86-34: Arc 1: Fight the Power, Fight the Fad

The wagon auto-carriage pulled into the carriage repair shop. As soon as the shutter closed, Ratchet levitated a control pad and pressed a button. The platform which the carriage was on began to descend into the basement, with another platform from the ceiling taking its place.

“Okay, let’s see what we got here”, he said, rubbing his hooves together as he examined the huge box and it’s lock. “This lock seems to be Mark III Horseshoe lock. I think I have some picks that we can us-”

He stopped as Clank zapped the lock with an intense heat spell, which melted the lock.

“Oh, right, I forgot you knew how to use that”, Ratchet remarked, rather disappointed.

“Thermite taught it to me”, Clank said, smiling, as he opened the box.

“It’s...an EqueNet signal booster...or at least a part of it.”, Circuit Cut remarked, in a disappointed tone.

“What were you expecting? Giant Tesla Coils?” asked Badger.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions before having a closer look”, remarked Cipher.

“Alright. I’ll just set in the table.”, Ratchet said to himself as he slowly levitated the object and set it down gently on the table

“Hmmm, there are components here that are not present in normal signal boosters”, Circuit Cut remarked, “Let me just...remove this, and...open this cover...”

When the cover was completely removed, they saw what looked like a small rectangular battery cell inside.

“This...this can’t be...I thought it was just a myth. A theory”, Circuit Cut said, taken by surprise.

“And ‘this’ is...?” asked Cipher

“This, my fellow ponies, is a magically-charged battery cell. It can potentially hold a signiticantly larger amount of energy than a regular battery cell..”

“So, with this cell, anypony can have an almost limitless energy supply?” asked Badger.

“Not really, but with this, one can power an artificial spell. An artificial spell does not need a unicorn to constantly power it with a horn. They just charge the battery with magic energy and the spell draws energy from it.”

There was a moment of silence as the ponies contemplated the uses of such a device.

“Why charge a battery when a unicorn can just conjure a long lasting spell? ” asked Greycolt, breaking the silence.

“Here’s where it gets interesting...the magical energy somehow works like electrical energy from the cell, hence less magic power is used up compared to a conventional spell. Powerful spells draw more energy over time and don’t last very long, but weak spells draw less energy at a time, so they can last much longer.” Another reason is although it does decay over time, the spell can be temporarily stopped with Dispel if needed. “Although the spell’s energy is used up slowly, the charging of the battery requires a lot more, since such a spell is very, very hard to conjure up”, explained Circuit Cut.

“Artificial magic? Damn, those Marejestic-12 ponies sure are twisted”, remarked Badger.

“I’ll say. According to the Equestrian Magic Act, only unicorns are allowed to practice magic”, explained Circuit Cut.

“So that’s why black magic is prohibited, eh?” asked Hot Shot.

“Yeap, that’s probably the reason Twilight Sparkle was troubled at the thought of Zecora practicing black magic”, replied Circuit Cut.

“You know, in relation to the Equestrian Magic Act, I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this would be considered black magic”, remarked Clank.

Cipher voiced out his opinion, “Good thing too. It’s bad enough that unicorns can misuse the magic they have, but if this kind of tech gets into the hooves of non-unicorn ponies, everyone can use magic for just about anything; running factories, moving carriages, and even powering weapons and armor. No wonder Alicorp Industries wants it.”

“I was always curious on how they could make such a cell. I wonder what’s inside this thing”, Circuit Cut said as his horn lit up.

“Whoa, hold on there. We don’t know if that’s safe”, cautioned Cipher.

“Yeah, it could blow up in your face if you’re not careful”, remarked Ratchet.

Circuit Cut sighed. “Fine....I’ll go get a face shield. You gotta have a shield somewhere around here right?”

Circuit Cut came back, wearing a welding face shield. he slowly cut the top cover and opened it.He gently shook it, and fine dust came out of it. “You got a microscope somewhere here by any chance?”

“Uh, yeah, right over there”, Ratchet said as he pointed to a corner.

“It’s a pretty interesting garage you got here”, Badger said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well there’s so much junk down here, I hardly have time to clean up.

Circuit Cut returned with the microscope and put a sample of the dust under it. He zoomed in and examined the particles. Suddenly his eyes widened in horror.

