Shadows of the Night

Making it back home in one piece was nothing short of a miracle.Every pile of jutting scrap metal which poked from every trash bin and alley beckoned for me to bring forth enough physical pain to warrant screaming. Thoughts like that had ever plagued me back home whenever I had failed, but only enough to entertain the thoughts, but here, I could keep on coming back for more, but not with people watching. It was bad enough I was the new kid on the block and was an oddity to boot in a Technicolor world wearing my simple black clothing. To make matters worse the morning sun became even more oppressive as I felt my blanket of darkness wither away, leaving me naked to the world. Marching up the steps to my new home was a godsend, and I was glad of Sprocket’s sleeping habits as I stood alone in the living room. With the shades drawn it was practically a cave. My back arched and darkness turned the room into pitch as I let out a silent scream. The thick cloud followed me as I quietly made my way upstairs, blinking ahead every ten feet into the next dingy shadow until I bypassed the door to my room, collapsing face first into my overstuffed futon.

I had failed, horribly. And for the first time in my life when it had really mattered, I had fallen flat, unable to match skills with a disgusting little thief.

My breath began to slow down as what little oxygen that could make it through my nose mixed in with the exhaled air to recalculate in my lungs. I just laid there, waiting for the burning in my chest to go down enough for my head to stop spinning. It took a couple of hours, but after that, rolling onto my back, I took a deep breath of fresh air in my walled off little room. I closed my eyes and collected my thoughts. Taking another breath to steady myself from the heady rush of sitting up so quickly it slowly come out with a dark jet of shadows, expelling like dark fire, and opened my eyes, the dark room again coming into light.

Reaching into the pocket over my left breast I pulled out the training manual I had been given from work. Gazing over the table of contents I continued until I found a chapter marked ‘Intimidation and Pony Psychology’ and quickly flipped over and began reading.

***Sprocket***

Yawning, I made the long, arduous journey of rolling to the edge of my bed, hitting the button of my blinking alarm clock on the nightstand, the sound long having been upgraded into silence via a missing sound box.

Rolling onto the floor, I let my hooves catch me as I let my weight hit them and I stretch back up, no worse for wear and arching my back. The sounds of well rested joints rang in my ears. Looking across the room something felt off... it seemed too dark. Looking over to my clock, it was indeed two O’clock in the afternoon, but only a poor light was coming in through the thick drapes. Shrugging, assuming it either a cloudy or rainy day I made my way to the edge of the room and opened the door.

Once the door to the hallway swung open an immediate sense of wrongness swept through me, urging me to hide under my covers as the smell of rusted metal pervaded in my nostrils. The air smelt… dead. Worse, the shadows along the hallway were moving creepily with a life of their own, but what kept me in place was a single thought, ‘Rumor’.

Moving forward, I felt my legs shake a little as I made my way to his room. The shadows grew densest right at the door. Giving a single knock it wasn’t a second before the door opened with Rumor towering over me, the darkness now pouring out of the room like a dense fog, the scent of rusted metal and decay now stronger than ever.

“Yes ma’am?”

I sighed a little at that, he was always so formal, not that I minded it too much, seeing as he always seemed to mean well. Looking up into his bright yellow eyes I said, “Is everything alright?”

He hesitated for a little bit, a fretful look taking over his face as the darkness began to drain away from it, his gaunt features surfacing from beneath then said, “I’m fine,” with a flat tone.

“Oka-ay,” I said, biting my lip, “but you know if you want to talk to me about anything you know you can... right?”

He gave a little nod, seemingly stuck in the door and doing his best to seem smaller than he really was. Giving a smile, I then turned to the stairs, and as a parting shot said, “After all, what are friends for?” I noted the scent of rusted decay and darkness visibly going down a few notches after that, and I could have sworn I heard him gasp a little too, but I’d done what I could, and considering my heart was just now slowing down from the fear inducing atmosphere I really needed some non-caffeinated tea rather than my morning bucket of coffee to help me calm down.

Searching through the cupboard into the back I finally found the last box of tea I knew I had. Setting the kettle, after another small batch of searching, I’d just set it to boil, the shrill whistle of hot water soon following it after a few minutes.

Pouring myself a cup of the steaming water I placed the tea bag in it and took my favorite seat at the counter when the peripherals of my vision began to darken. Rumor had the darndest way of moving around completely silent, I was just glad there was a telling sign, during the day.

He just stood there for a while, his claws, I mean, hands he’d called them, fidgeted at his sides for a few moments before he said, “You consider me a friend?”

It struck me just how odd he was just then, some tall, dark wielding, creature which had showed me nothing but kindness since I met him, helped around the house, cleaning dishes, charging crystals, and had stepped up to save me when no one else on a busy street would, still didn’t implicitly feel like he was my friend. I could feel my eyes begin welling up as I said, “Of course you are,” and brought up my mug of tea to help steady myself. I couldn’t believe how worked up I was getting, but I also couldn’t believe just how estranged the person in front of me was from the rest of the world. It made even my healthy scientific enquiry of him back off, some, as Rumor hadn’t been forthcoming with many details of his past.

