Neo Somnambula: Guns and Lotuses

The sand was disturbed as a mare ran through the desert, a gray, cloudy sky above, thunder echoing across the land. She was a unicorn with a grayish blue coat, her mane an even darker shade of blue, the right half of her body covered in hieroglyphic tattoos telling of ancient cities and forgotten truths. Her cutie mark was that of an upside down pyramid with a Somnambulian symbol known as the Ankh in the center. Adorning her neck were three golden rings and her left ear possessed a series of gold rings along the side. Her yellow eyes were filled with determination even as she fled, the flapping of wings drawing closer and closer.

With a quick motion of her horn, the unicorn formed magical hieroglyphs and with a shake of her head, cast a spell behind her, causing shards of obsidian to erupt from the ground behind her. If she could cross the desert then she would be free of their clutches without fear of any repercussions.

For a moment, the mare smiled, thinking that she might have bought herself some time, only to be caught by surprise as the ground before her gave way, as the great desert shifted underneath her. Without time to react, the mare tumbled, the sand biting into her flesh as she fell. Once she reached a stop, the mare painfully pulled herself up. Though judging from the sharp pain in her left forehoof and the cliff that she was now on the edge of, this was the end of the line.

“There is nowhere to run Taabka!”

Defiantly, Taabka turned and faced her pursuer. Landing before her was a pegasus mare with a peach colored coat and dark turquoise mane. The garments that adorned her were that of a temple priestess with a white gown and headdress. Her purple eyes looked at Taabka not with anger or hatred, but pity; and Taabka found it very irritating.

“So… you caught me… Somnambula,” Taabka wheezed, “so… what are you going… to do to me?”

The dark clouds circled both of them, like a formidable barrier of judgment.

“You need to face the consequences for your crimes,” Somnambula answered, “many have suffered because of your magic.”

Taabka coughed. “So, are you going to kill me? Banish me to Tartarus?”

Somnambula shook her head. “No, I really hoped it wouldn’t come to this. I had hoped that you would have come to your senses, my old frie-”

“We’re NOT friends!” Taabka barked. “Now out with it! How am I to be executed?!”

“You’re not going to be executed,” Somnambula answered, a twinge of sorrow mingling her words. “For exploring the forbidden crypts, stealing the ancient scrolls of Nehehal Mawt and unraveling the magics imprisoned within, the pharaoh has deemed you worthy… of a far worse fate.”

Suddenly Taabka’s mind was wracked with terrible pain as riddles upon riddles upon riddles flooded her mind, causing her to collapse to the ground. Breathing heavily from the pain, Taabka barely noticed the shadow that was now looming over her.

“The dead shall stay buried…” A menacing feminine voice spoke. Even as Taabka heard it, she could have sworn that it was echoing in her mind.

Looking up, Taabka saw the great sphinx looking down at her, a large grin on her face. The large, maroon creature gazing upon her with sinister intent.

“That which is condemned will never truly die…”

Paralyzed by either fear or some other magical means, Taabka wasn’t certain. All she knew was that she was powerless as the Sphinx reached out and placed a paw on her chest.

“May you wonder and linger, forever more…”

Pain rippled throughout Taabka’s body from where the Sphinx touched. It felt as if her heart was somehow being pulled from her chest, it felt like there were scarabs crawling beneath her flesh. The color of the world seemed to be fading from Taabka’s sight as she let out an agonized scream.

“So it shall be… Tansha!”

Tansha lurched in her bed, her body drenched in sweat. Her breathing was heavy as she remembered those memories from centuries ago, from when she was Taabka. As the realization of where she was came back to her, Tansha's breathing slowed and she fell back onto the bed, the black satin fabric welcoming her. While it was damp with her sweat, the unicorn didn't mind at the moment, just happy that she wasn't experiencing that painful memory again.

The room was completely dark, almost like an old tomb, save for a few of the lights from some of the electronic equipment within.

Holding out her right hoof, a golden, holographic HUD appeared before her, showing her messages as well as the time which said that it was three minutes til seven in the morning.

"Guess it's time to wake up," Tansha grumbled.

