5: COMBAT_SYSTEM_ACTIVE

She hadn't taken long to leave the Palace proper after quickly filling Celestia in on the details of what she'd found out so far and what she was going to do, the same as she had with Luna. Noctis would probably be getting a slight beratement for waking her up during the day, but Luna would be far more amicable towards him than she had been to Twilight, especially with the news he was bringing.

Twilight strode briskly as she cantered her way through the massive double doors of the lower level exit, out the side of the gardens a few levels below the Solar Wing and Verdant Estate. The two Solar Guard on duty, seeing she was on the job, quickly let her pass the gate with a quick nod. They knew a Crown Agent with a serious face meant business, but really she was just deep in thought, she still said a clipped thanks anyway as she went by. She cut across the neatly mown lawn dotted with fenced patches of flowers, around the edge of the hefty outer wall marked with heavy defensive positions and sentry nests, and through a second checkpoint with little fuss, moving towards a medium-sized billet on the edge of the grounds made with sturdy enchanted walls and a compound; it served as an outpost used solely by Assault and Medical Rescue Teams. The emergency pathway from the outer compound that led straight into the Palace's main medical facilities leading out from it was to be kept clear at all times. The outpost and the leading pathway were one of six around the Palace, always on-duty for any Guard or Agent that may need immediate treatment coming in from the fight. The AMR teams were once just a few squads and two outposts, mostly only manned when there was a Crown operation happening, however the last few years had seen the focus grow and shift to assisting the CPS with their immense troubles.

The tri-barrelled autoturrets beeped as she neared, ignoring her with her CINI marking her friendly, or at least non-hostile. The lone Solar Guard standing watch saw her approach with a measure of speed and hurriedly stepped aside, the door opening as it scanned her and released the lock. She went inside the chilled entryway which opened into a modern-looking common room that was the resting area for the on-duty staff. Cushioned chairs and couches, metal tables, holovision and games consoles for entertainment. Simple enough. The extra rooms had bunk-beds, toilets, showers, an armoury, and a small stock of food supplies that were replenished daily.

The Pegasi, Unicorns, and occasional Gryphon currently here on the day shift were awaiting their needed call, their attention fixing momentarily on Twilight as she came into the room, before quickly returning to a mobile device or holoscreen. Twilight already saw a full AMR team decked in enhanced light leather armour heading out into the vehicle bay as they put on their open-view helmets, the shielding shimmering and the hematic seal of their armour's environmental systems hissing as they locked. The limb-mounted displays on their forelegs were flashing alerts for what Twilight could see from here was an emergency evac request from out east on the extended plateau, in the Sapling Green ward.

What was interesting to her was the location, and that it was a quad-chevron alert used by law enforcement, which meant that the CPS were being overwhelmed to where they were calling in any AMR teams to assist evac of their injured. Usually that also meant there was a joint operation on the go between the Guard or Agents and the CPS, as that was normally the time when they were so knee deep in shit they needed the Crown to help. She saw two more groups of on-call staff get up and head towards the vehicle bay as well as their displays also pinged for their immediate need. Apparently this was something pretty intense, and that worried her in regards to Sapling Green.

She had an important task to do, but even so was going to simply join a ride on the next evac job going out the way of Eclipse rather than take a bike, however this was quite urgent as she had a stake in this particular race, and she might need to hitch a ride a great deal sooner. When she pulled up info on any developing situations, she found a few breaking news articles from just a half-an-hour ago that massive battles had broken out between rival gangs across the south-east of the extended plateau, and it was rapidly getting out of hoof; what she'd seen as just the usual spice earlier had evolved into an even greater mess. She checked the network and saw multiple alerts for needing a possible response from Agents for most of the wards on that side of the city, quickly checking the Agent database and seeing that coincidentally it was Dizzy who'd moved to assist the CPS in a critical operation not far from the Sapling Green ward's precinct, and that it was still an ongoing situation, that personally settled it for her; Dizzy was a good Agent but the mare had no idea just how deep this went.

Cometh the hour, cometh the mare.

"Hey, Blondie!" She called out, quickly going over to a blonde-maned stallion currently leaving with his coworker in a duo squad, the Pegasus stallion and Unicorn mare gently pausing at her outburst, she'd picked them instead of the other groups going on their way because she could sense these two feeling off, and they lacked a third or fourth member. The stallion she'd called Blondie was pretty nervous and his heart-rate was higher than it should have been, the mare was slightly less jittery. Being on-call right now with the current workload probably wasn't making them very calm, as Blondie already had a light sweat on the go.

Blondie's pretty cyan eyes questioningly glanced at her under his choppy mane, unsure as to why he'd been slowed, but he immediately deferred to her superiority. "M-ma'am?"

"You're heading to Sapling, yes?" She asked, trying not to focus on his toned pale icy-blue body beneath the leather, the light armour still smelled fresh and new. She wondered how long he'd been doing the job.

"N-no, Ma'am, Crystal Sky." He informed, still keeping his slow momentum as he walked to the bay, putting his open-view helmet on with the mare following suit, their heads entirely encompassed by the large angular visors that automatically darkened to the lighting of the hall they were going down, the opacity increasing completely and hiding their heads from view as their systems sealed and their shields went up.

"Get someone else on it, we're headed to Crow. Go." Twilight told him, smacking his arse with magic and hopping him back into action with a jump, following beside him as he faltered for a second at the state of affairs. He recovered and used a wingtip to swap their destination for one of the quad-chevron alerts in the Black Crow ward, leaving another team to get up at the two's previous alert pinging them to the Crystal Sky ward instead as he went through the doors ahead of them, and she updated the Agent database to show her picking up the alert for Black Crow.

Black Crow was a far more dangerous territory than Sapling Green as it was a hive of gang activity, and going there first meant assessing the details on the ground and relieving some pressure off of Sapling Green. It shouldn't have been easy to breach thanks to a heavy Bulwark separating them, and even with a connecting Runegate between the wards it should have been plenty of deterrence, yet trouble around Sapling Green's precinct that needed an Agent meant there had likely been a hole made somewhere, and she was going to find and plug it. Dizzy could handle herself and hold the area for now, but it wasn't her that Twilight was worried about. Rainbow Dash worked in Sapling Green and Twilight knew that she would be wanting to get into the thick of it instead of standing idly. Twilight needed to find her before she got herself killed in this gang war.

The vehicle bay was sleek, neat, and streamlined, with several reinforced exits leading out into the open, and there were numerous bays before each exit with a surrounding decking for each so that people could safely get to their vehicles. The vehicle bay kept plenty of space in an open area for other large cruisers coming in, and a top-notch emergency repair section in the corner with room enough for three transports. The massive entryway door at the side for flying vehicles and VTOL's to enter one of the bays for fast deployment was currently receiving new cruisers, and Twilight watched as their ride elevated through into the marked area Blondie and his partner were now waiting aside.

"Have either of you flown into a hot-zone before?" Twilight enquired to the pair as the cruiser emblazoned with the Crown's emblem was carefully steered into the space before their decking, the under-plate keeping the vehicle from falling or deviating from the path once it entered the plate's general field of magic.

"O-only into areas where police presence was already heavy. Never right into the fighting." Blondie said to her, his voice being partially modulated by the helmet. Her augmented eyes could still see his face through the opaque visor of the helm, and he wasn't meeting her gaze. Apparently she was slightly intimidating.

"Same for me." The mare said evenly from inside her helmet. Beyond the dusky indigo coat, midnight-coloured hair, and lavender eyes, the most appealing feature to Twilight were the hefty teats between her legs that were compactly secured, but showing their modest size through the leather armour. "It's gonna be crazy in that ward, you sure we'll be safe?"

"We'll be fine, the most that'll happen is a few bullets might come our way." Twilight nonchalantly smiled, stepping to one side as the current pilot got out of the cruiser and past her, going back around the decking towards the side exit, probably to fetch another vehicle.

"That's so reassuring." The mare ─Twilight was going to call her Teats─ said with a raised eyebrow, turning and quickly getting into the pilot's seat of the smooth wedge-shaped front, with Blondie taking the passenger seat, both quickly strapping in with steady mag-lock harnesses that would stop them from being buffeted about by heavy turbulence. "Well, about time we got into something crazy, I guess. I hope this thing's armour is good enough. Never been shot at in one."

Twilight opened the side door of the sleek, almost truck-like VTOL cruiser, it was very aerodynamic, and the smooth edged and shaped exterior almost gave the illusion that it was smaller than it was. The door quietly opened on its track and she slipped inside to the smell of car freshener, her horn glowing as she tapped a button near to the inner edge, and it slid back shut behind her with a hiss, the thrum and sound of the vehicle bay lessening somewhat. She sat herself down on a sideseat, not bothering with a harness and letting herself stretch out with the space of the back. There was quite a bit of movement to be had inside a cruiser even with the four long hover-stretchers in the middle and the medical unit built into its other side, and it didn't even feel all that claustrophobic, even with the only light coming from two striplights in each topside crevice and the secure windscreen up front. No windows in the back; just full protection for those meant to be pulled out of danger. She leant back and kept talking to the two to keep their minds even.

"This is a Stormchaser you're flying." Twilight smiled confidently at Teats, who was properly powering up the large vehicle from its standby mode the previous pilot had left it in as she looked back over her shoulder at Twilight, and Twilight smacked the ceiling for some emphasis. "They're built with reactive plating and heavy magical shielding."

"That sounds good?" Blondie wondered, making sure his harness was secure as the cruiser began to hover higher and push out of the bay, Twilight could see the hazy clouds through the minimal windscreen as they swept over the lead-out from the compound.

"These things can withstand a high-calibre chaingun hammering into them." Twilight grinned as she regarded the surprise on their features. "I should know, I've been evac'd under heavy fire plenty of times. The Dragoon's are even better."

"Heard of them, aint seen one. They're the ones that carry Agents to a fight, right?" Teats said, looking where she was steering now as the Stormchaser took off the edge of the platform overlooking Canterlot below, their destination already plotted into the cruiser's map as they headed out east for Sapling.

"Most of the time." Twilight nodded with a proud smile. "Heavier layered reactive plating, stronger shielding systems with additional fallbacks, and very big guns. A Stormchaser isn't expected to go into the kind of shit Agents get sent into as a whole squad, that's where you get a Dragoon. These are built for good protection and excellent speed, but a Dragoon is a flying tank that can take a direct missile or two, and send a couple of its own right back."

