Aftersound

==============================

Written by: Oneimare & Geka

Preread and edited by: Jay Tarrant, IAmApe

==============================

Do equinoids dream of electric sheep?

==============================

A deep sigh escaped my mouth—neither of relief nor exasperation; something inbetwixt with a distinct note of annoyance. First—Trixie, then this...

Rainbow’s eyes left my face and her resolute expression wavered as she looked past me, gaining a guilty quality. I followed her gaze to find concerned and curious muzzles peering at us from behind the rusted metal.

“You can come out, girls,” I called.

The trio, their ears plastered to skulls, hesitantly approached us, led by the nervously defiant Flower; a pale Delight and apprehensive Wire trailed behind her. Trixie still stood afar from us, worry etched into her face-mask, and seemed to be slowly backing away from the clearing.

A heavy silence hung in the air, everypony shifting anxiously.

“What’s going to happen next?” I asked the question that had been on every mind.

Something was telling me that whatever plans I had didn’t matter anymore and Rainbow and I weren’t going to just shake each other’s hooves and call it a night.

It was her who spoke, frowning, “My order was to retrieve an ‘invaluable equinoid’, undamaged and at any cost. I didn’t know it was going to be you, nor did I expect to be attacked by the locals and take casualties. And now the Command Centre isn’t answering my transmissions.”

“Maybe Chrysalis thinks you betrayed her.” I huffed at the irony of my words.

Rainbow shot me a tired glare and muttered, “My armour would have shut down if that were the case. I think she wants to see what happens next. Between you and me.”

“Great, now I’m being watched by the changeling queen.”

“I believe she has been watching you already, or I of all the guards wouldn’t be here.” She looked around warily. “One thing I can tell you with certainty—we need to leave the combat area right now.”

I copied her motion, but the mounds of metal refuse revealed nothing to me; the settling darkness didn’t help, nor had I noticed Pepper’s gang before.

Seeing my restlessness, Rainbow explained, “My squad hasn’t returned to base—we need to retrieve the body. At the same time, we can’t linger at the Edge for too long—the last thing I, or any of you, want is the TCE sniffing around.”

Unable to argue with her logic, I turned to Flower, who took a few seconds of me intently looking at her to get the hint.

“Doesn’t seem like I have many choices,” she grumbled, eyeing Rainbow dirtily. “Though, I have no idea how you’re all planning to fit in—there wasn’t that much space for me and Delight already.”

“That’s because your shack is full of junk,” the pegasus in question wryly commented.

“They are components!”

“Nah, it’s garbage,” Wire quipped, joining the squabble and the girls began to exchange verbal jabs as they headed away from the clearing.

Rainbow left last, pausing by the fallen Guard’s armour and when she had caught up with us, she offered Delight a first-aid kit.

“For your wing,” she said. “And for your service to the Crown.”

Del warily accepted the plastic box and glanced at me in confusion, but my eyes were on her burnt Moth mark. What would she think? Yet, she didn’t press the issue, rummaging through the bandages and ointments instead.

The fierce bickering ahead of me died out and Flower left Wire to angrily stomp forward as she slowed down to come alongside me.

“What happened to you after we left?” Her voice bore as much an accusal as concern. “We expected you to take two days at most, but it’s been nine.”

“I ran into some trouble in the Tunnels.” She opened her mouth, but I foresaw that. “How have you been? Did you escape without any trouble?”

“Yup, we’ve been fine,” Flower continued in a louder voice over her shoulder, “except for Delight trying to kill me.”

“I’d like to watch how well you do a perfect landing without depth perception!” Del instantly snapped at her; however, the sparkle of mirth in her eye betrayed the wrath of her tone.

“Yeah, Flower, shut the fuck up.” Wire joined the conversation. “It’s easy for you to talk when you have both eyes.”

My gaze paused on the unicorn filly for a moment—despite my reservations, she seemed to get along with the former Moth, a caste she appeared to despise.

With her returning to navigating the corroded labyrinth and Delight wrapping her wing, mouth full, Flower was left alone and I got her attention again.

