The Burning World

93 Ave, Block A-3, Canterlot

Some nights...

Some nights it could be quiet.

Some nights, Twilight could sit at her desk, watch Rainbow do nothing or maybe do the same as her, and shuffle overdue reports, act busy, and there would be no calls. Not one. Of course, back in the old days life seemed a whole lot simpler than what they have now...

Back in those days, policing must have been fun. Simply cruising downtown just to find something to do, arrest a few thugs, maybe find some elder pony blind looking for they're cane, anything to top up your arrest count. But nowadays, going outside meant death. Going outside, especially at night, meant potential suicide. It wasn't all too long ago, it seemed like, but by the time her and Rainbow Dash joined, those days had already ended.

Nobody went out if they didn't have to.

Life seemed so dead-driven on the outside that going out meant you were out for two things. To get paid, or save some poor pony. Either way, both only made any reason less so to just stay indoors.

In parts around Canterlot, certain areas have been whittled away completely. Zones turned to red, and nobody was allowed there for their own safety, regardless if you had belongings there. In Canterlot, dozens of precincts dug in deep around the city had full-sized staff, but now some stations only have a handful. Block A-B still had majority of it's sectors cleared out and ponies are constantly moving into town from around the country, but it gets tough, especially in lower sections of both blocks were some areas are getting extremely difficult to hold down. Leaving the discouragement of many travelers. Though most of Block A-4 has been eroded so much that the government is sanctioning the funds every month so the ponies living and stationed there would have to leave. Block B-5 has been fully written off for a year, citing it as a loss cause. And Block C? Block D-3 and 5 and everyone else considered ponies there are long gone. Block C, surprisingly enough, is still the only Block to not have a code-red state. That shows that they're doing something right...

It was work keeping Hackitts out.

And Twilight told herself - tried to convince herself - that this was important work. Important work that could satisfy the needs of many, but she knew deep down that it was starting to feel like a burden. Princess Celestia always told her that if this line of work ever became too much she could back-out, and that went for all of her friends. They could all simply just back-out...

But what would that prove? It would only prove that they're hopeless, and that fighting the worse of worse before this was all for nothing. They needed to do this...she believed that she had to do this.

As every politician never loss the chance to say at any crucial moment in their time, this is war.

It was us versus them.

There were those that tried to live the normal pony life. A life they could have self-sufficiently without fear, a life built on explicit peace and subtlety.

Then there were those, the Hackitts.

When the great Drought Hit, when water became like gold. When food became like a rare delicacy, when food riots touched the continents around the globe. When sheer hunger made entire governments fall into the shadows or use whatever strength they could muster and fight it out physically. It didn't seem to matter anymore, because life as everyone once knew it had ended.

That was when something else happened.

Something must have turned off in the ponies brain, something pathogenic, something unheard of. Maybe it was caused by a secret experiment gone wrong, a secret super food created to be designed by big corporate business for consumers to consume from day to day to end all pandemics of food shortages? And if so, did that food carry a virus that undid the genes in pony code with millions and millions of years of evolution?

There were thousands of arguments, disagreements, theories, and no agreement.

No pony knew what had happened.

And what did Twilight think? Well for about five years she had thought about just every single anomaly known to ponies.

But none of them had a positive effect in her brain, instead it brought about more guilt.

They need ponies like me, Twilight thought. She anchored her chair back to let the tension in her body ease up. I shouldn't worry, I shouldn't worry. Just focus on my job, and ponies need other ponies like me, Dash, Adam, Steven, Carol, to make sure that Hackitt's stay away.

And with every day, every night, that got harder and harder.

She was becoming in a daze now, her eyes struggling to keep open. Cops weren't supposed to sleep, especially Pegasus ones - in her case, however, she was an alicorn; This wasn't like the Fire Department. They still maintained that code "on duty - to serve and protect."

Ponies that flew were considered more of the go to premium when it came to tackling tougher scenarios. And with the extra amount of training they received, they knew not to disappoint. They couldn't disappoint, if they had been unfit for duty, some analysts predicted that the world would've went a different way - entirely.

This meant that she had to be awake at all times.

Still, she slept earlier in the day. And she wasn't doing double shifts this week.

When the phone on her desk rang, it was usually in the shrill of the night. Cell service had largely become vacant in the world, save for the few satellites stationed around and for the rare pony who could afford such a luxury. Even though cellphones were practically rendered useless, Twilight still didn't mind the idea of getting one. Though, she never bothered since she lived in small town with ponies she knew all around. Land-lines had become increasingly undependable - cables cut, telephone poles down. When lines in the supposedly safe areas got damaged, no team would go out to work on them, at least when it was dark. It was for the best, she thought.

Twilight finally gave in, she planted her head down on her desk nicely and closed her eyes shut. Rainbow saw this, and continued working on her ancient computer, printing off reports to hand to the boss later on. She just let her friend sleep it off, they did it from time to time when one of them needed forty winks. It wasn't a big issue unless they're boss marched through the door or if their scanner went off. She kind of liked the idea of watching Twilight sleep, it made her feel motherly towards her friend.