"Kinda wish we had one of those." Blondie said with an anxious laugh.

"We don't need it, the situation doesn't warrant one." Twilight assured again, leaning into the cushions of the seat and trying to relax. "Like I said, you'll be fine."

It seemed Teats had been working the job a little longer than Blondie had, and seemed to take it in stride with a semi-detached sarcastic manner. That was always a pretty decent way to cope, maybe if these two stayed buddies-in-action and Blondie panicked in the future, she'd be able to keep him flying straight. Currently she was the pilot and he was her co-pilot, but the two needed to be capable of swapping on the regular in case things went south and one of them took a serious hit. The front of the Stormchaser contained specifically made crisis packs for them; with quick-suture kits, antiseptic coagulant, magical bandages, med-hypos for pain, and adrenaline-based neurostims. If they got seriously wounded they could keep themselves, their occupants, and the cruiser flying long enough to get out of dodge and get someplace safe; hopefully back to the Palace grounds.

The rapid cruiser flew through the thin mountain air, speeding down in a straight path as the moody glare of the sun began to dissipate through an ever-thickening layer of smog, and peeked around the tips and spires of buildings rising out of the dusky mist, presenting their arrival into the overhead of Canterlot.

Twilight knew they were coming in around the Crystal Sky ward along their way even without looking through the small gaps in the windscreen or consulting her map, as she could hear the muffled slow rolling whuk-whuk of duckships chuttering around the tall high rises she'd spied from afar on the way in, where the most activity to be had was around the early mornings and then again later in the evenings due to the far larger concentration of lower-middle-class housing.

The simple boat-like vehicles were given their colloquial nickname from the older first-generation of heavy engines that flying vehicles sported, with weird sounding noises emitted from their workings that were vaguely similar to the eponymous animal's warbling. These commonly budget-built contraptions didn't sound too much like that anymore, but the name still stuck, and not too much didn't mean not similar. They appealed to a more easygoing and outlandish type of person, often consisting of older ponies or Gryphons that just wanted to take life as it came. They travelled anywhere around Canterlot, Equestria, or beyond, and their main purpose tended to be selling pretty decent street food for cheap, while some tried to sell oddities and goods they made, and some traded in junk or knick-knacks.

Twilight had quite often bought a quick meal from a cute young leaf-green stallion ─which was a generous thing to call him given how marely and adorable he was─ when he dropped by outside her apartment in the Aurora Overlook ward. The way he made a good chicken stir-fry with those thick noodles, his long tangerine mane falling over one azure eye as he looked up at her watching him cook her a meal, his curvy arse as he turned around for the seasoning... the cute bastard was oblivious to her flirting too, and it just made her want to pin him down and mercilessly ride hi-

Luna's gorgeous shapely legs, her nethers were so warm, this was not what she needed to be thinking about right now. After she'd sorted this situation out and found everything with Dash was alright, and seen to all her other business, she was going to pay Hibiscus a visit because this was getting out of hoof.

The eclectic buzz of the packed ward at this point in the day was approaching its peak, and would only be much calmer later on when the nightlife picked up elsewhere. The din of non-flying vehicles and people below made an impression through the Stormchaser's dampening field as they sailed overhead, never falling into any processions of air traffic that were loosely kept in formation by the city's specifically placed magic lights due to the repeating bass-tone klaxons Teats had turned on during their descent over the city proper; it kept other cars in the air well out of their way as the sped on, as no one wanted to be the one that held up the Crown from doing its work.

Teats was one fuck of a pilot though, ducking through the obstacles of the city's eccentric upper layout with a notable level of ease. Twice that a few vehicles hadn't gotten quite out of the Stormchaser's path in time due to their close grouping between clustered skyscrapers, she'd just curved around or under them in a single flowing sweep that most would have faltered the manoeuvre on, as the cruiser had a certain heft to it that fooled most new pilots and made it tricky to do.

They careened down under a high plaza's bridge connecting two towering buildings together as it came up fast, continuing on like nothing had deviated their course, and Twilight had to grab ahold of the hoof-handles on the ceiling to stop herself from being thrown around, while she pushed her back hooves against the flooring and her hindleg prosthetics automatically compensated to keep her even. She couldn't help but grin to herself as she watched Teat's face through the open-view visor, able to see the pure determination etched on her face and in her eyes. Blondie was a little out of sorts at the sheer speed, though the mag-straps that secured him in place were doing their job and the wild ride wasn't doing much but shaking him around a little.

They came up fast on the Black Crow ward under twenty minutes, hurtling into the lower level with a deep rumble from the Stormchaser's back thrusters, the central under-thrusters bursting evenly and keeping the cruiser as straight as an arrow while it flew. Twilight sighed as she went over a few more breaking news articles on her HUD, and as she hadn't needed telling was the case, the likely reason for the developing situation in both Black Crow and Sapling Green was the current eight-year feud between three major gangs known to the Crown, a long struggle fought over territory and general bad blood of the past. She could see the smallest of flashes erupting from far across Black Crow already with a quick peek through the windscreen, leading into the upper reaches of Sapling Green that overlooked and pushed into its confines and right through the Bulwark. The gangs weren't playing around with stealing each other's business or doing small gang hits anymore, this was an actual full blown war for Black Crow with all the information she was pulling up on her map, and apparently it was even extending into a takeover of some of Sapling Green's territory going by what the network was picking up, the cherry-red of the Jackals being practically everywhere over the purple tint.

Twilight knew the first major gang's mob boss quite well, Gwyndolin Grimfeathers, who styled herself as not a crime lord but a crime lady, with emphasis on her gang's regularly noble appearance and demeanour, as far as they could be noble being a criminal organisation. She called her outfit Gaillardet's Blackguard, in honour of her late husband who she'd taken things over from after his death at the hands of a rival Minotaur clan many years back, of whom she'd promptly waged a bloody vendetta against until they were utterly vanquished and relegated to a footnote in Canterlot's recent history archives, solidifying her status and position in and up to the politics of the current day. Gwyndolin was career-military, just as her husband had been, having fought alongside him in several dozen skirmishes of the Gryphon people's civil wars in their own lands from a very young age. They'd fought for the King of Gryphonstone to maintain his rule during the dawn of the Goddess Aeon some twenty-odd years back, when Twilight was still a nerdy teenager having picnics with her friends, living in her library in Ponyville, and stopping rising villains with the power of friendship.

When Twilight first heard of a strange gang of militaristic Gryphons operating around the newly built section of the extended plateau, it had sparked her interest. She was still a Crown-Agent-in-training, and she wanted to take on these gangs that thought they could just take territory from the Diarchy, but until she'd become stronger she'd never be able to face them. By the time she'd completed her horrendously gruelling several-year training regime and received her first few proto-augments, Gwyndolin had already raised tartarus with Gaillardet around Canterlot in their own special way, been married to him in their exile, carved out a chunk of Black Crow for the gang, and then been widowed. When Twilight had finally met her, she'd long been a hardened veteran of endless conflicts, driven by her almighty need to survive and keep her own sense of honour intact.

As a gang, and of the three contesting rivals, the Blackguard were the least volatile, the most code driven, and easier to deal with because of it, reasonably cooperating with both the CPS and the Guard, as well as being amicable towards Crown Agents when they came to investigate. Twilight had a certain rapport with Gwyndolin and knew how to work with her these days, and the Gryphoness had initially taken a shine to Twilight's sense of nobility and doing right for the Princesses, seeing herself in her, but she hadn't fully respected her, and Twilight hadn't liked or respected Gwyndolin at all. It wasn't until Twilight had been tempered on the anvil of battle and been through her trials of self that she understood Gwyndolin's position of trying to survive while not losing sight of what mattered, that a true mutual respect was brokered between them.

It might have also helped that Twilight had tried to arrest Gwyndolin alone without backup after an incident that had sent her to check on the Blackguards, and challenged her to a duel of submission for the Gryphoness to come along quietly. Twilight had lost of course, she'd still not been as fully augmented as she was now, and Gwyndolin was an absolute powerhouse even with no augments whatsoever. She'd broken two of Twilight's legs, busted some ribs and punctured a lung, broken her muzzle, and given her a severe concussion, yet from then on Gwyndolin had liked her even more. Twilight could kick her arse now without even trying she imagined, but they'd have to see if they ever came to blows again.

The next major gang was the Jackal Cartel, a band of different peoples coming together under their leader Jöhtunn, an absolute hulking tank of a Minotaur that was every bit as intimidating and violent as he appeared. He was the smartest of those he led, possessing quite a powerful charisma, and having a very easy time preaching to the downtrodden in society due to his own grievances and struggles of the past, of which Twilight knew very little beyond basics as his claims weren't substantiated with any data the Crown could find. When they happened to meet in person he wasn't ever particularly forthcoming and they generally just glared at one another, getting into a pissing contest with him usually resulted in her wanting to put a hole through his face.

While callous and brutal in how he kept people in line, members of the Jackal Cartel often felt they had it better under him than when they had tried to scrape a living elsewhere, and he knew well to only keep common gangers and simple-minded people because they were mostly happy with the spoils they got. The sort of people that were easy to keep in line and commonly had a chip on their shoulder about the world, like Jöhtunn did himself, and weren't simply happy to get by with the basics even with how the Crown did its best to ensure that no one went hungry with a basic income, and that the homeless were never homeless for long. Some just wanted to have more, and they had no major qualms about how they got it, the ones with a greater conscience finding their morals slip the longer they remained a part of the Cartel in order to stay, as they would be surrounded by those that would far more easily do terrible things.

Not to say people that joined the Jackal Cartel were evil, everyone had their problems to deal with in society and normally did their best to soldier on, but there were simply better ways to go about doing it. For Twilight, joining a gang that dealt in intimidation of the same people striving to eke out a living, when that gang should surely sympathise with their plight and do their best to avoid inconveniencing them instead of exploiting or harming them for personal gain, was quite infuriating to witness. So she had little issue with getting rid of such cretins when they came along and tried to do the sort of shit they were doing currently where innocents would be in the firing line. Fighting for control of Black Crow was likely Jöhtunn's doing, a hard push for power to gain the upper hoof; he had the numbers as the largest gang of the three by several leaps. She didn't see Gwyndolin trying to start an all-out war when she was essentially leading only half a battalion, and even though it would be well within her ability to wage and drag out an incredibly effective guerilla war it just wasn't advantageous for her as she already had herself quite a slice of territory.

