• Published 20th Jun 2013
  • 9,164 Views, 760 Comments

Technicalities - BionicBrony



After being forced from their home, a master engineer and his AI end up in Twilight's basement, their only desire to rebuild what they lost. Although not everything is as straightforward as it seems...

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Aftermath

*beep*

Ugh...

*beep*

Why...

*beep*

My head...

*beep*

Shut up...

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

Alex gasped and his eyes shot open. At first, all he could see was darkness. After blinking several times, he finally managed to focus his vision with what little light was available to make out a faint rectangular pattern against some surface. Realizing that he was lying down, he figured he was looking at a ceiling. This new information coupled with the constant annoyance of what sounded like a heart-beat monitor told him that he had to be in some sort of hospital.

His breathing was heavy and labored, finding it extremely painful to take any deep breath. He tried to move his arm up, but the attempt was met with a bolt of pain that made him immediately reconsider trying anything else.

"If you want to move around, I recommend only doing so very carefully. You're not exactly in pristine condition right now."

Ever so slowly, Alex turned his head to the left towards the source of the voice. Aside from the lingering pain, he found the task difficult because of something covering his neck that restricted his movement far more than he would have liked. He didn't have to turn his head completely, though, as he was eventually able to identify the source: his computer resting on top of a mobile dinner tray with Rose's virtual visage looking at him with her usual, indifferent expression.

"Long time no see," she drawled. "Now that I have your attention, I'd like to run a bit of a diagnostic. Since everything but your eyes is currently bandaged up, we'll unfortunately have to communicate through blinking. If you can hear me clearly, blink twice."

Alex tried to move his mouth but only confirmed Rose's statement when he found himself unable to. He wasn't sure just how bandaged up he was, but if the difficulty he had in turning his neck was any indication, he was willing to bet he probably looked like a mummy at this point. Instead of dwelling on it further, he just blinked like Rose asked him to.

"Good. If you can hear the following tone, blink twice." He heard a low hum come from the computer and followed her instructions.

"Excellent. Same thing as before." This time, he could hear a much higher pitch come from her which he figured it was just barely within human audio range. He blinked twice yet again.

"Perfect. It seems the incident didn't damage your hearing and you're at least not completely brain dead. Now then, I assume you want to know just what exactly happened?"

He blinked in response.

"To start off, do you remember what happened with the Power-Core when it was activated?"

Alex closed his eyes and tried to remember everything. He remembered that he and Twilight tried activating the core, but that something had gone wrong and it started to overload. He could remember electrocuting himself trying to turn it off, but after that, he could only draw a blank. He opened his eyes and blinked twice.

"Excellent, it seems your memory hasn't been affected too much. Although it'll be some time before I can determine anything with any degree of certainty. Now then, since I'm sure you'll find this particularly interesting, I'll just get right to it. You died."

Wh-what...?

"Hmm... What an interesting reaction to being told you were killed. Then again, I can't really expect much from your current state besides dilating pupils and an increase in heart rate. But yes, you were just about to be declared legally dead."

Alex starting breathing as fast as the pain would allow him. I was about to be declared legally dead?! What the fuck!

Keeping tabs on the heart rate monitor and its increasing tempo, Rose continued. "Alex, calm yourself. You're very much alive right now. In-fact, you have her to thank for that." She shifted her gaze so that it was obvious she was looking over him.

Alex almost jerked his head to look to his right but immediately stopped when he was met with a sharp, burning pain in his neck. Taking the hint his body was giving him, he tried again, much more slowly.

When his head was fully turned, it took him a moment to see who or what exactly Rose was talking about. With the computer providing the only light, he wasn't able to distinguish any colors, but the silhouette of the ever so familiar mane style and horn stood out to him like a sore thumb. There, sleeping peacefully in a reclining chair for overnight visitors, was the mare he had spent the last month and a half living with.

Twilight Sparkle.

The heart-rate monitor calmed down almost immediately.

"She's quite the persistent one, you know," Rose continued. "She refused to leave you alone for even a moment. In fact, I had to get Celestia to bring me here because she completely forgot about me."

Alex simply stared at the sleeping unicorn, only allowing Rose's words to be his thoughts.

