Dead Air

Through a rift of darkness, we emerged in a world of light and green. Falls, buildings, and walkways of that strange brown powdery substance. Much like the previous place, this one had a dome around it. Though it was much smaller in comparison. It soon dawned on me that this was the inside of the dome I saw in the city.

"Right this way..." Lucisco, who towered over us, said as he began to walk down one of the paths to a small, one story building in the distance, sitting beside a large puddle that was fed by one of the falls.

One of those strange, brown structures was built over the lip of the body of glistening blue liquid, forming a walkway that led to... well, nowhere.

Bad design choice...

Who the fuck would build a path that led nowhere? That was stupid!

Flame and I walked underneath the colossus of a shadowed dragon, which I soon noticed seemed to emit a strange black smoke from his form.

"Now I have a question." He asked, looking down at us. "What do the numbers on your flank mean? She mentioned that there was some coordination behind them, but she never went into full detail."

"The first number represents the race." Flame stated in a near instant, as if he expected the question to arise. "Second number represents gender. Odd numbers female, even, male. Third represents the occupancy the subject takes via queue rules."

"Fascinating..." Lucisco purred, to which I raised a brow at him. "And how many races are there?"

"There's 7 on record." I jumped in. "Started from 0. Pegasi, Unicorn, Zebra, Dragon, Griffin, Changeling, and Thestral."

"Seven...?" Lucisco fell silent for a moment, before releasing a deep exhale. "So many gone..." He looked down at us. "They removed a lot of the more aggressive races, but kept the dragons...?"

"They're in high demand." Flame said simply. "I imagine for something like them, they'd be broken in at birth."

"I've never seen a dragon anywhere near as big as you." I said, looking up at him. "The dragons I see always stick around the same size as the rest of us."

He nodded slowly, before speaking in a drawled voice of mental anguish.

"Keep what's meant to be a leviathan locked in a tiny cage for generations, and the body will adapt to its surroundings to stay alive..."

We came to a stop at the edge of the puddle, where the liquid rippled in tiny waves, back and forth. In, out. Reaching for land, failing to conquer, and returning only for another attempt a few seconds later.

Lucisco sat down behind us, staring down at the body of water.

"How many occupants are allowed to exist at once?" He asked with a subtle fire in his breath.

"50 per gender, 10 per unit, and 100 per complex." Flame answered, as if obligated to do so. He sat down, and I with him.

"And how many complexes are there?"

"I... honestly don't know." He replied, frowning in thought. "Each complex kinda just keeps all the others in the dark. Stay secluded. Can't form a resistance if we don't know anyone. Which is why they assign us with a completely random sleeping quarter once every 12 hours."

"You seem to know a lot..." Lucisco tilted his head to him in a curious manner.

"I'm a lot smarter than the Humans give me credit for." Flame smiled. "I'm very observant. I stay quiet, and I watch. I listen. I study. I learn."

"Evidently so." Lucisco smiled faintly. "So that's 50 males and females of each race, right?"

"In every complex, correct." Flame nodded. "Upon one being sold or terminated, their slot opens up for a new one."

"Wow... Don't get me wrong. I hate what it's being used for, but I'll give them credit. That's a very efficient numeral system..."

"I beg your pardon?" I raised a brow at him, unsure of whatever it was I just heard. Admiration?

Lucisco chuckled as he lightly ran a claw through my mane in an affectionate, caring manner.

"I'm probably the most organized and nerdiest dragon you will ever meet... I love numbers. Still gonna enjoy slaughtering the Humans for everything they did, though." With that, he stood up and stretched. Bones cracked absurdly loud as he moaned from the evident relief to his joints.

It had Flame and I gritting our teeth from the violation to our ears...

"Alright..." He sighed with satisfaction. "Let's go meet her, then."

As he turned toward the small building near the puddle and approached, we followed, and after stopping at the front door, he tapped a claw against it a few times.

Immediately, we were greeted with a shout of surprise, following with the crashing of... something. A lot of somethings... Like glass breaking. A LOT of it...

"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIT!" The voice from my dreams blurted in the midst of the chaos that occurred within.

Flame and I exchanged a look of uncertainty about all this, before we looked up at Lucisco, who deadpanned at the door.

Something smacked against it through the avalanche of clutter, and she yelped.

"FUCK ME!"

The knob of the door rattled and twisted this way and that, before she hissed.