She didn't see Constantine, the leader of the third major gang within Black Crow, ever trying to do anything that would upset the balance between the three mobs if it didn't mean there couldn't be some kind of alliance against the Crown or between themselves, so Twilight doubted it had been her either, even with how many tricky deals she made and how many pies she had her hooves in.

Well, her was subjective. Twilight had never seen the Changeling's true form.

Constantine was the leader of Yly Ilkinsfáerinr, which according to Constantine meant The Children from Below in their ancient tongue. Twilight had done as much study as she could in her teenage years on the subject of Changelings and found there was so much about them that they didn't know, even to this day, because they were an extremely secretive and ostracised race throughout Equestrian history. Beyond a few things she'd learned from Constantine there wasn't much to go on, however she knew enough to deal with them, about their weaknesses and strengths, patterns to recognise them when they were in a disguise, and how best to avoid getting caught up in their games.

They fucking loved playing games.

Nearly everything was a word game to them, and one had to be careful when talking unless they wanted to unintentionally enter into an agreement without realising, as they would find themselves bound by ancient magic and under pains to hold up their end of the bargain, as Changelings rarely reneged on such things. Constantine was of a mind to always try with Twilight, but she was wise to it, others not so much. Beyond their games they had the ability to glamour creatures into doing their bidding, which was the way Changelings had often scored their prey in the past. In Equestria this was illegal to do because it went against a person's consent, so Constantine's business affairs were often subject to scrutiny, and the CPS and the Crown knew how to see if someone had been glamoured into doing something against their will.

There existed a grey area to glamours however wherein a Changeling could simply alter their own aura to attract others beyond the usual form-taking, as it wasn't directly forcing anyone to do anything, and even then Changelings were often wanted in their natural forms for their incredibly exotic look. This had meant that a great majority of Changelings within Constantine's gang had actually quite happily turned to prostitution, their ancient culture essentially boiling down to all of them being hunters of love, they had little qualms with doing the same thing now as it was a means to both food and income, with horny customers happily feeding them and paying them for the privilege. At least these days the customer left with just their balls and wallet drained, instead of being lured into a hive and glamoured into a living sextoy-food slave until they expired.

Yly Ilkinsfáerinr had a sort of duopoly with the Blackguards when it came to supplying prostitutes within Black Crow, to which the Jackal Cartel had long since given up trying to muscle their way into yet nonetheless partook of, thus keeping the Jackals complacent and forming a sort of truce between Jöhtunn, Gwyndolin, and Constantine. Yly Ilkinsfáerinr were also very adept thieves, and often stole whatever they thought could be traded away to the Cartel, the Blackguards, or any other persons or lowlifes that might need what they had to sell. While Gwyndolin led a small professional army with many different focuses of business, and Jöhtun led a large militia with a heavier emphasis on the drug trade; Constantine led a legion of traders that dealt primarily in sexual services, with a side of smuggling.

Something between this proportional alliance had been upset, the balance had been broken possibly beyond fixing, and now shit was hitting the fan. When it came to these three gangs she was something of a troubleshooter, and she was going to have to mediate between them yet again just as she had before, if she still could bring them all back to the table to talk. Just another fucking problem to add to the mountainous shitstack that needed to be dealt with in Canterlot.

A muffled explosion in the distance brought Twilight into focus on their surroundings again, the Stormchaser was being heavily shaken as they banked hard to the immediate left, as several dull thuds slammed off the cruiser's shielding as the vehicle came upon the hot-zone they'd been heading for. Through the windscreen she saw a closed street and flashing lights of police vehicles, rising smoke and neon was accompanied by the staccato of gunfire as the CPS laid down suppressive bursts back behind their cruiser. Looks like they'd arrived at their destination.

"Shit! I can't land here, we're under fire!" Teats exclaimed, pulling the steering controls about to reorient them for a quick exit. Blondie shouted in surprise, his pretty eyes going wide as a round smacked into the shield right before the small window his passenger door held.

"No! Take us down, right there!" Twilight snapped at her, stepping forward and pointing at the windscreen over Teat's shoulder, to a small alley that the Stormchaser would just be able to fit inside. Off the main street and covered by several of the CPS's own cruisers, the chances of anyone taking a hit getting out or getting to the Stormchaser was significantly lower. It just meant the wounded would need to walk or be carried a little further to get out of the fighting.

Teats quickly obeyed the command, skillfully weaving the cruiser to one side and steering the car carefully into place, her face was a mask of stone as the thudding against the cruiser continued, but she managed to land where Twilight had ordered. The Stormchaser set down and Teats let it enter its state of standby, but primed the engine and thrusters for hard burn if things should go awry.

"Good shit, Teats." Twilight patted her on the back, turning about and going to the end, opening the back doors rather than the side door, speaking over her shoulder. "Get yourselves prepped for some fun."

"Teats?" Teats whispered to Blondie, who blushed and shrugged as they grabbed what they needed from the vehicle as quickly as possible.

Twilight stepped out into the open air of the smoggy day, breathing in the acrid smell of gunsmoke and bloodshed with a potent jolt of excitement, already gearing herself up for a little bit of chaos. She turned back to see Teats and Blondie exiting the Stormchaser and waving their displays to lock the doors, far quicker than using keys to fumble about with in a rush. On an upper foreleg each was a high quality medical bag with the same sort of supplies they had in their crisis packs, and a standard issue shard pistol manufactured by the Crown holstered on their other foreleg.

It was a simple machine pistol that used contoured tiny lengths of crystal as its ammunition, as it was extremely easy for a skilled mage to produce over conventional ammo. The sidearm had an amped-up spell matrix that would fire the shards of crystal at a higher speed than most firearms, and the lighter weight of the weapon along with superior rate of fire made it perfect for the evac squads or newbies that weren't as versed in guns. It was also perfect for AMR teams with the fact that wounds caused by a shard pistol were cleaner and less destructive to tissue, it made anyone they shot less likely to die even with a hit to a vital organ and far easier to patch up. Until they left the Stormchaser, the medic bags and weapons were safely stored inside compartments by the seats, and normally they might not need the weaponry, but entering into a hot-zone was dangerous business.

Taking the lead, Twilight quickly moved out of the alley into the main street, friendly forces already waving to her from the cover of their cruisers as she cantered to their positions, while every now and then as the enemy fire stopped an officer leant out, returning a hail of bullets from their assault rifles in kind before ducking back into safety.

Teats had landed them exactly where they needed to be, as several officers were moderately injured, some in better shape were still standing behind their cruisers with minor tending done themselves, but three were in a bad way, with the CPS medics attached to the units doing the best they could to keep them breathing. Teats and Blondie, now in their element, immediately rushed to their aid and kept low to the ground while a few bullets soared overhead, along with a few shouts and jeers echoing from down the long street. Going over, Twilight went towards the nearest ranking officer, a Lancer noting the patch on her upper leg, the dark maroon Unicorn mare was clad in the standard modernised plate armour with underleathers, her mid-length light burgundy mane hidden under the helm. She had a powerful bolt-action rifle commonly used by the police held in her silvery corona, and stopped trying to take shots and lowered it into her hooves as she turned at Twilight's approach, who quickly addressed the mare with her authority.

"Sitrep, now. Where's your Captain?" She asked the Lancer, glancing through the window of the cruiser out at the street beyond, seeing that it ended at a T-junction.

Through the buildings on the junction was a large alleyway, a heavily damaged CPS cruiser parked before its mouth being used as a fortification by a group of both Diamond Dogs and ponies in lightly metal-plated crimson leather armour. That would be the second gang then, the Jackal Cartel. The Dogs of the group saturated the area with blind-fire using their assault rifles while the ponies fired off more accurate bursts with theirs between, giving the cops little time to pop up and return fire without being caught. There was a smaller alley beyond this police line where a few other officers were taking cover, and getting the most attention from the Jackal's barrage. Twilight counted five of them in total as they leaned out every now and then to fire into the police, a small group like this wouldn't be an issue with backup and a good flank, yet with the ongoing battles across Black Crow the police were likely stretched very thin, and with the damage these few alone were causing it was little wonder they were requesting AMR support to get their wounded out in time.

"Ma'am, she's gone on ahead with the Sarge and a few others." The mare reported, with a slight twang to her voice, her pale-grey eyes peeking through at the wide alley the Jackals were stationed in. "We were ordered to hold the area ahead and wait for reinforcements. Then these guys showed up not long after from the same way the Captain and Sarge went, took a few of us by surprise. Managed to drag them back here to the line, uh, though our Sonor's been shot up, and our ability to patch into the network from our CINI's is patchy at best, barely got the request for AMR out. We got a few in the alley on the left up there that are pinned and can't move to us, but they'll live for now. There were more Jackals earlier, but that was about a half-hour ago, and we still aint been able to push up. Think their lot might have gone after the squad?"

"It's a possibility. Hostages are always valuable." Twilight said, taking another glance as an officer's assault rifle clapped.

She wasn't sure why the police couldn't get into the network, she was accessing it without any issues and she knew that all police that possessed a CINI had it maintained very carefully. She could guess that maybe the Jackals were jamming the signal, and if that was the case then they'd purposely taken out the Sonorous Comm in that ambush as it was older tech that used different frequencies and waves for transmissions. She quickly surveyed the area, seeing the high buildings around them were populated, a few overly curious eyes peeking from under blinds and between curtains here and there, and there was no telling how many stray bullets had already caused damage or if anyone had been hit and needed assistance. This situation was spiralling and needed to be taken under control before anyone else got hurt.

"Right, time to get busy." Twilight kicked off.

"Ma'am?" The maroon mare asked curiously.

"I'm taking command here. Inform everyone through your local comms, and get ready." Twilight stated, turning to face the other officers behind the line of vehicles, the mare nodding and diligently passing her message on. She spied the busted Sonorous Comm next to one of the cars with a few bullet holes riddling it, and saw Teats and Blondie had already brought the hover-stretchers over and were taking the three now-stable cops ─she bet one of them had been lugging the Sonor─ back to the Stormchaser between themselves, they met her eye and she gave them a respectful nod as they went on. She spoke to the remaining officers after a few had finished another burst of gunfire at the Jackals, speaking loud enough to be heard under the returning hail of bullets and jeering from far down the street. "Listen up! Are any of you too injured to keep fighting or lift your rifles?"

