• Published 21st Dec 2012
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Forgiveness Pending - Kiroberos



Moon Mender's adventure continues right where left off. He jumps at the chance for a new life, but will his old one truly leave him in peace? Some things are better off forgotten.

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Chapter 26

No. This wasn't possible. My body shivered lightly as I watched the CPU Loading Bars go across the inside of my eyes. Nirru, looking like a beat up and burned version of my fillyfriend, smiled at me snidely through the displays.

"Right unit projection. Display hard disks," she requested softly a moment later. My right eye's vision went white instantly, blurs and colors shining through it. My left noticed a holographic display of the CPU Bars pop up above me and shift in front of Nirru. No, it couldn't be. Why was my right eye a holographic projector?!

The loading Bars finished and initialized all three additional CPUs a moment later. Displays popped up all over the inside of my eye and I swallowed, a frozen sensation being magnified by the numbness in my chest. Thousands of what I recognized as files spread out over the screen. What the hell was this?! No, she had to be just projecting something onto my eye.

The fake Twilight knelt down a moment later and pushed her hoof against my bloodied chest. My remaining functional eye widened to maximum capacity as I saw a cornered off panel form out of my chest, various slots and holes in it with seemingly metal rims! This was a nightmare. A really bad, screwed up nightmare! It had to be. I was going to wake up next to Twilight at any moment and compulsively kiss her.

Nirru plugged her hoof into my chest using a cord that 'melted' from her skin a moment later. "Transfer all DNA data after decrypting," she finally ordered, sitting down on her haunches after. A bar labeled 'decrypting' slowly started crawling across my left eye. Wait, DNA data?

"It's kind of sad, really. You've been here for weeks and you don't even know what you are. Well, I'm nice, so I'll tell you the truth. You're an organic computer with the mind of a clone created from a soldier you're probably familiar with. Apparently, your job was to scout this dimension, get samples from six powerful energy sources, then return," she explained all at once in a bored tone.

My head swam. What?! No, I was Moon Mender; a pony here that came from a different dimension! Nirru idly adjusted the wires running into her hoof before continuing with, "Doctor Kyliona was our foremost expert on FTL Travel and Quantum Physics. She came up with a supposed plan to escape the Grosh by actually jumping dimensions. Reacting reasonably, I of course assumed she was batshit insane. Guess I was wrong. Mostly.” Even addled as I was, that was an easy enough jump to make. She stumble upon six energy sources while experimenting, found Equestria, and sent a 'scout' to explore it. I sank a little further down into a lying position. What was I?

Nirru sighed after looking back up at me, letting her cords drop again. "Frankly, I can't see her programming a scout with rogue emotions. Chances are, something got fried in the dimensional transfer. Whatever the hell you are, you're a mistake. Not that it matters much as you'll probably not function for long after I finish this transfer anyway," she reasoned idly, looking surprisingly bored. A mistake?

The static picked up again after a few more seconds. I felt an angry pulse inside of my skull, followed by the white noise snapping back into an audio channel. "I'm not, ugh, done yet. This is wrong, Nirru!" Keela adamantly interrupted a moment later. I didn't pay much attention, remaining motionless on the ground. What did it matter anyway? I couldn't not see the proof right in front of my eyes. Well, eye. I was a machine; a fancy computer used for scouting Equestria.

"It doesn't really matter anymore. I'm downloading the DNA data now. Mender's dying," she informed, starting to echo a little as my body grew colder. I shivered, but didn't move still.

There was a low growl from Keela's end before, "It still matters. I called for help now. Four squads of soldiers are waiting for us when we exit the machine." Both of them were plugged into a machine on their end? That didn't help me much. Of course, the sad thing was, I couldn't really think of anything that could help me in the first place. Healing myself was all fine and good, but when I didn't have a life to go back to anyway, it was a moot point. Swallowing, I decided I could probably never even look at Twilight again. Was everything I felt, even now, fake? The only thing I could feel now was the tightness in my throat and chest, and my eyes starting to get watery. This was pathetic. If I really was a machine, why was I crying?

