Cyberpony Y2K

Lyra stared at her for the first five seconds. Then she sighed. "I already told you. I was on orders."

"From Princess Cadenza?" Indigo burst out. "You're kidding."

Lyra shook her head.

"But—but—she's Princess of Diplomacy! Since when do we take orders from--"

"She is a Princess, Indigo," Lyra said. "I came to her over something else entirely, but the order was hers."

"But—but why?"

"Fleur's been cyber jolted. Princess Cadenza believes she's going to start speaking against cybernetics, and it would be convenient for her to disappear." Lyra gritted her teeth, squeezing one of her bullet wounds. "Ooh...fuck...ow. Ah..."

Indigo sighed, rubbing her forehead.

Then stepped over to Lyra, then began to unwind the bandages. "These should have been swapped ten minutes ago," she griped, for lack of anything better to say.

"I just came back with more five minutes ago," Lyra said. "I, uh, have been liberally using the Right of Recquisition."

"I mean, yeah. This is easily forty bits worth of medical supplies, not to mention some pony's house. Is...is that covered under Recquisition?"

"Ehh...probably? A big enough pay check makes ponies willing to overlook a lot of trespasses."

"Princess Glimmer is gonna be furious," Indigo muttered. It was well known amongst even common ponies that the Princess of Commerce hated the Right of Recquisition. "Let's get a look at those wounds." She dropped the old, dripping bandages onto a nearby table and took a close look at the bullet holes. They'd been stitched up good enough, but one had come back open. Indigo pulled the needle and thread out of the medkit, then went to work. "I thought you'd have more scars," she said.

"Eh...I didn't care for them," Lyra said. "I got rid of them. Though I'm a little old to do that at this point. A little past my prime, and...there's nopony who'd see them anymore, anyway."

"Right...your old partner. I...just assumed you stayed in touch with her."

Lyra sighed. "The records are wrong. Twilight never should have put her down as AWOL. She...she had to have died."

"But—"

"No. No buts. She wouldn't have left without telling me."

"If you say so."

Lyra stared at her. "Not going to tell me to get over it?"

"Eh. I wasn't there. I never met Bon-bon. I can't say anything either way, so why bother? Brace yourself."

"I suppose I was just..." Indigo tightened the fresh bandages. Lyra broke off with a stream of foul curses in her kind, sweet voice.

"I said to brace yourself," Indigo said unapollogetically when Lyra finished.

"That is not how you tie bandages!" Lyra snapped.

"Yeah it is. Minuette showed me how."

"I taught her better than that."

Indigo raised an eyebrow. "She said she was just doing it like you taught her to."

Before Lyra could respond, Fleetfoot spoke up. "Incoming message, Minuette, direct line."

Indigo said, "We're clear."

Minuette's voice rang out. "Alright, verified. Lyra did go and receive an order from Princess Cadenza. The Princess neglected to tell me what it was--"

"Yeah, I got it," Indigo said. "The order was the execution of Fleur de Liss."

"What? Since when--"

"Oh for crying out loud," Lyra interrupted, pulling at her face. "The both of you. What am I supposed to do, disobey her? I don't like, care for, or trust the order, but come on! It was Princess Cadenza!"

"You should have gone to Princess Midnight, and you know it," Minuette snapped. "Princess Midnight would have sorted out the whole situation in five minutes. Now we have a week's worth of coverups, Lyra."

Indigo grimaced.

"Forget it. Come on back when you can. Indigo, try blaming it on the Changelings. Use the Right of Silence if you have to, but we can't have Fleur talking about this."

"Got it. You go explain the situation to Princess Midnight. And, uh...maybe send me a flight of Wonderbolts, too."

"What?"

"There's a Discord base somewhere nearby," Lyra said. "I was attacked by the Diamond Duster."

"You're sure it's not a Changeling?" Minuette said. "We think there was one that used Diamond Duster's face to kill Trenderhoof."

"Crystal bullets, sawed-off shotgun. I still have the bullets, too. And there was another with it there. Strange mare, in a trenchcoat, glasses, and fedora. With a rifle a bit bigger than civs are allowed." Lyra frowned. "Something was strange about her. If she's not with Discord, I'll eat my gun."

"Got it," Minuette said. "I'll be flying in with a few Wonderbolts in a matter of hours. But you've got to keep Discord from leaving."

"Got it. But...wait, what about your surgery?"

"I'll be fine."

"Uh, no, that's not--"

"Discord's long been a thorn in our side. It's only a matter of time before they actually start doing things again. We've ignored this threat too long. If we can take out one of their elite operatives, we'll be that much better off."

"How will you do anything with your heart implant malfunctioning?"

"With seven Wonderbolts on hand, I'll be fine," Minuette said firmly. "Just make sure things are right on your end."

"Gah, fine. Indigo out."

"Minuette out."

The call crackled as it ended.

"I'm...kind of dead-weight at the moment," Lyra said. "Leave one of your Wonderbolts here, take the rest, and find the Duster."

"Um..." Indigo ran a hand through her mane, swishing her tail awkwardly. "I said that because I thought you...were a Changeling," she said. "I just have her."

Lyra sighed. "Well, that's...one Wonderbolt. I guess. Does she have the standard loadout?"

Fleetfoot pulled out a pistol. "Colt 45, ruby rounds. The gun arm was not really stealthy, so I left it at home."

"I'm not sure that'll cut it," Lyra said. "Diamond Duster's armor was at least Wonderbolt grade. It ate up my 556 rounds with barely a dent. And if she's really an android, then she won't really need padding under the armor to soften the blunt force trauma. Maybe she just has an extra layer of metal plates."

"What about your next size up?" Indigo said.

