Ch 3.28 Ghost in the Shell
Our Girl Scootaloo
Part 3 of 3
by Cozy Mark IV & Jan. McNeville
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan-made work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro. Please support the official release
Chapter Three point Twenty Eight: Ghost in the Shell
The haste of the pegasi's departure from their rooms at the castle had woken everyone else, and it didn't take long before the others began trickling into the hospital. The hours slowly ticked by, the only sound in the silence the stifled sobs of the Crusaders as they tried to be strong for one of their own. Outside the darkness of night continued unabated, but eventually, the operating room doors opened at last.
Dr. Scott's expression told them all they needed to know.
“I'm sorry, everyone, but I don't have good news. The heart-lung machine caused several blood clots just as we feared, and due to a problem with the monitoring equipment, we didn't notice until much later.” The anger was clear in her voice at that, but it faded as she spelled out the consequences. “Faith has suffered severe brain damage. Her body is very much alive, in fact it's actually taking on the cancer and should be healthy again in a month or two, but I'm afraid there isn't much left of the girl we knew. You can come see her if you want, but... you might not want the children to see-”
The rest of her thought went unheard as the Crusaders nearly bowled her over in their mad dash to get by. Some of the others tried to stop them, but the three dodged and burst through the door of the recovery room.
“Faith! Faith, are you all right?” Scootaloo called.
Faith was sitting up in bed, wearing only the thin hospital gown, and had both arms held tight against her chest as she rocked slowly back and forth, her mouth hanging open. The three foals leapt onto her bed, waiting for a response, but none came.
“Faith...?” Applebloom asked, the tremor of fear and loss all too clear in her voice.
The little girl didn't respond, and as the other ponies caught up with them, it became clear this wasn't something they would be able to hide. The girl had made no motion to acknowledge her friends around her, continuing instead to rock slowly back and forth as she stared blankly ahead. The smell of a soiled diaper was impossible to ignore.
“Faith? Faith, say something!” Sweetie Belle insisted as tears ran from her bloodshot eyes. She grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently. The girl didn't move or turn her head, but a sort of guttural 'Aaaah' sound emerged from her open mouth as her rocking was interrupted.
Across the room, Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around Applejack and buried her face in her mane as the tears flowed. Rarity had a hoof over her mouth in shock as her mascara ran down her face, and it was clearly taking everything Luna had to keep from sobbing along with them.
Sweetie Belle hadn't let go of her friend as she shook her harder, her eyes never leaving Faith's blank face,
“Faith? Faith, wake up! Faith, you have to wake up!”
The only answer from the girl in her arms was more monosyllable grunts as she tried to continue rocking back and forth. Scootaloo and Applebloom hugged each other and cried in earnest as Sweetie Belle shouted through her tears,
“Please Faith! Please, you have to wake up!”
Rarity stepped forward carefully and put a hoof on Sweetie's back as she tried to keep her voice from cracking.
“Sweetie...? Sweetie, I'm so sorry...”
Sweetie Belle was screaming by now as she shook her friend,
“Faith! Don't go! You have to wake up!”
There was no response. Rarity gently lifted her little sister's hooves off the girl who immediately resumed rocking. Sweetie's face was contorted in pain as she turned to her big sister.
“Why Rarity? Why won't she wake up?!”
Rarity had to squeeze her eyes shut as she took Sweetie Belle in her hooves.
“Sweetie... Faith is gone... I'm so sorry...”
Sweetie struggled in her hooves as she pointed,
“No! She's right here! We can't just leave her like this! You have to make her better!”
As Applejack and Rainbow scooped up their sisters, Rarity just squeezed Sweetie tighter as she sobbed. Behind her bed, her parents held onto each other in silent agony, the truth having become painfully clear to them hours earlier.
After a long while, a brokenhearted little voice asked,
“Why Scoot?! Why won't she talk to us?”
Dr. Scoot wiped her eyes as she answered;
“I'm sorry, Sweetie, but the girl you knew is mostly dead. Her brain was starved for oxygen for too long, and now only her shell is left...” She sniffed before continuing, “Most hospitals on earth have a few patients like this. Motorcycle accidents without an adequate helmet, people who drowned, certain illnesses...I'm so sorry, little one, but we don't have anything we can do for them, besides make them comfortable.”
Across the room, Scootaloo's eyes had dilated to pin points as her scooter antics flashed to mind. Ignorant of the grief around her, whatever was left of Faith continued her endless rocking, back and forth, back and forth.
It was Apple Bloom who finally brought up the obvious question;
“But what about them others? You still got two of Scootaloo left in that earth hospital...” She pleaded, “Can't we put Faith back into one a them?”
Dr. Scott looked meaningfully at Luna,
“That was a major reason for doing this procedure in Equestria: If all else failed, we could try for a Disney death...” There was a strained look in her eyes as she continued, “Did she make it, Luna? Is she recorded?”
…
The sun was just peeking over the hills as Applejack slowly trudged the last distance across the yard and up the front porch to her home. The wild emotional rollercoaster of the last several days had left her exhausted and sleep deprived, but a least here, in her own home she could count on something resembling peace and predictability. None of them had had the heart to break up the Crusaders, and she had left the three of them with Rarity and the others while she took an early train back to Ponyville and walked the long road home under the rising sun. The sound of dishes clattering in the sink reached her ears, and despite it all, the smell of freshly cooked breakfast made her stomach growl.
“Morning, Big Mac,” she called as she stepped through the front door, trying to act normally as she grabbed a plate to help herself. “That sure smells good.”
Big Mac glanced in her direction with a confused, somewhat worried expression.
“Eeyup.”
She piled her plate high and slid into a chair across the table from her brother.
“Um... Did I miss anything while I was gone?”
“Eeyup.”
Applejack waited a moment, but as no further explanation was forthcoming, she looked up and found her brother looking confused and rather dazed.
“Uh... is everything okay, Mac?”
“Nope.”
And with that, Big Mac stood up, placed his empty plate in the sink, and left without another word.
Applejack knew her brother could be a stallion of few words, but this was quiet even for him. She was trying to decide whether to go after him, when the sound of hooves on the stairs made her look up to see a young and rather handsome stallion descending the stairs. As she watched in confusion, he put something into his saddle bag and fished out a helmet which went onto his head. Applejack could only gape as the Canterlot guard pony walked into the family kitchen and began fixing his own breakfast.
“Good morning! You must be Applejack.” he greeted her, sliding into the seat across the table and extending a hoof.
Applejack tried to maintain an even expression as she reached out and shook the offered hoof. “Good morning to you too. Might I ask who you are?”
