Friendship is Software

by Rough_Draft

5 - The Girls of Oldtown, Part II

Night fell over Oldtown with an eerie silence that Spike couldn’t abide. Even in its ruined state, Citadel was still full of people heading to emergency supply points and ground vehicles moving along the streets at night, filling the air with a sense of urgency and continual motion. But here, standing next to a massive building downtown, he couldn’t sense any real motion on the streets. Everyone in Oldtown stayed indoors at night and there were no drones giving a comforting hum through the skies overhead, not even the ones that Sysadmin Celestia had sent ahead of their mag-lev train.

Once they fixed this Grid crash, Spike reminded himself, he was going to ask the Sysadmin to make renewing this whole town her top priority. After all, how could anyone choose to live like this?

Still, he kept his nose to the ground—literally. Spike’s nose was already more advanced than a typical human’s, but with all the gene mods he’d received over the years, he’d become skilled at picking out even a microscopic scent trail if one existed.

At the moment, he was getting nosefuls of adrenaline, fresh dirt, cigarette ash, and some kind of rosy perfume. Spike paused and lifted his head, looking over at the pair of glass doors that led into the building in whose shadow he was concealed.

The Griffon Hotel was a magnificent place, though not as opulent as the lovely Rarity’s nightclub. Standing four stories tall, the long structure was fabricated from deep crimson brick, though it didn’t have the same brittle texture as naturally-formed clay. Gold filigree lined every windowsill and the crisp holograms of proud griffons were etched into place over the massive glass doors at the front of the hotel. But there were no bellhops waiting outside, nor any guests entering and leaving. Spike got another whiff of emotion from the area.

Stark terror, curling in the air like spoiled milk.

Whatever this place might have been like before the Grid crash, it was now a place where people hid and tried to ride out the disaster unfolding in the rest of the city.

Spike shook his head. Even with his keen sense of smell, he could only follow the trail so far. But that hint of perfume was a vital clue.

In his ear, the cochlear implant hissed, followed by Twilight’s slightly strained voice. “Anything so far, Spike?”

“I think this is the place,” he confirmed, bending down to get another whiff. His tail wagged in satisfaction when he picked up on the perfume. “You’ll have to ask Rarity, but if her sister wears the same perfume as her, then I think she’s here.”

A more melodious voice gasped at the other end of the audio channel. “Eau de Ếcurie! Thank Celestia, she’s here! And thank you, dearest Spike!”

Spike laughed, grateful that he couldn’t blush like humans could. He could get used to hearing that sweet voice in his ears for a long time...

“Stay focused,” Twilight cut in, sounding like her usual sardonic self. “Fluttershy, are you ready?”

“R-ready!” came the timid reply.

Spike sat obediently at the street corner, letting the cool night air ruffle his fur as he waited. It only took a few seconds for Fluttershy to pop her head out from behind a large recycling bin on the eastern side of the hotel. She’d changed out of her lab coat, now wearing a synth-leather jacket and matching jeans. Her very distinct pink hair had been tucked up into a black knitted cap. When she moved toward Spike, she didn’t make a sound, her shoes padding over the pavement in perfect silence. For a moment, Spike thought she looked every bit the perfect stealth operative—except for the fact that she was cringing with each step.

“Hey,” he said quietly, confident that no one was listening in, “it’s gonna be fine.”

“I-I know,” Fluttershy squeaked. She knelt down beside the uplifted dog, comforting herself by giving him a quick scratch behind the ears. “I just don’t like being in something this dangerous.”

Spike’s ears drooped. “Me neither. But you know those kids, right?”

Fluttershy nodded mutely. Her face was a mask of sudden dread.

“The seven of us,” Spike continued, “are the only ones who can get them back. So we’ll be facing that danger together, okay?”

With an audible swallow, Fluttershy nodded again. “Okay.”

Spike smiled and turned around, brushing his tail against her leg. “Come on. It’s just a few steps inside.”

Twilight sat inside Rarity’s office on the second floor of Carousel, grinding her teeth as she stared at the text and video readouts on the wallscreen. She watched a simultaneous broadcast of Spike leading Fluttershy into the hotel lobby and Pinkie Pie sneaking in through the ground floor kitchens. On the left-hand side of the screen was a scrolling series of texts from Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who confirmed that their preparation on the rooftop opposite the hotel was a complete success.

