Back to the Past 01: Grave New World

An electric sign buzzed and flickered above the entrance to a bar. The establishment known as “The Rusty Wrench” had a crumbling facade and grimy windows that seemed to blend into the surrounding decay, as if the building itself was trying to avoid attention.

Outside the building, sodium lights flooded a scene with monochrome amber. A group of four gnolls had cornered a scrawny human against the graffiti-covered wall. The largest of the gnolls, a brutish creature with a ragged ear and a puckered scar across his muzzle, loomed over the cowering man. The gnoll’s rank breath washed over the human’s face as he snarled his demands.

“Listen up, Scabby Joe,” the gnoll growled. “You’ve been holding out on us. The Syndicate knows about your little side hustle, skimming off the top of our protection fees.”

Scabby Joe trembled, his hands raised in a placating gesture. “No, no, you got it all wrong, Fangmar,” he pleaded, his voice quavering. “I wouldn’t dare! I know better than to cross the Syndicate!”

The other gnolls chuckled darkly, their laughter sounding like gravel in a garbage disposal. One of them, a wiry creature with a tattered ear, stepped forward and cracked his knuckles menacingly.

“You think we’re stupid, human?” the wiry gnoll sneered. “We’ve been watching you. We know about every kopin you’ve pocketed, every deal you’ve skimmed.”

Scabby Joe’s eyes darted left and right, desperately seeking an escape route. But the gnolls had him well and truly cornered. The street was deserted at this hour, and even if anyone did pass by, they were unlikely to intervene. In this part of town, minding one’s own business was a survival skill.

Fangmar reached out with a clawed hand and grabbed Scabby Joe by the front of his shirt, lifting him off his feet and slamming him against the wall. The human’s head cracked against the concrete, and he saw stars.

“You’ve got two choices, Scabby,” Fangmar growled, his muzzle inches from the human’s face. “You can pay us what you owe, plus interest, right now. Or we can take it out of your hide.”

Scabby Joe’s hand scrabbled at his pocket, fumbling for his elmonit card. But even as he did so, he knew it was futile. He didn’t have nearly enough to cover what the gnolls were demanding. He had gambled and lost, and now he was going to pay the price.

Fangmar’s claws tightened on Scabby Joe’s shirt, and the human closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable pain. But then, suddenly, there was a loud clunk. Human and gnoll alike glanced toward the ground where a grapefruit-sized orb had just landed.

“Hey! Hey, what!?” one of the gnolls managed to blurt before the grenade exploded in their faces.

The stun grenade detonated with a blinding flash and a deafening bang. Although not made to produce shrapnel, the concussion was powerful and knocked Joe and Fangmar off their feet, the big gnoll landing painfully on his tail.

Cloud dove into the fray, her wings extended. The stunner affixed to her right wing hummed with energy as she brought it up alongside the nearest gnoll’s head. The creature yelped in pain and crumpled to the ground, twitching.

Nitro darted in and out of the melee, his stunner striking with precision. He jabbed it into a gnoll’s ribs, sending the creature sprawling. Then he spun and kicked, his hind foot connected with another gnoll’s leg with a sickening crunch and put that foe on the ground.

Fangmar was just staggering to his feet when Heftig struck with a whirlwind of talons and feathers, her battle cry piercing the night air. She lashed out with her razor-sharp claws, raking them across the gnoll’s face. The creature howled, clutching at its bleeding muzzle. With his other meaty paw he grabbed for a sidearm, but Heftig instantly swatted it aside. She pinned him and growled, “That’s enough!”

Fangmar simply whined, in the gnoll’s natural way of crying uncle.

Just as it seemed the fight was winding down, two more gnolls emerged from the shadows. They were big, by gnoll standards, with muscles bulging beneath their crude armor. They carried massive clubs studded with jagged metal spikes.

“Reinforcements!” Heftig called out, her voice tight with strain as she kept her own weight on Fangmar’s back. Cloud and Nitro turned to face the new threat.

