>
WARNING: Undesired Operation Detected: Fusion 6
Attempting Shutdown and Release…
CONTAINMENT BREACH: Fusion 6
Executing Emergency Shutdown… FAILED
Shaping Fusion Failure… FAILED
Assessing damage… Done.
Fusion 4: 0.92% Integrity (INOPERABLE; Was 46.26%)
Fusion 5: Total Loss
Fusion 6: Total Loss
Fusion 8: 19.31% Integrity (INOPERABLE; Was 61.04%)
WARNING: Power Low: Damage Control operating at 97.31% Available Capacity (0.13% Overall)
Enter Command:
Damage Control Central Direct Terminal Session Timed Out, Exiting...
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“Good evening.”
“Same to you. Is… Is Candy Stripes away someplace?”
Nod. “Yes… You missing her or something?”
“No! Erm… I guess. She’s just so much… friendlier than anyone else I deal with.”
Smile. “I miss her too, actually.”
The darkness seems to flicker, but stabilizes once again.
“You… But you’re living in her house! How…?”
“She… disappeared. She was somewhere else, her alibi out in my shop with me. She was doing something routine- charging a restoration spell for something large, I hear- when she let out a gasp… and her alibi dissolved.”
“How… How long…?”
“Three days.” She bows her head.
The darkness falters… and fails completely this time. “Three...?” The navy blue mare’s ears lie flat against her head, her jaw hanging slightly open. “She’s not…”
Bonbon shakes her head. “They wait for thirty around here.”
“Ahh… Um…”
>
Main Systems Online.
Investigating detected blood… Done.
WARNING: Subject in mortal peril. Designation: Patient 01
Engaging Life Support… FAILED: All Life Support Facilities INOPERABLE
Repairing Minimal Life Support Facilities… Done.
Putting Patient 01 on Life Support… Done.
Patient 01 continues to lose blood at a slow pace. Nutritional deficiency has caused natural healing to cease functioning. Patient appears to be in a coma. Recommend: Medical Nanovat.
WARNING: All Medical Nanovats INOPERABLE
Directing repairs…
WARNING: Power Failing! Switching to Emergency Lighting… Done.
Medical Nanovat 2 ONLINE at 31.94% Integrity. Transferring Patient… Done.
WARNING: Nutritional deficiency potentially lethal!
WARNING: Medical Supplies Exhausted!
Initiating scavenging protocols… Done.
ERROR: Medical database not found!
Analyzing tissues… Done.
Attempting repairs… Done. All bleeding has been stopped.
WARNING: Absent the medical database, critical damages may have been missed.
Initiating Medical Nanovat release… Done.
Applying neural stimulation… Done. Patient 01 is awakening.
Medical Nanovat 2 open.
WARNING: Power Failing! Medical offline.
Repair priority set: Power Systems
Suspending scavenging protocols… Done. Damage Control operating at 31.49% available capacity.
“Ugh…”
She hears the groan come from someplace… it takes a while for it to register as her own. She opens her eyes, gazing at the metal wall in front of her. What had happened?
She tries lifting her head- and promptly drops it back down on the hard metal floor she’s lying on. Not only did her muscles burn enormously painfully, but she had instantly felt the effects of dangerously low blood pressure. She tries directing magic into her horn… Painless. She casts her alibi spell, generating one next to her… Funny, it had never been that easy to cast before.
Good thing her alibi can run full strength, so long as she remains conscious. Though… Where is she? She lights her horn- her alibi’s horn, that is- to look around the darkened room… Her sluggish mind has difficulty processing the room, but the door is standing open. She levitates herself carefully out of the… boxlike thing she was lying in, floating herself upside-down. It feels weird, with her blood pooling in her head, but at least she can be reasonably certain she won’t lose consciousness. So long as she stays awake, she can use her alibi to do anything she needs- including carting her to the hospital, if needed.
Once she’s successfully removed herself from the box thing, she carries herself quickly upstairs. The white lights have gone out, replaced with a dimmer, amber-colored glow; however, only one side of the hallway is lit… So, this must be somewhere she’s been before, and just didn’t remember. She follows the lights out- pausing twice to check her vitals- and finally reaches her entranceway. Funny how all of the restored lights have cut to this harsher, dimmer glow. Did she break something?
The magic lights in the entrance tunnel are still glowing brightly as always. They won’t need recharging for several months- and her alibis can handle them. She ignores the generator as she trots past, and finally reaches her third-level basement.