The stallion blinked then laughed good-naturedly. “Why, Lieutenant True Flight, ma'am. I'm the best in my entire battalion with a spear,” the earth pony added by way of explanation.
Applejack just raised her eyebrow higher. “That's swell and all, but what in tarnation are you doing in my home?”
He looked up at her from his breakfast and grinned mischievously. “Why, your sister of course.”
It took Applejack a moment to process that, but her eyes narrowed dangerously as she replied.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh yeah, she's quite the looker, your sister! She must have to beat the stallions off with a stick.” He leaned back and stared wistfully at the ceiling. “And good Celestia is she a Griffon between the sheets!”
…
It turns out that some members of the Royal Guard make an interesting sound when bucked through a window, but Applejack wasn't really paying much attention as she leapt through the shattered frame, landing on top of the Lieutenant.
“What did you do to my sister?!”
“What in Tartarus is your problem, lady?!”
Applejack hit him in the jaw hard enough to make the confused stallion see stars. “I'm not gonna ask you again. What did you do to my sister!?!”
“Sweet Celestia, I bedded her like she asked me to!”
“You bedded her?!” Applejack picked up the stallion who was at least half again her weight and slammed him against the wall below the window. “My sister is a foal who's still in grade school, and you done bedded her?!"
For the first time the stallion seemed to understand what she was saying, and a look of astonished horror played across his face.
“What?! No! I'm talking about your older sister!”
“Nice try! Ah haven't got a older sister!”
“Your cousin, then! She's green, cutie mark of a steaming hot pie? The one with the pretty mane!”
Applejack could feel the cogs and gears of her mind grinding on this new information and threatening to jam up altogether.
“Are you talkin' 'bout my grandmother?!?”
“Grandmother?! Lady, what is your damage?! I am talking about the very attractive young green mare who invited me home for dinner yesterday!”
Before Applejack could decide whether to hit him again, a new voice joined their conversation.
“Applejack! Just what do you think you're doin' to our guest?”
They both turned and Applejack's mouth fell open as she stared. Standing on the front porch was Granny Smith; her color, her cutie mark, all the signs made it obvious at a glance who she was, but there the similarities ended. The mare standing before them looked as though she had never known a wrinkle in her life. Her coat was rich and full, her body young and attractive, and her step had a distinct sway that brought a smile back to the Lieutenant 's face. Her multicolored mane streamed out behind her and seemed to float on the nonexistant breeze just like Princess Celestia's, and with a proud shake of her head she hopped off the porch and sauntered up to the colt Applejack still held pinned to the wall.
“I think we've just had a little misunderstandin',” she said as she pushed her granddaughter aside and kissed the Lieutenant deeply. “But all the same, you gotta be getting back to your unit. Now off with ya, I ain't goin' nowhere,” she added with a conspiratorial wink.
The young colt smiled back at her and nodded before turning and heading around the house and down the road back to town.
When Granny Smith finally wiped the dreamy look from her face and turned back to Applejack, she found her still staring blankly ahead.
“Oh, come now, you act like you never wanted a little flank for yourself.”
“Granny?!”
“Yes, granddaughter of mine?” she replied cheerfully.
“What the hay happened to you?!”
“I got younger,” she replied mischievously. “In fact, I might even be a bit younger than you now. You got to watch how much time you spend in the sun, you know: It causes wrinkles.” As Applejack continued to stare open mouthed she added as an afterthought: “Oh! And I've been robbin' the cradle of fine young things like that handsome Lieutenant. I'd almost forgotten how much fun that can be!”
Applejack had to use a front hoof to close her own jaw as it wasn't going to do the job on its own. “But how?!”
Granny Smith looked puzzled for a moment, then just told her what she remembered. “Well, the Human of Death came to me in a white coat and asked me if I wanted to stay a while longer. I said yes, and apparently that was the end of it.”
Seeing that no further questions were forthcoming, Granny Smith continued. “At any rate, I'm going to enjoy this! I'll see you young'uns later. I got another date this afternoon with a hot young thing who's on liberty from his post in the Crystal Empire. Big orange stallion with a blue mane who's just the most dashing guardspony. I think he said he was a sentry or something.”
...
Josie couldn't help but grumble as she stalked through the ornate marble halls of the palace. One day. She hadn't even been the ambassador to Equestria for One Full Day, and now she had to deal with this. In fairness, she had heard enough about what Scootaloo was up to to have no envy of her homecoming either, but she had held out hope of having at least a week to get used to her new position.
'And now I get to cause an interplanetary incident with the princess herself. Wonderful.'
Celestia nodded politely as Josie was shown into the conference hall trailed by the head of the fledgling Earth Research Team pushing a small cart.
“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Princess.” Josie began, gathering her nerve as she continued, “I believe you have already heard the news?”
The princess looked concerned as she replied. “Only that one of the research team was injured in a confrontation with your police force. I was hoping you could shed some more light on the events of the last few hours.”
Josie set down a number of pictures on the table that seemed to show a wild chase in progress through the city.
“Thank you. Let me start by saying that while the research pegasus survived, he did require considerable medical care, is in a lot of pain, and it will be some time before he is up and active again.”
“This all began about four hours ago when the researcher, Guiding Light, took off for a quick trip to the hospital. This morning was gray and foggy, and despite the training we've been giving your teams, he didn't realize the danger. He reports that he became disoriented and lost almost immediately, and spent the next fifteen minutes flying in circles trying to find the ground. This came to an abrupt stop when he smashed through the twentieth story window of an apartment complex, breaking three ribs and knocking himself senseless.”
Celestia winced visibly as Josie continued.
“Reports on this next part varied, but its now clear that he came to rest, bloody and covered in broken glass on top of one Ms. Jane Smith's bed. The next thing Guiding Light remembers is a human in a nightgown screaming 'Rape' and hitting him with a baseball bat. That's how he broke his fourth rib.”
“Ms. Smith chased the stallion out of her apartment into the hallway and apparently attracted the attention of an off duty police officer who ordered them both to stop. Unfortunately, Ms. Smith continued her chase and drove the injured stallion out of a window on the nineteenth floor balcony, which the police officer took as 'evading arrest'.”
Celestia was looking progressively more concerned the longer this went on.
“At that point Guiding Light was quickly lost in the fog again, and the local police began a full search operation to find him in connection with the attempted rape of Ms. Smith and the damage to private property, specifically the two windows. They eventually found the stallion lost once more in the fog and chased him through the city park for half an hour before finally hauling him, soaked and bleeding from the pond in which he had become mired. I regret to mention that said pond happened to contain an unusually large number of mother ducks, which account for many of his...lesser injuries. Fortunately, by this point the officers reviewing the events had sorted out what started all this, and the stallion was taken to a hospital, not a jail.”
