11: Guiding Light
It took some doing, and half a box of cupcakes, but at last Pinkie Pie was directed to a destitute unicorn mare who was sleeping under a tree. She had a stolen shopping cart loaded with whatever possessions she could get her hooves on. Both she and her cart, stuffed to the brim with refuse, reeked of slow rot and the stink of cheap whisky. By the graying of her orange fur and thin figure, she was clearly an older mare on her last legs. She had an old model of datajack plugged into her neck, but poor hygiene caused patches of fur around it to fall away, leaving the skin red and infected. “Welp, there’s only one real way to wake this girl up!” Pinkie had a fourth drone arrive from her car, this time carrying a large blue cannon.
Pinkie cracked her non-existent knuckles and gleefully waited for the cannon to drop in front of her. Once it was in position, Pinkie yanked on the string, and an explosion of confetti blasted out, scaring the bum awake. The homeless mare got a face full of confetti and was knocked off balance enough to keep her from running away.
She took one look at Pinkie’s talismans and grinning face before freaking out even harder. “Please don’t kill me, I don’t know nothing, take my stuff, just don’t hurt me!” The mare cowered against the tree. Her threadbare voice was scarred by decades of smoking, deepening her to a raspy baritone.
“I’m not here to hurt you, silly, I’m here to give you cupcakes!” Pinkie bounced over and shoved a cupcake in the mare’s mouth, if only to mask her horrid breath. “And you can’t have cupcakes without milk to wash it down, of course.”
The mare’s terror lightened a little at the sheer deliciousness of the cupcake, but mostly because there wasn’t a gun or spell pointed at her. She shakily took the cup of offered milk and drank enough to speak. “Uhh, thanks, miss.”
“No problemenio!” Pinkie showed her the box. “And you can have the rest of them if you can answer some questions of mine.”
The sight of so many cupcakes, a treat she had not tasted for a decade, pulled her in. Not like she had any other prospects going for her. “What do ya wanna know?”
Pinkie sat down and placed the box between them, gesturing for her to take some more. “I have word from your friends that you saw something strange a couple of nights ago around here.”
The mare was reaching for another cupcake, but shied away from it and gave Pinkie a scared whimper. “I didn’t see nothing, I swear.”
Pinkie was all too familiar with such fear, and opted to take a bite out of a cupcake. “I’m not here to kill you, silly. If I was, I wouldn’t bother with all this,” she waved at the confections and a gallon of milk.
“I - I guess not.” The bum tentatively snatched another cupcake. “Yeah, I saw strange stuff. What of it?”
Pinkie inwardly groaned. Ugh, why do they always make me lead them on? Keeping the thought to herself, Pinkie looked at her control pad and at the dried blood that one of the bots was taking samples of. “Did a couple of pegasi land there? What did they do?” The mare remained tight lipped. Pinkie pulled a few bills out of her jacket. “I suppose the tried and true works best. Three hundred if what you tell me is useful.”
That got an immediate reaction. The bum’s eyes widened and her lips smacked at the amount of food she could buy. Maybe a few Better Than Life simsenses while she was at it. “Sure, sure. I got startled that night after hearing a body hit the grass. I was on a bench coming down from a BTL, see? So I just played dead. I saw a stallion land next to her. He stood around for a bit and pulled something out of his clothes that started glowing like one of them neon signs when he brought it close to the first pegasus. He pocketed it to make it stop, then he put something in her mouth. After that he flew off.”
“Glowing?” Pinkie forwarded one of the hundred bills. Just how much of this is going to her habit? What she really needs is a party invite for real instead of dreaming somepony else’s. Pinkie mentally shook the thought away to stay focused. “What did it look like?”
The bum snatched the bill and scrutinized it under the closest lamp light. Satisfied it was real, she looked back at Pinkie. “Didn’t get a good look at it before it was glowing. My eyes aren’t what they used to be, but when it did light up, it looked like a red lit ball.”
A ball huh? Loyalty was ball shaped, if I recall correctly. Pinkie’s stomach squeezed and her left hind leg wobbled, sending a touch of fear into her. Gelos is saying it was the Element! But what does the glowing mean? Pie to self: ask somepony what the glow colors mean. Pinkie slid the second hundred over. “After he flew off, did he take the first pegasus with him?”
“Nope, just left her there.” The bum slipped the bills into the folds of her tattered coat. “I waited a good while to see if he would come back, but he never did. So I went over to see if she had something worth taking, rights of salvage from the dead, right?”
Pinkie suppressed the urge to arrest the mare, mostly because it wouldn’t do anyone any good. “Of course.”
“Right, so I made my way over, and the pegasus weren’t no pegasus. She was one of them freaky leather wings that sit high and mighty in those tall towers.”
“Right, a bat pony, I knew that much.”
The bum frowned, and gave the last bill a longing look until she relented. “Okay, alright. So I went to sniffin’ around, and there was blood all over her. But I couldn’t see any cuts or bullet holes on her. Not a one. Ain’t never seen anything like it. After that, I knew I was dealing with big government secret stuff that’ll end up with me committing suicide with two bullets in the back of the head if ya know what I mean. That’s all I know. I washed the blood off my hooves in the lake and ran off. Good thing too. I looked back and saw some grounder pony take her away. He ran under a streetlight, and he looked like a doctor, white coat and everything.”
“That’s a big help, thank you.” Pinkie left the last bill behind, along with the box of cupcakes and the gallon of milk. She trotted off back to her car and gave the recall order to the drones. Well now, looks like I’ve got some more string to lay down. Flinty, you have been a baaad boy.
Without any guards to interrupt them, Rarity and Nova made clean, careful, and methodical work of the lab’s security network. All cameras were shut down, all recordings were deleted and the drives were in the middle of a reformatting loop. Rarity made sure the robot walked straight in front of a major power cable and would bite it after they left the facility.
Even the exterior alarms were completely disarmed. The only thing they couldn’t do was refresh the “all’s well” signal. The timer was set to need the new code half past one o’clock, right when Nova said it’d be. After that, the cleaners would come hot and heavy.
With the lab to themselves, the group were now making their way up the stairs from the security center. The top floor was broken up into three labs, the closer two, with the final genetics lab taking up half of the entire floor. Up here, the walls were off-white with some of the hall lights still fully on due to its sole occupant. Multiple inspirational posters lined the walls ranging from pictures of the Princess to cat posters. It was just past one in the morning, and they were rushing forward to catch the stallion before he left for the night. Rainbow Dash had not bothered concealing her face or wings this time around.