She received a chorus of No Ma'am's or shakes of the head in return, with additional negatives from a few of the police pinned in the small alley a short distance away from the blockade, quickly passed on from the maroon officer via the local radio.

Twilight grinned, glowing eyes flicking to the secluded alley. "Excellent. In about ten seconds when they finish their next volley, every single one of you is going to focus fire at the cruiser up front to keep them pinned in cover. Don't worry about a stray shot hitting me, my shields can take it, just focus your fire. That's it, make ready."

The order set in place even with their slight confusion, Twilight readied herself with a wicked smile on her muzzle, hiking up her dusters sleeves above the joints and positively vibrating as the magitech interface of her bodysuit tensed up for rapid configuration.

The Jackals had seen a Stormchaser come in, and the Jackals probably knew what an AMR team was, but they didn't know Twilight had been aboard and she doubted they could properly see her through the smoke of the cruisers or their flashing lights well enough to recognise her Crown Agent duster, or with the brightness of the sun glinting off of every shiny surface it could reach through the grey haze surrounding the tall buildings above. What mattered entirely was that the large alley was situated between stone-walled shopfronts, free of non-combatants, and no one would be in the crossfire. Police and the Crown's subject's lives were on the line. Let the music begin.

"On my mark." Twilight barked, her excitement palpable.

Some of the officers were slightly puzzled, and maybe a few had an inkling, but regardless they braced themselves and readied their stances, weapons in hoof, claw, or magic slapping fresh mags in if they needed them and hadn't already. The Jackal's fire continued in short waves, and the Dogs were about done she could tell, their assault rifles mostly the same standard-issue as the CPS's own, holding forty rounds to a mag to which they'd burned through half already. The ponies were still burst-firing, and they were doing so at a similarly high rate of ammo expenditure. She just needed to wait a moment, and have a split few seconds to react...

Just...

...about...

...there!

"MARK!" Twilight shouted in glee, jumping into action.

Her stance went onto her hindlegs as she stood and stepped forward, and her systems activated in a millisecond, the prosthetics inner-sections rapidly cycling their configurations and the bodysuit moving with them in an instant as hidden thrusters shot out, firing from her back hooves. She swiftly launched from the ground in a heated pulse, trailing over the line of police cruisers as the officers heeded her call and stalwartly dipped out of cover to lay down heavy suppressive fire as per her command. If any Jackals had been wanting to peek up they weren't going to do it now.

She landed deftly on all four hooves in a flash, augments already compensating and reshifting as she seamlessly moved into a full open charge at the Jackals behind the damaged cruiser, her speed ramping up as her body flooded with adrenaline, and thanks to a special and highly controversial implant for just such occasions as this, delicious Neurellix accompanied it with a pleasantly chilled tingle running down her spine, quickly spreading through her veins like ice-cold water. Prosthetic augments coupled with dulcet chemical love propelled her down the road at a speed no one else but Rainbow Dash could achieve, the sickly sweet flood of the stimulant made her perception of reality slow considerably, her mind being altered by the potent narcotic as she crossed a distance of about two-thousand hooves in less than a dozen seconds.

Neurostims were fuck all but low-grade painkillers when compared to the chaotic maelstrom of pure fucking sex that was biotech neurozyme, especially if it was military-grade custom like Twilight's Neurellix was, and she was so wonderfully lost in the storm.

Eyes wide with delight, she breathed in the gorgeous honeyed air as a beautiful scene lay before her, leaping high with the effortless strength of her prosthetics and the golden Neurellix as a haphazard composition of bullets lazily sailed past her to herald her presence onto the stage, smoothly sliding herself over the roof of the cruiser just as one the ponies in the group of Jackals languidly peeked his head up to see what the hay the thunderous noise was.

Twilight forewent the use of an electro-pulse as one of her back hooves slowly pushed into his snout with a disgustingly wet crunch of breaking cartilage and splintering bone, which in her chemical clarity sounded like the most wonderous stringed tones of a viola, the soft meat of his face parting and giving way to the sheer force of her strike as warmth registered, and a marvellous ruby flower gently unfurled around her hoof as his head was sublimely caved inward, Twilight able to see every flick of scarlet webbing in magnificent detail. In this single moment, he was as perfect as the radiance of Celestia's dawn.

There was another audible echo around the grimy alley of crushing wetness as his head met the alleyway's flagstone pathing, his helmet skidding away as her back hoof slammed down into his brain cavity, the absolute power behind the action cracking his skull into pieces and powder as they luridly mingled with pulped flesh and tissues underhoof, only contributing to the beauty of his personal canvas. She almost wanted to squee and thank him for his effort as he'd been a most wonderful opening act. Twilight had landed on her hindlegs, so she smartly straightened her back and raised her head towards the bright sky, the sun wasn't long past its zenith now, peeking down through the hazy grey smog above and into the alley to bless her scene with its warmth. Her eyes closed in preparation as she filled her lungs with the scent of blood, and calmly breathed out through pursed lips as she opened her eyes again, steeling herself.

The tone of her stage set, her true performance could begin.

Assault rifles had already been raised in shock, but they had yet to fully point at her going as slowly as they were. She'd already moved almost imperceptibly fast from their perspective right at the rugged silver-grey Diamond Dog to her left with the dirty mohawk, this time certainly feeling the familiar tingle of an electro-pulse charge down the length of her right foreleg as it accompanied her heavy punch, boosting the strength of the hit using accelerator mechanisms within the prosthetic for the larger enemy.

Not only were they wearing armour, but Diamond Dogs were tough by nature, their hides were thick, and their skulls even thicker. Their jaws however were another matter entirely, at least to an augmented hoof. The padded sole of her forehoof making contact with the Dog's face was as if it was splashing down into a fur-covered puddle. The skin rippled out from the blow as electricity gently crawled across his surface, fanning outward from her hoof and skittering over him like ghostly white vines under his furry coat in tandem with the sharp cry of fracturing bone; as passionately impactful as a single deep thrum of a contrabass. He twisted away from her a scant second later in slow-motion, pushing into the dark stone of the alley wall with a terrific dazzle of wine-red flying from his torn-up mouth, flanked by bloody spittle and several broken yellow teeth, all amidst the wonderfully explosive backdrop of mineral dust and fragments as he impacted into the side of the building they stood between. She spun with the punch, keeping anti-clockwise on her left back hoof to face around towards her new stage hopefuls.

A worn woodwind flute burst into a sombre solo melody, as the red Earthen stallion to her back with the jet-black mane flick and crystal-tinted eyes that she was now spinning towards finally pulled the trigger of his poorly kept instrument, and entered the performance with lazy notes that her glorious aura simply refused to register. He was an amatuer when compared to her grandiose, his apparatus was not fit for his hooves in the wake of her talent, and he didn't respect the tool he wielded whatsoever. The unpolished metal, beaten, grimy, and worn, was screaming for blessed maintenance. She would teach him the truth, and show him the beauty of her instruments so he might learn to better appreciate his own.

With a internal flick of the mind, the right foreleg that was coming around and raising up to his face ─which was gradually morphing into shock─ promptly shifted from its smooth matte appearance as sleek chitinsilk reformed and metallic panels extruded themselves into formation, and inner-workings came to bear as carbon and polymer rearranged. The end of her leg was no longer present, as where it should have led into a padded hoof there was now only an extensive semi-angular magitech bodywork. Subtly flanked by the resting panelling and heat vents, the ensemble encompassed a rather thick stubby barrel that ended with a wide integrated muzzle brake, the tip just protruding from the frame.

Behold; a true implement of art.

The thundering roar that came from the hoofcannon reverberated throughout the shabby alley's entirety, echoing throughout the main street and most certainly beyond, a single pure note lost amongst dozens of other slapdash melodies while the Black Crow was fought for in so many irregular performances. She had helped him to see her truth, and he had now transcended his modest canvas, ceasing to exist in the limiting form of a pony. Where his rib cage suddenly stopped at mid-chest ─that somehow included a chunk of the occipital bone resting there too─ with his shoulders massively shredded to mulch and the entirety of his head missing save for the snow-white shards of vertebral column that loosely sat in the bloody wreckage of his upper torso, he had completely grown beyond himself. His final image was a gorgeously visceral and flowery affair layered over the substantial depression her hoofcannon's explosive projectile had caused in the stonework of the neighbouring building. Every single chip of bone, every scrap of muscle, every droplet of blood, every element was painted in the right place amidst the complement of a few tattered pieces of armour, and he had bloomed into a violent masterpiece with her expertise. He was perfect.

What damaged sinews remained of his decimated shoulders were just barely holding together with his forelegs to the remnants of his torso, giving out under their own weight as well as the enhanced red leather that covered them. They snapped like rusted guitar strings as his old canvas fell, his forelegs descended freely in the moment while still clutching his instrument that continued to sing a wailing tempo without him, when Twilight was already pivoting back around clockwise on her left back hoof from the brutal venting recoil of the powerful shot spreading through her entire body.

Her system efficiently absorbed the heavy shock through both mechanical and magical kinetic-impact dampeners through key sections of her augmented muscle groups and crystal-weave hardened skeletal structure, all occurring as she spun past the view of the alley's wide mouth towards the police line, her augmented vision focusing in on their stunned visages slowly shifting in a varying range of expressions as they watched her perform. A feeling of jubilation amplified within her chest as her audience was wholly captivated, stored momentum keeping her spinning back to her progressing scene as she nimbly bounced onto her right back hoof and brought her left hindleg up with all the poise and grace of a professional ballet dancer.

The silver-grey Diamond Dog she'd sent into the wall had scarcely recovered from the concussive blow she'd dealt him, but his performance was yet to finish, and he rose with a slight growling whimper at the blood dripping from his furred ears, blown out from the divine resonance of her instrument. He stumbled up to his feet at a crawling pace just in time for the heavy polymer hoof-edge of her hindleg to solidly connect against his temple with a precise meaty smack, just as satisfying as the deeply low beat of a massive gong drum. His already dull amber eyes glazed even further, the pure kinetic energy stored from the hoofcannon's overwhelming timbre altogether transferring into his thick skull from her limb's intensely driven kick.

