The future set in stone

“So… where are we now?” I asked. I could understand that we were in some kind of a spaceport, but I wanted to know more. The book wasn’t really helpful on that but it referenced a lot of places and stuff I had no idea about.

He left the ship and I followed him. “The city of Restania. The capital of Lostara. This place is ruled by King Festovious; he’s considered one of the most powerful creatures of this galaxy,” he said with the enthusiasm of a guide. I could feel pride for his knowledge leaking out of his words.

“This place looks nice. At least the decor is much better than the cacophony I saw so far… I mean, you guys should work on your base,” I said with a little smuggy voice. At least a base on an asteroid sounds cool on its own!

He sighed sadly. “Let’s not talk about decor or fashion. It’s a rather painful topic… Hey, do you want to try Kaster’s hog?” He changed a topic as soon as he saw a little food stand right next to the exit from the docs. The smell of burnt stuff hit my nostrils like a punch.

“Eww! Eating animals?!” I gave way to my disgust. It came naturally, like it was in me on the level of instincts, unlike him. “Aren’t we herbivores?!”

“Maybe you are.” In a few seconds, he returned with a piece of meat in his muzzle. I had to force myself not to puke. Seconds after he handed me a kebab saying that it was vegetarian. Tasted like cabbages.

He began going somewhere. I followed. “So who’s Scoot?”

“She’s… a friend. An old one with whom we parted our ways a long time ago. She’s a pegasus who taught me how to fly when my legs got broken. For a long time she was my guiding light,” he sighed with sadness.

Giggles came from somewhere above. “So that’s who I was for you?” Orange pegasus jumped from above, landing in a roll. She appeared in front of us with a little smug, that was almost covered by a weird helmet-thingy similar to flying glasses.

The hard, concrete-like ground rustled under my hooves. The shadow of surrounding buildings hid most imperfections, like thrash laying on the ground. However, ponies on the streets, wearing rugs, covered in weird fungi and sitting next to the fire were ruining the picture of a mediocre street.

This city looks awful. Beautiful on the outside, rotten to the core. Poor ponies…

Scoot turned around the corner. An empty alleyway appeared in front of us, and with it my smell. I had to stop the flow of vomit that was about to appear. The burning sensation spread across my nasopharynx, bringing that annoying type of pain.

With no wish to tolerate such a ruthless feeling, I remembered something else that I had.

Painkillers. Those things work awfully long and for some reason partially? I wonder what will happen if I…

Quickly levitating a syringe behind my friends, I brought it close to my leg. A slight hesitation made me pause. The thought of coming pain from the needle was overweight by another rumble of my stomach. ‘A little mosquito bite, that’s all,’ I told myself.

Seconds after the shot, a slight orgasmic pain surged through my body. All the awfulness of this place disappeared into the background as my friends stopped near a weird wall.

Trotting in a drunk-like state, I caught up with them.

“Fake wall?” I asked. Its slightly different colour (about a quarter-tone difference), and a tiny square gap around it sealed the deal. The very cliched trick used a lot in detectives.

My body was hesitating, trying to keep the balance. I leaned across the wall and fell right through it, a long set of stairs met me with hard hugs. The pain of rolling down them just simply wasn’t there, just some sort of bliss forcing a wide grin across my face. My eyes shut as I reached the bottom.

There was just plain darkness and some fragments of the past. Constant slithering and images of my friends were flickering in front of my eyes. The scene of Rainbow leaving, and a scene of green pony and a griffon looking for a room.

Then, my eyes forced the harsh world onto me. The cacophony of sounds and feelings followed next, replacing the orgasmic bliss with the cruel reality.

I squeaked from overwhelming pain that quickly turned into plain reality. The wooden image quickly disappeared as I lifted my head, looking around. Two familiar voices were having a conversation to the left of me, and in front was a pony wearing a black apron with a white shirt underneath. A piece of a tie stuck out from underneath his apron.

He was wiping a glass mug while searching for something on a wall full of beverages behind him.

