The scream hadn’t left Twilight’s breath before the two Novas suddenly drop in; having leapt over the entire crowd of ponies. Behind them, the stage was still crumbling in on itself. After the cables snapped, the weight and pounding of the speakers forced the stage to collapse. It was only then Vinyl Scratch had realized what was happening, leaving her with barely enough time to gallop offstage to safety.
The disaster was more than enough to send everypony in the crowd into a panic. Every hoof in the room was clamoring for the door, regardless of what or who was in their way. The two Novas worked together seamlessly, shoving ponies left and right, and tossing those who attempted to snake between them, all in the defense of a man who lay face down in a growing pool of crimson.
Rose abandoned her high heels in one stride as she ran out into the crowd, pushing her way past the stampeding ponies. “Alex!” she screamed as she approached, hoping to get some kind of response from him. When she finally reached him, Rose flipped him onto his back, finding his eyes still open and giving her a thousand yard stare.
Without prompting, a serrated knife materialized along the lower back of one of the Novas, which Rose immediately reached for. With it, she grabbed for the bottom of her dress and sliced off a long ribbon of fabric, which she then tied around Alex’s left arm in a knot, jerking it tight.
By this point, most of the crowd had evacuated and the rest of the ponies sitting at and around their table had come over to assess the damage. The sight they found left them in stunned, disbelieving silence. Rose, moved as if possessed. While one of the Novas took her place elevating Alex’s chest, Rose grabbed the nearest pony by the dress and barked “Get me alcohol! NOW!” before practically throwing the pony towards the bar. She didn’t even care who it was she grabbed.
With one Nova propping him up with its legs, and the other holding his legs down, Rose kneeled to Alex’s left side, gently cupping his cheek while wiping away the blood across his face. “Alex? Can you hear me?”
A raspy breath was his only response. In reality, his ears were still ringing from the events of thirty seconds ago. His vision began to fail him as blackness and random colors crept in from the sides. Rose… What happened… Why is it cold…
His face reasonably clean, Rose reached for the end of her dress again and cut out several larger pieces of fabric with the knife. Looking over her shoulder, she shouted “Where’s that alcohol?!”
Rarity suddenly leapt over the counter of the bar, a bottle of wine floating within her magic. “Here! It’s the only one I could find that hadn’t shattered!”
“Give it to me, quickly!”
With the bottle of wine in her hand, Rose quickly examined the top to find the cork still firmly planted in it. Typical. She handed the bottle to the Nova straddling Alex’s legs, who effortlessly snapped the bottle’s neck off, while she stuffed one of the pieces of cut dress into Alex’s mouth. Without wasting precious time, Rose grabbed onto Alex’s arm with her left hand, held the broken bottle of wine in her right, and promptly dumped its contents onto his wound.
Alex instantly shot up, blocked only by the Novas holding his body down, howling in pain through the cloth. Even though the worst of it lasted for only a moment, the burning lingered, and tears began to roll down his cheeks as his muffled cries continued. The ponies, already greatly disturbed by what had happened to him, were forced to look away from the display of physical suffering. Where some of them would have normally passed out from the sight, their adrenaline kept them standing.
But Rose wasn’t finished. Taking the knife into her left hand, she dug the tip into her right wrist and sliced a neat line all the way around it. Digging her fingers through the fresh cut, she tore at her skin, ripping out her tactile sensors in the process of exposing the metallic endoskeleton beneath them. “You!” she shouted, pointing at Celestia. “I need you to superheat my hand - Now!”
The princess complied without words. Enveloping Rose’s exposed hand in a golden aura, Celestia used her magic to transfer as much energy as she could into the metal. After twenty agonizing seconds of Alex’s pained cries, the endoskeleton of Rose’s right hand glowed a bright yellow and she alerted the princess to stop.
Grabbing Alex’s arm in her left hand again, she paused only to lean towards Alex and say, “This is going to hurt.” Without any other warning, Rose thrust her hand against Alex’s wound.
