//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: For the Girl Who Has Everything // by Revel Montaro //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle fluttered her eyes a bit. The view was blurry. She was certain it was a ceiling, but then a tickle in her throat caused her to choke. There was a tube taped to her face and down her throat. Twilight's eyes went wide and she gasped. She sat up too quickly and immediately regretted all her life choices. Then, warm, familiar fingers interlaced through her left hand and those regrets slipped away even if the sudden headache and queasiness did not. Another hand helped remove the breather and Twilight sat back down once freed, rolling her head to the left. A pair of familiar glasses were gently slipped on so that she could see the world clearly. Twilight smiled up at the fire haired woman who had been waiting by her bed side. “Hey,” Twilight managed to finally say after a few more coughs. Sunset Shimmer smiled back. “Hey yourself. You scared the shit out of me for a bit there.” Twilight separated her fingers and reached out towards Sunset’s ribs. Her wife was clean and wearing a new jump suit. Which meant that she had taken the time to recover and get cleaned up. Twilight briefly wondered how long she had been out. A question that the person before her likely knew the answer to. “Speak for yourself. You were shot and there was blood everywhere. I was so worried. You were hurt and I couldn’t stop to help you. I was afraid you were going to die and there was nothing I could do about it, but if I stopped everyone would have died and... How much time has passed?” Sunset guided her wife’s hand to where the wound had been so she could touch it gently. It was still tender but was wrapped and stitched up and would be fully healed in a week or less. Still, that tactile need for reassurance was understandable. Sunset took Twilight’s hand again after she was done poking her side. “I won’t lie to you, it hurt, a lot. But I told you to keep going. You really were the only one who could save everyone. Besides, you know I can take a hit.” Twilight sighed with relief. It was comforting to hear Sunset's steady, silky voice again and that despite her fears everything worked out just fine. Twilight giggled a bit and squeezed her wife's hand tighter, relish the warmth of the touch. Sunset returned the touch in kind. The warmth spread from their point of contact throughout Twilight's body and she felt the fear and anxiety of it all melt away. “As far as your question, you’ve been in bed for two days, give or take. You know, since there is no sunrise here. You’ve been in and out near conscious a few times, but then would slip away again into an almost coma-like state. More than once they said you stopped breathing and that really stabbed me in the heart. Hence the intubation tube. I’m not entirely sure how to read these brainwave EKG’s but your activity was all over the damn place for a while. We were worried you gave yourself serious brain damage.” Twilight nodded and then quirked an eyebrow. “Wait, ‘we’?” Sunset nodded and gestured to the station infirmary. “Well, yeah. Me, obviously the most worried. But also Aurora, after I got a chance to call her, and Skymark and Drago and probably Eagle Eye, at least a little. Though I think he’s more concerned with other issues at the moment. Mostly involving Spacer.” Twilight squeezed her wife’s hand again. Sunset recognized the subtle expression change. She knew what such inward apprehension meant but waited for Twilight to find the words. “Sunny… we… we had to reveal a LOT of secrets. Are we going to be okay? I… I’m exceedingly worried about you and what will happen when we get home. Aurora can only cover up so much. Especially since she was not supposed to be in charge of this project.” Sunset tried to play nonchalant and shrug, but Twilight knew her too well. Something had likely happened while she was unconscious. Despite the wave of nausea, Twilight reached over with her right hand to touch Sunset’s face, her IV drip snagging a bit. “Tell me the truth, Sunset.” “It’s mostly contained. Only the senior staff know that we are related to Aurora and they will likely be slapped with gag orders and a fat bribe at the same time if they have not already. That should be enough to keep a lid on things. As far as the company and the rest of the family I'm not worried. Aurora knows what she is doing and can be pretty terrifying. She inherited my DEATH STARE and is not afraid to use it. I’m sure the security recordings will go missing or be blurred or something at some point before any congressional committee or shareholder board can see them. If she does not see to that I'm sure you will. My personal point of concern, however, is Eagle Eye.” “Because of his military contacts?” Sunset nodded but also made a sour pout to her face that made Twilight both laugh and worry. “He saw the most. Things he really should not have and I don't just mean my boobs. He saw me remove the bullet with my hands and my eyes glowing with inherent magic. More than that, I just have this… gut feeling he may have… other bosses he will feel like he needs to talk to. The covert kind.” “I don’t follow.” “I think he has intelligence community connections.” Twilight sucked in a sharp breath. “Ah.” “Yeah.” Sunset once again tried to shrug it off and once again failed to be completely reassuring. “I mean, I could be wrong. I hope I am. It could just be the bland food messing with me or, you know, a result of paranoia considering how he was constantly checking me out. Heh, not that I was being shy about it.” Twilight nodded. “But what do you think is the worst case scenario?” Sunset tapped her chin for a moment before finally shaking her head. “Worst case would be FBI agents showing up at the house with a warrant and they