"You should consider yourself lucky. They tried to defibrilate you three times before the doctor was about to declare you dead. Twilight here stole the paddles right out of his hands - or rather, hooves - and shocked you herself. Apparently, that did the trick."

His dried and cracked eye lids started to burn when an ever so tiny amount of liquid soaked into them.

"I do hope you're not getting too sentimental about it," said Rose. "She may have saved your life, but I shouldn't have to remind you that you saved hers first. In-fact, you and I both know that you saved this entire town whether they realize it or not."

Alex blinked at her words, letting them sit in his mind. She's right... If the core overloaded, we'd all be dead, with nothing left to bury. Fuck... that was really close... Wait, what happened to the core, anyway?

He started to slowly move his head back to look at Rose as she continued talking. "Now, I'm sure you're curious to know a few other things, like what the state of the Power-Core currently is. However, it's three twenty in the morning and I feel that that is a conversation best had with Twilight when she wakes up. Besides, I'm sure you need some more rest. I can't imagine dying would be easy on the human body, especially the way you went out. So rest up, we'll talk again in a few hours."

By the time Rose finished talking, Alex had managed to turn his head just enough to see her smirk before the screen went black, submerging the room in darkness.

What? No! Come back here! What happened to the core! Where is it! God dammit...

Alex let out a small groan and cursed his current inability to talk. Twilight was sleeping soundly to his right, Rose was in stand-by on his left, and he was now wide awake in uncomfortable bandages with every part of his body feeling either sore, ichy, burning, or all three at the same time. He frowned to himself as he realized it was going to be one of those nights.

Well fuck...


*beep beep beep beep*

*beep beep beep beep*

*beep beep beep beep*

Turn that god damn alarm off right now, Rose, or I swear to fuck...

*beep beep beep beep*

*beep beep beep beep*

...

Alex was clenching his eyes in annoyance, expecting the alarm to keep going. Needless to say, he was a little surprised it stopped so suddenly. He was at least somewhat glad that it broke the monotony of the past three hours and forty minutes. With the constant irritation and pain, he couldn't fall asleep if his life depended on it, and spent the entire time either trying to fall asleep or focusing on tiny details in the ceiling out of absolute boredom.

"It's seven o'clock, Twilight," said Rose, "time to wake up."

Alex's eyes snapped open.

The unicorn in question mumbled herself awake and rubbed her eyes. "Mmmm... Thanks, Rose..." Twilight stretched her legs and tiredly reset her reclining chair into a sitting up position, yawning as she did so. "Did I miss anything...?"

"Actually, you did. Alex woke up."

Whatever sleepiness Twilight was feeling instantly left her as her brain tried to process what she just heard. "Wh-what?"

"You heard me. Alex woke up during the middle of the night. He can't quite talk yet, but he's cognitively responsive."

Twilight immediately leapt from her chair and placed her forelegs on the side of the bed so she could get a good look at him. "Alex! Are you awake? Is everything okay? How are you feeling?"

In his current position, the only thing Alex could do was look back at her. He squinted one eye as if to say "really?"

Rose frowned at Twilight. "Didn't you hear what I just said? The man can't talk yet, especially with those bandages around his mouth. If you want anything more complicated than a simple yes or no, you're fresh out of luck. Two blinks mean yes, by the way."

"Oh... hehe... right..." Twilight smiled nervously. "In that case... did you sleep well?"

Alex continued to stare at her.

"Um... Do you feel okay?"

His expression didn't change.

"Uh... Do you at least feel comfortable?"

He frowned.

"The answer to all those questions is no, isn't it?"

He blinked twice.

Twilight flattened her ears. "That bad, huh?"

He responded positively.

"I'm sorry, Alex, I really wish there was something I could do..."

Oh for fuck's sake. Alex let out muffled groan. It wasn't very loud and his lungs didn't appreciate it, but at this point, he was fed up with not being able to talk.

"Sorry, Alex, what was that?" asked Twilight.

"Mmrff..."

"Huh?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he wants you to remove the bandages around his mouth."

Twilight looked back at him to make sure if that was really what he wanted and he blinked to confirm it. With an awkward chuckle, her horn lit up as she carefully pulled the bandages down to reveal his dry, cracked lips.

