Clean Up Crew

Lyra moved swiftly along the broken landscape, her speed aided by her Dragon Armor having changed into its Dragon Aspect, allowing her to fly over the random broken buildings as she followed the two pilots who had left with her. She opened up her communicator, linking up with the other two as she pulled up beside them.

“Alright ladies or gents who do I have the pleasure of flying with today?”

“Hell Gate here Commander.”

“Silent Wing here Commander.”

“Alright I want to wrap this up quick but not do anything dangerous, I got a hot piece of ass waiting for me at home but that doesn’t mean we should be sloppy about this opt.”

“No need to fret Commander we understand completely, we were getting busy in my own unite when the alarm sounded.”

This made Lyra laugh, and then she spotted the target coming into range. “Ok guys I spot her, lets get to work.”

They banked towards the beast, but as they started the first fly by, Lyra’s suit started talking to her. “You have an urgent message coming in from Soul city, shall I patch it through?”

“Go ahead Muse,” she said, but immediately regretted it when her ears filled with a familiar voice.

“LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!”

“hi mom,” said Lyra, dodging out of the way of the monsters tentacles as it tried to whack her out of the air. “How you doing?”

“Don’t you pull that one on me young lady, you may be 497 years old but I am still your senior by a long shot, do you realize what day it is?”

Lyra quickly pulled up the date as she blasted the creature, and groaned when she saw what day it was. “By the celestial stars…I’m sorry mom I totally forgot.”

“You have that luxury Lyra, but I do not. Once you’re done I want you to head strait over to the factory, I will be waiting for you.”

The communication cut off, leaving Lyra feeling horrible. Why, why the fuck did she have to forget about today, it hurt her as much as it hurt Mercury.

She turned to see the creature fall, and patched in quickly to the guys and told them to mop it up. As she turned to head back to base, she phoned into her home, and breathed a sigh of relief when it was Boss who picked up.

“Hey Boss, I am sorry but I won’t be able to come home yet, I got things to do…”

“Yeah about that…we will need to talk when you get back.”

“What’s…” she started to ask, only to have Boss cut the signal. Lyra cursed, Boss always did things like that when something was bothering him, and it annoyed the hell out of Lyra. She shook her head and grumbled; this was not turning out to be a good day.

* * *

She shivered as she walked along the road toward the Spectra Factory, not really wanting to go inside but knowing she had to. She met up with her mother, who was standing outside the large iron doors, glaring at her as she approached.

“Come on, were late,” said Mercury, opening the door and leading her inside.

As they walked through the doors, Lyra caught sight of a sign on the wall beside them, carrying what had been adopted as the workers morbid mantra.

“Now spectra’s tale isn’t quite as nice, as the story we hear of sugar and spice,

But spectras easy once you get to know it, with the help of the magic of the spectra device.

Let's delve deeper into spectra philosophy, far beyond that of Soul City’s mythology

It's easy to misjudge that sprawling city with its alluring decor and social psychology.

But with all great things comes a great responsibility, that of Soul City’s being technological stability

How, you ask, are they up to the task, to which the answer is in a simple facility

In the Spectra Factory, where your fears and horrors come true,

In the Spectra Factory, where not a single soul gets through.

In the Spectra Factory, where your fears and horrors come true,

In the Spectra Factory, where not a single soul gets through.”

It was crude, at was horrid, but it was the truth, and all factory workers knew it. They put hundreds to death every year, and then spent the rest of that time refining and processing the spectra that they harvested from their fellow citizens. Lyra turned away from the sign as she followed her mother through the next set of doors, exiting out onto the factories main floor. Around them were hundreds of ponies in lab coats, running two and from doors as they helped monitor the ponies as their blood was slowly harvested from their bodies.

Occasionally one of the doctors would wave, smiling sadly at them before hurrying on their way. Lyra waved back, not at all worried by their actions, for they were frequent visitors to the facility. They soon passed through another set of doors, walking toward and elevator and entered.

“Level zero, Spectra Enhancement Chamber,” said Mercury.

“Voice key recognized, access granted to restricted level.”

Lyra felt the familiar sensation of the elevator detaching from the wall, then taking off to the desired floor. It was a long elevator ride; it always was when anypony went to level Zero, the heart of the Spectra factory. Finally the elevator stopped, and they stepped out into a small hallway, Lyra getting nervous as they walked toward the lone door at the end.

Mercury punched a code into the keypad next to the door, then growling when it told her the code was wrong. “Fucking agency keeps changing the pass code on me,” she growled, lifting up her bionic foreleg and used one of her tools to override the lock. The door opened, and Mercury motion for Lyra to enter, the mint colored pony gulping as she walked inside.