Which turns out to be empty. She closes the door behind her and heads upstairs… The motor buzzes slightly as it draws the door open slightly slower than usual. At least, she thinks it’s slower- it might just be her imagination; she’s still feeling quite faint.
The smell of… something, she’s not sure what, immediately greets her nose. Whatever it is, it smells slightly burnt. She climbs up the last few steps, into her second-level basement… and thank Celestia her alibi had gone up first. She would never have survived Bonbon’s rush, in her current state. She uses her magic to help her push Bonbon off of her alibi… and speaks through it.
“Uh, did something happen?”
Bonbon spends a few seconds resisting her magic before giving up, stepping back to let her fully upstairs. “I thought you died down there!”
“Oh, uh, sorry… I’m still alive, at least.” She turns to look back towards herself, floating up through the door before she lets it slam shut… and tilts her head. “Huh… Coulda sworn I was covered in dirt… Whatever.”
Bonbon gazes at the limp form issuing her a weak smile from her upside-down position in her doppelganger’s magic aura for just a second. “Wait… That’s you, and this is the alibi?” She motions towards the one standing in front of her.
The standing one nods. “I don’t know what happened, but I must have lost a lot of blood.”
Bonbon walks over to the midair one, placing a foreleg gently against her neck for a few seconds. “I’d say so… You’re lucky to be alive. Start by getting some water. Um…” She looks over the mare in front of her. “What happened down there?”
The floating mare smiles weakly. “I… don’t know.”
“Ahh… Water.”
Lyra nods gently- and twists her head to accept a drink from the glass also floating in her alibi’s aura. A very deep drink… Her magic lets her shamelessly cheat physics and consume every last drop- even when half of it tries to fall on the floor.
Bonbon smirks, having spent the time that Lyra’s attention had been locked on the glass preparing a serving of her dish, then stuffs it in Lyra’s face. Not literally, no- not quite, at least. They’re a bit far from the hospital right now- and besides, they might ask questions… Like what shampoo she’d used. Seriously, she can’t think of a time she’d seen a pony’s coat quite so glossy.
Lyra accepts the meal graciously, even if it takes her several tries to consume even a part of it. By the time she finishes the meal, though, she’s thoroughly exhausted. “Thanks,” she informs Bonbon, stifling a yawn with one tingley forehoof. “I think I’m going to head for bed?”
Bonbon scowls, looks at the plate, and looks back up. “Okay- but I’m coming with you.”
She smiles. “You have your own room, remember?”
Scowl. “I never said that, Lyra. I just want to make sure you don’t fall on the stairs or something.”
“Ahh… Makes sense.” She then starts her way upstairs.
“Hello again.”
“Hello. They… well…”
“Let me guess. Dodge Junction?”
Chuckle. “Not this time, no. They’ve caught wind of another crime syndicate in Manehattan.”
Bonbon very nearly facehooves. “You’d think they’d send some Royal Guardsponies,” she mutters. “Sure, I’ll-”
“Mornin’, Bonbon…” Lyra trots casually into the darkened room. “Oh, and you too, Rain. Did something break?”
Silence holds throughout the room for almost a full minute.
Until Lyra stuffs a daisy sandwich in the blue unicorn’s gaping mouth, at least. “That’s you, by the way. I thought you’d like it.” She smiles and proceeds to whip up another sandwich. Magic makes that so easy.
“Uh… Candy Stripes, did you forget me again?” Bonbon asks the darkness.
“What? Uh…” She gazes at her friend for a second before she facehooves. “I did, didn’t I? Sorry about that, Sweetie Drops.”
A moment later, Bonbon blinks and turns to find the other two ponies in the room. “Thanks. Um, yes, I’ll go check that out. Anything else?”
“Mmphmm.”
“Oh please,” Lyra complains. “Finish your food before you speak.” She turns towards Bonbon. “Check what out?”
“A new crime syndicate in Manehattan.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Seriously? That’s the Royal Guard’s job. The RIA does the cooler jobs the Guards can’t do.” She glances towards Rain. “Unless they’ve decided they can’t trust you for some reason. They haven’t done that, have they?”
Bonbon’s ears fall while she hangs her head.
Rain, however, responds; she’s managed to swallow her sandwich. “Ah… um… Remember the whole sidekick clause thing?”
