Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
CHAPTER 1 - The Beginning of the End
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
I sat at a terminal scrolling through pages of data, most of it unreadable unless you were a nerd. My PipBuck was connected to the terminal via a cable, and the screen showed the coding that was the bridge between the hardware and the spell matrix. I poked at the keyboard changing bits here and there.
"All right, what's Crazy Daisy doing at this hour?" came a voice from beside me.
"Working," I replied as I covered the screen with a wing and glanced at the pale lavender unicorn.
"Right. secrets and stuff." she rolled her eyes.
"Eh, not so much. Just breaking the stuff your department has worked so relentlessly on for so long." I stuck my tongue out at her.
"Destroying my hard work can't wait until morning?" she prodded.
I looked at the clock on the terminal. "But it is morning," I retorted, receiving a snort in response.
"Barely. Going back to bed now," she said turning to the adjacent room, "Come in when you decide to pretend to be a normal pony." she trotted through the doorway.
I sighed and glanced at the desk next to the terminal where there was a tumbler and two bottles. I poured some hot sauce into the glass, filling it the rest of the way with banana schnapps. I gave it a swirl and moved to the window, which overlooked the Manehattan River. Along it the streets were filled with ponies that apparently didn't know it was the middle of the night. I took a sip of the muddy orange concoction. The city that never sleeps. The city that has no normal ponies.
I went back to the terminal and pushed a key. A progress bar appeared on the screen. While it was busy, I finished off the glass. When it was complete, I disconnected the cable and shut off the terminal.
"Okay. Normal pony. Sleep," I muttered, trotting to the next room. I watched the sleeping mare for a moment before laying on the bed next to her. I snuggled close to her and wrapped a wing around her. "Night, Pretty Peony," I whispered.
"Night, Darling Daisy," came a muffled response. I lay there for a time, just enjoying her warmth, until sleep took over.
~~~
I started awake to the sound of an alarm ringing. Ugh. Go away morning. Come back later. The ringing continued. I reached up with a wing to shut it off, finding empty air. I opened my eyes to see the awful pony grinning, levitating the clock just out of reach. She shut it off. "Good morning sleepyhead," she crooned, rubbing her muzzle against mine.
"No. Ten more minutes," I muttered, covering my head with a pillow and holding it down with my wings. Suddenly i was staring at the ceiling from underneath the mattress, the mare on top grinning down at me.
"Okay. Ten more minutes, Lazy Daisy," she smirked, before prancing into the kitchen.
I groaned and flipped the mattress back onto the bed. Crazy attracts crazy. I rolled to my hooves and slowly stood up. The rising sun screamed through the window. I grabbed my mirrored shades from the side table. Putting them on, I stumbled through the doorway.
"Oh, you're up," she beamed from across the room. "Going for a fly?"
"Ehhh," i grumbled, headed to the coffee maker. I put a mug under the spout and opened the top to pour some grounds in it. Something tapped the back of my head. I turned to see a banana floating in front of me. I grabbed it and put it in the coffee maker, resulting in a snicker coming from behind me.
"Crazy Daisy to Equus. We are reporting technical difficulties. Please stand by."
I groaned, pulling the banana out and setting it on the counter. I felt around with a wing for the bag of coffee. Finding it, I dumped some in the machine and started it. "Morning ponies are the worst," I muttered. I sat down and started peeling the banana.
She sat next to me and kissed my cheek. "Not as bad as nerdy ponies."
I pushed my shades forward and squinted. "Unless you're both."
She stared back aghast. "Celestia forbid." She brought a hoof to her forehead.
I poked her nose with a wingtip. I took a bite of the banana, turning to watch the stream of coffee filling the mug. When it finished, I hooked a wingtip around the handle and trotted to the small table by the window, stopping to grab the bottle of schnapps.
"Decorating for Hearthswarming already? Here, let me help." I glanced down at my wings. In addition to the things I was holding, several feathers were wrapped in a pink glow.
"Not a tree," I muttered, setting everything down and sitting in the chair. She slid into the chair across from me, a teacup hovering next to her.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" she queried, taking a sip from the cup.
"Got a show tonight," I replied, pouring some schnapps into the mug. "Nothing else really planned. how about you?" I asked, dipping the banana in the coffee and taking another bite.
"Magic." She waved her hooves in the air. "Working on new spells, just to have some nerd break everything." She punched my shoulder.
I took a sip. "Well, somepony has to make sure things don't explode." I smirked, "Accidentally, anyway. Got anything explodey to test?"
She contemplated the teacup for a moment before replying, "Not in my department. Maybe in Canterlot."
"Ooh, let's go to Canterlot then." I clapped my hooves.
She sighed and looked out the window, gazing at the huge tower that was the MAS hub. "Yeah, maybe I can take time off here and go bother the other Ministry hub. Best idea ever."
"Just say you're on official Stable-Tec business. Works for me." I grinned.
"Right. Some ponies have rules, you know." She looked at her hoof. "Speaking of which, look at the time. Time to go to work." She quickly sipped the rest of her tea, then dashed off to the bathroom. I chugged the rest of the coffee, then trotted after her, the rest of the banana in one wing. I took a bite while watching her fuss with a brush in her slate blue mane.
After several moments, she turned and asked, "How do I look?"
Of course, looking at her, only one word came to mind. I replied, "Pretty."
"Right. You always say that. Care to expound? Professional? Not looking like you just woke up? Looking like you care about your appearance?" she huffed.
"All of that," I grinned. "How about me?"
She glared at me. "For one thing, you look like you stuck your head in a thundercloud. For another…"
I pushed my shades back. "Like a pegasus that's way too cool?" She growled and stormed out of the room, throwing the brush at me.
I looked in the mirror, taking off the shades. Yeah, maybe she's right. My light green mane was a scraggly mess. My purple coat wasn't much better. Probably could use a good preening too. Hey look, a banana. I finished it off, tossing the peel in the wastebasket. I picked up the brush, straightening the left side of my mane. Before continuing to the right side, I pulled off my hair clip. I finished brushing, my mane hanging straight down over my eyes. I pushed the right side back, pinning it with the clip right in front of my ear, where it always goes. Okay. Good enough. I set the brush down and put my shades back on before leaving the room.
I trotted through the bedroom to the main living area. "The mare of mystery has entered the room. Yeah, baby."
She covered her eyes with a hoof. "More like 'mare of misery'. So you won't cause any problems or fires or explosions while I'm at work, right?"
"Nope. Definitely not," I stated. "Wait. I have an idea. How about I go to work with you, then you come to the show tonight?"
"Right. So you can break things before you get your hooves on them. Not your best idea."
"Well, if they can break, they won't be very much use to the stable ponies that hypothetically will use them. Somepony has to make sure. Besides, if you say no, I'll just sneak in the back." I grabbed my PipBuck, putting in on and locking it in place. "You really should get one of these. Makes sneaking easier."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't get me fired."
"Tally ho and such," I declared, pulling the door open and dashing into the hallway. She stepped out and closed the door behind us. She locked it and trotted to the elevator. "Umm, no thanks. Race you down the stairs." I flew off toward the stairs and down the central shaft headfirst, waving at anypony that was actually walking on them. Moments before crashing on the bottom floor, I twisted around to land on my hooves. "Twelve seconds flat. Could shave off a couple." I trotted into the lobby and sat next to the elevator. Those things are slow.
After just about forever, the car reached the bottom. The doors opened and several ponies stepped out, including the one i was waiting for. "Took you long enough."
"Yes. Not all ponies are speed freaks like you. Some have standards."
"You mean lame," I corrected.
"If you say so," she countered, trotting to the exit. I followed her out.
We stopped just outside. "Speaking of lame..." Ponies were lined up halfway down the block waiting for a taxi. "You waiting two hours for a taxi to take you half a dozen blocks? Nope, didn't think so." I wrapped my forehooves around her barrel and took off above the crowd before she had a chance to respond.
"What in Celestia's name are you doing?" she shouted.
"Oh, right," I retorted, "You like to be on top." I let go of her and ducked underneath.
She scrambled to grab onto my neck. "I should strangle you right now!"
"Better not. You'll be late." I went into a glide toward the ministry tower. "Aw, yeah! More awesome than a taxi, right?" I looked back with a grin, getting a scowl back. "No?"
"Maybe if you ask first or something," she grumbled.
We neared the tower. "We are now approaching our destination. The captain would like to thank you for flying Crazy Daisy Airlines. Please keep all hooves inside until we come to a complete stop. As you disembark, please--" my wing suddenly snapped back, and i went into a spiral toward the ground. On impact, she jumped from my back. "Thank you for your cooperation," I muttered into the pavement.
"Any time," she scoffed as she cantered toward the entrance. I looked around for my fallen shades. Finding them, I put them on my forehead, and galloped after her. I caught up to her. "Suppose we're even now?" she harrumphed and kept looking forward.
The main entrance was guarded by a pony on either side. One of them greeted, "Morning, Miss Peony, And miss..." his eyes darted to me.
"Fleur. But you can call me Daisy. Don't worry fellas, she's with me." I beamed.
She groaned. "Morning. So, surprise inspection from Stable-Tec. who knew, right?" I waved with the leg holding my PipBuck.
"All right then. Have a nice day," the guard replied as the doors opened. We stepped into the lobby, the doors closing behind us.