"Star damned, blasted piece of shit, come on..."

With that, the door creaked open, and through the crevice, a purple eye peered through at us. The mane was a little darker than my coat, but her coat was about the same shade. Maybe a little lighter. It was hard to tell in the dark confines of her building. She was eye level with my chest. I could tell right now she was small compared to me.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut on us, and a hoarder's avalanche resumed.

"AGH, MOTHERFUCKER!" She screamed as the door began to groan in protest. The hinges wobbled from their slots. "TAURUS, I NEED A PUSH!"

"Affirmative." A deep, metallic bellow of a T4URU5 unit spoke, before more clutter crashed about.

"Might wanna stand back..." Lucisco muttered in exasperation.

Flame and I in unison stepped back, residing between the dragon's foreclaws as the door trembled violently. As did the ground we stood on...

And just about everything else...

SLAM!

"AGH!" She screamed again. "A-almost there! Harder!"

"Affirmative."

SLAM!

"Unff! H-HARDER!"

"Affirmative."

SLAM!

The door flung open, and out poured heaps of scrap metal, guns, containers, shattered porcelain, pictures... The list went on.

With the avalanche of trash rolled forth the mare that had peeked through the doorway. A zebra by the looks of it, but... without the stripes. No wings or horn...

Strange...

Never saw a zebra like that before. The last two days were like that, I suppose. There was a lot I hadn't seen before...

She came to a stop, sitting her rump atop a metal panel; her hind legs stretched out with her fores between, stationed at her crotch.

She smiled at us brightly, a blush of... black, of all things... developing on her cheeks.

"Now that's how you make an entrance!" She said ecstatically.

"Or an exit?" The dragon above us asked flatly.

She pointed a hoof at him.

"That too!"

At once, a small, inanimate, soft looking model of a pony launched from the depths of the mess, bouncing off the top of her head before landing at her forehooves.

The model was that of a unicorn. Or rather, a variant of one I had never seen before.

The mane and tail was black and disheveled, and the coat was a tannish orange. Green eyes, and a black, fractured horn with red in the cracks.

The right rear hoof had red dots circling its circumference.

The mark on the flank of the mare model was a hammer and wrench crossing along the middle.

As for the more peculiar exhibit...

Her flank had flames as a design.

She looked down at the model that fell before her in surprise, before lifting it with both fores and hugging it tight to her chest.

At once, the head of a T4URU5 unit popped up from the heap of trash behind her.

"Very well executed, commander."

She looked over her shoulder and beamed. "Thank you, Taurus!"

"Uh..." I knit my brow, and at my audible bewilderment, she spun back to us. "Who the hell are you?"

Her grin grew wider as her eyes lit up. "Baby, with a sweet bod like that, I'll be anything your precious little heart desires!"

"My queen..." Lucisco muttered.

"Ah!" She pointed at him with a frown. "What have I said about that! No superiority, royalty, or worship! I am not a Goddess, I am not a queen, I am simply someone that exists. That's the rule."

He growled softly, before hissing behind grit fangs.

"Mother..."

She smiled timidly, squeezing the strange unicorn model for a brief moment.

"Yes, dear?"

"You had over 200 years to clean your house..."

She giggled and stuck her tongue out playfully.

"And?"

"And?" He stressed with emphasism. "AND? Why is your house a trash compactor!?"

"Hey!" She snapped a look of annoyance at him, grabbing a hunk of twisted metal that I couldn't begin to comprehend was originally for. She hugged it tight to her chest as she did the unicorn model. "What's trash to you is treasure to me!"

"Mother..." He hissed. "You didn't answer my question..."

She smirked, tossing the chunk of metal away. Several items rolled down the hill after it.

"Two answers. First and foremost, who else is gonna trigger your OCD?"

He groaned in disgust.

"Secondly, I didn't want to. I was too busy watching Doctor Who."

"Doctor Who?" Dancing Flame raised a brow as he tilted his head.

"Doctor Who!" She beamed.

"Who's Doctor... Who?"

"Exactly!"

"It's a mess!" Lucisco blurted in frustration. "It's disgusting!"

"That's Global Warming for ya." She winked with a sharp fanged grin. Two fangs specifically on her upper row of teeth.

"You're the planet..." Flame stated in near disbelief.

She looked back down at us and nodded happily. "Mhm!"

"You..." He regarded her with vast skepticism.

"Yep!"

"A pony."

