The first (I guess) story about Snipershy, the first mercenary of Mann Co. in the land of Equestria. The wars, the rage, the deaths and the conspirations around the new Fluttershy, and in the new Equestria.
These are hard times for the magical land of Equestria, since the avalance of mount Canterlot destroyed the millenary citadel. A misterious corporation came from another world to bring aid, yet bringing more problems with itself. The Elements of Harmony were simply incorporated in this flux of events and I, Fluttershy, had found myself in maybe the worst task of this corporation. I put myself in the hoofs of a questionable medic to fullfil my task in the most effective way, modifying my acting, thinking, and being. I became a huntress, a mercenary of the Mann Brothers Corporation.
0(read the notes at the bottom of the page to have an explaination, whenever a number appears after a statement. I think that you will need it, at some point)
Prologue: Friendship and War part 1; Mind Games.
It was a quiet and wet autumn morning on the southern border of the Everfree Forest, I must have awoken up at the 5th Celestial1.; In fact I couldn't sleep very well that night; I remember that I had returned in flyby in the rain from one of those wonderful parties that since one month, more or less, Pinkie Pie throws for Cheese Sandwich, when he randomly passes by Sugarcube Corner, during his journeys. She is always so happy when he is in town -I don't mean to tattle, but those two are so happy together2. They form a composition, if you don't mind the term, really explosive- but I'm rambling right now, sorry.
Anyway, I put myself to sleep, trying not to wake up Angel -he was a little bit paranoid those days, he didn't even wanted me to go to the party-, and I passed out more than getting asleep.
I immediately found myself in my weird dream: I was in a flowery field, I could clearly see my shed in the distance, but there was no Everfree Forest. Princess Luna was with me, but neither my infinite will of bowing down to her could make my hooves move of a single inch.
After a while, I would magically levitate (!) a small rock with a light yellow magic field, throwing it away right after, in front of me.
Princess Luna moved, like to follow the rock, but after a single step forward, She disappeared behind the orizon. Right after that, my friend Rainbow Dash entered my sight, dressed in a bulky white suit and with a big glass helmet in her hooves, and started orbitating over the orizon-hill.
I only could blink once, that I suddenly found myself in a different place, with a relative sense of sickness.
It was the Twin Thrones room in Canterlot, this time, where I could clearly hear a slapping noise from behind the Double Throne of the princesses.
When I came around it I could see a OhmyCelestiaIcantlookIfeelill3, performed on my friend Twilight Sparkle by the Unicorn Trixie and an unknown sand-color Unicorn, with a red-striped yellow mane, and her cutiemark a flaming sun.
Luckily for me I closed my eyes to that horror, but behind my eyelids I saw Discord, sitting on the top of a hill.
"Prepare yourself, Fluttershy" he said, before snapping his fingers.
Suddenly, I opened my eyes, and saw Angel bunny, who climbed my forehead while I was sleeping. Forehead which I could feel hot and sweaty (I must had taken a soft post Pinkie-Party illness during the night), with a look that could express all his worry.
As soon as he noticed that his shedmate had awoken up, he made a loud interrogative squeek in a tense tone, his whiskers softly poking my muzzle.
"Oh Angel, you poor thing, I am okay, It must just have been a bad dream. You know the Pinkie-Party postumes"I whispered to the bunny.
As soon as he heard my calm voice, the fluffy bunny made a soft sigh of relief, he clearly was much more calm than how he was before.
"Me too, Angel. Now, please get off the bed, then I'll get up and make you a nice breakfast, okay?" I moaned, sweetly.
Angel immediately jumped down my mattress, squeeking cheerfully. It made me so happy seeing him like that.
I got up my bed to go take all the groceries that my shedmate loves so much, and crossed my bedroom in front of my mirror; I actually didn't look that good: my mane and tail were horribly ruffled, ruining the match with their pink color; there were terrible dark circles around my sad, blue eyes; even my wings were creased, and I could feel deep chills under my yellow coat. I must had lost many liquids, during the night.
I quietly went downstairs trying not to disturb Angel Bunny, all focused in reading the previous day's newspaper; by looking at it I noticed the piece of news on the front page of the 'Lunar Courier4', which was talking about the previous day's party: 'THE LATEST PARTY THROWN BY THE SUPER DUPER PARTY PONIES PINKIE PIE AND CHEESE; THE CO-ORGANISERS STATED: "THIS PARTY IS GOING TO BE THE PARTY OF THE CENTURY! YES, EVEN BETTER THAN EVERY PARTY THROWN, SCHEDULED, DREAMED, EXORCISED AND SINGED! YES, YOU TOO ARE INVITED TO THE MOST EPIFANTASTIMITHYC PARTY IN ALL OF EQUESTRIAN HISTORY"' it really has been an 'epifantastimithyc' party, like every other party thrown by the super duper party ponies, after all.
I laughed at myself for my pre-packaged phrase. I wasn't really me, thinking like that, in such an absolute way.
I headed to the kitchen table, and started crushing the groceries for Angel, putting them in the automatic washer, and then I made myself a herbal tea, putting it to warm up on the teslagem cooker.
After that, I sat at the table, waiting for the washing cycle of the vegetables to terminate, as the heating process of my tea; at one point, I noticed that the windows of my shed remained closed through all the past day, since I had been away to partecipate at the party.
So I headed to the closest one, removed the metal bar which blocked it, unlocked the lock, and opened the dampers.
With my eyes closed I took a long, deep breath, and in the nostrils on the tip of my muzzle penetrated a nice, strong smell of... ashes and concrete dust? I suddenly widened my eyes, And I really wasn't ready for the devastation presented before my very eyes.
The scenery in front of me was... apocalyptic, to say the least: the pouring rains that raged all thorugh the previous day and night had flooded the valley of Ponyville, turning its roads into muddy rivers so wide that the water level could almost lap the roofs.
The immense Mount Canterlot had slided down, leaving the huge mountain of the very previous day to just a small hill and pouring thousands of tonnes of rubble into the small valley of Ponyville.
Almost surely, the catastrophic avalance took with it the citadel of Canterlot, the millenary fortress home of the Equestrian politycs; that wasn't the biggest trouble for me, though: I had never been so worried for my friends before.
Galloping, I ran through my shed door, breathless while speaking to Angel.
"Oh Angel, I beg you, you stay here in the shed. I... I must go help those poor ponies!" and I dashed through the door, roughly at the speed of sound, heading to the site of the party: the ruins of Twilight's library1.
Hoof by hoof that I was getting close to Ponyville, more and more details were getting clearer; details that I could not see before:
Whole columns of pegasi were going back and forth through the curtain of the clouds; but in that ugly, grey ceiling there was more jumping to the eye. From the slopes of mount Canterlot a huge wall of smoke was going up to the sky, crossed by so many copper-colored lightnings in a mossy condensation.
A strong shiver ran through my wings, as I flew over the southern suburbs of Ponyville; every resident who was not capable of flying was piled on the roofs and attics, whence they were hanging pyrogems over the mud to make it evaporate.
Every enough powerful unicorn would levitate big bubbles of muddy liquid or blocks of rubble away, while pegasi would clean the sky from the dark smoke.
Doing slalom through that mess I finally made it to the site of the party, the big ruined oak where I could recognize many of our party mates; as I got closer I couldn't not spot the curly pink mane of Pinkie Pie, who must had been busy in a lit up conversation with a couple of Wonderbolts in hazmat flying suits.
I couldn't even land on the unstable branches, that the Element of Laughter jumped to me, all of a sudden.
"Oh, Fluttershy, you're finally here! how longammit did it take you? Can you PLEEEEASE speak to these fuckolts for me? Rainbow Dash and Twilight flew through the slopes, they had to find the Princesses or something like that. I wanted to come too but these poo-ey troopersy stood in my damn way!" a mare in a navy camo suit showed up, whose helmet couldn't hide her bothered expression.
"I am repeating it FOR THE LAST TIME, miss: as a direct order from Princess Luna, it's severely forbidden the access to the ruins of the northern area of Poniville to civillians and ESPECIALLY to non-flying ponies in general, due to the high threat of the rubble, which is likely to be magically irradiated by the wastes of Canterlot Citadel. Ergo, if you don't want to get irradiated, stay away" she said, in a threathening frown.
"OOOOH COMMMEOOONNN, what could ever be soo dangerous in flying over the rubble below? Nothing right? Oooor, maybe the Wonderbolts are hiding something? Isn't it so, lady You-can't-pass-cuz-I-am-hiding-a-thing-under-my-right-hoof?" jabbered the Element of Laughter in an accusatorial tone.
"I don't care about your speculations. You are a military? No? Then you can't pass" the mare stomped her hoof angrily on the wood of the branches.
"OOOOH but Fluttershy IS! She IS one of you! Fluttershy, show her that 'that' that they carved under your hoof, when Dashie entered in che civil service!" in fact, as the Element of Loyalty's personal equerry, I was forced to get the symbol of the Wonderbolts carved on the bone below my right hoof. That symbol officially conferred me as a Wonderbolt's level one gregarious. Slowly, I would raise my right, trembling arm, showing it to the pegasus officer. However, she rolled her eyes and flapped her wings, clearly bothered.
"Nevermind: gregarious Fluttershy, I IMPOSE you the interdition to patrol the northern sector of Ponyville. THAT IS AN ORDER" she roared, putting a special emphasys on the word 'impose'. It had come that time again; the time to make a decision.