"See? Mention Stable-Tec and you get in any door," I grinned and trotted to the reception desk. "Good morning..." I glanced at the nameplate on the desk, "Amethyst. Hope you're ready for a surprise inspection."
The pink unicorn behind the desk looked up from her terminal. "Oh, hello." She paused a moment, looking me over. "Fleur, right?"
"Yup." I rested my knees on the table and leaned forward. "But my friends call me Daisy," I said with a wink. There was a tug on my ears and i fell away from the desk onto my haunches.
"Morning, Amethyst. Sorry about that."
"Morning, Peony. Another surprise inspection, huh? Don't let her break anything this time." She glowered in my direction.
"But I didn't..." I stammered, "It was... The guy tripped on his own hooves... I..." They were both grinning at me. "Right. Okay." I stood up, muttering, "Dang unicorns."
"Have a good inspection." Amethyst smiled and waved as we trotted toward a corridor.
We moved down the brightly lit corridor, passing various offices. I tried one of the doors, which did not open. Of course it would be locked. There was an access panel next to it, which I passed my PipBuck over. "Access denied," scolded a robotic voice.
"Y'know this isn't Stable-Tec right?" questioned the mare that had stopped, turning to glare at me, "Besides, nothing interesting is this close to the entrance. Wouldn't want to get kicked out after two minutes for trying to steal a mop anyway, right?" she smirked.
"Eeyup, that one works," I said, grinning, "That is probably the safest mop in Equestria. Can't even hack the door." I received an eye roll in response. "Right, onward," I said spinning on my hooves to continue down the hall.
"Right. Say hi to Amethyst for me. I'm going this way." she marched off in the opposite direction.
"Umm, yeah." I turned around and quickly caught up to her. "Couldn't have designed the building like a maze or anything now, could they?" I muttered.
"Don't be jealous that where i work is bigger than where you work." She made sure to put as much sarcasm into the last word as she could.
"Tenpony may be bigger than Stable-Tec HQ," I quipped, "but Equestria is my office. Don't be jealous that my work is more fun."
She harrumphed and quickly trotted to one of a bank of elevators, pushing the call button. As I approached, she already had the doors open, and stood inside, waiting. "Today sometime, maybe?"
I stood next to the elevator, peering into it. "Uhh, maybe stairs would be a better idea? This box is really small," I noted anxiously.
"Get in here you big chicken. It's not that far. Also there aren't any stairs down, anyway. You should know that. You've been here before. Probably even got the floor plan of the whole tower, right?" She had her face up to a panel on the wall, which was scanning her eye. The panel let out a ding, and the doors started to close. "Stable-Tec Co-op," she said into the panel. "Better get in. Ride's leaving."
I gingerly put a hoof over the threshold, the doors reopening. Hesitating a moment longer, I stepped inside, closing my eyes. I heard the doors close. Okay, box of death. Not falling. Soaring through the sky. The big, open, unconfining sky. Feel the breeze under your wings. Hello, Miss Sun. looking good today. Hello, happy clouds, nice to see you. How's the weather? Good? Okay, That's great. You know what else is great? Ding. The elevator doors opened, and I dashed out... almost. My apparently outstretched wings impeded my progress, crashing into the wall on either side of the doorway, landing me on my rump. Hearing a snort from behind, I opened my eyes and looked back.
"The ever so graceful pegasus," she snickered.
Getting to my hooves and retracting my wings, I muttered, "Buildings are the worst." I trotted out of the horrible enclosure with as much dignity as possible.
"Maybe if you spent more time inside it wouldn't be so bad."
"Yeah. Make cloud walls and install fresh air and real light and it wouldn't be bad."
"Right then, grumpy wings. Come to inspect or complain?"
"Why? Are they mutually exclusive?" I grinned, having regained enough composure to do so. "I can do both simultaneously."
"Whatever. Just as long as you don't simultaneously break anything." she trotted out of the elevator nook into the mane foyer. I followed close behind.
"Once. Just once, and you never hear the end of it," I grumbled.
The room wasn't nearly the size of the entrance upstairs, but it definitely wasn't small. The place was brightly lit from florescent lights striping the ceiling a good 5 meters above the floor. On the back wall was a doorway leading to offices, with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences logo on one side, the Stable-Tec logo on the other. On the left, there was a bank of half a dozen terminals and a stairway toward the back, leading down. On the right, there were a couple of tables ringed by several chairs with a large terminal screen on the wall behind them. The rest of the room was wide open. I took a deep breath, finally being able to breathe at all after that horribly tiny elevator.
Looking at the logo of the star with the wings and horn, I grinned. "One way to hide the fact that this is actually a Ministry of Awesome gig."
"It just wouldn't do if ponies found out there was a branch of the MAw operating from a MAS hub now would it?" a voice questioned behind me.
I turned to see a rust colored mare with a white mane. "Suppose not," I replied, "We would both be out of a job, eh Spanner?"
"Well, the one of us that has a real job, anyway," she quipped.
I groaned. "Not this again. I should just go back to Cloudsdale." I moved past her to the elevators and stopped. "Actually, never mind. Just got out of that awful box." I turned back to the giggling unicorns.
"Oh, come on Daisy, lighten up. You don't want to go back. It's way more fun here." Spanner countered, booping my muzzle.
"If it's so fun, let's see some," I retorted, grinning. "It's been a while. You should have some new toys, I hope?"
Peony rolled her eyes. "Should I find you two a room or something?"
I poked her in the side with a wing. "No, silly. Can't have fun without all three of us."
Spanner chimed in, "Especially with that thing you've been working on." She winked at Peony, whose face was suddenly a lot more pink than usual.
"Speaking of which, I actually have a job to do," she huffed, trotting to the stairs.
"You two are a couple of grumps," Spanner stated, following after her. I followed, bringing up the rear.
At the bottom of the stairs was a long corridor lined with doorways. On one side were labs full of electronic equipment in various stages of assembly. On the other were chambers used for creating and testing spells. As we were passing one lab, I noticed a familiar stallion working on a piece of equipment. I poked my head through the door and called out, "Spaghetti!" He dropped his screwdriver and ducked under the workbench, covering his head with his forelegs.
"I see you still remember each other." Spanner smirked, appearing next to me. "It's okay, spark. No spaghetti here." She turned to me. "Right?"
I glanced back. No saddlebags. "Nope. Oh wait..." I poked at my PipBuck screen, bringing up the settings, and scrolling through. "Nope. no noodle module." The mares rolled their eyes in unison. Spark peeked between his hooves. Upon deciding the coast was clear, he slowly stood up, glaring at me the whole time. I smiled and waved at him.
"So, how you coming along there?" inquired Spanner, pointing a hoof at the device.
"Great. Awesome even. I've gotten the memory spell matrix into a terminal memory module, so anypony can view a stored memory from a terminal. This modified memory recollector can transfer from an orb to a memory module. Though terminals only show the visuals for now, eventually full immersion should be possible. Though you might be better with a recollector that can read from the memory modules, Leaving the terminal out completely. Okay, maybe that was a half good idea." He rubbed his chin with a hoof.
"Maybe not the most useful idea, but promising anyway," Spanner offered.
"Right. Umm, you probably have more interesting things to look at, right?" he suggested tensely.
"I don't know. This room has a couple of pretty interesting things to look at." I met his eyes and batted my lashes.
"Chalk up one broken pony," she gibed, looking at the poor pony apparently turned to stone. "All right, miss cockatrice, time to go." She gave me a nudge toward the doorway. I left the room to continue down the hall.
I glanced into the rooms as we passed, noticing them all vacant. I stopped to glance toward both ends of the hallway. "So shouldn't there be a few more ponies here, at least? This place seems a bit empty."
"Oh, they're probably at lunch or something. Must not have known about the surprise inspection." She nudged my shoulder with hers.
I groaned. "I'm really not that bad, right? There was only one incident last time."
"And two before that, and one before that…"
"Hey at least you got safety issues worked out of things. can't fault me for that."
"Suppose not, but other Ministry branches would be shut down, or audited at least." She trotted to a doorway. "You'll probably like this one. Just don't cause an incident."
I followed her through to one of the test chambers. Peony had a large machine in the center, attached to several weird bowl things covered in blinking lights and knobs. "I can't put a hoof on it, but this seems a bit familiar," I indicated.
"The basis of it is from some of Twilight’s schematics and notes, but goes a step further," Peony asserted, "The helmet reads brain waves from the pony wearing it, and the machine forwards it to the ponies wearing the other helmets." She put on one of the helmets, gesturing for the two of us to follow. As soon as we did, she flipped a switch, the machine humming to life.
"So does this thing actually have a use, or is it just for fun?" I inquired.
"It has plenty of practical applications. For example…"
Spanner interrupted, "Just for fun."
Peony shot her a glare, and suddenly I felt angry enough to kick something.
Spanner replied with a bigger grin than I thought possible, and I felt like being in the clouds with the sun shining down, wanting to kick something.
"Okay, my turn." I wiggled my haunches, looking around to see the others blushing profusely.
"Now if that isn't an interesting combination," Spanner mused.
Peony took off the helmet and stormed out of the room. I called after her, "Works great! You're awesome!" I turned to spanner. "Hey, imagine this thing with group therapy sessions. Can you say record time?"
She chuckled. "Yeah, except for you two. Maybe you could get the record for longest therapy session ever."