Among the records Nova had sniffed through while ruining the security network, was the employee roster, which named the one scientist who was still present, burning the midnight oil. It was a name that set Rainbow on edge, but it was only now that Nova was feeling brave enough to ask since they didn’t shoot her after her work was done.
Even then, she was hesitant to speak up. “So uh, what makes any of you think this guy didn’t hear all the gunfire? He can’t be that oblivious.”
“You’d be surprised,” Twilight started with a bit of strange pride. “When a pony of science is at work, a lot of things can slip your mind: the time, food, even noise can be dismissed as annoying music or something other than a threat.”
“I thought that was just a stereotype,” Rarity commented, giving Twilight a knowing grin. “But something tells me you have firsthoof experience.”
They were passing the first lab now, and the team glanced through the glass, making sure the scientist hadn’t moved since last they spotted him on camera. Before Twilight could defend herself, Nova spoke up. “So what’s the big deal about this Guiding Light dude?”
Everyone in the group turned to Rainbow Dash, either waiting for her answer, or not wanting to say more than she was willing to give. Well, since we’re going to see him, I can give the short version at least. “He’s the one who headed development of my gene mods, and somehow made Soul Sickness temporary for me, not that anypony realized it back then.”
Nova went wide eyed. “Oh wow, I didn’t think that was possible.”
“It’s not!” Twilight half shouted, causing everyone to give her a strange look. The scholar shook her head with absolute conviction. “Polygraph’s Disease is incurable without going back to your original tribe. It’s impossible otherwise! Temporary or not!”
Rarity stepped back a bit at the mention of disease, eyeing Rainbow with a worried light. “Um, what exactly is Polygraph’s Disease?”
Both leather winged ponies were silent. Rainbow had the tight look of holding government secrets back. That left Twilight to speak up. “Soul Sickness is the layman’s term for PD, but the—” Again Twilight was cursed by limited time. Such a topic begged for full medical explanations, but alas… “The short version is PD affects all bat ponies and…” She paused, glancing between Nova and Rainbow Dash. “Well, just them. And it causes a large range of mild symptoms with the exception of uniformly causing sterility in mares. You can do gene therapy and have all the surgery you want to, no bat mare can have a child.”
“I can vouch for the last one at least,” Nova offered meekly. “I had to be born from a surrogate mother.”
“How… poetic, in a macabre sort of way,” Rarity mused aloud, only to get awkward stares, making her feel self conscious. “W-well bat ponies like to act nocturnal. It’s just like that old mythology before Celestia came about when mares used to think we had some connection to the moon.”
Twilight tripped over her herself at the observation, but her thoughts rendered her mute.
Rainbow had heard enough and angrily waved a hoof at the whole thing. “Yeah well, I definitely don’t have it anymore. I’ve got exhibits A and B at home.”
Nova was taken aback, nearly tripping over herself. “A and B? You - you have kids? Like you actually carried a rugrat to term?!”
Rainbow clamped her mouth shut until looks from the others proved she was heard loud and clear. Damn my rutting stupid mouth. “Okay, fine, yes I did!”
Nova barely kept walking while she placed a hoof on her head. “Are they bats too? Your gene template’s got to be the key to a cure! Does the doctor even know about this? Do you think he could cure me as well!? I so totally want to have bat kids one day!”
Twilight blinked dumbly at Nova. “Wait, how do you have PD? Didn’t you say you were created as a bat pony?”
“Well - yeah, but mom always told me we bats all have the sickness.” Nova averted her eyes away from Rarity. “Even those of us who were made this way.”
“Probably because Mother Moon cursed them.” Rainbow commented scornfully.
“Mother what?” Nova asked with mild interest.
Rarity gave a ladylike, yet loud cough. She decided to ignore the implications of artificial ponies for the moment. “Ladies, more walking, less talking, yes?” To make her point, Rarity marched right off, all but forcing the others to do the same. Coming down from her getting-cured excitement, Nova scampered after her, prompting Rainbow and Twilight to do the same.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the entrance to the gene lab, and it was the only one without windows. Large warning signs of restricted access and a delightful ‘deadly force is authorized’ notification was all they needed to know this was the right place.
“Wait,” Rainbow called out before Rarity could barge in. She turned to Nova with a seriously stern face. “You did good on the dive. But I need something more. If you want me to trust you enough to join our crew, I need you to do one more thing.”
Nova flared her wings, determination fixed firmly upon her features. “As long as I don’t have to hurt myself, name it!”
“This guy’s going to say some personal stuff about me, maybe,” she added with a glance at Rarity. “When I give you the signal, run off to the farthest corner, cover your ears and hum or surf the matrix; just don’t listen in. You did us a serious solid with the bot, so I’m going to offer you this. You can either walk out of here, no harm no foul, or you can stick with us and do as I asked. If you stay and listen when I tell you not to, you’re going to fall down some very tall stairs. Got it?”
Nova nodded briskly, but couldn’t keep a frown off her face. “I’ll stay! But I’ve kinda told you a lot about me—”
Rainbow cut her off with a swipe of a hoof. “All of which could be a lie. You’ve already proven to be a good actor. Or a good spy.”
Nova scowled at the ground and kicked at the tiles. “Point taken.” She kept facing the floor, but looked up at Rainbow. “I bet this cure could bankroll us for life though. If he won’t go public with it, then we should.”
“Let’s see what form the cure takes then,” Rarity cut in and pushed the doors open. The lab first opened into a decontamination airlock which made Rarity and Nova protect their decks by tucking them as best they could into their coats. The sprayers hit them with a fine mist, followed by a burst of heat, drying the lot of them. They finally stepped out into the clean room. Rows of work benches covered in various lab equipment and tools, leaving little room to walk. The south wall was covered end to end with refrigerators or glove box isolators. The far wall had several glass occupied stasis pods. Indistinct muttering drifted from the direction of the tubes.
Rarity motioned for quiet and the group rounded their way over. They found the aged unicorn stallion studying several holographic readouts while glancing at the subjects in the tubes from time to time. A holographic stallion stood midair between the displays and the tubes, with just enough space between the screens so the scientist could clearly see the avatar. The avatar was mostly transparent, but had enough color to discern a face. The air here was cold, thanks to the tubes of coolant gases from the support machines around the tubes.
While Rainbow’s hooves were quiet, the doctor eventually looked up from his work. At first he didn’t realize who this collection of four strange mares might be and wrinkled his brow. “This lab is strictly off limits to personnel from other departments. How - how?” He saw the cyberdecks and weapons on their backs, and even he knew a mage when he saw one. How did you get past security? Who are you?!”