A direct superior of mine gave me an order, yet that is against the prime directive of an Element of Harmony: to preservate the safety of another Element.
I never liked responsibility troubles, I guess I was wrong when I thought that it was clear.
"I-I, uhm... I mean" goddammit.
"Yes, uhm... as an Element of Harmony, I think that my priorities go above your orders, ma'am. I would never mean to disobey you but uhm... I have to go, ma'am"
"Fine. If it's like that, you and ONLY YOU" she groaned eyeing angrily over Pinkie Pie "can pass. Have fun in the rubble, miss Fluttershy" and simply went back to her business, groaning something about magic radiation. The Element of Laughter trotted close to me.
"How to ruin the bestest party" she complained, as if the Wonderbolts had been the worst thing that happened that day "Well, what are you still waiting for? Go find Twilight and Rainbow already!"
"But what about Applejack and Rarity? Where..." I replied, worried for the mare and the unicorn lady.
"Oh, don't worry about those two. They went to Sweet Apple Acres hours before this mess, to talk about 'affairs', if you know what I mean" she answered, waving her head back and forth "BUT WON'T YOU GET BLOODY GOING?" she jumped to me, almost making me fall from the branches of Twilight's library. I immediately flew away, towards the ruins of the northern Ponyville.
That zone was completely submerged in the mud, where concrete blocks and ceramic plates created an instable 'surface', where it would have been impossible to stand on, among the ruins of the wooden houses and barns. All those forementioed things forced me to flit over that devastation while I was looking around, trying to spot my two friends.
The rocks were exhaling a strong smell that irritated my nostrils, bringing big tears out of my eyes because of the thin particles floating in the haze; after a while I began to cough as the smoke got thicker and thicker, before entering a purple bubble of clear air just by chance. Right in the middle of it I could see Twilight Sparke: the purple alicorn was dashing all around a small hill made out of concrete ruins, whence she was throwing away huge boulders, helping herself with her magic while screaming and crying with apparently no sense, like she became crazy all of a sudden; Rainbow Dash was hovering around her in a worried look, and as soon as she spotted me she dashed right in front of me, tightly grabbing my shoulders.
"Oh Fluttershy, thank Celestia you are here! Since Twilight sensed that the Princess was down there she, like, lost control, I don't know, and started throwing rocks all over the place" her worried eyes dashing back and forth between me and our friend "Come help me, I checked the ruins, down there are located the remains of the Royal Armory! Any moment now Celestia could get smashed by a ton of enchanted weapo-"
"I found her! Quick, help me!" the pegasus mare got interrupted by the scream of the Princess of Friendship, who started digging through a little hole with her bare hoofs, widening it rock by rock. As soon as the opening got as wide as a little colt, all the three of us could see her. "Mother of StarSwirl..." commented Rainbow Dash2.
The Princess of the Sun was impaled on a long alberd, which penetrated his left Cutiemark and went out of the right side of her back, in a fountain of her noble blood spilling down in the dirty dust below her; the spear must had passed through her spine, paralising her whole; infact she couldn't move of a single inch, the only thing moving were her eyes, rolled down to us in a look both of pain and begging, her long etherial mane falling down, mixing with her own blood. Twilight couldn't survive the view, and fell down on her knees, sobbing loudly as rivulets of tears began falling down over her cheeks, then neck and then chest "Princess... mistress..." she said quietly, impotent while softly caressing Celestia's cheek with her trembling hoof.
I just looked away, not sure wether if cry, run away or try to console my friend "I told her" Rainbow Dash whispered in my ear "I'm going to find a medical patrol, the Princess must have the priority. In the meantime, don't let the egghead do anything stupid, such as trying to remove that spear by herself" the azure Pegasus ordered me, before dashing away at the speed of sound.
"I won't move of a single hoof..." I whisphered to myself more than to my friend, while sitting down on a ruined faience slab, out of the small cave where Twilight Sparkle was continuing to sob on the body of her old teacher. The roof of thick black clouds began to fade away in the noon sun, which sprayed it's luminous rays all over the New Ruins of Canterlot.
Hours later, all the six of us were in the acceptance room of the Clinic of Ponyville, waiting for the medical response of The Princess' conditions; the building resisted fiercely against the floods, pegasus paramedics leaving hurt ponies on it's small landing bay, on the roof, quickly filling the emergency operating rooms.
A white unicorn mare in a long, bloody white alb reached us, tilting left and right with her body as if she was about to fall asleep: she was one of the surgeons who assisted Celestia for the last six hours, since the medical patrol found her. 'RedHeart' was written on her ID card, in a fancy hoofwriting.
"Tell'us doc, how's the Princess?" asked Applejack, the least shocked among all of us. RedHeart took a soft, deep breath, and started explaining.
"So, She's alive, in the first place" she said "In second place, though, there are some... complications: as we thought, the alberd smashed the spinal column, wasting much precious Alicorn spinal medulla; Her intestines were half ripped apart, and the acids in her stomach combined with the weapon's magic, irredeemably burning away Her kidneys. Now, we managed to stabilize Her conditions just before it could be too late to, but without a replacement for Her kidneys She could survive just three or four days. A temporary solution could be a prototype of an acquagem blood-recycler, but it is an expensive and still dangerous technology. And even if we succeded with the operation She will remain paralized for the rest of Her life, for sure. It's not much, but it's the best we can do for Her" the medic concluded, while scratching her pink mane with her hoof.
"Uhhh, maybe it's better if we letcha talk with mah friend Twilight about that" replied Applejack; she clearly didn't get much of the point RedHeart tried to make, and turned to her purple friend.
"I have heard everything, Applejack" the Alicorn got closer "Miss RedHeart, I understand the odds of this procedure, and I will take all of the responsibilities that the operation will bring, both moral and financial, on my own shoulders" she said, almost whispering, her eyes lost in the void, looking at seemingly nothing in particular.
"I understand, Princess" the surgeon put her hoof, red because of the blood, on Twilight's Shoulder "I'll go prepare the documents. But first, you'd excuse me, I need to make me a corn coffee" she turned around, and crawled tirely through the corridors of the hospital, among both patiens and busy doctors.
All of a sudden the metal doors of the acceptance room opened, and Spike dashed through them, breathless.
"Twilight! Where the Sombra have you been? We are looking for your brother, we think he got trapped in the ruins! you have to come with us!" the little dragon yelled at her, worried.
"Mother of StarSwirl, Shining! Girls, I have to..." she tried to start an argument, tears began spilling down her worried eyes again.
"But of course Darling!" Rarity interrupted her "Go find your brother, we'll keep an eye on here for a bit" she hugged her tightly, trying to console her before the Element of Magic got out of her hooves.
"Thank you guys! I will call you back, when these damned waters will soothe down. Litterally" she made Spike jump on her back, her horn began to glow in her typical purple field "Goodbye, my friends" she stated, before disappearing in her magic field, teleporting away and leaving us in the hall of the hospital.
One after the other, each one of my friends returned to their respective duties and responsibilities: first, Rarity teleported with Applejack to Sweet Apple Acres, where both their families remained after the previous day's party; Rainbow Dash then returned on duty with the Wonderbolts, carriyng Pinkie Pie to Sugarcube Corner in the meantime. With nothing special to do, I remained alone in the acceptance hall of the clinic. Or so I thought.
After some time, I got to focus on a slight sobbing, coming from one corner of the room: it came from a little pegasus filly, azure coat and white mane, who was crying quietly on a plastic chair. I got close to the filly, getting down on my knees in front of her.
"Uh-Uhm, hey, you little filly. How... I mean, is everything okay? Where are your parents?" i asked the little pegasus, bringing her head to look at me softly with my hoofs. Her vitreus eyes lost in the void. Oh, sweet Celestia... I didn't think I would have liked her answer.
"Uh... I... my parents brought me to visit Canterlot, but everything started to fall down. Princess Luna brought us away, but when the teleport closed they weren't... I couldn't..." and then she started crying again, icy crystal tears falling to the ground.
"Oh my... you poor thing..." I hugged her tightly, feeling the cold coat against mine. She must had been really ill "What's your name?" I whisphered to her ear, softly.
"S-SnowDrop" she tried to answer, between one sob and the other3.
"Shh, shh..." I began to pet her mane, to calm her down "It's all okay now, SnowDrop. I'm Fluttershy by the way"
"Thank you, Fluttershy" she inspired deeply, clearing her throat and coughing a little.
"Now, now" I said "It's not safe for you to remain here. I am an Element of Harmony, and I can make you stay at my place, until the situation settles down, if you want to" I offered the little Filly
"Yes, thank you, Fluttershy" after she responded affermatively, we got out of the hospital; the air was almost clear, at that time, and sporadic rays of sunlight illuminated the small devastated valley.
"I live near the Everfree Forest, can you fly? You know, it'd be a long way trotting there"
"Yes, Fluttershy" she answered, flapping her wings impatiently "Shall we go?"
Prologue, Friendship and War; part 3: Mann Brothers' Corporation
Prologue: Friendship and War, part 3: Mann Brothers Corporation.
Snowdrop was actually capable of a decent flight after all, despite she had been following me in a... insecure way, I'd say.
We arrived at my shed at the 3rd Lunar; after we knocked at the door Angel opened up with a look of apprehension directed at me; his anger immediately turned into surprise though, after he brought his eyes over the little filly next to me. He then made an interrogative squeek, tilting his head to the side and looking back at me.