Once again, Twilight regretting asking Rarity for a stim-shot earlier. The chemical supplement was making her skin crawl with anticipation. Every input, every message and frame of streaming video, was making her jumpy. She wanted nothing more than for this whole assignment to be over.

She missed her starcharts and her telescope. She missed lounging in her chair back home, watching a historical drama on the livestream while she sipped from a mug of hot cocoa. Twilight Sparkle was born to be a stargazer, not some covert ops team leader.

I have nothing but faith in you, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s warm voice echoed in her mind. All you need to do is show your new friends that same faith…

Like most advice, it was easier said than done. Twilight stared at the wallscreen, wondering how she could begin to comprehend her friends’ talents when she’d been so distant from them all these years? She didn’t know how someone like Fluttershy would handle under pressure or whether Pinkie Pie was even capable of staying focused on her appointed task. And that didn’t even begin to cover what kind of damage Rainbow Dash could do if left unchecked. As much as she’d enjoyed the colorful chats eshe’d had with the group over the years, the simple truth was that their real-life behavior was far too unpredictable for Twilight’s comfort.

And she supposed that was what was really upsetting her. This raid on the gangster known as Garble was nothing more than an audition. A test to see if these girls had what it took to handle the real danger lurking in the Vault below their feet.

Sitting beside her, Rarity wrung her hands together. “Darling, are you quite all right?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight answered, quickly spotting the tremble in her left hand. She hid it in her pocket and flashed a pleasant smile at Rarity. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

“I’ve been better.” Rarity’s fine blue eyes gleamed dangerously. “I’ll feel much better once I know my dear sister’s safe and home again.”

“Then let’s go get her.” Twilight took a deep breath and swiveled back to the wallscreen. She tapped her visor, opening her channel to Spike again. “Spike, can you check in for me?”

“We’re inside,” he replied, keeping his voice low.

Twilight flicked a finger at the wallscreen, bringing up her link to Spike’s optical implants. She got a low-angle view of a lime green hotel corridor, as he and Fluttershy crept along. Lights were flickering on and off at random—another sign of Grid instability in the area.

When she tapped into his body’s other sensor implants, from infrared to motion detection, she got an impression of several bodies packed into each room that they passed. Nervous families, scared young couples, and a surprising number of uplifted animals forming their own packs inside a few rooms near the end of the corridor. A veritable cross-section of the whole city, crammed for shelter inside this stately hotel. Twilight had no idea if any of them had been staying there already when the Grid fell or if they’d stormed the hotel for safety.

For all she knew, Garble and his brutes weren’t the only rogues to worry about.

As Spike and Fluttershy crept onto the second floor from the stairwell, Twilight’s attention focused on one room in particular. She saw the infrared measure go up a few degrees. At the same time, Spike’s whole body shook with excitement.

“Yes, got it!” he whispered. His point of view changed to a glance at the floor as he gave it a good long sniff. “We’ve found them!”

“Great!” Twilight gave Rarity a thumbs-up, taking only a moment to savor the relieved smile she wore. Then the other girl turned to her desk and tapped at a set of controls on the touchscreen embedded into the surface.

Those controls were remote-linked to a backdoor channel that Rarity had set up during a previous visit to the Griffon Hotel—something about protecting her privacy from the staff and her fellow guests. Twilight watched as Rarity typed in a set of commands on her console, then swung back to Spike’s point of view on display on the wallscreen.

Immediately, the lights flickered and went off for a second. Twilight heard a terrified yelp from Fluttershy just before the lights came back on.

“And voilà!” Rarity announced. She flashed Twilight a winning smile. “I’ve isolated their room from the rest of the hotel network.”

“Okay, onto Phase Two…” Twilight tapped her visor once more, staring at the hotel door on display. “All right, Fluttershy. Deep breath. Just repeat everything I say…”

Spike stood at attention as the hotel door slid open with a gentle hiss. His ears twitched back when he got a glimpse of the man who opened the door—and in his opinion, calling him a man was being generous.

For the most part, the guy was everything he’d expected in a common thug: tall and bulky, with thick biceps that threatened to rip through the smart fabric of his leather jacket. But it was his face that triggered Spike’s animal instincts.

