"Sunny, I need you to do as I say!" The voice was loud, and brash, and fought against the sirens that blared all around. Everything was dark an--
"But Aria, I--"
"Go, food and water first, then medical supplies, then weapons and everything else. Fill as many bags as you can!" There was a moment silence until footsteps thundered away. Everything was dark and I could hear the heavy breathing from someone next to me. A gentle hand covered in a synthetic glove pressed itself on my forehead.
"Sunset,” the voice was soft and stern, “we will get you out of here. I promise." Something rustled next to me, next to where the voice came from. I tried to look, but I couldn’t move. The hand was still pushing down on my forehead. Why was everything still so dark? “You’ll be okay.”
“Water has now flooded fifty-percent of the cargo hold.” The metallic voice coincided with something tearing beside me. “Aria, if you wait much longer, I will not be able to launch the satellites.” Aria, that name sounded familiar. Why did that name sound so familiar? And that voice...
“I know, but I’m not going to leave her to die!” Aria screamed. Something was lifted across my body. Silky hands caressed my stomach as the carefully moved upward. “Out of all the selfless things Sunset…” she groped my hip and pressed downward on my hips. I winced. I cried. I screamed. I wanted all that, yet I could only lie there under incoherent mumblings as hands moved across my body. Why couldn't I move? Why was everything so dark?
"Okay Aria," my jaw was opened, "you can do this." Something cold and metallic was slid into my mouth. "I don't know if you're there,” she said as she closed it, “but if you are, this is going to hurt. A lot."
Something was yanked out of my sides and I felt like I had sprung a leak all over the cold floor. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, but the only thing I could do was writhe motionlessly while the echoes rattling metal filled the room. "One down, two more to go." The voice trembled.
The soft hands swiftly moved up a few more inches on my side, just underneath one of my breasts. "Here we go," she whispered. Tears pooled on the corners of my eyes but the way they burned didn't take from the agony as another object was yanked out of me. I was leaking even more.
"You need to move faster, Aria." A feminine robotic voice said next to me. "She will bleed out if you do not hurry." It said.
"I know," her hands drifted up close to my shoulder blade. "Believe me," she yanked, "I know."
I felt myself slide downwards into a set of colder, metallic, hands with thin and sharp fingers that pricked and pinched the areas that I was leaking from. There was an oozing sound as a cold and gooey liquid slid into the openings across my skin. It was a weird feeling; the slight movements that drifted me upwards then finally onto the cold metallic floor.
“Aria,” more goo seeped into my skin, “you need to launch the satellites.”
“I can’t just leave her!”
“If you do not launch the satellites, no one will leave.”
Aria screamed and kicked something that rattled across the room. “I--”
“Warning, water level at 65%, internal pressure destabilizing. Please evacuate the ship.”
As I lay motionless on the floor, I could feel the vibrations from Aria’s boots as she stormed out of the room. It wasn’t much, but it gave me something else to focus on besides the pain that had started to subside. The metallic hands whirred as the moved around my body. I could smell small pockets of smoke from below me, or below my nose at any rate. The putrid smell only lasted momentarily as did the pain and heat.
“I will release the paralysis momentarily, Sunset, but I need you to move slowly and open your eyes even slower.” The whirring stopped. There was some small shuffling nearby before a surge of static erupted above my chest. “I will need you to follow my instructions, Sunset, without question. You will be confused, and disoriented, but time is not on your side. Remember, slow and steady.”
When her hands touched my chest, just above my heart, the electricity surged through my body. Everything writhed and shook and it felt like a million new stars erupted inside my body, my fingers clawed at the metal while my feet kicked the air. My eyes and skull flooded with power then exploded in a gory mess along the walls and ceiling. Then it stopped.
I couldn’t tell if seconds past or millennia past, it was just all silent. A vast emptiness that permeated my mind while everything simply shut down. First it was my heart, then the lungs. No more creaking from the compressing hauls of the ship, no more cold metal rubbing against my bloody back, no more beating in my chest or ringing in my ears and tingling in my limbs. Just nothing.
“Oh man, you have no idea how jealous I am!” Rainbow clamped her hands down on my shoulders with a frown.
“Yeah, but on the plus side, you won’t have to worry about discovering any bugs with the game.” I said while I slid out from under her grip. I walked over to where the two Twilights stood as they looked over the three pairs of helmets that sat on the table.
“Oh come on! Watching the bugs are half the fun.”
Twilight, the human one, looked wistfully at one of the helmets then up at me. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait? I mean--”
“Twi, you fully scanned the device multiple times; Princess Twilight, Princess Luna, Adagio, and even myself went over the spell matrixes for the crystals; and the help Sunny hired went through the game’s coding as much as they could. If something is going to go wrong, the only way we’ll find it is if we try it.” I said with a soft smile. I picked up the closest helmet and held it within my hands.
It was less a helmet and more of a large thick beanie with an accompanying mask that covered the face and ears. Several thin mana crystals flowed across the mask that swirled around where the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears would be located when someone wore it. The top of the helmet had a very large mana crystal that was housed in the center with several more thin crystal pathways cross the top of the cap. “Ya know,” I said while I sat the helmet back down on the table, “I’m honestly surprised that Rarity didn’t demand to redesign the gear. These definitely aren’t the most … aesthetically pleasing to look at.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “believe me, she wouldn’t stop pestering me the first few months. I’m just glad Sonata convinced her sister to let Rarity work on the clothing designs. Never would have thought her fashionable sensibilities went outside of clothes though.”
“I’m just surprised the Sirens wanted to help us and not, you know, kill us.” Rainbow frowned. “Not like they’d be able to beat me anyway.” She added.
“Oh please,” Adagio called out from the kitchen, “I may not have much magic anymore but that doesn’t mean I can’t just take off my shirt! And I know I don’t need my gems to at least hypnotize some of you.”
Twilight blushed and looked away while I couldn't help but snicker at Rainbow who sputtered for a response. “She’s got you there,” I smirked, “assuming you could see anything behind all her hair.”
Before Adagio could come up with a response, Princess Twilight set the final helmet down. “We should decide on the three to test these out.” She said. The Princess turned to face the four of us and smiled. “Everything looked good to me, but I will need to stay behind. As will Princess Luna and you, Twilight. Adagio, you could go if you’d like, but I’d prefer it if you stayed with me here too…”
Adagio sauntered over and placed a finger under the Princess’s chin. “My, my, I didn’t know you liked me that much.” She smirked at the Princess’s blush. “But if you must have me at your side, I know Aria or Sonata would love to do this.”