Seeing that the story had reached its end the princess was finally able to stop wincing and straightened up to reply.“I appreciate your bringing this matter to me, Madam Ambassador. Thank you for the handling this situation as professionally as you did. I understand that there will be... hitches in our new relationship that we will both have to work through.”
Josie's stern expression had not changed as she replied. “Yes. That is why I am here. It was pure dumb luck that Guiding Light slammed into a window and not a wall. If he had been a couple of feet to the right, left, up or down, you and I would be talking of tombstones and memorials instead of recovery times. I had warned Princess Luna about this risk shortly after she arrived, but we had both hoped our training class for new pegasi on earth would be enough. Clearly that is not the case.”
Josie reached into the cart and pulled out a sturdy looking vest that she held out for the lead research who reluctantly pulled it on. It took a moment, but it was soon fitted, and with an audible 'Snap” she closed a latch under the barrel of his body, locking the garment on. He wiggled about to get a more comfortable fit before addressing the princess;
“The Earth Ambassador has already discussed this with me Princess, and I agree that it's what we must do. I was in charge of this team. Light's injuries are the result of my inability to control him and I feel responsible.”
The princess looked at the black vest that effectively covered and restrained his wings with a raised eyebrow. “Surely you are not proposing...”
Josie fixed her with that same hard stare. “Yes, I am. I have already discussed this with my counterparts and we will begin enforcing it within the day. All pegasi coming to earth will be fitted with a vest like this on their arrival that prevents them from flying until they have taken and passed the certification course. We are adapting the class from the traditional private pilot's test, and though it will no longer include engine study, it will still be enough to ensure those who pass can fly safety on our world.”
“You are really willing to bar my little ponies from your world unless they allow you to bind them?!”
Josie sighed. “We're not happy about it either, Princess. We plan to start offering the certification class here on your world as soon as we can set up a facility, but until then, yes, we will bar entry to pegasi who will not cooperate. I'm not willing to wait for the first bodies to start dropping. We are addressing this now, and forcefully, but in a way that ensures every one of your ponies comes back home alive.”
While the Princess thought this over Josie continued; “We've designed a set of aviator goggles with a heads up display that will be provided to all new pegasi, and that, combined with the training should be enough to allow them to fly safety, just as Scootaloo did for all those years. In the mean time, any pegasi who cut off their vests before completing training, or take to the air without their goggles will be summarily deported to Equestria and not welcomed back for the foreseeable future. It's harsh, but we don't feel we have any choice. Your ponies have grown up in your world, and they have no respect for the dangers of ours.”
The princess was still frowning at the restrictive vest, but after Dr. Scott's demonstration with the power lines on her first night, she had to concede the risks were real.
“I am hardly pleased by this. Our relations will not be helped by binding one third of our world's travelers,” however, before Josie could interject she continued “but neither will they be helped by killing some percentage of our citizens. I agree this is a poor solution, but I have none better. I will ensure you have everything you need to set up the training school in Canterlot so that those... vests may see as little use as possible.”
For the first time in an hour, Josie allowed herself to smile. “Thank you, Princess. And that leads me to my next request,” she added, fishing out another pile of cloth. “It is a given that this will be met with resistance, and your ponies have no good reason to listen to us. That's why we made up this vest to your measurements. If you are willing, we would like you to participate in one of the first classes and earn your 'Earth Wings' in the next week. Such a public endorsement of the process would save a great deal of hurt feelings at worst, and several lives at best.”
The princess levitated the bright, vibrant, safety orange vest in her magic and regarded it with a raised eyebrow for several seconds before setting it down on the table once more. She was reminded of an Earthling invention she had seen, something Scootaloo called 'road cones.'
“I will... think about it.”
“Also, on a more personal note, I have met with some of the aeronautics team who first studied our mutual friend, Ms. Scootaloo Scott, and with the aid of a generous grant from my nation's government and certain contractual arrangements I've been negotiating with a few Earth businesses, I believe we may, soon, have a second option available.” The politician took a small pocket-projector from the inside of her suit jacket, set it on a table facing a blank wall and used the Bluetooth on her smartphone to bring up a wire-frame diagram of a pegasus. “The second version of the ESD-”
“Excuse me,” Celestia inquired, “ESD?”
“Earth Safety Device,” Josie explained. “We thought about Pegasus Training Vest, but Marketing felt that might sound too patronizing or imply that pegasi don't already fly safely. The flying conditions on Earth really and truly are the root of the problem here, Princess, so we decided to market the vest much the same way BCDs -that's 'buoyancy control devices,' are marketed to scuba divers. Sure, you could call it an 'inflatable don't-sink-and-die vest,' but that really lacks the elegance and technical appeal of 'buoyancy control device.' Sounds fancy, doesn't it?” Josie's smile had a little of the ADD charm from her middle teens. “The ESD is the same. Our plan is to improve the design so it's not so...well...so dang bedroom-tastic in its' Velcroey strappitude-”
Celestia restrained a snort.
“And we'd like to get it to the point where it's actually a teaching device that can be used Equestria-side by fillies and colts looking forward to their first Earth field trip. For one thing, the boys in Aero think they can use mild electromagnets and a TENS unit to make it so the wings are free, just limited to a hover of about five feet off the ground, at least to start.”
The wire-frame animation became quite a decent picture of a pony and demonstrated the vest's proposed features as Josie spoke.
“Then, of course, we'd like to make them adjustable so pegasi can gradually, with their instructors' approval, move up to more and more flight freedom. This will also be convenient for maintaining the no-fly zones my nation in particular uses for certain security and pilot safety reasons -so far, the Aero guys want to connect it up to GPS and just make the wings vibrate or possibly feel tingly when they get within a certain range of a no-fly. It could also be used for certain aerial sports, such as laser tag, using the exact same technology.” The animations flashed, danced and did more cool things. “Marketing thinks that if we add convenient pockets, manufacture them in a range of stylish colors and fabrics, offer custom embroidery with one's cutie mark, sell patches at various Earth tourist destinations to iron on, and, of course, make Earth Pony and Unicorn versions for purely fashionable reasons, well, soon the problems ought to be sorted out.”
“...Madam Ambassador?” Princess Celestia inquired.
“Yes, Princess?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you have...just the slightest tendency, to bury the lead?”