Sitting up in her bed, Tansha closed her eyes and clapped her hooves together.

"Maat, curtains please."

There was a squeaking sound as the machines within the room came to life and the curtains to her right opened, letting the light of the world outside in. Gradually Tansha opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the light.

"Good morning madam," the electronic, masculine voice of Maat said in Tansha's ear, "what would you like for me to do for you this morning."

"Please, change my sheets and have my coffee ready while I take a shower," Tansha said as she pulled herself out of bed.

"Of course, my dear. I shall proceed at once."

The apartment was small and cramped, designed for one maybe two ponies at most.

Even as she wandered toward the bathroom, Tansha could hear the machines in the walls opening up, robotic arms emerging to change her sheets. Stepping into the yellow tiled bathroom, Tansha went into the shower stall, the glass panels closing behind her. Immediately lukewarm water came down from numerous openings in the ceiling above. Like a ritual, Tansha placed a hoof on her chest, where the Sphinx had touched her, counting to ten and feeling for any sign of a heartbeat. Nothing.

"Business as usual, I guess."

After letting the water cascade over her body for a moment, Tansha picked up her shampoo with her magic, a turquoise aura holding the shampoo bottle. Once she finished shampooing and rinsing her mane, Tansha tapped the wall three times, resulting in the water shutting off and jets of air, blowing down from above and drying her.

Once she was reasonably dry, Tansha waved a hoof, causing the glass panels to slide open, so that she could step out and examine herself in the mirror. The left half of her mane was shaved down to fur length, while the rest of her mane was short and completely covered the right side of her face. The sclera of her eyes weren't white like most ponies but gray. While many might think this was the result of cybernetic augmentation, Tansha knew that it was in fact a symptom of her curse. A golden, vertical eyebrow piercing rested in her left eyebrow.

After combing her mane, Tansha began applying her makeup, adding some black eyeshadow and lipstick. Tansha wasn’t too sure when she had discovered the goth style but she had to admit that she liked it, or at least some aspects of it. Once she was pleased with her lipstick, Tansha picked up a lip piercing that she had in a bowl on the sink and placed the ring on her lip in the designated spot on the left side of her mouth.

A smile crossed Tansha’s lips as she examined herself. “Looking good like always.”

Upon leaving the bathroom, Tansha was pleased to see that Maat had finished changing her bed. Walking over to the closet, Tansha picked out some clothing for the day. First was a studded black choker followed by some black stockings. While they appeared to be made of black leather, in actuality they were some synthetic knockoff, not that Tansha minded. The stockings covered both her forelegs and hindlegs that somehow made her look more exotic despite covering up her slender legs.

Once she was pleased with her clothing decision for the day, Tansha closed the closet doors, mindful of the large, ancient jar at the bottom. The surface of the urn was covered with markings, showing a crocodile like creature with a bifurcated mouth, that seemed to be smiling greedily.

The scent of warm coffee filled the air as Tansha left her bedroom and entered the main living space. While Tansha's home didn't have much in the way of a kitchen it did have a room that consisted of a circular table with cushioned seating around it, along with a flat, glass screen that hung from the ceiling, that was positioned to the left of the bedroom door. In the center of the table was a white ceramic cup filled with coffee.

"Your coffee is ready madam," Maat said in her ear.

"Thank you Maat," Tansha said as she sat down across from the glass screen and held her coffee in her hooves.

When Tansha had applied for this apartment it had been a literal steal as none of the automated systems worked due to the many viruses that it had been infected with. After cleansing the system, as well as the previous resident's search history, Tansha had uploaded Maat into it. Now the AI aided her with maintaining her living quarters as well as securing the location. Aside from her magical knowledge and hacking skills, Maat was probably the most valuable possession that Tansha had.

"I made sure to apply two cubes of sugar and some cream to your coffee as requested," Maat informed her.

"Thank you."

After taking a sip of her coffee, Tansha held up her right hoof, her HUD appearing once more in her vision as she began to scroll through her messages. Quickly she deleted those that consisted of corporate spam, Love Nest ads and propaganda from the followers of Sunset. Tansha hadn't been particularly religious before the Daybreak, so why should that change now?

