The Shadows of the Moon

“He's stubborn, I'll give him that,” Charity licked her arm, tongue lifting away a thin string of blood, “but I think he told us the truth.” She was less excited about the victory, because it was so rare that she got to really play with someone. Tara nodded at her, and pressed her finger to her ear, keying up the comlink channel Harmony used.

“Fluttershy, time to go. How you doing?” She flinched abruptly at a dart of pain in her neck, “Gah...Fuuuuck, I wish I could afford Docwagon...”

--

Fiona sat in the middle of a pile of drones in the middle of her room, long pink hair draped out over them, with one small white spy-fly drone sitting on her hand. “I'm sort-of fine? I mean, Tank had to go and pop the Weasels, and all of Angel Bunny's little kits...You know how that feels?” It was a level of pain that she couldn't even really describe, not entirely emotional either. The physical shock of being dumped out of that many drones at once was actually enough to overload her already frail body, “I...I'm ready whenever you are...”

–
“Good, don't worry, IF my brother told us everything we asked for, and didn't lie to us, the facility should be in downtown Canterlot, and we should be able to get him out. But we'll need you to be at your peak, Trixie's there.” Tara could hear the hiss from her friend. Beatrix Lulamoon was one of their fellow students, and part of Aaron's team, the Royal Guard. She was a braggart and had an ego so bloated it took an entire building to contain, and that horrible toothpaste-blue hair made Tara want to gag. But worse than that, she had a propensity for stealing drones from their riggers. And selling the SINs of those same riggers to the government megacorps for copious amounts of money.

The last time Fluttershy had faced Trixie, she had been sunk into a coma for a week after being blasted by the 'Dump' program Trixie's Blueblooded brother-in-law had written up. She couldn't afford to drop this time, and Tara knew that a failure at this stage could cost them much more than just their status. As far as Harmony went, they were all students, the children of Corporate Zombies, and getting caught meant getting criminal records. Criminal records cost their parents too, and Fiona's parents had already cut her allowance to almost nothing after she was exposed. Still, there was a strength behind the pale girl's voice as she made her way down the stairs, atop a stalker drone, “Let's do this.” Her pale blue eyes glinted with a ferocity Tara had only seen a couple of times. The first was when the team had accidentally broken Rule Number One, and made a deal with Lofwyr. Fiona had actually stared him down.

Those blue pools of rage had stared down a dragon, and Won. Now, they were focused on getting Discord back. He was her friend before anyone else had even thought to look twice at the Ork with so many arcane sigils etched into his skin that it was nearly impossible to tell that he had brown skin under it all. Fiona had befriended him after saving him from a pair of security guards when they were children. Her voice sang with barely contained rage, matched by the thrumming of four powerful engines waking up atop the parking garage. “We are leaving. Wheels up in Three.”

Tara focused, summoning Spike to her side, and sliding on the AR glasses that turned her into Twilight. Her finger grazed the button on the side of the goggles, “Applejack, Rainbow, you ready for this?”

Applejack stepped through the doorway, heavy minigun slung over her shoulders, “Yeah, You think the Twit Twins'll be there, Twi?”

Rainbow floated through behind her friend, hand clasping over the troll's shoulder, “I'm certainly counting on it. Maybe they'll even bring that lazy, no good Clock-mage. I've been wanting to bash his face in since he stole a kiss,” she rolled almost sensually onto her back, curling over the troll's shoulder to plant her lips on the underside of Applejack's chin.

__
Fiona's VTOL was expensive. It was also highly illegal for her to own, and the only reason she got away with it was Rarity's horseplay in the DMV Host. And in Meatspace, for that matter. The Hawker-Sideline Skytruck was a titan amongst planes, with enough space that Harmony could comfortably live in it for weeks. Not that they ever would admit they had. It was stripped to the frame on the inside, with just enough comforts to keep them from going crazy riding in it. Twilight sat in the copilot seat, watching patiently as their rigger made herself comfortable in the piloting hammock. Applejack and Rainbow sat in the hold, preparing their firearms for the assault. Pinkie started going over the ammunition for the Skytruck, ensuring that everything was loaded. Rarity sat in the jump-seat behind Twilight, sketchpad program floating in her AR environment. Twilight deliberately blanked out the otherwise transparent floating sheet, knowing what sort of twisted things the pale elf was known for drawing. And often enacting.

The Skytruck rose into the sky with a loud huffing sound, taking to the sky-lanes with a gentle groan, an Fluttershy set it on course before letting the dog-brain take over and poking her head out of the hammock, “Tara, when we get there, I need a clear path to run Mister Hammer through...If that's alright with you...” her face was turning a faded pink, almost matching her hair. Fiona was shy, and generally let others take the lead. Fluttershy though, she was an actively malicious tactician. Even Rarity couldn't match the sheer indescribable horrors that Fluttershy would lay out on anyone who got in her way.

Twilight nodded, not because she necessarily wanted to let Fluttershy loose on these people, but because unlike most of the team, Fluttershy was not quite the same person as Fiona. They just shared the body. And right now, for the rest of the flight, it was Fiona in that hammock. Right up until the wheels touched dirt again. She lifted her goggles and leaned across the space between them, gently pressing her lips against the smaller girl's forehead, “Fi, I'm right here, I'll take away the nightmares.” The flashes of death and destruction. Every twisted thought that Fluttershy had, Fiona saw. Every night, Daniel held the crying maiden. Every night, Discord was ready to restrain the monster inside.