Alex’s muffled cries returned in full force, the sheer pain more unbearable than ever. Alex screamed until his lungs gave out, uselessly thrashing against the Novas with what little strength remained. Deprived of oxygen and overloaded with pain, Alex’s mind gradually allowed itself to become enveloped by the encroaching darkness.
Breathing. Alex was breathing. Was he conscious? He blinked his eyes repeatedly, but the darkness remained. He attempted to move his body and, to his surprise, found that he could. In that moment, all of his senses returned to him and he sat up.
Looking down at himself, everything appeared perfectly normal - his red shirt, his black tie, his pants… His environment, however, was not. Darkness was omnipresent, despite the fact that he could see himself perfectly well. “What the fuck…?” he muttered to himself.
Pushing himself up from the invisible floor, Alex’s looked every which way he could. None of it made a single difference in the blackness.
“Hello?” Alex called out. “Anyone there?”
“I am.”
Alex spun around to face the speaker. Where before there was nothing, there was now suddenly a cybernetic, sitting the bed of a Hellbender. However, it’s appearance was alien to him. Green armor covered it from top to bottom, occasionally broken by black and orange hazard patterns. A pair of pylons jetted out from the shoulder Alex could see, and he could only assume the other shoulder was identical. Similar pylons protruded from its back, though they were much bigger. A neon green visor stretched across its helmet, with two brighter green lights behind it, giving the impression of eyes.
The green cybernetic had its back propped up against the side of the Hellbender’s bed, with one bent leg supporting its arm while the other leg dangled off the end. It stared directly at Alex, its head slightly tilted as if it were waiting for him to do something.
Alex stood there for several long moments, simply staring back. Eventually, he managed to words: “Uh… Hello…?”
“Hello,” was the cybernetic’s response, tilting its head in the other direction.
Silence permeated the space between them, leaving Alex more confused than anything else, swarming his mind with questions. Eventually he settled on, “Who are you…?”
The cybernetic chuckled in response as it pushed itself off the Hellbender and began walking towards him. At this point, Alex noticed that it was only slightly taller than him. “Wouldn’t you like to know? It’s a shame that no matter how many times we talk, you just never remember. It’s getting rather old. No, I think I’ll keep that to myself this time.”
The cybernetic continued chuckling to itself as it shouldered past Alex. Naturally, he followed its movement with a keen eye. However, as it moved past him, Alex found that a section of his room in Ponyville, the one with the holographic wall, was suddenly… there. Blinking in disbelief, Alex snapped his head back towards where the Hellbender was, but now it too was replaced with the other half of his room. Turning all around, he was able to confirm that he was, somehow, standing in the middle of his bedroom in Ponyville. Even the town itself in the middle of a bright, sunny day could be seen outside the window. “What the fuck?”
Ignoring his sudden outburst, the green cybernetic sauntered up to the holographic wall. “Curious things, organics. Especially humans. A rather persistent bunch, aren’t they?” The pylons along the cybernetic’s shoulders and back began to glow a faint green aura. A similar aura appeared around the container holding Alex’s still beating heart on the wall, which carefully floated down and landed in the cybernetic’s hand.
“Take this heart, for instance,” it continued as it turned around and walked back towards Alex, keeping its gaze fixed on the organ. “It’s been out of your body for several months, and yet it refuses to just simply give up and die.” A bolt of electricity suddenly shot through the cybernetic’s arm and into the stasis container, electrocuting the heart within. The two of them stared at it in silence, observing the organ that had now finally ceased moving.
“It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree?” the cybernetic said as it let the heart roll out of its hand. Instead of shattering against the floor like Alex expected, the container fell through the floor and disappeared. While Alex attempted to process everything he just witnessed, the cybernetic held its arms behind its back and casually walked over to the window. “You fucked up royally. Are you aware of that?”
Alex frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”
The cybernetic clicked its nonexistent tongue. “I guess you’re not. This should refresh your memory.” It suddenly turned around and tossed an object at Alex.