Before any of them could respond, the avatar shifted to stand above the mares and had holographic boxes complete with readouts around Rainbow Dash and Nova. “Chief Director Guiding Light. These two are subjects 87-103-#57 and 87-103-#312. Proceeding to update records.”
Rarity and Twilight moved away from the targeted ponies, a passing fear of some weapon bearing down on them. Nova looked at her box with curiosity, and tried to read the text on her box, but it was backwards and scrolling too fast.
Of them all, Rainbow was the least concerned, having been through it all many years ago. “Hey gramps, the prodigal daughter returns.”
He squinted a bit at her before looking at the readouts closer to his face. He jumped after recognizing her. “By my stars and garters, is that really you?” At her nod, Guiding Light limped on creaky old legs over to her, but Rainbow met him halfway. “That explains how you got in. Was it quietly or did you have to get rough?”
Nova leaned over to Twilight “I thought you were exaggerating on being oblivious.” Twilight simply shook her head.
Rainbow Dash sucked in a breath and rubbed the back of her head. “Yeeeah, it was loud. The knights got the drop on us. We had to put them down, but we managed to spare the receptionist at least.”
Guiding Light huffed in disdain. “More’s the pity. Such is the nature of your work, and for what it’s worth,” Guiding Light thought better of giving the receptionist’s name away, “the knights are a miserable lot. Except for the lad up front, he at least nodded and smiled. The rest of them never wished to mingle and get to know us, we’re nothing more than clients.” He started shaking a hoof irritably at himself. “But enough about that, let me get a good look at you!” Rainbow Dash stood by as the aged unicorn circled her a couple of times. She may have still been wearing her under-robe, but it was tight enough for him to get a decent picture of her physique. “You look as beautiful as ever.” He hugged Rainbow lightly, one she happily returned, but was fearful of breaking his old bones.
Rainbow grinned with embarrassment, which only deepened her cheeks to a hot red upon seeing Twilight and the others watching her closely. “Ah, girls, Guiding Light,” she pulled back and raised a hoof towards him. “The guy who personally watched over my Embrace of the Moon.”
“Embrace of the what?” Nova tried to walk out of the scanning cube, but it kept following her. “Never mind, why do I have a box on me?” She started swiping a hoof at it, trying to get the AI to dismiss the cube, causing her to entirely miss Rainbow signaling her to close her ears.
Guiding Light scoffed. “Because you are a thestral, you silly girl. Honestly, shouldn’t you know you’re all listed in the archives even if you’ve never been here?”
Rarity tilted her head. “Is she now? How curious.” Rarity’s horn started glowing as she gripped her carbine, but she didn’t levitate it into a proper firing position. Rainbow did much the same by side stepping away from the old stallion, and mentally went through which spell to use first. Twilight, however, did not reach for her weapon, nor did she take a hostile stance.
Nova was still distracted by trying to read the backwards text on the hologram surrounding her. “Thessa what? Is that a code word or scientific name for bat ponies or something?” She looked back at the scientist, only to realize that Rarity and Rainbow Dash were looking at her with a dangerous air. She hesitated, not sure how to take such a turn.
“Quite convenient you happen to be a thestral,” Rarity commented darkly. She didn’t want to draw her weapon yet, but she wasn’t about to take her eyes off Nova.
Nova didn’t dare trying to draw her hand cannon, not with Rarity already about to attack, and Rainbow Dash had a raised hoof, moments from weaving a spell. Nova retreated to an equipment laden workbench. “Hey, come on, maybe it just thinks I am because I’m a bat pony!” Nova retreated until she pressed her back against the workbench, rocking a few vials. She started feverishly looking for an escape route. Of them all, only Twilight remained non-threatening.
Guiding Light was largely ignoring the rising tension. He was far more interested in the readings on her. “An 87-103 ya say? And among the three hundred series. Remarkable. I thought I’d keel over before seeing one face to face.”
Rainbow Dash was inches from signing a stun spell when what the stallion was saying finally registered. “Wait, what’s so remarkable about her?”
“That I’m telling the truth this time around!” Nova shouted at everyone, while trying to shield her face. “I’m not a spy!”
Guiding Light grumbled and started limping over to the cornered runner. “Normally I’d keep mum about this, but I can’t have you two killing one of my babies.” That got a gasp out of Rainbow Dash, and bewilderment from Rarity. He reached Nova, still reading her file. “You seem to have had quite the public life before you burned your SIN. A shame you never got picked up by the Nightborne.”
Twilight tilted her head. “How do you know all that if her SIN was burned?”
Guiding Light gave a wrinkled smirk. “She is a child of Mother Moon. It is through divination matrices using her magic that my colleagues and I can keep general track of our… children. Plus, given the nature of the Nightborne’s work, we have an off-site database that keeps records written on paper medium of every child of the Moon, so any SIN burning doesn’t destroy knowledge of them. I must say, the system by which those records are created and read by the on-site computer is ingenious.” He tapped his thick glasses with a crooked grin. “I’ve been reading what we have on you this whole time.”
Rarity moved her carbine back to its normal resting place on her back, but didn’t let her magic go just yet. “Flash, dear, how much can we take this gentlecolt at his word?”
Rainbow closed in on the group. “He’s as honest as Farmer. At least with me.” Twilight nodded in silent agreement.
Guiding Light had a fatherly smile, and he stopped short of arm’s length from Nova. “I always liked you, Rainbow Dash. Trust is to be respected, earned, a fact you know all too well.”
The three friends hissed at the open use of Rainbow’s name. For her part, Nova acted as if she didn’t hear it, anything to keep them from shooting her right then and there.
Twilight was more than happy to defuse the tension, and move on from the name drop. “I see. Nova, it looks like you are more than you thought you were.”
Nova laughed nervously, still uneasy from being drawn upon. “I hope whatever it is I am is enough to keep from being fragged.”
Rainbow’s ears fell flat against her skull. “Doc, how is she a thestral if she was never part of the Nightborne?”
“I can explain in a minute, but I can tell you that she isn’t, so can we put the guns down?” Guiding Light eyed Nova with a wiry grin. “Somehow I don’t think you went through all this trouble just to find out about - erm - I don’t think I caught your name, miss…?”
“Ahhh - Nova, I go by Nova.”
“Right, thank you Miss Nova.” Guiding Light refocused on Rainbow Dash. “I can not speak of her acquaintances in crime potentially making her a threat, but she is not a Nightborne.”
At that, Rainbow was silent. Some part of her desperately wanted to know if Rarity’s hunch was right, but another part wanted to bury it in the past where it belonged. She was who she was, and the how of it surely wasn’t of any real consequence. She was a pegasus turned thestral, and that’s all there was to it.
