Chapter 250: Schooldays
XCOM: Ranger
Chapter 250: Schooldays
By Wanderer D
"What are you playing with?"
If there was any doubt in Scootaloo's mind that Apple Bloom was still there, human, under all the metal and nanotech, it would have faded away by her cyborg friend's startled jump.
"Scootaloo! Ah've told you to knock on the door before comin' in!"
"Hey, it was open. If you want people to knock, close it."
All things considered, even if metallic, the new face Apple Bloom had created for herself with nanotech and Adagio's help was very expressive. Expressive enough to clearly convey the lack of amusement.
"Anyway," Scootaloo continued, undeterred. "What are you up to? Some sort of new weapon?"
"Nah, we've plenty of those. Well, probably not enough yet, but I decided to take a break. There's not much Ah can do at this time, and Shen is working on a couple of tricks for me, so she doesn't want me messin' around until she's ready."
"Huh. To be honest, after the Commander's big meeting, I'm surprised not everyone is buried in work and spending every waking hour preparing for battle."
Apple Bloom shrugged. "Well, you're here so Ah know you're not working on better armor for SPARK right now."
"Fair enough." Scootaloo sighed, making her way past boxes of electronics to sit next to her friend. Although it looked messy, Apple Bloom was actually very organized, and if you were used to her clutter, like Sweetie Belle and herself were, it was easy to know where you could stand, sit or stay put and not get in her way. She peered at the pieces of whatever device her friend was working on. It was a little familiar, but she couldn't place it. "So, what's that?"
"This, Scootaloo, is what a cell phone from the 2010's looks like completely dismantled and plugged into alien tech."
Scootaloo sat next to Apple Bloom, blinking. "Where did you get it?"
"Sunset Shimmer had it for some reason. It was with the stuff that Shen picked up from her locker. Ah figured it'd be a fun little project to see if I could restore the data, so I kept it while the rest went to you."
"How the hell would a magical unicorn turned human that arrived here only around 3 years ago get a cell phone that hasn't been used since twenty years ago?"
"Beats me, but fact is, she had it."
Scootaloo reached around the electronics to pick up the casing. "Man, this thing's beaten up. You sure you can fix this thing?"
"Don't seem like the insides were too damaged. The case in your hand was top notch back then, y'know, designed to survive weather, and being dunked in the ocean for up to ah-don't-know-how-many-meters without failing, and all the good stuff you could pay for."
"So some rich dude's phone, huh? So what's the verdict, is the tech too old for your modern sensibilities?"
Apple Bloom frowned, leaning in as she cleaned a small piece of metal before gently soldering it in. "It ain't too complicated, just… old and fragile… there."
Scootaloo scooted over to the side, allowing Apple Bloom to push herself on her chair to the nearest keyboard, and start typing at speeds that far exceeded her flesh and bone previous capabilities, bringing up an emulation of the phone onto the screen.
The nostalgically familiar icons of old tech popped up over a background image of a beaker, along with usual things, like a calendar, text messages, gps, etc.
"What kind of nerd has a chemistry set as the background?"
"Well… we're here to find out. Let's check the media," Apple Bloom said, opening a file browser and finding a substantial amount of voice recordings, as well as videos and pictures.
"Start from the beginning?" Scootaloo asked.
"Several of these are older than the phone itself," Apple Bloom muttered. "Must've transferred them from other devices." She double clicked on the oldest audio.
"Experiment number thirtee—" the audio caught off for a second "—and see if daddy notices!"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shared a glance before clicking on the next audio file.
"Experiment was a success! Daddy's tongue now is full of glitter and it shines when he speaks! I have also been banned from the kitchen."
Scootaloo barked a laugh. "Oh man, too bad we couldn't hear what she actually did, that kid sounds hilarious."
Apple Bloom chuckled. They played a few more audios of the same adorable little girl experimenting with anything that came her way, before scrolling down to a few years before Canterlot High was destroyed. The little girl's voice was replaced by that of a teenager, hopeful and ready to take on the world.
"Audio Diary update: I was admitted int—" Scootaloo winced when the audio failed, but Apple Bloom quickly adjusted a couple of filters and their mysterious girl's voice came back "—I hear that keeping a good GPA in there is very hard, so I'll have to bring my A-game from day one! But also, they have an amazing science department and a bunch of science activities! It's a dream come true!"