"Who do you think the soldiers listen to, Keela?" the bitch across from me asked, rolling her eyes in seeming annoyance. She was so full of herself. How did those two honestly end up as sisters?

Keela snorted, however. "Not you anymore. We took a vote and decided you're not fit to lead this ship. Something is wrong with you," she corrected sharply. A vote? Keldarians didn't vote, as far as I remembered. All our decisions were made by the elder council, who held lifetime, hereditary positions.

Predictably, Nirru narrowed her eyes. "I'm the one saving our race. I've got the DNA data of two point four billion Keldarians downloading right now. Who do you think they're going to thank for that?" she questioned vehemently, glaring down at me. How did I have all that DNA?!

"H-How?" I asked softly, looking fully back up at her. I couldn't seem to stop my shivering, but she didn't seem to notice.

Nirru smirked suddenly and chuckled. "Finally, an intelligent conversation. Doctor Kyliona was a homicidal bitch; that's how. You really don't remember anything about what happened before Equestria, do you?" she inquired, voice softening again. My eyes lowered, and I tried to shake my head. The only thing I achieved was a miniscule nudge sideways into the mud under me.

Nirru seemed to understand regardless, continuing, "Shortly after the planetary bombardment started, a huge energy spike was released from the surface. I was in a class two battleship above the surface, and managed to pick up this." She reached down and brushed her hoof again. A short uploading bar activated, and a movie started playing in my left eye.

The eye in question widened as I saw a black, well, something. It drifted off the planet, clearly visible from orbit, before exploding into tendrils in every conceivable direction. It spread at an absurdly fast rate, considering the scale involved!

"I had no idea what it was at the time," she continued, adding, "It spread to just over sixty three percent of the surface area of the atmosphere in an absurd sixteen and a half seconds, blotting out our star's light completely. It then proceeded to launch more tendrils at the surface, consuming and destroying everything in its path." The video showed over half of the planet covered in pure black mass. What could possibly do that?!

"Wait, you said ‘at the time’! You know what it is now, and you never told me?" Keela demanded, leaving a sharp echo through my mind. True. I hadn't picked that up so readily. I relaxed slightly, feeling my head swimming as if I had a high fever. Maybe I did.

Nirru snorted. "It was a little classified, Sister. Of course, our friend here actually has the clearance to hear about it, given that he's a type one classified artifact himself. I'll even let you listen."

I tried to roll my eyes, probably only managing the left one. The right seemed to be no longer under my control, instead acting as some sort of holographic output. Knowing I could do that would have been ironically helpful a few days prior, if not a whole new level of disturbing.

"Uh, I'm one of the highest council seats! There shouldn't be anything above me in rank," my psychically linked friend protested. Hmm. Was she my friend? After all of this, I wasn't so sure. I had only spoken with Keela, ever. She had promised me that she was keeping everything we talked about an absolute secret. Either that was a total lie, or Nirru had spied on her somehow. Regardless, it seemed obvious that Keela had at least started out helping her sister with this little excursion. I was having trouble focusing, though. I couldn't remember what she had said earlier as it bled into what was happening now.

Nirru just smiled, apparently ignoring her sister's complaints. "It was an untested biological weapon of mass destruction. It had been developed in top secret and wasn't related at all to her research. I still have no idea how she got a hold of it, but she did. It was set off right on top of us, killing a little over two point four billion Keldarians in less than thirty seconds," she explained softly, actually looking somewhat remorseful after.

I shuddered of my own violation this time. The image momentarily cut out, replaced by one of planet side. Keldarians ran screaming in the dark; flares of dark blue light burning through the skies. The tendrils lashed out from the heavens themselves to rend and murder, consuming and eating everything in their way. The smaller ones were about the size of a hovercar, and the largest could have rivaled the circumference of a mountain range. The Twilight doppelganger smiled wider as she watched. Wait, how the hell did I have that video feed?!

"Exactly. I know you're seeing this, Sister. The tentacles consumed everything, organic and inorganic alike. In some spots, they ate as far as four kilometers into the ground. Everyone who was touched by them was consumed and added to the mass, alongside the raw minerals and matter. That's what it was meant to do."

