Vinyl was a little surprised when she was questioned, it was rather brief. She and Celestia talked for a while, discussing everything she’d done as far as she could remember. She only remembered the month since she woke up like she is and she’d done little more than run and fight for her life in that time.

“You said earlier that you knew you weren’t in the right, I assume you meant being a Seeker. Tell me then, Vinyl, what do you want to do? I’ve come to the conclusion that you are neither an enemy or a threat, so all Seeker records will be updated with your description and your harmless status.” Celestia explained as they finished up Vinyl’s past.

“I don’t think I can have a ‘normal life’, even if I were to remember everything… I want to find out who I was and I’d like to help the Chasers. The main advantage that Seekers have is the abilities and augments to collect, analyze and spread information. I can help with that, not to mention the fact that I’m still technically a Seeker and the fact that I can handle myself in a fight…” Vinyl explained after a few moments of thought. Twilight and Celestia looked happy with that.

“Information and working as a double agent is all fine, but I want to see just how well you can handle yourself in a fight. I am the head of the Chasers, I will evaluate you and decide if you can do what needs to be done. If you do, you will have access to all of our resources in return and you may have access to our archives and records.” Luna said with a neutral tone, but she wasn’t cold about it this time. She was professional.

“Well she has quite the arsenal.” Twilight said.

“I discover more of it as time goes on.” Vinyl said with a little smile.

“What does that mean?” Luna asked as she motioned with her head for them to follow. Celestia sat down in the chair behind the desk in the room while Twilight and Vinyl followed.

“When I sleep, my senses continue gathering information and what they sense is what I dream. What also happens is that all of my augments run self scans and diagnostics for anything out of the ordinary, and every now and then I notice something I hadn’t before.” Vinyl explained.

“Like what?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll show you when we have room.” Vinyl replied. Luna led them into the massive yard, where a few guards and Chasers were loitering about or sparring.

“Well let’s see this new discovery.” Luna said, curious. Twilight had excused herself momentarily to grab her gear when they were walking and had now returned with the large cases from before.

“I think they’re based off of experimental technology because I’ve never even seen them in the Seeker databases.” Vinyl said. She closed her eyes in concentration and her body shifted. A dark purple tinted, angled visor slid over the top half of her face and a matching biometal panel slid over the rest; creating a sort of helmet. Parts of her legs moved down to her feet to seemingly create boots.

The most drastic change, though, was what looked like her spine splitting in half and extending outward a bit. What seemed to be biometal spines shot out of the two halves, creating a very basic and angular set of wing frames. Energy emitters in the spine halves filled in the empty space with what Twilight and Luna recognized as an experimental energy surface that creates lift. It was essentially hover technology, but if manipulated correctly she could probably fly with practice.

“That looks like my SPIKE gear… I thought I was the only one who had perfected the prototype.” Twilight said. Vinyl and Luna looked over to see Twilight opening the largest of the cases to reveal what Vinyl had thought was biometal armor before. She put it all on and it turned out to be somewhat similar to Vinyl’s setup.

Everything was connected to the ‘spine’ of the thing, which Twilight had put on resembling a corset. She pulled on gauntlets and boots and the Helmet, which could all retract into the torso of the thing.

“Supplementary Personal Imitation Kalon Exoskeleton, or SPIKE. It’s an ultra lightweight system meant to match a Seeker’s mobility.” Twilight continued. “I work it all with magic akin to Cybermancy, but I imagine you work your setup as if it was just another part of your body.” She continued. Vinyl nodded and let everything return to its place.

“Well, I suppose that is quite impressive. Now let’s see how you fare in a fight.” Luna said, calling over one of the more middle aged Chasers. He took up a fighting stance and Vinyl stood in front of him.

“Are you not going to ready yourself?” The man asked.

“I am ready.” Vinyl replied. The man shrugged and began. He started out with a series of quick strikes and jabs to prod the girls defenses, in which she avoided every single one. She refrained from physical contact with him as she evaded even his more aggressive strikes.

“Why aren’t you blocking or counterattacking?” He asked after a moment of inaction.

“I don’t know what I’m capable of, and flesh is so fragile compared to biometal.” Vinyl replied. Twilight rolled her eyes and waved the man off, taking his place. She, like Vinyl, didn’t take much of a stance.

“Just don’t hit my face or my heart and you won’t really hurt me.” The girl said. Vinyl smiled and nodded. They sort of stared at each other for a little while before the two exploded into action. It was almost like a television show, strikes and kicks and jabs flung and blocked or deflected almost too fast for the others to see.

It was protocol for Seeker engagement to never engage in hand to hand without special training, only the elite of the Chasers like Twilight could even hope to keep up with the artificial speed and strength; and most needed augments of their own in order to do so. It finally ended when, in the blink of an eye, Vinyl had caught every attack that was thrown at her and she had Twilight in a hold that would have shattered the bones of any normal human. Twilight’s augments audibly creaked under the immense tension and pressure.

“Alright, you win.” Twilight said with a slightly pained chuckle. Vinyl let the girl go and helped her to her feet.

“I am so glad that wasn’t me…” The man from before said, his tone saturated with relief.

