Vinyl Scratch stuck her head slowly out the doorway, looking both directions down the ruined street. Windows were shattered, doors had come off their hinges, some walls had cracks in them, and one building had come down entirely. Of course, getting hit with a Scale 2 T-160 missile would do that to you. In fact, it was a wonder only one building came down.
Four speeders had come through so far. To the best of her knowledge, this was a six speeder race. She squinted her eyes, trying to see if there was anything else coming. The other two might have crashed already. They might be just beyond her range of hearing. She might even have miscounted; it was hard to tell how many sounds like a supernova had just whipped past at upwards of 500 kilometers per hour. She didn't think so, however; she had been in the scrap collection business long enough to know when it was four speeders, and when it wasn't. Especially since they were each a few seconds apart.
Alright, so she didn't miscount. She stared into the darkness again, straining her ears for any sign. The seconds ticked by into minutes. Suddenly, a slight rumble appeared from off in the distance. It didn't take long for that rumble to turn into a roar, and then two roars. There was also an odd sort-of whine to one of the speeders. The sound, she knew all too well, of the coolant having leaked from the superconducting conduits, leading to an impending meltdown.
"Must ‘a taken a pretty good hit not too long ago. Poor soul, this corner's gonna do him." Vinyl said quietly, shaking her head. She spun around, yelling into the darkness behind her.
"Tavi! Two inbound, one's crippled, prolly comin' down here." She yelled, taking one last glance at the two speeders, one of which was producing a very unhealthy orange glow, before diving into the darkness below. She took the stairs by leaps and bounds, getting a good three flights before she had to cover her ears and dive to the ground. The whole building, even down to the basement levels where she currently lay, shook like the end of the world, and there was a sound like the very fabric of reality was being torn. The sound got slightly quieter, before it was cut through by the very unique sound of a speeder winning a shoving fight against a partially collapsed building. There was one, final, massive shudder through the whole block, and, like every time this happened, she wondered if this would be the day she was flattened by ten tons of concrete. A crumble of dust sprinkled down on her face, but nothing more, and she opened her eyes and uncovered her ears. She turned to the stairs again, yelling into the gloom.
"Oi! Tavi! We got one, you ready with the supplies?" She yelled. No response. Dread started to fill her to the core as she raced down the stairs the rest of the way, into the small room where all their salvage supplies were held. She skidded to a stop, shock and horror consuming her. Where there was once a pile of supplies and spare parts, now simple lay a massive steel beam. And Octavia was in here somewhere. She didn't pass Vinyl on the way, so that meant...
"OCTAVIA!" She screamed, praying that the mare was simply unconscious from falling. She heard a groan, then a whimper. Butterflies in her stomach replaced the Horror as she learned that the only pony dear to her in the world was, indeed, alive, but in an unknown condition.
"V-V-vi-vinyl? A-Are you th-there?" The response finally came, shaking more in fear than in pain, as far as Vinyl could ascertain. She sighed happily, slumping down a bit.
"Yeah, I'm here. What the Hay happened? Are you alright?" She asked quickly, immediately beginning to search for a way to reach her friend.
"Well, in the crash this beam started cracking and tipping. Thinking fast, I grabbed one of the spare anti-grav disks I had repaired, sticking it to the beam." Octavia motioned to a flat, blackish chuck of wires and tubes that lay have smashed under the beam, before groaning as she realized that Vinyl couldn't see her at all. She took a shaky breath before continuing.
"It worked for a few seconds; I used the time to grab as much of our equipment as I could. But when I tried lowering it to the ground, the core simply couldn't keep up, and the whole thing fell. It ricochet a pry-bar into my leg; I think it might be broken. My leg; not the bar. Blasted bar is fine." She giggled slightly, before cringing and holding her leg in pain.
"Please, Vinyl, can you get me out of here?" She whimpered over the beam.
"Uh... Yeah. Yeah, of course." Vinyl gulped, looking around. There was no way Octavia could climb over with a broken leg carrying everything she managed to save. Somehow, the beam had to go. Vinyl looked around, spying a glittering object on the ground. She trotted over, picking it up. It was a glass tube, about two hooves in length and one in width, capped with a force activated seal. A funny, green, shimmering liquid filled the tube.