Yellow eyes squinted down at him from their puckered sockets. While the skin around his eyes, nose, and mouth was recognizably human, his cheeks and neck were covered in mottled green-gray scales. Instead of hair, the top of his head was covered with a trio of long red ridges that swept back like a bad combover. Clearly, he’d gotten a very in-depth gene mod like Rainbow Dash, but Spike couldn’t pick out what species he’d used for the treatment. At a guess, he thought the scales were a bit like those of an iguana.

As the man scowled at them, Spike got a sudden familiar whiff. Cigarette ash, with just a touch of that fine perfume—Eau de Ếcurie, Rarity had said.

This had to be Garble.

“Whaddaya want?” the thug growled. “This here’s a private room.”

“Um…” Fluttershy shrank under his scorching gaze. Spike kept wagging his tail, trying to encourage her without blowing their cover. “W-well…” She paused and took a deep breath, just like Twilight had told her. “M-my dog and I were just out looking for my s-sister and her friends. Have you seen them—?”

“No.” Garble shot Spike an irritable glance and then lifted his hand toward the door controls.

Fluttershy yelped in surprise when a bright pink hand shot out from behind her, slamming through the open doorway and pinning Garble’s wrist to the wall. The gangster was just as surprised. He didn’t even have a chance to fight back. All he could do was stare in disbelief.

“Nobody likes a liar-liar-pants-on-fire!” Pinkie Pie said. Spike was amazed to see a stern look on her face. It didn’t fit her personality at all. “Don’t make me use the Light of Truth and Happiness on you!”

“The what?” Garble yanked his hand free. He rubbed at his wrist and shot a bitter glance at the two girls. “Listen, I don’t got time for this. Either get lost or I’ll—”

Pinkie grinned and pointed a slender black rod at his face. “Too late!”

Spike and Fluttershy squeezed their eyes shut as the business end of the dazzler went off. Ultraviolet light poured out from the tiny emitter node, hitting Garble right in the eyes. He screamed and dropped to his knees, which gave Spike enough time to make a blind jump over his shoulder. Of course, being unable to see for himself, Spike ended up hitting Garble right in the shoulder and tackling him to the floor. Still, he had enough momentum to jump forward and move deeper into the hotel room.

As he opened his eyes, Spike saw the air vent on the wall over the bed pop open. Rainbow Dash rolled out with a somersault. She landed feet-first on the bed, using it to bounce over Spike’s head and land behind Garble.

While he was still dazed, Rainbow Dash threw her arms around his waist. With a sudden drop to one knee, she hoisted the larger man back, slamming his shoulders and neck against the floor with a sickening thump. Spike cringed when he saw Garble’s mouth drop open, his tongue hanging out.

“Goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed. She tiptoed around Dash and the prone Garble, making her way toward the back of the bedroom. “I’m really very sorry about this!”

“Speak for yourself, Shy.” Rainbow Dash leaned onto Garble’s chest, continuing to pin him with her elbow. “I could do this all day…”

Meanwhile, Spike followed the scent trail across the carpet—which hadn’t been cleaned in a while and bore a strong layer of ash. Even so, he caught a bigger whiff of perfume, leading him straight to the closet door.

It was the tiny murmur behind the door that made his blood run cold.

“Hang on!” Everyone turned to see Applejack come bursting into the room. Her hat was tilted back and a matte-black stun gun hung from her left hand. Though she had scuff marks on her face and sweat running through her hair, the look on her face was one of cold determination. Spike and Fluttershy exchanged a single glance of concern before moving out of her way.

Applejack didn’t hesitate. With one swift kick, she smashed the doorlock open, letting the bronze fixture fall to the floor with a dull clang.

The door slid open, revealing three frightened young girls tied up with plasticuffs and cloth gags. Despite how similar their clothes and faces were, it was easy to pick out some distinguishing details. One of them wore a bright red bow in her hair, another wore the same perfume as Rarity, and the third one had the same haircut as Rainbow Dash.

Even so, Spike stared pointedly at the girls’ faces, transmitting their images across his relay to Twilight and Rarity. With a scumbag like Garble, it wouldn’t surprise him if these were an entirely different set of girls he’d abducted…

On his heads-up display, he got a green highlight over each face, confirming that they’d found the right girls after all. He sighed and slumped onto the floor in relief.

“There, there, girls,” Fluttershy cooed. From her pocket, she took out a small utility knife. Though the girls flinched, she was gentle in cutting off the plasticuffs that bound their wrists together. Then she removed the gags by one, rubbing the girls’ backs as they gasped for air.

