So you want to know my story? I don’t know why, it’s not the most prettiest of stories ever, it’s sorta like a rags to riches story but the riches were dirtier than the rags ever were. Still interested? Well I warned you.

For as long as I could remember, I’ve lived out in the streets with my parents and it was… fine. It wasn’t great but also not soul. But when I was ten, my mom gave birth to my baby sister, Nayli and while I wasn’t all that fond of her at first, as most single children are of their new siblings, I grew to love and care for her… even when our parents were taken away by the city guard… I never saw them… nobody could ever tell me what happened to them or what happens inside the looming fortress of the guard that casts a looming shadow over the slums.

I didn’t want my sister to grow up out in the streets, where guards abducting random people was the norm. I didn’t want her to experience all of the bad that I have. So I did what I thought was right, I began to steal from others.

Wallets, money, belongings and food, anything to keep us going. Anything to help bring a roof over our heads. For a good while things were looking good, we had food, warmth, everything we needed just to get by. Then someone by the name of karma decides to say ‘fuck you’ when I decided to pickpocket one person that if I knew before hand I shouldn’t have; the boss of the underground crime syndicate. I honestly thought I was dead right then and there.

But… he didn’t off me like I expected. He told me that I had some guts trying to take from him, that he wouldn’t mind his own goons having the same level of confidence I had with my pickpocketing. So he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He’ll provide me and by extension, my sister a place to call home. In return I work for him as his thief within the streets. Obviously the offering itself was scary, especially for the kid that I was at the time but… I couldn’t just say no to having a place to sleep so… yeah I accepted.

What follows is years worth of hard work, climbing up the ranks and up to now.

“Wow… that’s a lot for someone like you.” My partner said after I told him about my life as we waited. “Starting out as a simple thief to where you are now.” I simply gave him an odd look while yeah… it seems like a lot in one go but I lived through it. I wasn’t a common thief nowadays as I outgrew that part of my life. I’m a full time smuggler these days and pretty good at it too. And for the longest time I ran solo but the boss said I needed a partner so… yeah. Aerav here is that partner. He looked pretty simple, short brown hair, white skin, wearing some clothes as well as having some bags with his equipment. We were sitting at the bar which was own by the boss, though from the looks of it the place looked dead. No one other than us was here and that’s on purpose as it was a front, good thing it’s actually a bar so we got some drinks. Aerav finished his glass and shook his head from the alcohol before asking.

“So… what are we smuggling anyway?” He asked me with a side glance. “I think I missed the last bit of what the boss said.” I groaned and rolled my eyes at him as he was known to be forgetful.

“It’s Ether, like usual. You should know this, my department is Ether runs.” I said to him simply with an annoyed grunt.

“Hey, you don’t know, maybe it’s for something else.” He said with a shrug which made me groan. Honestly, I wonder if he’s just dumb. I looked down at my drink as Ether came to mind. Heh. I can never help but wonder why ether itself is such a sought after item in the underground. It’s well… magic! Magic is ether and ether is magic.

Ether was, in simplistics terms, crystalized energy of different colours. It’s used for basically everything you can think of. It’s a very sought after thing that, if one has enough of it, one can do basically anything they want. It’s also very illegal to distribute commercially as its importance to industrialization in general, being able to power heavy machines and factories when then. It’s why the practice of magic is banned here actually.

“Right, how much Ether are we smuggling? A few barrels full or?” Aerav asked after finishing his drink. I let out an annoyed sigh, seeing that he really did forget everything that was told. This is why I like to work alone.

“A package. We don’t do barrels.” I said to him simply before he looked at me oddly at this as I arched a brow back. “What now?”

“I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea of a package of Ether is so valuable to a few barrels of Ether… also how can a package hold Ether, doesn’t it like… ooze out or something?” Aerav asked, sounding confused as I shook my head, realizing the confusion for him. He’s used to the liquid Ether. I didn’t say anything as someone came in to the bar, holding today’s delivery. The guy in question was the usual guy, works at a mining rig outside the city. He saw us before making his way over and planting the package on the table.

“Here. It’s all there as usual.” The guy said with a little frown as I chuckled and tossed him some credits.

“And there’s your usual payment.” I said to the man before he left without another word, not wanting to be caught selling some ether. After the doors closed, I opened the package to inspect it just on case and that’s when Aerav’s eyes grew wide.

“Holy shit.” Was all he could say as inside the package was Raw Ether Crystal, glowing a vibrant purple glow as we stared at it. “That… that explains the no leaking part…” Aerav said which made me snort a bit as I closed the package.

