Chapter 32
When Flight finished yelling, it took a Cheap Gold a mere two seconds to recover before she started talking again- during which something moved in the unoccupied half of the room, but nopony paid it any attention.
“How dare you!” she snapped. “Destroy the thing at once! No thestral has a right to even be born! You’re a-!”
But what she was, they would never find out. Queen, couch, and wall all disappeared with the same echoing boom and blur of pink.
Then a heavily jeweled and glowing sword followed, shortly before Twilight, who had finally reached her breaking point, charged forwards and out the hole in a flash.
Flight and the Admirals galloped forwards immediately, to see what was happening; Flight’s father, High Cost, simply stood, too stunned to move.
“Hi, this is Fast Talk coming to you live on-scene with Bleeding Edge News. And yes, I’m standing in front of a hospital. Inside this hospital, the Queen will be giving birth to a new Princess today- Hold on.” She touched her earpiece for a second. “Correction, the Queen just gave birth to a new Princess. Not only that, but-!”
Behind Fast Talk, a couple of the hospital windows exploded as Princess Short Flight’s voice blasted out. Fast Talk startled, but caught herself, and straightened up to wait patiently, smiling softly at the camera, and wincing with each shouted sentence echoing out from the hospital. A message appeared briefly on the screen- ‘We would go to commercial, but nopony would hear it’.
Then, the Princess finished yelling. The silence held for about two seconds before Fast Talk spoke.
“It would appear she’s finished yelling,” she began. “Princess Short Flight has come with the Admirals to meet the new foal, and-!”
A different kind of explosion happened behind Fast Talk this time- something yellow was blasted straight through the hospital wall, right between the two busted windows, and tumbled to a halt on the grass. Fast talk jumped much further, almost clear out of the frame, before she recovered. A blur of pink followed it out and curved upwards before drawing to a halt- and resolving itself into a winged-and-horned, fully grown mare… who was wearing an impressive piece of jeweled armor, and received a massive blade in her Hands-less hooves, that was floating in a pink aura to match that over her horn.
“I’ll teach you to kill your own foal,” the strange mare thundered, before bringing the blade smashing down on the yellow thing. “Just because of her tribe!” Then she drew the blade back out and practically skittered to the side.
The reason was immediately apparent, as a purple, unarmored mare- who also had wings and horn- leaped into the air behind her. “And I’ve had enough of your discrimination!” she declared. The purple mare didn’t have a sword.
She also didn’t need one.
She simply pointed her glowing horn… and a wave of energy shot out of it, at the reddened remains of the yellow thing, which instantly vanished in a cloud of dust from what had to be the equivalent of a head-on starship collision.
Then there was a thundering boom and flash of light as the cloud of dust ignited, startling both flying mares. Finally, a hydrogen leak alarm went off in the distance.
Fast Talk stared for about two seconds, before turning back to the camera, and clearing her throat, looking shocked- and living up to her name. “And has brought at least one Equestrian Princess with her, after she visited Equestria with her new Distortion-equipped ship.” She glanced towards the scene behind her, where both flying mares were descending to the ground, looking surprised, but satisfied. “Er… Lemme figure out what’s going on, and we’ll be back after a commercial break.”
Then, Fast Talk turned to trot towards the landing mares- and, just before the scene cut to an advertisement for NuCoils High-Output, Powered Start Fission Reactors, Princess Short Flight could be seen trotting out through the hole in the hospital wall, wearing a dress that outshone any other on the planet.
“Sooo,” Flight began, trotting out to where her mother had just been stomped into a freshly-ignited hydrogen mains leak.
“S-Sorry about-!” Twilight began- then blinked, and turned to look at the pink alicorn that had first appeared. “Wait a minute. Cadence? When did you get here?”
Cadence, who had started looking around, looking distinctly worried, stopped, and looked at Twilight. “I… I don’t know. One moment, I was with Celestia and Luna, hearing about her crimes… next moment, I was in the room, and she was ordering other ponies to repeat them.”
Twilight blinked. “... Oh. Rage-fueled teleport. Those things can be dangerous.”
Flight stepped closer, and muttered quietly. “Do you mean to tell me you just teleported nineteen and a half lightyears to avenge a single case of discrimination?”