She looked down and gasped before plunging a hoof down into the garbage and returning it with a bottle of that weird amber funny juice.

"I finally found it!" She giggled happily, collapsing on her back and rolling around as she hugged both the model and the bottle tight. She soon bit into the cap, ripped it off the neck of the bottle, spat it out to the side, and began chugging without retreat.

"This has to be a joke..." Flame muttered, before looking up at Lucisco. "What the fuck is this?"

"What were you expecting to find?" He asked simply.

"Something... with vast wisdom! Intellect! A higher understanding of the universe! The meaning of life! Not..." He cut himself off as he waved a hoof at the mare, just as she finished off the bottle, took a bite out of the neck, and tossed the rest of the glass away for it to shatter as she chewed and swallowed the shards with an absurd crunching that had me wishing I was deaf...

Black ooze dripped from her lips as she let out a loud belch I had ever had the misfortune to hear... I could smell the liquid on her breath from here...

In the midst of her belch, some of that black gunk shot out from her throat and landed before my hooves, causing me to instinctively take a step back in disgust. Within a second of landing, several tendrils shot out from the gooey mass, lifted itself up, and scurried off, shrieking.

"What the fuck!?" Flame shouted as he gawked at it.

By the stars, this was repulsive to see, hear, and smell...

She placed the unicorn model atop her head and rolled over on her stomach, only to slide down the heap toward us. She came to a stop before our hooves, looking up at us with a soft smile as she reached out a hoof.

"Name's Firebright. And I'm your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great..."

"She's gonna be on this for a while..." Lucisco muttered.

"Great, great, great, great..."

"How long?" I asked flatly.

Firebright froze, knitting her brow. "Wait..." She looked up, mouthing inaudible numbers. "Gah! Fuck, I lost track. Gotta start over." She took a deep, exaggerated inhale...

"No, Fire! Wai-"

"Great, great, great, great..."

"Damn it!" Flame put a hoof to his temple, wincing his eyes shut.

"Great, great, great, great, great, great..."

"Freedom is coming with a heavy fee..." I drawled.

"This isn't starting to look like a good deal anymore..." Flame sighed. "I'm greatly underwhelmed."

"Great, great, great, great grandmother!" Firebright finally shut the hell up with a beaming smile. She opened her eyes moments after to meet three deadpans.

"What?" She asked as her eyes widened. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Great..." Flame muttered.

Oh no, it was contagious!

"Don't you start." I sneered, glaring at him.

"Next time I say that word, please hit me..." He sat on his haunches and sighed. "For a planet, she's..."

"Annoying?"

"I was gonna say small, but you're not wrong."

"Hey!" She barked. "Rude!"

"Not even a Dwarf." He continued. "I was expecting something much bigger."

"Gotta say, I'm pretty underwhelmed too." I added.

"I-It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it!" She wailed.

"Out of everything that's happened over the last two days, I'd say this was the strangest thing."

"I second that remark." Flame replied.

"I'm assuming you already know who we are, then?" I asked, regarding her coolly.

"Phoenix Feather and Dancing Flame." She smiled more timidly, finally rising to her hooves. "I've waited so very long to meet you two." She leaned in close and spoke softer. "And dare I say you two are looking very fine. Need to blow off some steam, feel free to ask. Both of you."

"No thanks..." Flame pulled away.

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna pass on that offer..."

Stars, her breath...

"Taurus." Lucisco spoke, to which the machine moved through the heap of garbage toward us, revealing his full form.

"Lucisco." He replied, looking up at the beast.

"What's your progress on triangulating the signal?"

Firebright cringed a little.

"It's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid..." She whispered.

"The signal is in a completely different dimension." Taurus filled in. "There's a small pocket somewhere out there that the frequency has been leaking through, but where it leads is beyond my understanding. I would need a closer examination to relay further information on the topic."

"That's another thing..." Firebright deadpanned. "The pocket is too small for anyone to get through."

"Affirmative." Taurus jumped in again. "I have been manufacturing a key of sorts in attempt to open the pocket. If my theory is correct, based on my research, the signal is alive. The sound is a living thing. If that is the case, then there is a way to get it to react to a sound of our design."

"I'm sorry..." I shook my head, knitting my brow. "Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm new to all this... but it sounds to me like you want to... open a doorway to the source of the Cetera scream?"

"Well..." Firebright tilted her head left to right and right to left as she rolled her eyes up. "The door is already open, technically. We just plan to open it bigger."

