the ability to manipulate certain matter. They could also turn an average nopony into a full-fledged power house. Some bio-terrorists, or conduits, used their unique powers for the greater good, but others were hungry for more power. The bio-terrorists were watched by an organization called the Equestrian Bureau of Bio-Terrorist Investigation. Most ponies just call them the E.B.B. There used to be a time when they were all kept in one place, Curdan Cay Station. Rainbow Dash flew from rooftop to rooftop, tagging billboards with her black spray can. The cool fall breeze cut through her like a knife, as she flew back down to the streets of Cloudsdale. She heard the distant buzz of the display televisions in the cheap electronics depot window. She flew over to see what they were broadcasting. Rainbow was homeless, so she didn't get to watch T.V much. They were playing the Channel 6 News. "A bio-terrorist killing spree is terrorizing southern Cloudsdale this afternoon." The news pony said. "The assumed perpetrator is a pegasus named Lightning Fast, with a history of murder and arson." They displayed a mugshot of an ugly, scrawny, grey furred pony with a shaved head. Rainbow's attention to the news was quickly stolen as a mushroom cloud flared up into the sky, filling her with a feeling of distraught. Rainbow spread her wings and shot off into the distance as ambulances were headed in the same direction. The sound of police sirens filled the air as she approached a ginormous crater filled with rubble, destroyed cars, and fallen buildings. She brought her hooves to the ground and walked up to the edge of the crater. "Put your hooves in the air, now!" A voice rang out from a mega phone. The conduit pony from the news was standing in the middle of the crater. He snickered as he walked about the barren field of roasted corpses he had created. The voice behind the mega phone rang out once again. "This is your final warning! Hooves in the air NOW!" The conduit pony, named Lightning Fast, held a ponderous look on his face. It was replaced by an evil smirk, as he was enveloped by a cloud of smoke and embers. He soon appeared next to Rainbow Dash. He pushed her to the ground as shackles made of ash formed around each of her hooves, holding her in place. He let out harsh, raspy voice. "Hey, little filly. Hold still." He smiled, showing his browned teeth. Rainbow was shrouded by hot embers was lifted into the hair. Smoke formed at each of her hooves, slowly climbing up her body. "Leave me alone or she gets it!" Once again Lightning's harsh voice came again. Rainbow's somewhat reckless albeit infinite bravery gave her the courage to spit on the stallions face. He let out a low growl. "Aah, I see we have a feisty one here." The smoke and shackles holding her faded into the air as she dropped to the ground. Lightning seemed like he was going to punch her, when his hoof seemed to burst into flames, and blasted her in the chest with a flurry of flames, then punching her in the face with his ashen hoof. As soon as they made contact, Rainbow seemed to have been sucked into a foreign land. She looked around her new environment, trying to see where she was. A cold voice rose from the darkness. "I-I-I'll never t-tell you" The darkness was lit up faintly, as a tall, slender earth pony approached another pony, a pegasus. The light grew brighter revealing Lightning Fast shackled to the ceiling by his front hooves, suspended in the air. "Look, Lightning, we know your daughter inherited your conduit gene. We know she's a bio-terrorist." A faint yellow glow appeared around the slender pony's hooves. "I have ways of making ponies talk, Lightning." The yellow glow around their hooves turned into a whirl of shards of rock. Lightning Fast let out a scream as a shard of concrete shot right through his abdomen, then it was quickly removed. The light in the room faded to black, and she woke up next to the crater. She opened her eyes to see Lightning Fast gazing down at her. She quickly furrowed her brow, sending a hoof in his direction. Rainbow's heart sank as her hoof was enveloped in embers, knocking Lightning back. Both Rainbow and Lightning sat in a daze, glaring at her blazing hoof. "Y-you..." Rainbow sputtered. "What did you do to me?" Her voice low and calm sounding from pure shock. Lightning was just as astounded. A faint voice came from the direction of the E.B.B