“Uh-!” Cadence began, glancing at Twilight. “Yes, I guess? I mean, that’s pretty serious, right?”
Flight laughed. “Oh, that’s nothing. There’s thousands of cases every day, on this planet alone. Though, after that display, on- unless I miss my guess- live television, there’s going to be a lot less of them.” She gestured towards the royal blue filly, not much older than Flight herself, trotting towards them, away from the TV broadcast camera mounted on a tripod. There were no other ponies in sight.
The filly trotted up. “Uh- Hi, if…?”
Flight nodded.
She took a deep breath. “Okay. Um, Hi, I’m Fast Talk, with Ben- er-!”
Flight nodded. “Good for you. I assume you were covering the story about my new sister and all?”
“Uh- yeah. And your return, with…” She looked at Twilight and Cadence. “Is that… two Equestrian Princesses, or…?”
“Yep! Meet Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Princess… is it just Cadence, or…?” She looked at Cadence.
“Ahh,” Cadence muttered. “It’s technically ‘Mi Amore Cadenza’.” She wrinkled her nose. “I know, my parents had great taste in names. I much prefer just Cadence.”
Flight nodded. “So, Princess Cadence. And both of Equestria, yes.” She glanced at the camera. “How long do you have?”
“Ah-!” Fast Talk glanced back at the camera. “We just went on commercial break, so I should have at least a few minutes. I’m sure Long Interlude, back at the station, can keep our viewers distracted longer, if needed.”
“Ahh. Is… Is there anyone else with your crew, or…?”
She shook her head. “Just me. We’ve only got a few ponies left- nopony wants to work at something like a news station. We’re lucky we can still cover everything with one-pony ‘crews’... working regular overtime.”
“What.” Twilight spoke almost woodenly.
Flight held up a hoof to stop her. “Yeah, that’s definitely gonna be a problem.” She tilted her head. “I mean, Ben is my preferred news station, sooo… I wonder how many applications a Princess’ Recommendation would get you?”
She eeked, almost exactly like Fluttershy, and started stammering.
Flight shrugged her wings. “Anyways, I suppose we should be ready when they finish the commercials, shouldn’t we?”
“Uh, Princess? You might want to come look at this.”
Flight looked over towards the hospital; it was Vice Admiral Night Mare, looking uncertain. “Alright,” she called back. Then she glanced at Fast Talk. “That… doesn’t bode well. I wonder what happened.”
“Um,” Fast Talk muttered, and spoke quickly. “Can I follow you, or ?”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t sound like good news- depending on what it is, you might want to wait outside.”
She eeked again. “I’ll… Er, I’ll wait outside, then.” She glanced at Twilight and Cadence. “... Er, do you mind if I get an interview with…?”
Flight shrugged. “Fine by me, if they don’t mind. Don’t do it live, though, we might need to interrupt it on a moment’s notice.” She trotted back towards the hospital.
When she reached the opening in the wall, she stopped. “What… happened?”
Admiral Mantle Core, holding her father’s severed head, looked up. “He said ‘signal lost’,” she stated. “Thought his cybernetic enhancements might’ve been acting up, so I popped open the service plate on the back of his neck… and according to Doctor Horse, he was already dead when he walked in the building today, because so much of his brain is missing, carved out to make room for some kind of tech gismo. Already pulled that out.” She pointed at some metal stuff sitting next to her father’s body, on the floor. There was, interestingly enough, no blood. She took a deep breath. “Do you think the pink pony- with that sword- can come back, and cleave his head in two? The doc’ll be able to give us a better idea of exactly when he died… and the cause of death.”
Flight nodded slowly. “Have you checked the cybernetic logs?”
She shook her head. “I’m no good with electronics.”
“Alright.” She tapped her earpiece.
Night Skies answered promptly. “Yes, Princess?”
“Send Blacklight out here with a console, please. And charge the capacitors- I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
There was a second of silence. “On her way, with the shuttle. Also priming our VTOL and Gravity Drive. Anything else?”
She scowled. “Not yet.” She deactivated her transmitter, and looked back out the hole. “Princess Cadence,” she called.
Cadence looked up at her, from where she was talking to Fast Talk.
She gestured for her to come.