"Are you insane?" Flame emphasized, to which the surrounding party fell quiet as he stared in wonder. He then added. "Actually, don't answer that. You are..."

"We only plan to open the door so that we may destroy the source." Taurus added.

Firebright sighed and looked over her shoulder. "Taurus, prepare for extraction."

He perked up at her order and spun around. "Affirmative."

She then looked up at the dragon.

"Lucisco."

He nodded. "I'll gather the other two and get to work, mother."

Finally, she looked back at Flame and I as the others departed.

"Walk with me." She spoke softer as she stepped past us for the walkway over the body of water.

With a brief exchange of a confused look between Flame and I, we followed behind her.

The trip was silent, save for the rippling of the liquid we approached. Upon reaching the end, she pulled the unicorn model off her head and hugged it tight to her chest as she sat down, looking out at the field of blue.

"Something wrong...?" I asked in a near whisper. With how distant she looked, speaking too loud might have startled her.

She squeezed her unicorn model tighter to her chest, smiling wanly as she closed her eyes.

It was then that tears broke through the breach, rolling down her cheeks.

"I... I'll be alright..." Her voice wavered. "Just thinking about something..."

She turned to us with that wan smile and glistening eyes. As if a different pony was looking at us. One not so crazy. One with a deep sincerity. One filled with pain, and wasn't afraid to show it.

"Do you wanna... talk about it?" I asked with a sense of sympathy rising in my chest.

She let out a choked chuckle moments before she looked down at the unicorn model. She ran her hoof along the back of its head.

"I miss my brother is all..."

"Your brother?" Flame asked with a raised brow. "What's a brother?"

She cracked a smile, looking back out across the large puddle.

"A brother is family..." She replied as more tears shed from her eyes.

"But... what's family?" Now it was my turn to ask the question.

"Family is someone that is there for you, no matter what... To love you, care for you... Would do just about anything for you..."

Past her, Flame's eyes flicked from her to me, and a smile crept on his lips as mine did.

Were we family...?

By that definition, I suppose we were.

"And this... mare." Flame pointed at the unicorn model squeezed tight to Fire's chest. "Is that your brother?"

Fire let out a giggle, wiping away some of the tears that soaked the fur of her cheeks.

"Did I say something funny?" Flame tilted his head.

"My brother... He would have corrected you on that. Aggressively. My brother is a male. All brothers are males. All sisters are females. All mothers are females, and all fathers are males." She pulled the unicorn from her chest and gazed down at him as it did up at her. She caressed his cheek with a hoof. "For the longest time, I was all he had... and I betrayed him... and I rubbed it in his face... No matter what I do, it'll never make up for what I did to him. I'd offer my soul to him if I could..."

"What happened to him...?" I asked softly, looking from her to the unicorn.

She closed her eyes to my question and shuddered. "We got separated... He isn't dead, if that's what you're wondering. He's just... gone..."

"Gone?" I raised a brow.

She looked over at me with a deep found sorrow within herself.

"The way your and Flame's child is gone..."

Flame glanced at me momentarily from her response, before quickly turning away.

"Not to sound rude, but..." He started quickly. "Where is this coming from? This thing about your brother?"

She looked at him next, but he didn't reciprocate her motion. He was fighting it, but still, I heard grief in his voice. A hint of it...

After staring for a few seconds - which seemed to drag on - she looked back out at the liquid.

"The last time I saw him, I told him we would meet again. But... I lied. I was given a glimpse into my future, and I had to lie. Otherwise I would have never been able to let him go... I guess I never really did let him go..." She scoffed, looking back down at the unicorn. "I bring him up, because I know how all this ends... and that ending is right at my doorstep. My time has come... and it doesn't end with him anywhere near me..." She slouched, hanging her head down and dropping the unicorn. "I wish I could hold him one last time... tell him I love him one last time..."

"Love...?" I jumped in in a near whisper.

She scoffed. "What you and Flame have..."

Still, he kept his gaze away from us.

"I've seen it, you know..." She looked from him to me, then back at the puddle. "The way you two react to each other. The way you feel about each other. The Humans... they can try their damned-est to shelter the word, but they can't rid you of instinct and passion. You two... in this universe, you two are the definition of love. The purest form to exist here."

Flame finally turned to us; surprise in his eyes. A welcoming surprise. Coated with warmth as they rested on mine.