"Eeyup." I wiggled my haunches again.
She removed her helmet. "Okay, then. Enough of that for now."
"Yay. Last hoof on the daffodil sandwich. What did I win?"
"I'll buy you a Sparkle Cola." Just like old times.
"Yay. My favorite!" I also didn't bring any bits. What a silly pony.
We made our way back upstairs to the breakroom. Peony was there steeping a cup of tea. I waved as we entered. She found something interesting on the fridge.
There was a vending machine on the wall, on which Spanner pushed a button. A cold bottle of Sparkle Cola was dispensed. She picked it up and held it out to me. "You're welcome."
I took it with a wing. "Thanks, but that means you still have to buy me one later, right?"
She facehoofed. "Because you won't give up otherwise?"
"Nope." I sat next to Peony. "Your thingy is really awesome. Works better than any other projects, too. Why so mad?"
"Because everything i do is pointless. Sure, theoretically, the thing can be applied to some practical purpose, but it's so out there, nopony wants to touch it."
"Well, isn't proof of concept basically what this department aims for?"
"Well…"
"Hey, is this a mare's party, or what?" Spark appeared in the doorway. "Never invite poor Spark to parties," he said with a frown.
"We thought you were too busy working," Spanner responded, "We were just talking about 'mare things'. You can join if you want." I winked at him.
"Okay, just getting a soda and leaving." He dispensed a cola from the machine.
I turned back to Peony. "Does it matter what the machine does if it's awesome?"
"Not really, but…"
"Also, is furthering the MoM's agenda the cool thing to do now or something? Or are you just using their work for personal projects?" I queried.
"Well, it's been the only Ministry really doing anything exciting enough to rip off and improve," Spark replied with a smirk, "Although some are more personal than others." He nudged his eyebrows in Peony's direction.
"Yeah, but some are more than 'let's just put two random things together and hope something sticks'."
"Yeah..." he began.
Suddenly the intercom came to life. "Attention, all personnel. Equestria is under attack. Canterlot is currently under fire from zebra missiles. They currently are protected by a shield the Princesses are casting. No other attacks have been reported. Plans for evacuating the city have begun and any personnel able to help citizens reach the hub are urged to do so. It is probable that we will be hit soon, so let's hurry, ponies."
We all stared at the speaker for a moment, then looked at each other. "Well, they finally did it," Spanner stated glumly, "Better move out, then." She stood up and trotted to the door, the rest of us following after. We reached the elevator, which, surprisingly enough, wasn't there. She pushed the call button. "Well, guess we're stuck here while they are occupied elsewhere. Dang off the book departments and their security over safety."
"Or we could use the back door," I said, grinning. "There's always a back door, right?"
"Teleportation's out. Magical barriers blocking off restricted areas. Only one way out that I know of."
"Prepare to be amazed." I brought up security tools on my PipBuck. "Okay, door... override..." I waved my hoof over the panel. "Do the magic." The elevator door opened. I beamed. "Mare's best friend right here." I peeked into the shaft. "Hello, ladder. Nice to meet you." I turned back to the group. "Good news everypony. There's a maintenance shaft beside the elevator. You all good at laddering?"
Peony groaned, "I don't think that means what you think it means. Still, it's a way out. We doing this?"
"Probably faster than the elevator," I stated, "and less box of death. Also, mind the gap." I darted across the chasm to the landing.
"Right, then," Spanner declared, teleporting across. "Huh. No barriers where nopony's supposed to go. Who'd have thought?" The other two followed suit.
"Upward and onward," I proclaimed, dashing up the shaft. I paused on a landing several levels up, looking around. Hmmm, 'b3'. How many levels does this place have? I looked down to the climbing ponies. "Almost there. Can you teleport to other ponies, or just places you've been before? Never really figured that one out. Also assuming you've never been here before."
"Well, it is kind of hard if you've never seen the place, but teleporting to somepony else generally works if you can see them."
"Right. I'll go up while you get to the next landing, then we'll do a science. You all like science, right?" A collective groan came from below. "Okay. Sounds like a yes." I flew up a few more levels. Okay, '2'. I looked back down, hovering above the platform opening. "Science time. Teleport, go!" After a moment, the three of them appeared next to me, dropping the short distance to the platform. Wait, now there's two. I looked down to see Spark falling back down the shaft. I raced down past him, catching him as he passed. We flew back up to where the others were waiting. "Look what I caught, Mommy. Can I keep him?" I looked down to the blushing stallion.
"Aww, how adorable," Spanner quipped. Spark, clearly not amused, jumped from my hooves.
Peony just glared at me, pointing at the wall, which had a big '2' printed on it. "My bad, should have been looking for 'm'," I grimaced.
"You turkey." She continued glaring.
"Okay, you can kiss later. Let's get out of here now," Spanner suggested.
I flew down to the elevator door on the main level. "I'll open the door and you jump." I waved my PipBuck around next to the elevator until the door opened. "Open caraway."
The other three teleported into the lobby and i flew in after them. The huge room was full of ponies, and was still filling. Most were in various states of panic, but some close to the elevator were staring at us like we appeared out of thin air. Well, we kind of did. "How about them elevators?" I quipped.
I looked around the room. "So, thousands of ponies. How's this place for supplies?"
"Well, supposedly, we could handle the whole town for at least a week, but this should only last a couple days, tops. Though, if the surrounding towns evacuate here, things could change," Spanner surmised.
"Okay, then we tell everypony to grab what supplies they can before they come. Problem solved," I stated. I turned to Peony. "Supply run time?"
"We may have time, we may not." she shrugged.
"Be right back." I took off above the crowd toward the reception desk. Amethyst was busy with organizing the chaos, delegating tasks to a group of ponies around her. As soon as she was finished, the group split up to perform their assignments. I landed beside her. "So any news?"
"Wow. good thing they have the best coordinator from Ponyville," she muttered. "Oh. No, nothing yet. The Princesses' shield is still holding, and there's no word from anywhere else... yet."
"So, supposing there's still time, would it be a good idea for a bunch of panicked ponies to return home to grab what supplies they can?"
"Supposing there's still time. It's a risk either way. Most likely less just waiting it out, and if we do get hit, send out parties after."
"This war just keeps getting better." I groaned. "All right, I won't keep you from your job then. Good luck."
"Thanks. We'll probably need it."
I flew back to our little group. "So no news is good news, right? Canterlot still has the shield up, and it appears nowhere else has been attacked yet. I need to grab a few things. Anypony coming with?"
"Whoa. Slow down there, Crazy," Peony chided, "Not really a good idea to go out while there's a chance of missiles raining down."
"A little rain never hurt a pegasus," I replied.
"And a big one?" she challenged.
I shrugged. "Ehh, maybe. Though it looks like they're just trying to send a message. If they were going to hit us, they would have done it already."
Spanner chimed in, "Being the biggest city in Equestria doesn't exactly paint a target on Manehattan or anything. I would give it until Canterlot's shield comes down at the latest. I second the 'not a good idea'."
"Okay, you're the boss, Boss," I returned, "So into the chaos, then?" Wow, that's a lot of ponies, and they just keep coming. I grinned. "Huh. The whole city showed up for my show tonight." Three facehoofs was the reply.
"Great. The zebras led us into a trap. The city's doomed for sure." Peony punched my shoulder.
I stuck my tongue out. "Somepony jealous they didn't get a gig at Tenpony?" She rolled her eyes.
"Yup. There's the headlines now, 'Manehattan leveled by sonic blast. Cause: unknown. Point of origin: Tenpony Tower.'" We all stared at the stallion, who had remained silent until that point.
"Not with my gear at Hoofbeats." I frowned. "Well, anyway, got a venue change to take care of." I dashed off to the reception desk.
When I was sure I wouldn't be noticed, I snuck through the crowd toward the exit. Outside, the air was filled with the sound of sirens, and the streets were filled with ponies scrambling to get to the tower. I hovered above the crowd. Looking toward the club, I noticed a stream moving toward it. I flew over and blended into the crowd. Entering the building, I noticed the crowd moving past the club and into the Ministry of Morale hub above. Hmm, i wonder if they are still up for the gig tonight here. Well, they won't miss one DJ, right?
I moved across the dance floor toward a back hallway, coming to a door on which hung a plaque with my cutie mark on it. I ran my PipBuck over the panel next to the door, opening it. I stepped inside and looked around. It was a fairly small room, just big enough for a small table along the back and a couch to the side. My saddlebags sat on the couch. I opened them, seeing the mixer in one and turntable in the other. I took them off the couch and put them on. Moving to the table, I looked in the mirror on top. Okay, mane won't need much work, already got the stress look going. I grabbed my tam from a hook and put it on at a considerable cant. Next were the headphones around my neck. "Aww, yeah." I shot a winger gun at the mirror.
"Right, probably shouldn't do the dallying." I scooped the rest of the contents of the table into my bag--necktie, brush, various mane products, shades. The cap followed. "Very inconspicuous thing." I stopped at the framed picture of Vinyl Scratch, my inspiration and friend. I sighed. "Senpai, doushita no?"
