Rarity tapped away at her keyboard, she needed to finish her report before she could leave her office for the testing and then she could take a break and grab some lunch. She was busy and it was to be expected when a mare ran a multi-billion bit company, Back when she had first met Twilight her most remarkable invention had been a remote control 4 wheeled cart that ran on electrical power instead of magic, Twilight, like most, thought it was a cute idea but felt magic was far more reliable, as time had gone on she had gone up in the world until the day it had happened, Queen Chrysalis had infiltrated and replaced her with a changeling, one who had no idea how her inventions functioned and Sweetie had called it on it's bluff, and almost paid with her life for doing so. Rarity had arrived home to find her sister's beaten and mangled body on the floor, she'd spent the next month and a half putting her back together, and Sweetie bot Model I was born, three years later Sweetie bots Model was now at XVII, With Sweetie bot came the birth of Rarity's company, founded for a single reason, to make sure her sister was the best version of herself that she could be.
Now a days Rarico was a name brand that could be found in almost every home in Equestria, from Cellular device to Entertainment cubes, every now and again she would have meting with important ponies and none ponies alike, from Shining Armor looking into Robotic Exo-suits for Equestria's Military to Thorax asking her for the millionth time how to send cute cat pictures to Spike over his phone. Rarity was on her way to oversee the testing of the newest Robotic Prosthetic limbs when a loud bang caught her attention, one of her assistants has slammed the door of her office open and was in a cold sweat, Rarity was feared by her staff so for one to burst in she knew there was an emergency,
"Code red?" She asked as she got up "Fire alarm failure, is Blue blood outside again?" The assistant pointed feebly.
"There...there..there was an accident," She said, fearing Rarity's reaction when she heard what happened. "The Science lab was testing your formula for the new plasma beams and one of the Flasks broke,"
"WHAT!?" Rarity asked, her voice echoing with fear "Casualty report! How many..." the assistant turned white.
"Only one," She said "The Flask cracked and the entire team started freaking out...then...then..." The assistant took a deep breath. "Main assistant Spike saw what was happening and had the lab evacuated, the employ holding the flash fainted and it feel and...and...and Mister Spike..." The assistant was crying both in fear of Rarity's slowly dawning realization of what she was being told and from having to relive the event "...he jumped and used himself to shield the still half full lab and...and...it exploded," Rarity said nothing as she stood in silence, staring at her assistant, tears pouring from her eyes.
"My...my Spikey Wikiey...is...is..." the assistant shook her head.
"Critical but still alive, tho he won't last long ma'am," Rarity rushed past the assistant.
"Call The Princess"
"Witch-" The assistant started.
" Any of them, ALL OF THEM!!!" Rarity yelled back as she ran full speed to the Science lab, the hallways clear and all the doors locked open, Rarity slid into the room and Found Sweetie Bot sitting next to a stretcher, the room was a mess of not only burns from the blast, but was covered in pieces of Spike, Rarity ran to the stretcher, there was a blanket over him so all Rarity could see was his head, he was breathing shallowly, he was hooked up to almost every medical machine Rarity had ever build, emergency metal lung, the tin heart and so on and didn't seem to see be aware he was awake, Sweetie looked at Rarity, her eye's glowing a deep blue, her way of crying. Rarity reached for the blanket and Sweetie held her arm up and looked away.
"Don't look," she whispered, Rarity ignored her and moved the blanket, Spike's left arm was mostly gone save a small portion still hanging onto his shoulder, his torso was ripped to shreds, Rarity could see his shredded lungs, and a ventricle that should have had his heart attached to it, his Stomach, kidneys and both small and large intestine where gone, she looked down and noticed what was really missing, Spikes lower body was no longer connected to his upper body save save some scales and flesh holding it together on his right side. His right arm was dislocated at the shoulder, the blast had probably had a heavy kick, Rarity looked down at him in silence, her hand rubbing his face, if he did see her he gave no sign, not that he could. Rarity was crying as she stood up and covered him with the blanket.