We were more than connected. More than keys. Much more than a prophecy. More than a mural on a wall of gold.

And there was a word for it...

We were love.

We were in love.

I was still unfamiliar with the concept, but I think I got the gist of it. I felt it. A pony I just met, who knows more about me and Flame than I do her, says we were in love. Something about that... I couldn't help but believe it.

"Hey..." I tapped Fire on the shoulder, to which she looked over curiously. "There was a guy. A Human... named Vector."

"Yes, I know of him." She replied coolly.

"Did he... love me?"

Whatever light had been in her eyes, I couldn't see until that very moment. It came out from darkness, for only a fraction of a second, before somehow delving even deeper into the abyss. Dying away even more than it already had.

"I don't think he loved you..." She spoke in a near whisper. "I think he loved the idea of you. Being associated with you. The idea of change coming from you... That's not to say he wasn't bad. Nor was he good. He was middle ground. But if he had loved you, he would have done anything for you. He would have granted you your freedom, even if it meant never seeing you again..."

"Like you and your brother?" Flame jumped in.

She nodded slowly, turning to him. "Exactly..." She cracked a smile as she looked at the puddle again. "I love you two... Platonically, of course. Though... if you wanted to take it one step further..."

Flame and I groaned exasperatingly before speaking in unison.

"NO!"

"Alright, alright!" She chuckled, raising a hoof. "I'll take a hint. But I meant what I said. I love you both. I love all my... inhabitants, save for the Humans and the machines. After all, you're all related to me. You're my family... What's left of it, anyways... Mother, father, brother sister, et cetera, et cetera..."

The ground shook softly, and upon us looking over our shoulder with the exclusion of Firebright, Lucisco stepped forward with ease. Accompanying him was Polarity and Firefly, who took in their surroundings with stars in their eyes.

Firefly still didn't seem too happy to see me, though...

The three of them stopped at the strange walkway. Polarity was the only one to set hoof on it after a moment.

Fire turned to me with a wry smile.

"You'll be pleased to know that Polarity is your sister."

"Huh?" Polarity knit her brow. "Wait, what's sister mean?" She turned to me quizzically.

Fire let out a sigh with a hint of amusement. Her smile remained.

"I have a lot to cover today... Alright, then." She glanced back at my apparent sister. "Gather around, children. It's time we had the talk about trains and tunnels..."

...

"What the fuck is a train?"

<>

"So, let me get this straight." Polarity started after what felt like hours of Fire trying to explain what family meant in biology. Flame seemed to be understanding this the most. "Phoenix and I share the same mom and possibly dad, as you put it. We carry their genes or whatever. And so that makes us sisters?"

"Siblings." Fire shrugged as she pursed her lips.

"So..." I jumped in. "If Flame is my family, what would I call him in this term?"

Fire chuckled. "Anything you want to, really. But you're not immediate family like you and Polarity. More like what your parents should have been to each other."

"Answer me this..." Flame knit his brow in contemplation as he stayed fixated to the ground at her hooves. "If we carry the genetic strains of our parents, then what would happen if a brother and sister, or a daughter and father, son or mother... reproduced? What would happen then?"

Fire burst into laughter, shaking her head.

"Nothing good! In most cases..." She ran a hoof over her belly, smiling softly. "But in this case, I suppose it was a wonderful thing..."

"This case?" He tilted his head, raising a brow.

"Mm..." She nodded. "You're all the product of me and my brother's... affection." A shade of black began to grow on her cheeks as she kept her gaze on the floor of the strange, creaky walkway.

"But you just said nothing good comes out of that." Flame rubbed a hoof to his temple and closed his eyes. "What makes our case a 'wonderful thing?'"

"Well..." She looked at him. "Three things. One, my brother accomplished something that was once impossible. While it wasn't the same as he wanted, it was and is an alternative solution. Two, we aren't related by blood. Different parents. So it's more of a fantasy than anything else. Three, even if we were related, it wouldn't matter, because we're both Nekkra."

"Nek-wha...?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

She turned to me and giggled, before sounding it out.

"Nekkra. A lifeform, if it can even be called that, that is the ultimate mutation. Incestual breeding - which is what that brother, sister, daughter, father, son, mother thing is - has no consequences as a Nekkra, because they're built to keep strains, er... in the family." She turned back to Dancing Flame. "That is, of course, not to say they can't breed outsiders."