"Nanites." She said, grinning. They were illegal, so as much as the pair wanted, they wouldn't be able to sell them without going to prison, or risking themselves at an illegal market in some dark alley. Not really the place for two fillies who weren't even 15 years old.
"Don't worry Tavi, I got you. Just pull as much steel away from the beam as you can, and don't touch it." She responded, giving the tube one last, loving look. They were unlikely to find such an item ever again, glass didn't really do well in crashes, and any speeders with nanites on-board got mostly eaten away before the fillies could do anything.
"Ready?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess. What're you gonna do, Vinyl?"
Vinyl didn't respond, she simply smiled. She had always wanted to see nanites in action, up close. Although preferably not TOO close.
"Here goes!" She yelled, slamming the end cap into the beam, sticking it on and releasing the swarm. It was like watching a core meltdown, but green, and intelligent. The nanites ate out a cube-based pattern that reminded Vinyl of a picture of a snowflake she had once seen. Each cube had another cube in the center of each side, and those had more cubes in the center, spreading out in a 3D cubical fractal. Vinyl had no idea what made them do that, but she liked the way it looked, so she didn't care much. Within seconds, the beam was cut through and the nanites made their way towards each end, disintegrating the metal. She smiled wildly, making a grand gesture with a hoof as the beam literally disappeared. She saw her friend on the other side, who was struggling to smile as she held her leg. Vinyl's grin disappeared like the beam, and she rushed over.
"Alright, we're gonna get you to a hospital." Vinyl said, wrapping a hoof around Octavia, ready to help her stand and to support her. Octavia put a hoof out, cutting her off.
"Wait. Have you-" She whimpered, grabbing her leg again. Again, she cut Vinyl off.
"Have you checked out the crash?" She asked, looking Vinyl in the eye. Vinyl shook her head.
"No, I couldn't do it without the supplies, so I figured there was no point. You're more important though, we need to get you healed." Vinyl replied, hesitating this time. Octavia shook her head.
"Please, grab the supplies; go check it out. I'm not going anywhere, and we need the money. Especially with me going and getting injured. You know that as well as I, Vinyl." She said, forcing herself to let go of her leg and smile.
"S-See? I'm fine." She whimpered. Vinyl shook her head.
"You're the worst liar. Alright, although I hate it, you're right. I'll be back in half an hour, tops." The unicorn said, nodding. She grabbed the wagon, which Octavia had kept from getting crushed, a handheld plasma cutter, a pair of glasses to protect her eyes in case the meltdown hadn't finished, and a coolant tank for small parts that needed to be kept cold. She nodded, throwing everything in the wagon and hitting the on switch. It lifted faithfully up to a comfortable walking height before leveling out.
"I'll be right back, Tavi. You'll barely even notice I left." She said, before sprinting up the stairs. Five flights later, she reached the top, to witness an almost unrecognizable scene. Any surface that had survived the first wave with no damage had learned its lesson; there wasn't a single window without a crack, door still on both hinges, or wall that hadn't been scuffed up. She shook her head, turning left and looking for the crash. She trotted over quickly, climbing up to the second floor where it had somehow managed to settle. The first thing she noticed was the smell of burnt flesh, and she became a little sick. Still, she had dealt with worse, and after letting go of the wagon, slowly approached. The cockpit had been totally smashed, and the remains of the pilot were currently on fire. She noticed a few feathers, and realized that this pony had been a pegasus.
"Poor soul, getting a new one's gonna cost a fortune. It's so very hard to grow good wings." She shook her head with a sigh. In the beginning of the races, long before she was born, the risk was high since crashing meant more then just a wasted investment. Now that technology had improved substantially, nopony raced without having a fully developed clone ready to replace them if they went down. Sure, some ponies thought cheating death was wrong, but you couldn't afford to race without a plan B these days. Sometimes a plan C. However, growing a body and importing all of your memories didn't come cheap. If the two fillies had saved every bit they had ever made, they still wouldn't even come close.