"She is Snowdrop. I hope this won't bother you, but she needs me... sorry, she needs us to let her stay here for a bit. If that's okay with you, that is" The bunny made a tired whiff in response, and waved his paw listlessly back and forth as he opened the wooden door letting us in , before getting back to bed.
"Thank you, Angel; Really, thank you!" I thanked the bunny "Back to you, little filly, come inside, please, so I can show you where you'll be sleeping" I then said to Snowdrop, showing her the way in to the shed.
"Speaking of which, do you mind me asking you something? If you want to, that is" I gently asked her while we were heading to the stairs, through the entrance.
"What is it, Fluttershy?"
"Uhm, I've been noticing that your eyes are... I mean, they look a little bit of... unique, and pretty1. I hope not to sound mean asking you about them" I said.
"It could be because I am blind since birth, Fluttershy" my eyes suddenly widened, as my sight dashed to the filly next to me.
"WHAT?" I replied, really worried for her "How come that you could follow me so well during the flight here then?"
"I don't need eyes to see" she then said "My mum taught me to make my wings vibrate to 'feel' the environment around me" she explained in a relaxed tone, before her look darkened again "But then we went to visit Canterlot and..." big tears started falling from her azure eyes again, as she started sobbing.
"Oh, nonono, you poor thing..." I dashed to hug her again, folding my wings around her shoulders to warm her up a little "Shh, it's all okay now... I am here to help you" I whisphered to her ear to console her, eventually succeeding in my intent.
"Thank you, Fluttershy" she hugged me back, drying her wet cheeks on my fur.
"Now now" I changed topic all of a sudden "You need to rest, little filly. Your bed is up the stairs, where Angel sleeps as well. He is usually a heavy sleeper, but try to be careful when you wake up: he uses to sleep until the 4th Celestial, and he gets a little upset if he suddenly gets awoken, especially after a day like this" I warned her, while petting her back in the meantime "You go rest, I can sleep on the couch for now"
"Goodnight Fluttershy" she replied before heading upstairs, to my bedroom "Sleep well, Snowdrop" I said back at her. I stayed up until I could hear no sound coming from my room. Just then I laid myself on the couch, trying to figure out all the events that hit me that day.
First of all, there was that weird dream I had found myself into: it just couldn't be a coincidence to find in it both Princess Luna AND Discord, both well known for sneaking into ponies' dreams, for whatever reason it may had been. My dream just couldn't have been spontaneous, and it hadn't for a precise reason... a reason that I could not think about, at that time.
I thought that the fact that I couldn't hear the avalanche that occurred that morning was odd to me, at first; but I was tipsy and really tired that night, so I must had slept like a rock.
Another thing that came to my mind was the weird smoke exhaling from the slopes of mount Canterlot: the weird words that Pinkie said that morning suddenly bumped in my train of thoughts; yes, Pinkie doesn't always think about what she says, but not to let an Element of Harmony examine the danger closely must mean some sort of secret, or even danger, hidden by the Wonderbolts. Just the thought that the pegasi elitè could hide something so bad made me shiver in my worries, hoping that such things would have never came to touch me. Oh, Celestia witness me when I say that I had never been so wrong in my entire life...
Lastly, there was Princess Celestia: her paralysis was sure to bring huge changes to Equestria in the near future. Surely Twilight Sparkle was going to be her first heiress in the Royal Chain since her metamorphosis form unicorn to alicorn, but she was morally in pieces after she had found her teacher and knowing of her brother's likely death.
I fell asleep thinking about Snowdrop, the sleeping filly upstairs. A lot of work was going to be needed, in the next days...
Twilight's Call came the next week: All the five of us met in front of Twilight's treehouse, roughly at the 2nd Celestial: the backwash from the avalanche ended just a couple of days before, and the roads of the city were drenched in mud and tiny glass fragments, which would keenly scratch our hoofs.
After a moment Twilight opened the door. Horny Royals Sisters... the lavender-coloured mare was in a frightening state, to say the least: her disheveled mane fell in part over her tired purple eyes, her tightened eyelids looking as if she hadn't been sleeping for half a week at least.
Her coat was faded, crumpled and dirty in sweat and tiny bloodstains, not to mention untidily covered in a short lab coat, which was severely mucky as well. Her big wings weren't folded on her hips, but limp, dragging themselves on the ground behind her, and her Cutiemark was hidden under a plumber harness full of tools, tubes, syringes... and a sandwich, stuck somehow just before her tail, which was tied up in order to occupy as little space as possible.
I got scared by such a sudden and scary view, and backed up for a few hoofs, eeping as a tiny tear spilled out of my eyes; my friends, though, weren't as surprised as I was, and rushed through the door and around her, filling the air with their questions all at once.
"Please guys, calm down; quick, come inside and I'll care to answer to every question of yours" she stopped them in a tired tone, showing us the way in.
If Twilight Sparkle looked wasted, her home sure kept up with her in that meaning: the big opening on the north side of the tree, created by the falling rubbish from the week before, was patched up seemingly without a criteria, musty axes and rusty nails nailed all over it.
The inside wasn't much better: there was a strong, festering smell, and the corners were full of half-decomposed leaves. The bookshelves were half empty, their content opened all over the floor; they looked like books about medicine, botanics, mechanics and electronics, as astrophisics and geophisics pages, nailed on the wooden walls.
We sat down around a table full of opened magic books, and started asking our questions.
"Tell us, Twilight darling, how are you?" firstly said Rarity.
"Oh, I am really, really feeling fine, guys. There's so much to keep you up to date with" The Element of Magic slowly answered.
"But speak'up Twilight, how's ya brother? Ya look'd so worried when ya ran outta the ospital that it look'd like the princess had her horn stuck in ya flank" Applejack asked.
"Oh right, him... Well, when we found him his abdomen was completely flattened by a concrete block, which fell over him, not to mention a severe cranic concussion and cracked-off horn2. Both his kidneys were turned into mush, and his lower back bones from his diaphragm to his hoofs into flour; I could just stay there and watch my brother bleed to death, and breathing for the last time" she calmly told with an empty and sad look on her face. I reached next to her, and crossed my hoofs around her shoulders; I was almost crying more than her. She just had lost too much at once...
"Oh, but there are really good news as well!" her eyes suddenly brightened "Remember when I told you that I'd 'figure out a solution for Princess Celestia'?"
"'I'll call you back when these damned waters will soothe down'" aped Pinkie Pie "Why? Did you make it?" she asked in a confused tone.
"Words just can't describe how well I've succeded! I have to show you!" she exclaimed. She then trotted to one of her bookshelves, and levitated a huge khaki-colored tome out of it, which she threw at one of the dead branches of her home. The branch emitted a high-pitched whiz, before she grabbed from the floor another book, in a teak wood hardcover. Among it's pages there was a big red button; when she pressed it, the whole bookshelf lifted itself up with a loud buzz, revealing a small elevator which looked like it could barely fit all the six of us in it.
"Uh, lissen Sugarcube, Ah'm in for a thing like that with all of ya, but Ah don't think this' the time for that sorta fun y'know" Applejack said, puzzled but amused at the same time. I wonder what she was thinking.
Twilight Sparkle smirked at the words of her friend "What were you thinking, silly filly? That isn't the surprise, it is just NEEDED in order to reach the surprise!" she said, trotting inside of the weird metal box and inviting us in as well. As soon as we all got into the elevator the bookshelf slided back down behind us, as well as a glass pane to seal the big container closed. Right after that, the floor below our hoofs flickered rapidly in a soft red light, scaring off me and rarity, while Pinkie simply snickered. Rainbow and Applejack looked vaguely intrigued, but Twilight seemed just used to it; a loud, synthetic voice suddenly erupted in the cabin.
HOOF IMPRINTING COMPLETE. FIVE LEVEL 3 PASSES SPOTTED. ACCESS GRANTED. ONE LEVEL 3-PLUS PASS SPOTTED. WELCOME, ELEMENT OF MAGIC.
"Oh, that's right! Whenever you'll have to come down here and I couldn't be here for some reason you have to bring your Elements with you and put it in front of..." a small panel on one of the four walls slided down, revealing a tiny display and a number pad "...This display. There it is" using her hoof she pressed on the number zero four times, her action being followed by a repetitive, weird sounding cooing. After a while a deep yet smart and... intriguing male voice took over the ugly sound.
"Mann Brothers' Corporation Operative Call Center; Hitponies when you ask for them, hats and little cutey costume jewellery and much much more. To know our full list of services-"
"Cut it out, Moonlight Morning" The purple alicorn interrupted the announcer with the sweet voice, rolling her eyes.
"Good morning to you too, Princess Twilight. What can I do for you?"
"Level two, please"
"Level two aye aye! Full power ahead, Miss-Captain!" the stallion replied in a pompous tone. I soon felt a weight decrease, as the elevator started quietly and quickly sliding down, way below the ground level. The stallion's voice got took over by an old ballad (Oh-we have to-get-this-right, yes we-have-to-make-them-see...)
"Damn Moonlight Morning. I hate this song. It feels like wasted effort" Twilight complained.
"But as I was saying, I'm going to tell you about The Princess' solution: When the hydrogem gem's exchange day arrived, I stol- er, I borrowed the Princess' corpse from the comunal hospital of ponyville and brought her to my basement, where I casted a freeze spell on her to slow down her metabolism. The day after that I brought myself to the town hall to have a peek at the archives, since the library of Canterlot is destroyed, to find an inspiration; what I found there was much, much better: I've heard a slice of conversation where a certain pony was about to buy a certain terrain among the Canterlot ruins for a certain corporation. Terrain which, weirdly enough, is precisely the one containing the portal to the human world, deep underground"
"That somewhere where you went to to get back the Element of Magic's Tiara right? Right?" Pinkie Pie interrupted her friend.
