Deus Ex: Equine Revengeance

"Rage is one hell of an anesthetic."

Twilight looked down at the operation from the observation theater. With her were Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, and Facet. Except for Facet, who was looking for leads from what he could salvage from the files of the attack, they were watching Rainbow Dash's augmentation. Considering that the widowed mother was getting every augment that Sparkle Industries had, the doctors and Twilight both had estimated an operation twenty hours long. They were two hours into it, and Dash's legs and wings had been successfully replaced with the hubs for the prosthetics that would take their place.

"I still can't believe somepony would do something so horrible," Spike said, clutching Rarity's hoof in his claw as they watched. Their physical contact being a means of silent comfort for each other. He had matured quite a bit, and though he could still walk on his hind legs, his longer tail and natural serpentine body structure found him more comfortable being on all fours at times, and he had grown wings. He was about the size of an adult pony now, not as large as one of the Regal Sisters, but still about the size of Big Macintosh.

"We'll find who did this, Spike," Fluttershy said in an unusually even voice. The presence of the Stare was the only thing betraying the inferno of rage that swirled within the normally shy pony's heart.

Rarity looked over at her twin. "Did you find anything yet, Facet?"

"I'm still looking, Rarity," Facet said. "That's what I was doing yesterday. That's what I was doing when you asked me five minutes ago. So five minutes from now, when you ask me, 'have I found anything?', my answer is gonna be, 'I'm still looking.'" He looked at his sister with a bit of a frown as he spoke. "If and when I find something, Twilight shall be the first to know. But bear in mind, the cameras in the labs were being jammed and I had a very hard time getting images, so anything I find will probably be very fuzzy and need some clearing."

"Don't talk to Rarity like that," Spike growled.

"It's alright, Spike. He's just upset that his security measures were bypassed as easily as they were," Rarity said.

"Which is not easy," Facet said. "I'd wager they had a mole on the inside, so I'm running background checks on all Sparkle Industries employees and crosschecking alibis. If any of them are hiding something, I'll find out, and Twilight will be the first to know."

"What about witnesses?" Applejack asked. "Somepony musta seen somethin."

"Only three ponies got out of the labs alive: Rainbow Dash and two others," Twilight said. "One of them is in a coma, and it's unknown if he'll wake up any time soon. The other was ready to give a detailed description, but by the time I got to him, he couldn't remember a thing. I think he was bribed, or he might be involved. We'll find out either way."

"Those meanies are gonna pay!" Pinkie Pie said, her mane and tail slightly less straight, but she wasn't completely back to her bouncing, happy self.

"Got that right, Pinkie," Twilight said as they fell into silence again.

One year later

Rainbow Dash flew through the sky over Las Pegasus, her rainbow trail hidden even in the night by the many lights of the city's casinos. But she wasn't interested in those. She was looking for a particular nightclub. She had wanted to start looking soon after her operation, but Twilight convinced her to rest and learn all her new augments. She may have now been heavier, and had a special landing system that she could use to stun her enemies if she landed among them, her pegasus magic was still enough to allow her to still fly at her usual high speeds. Her stamina had greatly increased as well. Before she was augmented, she'd have needed to rest at a couple of points on this trip. She still wore her black coat and bodysuit, but it was tailored to accommodate some new weapons in her body, and her prosthetic limbs and wings had a black sheen to them. Her new eyes, though artificial, were the same vibrant red that her original eyes had been, but where those had been full of life and joy, the new ones were devoid of emotion, and the built in shades covering them masked even the inferno they carried. Gone was Dash's confident smirk. In its place was a scowl. All in all, her new look conveyed 'Don't fuck with me.'

Landing on the sidewalk with enough force to crack it, Dash walked toward the entrance of Club Errera, passerby giving her a wide berth. As she reached the entrance of the club, she could hear the beat of music coming from within, which became clear as the doors slid open to let her in. Stopping at the top of a staircase, she took stock of the club. The dance floor was packed, and the strobe lights lighting up the darkened room with all manner of colors made for a very nice atmosphere.

Her only problem was the music, and as she walked toward the bar, the lyrics got started for the first time since she entered.

"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest..."

Those lyrics reminded her of her loss, and made her blink back some tears as she reached the bar. "Mojito," she said to the barkeep. "No ice or lime wedge."

"I think you might be lost, aug," a gruff voice said from the spot next to her.

Looking over, Dash saw a rather diminutive chimp in a tuxedo shirt and jacket holding a drink of his own. "Aren't you a little small to have a name like Wukong?" she asked in a condescending tone as her drink was served. Lifting her hoof, or rather, hand, she took hold of the glass. It had been Twilight's idea to include hands in foreleg prosthetics, since they were so convenient for monkeys and other creatures that had them. Manipulating the unfamiliar appendage had been a somewhat challenging learning curve, but Dash had managed.

"So you know who I am," Wukong said. "Got a name, sweetheart?"

Dash looked him dead in the eye. "Several. But instead of 'sweetheart', you can call me 'ma'am'." As she spoke, she reached down with her left hand, grabbing and squeezing Wukong's family jewels as she said 'ma'am'.

She sipped her drink as the pain made Wukong gasp in a voice a couple octaves higher than he had been speaking in before. "Word on the street is that you know everything," she said as an image of the only other active survivor of the attack on Sparkle Industries appeared on a screen on her foreleg. "Tell me where I can find him and I might not neuter you," she said as she showed it to him.