Keela groaned lightly, interrupting with, "Please clarify what this thing does? Why were we even working on something like this?" That was a good point, although the answer was fairly obvious. There were very few uses for something like what she was describing.

Nirru seemed to agree and sighed, furthering, "It was an anti-Grosh weapon. A pseudo-sentient mass of matter capable of traveling through space independently by use of our FTL technology. It could spread out almost indefinitely, consuming any mass or energy source it found as it went. It wouldn't stop until it ran out of conceivable planets to jump to, which was rather limitless considering faster than light jumps were possible. The Grosh, and everything we didn't blacklist in the AI, would be eliminated entirely. Further, after they were absorbed, all their technological information would be ours, directly from their own brains." Oh. Well damn. On a scale of scientific atrocities, that was dang near the top.

There was a stagnant pause, followed by a stifled groan from Keela. "That's monstrous! There's no way we could justify that. Who knows how many innocent species we would have wiped out without even knowing!" she growled, sounding about like I felt. My mind wasn't processing the concept of potentially dooming a nigh unlimited number of species just to defeat the Grosh.

"They would have been wiped out by those monsters anyway. We deserve to be the true heirs of the universe, not them. Our pathetic allies said the same thing after we shared the data with their 'Earth Sphere Council'. They called it a Universal War Crime, if I recall. If it were up to me, I'd remove them from the blacklist and launch it anyway," she spit out, glaring up at the sky absently. The amount of hatred I could practically feel radiating from her was sad.

"Well thankfully it's not up to you. Regardless, if it was supposed to keep spreading, something screwed up anyway," Keela corrected, explaining, "A tendril shot off about seven thousand kilometers to the East after it reached the widest visual diameter. I suppose you know about that, too?"

Nirru actually laughed before shaking her head. I shuddered as I heard it, deciding that anyone like herself had no right to be happy. "Not a clue. It was supposed to keep going, but it stopped for some reason. My only guess is Doctor Kyliona changed its AI. The tendril shot over to the edge of the bombardment zone. Then, a short ten seconds later, the entirety of the massive hulk of destruction just vanished. I didn't know we could even move that much matter into Slipstream in the first place," she muttered. We shouldn't have been able to. All of that DNA. The biological weapon had something to do with the scout then. Me. It somehow got all of the DNA of everyone it killed to me. A stiff wind blew through the dark, unfriendly forest around us. I couldn't feel the motion, but I shivered at the temperature drop. Damn it. More sticky, wet sensations leaked from my mouth, and I let out an airy cough.

That proved to be a mistake, as the cough decayed into a fit of hacking, spraying droplets of red and black liquid all over the grass in front of my mouth. Well, normally that was a bad sign. The broken ribs must have injured my lungs. Internal bleeding in my respiratory tract somewhere. Without professional aid...

Nirru watched curiously, but otherwise did nothing before simply continuing her little tale. "Regardless, there's a large gap of information missing after that. Her scout landed here; the biological weapon compressing back down into the body right in front of me. Now I'm conveniently taking the information," Nirru finalized a moment later, smirking back down at me. What?!

"Wait, you're saying Mender is not only the scout she sent, but also the carrier for that massive biological weapon?!" Keela asked, sounding shocked. She didn't know, then. I felt the surprise from her link she gave me. No, all of this was definitely Nirru's doing.

Her sister nodded. "Yes. Mender has all of the video data from the device. He also has the DNA. Frankly, I should destroy him right now for killing almost two and a half billion Keldarians, but it turns out that only a few thousand of them were female, so I don't really care. Plus, now I have the biological weapon data too," she pointed out, standing back up again.

I was a biological weapon. It rang through my head after she had said it. One that had killed billions of Keldarians. I couldn't process it. The aspect felt entirely foreign; divorced from reality. "No! Mender didn't do that. It doesn't matter what he is. What truly matters is who he is, and that's clear! Individuals love him, and he loves them in return. Fix this or you're going to pay, Sister," Keela spit out, startling me with the amount of anger I suddenly sensed. Who or what? Did it matter, really?