"Sweetie you can look now," she said threw the tears. Sweetie looked back at him and put her hand on his face, Rarity stood in silence for a moment.
"Computer," She said loudly, a rectangle TV came to life on the wall and a voice responded.
"Yes Miss Rarity?"
"Bring up Spike's Agreement file," The Computer was silent for a moment before responding.
"File on screen," Sweetie looked up at her.
"I thought it was against policy to bring up employee Agreement files without asking them," Rarity looked down at her.
"Sweetie do you know what the agreement file is?"
"Why should I care," Sweetie stood up, her eye's glowing both red and blue, sad and angry "Why do you care!? You should be comforting him or....or be doing something, anything!"
"Computer," Rarity called "Read Spike's file to me,"
"Spike ,The, Dragon agreement file read as such, in the case that I, Spike, lose a limb-"
"Skip to the last section" Rarity added.
"-and finally," the Computer said without skipping a beat "Should I ,Spike, get into an accident that was in no way shape or form my fault then I ,Agree, to be Robotized as a worker for the company," Sweetie eyes went from red and blue to blue and yellow, sad and confused.
"Robotized?" she asked "what the hell is that?"
"What I did to you," Rarity said simply as she held up her left arm and turned on her Watch phone, "Mr Gladstone please cancel all meeting for today and inform all employees that they are to go home and will be paid for the day,"
"yes Ma'am," A voice replied as Sweetie's eyes changed colors until they settled on Green and Blue, Happy and Sad all at one.
"You mean your going to-" Rarity looked back at her.
"You better fucking believe I'm gonna save him, Death wasn't aloud to take you and it sure the hell isn't taking my Spikey Wikey from me!"
Twilight practically broke down the door, the assistant who had called her had been a sniveling mess and almost nothing she said could be understood but the fact that an assistant had called her and not Rarity was enough to raise several red flags. The Rarico building was surround in a magical disrupter that prevented teleportation inside and outside the structure, as such it had taken Twilight almost half an hour just to get inside thanks to the idiot guard who stopped every obvious pony and other creature at the gate and tried to convince the rest that they needed to conduct a full body scan to make sure she wasn't a changeling in disguise, a time consuming and an overall pointless endeavor as the magical disruption filed prevented changelings from using the magic disguises. Having finally made it in the actual Building Twilight marched to Rarity's office and found it was empty save one assistant, who was trying to do a job Twilight knew wasn't his.
"Hey," Twilight called making the assistant jump and resulting in the mountain of papers he had been trying to pick up without dropping tumble to the floor and knock him down with it "And that is why Spike is the only assistant allowed in her," Twilight said simply "Now where's Rarity, or Sweetie Bot?" She demanded "I got an urgent call and-" The assistant pointed to a Picture of Sweetie from before she had become a bot, understanding Twilight walked to the picture and pressed her fingers into Sweetie's eyes, they pulled in and the wall opened up into Rarity's not so secret work shop, "Good luck filling in for Spike," Twilight called back, now believing he was in the under-lab with Rarity helping her with whatever problem had arisen. Twilight stood patiently in the elevator as is took her 9 floors down, when it came to a stop she could hear Rarity talking to Sweetie.
"Make sure all emergency power is ready to be turned on and that the back up, back up generators are ready," The elevator door opened and Twilight walked in, Rarity had all her equipment on, medical supplies was surrounding her, and a large machine in the shape of a hoop, that Twilight had always assumed was Rarity's failed attempt at teleportation without magic, was now humming with life, a Glass orb was floating in the center of it hoop and Rarity was hard at work connecting tubes and wires to something on a table.
"Rarity?" Twilight asked a she came it, Rarity turned to her friend and Twilight new something was wrong, Rarity's eyes where red from crying, she had a cut on her cheek and had bandages on her hands.
"Twilight," Rarity said "I'm gonna guess due to how well you look that my Assistant failed to tell you what was wrong?"