“...Scoot mentioned that, yeah,” Josie shrugged, scratching the back of her head a bit. “I'm still negotiating with the various bidders and contractors to try and get ESD 2.0 up and running. They're all hoping to get first crack at Equestrian advertising, stores and generally an entree into your world's economy in which they can do business, but since nobody has the slightest idea what Equestrian health, safety and material standards are, I'm having quite a time making sure I don't accidentally let some bunch of lead-spattered, sweatshopping hex-chromium jagoffs start selling you-all a big bag of nasty.”
“Safety standards?” Celestia nodded. “I see. We would need to codify and make available our idea of appropriate standards for goods legal to sell in Equestria.”
“And to make, and how you want the taxes to go, and...” Josie decided standing on ceremony was kind of 'ow' in what Philip called her Business Heels of World Domination (+5 Pointiness!) and looked meaningfully at a chair. Celestia gestured for her to take a seat and she relaxed like a balloon dropping half of its' interior PSI. “Frankly, Princess, I think we need to get some of the alphabet-soup agencies from pretty much every country that has such standards to throw a convention or something, get our world on the same page, and then once we've got those ducks in a row, then I can have a bit of the old diplomatic incontinence and let you know what you're up against. Or, considering that'd take forever and a damn weekend, I can give you sample documents from the dot-gov websites and you can kind of crib off the Cliffs Notes of our best systems. Germany, the US and Great Britain are pretty good, but if you can beat China and India for workplace and material safety, your people -fuck! -ponies, should be okay.”
For some inexplicable reason, Princess Celestia decided she liked Ambassador Findlay-Price. She was, if nothing else, the most honest human she had encountered thus far. She made the Element of Laughter look like a paragon of focus and self-direction, but you could generally trust her. She also had a certain lack of self-consciousness that reminded her a lot of Princess Luna.
This might be the start of a very good working relationship.
…
The morning's disaster had left everyone emotionally numb, and within an hour, most of those assembled had left the hospital, seeking the familiarity of home or of mundane tasks to blunt the stinging pain. Twilight had held it together better than some of her friends, but it wasn't clear how long that would last once she ran out of work to do, so Dr. Scott had suggested she join her on the short hop back to Earth.
The shuttle bus from the gate-room facility back to the city hospital was a quiet one, but after a few minutes the two sniffling mares happened to look up at the same time, and all the grief and pain came to the surface as they hugged each other and cried openly. By the time the suburbs were passing outside the window they were both a mess of soggy fur and disheveled manes, but for the first time in hours, the painful pressure on Twilight's chest had eased enough that she felt she could speak without immediately bursting into tears.
“How?” She sniffled again, one foreleg still wrapped around the elder Scootaloo. “How can you work with children like this?”
Dr. Scott smiled weakly as she dabbed at her eyes with a gauze pad,
“I normally don't. Pediatrics just wasn't for me...”
“Do you think it will work?” Twilight asked with a sniff, “Princess Luna said she thinks Faith made it, but we won't know until she wakes up as... well, as another you, I guess.”
The elder Scootaloo sighed, but a small smile touched her lips at the thought.
“I'm holding out hope. We still have no idea how the complex synthetic biology works with the 'magic' of your world, but that doesn't stop us from using it.” She paused to think and smiled in earnest as a thought occurred to her; “But if we do pull Faith back, that will make six of me running around...”
Dr. Scott made some calls as the city grew around them, and the van soon dropped them off at the hospital where several people in suits were waiting politely. As the two ponies hopped out, the assembled party bowed deeply, and Dr. Scott managed something resembling a curtsy in return as Twilight looked confused.
“It is an honor to meet you, Dr. Scott. Thank you for calling this meeting.”
“Thank you for setting it up on such short notice. I knew some of you were in town; I expect the others will be joining us by teleconference?”
“Of course. Ms. Tyler has provided a room on the tenth floor.”
“I see you have something important to deal with.” Twilight nodded politely, her eyes still a little puffy as she made to leave, but to her surprise, Scootaloo stopped her.
“No, wait!” She shook her head to clear it as the others made their way in, leaving the mares standing under the entryway awning. “I'm sorry, I didn't even tell you who I was calling, did I? Dr. Aramaki and his team are part of the Todaima Corporation, the medical company that consulted on the birth of my daughters. They need to talk to both of us, you especially, as your friends aren't available at the moment.”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion,
“What would they need to talk to me about?”
Scootaloo put a hand on her shoulder as she looked her square in the face,
“Twilight, how many little orange ponies are left in that hospital bed upstairs?”
Her brow furrowed further as she answered,
“Uh... Well if Luna has already come as she said, then there would be one remaining clone, and a little foal that will hopefully turn out to be Faith...”
“And what happens when the next child, human or Equestrian, finds themselves in Faith's position?”
“Well, we only have one of your clones left so...” Twilight's face took on a look of shock as she realized where this was going. “You can't be suggesting...!”
“I can and I am. The only reason Faith has any hope at all is because we just happened to have blank clones on hand to save her, but we have hospital wards full of little girls and boys like her, and we're fresh out of clones.”
Twilight took a step back in alarm as that implication sunk in,
“Now wait just a minute here! You want to make a bunch of blank clones of yourself on purpose?!”
Scootaloo shook her head,
“No Twilight, I'm asking you to this meeting, because if this works, if Faith pulls through, the whole world, both of our worlds, will be asking you, begging you, to provide bodies to save their children.”
“M... Me?!” Twilight took another step back as the image of hundreds, no, thousands of little Twilight Sparkles and Scootaloo's chased each other through a hospital ward in her mind.
“But...! You can't...!”
Scootaloo sighed again and sat down before the alarmed princess.
“I know this is a lot to take in, but it's an inevitable consequence of all this if we save Faith. I'm not sure where this will all lead, but I know it's better than where we are now!”
Twilight had stopped, but her eyes were still wide as she tried to process this.
“But I don't even know if I want to have a foal! How can you possibly ask-”
“How can I ask you to give up your uniqueness?”
“Yes! It was weird enough when Pinkie did that, and while I respect what you've done, I never agreed to let you make copies of me!”
Scootaloo stood up once more, advancing on Twilight as she stumbled backwards once more.
“Seriously? Are we really having this conversation?! How many lives do you think could be saved by this process in a year? How many children? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Did you learn nothing from all Faith went through?!”
“Yes! I get it! But you can't just expect me to give up my identity like this!” She looked down at her body, “I like my body... I don't know if I'm okay with some company... mass producing it...”
Scootaloo grunted in irritation.
“Well, if you won't, how long do you think it will take to find mares and stallions who will? Weeks? Months? We lose kids like Faith every day on our world, and I'd be willing to bet your own world still has a mortality rate for children. Yours will be safe in memory, even if it takes time to sort this out, but how many human children are you prepared to let die so you don't have to do something unpleasant?”
