Ghost in the shell: Equestrian architecture

“This really bad.” Celestia sighed with a tired tone. Her otherwise sparkling hair was tousled and messy. She was sitting behind her desk, looking over the team. Everyone was there, except Osborn, who was still hospitalized.

“We managed to complete the mission, didn´t we?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Not in the way we were suppose to.” Celestia pulled up a hologram screen and showed them a news article with the headline; “Government assassination performed in a public hotel.”

“The public was not supposed to now about this.” Twilight Sparkle told Rainbow Dash. “The reason this mission was classified and performed the way it was, was because it was meant to look like a mafia hit.”

“But this wasn´t our fault.” Applejack butted in. “It was someone else who shoot Osborn and forced us to perform an extraction.”

“I know.” Celestia said. “And I am not putting the blame on any of you. The problem is that we are facing a public outcry towards the assassination and we need to find out who sabotaged our mission and why.” She nodded towards Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle rose out the couch and showed them a holographic image of a bullet. “This is the bullet that the medics dug out of Osborn´s wound.” The base of the copper colored metal was marked by narrow ridges that curved around until it reached the end.

“Doesn’t look like any normal sniper bullet I’ve ever seen.” Applejack said.

“That´s because it isn´t.” Rainbow Dash rose to take a closer look. “It´s a digging bullet. The are used to ensure that the target dies.”

“How?” Applejack asked.

“The base starts turning when it enters that target and tears the organs apart.” Rainbow Dash paused and turned to Twilight. “If you hadn´t given Osborn the nano bots, he would have been dead before he reached the hospital.”

“How come this bullets don´t exist in our catalog?” Fluttershy spoke for the first time. She had been mostly sitting quite on the couch with her white little bunny in her lap and her face was partially concealed by multiple strands of her pink hair.

“They have been outlawed sense the third world war.” Rainbow Dash said. “They were considered to be to brutal and were quickly banned. The official production of them stopped about fifteen years ago, but they are still being made by black market producers.”

“And Osborn has more then his fair share of connections in the black market.” Celestia rubbed her fingers against her chin. “Damn shame he was the one to get shoot. What about the rifle?”

“It was remotely controlled.” Rainbow Dash said. “But the actual receptor was destroyed by a timed charge attached to it. Other than there was nothing special about it, a common rifle with a lot of home made attachments and modifications. Which makes it hard to track down were it came from and who it belongs to.” She smirked. “But far from impossible.”

“Get to work on tracking down were that rifle came from.” Celestia ordered. “How long until Osborn gets discharged from the hospital?”

“About three days.” Fluttershy said. “He is still recovering from the wound but should be able to perform as soon has he leaves.”

“Good.” Twilight noticed the corner of Celestia´s mouth go up for brief moment. “Until then we have another mission to prepare for.” Celestia send the description of the assignment to a hologram that hovered over the coffee table in front of them.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack read it thoroughly while Fluttershy stayed hidden behind her hologram. Twilight Sparkle merely glanced over it. She had already read it the day before and memorized the entire thing. They were going to plan and watch over the security for the prime minister’s public appearance in five days.

“How many journalists are we expecting?” Applejack asked.

“About thirty.” Celestia responded. “At least those that are registered. There may be a few who manage to squeeze themselves in at the last minute to get some snapshots or ask something they want to know.”

“Especially with the latest scandal.” Rainbow Dash scrolled through the report.

“It is not just that.” Celestia commented. “The latest development with the Crystal Empire has lead to loss of jobs in transport and hardware production of androids. The assassination we performed was meant to help the negotiations that we are currently in.”

“Why was he so important?” Twilight Sparkle asked bluntly. She had just assumed that he some kind of political enemy of Equestria.

“The target was wanted for multiple cybercrimes in the Crystal empire and fled to Equestria to avoid charges. He managed to stay under the radar by performing hack jobs for the mafia. It wasn´t until he started working for some of the larger gangs that he popped up again and the Americans wanted him removed without the public knowing that it was a political job.”

Well, I was almost right. Twilight said to herself. “So now the prime minister faces not only the scandal of having blood on his hands but he is also going to have to explain to the Crystal Empire why the mission failed.”

“Exactly.” Celestia said. “Fluttershy,” She turned to towards the timid woman. “I want you too see if there were any hacks performed in to our data base and if so try to track them down.” Celestia ordered and Fluttershy nodded. “Applejack, start planning the security plan for the prime minister. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, I want the two of you to track down the sniper rifle. Any questions?”

None of them said anything.

“Good. You are all dismissed.”

Twilight Sparkle pulled the plugs out of her sockets and found herself back in her car with Rainbow Dash in the driver seat. They were parked close to the center of Manehattan and the sun had set recently, making the world look darker than normal. “Got any ideas of where to start?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash turned on the car and drove out on the road. “This may be a dumb question,” She asked when they were about to head on the central highway running through the city. “But why don´t we just ask Osborn for his contacts and talk to them ourselves?”