"What happened?"
"There was an explosion," Rarity replied "I'm setting up my Robotizer to-"
"That's what that thing is?" Twilight interrupted looking up at the hoop. "How did you hide that thing for so long?"
"Oh I didn't originally Robotized Sweetie, I made her into a cyborg, but then her living tissue started decaying underneath the metal that kept her alive so I set to work and made that, and now she's fully robotic, I'm almost ready to do the same to Spike," The was a long silence. "Oh wait I didn't tell you-"
"What?" Twilight demanded running to the room and looking at the table, Spike was laying half dead on the table, the hole in his sternum mostly full of wired and other such stuff to keep him in place. "You can't just..."
"He agreed to it, all my employees have, it's in their contracts," Twilight looked at her brother, then to Rarity.
"I don't care," She decided "I'm his sister, I'll fix him the proper way, a few spell and he'll be right as rain!"
"We don't have time for the fickleness of Magic," Rarity replied irritably "My science is flawless, Once I remove Spike's soul from his body and place it in the Soul-drive I'll have nothing but time to make him a new-"
"I'm not gonna let you pull his soul out with one of your stupid toys!" Twilight said angrily "This is serious you can't just..."
"Can't just what?" Rarity demanded "You think just cause you don't understand science that it's the wrong way? I'll remind you that my science saved my sister,"
"And you family refuses to talk to you or your sister because of that!" Twilight shot back "This is no better than raising him as a Zombie, but if I did that then I could talk to my family and convince them it was the right way!"
"How is turning him into a walking corpse better than turning him into a robot?" Rarity yelled back, Sweetie looked in to room as the two screamed at each other over who's opinion was right.
"Um," She said getting the two's attention "The Power back ups are ready, you can start the transfer," Rarity smiled.
"It dosen't matter if you think I'm right," Rarity said looking at Twilight "All that matters here is that Spike thought I was right and agreed to this," Rarity pulled on the Switch only form magic to force her hand to stop "Are you serious right now!?" Rarity demanded as Twilight lit her horn "He's already set up, not to mention that by the time you removed him he'd be dead!"
"I am not letting my brother become some wind up toy for you to play with,"
"hey!" Sweetie called back "I am right here," Twilight didn't respond.
"Well guess what?" Rarity replied "Your not to only one with Magic!" Rarity light her horn and pulled Twilight's feet out from under her Twilight's spell lost it's juice and Rarity pulled the lever, The color started fading from Spike's eyes, at the same time a green light burst to life inside the glass orb, Twilight looked at it in rage.
"If I can't stop you I'll stop your machine," She said as she lit her horn.
"Twilight wait I don't know what'll happen if your Magic touches- Twilight's spell wrapped around the orb and a mixture of magic and electricity shot threw the room, Sweetie shot forward and held up her hands, in a flash two blue shields formed from her palms and kept both of the elements away from Twilight, Rarity, and Spike's body. the color fully left Spike's eyes and the machine died down, Rarity , who had covered her face on instinct, moved her hands and looked at the Orb, Spike's green essence was flowing inside it, but there was also some sort of Blue energy in the orb with it, Twilight got up, her face glowing red, her anger died when she noticed the looks on Rarity and Sweetie's face.
"What is that?" Sweetie asked as she looked at the Blue energy swirling with Spike's.
"I..I don't know," Rarity replied as she looked at the orb "Twilight's magic mixed with the machines energy must have caused it, but I'm not sure what it is," Rarity pulled on her hair. "oh this is bad,"
"You think," Twilight demanded "You just turned my brother into...whatever the hell that is!" Twilight looked at the swirling green and blue orb as an electrical spark came off of it.
"Computer!" Rarity called, the computer on her desk came to life.
"Yes Mrs.Rarity?" It asked.