"That's right Pinkie. Anyway, I've had a little chat with her, asking her why she wanted that slice of soil. Luckily for me she recognized me, and made me part of the plans of the corporation she is working for, the Mann Co.. Corporation which, willing to distribute 'humanitarian' helps in Equestria to give itself publicity, was in need of building it's headquarters the closest possible to the portal, so the mare managed to make me enter the Corporation's ranks on the sly" she said, in a tone that almost suggested that she was bragging about it.
"Well this is great and all Twilight, but how does that relate to the Princess?" asked Rainbow Dash, puzzled.
"Oh, that's easily explained by this: as a representative of the Corporation I can make use of all of its technology at will. Which, be the case, is very progressed in medicine and medical science! So I had the chance to be working on some 'improvements' on Celestia Herself" Twilight sighed slightly.
"S-sorry if I interrupt you, Twilight; does that mean that The Princess is... back on Her hoofs again?" I asked, a little worried.
"Sadly, not exactly. But you'll see, my friends. You'll see in about a minute, when we'll get to Level Two" replicated the Alicorn. After a little while, the elevator popped through a glass tube in a massive cave, clearly dug with machines, half space of which was stacked with wooden crates, locked in heavy chains. Its other half was occupied by wall-hang screens lit up in green letters and data from many undistinguishable sources, all seemingly connected to a big glass tank filled with a glowing green liquid.
In front of the keyboards below the screens there was a light blue unicorn with an azure and white mane, who was tapping here and there among the dark buttons. Oddly enough, she had two weird bulges around her hips, under her lab coat. 'Could it be that... no, that's impossible' I said to myself.
Just as soon as our little metal and glass box landed on the cave's floor, and Moonlight Morning's voice greeted us by saying "Plin Plon, level two, thank you for shopping with us, We hope you'll be back soon", that weird looking mare turned toward us, and Twilight calmly trotted towards her "hold on a second" she just whispered to us before she started saying things in her hear in a low tone, as she just kept darting her mistrustful eyes among us while listening to the Alicorn; She had shiny golden eyes, and her cutiemark was a lyre.
Twilight levitated to her lips a mug full of corn coffee from a table next to them, and took a long sip from it... just before spitting all of the cold coffee on the floor.
"Maybe we'll warm this up later?" she just said to her, before trotting back to us, along with her colleague.
"My friends, the Mann Brothers' Corporation is proud to present you Lyra HeartStrings, the official courier between the Earth and Equestria, not to mention the first Artificial Unicorn or -NeoAlicorn- ever!" the announcement of our friend flew out of her mouth weirdly loudly, as Lyra took off her lab coat in a teatral move, revealing a beautiful pair of white wings and... it looked like my friends weren't as weirded out and worried as I was.
"YAAAAAY, another Alicorn! I'm so nervoucited, I want to be an Alicorn too!" shouted Pinkie pie as she started bouncing around the... thing.
"I could go WAAAY faster if I used magic" thought Rainbow Dash using her voice "Where do I have to sign up for this?" she was clearly interested as well.
"Calm down ladies. Being an Alicorn isn't an thing for anypony. For instance, an earth pony could have both his mind and body teared apart in many, many ways by the new condition. A pegasus or a unicorn might have an easier journey, yet it would still have to face a painful and long-lasting rehabilitation from the surgery" she warned us, squeezing her eyes, making sure that her words were articulated and clear for all of us to hear well; in fact, Pinkie's face soon turned cloudy as she was thinking deeply, and Rainbow Dash started hovering, steady in the air. The NeoAlicorn's frowny look suddenly turned happier, though.
"Good, now that we got that out of the way, we can move on! As you should already know, our dear Princess Twilight Sparkle got among the representative ranks of Mann Co. through a little... 'bump' by me. But you should also know that we are suffering from a severe lack of slaughter mea- er, personnel to get to work on... extremely important tasks. The two of us plus Moonlight Morning and another couple of stallions can't handle the amount of work that it's to be done here by ourselves, and you'd surely understand that we can't put secret documents and such in the hoofs of whoever isn't more than trustworthy. So I've talked about this with the Princess" she received a confused look from Twilight towards her "and I got her permission to sort you Elements of Harmony to your future tasks"
"Uuuh, sorry sugarcube, but what d'ya mean by 'future tasks'?" Applejack asked. Lyra trotted back to the screens, showing us to follow her.
"Oh well, that's soon explained: who's more reliable than the Elements of Harmony to keep dangerous corporation secrets safe? And your jobs will be sorted through the most unbiased way of 'em all: pieces of paper in the hat! I just gotta gotta find one... In the meantime, Twilight, didn't you have to show your little friends our little project? I'll look for a hat in a crate of the series... let's say #35? Pretty please with cherries on top?" She asked to twilight with a cordial tone that looked kind of forced, but also proud of their 'little project'.
"Oh, of course! You guys, follow me: I'm going to show you Princess Celestia!" she announced while she made us approach that weird glass chamber; the green fluid it was filled with was run through its whole height by tiny air bubbles, and the colour itself of it couldn't let us see through, whatever there was inside of it. Even though we all made our guesses about it.
After a while of Twilight tapping quickly on the black keyboards next to the tank, she catched up with us. We could hear wood cracking in the distance.
"Sorry, I had to lower the density of BONK in the water, so you could really see Her" she announced, almost whispering. Soon enough, the green started to fade away, leaving just an almost clear yellow area around the... corpse.
She was floating freely in the medical water, countless little tubes stitched to her body as she was floating in a fetal position; her horn was glowing in her typical yellow glow.
"Fascinating, isn't She? She litterally can't move of a single hoof, she'd die if she gets out of that tank. Even if Her muscles are slowly descending to atrophy, Her mind has never been more active: being an Alicorn, and not having to deal with ambulating She can manage Her own nutriment income to just Her mind and magic, which is at least ten times more powerful now, controlling the sun like never before" she said, in a dreamy tone.
"Think about the practical uses: she can solve any mathematics problem that we ask her like a supercomputer; plus, She'll now allow us to control the sun movement at our will from here; that can mean warmer summers and winters, more fertile fields and generous harvests, half an hour-lasting Winter Wrap Ups... just thinking about it makes me shiver in anticipation"
"That is outstanding darling! You really saved Princess Celestia!" Rarity was almost jumping from joy. Honestly, that looked more like half of a murder, but I made myself sure to keep my mouth shut about my opinion.
"did you have any doubts about that?" The purple Alicorn smiled.
"Absolutely none!" Rarity replied.
"BOOORING!" Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped to Twilight "Tell us about those winghorns transplants already!" she ordered.
"I, uhm..." Twilight didn't look very comfortable with Pinkie's question; luckily for her, Lyra interrupted our conversation.
"Yo I'm back! I found a hat for the count! Damn, so many crates yet so few keys to open them am I right3?" she commented while throwing a metal bucket among the five of us. It had some weird looking round holes, and a thin red line of fluid was coagulated flowing out of its side. Rarity backed off a few hoofs, disgusted by the un-fashionable piece of wardrobe.
"What are you, kidding? How dare you call it a 'hat'? That pack of rust and dirt is going to get me a disease!" she whined loudly. Lyra looked deeply into the bucket, while her horn glew to teleport into it a few post-its.
"I'm absolu- ...rather- ...almos- ... I'm rather sure that there's no issue at all in putting your hoofs in hour count-hat for a spare second. Now, each one of you will take a ticket, which has a job written on its front, and tell say it out loud. On the back of it there's written what you'll have to do instead, and you'll have not to tell to anyone what you'll be doing" so she put the hat-bucket among us, and after we took one post-it each, we started reading them.
"Salesmare" said Applejack.
"(Yuck) Public relations" spat Rarity.
"Announcer and radio operator *squee*" hummed Pinkie Pie.
"Ohh yeah, fooling around!" glanced Rainbow Dash.
"Oh right, that one is to bring aid to a member of the corporation, if he is in need" Lyra explained "Come on Kindness, it's your turn now" she then turned to me. I slowly opened my ticket, very worried about my future, I'll be honest.
"C-contract executo- executioner?" I asked in a low voice. I probably wasn't heard by anyone, because everyone read her post-it, no answer to my timorouse question. All of them returned to the elevator along with Twilight. All of them but me: 'talk to Lyra' was written on my piece of paper.
She trotted to me; she got really, REALLY close to my face, and started wisphering to me.
"I almost hoped that you'd have picked that one, Fluttershy" said the NeoAlicorn in a soft and warm, almost sensual tone. To sum it up, she was scaring me. But to be completely honest... I was more scared to take a hoof back from the whole thing. I never liked responsibility problems, I guess that I was wrong when I said it.
"Now come with me. There will be a lot to do with our 'jobs'" she whispered to my ear, before nibbing it. *squee*
Act 1: The Definition of a Problem; chapter 1: Operation for the new Operator
Lyra lead the way to a wide tunnel at the back of the cave. She made me hop on the right side of a weird, four-wheeled black cart, while she hopped on the left side.
Her half side had a wheel right in front of her seat. How asimmetric. Lyra pressed a button behind the wheel and the whole vehicle began to growl, starting to move by itself soon after that, traversing the tunnel at a fairly high speed.