“What’s the matter there, buddy?” Clank asked. “You looked like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

Circuit Cut slowly turned to them. “I think I know why Marejestic-12 would keep the development of something like this a secret from the rest of Equestria, as the material here is alicornite dust, in other words...fine-grounded unicorn horn.”

Hot Shot gasped.

“What the heck?!” exclaimed Ratchet and Clank.

“That’s insane!” said Badger

“Imagine how many unicorn horns they had to cut off and grind to make the cells”, Cipher remarked. “....but, then again, something like this can’t be overlooked.”

Badger turned to Cipher and asked, “What are you saying?”

“I’ll send the cell back to HQ so they can have a look at it. Maybe they can salvage it or reverse engineer it.”

“You’re not seriously considering that option,right? This is sick.”

“I’m fully aware on that, alright? I’m just saying, maybe there’s a way we can use this technology. We’ll gain the advantage against Alicorp Industries and will be able to stop them easily if we manage to replicate it. Besides, if we don’t, all of the progress by Marejestic-12 would have gone to waste.”

“And it should. What they did was clearly unethical”, said Ratchet.

“We won’t go murdering unicorns just for their horns. We’ll use the dead bodies of anypony during our operations. I’ll make it this personal request clear to Fritz.”

~~~

As evening approached, the ponies gathered around the table, Cipher made an announcement. “HQ has gone over the intel. So far they’ve been unsuccessful in locating the remaining Marejestic-12 members, but there are two Marejestic-12 bunkers, near us. One is south of Manehattan, in the valley behind Baltimare. The other, is somewhere below Alicorp Industries. Tomorrow, we’ll launch a two-pronged attack. We will assault Alicorp Industries’ main building, and the Baltimare OWP team will raid the bunker south of Manehattan. We’ll seize their assets, and deny them from acquiring further assets.”

“How are we getting in? Security’s gotta be tight”, asked Circuit Cut.

“They’ll be no match for all 6 of us. Badger and I will enter the building from the roof, bringing Circuit Cut with us. We’ll clear the top floor and go straight to the CEO’s office where Circuit Cut will hack into the CEO’s computer for any information we can use. We’ll search for anything useful before clearing the floors as we go down. Meanwhile, Ratchet and Clank will walk right up the front door, clear the lobby and barricade all ground entrances so no one can get out, and the authorities won’t get in. That way, we won’t need to engage or harm CRA personnel”.

“If we barricade the door, how do we get out there?” asked Hot Shot.

“There’s a section here that’s directly under the sewers”, replied Cipher. “We’ll blow it up with some explosives and escape through there.”

“Wait a minute. What if the CRA ponies are pegasi too?” They can just fly onto the roof floor like you ponies.”

“We’ll barricade the roof access door on our way down”, Cipher replied.

“Are we just gonna kill everyone?” asked Badger.

“We kill any pony who stands in our way. It’s either them or us. However, to avoid excessive bloodshed, I’ve acquired these from HQ.”

Cipher opened a box containing six guns. “These are MO tranquilizer dart pistols. One shot should knock an average pony out for a few hours. Any questions? No. Then that’ll be all. Get some rest. We attack at dawn.”

~~~

It was a cloudy day in Fillydelphia, as arranged by the local pegasus weather team. The guard at the front gate was sipping his coffee while reading the morning paper. Suddenly he heard the sound of a steam engine. That sound was getting louder. As he looked up, two SP passenger carriages crashed through the front gate, which made him spit out his coffee. The carriages headed right for the lobby space, which it’ walls consisited of few pillars and mostly reflective glass. Each crashed into a pillar, smashing it and shattering blue glass everywhere. Three unicorns and an earth pony got out from the carriages and into the lobby, clad in black outfits with masks covering their faces.

“Everybody ok?” asked Clank.

“I’m good,” replied Ratchet.

“Good to go!” replied Hot Shot.

“Alright. We’ll barricade the door and move up floor by floor. Clear the lobby.”

The ponies moved into the building, shooting anypony with a tranq dart.

“Lobby’s clear!” Ratchet called out.

“Alright, time to make things go BOOM”, Clank replied as the activated a detonator, which triggered an explosive device inside each carriage, causing the entire front portion of the lobbly to collapse.