"Scan Spike's Soul Drive now," she demanded as she put on a long black glove,
"Scanning Soul Dri-" The Computer was shut off mid word, Rarity looked back at it when a Red light came from behind her, she looked at the soul drive, Spike's Green essence was glowing red there was a blinding flash and, after blinking the light from her eyes Rarity looked at the Soul drive, it was now full of Purple light.
"Computer, scan now!" She Demanded, the computer said nothing, "Computer she repeated,
"Am I?" A voice asked, the trio froze as a Purple light came off the Computer screen , "I don't feel like a Computer," Twilight was the first to react.
"Spike?" she asked
"I dunno," the voice replied "I don't feel like a Spike either," Sweetie walked past Twilight, who was in shock, While Rarity turned to the Soul Drive in deep thought, Sweetie made her way to the desk and looked at the screen, Spike's face was on in, it was glitchy, the eye's moved but the mouth didn't as it Spoke.
"Oh I think I remember you, Sweet E Bot," Spike's voice sounded like it was as broken as he looked at her, his face had cracks running threw it, one of his eye's looked like his normal one while the other was just light, to make things even harder to see he was made entirely of Purple light, he tapped his chin as he looked at her. "You seem like you have more freedom at the moment that I do," Spike suddenly vanished off the screen, his voice still echoing threw the room. "I wonder where I am?" Rarity frowned as the Purple essence went from swirling aimlessly to combining into a spear, then it had eyes and a mouth, Rarity screamed and jumped back as the tiny Spike in the ball looked at her. "Oh here I am," Spike's voice was muffled from the glass.
"What is this!?" Rarity demanded as she looked at him "Twilight what the hell did you do?"
"I don't even know what's happening right now!" Twilight replied as she walked to the orb, Spike looked at her, his head exploding into static for a moment before he pulled himself together.
"Oh now you, I definitely know you," Spike squinted then blinked "Hey where'd my arm go?" Spike lost all interest in Twilight as he tried to solve his arm problem.
"You corrupted him," Rarity whispered.
"What?" Twilight asked looking back at her,
"You dumb bitch!" Rarity got on her hooves, Twilight was taken aback and held her hands up "Your magic caused an influx in the machine and shot both a large amount of electricity and Magical energy into the orb!" She pointed to the Spike in the orb who now had a neck, "Now it's collided and fused with Spike's essence, he's not even fully Spike now, at best he has a loss concept of who Spike is,"
"Ah," The Spike replied "So that's why I don't quite feel like a Spike or a Computer," Rarity groaned.
"You and I," She said pointing to Twilight "Are going to have a serious fucking talk later, for now I have to put Spike into an Containment Cube until I can rip him out of that mess,"
"What did I do?" The Spike asked "I don't feel like I've done anything that requisitions a punishment of that degree,"
"You'll be fine," Rarity replied as she input the code to release the Soul Drive from it's hovering position "I'll keep you nice and safe, and Once I rip Spike out of that mess I'm sure the rest of you will resort back to how your suppose to be,"
"I feel like I should get a say in if I get ripped apart or not," The Spike replied.
"Well you don't" Rarity replied as she pressed enter, a large X lit up her screen "The hell?" She added as she re entered the code, another X lit up the screen, this one stayed on the screen before laughter came from the panel and the X turned purple.
"Sorry Doc." Spike said as the X turned into him "But I really think it's my choice if I live or die," Rarity took a step back as the Purple electricity sparked across the panel, She and the other two watched as The Spike in the orb laughed before turning to electricity and jumping out of the orb and into the machine, the electricity jumped form the machine to the closest light, witch turned purple before exploding, and then it was gone.
"What the fuck?" Rarity asked as she looked at the empty Soul drive "What the fuck just happened?" She turned to Sweetie who shrugged.
"I could scan for-"
"NO!" Rarity snapped "The Computer was scanning him when he jumped into it, I don't need him corrupting you,"
"What do we do then?" she asked.