“Because they don´t know us and don´t trust us.” Twilight Sparkle responded. “I know you are new to section twelve so I´ll fill you in; Osborn has been working alongside some of the underground smugglers and black market dealers for years to give us an eye into the illegal market. Hence they now him personally and are often to careful to talk to anyone but him.”

“Got it.” Rainbow Dash turned of the highway and steered into a crowded area where blinking sings hung over them and merchants showed their goods.

“You don´t seem surprised.” Twilight commented.

“I was told by Celestia when I started at this job that we wouldn´t always be playing by the rules.” Rainbow Dash turned a corner around a massive skyscraper that cut into the blue sky like a grey, disfigured sword. The road ahead of them was narrow and dimly lit. Aside from the torchlights from the car and a few blinking street lights there were no sources of light in the street.

“We´re here.” Rainbow Dash stopped the car and turned of the humming engine.

“Who are we meeting?” Twilight Sparkle asked when she stepped out of the car. There were no clear sings or marks on the buildings, which would usually indicate that there was a secret meeting place. The kind of place were the mafia doesn´t like unexpected visitors. Twilight Sparkle thought. Let alone cops.

Rainbow Dash dug around the backseat and pulled out a machine gun, modified with a small CPU on the side of it.

“What are you planning to do with that?”

“You know how you said that Osborn´s contacts would rather not talk to us at all?” She plugged a wire from the CPU into socket on her neck. “Well, these guys will probably shoot at first sight and make sure your body is never found.” She gave shrug. “Might just rip a few of your augments out first and sell them on the black market.”

“Are you expecting or anticipating?” Twilight Sparkle loaded her own gun. It was a considerably smaller handgun and only held fifteen bullets but it was still stronger than most revolvers and could penetrate medium body armor at close range.

“Expecting.” Rainbow Dash checked the magazine. “I never knew these gang to particularly friendly with cops. And with armed cyborgs might they’re almost guaranteed to open fire.”

“Roger.” Twilight checked her own magazine and disabled the safety. “Lead the way.”

Rainbow Dash removed the safety on her MG hid it beneath her jacket. She showed Twilight Sparkle to an orange rusted old door, marked with red sparrow painted in spray color. Rainbow Dash knocked three times, paused and knocked another two.

There was no answer.

Rainbow Dash shared a quick glance with Twilight Sparkle. “They tend to be quicker than this.” She said the moment before a narrow window opened on the door. A pair of eyes looked at them. The right was red, the left one was green and both of them looked like moist pieces of glass.

“What do you want?” The eyes asked with raspy tone.

“We´re here to talk to Gilda.” Rainbow Dash responded.

The mismatched eyes jumped between the two. “Wait here.” The window closed.

Rainbow Dash pressed herself against the wall the moment the eyes disappeared and Twilight Sparkle followed.

“Are they gonna start shooting?” Twilight Sparkle asked with her gun held drawn against her hip.

“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash unveiled her rifle and lifted the barrel to her cheek.

Twilight Sparkle glanced up the building and saw a path she could climb up. “What floor are they on?”

“The third.”

“I`ll climb up and flank them from behind. Can you take the rest of them?”

“No problem.”

“See you on the other side then.” Twilight holstered her gun and made one jump that took her to the second floor by landing on flagpole. Underneath her she could see Rainbow Dash kicking down the door and starting too shoot. The muzzle flashed with blue fire in sync with shallow barks. She made another jump to the third floor. She took hold of one of the pipes climbing along the wall and jumped through the window by smashing it with her boots. In the sparkling rain of broken glass Twilight Sparkle made out the shape of three individuals. With no way of knowing which one of them were Gilda, Twilight drew her gun but aimed for their feet and legs.

The first two shoots tore through their targets legs, spreading steaming blood and crude metal on the wall behind them and sending the two men they belonged to the floor. The third shoot missed and the white blond woman Twilight Sparkle aimed for drew her own gun. Twilight could see the sights lining up.

The bullet raced past her head and hit the wall behind her. The woman looked baffled, making it easy for Twilight Sparkle too shoot in the leg this time. She hit the floor wincing and clutching a leaking hole in her leg.

“Did you hack my vision?” She asked, wincing.

Before Twilight Sparkle could answer Rainbow Dash came in through the door.

“Is she Gilda?” Twilight Sparkle nodded towards the woman.

“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash shoot one of the men as he tried to lift his revolver.

The second one tried the same but Twilight Shoot him in the head before the barrel had even left the holster.

“We wanna talk.” Twilight Sparkle holstered her gun squatted down next to the woman.

“What do you want to know?” Gilda grunted