"If I hadn't heard what she did when she was younger, I wouldn't have thought someone so studious could've been a Crusader if she'd been in our class."
"Well, Twist was pretty nerdy too, and she was friends with us."
"Audio Diary update: First week of class!" The voice turned slightly smug, but Scootaloo couldn't hold it against their protagonist, after all, she had been responsible for discovering a milkshake flavor guaranteed to make her poor dad and brother throw up without fail even though they apparently loved it otherwise. "I've impressed most of my teachers with the quality of my work, and the chemistry teacher has suggested I draft a proposal to see if I can get my own lab space next year!"
"You go, girl!" Scootaloo cheered, while Apple Bloom merely chuckled.
"Audio Diary update:" Apple Bloom leaned back, frowning at the tone of voice. "I… I thought I was doing okay but—" she sniffled "—no one wants to sit with me at lunch. I was told that I was just a teacher's pet and that if I didn't share my homework I was worthless because nobody likes me. I should tell… no. I'm-sorry. I can't. I want to sleep."
"The hell?" Scootaloo said.
"Nothing we can do about that right now, sugarcube," Apple Bloom said.
They listened to a few more audios.
"...they snuck into my lab and replaced the hard drives…"
"...swears it wasn't on purpose, but I'm going to be wearing a bandage on my head for the rest of the week. I hope the swelling goes down soon…"
"...why do they do this?"
"You know. Skip that." Scootaloo whispered.
"Right," Apple Bloom shook her head. "Let's… check a video."
"Woof!"
Scootaloo smiled at the little dog that was running around on the grass, chasing a toy of some sort.
"Ah had forgotten what most of them critters looked like," Apple Bloom said slowly, "but since when were dogs purple and green?"
"Woof!"
"Come on! You can do it! Who's a good puppy? Now… Everton!" the voice of their phone's mysterious owner called out.
"Huh, that sounds familiar somehow," Apple Bloom muttered. "She definitely sounds different with the phone's actual microphone rather than whatever she was using before."
"Woof!" the puppy pounced on the toy, which spun around and threw him off. It rolled on the grass and stood up, tail wagging.
"Wasn't Everton some sort of high end school or something?" Scootaloo pondered. "I wonder why our girl suddenly wants to go there."
"I said, Everton!"
Apple Bloom tapped her fingertip on the table, making a soft clanking sound. "I have definitely heard that voice before."
When the puppy didn't do whatever the girl wanted it to do, she sighed. "I guess that's okay for now, boy, good job!"
The camera moved, accidentally showing a large house with a carefully kept backyard. A couple could be seen working on setting up a table with food and drinks. "Experiment Firebark update:" the female voice said.
"Now that you mention it, she really sounds familiar," Scootaloo said slowly. "And not in a good way."
"Other than the initial color change, no other observable changes have affected Spike's biology. He does seem smarter than before, and he responds much quicker to commands than I anticipated. When Cinch gave me that alien DNA I didn't really believe her, but here we are, with an adorable mutated puppy."
A small shiver ran up Scootaloo's back. "Alien DNA?"
"No powers yet, so I'll keep experimenting. But later." The voice grew frustrated, and with that tone in it, Apple Bloom seemed to realize something. She turned to stare in surprise at Scootaloo, who stared right back at her.
"Shiny and Cadance want me to go with them to visit Canterlot High for some reason. Honestly, I want to drop that and concentrate on this. There's nothing there that's worth my time. Especially with the bullshit I had to put myself through during the so-called Friendship Games. I have real alien DNA! I need to figure out where Cinch got it. Who knows what I could do with it?"
"Is that…" Apple Bloom said slowly.
"I still have Prof. Vahlen's phone number and email, and if anyone can tell me what I'm missing it has to be her. Even if she's not working for UCL anymore. She'll probably be all for producing some real science out of this!"
"Twily! It's time to go!"
"Coming!"
"This is incredible!" The phone's camera was wild, shaking and moving fast as it swept over a parking lot full of teenage students, all staring up at the sky in open awe. Then the camera moved up to try to focus on something massive coming out of the clouds above Canterlot City.
Long, metallic, and alien. "This is amazing! That thing alone is destroying the laws of physics as we know them by its sheer presence! No structure that size should be able to maneuver in such a manner within the atmosphere!"