Months ago, Stable 29 had been conducting a 'drill', letting a select group in, Vinyl included, and shutting the door behind them. The door is still closed, which wouldn't be a big deal, except after a few months we lost contact. In our conversations, she never mentioned anything wrong, then suddenly nopony inside could be reached. I'll find out what happened if I have to break in. Actually that has to wait until the current problem is past. Another sigh. I carefully put the picture in the bag and looked around one last time, hopefully not the last ever, before leaving and closing the door.
I watched ponies stream through the entrance. Might be a bit harder to get back out. Making my way back across the floor and pushing though the crowd, I was back outside. I took off in the direction of Tenpony. Arriving, I pushed through the crowd to where Amethyst and Spanner were talking.
They turned to me, their conversation apparently interrupted. "I see you never learned what 'not a good idea' means," Spanner said with a frown.
"Nope," I retorted, "Just got a few essentials. Also not dead." I pointed with a wing to my bags.
"Clearly. Do we need to go over the concept of essentials, too?"
"Yeah, i need to be able to access the PA system. How do you do that?" I grinned. two pair of eyes rolled.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Amethyst replied, "Well, a morale boost would be good. Most ponies here have never been to the club, so maybe take it easy, though?"
I was busy poking at the screen of my PipBuck, going through available access points. "Wow, this building has a lot of connections. Hope we're stuck here for a while. Lots of fun to be had by all." I found 'reception public address' and tapped it. In my best zebra mafia voice I said into my PipBuck, "Relax. Take it easy." Suddenly the room was quiet. "Got 'im." I hovered above the crowd, waving. "What up, pones? DJ 'Daze', that's 'D-V-Z-3' for those of you that can't spell." I giggled. "Hope you're ready for awesome tonight." Putting on my cap, I continued, "Was supposed to be at Hoofbeats tonight, but they probably still have enough over there. Hopefully they can spare the awesomest for you. Well, carry on whatever you were doing, ponies. DVZ3 out." Dropping back to the ground, I stated, "Yup, it works. Let's try 'general public address' next."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see the glare of Peony. "Good news, everypony. We have a special guest. Care to say a few words, Dear?" I lifted my PipBuck to her. She continued to glare. "Right, maybe next time. Sorry folks." I shut off the transmitter. "Yes?"
"Serious much? You know there is a war going on right? Also the situation is critical, and you don't seem to notice."
"Of course, none of us would have these 'awesome' jobs without the war," I said with a wink, "and reducing panic levels is generally a good idea in these situations."
"Yes. I suppose that is true. Just don't do anything to make ponies think it's safer outside." she forced a grin.
I pulled my tam off and held it to my chest. "As if I would ever." I feigned insult.
"Right. Never." Sarcasm practically flooded from her words.
I returned the cap, turning away, and stomping off in a huff.
Spark was at the reception desk with a radio. "Hey, how are the waves?" I inquired.
"Quiet. Too quiet," he replied, spinning a pen with his levitation. "Connection to Canterlot has been lost. Emergency channel is silent."
I pulled up the connections on my PipBuck. "Canterlot: signal jammed. Emergency channel isn't. They would have to jam all the repeaters." I commandeered the radio. "Tenpony to any station: radio check."
After a few moments came a reply, "MoM Fillydelphia to Tenpony: we read you."
"Any news from Canterlot? We lost the signal. Seems to be jammed."
"Negative. No signal from Canterlot."
"Ponyville to Tenpony. We can't reach Canterlot, nor can Cloudsdale."
"Ponyville? What is happening? Are they still under attack? Are the shields holding?"
"Both affirmative. Attack is holding steady, as is the shield."
"What about the signal? Is it being jammed remotely or from inside?"
"Seems to be inside or it would probably affect us too. Though the shield isn't doing it or we would have lost comms earlier."
"Understood. What about--" I was cut off by a blast of static.
"Its... gone. We lost Cloudsdale."
"Their signal jammed too?"
"No, the city is gone. Just evaporated. We felt the blast from here." I stared at the radio for what seemed like forever. My trance was broken by the voice returning. "Tenpony, do you read?" Cloudsdale. Gone. No words to say. The voice repeated, "Ponyville to Tenpony: do you read?"
I replied shakily, "Affirmative, Ponyville. We read you." Don't cry on the radio.
"S'pose that's the beginning of the end, then? Next step: mutual annihilation."
"Right. Radio's yours again," I said, on the verge of tears. I darted up to a nook near the ceiling, where I curled up and let the tears flood out. I felt a hoof running down my mane. looking up through tear soaked bangs, I saw Peony sitting in front of me, wearing a concerned look. I reached my forehooves around her shoulders and buried my face in her chest fluff. For some amount of time, I sobbed into her soft fur while she continued to stroke my mane.
I looked up into her eyes. "They're gone. I told them I'd be back soon, but they're all gone."
"Sorry. I just don't know what to say. I'm just glad you stayed here. I need my special somepony." I hugged her tightly and buried my face again. "Even if she's ruining my coat. Good thing mares don't have cooties."
I looked back up, almost making a grin. "Yeah, good thing. We'll have to fix your coat. This place has showers?"
"I'm sure we can find one somewhere."
"And then we send the world off with a bang," I grinned, momentarily forgetting the loss of my home.
"Oh, you are incorrigible," she chided.
"Well, it's that or stand around moping," I stated, "and that sounds like a terrible idea."
"If you say so."
"Eeyup, I do." I brought up the floor plans on my PipBuck. "There's one right there." I hovered above her and swooped down to grab her in my hooves, receiving a startled gasp. I tore across the room above the crowd toward a maintenance wing. After clearing the obstacle, I set her down and landed beside her.
After sufficiently regaining her breathing, she huffed, "Don't know why I'm still surprised about this. Warning would be nice."
"I gave you a good two seconds," I stated, trotting ahead of her down the hall. She groaned, following behind at a distance. Maybe a good thing because i kind of like my extremities still attached.
The room was close by. I approached the door, pushing it open. "Hey it's not locked. Not a broom closet," I smirked, ambling through the doorway. I looked around the room, my eyes stopping on the objective--a good size shower with six heads. "Quick. Go find four more ponies," I proposed, "Or ten if we double up."
She rolled her eyes. "Totally what one should do while the world ends."
"Why not, right?" I trotted to the shower, turning one of the knobs. Nothing happened. The next one. Nothing. Four more, each nothing. "Dang. water talisman must be on emergency lockdown. Makes sense." I trotted to a sink, turning it on, watching the stream emerge from the tap. "Well, okay. Suppose that's enough." I looked in the mirror. Wow, that's awful. salty streaks covered my face and my mane was a half crusty mess. I looked over to her. Other than her slightly disheveled mane and matted coat on her chest, she was gorgeous as ever, all the way to her shapely flanks... she cleared her throat, bringing me back to the room. "Oh, sorry. got distracted."
"What else is new?" she asked, splashing water on my face. I retaliated with a wingful of water, soaking her mane. "Oh, it's that way, is it?" she cackled, collecting a large sphere of water, hovering it over me. As the sparkles surrounding it disappeared, gravity took over, soaking me from mane to tail. "Whoops, looks like we both missed. Have to try again." she pushed her mane to the side out of her eyes.
"Hey, I'm having a thought here. Can you make a cloud?" I asked.
"Says the pegasus," she snickered.
I waved my hoof around the small room, "We don't exactly have a sky to work with here."
"Right. How?"
"Easy. Just need elevation, obviously not enough here. Just start with steam, then decrease temperature and pressure, then suddenly cloud. Then i can start it."
"Okay. Not the weirdest thing I've ever done." She turned the sink to hot, gathering the steam with her levitation, transferring heat away from it as it reached toward the ceiling. Gradually a small cloud started to form.
"Look out weather team!" I cheered, "Got nothing on this!" Soon we had a nice fluffy cumulus a few meters across. She turned off the water. I tugged the cloud from the ceiling and hugged both of them together. "Your very first cloud. She's totally a cutie." I nudged them toward the shower. "Be right there." I set my saddlebags off to the side, as well as my... um, well, PipBuck's not coming off, didn't bring the key. I took off my headphones, hair clip, and hat, setting them on my bag. I returned to the shower. "Hey, you want to start her up?"
"Yeah, by falling right through? Should work great."
"Well, maybe since it's made with magic it has a built in cloudwalking spell," I suggested. "Not like the ground is that far away either."
"Right." She jumped on top of it, her weight held for a moment, suddenly slowly sinking through it.
"Nope. Guess not." I jumped on top as she stepped from beneath it. I began pronking, causing a few drops to fall. After several, a light downpour was emanating from the cloud. "Tada. It's lots of fun and super fluffy. You really should get that spell." I hopped down and pushed the cloud to the ceiling.
After the nice, relaxing rainshower, I grabbed us a couple of towels from an nearby nook. She intercepted both, rubbing me furiously with one of them, until I was a big fluffy ball of static. "How adorable. I'm going to love you and hug you and squeeze you and call you George!" She gave me a big choking hug.
Wheezing, I tried to escape from her grasp, the struggle tightening her grip. "No, George. can't escape hug time." With my wings I tried to pry her forelegs off my neck. "Oh, George. you've turned purple." She loosened her grip, and I pulled back quickly, evading her. Gasping for breath, I fell back. "George doesn't like hugs?" she frowned.
Ignoring her, I trotted to the mirror. Every bit of fur and hair was radiating wildly. "Oh, no!" I exclaimed, "What ever shall I do without my hairbrush?" I threw a hoof over my brow.