Cadence nodded, and turned back to Fast Talk- though Flight could tell, through her body language, that she would be coming.
“Blacklight?” High Admiral Timber Wolf asked, still holding Flight’s new sister. “Who…?”
“She was on my bridge,” Flight answered. “Thestral, green mane. Electronic warfare specialist.”
Vice Admiral Night Mare nodded sharply. “That’ll do it.” She glanced at the electronics. “I’ve done some electronics, but this is well beyond me.”
Then Cadence stepped into the room. “Okay, um,” she began. “You called?”
Flight looked up at her. “Yes. Can you cut my dad’s head in half, for the doctor?”
She didn’t move for three entire seconds. “You want me to what!?”
“He’s already dead,” she stated. “And he was already dead when he walked in this morning. The Doc wants to cut his head open, because that’ll make it much easier to tell both how he was killed, and when.”
Cadence took a deep breath, and unsheathed her sword once again, from the scabbard attached to the side of her armor. “Alright.”
“Here, I’ll hold it for you.” Flight took her father’s head in her magic, and held it clear of everything else in the room.
It was almost ten minutes later when the sound of Twilight’s fast-paced conversation with Fast Talk was drowned out by the wind- and finally, the noise of a high-output low-noise atmospheric engine.
Flight had hardly looked up at the opening, when Blacklight glided in, landing just inside; the shuttle, judging by the noise of its engines, hadn’t even touched down yet. “Alright,” Blacklight began, sweeping her remote control tether out of her saddlebags. “What seems to be the problem?”
Flight pointed a hoof at the electronics lying on the floor next to her father’s decapitated but bloodless body.
She looked, and sighed. “Yeah, that would do it. That doesn’t look like any set of cybernetics I’ve ever seen- and no cybernetic device should cut off the blood flow.” She trotted over, slipping an adapter and a cable from her other saddlebag, plugged them in, and started tapping away at her tether. “So, what happened to him?”
“Somepony carved his brain out,” Flight answered. “He was dead before he walked into the building today, and Doc Horse can’t tell how long. That stuff was in its place.”
She nodded. “Yeah… Mm, not getting anything on the standard cybernetic control panel. Let’s see what a chip access routine gives me.” She made a few more taps. “Bingo. Nine months, four days, three hours, twelve minutes, fifteen seconds… Mark, since this stuff was activated.” She paused for a second. “Though it’s been relying on a nearby relay to link to ‘the network’- and judging by the other data in here, my bet is that the relay was in your mother, possibly even controlled by her.”
“That was… fast,” Admiral Mantle Core mutters.
Flight nodded. “Like I said, she’s an expert. And she’s working with top-level equipment- that control tether is linked to my ship’s triple-A-plus-rated, twin redundant electronic warfare suite.” That was about the highest rating available for any electronic warfare suite, which put her systems on par with most superdreadnoughts… and unlike most systems, redundant electronic warfare systems weren’t truly redundant. They could operate independently, true- but when both were present, they operated in cooperative mode, giving them a couple dozen times the effectiveness of the individual systems- thanks to a far faster data link between the two than between any two ships running their electronic warfare in cooperative mode. She took a deep breath. “Void anything my dad has said within the last twelve months- we now know he was compromised. And…” She looked towards the hole in the wall. “Can I help you, Twilight?”
Twilight, looking curiously in the hole, shrugged her wings. “Well, they called you in here, then you called Cadence, then Blacklight showed up…” She trailed off. “So, what happened?”
“I’m the only surviving member of the royal family,” she answered simply.
Twilight blinked. “... Right, that was your mom, wasn’t it?”
Flight nodded. “We have reason to believe she may have already been dead anyways.”
“... What.”
“Dad- who walked into the room first- is confirmed dead at least nine months ago.”
Twilight stared. “Has…” She winced. “Has your nation figured out necromancy or something?”
She shook her head. “No. His body was being remote controlled- you could call him a zombie, but he wasn’t really.”
Fast Talk stepped into view. “Do I… Do I even want to look?”
“Depends,” Flight stated. “Do you have cybernetics?”
The filly nodded nervously. “I do. Why…?”
Flight glanced at Blacklight, who trotted up, flicked open the cybernetic service port hidden under the filly’s name, and plugged into it.