Stealing a glance at Rainbow sullenly tailing us, she whispered, “What was all that about? The Queen? The changelings?”

My jaws moved silently as I worked on the answer, keeping in mind that Rainbow, and to an extent, Chrysalis could overhear us.

“They’re the Crown and not ponies—equines who…”—my eyes jumped to Delight—”never mind. I knew their queen… once. And it wasn’t a... pleasant relationship.”

The filly pressed her lips together, glowering at me, but got no further explanations.

“Bad news, I suppose?” she conceded.

“I…” My gaze wandered to Rainbow, who met it firmly. “...don’t know.”

Unsurprisingly, my answer failed to satisfy Flower—I shared that with her.

“But that shouldn’t stop us from going to Stalliongrad, right?”

I couldn’t help but grimace—both because I expected her patience to deplete with my next words and because I didn’t like them either.

“It has to wait, anyway. I promised Trixie to… find… Princess Luna.”

Yet I feared in vain as she asked, excited and curious, eyes like two moons, “One of the Princesses is alive?”

We both started as without any warning Rainbow materialised to our left, commenting, “It is very noble of you, but I don’t think there is anything left to look for.”

“She is alive, apparently,” I retorted, unsure of my own words.

“If she were alive, perhaps I wouldn’t be taking orders from Queen Chrysalis.”

Just as startling, an arcanium form emerged from the shadows to our right, softly uttering, “I’ve seen her myself.”

Both Trixie and Rainbow stopped short and I pressed my hoof into Flower’s chest, forcing her to back down with me.

“Trixie Lulamoon,” Rainbow said slowly and carefully. “I’ve wanted to meet you ever since I learned about what you’ve done.”

The air betwixt them practically buzzed with tension, yet Trixie remained silent, her face-mask bearing only the tiniest hints of emotion—fear and guilt.

“You won us the war,” Rainbow suddenly said. “It may have taken you some time to figure where your loyalties lay, but you made the right choice in the end. I can respect that.”

With that Rainbow extended her hoof towards Trixie, which she hesitantly and gingerly shook.

I squinted at them, but Rainbow feigned obliviousness, whilst Trixie silently returned the unspoken question with a look she had a moment ago—consternation.

She and I were so going to talk about that.

The moment we reached Flower’s sordid dwelling, Wire disappeared inside with Del short to follow. Flower remained in the doorway, waiting impatiently.

“I’ll stand guard outside,” Rainbow announced and trotted to the hill from where I saw the Canterlot for the first time.

“And I want to check something,” Trixie said. She then addressed the filly, much to her discomfort, “Tin Flower, right? Do you know where that psycho with the gun lived?”

Flower didn’t question her reasons, hastily explaining, “Between the nearest smelter and the old camp. It’s the most decent looking shed—can’t miss it.”

A relieved sigh left her lips when Trixie dissolved into the shadows and she motioned me inside. I glanced at the angled silhouette dark against the never-waning neon and accepted her invitation.

My body hadn’t fully passed the doorway when two hooves—one metal—wrapped themselves tightly around my neck.

“I’m so happy you are back, Twilight,” Flower whispered in my ear.

The sudden affection caught me off-guard and I stood petrified until I felt eyes boring in me—Delight’s. Awkwardly, I returned the hug.

Yet, it wasn’t only the pegasus who glowered at me from the jittering shadows.

Wire barked, “I’m definitely not.”

Flower’s hoof scraped my chest with a few sparks flying away—so hard she whipped around.

“Twilight saved us, idiot,” she snarled. “Twice.”

The unicorn spoke levelly, yet her eyes glowed with fury—one virtually.

“She saves us from the troubles she creates for us. And now she has brought the fucking Crown to our doorsteps.”

“They’re on our side!”

In her ire, Flower failed to notice my doubtful look.

“Grow up—they’re on nopony’s side.” Wire’s muzzle twisted in not as much as disappointment. “You forget who is on ours.”

The filly winced, momentarily slumping, ears drooping, then, taking a step toward her friend, hissed, “Yeah, rub it in, Wire, I love it so much when you remind me about that.”

Wire regarded the shivering Flower coolly for a long moment and her expression became that of disdain.

