//------------------------------// // Smooth Sailing // Story: Cyberpony Y2K // by J3sterking //------------------------------// The quiet way that Fancy had told her he never wanted to see her face again stuck with her all the way to the train station. Fancy had long been a friend of hers—he'd always gone out of his way to be kind to her, through her bungled musical career and during the hard times afterwards. Even now, he'd still agreed to their meeting today. He'd made the time for her. And now the two of them were friends no more. Don't think about it like that, Octavia scolded herself. He just...wants some distance. He doesn't want Discord hurting his people by proximity. He doesn't like violence...you've always known that much. "Darlings?" Octavia stopped at the light, aristocratic drawl. She turned to one side, where Rarity was holding up an umbrella to shield herself further from the sun. She narrowed her blue eyes, saying, "When I said to have fun storming the castle, I meant it in jest." Octavia finally stopped to examine herself. She was covered in dust and broken bits of plaster, with a nasty cut on her cheek and several small rips on her jacket from close calls with bullets. Applejack easily looked worse, covered head to hoof in dents, her gloves, bloodstained, and oh, right. She was carrying Vinyl over one shoulder. "Well, um," Octavia said, beginning to realize that they'd drawn the attention of the entirety of the waiting line for boarding the train. Rarity sighed, stepping closer. "I heard you got into a gunfight," she said. "Is everything alright?" "Just scratched up, most of us," Octavia admitted. "Nothin' that won't buff out," Applejack said. Rarity turned to the android, then did a double take. What is that." Octavia winced. "One of Fancy's androids got shot by the gang that attacked," Octavia said. "So I offered to buy her off him at a discount..." Thinking about it, her personal bank account didn't quite have fifteen hundred bits at the moment... Rarity's lips drew to a fine line. "This way," she said without emotion. "That's not where we get tickets," Octavia protested, following Rarity anyway. "Pfft! Puh-lease, darling, do you think they'll let you bother the other passengers upfront?" She shook her head, stepping through the crowd. Octavia made her way, cursing Rarity's longer legs. Applejack lagged just behind her, having to move carefully so as to keep Vinyl's head from exploding. ...Right, she needed to have an expert look at that as soon as possible. Vinyl hadn't woken up yet, and she wouldn't, not until the inhibitor was removed. Damnable invention, Octavia thought. I hope whoever came up with that one is burning in Tartarus. "Smooth!" Rarity said, waving. The train conductor turned, straightening his spectacles. When he saw the speaker, he grinned broadly. "Why, hello, miss Rarity!" he bellowed. The minotaur leaned down, kissing the back of her hand. "What can Smooth Sails do for you today?" Rarity thumbed over at Octavia and Applejack. "I was wondering if we couldn't ride in one of the luggage cars, so as to not bother the other passengers." "Hmm..." Smooth Sails opened the ledger he kept with him, examining it closely. "There isn't so much cargo in car eight, Smooth Sails thinks you'd find it most comfortable. Any other pony, Smooth would laugh at, but he trusts Rarity to keep her hands off other passenger's cargo." With the vague-and-not-so-vague threat out of the way, he slammed the book shut. "Smooth will even charge you for cargo space, and not passenger seating." Rarity let out a sigh of relief. "You are a well and true gentleman, Smooth. How much?" "Hmm...Smooth will only charge you for three, considering dead weight back there," the minotaur said, pointing at Vinyl. "She's not--" Octavia cut herself off, sighing. Smooth elected to ignore her. "That'll be thirty bits," Smooth said. "And Smooth suggests you get on sooner rather than later." Rarity fished out the bits—one did not simply 'haggle' with minotuars, especially if they were choosing to be generous—and handed them over. "Thank you so much, Smooth. How's the missus doing, anyhow?" "Splendid! Smooth's wife is the image of perfection!" He flexed, muscles threatening to tear through his sleeves, as if this, in any way, related to the physical well-being of his wife. Octavia tuned out the brief small talk he made with Rarity, and even Rarity's small talk with Coco Pommel, the young mare she had managing her Manehattan branch. Octavia climbed into the cargo wagon without a word, then helped Applejack get settled in on a sturdy looking crate. Vinyl took some finagling, but she was set up across a few boxes, with her head in Octavia's lap. Octavia held Vinyl firmly in place, knowing that she'd be in some danger once the train started moving. "Out with it, Octavia," Rarity said, sitting across from the musician. "What happened?" "Filthy...apparently arrived at the same conclusion, I did," Octavia said slowly. "He skipped bargaining and went straight to violence. His thugs arrived while we were at the Flight of Fancy, and during the fight..." "You can tell the nitty-gritty stuff to the ponies back at the castle," Rarity interrupted. "Is that one in any danger?" "If she gets jostled too much," Octavia said. "I'm...I'm not as good as Fluttershy yet." "Fluttershy can't do field-work," Rarity countered. "As much as I love her, she's not sturdy like you are." "You jest need to train up with yer hands a little more," Applejack said, lifting one hand in a fist. "A little more trainin' woulda shown that pegasus the what-for." "That