"Listen, right now we're headed to the portal to Earth's hall. There are a few humans there but don't worry, they are all in pony shape because the passage transforms the passer-through, so they have the body of we ponies" she explained, holding the steering wheel in place "however, humans have quite... different habits compared to ours, so please don't mind them. All of them are mercenaries, some more some less dangerous, and some of them have quite the attitude. Just in case, don't kid around with them: those few who can get a joke may take it personally. got that?"
"Y-yeah... I mean, I guess so..." I answered, overwhelmed by the amount of information the Neo-Alicorn was spewing out carelessly.
"Staying under the Corporation's big roof also has its own advantages: the 'magical' land of Equestria didn't even develop an advanced enough technology to achieve an industrial boom, whereas humans did, oh they did, more than you could ever even hope to learn about. And guess what they use these wonders for? Fighting against eachother! in a mere tenful of thousands of years they built a true art of war, not to mention bipedal walking. We can and want to bring these changes to Equestria, but, and this is a big but, as you might understand for yourself, such a change has to enter bit by bit in the lives of everypony. An instance would be gem-powered household appliances, introduced by the Corporation. You now have the opportunity and most importantly the duty as a contract executor to learn all about these wonders, to use them at best. You following me so far?"
"I-i guess... I mean, yes" I stuttered, less and less sure of my choice of having showed up that day.
"Now, you'll have a unicorn's frontal bone implanted in place of your current forehead, allowing you to perform unicorn-like magic yourself. It won't exactly be like being an Alicorn as myself, but it's always better than terminating your coma after your retirement age, dont'ya think? All you'll have will be an additional headache at the end of each day. Now isn't that convenient?" the azure mare explained, her golden eyes shimmering from the bright ceiling lights quickly passing above our heads.
"H-hold on a second! Didn't you say it was a dangerous surgery?" I gasped, petrified in place in my seat.
"Of course... not. I mean, sure, a bit, but what isn't dangerous in this world after all? Besides, we here have the best equipment and personnel in both Equestria and Earth; now hold on to your butt, because what I'm about to tell you will rock your wings off! Your surgeon's name is actually Medic, and it's not even his title! I mean, how professional is that, to be THAT dedicated to your cause? He even has a great staff of nurses, abdu- er, recruited from the best hospitals in Hoofington and Menphillys. Just sign the contract, and then you'll be all ours" she turned to me to give me a misterious smirk, taking her eyes off the road.
When her look turned back to the path, the end of the tunnel could be seen in the distance, a couple of kilometers away.
"Oh great, we're there. Welcome to the RED base" the azure mare announced. She pressed another button to the side of the wheel, which made a popup screen come out between the wheel itself and the dashboard. Inside of the screen appeared a handsome black stallion, a long dark blue mane with light blue stripes. He had a small horn, all crooked and twisted in the Changeling way, fading to a green-ish shade towards its tip.
with a smart and sexy voice, he greeted us through the intercom.
"Welcome to Mann Co's contact center! Here's Moonlight Morning, what can I- heyheyhey, look what whe got here... what's your name, little filly?" he asked me in an interested tone, his bright blue eyes staring in my direction. My wings on my back got erect.
"Cut that out, sugarcube: we need you to open that gate for us. Oh and leave little Fluttershy be; she's with me" ordered Lyra in a quizzical and weirdly sensual voice.
Wait what? "Ohh, it's all clear now! the languid look, that drooling mouth... our new friend must be one of 'them', ain't she? I wonder where your hoof might be to make her face be THAT red..."
Oh curses, he noticed
"...oh well, I'll open you the gate right away, beauties" he gladly said, cutting the communication channel. The NeoAlicorn next to me chuckled.
"Ahhh, Moonlight Morning. He was the first changeling we 'experimented' on. We basically took a completely common changeling from the hives, and we took it out. then we recovered what was left of the corpse of Shining Armor from the tomb, with another couple of ponies'; we then tore them all apart, and put back together what was still good to make of it the perfect soldier. Well yeah we did achieve our goal, but what also came out of it was also the perfect studhorse, fortunately for him. He's like a pony succubus, so mind yourself when you're around him. By the way, I don't think Twilight Sparkle would like to know that she almost got pregnant from somepony who's her brother by a lung and two hoofs, so please don't tell her" Lyra whispered, looking around carefully. I didn't even process that last bit of information, due to how fast my new friend was spewing words out.
"Oh and for the record: he TOTALLY couldn't possibly see your swollen wings from the screen, but don't fret; if my wings were actually mine, they'd have gotten swollen as well" she reassured me. I could feel my face burning in embarassment.
When we got about twenty meters from the end of the tunnel, the big metal grid that served as a gate automatically slided to the right, letting us into an even bigger cave than the one we were in before.
The inside was actually immense, the actual roof of the underground ravine being so tall to even be out of sight, dark, way up in the distance.
The floor was instead well-lit with levitating flamegems. They made the environment quite warm and humid.
Right in the middle of the cave there was a small, perfectly circular hill, on top of which towered the supposed portal to earth: a big crystal arch encasing a liquid, pink-ish screen. All around it there was a whole array of electronic machinery and crates, and there were nine stallions working all around those.
Once Lyra got closer to them with the vehicle I could distinguish each of them a bit better: all of them had a coat in a different shade of red, and they wore a few distinctive features, unique for each of them.
The Neo-Alicorn parked the jeep in between some white lines painted on the floor, and she gave me a look and a gesture that must have signified something about staying where I was, and so I did, while she jumped off and went to get greeted by the weird stallions.
She stood to attention in front of a tall, black-maned unicorn with a particularly square chin. He was wearing a pair of small round glasses, and his coat was the color of strawberry milkshake.
They talked a bunch under their breaths, not loud enough for me to hear whatever they were saying, but as they talked, all nine pair of eyes of the stallions slowly turned to me. I shivered to see in all of their eyes the same penetrating look, and the same shade of blue, staring right into my soul. I flattened myself against the syntetic cloth of the car seat.
After they were done talking they all ended up in a loud group laugh, and Lyra and the unicorn trotted back to the vehicle, still chit-chatting. I reached out with my head from the car's door, eager to hear what the mare would tell me. I saw the unicorn behind her trotting on TWO HOOFS, whispering something about a 'ride' that the Neo-Alicorn promised him.
"Alright Fluttershy, this is Medic, the mercenary I told you about" she said.
"Guten tag, little pony. Tell me meine lieblich, how are you today?" the mercenary asked, in a tone that seemed... nice, but almost forced, I'd say.
"I... f-fine mister, I guess" I whispered, my eyes pointed at my hoofs.
"Shy huh? lucky me my ears still serve me well" he commented to Lyra, who giggled at his joke covering her muzzle not to show it. "No matter. Now we'll bring you to the surgery room; then you'll sign your contract, and we'll be all set to begin, verstanden sie, Flatterzei?" Medic asked me, messing up my name with his weird accent.
"I uhm... okay Medic... if that's fine with you, that is" I timidly nodded.
"Ach, wunderbar, meine keine pony! Lyra, bring us to the surgery room, bitte!" he exclaimed while jumping on the back of the vehicle, clearly more content than before our conversation.
Lyra got back behind the wheel and, starting up he engine, we set off to another part of the base, the weird eyes of the other mercenaries keeping track of us while we moved in front of them. They were probably very interested in us, if not suspicious, as they were confabulating about us under their breath.
A couple of hundred meters from the portal zone we reached a massive concrete wall, that must have hugged the sides of the ravine all around. It hid the high-security zone and the medbay, as shown by the signs overtop of the only door leading through that wall. 'Intelligence', 'Supplies', 'Medbay', and a few others all along those lines.
We left the jeep there, trotting through the small gate on hoof. We quickly traversed through the long corridor behind the door, red stripes painted on the lower side of the walls and wraps of gray cables stuck to the ceiling.
Soon enough we reached the medbay, stopping in front of a heavy metal door with the sign 'surgery' placed overtop of it.
"In you go, meine lieblichen. The surgery room is behind this door" he said, opening us the door. The inside wasn't actually that different from the corridor, but there were plenty of closets on the wall, full to the brim with medical contraptions and suspicious metal boxes.
In the center of the room there was an impressive steel table, towering over what looked like a pool of blood, thick and still liquid; my knees felt week, my head spinning at the sight of the red fluid. Trying not to focus my eyes on that, I looked at the tool racks all over the walls of the room, which made it look more like a torture room rather than a surgery room: cleavers, machetes, claymores, spades, shovels, even a few oversized candy canes, all hung up on the racks on the walls.
"W-wait a second, you said that this operation won't be dangerous!" I whispered to Lyra, my look tumbling over a big array of knives and syringes just laying on an alluminum table, right next to where Medic was browsing among a pile of papers, looking for something supposedly important.
"Of course it won't! Doc doesn't use most of these weapons to operate. Most of the time, at least" she answered, in a weird tone of voice. Finally the mercenary came back to us, levitating a particular document by his side.
"Hier little pony, this is the contract that all your friends must have already signed by now; you put your signature here, and then we can begin, verstanden sie?" He lifted the page up to my face, letting me give it a quick look.
"I... I don't think I want to do that..." I tried to speak up. I really wasn't sure about the whole situation, and something in my guts was telling me that I was putting myself in a really awful dead end. But Medic wouldn't let me develop my thoughts.
"What, you'd really leave your friends to this new challenge? I thought you were the element of kindness or something" he said disappointed, turning to Lyra.