“So that means I can talk you about how my night went… right?” he said as he brought his hands up to his chest, seemingly afraid I’d give some harsh rebuttal.

“That’s right,” I said, trying to sound as kind as possible. ‘What happened to him last night?,’ I wondered as he stepped into the kitchen and around to the opposite side of the counter, taking a seat. Fiddling with his fingers a few more moments he took a breath and began his tale.

***

My mug was emptied by the time he gave his story. It had been… very factual, though I could certainly tell the parts where he had described himself were in a none too pleasant light, or even a dim light for that matter. What made someone who went out of there to help others and be kind to hate themselves so much?

“And now I need to find ways to make sure a failure like that doesn’t happen again,” Rumor said with an emotionless voice as he shrugged.

Placing down my mug and placing my hooves together in front of me I said, “Okay, one, you’re one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met, so next time you start talking like you’re some sort of abomination, I’m going to smack you. Two, it sounds like you’re doing a fine job of it so far to fix things yourself. And three,” I reached over the table and gave him a hug, “take it easy on yourself or you’re not going to last very long, okay?”

I felt him shiver some, but managed to hear a hoarse, “okay” followed by a sniffle.

“Well, now that that’s settled,” I said while extricating myself back to my chair, and then sliding down to the floor, “it’s good to see you going at it with such vigor, but it’s always good to get a helping hoof from a friend when you aren’t feeling too well. Let’s head down to the lab.”

Silently he followed behind me as I clattered my way down the metal stairway. I hadn’t ever taken him below the first sub-basement, and I’m pretty sure he hadn’t gone exploring either. He had seemed pretty content with the upper portions my house, maybe he just thought they were off limits, well, that was a pretty good mindset to have with some of my other experiments. Didn’t need him getting hurt again, or damaging anything. I might just show him some of the lower levels eventually too, but that was for another time.

Stopping at the midway landing to the second sub-basement, I turned to the right, pressing down on one of the innocuous little bulbs, which normally helped me know which power line was which, it gave way with a small click, and was quickly followed by a much larger sounding bunch of clunks as the circular door fell back then rolled into the side paneling. A little out of the way, but it’s where I stored a majority of my admitted weaponry. Not a lot of ponies appreciated keeping oneself self sufficient or defensible, but I always had a liking for knowing that if push came to shove that I could push back should somepony try to use their natural abilities to stay out of range while trying to get rid of me.

Walking into the darkened room I felt along the wall for the light switch as Rumor came in after, his gasp of astonishment was a bit of a letdown, considering I’d planned to turn on the lights in a grand sweeping gesture, sometimes his dark vision could be a bit of a downer, even if it was particularly useful.

It wasn’t a particularly large room by any means, but every single inch had been designed for optimal use and flexibility. It had slate grey rubber tiled floors from wall to wall, and the culminations of weapons, gadgets, and armors were stored within row after row of purely white marble racks. Those had been a pain to get down and assemble, even with my arms, but the end result left you with a very sterile and efficient looking room designed for a single purpose: maintaining the upper hoof.

Rolling my eyes I flicked on the switch, without fanfare, and began walking through the racks of past inventions and purchases and said, “Welcome to the hurt locker.”

As I walked further in I looked back to make sure Rumor was following, but he had remained at the door, his cloud of darkness gone under the stark lighting of the room. Rolling my eyes, again, I waved him over to hurry up. Once he caught back up I turned around and began to trot through the racks.

“Now, about that story from earlier, I know you’re still pretty new around here so you won’t have heard about them, but, from your description, it sounded like The Tartarusfire Club.”

“If that’s true then why wasn’t I told about that back at the station?”

“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say fear, through the fact they simply don’t know the name of the organization, let alone that one of the premiere clubs in the city is it probably has something to do with it too, but mostly because in a city full of machinist and builders the last thing a pony would think to use would be a ninja.”

“So, then how do you know that?” came Rumor’s inevitable question.

“My parents used to work for them. Emphasis on past tense,” I said, my voice taking on a bit of a growl.

Rumor remained quiet for a while, and I expected him to stay that way until the darkness began to play across his form like fire as he intoned, “So your parents used to work for thieves?”

I froze mid-step, as I heard the culmination every accusation of the hoof-full of ponies I’d ever told in his voice. Whipping around I shouted “DON’T YOU DARE INSULT MY PARENTS!” as I flung myself at him. His pupil-less eyes went wide as my weight crashed into him, toppling him over as I came with him.

“My parents were honest and good working ponies,” I said, no longer able to yell as my eyes turned to slits, “and once they figured out what their work was being used for, they left as quickly as they could. My parents were kind, and they were ripped away from me, so don’t you, ever, dare,” I said, my fore-hooves pressed firmly into his chest.

I just stood there, towering over him as he lay there, unmoving. After a few silent moments passed he whispered, “Please forgive me.”

Blinking my eyes I saw his own were slick with tears, the streaks glistening in the light of the room, standing out starkly from the dark that still clung to him. My parents’ death was a pretty sore subject for me, but I hadn’t meant for him to cry, I mentally berated myself. Moving off him I gave a small grunt and said, “Okay, just, don’t make that accusation again. Alright?”