“But!... It's not that simple!”
“Really? Could you look Faith in the eye and say that?”
Twilight's face twisted in pain at the jab, and a single tear ran down her cheek.
The silence stretched on for a long time. At last Twilight looked back at her with a pained expression.
“I never thought I could hate you Scootaloo...”
Scootaloo shook her head sadly.
“And you don't now. Not really... I'm just forcing you to reach the same hard conclusions you would anyway before a lot of innocents die.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then no one will force you... But you will still have to live with yourself each day as they look for replacement volunteers...”
The silence stretched again until Twilight stamped her hoof in frustration and defeat.
“Even Sombra and Nightmare Moon weren't this bad!”
“I've told you, your world has a protector. You have Mama Bear watching over you, so you don't have to make these kind of hard choices very often. But cancer can't be reasoned with. You can't bribe it or coerce it; all you can do is try to kill it, and given that every strain is different, derived from the cells of its host, that is a devilishly difficult challenge.” She sighed and stepped closer to wrap a comforting arm around Twilight. “Hey, take it from me; having a bunch of clones really isn't a big deal, and I don't love my daughters any less because of who they look like.”
Twilight perked up a little as memories of Sophie Belle and Chaya Jayne frolicked through her mind. She thought about it as the two walked into the building.
“I suppose that means I'm going to have a whole lot of... half children?”
Scootaloo smiled.
“I don't know if anyone's ever come up with a word for a child who's the product of three people... You should invent one.”
Twilight pondered that as they took the elevator up to the tenth floor to begin working out the details of this latest shift in world order. That, and they obviously wouldn't have the same cutie mark, interests or personality that she did, just a physical resemblance. Nieces? Godchildren?
...Research assistants?
Maybe it wouldn't be all that bad.
…
This day that had begun far too early with heart wrenching grief had now segued to interdenominational travel, then an exploration of self identity, and now after six hours of Todaima Corp meetings, Twilight found her head spinning from what amounted to a crash course in grad school biology and cloning. Her early fears had been somewhat allayed, as the introduction and analysis of more pony DNA meant that small changes could soon be made such that the clones would not exactly match their donor. Talk soon moved on to which farms and horse stocks would be most suitable, possible immune compatibility issues, and the best choice of coma drugs.
“Hey, you still with me there?” Scootaloo chided as Twilight stared off into space at the departing humans.
“Uh...” She shook herself and managed a small smile. “Sorry, this is just a huge amount to take in all at once.” Her smile faded as she continued, “I don't know how I'm going to break it to the girls...”
“I know it will be hard, but you did the right thing here today, and I'll be there for you if you need me.”
That brought a smile back to her face.
“Thanks Scoot. They're all good level headed ponies; I think they'll come around if we give them some time.”
Scootaloo put a hand on her shoulder.
“I'm sure you're right. Hopefully, in-
“SCOOTALOO!”
Both mares whipped around at the shout to see an enraged Applejack glaring daggers from the doorway where she stood.
“Uh, hello?” Scootaloo asked in confusion.
“You wouldn't happen to know where I could find Death, now would you?!” The orange mare asked with a jab of her foreleg as she advanced on the startled mares.
“Wh... Wait, what?!” Twilight stammered.
“You heard me! I need to find the 'Human of Death' so I can buck the stuffing out of him! Granny said he was wearing a white coat, so it didn't take long to figure out where to look!”
Scootaloo and Twilight shared a wide eyed glance as Applejack continued to breathe hard from her meteoric flight up the hospital stairs.
“You... you think the hospital keeps Death on their payroll... and you want to beat him up?” Twilight finally managed.
“Could be for all I know bout you humans! Granny said it was your 'Death' as messed with her, and now she's just... just all wrong!”
Twilight didn't like the sound of that one bit,
“Wait, is she okay?! What happened to her?!”
A look of pained confusion set itself upon Applejack's features as she fumbled for an explanation.
“She... she's taking Royal Guard ponies to bed with her!”
If their eyes had been wide before, they were truly bulging now, as their eyebrows attempted to climb off their heads.
“WHAT?!”
“HOW?!”
When Applejack began to redden and didn't immediately reply, Twilight assumed the worst.
“This is awful! I know Granny Smith! Even leaving aside the question of how, why would she try to rape an unsuspecting stallion?!”
Applejack was growing progressively redder as this line of questioning continued.
“Well... It weren't exactly rape...”
A dozen different brain washing spells flitted through Twilight's mind as she shuddered.
“What was it then? Mind control? Drugs?!”
“Um... She kind of asked them out on a date...”
There was a long silence as the two stared at her.
“And then they decided to stay the night...”
Even Scootaloo couldn't repress a shudder as she asked,
“Has she started dating the blind?”
Applejack's anger flared again,
“No! I mean to say, she's suddenly young and pretty! Buck, she might even be younger than me!”
“An age spell!?” Twilight asked in astonishment.
“Not unless you know a one that lasts for days! By Mac's count, she's done had three ponies over already, an' she don't look to be stopping anytime soon!”
The two ponies shared an uncertain glance before turning back to AJ,
“Uh, I'll have to see her to figure out what happened,” Twilight muttered, “but don't you think you're being a little hard on her? She is a grown mare.”
Applejack just glared at her.
“Twi, she's my grandmother! And as the Element of Honesty, I got no choice but to tell you her date for tonight was your coltfriend.”
“WHAT?!”
Scootaloo looked back and forth between the two mares,
“So it did work out between you and Flash? We never found out for sure.”
“I! But! Wha!?” Twilight stuttered, before rushing on, “We were taking it slow to start but... Granny Smith?!”
Applejack showed a trace of a smirk,
“Well, he is a grown stallion.”
Twilight's horn sparked dangerously as she glared at Applejack, and Scootaloo glanced up worriedly to make sure the room was equipped with fire sprinklers.
“If he doesn't have one buck of an explanation, he might not be for long!”
“Well, with a mane like hers, I'll grudgingly admit she does stand out.”
“What about her mane?” Scootaloo asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, her new mane is just like Princess Celestia's.”
There was a long silence as that sunk in. Behind them, a young woman in a lab coat and nurse's cap looked into the room to see what all the shouting was about.
“The 'Human of Death'...” Scootaloo stated slowly as she worked it through, “A man in a white lab coat came to see your Grandmother?”
“That's what she done said! Now what in the hay did he do to her?!”
“Oh god...” Scootaloo sat down hard as the full implications of that hit her. “Somebody cracked the code...” When there was no immediate response, she gestured an arm at Twilight; “Princess Celestia donated some hairs from her mane! They must have gotten DNA from them and sequenced it!”