"Whoa, hold on..." Polarity raised a hoof to her, as if her action were to pause Firebright. "If everything you tell us is right, then..."

Fire nodded with a grin. "Yep! You're all Nekkra too! Though, with how far down the line of the heart you all are, it hardly shows. But you all carry the strain of a Nekkra. A small part of it, anyways." She turned to me, and then Flame. "When you two were finally alone, something powerful sparked between you, yes? You felt a deep connection?"

"Y-yeah, but..." Flame muttered.

"More than love, dear. You're all a hivemind, while maintaining individuality. But it's so far out of reach that none of you were able to get a taste of it until you were able to truly converse with one another. As yourselves. Without Orientation."

"Did... the Humans know of our strain...?" I asked tentatively. She regarded me with a tired expression. "Did they know about you...?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, I don't think they ever found out. Keeping you from talking to one another, getting to know each other, was a coincidence. But see... the Humans, they're terrified of the Nekkra. Most are bad... It's good they don't know, because if they did, none of you would even be alive. They'd have burnt this whole place to ash." She scoffed, wrapping a foreleg around my shoulder. "But little do they know they're affiliations with my grandchildren made them Nekkra too. Little do they know this entire universe is now infested with them. I'm not just a planet..." She pulled away with a sharp, menacing grin. "I'm a motherfucking universe, baby. And I'm tired of the Humans living inside me like parasites. Little do they know that they built my own weapons to end them..."

The four of us stared in a puzzled nature, to which she tapped a hoof to my chest.

"You." She then spun around and tapped Flame's.

"You."

Next up was Polarity.

"You."

And last but not least, Firefly.

"And you."

She looked around her surroundings with a deep vengeance in her eyes.

"All of you. The ultimate Nekkra strain. Their hunger for resources... Bleeding my land dry... It evolved you to grow accustomed to the world you live in. Nekkra die to excessive heat. But not you. You've become resistant to it... which has never happened before. We just need to... give you a boost. If you allow it..." As she spoke, a tendril slid out from her back.

The others, myself included, recoiled a bit from the growth that emerged from her.

"Hard pass." Dancing Flame stated quickly with disgust in both his face and voice.

"I second that." Polarity remarked.

"Same." Firefly.

Firebright looked over at me with curiosity in her eyes. "And you...?"

"The mural outside..." I began. "I'm... pregnant with something..."

She nodded slowly.

"Is that a prophecy, or a choice?"

Fire looked at my friends and acquaintances.

"Phoenix and I should talk in private, if that's alright with all of you. Lucisco will direct you to the armory I had made for your visit."

Flame and Polarity regarded me in concern, to which I nodded.

"I'll be okay."

With a nod, they singled out. Firefly was the first to go without a care of my safety. I still couldn't blame him... Flame, whose gaze lingered on mine for all but a moment, was the last.

Once they were gone, I turned back to Firebright, who was staring back out across the massive puddle. Her tendril had receded back into her body without my knowing.

"You always have a choice, Phoenix Feather. What you saw in that mural is a direction. A path that you can choose to take. Of your own free volition. Everything needs to be consensual. Especially after everything I've done..."

"What did you do...?"

As she closed her eyes, she let out a deep exhale of resentment. To who, I was unclear.

"I used to be like the Humans... Taking what wasn't mine. Enjoying the suffering of others. Including my own brother..." She turned her head and looked over at me with a deep regret. "I raped him. Over. And over. And over. And over again. The mare he loved, I made him listen as she got the same treatment from my father..." She winced, shaking her head. "I killed. I tortured. More times than I can remember... and I fucking loved it..."

"R-raped...? I'm... unfamiliar with the term..."

"Right..." She sighed. "That word was banished in the towers... Well... you've seen both mares and stallions crying when they're getting... eh... 'fucked,' yes?"

"Y-yeah..."

"And you were one of them, yes?"

Slowly, I nodded as my heart began to pound with dread. My stomach felt sick, and my memories branched off to every corner of the dark.

"Do you remember how you felt when all that was happening to you?"

"I wish I didn't..." My bones began to quake... "Please..." Tears... "Stop..." I felt like a disease...

I felt like it was happening all over again...

The first time it happened... something deep inside me was ripped from me. Something I could never get back... I never felt the same since...

"That right there." Firebright pointed a hoof at me. "That is rape. And you had to go through it all and pretend you fucking enjoyed it. Because if you showed even a small hint of resistance..."