During the silence, Twilight noticed Rainbow and Rarity were sluggish to trust, and decided to approach Nova first and offered a hoof. “Sorry, Nova, we thought you might have been a spy leading us on.”
Nova looked back and forth between the hoof and the apologetic half-smile. Fear dominated her hesitation, but she took a chance and took Twilight’s hoof. “Apology accepted. I probably woulda actually fired if I were you. Yeah, definitely would have.”
At that, Rainbow finally released her charged mana, leading Rarity to reluctantly release her magic from the carbine.
That left Guiding Light enough motivation to step up to Rainbow so Nova had a bit less scrutiny to calm down. “Now my dear, I get the feeling you are here more for yourself than her.”
Rarity would have liked to follow Twilight’s lead of staying back and out of the way, but feared leaving Rainbow’s side should Rainbow be blinded by her past trust. “Yes, my apologies as well, dear. Now, Doctor, yes we came looking for answers about Flash’s past regarding Resolute Chorus.” Rainbow gave a worried look at the geneticist, hoping he would catch the hint on her alias. Maybe Nova will just think my real name is just my old street name instead, and forget about it.
Twilight earned a relieved sigh out of Nova before turning to address the doctor. “Yes, and I’d like to know why both she and Nova here have the same subject designators.”
Everyone except Guiding Light gave Twilight puzzled looks. The scientist gave a gravelly sigh. “The others always said you were too smart, perhaps there is merit to that.” He pulled away from Rainbow just enough so he could get all four mares in sight at once. “I suppose I can start at the beginning of it all. To be honest, I’ve felt obligated to tell you for years now.
“About sixty years ago, the Princess tasked me with two objectives. The first was perfecting the thestral genome that would allow the resurrection of that long dead tribe. The other was heading a group that could locate ponies that could command the Elements of Harmony.
“Celestia facilitated the first part by giving us some de-petrified thestral corpses for a basis. The second wasn’t that hard really. Social media practically gives us a decent enough picture of roughly eighty percent of the public. Potential wielders of Generosity, Laughter, Kindness, and Honesty were rare to be sure, but still had a number of candidates. But Loyalty was utterly non-existent.”
Twilight wrinkled her brow. “But how can that be? There’s plenty of loyal ponies out there.”
“True, but any tenet of harmony can be corrupted.” Guiding Light countered. “Take Generosity for example. You can call a pony who gives away all worldly possessions generous. They can spend all their time in a soup kitchen with no thought for themselves. But what have they really accomplished? They feed a few souls until the money runs out, and they end up just as homeless as the ponies they tried to help. That is abnormal, a logical extreme, but it does happen. The sad part is, they likely don’t even do it for generosity’s sake, but for a twisted sense of self-gratification. That little bump of dopamine becomes more important than actually helping. Even those who genuinely do it to help others neglect themselves.
“No. The Elements are very particular as to whom they deem worthy, and no singular aspect is enough. It had to be a holistic and, fittingly enough, harmonious approach to the tenet. Life is full of nuances, and the Elements are no different,” he added dismissively with a roll of a hoof that cracked with every turn. “But the short of it is that scant few ponies fit the bill, and Loyalty above all else was horribly absent. So a decade into the project, the recently promoted regent, a Miss Sunset Shimmer—I should hope you at least passively pay attention to who the heads of state are—suggested to me that if we couldn’t find a bearer of Loyalty, that we should make one instead.”
Rainbow grew cold, fear hitching her voice. “You - please don’t tell me…”
Guiding Light shook his head. “My dear, as I watched each of my creations from afar, I always knew you, above all others, were incapable of the treason you were accused of. Seeing you here tonight with—” He stole a glance at Twilight Sparkle. “With friends—not just co-workers I imagine, but actual friends—confirms it for me. So you need to know the truth of it, contract be damned.” He looked her dead in the eye. “Full disclosure: I created you. My peers were busy creating other variants of the thestral genome, but you were the sole focus of my attention. I created your DNA, letter by letter. Seeing you here tonight vindicates my pride that you were, in part, my masterpiece.”
You are a planned organism.
“But - no, I look like my parents, they didn’t work for the crown or anything.”
“No, they didn’t,” Guiding Light admitted freely. “I made sure you looked enough like them that they’d never question you.”
“But I was pegasus, I still have pictures!” Rainbow was getting louder and more desperate, her pain coloring her voice.
“Yes, that was part of the plan I didn’t like, but had to obey. From the start, you were, and still are, a thestral. I had to modify your DNA to give you the outer appearance of a pegasus. Your fangs remained hidden in your upper jaw. With child x-rays being digital, it was trivial to have your SIN flagged to edit those x-rays before being visible to the doctor.
“You had real feathers as well, the whole deal. But your essence, your soul was always that of a thestral. All your rebirth under the moon did was unmask the real you. Personally, I did all that in hopes you wouldn’t contract Polygraph’s Disease. But your time in the Nightborne proved my efforts for naught on that front.”
Rarity looked wide eyed at both Rainbow and the stallion. “Wait, what makes you say that? Flash doesn’t have PD.”
Rainbow couldn’t respond. She was shaking with raw emotion and was too distraught to speak aloud. Not him, she couldn’t deny what Guiding Light said. She felt like she owed him too much to fall back on denial. Twilight’s ears fell back with concern and she cantered over to hug Rainbow Dash who didn’t respond one way or the other.
Guiding Light might have been fatherly to the others, but Rarity was an outsider to him. He felt tight lipped towards her. “Of course she does. I ran the tests myself when she was reborn under the moon. Her other symptoms were thankfully minor, so she’s probably hidden that fact from you.”
Rarity bit her lip, unsure in how to proceed. Sure Rainbow outed her motherhood to Nova, but Rarity was too suspicious to trust the stallion with that bit of information. “I see. What a shame.”
Nova took advantage of the silence. “So um, doc, if I’m a thestral or whatever, does that mean I actually have Soul Sickness or not? I mean, I always just kinda assumed I did.”
Guiding Light pried his eyes off Rarity. “I don’t know, honestly. Your parents fit our criteria when they were trying to create a new foal, a shame they deviated as much as they did. But as for your question, testing for PD requires procedures that a pediatrician would ask too many questions about. An easier test from afar is to see if they ever had a child naturally. Which given bat culture, would already be unlikely, I suppose. If we had the time, and you weren’t breaking and entering, I’d offer to test you here and now.
“As for how you are a thestral instead of a bat, it was trivial to give your parents’ doctors your embryo, line some pockets, and have them pass you off as their work. So make no mistake, you were a thestral from the very start.”