Alex immediately recognized it for what it was - a severed arm - and leapt back in a panic. But as he did so, Alex caught sight of himself and stared, flabbergasted, at his own left arm. His shirt was shredded at the elbow, which itself was nothing more than torn ligaments and lingering strips of flesh and bone. Every attempt he made to move his left hand resulted in the bloody severed limb on the floor violently twitching in an attempt to follow his brain’s commands.
Alex stumbled backwards into a wall, hyperventilating the entire time. “No no no no! What the fuck is this!?”
The only response the cybernetic gave was a loud cackle, heavily accented by its voice synthesizer. After several seconds of Alex’s distress, the cybernetic suddenly appeared in front of him, grabbed him by the jaw with a single hand, and forced their optics to meet. “Flesh is a design flaw.”
As quickly as it had grabbed him, it had released him. Alex’s eyes immediately darted downward again. But this time, he was met with a different sight. His shirt had disappeared, and his hand had been returned. However, it was not his original hand. In its place was a pure white cybernetic prosthetic. Not one that just replaced his missing hand, but the entirety of his left arm up to the shoulder. Even his right arm had undergone a similar treatment, and both moved with flawless precision, as naturally as their predecessors. “Whoa…”
The cybernetic chuckled again, firmly grasping Alex by the shoulders, which prompted him to meet its gaze. “One step at a time, Alexander. One step at a time.”
For one reason or another, Alex found himself unable to look away. The lights behind the cybernetic’s visor grew brighter and brighter, until in a matter of seconds, the entirety of Alex’s vision was dominated by a blinding light. A loud ringing noise saturated his ears, leaving him unable to hear anything else as sensation disappeared from the rest of his body.
Little by little, the light and ringing receded. Faint voices could be heard in the distance, and shapes began to take form through the whiteness. Soon, he was able to just barely making out someone calling his name. It was starting to sound like… Twilight? Yes! And Rose, too!
Suddenly, the light was removed from his vision as a robotic appendage above him clicked it off. The image of Rose’s civilian chassis hovered over him from the left, while Twilight held a strained smile to his right.
“He seems to be responding to visual stimuli now,” said Rose. “Alex, can you hear me?”
“Yeah…” he whispered. From where he was lying down, Alex gathered that he was on the surgery table back in the facility. “Yeah, I can.”
“Oh thank goodness!” Alex heard Fluttershy exclaim from somewhere out of sight. “We thought we lost you!”
Alex couldn’t help but crack a smile as he closed his eyes. “Heh, like you’d be able to lose me that easily.” He cracked his eyes open and stared at Rose. “Wait, what happened?”
Rose didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she placed a hand over his forehead and glanced away, presumably towards whoever else in the room. Twilight did something similar, though very clearly bit her lip while doing it.
“Guys?” Alex insisted, his eyes starting to go wide as they darted between them. “What happened?”
The clopping of hooves entered his ears as Applejack came up next to Twilight. She immediately removed her stetson and held it against her chest, a sorrowful expression on her face. “There really ain’t an easy way to tell ya this, sugarcube…”
“How much do you remember?” Rose asked.
Alex bit the inside of his cheek. “Um… There was music… Vinyl overcharged the speakers… lot of noise… I think there was a cable…” He paused, his eyes growing wider as he glanced back at Rose.
“I’m assuming you want to see the extent of the damage?” she asked.
Alex simply nodded his head, and the bed he was lying on bent upwards, propping up his back. Rose removed her hand, allowing Alex to finally look down at himself. Everyone else save for the two princesses stood at the foot of his bed, staring at him with looks of concern and dismay. As for himself, Alex was only covered from the waist down, and had an IV stuck into his right arm. His left arm, however, had been reduced to a stump that extended to his elbow, which was covered in thick, white bandages.
“Oh…” he breathed, raising the mutilated limb up for closer inspection. “Huh. Will you look at that…”
“I tried reattaching the rest of it,” Rose continued, “but there was too much nerve damage caused by the cauterization. I’m sorry, Alex, but I had to stop the bleeding somehow.”