The gnolls advanced, their clubs raised. Cloud snorted and pawed the ground with a hoof, then charged at one. The gnoll seemed confused by her appearance and behavior, and he hesitated—for an instant, but it was all the opening Cloud needed. Once again she ducked her head as if to butt him, and used her long, invisible horn to hook his leg and topple him onto the ground. She tramped on him with her front hooves, then reached down with a wing and the myotron that was affixed to it. In moments he was disarmed and out of action.

She turned to find Nitro in scrimmage with the remaining gnoll. He was quick enough to dodge swings of the club, but seemed unwilling to dart in and attack. Well, if that club ever connected, it would probably be the end for Nitro.

The gnoll was battling alone now, though. Heftig slammed into him, grappled him with her arms, and then Nitro gave him a long, hard jolt from his myotron. Heftig herself got an indirect buzz from the device, but managed to hang on.

Only then did Cloud look around and see Fangmar back on his feet, staggering away toward an alley. She snorted and spread her wings, but Heftig called out, “Wait! Don’t go after him, let him go!” Cloud looked back questioningly at the griffin, who added, “He has a message to deliver to the Iron Syndicate.”

Scabby Joe, forgotten in the chaos of the fight, peeked out from behind a dumpster where he had taken cover. His eyes were wide with shock and gratitude. “Thank you,” he stammered, his voice shaking. “I thought I was a goner for sure.”

Heftig turned to the human, her eyes narrowed, and said, “Don’t think this makes us friends, Scabby Joe. We know all about your little arrangement with the Syndicate.”

Joe’s pale face went even paler. He raised his hands defensively. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just trying to get by, same as anyone else.”

Heftig snorted. “Save it! We’ve been watching you, Scabby Joe.”

Joe’s shoulders slumped. “Look, I didn’t have a choice. You know how it is down here. If you don’t play ball with the Syndicate, they’ll crush you.”

Nitro said, “And how did that work out? You were about to get crushed anyhow. I heard what was said.”

Joe just shook his head sullenly.

Cloud stepped forward, her eyes hard. “There’s always a choice. You could have stood up to them, like we do.”

Joe laughed bitterly. “Stand up to them? With what? I’m not a fighter like you lot. I’m just a small-time hustler trying to keep my head above water.”

Heftig sighed. “We’re not going to turn you in, Scabby Joe. But consider this a warning. The Syndicate’s days are numbered. When the time comes, you’d better be on the right side.” She jerked her head towards the mouth of the alley. “Now get out of here. And think hard about your life choices.”

Joe didn’t need to be told twice. He scurried away, disappearing into the shadows of the street.

Heftig turned her attention to the defeated gnolls. They lay in various states of unconsciousness and injury, groaning and twitching. “Tie them up,” she ordered. “We’ll load them on the truck and take them back to base for questioning. I want to know the Syndicate’s layout.”

As the weary but victorious rebels made their way back to their hidden headquarters, the adrenaline of the fight slowly ebbed, replaced by a sense of camaraderie and accomplishment. They had struck a blow against the Iron Syndicate, and though it was a small victory in the grand scheme of things, it was a victory nonetheless.

Soon thereafter, inside the converted warehouse that served as their base, the mood was jubilant. Rebels clapped each other on the back, sharing grins and recounting moments from the skirmish. Someone had broken out a stash of moonshine, and the potent liquor flowed freely.

In the midst of the celebration, Heftig climbed atop a crate and raised her voice. “Listen up, you lot!” The chatter died down as all eyes turned to the griffin. “We did good tonight. We showed those Syndicate scum that they can’t push us around. That we’re not afraid to stand up for what’s right.”

Cheers and raised glasses met her words. Heftig waited for the noise to subside before continuing. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This was just one battle. The war’s far from over. The Syndicate’s not going to take this lying down. They’ll be out for blood now.”

A few rebels shifted uneasily, but most looked determined. They knew the risks when they signed up for this fight.