As Tansha glanced through the messages, a new one popped up.

SpikeNSweets: Hey Tansha, are you busy today?

Quickly Tansha replied.

Tansha: Not with anything in particular. You have a job?

SpikeNSweets: Yup, I've got a thing alright. Perhaps you should come by the shop and we'll talk. Oh and don't get distracted by the uh… "Love Nest" again.

Tansha rolled her eyes at the comment. It was one time for crying out loud.

Tansha: Don't worry, I'm on my way.

"Well, it's time to go to work," Tansha said as she closed her HUD and finished her coffee.

"Understood madam," Maat said as his program was immediately uploaded into Tansha's Ba-Link implant.

Once the upload was complete, Tansha left her apartment and locked the door behind her. The hallway hummed with the sound of ventilation systems, electronic wiring and the occasional hiss of a pressurized pipe. The walls were made of gray concrete and the floor consisted of chipped tiles and a few grains of sand here and there.

Since it was still relatively early in the morning, most of her fellow residents were either sleeping or waking up. Walking to the end of the hall, Tansha hit the button calling up the elevator.

After about a minute or so, the elevator let out a ding as the metal doors opened. Stepping inside, Tansha pushed the button for the main floor. The song, Burnt World by Vinyl Scratch played over the elevator speakers. The song was starting to get good when tragically the elevator dinged and the doors parted once more.

'Well, that's a little disappointing,' Tansha thought to herself.

The doors opened revealing the lobby beyond. Like above, the walls were made of concrete with tiled flooring, though down here there were a few old paintings hanging on the walls, some old furniture in the waiting area and a few more areas where sand had made it in. There were large windows in the front, though the large shutters veiled the world outside. The room was mostly empty due to it being early in the morning.

Stepping outside, Tansha admired her surroundings. High above were the golden tipped obelisks where all the rich and noble ponies resided, high above and secluded from the ponies below. However here in the lower city, most of the structures were made of concrete, limestone, pink granite, basalt and metal. Homes, stores and other buildings stacked on top of one another, side by side, like crates connected by pipes and wires. Large screens and signs bearing neon hieroglyphs advertised the wares of local businesses as well as the major corporations that all but owned the city. The sound of street vendors and the music of nearby clubs echoed through the streets. All surrounded by a great wall that protected Neo Somnambula from the Everbarren Desert outside along with the Tatzlwurms and other threats that wandered those wastes.

After letting out a stretch and a yawn, Tansha smiled. "Well, time to get to work."

“Good morning Neo Somnambula. This DJ Pon-3 bringing you all, music and the news all week long on the D-Nile network.Today marks the thirteenth year anniversary since the Daybreak and things are as crazy as ever.

“Apparently one of the street gangs decided to [Bleep]ing rob a Rich-Corp shipment. So if you’re wondering why your packages are late, now you know. Good luck getting any of them back.

“On another note, Flim Flam Industries has officially announced the release of their new line of cybernetic wings. I wonder how long these will last before they spontaneously combust. My bet’s two days.

"Also Cherry Berry was found dead this morning in her pool. Her death is currently under investigation. Oh, well…

“Now our next song is, ‘We Won’t Comply,’ by Unsmashable.”

Midnight Blitzer stood at attention in front of the knight chief, Spitfire's desk, as he awaited his commanding officer. It had been three weeks since Midnight had officially joined the Horizon Knights and now that he had been outfitted with his protection harness and power armor, Midnight was ready for duty.

So it had been a pleasant, yet also slightly nerve wracking turn of events when Commander Spitfire had called for him to meet in her office. Now that he was waiting for her Midnight felt a little uneasy, his blue feathers fidgeting. Taking a deep breath, Midnight relaxed just a little, attempting to adjust his blue mane in an effort to look professional.

It was at that moment that the door opened. Instantly Midnight shot to attention and saluted as Spitfire entered. "Commander."

Spitfire stepped behind her desk.

"At ease," Spitfire instructed, "please have a seat."