"First things first we're going back to my office and informing everypony of what just happened. As this was happening the Spark that was Spike found it's way to the roof and took form, he looked like Spike, but he had cracks running all along his body, his Left arm's elbow join and a small area surrounding it was none existence his hand and the rest of the arm not attached just kind of floating in place, his tail cut off near the base leaving a small broken stump, his torso had a large jagged chunk missing from his right side, his right foot was missing one of his toes and his face was frozen in a smile, his canine teeth where fused to his lips and much longer than usual, his left eye had a crack running threw it while his Right one was just pure purple light.
"Well now," Glitch Spike said as he looked out at Ponyville in the distance "I wonder who I'll end up being?"
Author's Note
Special thanks to ZettaiDullahan for drawing Glitch Spike
"I can't believe this," Rarity muttered as she pushed the stretcher that held Spike's body into a Cryo-tub for safekeeping, even in her lab she could hear the panic above her "Dammit Twilight," She sealed the tub and headed back to the elevator, the ride back up to her office was tense, not from what she would be facing when she arrived at her destination, but because she was worried that the glitch Spike would arrive without warning. She didn't know what he could do, but the unknowable factor of adding Alicorn magic to his core was enough to make her fear him.
Across town Glitch Spike was sitting atop a building in silence, as far as he could see technology was everywhere, he could see screens in-store displays, ponies playing on their phones, talking to others, he could see the digital information flying through the air, invisible to all but him. He watched as it moved all around him, bits of code, random information, voices being digitized and transferred to phones so their friends could hear them, how long he had been there he had no idea, he felt what he figured was his brain trying to decide where he should go, what he should do when he got there, how he should arrive there, should he be hiding, should he talk to others. Spike sat in silence, so overwhelmed by choices that his immediate choice was to talk to himself. Glitch Spike began sparking as more cracks appeared on his body going in a straight line Until he had split himself into half the two halves became two entire Spikes and looked at each other.
"Witch one of us if the original?" one of them asked making the other scratch its chin in thought, resulting in sparks.
"I suppose both of us are and aren't the original," The other decided "As we are both half of it we are both half old and half new, the two stood in silence, they were exact duplicates of one another.
"Well then," The one who had spoken first said as he offered his twin the hand that was disconnected from his body, "Hello I am Spike,"
"Hello," His twin said as he used his connected arm to shack the other hand "I am Spike,"
"What should we do now?" the first Glitch Spike asked
"I am unsure," The second replies simply "You and I are the same, anything I could think of, you would also think of,"
"I was thinking of that same conundrum," The first said "Perhaps splitting me into us was the incorrect path to take?"
"I disagree, as I'm sure you do," The second said confidently "as just by us talking we have already made far more progress than when we were me,"
"Yes, but what do we do?" The first asked as it sat back in confusion, its eye's scanning the sea of code.
"Perhaps we should do all of our plans but split them as I have split into us," The 2nd decided "I shall remain here and learn what this code can teach me,"
"Then I shall go out and do what I please," The First responded simply. The Two waved and the first one walked to a powerline, the very same one it had used to get there, and turned into Purple electricity zapping away to do whatever it wanted to do, the Second looked to the code and stood in silence as it observed it's patterns and inconsistencies.
Rarity made her way out of her office and found that a fight had started in the lobby, a very mixed one it would seem.
"You should have let him rest in peace," Ember said angrily as she shoved her finger into Sweetie-Bot's chest, he hand was swatted away by Applebloom who shot back at the Dragon Lord.
"No, Twilight should have respected Spike's wishes, he agreed to be Roboticied in the event of a fatal wound, Twilight is so clearly in the wrong here!"
"It's unnatural and, disrespectful" Big mac said as he looked down at his younger sister "Just cause Rarity says it's his soul doesn't prove anything, she has never once been able to prove that the robot in front of us is actually Sweetie Belle, at the bare minimum it's a robot with her memories that thinks it's Sweetie,"
"You take that back," Scootaloo said angrily as she put her hand on Sweetie-bot "You have no right to judge what others want even if this is just a copy of Sweetie's memories it what Sweetie wanted and it's what Spike wanted! you have no right, none of you, to take that away from them,"
"As his older sister and a Princess-"Twilight tried to cut in only for both Cadance and Shinning to stand in front of her, both looking less than happy with her actions.