They slowly entered the room, Lyra closing the door as Mercury walked over to the one prominent feature in the room, a large stasis chamber holding an alicorn sized unicorn inside. Mercury knelt down in front of the tank, gazing up at the pony as Lyra walked up beside her, a sad smile forming on her face as they both looked up at her father Cell Soul.

Mercury had met Lyra’s father 491 years ago, one year after Lyra had shot killed her mother. They had apparently known each other before, but had separated after Cell had hooked up with Lyra’s mom. They had gotten close after that, and Lyra had gotten to know Mercury’s extended family, not realizing that her dad was dating the president. When her dad had popped the question three years latter, Lyra had been outraged, thinking her dad was trying to replace her mom with somepony better.

She had stayed mad at her dad since that moment, not showing up to the wedding and refusing to call Mercury her mom. Then the day came, the day system core selected her father to head to the factor to be harvested. She remembered how Mercury had fought with her dad, saying that she was the president and that she could take him out of the system. He had said no, saying that it would cause chaos throughout the nation and lead to technological collapse. So he left, leaving Mercury in tears as he was escorted to the factory.

It was then that they had discovered that he had a special enzyme in his body, an enzyme that enhanced the spectra in his blood. They had run tests, extracting the enzyme and adding it to another patient’s blood, and discovered that it had the same effects. So they had constructed level zero, building the stasis chamber and putting Cell Soul into a medically induced coma, and set up a system that would continually extract his blood while introducing new blood into his system, allowing it to get enhanced before being extracted to allow the new blood to be introduced.

In Lyra’s opinion, it was a fate worse then death, but one good thing had come out of it all, she had finally accepted Mercury as her new mother.

“Do you ever wonder what things would have been like if I had just pulled him from the system,” asked Mercury, bringing Lyra back down to earth.

“Mom, you know what he would never have gone along with it; he was always stubborn as a mule.”

“I know…that’s what I always loved about your father, he never would take no for an answer, even when I refused to date him after your mom passed.”

“Wait, he asked you out?”

“Yes,” said Mercury, “he asked me over about a year after she died…and asked if I wanted to start dating him again, and initially I refused.”

“Why, didn’t you like him?”

“Well yes…but…its kind of hard to explain…”

“Come on mom, you know you can tell me anything.”

Mercury hesitated, but then sighed, looking at Lyra as she spoke. “because Lyra, by that point I had already decided your father was just going to be one of those ponies who faded into the recesses of my mind, that way when he…when he died I would be able to move on.”

Lyra looked surprised, in her 494 years living as Mercury’s daughter, her mother had never told her this. “Then…then what the hay made you hook up with him, it can’t have been just because he kept asking.”

“Well, mostly it was because of you,” said Mercury, much to Lyra’s surprise. “After he failed by just asking me, he introduced me to you, if you remember he introduced me then as your god mother.”

“Yeah I remember, I also remember the paparazzi going crazy when they found out, I even remember the head line.”

Mercury laughed at that, waving her hoof dramatically as she spoke. “President adopts random motherless pony as god daughter.”

Lyra laughed at that, and then bumped her mom in the shoulder. “Well enough about that, I got some where to be soon, Boss said he had something he wanted to talk about, I really hope its not what I think it is.”

“What’s going on?”

“Well you know I got a new partner right, well last night I…I…”

“Honey, you don’t need to pretty it up for me, if you fucked her I’ll understand.”

Lyra looked taken aback at first, then the biggest grin spread on her face as she spoke. “Ok I did, well actually it was her who fucked me but it was fucking amazing, I didn’t know sirens could be so talented.”

Mercury giggled, “Another mare I get to intimidate, you’re so good to me.”

“Mom,” said Lyra, “I don’t need you intimidating her, Bon-Bon’s sweet. Now why don’t you stop stalling, I’m sure dad wants to hear you sing.”

Mercury nodded, then turned back toward Cell, opening her mouth and beginning to sing.

“I thought of you the other day

How worlds of change led us astray

Colors seem to fade to gray

In the wake of yesterday...

You looked into my eyes

You had me hypnotized

And I can still remember you”

“I had a dream of you and I

A thousand stars lit up the sky

I touched your hand and you were gone

But memories of you live on…”

“You looked into my eyes

You had me hypnotized

And I can still remember you

Those moments spent together

Promising forever

And I can still remember you”

“Do you ever think of me

And get lost in the memory

When you do, I hope you smile

And hold that memory a while…”

“You looked into my eyes

You had me hypnotized

And I can still remember you

Those moments spent together

Promising forever

And I can still remember you”

“Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you

Still remember you…”

Mercury finished singing, a tear rolling down her face as she slowly stood, followed closely by Lyra. Lyra placed a gentle hand on her mothers back, allowing the alicorn mare to brush up against her side, knowing it had been hard for her. They then turned and left the room, leaving nothing behind but tears as the door closed shut behind them.