Following his commanding officer's orders, Midnight sat down in a chair across from Spitfire. Once Midnight was seated, Spitfire pulled out a folder and examined its contents, before closing it and setting it down on the desk.

"I am pleased to present you with your first assignment," Spitfire said, "however there are some details that need to be discussed."

"Understood ma'am."

"Have you ever heard of a Lunar Core Module before?"

Midnight quickly pondered the subject. "A little. Weren't they supposed to be used on some sort of space satellite?"

Spitfire nodded. "Sort of. Back when the cities were constructed and the Equestrian government was on its last legs, we were attempting to find ways to make travel to the moon possible, in the hopes that it might be terraformed into a more habitable environment. These modules were meant to be used by special drones created for the task."

"But it never happened..."

"Unfortunately the first rocket exploded upon departure and the corporations scrapped it, however it would seem that not everything was discarded."

Spitfire motioned to the folder with a hoof. Opening the folder, Midnight saw the schematics for a Lunar Core Module along with a few digital photographs of some ponies robbing a delivery truck.

"So, apparently there was a Lunar Core Module that was uncovered in Neo Somnambula that was being delivered to Rich-Corp so that it might be reengineered for another task," Spitfire continued, "unfortunately it was ambushed by one of the local street gangs known as the Joy-ripper gang, who stole the module along with numerous other goods."

"I see," Midnight said, "and you wish for me to retrieve it."

"Correct," Spitfire nodded.

Quickly looking through the folder, Midnight noticed that something was missing. "Where's the coordinates to the gang's base?"

"There aren't any," Spitfire answered, "at this point in time we don't have any known coordinates for where the Joy-ripper gang is hanging out at. Because of that, we need you to uncover the location and retrieve the Lunar Core Module. However, you will need to blend in if you want any information out of the citizens in the lower city."

That certainly would make the mission a bit more difficult, yet it wasn't something that Midnight couldn't handle.

After looking over the folder once more, Midnight nodded. "I understand. I accept this mission."

Spitfire then stood and gave a solute. "Then long live the pharaoh."

Midnight mirrored his commander's actions. "Long live the pharaoh."

Walking through the streets of the lower city, Tansha couldn't help but feel a little bit nostalgic. It was hot as most days were, with ponies taking refuge inside of buildings and under the shades of canopies and tents. While it reminded her of the Somnambula she grew up in, it was so new and brimming with culture.

Unlike the upper city, the lower city of Neo Somnambula possessed many other races aside from just ponies, including diamond dogs, changelings, griffins, buffalo and other such races. Back before the Daybreak such an occurrence would be extremely rare, but when a sun goddess nearly vaporizes an entire country, everypony does what they have to in order to survive. Thus various cultures mingled down here in the lower city, mixing in with the Somnambulian architecture. Intermingled among the various neon signs, hieroglyphs and displays was the iconography of the papyrus flower.

Soaring above were many mechanical drones, like scarabs held aloft by four circular propellers, flying from one place to another, performing their various tasks.

Walking through the streets, Tansha was pleased when she found the place she was looking for. Much like many of the other buildings in the area, it was essentially a box with other boxes stacked on top of it with tubes and wires attached, however this one just so happened to be a quant little shop of sorts, with glass windows providing a view of the street for its customers.

A neon green sign hanging from the front read, ByteNBrew, with the letter 'N' flickering every once and a while.

There was a digital bell that rang once Tansha pushed open the door and stepped inside. The establishment was split into two areas, the cafe and the VR shop, with a wide archway connecting the two. Entering through the front door, Tansha found herself in the cafe.

The cafe’s interior had black and white checkered flooring tiles with walls covered in pale blue wallpaper. In the center of the room was an oval shaped counter space where the drinks were made and snacks were served, surrounded by stools.

Standing behind the counter was a beautiful mare who served as one of the store’s proprietors. Hearing the doorbell, Sweetie Belle looked up and smiled, her green eyes glistening with delight.

“Good morning Tansha,” Sweetie Belle greeted, “are you here to see Spike?”