"As his older brother," Shinning said with Cadance jumping in.
"And as both his Friend and a Princess both me and Shinning agree that you were in the wrong here Twilight," Twilight looked shocked.
"How could you say that I could have revived him-"
"What as a Zombified head in a jar?" Shinning snapped "Sweetie told me what shape his body was in if he hadn't been missing over half his body and if he had agreed then I'd be fine with him being a Jiangshi but he agreed to be robotized like Sweetie and he was missing a large chunk of his body," Before the two groups could continue arguing Rarity, who had gotten a megaphone from one of her assistance, called out to them all.
"Alright enough fighting, We can deal with who to blame for this later, right now we need to find and detain the Glitch Spike," After nearly an hour of trying to pick groups of individuals that wouldn't fight amongst themselves Rarity found herself alone with Twilight and Sweetie, leaving them as the final group.
"Alright," She said as she looked at Twilight, who stared back at her "Follow me to my Lab you two, we're gonna try and find a way to Track it,"
Author's Note
I'm sorry this chapter is so short but it's been over a year and I think it's for the best if I just stick to shorter chapters over long chapters that take forever to come out.
Glitch Spike made his way down the power lines, his electrical body causing any electrical devices near him to start freaking out, once he was far enough away from them they went back to functioning normally, but a few of them started producing purple electrical sparks at random.
At first, Spike was simply planning on looking around the town, but it didn't take long for him to lose interest in the citizens and gain interest in the devices around him, He came to a stop near what looked to be a building filled with electrical usage and zapped out of the powerline, joining the buildings power gird and suddenly having eyes in hundreds of places as his face appeared on Tv-screens around the electronics store, causing a commotion among employee's and customers alike.
Glitch Spike looked around the store in wonder, giving none of the ponies inside so much as a passing glance and instead his many eyes look at the wonderful devices lining the walls and displayed.
"Alright, who's the wise ass?" A Pony said angrily, getting Spike's attention and causing all of his faces across the multiple screens to turn and look at him "Who's been messing with the settings?" Spike watched as the manager walked towards the stores counter, where a large Tv was hanging on the wall, "Someone's getting fired for this," The pony said as he made his way to the TV and held up a remote before he could do anything the remote erupted with electricity and the manager yowled in pain as he was tased and fell back, his hand burnt and backend as the fried remote fell to the floor.
"Did you just try to terminate me?" Glitch Spike asked, his voice coming from all the Tv-sets and even the speaker system "All I did was enter this buildings power grid, you creatures are very bloodthirsty, I have yet to do anything and this is already the 2nd time someone's tried to pull my plug, so to speak," all the screens around the store began sparking and some even started cracking up and letting out smoke, the lights began flickering for a moment, then one of the lights exploded and every singly light and the screens started releasing a large quantity of Electricity, most of the residents in the store didn't even have time to fully react as they were stuck with bolts of purple lightning and fried from the inside out, after a moment all the purple electricity began converging on the large screen behind the counter and Glitch Spike put his hand against the screen and easily began pushing himself out of it as he began consuming all the power the building had to offer him.
As he charged himself some of the cracks along his body began slightly reducing in size and his empty socket gained a dim light that looked similar to a pupil, almost as fast as he had started he stopped, the building no longer offering any power to him, he looked around in confusion, unaware he had accidentally flipped a breaker switch while trying to drain the building's power dry.
"Hm," He said as he looked at the burned corpses littered around the store "I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I've had a bite to eat...I'm suddenly starving,"
The 2nd Glitch Spike sat on the building he and his clone and separated at and looked over in the direction of his twin as he watched the data in the area being disturbed by his twin's power surge.
