//------------------------------// // 4.0 … In Which There Is Much Talking … // Story: Through A Darkened Mirror // by Dorath //------------------------------// Now that they were on the spot, the six girls exchanged uneasy glances, uncertain exactly how to, or even who should, begin explaining their situation to their increasingly suspicious host. Eventually, Rarity decided to bite the bullet, “Well, as you may have guessed, we’re not from around here,” she began with a nervous laugh. “You don’t say.” “Please, dear, there’s no need for sarcasm,” the fashionista chided Sunset, “We want to be forthcoming with you, but our circumstances are … unusual, even for us. “The heart of the matter is, and trust me, we do realize how preposterous this will sound, but we aren’t from this world.” “So, you’re all highriders off one of the orbitals, what’s so unbelievable about that?” frowned Sunset, “But every highrider has a com implant … so what the hell is the deal with the six of you?” “No dear,” Rarity sighed patiently, “You’re not grasping what I’m trying to say, we are, literally, from another world.” “Wait a second there, Rarity,” Rainbow broke in as her sudden enthusiasm overrode her mistrust of Sunset, “Are you saying that we’re aliens? Awesome!” “Actually, that isn’t the correct terminology,” lectured Twilight, “Technically, we are from this planet, just not this version of it. We’re not aliens per say … I suppose we’re inter-dimensional visitors?” “Really?” asked Sunset sourly, “You expect me to swallow this fiction?” “Actually, Twi-Twi’s fanfiction is pretty good,” Pinkie chirped, apparently having recovered from her earlier shock, “She’s no A.K. Yearling, but I like them.” “Why thank you, Pinkie …” the purple-haired academic suddenly blushed under her friends’ grins, “Wait, how did you know about my fanfiction?” “As amusing as all of this might be,” Sunset cut in, “I’m still waiting for the truth.” “Dang it, filly, we’re tellin’ ya tha truth!” snapped Applejack, “If’n we was goin’, ta lie ta ya, we’d have conjured up a better story!” The flame-haired girl was clearly unimpressed by the farmgirl’s reasoning, and her face hardened with irritation as she tightened her grip on the pistol sitting on the table, “What, I’m supposed to believe you because your story is so fragging absurd?” The six Equestrians shifted anxiously as tension began to fill the room, but before anyone could speak, Sunset’s eyes flickered slightly off to one side as she started talking to the air, “Not a good time, Doc … Yeah, they’re right here, trying to feed me a line of drek … Huh? … In English, Doc … So they’re from one of the orbitals … But … Um, yeah, about that … Well, they kinda went off on their own and got into a brawl with a street gang … Hey, I told them to stay put! … They’re fine physically, but I seem to have traumatized them when I geeked two of the Crucifixers … Damn it, Doc! … Alright, alright,” she sighed wearily, “You can stop beating the horse, Doc, I’ll keep riding herd on them. Talk to you later.” Sunset’s gaze returned to the six girls as she ejected and pocketed the clip and chambered round from the pistol, before she rose to her feet and walked over to her fridge. Pulling out a bottle of Tío Miguel’s, she half-drained it in a single draught, “I’m too fragging sober to be dealing with this drek,” she muttered as she turned back to face her guests, “Doc Razor says that your toxicology reports and bloodwork bears out your story. Not a trace of tranqs or other drugs, and there’s nowhere near enough environmental contaminates for you to be from Earth. So … I have a pack of …” the older girl shot Twilight a thin smile, “‘Inter-dimensional visitors’ in my living room,” Sunset shook her head and finished off the bottle. ________________________________________ Twilight breathed a quite sigh of relief as the air of impending violence bled out of the room, ‘I know some of us have tempers, but Sunset really needs to work on hers!’ “So … now that we’ve told you a bit about us, would you be willing to answer a few questions?” Sunset pulled another bottle from her fridge and dropped back into her seat, “Sure, I guess … why not?” “Okay, first … um, do you have anything I could take notes with?” the older girl pulled a pen and pad of paper from a drawer while Twilight’s friends chuckled, “Thank you, hmm … okay, what’s an ‘esper’ and why is everypony so worried about them?” “Esper? It’s sort of a catch-all term for telepaths – people who can read your mind and change your thoughts to what they want – and telekinetics – folk who can move things, or break them, by force of will alone.” Sunset paused in her explanation to take a swig from her bottle, “Why everyone is worried about telepaths is pretty obvious, as for the telekinetics … their powers all have collateral effects, and the more powerful the esper is, the worse the collateral. Some of ‘em, like DJ Pon-3, are trying to break with the whole ‘esper weapon’ label though.” Twilight frowned at Sunset in angry disbelief, “Wait, your culture has branded