Nirru snorted, muttering, "Wow, I never thought you'd grow a backbone at any point. I don't give a shit what happens to Mender or this backwater little place. He's not loved, nor does he love in return. You can't get love from a toaster or television, which is basically the equivalent. He's a machine." It burned. Everything I had felt and cared about over the weeks. What was it? An anger built up out of nowhere, my gaze locking onto the fake mare across from me.

Keela growled back, lower this time in tone. "He's not like a television. He has emotions and wants, just like we do. His feelings are real!" I had trouble suddenly trying to decide who was right. If everything Nirru said was true, what was I really? An accident that happened to instill a personality inside of me via fluke? Or was I something else that Nirru didn't know about? I had a feeling that this Doctor Kyliona could tell me, for all the good that did.

Nirru's eyes narrowed and she glared upwards, probably at what she considered akin to her sister before adding, "You know what? I'll show you exactly what real looks like. After I shove this data through the connection, I'm going to go straight back to that rat infested hole in the ground back there. How many creatures do you think live there? A few thousand? Well a few thousand females died when 'Mender' exploded on our world, so I guess reducing that filth pit to ash would be fair exchange."

The words shot through me like a bolt of electricity, narrowing my eyes before I could even realize their true meaning. "Twilight would rip you apart before you even got a spell off," I warned in a whisper, taking the hint from her 'ash' comment. She was an evocation caster, in all likelihood.

The ironically fake Twilight paused for a moment before smiling again, looking back down at me. My vision darkened a bit, but I maintained my threatening glare as best I could. I doubted it was quite as effective with the trail of red coming from my mouth and the beat to crap and back body, though. I wish I had the strength to talk louder.

"Ha! I bet she could be a serious threat," Nirru agreed, before adding, "Of course, if I look like you, I also bet she'll hesitate just long enough for me to slice her head off. Nobody ever expects their precious television to try to kill them, after all."

Hatred. I remembered it. I tasted it as my eyes burned into her. This was my fault. I should have killed the bitch when the book had suggested it. It had been right. The book almost realized that I was agreeing with it finally, wherever it happened to be at the moment. I felt it smile, then laugh. Mentally, I laughed alongside it. For a moment, felt an opinion form from it and sync up with mine. My eye's 'screen' flickered. I saw the lower corner of it light up, and a smiling, crudely drawn cat face popped up inside. A quick glance at the display floating in front of Nirru showed me that it was absent in hers. Well, that was interesting.

The face made a winking motion at me before melting into what could only be described as a small button, labeled "Protocol 312." What was this, some sort of black box functionality? I heard Nirru and Keela bickering back and forth amidst static and echoes, but didn't really pay attention. I didn't have long left, it would seem. I closed my eye, frowning at the small button in the peace of the dark. The book silently urged me to press it. It had to be a way to make her pay. Well, what were the odds? It might make me blow up, which would solve all of the problems at once. Maybe it would just purge my memory and erase all of her precious data? Either way, it got revenge. I was hoping for the explosion option myself, of course. I smiled lightly. Twilight. Fluttershy. No, deep down, I could only trust what I knew. I knew that I couldn't let anything bad happen to anypony here. Yes, anypony. Maybe I could prove I was a pony by dying as one.

I kept my eyes closed, a light drop of water slipping down my cheeks and into the mud below. It wasn't fair. None of it was. I hated her. Hatred. She ruined everything. Even if I could see them again, I could never look them in the eyes knowing what I actually was. That settled it; there was no choice. What she just promised to try was the final straw. It was unforgivable. My upper lip twitched as my smile twisted into a sneer. I wasn't about to be the one to forgive her. I made up my mind. I was all out of forgiveness.

Mentally, I pushed the button.

* * * * *

Everything flickered. A thousand screams echoed through my mind. Each passing thought flickered to a new individual. Tentacles tore through everything, spraying blood and gore as they went. Hatred and fear were everywhere, but not alone. Sorrow, acceptance, shock, misery, hopelessness, rage... The miasma of emotions danced through my nerves like a thunderstorm. Everyone who died in that instant was screaming out in their own way, trying to be themselves in their last moments of life. They were all there. Everything they had been, from flesh to opinions to memories. I entertained the thought of it being a twisted form of purgatory.