disrupt our family by digging through our secrets. The old journals, the photo albums, some of the Equestrian souvenirs we collected over the years. Things like that. I don’t know if that is a concern yet, but it is on my mind. As for us, I worry about us being detained when we get back and having to put Aurora in a compromising position between us and the rest of the family who really don’t know us. Possibly even dragging Sunna into the muck against her wishes. That would require lawyers and more paperwork. Money, paper trails, more chances things get… complicated.” The two women stayed quiet for more than a minute just holding hands while the monitors beeped steadily and the background hummed from the ventilation system working as it should. They had all been legitimate concerns. Sunset was worried about their family and Twilight and possibly about the portal. Twilight completely understood that and had similar concerns. However, her primary concern was for her alicorn-turned-human-wife. By her estimates, from the last time it had been open, the Lunar Lock Mirror would not open again for another twelve lunar cycles. Too long to quickly spirit her love away for her own safety. Still, the world had plenty of places to hide and they both had access to plenty of cash at a moment's notice. She would have to consult her emergency contingencies once she had access to her phone or computer again. Just in case. “I think we should probably talk to those three about everything before we jump to conclusions.” Sunset nodded and smiled brightly. “You read my mind.” ---------- “I heard that the good doctor just woke up.” Skymark Blue looked up from the station report on his screen to stare at Eagle Eye for a moment. “I had one of the regular security people keep an eye on the infirmary and they just paged me. Will be nice to hear what really happened in there.” Skymark pushed a button on his console. “Drago, come to my office. Miss Hardboard, please escort your roommates to my office as soon as they are able.” “I take it this is the part where I get left out of the loop again,” said the brawny security chief who was pouting like a preschooler. “It’s for your own good. Trust me, there are things you don’t want to know.” Hunter rolled his eyes. “Not knowing things is how half this shit happened to start with. Seriously, Chief, I feel like a stand-in.” “Yeah, well, look at it this way. You didn’t have to sign a corporate NDA that is so heavily binding it might be considered torture in some countries and you get to sleep well at night in your ignorance of it all.” Eagle Eye nodded. “Yeah, you don’t want in on this. Even this little talk we are about to have is just for some damn closure. Spacer is going to be riding back down with me and half the security detail in two days and that will be the end of it for you. No telling what happens after that while the crews here just keep moving forward building this place out. Progress and all that shit.” A knock on the door a few minutes later put a pause on additional side conversations. Drago waved while flashing a sheepish smile. “Heya. I think I can finally say with confidence that all systems are up and running as they should be. I feel confident that I can get back to my corporate required downtime that I have so richly earned twice over now.” Skymark nodded in agreement. “That you have. Helped save our asses, earned a big fat bonus for it, and extra time off. I’m sure that is the least they can grant you. Personally, I'd ask for a boat too.” There was another knock at the door. “And speaking of who to ask about those perks…” Hunter moved to open the door. The stocky former marine glanced suspiciously between the two women, his lips unquestionably turned downward as he remained at the threshold for several seconds. It was clear to both Sunset and Twilight he had much he wanted to say, but was unsure if he could or should. Sunset Shimmer, however, smirked and winked at him. “As a bubbly friend of ours used to say, ‘If you keep frowning like that it will get stuck and you will make all the children at the zoo cry, just like Limestone used to do.’ Seriously, she used to say that.” Hunter rolled his eyes at Sunset’s statement, but said nothing in response. He let himself out of the room, closing the door with a softy click upon his exit. Sunset and Twilight’s attention returned to the other three men in the room who had their combined attention on the two women. “Please,” Skymark gestured, “have a seat. I imagine you both are still in need of rest and recovery and I will gladly allow you all the downtime you need before the shuttle departs. Though, as I understand, you technically outrank me on nearly all matters and could do whatever you please without consequence. Even still, as station administrator I believe I am entitled to some answers given that all three of us have been sworn to secrecy on pain of many, many lawyers.” Twilight cocked her head slightly sideways and glanced at Sunset. One look and they both came to the same conclusion. “Aurora,” they said in unison. Twilight cleared her throat and moved to sit. Sunset, not ashamed in the least, took her wife’s hand and kept it in her lap as they settled into the offered chairs. “To begin with I feel I need to state that you are not entitled to anything, administrator. Some of these matters are personal and above your access privileges. However, I am kind and I understand how unsatisfying an unanswered question can be. For those reasons, I feel that an explanation will makes things smoother going forward for everyone. I do not wish to sow resentment or suspicion. I, no, WE, will answer what we can, but do not press if we say something is off limits. Do we have an understanding?” Skymark glanced up at Drago and Eagle Eye. “We all onboard, boys?” Both Eagle Eye and Drago nodded more