“No… No it’s… it’s okay…” he voiced, monotone. “You did what you could. I can’t blame you for that.”
After a moment of silence, Twilight placed a hoof on his bed and asked, “Alex, are you alright?”
Alex blinked at her, dropping his arm back down. “It doesn’t hurt. It feels a bit weird, but…” He looked back down at his stump, then to his right hand, wiggling his fingers. “Guess I’m… still trying to process it all… never knew what you had until it’s gone, right?”
Twilight looked away, tears brimming in her eyes. “I can only imagine… you use your hands for almost everything. It would be like me losing my horn…”
Alex tilted his head to the side, though his expression remained resolutely neutral. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Okay?!” Twilight quavered, looking back at him. “Sure I’m okay! I’m fine! I'm not the one who almost just got killed by a steel cable, or anything! I mean, I just got saved by one of my closest friends who lost part of a limb he uses all the time and who almost died and-”
Twilight stopped herself completely when Fluttershy laid a hoof over her back. The unicorn looked back over to her friend with tears running down her cheeks. Her other friends followed Fluttershy’s initiative, closing in for as comforting a group hug as they could manage.
“I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all had a long night,” said Rose after a short pause. “Perhaps it’s time you all get some sleep,”
“Yes, perhaps that is for the best,” said Rarity. “Twilight, why don’t you come back home with me to the boutique? I’ll prepare some tea to help you sleep, and you can even spend the night over. Goodness knows Spike would hate to see you as distressed as you are now.”
Twilight sniffed and wiped away her tears with a hoof. “I… I think I’ll take you up on that offer…” She looked back up at Alex. “Do you think you’ll be alright…?”
“You’re never done until you’re dead,” Alex responded, “and as you can see, I’m not dead yet. Just need to get a bit of sleep for now, I think.”
It didn’t take very long for Alex to be moved to a more mobile bed, and only then did they all move as a group towards the elevator. The ponies were let off at the garage level, with Twilight promising Alex to come visit him the following day. Alex and Rose continued up to his bedroom, where he staggered off of the gurney as he tried to get into bed.
“Oh… right…” he muttered to himself as he tried lifting the sheets with his absent left hand. After doing the job with his existing hand, he slumped onto the mattress and sighed. “This is going to take some getting used to, huh?”
“For the time being,” answered Rose as she sat beside him, the gurney rolling back into the elevator on its own. “It depends on when we start work on the prosthetic.”
Alex stared ahead for several long seconds before he smashed his palm into his forehead. “Good fucking god, that’s right! We can do that!” He suddenly raised up his wounded limb and looked at it with a new air of excitement. “Heh, maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought it was.”
His excitement dropped, however, when Alex’s sight extended beyond the length of his elbow and he took notice of his holographic wall. “Wait a second…”
Rose tilted her head at him. “Hm? Something wrong?”
“Yeah,” Alex muttered, pointing towards the wall. “Look. Is it me, or did my old heart stop beating?”
The AI followed the direction of his finger, eyeing the old organ resting within its stasis container. “Hm. So it would seem. To be honest, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.”
“Yeah…” Alex breathed as he slowly looked down at his remaining hand, examining the muscles as his fingers flexed. For some reason, it all fascinated him in that moment. His mind processed the mechanics behind the movement, considering all the muscle contractions and the nerve signals needed to cause them. The entire time, his eye had begun to glow a bright, neon green.
“It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree?”
No no no no no no no, Celestia mentally repeated to herself as she burst into her room, slamming the door behind her with her magic. As if on autopilot, she took long strides towards her balcony and threw open the door, exposing herself to the nocturnal view of Canterlot and the Ponyville valley. Her sight immediately focused on the far off village, or more specifically, the lights coming from Alex’s building. Its size rivaled even those of the local mansions, so it was easy enough to spot, even at this distance. Sensing the oncoming headache, Celestia brought a hoof up to rub her head. I hope he’ll be alright…
The princess made sure to be near Alex from the moment Rose performed her emergency surgery to the moment their flying machine lifted itself from the ground. It had probably arrived in Ponyville much earlier than she did to her room. Celestia could only hope that things would somehow turn out well, but at this point, how could they?