The impact hit home with such obscene force that even with his large muscular form he practically flew downwards, still rather slow from her chemically high perspective, his pawed feet leaving the debris-strewn ground only momentarily as his unarmoured head then crashed into the flagstones, bouncing a few inches more before collapsing on his back against the ground in a wholly graceless heap. Dust rising like fireflies made of powdered quartz flying around his prone body, Twilight continued moving her hindleg down gracefully to rest upon the warmth of the alley floor, and resisted the urge to take a bow as his scene wasn't finished yet.

Twilight immediately dropped into a well-balanced fighting stance as her momentum came to a close, the other Diamond Dog of this group of Jackals coming out of his dumbfounded stupor and charging at her as if he was trying to fight underwater, his sluggish movements allowing her to see the numerous crisscrossing scars across the broad musculature of his shaggy charcoal body, and the dark-orange eyes that glowed full of anger as a mighty left hook sailed through the air to smash heavily against her face.

Except that thanks to the chill of Neurellix running through her system, she hadn't been where he'd struck, weaving just so to the right as she kept her stance even and bashed his arm aside with a deft counter of her left foreleg, leaving his centre wide open to attack as he couldn't recover in time from putting everything he had into his strike. A very wonderful attempt on his part. Her right foreleg was still configured to the hoofcannon, the limb already flying up with the muzzle brake punching against his plated chest while he looked down at her in a shock, as his final scene was so quickly brought into action with the lovely beat of a mid-pitch kettle drum; a new projectile had loaded into her wonderous instrument.

The instant she heard the drum, she'd fired, the flawless note sounding once more as his chest messily erupted out of his back in a most serene blowout of gore. So many amazing shimmering gouts of rouge, carmine, and pearl-white petals flickered on the wind as the large hoof-sized clumps of flowers separated into a fine shower of red rain, spattering across the flagstones behind him. His tough hide hadn't stood any chance at all, the metal plate and dark leather he wore may as well have been a few dozen layers of cardboard against her instrument.

He swayed on the spot like a drunkard, an incredibly substantial hole raggedly bored through his torso at almost two hooves across, while crimson rivulets lazily rained down over his belly from the monumental wound, turning into pretty little lotus blossoms as they cascaded to the stone at his feet and flourished to life. It seemed he didn't want his scene to end, and she was rather sorry that it had been so quick as there was little drama to be had in it, but she had already made him into an amazing work of art. How could he not be absolutely ecstatic with her unique talent and his own wonderfully well played part in the performance? Finally, he accepted that she had touched his heart, sagging to his knees and bowing his head in contentment at his curtain call, closing his eyes with a deeply happy sigh.

Light on her hooves, she skipped past him as he laid down to sleep, over to the prone silver Diamond Dog as he tried to push himself up to stay on stage, her right foreleg reconfiguring momentarily to its standard hoof-like appearance, before the limbs internal mechanisms quickly shifted and the matte exterior split open again, pushing out to become thee dexterous digits and a ball-jointed opposable thumb. Before the Dog could do anything, she harshly grabbed him by the back of his dirty mohawk and roughly lifted his head up as he let out a sharp pained groan. He'd been on stage for far too long, and he still wasn't improving his subpar performance, as if he'd barely even made the effort to try in the first place. Anger welled up inside her chest because she was trying her hardest to help him ascend, and he didn't even care for the passion that drove her.

He'd wasted her time, and that was unacceptable because she still had so many creatures to help today and far more beautiful scenes to create, so in one swift movement Twilight accelerated her foreleg, smashing his large head into the dense stone wall next to them with an irate snarl. He let out another wail of pain as a powder of glowing motes coated the side of his face and fireflies danced around the flowers trailing from his head trying to carry them away. She was having none of his bullshit as he feebly tried to push her off, and she freed plenty more crimson rivulets from his temple as she slammed again harder, the Dog relenting as they bloomed.

His amber eyes became unfocused once more, and after just regaining some semblance of consciousness he was lulled back into a daze. With another almighty accelerated smash as his head smacked home a third time, she felt his remorse as his thick skull gave way against the chipped stone with a moist sickly crunch and he shuddered, finally ending his scene, and she smiled at his change of heart. It didn't stop her from really driving the point home that he shouldn't have upset her, so she lifted away and smashed forward a fourth time with a gory squelch, though she was thankful that he could now appreciate how much she cared and how difficult her work was, letting him gently drop with a splash into his own bed of flowers that had flourished to life under his head.

She slowly stood, twisted her body to the right, and gently gazed down upon the last canvas that she needed to compose something exquisite for.

The final Jackal, a Pegasus mare with a sea-green coat, choppy teal mane, and teal eyes, was laying against the wall that Twilight had painted a russet wonder across using her glorious instrument. The mare had apparently taken part in that scene, and it seemed that the other Jackal's poorly kept apparatus had wanted to share its song; her right hindleg was simply pulped below the hock, wet ruby flowing from the delicate strands of tissue and slowly pooling between the grooves in the flagstones, petite buds beginning to push up through the liquid and open to the sun. The wing on that side was also broken at its middle somehow, it pitifully drooped as spiralling pink lilies relaxedly grew from the where the bone jutted, and small rouge snakes were delicately trailing down from her ears with gentle hisses. She was covered in so much material from the other scenes, flecks of pearl and carmine, and dancing motes, the pretty crimson of her fellow Jackals. It made Twilight so happy to see this mare was doing her best for her, she was already quite lovely.

The glowing fireflies settled on her, the mare staring hopefully with a kind smile at Twilight while a calm red brook travelled from the side of her mouth, shakily lifting her own well-loved instrument up to show Twilight its virtue. Now here was a pony that appreciated their tools of the trade, Twilight could forgive the damaged stock though as she'd been partly responsible for that. In a way, it did give the apparatus a little bit more character. She waited a moment, wondering how she should help this mare reach her true potential...

***

"P-please st-stop..." The mare cried in a whisper, barely raising her rifle at the fucking Crown Agent that had ripped through them with a horrific efficacy in barely even a minute, where in the fuck had this bitch come from, all of the other guys were dead. Tears fell from the corners of her vision as she choked out a bloody phlegm-filled cough over her dry lips, looking up at the daemonic Unicorn mare that gazed down ferociously upon her with wild glowing eyes. The Agent looked like an absolute fucking madmare, she couldn't fight that. Cerise had tried to shoot her and the Agent hadn't even blinked, just blasted him away into red fucking mist, fuck everything about this; Jöhtunn hadn't said anything about these fucking Shades showing up. The blood-spattered assault rifle the mare gripped in her shaking forelegs lowered. "I-I... surrender... p-please..."

***

...Twilight glanced down at the Jackal with a measured level of pity, the mare was happy with her admittedly acceptable ability and didn't want to improve. Twilight watched the pearls of crystal dance down her cheeks, the fireflies happily settling on her body, the serenity of the vermillion rivers as they gently travelled, and the ruby petals and lilies in them gleaming in the light. She was already a rather wonderful work of art, maybe she didn't need to ascend to a higher level of beauty right now. But at the same time, didn't she owe it to herself to strive for Celestia's Sun, or to touch Luna's stars?

But the bright colours surrounding her were beginning to fade out, the fireflies were fluttering away now, just turning into ugly dust from the stone walls. The flowers in the little rivers were all wilting pathetically and... the lotus flowers were unfortunately dying too, rotting into nothing, they shouldn't have been doing that. Surely, they should stay and...

Twilight blinked hard a few times and shook her head with a frown while the bloodied and broken mare in front of her dropped her weapon to the ground in complete submission. She straightened up and blinked several times as motes of quartz dust scattered around the area, the world distorting slightly as her HUD reoriented back into place and colours finally returned to their normal hues.

Shit, how long had she been hallucinating?

That hadn't happened for a fucking age now, she must have really cranked up the neurozyme this time, that or the Neurellix hadn't liked the amount of Ghost she still had in her system. She suspected it would be purged before long. She glanced around the grubby alley at her hoofwork with a muted smile though; she made one fucking excellently gruesome canvas out of these guys, it was always great to have the opportunity to unleash a little carnage. Not really the usual aesthetics she'd employ on assassination missions as she much preferred to take her time and plan things out, but this was just as fun a picture. Her right foreleg reshifted back into itself to become a hoof again, her bodysuit reforming with it, and she relaxed onto all fours, returning her attention to the dying Jackal that was begging for her life and whimpering as she bled out.

"Calm down, I'm not gonna kill you, a medic's coming." Twilight said to the mare, horn flaring into a purple corona as she reached into her duster with a sigh at needing to use what was meant for herself, and pulled out an emergency med-hypo similar to the ones in a crisis pack if a little more top shelf. She pushed it against the Jackal's neck and depressed the nubbed end, the magnetic coil inside springing and shooting the serum through little shunts that barely pierced the skin straight into the bloodstream. A very popular alternative for those who disliked the idea of needles, or didn't want to have to fuck around with a long sliver of metal inside of them during a shootout.

Like herself, on both counts.

The mare shuddered in abject relief as a likely horrendous amount of pain was instantly anaesthetised from the potent magical painkiller. Jackal or everyday criminal, she wasn't putting up a fight now, the unlucky mare had been caught up in the hoofcannon's wake to some friendly fire and had her leg shredded, and the wing probably snapped when she hit the wall from the blastwave, her eardrums also blown out. She was lucky to still be breathing with all the trauma, the shock alone of breaking a wing alongside the heavy injury should have probably killed her already, it was as jarring for a Pegasus to break a wing as it was for a Unicorn's horn to be snapped off.

One of the CPS squads were rushing over as fast as their hooves could carry them, weapons at the ready and surprise etched into their faces, they really hadn't expected her to simply jump straight into an enemy fortification and just rip and tear into them. The medic that had come for her seeing that she was perfectly fine dutifully hurried to stabilise the Jackal and keep her alive. Twilight informed him that she'd already administered some meds, then turned to face the Appleloosan-sounding Lancer she'd spoken to when she'd arrived into the fight.