damned unicorn is what screwed everything up there," Octavia muttered. "Just think, one in about four or five unicorns is practiced enough to create a shield spell. And this one...this one does just good enough of a job to send my bullet off course. Vinyl here has to come save my flank. Twice, from the same ruffian." "I didn't rightly see what happened," Applejack intoned, "but anypony would get screwed over by point-blank machine gunfire." Octavia rubbed her side, but paused as she heard the train whistle, and the familiar call of, "Aaaaall aboooooard!" "Finally," she muttered. With a curse, she grabbed Vinyl firmly by the shoulders, just as the train jolted. She muttered several back-to-back prayers aimed at any deities listening, as the train started moving. The hole Applejack had made in Vinyl's neck had been covered with a scarf—and the bright red scarf was not a flattering thing on her—but a single, slowly blinking light told Octavia what she needed to know. "She's still stable," she said with a sigh of relief. "The last thing I need right now is to try working on an android in a moving train."' "Few would," a wry voice answered from the door. Octavia's gun was an inch out of its holster before Rarity said, "My, here I was thinking I'd be safe from unnecessary conversation with you back here." "It almost sounds like you don't like me," came the reply. The android stepped into the room—she was clearly an expensive, custom order of some sort. A great mane of orange swept across her back, her eyes two pools of green light with two bright green lights for pupils—advanced imitation eyes, for top-dollar customers. She wore a spiked collar, and a deep violet jacket, undercoat, skirt...all her clothing seemed to be shades of purple, actually. "Who is this?" Octavia asked slowly. "Oh, a greenhorn, is it?" the android asked, sitting down on a box. Octavia bristled. "I am not," she said. "Octavia, this is Adagio," Rarity said quietly. "She's with the Dazzle Den." Octavia stopped short, then fully holstered her gun. "That's a nice pistol. A Drake, if I'm not mistaken?" Octavia nodded. Adagio sighed. "My, you ponies get more boring with each new recruit," she said. "Is Rainbow Dash still around, Rarity? It might be fun to hang with her before I head back to Las Pegasus." "Adagio," Rarity hissed. "This is not a secure location." "Five bits says it's more secure than you'd think," Adagio said, nodding to the door. "One of my boys is keeping an eye on that door. We're not getting any interruptions." "Still, it would behoove us not to discuss such matters until we get to Ponyville," Rarity said. "I swear I told you this last time—are you Seven?" The android made a great showing of checking the pin on her jacket. "Hmm...nope, Five. Same as last time I checked." "Apologies, you all look alike to me," Rarity muttered. "Why make nine androids that look exactly like you, I'll never understand." The Adagio android shrugged. "It comes of thinking highly of yourself," she said simply. "I'd do the same in her position, though I think that goes without saying. What's with the stiff?" "She's not a stiff!" Octavia snapped. "She's alive, thank you very much!" Adagio stared at her. "So we're clear, part of this trip to Ponyville is now going to be spent discussing the fact that Discord apparently shot up the Flight of Fancy." "We did not!" Octavia burst out. "We were attacked by Rich's thugs while we were there." "Are ponies saying it was Discord?" Rarity asked carefully. "Not really," Adagio said. "As far as I am aware, there's nothing to connect Discord to the shootout at all, though I understand that dear mister Fancy hasn't made any official statements yet, but the Crown will probably pin it on Discord if they can." "You know that some of these officials can be persuasive," Rarity said slowly. "But he's an old friend of Octavia's, so I'm certain he won't say much." Octavia was not sure how much trust she was supposed to show to Adagio, so she knew she had to be careful about what she said. Thankfully, Applejack seemed to agree on this front, and so neither of them mentioned that Fancy had pretty much severed ties with them. Hopefully it would still all be alright. Octavia, Applejack, and whoever the hell the other two were kept talking the entire trip, seemingly under the false assumption that Vinyl was not conscious. Granted, if any of what they said was important, she couldn't say. She also couldn't see or move in the least, and if her feeling receptors were working properly, she was certain that she'd be feeling the missing panel in her neck. On the other hand, she should be dead. She'd killed a pony. Androids had been known to kill ponies on accident, of course, but they always died from the shock of it. Androids were, unless specifically designed to, not able to withstand the thought of having ended a pony's life. To make the matter even more confusing was that she didn't particularly feel guilty. Vinyl liked what she'd seen of Octavia so far, and the stallion had been trying to shoot her. True, Vinyl's only real thought had been to stop him from shooting, but partly because she couldn't do anything further. Okay, whenever she was trying to make a particularly complicated song, she worked out a rough framework for the beats. She could do that here. Starting with the known, and obvious, facts. She killed a pony, had seen some sort of error message, and then blacked out. She had vaguely heard Fancy selling her. Vinyl was now on a train, with her head in Octavia's lap. Next, things that were dubious in her mind. According to officials from Canterlot, androids were not supposed to be able to survive the shock of hurting a pony. This was at least partly incorrect. Maybe she had a bug? She remembered...they said Canterlot wouldn't let her live. Was it because she had a flaw that made her dangerous? Okay, that was a good theory, but she didn't think she had all the info. What else was there? Oh, right. She was certain that Octavia was not, in any way, affiliated with Everfree. Whatever that conversation had been, she'd picked up that much, at least. Even so... Wait. The other pony they'd met—Rarity?