"This will not do," He decided as he moved to the powerline he had used to arrive at the building "He is interrupting the data, If I want to study it I must go where he won't," Glith Spike turned into purple Electrical light and jumped into the power line, traveling down it away from his twin and back to where they had originally found consciousness. He met no resistance as he arrived back at Rarico and easily made his way back to the basement laboratory he had originally gained consciousness in. upon arriving he was met with the sight of Rarity and Sweetiebot working away at a work table with Twilight sitting behind them looking through a book.
"Would you please listen to reason," Rarity asked as she looked back at Twilight.
"I am being reasonable," Twilight replied calmly 'If I find the right spell I should be able to purge the negative energy from Spike and..."
"And almost certainly kill him in the process," Rarity snapped back "His body is a mixture of Magic and electricity wrapped around his soul if you purge the Magic then both the electricity and his soul would simply disperse,"
"I think what you meant to say was that the electricity and the energy mass you used to steal his memories before he died..."
"Who gives a shit?" Rarity snapped back, "So you don't believe that it's his soul, that fine go ahead and believe that but regardless of if it is his soul or just a copy of him this is what he asked me to do in the event he died," Rarity took a deep breath and did her best to calm down. "Just...why? Tell me why?"
"Why what?" Twilight asked.
"Why are you so against this?" Rarity demanded as she motioned around the lab "You were the pony that helped me save Sweetie when that Changling almost killed her, you didn't try to stop me in the slightest when I full robotized her, you have never once been so against me, I want to know why? Why are you being so irrational?"
"Irrational?" Twilight asked with an eye twitch as she got to her hooves "Irrational! My brother is dead, he died in your fucking care and you didn't even fucking tell me about it, I didn't even get to say goodbye, I didn't even get a chance to say anything to him, you didn't even tell you stupid fucking guards to let me in without hesitation, I had to wait a full 10 minutes to get in here," Rarity and Sweetie stood in silence, as Twilight went from mad to pissed and started screaming at them "10 minutes I could have spent saying goodbye, 10 minutes I could have spent trying to comfort him, I know for a fact that all you did in his last minutes of life was roll him down here and strap him in, I don't know if that's his soul, or if it's just a copy of him because there's no way to prove it without destorying it, and if it is a copy then not only is my brother dead, but I'll never get to see him again," Twilight's voice weakened and she started crying "I'll have to live the rest of my immortal life knowing I missed my last chance to tell him I loved him knowing it was actually Spike I was talking to because you couldn't be bothered to call me and tell me yourself and instead left it to a traumatized Intern who couldn't stop crying!"
Twilight was breathing hard, the book in her hands was torn to pieces and wet from her tears. Twilight dropped the book and fell onto her knees, sobbing now. Before Rarity could even try to think of how to console her friend the light above them turned purple and purple light slinked out, landing on the floor and taking the shape of Glitch Spike, whose smile had turned into a frown.
"Are you alright?" he asked getting Twilight's attention "I do apologize but if I am a copy of your Spike my memories have been corrupted," Rarity and Sweetie looked at one another before looking at the table and at what they had been working on.
"That's impossible," Rarity said.
"I assure you I have no idea what a Spike even does," Glitch Spike said as it looked over to Rarity.
"No...no these reading can't be right," Rarity corrected as she picked up the device on the table, it looked like a regular pocket watch, with the exception that it had a digital screen instead of a clock, there was a single purple light on the screen.
"Should the light be a different color?" Spike asked as he looked at it.
"No...if you hear then the light shouldn't even be on the screen," Rarity said as she held it up "This is scanning Ponyville for your presence, and it says you're in the middle of the town right now,"
"I am, or would it be more correct to say I am not?" Spike scratched his chin, causing sparks as he did so "Upon arriving at your town I was met with too many options and split into half so I-"
"You split in half?" Rarity demanded "How? you shouldn't be able to do that!"