I grunted, feeling the pain of my probably broken hoof. Bartender’s ears perked and he quickly turned around. “Oh, you’re finally awake! I was getting scared that you fell down dark. Do you want to order anything?”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to see through the blur of my ruined mascara and tears, but all the drinks were too far away. “Can I get some water?”

He nodded and quickly trotted away. Seconds later, there was a bottle of water in front of me, with a little note — ‘Free of charge.’

Well that was quick.

“I hope you won’t do that again...” Scoot took my attention as I gurgled the bottle down. “It’sh really expenshhive to… cure any addictions around here,” she said, her speech followed by a loud hic.

I tilted my head like a dog.

“She means painkillers. They’re really addictive and, as we saw by your example, quite dangerous to use often,” Gold explained. His voice maybe was normal, but I could smell alcohol from his mouth.

“You tell me this, yet you’re more drunk than Dash on Cider Day!” I cried out. I began feeling the effects of alcohol vapours. That place was full of drunks. They noticed our rumbling

“Don’t tell her what to do! She deservesh it!”

“Yeah! Messh with her — mess with ush!”

“Wait, somebody is arguing agains Scoot?!”

If there were different sides, the crowd would be on hers. Even ponies who seconds before were sleeping on the floor were saying something good about Scoot.

I see she got her followers. I guess one more reason to trust her.

With periodic hiccups and rollings of her tongue, Scoot said, “Guysh! Guysh! Guysh! Don’t worry about it sow much! She’s… She’s a friendo too!” Seconds later, her head fell on the bar. “Whatcha said ‘bout’a Dash earlier?”

Her muzzle squished by the bar and her eyes sparkling with tears and booze were hopefully staring at me.

“It’s… nothing but a memory. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Loves cider a lot. Very cool. Always ready to come and help you even if you fucked up and blow her self-esteem into the ground by flashing everywhere with your new super-fancy new wings.

“She’ll always save you even if you argued a lot about stupid things and then you ran into the Everfree forest and got lost and was about to get ambushed by a stray of timber-wolves because you’re so stupid to go there on their mating season, after what she won’t even lecture you about it and she’ll just carry you home and make sure that everything is alright before spending a whole night by your side because you both are sorry,” I said, pausing only to take a few breaths. After it, I finished my bottle of water and ordered whatever those two were having. I got one more problem to deal with.

Where the hay did those feelings come from?! I know I love Twilight, so why does my heart began beating so fast! I thought I was an alien to her, only connected by our love for books!

Now I remember that evening more clearly, the rest of my feelings were in motion, trying to break out. Perhaps that was the reason she left AJ then.

But what happened between us? It couldn’t be because of Twilight, could it? Did I fucked everything up as I usually do?

I have to have at least one memory of Spike. What had happened to us there. Did he choose that griffon? Celestia, I hope he did.

But why only now I remembered that there was more to my past than dresses and love to Twilight. Why are my memories so selective?!

A drunk voice knocked me out of my thought line, saving me from falling into another existential crisis. “Shounds jusht like her.” Scoot closed her eyes and began snoring.

Gold chuckled, not letting me get back to my thoughts. “Huh. She finally reached her limit… We can take her to her ship, or… we can stay here for some time and maybe talk about our pasts? You seem like you really need it.”

“So what you’re saying is, she just jumped down?!” I was consumed by the story Gold was telling me. They both had a long past. Adventures, crimes, which I would normally be against, but as far as I know, they’re more like Robin Wing than anything else. “What did she want to accomplish?”

He pointed at a picture on the wall of Scoot’s ship. It depicted the very mare, but much smaller, in almost foal age, although her wings were the same size as right now. Her left forehoof was angled by ninety degrees upward, bandages covering her head and a genuine smile across her face. “I believe she thought that she would either finally spread her wings and fly, or grab onto something like a vine… It was our first big thing — inspired by old books about a mare-adventurer. We thought we would be cool like her.”

“I said to you more than a hundred times already! I saw a wire hanging there, I just wasn’t able to reach it!” Scoot got up from her royal-sized bed. “What’s the time?” she asked, rubbing her head.

Gold looked at his wrist bracelet. “First day of Equus seeding. Around lunch,” he answered with a little grin.