“Long night?”
Celestia’s eyes snapped open as her ribs constricted her lungs. That voice… A chill ran through her as the recognition sank in. As if moving too quickly just might be the end of her, Celestia turned around to gaze back into her room.
There, leaning against the bookshelf that hid her secret room, was a towering humanoid figure, at least seven and a half feet in height. While intricately armored black boots and greaves adorned his legs, his upper body wore only equally bulky equipment around his chest and forearms, exposing his abnormally muscular abdominals, arms, and neck. His bare skin was a sickly white, and what veins allowed themselves to be visible hinted at a black liquid they transported.
However, the only identifiable feature he possessed was his face - or rather, lack thereof. Celestia’s breath caught in her throat as she recognized his mask. That black mask that more closely resembled an alien creature than any actual face, though left the back of his hairless head exposed. She had always seen it from the other side of a screen, and never once in all her years had she seen it in person. “O… O-Overseer…? Wh-what are you doing here?”
The Overseer allowed himself a deep, growling chuckle through his mask, which gave it a hint of a mechanical tone. “I decided to come visit the Gala for once. This one was quite the affair, if a little on the chaotic side.” He pushed himself away from the bookshelf and began idly wandering around the room, carefully picking up and examining little baubles as he went. Every so often, a quiet hiss could be heard from his mask. “I like what you’ve done with the place. Very homey. A great place to relax after a long trip.”
Celestia’s eyes remained transfixed on him, her legs as stiff as boards. “You’ve traveled far, I take it?”
“Not necessarily…” The Overseer commented as he eyed a snow globe. It was an old custom piece, one that contained figurines of Twilight and all of her friends. “Although coming up to Canterlot on foot is a bit of a nuisance.” As delicately as he had picked it up, he returned it to its proper place. “I’d say it was worth the trip, though. I can barely remember the last time I came up here.”
“It must have been before my time.”
“Yes. It was.”
“I take it you’re here for an important matter, then?”
“I am, actually.” The Overseer sauntered over to the fireplace, holding up a gloved hand. A faint, sky blue aura appeared around it and a pair of logs in the nearby holder. The aura floated the logs into the fireplace, and with a quick snap of his fingers, burst into a homely flame. Holding his hands behind his back while his mask peered into the flames, The Overseer calmly stated, “I’ve begun the process, Celestia.”
For a brief moment, the princess’ mind blanked. “Process? What process?”
“I’m resetting the cycle.” He didn’t bother to face her, though his words chilled her blood to the core. “The next generation will be ready in a month from now.”
“W-What?!” Celestia hissed, finally allowing her hooves to move her. “But it’s too early! I-It’s premature! It’s it’s it’s-”
“It’s necessary.” The Overseer snapped, turning his head slightly in her direction. "It needs to be said that you've allowed Laythem to grow out of control, and that forces me to intervene. Besides..." He turned his head back to the flames. "It's not the first time I've had to do an early reset."
"But why? Surely, there has to be another solution than a reset!"
"The time for another solution has come and gone, Celestia." The Overseer turned away from the fire and marched past the princess towards the balcony, his heavy feet thumping as he walked. As he gazed out into the valley, he continued. "Those cybernetics now pose too much of a threat to deal with without drastic measures. I trusted you to do your job..." He looked at her over his shoulder. "...but it seems you would rather let the world burn."
"I am not going to murder somepony who has done no wrong, whether it conflicts with the cycles or not!" Celestia growled.
"The cycles guarantee harmony!" The Overseer roared, fully turning himself to face her. "I know this better than anyone! So should you! And do you really so naively believe that he won't do harm? It might not be today, tomorrow, or even next week, but Xan will not allow peace between you to last forever."
