Ghost in the shell: Equestrian architecture

“We are ready for takeoff, Major.” The pilot said.

“Do it.” Twilight replied.

“Roger that. We´re taking of.” The helicopter lifted off the roof.

Osborn sat opposite her. He was wearing a combat vest with an assault rifle hanging of his shoulder. “What do you think they´re up to, Twilight?”

“Seems to me like the foreign ministry is trying to hide something.” She holstered her own hand gun and put a few grenades in her pockets. “Think about it. A member of parliament loses his private android and it immediately commits a public murder. Even if that got out it could easily be written off as a bug or a manufacturing error. Seems more likely that android has something hidden in that hard drive. Something that the foreign ministry doesn’t want us to know about.”

“Think Trixie knew what was on that machine before she took it over?”

“I think so.” Twilight tightened some of the straps on her arm. “She may have done it intentionally in order to have a secondary means off escape.”

“So she anticipated us learning from her tricks.” He put a magazine into the assault rifle. The parts clicked and he gave it a slam to push it in. “She´s getting scary.” Osborn put a magazine marked with AP written on it into his chest pocket.

Twilight loaded her own assault rifle. “You can pull out if you want to. I won´t force you to go along with this if you feel there is danger to your life.”

“Out of the question. Trixie has more than enough reason to want me dead already and if we don´t get this lead she´ll just slip away again. Besides,” He smirked. “My life is always in danger with this job.”

“Thanks.” Twilight smiled. “Think you can tell me some kind of joke?” She checked the sights of the assault rifle and glanced out the window.

Osborn put on a helmet and clicked the strap under his chin. “What kind of joke do you want to hear?”

Twilight put on her own helmet. “A really offensive one.”

“Okay.” He checked the sights. “A black man with a parrot on his shoulder walks into a bar. ´Wow, that a beautiful animal´ says the bartender. `Where did you get it?´ he asks. ´The pet store´ answers the parrot.”

“That was pretty bad, Osborn.” Twilight smiled.

“Told you I was wasn´t very good at comedy. Was it at the very least offensive?” He looked out the window too.

“You got that part right.” Twilight chuckled to herself.

“Well that´s something.” He loaded a hand gun and pulled back the mantle.

“Major?” Applejack showed up in her sight.

“What is it?”

“The abductors have stopped and seem to be moving vehicles. Or… wait. There´s another crew. Two men. They seem to be moving the android from one car to another.”

“Can you be certain that they are moving the android?”

“Not from this distance.”

“In that case follow the unmarked car. Osborn and I will pursue the tagged vehicle. The Chief has set up road blocks, arrest them when they reach one.”

“Roger that, Major.”

“Follow the tagged vehicle.” She said to the pilot. “Keep a distance until they stop or reach a road block.”

“Okay.” The helicopter leaned to the side as it maneuvered between the skyscrapers. Osborn grabbed one of the handle bars above him.

Rain started smattering against the windows. At first it was only a few small drops but it soon escalated into a full flood with the rain hammering onto the metallic skin of the helicopter and blurring the sight out of the windows.