"Bounced off, but I think it scratched her," Lyra said. "My angling was bad, though. Kinda just clipped her shoulder from the side. I didn't get a change to pull out the big boys, though." She grimaced. "She caught me around the bend, in the middle breaking out the big bullets."

"Great. So my guns won't cut it unless I shoot exclusively the same spot." Indigo pulled open her coat, checking. All her pistols were in place, tucked into the various holsters inside her jacket. "Problem. I don't have great accuracy at range." She pulled out one of her snub-nosed pistols.

"That's a big problem," Lyra said. "Don't you have any larger pistols?"

"No. They're harder to fit under the coat."

Lyra sighed, then flipped her gun around, handing it to Indigo. "Take this. I'll want it back in one piece."

Indigo took it, taking a moment to adjust to the gun's somewhat hefty weight. "Caliber?"

"500 Magnum, emerald. Point blank it might actually fully penetrate." She pulled out an extra ammo cartridge, which Indigo traded for one of her extra pistols.

"This is a bit bigger than any other pistol I've fired. And Minuette's kicks."

"I worked the recoil a bit, it should be more like Min's now," Lyra said. "But most importantly, it's bigger than your current one. I strongly recommend carrying something a little bigger around with you, just in case. You've seen how strong some of these modern armors are getting, and we can't always rely on the criminals not having access to the best armor."

"Duly noted." Indigo checked the cartridge, nodded to herself, then reloaded the gun. As she examined it, she found a small icon of a candy wrapper traced onto the hilt.

"I'll keep an eye out," Lyra said, "but you still have to catch them before Minuette arrives."

"Wait, you want me to leave you here?"

"I'll be fine. I've still got my rifle, of course." She grinned, picking up the rifle from the floorboard. "Let's see Miss Duster take a 50 BMG and keep walking. I'll pay her back then and there."

"Okay then," Indigo said. "Be on the lookout. I bet they're jumping at the chance to kill an Inquisitor. Where did you see them, anyway?"

"Over at the edge of town. Literally. There's a shack on the freakin' border of Everfree Forest, and she came barreling out of the woods. To...save Fleur, I think."

"Ah, lovely," Indigo said. "I get to listen to a criminal psychopath try and take the moral highground with me. Thanks, Lyra."

Lyra held up her middle finger. "Up yours, Zap," she muttered, closing her eyes.

Indigo found herself chuckling as she headed for the door. "Alright. Stay safe. And just in case...if 'I' come back around, don't let me in until I tell you...Summer Sun."

"Gotcha."

Indigo stepped out the door, then scanned around the nearby houses. "Alright, then, Duster," she said, "where would you be hiding?"

She looked side to side, then to the building that somepony had been watching her from. She narrowed her eyes, marching towards it.

"Shouldn't we be trying to be stealthier?" Fleetfoot asked.

"If that's them in there, they saw us already," Indigo said. She stepped up, looking up at the building. Two stories, not readily apparent as a house, but no store signs on it, either.

A large padlock sat at the foot of the door, scratches on it showing use of lockpicks. Indigo pushed the door open slowly, then rapidly ducked to the side.

Surprisingly, no shot came, so she peaked around the side.

Nopony was watching the door.

Maybe it was some local kid? she thought to herself. Either way, one did not pick their own lock, so this was definitely a forced entry.

"Friendship Inquisitors! Come out with your hands where I can see them! Any hostile action will be met with lethal force!" she bellowed, striding forward.

Silence met her.

The room was full of boxes, and when Indigo peaked into one, all she saw was canned food. And some other shelf-stable items. The boxes themselves carried Everfree's logo on them, their classic tree/sundial fusion with FOREVER EVERFREE written bellow it.

Indigo tore a piece of paper off the wall, quickly reading through it. "It's an Everfree storage building," she said. "They kept notes on how much food they had." Except most of the numbers had been scribbled out, and replaced with much smaller numbers. At the bottom of the page, someone had written, "I have reason to believe somepony is stealing food. If that is you, do note that this is for a CHARITY DRIVE and you're either in need yourself, so you need only ask, or you are not in need, in which case, you are stealing from HOMELESS PEOPLE." That was double-underlined, and the ink had been smudged where the pony had clearly been angry while writing. "Whatever the case, further thefts will not be tolerated. So KNOCK IT OFF." And it was signed, G.D.

Gloriosa Daisy, the woman whose parents had founded Everfree.

Indigo kicked open every door she found, but nopony was hiding in there.

"This is your last warning!" she called up, heading for the staircase. "If you do not come out, I will assume that you are of hostile intent!"

No response came. So probably not a local kid, she thought to herself. With no sign of anypony on the first floor, she headed for the staircase. She spread her wings, keeping her hooves off the steps, and her flaps light, as she flew up to the door. Fleetfoot stayed at the bottom of the steps—her engines were too loud. Indigo put her ear up to the door, listening.

She heard a faint scuffing, as if somepony was moving. Then a quiet curse.

Then...a loud heartbeat? Evenly spaced beats, pounding.

Indigo leapt to the side just as the door shattered. Indigo landed, sliding back on her hooves as an echoing BOOM filled the room. Bits of plaster fell off the roof, hitting the ground besides her as a large, crooked-looking android landed in front of her.

Indigo fired a few times before the Diamond Duster rose, but the bullets ricocheted off the sides of the android. Indigo grimaced, stepping back as she kept the guns trained on the android.

"Do you really want this dance, sweetheart?" the android rasped.

"A job's a job," Indigo answered, "but yeah. I'll take this one." She grinned. "Rather wish you were easier on the eyes, though."

"Cute," Diamond chuckled. "I've long since given up on looking beautiful, though."

Indigo raised both her guns and fired.