“Well, Vinyl, it would appear that you are on par with our top agents. If your hand to hand is so impressive I can assume you’re just as proficient with the rest of your arsenal. I will not stop you if you want to take on a Chaser’s duties, if you choose this path then you will be under Twilight’s command. She is our best agent when it comes to subterfuge.” Luna explained, turning to Twilight.

“Since this isn’t my home I have no say in whether you stay or not, but I believe nothing would be gained if you were forced out. I bid thee good day, and you have shown me that it was nice meeting you. I have a few things I have to take care of away from home.” She continued, turned around and left.

“Exactly whose home is this?” Vinyl asked, more to herself really. She assumed it was either Celestia’s or Luna’s.

“Mine, but I gave it to the Princesses to be Chaser HQ. Come on then, I’ll show you to the archives where you can do your own research on who you were. I need to go through my practice routine. I have an assignment tonight, and if you’re up to it you should come with me. I could use your arsenal and your skills.” Twilight replied as she started walking.

“What kind of assignment?” Vinyl asked.

“Come with me and I’ll brief you en route.” Twilight said, opening a door to reveal a library of books and servers. “I imagine anything you’ll be looking for is on the server databases, though the books are free game too. These are connected to the Guard and Police databases as well, so I wouldn’t advise altering anything or trying to access anything you can’t easily hack into if need be.” She explained.

“Thank you, and I think I will join you. At the very least I owe you for not blowing my head off.” Vinyl said, earning a chuckle from Twilight.

“Alright, I’ll come find you in a few hours then. The guards of the house have been told of your situation so they shouldn’t be hostile so if you want to explore go ahead… just don’t try getting into locked rooms.” Twilight continued. Vinyl nodded and Twilight went back from where they came. As she sat down she pulled something small, resembling a flash drive, from a port under her ear and placed it into the computer. She closed her eyes and focused on this new database. It was massive, even with her information gathering skills and augments it could take days to comb through the entire thing and all of its connection, weeks even. She didn’t let that get her down, though, as she started searching through it.

“Find anything?” Twilight’s voice startled Vinyl as the sun had started its descent. She opened her eyes and looked over to the doorway as her other senses quickly returned to her.

“Nothing of note, what is that?” Vinyl replied, eyeing the two large steaming bowls the girl had in her hands. If her stomach could it would be growling.

“Stew, I’m a pretty good cook. You do eat, right?” Twilight answered, offering one of the bowls. Vinyl pulled her wireless link from the computer, replaced it and cautiously accepted the bowl. Vinyl didn’t remember seeing anything that looked or smelled so good, just what she could find or buy on the streets.

“I do, though while I still feel hunger and thirst like you I only need it about a fourth as often… Doesn’t mean I won’t thank you for this, though.” Vinyl said, tasting the meat and vegetables soaking in the warm and fragrant broth. It was the best thing she’d ever tasted, and her expression probably showed it as they sat down at one of the few tables to eat; Twilight was giggling.

“I didn’t know I was THAT good a cook.” She said. Vinyl gave her a sheepish grin, already halfway finished before Twilight had barely started.

“While it is amazing, don’t get me wrong, two weeks without anything but a starving rat burned nearly to charcoal to burn away the filth and anyone would have killed for less…” Vinyl said. Twilight gave her a strange look.

“You’d think the Seekers would feed their own…” She said softly, shaking her head.

“I ran away from them when I found that man. Neither of us remembered our names… He called me Vinyl, and I called him Sam. For the first week it wasn’t Chasers chasing us. We found each other the day I woke up.” Vinyl explained softly, setting her spoon down in the empty bowl.

“If you didn’t remember that you weren’t a Seeker, why did you run?” Twilight asked after a moment.

“That’s the thing, I knew it was all wrong. What little I saw of them I knew I shouldn’t be with them, and I knew everything was wrong with my body. You might be able to understand, because of what you went through, but… the thing is… I don’t even know if I still have a real heart under all of this biometal. I don’t know if I’m 100% artificial or not. I don’t know if I have a real brain in my head or if they somehow transcribed my very being into some super advanced AI system that makes me think normally… And you saw that I’m still discovering more about my body that I had no idea was there… do you know how scary that is? Not knowing anything about your own body?” Vinyl continued solemnly.

“... I don’t know, they honestly did very little to me… But I do understand, at least a little bit… That’s why I didn’t blow your head off, I imagined if the situation was reversed and I couldn’t bring myself to do it even though you were a Seeker…” Twilight said. Vinyl smiled slightly and stood.

“I have a feeling I’ll find who I was and figure out everything that I am now eventually… for now, I’m going to make the best of it.” She said. Twilight smiled and quickly finished the rest of her meal and took the bowl from Vinyl.

“If you still intend to join me tonight then be on the roof in half an hour. I’ll brief you then.” The girl said and turned.

“I’ll be there.” Vinyl said. Twilight smiled as she left, glancing back at Vinyl before she went past the door. Vinyl was looking at her hands. She really did have no idea what was left of her flesh and blood, if there was any at all. She resigned to think about that later, though, and decided to try and find her way to the roof.

Author's Note

I'm having fun with this, hopefully you guys are two. The end bit was a bit fast, but I'm trying to experiment with playing with tones and emotions expressed to try and give the scenes a bit more of a dynamic variation.
what do you guys think? and as always, if you're going to leave a dislike then please let me know why you think it deserves a dislike