“Ah,” Nova rubbed her chin and hummed nonchalantly. “That’s cool.”
The flippancy of the comment broke through to Rainbow. “That’s cool?” Rainbow shoved Twilight off of her so there was nothing between Nova and her. “How can you just say that? We’re fake ponies! We’re freaks!”
“I’m fully aware of that, yes.” Nova shrugged helplessly. “Bat pony, thestral. It’s just different names for the same thing as far as I can tell.”
But—” Rainbow snorted out of utter disbelief. “But your parents didn’t even have a hoof in designing you!”
Nova fumed with indignation, and waved an angry wing right back at her. “If you knew my parents, you’d see that as a blessing, believe me. I’m actually really glad to know I don’t share a single chromosome with either of them, planned or biologically.”
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Flash,” Twilight interrupted with a hoof on Rainbow’s withers.
Rainbow jerked away and glared at her. “And what would you know?”
Twilight gave her a neutral look that bordered on concern. “Because I know how it feels.”
Rainbow gave a loud equine snort and threatened to storm off, Rarity’s goals be damned. “I don’t want your pity. How can you know how it actually feels?!”
Twilight looked at Guiding Light, but the stallion kept his mouth shut. “Very well.” She looked at the avatar. “Genome, release—”
“Wait!” Guiding Light yelled with a raised hoof, shaking with age. “Celestia forbade us to tell a soul.”
“I know,” Twilight’s face dropped, and she closed her eyes. She inhaled sharply. “But, I believe if she were here right now, she’d do this herself.”
“You don’t know that, child.”
“I like to think she’d trust me enough to do what’s right.” Twilight looked over her friends, new and newer. “Besides, since we’re airing so many secrets, I might as well add mine to the pot.” When Guiding Light didn’t bother voicing anymore objections, Twilight returned her attention to the avatar. “Genome, release security locks on 33-49 #1, voice identity code Solar Lunar Omega.”
“Code verified.” The same readout box still surrounding the thestrals now appeared around Twilight. She looked dead at Rainbow. “I was created from the DNA up as well for one singular purpose. But I’ll admit to knowing about that since I was eight.” Rainbow and Rarity were speechless, while Nova was left in a ‘so what’ mood, but was wise enough not to voice it. “I know what really troubles you is that loss of self-determination. Isn’t it? That you have no worth outside of what somepony else made you to be.”
“You don’t…” Rainbow couldn’t force the rebuttal out. “You - you knew your whole life?”
“Essentially. After everything you’ve seen of me, it can’t be that hard to believe.”
The comment did the trick of derailing Rainbow’s mental spiral. She sheepishly scratched the back of her head. “Well, your magic being complete trash outside of a dragon line was convincing enough that you were mostly natural. Pretty shoddy work if you ask me. ”
Twilight’s cheeks puffed up and she fumbled over her rebuke. She was red in the face by the time she could work her jaw. “Celestia does not do shoddy work! I’m just incomplete, that’s all!”
“Miss Sparkle that is far enough!” Guiding Light barked as he interposed himself between them. “I can not stop you from speaking of such matters, but at least do it where you know no pony is listening!”
Rarity, Twilight, and Rainbow briefly looked at Nova. Guiding Light was momentarily confused why Rarity wasn’t getting scrutinized as well, but kept his peace on that. Nova was about to defend herself, but stopped herself when Rainbow was emotionally beyond caring.
“So you’re incomplete? What? Did Celestia think leaving you with a broken horn was cool? Character building maybe? That’s sick to do to a unicorn! What’s Celestia thinking by playing with our lives like this? What even is the point of the damn Elements?!”
Twilight grimaced at the sheer disgust in Rainbow’s tone, but it was expected all the same. “She’s not playing, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight closed her eyes and delved into her memories. “The unplanned organism is a question asked by nature, and answered by death. We are another kind of question, with another kind of answer.”
Nova worked up the nerve to come in close while Rarity raised a questioning hoof. “Quoting your teacher, I take it?”
Twilight nodded hesitantly. “It means that we are not accidents like natural born ponies. We were conceived with a purpose.” Twilight was still focused on Rainbow. “That purpose does not diminish us in any way. We do not stop being important once we fulfill our purpose. Flash, you have lived a life, and you’re not even close to thirty yet. It may not have gone the way you wanted, but do you think being made to wield Loyalty has anything to do with you finding love? Having a family? Becoming a shadowrunner of all things? For Celestia’s sake your cutie mark has nothing to do with being an Element Bearer!”
“You had a family?! But your PD!” Guiding Light sat bolt upright, but was largely ignored.
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow shot back while flaring her wings. “Well, where was I headed before that? Looking back on it, I was practically led by the nose to join the Wonderbolts, and right into the hooves of the Nightborne.” She whipped her focus onto Guiding Light. “Right as I was expected to, wasn’t I?”
The elderly stallion decided to table Rainbow’s lack of Soul Sickness for now, and turned his nose up at her. He moved over to claim a wooden test-tube rack. He dumped the empty vials on the bench and proceeded to thwack Rainbow on the head with it.
Rainbow tried to shield her head with a foreleg and her wings, but the stallion slipped the rack through her defenses and conked her between the ears one more time. “Hey! Why’d you do that ya crusty old geezer!”
“You stupid girl! Do you honestly think I would ever condone mental directives like that? Let alone from the Princess?”
“I’m beginning to wonder,” Rainbow replied bitterly, only to get another smack on the head.
“I knew I should have put more grey matter in that cudgel you call a skull, but I don’t think it would have gotten enough use to be worth it.” Rainbow shot into the air to escape his wrath, but the wrinkled stallion was already putting the rack down. “Do you know how many sleeper thestral children our lab put out there?” He turned to the avatar. “How many did we make before the project was shut down?
“One thousand, three hundred and fifty five.”
Rainbow balked at the number. Twilight was unmoved, while Rarity and Nova were more impressed than anything else. “That many? Why?”
“Because mentally forcing you was both unethical and would defeat the whole purpose.” Guiding Light’s age was catching up to him. He was breathing heavily and collapsed to three legs. Twilight and Rarity were quick to support him. Even Rainbow Dash landed close by, but didn’t know how to squeeze in to help. He nodded his thanks while keeping his eyes focused on Rainbow. “Out of those thousands, you were the only one to not only come back to us, but who didn’t lose her way and be found insufficient of character by the Elements. Be it nature or nurture, you came back. I don’t need the Element in my hoof to know you’re worthy of it.” He gave Rainbow the stern, hard look of a father. “Aye, we made you to bear Loyalty, but all those failures should tell you we didn’t control your mind through your DNA. It is a path you chose to follow. The only difference is that I opened the door for you to do so.”