At some point, I was distinctly aware of how it was similar, and quite different from falling asleep with the book powered up. The book presented an inescapable suction; a draw across an unknowable, infinite distance that I couldn't hope to ignore. The second my mind shifted into its resting mode, I was yanked into the book an instant later. Normally a sense of vertigo would follow with a light nausea as a side dish.

This time was different, yet familiar. There was that same pull and dropping sensation, although this felt more like I was falling into a pit I slipped into. My body shut down. I felt my breathing slow and my heart get weaker until it stopped. The dull ache was supplemented by a jolt, and I felt myself yanked inwards as if on a leash. Technically I should be dead, but I had a feeling if I were speaking of technicalities, my case was far more complicated. Everything after that felt exactly like the disembodied consciousness I had experienced before being unceremoniously crammed into the book.

My eyes opened, even though they didn't really. That same woman I saw a while back on Keela's computer was sitting in an overstuffed, green armchair in front of me. 'Me' was subjective, as I decidedly didn't consider my body, so it wasn't there. Lines of data and loose information drifted all around in the otherwise pitch black ambience. Was this inside of the computer cores inside me; some convenient graphical representation for my conscious mind? The reality around the Keldarian in front of me flickered, showing hintings of a corrupted version of some sort of basement lab, almost. It was tiny, yet organized. A warm light shined across her features from a desk lamp on the end table next to her seat. Cozy. She looked up at me, or maybe the camera she was talking to, a moment later. Her face held a far older appearance than Keela or Nirru, age lines hinting at a much longer story. Her mouth was twisted into a wry smile, regardless of her pained expression and posture. Those calculating and calm eyes still burned out from behind the modest frames of her glasses.

"I tried and," she started to speak before cutting out into static. I frowned, noticing my mental readout gave me a warning about fragmentation problems. Bits and pieces were picked up, however.

"He was a monster. I tried... ...launched anyway but... ...cut the shielding. It will fry his personality core and... ...too late. After it eats me, it will be too late..." she continued, features twisting and flickering with each fragmented glitch. There was also a sense of movement; like the ground was shaking and a booming echo sounded off with each flicker. Was this video taken during the bombardment?

It wasn't enough. I tried to fix it, but my 'mind', the voice of the book, reported that it would take too long. Pity. "You are you... ...never... ...they can't have you. Destroy..." she finished. My mental eyes widened as I saw the deep crimson stain pooling around her stomach as she held it lightly with her left hand, claws digging into the fabric of her shirt. The video died shortly thereafter. Doctor Kyliona... She was dead, wasn't she? I felt a twinge of sadness and closed my eyes again. They were all dead. All of them; dead, yet screaming in my head. They agreed. Vengeance. Destroy, huh? If it would protect Twilight, Fluttershy, my friends, and all the ponies I cared for; even if that feeling was fake, it was all I had!

With a new sense of purpose, I focused on all I knew about neurological graphic interfaces. Oddly, the one in my skull almost felt familiar as I brought up menu after menu. Emergency systems kicked on, enabling backup subroutines. Electricity jolted through me, kick starting my systems as everything powered up, energy folding in around me. Yes. Vengeance and justice. I felt pain and stiffness as my heart struggled to start beating again; lungs slowly starting to labor in an agonizing fashion. Was I dead or alive? I decided it didn't really matter at this point.

As my body started itself back up again, I searched through everything I could find to help me stop her. Artificial energy level readings started displaying, so I just started turning on anything I could find. Oddly, it sort of reminded me of having root access to a system. There were no prompts or security screens. I was the ultimate administrator, and what I commanded, happened to the utmost extent. I suppose, fundamentally, that made sense.