She took Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle into her arms, holding them to her chest. “It’s all over. We’ll take you home now.”

“Darn straight you are!” said Applejack, hugging her sister. “I’m never letting you outta my sight again!”

“Me neither, sis!” Apple Bloom replied, returning the hug just as strongly.

By this point, Garble had begun to come around. “Wha…?”

“Oh, good,” said Rainbow Dash, yanking him up by the collar of his shirt. “You’re awake. I’ve got someone who wants to talk to ya.”

Spike’s body tingled as he felt a new signal pass through his network relay. He sat up and stared at Garble, letting Twilight’s transmission clear a path to her intended recipient. Even though he didn’t like inflicting pain on people, Spike did feel a tinge of satisfaction when he heard a squeal and watched Garble clutch at his left ear.

“Hello,” said Twilight, coming in on an open channel for their captive’s benefit. “My friends and I would like our little sisters back. We hope that’s not too inconvenient for you.”

“Like hell it is,” Garble snapped. He shot a bleary eye at Applejack as the scales beneath his neck darkened. “When my boys get here—”

“Yeah, about that.” Applejack smiled at him and then turned to examine her fingernails. “They’re downstairs taking a nap, sugarcube. Guess you could say I made them take that nap.” She patted the stun gun sitting in the holster on her belt. “You want, I could do the same for you right now.”

Garble flinched, but said nothing. A wise move, Spike thought.

“I happen to be here on assignment from Citadel,” Twilight continued. “You should consider yourself lucky, Garble. If I wanted to, I’d put you on Celestia’s Persons of Interest list. Do you want to know what happens if I do that?”

“Er…” Garble frowned and glanced around at the four girls towering over him. “I, uh… I don’t think that’s necessary. I mean, I-I know better now—”

His voice broke off into a tiny squeak as Rainbow Dash drove her elbow into his sternum. Garble’s face went white as the athlete leaned further still into him, cutting off whatever excuse he’d been about to give.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Twilight continued, her voice surprisingly calm to Spike’s ears. “You and your boys are going to leave this hotel and stay far away from these girls for the rest of your lives. If you come after them again, it won’t be the local police or Citadel you’ll have to worry about. It’ll be my friends, doing what they do best.”

For a moment, Spike felt the temperature in the room go up. He looked around as Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all exchanged meaningful glances. The smiles they gave each other was heartwarming, to be sure, but he also felt something honest about them. Like this really was what they did all day long—saving lives and scaring off creeps without breaking a sweat.

“So, let’s review.” Twilight’s voice was starting to remind Spike of that cool-headed secretary Raven back at the palace. “No more abductions, no more fights with my friends, and we won’t have to drag you to Citadel—or the Vault, for that matter.”

“Okay, okay!” Garble ducked his head despite being on the floor. “I’ll do whatever you say…”

“I’m so glad to hear that. Okay, girls—and Spike. Let’s go home.”

“Finally!” Spike exclaimed and turned to follow Pinkie Pie out the hotel room door.

Hours later, at close to the crack of dawn, Applejack plopped herself down onto a soft plastic chair in her family kitchen. Soft yellow walls stared back at her, decorated from floor to ceiling with Granny Smith’s mementos and over a dozen family holograms set on a constant loop. After that long and miserable business back at the hotel, this was exactly where Applejack wanted to be: sitting quietly in the kitchen, savoring the smell of Granny’s leftover casserole on her plate. From upstairs, she could hear Big Mac’s footsteps stomping around the floorboards, raising tiny creaks as he headed back down.

For a long while, Applejack sat with her arms folded up behind her head, smiling at the trio of full-color holos closest to the kitchen table. In the center of the three holograms was one memory that she’d always treasured. The hologram showed her and a much younger Apple Bloom chasing each other in the park, leaping over benches and splashing water up from the nearby lake. But even with all that high-definition photocapture technology that made holograms so vivid, the bright colors in the image just couldn’t compare to the memories playing through Applejack’s head.

She’d never forgive herself for letting her sister wander off like that. Even though she’d left Apple Bloom with her older brother, Applejack knew that the fault rested on her shoulders alone. She’d said no to Apple Bloom about going on those emergency deliveries together, thinking it’d be too dangerous for her on the road.