"We should head on. Keep a few of your guys here to hold the area like your Captain said, but pick two of them to come with." Twilight told her, while the officer's shocked pale-grey eyes surveyed the forlorn area with a sick expression. She wasn't listening, too stunned by the grisly scene before her. Twilight's horn flared again as she summoned a perfect replica of a Minotaur's hand and snapped the construct's fingers in the officer's face, immediately bringing her out of the daze, the magic winking out as she looked back at Twilight with slight bewilderment in her vision. It was an excellent spell nopony ever expected and it always got their attention, it was far better than stamping a hoof on the ground a few times.

Twilight looked into her shocked grey eyes and decided on a nickname for her while the mare was brining herself back to reality. "You hear me?"

"I... y-yes Ma'am." Grey nodded, her vision drawn back over the disturbing scene from morbid fascination, before she managed to look away again. "Why exactly am I picking folk?"

"Because I'm briefly deputising you." Twilight grinned jokingly, her duster slightly billowing as she turned about to face down the alley and started to trot on past her victims. "Until the Captain shows up, you're my second in command. Guess that makes you, what, a Lance-Captain at least? Congrats on your promotion."

Seeing that Twilight wasn't going to wait for her, Grey quickly sorted herself out and did as she was asked, coming up next to Twilight a short distance along the wide alleyway with a nimbus-coloured Gryphon with nice tits and a fit sable Unicorn stallion, both decked out in their police gear. Although, the Gryphon's plate armour was shaped differently for her bipedal form, so Twilight couldn't actually see the hen's tits but the cuirass was pretty big around them, and she had an excellent imagination.

She focused on their weapons to keep her ever-increasingly horny mind off of trying to think of the Gryphon officer naked, or how well and skilled a Gryphon's tongue generally managed to be. Her heavily modified system was doing a number on her state of mind with all the chemicals flooding about. Grey sported her bolt-action rifle with an integrated magitech scope; a Stryke sniper rifle, ten rounds as standard, sturdy and could be beaten around through a number of conditions, and could easily take the horn off a Unicorn at about three-thousand metres given adequate conditions and a skilled sharpshooter. Nimbus and Sable both carried the CPS's standard-issue assault rifle; the Hammerburst, a streamlined modular bullpup affair that held forty rounds in the mag, good range with multiple firing modes, and just as tough as the Stryke. Both were manufactured by Hammerforged Industries, the assault rifles being the same ones a couple of the Jackals had used, which had probably been stolen from a shipment.

Both were simple and efficient to use, and very easy to maintain. Just good all-purpose weaponry, and Hammerforged made a selling point of their weapons being able to be configured in different ways for any race's usage, by hoof, claw, hand, or magic. They made plenty of good pistols and knives, too. Although, they didn't venture into laser, plasma, or anything more, simply stuck with conventional gunpowder weaponry. It may have limited them to a degree, but it was something of a point of pride for them, which she thought was a shame because an extremely study plasma rifle made by Hammerforged would be amazing.

The two new officers she'd call Nimbus and Sable smartly fell in behind Grey as they had clearly been told about the situation, and deferred to Grey with ease with a good level of professionalism. Twilight smiled, always nice to see competency in the force amongst the lower ranks, if they were part of Sapling Green's lot then Rainbow Dash would have been proud.

"Um, Ma'am?" Grey spoke up, looking at Twilight as they went along the alley's confines.

"Yeah?" Twilight flashed a winning smile at her.

"A-are you high?" She wondered, her accent making the word high come out as 'haah', and Twilight had to pause for a moment at the oddity of the question, stopping their little squad for a second as she halted.

"Wha... huh, cool." Twilight laughed as she brought the diagnostic 3D image of her eyes onto her HUD, seeing the pupils were showing some dilation even after the Neurellix had worn off, her system must not have gotten it all out yet, which did make sense as she still had a ghost of a chill tingling down her back. But even so, Grey couldn't have known, the Aeon eyes must be fully-simulating, even showing the side effects of drug usage. She hadn't known they could do that. Most civvie eye augments were made specifically to be realistic and as close to the original thing as possible, but military ones were normally just purely function over form, very few bothered with ensuring things like the ability to cry or simulating reaction to light. Apparently the Aeon variants Velvet had given her included a few basic things along those lines.

She grinned at Grey. "I guess I am, deputy."

"O-kay then..." Grey drawled, looking back at her companions who just shrugged with a certain look that Twilight felt could best be summed up as 'Well what the fuck are we gonna do about it?' as they kept on with her moving ahead. After a few more seconds of muted silence, Grey resumed speaking. "Also, could uh, could you possibly... not cause a bloodbath again, Ma'am?"

She was a chatty mare.

Pretty too, nice eyes, nice supple flank and haunches, curvy arse. Twilight loved that the modern police plate armour didn't fully cover their backsides; croupiere's had been considered too restricting even back when the Royal Guard had used basic plate. Police armour of today had been designed with both protection and flexibility in equal measure, so their main parts were armoured with enchanted modern plate, but their bodies were covered with an enhanced leather undersuit which cut off at mid-shoulder and the thighs for ease of movement, the underleather being a little different from her duster in that theirs wasn't as sophisticated in the spellwork or inner-lining.

The enhanced leather of her duster had a crystal-weave lining, not dissimilar to what was fused into her skeleton, and was stupidly expensive to make and repair. Their underleathers contained a kevlar-lining, for their daily slog it was far more affordable and much easier to repair. Their entire ensemble was made to defend against projectiles, while still being light and bendable enough so they could move around quickly, but primarily the leather and plate were both geared to be resistant to magic spells like energy bolts and electricity, fire and such else, with a shielding unit for small-arms fire mounted under the chestplate. It was far more common for them to come across an irate pony using their innate magic to cause trouble, rather than someone using a gun. At least, that had been the case when their armour was designed years back, now the armour and shielding unit were upgraded for higher calibres.

"No promises, my augments can be a little... devastating." Twilight tried for a more pleasant demeanour, cooling her intensity and being chummy, but Grey was already rapidly building an idea in her mind of how Twilight was from the destruction she'd wrought. She shrugged mentally as not everyone was going to like her, and sometimes there wasn't any use or benefit to trying to win them over. She was still going to be friendly even if it didn't stop the defensive walls going up anyway.

A shame, Twilight would bet she'd be able to make Grey sing her praises with a few seconds between her legs.

She smiled. "I have ones for crowd control, but just about everything in me is made to be decisive for a reason. If I don't have to get in close then I suppose I can try and let you do most of the shooting, if you like, Grey."

"My name's Dusky Copper, Ma'am." Dusky told her.

"Dusky... hm. Better than Grey."

She came to the end of the broad alley with a level of precaution as it turned off, her hooves automatically setting to move without sound as she approached the corner and peeked around it, with Dusky and the other two coming up behind and neatly moving into a stacked formation. The network that connected to Vee wasn't showing much enemy movement with the chaos going on, there were blindspots in the grid where gangs could move and wouldn't appear on her local map. Vee could make estimations based on their last known location from where she'd spotted them of course, but she preferred not to as it could lead to troublesome situations, even if she was good at it.

"Grey?" Dusky wondered, as Twilight relaxed going around the corner, evidently seeing no enemies to be worried about, though she still went on attentively.

"Your eyes. They're a nice shade of it." Twilight returned with a quick charming grin, as much as one could be charming with shunts in their face, slowly leading on ahead down the only direction the alley led and travelling into a wide side-street, passing numerous bins of varying fullness along the way, the density of them only growing as she saw plenty of chutes poke from the surrounding walls of buildings.

Of course she'd land on a collection street. It was kind of funny how she preferred the scent of blood and gore to the scent of rotting rubbish, most would probably pick the bins. At least they'd make good cover if a quick spot to duck into was needed, and it seemed they might have need of them as her ears flicked, her eyes scanning down to the far end of the dirty road and at its junctions as it split at different points. The echoing sound was coming from further down, the turnoff nearest produced little if no noise; they were going to come into this long stretch from down the way, ahead of the next turn. They weren't being subtle.

She slowed her gait further, tilting her head back over her shoulder to the three behind her while keeping her ears forward. "I hear movement up ahead. You have a silencer?"

She directed the question to Dusky, who gave a back nod to a bandolier strapped securely around her waist. "In my pouch."

"Attach it quickly. Go there, now." Twilight ordered as she pointed a hoof at a lower wall that stuck out from a building, part of an area marker for placing specific apartment's bins within it. It had a gap between the short stone wall and its larger bin nearest that side, perfect for a sniper to hunker down and lean from. She had the slower weapon, and she needed to not be focused on. "You two, there, and there. All of you; only fire when I move, I'm the bait."

She pointed out two similar positions of serviceable defence in the street to Nimbus and Sable just ahead of Dusky, and they quickly obeyed, moving tightly into place and keeping their Hammerbursts at the ready. Nimbus crouched down beside another section marked for storage, using the low wall and an entire collection of the rubbish bins to hide herself, with Sable taking up the exact same position opposite, as the road's collection layout was fairly symmetrical.

Twilight, for her part, took point and dashed behind a gap between two bins just a little further along their path, her forelegs both internally shifting patterns as she crouched on her haunches, the augments altering as the matte panels lifted and the bodysuit reforming. They weren't hoofcannons, but were just as deadly, and also illegal. It was a perfect ambush in waiting, when she left cover and took the enemy by surprise the other three would no doubt follow suit and unload into them too. Twilight could hear the sounds up ahead growing in their intensity as she listened; their haughty steps, hoof and paw both, heavy and unhidden as they thundered along the alley; the smalltalk between the gang members, arguing about the food they'd had and its quality; one of them belittled another for his manestyle, one was complaining about his stolen weapon being shit, apparently he had slightly warped barrel; the puff out of smoke being blown from a cigarette, and the mumbled chatter as the smoker recovered from an idle deep cough brought on by excessive chain smoking. They were completely unaware of the lurking danger ahead of them.

She heard them approach from closer down the way as they turned the corner at the far end, still equally jovial and feeling secure in their power, even on the lookout for enemies they weren't really paying much attention to their surroundings. The Jackal Cartel never had been a gang that played things with wits as much as they did force. But that was going to prove to be something in their favour, as Twilight heard perhaps more than a dozen or so different pairs of steps being taken. They had quite a unit, which meant that Twilight might have to get a little creative again with just as much Neurellix if not more, and that meant overdosing hard and certainly endangering the police with her.