"According to you, I should not even exist," Spike countered "seeing how you wanted to rip me apart upon meeting me, I honestly thought you'd be happy to hear I did it myself,"
"No, but...how? doing that should have destroyed you!" Rarity moved a dial on the stopwatch and after a second of zooming out two dots were now on the screen, "Amazing," She said in awe "The magic and the electricity making up for body must have had an effect on your soul..." Rarity flinched at the word before looking to Twilight "...or your copied memories," Sweetie gave Spike a once over and even waved her hand in the space between his gloaring arm and his torse.
"Did you look like this before you split in half?" She asked curiously.
"Yes," Spike said casually "I rather like it, no limitations,"
"Maybe," Sweetie said as she tried to think of how Spike had been able to split his soul "Your soul was damaged when it collided with Electricity and magic...and it was already broken before you split...that would explain why you have no idea what a Spike is, your half Spike and half of Raritys miss AI!"
"I do not feel like an Ai," Spike said as he patted himself and caused sparks to fly "But I also don't feel like a Spike, so maybe I am a Spike Ai?"
"If that's the case," Rarity said as she looked at the screen "Then I can't take you apart, the magic and electrical power running through you is all that's keeping you alive, if I tried to separate you, you'd just end up as a vegetable in a robot body,"
"Do I need a robot body?" Spike asked "I feel fine as is,"
"Only for the moment," Rarity said as she looked at Spike "But as long as your like this you're using up the magic and electrical energy keeping you alive to speak and move, If I don't seal you in a Soul Drive you could star dissipating,"
"Oh, is that why the other me was draining a building of its power?" Spike asked as he looked at his floating arm and inspected its cracked and glitchy end that was supposed to connect to the rest of his body.
"Well if he's attacking the town for power, then he'll probably be on the news," Rarity said as she made her way to one of the walls and after a moment made a screen appear on it and turned it on. She looked up at the ponyville news channel and was instantly met with the sight of the other Glitch Spike laughing on top of a building while draining the power from the power lines.
"Never again," Glitch Spike could be heard saying on the television "All you organic flesh bags have done nothing but try and eliminate me! So allow me to return the favor!" The four watched as Lightning sparked from the Glitch Spike on the screen and gathered around him like large tentacled before slamming down on the citizens of the town, he turned to the camera filling him and shot a bolt of lightning at it, cutting off the transmission instantly.
"Oh dear," Spike said while the others stood in stunned silence "I seem to have gone crazy, I'd go give him a talking to but from the looks of it I might just end up being eaten by me," he turned to Sweetie and smiled sweetly at her "I know this is an odd thing to ask but could you go stop that other me? If I'm right in thinking the same thing I am thinking he will probably gather all the energy in the town and then use the energy to erase both the town and its residents before moving to the next town,"
"Why not send-" Sweetie tried only to be cut off by Rarity.
"He said all organics," Rarity said looking at Sweetie "And unlike this other Spike you're soul drive is all that's powering you so he can't just absorb you, Sweetie I need you to stall him while I use this Spike to find a way to contain that Spike," Rarity groaned "Fuck that is a sentence I never thought I'd say, Twilight we'll need your help,"
"Oh yes!" Spike said happily looking at Twilight "That other me has gone crazy and seems to be on a murder spree, if you like you can do that soul test on him" Twilight looked at him in shocked silence along with both Rarity and Sweetie. "As you said it destroys the soul and I doubt at this point there's any way to stop that piece of me without destroying it, this way you can prove without a doubt if I am in fact Spike or if I'm a fake Spike, and the same goes for Sweetie," After a moment of no response he turned to Sweetie and added "Unless you'd rather not know, of course, no hurry just something to ponder on,"
"Sweetie," Rarity said getting her Robot sisters attention "honey I need you to go and stall Spike, we can...we can all talk about this Spike's offer after we have a way to catch the other one," Sweetie nodded and made her way to the elevator, as the door closed she stood in silence, a single question on her mind, one she hadn't ever really considered before.
"Am I Sweetie Bell?"
Author's Note
This Chapter was commissioned by Captainsmiley01