“I thought you were only a proud fool, but it is even worse. Don’t expect me to sit idly by when you try to sacrifice my family for a machine.”

A sniff came from Flower—her face was turned away from me. Yet, as she took another step closer to Wire, her low voice bore the sharp ice of winter’s breath.

“Then why don’t you go home, look your mother in her ey—”

A hurt growl silenced the sound of sunlight flaring from Wire’s horn, but that spell never found its target.

With a thunderous clap, my magic dissipated the attack and the unicorn fell back, grimacing from the backlash. As I stood betwixt the girls, my horn bathing them in purple radiance, they stared at me, stunned, their quarrel forgotten.

“Whatever this is about, you two stop immediately,” I said in a tone that allowed no excuses. Glaring at each in turn, I demanded. “Care to explain?”

“Fuck you,” Wire snapped.

Yet, she withered as the light of my horn cast a shadow on her face. Flower refused to look me in the eye and kept her lips tightly sealed.

After giving them a full minute to speak up, I answered their silence:

“I’ll take it as ‘we’re going to have a long chat later’. Now, sleep on that and don’t even try to start a fight again.”

The fillies didn’t go to rest, but sulked into opposite corners of the shack, shooting each other angry looks and occasionally at me, mixed with wariness. Ignoring that, but still keeping an eye on their movements and Wire’s horn, I approached Delight who stood by the workbench throughout the whole conflict like it hadn’t happened.

The interior of the shack bore the signs of attempts to clean it up, however futile in the end. A sheet of dirty cloth now flapped over the once empty window and the working table had the corpse of an equinoid replaced by a small crystal-powered stove; a sooty pot bubbled, emanating the musty smell of mushrooms.

The pegasus fretted over it, trying to empty a can of discoloured carrots into the gurgling gruel. I watched her struggle for a bit, then the soft glow of my magic tapped the bottom of the rusted tin and the block of slimy vegetables flopped into the ‘witch’s cauldron’ with an utterly abominable sound.

She barely managed to dodge the splash, grimacing as her culinary masterpiece did manage to land on her coat, and scowled at me.

I met her annoyance with a frown of my own and a comment, “I could have used some help with Wire.”

Delight’s expression softened and she pretended to be very interested in the empty can.

“It can’t be helped, I’m afraid.”

Betwixt the changelings ruling Equestria, Rainbow enforcing that and the enigmatic dark mage demanding I deal with Nightmare Moon, I had no capacity to deal with two fillies acting half their age.

Shoving that issue to the bottom of my priority list, I was left with the sight of my friend forlornly trying to combine inedible ingredients into a resemblance of a meal.

Her coat couldn’t be called pristine when I met her, but the Junkyard had done everything possible to mar it with rust and grime. Yet she still had to wear rags—to disguise herself; her plumage already worked on keeping her warm. Only her mane retained the touch of civilization; I suspected Wire’s involvement—the unicorn certainly cared about hers.

“Del, are you alright?” I quietly asked, coming closer.

Slightly leaning away, she shifted her wing with a wince.

“The Crown’s medicine does wonders—they sure spare no expense on their own.”

Her voice held surprisingly little acidity, proportional to a somewhat haunted look in her eyes and hidden behind tense nonchalance. I continued to peer at her until she finally met my eyes and relaxed—deflated—with a defeated sigh.

“What I wouldn’t give for a warm shower and decent meal,” she muttered with a crooked smile and pressed her lips together. “But I got used to it.”

Another step brought me to her side and I offered my shoulder. Dubious support, but Del accepted it nonetheless.

“You know, after an entire life in the city, spending a week in the company of just two fillies is so refreshing,” the pegasus murmured by my ear; yet any positivity her words held vanished as she added, “Taking care of Flower and Geode has almost made me regret becoming a Moth.”

She met my confused look with a hollow chuckle.

“I suppose we share that emptiness.”

A strangled gasp left my lips when the realisation finally hit me. Delight paid it no attention, bitterly whispering, “But it’s for the better—nobody should suffer this city.”