"Yeah, but-" I tried to explain myself, before lyra bumped right into the middle of my sentence.
"Yeah she is! Don't worry, she is going to join us" the NeoAlicorn giggled nervously, patting me on the wings with a hoof "right, Fluttershy?"
I swallowed my words, looking down at my own hoofs. On second thoughts, I really couldn't let my friends down, especially since my feelings were telling me that there was a horrible, horrible future in front of me. I never liked responsibility troubles, I wrongfully thought that it was clear.
"Y-yes... I guess I have to help them..." I said, signing the paper with a trembling hoof.
Just as soon as the pen detatched from the paper though, my whole body got immediately encased in a powerful, red-misted magic field.
I immediately got lifted up from the ground, while a duet of horrifying laughs mocked my every struggling move. What had I done?
"Finally! I almost thought she'd have never signed it, Doc!" Lyra laughed, turning to Medic with an evil grin on her face. The horn of the red-coated mercenary was sparking and glowing, leaking it's magic mist in the air around it, his muzzle contorted in an insane chuckle as he slowly trotted close to the operating table.
"Ach, ja, ja, imagine if she said she wanted to 'think about it'!" Medic agreed, magically raising my helpless body in the air and lowering it back onto the operating table.
"Los, los! let's get to work, I have a tight schedule you know!" he sentenced in a melodramatic tone as he was strapping me to the table tight enough to scratch my hoofs' skin.
All my struggles to kick, fly or crawl my way out of that trap were to no avail, as the leather straps for my limbs were just too tight and strong for my weak body.
From the ceiling a metal frame got lowered onto my head to keep it from turning while a loud hiss signified the start of various pieces of machinery all around the room. The magic field had dissolved in the meantime but I still was stuck to the table, unable to move nor my head or my limbs. Suddenly, Medic's face invaded my field of view.
"Ach, almost forgot: this surgery acts on a neural level, so there is a possibility... quite a big one in all honesty, that some things may, how to say... get lost in the process, so if you have something to ask before you, well, forget it, you better ask it now" he whispered to my ear.
"W-well actually, there is one thing..." I said to my executioner.
"Sehr gut, you'll tell me later!" he exclaimed, cheerful. My eyes widened in response, as I started to sweat ice "Just kidding, dumnesfohlen! Speak up, schnell, we don't have all day" he finally reassured me with a chuckle.
"Oh... okay, so... there are a small filly and a bunny living with me... are they going to be okay? I-if that's fine by the Corporation, that is" I started to pant, the effect of the adrenaline in my body starting to wear off and my heart starting to pulsate more strongly.
"But of course, meine keine pony, we'll see what we can do about this wish of yours" he reassured me, with the nicest tone I had heard him speak in yet "If that's all, I shall inject the anestetic. That is if I haven't forgotten some neurotoxin in here again" he commented, leaving my field of view. After a short while, I felt something stinging me in the neck before a strong numbness started propagating from there, irradiating quite quickly all over my body through my veins.
"O-one last thing Medic... Please!" I begged, while keeping my eyes open was getting more and more difficult by the second. I could feel my own consciousness slowly drift away from me.
"Ya, Flatterzei?" I heard Meidc's voice as if it was coming from the end of a tunnel.
"Whaf wii muh hob we awouh?" I could barely hear my voice, murdered by the powerful anestetic; the mercenary couldn't have possibly gotten what I really meant to say, and I couldn't hear his answer anyway. An instant later, everything disappeared, and I fell into a deep sleep.
Act 1: The Definition of a Problem; chapter 2: Dismission and Training
I couldn't see anything. I had no perception over my body. I couldn't even hear anything apart from soft whispers. Whispers telling me about obedience, submission and abnegation. The total elimination of my own will in order to execute every order without hesitation, or regrets. For a few istants at a time images would appear in the corners of my field of view, flashing in and out of existance without a clear pattern or sense; images of dead ponies, of blood, of limbs of living beings being exploded, burned, burned, broken and tore off, thrown away in every direction, bloody, pulpy, corrupted and decaying away.
Images of death, death and death, the whispers talking to me, describing me combat tactics, martial arts techniques and surgical reports.
I wanted to scream in terror, but I had no throat to make a sound.
I wanted to look away, but I had no neck to turn, or eyelids to shut.
I wanted to flee, fly away, but I had no bones or muscles to move. Only my mind existed, in that abyss with the voices and the images. I was forced to stay and look. Look and most importantly, listen, to no end. Forever.
I suddenly gained back conciousness. I slowly opened my eyes, and for a few tenths of seconds I couldn't see anything but white. I couldn't feel the weight of my body. I couldn't recall where I was, or how I got there.
Little by little I managed to focus on the light source above me, the source of all that white, hung at a certain distance from where I was laying. But with the clearness of my sight, the perception of my own flesh came along. And with that, the pain. Sweet paralised Celestia, the pain! Every vein in my body would feel like tiny shards of glass, coursing all through me, my muscles numb and sore from what seemed like a pretty long period of inactivity.
My head felt like it was about to explode, the sides of my temples pumping hard and my whole cranium feeling tightly tied up in bandages.
At a certain point I could feel a voice with a visible foreign accent, coming closer and therefore louder. By Celestia's pussy, my head!
"...sechs und achtzig stunden, vier und zwanzig minuten und drei und vierzig sekunden! Our Flatterzei has just smashed the previous patient's record, who didn't even wake up!" Medic exclaimed, enthusiastic.
"I beg you, mind your volume..." I hardly whispered while trying to get myself to sit upright. All that managed to get me though was a deep, painful sense of vertigo that made my sight fuzzy and had me falling back in bed, my head hitting the metal headbar with an audible thud. Ouch.
"Ach, of course, keine pony. But it's best if you don't try to move for another few hours at least. Your body still has to get used to your new condition, and your antibodies are making themselves in four to prevent some weird complication. But in the meantime you can keep your mind busy, and ask me what it is that I put into you while you were asleep... If you get what I'm saying, as well as what I removed" he said, smugly checking his own bloodied up hoof, which was drippong blood all over his sleeve, as if the rest of his surgeon coat wasn't drenched in the stuff almost completely, from what I could spot.
"Huh? removed?" I asked quizzically "Lyra told me that you'd implant only this artificial frontal bone plate"
"And that IS what I did, in fact. But with all that time with you sedated in my ha-er, hoofs, I also had the time to lobotomise a certain emotional barrier, which would have been a limiting factor for you in the battlefield. And I just COULD NOT waste the opportunity"
And he was not wrong. I did not feel stopped from speaking up anymore, and it made me feel emptied, light, and definetly more reactive.
"So that's what my job will be about: being a hitpony" I then asked.
"Basically, yes. Already having buyer's remorse?"
"No, I was just wondering since before the surgery. Oddly enough, the thought of it doesn't repel me as much as before, and I'm surprised I even know what a hitpony would be" I grunted with a smile that I forced more to myself than to him.
"That's reassuring, keine pony. It would have been an enormous waste of material if you had changed your heart now" he said, empty voice and spaced-out eyes.
After a short pause, he resumed his explanation "That's because I had also installed a few combat-oriented contraptions: First and foremost, behind that frontal lobe of yours there's now a teeny tiny processing unit called a computer, which is going to help you formulate your thoughts an eightysecond faster than your usual brain speed, which doesn't sound like much, but I promise it is. Well to be fair I did remove one point twenty-four cubic centimeters of brain matter from your skull, but I'm clinically sure you aren't going to need that mass of neurons" he said, listing out from a noteblock he was levitating in front of him, browsing through the pages with his clean hoof.
"Moreover, I've attached to your heart a better -I think- version of a device of my own design: the Ubercharger.
It generates free electrons and releases them in your blood, effectively turning your veins into extra nerves, amplifying your reflexes"
Trying to combat my vertigos, I raised my head and gave him a puzzled look. He just sighed tiredly.
"You're faster now, Dumkompf" he just sentenced. Fair enough. "Anyways, by linking yourself with a certain device you'll be able to earn yourself a tenful of seconds of invulnerability every once in a while. I don't think it's worth it to explain you the details, but what you do need to know is that after that tenful of seconds you're going to feel very, very sore, even exhausted. Or at least that's the effect it has on us humans. The sockets for the Ubercharger are on your left wrist. Feel free to have a look at it" I slowly raised my hoof, bringing it up to my face. A few cubic centimeters of the flesh in my wrist were dug out, and in their place there was an inlaid metal plate with a couple of holes in it, equally spaced between eachother. The feeling was pretty distinct, and I could feel them penetrating about two to three centimeters deep into my arm. They were coated in an iridescent kind of glass. The sight sent a deep and painful chill down my spine.
I laid my now trembling hoof to rest on my lap, feeling it shake due to the effort of keeping it up.
"The Ubercharge level is measured in percentage, just as your vital signs are. Your now ionized blood renders your skin slightly less magnetic, and smaller caliber bullets won't visibly damage your skin, although the pain you'll feel is the same. Higher velocity rounds are what you'll have to be weary of, as they take away a way bigger percentage of that magnetism. Under a certain percentage you'll start to feel dizzy, and practically just ooze atoms from your body"
"So I could even dissolve if I get hit too much?" I interrupted him, curious.
"That's what Mann Co. medkits are for. They hold stem cells in them, and they'll automatically fill up the gaps in you in a few seconds. The Ubercharge rate replenishes with time, usually in a few minutes" he explained patiently.