Heftig’s gaze found Cloud in the crowd. “And let’s hear it for our newest recruit. Cloud, you were a force out there tonight. You’ve got some serious skills.”

Cloud felt her face grow warm as the rebels around her whooped and cheered. She wasn’t used to this kind of attention or praise. In her old life, she had always been the odd one out, the object of suspicion. As soon as the noise piped down, she countered, “Hey, we caught ‘em by surprise, and that first grenade did a lot of the heavy lifting. That was a perfect toss, Nitro!”

That brought more cheers. Nitro leaned and slipped a wing around Cloud’s barrel, grinning. “Thank you, Ma’am! We make a good team, huh?”

Cloud laughed, a bit nervously. Nitro was overtly flirting, and that was something she was very much not accustomed to. She said, “I’m just doing my part. We’re all in this together, right?”

Heftig nodded, a fierce light in her eyes. “Damn right we are. And together, we’re going to take down the Syndicate and anyone else who tries to keep us under their boot. For Iggy!”

“For Iggy!” the rebels echoed, their voices ringing out in the cavernous space.

As the cheers died down and the celebration resumed, Cloud felt a sense of purpose and belonging. She had found her place, her cause. And she would fight for it with everything she had.

The air buzzed with tense excitement as Cloud Strife joined the rebels in reviewing their plans one final time. Heftig sat upright at the head of the table, gesturing emphatically as she described the coordinated attacks they would unleash against the Iron Syndicate.

“Alright team, this is it,” Heftig said, meeting each of their gazes. “We hit them hard and fast in locations across the Gutter Level. Their ill-gotten gains become the people’s gains.”

The rebels nodded, faces set with determination. Cloud noticed Flicker’s wings fluttering nervously beneath his cloak while Topaz absently spun several throwing stars, sparkling with magic, in an orbit around her horn.

“Cloud, Nitro, you’re on the west side taking out stash house Gamma,” Heftig continued. “Flicker and Topaz will handle target Beta to the east. Wildheart, Briar and I will draw the bulk of resistance at Alpha. We strike in thirty minutes.”

The teams dispersed to grab their weapons and supplies. Cloud double checked the charge on the myotron that Handy Walter had rigged to clip onto a wing. This could be employed much like normal pegasus wing-blades, but with less bloodshed. Nitro checked his own identical stunner and satchel of grenades.

“Ready, Cloud?” he asked.

She nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Minutes later they slipped into the dingy streets, keeping to the shadows as they made their way toward the stash house. Cloud scanned the facade of the decaying apartment building, senses alert for any sign of guards. At Nitro’s signal, they burst through a side door into a dim hallway. Booted footsteps pounded above them.

“Upstairs,” Cloud hissed.

Nitro nodded and got a grenade out of his satchel, pulled the pin, and swatted it up the stairwell with his wing. There were a few clunks as it disappeared from view, then a canine bark of alarm. Then, BLAM! The rickety building shook, and plaster debris rained down from the ceiling.

Cloud unfurled her wings and launched skyward, slamming into a half-stunned gnoll emerging from the stairwell. She pinned him with a hoof and zapped him with her stunner before he could react. Nitro charged past, then Cloud was right behind him.

Bursting into the room, they found it fairly wrecked by the grenade blast, full of acrid haze, windows blown out, furniture overturned and debris scattered, and a bloodied gnoll who was moaning a little but not really conscious.

“This is what we’re after,” Nitro said, gesturing with his wing toward a battered cabinet. “The meds! There’s folks who need this stuff.” He started to move toward them, but a muffled clomping noise gave him pause.

“More company,” Cloud said grimly, taking up a defensive stance.

The door burst open and a massive bull minotaur charged in, spiked club raised high. Cloud dove aside as the club whooshed past her head, pulverizing a crate where she had stood moments before. She reared and lashed out with front hooves, slamming the minotaur into the wall. He rebounded quickly, eyes blazing with fury as he swung at her again.