She shook her head, remembering her suffering friend and getting down to business. The whole drive system was ruined, but that happened when the equivalent of a small star formed inside the engines. She moved to the front of the ship, looking for the weapon compartments. She spied a missile-sized door, and with a smile began to get at it with the plasma cutter. In a few seconds, she pulled out a Scale 2 T-160 missile, just like the one that had put the building in its current condition. She checked the other side and found another missile, adding it to the pile. The government paid well to get explosives like them off of the market, and she knew finding two was pretty lucky.
"Alright, they must've had something else in here." She trotted back over to the remains of the cockpit, looking at the control-board around the burning body.
"So, missiles, check. Rear guns, almost certainly gone. Hmmm..." She looked at the small display that sat above a button messily re-labeled 'Doomsday Gun'. With a chuckle, she walked back to the front of the speeder. She noticed that the front was built in tow sections, an outside, which was obviously connected to the hull, and an inner part. She gave a few cautious knocks, listening for the sound of a locking mechanism. With a satisfied grunt, she grabbed the cutters again, quickly removing the lock. She pulled it out, gave a quick inspection, and after determining that it was junk, tossed it blindly over her shoulder. She used her magic to grab the center bay, pulling as hard as she could on it. With a groan, it flipped over, revealing a massive dual-barrel chain-gun. She laughed wildly at the sight. She hadn't seen a gun this large in a long time, and it looked to be in pristine condition, like it was installed for this race.
"Score." She said excitedly, getting to work removing the mounts that held the whole assembly in place. Just before she freed it fully, she positioned the wagon underneath, so she wouldn't have to try and pick up a 2000 kilogram gun. She severed the last connections, and it dropped into the wagon, lowering it considerably. The maximum rating on its anti-gravs was 2500, so she was pushing it. She dragged it out, picking up the two missiles and all her tools, before making her way down the street back to the fillies' work-base. She parked the wagon outside, running down to her injured friend. She leapt down the stairs, three at a time, clearing each flight in a few seconds. Reaching the bottom, she slowed her pace slightly, trotting into the remains of their hideout.
"So, how'd I do? That was pretty fast, you gotta admit." Vinyl said with a grin. Octavia looked up with a start, smiling immediately when she saw her friend.
"Yes, by my count you took around 1100 seconds, which is..." The grey filly paused, one front hoof flashing through the air as she traced out the problem in her mind and in the air. Math had always been one of Octavia's favorite areas of study, so despite its irrelevancy, Vinyl let her finish.
"A little over eighteen minutes. That might be a record recovery time, you should be proud." She finished with a giggle, before wincing and letting out a whimper as pain shot through her body again. Vinyl's eyes opened wide. When Octavia was acting so cheerful, she thought that maybe it was just shock, but no, her best friend was clearly still in immense pain. Vinyl rushed over, crouching down next to the grey filly.
"Here, lean on me." Vinyl said, moving as close as she dared, not wanting to bump Octavia at all. Octavia gulped, reaching her right fore-hoof out and wrapping it around Vinyl's shoulder. Putting both left hooves on the ground as much under her body as she could manage, she gingerly began to stand, yelping as her injured leg dragged across the ground. Octavia realized that she would have to hold it up off the ground, and with a growl halfway between determination and agony, tightened her haunches, lifting her right-hind leg up off the ground. She and Vinyl rose in sync, until at last they were both standing mostly upright.
"You know, I think this might be the worst injury either of us has managed this year. That's pretty good!" Vinyl said cheerfully, doing her best to lighten the grim mood. A tiny smile crept across Octavia's face, and without thinking, Vinyl let out a sigh of relief. Octavia stiffened as it shifted them both, causing more pain to spring from her leg.
"I could always try carrying you with my magic, Tavi." Vinyl said, her worry returning in an instant. Octavia shook her head slowly.
"No, your magic isn't strong enough yet. If you wore yourself out carrying me up the stairs, you wouldn't have anything left to get us and the wagon back home. No, let me suffer through this, I'll be fine as long as you support me." Octavia said, hiding the pain on her face and looking up determinedly. Vinyl watched her friend in amazement.
"I'll always support you, Octavia." She mouthed, failing to make her words heard. The two fillies began moving forward ever so slowly, eventually making their way to the stairs. Octavia looked up into the darkness spiraling above them.
"Great, ten steps down, only 72 stairs and 15 kilometers left to go." Octavia groaned and shook her head.
"Well, we had better get started." She said, taking the first step.
