Imported from Derpibooru: https://derpibooru.org/images/2432618

Original Description:

Broken (1/3)

From above, the city glowed. An avalanche of smeared pin-point color, neon reflecting in a thousand onyx windows, midnight black. But below, on the streets and under the streets, out of reach of private security details and impotent cops, darkness festered. A twisting rot eating away at the lives of those who couldn’t afford to live high above.

And then, strange figures started to appear. Ponies in bright colors, with confident grins and snarky come-backs. Ponies with skills and abilities the underworld crooks weren’t used to. And they started to strike back, against the gangs, the dealers, the organ harvesters. Against the darkness.

Snapdragon was one of these ponies. His simple bat looked ordinary, but the electronics inside played games with gravitational waves, shifting its inertia and mass so that the light aluminum could suddenly become very dense and very fast. Combined with his small size and fast hooves, he had a simple game plan: dodge and bash, over and over, until the other pony dropped. It had been a winning strategy so far: He had already dismantled two gangs, and now, the Shades would make it three.

The Shades had built their empire on Bright™, a nano stimulant engineered by one of the fancy companies in the City Above but rejected for its side effects. In mild doses, Bright meant a slight increase in strength and endless energy, the ability to stay awake and functional for days at a time with no obvious come-down. It was also highly addictive, but that hadn’t caused its rejection. What HAD caused rejection was Mad Dog Syndrome. Users would suddenly and unpredictably become brutally violent and aggressive, with no lead-in or warning. Happily doing their job one moment, beating a co-worker’s skull in the next. So Bright had been shelved, but not before a massive stock had been manufactured. A stock the Shades were happy to buy up, rebrand as “Shine” and start to sell off. The success of this new product had propelled its main dealer, Havoc, to leader of the Shades, and the Shades to a point of glory in the City Below.

Until tonight. Without invitation, Snap had arrived at a Shade meetings and carved a path through the thugs, one cracked skull at a time. Havoc had given him more trouble; the massive gang leader could take an incredible amount of punishment, and each hit only seemed to make him angrier. But with one final knock he had gone down as well. As a police squad finally arrived to clean up what was left of the gang, Snap leaned on his bat, watching them lead Havoc away. “Better luck next time big guy.” He called out with a grin. “Enjoy your vacation!”

Havoc only glowered back. Next time would be sooner than the blue-haired hero knew.

*******

And I’m back! Buckle up, this is gonna be a fun one.