jeeps that weren't there before. "The Rainbow one is a bio-terrorist, too!" What came next was a blaze of bullets in her direction. She tried to run away, but unintentionally faded into thin air as a veil of smoke, appearing next to the E.B.B soldiers, them wondering where she went. The troops looking around frantically. Rainbow planted a strike from her flaming hoof right on one of the soldiers faces. She shot upwards, and crashed back down to the earth, releasing a flaring shock wave knocking out nearly all the soldiers. One last one tried to flee, but Rainbow used the same smoke shackle trick Lightning used on her. Lightning Fast then swiftly ran to Rainbow's side. "Hey, Filly." He said. "Many pardons for before, but lemme just say that you're gettin' the hang of them new tricks I gave ya." He met another swift hoof to the face. "I don't want your 'tricks'" Rainbow was furious. "Take them back!" She connected her hooves with his as they had done before. Nothing happened. She got off of him, an angry look on her face. "I... can't. I wish I could Filly, really." "Somethin' you may now about the Bureau is that they don't care if you done somethin' or not. You're a conduit, your out. Dead." Lightning explained. "I... Had a daughter. Her name was Light Speed. She inherited my conduit gene, except she could manipulate neon gas, and I could manipulate smoke. She always used to ask me to help her control it. I kept refusin', denyin' my daughter had any powers." Rainbow could see a tear roll down his cheek. "One day she had a burst of power, an explosion wipin' out our entire house." Lightning closed his eyes. "Her mother didn't make it. She wasn't Conduit, she couldn't withstand the blast." Rainbow had conflicting emotions of anger and pity. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the old stallion. "Me and her ran away, fast as we could. One day the E.B.B caught up with us, they took me in, askin' where Light Speed was, but I wouldn't tell. They wouldn't take my little filly." Rainbow almost shed a tear her self. "I need to find her. The only 'mass murders' I ever done were on E.B.B soldiers. Wouldn't touch an innocent, cross my heart. Don't know what came over me when I saw you." Lightning Fast looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes. "Will you help me find her? I'll swear to help you become stronger." Rainbow said nothing, looking at the ground. Lightning let out a sigh, and began to walk away. "My names Rainbow Dash." Lightning's ears perked up as he turned around. "Now, where did you last see your daughter?" > Chapter 2: Lifting the Veil > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It's nice, isn't it?" Rainbow Dash gestured towards her graffiti art, depicting an E.B.B soldier held by Princess Luna's magic. Princess Luna believed that conduits deserved the proper rights as any unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony. She was looked up at by conduits everywhere. Celestia was exactly the opposite. She thought conduits were a potential threat to those without the gene. "It certainly is... um, expressive?" Lightning walked closer to the red brick wall the picture was sprayed on. Rainbow sprayed a picture of her cutie mark next to the picture sprayed on the wall. "Now everypony will know it's mine!" She declared. "You sure that's a good idea?" Lightning asked. "I mean, E.B.B's got cameras everywhere, taggin' the walls is just gonna narrow the search area." Rainbow brought her hoof to her chin as she thought. "Nah-" She lowered her hoof. "-I'm not afraid of them anymore." She blasted a nearby E.B.B camera, though it couldn't see them. "I suppose," Said Lightning. "but they do have conduits of their own." "Well sometimes you just gotta fight fire with fire." She replied. "Aren't we supposed to be looking for your little filly?" Lightning Fast let out a depressed sigh. "Yeah. But we've had no signs of where to look." That's true. Despite their efforts, their search for Lightning's daughter, Light Speed, had proven fruitless. "Hmm..." Rainbow Dash pondered. "You said she's a conduit, right? The E.B.Bs probably got records on her." She looked at Lightning. "Oh no, we're not. No way." Rainbow smirked. Her bravery knew no boundaries. "Lightning, man! C'mon, it'll be fun." "Ugh..." Lightning rolled his eyes. "Fine. But you do know that the E.B.B headquarters are in Manehatten, right?" Manehatten