Cloud darted away from the blows, leading him around the room. As the bull pursued her, Nitro moved in from behind and jabbed his stunner into the minotaur’s back. With a sizzling burst of electricity, the bipedal bull convulsed, bellowing, and dropped his club, but then whirled trying to grab at Nitro.

That left Cloud behind him, so she lowered her head and threaded her horn between the minotaur’s legs, then flexed her neck and lifted him. She charged forward past Nitro and heaved the minotaur through the window, dumping him out of the building.

Cloud and Nitro both peered out the window, down into the alley. After a few moments Cloud concluded, “I don’t think he’s getting up.”

“Whew, that was close,” Nitro said. He looked back to his partner appraisingly. “Wow, it really took some power for you to shove that big guy out the window!”

“Haha, yeah! I don’t know what got into me,” she answered dismissively. Of course, she thought, he doesn’t know I’m really an alicorn.

“Well, c’mon, let’s gather up the stuff.” They started rifling through the cabinet and other boxes that had been scattered around the room in the chaos, picking out medical supplies that the Syndicate had been hoarding. They packed these into a couple of black gym bags.

They were finishing up their search when they heard the wail of sirens approaching. Exchanging a worried glance, they rushed to grab the gym bags. Cloud looked out the window and spotted a squad of Commissars swarming toward the building. She extended a wing in front of Nitro to forestall him. “Not this way! Out the other side!” she asserted.

“Time to fly!” he yelled. He leapt out the same window the Minotaur had gone out. Cloud was right behind, and the two winged ponies rocketed away.

Tension hung heavy in the air at Iggy’s Army headquarters as the rebels gathered around Heftig. Her usual swagger was gone, replaced by a grim expression. “Word on the street is the Iron Syndicate’s out for blood,” she said, her voice low. “They’re massing forces to hit us back hard for the raids.”

Nervous glances flitted between the assembled rebels. Flicker’s wings buzzed with agitation while Topaz’s tail flicked anxiously.

“Maybe...” Heftig began, then paused, as if wrestling with the words. “Maybe we played this wrong. Went too soft on ‘em. Now they think we’re weak.”

Nitro frowned. “You think they’re gonna come at us with everything they’ve got?”

“I’d bet on it,” Heftig said darkly. “Gnolls, minotaurs, the whole Syndicate. We bloodied their snouts but left ‘em standing. They’ll want to make an example of us.”

Silence fell as the weight of Heftig’s prediction settled over the crew like a shroud. Cloud glanced around at her newfound comrades, seeing the unease written on their faces. She stepped forward, drawing their attention, and said, “Hey, we’ve won every battle so far. Isn’t this all going to plan?”

Heftig whirled to face Cloud, eyes blazing. “You don’t get it. The Syndicate won’t show restraint like we have. You don’t know these streets like I do! The Iron Syndicate lives and dies by ruthlessness. If we don’t match it, we’re done for.”

“I understand that,” Cloud said gently. “But there’s no point in second-guessing now. There’s an old saying: You go to war with the army you’ve got. So, we’ll fight the Iron Syndicate with this crew, with these weapons, and with the tactics that we’ve trained for. And we’ll win. Won’t we?”

Heftig met Cloud’s gaze, a flicker of her old fire returning. “You’re right,” she said slowly. “We can’t lose our nerve now. We stick to the plan.”

“Exactly,” Cloud agreed. “We fortify HQ, stay alert, and trust in each other. We’ve got this.”

Nods and murmurs of assent rippled through the group. Heftig’s confidence visibly returned as she straightened up, squaring her shoulders. “You heard Cloud,” she barked. “Let’s get this place ready for anything the Syndicate throws our way. Topaz, Nitro, start reinforcing the entrances. Walter, I want traps rigged on all approaches. Flicker, get our eyes and ears out there. The Syndicate so much as sneezes, I wanna know about it. Move!”