“Yes, we did.”
All three ponies whipped around to see the young woman siting on the table behind them wearing a wide grin.
“Who are-”
“Oh come now Scoot, don't tell me you don't remember me?”
Twilight put a hoof protectively on Scootaloo's shoulder,
“Scoot, is everything okay? Who is this?”
The woman smiled mischievously,
“You too, Twilight? Come now Scoot, you don't remember that first talk we had a few weeks before your High School protest?”
Scootaloo's eye's had suddenly gone very, very wide.
“Betty?! Betty Gregerson!?”
Betty pulled off her nurse's cap, allowing a head of brightly colored hair to break free, floating out behind her on the non existent breeze.
“That's right! I lost the cane not long after we deciphered the code, and I've been working in the background for the last few weeks. After everything Applejack told me about her grandmother during her donation, it didn't take long to figure out what was happening. There are several well known signs that the treatment is about to give out, and from what she told me, her grandmother probably only had a couple of weeks left to live.” She turned an apologetic look toward the orange pony as she continued; “I'm glad to hear the treatment saved her life, though I certainly never expected it to cause you such trouble...”
The mood in the room had suddenly turned somber as Applejack realized how close she had come to losing her grandmother.
“You... you did it to save her life?” She asked hesitantly.
“Well, yes. I asked her permission of course, but she was already looking pretty out of it by then.”
While Applejack mulled that over, Scootaloo jumped in.
“Betty... Am I right in guessing anyone with the treatment is going to have a lifespan in the thousands of years?”
“Barring accident and injury? It sure looks that way.” Betty nodded somberly.
“And you can do this to anyone who's had the treatment?” Betty simply nodded, the worry on her face now reflected in Scootaloo's own.
“Oh God... When this gets out...”
“It's going to change everything.” Betty stated in the same voice she normally reserved for announcing time of death.
“Ms. Betty, was it? Seems I owe you an apology.” Applejack said as she extended a hoof with a growing smile, apparently missing their mood, “Thank you for everything! I mean it, I owe you big for this, and I won't soon forget it.” A grimace briefly cut through her smile as an incident involving Spike came to mind, and she added sheepishly, “If you don't mind, that is...”
Betty nodded as she shook her offered hoof, but failed to return her smile.
“I'm glad you approve of what I did. I hope you still feel that way after everything changes...”
Applejack looked back and forth between the two doctors, confusion growing on her face.
“Whater you talkin about? I know at least three older Apples who'll be thrilled to hear about this!”
“Applejack... By cracking Celestia's genetic code, our team just discovered immortality. While this will be a godsend in the short term, it's going to be very bad news in the long term...”
Scootaloo's eyes were getting wider as she thought it through;
“The nursing home industry and all their related suppliers will be put out of business overnight... All those people will suddenly be unemployed, and all the elderly will suddenly be dumped back into the job market; social security is based on the young taking care of the old, and if people stop dieing, that program could be dismantled in a matter of months!”
Betty nodded.
“All of a sudden the job market will be flooded with tens of millions of desperate people, all fighting over a smaller pool of jobs. And most of my former pears aren't going to be happy about it. It's all well and good to tell your grandchildren to get a job, but when some of these people who are decades behind the times, many without the computer skills of an eight year old suddenly have to get a job or lose their homes? This is a recipe for violence.”
Twilight was looking worried as she asked,
“But it'll all work out, won't it? Given a little time, things will go back to normal... right?”
Scootaloo sat down hard.
“I hadn't even thought of that... yeah, in a few years, things will stabilize, but then you'll have a new problem... You'll wind up exacerbating the class split we're already struggling with. It's hard enough to live in a country where one in four military families need food stamps or aid just to eat, while the wealthy live in mansions waited on by servants. Every US presidential candidate for decades has been a millionaire; they actually keep people on their staffs to teach them how to act poor so the voters don't realize how big the split is...”
Betty agreed,
“You're all too young to remember it, but that's been a problem as long ago as George Bush senior; he was doing a meet and great in a grocery store, and he got distracted by the bar code scanner built into the counter. He started asking what it was, right in front of the cameras.” She shook her head, “The man was so rich, he hadn't done his own grocery shopping in decades. The servants took care of all that. Then there was that time in the early twenty teens when Willard Romney casually bet his debating opponent ten thousand dollars during a national debate. He treated ten thousand dollars like I would treat ten!”
“Yeah... in some ways, the only cry of equality for millions of people has always been 'you can't take it with you', but now... now if the wealthy become fucking immortal while the poor continue to die because they can't afford the treatment...”
Twilight was on her hooves, her hackles up as all the pieces clicked into place.
“I don't believe it! This could be the single most important thing to ever happen to humans and ponies, and it sound like it's going to start a war on your planet!”
Scootaloo looked meaningfully back at her,
“I wouldn't be too quick to judge Twilight. What happens when your population starts to explode? You'll have a lot more breathing room than we do, but sooner or later, the forests will fall, the wild empty lands will be bulldozed to make room for cities, and Equestria is going to get very, very crowded.”
The silence stretched uncomfortably for a long moment before Applejack hesitantly asked a question.
“Uh... Ms. Betty? Does everyone who gets this here treatment get the mane too?”
Betty nodded.
“Even the stallions?”
Betty nodded again, and after a moment, Applejack began to laugh.
Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder in trepidation as she asked,
“AJ, are you okay?”
The chuckling pony pulled herself together long enough choke out;
“The stodgy old stallions-” Snort! “Who run the court in Canterlot-” Giggle! “They're all going to have the most gorgeous girly manes!”
Betty was just about to scowl at the chortling pony when the image of Bill Clinton sporting the long, brightly colored flowing hair popped unbidden to mind and she nearly collapsed off the table laughing.
Twilight snickered a bit as she imagined prince Blue Blood's father in that ridiculous condition.
“Well I'll admit, I wouldn't have thought of that.” She forced her smile wider as she continued, “We can work out the details together, but at the moment we have something else important to talk to you about AJ...”
Applejack wiped a tear of laughter from her eye,
“Okay... We can work it out together. What's the other thing?”
Twilight blushed and fiddled with her hooves, trying her best to keep smiling;
“How do you feel about becoming a mother... to two thousand foals?”
Thanks for staying with me through the long wait while I worked on 'The Brightest Shine'! Stay tuned for the next chapter when AJ gets to give 'The Talk' to her little sister... and her grandmother... 
Comments and suggestions are always welcome!
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Hmhmhm...
HAHAHA!!!
That's the funniest mental image I've had all day!