Rainbow had hit the keyboard on her computer on her desk, a true dinosaur, and began using her mouse to scroll down the banks of empty information that had to be filled out by the end of her shift. There wasn't anything major that happened to them this week, except for when they found a homeless man ripped from the waist down of his body. He was slouching with his back up against the street light right beside a bench. A metal garbage bin hung over him to make it look like he passed out drunk. Hackitts were terribly clever that way, they could make such a scene looks so innocent. Unless you looked close enough...

A large thunder cracked through the sky and the humongous sounds clashed against the walls of their office, sending a faint shiver down Rainbow's spine while she continued to block out that noise. She eagerly plucked away at the keyboard when the alarms rung. This shook Twilight out of her dozed out state as she stood up and her eyes snapped open with her ears perking upward at those rigid-horrid rings.

Rainbow was already up and about, looking over at precinct map on the station wall in at the far end of their room. One spot glowed red, Rainbow was already suited up and on the move. "Breakthrough, Twilight. Get up, and get moving." she shouted as she left the room.

Twilight made way for the locker room to change into her gear. It was bright red, so that meant that she needed to have light armor because it could mean they have to fly their out of the scene.

Jogging her towards the room, Rainbow called out. "Barnes, same freaking building as last week!"

Twilight stopped briefly, "Same building? Crap..." her mind already rushing with several predictions on how this was going to pan out.

"Yeah, sorry Twilight. Just the way it is," Rainbow replied before exiting the building.

"I'll catch up in a second." Twilight called, but Rainbow had already bolted.

67 Ave, Block B-2, Canterlot

"Hey, Apples," Billie asked. "Wanna go for drinks this weekend? I'm buying, and you look like crap." She asked her friend who looked more useless than an officer with no legs and on a wheel-chair.

"So ah should make myself look like more crap? with drinks at some stingy bar?" Applejack replied coldly, her head stuck up before she burrowed it in her fur some more.

"That's not what I meant, Jacks." Billie rolled her eyes before wheeling her chair over to Applejack. "You and I both know that you need to treat yourself for once; coming to work all these hours is stressful enough - making you very tired." She placed a hoof on her friends wrist.

"No it ain't." Applejack scoffed, shoving Billie's brace away from her wrist, she tucked her hat over her face. The ends of her mane bulged out and the bright light from her night-light complimented the sparkle of her golden hair.

"Suit yourself, but hey, Apples. You should really take a few nights to get away, because at this rate. If Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon came in here and saw your state. He would definitely give you an earful." Billie reminded Apples of her tarty appearance with some satisfaction.

"Billie, ah get it. ah'm ah little messin' right now, but after today ah'm going to sleep in my comfy bed. And come back fresh as daises, alright?" Applejack looked up and saw the blue blur line across her computer, she reached for the mouse and clicked the shut down button. After that, she fumbled around her desk for her clock. Billie pointed with her hoof to the left side of Applejack's desk, she complied and finally saw the little black thing. It was pretty basic and nothing too complex about it, since it was plastic and all.

Applejack went to scratch the back of her head before getting up and going to the washroom. Just seconds after leaving, the alarm screeched through the halls with it's shrilling rings. The pinging sound instantly got their attention and they both immediately headed for the locker room to fetch for their equipment. They were the only two ponies available for the call, so they had to make it quick.

Tom Croydon yells at them from outside the mare's locker room, "C'mon ladies, it's bright red. You know what that means!"

"Got it." Both shouted back. Applejack's slightly sounded off, considering her thick southern-drawl background.

Applejack grabbed Kevlar padding's for her legs, struggling to put one hoof over the little strap to clamp them together, she managed. She fetched for her Kevlar armor that was to wrap around her frame and keep her body protected from any potential bites. She didn't care if her mane got ruffled in the process. Applebloom was in her mind the whole time, her home was captured in mind, her Grandma, her brother, everything that she hung unto for dear life was circling around her head.

Billie was already decked out in the same gear and was on the move for the squad chariot, thankfully it was a mechanical-working on and not the old-standards from back in the day. All you needed was to move the wheel and maneuver the clutch wherever you chose to go. "Come on! We've got to go Apples!" She shouted at her friend, who in return picked up the pace and slapped the sleep out of her eyes with her hoof whamming her face hard. The cheek turned red, and the electric shock of her hooves blow fused some homemade adrenaline with legitimate pain that she relayed the words, Okay! Ya could do this, Applejack! Now snap out of it because you got ah job to do! inside her head.

It was like a loop that she needed to hear over and over just to hold herself from breaking down completely.

Applejack followed Billie out of the locker room, and they trotted for the exit. Their batons clanking from side to side, scanner bouncing up and down in it's holster on their shoulders. Applejack's hat was held firmly by herself so it wouldn't fly away, the helmets on their backs were wrapped tight by black coated-Velcro straps. Other little pockets laced around the armor included items like pepper-spray, hoof-cuffs, usually pencils and papers but in this day and age. Those were rendered useless.

They busted through the door and ran to their chariot to complete a job. A job that could very well mean the end to their own lives.