Rainbow wasn’t truly listening anymore as her fear started to become self-loathing. “I don’t - I’m sorry, but—”
Rarity was struck by inspiration and almost giggled madly. “Wha ha ha! I got it! Flash, dear, think of it. You’re not artificial in the slightest.”
“I - what? But, they’ve been telling me the whole time I was created!”
Rarity nodded, but kept her focus. “Yes, yes, but think of it this way. The other Nightborne, they chose to become thestrals, but they all suffer Soul Sickness, yes?”
“They do, sadly,” Guiding Light admitted. “Even with all my efforts, all I can do is minimize the symptoms.” He wanted to press about Rainbow having children, but Rarity kept going, silencing him.
Rarity clapped her hooves. “Flash, you don’t have Soul Sickness if your children are any indication. That means you are a real thestral. The jury is still out on you, Nova.
“But, Flash, sure there may have been some finagling in bringing you back, but you are the first real thestral to exist for hundreds of years. At least assuming Nova here is younger than twenty five years old. Even if she’s the real deal.”
“Ah, yeah, I’m nineteen.”
Real. Did she dare hope? “You’re just using word play and mental gymnastics, Diamond.”
“Pish-posh, hardly! I see you like a dress. For some, it is the very picture of fashion: timeless, trendy, or dull, these are all opinions. What doesn’t change is that the dress is still a dress. You are still a pony, a born thestral. The living symbol of your tribe’s return from the grave!”
Nova raised a hoof. “Technically I was born more of a thestral than she was.”
“Hush you,” Rarity snapped just barely soft enough to be seen as playful. “You came after by your own admission.”
Rainbow felt a weight off her shoulders, but the fear that it might crash right back down dulled her mood. “I need time to think this over.”
Twilight hugged Rainbow for all her worth. “We’ll be here for you, no matter what. What do you say, girls?”
Rarity was all too eager to jump in. “Absolutely. No matter what you think or say, you’re a real friend to me.”
Nova felt rather uncomfortable staying out, but couldn’t bring herself to impose on it. “So, hey, you never did tell me to go plug my ears.” She shrugged and gave a sheepish grin as the rainbow maned thestral pulled herself away.
“I actually did tell you,” Rainbow fumed, leading Nova to freak a bit and recoil. The fearful reaction deflated what irritation Rainbow had over it. “But after hearing you were a thestral, PD or not, I figured you had a right to know what he was going to say, so I’ll give you a pass this time.”
Nova shivered as biult up stress bled away. “Y-yeah, it was a bit crazy.” Nova averted her eyes, not sure how to feel over it, if she should feel anything in the first place.
Rarity checked her phone and eeped at it being nearly half past one o’clock. The all-clear signal was about to expire. “Guiding Light, as much as I would prefer to carry on this catharsis, we’re short on time. Can you tell me why the throne wanted to pour all this money into finding the bearers in the first place?”
“Well, from what I know, the Elements have a loose influence on Equestria’s social fabric. Each Element helps keep deviancy of greed, dishonesty, and so on and so forth from going out of control. The Princess warned that their influence has been waning for some time. If we found bearers for all six Elements, then the artifacts would be reinvigorated.
“But after a few decades of limited success, Resolute Chorus was shut down because the Regent felt Equestria was better served directly improving society instead of relying on the Elements like a crutch. I can’t say I disagree with her,” he added with a limp shrug. “Relying on an outside source just to keep our moral fabric intact is asking for trouble. But even then, the Princess kept going on about a more singular concern with the Elements, but I was never privy as to what that was.”
He scoffed at the reminder of the personal injustice. “In the end, reallocation of funds was the final nail in the coffin. Work on the thestral genome was completed long ago, including several thousand versions of it to keep the gene pool sufficiently deep. So it’s not like we had any real legging to protest on. My side of the whole Elements angle was done anyway.”
“Wait a second, you made us to wield the Elements, and you don’t even know the main purpose the Princess had in mind?” Twilight asked, rejoining the conversation. She left Rainbow Dash alone so she had time to process everything.
“I thought the reinvigorating was the primary purpose.” Guiding Light rebuked more harshly than he wanted to. With a tired sigh, he shuffled over to a chair, and grumpily waved off any attempts to help from Twilight. The old stallion’s hip and back caused him horrible aches. “Damn fool nonsense about how we weren’t getting results,” he said with a gracious sigh as he sank into the office chair. “Well, I take that back. To be honest, my memory is a bit hazy, and this happened a while ago, but the Regent did concede we had four candidates, and one guaranteed bearer. But in the end, that wasn't good enough, not with the time frame the project was going to take.”
Rarity’s face lit up with intrigue, and she pressed in. “Time frame? What prompted the deadline?”
Guiding Light arched an unamused eyebrow and spun his chair away from the intruding mare. “The Regent was the one to think up some fool idea she became distracted with. I don’t know what it was about, but Resolute Chorus was no longer the Princess’s pet project. My staff and I were transferred to determine the long term genetic stability of the Nightborne. As if I was some slipshod geneticist,” he added bitterly.
Behind them, Nova had inched her way close to Rainbow Dash and started up a quiet conversation the unicorns missed. Rarity’s brow wrinkled at the stallion’s words. “So is there nothing left of Resolute Chorus anymore?”
“Did I say that?” Guiding Light snapped tiredly. “I was just removed from the board of directors.” “I gave up trying to be an active member in Celestia’s inner circle years ago, but I keep a loose eye on things.” A snarky glint in his eye. "It pays to have friends in high places."
“So who has overall leadership over RC now?” Twilight inquired after sharing a worried look with Rarity.
“Regent Shimmer took over. My friends tell me she uses the monitoring infrastructure we created to assist the Sections in their work. It’s been quite successful from what I’ve heard.”
Twilight grinned massively. “Diamond, I think we have our next lead.”
“That we do.” Rarity checked the time, and the hour was too late for her liking. “But we’ll think about it later.” She turned to the two thestrals and cranked up the volume. “Ladies, it’s time we took our leave. I’d rather not tango with a full company of angry knights.”
Rainbow got up and waved goodbye to Guiding Light. “See ya gramps, keep breathing another year, will ya?” she managed to crack a smirk.
“I’m not dying until I see those kids of yours. It would be my entire bucket list all in one if I could see proof at least one of you no longer has PD.”
Rainbow grinned at the sentiment. “If all this blows over before you croak, I can arrange that.”