She giggled and began drying herself off slowly, and carefully, and... Oh, I'm staring again. Oh well, just enjoy the show. When she was finished she inquired, with a grave tone, "You do have a brush, right?"
"Eeyup. Outside pocket." She opened the pocket, pulling out a glossy photo of her in a sultry pose.
"You... What?... Evil..." she stammered.
"Nope, other pocket." I grinned, taking and replacing the photo in the pocket.
She pulled the brush out of the pocket, and began straightening her mane and tail. The peach highlights materializing out of the blue. Ha, that's a good one. When she was finished, she turned to me, giggling. "Okay, George. You next?"
"Nope. I think I'll just go like this," I beamed, putting my tam on with the brim facing back. "Oh, wait. Almost forgot." I put on my hair clip and headphones. "There. Done." I looked in the mirror. "Yeah. One-eyed ball of fluff definitely good look."
"Eh, maybe not so much." She levitated the brush to me.
I set my accessories aside, and began brushing down my chaotic coat. After some semblance of order was achieved, I moved to my mane, brushing it straight, clipping the right side back. I replaced my tam and headphones. "Yeah. Awesome instead of parasprite."
"So, what now, Miss Awesome? Going to kick some radio in Canterlot?"
"Probably. Just staying here doing nothing is a great recipe for anxiety." I returned the brush to the pocket and put the bags on. I pointed to the door. "Sisters in war, to the skirmish must we hence! Shall we hence?"
"Tally ho! Henceforth to Canterlot."
We made the short trip back to the reception desk. Spark was still directing his attention to the radio. Spanner was talking with a small group of ponies, probably the ones 'at lunch' when we showed up. "Oh, you're still here. I thought you'd dashed off to Canterlot," she said, slightly surprised, "Where were you then?"
"Doing science. You know--psychology, meteorology, biology," I stated.
"I see. Clearing your cache, were you?"
"Eeyup. But now we are going to Canterlot before it corrupts again."
"Really? You're going into an active strike zone, just to maybe fix a radio, that is behind an impenetrable shield?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Wanna come?"
She tapped her chin with a hoof. "Let's see... possible death, or guaranteed... No, not really."
"Okay, good. We need somepony to watch over Peony's baby anyway." I winked at Peony, who winked back to Spanner.
"Right. Do I really want to ask?"
"Of course you do." I smirked. "She made the prettiest little cloud." I threw a hoof around Peony's withers, hugging her close.
"All right. Why exactly?" she inquired, raising a brow.
"Because the shower talismans apparently are on lockdown," I stated.
She giggled. "You know, there are some things ponies don't do in front of their kids."
I shrugged. "It was more below really," I beamed. Spanner rolled her eyes and Peony punched my shoulder. "Actually, would you mind watching a couple more?" I inquired, motioning with a wing to my bags. "Not such a good idea to take kids on dangerous assignments."
"Oh, so I'm the designated foalsitter now?"
"If you're not coming with us. Besides, back at Stable-Tec we always talked about having foals. Almost the same thing."
"Right. At least yours aren't loud and obnoxious foals," she stated with more than a hint of sarcasm.
"Nope. Not at all." I pulled out my turntable and mixer, setting them on the desk. "Should be back way before the show anyway." I looked at spark. "Hey. If we're not back in time, maybe you could run the show. Just don't break anything. That's my job apparently."
"Uh, yeah," he replied, before turning back to the radio.
"Right. Arrangements made. Onward." I turned to the exit.
"Have fun storming the castle," Spanner sang out as we headed off.
"So, we're really doing this?" Peony questioned.
"Unless you have a better idea. Oh wait. You don't. Nope." I insisted. "Need to make a small side trip, though."
"Of course you do."
Back outside, I looked around. "Hey, we got plenty of taxis now. Want to take one?"
"Sure. Might as well."
Peony hopped into the seat of one nearby, I sat next to her. "Uh, I don't think this is going to work." she motioned to the empty harness at the front.
"Okay, so get up there." I suggested, receiving a nasty glare. I grinned and hopped down, slipping into the harness. "Better hold on tight then." I flapped my wings, leaving the ground. The carriage angled upward, the wheels not leaving the ground. "Right. earth pony contraption."
I trotted to the road. Upon reaching it, I went into a full gallop. Only half a dozen blocks. Won't take any time at the speed of awesome. Using my wings to gather speed, we careened through the streets, dodging abandoned carts scattered throughout. Approaching an intersection, I announced, "Last stretch. Here comes the awesome." I swung left and planted my hooves, the carriage swinging around, still moving forward. Facing the new direction, I bolted off to the destination. Approaching the apartment, I slowed to a trot. I stopped in front of the door. "Your destination is on the left," I crooned.
"I'm calling the cab company. You're so fired."
"Wait, I work for the cab company?" I smirked, removing the harness. "So you coming up, then?"
"Somepony has to wait for the cab. Don't want the driver to leave without us," she giggled. "Yeah, right behind you."
"Right. See you in an hour." I dashed through the door into the lobby, up the stairwell, and down the hallway, stopping at the door of our unit. I turned the knob, the door not opening. Right. Of course it's locked. Pulling a key out of a pocket, I unlocked the door. I opened it and stepped inside.
"Hey." Peony was sitting at the table sipping a cup of tea. "Took you long enough."
"Okay, cheater," I scolded, "What was that thing about not using magic for trivial things?"
"Beating you isn't trivial," she plainly stated.
I changed the subject. "Right then. You got everything you need?" I glanced around for anything useful.
"Everything except sanity," she replied, "Wouldn't have any of that on you, would you?"
"Nope. Never had that ever." I moved to the fridge. Opening it, i removed a bag of carrots and a bottle of schnapps, putting them in my bag. I turned to her.
"Obviously. So, maybe pack for a possible extended stay?" I pulled out another bottle of schnapps with a grin. She snorted. "Point confirmed."
I put the bottle back and closed the fridge, moving to the cupboards. I grabbed a case of protein bars, dumping the whole thing into a bag. "Okay, that's comestibles handled."
"Portable and effective doesn't really outweigh nasty, but whatever. You do you."
I moved to the workstation in the corner, which was strewn with various PipBuck modules and attachments and other gadgets. "Toolkit definitely would be useful. Can’t fix a radio without tools." I picked it up, putting it in the bag. "Well, that should be it. You packed?" I sat at the small table across from her.
"What do you think? I just got here." She sipped her tea.
"You mean you didn't use a time travel spell? Lame." I snickered.
"Yeah, considering most ponies can't even teleport."
"Speaking of teleporting, you can get us to Canterlot, right? I mean, we don't have a bypass for the shield otherwise?"
"My talisman will get us to the MAS hub, but the question would be if i can teleport from here, or if we need to be closer to Canterlot. I can get there easy, maybe not so much with a passenger."
I frowned. "I'll have you know, I'm light even for a pegasus my height. You probably won't even notice."
"Except for the screaming like a foal." She finished her tea, getting up and moving to the kitchen. She set down the cup. She moved toward the door where her bags were sitting and put them on.
"You sure you didn't do a time spell? No way you packed that fast."
She grinned, lighting up her horn. Her magic wrapped around us. The world disappeared into pink sparkles.
Level Up! Level 2 Reached
New Perk: Iron Resolve
Destruction of your home has given you a driving motivation. You gain +1 strength and +1 endurance.
CHAPTER 2 - “The End?”
"It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."
As the sparkles disappeared, I found myself in a small room. A forcefield blocked the exit. The room was sparsely furnished, with a bed in the corner and a small desk and chair beneath a small window. It looked more like my room backstage than a prison cell at least. I moved to the window, looking out. The view overlooked Ministry Walk. Not surprising, there was nopony around, most likely gone to the Stable or some other emergency shelter. I could see the shield around the city, the constant barrage of missiles causing it to flicker on impact, otherwise still holding.
Great. Got yourself in another predicament. At least we made it to Canterlot. I paced around the small enclosure. Wait, was Peony locked up too? I mentally kicked myself for not thinking. I never spent much time here, but I was sure this was the MAS hub, and if she had the right clearance she could get us out of here.
I stopped to turn on my radio. I opened a channel to Tenpony, being rewarded with static. Right, stupid. Signal jammer. I sighed and sat on the bed. I turned off the radio and waited.
Several minutes later, I heard a voice outside the room. "I thought caged birds were supposed to sing, but i don't hear singing." Peony appeared outside the doorway.
"Never really been my thing," I replied, "Nice to see you too, by the way."
"Right." She peered into the room. "Cozy place you got there."
"Eeyup. Why don't you join me? There's room for one more."
She poked a hoof at the forcefield, causing it to shimmer, but otherwise having no effect. "Sorry, as much as I would love to, that doesn't seem to be a thing right now." She paused. "Deactivate forcefield. Authorization: Peony, Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Research Department."
"Authorization denied," spoke a mechanical voice.
She groaned. "Authorization: Angel Cheeks, Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Research Department."
"Authorization acknowledged. Deactivating forcefield." The field shimmered out of existence.
"Glad somepony has clout backed by a mouthful of molasses," I quipped, getting to my hooves.
"Does come in handy on occasion. So, now that your guardian angel has saved you from certain ennui, what is your next move?"
I thought for a moment. "You didn't happen to find out anything about a signal jammer did you?"