“We only deal in crystal ether. You know how valuable these things are.” I said as I got up from the booth and he followed suit.

“Yes… no… kinda.” He said which made me frown as he continued. “I don’t know the full details, but… are these really worth more than a large tank full of liquid ether?” He asked, still a bit dumbfounded as I rolled my eyes at him and began to walk towards the door before he began to follow suit. Upon exiting, we were greeted with the humming of passing hover vehicles and distant boat horns. The bar, simply known as “Dead End” was located near the city harbor, the only place with fully functioning gates to the outside world.

“So… how are we going to do this?” Aerav asked as he walked beside me as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a key that, upon doing so, made my ride drive up beside me. It was hovering inches above the ground, its engine purring beautifully. Oh yeah. Aerav let out a whistle as he saw my ride. “Damn… nice ride. Better than what I got.” He said with a chuckle as I put the case in a secured place that’s out of sight to anyone looking. I then opened the driver side door and got in as Aerav got on the other side.

Once we were both seated, I flicked a switch to put us up on the hover lanes above, which did anger some drivers but I didn’t care as the hurling of insults and profanity was the norm in the city. Just as I was about to drive away from the bar, someone zoomed by everyone in the lane, which was soon followed by several guard hover bikes in hot pursuit. Aerav sighed and shook his head.

“It pains me to see people breaking the rules like that, good thing we’re law abiding citizens aren’t we?” He asked in a playful sarcastic tone. I gave him a simple unimpressed look before pulling out the stun baton from between the seats.

“Anything like that come out of your mouth again and I’ll hit you with it.” I said as I made the baton zap to make my point. I took my job seriously and really was never one for jokes. Aerav put his hands up defensively before saying.

“Okay okay, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” He said as we stared at each other for a few moments. “Really.” He added on quickly. I drove us away from the bar and headed towards the meeting spot. I reread the reminder of the meeting spot and groaned as it was in the farming sector. I hate it there.

“Ugh!” I groaned in pure annoyance as I slammed my head against the steering, making the horn honk to the people in front. This caused some others to honk back at me as Aerav looked at me with a jump.

“Uhh… what’s wrong?” He asked me as I growled a bit in annoyance.

“We’re going to the fucking farms. Ugh! It’s horrible there!” I said with an annoyed groan as the hoverlane did most of the driving.

“I… see. I uhh, never really been there so I don’t really know but… I’ll take your word on that… at least we’re not there for long.” Aerav said to me with a reassuring smile, trying to be helpful as best as he could. I simply shook my head as we were soon stopped by the sector checkpoint, where multiple guards were arresting the person from before and the rest were checking the civilians.

We waited for a few minutes before we got to the checkpoint and the guards did their work. I wasn’t worried as the package was well hidden from sight and if one was to search for it, they wouldn’t find it. After they finished they waved us through and we pulled ahead.

“It doesn’t feel right that they keep upping security like this.” I said idly as they detained someone behind us with great force.

“I know what you mean, they detained over like… thirty people this week alone.” Aerav said with a frown as we rode further away from the checkpoint. I glanced through the side mirror to see the checkpoint officers as they brutally subdued the would be aggressor.

The Canterlot City Guard. There isn’t a group of thugs more merciless and cruel than them. They enforce the rule of the Empress of the city and those caught breaking the rules are met with the rough end of their stun batons. Some have the worst of it and get hauled off to their headquarters, the giant eyesore of the slums that is The Citadel.

The guard’s themselves were hard to mistake them for some mercenary thug with their high tech armor acting like a sort of second layer of skin. They all had the same color palette in armor, a dark blue with yellow linings. It was their signature colors, even having them on their hover bike and patrol ships.

I deviated from the hover lane, heading over to wall side of the farmlands. The wall that kept the outside world at bay stood over most of this side of the sector like an unending obelisk. I eventually sighed when I lowered down to ground level much to Aerav’s surprise as he bumped his head on the ceiling. I took a deep breath and grabbed the package just as someone knocked on my window. I looked over to see a man wearing some fancy clothes standing outside my door. I lowered my window so he could speak.

“Hello there miss… you uhh… you’re the one with my personal delivery?” He asked as he coughed into his hand.

“That depends.” I said to the well dressed man before reaching for the package and asking. “Would said order be one of these babies?” I asked him as to my side was my ether blaster just in case. The well dressed man’s eyes lit up with glee upon seeing the crystal.