Fast Talk eeked again. “What the-!?” she began.
“Somepony’s mounted an extra software package in here- it’s recording everything you do, building a profile. Give it… Three days, and it’ll probably take control.”
Fast Talk shied away from her. “What- what do you mean!?”
Flight pointed a hoof towards her father’s body. The admirals stepped out of the way, revealing it.
Talk squeaked, eyes wide. “What-!”
“He was killed nine months ago,” Flight stated. “Somepony carved out his brain to enhance his cybernetic package. And it would seem you’re next.”
Her jaw dropped. “But… But I…”
“We can still save you,” Flight informed her. “Like Blacklight said. Three days.” She glanced up at the doctor. “Right?”
He nodded. “Cybernetic manufacturers don’t want ponies to know, but they’re completely removable. Takes about fifteen minutes, though the recovery can last for a couple of hours.”
Silence held for about three seconds.
Admiral Mantle Core looked at Cadence. “Princess, with all due respect, I noticed your form with your blade was a little bit lacking. Would you like some pointers?”
“Hi, this is Fast Talk coming to you live with Bleeding Edge News.” The news anchor in question wasn’t speaking nearly as quickly as she normally did, and was wavering just a little bit. None of the viewers noticed, though, since their Princess was standing next to her, wearing an amazing dress- and a grim expression. Few viewers noticed that the Princess also now had wings. “It took a while, but we were able to confirm…”
She started to fall over, into the Princess- but Princess Short Flight was watching her. The Princess’s horn glowed suddenly golden, and a shroud of golden energy arrested Fast Talk’s fall, bringing her back upright.
“Woah… Thanks, Princess. Er, to confirm, that we just witnessed the defeat of the Queen by the hooves of the Equestrian Princesses. Additionally… Woah…” She blinked blearily, wobbling far enough it was clear the Princess was the only reason she wasn’t falling.
Flight’s golden aura took the microphone from her, then Flight set her down on the ground, and looked at the camera. “My apologies for that,” she informed the viewers. “As she was saying, we have also been able to confirm that at least one, and probably both, of my parents were killed and replaced over nine months ago.”
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OK, I'll wait and see where you're going with this, but I don't think I like the dark turn this just took without sufficient foreshadowing to prepare the readers.
(Darkening what is possible in a setting should only be done carefully and with plenty of preparation. As a programmer who knows how humans and technology mix, I avoid nanites in my own ideas and treat any implanted technology with great caution.)
Well, that did indeed take a turn, didn't it? I would imagine this is the bridge linking the events of this story to the world of the other one you had said this related to back towards the beginning.
Normally, I'd agree with this, but given all of the other incidents of social and/or professional apathy we've seen in this universe, at least one probably was.
The commercial itself being just then was indeed pretty fortuitous, but those things are usually scheduled well in advance, so unlikely to be actually nefarious.
When it finally hits home that her parents are dead, that's going to be an interesting chapter.
So ...
These are the ponies of Harmony, Love, Forgiveness, Second Chances. To just ... not just murder, but vaporize her mother like that is a little excessive.
And ... 9 months replaced with nanites? So basically while doing the deed? Or, a few days before -- is the new daughter clean or was she infected?
Heck, here's a thought: Someone got to the father, nanites + sperm into the mother, both the mother and the new child are compromised at the same time.
When will Flight check her sister? What will she do if/when she finds out the unfortunate news?
10424017
She probably had her sister checked during one of those interludes.
Whoa! was that really her baby sister? I got turned around in all the action.
10428954
Yes, the baby is Flight's baby sister. No, the baby was not part of the action, and was not harmed in the transaction.
Uhhh... I'm assuming accidental regicide is not normal around here? Blowing up the queen seems a bit harsh...
Have I mentioned yet that I'm really enjoying the names you're using here?
Did we ever know that they had cybernetics? I thought it had just been the HAND systems. That's a bit out of left field, especially considering the spoilers. And how/why did the newscaster have it too? Was the hypothetical mastermind trying to take over the news or does it just spread indiscriminately?
Good story. Looking forward to seeing more.
10497498
I hope I can deliver... someday. It’s been frozen on writer’s block for a while now- I’m considering marking it ‘hiatus’ to help reduce disappointments in the meantime...