She sighed. “Can you be more local? Please.”

“Sixth of Deka? Around… nine am? Twelve hours after you passed out and vomited everywhere.”

She immediately jumped off the bed and put on her helmet-thingy. “So! You two are probably wondering why I called for you?

“As you might know, today will be a competition. An annual planet race, looping around the Restanian palace. We’re going to pull a heist right in the middle of the race!”

She pulled a giant blueprint out of nowhere and put it on a table. It was full of not-so-elegant squiggles and drawings.

“The plan is fairly simple. There are 3 parts for each one of us. The first one is the race. I’ve got that covered, but I’ll need to use my…” she gave an awkward cough,” ~your ship. It’s faster.

“Before that, someone, i.e. you,” she pointed her hoof at me,” will have to get into the palace through the forcefield and find an access hatch from which you’ll find the vault. It’s hidden pretty well so I hope you’re good at finding secrets.

“The last part is on you. Like before, you’ll have to be our computer guy. Everyone got everything? Questions? No? Good!” she finished without even giving a moment to insert a word.

I was left stunned, looking at her dully, trying to process everything she just said. “So. I’ll need to… break into a palace and… steal something?” My brain felt like it was at its full capacity. When was the last time I slept? How long have I been running everywhere under the influence of painkillers?

Gold stepped in. “Let’s not make it more complicated than it should be. As I understand, I’ll guide you into and through the palace to a specific location and then you’ll use some explosives to get into the vault. That’s your part of the plan.”

“Correct! Mostly,” Scoot sang from somewhere on the ship. Noises of trash flying everywhere following her words.

I rubbed my head. “Why would I do that?” Was my fairly simple question. There was no exact answer for me. I’ve been following after Gold for no reason, just to find out more about this world. And now I was getting entangled in a serious crime. The decision that was spinning in my head was just to leave. Find my own way even if I’ll have to live amongst those poor homeless creatures.

“Well. I mean. I thought you’re just going to help us as friends. To be fair, I asked some~” Gold was rudely cut off.

Scoot stepped into the scene, dragging some dirty cloth on her back and looking at me with eyes I only remember from my worst memories. “Why would you do that? Why?! Well, let me tell you why I’m doing this.

“You saw those ponies on the streets? You saw how they look! The sole reason for this is this piece of a kingdom! That bastard forces them to work against their will and if they don’t he drops tons of toxic gasses on slums. They can’t even leave this place! They’re too poor and most of them are too kind to even consider asking help in fleeing this place! Their wings are tied and they are forced to stay on the ground without any hope of a better life!” Her rant ended in a few long sighs. Her fur and her wings stood spread and her eyes were filled with a familiar fire.

Gold immediately jumped between us. “Girls, girls, girls. Calm down! There is no reason to fight! As I was saying, I asked one person to help us find more statues!”

Us two?

I stepped around him. A tear washing the rest of my mascara. “Scootaloo. One of the crusaders. Friend of Sweetie Belle!” Another memory of the past flashed in front of me. A little white filly, wrapped in a blanket, doing all sorts of cute noises. Then she again, but standing on a stage with two other fillies one of whom is in front of me. Their first performance. “Please tell me you know where she is!”

She shared my tears. “I don’t. But it’s good to know that I’m not alone.”

The clock on the wall struck ten times.

“You know. I think you would be better in my place. I still remember how you three used my boutique to earn your cutie marks in rock climbing,” I noticed when I was climbing a wall of a giant floating palace. Below me kilometres of free fall, and above me an open window.

Giggles came from the other end of the wire. “You want to trade our places? You’re free to drive the ship… Listen, can you tell me more about the past? Most of my memories washed away from the years spent here.” Her voice filled with familiar sadness.

I jumped into the window and dropped all of that weird futuristic gear that was keeping me stuck to a wall.

“Not exactly. All I remember is the pain and pain I cause to others. I still don’t want to admit it, but I believe I… I created a love triangle because I couldn’t choose between two. Like those old cliched soap operas. And all because I couldn’t forget Rainbow.”