or less. Twilight took a moment to straighten her glasses and squeezed her wife’s hand for comfort and reassurance that they were making the right decision. “Where would you like to begin?” Skymark returned to his seat and steepled his fingers. His seat creaked a bit from the shifting weight, but he ignored it. “I got an outside observation report from Drago that a virus like AI was deleting our computers after you tried to examine the device that Spacer snuck onboard and left plugged into an access panel. First, are all of our systems now safe? Where is the AI now? And what happened to you while you were plugged into the computer? I can’t believe I even have to ask that last one. Who the hell ever expected we would really reach a point where we can plug our brains into computers. God damn science fiction.” “I appreciate the order in which you asked the questions. Since you wanted to make sure our people are safe first it gives me confidence that you are the right man to be sitting in that chair. Yes, our systems are now safe. The AI was isolated during my Cyberjacking and was deleted along with a part of damaged system memory. Those memory boards have since been replaced with the ones that were brought from Earth weeks ago just in case. Drago restarted our computers and while I have not double checked his work yet, the fact that he can stand here gives me confidence that the reboot and restart was completed successfully. All damaged sections would have been removed or repartitioned and system backups would have fixed damage command codes back to default. Far easier that rewriting everything from scratch.” “And you give me your one hundred percent assurance it can’t get back in or that nothing survived?” Twilight nodded. “The AI was not fully sentient. Or rather, it was not capable of really thinking for itself. It was given orders and was dead set on carrying them out even if it meant being killed, or deleted rather, itself. I had my own prototype AI assistant with me and it too was destroyed… she sacrificed herself to give me time to escape. So yes, the system is safe. The only other location the rogue AI could be is in the removable storage drive.” “And where is that storage drive, by the way?” asked Skymark. Twilight blinked a few times and began to pat at her pockets with her freehand. Sunset Shimmer, however raised her hand. “I have it. I took it out of Twilight’s hand after we got her to the infirmary. It’s safe for now. I put it in a small box.” “How exactly is that safe?” asked Eagle Eye. Sunset glanced back over her shoulder at the pilot and met his less flirty, scrutinizing glare with her own, ‘I’ve faced bigger’, expression of boredom. “It’s not plugged in and it’s a special box, trust me. I keep important small items in it and it goes everywhere with me. No one can open it but me.” “I bet I could open it.” Sunset smiled sardonically. “Bet you can’t. It’s magic.” Eagle Eye rolled his eyes. “Pffft. Whatever.” “Moving on,” said Skymark. “My last question, please.” Twilight glanced to Sunset, who nodded. “I’m kinda interested in hearing this part myself.” “Understand that Cyberjacking is always dangerous, which is why it is illegal in some places. The human mind is not ready to touch something so… foreign to our understanding. It is almost more like telepathy than processing digital information traditionally. I literally had to push my brain to the point of almost overheating just to keep up with the computer. It was dangerous, and stupid!” “Glad to hear you acknowledge it, babe.” “Even still, it was a remarkable experience. I walked in a digital environment much like a game or TV show. I was able to communicate with the AI on its level of understanding. It… It was incredible. However, it was, as I said dangerous. It attacked me upon sight and if not for Tavii, my own AI, I would have likely suffered some irreversible brain damage if not outright death.” Sunset sucked in a breath and let it out slow. “I guess not all AI are hellbent on enslaving people and world domination then. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I have to deal with one in the future.” Twilight nodded then smiled briefly. "I had knight armor and got to use a lightsaber!" "Heh, nerd." “Future, hell. This should be evidence enough to slap a whole new stack of laws and restriction on AI development!” said Eagle Eye with a scoff. “You’re wrong,” said Twilight and Drago simultaneously. Twilight blinked a few times at the other tech and smiled warmly at him. He could not help from smiling back while pretending to find an itch along his scalp. Twilight carefully stood, giving Sunset a nod that she was fine for the moment on her own. “I know you have a soldier’s perspective, captain, but I see the world differently than you. Artificial Intelligence has been in development for over one hundred years. Truthfully, variations of independent automation have been assisting humanity for centuries in one form or another. Long before the first transistors and circuit boards were first soldered together in garages by young geeks and nerds like myself we used timing chains, cogs, steam, and eventually punch cards to train systems. It should go without saying we need machines in our lives, but that need, that desire to have said machines work with us MUST come with responsibility. The smarter the machines get, the more it is our responsibility to ensure that they know we are not their masters, but instead their guides. Their friends.” “You seriously want to make friends with your computer?” Twilight nodded. “Yes.” “You’re not the first to propose that, I even sorta-kinda like the idea, but not everyone is going to see it that way,” said Drago with a shrug. “Especially in government and military branches.” “Then it is our responsibility to make them see it.” Twilight closed her eyes, brought