an entire sub-set of its population as weapons?” “You have DJ Pon-3 too?” asked Pinkie eagerly as she interrupted the former-alicorn, “Is she all radical and cool?” “Yes, yes, and yes,” Sunset answered with a small smirk and then shrugged, “And it’s not just my culture, pretty much the whole world is waffling between being fascinated by espers and fragging terrified of them. They used to just be a story, a myth, but ever since the War, something like one percent of the population are born with esper talents, which is a lot of people.” “Umm, what war?” Fluttershy enquired quietly, “If you don’t mind me asking ….” “Uh, World War Three? Wait, different world, so different history,” the older girl ran a hand through her hair, “Okay, quick historical recap: back around twenty-ten the world went to drek, between the pandemics, a few dozen wars and revolutions, and two of the biggest nations on the planet, the United States and the Republic of China, tearing themselves apart, things got really bad. By the time all the dust had settled a decade later, the death toll was half the fragging planet, but at least the nukes and biochem weapons were restricted to only the Middle East and parts of Africa, or it would have been even worse. Even so, they put so much drek into the air that the whole world has trace contamination now,” Sunset cocked an eyebrow at the other girls, “That’s part of what convinced Doc Razor that you aren’t from around here, actually.” “Oh alicorns …” Twilight whimpered, feeling nauseous, ‘They lost half the population in only ten years?’ Silence descended upon the apartment for a time, with the displaced ponies gripped by horror, while Sunset impassively nursed her bottle. Eventually, Pinkie shook herself free of her gloom and bounced over to lean over Sunset, staring into the other girl’s cyan eyes, “Is this contamination stuff why your eyes are all creepy, Sunny?” “What are you babbling about?” “Your eyes, darling,” Rarity explained with a small cough, “They’re … well … to be honest, I’ve seen paintings with more life in their eyes.” “What?” asked Sunset with an exasperated roll of the orbs in question, “Are you like those damn luddites who think getting implants cuts away part of your soul?” “Ya mentioned implants before,” Applejack remarked, “What are they anyway, an’ what do these ‘implants’ have ta do with yer eyes?” “Cybernetic implants,” Sunset said slowly, “Bio-mechanical modifications. My eyes are machines, cameras and microprocessors, instead of flesh and blood, it’s part of the enhancements I had done for my work.” “Are those knives in your arm for your work too?” asked Rainbow, her voice hovering somewhere between disgust and fascination. Reaching over, Sunset gently pushed Pinkie back into a chair before she raised her arm and the paired blades snapped out, “Forearm talons,” the flame-haired girl said as she slowly swiveled her arm, “Implanted weapons are common with gillettes, along with muscular and nervous system augments and ocular replacements.” Twilight frowned in thought as she scratched away at her notes, “Is a ‘gillette’ a guardpony of some sort?” “Yeah, something like that,” Sunset chuckled, “‘Gillette’, ‘razorgirl’, ‘street samurai’, they’re all just slang for cyber-enhanced mercenaries. I’m freelance muscle for whoever can pay,” the blades shoot back into her arm as she reached out to scoop up one of the forgotten fast food bags and tossed it over to Applejack, “Here, I bought you all some breakfast, you can reheat it in the microwave if you want.” “Yay!” cheered Pinkie as she eagerly dug into the other bag, “Sunny does care!” Sunset shook her head as she gave the other girls an amused grin, “‘Guardponies’, eh? You must really like horses back where you come from.” Twilight and her friends just looked at each other before collapsing into a fit of giggles as Sunset stared at them in bewilderment. ________________________________________ The six Equestrians found that they all were ravenous, despite the horrifying events of barely an hour earlier, and Sunset barely managed to secure a breakfast sandwich and hash brown patty for herself before the other girls enthusiastically descended upon her offering. “What brought you six to this reality, anyway?” asked Sunset in between bites, “You sure as hell don’t seem like explorers or the scouts for an invasion to me.” “It was nothing like that, dear,” responded Rarity, “We were on our way to visit some friends, and … something went wrong.” “‘Visit some friends’ …,” the older girl repeated slowly, “What, dimensional travel is so common where you’re from that you just hare off to other realities for a fragging holiday?” “Actually, dimensional travel is rare in our reality as well,” Twilight replied, “That’s why figuring out how to get us home could take me a while.” Silence filled the room, with even Pinkie looking dejected, as the reality of their situation sank in – they were lost in a strange world with limited resources and they apparently had no legal protection. They had been in this dimension less