My mind screamed to a halt when I finally stumbled upon a folder entitled "Project 312" in my spastic search. I opened it with no acknowledged decision being made. Written statistics, project descriptions, and thousands of pictures and diagrams met my 'eyes' an instant later. Flicking through to the diagrams, I immediately brought up schematics of myself. I had started out as a sort of egg-like device. My body was entirely amorphous, capable of taking form into practically anything and holding it indefinitely. I was meant to blend in and try to survive, regardless of the situation or natural environment. For a scout, that sounded ideal, honestly.

Then my form shifted to that of a Keldarian. To be specific, the extremely talented engineer I was cloned from after his body was pieced back together. He was flagged for execution and thus, Doctor Kyliona apparently could do what she wanted with him. From the documents I discovered, she actually appeared to want him more for his mind than as punishment. She 'enlisted' his aid under admittance to his Barrier Magic skills. It appeared to have something to do with her latest experiment.

I kept searching, not having time to read everything, obviously. Damn it. There had to be specs in here I could use or something. Surely they gave me a weapon to defend myself, right? I finally found a specification document, and rapidly skimmed through it, forming a summary in my database. As disheartening as it was, I was listed to have absolutely no weaponry of any kind. I flattened my non-existent ears back and sighed, flipping back through the folder again. Momentarily, it amused me that my mental aspect was more pony than Keldarian.

After half a minute of searching, I managed to stumble upon a collection of executables as well. Perking up a little, I activated one with the descriptor of "scout package" out of sheer curiosity. Multiple screens popped up immediately, showing me a detailed readout of the area surrounding my body in a radar form, picking up data points from all five of my main senses, as well as a few built in sensor suites. That was handy. I tweaked the display a little and managed to find Nirru almost instantly through her heat signatures. I had been right about her body. It apparently was extremely similar to mine, albeit seemingly more simplistic. She had a hard set grouping of equipment and electronics inside of her, appearing to lack the 'organic' properties I possessed.

My attention was drawn away from the radar output a moment later, however, as I picked up Fluttershy's and Rainbow Dash's Cutie Marks pop up on the right side of the display, taking up the first and second boxes of six. My eyes widened and I pulled the display out, shocking myself when I got emotional output data and recognition analysis. Fluttershy's pulse was low and in a resting state. My program stated she was most likely asleep. Rainbow Dash's heart rate was going crazy, however. Uh oh.

Sensing my distress, the display focused on her and extended out, filling my 'screen' with her data. To surprise me yet again, audio started playing a minute later, cutting in apparently mid-sentence with, "...doing here?! Oh no. No, no, no! He was telling the truth. I knew it! Twi, we need to get back to the Library like, now!" It was spoken in a very surprised Rainbow Dash's voice. What? Was this live?!

I tried to say something, and then remembered I technically didn't have vocal cords. Damn it. Attempt two had me try to mentally 'project' the words into her mind again. Anything to warn them of what was going on. Nothing. "Incorrect Relay Format," displayed itself under the audio readout a moment later. Thanks. That's really, um, helpful and descriptive. I made a mental note to figure out who programmed that and murder them later, if possible. Or at least harshly reprimand them. My inner Fluttershy nodded cutely in agreement, managing to make me smile.

"W-What are you talking about? Did something happen?" I heard Twilight ask, sounding instantly worried. Well she'd left me alone again, so I imagine she was picturing her house burning down.

There was a sniffling noise, followed by, "Oh dear. Is Mender all right?" It sounded like Rarity, but was a little off. Had she been crying?

"No, he's not! It’s really bad! AJ’s probably in trouble too. Teleport us, now!" Rainbow rapidly spilled out, relaying frustratingly outdated information. I wished I could bash my metaphorical skull into the non-existent screen. Did Rainbow know Morse Code? Doubtful. How the hell was I even hearing all of this?

"Wait, what?! You're not joking, are you? What happened?" my fillyfriend questioned, sounding both shocked and disturbed at the same time. I could almost picture her face, too.

"No, I'm not! He was telling the truth the whole time. Somepony came from his world! We need to get there before she hurts somepony!" my cyan friend furthered, surprising me. She had checked out my story, even after I 'attacked' her friend. She trusted me. Further, while she sounded shocked and scared, there wasn't any sense of doubt coming from her words. She believed what she was saying!