The rebels scattered to their tasks with renewed energy and determination. As Cloud watched them work, a fierce pride swelled in her chest. Come what may, Iggy’s Army would stand united.

Cloud sat alone on a stack of crates in the warehouse, absentmindedly turning a stunner over in her hooves. Work was still underway to fortify the gang’s HQ against the anticipated assault, but the initial burst of activity had settled down to a more sustainable pace, with crew members taking breaks as needed.

“Hey.” Cloud glanced up to see Nitro approaching, his expression grim. “Mind if I join you?”

Cloud nodded, scooting over to make room. Nitro settled down beside her with a heavy sigh. “Crazy day, huh?” he said. When Cloud didn’t respond, he followed her gaze to the weapon in her hooves. “Ah. Having doubts?”

Cloud hesitated. “I just wonder sometimes if there’s a better way. I know the Syndicate needs to be stopped, but...” She trailed off.

Nitro was quiet for a moment. “I get it. I used to run with them, remember? Did some things I regret.” He paused. “But Iggy showed me there’s always hope, even in the darkest times. That’s why we can’t give up.”

Cloud considered his words. “Back where I’m from, we resolved conflicts with understanding, not violence. At least until…” She stopped herself, not wanting to reveal too much.

Nitro studied her. “Well, wherever you’re from, it sounds nice. But this is our reality.” He gestured around them. “Sometimes you have to get your hooves dirty so folks like Heftig can keep dreaming of something better.”

Cloud met his earnest gaze, moved by his empathy. In that moment, she was reminded that every creature here was just trying to survive in Sceleste’s harsh world, in whatever way they knew how. “You’re right,” she said finally. “I can’t lose hope. If I do, then what was the point of any of this?”

Nitro grinned and nudged her shoulder. “There’s the Cloud I know. Welcome back.”

Cloud smiled faintly. “Thanks, Nitro.”

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching the other rebels work. Flicker and Topaz were welding metal plates across the warehouse windows while Handy Walter placed traps and alarms. Heftig then came by and had a brief discussion with Flicker. Looking unhappy, the changeling left the work and disappeared toward the back hall.

Heftig then approached Cloud and Nitro.

“Something up with Flicker,” Nitro asked.

Heftig said, “I told him to get out of here and go to ground. He’s too valuable to risk in the battle. Even if he didn’t get hurt, there’s too many folks around already that know about him.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Nitro reluctantly agreed.

“Maybe you two could take his place and help over there with the barricades?”

“Wilco!” Nitro stood and stretched. “Well, c’mon! Those barricades won’t build themselves.” He nudged Cloud lightly.

She rose to her hooves, feeling reinvigorated. As they moved to rejoin the others, a question occurred to her. “Nitro, do you really think we can win against the Syndicate? Against Sceleste?” she asked quietly.

He glanced back, eyes widening with alarm. “Uh, what? Hey, we’re not fighting against Sceleste. I’m sure the Empress would be totally backing us if she knew what was really going on down here, don’t you think?”

Once again Cloud looked aggrieved, as he’d noticed before whenever the topic of Sceleste came up. She said, “I’ve been out of circulation for a long time. But the state of the world she rules over doesn’t give me much reason to suspect she’s changed her ways.”

Nitro fidgeted. “But you, uh… I mean, I just figured a pony like you might have, you know, connections with the Empire.”

Cloud narrowed her eyes. “I’ve got history with Celestia, or Sceleste as you call her, if that’s what you mean. But I’d rather not get into that now.”

Nitro’s brow furrowed in thought. “I just… Y’know what? Maybe I better just keep my nose out of it. I grew up down here with the gangs; that’s what I know. Anything to do with the Empire is out of my league. So let’s take one thing at a time, eh?”

Cloud considered this, then nodded firmly. “You’re right. We’ve got a fight coming up.”

Nitro nodded back, and he raised a hoof. “Let’s do this.” They hoof-bumped, then he trotted off to help Topaz, who, despite her magic, was struggling to lift a large metal beam.