However, as she scowled at nothing, eyes glistening, I couldn’t help but remember Svarka beaming with hope, to hear Spike’s agonised howls once again.

My sombre silence hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Are you alright, Twilight?” When I failed to answer, Delight added with a flick of her ear. “You’ve been away and… there’s something different about you now. Not that it’s a bad thing.”

“How so?”

She tilted her head, blinking.

“How am I different, I mean?”

Del smirked but slyness faded from her tone as she spoke, “You let yourself be called Twilight, for starters. Flower tried to explain to me your change… of mind, but I’d prefer to hear it from you. If you’re willing, of course.”

My nod was mostly absent-minded as I found myself lacking the clarity Flower apparently had.

Instead of patiently waiting for me to gather my thoughts, Delight returned to cooking or, rather, removing the pot from the stove to distribute its contents betwixt three bowls; the last metal dish having less poured into it.

She carried the bowls to the fillies, who eagerly accepted their suppers, mumbling thanks as they dug in. In no time, they, avoiding doing so at the same time, returned the empty bows and shuffled back, burrowing into the rags that served them as bedding.

We didn’t have to wait long for soft snores to start echoing through the shed and only then did the pegasus take her share to the lantern by the window.

Even as she sat there, quietly slurping her meal in the dim orange light, the breeze playing with the strands of her mane, I struggled to come up with what to say.

Her wing put the now empty bowl aside, and Delight saved me from my silence becoming awkward as I had no excuses left to continue to maintain it.

“Something happened in the Tunnels. Or the Archives.” She blushed. “I slept through it.”

“It is both and more. I’ve come to terms with what my memory anchor entails. With it, I’m Twilight Sparkle, without it—a lifeless automaton, at best.”

Delight frowned, digesting my words, then looked at me sympathetically.

“You’ve got it so hard. The normal…” My eyebrow raised. “Er… regular equinoids… It’s just like waking from a dream for them.”

I gave her a curious look.

What had Svarka dreamt of before she escaped? Adamant? Litany or Alnico?

Smiling melancholically, Del explained, “When I was a filly, I used to bug one working at the Thunderspire. She told me the memories of her anchor were vague, almost as if they’d completely faded, but they were still able to fool her into thinking she had lived for years.” The pegasus snorted. “A very boring, dull life. She eventually ran away.”

“My anchor is vivid dreams and nightmares,” I murmured as much to myself as to her. “And it’s incomplete. Twilight’s life—my life now… You’ve heard that recording—she grew old.”

Delight considered my words before replying, “So, you are set on collecting the rest of your crystals?”

I shook my head, ruefully. “I don’t think there are any more left.”

For a time only the gentle breaths of Flower, Wire and the night’s wind disturbed the silence. Then, Delight said, tentatively:

“Maybe... maybe you don’t need them.”

“How am I to figure out who I am then?”

“Like all of us do?”

The events of the day took as much a toll on the mellow pegasus as on the fillies, if not more—the Edge had no mercy for newcomers and she’d also suffered a wound.

Gracing me with a kind smile—and unintentional wide yawn—she crossed the room to leap onto the top of the rack, into a nest of rags and loose feathers. Her single eye peered from the shadows as if asking me, “What?”

I couldn’t stop the grin from claiming my muzzle—the pegasi and their habits.

As night’s cold nipped on uncovered limbs and patches of coat, Flower and Wire twitched in their delves into the Dream Realm.

Who guarded children against nightmares? Did she visit her domain anymore?

If I were to sleep would she come to me?

My body didn’t need any rest, but my mind might. Yet as my eyelids fell and I waited, my awareness refused to cede to subconsciousness. It only focused on reality harder, listing question after question.

Restless and light on my hooves, I exited the shack to enter the night.

The storms raging around the Spires dissipated, letting the Moon bathe Canterlot in its gentle glow. But the city rejected it, forcing out the moonlight with multi-hued neon; it blinded even the stars and they burrowed themselves into the darkness of the firmament.

Yet Canterlot churned with life under the abandoned sky. A cruel joke—ponies had finally begun to appreciate Luna’s night but turned it into a nightmare and she had become one again.