“Yeah, he’s got another job for me,” Tansha answered, as she walked up to the counter and sat on one of the cushioned stools.

“Unfortunately he’s busy with a client at the moment, however if you want I can offer you a snack and a drink.”

Tansha shrugged. “Sure. I’ll have a caramel coffee and a locust bar.”

After fetching Tansha the locust bar, Sweetie Belle started brewing the coffee. As the fragrant aroma filled the air, Tansha looked at the bar’s wrapper, which showed a happy grasshopper with a top hat, with text saying that the bar was produced by Flim Flam Industries and that it was made with one hundred percent real locusts, supposedly with some honey mixed in.

Pulling back the wrapper, Tansha frowned as she examined the pale yellow bar.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Tansha grumbled, before biting down on the bar.

It was dry, crunchy, acidic and like always not a single trace of honey could be tasted.

“Figures…” Tansha mumbled. Fortunately, it was about that time that Sweetie Belle brought Tansha her coffee.

“Here’s your drink,” Sweetie said in her sweet, singsong voice as she placed the white ceramic cup in front of Tansha.

“Thank you,” Tansha said, as she picked up the cup with her magic and took a sip.

Tansha’s taste buds lit up as the liquid touched her tongue, the bitter taste of the coffee mingling with the sweetness of the caramel, a welcome contrast compared to the locust bar she had bit into prior.

Satisfied with her beverage, Tansha began dipping the bar into her coffee, hoping that the bar might absorb some of its flavor.

“So, how is life treating you?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Trying to keep busy, doing the occasional job and tending to that pet project that Spike has me working on.” Tansha took a bite out of her locust bar, pleased that it tasted less dry and slightly better. “Now how are you and your handsome dragon stud doing?”

Sweetie Belle’s white cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as she blushed. Using a hoof, she pulled back a stray strand of her pink mane.

“W-well, it has been quite nice actually. Our business has been doing well and Spike and I have… well, been enjoying each other’s company.”

Tansha remembered when she had first met this couple, both of them had just finished having an argument about how Spike had once had feelings for Sweetie’s older sister. Fortunately the two of them had managed to work things out.

“So, has he shown you his secret VR-disk stash?” Tansha asked with a sly grin.

Sweetie Belle’s eyes went wide. “How did you know about that?”

“A little intuition,” Tansha replied with a shrug, “was there… anything you liked?”

Scratching her chin, Sweetie pondered the inquiry. “Well… Rock Farm Simulator is pretty fun.”

Oh, so they were just… normal VR-game disks. Nothing juicy whatsoever.

“I see.” Tansha said, her ears drooped slightly.

After tilting her head to the side Sweetie Belle nodded. “Spike will be able to speak with you now.”

“Thank you,” Tansha said as she finished her coffee and walked into the next room. As Tansha entered the VR section of the store she passed by a customer on their way out.

Unlike the previous room, this room was dark save for the neon blue light that illuminated it, along with a few neon signs and a few digital screens that were on. Looking around the room, Tansha noticed a VR-pod that was still spendy, despite selling at a discounted price.
Behind the counter, was a tall, lean dragon, his green eyes and green dorsal scales glowing in the lighting. Upon seeing Tansha enter, the dragon smiled.

"Well, there's the mare of the hour," Spike said, as he leaned on the counter, a cunning grin on his face.

"Good morning Spike," Tansha said, "so you have a job for me."

"Correct." Spike put a closed sign on the counter, before walking toward the backroom. "Follow me."

Tansha followed Spike into the backroom. Now that he was in reasonably normal lighting it was easier to see his purple scales as well as the grayish green button up shirt, which he wore unbuttoned and the silver chain necklace around his neck.

This room contained numerous monitors as well as some other gadgets that could be used to repair computers, VR-pods and other such devices. Walking over to a data terminal, Spike began typing, his dark purple cybernetic left arm typing swiftly.

“So how’s Maat doing?” Spike asked.

“He’s doing pretty good,” Tansha replied, “occasionally he glitches out a bit, but I’ve always been able to keep him on track.”

“Well, as long as it stays that way and doesn’t go haywire then we’ll be all good.”