“Yes, I believe that there would be the thing I’ve asked for.” He said with a smile before pulling out a small thin card in his hand that had a blue led light and held it up to me. “Your payment, all here.” he said to me. I handed the chip over to Aerav who was quick to scan for the amount inside before he gave me a nod and I handed him the package. The man took the package and gave it a quick peek before nodding happily. “Thanks again, this will do perfectly.” He said more happily as we saw him walk off. As he walked off Aerav watched him go with a frown.

“I don’t like what he has planned with that.” He said, which made me look at him. “I did some research before this job and learned that he wanted to make his land more automated so he can fire all of his workers. That isn’t right, some of those people need their jobs to get by.” I had to hold back a groan at this, great I got a partner with a bleeding heart as well.

“You shouldn’t care what he ends up doing with the crystal. You shouldn’t care what anyone does with it.” I said to him with a disinterested and annoyed tone. This was the last thing I needed from anybody. Especially my assigned partner.

“Well… fine then.” Aerav said with a frown as he crossed his arms. I could tell that it still bothered him but he wasn’t going to push it any further. “Anyway, we did what we needed to do, guess we head on back?” He asked me. I didn’t say anything and simply drove us back to Dead End. He was quiet the whole ride, glancing back at me every so often. At first it was him glaring at me but as time went on he has been looking at me more and more, trying to be sneaky about it but failing to do so. I held back the look of disgust of seeing him ogling me but when we abruptly entered the hover lane back to portside, I made sure the sudden lurch made him back his head.

“Ah!” He yelled out as he held his head as I kept driving on as if nothing was wrong. He didn’t say anything afterwards but he did shoot me a glare as he rubbed his head where he banged his head. I didn’t say anything as I was focused on what’s ahead of me, the sector checkpoint which seemed to be on a higher alert.

We were soon stopped and pulled over like those before us and I was quick to hide away any of my weapons which was simple. Upon getting out of the hover car, they patted us down and inspected the hover car itself. After a few moments I knew things were going south when the guard patted Aerav a bit before finding something, which of course was a blaster. Aerav closed his eyes and silently cursed as the guard held the blaster which caused Aerav to chuckle nervously.

“It’s uhh… extra protection officer, you don’t know who you’ll bump into.” Aerav joked, though this time it was out of fear of what’ll happen next.

“We’re hired guards for the bar down by harborside.” I said simply to which the guards looked at one another before giving back the blaster as one of them said.

“First and final warning.” The guard said as they shoved the blaster back into Aerav’s hands before signaling us to go on. The both of us got into the hover car and drove off. I glanced at Aerav who shook his head and frowned. He didn’t say anything at first as we drove away before he finally spoke.

“I know I fucked up back there, I panicked and thought they wouldn’t find it.” He said with a sigh to which I simply rolled my eyes at as we entered the harbor sector, Portside. It’s what most people call it. We were closing in on Dead End before I got a holocall to which I simply pulled up on full display. The display showed a man that screams rich crime boss with the most expensive suit he wore, a number of rings on his fingers. He had short salt and pepper hair and shows his age with some wrinkles but that didn’t stop how threatening he was with those piercing gray eyes.

”Hey there baby girl, hope your drop off went well.” He said simply as he smirked a bit as I felt my body twist in anger at his words, especially ‘Baby girl’. He knew I absolutely hated those kinds of names and he didn’t care. He chuckled as he saw me look at him and pulled over before continuing. “Getting to the point, I have another job for you. It’s simply getting a big package of crystal ether down in the industrial zone. Pick it up and get it back to the Dead End. One you finish I’ll make sure my sweetums is well rewarded.” Rowen said with a smirk towards me before the display disappeared as he cut the call after he spoke. I growled a bit at the word ‘sweetums’ at me. Aerav looked at me as I was practically fuming at this point, luckily though he kept himself quiet as I vented out in silence. After a few long minutes of silence between the two of us Aerav broke that silence with a question.

“So… you going to drop me off at a corner or at the bar?” He asked me before adding on. “This job seems more like a solo gig.” I sighed and nodded before lowering down by the bar as soon as I saw it. He left without another word and I drove off towards the new meeting point. If the boss calls me it’s usually a big score with the ether dealer, a rogue miner who’s willing to make some quick credits.

As I rose up back into the hover lane and laid back on my chair, I simply left the autopilot to do the navigating the hoverlane. It wasn’t long before the peace was interrupted once again. I looked up to see that someone was calling and as I answered I was faced with a smiling face.