"Hey, I'm in the same boat you are. Well, except for the fact that being in the Ministry put up one less barrier, so to speak." she smirked.
"Ha ha." I said flatly, "Well, looks like the easy way is out, so we'll have to do this the fun way." I turned the radio back on, connecting to the Canterlot signal. "Right, just trace this to the source, take it out, and be back to Manehattan by lunchtime." I switched to the map. An icon of a small dot surrounded by circles radiating from it appeared. "Huh, Ministy of Image hub. Go figure," I mused. "Right. objective acquired. Onward." I trotted to the hallway outside. Glancing around, I didn't recognize anything. "So, restricted area then? Never been in this part of the hub."
She trotted out behind me. "Holding area. Anypony teleporting in during lockdown ends up here. Surprising a pegasus has never been here before." She turned, trotting down the hall. "Now, before doing anything else, we have some items to retrieve."
I looked at her, and back at myself, suddenly noticing the lighter feeling. "Took our stuff, did they? Have to have a word with them about that." I trotted beside her.
"Standard procedure," she stated, "Possessions are sent to security for inspection. Weapons are confiscated, but there shouldn't be a problem getting everything back."
"Better not be," I grumbled. My mane was in my eyes, having had my hairclip removed.
Security was at the end of the hall. A guard sat behind a desk in front of a bank of lockers. I ambled over to the guard. "Stuff please," I petitioned, blowing my mane out of my eyes dramatically.
"Name and intention," the guard droned.
"Fleur Daze, but you can call me Daisy and we'll be best friends forever." Peony facehoofed. "I am the plumber. I've come to fix the sink."
Peony took over. "We're here to fix the radio." She shot me a glare.
The guard looked us over. "And your name?"
She grumbled, "Angel Cheeks."
"Excuse me. Say again?"
She practically shouted, "It's Angel Cheeks! All right?" Somepony sure didn't appreciate her name. Well, come to think of it, I don't totally like mine either.
"One moment please." He turned to the lockers, opening one, removing the contents. He set Peony's bags in front of her. Opening another, he removed my bags and other accessories, setting them in front of me. "Anything else?"
"Not at the moment, no. But if anything is missing, I'll let you know for sure." I replied. he huffed back.
"Right. Let's not antagonize the nice security stallion."
I went through my bags, noting anything out of place. Everything was exactly how i put it in. Huh. Either pretty sneaky or they didn't bother looking. Whatever. I put on my bags. Brushing the side of my mane back, I replaced my clip, cap, and headphones.
I looked at the guard. "So, how about that picture, huh?" The guard, still at attention, appeared to flush slightly. Peony groaned.
"Okay. Time to go," she stated.
I waved to him before trotting to the exit. Peony finished inventorying her bags, putting them on, and following.
"So do we need to check in with somepony here, or just sneak out all quiet like?" I inquired.
"We've already been logged, I'm sure, so somepony knows we're here. Probably should announce ourselves anyway, so they know we aren't spies."
"So where is administration from here?" I pulled up the floor plan. "Oh look, communications is closer. And stairs... that way." I pointed down the hall, moving in that direction. Down a couple of flights, and a few halls later, we came to a door marked 'communications'. "Easy peasy, pudding in the breezy." I pushed the door open. "Hey guys, heard you had a radio problem."
The room was filled with radio equipment and terminal screens. Several ponies working the equipment turned to look at us.
"Yes? And you are?" one of them queried.
"Daisy the repair pony. Perhaps you've heard of me?"
"That rogue Stable-Tec employee, right? Who hasn't?" another asked.
"And why would you be here?"
"Duh. To fix the radio. Kind of hard to help somepony if you can't talk to them."
The first sighed. "Okay. so our signal is being overridden by…"
I held my PipBuck to the group. "Bam! Ministry of Image."
"How did you find the transmitter?"
I grinned. "First it helps to have something not using the same frequency."
The ponies mumbled to themselves for a moment, a couple facehoofing.
"So you're going to disable it, I assume?"
"Of course. Can't come all the way from Manehattan to do nothing, right?"
"Keep us posted on the status, then."
"Right. see you on the other side." I whirled toward the door, stepping out.
Peony, staring at me in shock, finally spoke, "Jumping straight in with all four hooves, huh?"
"That's how I roll," I retorted. "Right, then. To the objective."
We made our way to the ground level, coming to the entrance. There were quite a few refugees in here. Not nearly as many as the other hub, considering it was probably not a big deal with the shield and all. We trekked through the room to the doors guarded by several ponies.
"State your business," demanded one of them.
"Taking out an overriding signal transmitter. You probably heard about a lack of communication?"
"Good luck out there. As long as the shield holds, you'll be fine. Still, be careful."
The doors opened. We stepped out, the doors closing behind us.
I looked at the marker. "Okay, it's on the statue. You'd think somepony would notice a big antenna." I cantered down Ministry Walk to the MoI hub. Circling the statue, I didn't see anything obvious sticking out. I tapped it with a hoof. Nope. Solid. Perplexed, I sat contemplating where it could be.
Suddenly Peony lit up. "Got it." She levitated a device out from under the statue's mane.
"Oh, Rarity. How could you?" I scolded the statue. I looked at the device. It was nothing but a noise generator and transmitter. "The capitol foiled by a filly's science project." There was a button. I reached out to push it, getting beat by a pink glow. "B-b-but button," I stammered.
"Too slow," she taunted. "Well? See if it worked."
I grumbled, connecting the radio to 'MAS Hub Canterlot'. "Nighthawk to MAS Canterlot: Radio check."
"We read you, Nighthawk. Good job, and thanks a lot."
I grinned. "Any time. Though you probably have calls to make, right?"
"Affirmative."
"Let you get to that then. Nighthawk out." I switched to 'MAS Hub Manehattan'. "Nighthawk to MAS Manehattan: Radio check."
Spark's grainy voice came through, "Nighthawk? Is that you, Daisy?"
"Affirmative. Would have called sooner, but the reception here was terrible."
"Glad to hear you got there safely. Also that you managed to restore the line to Canterlot."
"Eeyup. All good here on all counts except the unauthorized rainstorm above."
"So, about that. how..." He was cut off by an extreme burst of static.
"Spark? Do you read?" Nothing. "Spark? Are you there?" Still nothing.
"Well, that couldn't have been anything good," Peony stated.
After several minutes, the line crackled and Spark's broken voice came through, "We've been hit... bomb inside city... side of tower damaged... radiation exposure…"
"Spark!" I cried into the radio. "There was a bomb?"
"Zebra balefire... radiation coming in... we're all dead... goodbye." with a crackle, his voice disappeared.
"No! nonono! Not Manehattan too!" I wailed. "Spanner. Spark. All those ponies. Dead!" I collapsed onto peony, hugging her close, sobbing into her shoulder. "They're taking everything," I whimpered. Peony wrapped her hooves around me, sobbing herself. We cried on each other's shoulder for quite a while, being interrupted by cries and anguished screams.
We looked up to see ponies racing from the direction of the castle. Looking closer, they were being pursued by a pink colored mist. As they were overtaken, they were fused with anything they contacted. Ponies melted into the ground as they tried to outrun the poisonous cloud, into doors as they tried to get inside, each other as they huddled, resigned to death.
"Okay. That's not good." I broke our embrace and scrambled to the door of the MoI hub. Trying the door and finding it locked, I quickly pulled up the door override. I waved my hoof all over the door, receiving no response. "Great. and no time to get back to MAS," I fumed.
The cloud had all but reached us, spreading through the city and up into the sky, carried by the breeze. "Well, the end," I moaned, embracing her one last time, "It's been real."
"It's not over yet," she declared, raising a shield around us, just as the cloud reached us. "I don't know how long this will last, but maybe we can still get to the MAS hub."
We raced along ministry walk, while I tried to stay inside her small protective bubble. Okay. almost there. Probably can't get in without letting the poison in. Got to be quick. I could feel the poison entering my skin. Well, so much for the shield. I'm dying anyway. My heart racing, and my lungs burning, I kept running. Okay. now I'm breathing it. I looked to Peony. She couldn't be doing much better. I began choking and gasping for breath. I stumbled on my hooves and tumbled out of the shield. "Sorry I didn't make it," I gasped. I was quickly losing consciousness. I tried focusing on anything, coming to the statue of Rarity across the way. The last thing I ever see. I always thought you were worst pony. My eyes fell closed for the last time, and I drifted away on a nice fluffy cloud...
~~~
I opened my eyes. Wait. I'm not dead? Then why can't I feel anything? Except the weight on my back. I lifted my head to look back, receiving a splitting pain from my neck up. Okay. Definitely not dead. I tried to stand, the weight keeping me down. Plan B. I rolled out from beneath it, pain surging through my everything. Ugh. Why am i not dead? Ignoring the pain, I turned to see what pinned me down.
"Peony!" I shouted, crawling toward her. I felt for a pulse, a heartbeat, breathing, anything. Suddenly I noticed I didn't feel those myself. Huh. That's weird. Crazy neurotoxin or something. Okay. Maybe this isn't real. Wake up time. I smacked my face with a hoof several times before deciding it didn't help.
Back to the problem at hoof. I nuzzled her chin. "Come on. You have to be okay. You had the shield." I put my cheek against hers. "Still warm. May be a chance..." Why does she have to be the one out of it? She has the medical training. I'm the kind of pony that would do CPR for a gunshot wound. "Please wake up," I whispered, giving her a kiss. I scooted over next to her, cuddling close. Okay, bad dream, time to go away. I closed my eyes.