"I've never seen him before, freak," Wukong got out through his pain.

"Excuse me?" Dash asked while adding some pressure to his jewels.

"I've never seen him before, freak, ma'am!" Wukong whimpered as a large number of bouncers, chimps larger than Wukong himself, ran up to them.

"Looks like we've got an audience," Dash said as she glanced at them. "This must be embarrassing for you."

"Listen, freak, ma'am! If you want to get out of this club alive, then let me go. Now!" Wukong gasped as Dash sipped her drink.

Deciding to go easy on him, Dash released him and nonchalantly sipped her drink.

"You'll pay for that, aug!" Wukong said, glaring at her as one of the bouncers approached Rainbow.

"We just need to kiss and make up," the bouncer said as he grasped Dash's face and turned it toward him, leaning in for the kiss part. All that earned him was a fist to the face that sent him flying through a glass pillar and onto the dance floor, sending the party goers running and screaming.

"My husband was the only one allowed to kiss me like that," Rainbow said coldly before finishing her drink.

One of the bouncers came at Dash with a bo staff, and his swing was dodged by her as she jumped into the air and slammed into the ground, causing a shockwave that knocked the bouncers off their feet.

Exploiting the opening, Dash closed the distance between herself and one of the bouncers and bucked him into a wall before punching another and disarming him of his jian and throwing him into one of his colleagues. She used the stolen jian to clock another bouncer with the flat side of the blade and kicked him into another bouncer before pinning another to the floor by shoving the blade through his coat and deep into the floor. Dodging a punch and getting behind the offender, she suplexed him into the floor and tackled another into the wall with a shoulder charge.

The bouncers piled on top of Dash and tried to restrain her with their combined weight. What they didn't count on was the sheer strength that Rainbow now possessed, allowing her to throw them off and into the walls. The ones that were still able to wisely decided to not get up.

"Ginkaku who is this girl?" a silverback gorilla dressed in a monk's robe with a golden rope wrapped around his left arm and a large feathered fan in his right hand asked of his brother.

"I don't know, Kinkaku. But she needs to be taught a lesson," Ginkaku said, brandishing a sword that appeared to have a blade that could fold in half in his right hand, and a large gourd under his left arm. He wore a similar monk's robe as his brother.

Rainbow Dash turned to face them, lifting her right foreleg as a blade extended from a slot on it over and behind her fist, and another blade extended from her left foreleg's elbow, pointing behind her. "Come on."

Grinning, Kinkaku ran at her and threw a punch at her with his rope covered arm.

Jumping, Dash avoided the punch and landed on his arm as she countered with a left hook aimed at his face, which he blocked with the fan. Ginkaku came at her with a slash of his sword that she jumped off Kinkaku's arm to avoid while parrying with a slash of her arm sword. Hovering above them, she noted the ambient magic she felt in their weapons. "Better not let that rope touch my skin. Hit and run tactics from above are my best bet here," she thought to herself.

"Don't think flying is gonna protect you from us, aug!" Kinkaku said with a smirk as he waved his fan, sending a wave of fire at Dash.

"Whoa that's hot!" Dash gasped as she flew up to avoid the fire, feeling its heat even with some distance as it melted several metal light fixtures and made them fall onto the vacated dance floor. Glaring, she flew at Ginkaku and started a close quarters fight with him, working to keep him between herself and Kinkaku.

Kinkaku closed the distance and swapped out with his brother, trying to hit Dash with the rope wrapped around his arm. "Why isn't this working?!"

"Try hitting skin!" Dash said as she grabbed the rope, swinging Kinkaku around and throwing him into a wall before turning her attention back to Ginkaku, who demonstrated some impressive swordwork, keeping Dash on her guard for a bit before she found an opening and bucked him into his brother, knocking both out.

Throughout the fight, that song had kept playing, making Dash feel the need to vent some of her sadness. And what better way than through song? Going over to the soundboard, she hacked it and changed the music, doing a practice vocal as Wukong approached armed with an ornate bo staff.

"You're gonna pay for this," Wukong said as he attacked at the same moment Dash began singing.

"I couldn't take it, couldn't stand another minute.

Couldn't bear another day without you in it.

All of the joy that I had known for all my life,

Was stripped away from me the minute that you died."

Dash parried several strikes from Wukong's staff after her attempt to block one had knocked her back several feet. Wukong was stronger than he looked. Much stronger.

"To have you in my life was all I ever wanted.

But now without you, I'm a soul forever haunted.

Can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted.

No way in Hell that I could ever comprehend this!"

Dash went on the offensive and threw a combo of punches at Wukong, who blocked and parried them with his staff, getting in some hits on his own and making Dash take to the air.

"I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone.

I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong.

How could you leave me when you swore that you would stay?

Now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single bucking day!"

Dash put on a burst of speed and disarmed Wukong while also sending him into the opposite wall with her following combo. Despite her song and the fight, her face remained passive.

"Red like roses

Fills my head with dreams and finds me"

Wukong got up and came at Dash as she landed, trying to attack her again.

"Always closer

to the emptiness and sadness

that has come to take the place of you!"

Dash finished the song as she punched Wukong into the floor and held him there, bringing up the picture of her target again. "No more games. Now tell me where he is."

"Okay! Okay!" Wukong said. "He's been staying in a penthouse across from Hurricane's Palace."

"Thanks," Dash said as she got off him. "Next time give me the info I want." With that, she flew off toward the penthouse in question. She needed to have words with this pony.