Epilogue
"This will be quite the hefty sum, Miss Label."
"It's of no consequence," Stern Label replied, settling into the chair. "I might not be heading LightnSound anymore, but I have a considerable amount of bits. More than necessary for this procedure."
The medical team glanced at each other, but nodded. They were being paid a lot of money, and were professionals, after all. Without further ado, they went off to prepare their equipment, leaving the mare alone with her companion.
"Well, this is going to be interesting," Neon Clove whispered. She went over to Label and touched her hoof with hers. "I'm sorry you have to go through this, Sweetie."
"I'll need a new name," Label said softly, glancing at Neon Clove. "And a new career. At least I managed to get LightnSound to provide actual medical care for Yumi." She snorted. "Even if it's only a temporary solution to what Megacorps do."
"We'll figure out something." Clove took a deep breath. "I've contacted Gentle Cut. He'll meet us in a few days once this is all done, and we'll work on your new identity."
Label, or rather Sweetie Belle, nodded. "Thank you for sticking with me."
Clove smiled. "Hey. Thank you for trusting me."
"You did say your teacher had some experience with being in a different body…"
Clove chuckled. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to talk it over with her. Here comes the doc. I'll be just outside."
Sweetie Belle nodded, smiling and closing her eyes. This body was different. And what she had done could be considered monstrous by some. But to her, it was simply her due.
A familiar song played on the screen nearby, where Sweetie Belle danced and sang, a wide smile on her face. The head surgeon turned to give her a wide-eyed look before raising his voice. "Turn that off!"
"No," Sweetie said, raising Label's—no—her hoof. "Leave it on. I've always liked this song."
"Um. If you say so, Miss Label. I just thought after what happened at the parade…"
"I understand." Sweetie used Label's face to smile. "But it's okay, I still like to see how she's doing."
She sang. She sang and danced.
And she raged, tried to stop the spin. Tried to close her mouth. Tried to scream instead of smile.
She raised to her hind legs, the servomotors keeping her impossibly erect as she waved side to side and the crowd reacted, waving in return with lights in their hooves or claws.
Stern Label screamed and screamed inside Sweetie's body, but the automated functions—perfected to continue regardless of how she felt or thought—finished the performance exactly as planned.
She cantered over to sit down next to the show host, who asked her inane questions about her experience and how she still could write songs.
The AI answered it all for them. It didn't care about how she felt about it. It didn't care that she was trapped in a body that wasn't her own.
The AI told the fans what they wanted to hear. It said the things LightnSound wanted to hear. What had been programmed. And nocreature knew she was inside.
That it was not her.
That she had no choice.
The End
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I haven't been commenting on this because I'm very busy writing a report for uni, but now that it's over I feel like I need to say something even if it's not my full thoughts.
Long story short: I absolutely love this. I love what you did with the setting, Neon Clove is immediately really likeable and you did an amazing job setting up the intrigue, as well as the general sense of unease and tension at every moment in the story.
The ending is also phenomenal. Stern Label's fate strikes a perfect balance of catharsis and horror that makes the line "what she had done could be considered monstrous by some. But to her, it was simply her due." Actually feel earned. Ending with Stern Label's POV was genuinely haunting in a way that I was not prepared for.
"Clover chuckled"
"Clove chuckled"?
And finished, after some other things coming up and inducing a pause! Well, there were a few little twists in that one, weren't there? :D
An interesting story here; thank you for writing!
edit:
...Though I'm still not sure what was going on with the way Neon Clove referred to Twilight Sparkle in Chapter 3 vs. Chapter 4...
Well, it was good, but it leave a little to imagination like if Sweetie is going to join Twilight or if the people is going to do anything about it after they see the truth like riot or something
Glad I read this, I haven't seen a cyberpunk inspired story on here until now (not that I was searching, new way they do tags ruined fimfic for me)
Love the idea of playing with the idea of what mega-corps are willing to do to people, wished it was a little longer but I'm just itching for more stories (I kinda got spoiled by your 10k word average on sweetie belle chronicles)
Thanks for writing this, really well done with a sweet ending
11816254 lol tbh it would have gone a lot longer I think, but I had to constrain it down to these many words for the contest and even then had to triple-check if they would still accept it with a few extra words in.
11816279
lol, that explains why i felt the story was moving faster than you'd normally write it, if the limit was around 20k words, thats less than 2 full chapters from you usually.
If its alright to ask, how do you keep the drive to keep writing, I try and sit down and just belt out what i can, just to get something on paper so if i come back to it i can remember what i was thinking at the time, but i still can't actually write to save my life (4 years of English classes taught me that very well) even though i can come up with a rough idea, get a conflict that challenges (or doesnt) the characters, and start drawing up an outline, but when i try putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) i just end up burning out after 30 minutes. Is it just diligence and trying to work on a story for 30 minutes every day even if you don't feel like it, or is it just repetition of writing so much that it comes to you naturally after a point?
11820496
All of it, honestly. If I stop for a period of time, it takes a lot of effort to get rolling again. But I do try to write a little every day, and usually I see that habit pay off. This story was particularly fun to write, and kept challenging me because I had a time limit and to cut down a lot, so that kept me at it. I try not to outline too much, personally, that just seems stifling... maybe try your hand at a fun little project, and just have an idea on how you want it to generally go and write that for a while a bit every day, but having fun. Who knows, it might take you to unexpected places :)
11820508
That is honestly terrifying how quickly you responded when it says you were offline for almost an hour before I posted my comment, but thank you for the suggestions.
I think i'll try writing what i can, I already have a rough idea, a start and an end point, and the 3 main characters, i doubt it'll be 'fun' for me as writing is for you since anything i do i have to be satisfied with, mostly stemming from the fact that i was the embodiment of "if you want something done right, do it yourself" growing up, and writing is not my strong suit.
But thanks again
Holy HELL that went DARK! I LOVE IT! ^.^