was under complete lock down, and it was too far to fly. The only way in or out were E.B.B trains. The only way anypony would get on if they were coming from Cloudsdale as E.B.B hostages, or as an E.B.B soldier. "Lightning, we gotta get on that train." The following morning Rainbow and Lightning woke up from their back alley newspaper pile. Rainbow had something she had to ask Lightning. "Lightning?" She asked. "Yeah?" "This is gonna sound pretty odd," She explained. "Lightning when I... was given your powers it showed me what I think may be a memory." Lightning had a dazed look on his face. Rainbow continued. "I saw you, chained to the ceiling being tortured by a conduit. They were asking about your daughter." Lightning sat, dumbfounded, at what he just learned. "Y-you... Saw?" Rainbow nodded. "Look, Lightning. I will do all I can to help you find Light Speed. But, to get that train, I think we'll need more than just us two. Lightning thought about it. "The police station has a conduit database." "Great! we can recruit some for our cause." Rainbow became excited. "I think we'll need more to convince them then your story." "Rainbow," Lightning glanced towards her. "Why are you helping me? I could have killed you." Dash sat down and pondered. "It's kind of an ulterior motive. Well, at least at first. I got to know you. I call it fierce loyalty. Kinda my thing." She raised her head up high with pride. The next morning Lightning and Rainbow began their crusade on the police station. They trotted down the sidewalk, catching suspicious eyes from several passerby. Of course because of Lightning Fast's prison jumpsuit. "Alright, we're here." Rainbow strutted up to the front door. She look back to assure Lightning would follow suit. "I may have discovered a shortcut." Said Lightning as trotted around the corner of the police station, dissipating into the vents. Confused, Rainbow trotted in to the police station. She approached the front desk, a female police pony was wearing thick rimmed glasses as she turned the pages of a glossy magazine. She didn't notice the pegasus standing in front of her desk. The pony turned another page. Rainbow cleared her throat. "Ahem." The police pony glanced towards her, and then returned to her magazine. "How can I help you?" She said in a dull voice. Rainbow pretended to be a panic ridden citizen. "T-there's a bio-terrorist outside, a-and he's terrorizing citizens! H-he's near the Neigh-Mart by the stadium!" The female officer's eyes widened, and her pupils shrunk. She pressed the button her intercom. "All officers dispatched to Wonderbolts Stadium! There has been a sighting of a bio-terrorist!" Multiple police ponies ran out the door, finally the mare behind the desk ran out, too. The sound of police sirens rang out through the entire city. Rainbow walked over to the nearby stairwell, proceeding to the second, and top, floor. Walking down the hallway, she glanced left and right looking for a computer. Lightning had beaten her to it, though. He was scanning through the computer. "Lightning!" Rainbow startled him. She snickered. "Rainbow!" Lightning glared at her. He sighed. I've been looking through these logs on conduits all over the country." Rainbow, still chuckling, approached him. "Hey-" She snickered. "How'd you get here so fast?" "Air vents, remember? Smoke? Anyway, I've been only be able to access a few, but listen to this;" "Name: Daring 'Data' Hellfire Age: 21 Conduit Gene Type: Oriakinesis; Video or data manipulation" "Rainbow, you hear that last part? Video or data. We've gotta find this guy! He can help us find the rest of the conduits!" "Yeah, cool, but is there others you could access?" "Umm... Lemme see... Seisei Penderghast, Frozen Arrow... Nope. Nothing to interesting. Unless you're interested in paper powers." "Lame. So where does this 'Data' guy live, anyway?" Lightning sifted through the information on the database. "It says here he lives in... Fillydelphia! That's not too far from here!" Lightning shut down the computer and trotted back on to the streets from the police station. The entire Cloudsdale police force was waiting for them, guns pointed at them. A tall, slender unicorn stepped in from behind the crowd. Her crimson mane and cream colored fur made her look familiar, but Rainbow couldn't put her hoof on it. Rainbow looked into the mare's cerulean eyes. "Sweet Celestia..."