“Well, that should buy us some time. Let’s go”, Clank said.

~~~

While the ruckus was going on downstairs, Badger, Cipher, and Circuit Cut made their way into the top floor. The staff were shocked but retaliated by hurling chairs at them. Circuit Cut projected a circluar shield to block the incoming projectiles. Circuit Cut and Badger hid behind the shield and shot the unicorns one by one as Circuit Cut slowly moved forward, towards the sign that read “Management”.

When they breached the door, Badger pointed his gun at two staff members who were inside, and Circuit Cut dissipated his shield. Cipher headed for the door labeld “Quicksilver-CEO”. He kicked the door open but there was no one inside.

“Where’s Quicksilver?!” Cipher asked the members held at gunpoint.

“I’m sorry but Miss Quicksilver is not in. If you would wish to meet with her, I suggest you make an appointment through the proper channels”, replied one of them.

“I don’t have time for games. Where. Is. She? You better have the right answer this time else you’ll get a bullet in your head.”

The unicorn didn’t budge. Cipher pulled out an MO revolver, punched him the gut and forced the gun to his cheek.

“Ansher me!”

Seeing that Cipher was distracted, The other unicorn lunged at him, but Badger was quick to respond. A dart hit his neck and he fell to the ground.

“I don’t know! I don’t know,ok?” the unicorn finally gave in.

“Wrong answer”, Cipher responded.

“OK OK hold on. She said some new development came up and she had to leave immediately.”

“When did she leave?”

“Yesterday evening!”

“Where was she headed to?”

“I don’t know! She didn’t tell us anything! Please, you have to believe me!”

“Alright”, Cipher said as he nodded to Badger. the unicorn felt a prick, and then he fell unconciscous.

“Sleep tight. Circuit Cut, see if you can get anything useful out of that computer.”

“On it!” the blue unicorn responded as he took out his HoofPad. Badger and Cipher watched the door.

Circuit Cut’s Hoofpad was connected to the CPU, his pad displaying a few numbers and letters. “Average company security’s easier than this. What are you hiding, Quicksilver?” Circuit Cut said to himself. “Well. whatever it is, you can’t hide from me. Aaaaand I’m in!”

“Anything useful?” Cipher said as he left Badger to guard the door to look at the computer.

“Yeah, there are a few documents here. Oh, here’s one, titled “Our Goal.” Circuit Cut clicked it and a document opened.

Directive 34:Equestria-Our Goal

If it exists, it will be defiled. That is our code, the code that we will use to bring Equestria to it’s knees and recreate it anew. The only thing that stands in our way is Canterlot High Command and the infidels who make it up. The war with the mountain trolls was caused by them and their greedy desires to claim every corner of this land and beyond. If they are removed, nopony else will stand against us.

First, we will introduce our ideals into the populace. Currently, Equestria is clinging to the so-called concept called “the magic of friendship”. Friendship? Magic? Princess Celestia must be desperate. However, it is surprising the population is actually believing and following the concept. If we can twist that concept in our favour, we can bring many ponies to our side. The key to this are the ponies who call themselves “Masters”, who seem to garner immense power from their followers. If we can somehow convince them to join our cause or use them to our advantage, the ponies of Equestria will be singing our tune. It will not be that hard. We have what everypony desires. It is only a matter of ‘persuasion’. They cannot resist their own lust, and will eventually succumb and submit to us. A curse of all creatures born of this world.

Second, after our ideals are implanted into the populace, once a threshold is reached, a riot will ensue, and not even the Canterlot Royal Army will be able to contain it. At that point, nopony can stop us. We will march into Canterlot and remove CHC, and with them out of the way, Equestria will be ours for the taking. And then, finally we will be accepted worthy of our place in NetCon. Many other clusters have succumbed to Directive 34 before this. Equestria is just one more to fall.

“Mother of Celestia. So, Directive 34 is plan to bring down a system from the inside”, remarked Cipher with a grim face. “What’s ‘NetCon’?”

“Maybe it’s a place? A place where Directive 34 originated from?”

“Whoever these...creatures are, they’ve come from outside the mountain range.”

“So there is a world outside there?”

“This seems a lot bigger than we initially thought it was. Heck, this pretty much tops all of the conspiracy theories that have been flying around all this time. Out there is a species...that...wants to topple Equestria through seduction, power struggles, riots and probably hysteria.”

“It could be the mountain trolls.”

“I don’t know. We’ve been fighting unicorns all this time.”

“Uh, Cipher. You there?” came a voice from Cipher’s comm.

“Yes, this is Cipher. Come in, Ratchet.”

“Yeah we’ve disabled the surveillance system already, but there’s something you wanna see.”

“Got It. On my way down. Cipher Out. Badger, let’s head down. Hot Shot, cover CC while he copies the rest of the files. As soon as you’re done, come meet us at the Basement floor.”

“Got it”, replied Hot Shot as Cipher and Badger disappeared downstairs. “Babysitting duty, eh?”

“I don’t want to hear it”, snapped Circuit Cut.