Each step felt heavier than the last and my hooves moved slower and slower as I neared the dark form cutting against the rainbow-coloured cityscape. Countless words sprung into my mind, but none was right—what could I say to her?

Rainbow absolved me of that decision, as she half-turned her head to regard me with the reflection of Canterlot’s lights on her visor.

“You’re not Twilight Sparkle,” she uttered impassively, though a bit sadly.

I took a step back, but recovered almost instantly, bristling.

“You should stop eavesdropping—you aren’t that good at it.”

Her airfoils rustled as she shrugged and retorted, annoyed, “I didn’t pay attention to what you talked about with that Moth.”

“Her name is Clandestine Delight,” I coolly corrected. “And your queen has abandoned her.”

“Just another name,” she sighed and returned to watching over the city.

My stomps carried me to her side so I could glare at her wooden face.

Whilst the runes etched into her armour, similar to those the behemoth from the Deep Tunnels had, gave an inkling of how her body had defied the river of time, the bags under her eyes betrayed that no mind could escape paying the tithe of living.

“Then why would you care if I took Twilight’s?” I barked. “And what makes you think I am not her?”

I might as well have been yelling at a statue. But she winced at a particular word, when I continued, “I have all her memories from before the trial. Who does that make me, if not Twilight Sparkle?”

Rainbow gave me a long dark look.

“You have her voice but don’t speak like her; don’t act the same. Even move differently.” Almost intelligibly, she grumbled, “And I never said I cared.”

“My body is fully-metal if you haven’t noticed. Nor do you really match the Rainbow from my memories.”

It was her turn to raise her hackles, glaring daggers at me.

“I’ve spent four centuries in this nightmare, trying to make it a dream. What is your excuse?” she snapped. “You may as well have slept all that time and should have woken up as the Twilight Sparkle you were at the... the trial.”

Her words poured oil on the fire—because they couldn’t be denied.

I took a deep breath to come up with a counter-argument as much as to assert control over my volume—my plans for the night didn’t include waking up the girls.

My voice, low and icy, came almost like a hiss, “So, you want that depressed wreck of a mare instead? I didn’t return yesterday, I’ve been here for almost two weeks.”

She fell silent again, longer this time, staring at me with an inscrutable expression, then finally scowled and turned away.

“If you’re still trying to convince me you’re Twilight, it’s not working,” she said in that hollow tone tinged with melancholy.

My eyes continued to bore into her, but she paid no heed to my glower, lips pressed tight and her hard gaze transfixed on the blinking lights of Canterlot.

“Is there even any point?” I spat and pivoted to make it back to the shed.

Yet as I took only a few steps, Rainbow’s muffled voice stopped me.

“Wait,” she called softly and hesitated before whispering, “Please, take care of her.”

At the last moment I veered from the shack, finding myself reluctant to challenge the reign of quiet snores. Rainbow hadn’t claimed the only vantage point and I mounted the crest of another hill.

Canterlot offered its sinistrous vista and I begrudgingly took the offer. Yet my eyes unfocused and the metal features of my face scraped against one another as they formed a frown.

It didn’t feel right; not my conversation with Rainbow, not only.

Twilight would have cared about a chance of Luna’s return, and about the changelings puppeteering Equestria for ages. I couldn’t even emulate those feelings—some part of me reacted to those facts, a candle in the night, steadily waning with each moment I made a decision.

Could she be right?

I almost smacked myself; that would have hardly helped, of course, but the intent itself brought enough clarity to my mind. Save for the ‘adventure’ after the Archives, I had spent almost two weeks ceaselessly creating problems for myself and getting into troubles of scale too large for one pony… or equinoid.

A moment of respite was in order.

Letting the metal curtains of my eyelids hide the theatre of nightmares, I took a deep breath that filled no lungs. Then exhaled.

With my focus on that action only, I played with the fan in the pipe faking a thorax, blowing chill night air back and forth.

Sleep never came, but my worries found no purchase in my consciousness either.

My body had become a statue, aware of its surroundings, but caring none.

However, it couldn’t fail to pay attention to how the clouds begrudgingly woke from their somnolence and blotted the sky, soaking in the sickly newborn dawn and getting back to the routine of harassing the Spires.