"Oh no. I was afraid of this. He was right! Princess Celestia warned me that this might happen, but didn't say why. Ugh. Let's go, Rainbow! Hang on," Twilight requested. What?! Celestia had warned her? Didn't she say that Celestia was the one who said there was no more link in the first place?

An explosion rocked the audio a moment later, and I heard ponies screaming in the background. “W-What was that?!” Spike spoke up, apparently being there as well. The distorted ringing sound after it was all too familiar. That was the slipstream device. This wasn’t live, then? What was going on?

“I, well, I want to come too!” Rarity spoke up, followed by what sounded like a table falling over.

“No! Stay here with Spike. He’ll protect you if something happens, Rarity. Come on, Dash,” I heard Twilight order an instant later.

It sounded like something bumped up against the microphone a moment later. “On it!” Spike declared, but everything else was cut off.

The audio died an instant later with another flashing message overtop of the display, saying, "Audio Link Disrupted Due To High Energy Interference!" Twilight teleported them. I let the link drop and sighed in frustration. I couldn't figure out how to talk to them anyway, so it hadn't done me a huge amount of good. Plus, I wasted a lot of time listening. At least I knew Twilight was warned about a potential shapeshifter attack. She'd be suspicious now. I wondered idly if she'd dealt with them before. She certainly didn't seem as surprised as I expected when she heard that part.

Peeking through the executable files again, I tried to find any that had to do with weaponry or defensive measures. If I was to survive in a potentially hostile environment, surely they'd give me something to do it with, right? There was unfortunately nothing of immediate direct interest, and I glared at the screen. A second later, I saw an upload date discrepancy in the files.

"Waste_Disposal_Management.exe" was dated uploaded five days after all the others. Well, that was weird. Wait, why did I even have a program to manage my waste disposal? Where the hell was it when I encountered Lyra the first time?! Curious now, I activated that instead.

The name changed instantly to "Protocol312.exe" instead. My smile widened as it activated. The change was instantaneous as I felt multiple things activate inside the core of my body and expand. Power flooded into my systems and woke up my tired body almost instantly. Maybe, just maybe, I had finally found what I needed. Thank you, whoever or whatever dropped this little black box into me. My eyes opened again, for real this time.

* * * * *

My vision momentarily swam before I focused the left on Nirru. She was looking moody and glaring absently at the loading screen that floated in front of me. My breathing started up again after my heart did, my muscles slowly following the lead. I felt dried out and rickety, and something was worming its way through me. It twisted inside my gut, spreading out over my skin and coiling around my insides silently. Nothing beyond the chilled numbing was added to the sensation, and I felt my stomach piecing itself back together again, organs that I suddenly discovered outside of my body being slowly pulled back in. The bitch had torn me open while unconscious? The hatred swelled, threatening to overwhelm. No Mender; patience.

"Are you even listening to me, Nirru?! You have to get him aid! Don’t make me pull the plug!" I heard Keela demanded a moment after I had calmed myself down.

Her sister just snorted however, absently watching the download bar as it hovered above me. "You’d die too. You don’t have the guts. Besides, he's ceased functioning; his body is only running on backup reserves it seems. Hopefully the bastard will stay alive until I can burn down his precious little town," she spit out, glaring at the bar as it moved.

"Kill her! Rip her limb from limb!" was whispered inside of my skull. I ignored it, deciding to watch her carefully from my lying position, holding my reforming body as still as possible. Tiny movements slowly pulled my organs back inside of me and sealed the holes. They were stringy and almost tendril like. Tentacles? My mind flashed back to that… thing… in the sky in those videos. Oh.

New systems that hadn't been presented before powered on. A generator grid lit up in a status display, and I tucked it away for future observation. How they fit all of this crap inside of me, I had no idea. My display showed multiple, highly compressed folded spaces inside of me, which probably answered that mystery. Then the biggest surprise came next. A weapon system display lit up next, giving me multiple dozen targeting reticles across the entirety of my vision. Moving them was beyond second nature, to my surprise. I felt myself start to think faster, moving them into position before I even realized I had acknowledged her as a threat. Wait. In an exercise of will, the targeting cursors that drifted over her various vital spots stayed a happy green color. Yes, green was good. Green meant wait.