her hand up to her chest, and let it out with an exhale. “I am going to assume everyone here has read the book, Frankenstein. If not, shame on you. Beyond being a classic piece of literature, it is an early understanding and example of humans playing God and failing miserably at taking their responsibility for what we create. A cautionary tale to some. Or, an opportunity to learn from mistakes and do better. “When Sparkle Tech was founded one of the pillar principles set forth in the company handbook was ethical development. That meant environmentally ethical, to not ravage and destroy our precious world, as well as with a sense of moral compass in how our research and development is conducted. I refused to let any project team create weapons for war. It was and is still a do not cross, red line. Defenses, absolutely. We have a robust and well funded counter-cyberwarfare division that supports computers and networks worldwide, but never for offense. We lead by example and we can show new, developing AI that humans do not have to be, as Sunset said, hellbent, on destroying each other. Or them. That is my hope, my dream, and my goal with all the research I have done over the years. And will continue to do so,” Twilight paused to look at her hand. For just a fraction of a moment. The skin tone was darker, the nails blood red and sharp as talons, and her arm was covered with a dark purple sleeve. She blinked and it was gone. No one else, including Sunset Shimmer, seemed to have noticed the change. “For as long as I can.” “Naïve,” grumbled Eagle Eye, but he simply crossed his arms and shrugged. Twilight, having dealt with more than a few defiant, young individuals, including the old woman who was in a way the boss of all these men, simply smiled, knowingly. “Hopeful.” “So, what happens now?” Twilight retook her seat and her wife’s hand before straightening her posture. She was becoming fatigued, but refused to let it show, not yet. However, Sunset Shimmer knew better. “We should probably wrap this up. I think there was an earlier statement about well earned rest?” said Sunset, her poignant stare boring into Skymark Blue and he felt an unexpected rise in temperature in the room causing him to perspire a bit. Perhaps it was just his imagination, or the fact that the red headed woman just had a steady gaze that was as powerful and uncomfortable as staring into the sun. Twilight squeezed Sunset’s hand hard as a means of reeling her in just a little. “I will be taking the device with me where it will be researched in an isolated environment. All relevant information regarding its origin and materials used to make it will be passed to our established government contacts. All proprietary information it may have taken will remain in house as well as if anything from the virus or AI survived.” “That is not going to make some of my other bosses happy,” said Eagle Eye. Twilight shook her head. “They won’t know about it because as I understand you have signed the NDA regarding this entire incident. Representatives who work closely with Sparkle Tech on this project will be told what we wish them to know and nothing more. Remember, this station was mostly PRIVATELY funded because the government did not want to pay for it. We work with the oversight committee at OUR discretion. Otherwise, they should have footed more of the bill if they wanted more say-so.” Skymark chuckled a bit. “She’s got you there.” Twilight stood and pulled Sunset up with her. “If that is all, gentlemen, I think I would like some food and then time in my quarters to rest.” Skymark gestured to the door. Both women nodded and made for the door, hand in hand. “You’re really Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you?” Both Twilight and Sunset glanced back at Drago who had spoken. His face a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. An uncertainty that the answer to such a question, which had to be absurd, would bring more discomfort than relief. Still, curiosity demanded it. Twilight glanced to Sunset, whose eyebrows were raised and mouth slightly agape. Her wife was likely formulating any number of fast excuses and/or lies to cover for them. Sunset was always good at coming up with a quick little white lie when the need was called upon. Twilight, on the other hand, preferred to be honest, even if it was not the best idea. That did not mean she could not be cheeky about it. Twilight Sparkle giggled and gently touched Sunset Shimmer’s chin, directing her to turn. She then leaned in to happily kiss her wife for the first time in weeks without worry of being caught or judged. The contact was electrifying and if there had not been an audience Twilight would have gladly plunged her tongue deeper and sought out the taller woman’s to wrestle with. Hand would have roamed, clothes unzipped and discarded, two bodies would have become lovingly intertwined. Still, it held the promise of more once they were finally settled and alone. Twilight felt a burning hunger that was overwriting her exhaustion and she knew her alicorn wife shared it. If not more so. They were definitely going to lock the door thoroughly and find satisfaction in each other’s embrace no matter what anyone else thought. To Hell if the walls were not thick enough. After their lips parted Twilight glanced back at the men, who had varying degrees of expressions from curiosity, to questionable, to perverse. The purple skinned, multi-doctorated scientist then readjusted her glasses and flashed a toothy grin, accented by her glowing cheeks. “Sore wa himitsu desu.” Twilight grabbed the door and led her wife from the room without looking back. Skymark shrugged and moved on to the next of his never ending reports. Drago smirked and chuckled. Eagle Eye blinked a few times, his jaw slacked in confusion. “What the hell does that mean?!” END