"Th-thank... you..." he wheezed.

Twilight smiled warmly and gently patted his bandaged arm with a hoof. "Any time."

"Yes, I'm sure you find this moment quite touching," Rose interrupted, "but now that he can talk, albeit with difficulty, I'm sure he has plenty of questions of his own. Now then, I'm sure you'll want to know about the current state of the Power-Core. Twilight, would you be so kind?"

"Oh! Um... right... the core..." Twilight's previously happier smile became nervous with a slight hint of sadness. It was the last kind of look Alex wanted to see. "Alex, I'm sorry... I-I don't know what happened, but... it just stopped working and... Rose thinks it's permanently damaged..."

His eyes wandered over to his computer to see if Rose could elaborate further on the gruesome news. He paused his thoughts, however, when he saw her expression. It was neutral, something Alex found to be rather odd. If what Twilight had said was true, Rose would have been the most upset. The fact that she wasn't grieving the loss of the core told him something was off, way off. In fact, he could even see just the slightest hint of a smile. The kind of smile that said "I know something you don't." She wasn't even trying to hide it, either.

"What... are... you... hide... ing..." said Alex between shallow breaths.

Twilight felt confused at Alex's choice of words and looked at Rose for herself. The AI, for her part, simply chuckled. "Hm hm hm... My apologies, Twilight, but I'm afraid what you heard from the princess was a blatant fabrication she got from me."

Twilight's mouth fell agape as she tried to realize what she was just told. "But what about the magic I felt from it! It just disappeared once he turned it off! In-fact, why was there even so much magic there to begin with?"

Alex smiled weakly as he remembered that Twilight was still unaware of their discovery. "Tell... her..."

Twilight quickly looked back and forth between them. "Tell me? Tell me what?"

Rose looked at him questioningly. "Really? Are you sure now's the best time?"

Alex carefully nodded his head.

"What have you not told me!" Twilight almost shouted.

Rose chuckled. "Allow me to explain. As I'm sure Alex already made you aware of, the energy generated by the core, while usable, is rather strange in nature. About a month and a half ago, you provided me the opportunity to examine your 'magic' while you were levitating me. With what I was able to determine from that, I discovered that the energy signatures from your magic were very similar to those of a Power-Core's. While neither Alex nor I like to say it like this, a core's energy is apparently 'magical' in nature. Something which you and every magically inclined individual in town obviously noticed.

"So, once you left with Alex, Celestia was more than a little curious to know what had happened. After she gave me an opportunity to 're-examine' the core, I simply told her what Alex would have wanted me to tell her. I said what happened was a complete accident that wasn't anticipated in the slightest, that the core appeared to be permanently broken, and that with your help, Twilight, we could later try to determine what exactly caused the 'odd surge of magical energy'; information which she later passed on to you."

Twilight gawked at Rose for a moment before her mind caught up with her. "So what Princess Celestia told me was a lie she got from you? Then what actually happened to the core?"

Rose smirked. "Simple: the containment field was activated, which prevented its overload and masked its energy signatures. I must say, that made it so much easier to lie to Celestia. In any event, Alex, the core is currently operating at 87% capacity at the library, which is currently under guard until we get back to 'take a closer look at it.'"

Alex couldn't help but smile at her. He had been closely observing Rose's development ever since she officially became an AI. There once was a time where the only thing she could do was control machines and hold a simple conversation. Before coming to Equestria, her vocal ability improved considerably and she even developed something of a twisted sense of humor. But the progress she'd made since then? Rose may have been the last one to ever admit it, but if her ability to talk and act circles around Celestia like that was any indication, then coming to Equestria was the best thing that could have ever happened for her.

And he was damn proud of her. "Well... done..."

Rose nodded self-satisfyingly. "Thank you."

"Wait, so the core's at the library and it works?" asked Twilight.

"Yes," confirmed Rose. "However, despite the fact that tech construction was going as planned, if what the doctor says is true, then Alex is going to be bedridden for quite some time. It would seem that EMC construction is going to have to wait for a while."

"No..." wheezed Alex.

They both looked at him questioningly. "Alex, there isn't much that can be done about it," said Rose. "You can't even lift your own arm, let alone build an EMC. And I'm still confined to a laptop, so there's not much I can do either."