Not allowing herself to be intimidated, Celestia did her best to stand tall against the giant. "And on what grounds do you base these assertions of yours?"
"You really are blind, aren't you?" The Overseer approached her, taking his time with each step. "If that display with Filthy Rich wasn't enough, then how about this. Suppose a pony walked into the Golden Oaks Library, and suppose this pony gained access to the information Laythem grants the public access to." He was standing directly over her now. "He's been designing weapons and weaponized vehicles for years, Celestia. Before he came to Equestria."
"And? I understand his motivations. His fears. He wished to keep his technology safe."
"Safe?!" The Overseer reared his head up and bellowed a short, dry laugh. "You think he was trying to defend himself?! He designed artillery vehicles, Celestia. What kind of person defends themselves from several kilometers away? And a one way teleporter that he believed was based on wormholes? Now why would he need something like that?" He turned away and returned himself to the balcony. "Do you honestly think he was planning on remaining solitary his entire life? I don't."
Celestia blinked as she attempted to digest his words. "You... you're not suggesting that he-"
"No. That is exactly what I'm telling you."
Silence reigned between them, The Overseer's words simply hanging in the air. Alexander’s position was always that he was fearful of the impending apocalypse his people would cause on themselves. Could it be true that he actually intended to be the one to start it? On the face of it, The Overseer’s arguments made sense, but Alexander also just sacrificed part of a limb saving Twilight’s life. Celestia shut her eyes as she tried reconciling the thoughts.
Eventually, she looked back up at her visitor. "No. I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe Alexander would so selfishly do such a thing."
"You clearly don't know what kind of monster Xan actually is," said The Overseer. After another pause, he added, "The reset will be in one month. The wedding will be in two weeks. Chrysalis has her orders, now I'm going to give you yours." He turned to face her. "First, I want you to invite Laythem and his AI. Do not have them bring anything with them. Second, you are to stay out of Chrysalis' way and let her do her job. Everything else is business as usual. Understand?"
"And just what exactly is her job?"
"That is between me and her."
"And why am I not privy to such knowledge?"
The Overseer took slow, lumbering steps towards her until his mask was almost touching her face. "Because I'm having difficulty trusting you, lately," he growled. "I don’t need to remind you that you are far from the first princess, and if you don't want to join your predecessors, then you need to stop being sympathetic to Laythem and get with the program. Have I made myself clear?"
Celestia's eyes darted back and forth, trying to find their equivalent on The Overseers mask, though ultimately failed. "Crystal," she confirmed with a hesitant breath.
"Good," he said, finally removing himself from the princess' personal space. The Overseer moved himself back to the balcony, though stepped up onto the marble guardrail. Looking back at her, he said, "Remember: we're doing what we have to for the good of Equestria. None of it is pretty, but all of it is necessary."
With those final words, The Overseer's hands began to glow sky blue, and parts of his body began to warp and vanish into nothingness. Before he disappeared completely, he stepped off the rail and fell to the ground far below. Celestia rushed to the balcony after him to peer down, hoping that, somehow, she would find his shattered body against the cobblestone. It was a far enough drop that nopony could survive it. To her dismay, aside from the brief rustling of a nearby bush, The Overseer had vanished without a trace.
Celestia sighed, withdrew herself from the guardrail, and rested her head against it, completely swarmed with thoughts and worries. The next few weeks would be crucial - the most important time of both her own and everypony else's lives. It would mean the difference between Equestria surviving, or living. She had waited countless lifetimes for a window of opportunity such as this, and now was the time for it to be seized, for if it wasn't now, it would be never.
With a tear forcing its way from her eye, she raised her head and gazed out towards Ponyville; towards the Liandri facility. A mixture of confusion, worry, and excitement shot through her, and she forced herself to stand. Wiping away the stray tear, she proclaimed, "I may not be the first, Overseer, but I will be the last."