Scoot coughed, almost gagging. “Wait, you don’t mean~”

A different cough came from the transmitter device. “I know you all about the past now, but it’s not exactly the best time. There is a guard coming your way, try hiding under that table.”

“Excuse me! Our little talk is only beneficial! At least now I know the reason why Dash didn’t want to go to the Gala… Makes me love her more since she went there for me… What happened between you two?”

Calming my breath and following Gold’s instructions, I found my way into a corridor. “Twilight happened. Or… our shared tragedy to be exact. People important to us tend to leave and… it so happened that we were together at that moment. She stole my heart like it was nothing and I did the same in return.

“We were stuck at Canterlot then and most of the stuff we did together. She even asked me to make her a dress! It was so lovely. We became each-others comfort pillows and when Dash came to check on me… It all went to sapphires. Afterwards, I feel all I did was wrong. It was harming all three of us.”

Stepping down the corridor of nostalgia and reality, I turned right. A vent Gold was guiding me towards what appeared in front of my eyes. A big symbol of two crossed wrenches was engraved on it.

“Through it you should be able to get to the vault.”

Weird noise began coming from them. “Listen, the race is about to start and I’m afraid that the speed might cause disturbance in our communication. Turn on the explosives right in three minu~” His voice was cut off, leaving me and hundreds of my reflections alone.

“I really wonder now. What happened then? Twilight would’ve known…”

A few meters ahead, the hollow sounds of the metal changed into more deep ones. With my best guess, I put the explosive box and crawled further ahead until I found my way out of the ventilation.

As I was asked, I put explosives in what seemed to be three minutes. But when I left the vent to get away, I saw a guard coming in. I hid in a closet and sat there, waiting.

Suddenly my transmitter turned on, pushing through the voices of my companions. “Fuck! Flash is busted! Did you even check it before the race?!” Gold screamed. With all my hope, I prayed that the guard wouldn't hear it.

“What?! Fuck. Find another distraction! The mission is failed otherwise!” Transmitter turned off and I breathed out. Sneak-peeking through the slit, I saw a robot's croup standing right in front of me. I was trapped.

But soon after, I heard it. A loud explosion deafened me.

When a heatwave threw the guard away, I found my way back into the vent and into the vault. No other guards came, so it seemed like their plan worked out.

Inside, I quickly realized how stupid I was. Piles of gold, or at least something similar to it, were spread on the floor, obstructing my movement. I could move, but I had no idea why I was there in the first place. It’s not like I could take all of this. Scoot only mentioned something about an artefact that is worth much more than everything else here.

She forgot to tell me what it looks like… Think. Think… First of all, it should be unique, different colour or texture, maybe? And in a world like this, it’s most likely some sort of device, or maybe an artefact from the Equestrian past?

Anyway, I doubt it will be buried. Perhaps there is a special storage unit? Like I used to hide my most precious gems under my bed, like that fire ruby Spike gifted me.

Trying to contact my friends didn’t prove helpful. Only static and rare voice excerpts. And what was much worse was that I couldn’t see properly. A minute or so after I entered that vault, lights turned on. The ‘gold’ reflected it like a cheap dress would, blinding me.

Perhaps a defect of construction. Perhaps additional protection? Maybe there is a spell for that… Dang, it. The only thing that comes to mind is that gem detection one. It’s useless when I can’t see anything.

My best bet was plain telekinesis. If I could turn off or break or even obstruct those lights, then I’m victorious. If not, well, I guess I’ll be fried up by them.

With a rather rageful spell, I picked up the ‘gold’ around me and threw it everywhere. At first, it seemed like my plan failed as I still couldn’t see a bit, just sounds of metal falling on the ground.

Then, my eyes finally adapted to the semi-darkness. Only one particular lamp stayed alive. A lamp right above a transparent case. Inside there was a velvet cushion in the shape of a four-leafed clover. On it was something long and pointy on one side, and sharp, ‘broken off’ edge on the other.

It took a closer look, and broke the case, safely levitating whatever it was outside. It had curves like my horn, but it was longer. It was grey and it really reminded me of something.