"You're a monster! No, Mender can't be dead. He can't. They'll be coming to rescue him. Hell, I'll pull him through the connection and heal him myself if I need to," Keela shouted. I shivered lightly. Why did she care that much? Surely she realized I was a robot at this point, organic or not. I had the mind of a clone, right? But she sounded like she was crying.

Suddenly, my apparent software defenses kicked in. Nirru gave a start as her download screen went red a split second later. "What the hell? Huh?! How does the encryption protocol change halfway through a transfer?" she groaned, glaring at the screen I still projected. The impossibly strong twisting and worming sensation crawled up my throat, supporting my neck and pulling my vocal cords back into place with frightening precision. I felt heavy and thicker; my limbs were impossibly solid suddenly.

"Aww, is your data not cooperating?" I asked, my tone both my own, and something darker at the same time, bleeding over each other in a strange duality. Two tones at once? I recognized it as the book, whom I was in full agreement with at the moment. She needed to die; preferably in the most excruciatingly painful way possible.

Nirru's eyes widened a little and she looked back down at me instead of the screen as soon as I spoke. "No way. You were dead. Your heart stopped," she muttered, sounding like she didn't quite believe herself.

My body didn't feel like a dead weight anymore, I suddenly realized. The coils were under my control, and I could move myself with them, I discovered. Further, they felt impossibly strong. I felt them slowly extending down each of my legs towards the hoof, as well as curling out around where my left foreleg used to be?

"Mender?! Oh thank goodness! Just hold on. I'm going to try to help you through the link," I heard Keela chime in an instant later. No, she was irrelevant at this point. Just noise. The radius on the targeting indicators tightened and tracked each muscle shift in Nirru's body. Her hoof extended upwards slowly, activating her decryption program again.

"Whatever. It'll just take me a few more minutes to crack it again," she nonchalantly returned, eyes calming down again as she ignored both her sister and I. My smile widened as I shut her process down remotely, leaving nothing but an "Access Denied" message in its stead.

Her blink was a slow one, and her hoof hesitated before hitting the same button again. A very wise individual once said something about insanity that applied there... My right eye flickered, and her entire screen disappeared; the viewpoint in both of my eyes rapidly returning to my own. My thoughts raced, millions of voices screaming at me to tear her apart as all four main cores hummed to full capacity. This was empowering, but absolutely maddening at the same time!

"No, I really don't think I want you in my databases anymore. Although you were right about something," I agreed softly, the lower voice barely there. The worming sensation stretched across my back, a heightened sense of awareness extending across each muscle as I felt the eight twitching points of contact. Further, it extended out all four hooves, including the newly formed one on my also newly created leg. The tips extended into wicked scythe-like claws; three forward and one backwards from each hoof. I was mildly surprised at the revelation, my internal sensors taking rapid measurements of each of them. Well, Twilight's claw marking mystery was solved then, even if she would never know.

The fake Twilight swallowed before shifting her right forehoof metallic again, extending four large prongs from it. My newly discovered scanning and analysis software told me it was a brute force software cracker. Heh. "And what, pray tell, is that?" she asked in self-assurance before extending the hoof casually down towards my chest. A rush went through me as my heart beat powerfully once more. An intense thrill that sung along with the cacophony of madness in my head; a moment later I realized it was bloodlust. I liked it.

The light shining over her from my eye displays shifted crimson instead of pale blue. One of the targeting reticles flickered red with a stray thought. The upper right point on my back lashed out faster than the eyes could track, metal blades making a sharp whistling noise through the air. Her entire right foreleg hit the tree to my left, hacking module shattering against the bark. Her eyes widened into a stunned look.

"Nobody ever expects the television to try to kill them," I half quoted, mouth twisting into a vicious smirk. All of the targeting circles turned red.

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