Lyra raises an eyebrow. “She missed something?”
She shakes her head. “No… it doesn’t exist. I… She got caught.” Her head hangs too. “She’s lucky they haven’t dismissed her.”
“Shoot. I don’t suppose that means I should head upstairs, plug my ears, and sing at the top of my lungs?”
Bonbon’s face strikes the hoof in front of it with an audible thump.
“Uh… No. But it does mean…”
“Ah. Sorry.” She closes her eyes for a second and disappears in a flash of bright white light and dispersing arcane mist.
Once again in the basement, Lyra trots into her third-level one. Bonbon told her she’d been away for almost a full month, coincidentally explaining her generator’s charge states. Fortunately, it’s an easy fix- an incredibly easy fix now, for some reason. At one point, she even checks her back to make sure she hasn’t been converted into an alicorn; she still has no wings.
The last thing she remembers doing, before waking up in that box, was charging her restoration spell on that bottle thing. Maybe it was less damaged than she thought, designed to boost a unicorn’s power? If so, is the effect permanent, or only temporary? If it is temporary, how long will it last?
Oh, and the lights in here are still amber… Interesting. She did recharge the generator… She tries a restoration spell on the working light, but nothing changes. She follows it with restoring the nonfunctioning one across the hallway- but it only glows amber.
Whatever. She follows the familiar path down to the room with the bottle in it.
She stops when she rounds the final corner, then canters to the edge. A quick visual search, using her hornlight, reveals a rather large pool of dried blood resting on the bottom of the shallow crater, a trail leading up to… Nothing.
But she’s certain that bottle thing had been right here…
Right in the middle of the crater.
She blew it up.
She facehooves. “So, it wasn’t designed to do that,” she grumbles. “And now, I’ll never find out what it was designed to do!”
Of course, right as soon as she said that, an idea strikes. There should be two more of these things… They may be in less-than-perfect condition, but her restoration spell can fix that. So long as she doesn’t charge it so high on one that even might be functional.
Oh- but her security spells upstairs just informed her of Rain’s departure. She switches places with the alibi she’d left in her second-level kitchen and trots upstairs to find Bonbon.
She finds her friend upstairs, packing a suitcase.
“How’d it go?” she asks.
Bonbon shakes her head. “I… I can’t live here anymore.”
“Oh?”
“Command found out, and they don’t like it. I’m sorry, but this is goodbye.”
“They don’t want you living with somepony?”
She shakes her head. “They don’t want me living with a non-Agent. There’s too great a risk of information leaks.”
Lyra sighs, hanging her head. “It’s going to be quiet without you.”
“Hah! It was quiet even with me. And don’t worry, you’re always welcome at my shop.”
“Whenever you’re home.”
Her ears flatten against her head. “Whenever I’m home,” she parrots, averting her eyes.
It’s a full two days later when she descends below her basement once again. Bonbon has fully moved out, leaving her house as empty as it always had been. She’s changed the access pattern on her second level basement door, and removed the outside switch for the third level one. She’s also removed Bonbon from her basement security fields, but hasn’t lowered the ones on her house.
She’s built a firm dislike for the RIA.
Not only did they strip her of her friend, but they stripped her friend of her. She can always go find a new friend, theoretically- but Bonbon can’t.
And the way her friend had worded her final goodbye suggested she might have… visitors.
She glances at the generator on her way past, and continues down into the… thing. Her power levels still remind her of Princess Twilight’s, though she doesn’t have wings… She checks every few hours, just to be sure. She’s even tried a medical diagnostic spell- confirmed, she’s still completely unicorn.
She canters randomly through the passageways, restoring lights as she goes, once she reaches unlit passages. The restored lights give off that low, amber glow, but she’s not worried about that right now. These simple restorations are easy enough she can perform them in passing without breaking her pace; previously, she’d had to at least slow to a walk.
She throws a door open. More lumps… She shoots restoration spells at some lights in the room, and fires a big one at the large lump in the middle of the room.
Her spell charges far faster than it had on the bottle. About five minutes’ charge will be enough to turn this thing back into what it once was.
She closes her eyes, bows her head, and puts her tears into it. She doesn’t stop at five minutes. She doesn’t stop at ten minutes.
Nor a full hour.
Almost three hours pass before she finally unleashes the spell… and gets blown backwards by the force of her magic. She’s unconscious again even before she hits the wall.