”Heeeey Dax!” Nayli said happily as her face appeared in front of me. She was wearing some nice clean clothes, ones that one wouldn’t think someone who was homeless, she had a bright innocent smile on her face that was clean and her hair was brushed back. Out of everything in this damn city, Nayli is the only pure and innocent being here. She was in her mid-teens with brown hair that’s tired back in a ponytail, sun-kissed tanned skin with some freckles around her nose and soft green eyes. She had that look that was happy and bright, something that the city hasn’t ruined and if I had any say to it, will never ruin.

“Hey sis, what’s up?” I asked my sister with a smile, the events of earlier that brought annoyance and anger being forgotten almost instantly. Talking with Nayli always made my day, no matter how shitty.

“Oh you know… just getting ready for school.” Nayli said as she held up her bag in view. “Was about to leave before deciding to give you a call.” She added happily. I smiled back at this before saying.

“Well, make sure you have that assignment of yours packed.” I said before she displayed it smugly, the product of several days worth of homework all within a small memory stick. “Good, listen I’ll talk more later. Work.” I said to her suddenly as I noticed the scenery begin to shift from harbor to industrial machinery and factories. Nayli was saddened by this before I gave her an apologetic smile and hung up before sighing. I can’t have her see me work. Ever.

“Now… where’s this asshole meeting at?” I asked aloud to myself before moving to pull up the meeting spot only for a loud thunderous boom to be heard even from inside the hover car. Not moments, mine and several other hover cars and bikes fell from the hoverlane. I let out a yell as my hovercar fell onto the ground, luckily nothing broke but I was stunned from the sudden… everything. I shook my head and looked around, wondering what the fuck just happened. It wasn’t just the hovercrafts that died, everything else went dark and then some as screens and projections turned off and sparked a bit. I saw others getting out of their hovercars and off their bikes and looked up. I opened my door and looked up as well, just to see that the clouds up above were swirling around and acting oddly. I have never seen anything like it as this has never happened before. Everyone was either in awe or shocked at this, or both as the clouds continued swirling.

“What the…” I said to myself as the center of it all seemingly… tore open!? It was like a wormhole, one that chucked out flaming balls that were… heading right for us! Me and the others nearby all quickly ran from our respective vehicles as balls of flaming rock fell from the skies itself. The sound of cars getting smashed and destroyed as well as buildings getting hit by the flaming rocks as I ran with everyone. What in hell is going on?! I kept running forward, unsure if the destruction was moving outwards and I wasn’t going to stick around and find out.

Everyone of us tried to run underneath the upper walkways before a flaming boulder of what seemed like melted metal crashed in front of us which then lead us up to the walkway as we wanted to get as far away as we could but when we all reached the top… it stopped. The training of hellfire was done but the thunderous booms continued before the clouds above swirled once more and the vortex spat out something else… something… alive looking? What the-

And before I knew it, all went black. Whatever came down, came down hard and onto me. I didn’t even see what it was with how fast it was coming down. When I tried to open my eyes all I saw was blurry shapes as my head was still spinning and my ears were ringing.

“W-what…” I managed to croak out in a raspy voice as my vision returned slowly, where I saw the crowd of people from before quickly dispersing. I heard someone speak and with my vision still blurry I managed to make out two girls... I think. I could only make out the color of their hair.

“W-We have to go! We can’t stay here!” A voice said in a panicked tone and by the looks of it, I think, it belonged to the one who had a head of bright pink hair. I heard some shuffling before another voice spoke as I managed to catch what little of a glimpse I had and noticed the color of her hair as well. Light blue.

“Sorry miss.” A timid voice said before I heard the sound of running as I groaned and sat up only to see several guards around me with several more heading off to chase after the two owners of the voices I heard.

“Forget them. This one looks like a prime candidate.” Spoke a sinister yet well known mechanical voice as the loud thumps of his hulking frame made it clear he was here. It was the head honcho of the guard himself, Viktor Zakaang. He truly towered over me and anyone around him. His body was made out of reinforced plates and had enough power to break a city guard in half. He has also proven to be a massive thorn on my boss’s neck with his constant interfering his businesses, illegitimate or otherwise. He was known to be brutal, not just to the citizens but his own men as well. But to top it all off… he was the one who took my parents. “Bring her in. Leave the other two brats be.” He spoke simply with a dismissive wave as he turned away before one of the guards beside him walked up to me before smacking me on the side of the head with the but of their gun, knocking me out cold.

Author's Note

Eyyy. New fic? Yup. Co written with ExodemonG.

Let us know if this is a worth while project to continue. We really hope you all like it.