"Twilight. Twily! We need to move."
"But, Shiny! It's an alien spaceship!"
"Twilight, it's not safe here, come on! I think I saw auntie Celestia, we can go to the tornado shelt—"
Whatever Cadance was going to say was cut short by a loud hum that drowned all noise, then, as if the sky was parting, a red, angry ray flashed above them, captured by Twilight's camera as it slammed onto the street and then cut upwards, slicing across the street and cutting the entire school in half.
Explosions and fire rained around them, while Twilight was pulled violently away from the school. She held onto her phone, and they could see the upside down view as metallic things rained around them, exploding.
"Cadance!"
"Shiny!"
"Watch out!" Someone tackled Twilight away, and her phone landed on the street, facing upwards as more of the terror pods flew above them, and screams of horror and pain grew.
"And that's the last of that video," Apple Bloom said to the silent room. "We have others…" she clicked play and they watched a short video of Shining Armor playing around with Spike the dog before it was turned purple, with Twilight giggling.
Another video was of a younger Twilight. She face was dirty, her nose snotty, her eyes puffy. The light in the video was just enough to show that she was under sheets of some sort. Bedsheets maybe. "Indigo said that now that I've won the math competition they don't need me. That I should just go back to the lab. Why can't I be like them? Why can't they like me?"
Chrysalis looked away and interrupted the video with a tap on her keyboard. "Whoever she was before… she is our enemy today."
"I remember that team being particularly brutal," Luna said, glancing at Chrysalis. "After you and Sunset graduated, we lost several years in a row. But the team that year… they took joy in seeing their peers brought down. There was no friendship, no camaraderie of any sort from the Shadowbolts."
"It seems this Twilight Sparkle began losing her mind early on," Apple Bloom said, playing the next video.
"Let. Me. Go!"
"Aww, is the little Lemon Zest too scawed?" Twilight taunted. Not much of her could be seen, as the phone was fumbled with until it was resting in a place where it could record both girls. Twilight standing, wearing her labcoat, and Lemon Zest tied to a table.
"You're going to pay for this, nerd!"
"Aww, shut up." Twilight went over and leaned over the bound girl. There was a struggle and when she stepped back, they could see that she had put a ball gag in Lemon Zest's mouth. Twilight turned to face the camera. "Experiment on induced friendship. Day one! I have obtained permission from the principal to experiment on human behavior. Since I always wanted a friend, I thought I'd start with Lemon Zest! Say hi, Zesty!"
"Day 2: The drug seems to have calmed the subject down. She's still refusing to talk to me, or do as I say, but she's learning the value of friendship!"
"Day 3: No change worth mentioning."
"Day 4: Lemon took her dose today, look at her now…" the phone camera showed a grinning, giggling girl, still tied to the table. She convulsed from time to time, but didn't seem to be struggling against her bonds. "Say hi, Zesty!"
"Hiiiiiiiiiii!"
"Day 7: Zesty has learned a new trick! Give me your hand, Zesty! Good girl!"
"And Principal Cinch allowed this?" Chrysalis asked, horrified.
"That… does look like one of the labs in Crystal Prep," Luna muttered.
"The next few videos just get worse," Apple Bloom said softly. "This experiment kept up until she was given alien DNA, which she used on her dog."
Luna shook her head. "We knew Principal Cinch was cruel and manipulative, but we didn't have any evidence to act against her…"
"I don't think it would have mattered," Chrysalis said to her old teacher. "If Cinch got Twil—Chimera that alien DNA, chances are she was working with the Elders. Probably part of Sombra and his group of EXALT miscreants." She glanced at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "Anything else?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "Only some pictures of her family: brother, mother, dad… her dog, and this Cadance lady. From one of the very early audios, she was identified as her babysitter. But she also mentioned being related to you and Principal Celestia?"
Luna nodded. "She was adopted into our family by one of our cousins."
"Well, this matches what we know of Twilight Sparkle's family in Equestria," Chrysalis said. "But more importantly, I think we have some leads." She pressed a button. "Central, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo discovered some interesting things. See if we can get some scans of where Crystal Prep used to be in Canterlot City, and also look into Everton."
"Wilco, commander."
