//------------------------------// // Act V, Chapter XI // Story: My Little Clony // by therealfeedback //------------------------------// MY LITTLE CLONY Chapter XI, Act V Peace of Mind I could barely see. I tried opening my eyes, but the light stung too much to do much more than squint. “He’s waking up.” An unfamiliar voice said. “Increase the anesthetic dosage.” I tried to move, but couldn’t. My entire body was either numb, or aching. A few moments later I felt a soothing feeling come over me as the aches disappeared, and I drifted back off to sleep. Sleep. A world inside my mind. A world that was, at the moment, blank. Flat black, with me floating somewhere in it. I could tell it was a dream since I had all four legs, but I couldn’t wake up. Not that I didn’t mind right now. “Caesar.” A familiar voice called. I spun to see that behind me, the only other being in the void, was the princess. The one I had been battling, and the one who now fought for us, even briefly. “Celestia?” I asked, still not entirely clear on what was going on, in or outside of my head. “So you can hear me then.” “What’s happening on your end? There was a flash, and we were on a dirt road, and I passed out, and I woke up, but I was being drugged by…” “Caesar, relax. You’re with Coppercog, the roboticist I mentioned, right now. The way I destroyed your foreleg meant that to connect the prosthetic to nerve ends and give you control of it just like a real leg, he has to do some minor surgery. He’s only drugging you with anesthetics. You have nothing immediate to worry about.” “…And what about you?” I asked. It felt odd, this figure I had seen as an embodiment of evil had now saved my life, and was fighting for us. She had tortured me only a short while before, and she had been a tyrant for centuries, but a common enemy is enough to warm relations. “I’m still alive for the time being, so I’m well, given the circumstances. I don’t know how much longer that will be the case though. They’re not making it easy for me.” “How are you here if you’re fighting? You can’t be here, you need to focus on the fight.” Admittedly, it was as much because I wanted her out of my head as because of what I said that I wanted her to leave. “I’m thousands of years old, Caesar. I’ve learned a lot of tricks in my time. One of them is projecting my voice to the mind of another, and one of them is being able to focus perfectly on two separate tasks. In this case, speaking to you, and fighting for my life.” “It’s funny, isn’t it?” She started. “Not even an hour ago, you and I wanted each other dead. And now we’re fighting together, for however long I can hold them off.” “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I said simply, voicing my thoughts. "Though you did torture me, and were ready to kill all six of us...I'm not sure I'd call us 'allies' quite yet." “There may not be time to do so later, but I can't say I blame you…Caesar, I don’t expect you or the others to forgive me. I don’t deserve it after the centuries I’ve done what I’ve done for. I…I thought it was the right choice at the time. And to some extent...I still do. Seeing what Sombra had done, I…I couldn’t let anypony ever live in fear of that again. I made it happen, even if I had to throw away my friends to do it…I froze Discord, and when my sister found out, I sent her to the moon…I’ve spent centuries alone. Centuries feeling like the only being with a real mind. A real free will. It gave me a lot of time to reflect. Time to think that maybe what I had done was wrong. But by the time I thought about what I’d done…I didn’t feel I could change it.” “So what’s changed?” I asked. “You.” She said. “Discord gave you a window of opportunity, and you saved me by taking it. Because of you, I was humbled. Because of you, I saw that what I had done could be undone. That self-determination could be returned to Equestria. …And I heard Arpeggio. Hearing him talk to me like that…talk to you like that…it made me realize that I had become the very despot I had wanted to prevent. I'm still not sure that I agree with you, and I'm still not sure I like you. But I'd rather Equestria be in your hooves than in Arpeggio's, and I'm not going to live either way.” "You're that remorseful after ten minutes?" I interrupted. "Just...'poof, I'm fighting for freedom now!'?" "Actually, it's been more of two hours. You've been in surgery a little while now." "Oh. ...Well, still, that quick?" "When you're about to die, you have to decide things quickly. I've believed for so long that what I was doing was right. I still do to an extent. But I'm not going to just let myself be killed so it can continue. Arpeggio...he won't actually have any concern for those he's protecting. Utopia is all that matters to him, not its inhabitants. I'm not going to let that happens, even if it means helping you." “Again, while I hope for it, I don’t expect or deserve your forgiveness. But please know that I will watch over you. Though my body may die, one like me can never truly be killed. I will always be with you and your comrades. Protecting, guiding, doing whatever I must to undo what I’ve done.” “I appreciate that.” I said, unsure of what to say. “It’s funny, I may be an earth pony, and you may be an Alicorn, I may be a commoner, and you may be a princess, but deep down, we’re not that different. We both did what we’ve done to try and protect the people we knew and loved from a tyrant taking their freedom.” “Except the princess loses, in the end.” Celestia chuckled. “Caesar, if I cannot defeat all of them, go to Stalliongrad. The Russireans never acted in rebellion, but they were never fond of the way I ran things, and that was before they knew what I was really doing. They’ll support you, and they’re