I don't know how long we just lay there, I hadn't bothered to check the time. I felt stirring next to me, and opened my eyes. "Peony? You okay?" I asked hopefully.
She turned to look at me. "Ow! You get the number of that train?"
"Nope. Too busy dying."
She groaned. "Too bad you didn't."
"I know, right? Those fluffy clouds were awesome."
She tried to stand, collapsing in a heap.
"Uh, yeah. Going to be a while on that." I nuzzled her. "But we have time." That awful poison cloud seemed to be gone. Oh, and so was the shield, and the missiles.
"Ugh. What even is this? I'm pretty sure I remember dying."
"Well, we might be zombies now," I half joked. It could be true. "Give me your brain and we'll see."
"Yeah, that would be easier than trying to find yours." Okay. Despite a few things, everything is still normal.
I sighed. "So do you think there is anypony left, or are we the only ones left in Equestria?"
"Why? You don't want to kiss me if there is somepony else?" she smirked.
"Something like that. Though we're doomed if there aren't any foals left." I grinned back. She punched my shoulder. Okay. She's definitely better. "So what's next, then?"
"I really have no idea. Both Canterlot and Manehattan are gone, and I doubt Fillydelphia is intact either. Might be some smaller towns survived, at least until the radiation hits."
I turned on my broadcaster. Just static. I changed to another channel. The same static. One more. Still the same. "Something's wrong with my broadcaster. Not going to be able to contact anypony."
"We should head back to the MAS hub. They should have a working radio still."
"Right. Can you stand now? If not, I'll carry you," I said, getting to my hooves.
She attempted to stand again, wincing the entire time, still accomplishing it. "Feels like I was asleep for months." She took a wobbling step forward. I steadied her with a hoof.
We made the rest of the way to the hub, both actually not bad for being basically dead. Unlike the path of unlucky ponies who had become part of the background trying to get in. "This is too creepy. How did we make it when all these ponies didn't?"
"I don't know, but I don't like it at all," she voiced her disgust of the situation.
We arrived at the entrance to the building. The doors were open, the masses having spilled in after it was too late. There was static coming from the PA. The air was tinted pink. "Uhh, yeah. Pretty sure we can skip this," I asserted, "let's get out of this place."
"That's probably a good idea," she agreed, her horn lighting up to teleport, before sputtering out. "Great. Just great," she muttered, "Plan B. This is probably a worse idea, but flying out would probably be best."
"You don't have to ask twice. Hop aboard, matey. there's adventure to be had elsewhere." I crouched down. She rolled her eyes and climbed on my back.
"Are you sure you can fly? Have you seen your wings?"
"Why? What--" I had lost quite a few feathers, and seriously needed a preening, but everything seemed right as it could be. "Probably. We'll just have to see." I took off a short distance from the ground. "Okay, a little stiff. Should have done a warmup first." I landed again, proceeding to extend and retract my wings and flap them several times before taking off again. "Okay. Better."
"So, where to, Cap'n? There be any booty worth plunderin'?" she asked.
"Aye. Yer booty always be worth plunderin'." She smacked the back of my head. "Arr. Ye set yerself up fer that one."
"Right. Should we make port in Manehattan then?"
"Should be lots to plunder there, I reckon. Least what's not irradiated to Tartarus and back."
We flew on for hours, following the railroad tracks, discussing piratey things--like finding a ship to commandeer, then who to make walk the plank, and which ports to sack for the best booty. Somepony not me was the first to notice we had been flying too long without a break. "Aren't you even tired? How long have we been going?"
I looked at the clock on my PipBuck. "Well, a beginning point of reference would help for sure, but I would say five hours or so." I glanced at the sun on the horizon. "Wow. Less than half a day ago, we were doing awesome sciencey stuff, but now the world is over. Can't say i expected that one."
"Who does really? The end of the world just kind of sneaks up on you." She paused. "Don't change the subject like that. You've been flying too long. You should stop and rest."
"Nope. Not tired at all."
"At least stop to eat something?"
"Why? You hungry?"
"Actually, no, now that you mention it. Weird."
"Well, we're almost halfway to Manehattan, so might as well go for it, eh?"
"I suppose. But if you die, I'll kill you."
"Already died once. What could you do?"
She thought for a moment. "Not sure. I'll have to think of something."
"You do that." We continued on in silence.
We were a couple of hours outside Manehattan. I broke the silence. "So what do you suppose happened? Spark said there was a bomb and it was big enough to damage Tenpony. How would you sneak in a bomb that big? And balefire. What kind of radiation does that give off? Was that the pink stuff? Tell me we at least got them back." An exaggerated snore was the reply. "Oh come on. You're the bigger egghead. This can't be that boring."
"The only thing I can figure is there were zebra sympathizers in the city. No idea about the other stuff."
"And the Stable. Something happened there. Maybe they snuck something in there too. Those zebras have really ruffled my feathers."
"Well, that's not that hard to do." If I looked back, I'm sure she would have winked. More awkward silence.
Soon we came upon the hills outside the city. They were backlit by an ominous green aura, moreso because the sun had gone down already. "So we either got new lighting or that's a bad sign."
"At least it's not pink," she declared.
Approaching the city, we could clearly see the damage done in the light of the radiation. There was an enormous crater, and significant damage was done from the shock throughout the city. "Well at least they didn't set it off right in downtown, though there isn't much left anyway." And there was Tenpony Tower. Most of it still stood, but the near side had taken damage from the blast, and radiation was finding its way into the building. "Not liking the odds of finding somepony alive here." I shuddered.
The clicking on my PipBuck confirmed the fear. "This many rads, this far out, not good."
"Do you feel strange, like a warm glow, or something gross like that?" she asked.
"Yeah, actually. That is strange. According to other ponies, radiation is horrible and painful. Don't suppose being dead makes you immune to it, does it?"
"Ehh, maybe. But we still don't know if we're for sure dead."
"We can find out." I dropped my rear legs forward, causing her to cling to my neck to avoid sliding off.
"Well, you sure will be when we land."
I leveled back out. "Is that a threat or a promise?" I grinned back at her.
"Both," she growled.
"We'll see about that. Coming in for a landing now." I circled around the wrecked side of the tower. "That balefire sure is some nasty business." Nearing the entrance, ai touched down a short distance away. She hopped off my back. I turned on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. Wow. why didn't I think to use that in Canterlot? Error messages and health alerts flashed across my vision. I hadn't thought to check my health status either. I brought up the status section. 'Error: vitals not detected', 'Health: 100%'. Right. Figure that out later.
Okay. messages cleared. Checking for hostiles. A group of green smilie faces showed up in the distance. "Group of neutrals up ahead. Quite a surprise, really. Let's go say hi."
"Another great idea. Maybe it'll turn out better than the last one."
Ignoring her, I trotted to the hub entrance. I could make out the silhouettes of ponies in the green glow. "Hey friends, how goes it?" Dozens of glowing green eyes turned to me. "Oh, that's cool. I wish my eyes glowed." I trotted closer. Okay. those ponies are more corpses. That radiation really did a number on them. Most of their coats and manes were missing, and they were covered in severe burns. "Ouch. Gnarly stuff, that." Okay. Now that's interesting. Their marks on my EFS were flickering between purple smile and red frown. "Don't worry. I'm a friend." Some stayed purple, some turned back to green, some still flickered. "Confused bunch, huh? Totally know that feeling." I moved past them to the doors. "Closed. Don't suppose you can open those?"
She replied, "Honestly, I don't know. There's always been guards here." She turned to the group. "Any of you a guard?" They stared at her. "Right. Probably not." Moving to a panel by the door, she pushed the button. She spoke into it, "Hello? Anypony there?" No reply for several moments. "Hello?" she repeated.
I connected the radio to the MAS channel. "...group of us somehow survived the radiation from the bomb, but others have turned into zombies. We have set up a barricade at the rail entrance. If they attack, we don't have any defenses. We don't know how long we can hold out here... message repeats. If anypony is out there, please help us. A group of us somehow survived the radiation from the bomb, but others have..." I turned off the radio. "New objective get. We go." I grabbed her and took off toward the railway station.
Landing on the track near the station, I moved cautiously toward it. There were quite a few purple smiles. Good, no red frowns. "Hello? Anypony there? We got your message."
A gaunt orange head with a scraggly white mane poked over the barricade. "Daisy? Peony? We thought we lost you in Canterlot. After we were hit here, we heard what happened there. They said you were out fixing the radio. Then we lost them," she said dejectedly.
"We were out there when it hit. Also the MAS hub was open, so it's doubtful anyone survived. Though somehow we did. Sort of. There may be others."
"You should come inside," Spanner suggested, "Good concealment at least." Part of the barricade slid to the side. We went through, and it was pushed back into place. We were in the dimly lit entrance to the tower at the level of the Celestia Monorail Line. At least the backup lighting works. We were surrounded by more zombie ponies. So maybe none of us were technically zombies, just undead.
Spanner looked the two of us over. "Oh. I guess we're all in the same boat then."
"Yar," I replied, "'Ceptin' ye be green zombies and we be pink zombies."
"Actually, we prefer the term 'revenant'. A little distinction between classes."