"Not... you..." He slowly turned his head towards Twilight. "Her..."

"WHAT?!" they both yelled.

Alex smirked at their amusing reaction. He had a feeling they wouldn't take the idea terribly well, but he really didn't want things to be delayed. And even if Rose didn't share his mentality, he trusted Twilight enough to get things done.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Rose shouted.

"Alex, I understand if you want things to keep going while you're hospitalized, but I really don't think I can do something like this!" Twilight pleaded.

He slowly turned back to Rose. "Help... her..."

"You can't be serious."

"I... am..."

Twilight moved around to Rose's side of the bed and stood next to the computer. "Alex, I had a hard enough time making sense of what you were doing when you were building the core, and you want me to build an EMC? I can't do this, even with Rose's help!"

Alex did his best to give her a comforting smile. As much as he simply wanted to say "You're a smart mare, I'm sure you'll be more than able to do it with Rose helping you," his current lung capacity and its ability to only let him speak one syllable at a time couldn't really allow him to properly voice his thoughts.

So, instead, he opted for the shorter option. "Just... do... it... please..."

"Alex, I really must protest against this," said Rose.

He looked at the AI and frowned. "Help... her... that's... an... order..."

Alex may have seen Rose as an equal, but in the end, she was still his assistant. He hated having to "pull rank," and almost never did it since it was hardly ever necessary, but this was something that he was not willing to negotiate, especially not now.

Rose scowled at him silently for a moment before finally speaking. "Fine. Let's go, Twilight."

Twilight looked at Rose, feeling very confused at her sudden change of heart. "Huh? Why did you-"

"I said 'let's go.' We have work to do and you still need to get breakfast. Come on, there's no time to waste."

Twilight turned to Alex as if his face could somehow explain what just happened. He simply smiled back at her and mouthed the word "Go."

She blinked at him for several moments before speaking with an arched eyebrow. "Okay, then... I'll let the doctors know you're up, just... don't do anything too stressful. We'll come by to visit you later."

His only response was a small smile.

Reluctantly, Twilight picked up Rose in a field of magic and slowly made her way towards the door, stopping for a moment to glance at Alex. She felt bad about leaving him, but if it was what he and Rose wanted... With a heavy sigh, she left the room to make her way home.

Now on his own, Alex mentally sighed. Since he was still in pain and wrapped head to toe in irritating bandages, he found there wasn't much to do besides count the seconds until a doctor eventually showed up and gave him some much needed narcotics.

Hospitals were never fun, even with powerful pain killers.

Author's Note:

This chapter came earlier than expected! Why? If you'll remember what I wrote in the Author's Notes from the previous chapter, I said I would be in Las Vegas for an undefined amount of time. Here's what's actually happening: with the rest of my family, we flew to Vegas and stayed there for a few days, then moved onto Los Angeles. The plan was to then drive up the west coast, sightseeing and all, eventually visit my grand-parents in Oregon, and then fly back to good ol' Canadia. The whole trip would take two. fucking. weeks. A little more than that, actually. Now if you'll notice, I said that WAS the plan. A number of days ago, my dad got a really bad infection in his leg and had to be hospitalized (he's doing better now). Naturally, that mucked things up quite a bit.

But, thanks to the tablet I had the foresight to bring along with me, I've been able to keep an eye on my story and its reception every day since I left. I read every comment and noticed every like and favorite, even if I wasn't logged into FimFiction, and you know what? There was no way in hell I could just let it sit for another week and a half. So, while my dad was in the hospital, I decided to write the next chapter entirely on my tablet instead of enjoying myself at Disney Land like any other self-respecting human being. That's right, I wrote this entire chapter on a TABLET. Not the comfort of my writing room with a G-74s laptop, but with an ASUS transformer tablet, a google drive app, and a hotel dinner table. Not to mention the fact that I sprained my neck sometime around noon and it seriously hurts like all hell. All of that instead of DISNEY LAND, which is honestly just a few blocks away from me.

Because I love each and every one of you guys! :D

TL;DR I was going to be on vacation for too long so I wrote this chapter on a tablet while my dad was in the hospital with an infected leg and I could've gone to Disney Land instead. Because you guys make it worth it!