Clones, immortality, Ghost in the Shell... Man, this chapter is an emotional roller coaster. On the note of mass producing bodies for accident victims, I can see one problem: some kids get Pegasus, some get Unicorn... and some feel left out when they get an Earth Pony body. Might be best to see if they can make everyone Alicorn bodies so there isn't another class or racial divide. And Earth is already starting to colonize other planets, so if the whole planet eventually becomes full of immortals... start with the galaxy!!!!
yay new chapter and woah
immortality this could be very bad 
in short term possible war and overpopulation in long-term overuse of resources, possible destruction of natural perseveres and parkland near cities to expand housing, possibility of laws that restrict childbirth to try and slow down the popluation growth, more aggressive search for planets capable of supporting life with the possibility of more extraterrestrial encounters( as the ponies do count already) that may not be as friendly, and power and funds shortage due to rich bastards not placing enough of their money back into circulation......amma gonna stop now before I create a bigger wall of text 
WHAT. THE. FUCK?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WAIFU THEIF...
Instant immortality is gonna be bad if it pops out of nowhere. If life is gradually lengthened, and living space organization works out, it shouldn't be a problem long term.
On that note, any cyborgs? Lord of Dorkness wrote a really nice story with immortal cyborgs...
5022195
Aren't you forgetting something about sompony?
Seriously though, in my setting there is next to free energy, food fabricators and thanks to space being decently easily reachable there's lots of living room as well...
And that tech-level is freaking a sizable bit of the populace out so much there's a decent chance of civil war coming for the entire sol-system even without mentioning the near immortal cyborgs.
It's a fascinating field of discussions, but the day we even leave as much as aging behind? It's going to take more than just more tech to solve the challenges arriving with that boon.
Heck, China is rather famed for already having run into needing to put limits on how much people are allowed to breed, and that is without any 'immortality pills.'
so is it possible to just clone a person body and then place the memory in or does it only work on pony body only? im not sure everyone want to jump species so extremely like that I hope they get some guys clones or it will be the worst for some guys... so what do the other species on there world think of this new species the humans and the development of events in equastria and what change's it bring?
5022431
fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/013/d/b/cslyra_by_comeha-d7220ek.png?wrap=true
Dear God, America won't just be overrun by rich douchebags, but IMMORtAL rich douchebegs!
And even worse,,,,,.George Bush may be one of them!
5022551 Yes, you could do a memory transfer into a human who had had the treatment and was compatible. But take a moment to think of how you would go about mass producing human bodies...
yeah, not a happy picture. Ponies, on the other hand, can be carried by several different non sentient species, though the thought is by no means ethically "clean". 
5022856 Well... Yes.
5021973 I had hoped somebody would enjoy that.
5021549 Especially since travel to any point in space, including other worlds and their orbits, now only requires access to the gate room... With just two decades of R&D, space travel as we know it has become obsolete.
5021544 You mean AJ giving the talk to Applebloom and Granny Smith? Stay tuned.
5023033 Great, we're even more screwed.
5023033
Actually, I meant Clinton with the rainbow hair.
5022856
And Lily's face is my reaction to that statement.
5021973 Flash just landed on Celestia, Shining Armor, Cadence, and every one of the Elements bad side with his actions... to say nothing of Twilight
I predict he's going to wish Tirek, Chrysalis, Discord, and Sombra were torturing him compared to what all of them are going to come up with. My personal recommendation: GELD THE BASTARD!!!!
5023033 quick question that a little bit awkward to ask but due to granny age she out of 'eggs' right? body ran out of them so she can't have any more kids correct? like I know her body is revitalize to youth but she bare. am I wording this stupidly?
5023239 Actually, thats a common misconception: like a lot of things doctors told us for years, the old saw about women being born with all their eggs turned out to be inadequately researched BS that got palmed off as fact due to the size of the researchers ego. Kind of like the 'low fat' diet getting replaced by the low carb diet. Biology is incredibly complicated, and as we learn more, a lot of old ideas get replaced.
Remember the 1980s when doctors told parents to put children to sleep on the fronts? (SIDs much?) Or the 1890s when doctors told parents not to display love to their children because it would ruin them? (From which we learned that a healthy infant with plenty of food and care can indeed waste away and die from lack of love). A lot of ideas that used to be medical 'fact' eventually turned out to be nothing more than shoddy research and huge egos.
Of course that also means that Granny Smith, who grew up with, shall we say, less than comprehensive birth control, might be working on a new aunt or uncle for AJ soon...
5023199 If he did what you think, yeah, but I try to keep the characters close to canon baring a good reason to do otherwise. No character assassination here.
5021549
Actually, that's something that Cozy agonized about for some time. Transhumanism is a pretty consistent theme in his works, despite the fact that IRL, he's one of those remarkably healthy people who rarely gets injured, almost never gets sick, recovers quickly...and he's even got a fast metabolism, despite living on biscuits and canned soup when I met him. (You wouldn't believe how much of this story was hammered out with him typing and me cooking.) He was legitimately concerned that there would be massive dramatic kerfuffle once they started doing full-body replacements using the Equestrian 'chassis,' and he actually asked me to find him some historical research on conflicts between groups who were very much alike except for one given aspect (which was probably the most depressing browserful of tabs EVER, 1994 in Rwanda alone...) before explaining his concerns about the Pegasus/Unicorn/Earth Pony replacement-bodies and how the Littlest Cancer Patients might take it.
What followed was probably the fifth or sixth strangest discussion of our relationship, not only as writers who occasionally help one another, but as, y'know, a couple. (Do not ask us about spiders, lawnmowers, Belgium or the 2013 government shutdown.)
You see, one's body and what one values about one's body is mostly a matter of expectations. If you have a kid who was athletic and a track star until osteosarcoma took their legs off inside of three damn months, a Pegasus body would be a lot like what they were used to, with the bonus of being able to fly (once appropriately trained,) instead of just running. A kid who was in the hospital from a very early age, was never strong, never had any hope of athleticism, and instead came to rely on the world in books for their entertainment, well, a Unicorn body would be just perfect.
And then you have people who had a few brushes with serious illness, were never critically sick but never extremely healthy either, who got through gym class okay but never had much hope of athletic achievement beyond the showing-up certificate and maybe 'Most Improved,' tended to break bones a lot, had a lot of accidents because of sheer natural clumsiness and, while intelligent and hardworking enough, saw even their academics occasionally derailed because for them, 'flu season' meant '17 absences in 35 days.'