Too dangerous, Applejack thought with a snort, staring up at the ceiling. I ain’t got the first clue what’s safe anyhow. And if it weren’t for Twilight Sparkle…

Seeing the girl in action had put all her doubts at ease. She’d always suspected that StarSwirl70 was a capable leader, but it was something else entirely to see her coordinating the whole gang like it was no big deal.

Applejack had dropped the last of Garble’s thugs right when directions to his hotel room flashed onto her visor. She’d hauled jets to his room just behind Pinkie Pie, pausing for a second when she caught a heat signature on her sensors. That trace of heat had been none other than Rainbow Dash crawling through the air vents, ready to drop Garble himself when the time was right.

She still couldn’t believe it. A meticulous operation, executed in record time. But how could she doubt Twilight’s abilities the second she got her arms around her darling Apple Bloom?

Creaking floorboards and the shuffle of footsteps over Granny’s living room rug made Applejack look away from the ceiling. She smiled as her brother Big McIntosh lumbered into the kitchen. His barrel-chested body cast a deep shadow over the small room, but he moved with quiet and deliberate steps toward the empty chair on the other side of the table. When he dropped into it, he let out a belly-deep sigh. To Applejack’s ears, the weight of that sigh was a comforting sound.

“Autochef,” he muttered, turning toward the wall-mounted holos of Apple Bloom just as Applejack had done a moment ago. “Two coffees. Make ’em black.”

“Brewing two coffees,” the silver apparatus on the kitchen counter buzzed. Applejack watched the contraption whir to life, pouring black beans into its open maw and begin churning away for a fresh brew.

Tilting her hat back, Applejack beamed at her brother. “I take it our little sis is all tuckered out?”

“Eeyup,” her brother replied.

“And so’s Granny?”

“Eeyup.”

Applejack closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the lids growing heavier with each second. “Well, all right, then. Guess I can take a moment for myself…”

She snapped upright in her chair, suddenly wondering what time it was. Her eyes flew open as she stared around the kitchen. Big Mac was leaning over her with a fresh mug of coffee in each hand. Applejack swallowed and took the drink.

“Er…” she began, her brain still taking stock of the time lapse. “How long was I out just now?”

Big Mac shrugged. “Just a minute.”

Embarrassed, Applejack drank deeply from the mug. The black and bitter brew washed through her throat, burning a little. But that was okay. It would keep her awake, if nothing else. A surge of fresh tannins and caffeine to jolt her into action again.

If she fell asleep, she was afraid of what nightmares would come. She’d lived through the nightmare of losing Apple Bloom and she wasn’t about to let the very real Nightmare lurking in the Vault get a hold of her either.

“I’d hate to do this to ya, Big Mac,” Applejack said, staring down into her mug, “but I gotta ask a favor.”

“Eeyup.” Big Mac stared back, taking a polite sip from his own coffee. His soft green eyes bore down on his sister, big and gentle like the rest of him.

“I know she’s a handful, but I need you to look after Apple Bloom for a day or two.” Applejack paused to consider the issue. “And her friends, too. Me and Rarity and Rainbow Dash got some work to do.”

Big Mac stared back. His whole body went very still. “The Vault?”

A shiver ran down Applejack’s spine. Those two little words held such a deep impact. Still, she nodded and took a reassuring sip from her mug.

For a long moment, her brother didn’t say a word. That wasn’t unusual for him. But what caught Applejack off-guard was the way he looked at her, as if weighing her words while examining her face. Despite what a lot of folks around town believed, her big brother wasn’t a mass of dumb muscle. He’d always been smarter than he let on, especially when the family business needed someone to be good with numbers and fixing up the delivery trucks.

That sharp brain of his also meant that, when Big Mac needed to say something, you could always guess it was worth saying.

“All right,” he said finally. Big Mac’s shoulders dropped and he set down his mug on the table with a very loud thunk. “You go on ahead, A.J. You and your friends.”

A gleam of hope surged through Applejack’s heart. She grinned and reached out to squeeze her brother’s massive wrist with both her hands as tight as she could. “Thank ya kindly, Big Mac! You won’t regret it!”

“Hrr.” Big Mac rumbled in his throat as he shifted in his chair. “It ain’t regret. You girls go on and save the world, you hear?”

Save the world. If she’d been asked to do it two days ago, Applejack would’ve laughed at the suggestion. But after seeing what she could do—what the whole gang plus Twilight and Spike could do—she was starting to suspect it might be possible.