"You come up with that one?" I booped her muzzle.
"As a collective, yes. We took a poll, and that was the popular choice."
"So, as a 'revenant', what does one actually do?"
"We're still trying to decide. Everypony has a different idea, so can't vote on it." She shrugged. "Amethyst is having a time of it."
"Amethyst? She made it too?"
"Well, so far. If we can't come to a decision, she might lose it."
"What about Spark?" I looked around for him.
She lowered her head. "He's gone."
"Sorry." I put a hoof around her. "Well, we're lucky any of us made it, right?"
"Yeah. I suppose."
I looked around, spotting the pink unicorn. "Amethyst! My favorite coordinator. How are things?"
"The usual. Trying to organize a committee out of ponies who can't make up their minds. Though I suppose none of us really have one anymore." She grimaced. "Everypony just wants to keep doing their job that probably doesn't exist anymore."
"Maybe we could just let them if it makes them happy. Not like you can really do anything else with the world ended and all," I suggested. "Hey, how about we go see what's left of the city. See if they want to go scavenging?"
She shrugged. "Even if they agree to that, then what?"
"You'll figure it out, miss organizer." I winked. "How about a party? Tell everypony it's a work holiday and they can go back to business tomorrow."
"You would suggest something like that, huh?"
"Yeah, especially since I missed my show last night. Speaking of, my gear is still downstairs."
"I wouldn't recommend going down there. The zombies have taken over the place."
"Hmm. Slight problem, then." I rubbed my chin with a hoof. "We could just take them out."
"Right. With what? We've all survived a megaton bomb."
"They can't possibly be indestructible, can they?" I thought a moment. "Did you try talking to them?"
"Talking to ponies eating the survivors was definitely the thing we were all thinking. How about you go talk to them, miss silver tongue?"
"Right. Off i go." I moved toward the entrance into the tower.
"You can't be serious." Peony had appeared in front of me, next to Spanner.
"We're already dead, so maybe they won't even notice us," I replied.
"Good. At least we're sending somepony without a brain to steal," she quipped, "Maybe you should find a better reason to risk your 'life', though."
"So, you coming with, then?" I inquired.
"I don't want to, but somepony has to look out for you when you have your 'good ideas'."
"Never go anywhere without your guardian 'Angel', right?"
She groaned. "Right. Whatever."
I turned to Spanner. "You coming too? Amethyst probably has this covered."
"If you insist on going, maybe we could try to bring the radio back, too."
"So that's a yes? Right. Onward." I trotted to the doors.
Peony rolled her eyes as the two fell in behind me. "So, the doors have power still?" I asked, bringing up the door override.
"Should be similar to the other MAS hubs. As far as I know, most of them should. Not sure about opening the exterior doors from the outside." Peony answered.
"And if not?" I ran my PipBuck along a panel by the door. The doors remained closed. "Okay, fun way then. There's a terminal just inside, isn't there? Too bad my broadcaster's shot." I opened the panel, extending a cable from my PipBuck, and plugging it into a socket. I switched to terminal access. "Okay. password..." I scrolled through the terminal memory. "'bycelestiadolfsbeard', huh? Cute. Looks promising." I logged into the terminal. "Got 'im. Right. 'open door'." I selected the option, the doors swinging open. "Tada." I beamed, turning around and taking a bow. I retracted the cable and stepped through the door. The others followed.
okay, a bit dark in here. at least the emergency lighting is working. I glanced around the foyer. "So elevators probably offline by now? Anypony see the stairs?" The only worse thing than a box of death is a poorly lit box of death.
"Over there." Spanner pointed a hoof to the far side of the room. I immediately headed that direction before either could suggest an alternative.
As we made our way down the stairs, the air gradually filled with a green glow. Suddenly I felt better than I had in, well, ever. Apparently it had some sort of healing effect. "Like a day at the spa, only better, right?" I quipped.
"Right. Funny what killed you healing you," Spanner mused, noting the effect.
"Makes sense if you think about it." I paused for a moment. "Actually, not really. Might need an egghead's opinion on it." I looked at Peony, who looked back with a huff. "Okay, conjecture time later. So who's going first?"
Peony nudged me off the landing. "We got a volunteer right here." I tripped down several steps before my wings had a chance to work. I glided to the next landing, shooting a glare back up the steps. "Safer than the steps at least, from and egghead's opinion." She smirked. I flew down the next flights of stairs, leaving them behind.
"Probably best not to be separated," Spanner shouted down to me. I could barely see them through the mist and low light.
"Right. Waiting." I sat down on the steps. "Lost without me, then, huh?"
Peony replied, "More the other way around, miss 'distracted by shiny things'."
"Don't forget big red buttons."
They caught up, and we continued down. Reaching the main level, we came to the stairwell door. "Okay. Moment of truth," Spanner said, starting to pull the door open with her magic.
"Wait." I turned on my EFS. "Nothing yet. Clear for now."
She opened the door, and we went out into a corridor. The air here was less green. Only trace amounts remained near the ceiling. "Huh. Looks like the ventilation system is pumping it straight through. Would have been nice to still have the missing side of the tower. The internal systems aren't filtered."
I yawned. Huh. kind of hard to do when you can't get tired.
"Sorry to bore you there. You prefer I talk about magic, then?"
I groaned. "No. I don't even want to think about how that stuff works. Besides we're too far down to hurl myself off the roof."
"Says the pony that tinkers with magic on that little contraption she's got there." She pointed at my PipBuck, before staring at it a moment. "When did they start implanting those?" she queried. We all stopped.
I looked down at my foreleg. There was more light here and I hadn't really bothered to look closely before anyway. "Oh, that's just gnarly." My PipBuck had embedded itself in my leg. "Always wanted to be a cyborg anyway." I looked back, beginning to panic. Huh. Should be short of breath and heart should be racing now, but nothing. Weird. "Good thing i had my saddlebags on, too." I tried to slip a wing underneath the belt, not finding any gaps. I trotted to Peony, doing the same with hers. Same. "Well, shoot. Of all the permanent additions, at least we got something practical."
With an expression somewhere between anger and terror, Peony surrounded her bags with her levitation, wincing as they didn't budge. "On there good, is it?" I asked with a worried grin.
"Apparently. This day just keeps getting better." she grumbled.
"Hey, now you have built in pockets," I quipped. She shot me lasers with her eyes. "Okay. maybe some ponies don't appreciate that as much as others."
"I hate to ruin the moment, but we may be surrounded by hostiles. Might want to keep an eye out," Spanner stated.
"Right. Tally ho. On to supposed battle." I trotted back to the direction we were moving. Near the end of the corridor, green smilies began to appear in my vision. "Okay. Neutrals ahead, lots of them." We started toward the doorway at the other end. We came out into the main foyer. I started at the scene.
"Wow. That's definitely a thing..." I declared. Dozens of the zombie ponies lumbered around the room. The room was scattered with the remains of ponies who had survived long enough to be devoured by the zombies. I backed up. "Okay. Vote time. Should we perform a tactical retreat, then?" When I spoke, several zombies close to us began to stare. "Dude. That's creepy. They don't even blink." Wait. Now that I thought, I hadn't been either. Who really thinks about that, anyway? EFS marks still green. "Still neutral, though."
"Right. So either they can't see us or don't care." Peony surmised.
"Good enough." I trotted to a group just inside. "Hey, pones. What it is?" Blank stares. "I met your buddies outside. Really great ponies." More blank stares, including others who had come closer to investigate. "Right. Good talk." I trotted to the reception desk, grabbing my equipment and stuffing it into my bags.
I turned to the crowd that had followed me. "Hey, how about we all go over to Hoofbeats. Got a great show lined up. Guess it's not too late for last night's gig." No response. "Maybe later, then."
Moving around behind the desk, I activated the terminal. "Okay. Let's open this door then. It's a lot shorter trip than through the whole building." I tapped a few buttons, bringing up logs. "Ehh, boring. Amethyst is in charge of that anyway." Okay. Open door. there it is. I selected the option, the doors beginning to swing in. "Mind the opening doors," I shouted to the ponies at the entrance. Maybe they still have enough brain to dodge large opening doors.
As soon as the doors started to open, ponies were swarming out, apparently to get back to what they were doing before the incident.
"Well, that was easy," I muttered, turning to Spanner and Peony fiddling with the radio.
"Suppose we can turn the message off now," Spanner quipped, "You just sent the crowd out to anypony else who would hear it."
"We all make mistakes." I shrugged. "At least the door is open." I looked over the radio. "So, we taking this up to your little hidey hole, then?"
"I suppose so. Though we might find a more secure location, now that all your friends are back out in the city. Some may turn out to be hostile." The radio glowed orange as she picked it up.
"Ooh, recon. My favorite. Let's go." I headed for the door. "Both coming?"
"I'll take the radio up and join you guys after," Spanner said, disappearing in a sparkle of orange. Minutes later, the sparkle reappeared and she was back.
"Must be nice," I mumbled. "Right. We off then?" They both nodded. "Onward to the objective."
We headed to the door, toward the destroyed city crawling with zombies.
"Best idea ever." Peony stated as we exited the building.
Level Up! Level 3 Reached
New Perk: Fearless Leader
Though you charge recklessly into things, your charisma allows you to convince nearly anypony to follow your ‘good ideas’.