likely the only country with a large enough force to oppose Arpeggio and the others. You can free this world, but you must act smartly. If you are rash, all will be as it was under me.” “Acting smartly has been my forte.” I said confidently. The princess smiled. “In that case, freedom may return to the land soon. I look forward to seeing it from whatever cloud I’m on. I must go now – I can only split my focus for so long, and the two of them aren’t letting up at all.” “Two? There were three?” I asked. “Lets just say Noble’s always been a sparky one. It only seemed fitting to treat him thusly.” “Good luck princess.” “Thank you. If you manage to return from Russire and save Equestria, please, tell Luna of what really was. I convinced her I was different when she came back. She’ll believe you if you show her the evidence you gathered, but you’ll never get past Arpeggio to her. Tell her that I’m so sorry, for then, for now, for all of it. That I’m sorry I stole her family from her right as she came back home. She’ll understand what has happened with your evidence. And once she does…so will Twilight…” “Who?” “No one you need worry about right now. Good luck Caesar, and remember; I will be with you, always.” And with that, she was gone. I was once more alone in my head. ----------------------------------------------- The white platform was now stained with drops of sweat, and splotches of blood. Noble Laureate lay off to the side, eyes wide and coat standing on end, sparks flying off of his mane and horn. In the center was Apple Polish, her fur charred. Arpeggio stood at one end of the platform, Celestia on the other. Both were breathing heavily, and covered in nicks, scrapes, and wounds. All superficial, except for one on Celestia. A single gash in the side of her chest was bleeding badly. “You’ve lost, princess.” Arpeggio said. “We’re both wounded, but…yours are fatal. And…and neither of us has much magic left.” “Your cronies are…dead though.” “I’ll make new ones.” He said simply. “I made them once, I can…do it again.” “No…you won’t.” She said. “Who’s going to stop me, you? You’re barely clinging to life. And you’re all out of spells.” “Maybe…maybe I am. But so are you. Ponies haven’t…haven’t always had spells though. Every creature was…wild at some point, us included. Pegasi survived by flying…earth ponies through toughness…you want to know…how unicorns survived before magic?” “One last lesson from dear Princess Celestia? How fortunate I am.” Arpeggio spat. “Indulge me. I don’t see why not.” “Two words: Sharpened horns.” “…What?” “They’re kept dull now for safety. But mine?” A wicked grin came across the princess’ face. “Sharp as a sword.” “Wait, don’t—“ Before Arpeggio could finish, the princess charged at him with a scream, ramming into him headfirst. The two stood there, Celestia’s horn clean through Arpeggio’s stomach, his eyes wide in shock as he stared at the appendage sticking through him. He was too stunned even to scream. “Heh.” The princess started. Her words were forced, the lasts of her energy. “Shame you were…such a big…mistake…that fixing it…came…to this.” She closed her eyes, slumping down. “I told you…that I’d…take you…with me…” With that, she went limp, lying peacefully on the ground. A silent, eternal sleep. Arpeggio fell off her horn, now bleeding from the wound in his stomach. “B-bitch…d—gnkh!” He crumpled over in pain, grabbing at his stomach with one foreleg, dragging himself towards the pod controls with the other, blood from the wound trailing behind him. “Not…today…not…dying…yet…” He loosely tapped controls on the screen, altering three different pods. Once finished, he pulled himself over to the pod the unfinished clone had come from, wincing as he crawled into it over the glass of the shattered canopy, shards cutting his skin even more than it had already been damaged. “Not…dying…today…” A few seconds later, the pod flooded with a lime green liquid. “Changeling incubation fluid.” Arpeggio thought to himself. “These things created me, so this stuff will keep me alive long enough for new versions of Noble and Apple to get me medical attention. Shame that one incomplete clone broke the roof, or I could use it to fix myself right now....” As his pod filled, two more pods lowered. They opened on their own rather than being broken open, more incubation fluid flooding the platform, and new versions of Apple Polish and Noble Laureate, sans suits, falling out with them. “What…where am I?” the new Noble asked. “Noble?” Apple Polish asked, looking at him confusedly. “Apple? What’re you doing he—“ He cut himself off upon seeing the body of the princess. As well as the bodies of himself and Apple Polish. “…Well, this looks bad.” Apple commented simply. “When was our last backup?” “Well before all this.” Noble replied. He looked around, then saw the pod Arpeggio was in. “That might have some answers.” He hopped up, walking over to it and seeing Arpeggio inside. “Peggy! You can answe—holy crap that’s a nasty looking hole in your stomach…” “What Noble’s trying to say is; what’s going on?” Apple said. Arpeggio rolled his eyes, unable to speak through the incubation fluid, gesturing to the control panel. The two shrugged, walking over to it. A note had been typed on the screen. “Noble, Apple,” Noble started. “Blabla fight, blablabla…huh. Apparently the last iterations of us died fighting the princess.” “Sounds painful.” “Looks painful too…” Noble winced as he looked at the sparking body of his previous self. “’I’ll explain everything once you two patch up the hole in my stomach our princess left.’ Works for me. Magic works through incubation fluid, right?” “Only one way to find out.” The two nodded to each other, returning to the pod and leaning their heads over it.