Sunset lay in her hospital bed, starring idly at the ceiling in boredom, she knew she should be trying to rest, Doctor Spring had said she was starting physical rehabilitation in the morning, but she wasn’t ready to go back to sleep yet. Unfortunately, she had nothing with which to pass the time, no trideo, it was after mandatory lights-out so she couldn’t read, and Sunset had already spent over an hour listening to nothing but static as she fruitlessly searched for a radio broadcast, any radio broadcast, on her cranial cellphone.
With nothing better to do, and unwilling to indulge in any more brooding over what she had lost, Sunset tested all her implants, and she was quickly reassured to find that everything seemed to be working, her talons making a faint “snikt” as they snapped out, although she couldn’t check her smartgun link without a weapon, and she was beginning to have some doubts about her cell … ‘They have to be broadcasting something. I mean they have all these medical monitors, so they must have developed radio … right?’ she glanced around her room, ‘Even if most of these machines look like something from out of the history files about the mid-twentieth,’ shaking her head in bemusement at the archaic technology, she dropped back onto her pillow, ‘I wonder how the girls are doing?’
The woman strode resolutely across the burned-out conference room, the sound of autofire ripping through the air as her companions at the window kept the freelancers pinned down, as she pulled a high yield grenade from her belt. Something, some sound or instinct, cause her to stop and look up, meeting Twilight’s eyes just as the pair of frag grenades the alicorn had dropped through the hole in the roof went off, time seemed to slow to a crawl as everyone in the room was slowly torn to shreds by incandescent metal shards.
‘No, not again!’ thought Twilight desperately as she tried to force herself awake, ‘I don’t want to see this again!’
“Be at peace, Twilight Sparkle,” a gentle voice comforted the alicorn as great, soft-feathered wings folded around her.
“Oh, Princess,” Twilight shook as she buried her muzzle in the lunar diarch’s shoulder, “I-I thought I was getting better … I thought the nightmares had stopped ….”
“It is alright, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna gave the young academic a reassuring squeeze, “Please, tell me what is troubling thou so.”
“Those ponies,” sniffled Twilight as she waved a hoof at the blue haze that had swallowed up her dreamscape, “I killed them! I-I could have found another way, I know I could have! But I didn’t!”
Luna raised an eyebrow at her young friend’s admission, “What could possibly have driven thou, thou of all ponies, to such extremes, Twilight Sparkle?”
“They were going to kill my friends.”
“Ah,” the Princess of the Moon gave Twilight a measuring, if worried, look, “And have thou discussed these nightmares, this guilt, with anypony?”
“Yes,” Twilight nodded, “Doctor Razor arranged for me, and the other fillies, to speak with a therapist a few times about what we saw … what we did on that job.”
“‘A few times’?” Luna frowned, “I was under the impression that psychological therapy required a multitude of sessions.”
Twilight gave her fellow alicorn a sad smile as she stepped out of her embrace, “It does, but we didn’t, officially, exist on the other side of the Mirror, so a session every month was the best that Razor was able to arrange for us.”
“I see, and do the other Bearers of Harmony also still suffer from their mental distress?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted sheepishly, “We don’t really talk about it … but, yes, they probably do.”
“Very well, then the six of thou will seek out proper psychological counselling until such time as thy emotional wounds have been healed,” Luna gave Twilight a small smirk, “And please inform Fair Applejack and Rainbow Dash that I will make this a Royal Edict if I must.”
“Well, that might just get through their stubbornness,” admitted the scholarly alicorn with a small giggle.
“And are thou feeling better, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes, Princess,” Twilight smiled up at Luna, “Thank you.”
“Then sleep well mine friend.”
Sunset resisted, barely, the urge to grumble as the orderly, an earth pony named Breezy Cloud, ‘And just what is the deal with all the ridiculous names these ponies have?’ pushed her through the halls, her earlier protests that she could walk just fine having been overruled by Doctor Spring. “Hey, where are we going?” she asked as the halls went from institutional, if outdated, to polished stone, tapestries and stained-glass windows that had no business anywhere near a hospital.
“You have a bunch of visitors, plus a meeting with Doctor Spring and Princess Celestia,” Breezy explained, “So the Princess thought everypony would be more comfortable in one of the Palace’s meeting rooms.”
“Oh, okay … wait, ‘Palace’? What kind of palace has an attached hospital?”
“Well of course we have a hospital,” the mare replied in surprise, “Between all the Palace staff and guards, not to mention the Princesses themselves, it would be silly to not have a medical wing, even if we are technically an annex of Canterlot Mercy General.”
The unicorn shook her head, and then did a double take as they passed a ceremonial guard of some kind, ‘Metal plate armor? Seriously? Well at least it looks nice, I guess.’
Shortly thereafter, Breezy wheeled Sunset into a fair-sized room where several ponies waited, only to have most of them eagerly descended on her, “Girls?” the slightly overwhelmed unicorn asked as she tried to match the babble of familiar voices to the strange, brightly-colored, faces in front of her, “Well, would you look at you.”