And the more she considered it, the more she thought about the teary-eyed joy on Apple Bloom’s face when she was rescued. Applejack knew then and there that she wanted to bring that same joy and relief to everyone in Oldtown—to everyone across Arcadia if she could help it.

“I hear ya,” Applejack replied. With one last sip from her mug, she sighed and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. “You watch those girls, all right? We’ll be back before you know it.”

Big Mac raised his own mug in salute as she skidded out of the kitchen. “Eeyup.”

Rarity’s office was on the second floor of her nightclub, with a large one-way window that looked down at the dance floor below. Standing beside the desk, Twilight peered down at the crowds of people gathered there. Her heart fell for every miserable face she spotted and rose for the sight of every child who slept peacefully with their parents. Once Rarity had moved her club’s domestic assembler downstairs, a handful of refugees had formed an improvised team to manage the device, distributing baked goods and medical supplies to anyone in need.

Even in the face of disaster, some people were still decent to each other. Twilight hoped they’d remember that kindness once they got the Grid back online.

In the meantime, all her new friends were keeping busy. Rarity had put Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to bed in the same room, while increasing the security programming on their room’s door and windows. Applejack had left to take her own sister back home and catch some microsleep. Rainbow Dash was taking a shower somewhere, while Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were trying to be useful to the refugees downstairs. Twilight had spotted the two pink-haired girls floating around the crowd, offering snacks and entertainment wherever possible.

They made an excellent team, she thought. Pleasant to work with and balanced among their skills. She was starting to wonder why they’d ever need her in the first place—

“Darling?” Twilight turned around and saw Rarity entering the room with a tray full of hot drinks balanced on one hand. “Are you alright?”

Twilight forced a smile to her face. By now, the act had become routine. To the best of her memory, this was the most social she’d gotten in person in a very long time. “Oh, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Rarity frowned and set the tray down on her desk. “It’s only…” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Well, far be it from me to be seem rude, but you do seem to be scratching a lot at that network node on the back of your neck. I hope it’s not bothering you.”

“My network node?” Twilight frowned and reached back, realizing that, yes, she had been scratching at it this whole time. Even while she was thinking about the refugees below. Even during the middle of planning the rescue operation.

From his spot curled up on the office chair, Spike let out a soft moan and lifted his head. With bleary eyes, he shot Twilight a concerned look. “You oughta tell her, Twilight. Maybe she can help…” With another moan, he dropped his head back onto his paws and shifted his way back to sleep as if nothing major had happened.

Rarity eyed her with the same concern she’d shown her little sister only an hour ago. “Please, Twilight, if there’s anything I can do to help, you only have to ask.”

“I’d hate to put you through any more trouble—”

“Nonsense! I can’t abide seeing such a brave person looking so miserable!” Before Twilight could protest any further, Rarity tiptoed around her desk. Her hand reached out, gently brushing away Twilight’s hair from the back of her neck. While she stiffened at the touch, Twilight couldn’t find the courage to tell Rarity to just leave her alone.

It didn’t seem like the sort of thing a friend would do.

“Hmm.” Rarity examined the implant, rubbing her chin with her other hand. At this close range, Twilight couldn’t help but smell the perfume that clung to the other woman like a second skin. It was, she had to admit, a rather pleasant fragrance. “This network node looks quite unusual. Where did you ever get such a thing?”

“At the CAP clinic,” Twilight admitted. “It was at the Sysadmin’s personal request.”

Being so close to her, Rarity’s gasp was deafening. “Darling! Do you meant to say that you…?” She grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and stared her straight in the eye. “You actually stood in the same room as Her Majesty?”

“I did…” Twilight blinked. “Well, I mean I had no other choice. The Grid was falling apart and she couldn’t risk a long-distance channel—”

“Whoa!”

The girls spun around and stared at the crowd pouring through the open doorway. Applejack led the way, followed closely by Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Twilight noticed that they were all still dressed up in their field gear, though only Fluttershy seemed uncomfortable in her spy outfit. Twilight knew the feeling herself. She didn’t exactly enjoy all this attention being focused on her.

“So, a network node,” Rainbow Dash commented. As she came up to the desk, Twilight could see the faint sheen of perspiration clinging to her mirrorshades from her shower. As Rainbow Dash stepped around the desk and flashed Twilight a smug grin. “I mean, as far as implants go, it’s okay. Pretty basic neuroware. Nothing I’d write home about, ya know?”