Not to mention that the three police officers, even with her being the main focus, would likely have heavy fire ranged on them by those she couldn't kill fast enough. She could cast a shield across the road for the officers while fighting, but that would take a lot of her focus away from the battle, and being high on combat drugs meant she might not remember to maintain the shield. Although even with the most basic of neurozyme it wasn't a safe option as she didn't want to overload her magic from being amped up in the middle of a firefight, that spelled disaster for anyone in the immediate vicinity. She pushed the thought from her mind as fast as it had come; it wasn't an option with allies or innocents around, not after the last time. She didn't need that blood on her hooves again.

Plans quickly formulated as the steps got closer and the banter grew louder, with a brisk contingency expeditiously set in place as a backup. She reasoned that with a small amount of Neurellix she might come to her senses quick enough with having to burn through so many enemies, however it was weighing the volatility of a heavy designer narcotic made to send someone into combat overdrive against her own ability to not want to do harm to strangers when the drug was coursing through her body, small inconsequential things like allies became a little fuzzy at times when chemically assisted to the gills, she had to see through the veil covering the painting and notice the full picture.

She'd been broken down little piece by piece, and built back up with a state of mind that told her she must kill to survive, much like any other military training, except a Crown Agent's involved a heavy conditioning for an extremely proactive will to do harm, in such that every possible threat was an immediate threat to be addressed, until firmly neutralised or killed. It did little to assist the notion of being just with the Crown's subjects, there wasn't as much room for it, and thus the reason why she and so many of the other Agents had to constantly be assessed and evaluated to make sure they didn't cause any incidents, or anymore incidents than they'd already caused, in her case.

The Crown had less than a hundred of them in their service for that reason alone; they were incredibly dangerous to everyday people in many instances, and had to work to not hurt those that didn't deserve it. It required a strong mental aptitude based in caring for those around them, as with the training it lessened that quality. It was like keeping two large pitchers of water precisely even, constantly pouring one into the other and trying not to overpour and unbalance the equality.

The insanity of the modern day necessitated their controversial existence, but that didn't make it without its sacrifices. Adding combat drugs to that already temperamental mix was asking for some nasty chaos that would make Discord proud.

She probably shouldn't risk the Neurellix, it seemed the better option though she'd be relying entirely on her shielding and her gear. She was decently charged up and the situation was a pleasant warrant for some of the additional parts of her mighty arsenal, but she always performed so superbly on...

Fuck, they were almost within spitting distance.

Well, nothing for it then.

Twilight leapt out from her cover with a snarl, skidding on her back hooves into the open space between the storage areas, making herself the obvious and visible target as the weapon augments of her forelegs sang.

Or they would if the weapons weren't geared for minimal silence.

The shard pistols used by the Crown's AMR teams were not, strictly speaking, true shard weaponry, not to Twilight. They were fairly loud with their amped-up spell matrix even with a lack of chemical propellant, fired specifically shaped pieces of crystal designed to deal minimal damage to flesh and organs that could easily be healed, and came with a certain amount of kickback from their extremely fast fire rate. They were built with the purpose of defensive quick reaction spray-fire and causing the least harm possible.

Now her shard weapons on the other hoof, they were the real deal, possessing near to angry wasp levels of zipping sound that barely registered to the senses, and zero recoil from the internal magitech framing that minimally left the end of her forehooves, meant that the two ponies up front of the group had simply seen a weird purple mare in a duster jump out and point her hooves at them for no reason, before the electromagic inner-coils of her shard augments shot out about a hundred micro shards of jagged fléchette directly at their heads with extreme speed.

All the two probably managed to register before their heads and necks were torn asunder into a red mist was mild surprise, or possibly; 'the fuck?'

As she'd expected, with those two dead she was still now facing down sixteen armed Jackals, quickly aiming their weapons at her and opening fire, only one of the Dogs had been slower as some of the fléchettes dug into an arm. She moved at great speed to get into the centre of them, accelerating all of her limbs as she jumped at the nearest Jackal, a blue Unicorn stallion, and squarely landed a rapidly-charged back hoof on his chest, rocking him through with a pulse-charge that saw him fly back into one of his fellows. She prioritised Jackals without headgear, her forelimbs thrumming as she fired another burst each at the greyish Gryphon to her left and the spinach-green pony to her right while she landed, they went down thrashing in a puff of crimson as she immediately barrelled herself into the jet-black Diamond Dog with a really weird side-flip hairdo already squeezing the trigger of his Hammerburst at her.

By now, Nimbus and Sable were precisely firing into the Jackals' numbers with the surprise attack Twilight had launched, Dusky snapping off a shot from her Stryke rifle that smacked into an armoured Dog's shoulder and knocked him back, but the enhanced leather had held. Before he could pay attention to where the shot had come from and return fire, Twilight had straightened her left foreleg at him and issued a burst in his direction. She didn't watch as the side of his face came apart like a balloon full of red paint, she was focusing on the jet-black Diamond Dog that was now slashing at her with his mighty clawed digits, she'd only just kept him off long enough to get onto her hindlegs and was blocking with her free foreleg, as she could also feel several rounds slamming into her shields from the Jackals around her.

She'd made things chaotic enough that they were torn between dealing with her, or the three police shooting at them from fortified positions, but many were deciding to seek refuge behind nearby bins too, and as she was occupied with Jet-Black here, shoot at her from the safety of their cover. Her shields held strong, the shimmering patterns dancing over her as several bullets hit near her face and chest, buzzing angrily like insects trying to breach a window pane before giving up and falling away. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, they weren't firing in anything more than single shot intervals so as not to hit her current opponent. Jet-Black was their lieutenant, as unlike them she could see that he had shielding, and she was close enough to hear the small unit giving a faint hum from inside the enhanced leather, mounted on the kevlar insert.

She confirmed the power of the shielding unit by backing off enough to raise her left foreleg and let the shard pistol have a go, but all it did was make a brief lightshow flash across his armoured upper leg, so it was a pretty decent shield. Jackal lieutenants were always fun partners to tango with.

Nimbus and Sable were properly in the fight now, the Jackals having taken up positions behind anything the road had to offer and firing at them like creatures possessed, giving them little time to react and return fire beyond Dusky sniping off a shot when they were the main target. In quick succession, Twilight managed to catch as a Gryphon attempted to take up high to flank the police from above in a quick launch earlier than they could react, before Nimbus cleanly stepped out and put a burst through his left wing, shredding the muscle of the appendage in a spray of blood, and as he careened downward Sable solidly hit him with a single shot to centre-mass that pierced his crimson leather armour though the metal chestplate. She then saw out of her peripherals as a pony that had been firing into her shields faster than the other Jackals went down from a well placed headshot that punched right through his helmet and blew his brains out in a spectacularly gory fashion from the exit hole. Both bastards should have kept themselves in cover properly. Very excellently done, officers.

Jet-Black was raining swipes at her left and right, which without any sort of neurozyme to assist her was only dodged purely by her pattern analysis of Dog fighting techniques and the powerful technology of her body keeping her fast enough. Diamond Dogs were deceptive in how fast they could be, even more so when angry or if they berserked. She was trained to deal with several species and Dogs fought very similarly, all generally fighting with nothing but pure beastly aggression and anger directing their strikes and overwhelming their opponents with pure strength and unpredictability. She blocked a swipe that clashed with her right foreleg, the shields holding, and returned a sharp left hook directed at his throat before his other forearm smacked it down in a counter, having to make her quickly drop down and back on her hindlegs. She brought her right foreleg back up to cover her face in time as he lunged forward and smashed his head into the prosthetic limb, the force of it driving her back even further and only giving her a second to recover as he came in to attack again.

Now this was exciting!

He swiped hard with both his hands, his claws arcing through the air and missing as she completely dropped down, her left foreleg rapidly reshifting back to its original form while her hoof struck out cleanly with a quick electro-pulse at his right knee as it just finished assembling itself. The electro-pulse did nothing against him as he had an implant that negated it beyond his shields, but it would bring them lower, and it knocked him off balance enough for Twilight to dive back and bring her forelegs up as his claws came down again, and they clashed again in a struggle for dominance for a bare moment until an extremely fast knee came up and collided with her face, the kinetic force impacting through the shield and crunching against her snout.

Barely feeling it through the Ghost and remnants of Neurellix, she went with it as he had released his grip on her forelegs, and it was better than trying to weather the blow and keep herself in place, in turn forcing her shields to compensate harder than they had to and allowing herself to be pummelled like a ragdoll. Of course it did mean she soared backwards into the open where she was hammered with more gunfire as she deftly flowed into a backflip off her forelegs, vaulting herself back onto her hindlegs and dashing back into position behind the bins she'd waited to ambush them from beforehand. A few bullets dinged into the metal as she wiped a hoof over her bleeding nose and felt annoyed at the sensation of displaced cartilage under her dermal, even so she was smiling. Jet-Black was forced to retreat into his own ranks as well, as Dusky hit him with a well placed shot to the chest that made his shields flare, alongside the general threat of Nimbus and Sable returning gunfire with the other Jackals, he didn't risk it and retreated. He scooped up his Hammerburst from the ground as he went and blind-fired in their direction before bounding into safety of his ranks.

Twilight counted the precious seconds as her shields recharged through her overall power while her healing matrix fixed her face, not consuming much but a dent was still a dent. Her forelegs reconfigured as she quickly formulated her next plan. The right foreleg shifted back into the hoofcannon, the left became a shard augment. She had a single remaining explosive round in the hoofcannon and she needed to distract the Jackals again, otherwise Dusky, Nimbus, and Sable's luck was going to run out, their shields would flat, and they'd get seriously hit or instantly killed. Their shields weren't able to withstand torrents of fire and it would only take a few concentrated bursts to break through, they also didn't have dermal armour like her. The hoofcannon was likely to blow their eardrums out in the shockwave of the road's limited space, though they'd get to live. If she had more time she'd tell them to cover their ears and open their mouths, but the Jackals would advance soon enough with their superior numbers in a full rush, still eleven to their four, and it would be hoof-to-hoof. She needed to stop that eventuality from occurring, so she was going to jump out and fire off the heavy ordinance, blowing away at least two or three covered behind their defences, then leap forward into their remaining line while they were still recovering from the blast.

But then the screams of shock and death began without her.