--just referred to 'Adagio'. Bloody Tartarus, had she been sold to the Dazzle Den? No, Fancy wouldn't do that. If he knew. Regardless, as she felt herself being carried once more, she considered that she didn't have much of a say in it at this point—if you could have said that she'd had a say in the first place. The most she could have done was voice her disapproval, and that, only because Fancy allowed it. He was a good enough pony. Vinyl had never chafed under his command. Wherever she was going, she felt like her life wasn't going to be as easy as it had been before. And she'd almost finished that new song, that Fancy was sure to love... "Fluttershy!" Octavia shouted. "We've got a hurt android!" Silence, except for light, echoing footsteps. Then, so quietly that she had to strain her ears to catch it, some pony saying, "Oh my. What happened?" "A few bullet shots, and she accidentally killed somepony," Octavia answered. "Is there an emergency bed clear?" "Yes, this way," Fluttershy said. "What did you do?" "I—I turned off the inhibitor," Octavia said. She keeps saying 'violence inhibitor'. I've never heard of that, but she clearly knows more about this than I do. "But that's all I know how to do." "It's fine, it was enough," Fluttershy said. "Set her down here. Pinkie! Are you--" "Here!" a cheerful voice boomed from overhead. Vinyl heard a metallic grinding sound. "Don't do that!" Octavia shrieked. She let out a sigh. "How many times must I tell you--" "Geeze, she looks bad," Pinkie's voice came—it sounded synthesized, so Vinyl felt safe to say android. Except...that couldn't be right. Androids were forbidden from working on other androids, to any degree. Except that they were also talking about removing a piece of machinery that supposedly didn't exist. Another voice spoke up—this one was definitely an android, and seemingly, a cheap one, as the voice had no emotion whatsoever, and was completely computer generated. "Did you destabilize the cloud link, or simply disconnect the power from the kill switch?" "The latter," Octavia answered. Another voice—How many ponies are in here?--spoke up. "Ugh, then she's still conscious, scrap-brain." "Limestone!" Pinkie chided, with another of the grinding sounds that seemed to follow her talking. "Don't be mean to her. It shouldn't be too bad, right?" "Mm-hm," another voice chimed in. At this point, Vinyl was beginning to piece one or two things together. Namely, the fact that a vast majority of the voices seemed to be coming from directly above her...? "I do hope the train ride wasn't too rough on her," Rarity spoke up. "Shouldn't have been," Pinkie said. "We can't say for certain until we get a good look at the damage," the monotone voice said. "So—she's still conscious?" Octavia asked, hesitantly. "Hm-hm." "Yes." "Yupperoni!" "I just told you that!" No doubt about it. All four of them seemed to be hanging from the ceiling somehow. Where even was she, anyway? "Vinyl, I'm so sorry," Octavia whispered. She felt the scarf being pulled off her neck, and the whirring of heavy machinery. "I should have treated you gentler..." "Did you rip off this panel?" the angry one demanded—Limestone? "Uh, that was me, sorry," Applejack said. "We were in a rush." "Rush jobs," Limestone spat. "It's all they had time for," the monotone one said. "Usually, perfection is out of reach, so we have to make do with the most readily available substitute." "Ah! There Maude goes with the timeless wisdom again!" Pinkie clucked her tongue—or made a similar sound, anyway, as Vinyl thought she was an android. "But hey! I think this is a pretty good substitute! We can have her back on in a jiffy!" Oh, Jiffy. She was gonna miss that flighty feather-brain. "Really?" Octavia said. "Oh, I was worried I'd done some sort of serious damage. That's a relief." More for me than for you, lady! "Well, worry no longer!" Pinkie said. "Yes, you only actually made one mistake, and that was partly due to the rough treatment of her ride here," Maude said. "Oh, dear," Applejack said. "She gonna be alright?" "Yes. Aside from us having to reboot her sensory systems." Vinyl felt something tugging at her throat—presumably, ponies were starting working on her now. "Which...is that a bad thing?" Rarity asked, after a minute's silence. "Well..." Pinkie began, which was immediately not a good sign. "So, um, not to worry you or anything," Fluttershy said, "but we don't have the option of turning her off while we do this...which is how it's normally done. Doing it while the android is awake is...um..." "It hurts like a son of a bitch," Applejack intoned. "Ugh. Sorry, Vinyl, I shouldn't have been so rough." "Don't worry! The pain is really, really, really temporary! Like, five—ten...maybe thirty seconds!" A moment's silence. "I don't think that was very reassuring," Maude said. "Yeah, I know," Pinkie Pie said dejectedly. "Anyhoo, brace yourself! I'm gonna do it in three—two--" Vinyl heard Limestone say, "Ugh." That was her last thought before being completely engulfed in pain.