~~~

Badger and Cipher met Ratchet and Clank just after the stairs leading into the basement floor corridor.

“Alright, so what did you find?” asked Cipher, curious.

Ratchet and Clank didn’t say a word, but gestured them to follow. The four ponies moved down the corridor till they came to a room at the end. The door opened into small office. Cipher didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary...until he saw a big metal door in place of the bookshelf that was pushed aside. It had a circular wheel as a handle.

“The bunker”, Cipher said as he moved up to the door. He turned the handle and the door swung outwards, revealing a flight of stairs.

“It’s unlocked,” Badger remarked.

“Which means some pony is probably inside”, Cipher said as he descended down the stairs. “Keep an eye out. Whomever they are, they’re extremely dangerous.”

They came to another lobby with a desk. Cipher followed the sign “Test Chambers”, which soon lead them to a series of rooms. They checked the rooms to find them empty, but some of them had dried blood stains on the walls, which disturbed them. Cipher say a piece of paper on a desk and picked it up.

Marejestic-12 report no.42 : “Queen and Hive” theory

Aim : To Investigate the Relation Between the Six’s influence and Equestrian Morale

Variables:

Manipulated: The presence of “Queen” elements i.e. the Six

Responding : Reaction of the Hive i.e. test subjects

Cipher skipped the Procedure section and went straight to the Findings section.

Findings:

Based on the tests carried out, it was observed that subjects are in a dull demeanor before the Six came to be, and showed happy expressions when talking about the Six, but more interesting, is that subjects show radical behavior when they were told of the absence of the Six. For example, Test Subject 4 who was in isolation for 2 months killed himself with a fork when he was told that we murdered the Six earlier in a very graphic manner. We even showed him photos to support our statement.

What we can conclude from this is that Equestria’s strength somehow lies with the Six’s friendship prowess. This makes sense as they were seeking a new source of hope, as the scars of war with the mountain trolls were still there. If the Six were somehow removed(preferably in a painful and violent way), Equestria would lose its source of power, and will subsequently crumble into delirium.

This “Queen and Hive” theory was reinforced by the actions of the Masters who overpopularized the Six by turning the “magic of friendship” into a fad, further increasing their public value, and indirectly, increasing the total potential damage if the Six were suddenly removed. If they were killed during the height of their popularity, it would yield the maximum impact, possibly resulting in riots and mass hysteria.

“Damnit,” Badger said, disgusted.

“Seconded. To think that they would go this far”, Cipher added, his face showing disgust. “Something must have influenced them.”

“That’s exactly right”, came a voice from behind. The four ponies turned around to see a unicorn clad in padded dark grey armor and helmet, his whole body emitting a purplish glow. He was levitating an MP40, a pre-War SMG. The trigger was too small to fit a hoof in, but that was no problem for a unicorn. On his shoulder pads were engraved the numbers “D34” on each side. “Throw your weapons over here”. The four did as they were instructed.

“What drove you to perform such unspeakable acts?” asked Cipher.

“It’s what we all want: fame, recognition...the Six gagged and bent over, hahahaha.”

“You’re a sick bastard, you know that?!”

“Oooh, watch out, we got a fan colt over here!”

“You’ll regret that.”

“Will I now?”

“There’s no way out. Once the local authorities find this place and CRA steps in, you’re done for.”