From the absolutely deafening explosions and ferocity of Vanguard Muskets, as she heard a telltale commanding voice shout aloud FIRE! from beyond her position.

Twilight grinned as a few balls missed their mark and heavily slammed into the flagstones in a spray of stone chips, one blowing out the side of the bin she was ducked behind so hard it jostled the thing, throwing stinking rubbish all over the road's centre as several bags burst amidst the tearing metal. It had been a gamble to call it in, but there was less of a chance of a trained soldier's Musket hitting the police than erratic Jackal fire, and she'd warned them ahead of time there were friendlies in the line of fire. She knew that the three officers with her weren't going to distinguish between the gangs here, but she certainly would. It ended as quickly as it had begun, and she jumped out on her hindlegs for more height and visibility when the single heavy volley finished, sharply turning back to the three as they all instantly leant out to shoot.

"Hold your fire!" Twilight shouted at them, her authoritative voice carrying through the wide street with ease and her left hoof raised in their direction. As she'd suspected, claw and magic had been pressed to triggers, and she'd likely just stopped a massive misunderstanding. They hadn't already been peppered by the next volley from the second line because she wasn't an enemy of the Blackguards, and neither were the police, usually.

She turned her head to face the rising ghost of red-tinged smoke clouds from the mess that was the Jackal's eviscerated line with a wicked smile at the carnage. Jet-Black shuffled awkwardly from his destroyed cover with massive bloody holes in his armour larger than her hoof, the larger exit wounds raw and open, before a roguish figure holding his cumbersome and still-smoking Vanguard Musket in one claw briskly strode through the clearing haze donned in light old-fashioned plate armour and a long leather coat, and roughly stabbed a vicious trench knife into the meat of the Dog's throat. He violently twisted the knife, punched forward, and dragged the blade out in quick succession. Jet-Black issued a death rattle as his corpse fell with a heavy thump against the bloodsoaked flagstones, joining the others around him.

She raised a hoof to her chest, offering the figure a neat bow. "Nice of you to join me, Garett."

The serious-faced golden Gryphon regarded her with a nod, the golden circlet atop his head engraved with Gryphish designs denoting his rank glinting in the partial sunlight. "Agent. The Major sends her fond regards."

"Yeah, good timing, I didn't know if that would work. Thought I might have to fight down to my dermal." Twilight smiled, returning the weapon augments back into hooves and rolling her aching shoulders and neck to loosen up a bit as she went to all fours. She hadn't known if Gwyndolin would accept her call for assistance, or that it would be Garett leading them. Calling the Blackguard for assistance as a backup plan hadn't been at the very top of her list of things to do, but it had likely been needed and they had come through valiantly to her aid. Now she just owed Gwyndolin one, and they all knew it.

Twilight glanced at the bloody corpses of the Jackals before looking at Garret again. "Are you having much trouble with the locals lately?"

"Of a sort." Garett returned, the crook of his beak raising slightly in amusement.

He crouched down and wiped the blade of his trench knife on Jet-Black's corpse, paying the three police officers no mind as they warily came forwards, and resheathed the weapon. The Blackguards under his command behind him were reloading their weapons or had done so already, their second line smartly staying in formation as they all held a short distance back, switched on and alert for danger, and all of them ready to drop into their firing line again at a second's notice. They were no ragtag militia like the Jackals. They'd quickly ambushed them from the side alley cutting into this street up ahead, and the Jackals had been completely blind to it, and likely would have been even without Twilight and her company distracting them.

Garret stood up, glancing at her while reaching into an ammunition pouch and starting to reload his heavy looking Vanguard Musket. "Do you still have need of our rifles?"

Rifle was an accurate term. Vanguard Muskets were the modern equivalent of the old smoothbore musket from long well before the Goddess Aeon, the name had simply stuck even with the advent of rifling added to their muskets, and the Gryphons, ever sticklers for their traditions, had kept the basic archaic design the same through the many years.

She had never gotten to use one as it was considered very poor form by Gryphons to let another species use their musket rifles as they were made for the wielder, but she absolutely adored the intricacies of it, having watched plenty of the Blackguards field-strip their precious weapons to clean them of residue she'd learned how it all went together pretty quickly, and probably either annoyed or amused several of them with just how much she asked about them.

Garett's musket rifle, as with all of the Blackguard's rifles, were mostly fashioned from a single piece of expertly carved wingwood, a type of hardwood from a tree native to the Gryphon lands known for its high resilience. The rest of the weapon was made of an incredibly tough tungsten alloy the Gryphons called Galaedriun, after its creator. The design was almost completely devoid of magic, and thoughtfully created through pure technological ingenuity, consisting of a long rifled barrel and several smaller cast pieces that all perfectly fixed together with secure fittings to complete its firing mechanism. There was a neatly compact spring-latch compartment cut into one side of the upper barrel for the required ammunition to be pushed into, along with an insertion tube that fit snugly above the latch which stored a striking rod. A striking rod could be made of various gem powders, but was often primarily ruby mixed with a little fireflax gel, compressed into a cylindrical length. When the trigger of the rifle was pulled, it would strike a cocked hammer with a treated gem tip into the striking rod's tube, acting as an old musket flint and forming the spark that very quickly ignited the rod, at the same time barely opening the breech to the tube, and in turn setting off the propellant of the contained round and firing the shot.

The ball that it fired was essentially a shaped bullet with a simple skirting, which expanded from a conical base after the extremely powerful powder in its back was set off, obturating the barrel and engaging with the rifling. The cast bullets were about the width of a platinum moon and as long as a Thuddgun slug, making it roughly the same size as one. It seemed basic, but what made it scary was the hole it could make in a person; it didn't just hit and pierce through, it hit and blossomed.

Ponies had long since been done using black powder weapons, and moved onto bigger and better technologies, the Gryphons however had just kept going with it and improving the components that went into the weapon. A change from lead to copper had meant a faster shot, and combining that with a new fireflax-based propellent had meant even more force was put behind the bullet. Then the Gryphons had gone even further by making moulds that cast the bullets with a wicked five-pronged surround, while keeping its main body intact and its tip as a lead-copper alloy that both bloomed outward upon impact.

When the bullet hit a target, it sharply punched through and flattened into a wider shape, making a massive hole while the prongs separated and tumbled, absolutely shredding surrounding tissues. To get hit by one was to be marked for a very painful death without almost immediate treatment. A hit from an old musket had usually meant death with the medical ability of the time, and if a limb was hit it was guaranteed you were losing that limb near the point of impact, but the Vanguard Musket ensured that even in the modern day people had to worry about such things when they were faced down with one.

She might have been a little obsessed.

So yes, she wanted their rifles.

She wanted Garett too, but that wasn't happening.

"It would greatly help, if you can spare them." Twilight nodded politely, intently watching Garett open the hefty weapon's latch and push in another of those deadly clawed bullets into its breech, closing it and keeping the projectile securely in place.

The tip of the ruby hammer on his musket rifle still glowed with a pulsing red anger, ready to strike again once it was fully pulled back into position, and there was still a low reddish vapour issuing from the rod's compartment as it burned. It would stay like it until it died and needed to be replaced. It was an odd design choice as ponies had simply developed weapons that struck a hammer straight into the chamber against the ammunition itself, yet Gryphons had kept the bizarre middlemare arrangement of having the rod prime the shot; a hold-over from an older Gryphon model of musket that they hadn't abandoned for the sake of tradition.

She glanced back at her companions briefly. "I'm after some officers."

"Headhunting, are we?" Garett mused, lifting his musket rifle and neatly holding it into the crook of his arm with the barrel resting against his shoulder, just as he would have done in the military. The guy never let himself relax his discipline out in the field, he was as bad as Gwyndolin. "We've been encountering plenty of Jackals and putting them down, and the Children are keeping out of our way. The only law enforcement we have encountered were already dead."

Dusky's eyes went wide, and she surged forwards at the news with shock on her features. "Was one of them a pale-white mare?! Blonde mane, blue eyes! Was there a Diamond Dog in uniform?! There were six-"

"Calm, officer. No Dogs in with the dead. No pale-white mares." Garett gently raised a placating claw, but it didn't stop the three police officers behind Twilight from feeling bad about the loss of fellow police. She could see their grief as they tried to push it down. "If it is any consolation; I have marked numerous points on a private map for our movement strategies, including those of your fallen. I shall give Agent Sparkle a separate map of their locations."

Dusky nodded mutely with thanks in her eyes, both Nimbus and Sable regarding Garett with a respectful nod or look each. Garett returned a polite bow of his head, standing a little straighter as his eyes became slightly unfocused and danced briefly; the semi-glazed look of someone using their own HUD to transmit data. Twilight smiled as she must look like that all the time. She received his edited map as he came back, and she immediately forwarded the information to the Crown database. Vee would get it and send it to someone who could retrieve the bodies at the earliest opportunity.

"This is all very well to do, everyone getting along so nicely, but we've got some people to save." Twilight said with a confident smirk, gently trotting past Garett with his very nice arse and admittedly lovely long coat. Her duster was better, she could tell herself that even if hers didn't have that sexy golden trim or red velvet lining. Dusky, Nimbus, and Sable came along behind her as Garett commanded his own fellows to move forwards down the grimy road from where the Jackals had come from.

She nudged him with a smirk as she started to walk. "Do you want to take the lead or should I?"

"The Major has instructed that if you require, I am to take your orders." Garett intoned as she walked alongside him, ignoring her suggestive tone and surveying the area briefly as he went, before quickly snapping his head back to face her with such a jerk that his circlet wobbled. "Within reason however, of which I would expect of a commanding officer of my kin, and for the duration of your rescue mission, only."

"Relax, I'm not a Changeling, you'll have no sneaky shit from me." Twilight grinned with a chuckle at his quick additions. "Dealing with the Children a lot, are you?"

"Too much." He sighed with annoyance, stopping briefly as he bent down.

She watched with a moderate level of appreciation as he quietly took a few purple roses from within one of his long coat's pockets, the petals perfectly fine, and laid them across the bodies of the Gryphons that had been a part of the Jackals forces. He didn't say any words as he stood up again and followed her as she left the scene, falling in ahead of his soldiers as Twilight led on.

Author's Note

Once again I had to cut this chapter down. It was originally 27k in length.
So much exposition and world-building.
Added fixes and grammar changes, lore things.