“Don’t disappoint me by dying out there, child. I want to see those rugrats of yours.”
“You will, count on it.” Rainbow roped a wing around Nova’s back. “And you’re coming too. No excuses.”
“Eeeee!” Nova squealed in protest as she was practically dragged over to the unicorns who were already leaving the lab. “Technically, though, you were the ones coming up with reasons to kill me or take me along.”
“Yeah well, you’re a thestral, so you’re coming. We’re too rare to split up after tonight.” The two reached the hallway, and Rainbow saw the unicorns were making for the stairs. “That’s another thing,” Rainbow stated with steely forcefulness. “You are never ever allowed to think of or call yourself a bat pony ever again. You’re a thestral. Accept it, own it, and never forget it.”
The pair reached the stairs and decided to glide their way down, giving their legs a rest. “Ah - sure. Thestral sounds cooler and all. I still don’t get where all this pissiness about bat ponies came from. You didn’t seem to bite my head off when you thought I was one, what did they do to you?”
The two landed hard on the first floor of the labs and continued to sprint for the exit. Twilight was flagging, and running out of breath, but she still worked up the strength to keep pace with Rarity.
“I’ll tell you when we get home.” Rainbow and Nova skidded to a halt at the elevator. Twilight had collapsed on the floor sucking in breath and whimpering to herself. “You need to exercise more, egghead.” She poked the bit of pudge on Twilight’s stomach.
“Don’t you start too,” Twilight whined.
Everyone piled in with Rarity slapping the floor button. “Girls, we’re going to end up over half an hour late. Our ride’s probably long gone by now, so we’ll need to take the truck Flash brought.” A round of nods circled the elevator.
Down on the street, a stallion was sitting nervously in a van parked a block away from the tower. Through tinted windows, he kept watch around him, but most of his focus was waiting on the four runners. “Damn it. Mares are always late. I bet they see the clock as the most useless invention ever.”
His phone started buzzing as it hit one o’clock sharp. “Well, my contract said wait until one AM, and they still aren’t here, so they’re probably dead anyway.”
He was about to start the engine when a hoof rapped on his driver side door. He jerked over to see it was Lightning Dust. He growled in annoyance and rolled the window down. “About damn time. When you said you were on your way down, I thought you’d be back hours ago! I only stuck around this long because I owe you, LD.”
“Yeah well, that’s not me you’re waiting for.” Lightning purred. “But my damn doppelganger. I called you from Fisto’s place.”
“And you didn’t bother telling me that until now?” Burnt Rubber snorted in irritation.
“I know you, Burnt. You always watch out for any runners you have on the job. So you would have warned my evil twin, am I right?”
He crossed his forelegs in a huff. “Damn right I would have. I got a reputation to uphold.” He snorted in amusement over it all. “This is what you get for advertising yourself like that.”
“Shut up! I’m calling in the favor. Pop your side door.”
“What for?” he asked while still doing as instructed.
Lightning Dust climbed in and racked her submachine gun. “Because I’m going to kill her right here and now. Keep your mouth shut when they show up and I’ll kill her when she tries to get in.”
“They’re probably dead by now,” Burnt Rubber said as he turned around to keep looking at her. “They’re late.”
“I’m not taking that chance.” Lightning Dust rolled the side door shut and settled in to get comfortable, and ultimately left her weapon on the middle seat. “Either by the tower’s security, or by me, she’s dying tonight.”
“Whatever, my contract ended at one o’clock. Just try to not get blood on my floor back there.” Burnt Rubber ignored her and returned to keeping an eye out. If I tried to leave, she’d plant a bullet in my skull.
Time dragged by slowly. And it was roughly twenty minutes until two when Burnt Rubber spotted some activity. Three passenger helicopters screamed onto the roof of the skyscraper and dropped off troops while a gunship started orbiting the building, clearly intent on blasting through the glass walls if that meant killing the intruders. “Welp, if they weren’t dead before, they sure are now.” Two more helicopters went for the main doors and the only other exit point: the parking garage.
“That’s it, we’re leaving!”
Lightning Dust climbed over the seat to join him up front. A humorless grin cleaved her muzzle. “Never thought I’d be happy to see the knights roll up in force.”
Burnt Rubber was about to make a reply, but the sound of screeching wheels brought his attention to the parking garage. The four knights that had deployed down to street level briefly started firing into the garage. A pickup truck smashed through the restraining bar, causing the knights to dive out of the away. The truck sailed right under the helicopter.
An armored suit that was still standing in the deployment bay of the helicopter started firing its heavy minigun at the fleeing vehicle.
A brilliant sapphire blue shield with a lavender base popped up, absorbing the first few seconds of fire before collapsing. But that gave the truck enough time to round the street. It ran on the sidewalk so the buildings could be used as cover. Yet that did not stop the helicopter gunner from firing as close to them as possible, shredding every parked car along the way.
The truck was coming down their street, and would end up dragging the cannon fire right on top of the van. Lightning Dust scrambled to the back seat to get her weapon, kicking Burnt Rubber in the process. “What are you doing?! Get us out of the way!”
“I’m trying!” Burnt Rubber slammed on the accelerator and swerved to escape the autocannon fire snaking its way towards the truck from the gunship high above. The moment the van started moving, the gunner from the first helicopter started targeting them due to the truck still being blocked by the buildings.
Cursing his luck, both the truck and Burnt Rubber dove into the same side street as bullets found him, and smashed every window on the passenger side. Lightning Dust was thrown against the passenger side bay door, and risked looking out of it once the van was no longer on leaning on two wheels. She came almost face to face with her doppleganger in the truck barely five feet away. The body double stared at her for a moment before both mares realized who they were staring at. Lightning Dust lifted her submachine gun up and was about to fire at the cursed identity thief when the autocannon fire raked the back of the van, shearing off the entire rear half of the vehicle. Even as the van started to tumble and trail a river of sparks behind it, Lightning Dust held onto the side of the broken window, glass cutting into her leg as she did. She fired fifteen rounds at the fleeing truck, doing little more than maring its tailgate until a few bullets hit the back tires.
The truck fish tailed and slammed into an outdoor cafe before coming to a stop. The van then rolled and crashed into a streetlight, throwing Lightning Dust along the sidewalk before stopping against a bollard of a skyscraper. She cracked her eyes open long enough to see the four mares vacate the ruined truck and make a mad dash for the shadows.
Police sirens were blaring from the north, forcing Lightning Dust to shake off the shock from crashing as best she could. She looked to the van’s cabin, only to find Burnt Rubber had been thrown through the windshield headfirst into the streetlight.