“Oh, but by the time they reach here, there will be nothing left to find”, the unicorn replied. Cipher’s eyes glanced towards the backpack slinged on the unicorn’s back.

“Oh yes”, the unicorn said with a devious smile, noticing Cipher’s wandering eyes.

Suddenly Clank lunged at him, deploying a curved blue shield in front of him as Cipher and the rest ducked for cover. The armored unicorn fired a burst of shots and all deflected off the shield as Clank tackled him to the ground, relieving the SMG of it’s telekinetic grip.

The armored unicorn pushed Clank off him, and he tumbled to the side. The unicorn brought his SMG to bear on Clank and fired a hail of bullets, just before Clank deployed his shield.

“You’re weak”, the unicorn frowned as Clank’s shield began to crack under the sheer volume of fire, and eventually shattered. A few founds hit Clank in the nose and chest, and he collapsed.

“NOOO!” shouted Ratchet as he charged at the unicorn and knocked him against the wall, punching him repeatedly in the face. Ratchet too was sent flying to the opposite end of the room. As the unicorn got up, Badger jumped on him and slapped his ears with air. In the unicorn’s split second of confusion, Badger grabbed his neck and twisted it with a loud *CRACK*. The unicorn fell to the ground, lifeless.

Cipher rushed to Clank, and Badger helped Ratchet up.

“How bad is he?” Badger shouted.

“Not looking good. There are multiple wounds and a lot of blood lost. I can only inject one area”, Cipher shouted back as he injected the wound close to Clank’s heart. “We’ve got to get him out of here. By, the check the back the unicorn was carrying.”

Badger opened the bag. “These are military grade plastic explosives. There are about 4 packs of this stuff. This can bring the whole building down.”

“Or a bunker”, replied Cipher. “CRA cannot be allowed to know what happened here. I say we blow it either way. Hot Shot, CC, do you read me? Take whatever files you’ve copied and meet us at the extraction point, double time!”

Badger placed some explosives at the main lobby and by the door. By this time, Ratchet and Cipher were heading out the big door, with Clank on Cipher’s back.

“The section where the basement is directly below the sewers is up ahead. Hurry!”

Cipher reached the designated point and Ratchet set up the explosives. Upon detonation, they peered down the whole to see the running water of the sewers directly below.

“There. Jump on the banks right there!” Cipher said, pointing to a section where they could descend, just as Circuit Cut and Hot Shot arrived.

After everypony was down in the sewers and a safe distance away, Badger activated both detonators. The four packs of plastic explosives obliterated the bunker’s entrance as it filled with rubble. The explosives just above the sewer’s entrance also filled the whole with bricks and dirt. And then, all was quiet except for the running water of the sewers.

“This way”, Cipher said as they turned around a corner. 10 minutes later, they reached a colt-hole cover, with a ladder. One by one, they climbed up, with Cipher being the last. Ratchet levitated Clank up, and finally Cipher climbed up the ladder and replaced the cover. The found themselves by a street.

“So where do we go?” asked Circuit Cut.

CIpher thought for a moment. “We’ll get him under some shade. Hot Shot, yo gut some bits to spare?”

“What do you need?”

“Gauze. Two rolls will do. Get ‘em quick! The rest of you, keep pressure on the wounds. Hang in there, Clank. You’re a strong colt.”

5 minutes later, Hot Shot returned with the bandages.

“Ratchet, can you extract the bullets?” Cipher asked “Two of ‘em in the chest.”

“I’ll do it”, Ratchet said firmly, as his horn lit up. He slowly opened the wound, and found the bullet. He tugged slowly, and the bullet emerged. As it fell out, Cipher gestured Hot Shot to apply pressure to the wound. Ratchet moved to pull out the second one, the one close to his heart.

“Hnnnggrk”, Clank groaned in pain.

“Hey take it easy, we’re almost there”, assured Cipher.

After the second bullet fell out, Cipher immediately wrapped his chest in gauze. The bullet that hit his nose was a through-and-through, and Cipher bandaged that too. “He’ll be alright. With the bullets out and the wounds patched, the serum I gave him earlier should restore normal blood flow and blood cell count. Come on, let's head back to Manehattan."

~~~