"Very well then, Doc. Now if that's all, I'd like to have a look at myself" I then said, with a decisive tone that I had never heard coming out of my mouth.
"It actually is all. I'll give you a han-er, hoof sitting up, and then I'll pass you a mirror" He said, helping me lay my back and wings against the headboard. We were in a pretty big cell, covered in white cercamic tiles. The white blankets on my bed were tightly wrapped around my body, and they covered my body up till my belly.
There were no windows, and the neon lights that hung from the ceiling were bright enough to slightly hurt my eyes. The safedoor couldn't be too thick, since I could hear muffled hoofs nervously trotting outside my cell.
"Hier. In order to operate more comfortably I had to cut away your nice mane. To my own accord I added a few hormones among the proteines in your IV's to facilitate its regrowth" the unicorn defended himself. Third place in the last ten meters of sprint; that madpony couldn't imagine how I loved my mane. He magically levitated the mirror up to my face, allowing me to observe the result of his doings.
My forehead was bulging out by a few millimeters, and my whole head was tightly wrapped in clean white bandages. On the right side of my chest there was a long red cut mark, which was still stinging from the surgery.
What hit me the most were my eyes: my look had become harsh and focused, and my irides looked more ample, capable of catching more colors from the environment.
"Ach, ja: I also worked on your eyes, stimulating the growth of additional cones and rods; you'll see way better now" he also warned me.
"Looks like you did a pretty good job, Doc"
"Indeed I did, counting in the fact that I'm neither a vet" interrogative look on my side "nor an IT guy, but seeing as it was either that or being shocked to death by the tests I ran on the Ubercharger, I suppose I really did a good job after all"
There was a silent moment of awkwardness due to the -now gone- danger I had undergone. I swear I could hear cicadas and crickets.
"But let's not be here petting porcupines if you get what I'm saying. You've got visistors, Element of Kindness! I'll bring them in" he said trotting to the safedoor.
"Wait a minute Doc! I'm not an expert in pony medicine, but I do believe to know that the heart is on the left side of the chest; why have you opened me up on the right side?" I asked him, pointing to my chest.
"Oh so it was on the left you say! that's why it was so far deep into your ribcage!" he mumbled, surprised.
I felt butterflies in my stomach. As the unicorn opened the metal door Snowdrop came in like a thunderstorm, followed by Lyra. The little filly started bouncing around the room hysterically like a Pinkie Pie, while the azure NeoAlicorn simply accosted my bed petting my left hoof.
"Hier, frauleinen. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some mercenaries to update" Medic said trotting out of the cellar, leaving the door open.
"Oh Fluttershy, finally you're awake!" the small pegasus squeamed "They took me from the cottage a couple of days ago, Angel stayed to take care of everything even though they wanted him to come too! They said you chose us as your staff, your squad, but I've been out here waiting this whole morning. Lyra arrived just a few minutes ago, maybe a couple of hours. Oh Fluttershy, I was so worried!" Snowdrop spewed out all at once. She must had gotten quite a scare. And after her burst, what I had gotten instead was a migraine.
"I was worried for you too. I wanted you close to me to protect you but I only just discovered what kind of job I signed up for. What did I miss Lyra?
"Well first of all Princess Luna has agreed to give us full freedom for our operations. Then a lunar mission team is being planned, whatever that means. Apparently our natural satellite is packed with highly conductive metals and rocks which will be very handy. We'll just need to get up there and fetch them! Lastly, we have sheduled your hospital dismission and training program. But we'll get into that when you'll be back up on your hoofs" the mare listed out loud. She inched closer, biting her lower lip.
"The scar suits you" She whispered to my ear, looking into me with her golden eyes "It's... enticing"
Her words sent a long chill down my spine. While before they would repel me, now they attracted me, and by a long shot. I don't know what Medic did to me, but I liked it. The small pegasus caught my attention again, not without awkwardness.
"Tell me Fluttershy, when will you be able to get out of this place?"
"Uhhh Medic hasn't told me yet. But I suppose soon. And then I-WE'll be able to get to-"
"...Ja it's here, schveinhund. I don't think it's the right time to talk to her about it" The voice of a quite annoyed Doctor was getting closer, and as it sounded, he wasn't alone.
"Oh come on KrapfenStrudel, these medicate, doctorine or whatever-they-are things ya can keep 'em to yourself! Can't get a hold on this force 'a Nature!"
"Even when you're going the wrong way?"
"...Course not! Where the hell is her cell?"
"It's here, schveinhund" It sounded like Rarity and Applejack bickering about fashion. The pegaus that entered my cellar -basically busting the door down somehow- looked like he had been rubbed all over with a supercharged sparkgem. His red coat was of a flashy, hot-rod shade, his hair upright all over his toned and slim body, his Cutiemark a winged foot. He was wearing a weird black baseball cap and some orange earpiece, while a pair of blank dogtags were hanging from his neck. His blue eyes were spastically darting all over the place, as if he was high on something strong. His pupils were dilated, and I think he couldn't have stayed still if he wanted to. Not like he would have wanted to, if he could have. Moreover, it looked like embers were burning his hoofs under his rubbery horseshoes, trotting in the air as if he was gallopping away from something.
"Yo, you must be the new recruit! You can call me Scout baby" the half stud said, a tad too loudly.
"And you can avoid calling me, if you don't keep your voice down" I reprimanded him, my head feeling like it was going to burst.
"Oh oh, here we have a lil' commander! You'll be my trainee next month, once you'll be out of here. But don't ya worry, I like 'em combative" Scout said even louder, eventually landing on the ground. Luckily, my barn wouldn't open up that way.
"Is there any neurotoxin left from the surgery, Doc?" I asked the unicorn.
"Ha ha, jawhol, keine pony" he got the joke, returning a sympathetic grin.
"Hahaha, funny. I like it" Scout commented, turning to Lyra, visibly eyeing at her cutiemark "And I gotta say you're not too bad either... what's your name again?" he catcalled her this time, smugly smirking. To that she just rolled her eyes, before violently thrusting her hind hoof out and violently kicking him in the shins, making Medic burst out in laughter to the likely multiple fracture of his comrade's hoof. Scout fell to the floor, moaning in pain.
"Anyways, you'll start your training with him, if he survives Lyra. You'll find him in front of your home as you come back from the base, and he'll train your body for the new efforts your body will need to sustain during your contract. We'll do something for your 'staff' as well, don't fret" He concluded as Lyra stepped in "In fact, I'll do my best to train this little filly to the best of my abilities"
To that the little pegasus started fluttering about the room, frantically bouncing up and down in excitement.
"Sehr gut, meine liebliche. Now that meet&greet time is over, I advise you" he interrupted himself to send an annoyed look to Scout, who just started orbitating around my bed again, holding his crippled hoof like a wounded dog"ALLES, to leave our patient alone, los los. And as far as you are concerned, keine Flatterzei..." the strawberry milkshake-hued unicorn then turned to me "Dinner will be ready in, let's say, four hours. I suggest you get some sleep in the meantime. The button for the lights is on the bedside table to your right" he lastly said, trotting out of the room.
"Gute nacht, Flatterzei" he said, closing the safedoor and locking me into the cellar.
I turned off the lights and closed my eyes, trying to focus for a moment and reflect on the crazy turns of events of the last few days. I could not keep my mind clear though, and so in a few minutes I slipped in a light sleep with no dreams.
Act 1: The Definition of a Probem; chapter 3: The 3G
Twelve months had passed since my drafting. It had been a long, yet rewarding year of learning, training, and experience-making into the arts of my new job. I got to learn the tricks of the trade, so to speak.
My first deployment had to be guarding duty at that year's Grand Galloping Gala. The location for that year was on the slopes of the now Canterlot Hill, of which the southern side was rebuilt into a memorial park honouring the casualties of that now distant autumn morning. A big statue was even erected in the very point where Princess Celestia was fatally impaled: a huge rampant alicorn leaping towards the sky, representing our bond between our world and the other side, where old stories tell of a realm of pure magic essence.
The shrine was in the very center of the park, surrounded by a pretty sizeable field of synthetic grass, now covered in long tables and embellished accordingly to the festivity. There were a lot of ponies sitting by the tables, along with a wide array of other races; gryphons, zebras, buffalos, along with a few Mann Co. PR representatives.
All of my old friends were there, the life of the party: as promised by Lyra, they were all assigned to various tasks in the corporation according to what they were assigned to.
Applejack moved - much to her sadness- to Appleloosa, and started managing the biggest warehouse in equestria, along with the whole Apple family
Rarity was burocratically stuck in the RED base due to some debts she protracted with a few high-ranking officials of Mann Co., and was thusly assigned to the head of PR. She was holding up pretty well, considering her sister was helping her out, too. Which might be both a blessing and a curse, knowing Sweetie Belle.
Pinkie Pie had gotten to work with a mare named Vinyl Scratch as an announcer on the biggest radio station owned by the corporation. From WestHoofall the the eastern borders of Equestria, the best music and the most truthful news of the land.
I still can't understand why Rainbow Dash was there. I think they explained it to me once, but I really wasn't listening. She had no obligations to attend, and galas weren't her thing, given her position as a Wonderbolt official. Though there were rumors where Princess Lunna would have announced the selected agents for the Millennium lunar program, the so called 'Moon Dwellers'. I had heard that she applied, so maybe she was there for that.
Lastly, there was Twilight. The Alicorn was long over the passing of her brother and the hospitalization of Celestia, But took its toll on her. She became a shadow of herself after that day, even if to not careful outside lookers she looked as composed as ever, and had a smile for everypony talking to her.