Lightning Dust tried to get to her hooves, but the impacts had banged her up too much to walk. Eventually, several knights arrived and arrested her on the spot.
Pinkie Pie was at home creating new pictures and laying new string to her investigation board when the phone on her desk lit up with Flintlock’s face on it. She snatched it up and answered. “What’s the scoop, Flinty my boy?”
He growled deeply at the nickname, but didn’t voice his displeasure. “A government genetics lab was hit off Fifth Avenue. We have two survivors, one of them saying they went out of their way to spare his life. Sound familiar?”
Pinkie’s eyes focused on the focus of her board: Rainbow Dash. Once more her Pinkie Sense told her she was a friend. “I’m on my way.”
“Good, we’re going to need your mysticism on this one because they set fire to the security center. You’re going to be our best bet for any forensics leads.”
“Roger dodger, I’ll swing by the office and pick up my clue kit.”
“I took the liberty of taking it with me on the tilt-rotor, just get over to the scene.”
“You got it boss,” Pinkie chirped back. She kept her newfound distrust in him quiet. Should I really be surprised about all of it though? It’s not like he’s a master spy or something.
Luckily for Pinkie, Flintlock had momentarily looked away as he kept speaking. “Also, the KE arrested one of the shadowrunners. Does the name Lightning Dust sound familiar?”
“Yeah, she does.” A feral grin cleaved Pinkie’s muzzle at the news. “I crashed a few of her parties back in the day. She took offense for some reason. Honestly, I made them all much more fun.”
Flintlock looked back at her with something caught between amusement and concern. “I see. Well, you can add tonight to her rap sheet because the surviving Knight Errant trooper just hoofed her as one of the assailants.”
Far above the light pollution of Canterlot, the stars inched closer to the moon.
Did our heroines have insurance for that truck? Did RD solve the curse of the moon? What exactly is Celestia's deal with cakes?
You may or may not find out next time!!
This chapter took far longer than originally planned as it was supposed to be out 1-2 days after the last one. But here it is! Honestly I blame Ponkers.
I just wanna know when I get to punch that no good frienemy! I just gotta figure out who that is exactly...
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See lighting this is what you get for being a meanine pants
Yay! Update! I can't wait for the moment when Sunset's conspiracy is unrevaled and Nightmare Moon is turned back into Luna.
Oh man, Lightning is gonna cause some very real problems for the crew, I'm predicting it now.
9751429
on 4 going to 5 this is good stuff, i have the games but never got around to playing them
i been playing other games of my time, and the other game is underrail that just come out with a new DLC to make the game 2 times bigger then it already is
Lightning Dust probably has some bad karma out there somewhere for her to be getting buzzed like this, lel. Tbh, she's kind of a jerk from what little I've seen of her in canon, and seems like an even bigger jerk here, so I'm not all that forthcoming with the pity.
Also, lol at Pinkie not being sure who the hell to clock. While she may be a bit of a jerkass at times (though certainly not without good reason), I promise ya that Rainbow is a friend, Ponkers. ... Well, she will be, at any rate.
9766598
Considering she's going to frag another runner for using her looks, yeah she's a bitch. She's likely surviving and bring forcedly recruited to deal with the gang though. Either that or dead
9766787
She's advertising herself with her real name. Not only is she a huge bitch, but stupid is as stupid does, lmao.
Dash and Tia are going to have a llllllooooonnnnggggg talk.
Is it just me, or is Twilight starting to get, subtly, scary?
Awesome chapter
cant wait for more. And i hope nova wont be writen off as cannon folder. I sure like her character.
And, i sure see some trouble soon with added vengeanceful shadow runner freshly employed by Sunset.
Best fic on the site.
i wanted to see the real lighting dusk being part of the time!
it be funny as hell
9766080
i kinda want to see her join the team it be funny as all hell.
but not after being in a full-body case and having hot soup land on her crotch.
9766598
maybe freed by them later.
only to be in a full-body case from hell like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc8ngiMlCto
9768284
Your forgetting full body filled with ants
9768296
i can see that happening as lighting dusk lay o nthe sofa hating nova rainbow kids come in with a an ant farm saying "look what i just got from the flee market!" droping the ant farm on lighting dusk as she yeel in a panic and pain as twilight and rare try to get the ants off her and not kill them for rainbow kid to still have his ant farm
9768301
Oh my that sounds exactly like what he would pull even by accident then throw in flutterhsys caring kids wanting to help and then soup
9768318
i hope the guy make the story do that in a way.
maybe a huge payout to free lighting dust, knowing her she have a back up plan if she ever got caught.
9769027
But throw in pinkie pies natural generated chaos and it goes woo beepblahlgheisk
9769047
and thats how she ended up in a full-body cast
9769057
With pinkie dash nova fluttershy and the kids as nurse maids
9769112
boy that be funny to see
9769112
but i will say this if twilight become a decker i would be very happy maybe with her smart bairn of her she can find a workaround with out the need of a inplant of a jack
9751429
hey are you going to put weapons like the Heckler & Koch G12A3z or Tiffani Self-Defender
9769169
Wouldant work for her since shes litterly been bread to be magics host she needs her magic being a decker would severely affect that
9769257
but like i say she a smart pony from what i read and the game lore its the implants that ruin your magic.
what am thinking is that if she is that smart she would most likly go with headgear that can read her bairn wave and all that.
like how in anime did much time with no implants to be in the cyber world
9769260
Like SAO
9769376
thats one of the anime but before that one there was the .hack// anime
9769376
now i think of it it could be a handie cup for her if she go that way like her link in ther martix is a lot weaker then those with data jack, but she can make this up by being so smart and having software code and more to help over come this fact
This is getting so Cyberpunk/Shadowrun so far, I wondre if they are going to take Nightmare down in Ponyville at all? After all, taking her down in Canterlot isnt a good place, what with the mountainside location?
What was real fun playing the Origional Cyberpunk, was that the home computer I had at the time was old, obsolete, and crushed Cyberdecks.
I suspect that was because it was powered by C.A.O.S.
It was very much Alive.
Another amazing chapter for my favorite story.
Keep up the amazing work. Also this story needs advertisement, its not loved by enough people.
Lol
Says the pony who has just admitted to altering fetuses' genetic code with the knowledge or consent of the parents. Yep, a paragon of ethics he is.
And Moon Dancers fate remains unknown ...
Yeeaah.Doesn't change the elephant in the room that he was genetically modifying fetuses genetic codes without consent/knowledge of the parents. Hypocrite. And that's really morally gross to me.