“That’s not very nice,” Fluttershy cut in. She gave her friend a pout—one that Twilight found too adorable to be threatening—before coming over to examine the network node herself. “Um, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to look at it, too.”

Twilight smiled and held her hair back with both hand. “Be my guest. If you can give any idea to make this work, I’d appreciate it.”

“But, surely…” Rarity spread her hands, shooting Twilight a puzzled frown. “The Sysadmin must have given you instructions.”

“Unfortunately, no.” Twilight chewed her lip as Fluttershy’s delicate hands brushed over the back of her neck. “I guess I figured it would sort itself out once I found you all.”

Taking a seat on the corner of Rarity’s desk, Applejack smirked. “Guess you were right, then.”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy clustered behind Twilight, examining her network node thoroughly. Twilight closed her eyes and let them poke around, feeling a flicker of activity deep inside her exocortex. A flash of data traffic from a trio of unrecognized sources. Probably just preliminary diagnostic scans. Nothing that would seriously harm her. She peeked one eye open and caught a glimpse of a text chat scrolling across her visor.

Wonderblaze21: Anyone else seeing a Neotex-11 frame here?

LadyCastellan: Glad I’m not the only one.

LadyCastellan: Who’d have guessed you could fit a multicore processor in something this small?

QuietMouse334: Well, actually, I replaced a micro version in Angel last week.

QuietMouse334: The surgery’s really not that complicated.

Wonderblaze21: Yeah, but come on.

Wonderblaze21: How good’s the multicore for six different code languages?

LadyCastellan: You saw her talent firsthand, Rainbow Dash.

LadyCastellan: If she can write such elegant internal code, then why not

Twilight immediately felt better about the whole situation. Seeing those lines of text, reading those familiar voices on her chat feed—she’d been missing that this whole time. Even during the worst days back in Citadel, she could always count on two things: Spike’s constant presence by her side and the cheerful background noise of her friends’ chats.

She’d put off her reconnection for too long. It was time to rejoin the forum and be the StarSwirl they’d known all along.

With a careful blink, she activated her own chat profile and watched a new line of text emerge.

StarSwirl70 is online.

Then Twilight cried out as a sharp tingle ran down the back of her neck. She leaned over and grabbed onto Rarity’s office chair for support. The tingle quickly turned into deep-skin trauma. White lines of agony seared through the back of her skull as the network node grew hot, burning the edge of her skin. Her personal data feed glitched out a moment later, leaving only pixels and distorted graphics smeared across her field of vision.

Oh Celestia, Twilight groaned, feeling the nausea and agony overwhelm her. Was this what a genuine virus felt like? She’d heard horror stories back at the Institute, but she’d never guessed they’d be this bad.

Through the haze of pain, she saw one last flash of text across the visor.

QuietMouse334: Twilight, go to your bio-directory!

QuietMouse334: Input this code: 23.44.137.gamma.

QuietMouse334: Hurry!

Squeezing her eyes shut, Twilight muttered a short copy command under her breath. Her visor was permanently linked to her body’s internal directory, where all the command codes and medical implants were contained and controlled. Using Fluttershy’s advice, she copied and pasted the code directly into the input line. Then she buckled over the chair as the pain spiked—

And then, nothing.

Twilight blinked. She stared at the desk, suddenly feeling no pain in her neck. Breathing slowly, she lifted one hand to her neck to feel around the implant. “What in the world…?”

“Oh, darling, I’m so sorry,” Rarity offered. She patted Twilight’s shoulder. “I should have warned you about our network setup.”

“You… aaah…” Twilight groaned and spun the chair around. By now, Spike was wide awake from all the commotion. He gave Twilight a sympathetic frown and hopped down to the floor. She sank into the inviting leather seat and closed her eyes again. “I don’t understand. You mean that wasn’t the forum link?”

For once, Rainbow Dash wasn’t being that cocky. She leaned onto the desk beside Twilight and shrugged. “Yeah, it’s pretty common out here. I mean, we can’t all afford fancy antivirals like in Citadel. So we piggyback off each other’s code style from time to time. Makes it harder for trap tags to take us down when we can use a friend’s coding to confuse the signal and scrub the threat out.”