Ever since the Viral War, when the Apophis Data Strand was leaked onto the net, causing thousands of computer viruses to turn into chaotic rogue AI, ponies tended to be suspicious of all AI, fearing what might happen if they were left unchecked.

The only AI that was publicly accepted were the Spell-checker AI installed on every unicorn's Ba-Link. Due to how annoying the dumb AI was, Tansha was very pleased that Spike had replaced it with Maat.

“Don’t worry, if he causes any trouble it’s because he was instructed to do so by me,” Tansha said, “but let’s get down to bit-tax, we both know that you didn’t call me here to talk about Maat.”

Spike nodded and a message appeared on Tansha’s HUD, showing that a foreign device was requesting access to her Ba-Link. Recognizing Spike’s identification code, Tansha waved a hoof and accepted the request, causing numerous images to appear on her HUD.

“Our client is a rich stallion from the upper city who purchased an extremely rare VR-program from me with a very generous offer. So naturally I accepted the payment and sent him the package post haste.”

“But something happened.”

“Yeah.” Images of a Rich-Corp transport truck appeared. The vehicle was on its side surrounded by many ponies wearing black jackets. “Unfortunately a gang known as the Joy-rippers ambushed the vehicle and all its contents were stolen.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“Initially I had intended to refund the client,” Spike continued, “however instead he said that if we were to retrieve the program that he not only honor the original agreement but double the amount and if the VR-program was shown to be completely intact that he’d provide a bonus as well.”

“That’s awfully generous of him.” If not a little suspicious. “So what’s the plan?”

A few more images flashed before Tansha’s eyes, one being the image of a crate and the other a map with a white question mark on it.

“Now we don’t know where the Joy-rippers reside but we do know some of their hangouts as well as the number of the crate that has the program. Your mission will be to find the base, retrieve the program for the client and come back here. Simple as that.”

Yeah, “simple.”

"Did you manage to fix my mask?" Tansha asked.

Spike shook his head. "Unfortunately, I'm still missing one of the replacement parts, but hopefully it will be here in a couple days."

So the direct route was off the table.

“This isn’t a lot to work with,” Tansha said, “but… I’m sure I can figure it out. So let’s talk about payment.”

“I think the standard sixty, forty percent works, with you getting forty and I sixty.”

Tansha scrunched her nose. “I don’t know, it seems like a lot of hard work. How about fifty five, forty five?”

“Sixty, forty.”

“Come on, how about fifty eight, forty two.”

Spike shook his head. “Nope. Sixty, forty.”

Well, this wasn’t going anywhere… unless.

A sly grin stretched across Tansha’s face. “How about this? You give me forty percent of the cut… as well as a special, unrated VR-program starring both you and your sweetheart.”

Spike’s cheeks flushed bright red. Looking away, Spike grumbled. “Fifty eight, forty two it is.”
"Any chance you'll throw that pod in?" Tansha asked.

Spike crossed his arms. "If you want it, you can buy it yourself with your earnings."

Well, it was worth a shot.

“Thank you.” Satisfied with negotiations, Tansha walked back into the store, her smile beaming.

“I take it everything went well,” Sweetie Belle said, seeing the smile on her friend’s face.

“Oh, it certainly did,” Tansha said happily as she walked toward the door.

Thunderlane surveyed the scene of the crime. The victim was face down in her swimming pool, the crystal clear water completely gone, replaced by a black inky substance. The dark slime tainted the victim’s coat. From up here, most of Neo Somnambula’s upper city could be seen.

“The victim is Cherry Berry,” another Horizon Knight said, “she had a meeting at Rich-Corp but never arrived. A Rich-Corp representative was sent to check on her and when she didn’t respond, the hotel manager came and unlocked the door.”

“Do we know how she died?” Thunderlane asked.

“It would seem that somepony held her under and she drowned,” the Horizon Knight answered.

Stooping down, Thunderlane looked closely at the black substance. “Do we know what this stuff is?”

“A sample has been sent to forensics.”

Standing up, Thunderlane looked over the scene again. All of this seemed both strange and all too familiar.