“How are you feeling, darling?”
“Okay, I guess, Rares, Fit Fiddle said I should be done with physical therapy in two or three more days,” the razorfilly rubbed at the base of her horn, “But I’ve got this damned pain in my horn that just won’t go away.”
“Thaumic buildup,” Twilight observed with a nod, “It’s common among young unicorns who haven’t learned to properly channel their magic yet, but it’s more a nuisance than a serious aliment,” she explained to Sunset.
“Magic? Really, Sparky?” laughed the orange unicorn, only to stop when the others didn’t join in on the joke, “Wait, you’re serious? I can do that freaky esper drek you and Rarity do now?”
Healing Spring and Celestia, who had been completely ignored so far, exchanged bemused glances at Sunset’s odd words, before the Doctor stepped forward and cleared his throat, “Yes, Miss Shimmer, of course you can do magic. Although the … modifications,” he said the word with clear distaste, “To your brain and nervous system have severely impaired your abilities. I’m afraid that even if we are able to successfully remove all of the invasive materials, the damage is likely irreversible, and you will probably never reach your full magical potential.”
“Aww that’s too … you want to remove my implants?!”
“We wished to discuss the possibility of removing some of your, I believe Pinkie Pie called them ‘augmentations’, yes,” Celestia admitted, “I gather you are rather opposed to the idea, however.”
“Damn right I am!” snapped Sunset, “And I wouldn’t let your butchers try it even if I wasn’t!”
“Butcher!” exclaimed an affronted Healing Spring, “Why I never!”
“Doctor Spring is a highly capable and accredited physician, Sunset,” the Princess scolded the flame-maned unicorn, “I would ask you to be a little more open minded.”
Sunset glanced at her, “Who are you, anyway?”
“I am Princess Celestia,” the solar diarch replied, unruffled by the mare’s blunt question, “Co-ruler of Equestria.”
“Oh, so you’re the one Sparky is always going on about,” Sunset nodded, “Well, listen up, Princess, these girls,” she waved a hoof at her friends, “Had never even heard of implants until they met me, so there’s no way I’m going to believe any of your doctors actually know how to extract them. Oh and then there’s the little matter of I don’t want them removed!”
“There’s no need for such hostility, darling,” Rarity prodded the razorfilly in the shoulder reproachfully, “I’m afraid Sunset is often rather abrasive with new ponies,” the fashionista said apologetically to Healing and Celestia, “And, well, she has had her augmentations for some time, I suppose it’s only natural for her to be reluctant to give them up.”
‘Humph,” Healing Spring snorted, clearly still irked by Sunset’s comments, “Other than your prosthetic eyes, these ‘implants’ of yours serve no medical purpose, and the stress they put on your body contributed to the crisis that brought you into my care in the first place. You would be better off without them, young lady.”
“Not happening.”
“Very well,” the doctor sighed, “Perhaps, given some more time to think on it, you will change your mind, regardless, I need to get back to work. Princess, ladies.”
Fluttershy frowned disapprovingly at the orange mare as the stallion left, “I know you don’t like what he was suggesting, Sunset, but you didn’t need to be so rude to Doctor Spring, he was only trying to help, after all.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Sunset gave the yellow pegasus a faintly apologetic look, “But I wouldn’t even trust the Doc to pull my implants, and she installs them.”
“Doctor Razor, yer Highness,” explained Applejack, seeing her diarch’s puzzled expression.
“Ah, yes, I believe Luna has mentioned her,” Celestia nodded, “I know you have not be awake for long, Sunset, but have you given any thought to your situation?”
“My ‘situation’,” the razorfilly sighed bitterly, “Believe me, Princess, I’ve thought about it. Three years ... I’ve been declared dead by now, my place and stuff have all been confiscated, my SIN’s deactivated – and after everything I had to go through to get one – my rep is a ghost, and god only knows if any of my contacts will even talk to me anymore. I’ll have to start over from scratch ….”
Twilight put a comforting hoof on the mare’s shoulder, “You could stay here with us,” she suggested hopefully.
“And just what will I do, Sparky?” Sunset asked gently, “From everything you’ve said, there’s no real call for gillettes here, and the only other thing I know is scavenging in the Zero Zone ruins, and I won’t be a damn freeloader.”
“We’ll think of something,” Rarity declared firmly, “And you will not be a ‘freeloader’,” she raised a hoof to forestall the orange unicorn, “Friends can help friends, darling, just like when you took us in.”
“I hate to bring it up,” Rainbow said, shuffling her hooves uneasily, “But would Sunset be better off in the other human world?”
Twilight shook her head, “No, Sunset – the other Sunset – and I have already discussed that option. Sunset would still face the same difficulties in finding employment as she does here in Equestria, but there is also the concern of her implants being discovered if she ever goes to the hospital, and that’s assuming she doesn’t have another adverse reaction to the Portal, it’s safer for her to stay here.”
“We have a few days to consider our options while Sunset finishes her recovery,” Celestia observed, “But for the moment, I would like a few words in private with her, please.”