Artist’s comment:

Derecho had a few hours to kill before she had to meet Jade Mane in my Royal Equestria Security Forces (RESF) dreamscape.

The pegasus mare took a quick shower, and then gave herself a grooming and preening. She then dressed and then went scrounging for some food. In the fridge she found some leftover spicy chicken and vegetable noodles that she threw in the microwave, for dinner. She had that for dinner, washing it all down with a bottle of iced tea.

After dinner, Derecho and Hail Storm played video games until about 8:30pm. That evening Hail Storm was in the zone and won most of their matches of Thunder Wing Match. Tossing her controller on the futon the mare sprang to her hooves and stretched, extending her arms above her head as she spread her wings.

“Well, I'm outta here! I've gotta gig with Jade Mane tonight.” She looked down at the stallion still sitting on the futon. “If I get a good tip tonight are up you for doin' pizza tomorrow night? It'll be my treat!”

The dappled medium orange stallion looked up at the mare with his normal neutral facial expression and nodded his head. “Yeah, yeah. That would be great.”

With that confirmed Derecho grabbed her personal work gear. She had her own portage vest like when she was working for Trade Winds Courier Service, but hers wasn't fucking banana yellow! Instead it was RESF war surplus that she'd bought from Daisy Detonate's shop. It was a bit worn in spots, but in her eyes that just made it look cooler.

After taking her shower, Derecho had changed her clothes. She was now wearing a pair of black lycra pants and a bright pink tank top which left her midriff exposed. She put on the charcoal grey vest and zipped it up. Then she started checking its inventory.

She slipped her cell phone into the right top breast pocket of the vest. Then she checked that it was synced to her wireless headset and that the phone had adequate charge. Also she quickly confirmed that the small LED headlamp on the headset was working. It wasn't the most powerful light, but it had saved her ass a couple of times when landing at night, and it weighed almost nothing and didn't suck the headset's battery dry automatically.

With that accomplished, she slipped her wallet in the left breast pocket. Next she fastened the flight transponder via a velcro armband to her right upper arm and activated it. Then she quickly typed in the code that Hail Storm had taught her that made it appear that the transponder had a broadcast antenna failure and couldn't link with the Aerial Traffic Center. This was an all too often problem with the current system. The system might know there's a flier in the area but it wouldn't know exactly who.

Since this was to be a very quick job the mare didn't stowing any additional food besides the protein bar that already lived in a side pocket. Out of habit, she tossed a small bottle of water in another pocket, though she doubted she'd need it.

Finally she checked one last item. She unzipped the right side vest pocket and removed a small alloy framed, snub-nosed 5 shot 357 magnum revolver with a shrouded hammer and a ported barrel. It weighed less than a pound. She'd bought it from some guy in a parking lot late one night after a concert; at the time it had sounded really cool because of all the action movies and video games she'd played. Then she actually fired it. After that, she kept it loaded with hot loaded 125gr .38 jacketed hollow points. That load didn't turn her hand into tenderized meat, but packed enough ouch to do the job.

In the same pocket was a plastic strip that held 5 more cartridges. Derecho technically should've registered it, and she definitely didn't have a permit to carry it, bbbuuttt the mare considered it to be an insurance policy just in case things got squirrelly while on the job. She'd never had to fire it in anger, and only once did she have to draw and point it at somepony when things had gotten weird.

Derecho just considered that part of her job, and the war had taught her that there was the way the world was supposed to work and how it actually did. So she pushed the latch on the left side of the frame with her right hand thumb and swung open the cylinder. A quick check confirmed that there was 5 unfired cartridges in it. She closed it and slipped back into the pocket and then zipped it closed.

As she headed toward the door she looked back at Hail Storm. “Should be back in an hour.”

The stallion looked over his shoulder at her. “Can you pick up some orange juice on the way back?”

“Orange juice. Got it!” She then stepped through door into what was sort of a mudroom for the place she and Hail Storm called home. What it actually did was prevent light from the interior of the structure leaking out during blackout conditions.

Locking the door behind her, the mare flew to the edge of the building and landed. Looking back at the rooftop, Derecho set the timer function of her sport watch for one hour. She pulled her goggles over her eyes and closed them. Then she folded her wings tight to her back, placed her arms across her chest, and fell backwards off the roof of the 40 story building.

Opening her eyes, the turquoise green mare found herself plummeting headfirst toward the sidewalk. She grinned and snapped her wings open; she pulled up about a hundred feet above the street.

With whoop and a laugh, she flew off to her next gig.

This piece is for sale.