Guardian Angels

Prologue

Technology has come a long way.

Back about a little less than a hundred years ago, the fastest method to making apple cider was a giant machine that puffed toxic smoke and made more noise than a bat out of hell. Now here we were, "the future." Where cars could fly and boats could transform into submarines. Well, not quite, but we weren't far from it. We had excelled in other areas though.

About fifty or so years back, Twilight Sparkle created the Celestia-Tier online system, or the CTos for short. A magical energy grid that connected everything: from security cameras to personal files. It made it easy for citizens to access their files, and files of other family members. This also allowed law enforcement to fight crime in new and amazing ways. It connected face ID's to information, so a name could be produced just by scanning somebody's face, allowing a complete criminal history, and names of relatives. It also allowed law enforcement to raise and lower bollards, spike strips, and scan for possible crimes with the press of a button on a smart phone.

It was the perfect system, and worked flawlessly.

That is, until the power went out.

Ten years ago, somebody hacked into the CTos. They took control, causing traffic lights to malfunction, electronic billboards to display profanity, and they even hacked the steam pipe pressure valves, and detonated steam pipes throughout the city. It was complete chaos. Then, as a final act, they caused a complete blackout. They shut off every light, camera, billboard, and even the law enforcement equipment. Everything. Manehattan went dark.

It was pure chaos. Everypony thought the world was ending. Until the lights came back on, and everything was normal again. Amazing what a simple hacker can accomplish, right? Well once people learned that CTos is vulnerable, they began hacking into it. Dozens of people hacked into the system, gaining access to control everything at their hooftips. Traffic lights began to malfunction frequently, and bollards normally used to stop criminals would raise and lower by themselves. Security cameras would be used to spy on people, and billboards would be hacked to display propaganda.

Until about two years later, when they started the HDF, or Hacker Defense Force. A team of professionally trained hackers who searched the system for any breaches. When they found one, they would set out a team to find the pony who got in. The bad hackers got caught, and jailed. After about eight years of this, all that's left now is the good hackers. Ones that know how to clean up a breach, and keep their presence to a minimum. Most of these hackers work for a underground hacking group known only as HakNet. They fight to show the ponies of Manehattan that Bloom, the company that owns CTos, is corrupt, and the CTos is flawed and unnecessary. That ponies put too much information online for hackers to use against them.

Then, there are the Fixers. These are the hackers that work for the highest bidder. These guys use the CTos to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. I guess you could say I'm one of them, but I have boundaries. I only do money jobs, I'm not a hitman. That's what this job was, a grab and go.

It was a simple job. Get inside the Manehattan bank, hack an account, and make out with some serious cash. Only, something went wrong. I was inside, initiating the hack and making sure it went smoothly. My partner was back at the safe house, doing all the hard work from the terminal there. Until he told me somebody else was hacking into the system as well, and they were stealing my files. I wasn't stupid, I didn't throw my personal files all over the web, but plenty on my computer. For all I knew, they had my identity already.

I told him to end the hack, and keep the money we got, or I was going to cut the connection. He refused. I told him over and over to stop hacking, but he was greedy, foolish. I cut the connection, and walked out. It was only after I returned to the safe house did I learn that whoever hacked us had gotten enough information to know exactly who I was.

I could only pray that I could stop whatever they planned to do.

Ring ring ring. Ring ring ring.

Click.

"Hello?"

"Hello Daniel, I have a new contract for you."

"Pleased to hear that! What do you need done?"

"I'm sending you an ID, I want you to find this pony, and kill him."

"My! If you want somebody dead, it must be for a good reason, no?"

"He tried to steal from me."

"Sounds like a good enough reason to me. What idiot tries to steal from you?"

"Alex. Alex Parker."