“And sometimes we give each other real piggyback rides!” Pinkie Pie added cheerfully. When everyone turned to stare at her, she blushed and clasped her hands behind her back. “Well, okay. Maybe just me and Dashie…”

Twilight sat back in her chair, processing all of this. She was grateful for a stop to the pain, but even that felt a little suspicious.

“That code,” she said, turning to Fluttershy. “What was it, exactly?”

“Oh, that was our root key!” Fluttershy’s smile eased the tension in the room like sunlight on a cloudy day. “Your bio-directory was rejecting us as network threats, so we invited you to join our private group.”

“Makes sense,” Spike commented. “It’s one thing to chat on forums, but a private network’s something special.”

From the other side of the desk, Applejack leaned over. “Hey, check it out, y’all. The darn thing’s turned on.”

Everyone crowded around to look at the back of Twilight’s neck. When she checked the forum, Twilight noticed a screencap that Rarity had linked to her.

It was a picture of her own neck. In the center, Celestia’s network node was fully-lit up. The six LEDs on each tip were glowing steady instead of flashing on and off like before. And even now, the white LED in the center of the implant had activated as well. Twilight frowned at the image of the device and tried a simple diagnostic scan from her visor.

What she got back was a dizzying array of code. Flashes of Pinkie Pie’s graphic designs of cats bounced off a series of account statements from Applejack and Rarity. There went a burst of telemetry from Rainbow Dash, and behind that was a large set of DNA sequences from Fluttershy. All packed together in separate compartments, bouncing back and forth across her field of vision, contained by the network node. It was impressive that so much raw data could be focused in so tiny a point, but Twilight supposed that was the whole point of a multicore processor in this situation.

“I think I’m beginning to understand,” she said out loud.

“Understand what, darling?” asked Rarity.

Twilight looked around at her friends’ faces, meeting each pair of eyes in turn. “Celestia said that this implant would keep us safe from any attacks by Nightmare Moon. If it’s anything like your private setup, then that means we’ll be able to prevent her from getting her virus into any one of us.” She smiled, feeling a glow inside her heart that matched the LEDs on her neck. “If we work together and coordinate just as well as we did last night, I think we may actually have a chance of saving the Grid.”

“You know, Twi?” Applejack grinned as she put her hand over Twilight’s. “I’m thinking you might be right.”

“Heck yeah, she is,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.

Everyone else joined in, laying their hands together as the code languages in Twilight’s node began to organize themselves. Even Spike laid a paw over the top of the group, earning a very delighted smile from Fluttershy.

“Okay,” Twilight whispered. She stared ahead at the data streaming across her visor. “Spike, let me see that data packet from Citadel again.”

“On its way,” Spike announced.

When the file opened in her display, Twilight flipped through the psych evaluations and admin notes that Celestia had provided. Below all that was the genuine material for this mission.

“Access Point Omega,” said Twilight, feeling victorious as she read the name in the file. “That’s where we’re going to enter the Vault. All seven of us…”

Author's Note:

Finally, the wheels are in motion. Off to the Vault we go!

Comments

[117isabrony]

MAKEMOREHEARISACUPCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes darling, do please make more.
Wooooooooooooooheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This is geting good y'all
yay!
AWESOME!!
This is a good read

[ReadingRainbow]

"All Seven Of Us."

[PaladinOfChaos]

I think this story might actually be better written than the actual pilot

[Rough_Draft]

4546539 Aww, you're too kind.

In all seriousness, though, I'm taking a break to work on my new story Our Lady's Courtship, which is a shipping fic. That being said, if and when I do get back to writing this story, I'd like to do so with the help of a dedicated co-writer. Preferably someone whose love and knowledge of cyberpunk runs deep and who can write closer to my style.

[SpitFlame]

This is... surprisingly well-written.

[Cerulean Voice]

*Sees "on hiatus" tag*

img0.joyreactor.cc/pics/comment/my-little-pony-mlp-art-mane-6-Rainbow-Dash-294143.jpeg

37.media.tumblr.com/f4c60fa44210259264b3de3a7bc69a10/tumblr_n7wsa8W0ho1r598fso1_400.gif

I has a sad nao. Just when it was getting so damn good...
But I understand. Know though that I pray you will return to this eventually.

[tsaukpaetra]

Heh, Twilight is only just beginning to learn how connected they are and what that means...