Crystaline Twilight, chp 6
Dead Reflection
Months had passed and Clovis Bray the Second had… well. Twilight didn’t want to dwell on it anymore. It was bad enough that Sylvie had shut out all of her family except Barb, who Twilight had insisted on leaving with her mother to try and help the grieving woman through her pain. Rasputin, who had been watching through Barb’s eyes, had uploaded several programs to try and help Sylvie through her grief to the dog-like frame, but the process of healing was… slow.
During that time, the whispers Twilight had been hearing were growing somewhat louder. They weren’t malicious at all and they were honestly a comfort when her sisters couldn’t be. They also encouraged her to attempt some kind of reconciliation with Clovis I, giving her the idea she was presenting to the man now.
“So, what is this idea?” Clovis asked coolly. He had warmed up somewhat to the idea that Twilight was intelligent enough to work with him, but still denied any familial bonds with the pony. Twilight didn’t mind, however.
“I’ve heard that the Ishtar Collective has found a new alien species,” Twilight began, “Something they call the Vex.”
“What use would I have of those useless idiots?” Clovis asked haughtily, “Is there a point to this presentation or are you wasting my time?”
“The point, Clovis, is that the Vex appear to be an organic consciousness with a machine body,” the pony sniped back, “Exactly like what you are trying to do with the Exos.”
“Huh,” Clovis said after a moment of thought, “So you believe these… Vex… could hold the secret to solving the loop/billboard/crash issue my Exominds have?”
“It’s possible,” Twilight responded with a shrug.
“I’ll consider it,” Clovis said dourly, “I’ve got something to check up on at the K1 Lunar site before anything, however.”
“Alright,” the pony said, turning to leave, “I’ll be around, then. Barb sent me a message saying that Mom is doing a little better. I’m going to go see her.”
“You do that,” Clovis said off handedly. He thought for a moment, then asked softly, “Will you tell me how she’s doing?”
Stopping in surprise, Twilight looked back at Clovis over her shoulder, then said, “Yes.” And then she was on her way.
`~`~`~`~`~
Twilight arrived at the Martian space port a few days later, the trip having taken a little longer than she had hoped what with layovers on Io and a tourist group getting suspended from the Ceres refuelling station for being bratty individuals. Other than that, it was peaceful and the mare was welcoming finally being able to see her mother and sisters again.
“Twilight!” a voice called out, breaking the alicorn out of her reverie, “It’s so good to see you again!”
Twilight looked up and saw Ana coming up and trotted up to the woman easily, then hopping up onto her hind hooves to give here a warm hug.
“It’s great to see you too!” she said excitedly, “Barb told me that mom was doing alright. Have you been to see her yet?”
“Yes,” Ana responded as they walked towards a waiting car, “Elsie is with her now.”
“It’ll be great to have the family together again!”
“It really will,” Ana said softly, seeming a little distracted by another thought.
With that, they were headed to the living quarters for Martian scientists.
`~`~`~`~
Sylvie had most definitely seen better days, Twilight thought as they finally met up once more. Upon walking into the apartment that the Clovis Bray corporation had given her mother, Sylvie had immediately brightened up a little bit, her attitude improving by leaps and bounds. The pain of losing her husband to the Exo program still stung, but it was made easier by having her three daughters around. It wasn’t perfect, not without her father, but Twilight still loved her family with all her heart.
Which was why, when the small dinner party they’d had was done and Sylvie had stepped away, Twilight approached Elsie and sat down with her.
“You’re not ok,” the mare said softly enough that Ana couldn’t hear.
“No,” Elsie replied with a sad shake of her head, “The Bray curse passed on to me, too.”
Looking down and away, Twilight’s mind raced, her emotions mixed up and confused, but an idea forming in her mind. With determination in her eyes, she looked back up at Elsie and said with such conviction that the woman truly believed her sister with every fiber of her being, “I’ll save you.”
“I know,” Elsie said, the bags under her eyes readily apparent now, “I know you will, Twilight.”
`~`~`~`~`~
Meeting with Clovis after receiving a message from him on Luna, Twilight looked around the gigantic area he’d had excavated in her absence.
“What is all this for?” She asked curiously as the machinery around them dug deeper into the rocky wall of the cavern.
“I decided to follow your idea after visiting Clarity,” the elder Bray said, “These… Vex may hold the key to finally reaching what I’ve been looking for, for so long…”
“And what you’re doing here will help?” Twilight asked as she took in the slowly forming shape on the far wall.
“Yes. In all things Humanity will do from here on, this will help immensely,” Clovis said with such certainty that even the ever skeptical Twilight Sparkle believed him.
“What is it?” she asked after another quiet moment.
“A portal into the Vex realm,” Bray responded without hesitation, “Clarity gave me the idea for the portal, but you… you gave me the idea to use the Vex to achieve my goal.”
The old man hesitated for a moment before saying, “I suppose I should than you for that. Ask anything of me, and I’ll do it.”
Twilight thought for a moment more, then, deciding then and there to ask her favor, she said, “I’m going to build Elsie an Exo body. The same thing that happened to dad… she has it too.”
“I… see,” Clovis said, taken aback by how sudden Twilight had come forth with that information, “Very well. The facilities of the Deep Stone Crypt are open to you.”
As Twilight turned to walk away, the old man looked at the forming portal, his eyes tinted with strands of Darkness. For a brief moment the Darkness cleared away and a calm clarity came over his face.
“Save my granddaughter,” he said softly, almost as if praying.
Neither of them could fathom where they were coming from, but they both heard the whispers say to them:
We are an ageless consciousness, crystallized… contained… within a single moment. This prison will SHATTER at your approach…