The night yielded, yet a patch of darkness remained. It hid inside the carcass of arcanium, animating it with nervous movements that carried it across the sea of rotting metal.

I observed as Trixie approached Rainbow, carefully carrying a roll of paper in her mouth. She unrolled it upon a shiny metal crate, and together they hunched over it.

Curious, I left my post, both wondering about Trixie’s bounty and eyeing the box.

A pair of changelings clad in a lighter, less imposing and loud, version of armour had brought it not long before the sunrise. The way they dissolved into the shadows suggested an invisibility spell.

Whilst Trixie acknowledged my approach with a “Good morning,” Rainbow only spared me a glance.

“Decided to join us in our little brainstorm?” the Former One continued.

The blueprint presented me with a mess of lines, perfect and straight, but numerous and complex beyond even the convolution posed by the cybersuit. The device suggested a sheer system of wires connected to the coils powered by a series of magic crystals, but my knowledge, which had fallen behind for a few centuries, failed to derive more from the schematic.

The riddle absorbed me so deeply, I noticed Flower by my side only when she spoke.

“I’d seen Peps hammering away at it. These coils work as magnets, sucking in metal and pushing it into the next coil. The trick is in setting them to power up at the precise time—now I know why she needed that old wave generator.”

Stupidly simple. Ridiculously elegant. Insanely deadly.

Even Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow in concern and broke the silence:

“A gun powerful enough to rip through enchanted arcanium like wet paper. It’s silent, can use any metal crap for ammo and on top of that doesn’t need any complex enchantments to be produced,” she icily stated.

“And it makes no sense for this to be found in this shithole of all places in the city,” Trixie commented. Glancing at Flower, she mumbled, “No offence, kid.”

The filly rolled her eyes. “None taken, old fart.”

“It’s because this place is a shithole nobody cares that the TCE tests their projects here.” Rainbow’s voice then turned into a growl. “The Crown has gotten soft—the Edge could be hiding more weapons like this. We have to make it to Nightmare Moon and back as soon as possible.”

Eyes shot up to her from the blueprint, my included.

“Chrysalis is letting us go to her?” I blurted, staring at her.

“It’s ‘Queen Chrysalis’,” she half-heartedly barked at me, but her eyes blazed with fury then she added, hissing, “The Command Centre confirmed your intel.”

Interestingly, it didn’t seem like she aimed her wrath at me. Still, I screwed my face in distaste and confusion.

“Have you asked your Queen what her death wish is? Or does she know something we don’t?”

My squinted eyes bore into Rainbow’s stone face with no effect, though fire continued to rage in her gaze stubbornly glued to some point above my head.

“I don’t question my orders,” she deadpanned.

I peered at her through the tiniest slits that my eyes had turned into.

“What are your orders exactly?”

“The retrieval of an invaluable equinoid.” Despite her best efforts, her muzzle scrunched by itself. “But you’re to come to the Hive of your own volition.”

My voice and face reached the limit of the suspicion they could express, which was only a fraction of what I felt.

“It’s one of her traps, isn’t it?”

To Rainbow’s credit, she finally managed to get full control over her face and tone, becoming a very convincing ponnequin. “In the case you decide to embark on the journey, I’m to assist you.”

“So, I’m in charge?”

“No.”

The girls’ whispers by the door grew loud enough to get my attention, and in time—Flower timidly came to my side; giving her friends another unsure glance, she asked:

“Can we go with you?”

Even though I lacked a throat, her words made me choke.

“Absolutely not!”

To my surprise, Rainbow dryly commented, “Those ponies are witnesses not just for the Crown, but in the eyes of the TCE as well. There’s a high chance you won’t find them here when we return.” She clenched her jaws before grimly adding, “One way or another.”

The girls stared at me wide-eyed, whilst I glared at Rainbow in despisal.

“What choice do I have in all this, again?”

“None.”

Author's Note

Special thanks to Jay Tarrant.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this story so far.

If you notice any mistakes sneaked in through the editing, let me know.

Stay awesome.