The gardens were enclosed among four not too tall walls made out of stone, which were for embellishment more than anything else. I was stationed on the whereabouts of the southeastern tower, right in the corner. I was sitting there, looking inside the walls with a certain Harpoon Spear, whom I got to befriend during my training shifts.
I was there, chitchatting with the sky-hued unicorn as he fiddled with his crossbow, playing the 'load-unload-discharge' game.
"...And so what did you tell him?"
"Oh right, and so I said: 'Are you coughing because you have a piece of carrot stuck in your throat? do you need some water?" And so he grabs my nozzle and points it to the sky, and I go: 'Or maybe you're coughing for that massive smoke cloud approaching from that mountain?' and so me and the girls go there, and guess what! there was a dragon on the mountain, and guess who had to deal with it? But yours, truly of course" I ended my story between laughs.
"Pfft, you Elements of Harmony are crazy" Harpoon Spear neighed, having a laugh he'd been missing for a while back then.
"Can't deny we did do some good to this humble Land of ours, though" I grinned, remembering some of my old times with my friends.
"Alright, anyways, bet you that the 'Infallible' Canterlot Guard won't notice it in time?
"You're on. What are our stakes?" I asked him, interested. The unicorn checked the pouches in his tac-saddle, looking for something to bet over.
"I've got five bits and four penetrating rounds of the right caliber for your rifle. I need my arrows of course, if I didn't I'd bet those, too, obviously" he said pointing to my rifle, which was laid against the battlements of the wall.
"Obviously. I've got three bits and some obsidian buck shot myself. Nasty stuff. I'll bet over the part where the Guard won't notice it in time. Come on, I wanna get myself another bottle of this stuff" I said, taking a small gulp from the bottle I had in my hoof, the rainbow-hued wine burning the back of my throat with its chemical sparkles.
Well perhaps Applejack hadn't been so sad to leave Sweet Apple Acres after all. Her family company's earnings were on a downhill trend due to the very bottle I was drinking from; after the flops of their apple cider and their curative tonic, the Flim and Flam brothers hit gold when they eventually settled in the plains under Cloudsdale. Plains that are contaminated with the toxic and highly flammable wastes raining from the rainbow factory; right against the shores of the raw rainbow lakes under there, there were whole forests of some weird wild weeds, named rainberries.
The two unicorns immediately took the opportunity to make some dirty profit, and began experimenting on a drinkable version of the essence of said rainberries. The final version after a number of failed and poisonous attempts was the first ever spicy wine in Equestria.
The presentation of the wine was special in its own right, a whole number of different hues whirling around in the bottle behind the glass, mantaining a stable and perpetual chemical merry-go-round that produced the spicy compound in an exothermic reaction. The brothers called it Flaim not just because it was a portmanteau of their names, but also because it was a fitting one-word description of the effect it had on the throat with every gulp. Fancy, strong and cheap, good for both a gentlecolt's table and for a mercenary's strong drink, with over thrity percent alcoholic volume. Truly the perfect alcoholic product.
Before long I came back to the present.
"Alright, deal. Princess Luna is about to start her speech. I'll be looking over the exterior side of the walls, so I'm not forced to listen to her. Call me over when they notice" He whispered to me, doing a one-eighty towards the other side of the walls. I spotted the dark alicorn make her way up the stage and clear her throat by the microphone that stood at its center.
Thanks to the traditional Voice of the Canterlot royals she shouldn't have needed the mic in order to be heard, technically. The audio implants were for recording purposes, so the organisers thought it would have been a good idea to install speakers right above each tower, which meant that at least two very loud speakers started blaring right above my head just as the princess started to talk, prompting my brain to start pulsating very very painfully.
"People of Equestria! Hard times had come upon us. The landslide of the Canterlot Citadel took a lot from the life of us all, wether it be a parent, a friend, or a sibling" she started off with a sigh.
"However, the avalanche also took a toll on the economy of our nation, empoverishing the survivors and their homes. But on the other side of the bit, a great blessing has also come to Equestria: from another world, a group of people took an interest for our condition, crossing the barrier that kept us separated. A group of Humans, very rich and powerful Humans, who offered us their manpower, their technology and their immagination to heal our broken hearts. Tonight, among us stands one of those people, who worked to better our lives and to help us recover from the rubble lapping our hooves. Everypony, I am more than glad to introduce you to Mister Redmond Mann, co-owner of Mann Brothers Corporation!"
The princess stepped aside to leave room to an old, balding unicorn of a red coat so light to be almost milky in its hue. He was firmly stuck to a bulky wheelchair, which housed a big metal box on its back; from there, an indistinguishable number of tubes, cables and tethers were lodged in the unicorn's back, neck and shoulders, making liters upon liters of drugs and artificial blood flow through the old body.
His entrance on the stage got greeted by loud hoof-stomping and cheering, clashing with the presmably high social class represented by the audience.
Everyone was cheering, except for my old friend, Twilight Sparkle.
I could spot her purple horn, pointed towards a completely different direction from the stage; towards the walls.
"Looks like I've won, Spear: Twilight's noticed" I commented back to the unicorn behind me. His only response was to suffocate a chuckle as he took a step towards me.
"these guys aren't professional at all. They got spotted immediately by somepony who wasn't even supposed to be on lookout. It's like they aren't even trying to stay hidden..." while I was talking, little by little I sneakily shimmied a shiv from under my sleeve. -Come on, one more step...- Once I heard his hoof touch the ground I spun around, thrusting my knife right into the face of what turned out to be an unknown assailant. The blade lodged in the left eyesocket of the earth-toned pegasus, his green and white scarf staining with his blood. He instantly threw himself on the ground, screaming, paralised from the knife lodged in his eye.
As he tried to focus his other eye on the knife it would move all over, ony worsening his wound and making him blind himself with his own blood.
Catching some movement to my left out the corner of my eye -heh heh, the eye-, I swiped in that direction while unsheathing my bayonet. The wide circle made by the blade connected with the neck of the other pegasus, slicing it open right below the jugular, sending him right where his mate was heading as well.
I checked my surroundings for any more threaths. Both of my assailants were on the ground, one dead, one soon to be.
Arpoon Spear was on the ground as well, dead from a silent stab that went right to his heart, probably from one of the ponies I had fended off.
I trotted towards the newly semi-blinded infiltrator. Blood was still pouring out from his eyesocket, and he would soon be dead. But first, a few questions were in order.
"Don't worry, I'll get the knife out. But first tell me how many of you there are" His main argument consisted in trying to spit up to me, it only resulting in him gagging on his own saliva, his muscles having gotten too weak to achieve much.
"You'll see... soon... our revolution" he stuttered. The shock was starting to kick in over the adrenaline.
"Alright, now hold still; I'm taking the knife out" I said. I firmly held the handle in my hoof, and then yanked back; the eye though, it stayed stuck to the blade, just popping off and making the pegasus scream in agony.
I stomped his guts with my free hoof out of frustration.
"Who are you!?" I yelled over the onset of his coma.
"We... are... the future of Equestria" The stallion sighed before the last drop of his life spilled out from his empty eyesocket.
I inched back to my ex mate, searching through the pouches in his tactical saddle; I recovered five bits and a few AP bullets, of the right caliber for the sort of rifle I prefer using.
"I've won the bet after all, comrade" I whispered to my dead mate while standing back up.
I glanced back at the red-eyed pegasus; wrapped around his neck was a scarf that seemed like decent loot for my first kill: it was a long strap of green and white stripes. Once I wrapped it around my own neck, I could smell the dried up blood of the terrorist, but I figured I'd get over it. It certainly wasn't a worse inconvenience than my headache at that time.
I leaned in to check the inside of the walls.
Thankfully, the bad press that was happening up there went unnoticed by most of the Gala guests, the voice of Princess Luna doing a great job at covering up screams and gunfire coming from the other walls.
The battle was halfway over at that point: as I looked at the other sides of the walls, I spotted a thin line of shadows stretching over the walkways, much different from the shining armours of the Royal Guard.
It was then that I decided that I would regroup with the remaining guard; there were too many to take on on my own, but an extra gun would be useful to the ponies below.
Twilight Sparkle had already warned the sentinels on the party grounds, who were on the lookout and preparing for the fight down below. I could also see Redmond Mann and Princess Luna being escorted to safety along with some foreign representatives, as the regulars from the equestrian army frantically waved their ordinance weapons around.
I fetched a flare gun from Arpoon Spear's body and checked the chamber: the round was already inside.
I raised my arm pointing the flare gun to the sky and pulled the trigger, the loud hiss of the bright sparkgem tracer following the bang as it rose for a few tenths of meters, thus catching the attention of everyone present at the Gala.
Including the intruders.
The walkways of the walls had absolutely zero cover, so it wouldn't have been much of a problem for any terrorist to make gruyere out of me, unless I hid between the gunwales.
I leaned in over the inner side of the wall: there was a metal net bolted to the rocks, to reinforce it were it to crack. I grabbed a karabiner from my tactical saddle and recovered a bungie cord from the guard tower. A quick knot and a link later, and I was secured to the grate.
I pushed myself up and over the parapet, taking a deep breath in; I could hear the distant clopping of hoofs qickly shortening the distance between them and me, along with bullets flying from what were clearly unexperienced shooters. With I sigh I stepped forward, and for an instant I could fly without having to spread my wings.