than a day and they had already been attacked by thugs, their host varied between treating them as an irritant and being violently protective of them, and they had no idea when (or even if) they would see their homes and loved-ones again. Applejack visibly shook off her gloom as she turned back towards Sunset, “Shouldn’t we be talkin’ ta tha gendarme about them folks who attacked us?” “What’s the point?” asked Sunset indifferently, “As far as Lone Star is concerned, no humans were involved. And even if some white knight officer does decide to investigate on his own time, it’s not like anybody is going to miss the Crucifixers, they’re all a bunch of psychos anyway.” “That’s awful,” Fluttershy whimpered. “That’s life,” Sunset shrugged as she got up to dispose of the trash from their impromptu second breakfast, “So if Sparky is going to be spending who knows how much time trying to puzzle out how to get you all back home, what are the rest of you going to do?” “Well … I suppose we could seek employment, perhaps?” suggested Rarity tentatively. “Sounds good ta me,” Applejack seconded the idea, while the other girls all nodded in agreement. “Doing what exactly?” asked Sunset pointedly as she leaned back against the fridge, “None of you have a SIN and you’re all underage. The only legal options open to you are scut work, housekeeping or fetch-and-carry jobs that could all be done cheaper by a cyberdroid, so you’ll be paid drek. I guess if one of you has medical training, Doc Razor may be willing to take you on as a 'volunteer' and pay you something under the counter, but even then, her clinic isn't exactly flush with cash, so it wouldn’t be regular work, and what does that leave for the rest of you?” “Well, what about this razorgirl stuff you do?” demanded Rainbow as she waved a hand at the apartment, “I mean it pays well enough for you to have your own place and we already know how to kick flank.” “What I do isn’t a game and it isn’t always legal,” the flame-haired girl growled as she glared over at the athlete, “Even if you do know how to brawl and Sparky’s an esper, you still have no kit, no contacts and no rep. The only way you could hope to get a decent job is if someone who did have a rep vouched for you …,” Sunset stopped her rant as she noticed the massive grins Pinkie and Rainbow were both giving her, “Oh, drek.” “Now wait one Celestia danged minute! Ah ain't goin’ ta have any of us turnin’ lawbreaker jus’ because it’s easier than honest work!” objected Applejack, throwing a glare of her own at her two overly excitable friends. “I don’t like it either, AJ, but it sounds like we may not have much choice,” Twilight sighed, “Not if we want to support ourselves instead of just freeloading off Sunset.” “Fillies, fillies,” said Rarity in a soothing tone, “While this is an important decision, we don’t have to make it right this second. We do have some assets, after all, which means we have some time to think on it calmly. Speaking of assets,” the fashionista dug a handful of bits out of her pocket and dropped them onto the table, “Sunset, dear, do you know of anypony who can convert these into the local currency?” “Is … is that … gold?” “Why yes, yes, it is. … Sunset?” Rarity frowned in concern as the razorgirl continued to stare at the coins, “Are you okay darling?” “How …,” Sunset shook her head, “How many of these do you have?” “Only forty-nine …,” Rarity raised an eyebrow as she watched Sunset’s rather dazed behavior, “But from your behavior I suspect that these are worth more in your reality than they are in ours.” “Yeah, you could say that,” the older girl agreed as she finally pulled her eyes away from the glittering coins, “I can probably handle getting these cashed out if we stretch it out over four or five months, but if you want it all at once we’ll have to go through Mercy.” Pinkie cocked her head, “Who’s Mercy? Is she another gillette? Can we meet her? Does she like parties?” “She sounds like a nice pony,” Fluttershy added. “You think she’s nice just because of her handle? Don’t you have irony back where you’re all from?” Sunset shook her head at the timid girl’s naivety, “Mercy is a Fixer, she arranges jobs and fences the loot afterwards, but yeah, she used to be a razorgirl and freelance assassin. The rumor on the street is that she used to be with Special Operations for Cybertech before she went over the wire,” she went on in a tone the Equestrians all recognized, having heard it often enough from Rainbow whenever she was talking about Spitfire from the Wonderbolts. “Hmm … I think we should only change a small amount of coins, to start,” Rarity suggested, “It will gives us some operating capital, and then we can exchange more, or even all of them, as it becomes necessary.” “Fine,” agreed Sunset as she stretched, “But I’ll deal with it tomorrow, you lot have gotten into enough trouble already, and I’m not letting you out of my sight for the rest of the day.” Pinkie frowned slightly at the flame-haired girl in confusion, “Won’t that make it hard to go to the bathroom?”