For people who, when they think of their dream body, don't think 'supermodel' or 'bodybuilder,' not 'Jennifer Lawrence looks' or 'Venus Williams performance,' for those of us who diet and exercise constantly and are rewarded with...one size smaller jeans and a bigger size of t-shirt...for those of us for whom vaccines are simply not optional, first-aid kits must exist in our home and in every car, and for whom running out of Claritin is a legitimate, drive-to-the-all-night-drugstore catastrophe...for people like me, well...the dream of just being healthy, strong and healthy...that's better than any wings or magic horn you could offer us. I'm smart enough to figure out the human equivalents for whichever of Twilight's spells I'd actually use, and I'm hardworking enough to land Cozy's flight simulator game-thingy...most of the time. I consider myself kind of already a unicorn, function-wise, and while pegasi are nifty, I am way, way too accident-prone to even want that. (Ponyville HAS a mailmare, thanks.) But to wake up in a body that would let me actually run without physical pain? That would be awesome!
And there are people, therefore, who would be quite happy to have their new body be an Earth Pony one.
...Needless to say, there was much 'd'aww' following this discussion, and while I'm unlikely to ever be a superior athlete (unless, of course, pinball and bowling go to the Olympics, in which case, IT IS ON,) I am lucky enough to love and be loved by someone who understands the difference between the person and the chassis they ride around in. Assuming the people who handle the chassis-transplants manage it even as well as a competent guidance counselor, those Little Cancer Patients and accident victims will be okay.
That, and Cozy figured out a piece of technology to help with the running thing.
5023806 Doesn't mean they won't assume he was going to knowingly cheat on Twilight
If Flash really wasn't planning to get down and dirty, he should be fine but get a series of "If you ever make her cry, I will end you!" speeches from all of Twilight's friends and family, the scariest of which should be Fluttershy and Twilight's parents since those three are the calmest ones.
5023844 As a government employee burned hard by the 2013 shutdown I've kind of blanked my mind to that period of time... But I do see your point. I am glad I thought up a factor that the author figured might be an issue. I still say giving everyone Alicorn bodies so nobody feels slighted is the way to go... or maybe just Pegacorn?
5104650 It is concievable...it's been a year for me to think it over!
5104900 I meant to say explode. But no, she would die.
These stories man. I feel ashamed that my 1k word goof off got more likes than all of these combined. As I've read these, I've added them to my top... well I don't keep a top five or ten but it does make it into the cloud of stories I've read that all share '1st Place'.
This story has left me with some ideas and personal adjustments. Intellectually I've never had a problem with gays but I've had a gut feeling aversion to them which I think the first story helped me put behind once I got myself to go ahead with it. Hm, a lot of the conversation that scootaloo has had with her friends when she was young seem to be oddly hyper-intellectual which I suppose is just the equivalent of my space nerdiness when the known subjects concern pop culture and politics instead of how many exoplanets we've found so far. It's interesting how there has only been a small span of time in the last story with the most developments that can lead to crazy changes. Treatments for the last 15%. The ability to move lives to empty clones which seems to mean that we are going to have thousands of Twilight's n such running around doing magic and whatever. It's like a conversion bureau for the obscenely injured.
Now we have immortality. I can understand it for Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth universe where we have wormholes to six hundred other planets for people to live on but here you have a planet that is in no way prepared for immortal masses. Like hell no, nobody is ready for that much of Celestia's mane but is it ethical to deny it? I think it's okay to find a way to merely give life extensions but even that can be seen as evil and tyrannical if those in the know hold back on everyone else. Not only do you have this obscenely crazy can of worms but you have Granny Smith trying to bang all of the stallions and I don't know which is worse.
phew
Now you have all my thoughts on this silly business here and I hereby mandate the making of more chapters! Differing opinions are not permitted!
Yup. I'm breathing deeply from the sheer exertion from my textual rant. I'll have to read this all again sometime. There were a few one-liner gems in here and I've already forgotten them all. sigh.
5024067
And are you implying that you've put tons of thought into this?
Can't forget the princess
5104654
Vigorous agreement much?
5107239 the talks from the Princesses would be in the ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE and heard throughout Equestria so every mare would know he was a cheating douche bag.
MOAR
NAOW
ROOOARRR
5490853 I agree more please
I have to say as a Christian and a conservative these stories are ,quite frankly, disturbing.I try to stay away from religious and politically charged stories but I stumbled on these set of stories one day.I am part of the worldwide Christian restoration movement to bring back first century Christianity.We are silent where the Bible is silent and do the things that are instructed.We follow the whole Bible and not just hacked off parts of it.There are certain things I know are wrong in society today that are reflected in this story.I am not angry at many people today who choose not to follow the whole bible,but I am sad that so many are going to be lost.It is my purpose in life to save them.On the conservative political side of things I believe people have the right to say what they want unless they physically hurt someone and that people should be aloud to own guns with little restrictions.I can't forcefully make people see the truth but I can plant the seeds in them to hopefully later come to it. I believe that this website can give you more info: http://padfield.com/articles/index.html
With the exception churches not being aloud to give money to the needy this website is good. A good website on the origins of the universe: https://www.apologeticspress.org/ I am sorry for this rant. I am just tired of what my generation says, and think that there needs to be another side to the argument. I hope this is not against the rules and don't want to be banned.
So after a year I did finally reread this again. It's too bad that we haven't gotten more of this.
out of all the stories in this series this one, so far is the best. If this story was finished It would be on my must read list.
This story brings up some really important problems and questions that we as a society (although with a MLP twist) in the near future may need to address. Like any good sci-fi story it analyzes one possible outcomes for society and then asks the question is it really the correct way to do things.
Scootaloo has changed society but now through her the secret to immortality was found. It will be interesting to see what happens to society.
I personally though I think death is a very import part of our life. if everyone was immortal our society would become stagnate with little motivation to better it.
Anyway interesting story and I hope you come back to finish it at some point.
6071185 It should be against the rules to be so ignorant and inflammatory.
7068007 I am not ignorant, in fact I'm more informed than most people. I don't usually explode like that but I got tired of people disrespecting my faith and world view. I am a nice person who doesn't hate anyone. I just want to help people .I hope you support freedom of religion and speech.
7068273 I don't.
Will this ever be updated again?
7182184 I haven't forgotten about this story, and I do have an ending in mind, but I just haven't been able to get back into it these last two years. I'd suggest you add it to a list of followed stories, and eventually it will pop to the front as updated. Sorry for the delay, but when I write it comes in two settings - 'must write now!' And 'eh, maybe someday', and I haven't learned how to voluntary switch between them : (.
7182763 Ya im just really eager to see how the story goes. And I do have it on watch.
I take it this is cancelled?
7854175 Actually i have another chapter done and ready to post, its just such a downer I wanted to get two ready before I turn this one loose.
I laughed my ass of at the ending.