“Yes ma’am,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Alright, we’re square then. So, let’s get back to dealing with those scum bags,” I said as I held a hoof out to help him up, “ah, here we go,” I said as he got to his feet. Stepping over to the rack as I hoofed it up. “See if that fits you.”

I tossed the dull brass-colored brace over to Rumor, who clumsily caught it with both hands, and his gut as his back curved back to act as a sort of catcher’s mitt.

I watched him trying to get the thing on. But even as he rolled his right sleeve up and tried to snap the pieces together as the hinges tried to move with his clumsy actions, clearly not used to doing much with only one hand, I eventually just gave a small chuckle and said, “Here, let me help you with that,” and quickly snapped the brace with a quick motion, the rounded face of the spiraled purple and amber gem facing down from its small metal base as Rumor continued to hold his arm out, until he reluctantly put it back at his side.

“Okay, this should help you for now, but let’s see you test this little bad girl out for yourself,” I said as I made my way out of the room, Rumor following after, walking a bit more gingerly than normal, his right arm held out slightly more from his side. He needn’t have done that, but it was all just as well, a little petty discomfort wasn’t too uncalled for from his unthinking comment from earlier, even if I had forgiven him.

I moved down the steps once I resealed the room and headed fully down to the second floor, more a large landing as I opened up a rather large grey door which held a simple gear lock which opened with a full turn as I grabbed the hoof-holds with both hooves and pushed the door open to reveal the great white room. I couldn’t tell what Rumor was thinking but now I’d finally got my chance at showing off some of my work without him spoiling things for me by peeking ahead.

“This,” I said as I stepped through the portal and into the stark white of the room, “is The Core. It’s where I come and test many of my inventions for the limits of their potential and-“

“Oh, so it’s a training room,” Rumor said, slightly mystified, as he began to turn around to gaze upon the dome shaped room after he ducked through the door.

‘Heh, quite,” I said, leaving the rest of the speech for the next person I might decide to bring down here, he had given the right reaction I’d wanted at any rate, “but considering I already know what your little brace there does, it’s falls to me to show you how it works.”

I turned around and pushed his black sleeve up to reveal the brace covered arm, it actually fit Rumor rather well as it laid just above his wrist and went halfway to his elbow. Pointing to a small latch on the side, closest to his side, I said, “Okay, pull this back and the gem gets lifted from the small base and moves to the center of your hand,” Rumor continued to watch, his eyes growing wide as a simple arm pushed the gem out of its locked position and silently slid out as the arm extended. A thin tendril of metal moved the gem down his arm as two more extended from it’s sides to wrap around his arm, and then hinged back to rest just above the palm of his hand which was pushed back to accommodate the nearly palm sized gem. “Now, this was made to function only when external energy is added to the gem, see if you can get it to light up,” I said, already seeing the look of defeat in his eyes as he tried to look like he knew what to do. “It works much the same as charging a crystal, but just keep on doing it until it’s full, then keep on going, it’s designed to expel the excess energy in a forward motion. Just try it.”

He gave a small nod then closed his eyes in concentration. Dark wisps began to curl slowly around his arm from under his clothing, I could tell the light reflecting of the white panels of the room was giving him a hard time, but he just kept going at it, even as I sighed and went over the control panel and began to dim the lights. The effect was almost immediate as the tiny wisps around his arm went huge in the duskily lit room and the gem took on a purple and amber lit hue and then immediately pulled Rumor to the floor, his hind end sticking up as he tried to pull himself back up, to no avail, until he stopped juicing the crystal.

“What was that?”

“A magnet, and a pretty powerful one depending on how much power you put into it. But, the trick to it is learning just how strong and wide you want the field to get. Because, depending on how you do, not only can it help you clean up loose iron shavings in a smithy shop, but it can also change the direction of say, things like electricity since it’s all just a moving load of negatively charged energy. But be careful, putting too much energy makes the gem overheat, and once that happens you won’t be able to have a lasting magnetic charge. Now,” I said, flipping a few more dials on the control panel on the wall, making a few platform come down from the ceiling on extending metal tubes, stopping once they were just a few feet above him and were spread around the room in a few patches, “these white plates have a variety of magnetic particles in them, so feel free to experiment around with the brace. Now, I don’t expect it to break or fall apart on you, I made it after all, but it’s a pretty simple fix if something ever does goes out of shift. Oh, and once you're done having fun,” I said, giving him a cheeky smirk, “just pull back on the latch and the gem will pull back into the brace. Oh, and just press this big orange button to return the room to rest. Okay?”

Rumor just kept looking around the room with the biggest smile on his face I’d ever seen, I began to turn around and leave him to his own little experiments and get back to checking on a few of my own. I’d just gotten past the hatch when I heard him call out “Thank you,” before he gave a small grunt followed by a clang as his arm latched onto one of the lowered ceiling tiles.

‘Yeah,” I thought, ‘he’s a pretty good guy.’