"Well done you two," Chrysalis said. "We might have just taken the first real step to taking down this faction of our enemies."
o.0.o End Chapter 250 o.0.o
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Such a dark past for Twilight, and I see Cinch can still be the one to push her into doing some horrible things, though this time she seems to not mind too much.
I wonder how this past will become relevant to her defeat, either mind tricks or some discovery in the old schools.
Though, what I mostly wonder is; why Sunset had this?
Ah, finally we get some backstory into Sci-Twi... It's honestly about what I expected, minus Cinch being an alien and/or Exalt agent.
11212124
Sunset picked up the phone in like the first chapter of the entire story just cause it was common and it may help her fit in. Literally no reason other then, "Huh, what's this? Neat." and it happened to be Sci-Twi's. I just started rereading this story before this chapter updated so I just saw it.
11212141
Good memory
11212142
Just updated my comment to say that I just reread that part but yea, I barely remembered it even before the reread. It's a VERY far throwback that I'm glad actually amounted to something.
Wow. That little piece of setting in the very first chapter becoming so much relevant 250 chapter later. How much have you plan forward?
Found a little typo.
Looking forward to more whenever it's released.
So Cinch is still a bitch, but a traitorous bitch too.
Yeah, Cinch being EXALT fits. Spike though? Purple and green... Did... Did Twi splice poor Spike with Cryssalid DNA?
Oh please, please do not make Spike a Kaijulid boss fight!
11212983
Oh god, now I’m imagining a Chryssalid King alien hunters boss… That sounds even worse than the Archon
11212983
Whose to say he will be a bad guy if he is a kaijuld, he could be like other kaiju, neutral unless provoked which could then end up with something like the old Godzilla cartoon that started Zilla
Just replace the Zilla with Spike and replace the human team with xcom
11214046
See the problem with that is he is still a dog, and Twilight's dog at that. If he is still alive after all this time, he would be loyal to Chimera.
11214187
not necessarily, if he is able to figure out that he is being abused and experimented on he could break out, of cause that is assuming he can even comprehended that or hasn't gotten it in his head that what is happening is normal/right
but yer i to am thinking spike is dead, probably horrifically because of these mutation experiments, i'm thinking a mixture of broken mentally but also extreme body horror, or worse yet he is in this stat but still alive and Xcom is going to stumble on him and you get something akin to the thing in terms of looks but the broken mentally of nina in that he just can't understand what has happen to him and still thinks chimera loves him
its also possible that twilight after mutating spike just you know used him on herself along with other DNA to become Chimera that we now know
The legend returns, and it is glorious!
"younger Twilight. She face was dirty, her nose snotty"
"younger Twilight. Her face was dirty, her nose snotty"?
HO-LY crap man now that's some Chekhov's gun right here!
Ok going to toss spoilers on this because I'm not an ass. I got a theory about why Sunset is a siren; Fugue is a demon bloodwitch and Sunny made the Godkiller bullets to kill Fugue. Thing is Sunny is Fugues host so the GKBs will kill her at the same time as Fugue. Therefore it can be said that the act of making the GKBs with the intention they be used on a demonic bloodwitch (Fugue/herself) counted as the preperation to sacrifice herself to stop a great evil. This makes her siren status 100% earned and not the fault of the hunter and/or Chimera.
11222764 I have NEVER understood why people thought it was Big Mac. Why would he even recognize Sunset? It makes no sense.
Just wanted to say, Welcome Back, D. I just re-read this and the Daring Do side-story and I'm ready to roll. I forgot how good this story really was.
Sociathy and Gouvernements create their own enemys... Sad to see a tortured soul turn to madness.
And like that, I’m all caught up. Damn, this has progressed alot since I last took a look into it. I’m really glad I took the time to do that, though, it’s really given me an appreciation for XCOM I didn’t have before.
Nice to see this Updated
Some more context into how Twilight became Chimera...
Cinch being a part of EXALT just makes sense. It will be interesting to see thr shadow organization to be givenore context. We've only gotten hints in EW...
I still loathe Chimera but... if I'm being honest, without her friends tempering her... what's to stop Twilight, any Twilight, from losing their morality for the sake of science?
Science without morals is... a very scary thing. This is just one example of many, even in our own history.
Onwards...
Twilight would only have needed a better schooling environment and she would have bloomed...