"Stop!" I shouted. Tears now streaming down my face.

"So much as verbal resistance... A 'no,' or a 'stop...'"

"Stop it! Shut up!" I held myself tight, shivering. Each pump of my heart was a thrust deep inside me... taking what wasn't theirs to take...

"... Meant termination..." Firebright whispered. "I know your pain, Phoenix. I do... and I know the pain of every subject that lived and currently lives under Talon order. I wired my senses to all of yours so I could punish myself for once being like the Humans... Anyone that got raped. I would get raped too. For every crack of a whip, I would bear the scars. For every gunshot, I would die..."

"W-why would you put yourself through something like that!?" I screamed, glaring at her with a new anger. I wanted to hurt her for making me feel like this...

But at the same time, something within myself was holding me back.

"Because I deserved it. And it was a choice. A choice I chose to make..." Her eyes grew distant. Dead from inside. "In the end, my brother loved me. And I him. But I can never forgive myself for the pain I caused him."

The tears began to subside, as did the anger. I felt something for her... remorse? She put herself through the pain of every subject that ever lived... as a choice. She understood our pain...

I leaned in and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulder.

Her eyes widened as she looked up at me. Surprise in her eyes.

She leaned into me, pressing her cheek against the lower part of my chest.

"You're so warm..." She whispered breathlessly. "And by the stars, tall... And your voice, it's so... deep and rich..."

"Part of the evolution, eh?" I chuckled as I nuzzled the top of her head. My body was practically over her at this point.

She grew still, holding me close, similar to how Flame and I held each other. There was a sense of love for her... That love she spoke of. Not as lovers, but as she described a mother to love her daughter.

"Phoenix..." She pulled away, looking deep into my eyes. Purple on red. "You have a choice... This isn't about prophecy... This is me asking you..."

"What is it...?" I whispered back.

"You're... a descendant of Charger and I. All of you are... He bred me before we parted ways. None of us were aware of it... I birthed all but one egg... which I was saving in the hopes that you would take. It's the purest generation I have of him. I need it safe, and it won't be safe with me, I fear..."

"You want me to be a surrogate..." I stated matter of factly.

"I know it's a lot to ask..." She continued abruptly. "Which is why it's a choice. But this benefits me, you, and Flame. Me, because I'll know my child is safe. Alive. You and Flame, because it'll make up for the child you both had taken from you... Or at least, I hope it makes up for..." She wrapped her forelegs around me, squeezing her chest to mine just to have her hooves barely meet at my upper spine as she looked up at me with pleading eyes.

"Please, Phoenix. It's all I have left of him. I-"

I stopped her with a soft touch of my hoof to her lips. She continued to stare quietly, even as I pulled it away.

"I'll do it..." I whispered behind a gentle smile. "I'll bear your child."

<>

Fire and I ventured down a small decline at the far end of the dome, which sat a circular, steel pad. Lucisco waited at the structure.

I felt the egg deep within me. As it turned out, it didn't matter much where it resided. But I still preferred it to be in my womb.

I felt... full, but in a pleasant way.

"Sorry if the process of that was too much." Fire spoke.

"Nah, you're okay." I smiled. "Hell, you might have opened up a new tentacle fetish for me." I leaned in close and whispered with a wry smile. "Just between you and me, I kinda wish it lasted longer..."

Firebright giggled and playfully shoved me, but to no avail did I stumble back.

"Well, seeing as I triggered you earlier, I wasn't sure you'd be okay with me fucking you. In, out, job done."

"Had I known what I was in for, I might have reconsidered your former proposal on blowing off steam." I replied with a cheeky wink and a dark blush.

That got me thinking...

Evidently, Firebright's blood was black, as her blush suggested. I was an advanced strain, so... was that going to happen to me, too?

"Well, look at it this way." Fire smirked. "Now you have tentacles of your own. You get the best of both parties simultaneously. Double the orgasm. Maybe even six times better, if you decide to go for the three sweet spots. That's a pretty great gift if you ask me."

"When will I be able to use them?" I asked, looking down at my form.

"Eager, huh?" She laughed.

I looked back at her, blushing even harder.

"I-I mean, like... overall. Surely these can be used in combat, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, they can. Give it maybe an hour or so for your body to fully adapt."

We stepped on the platform, and Fire looked up at Lucisco. "They inside?"

"Taurus is with them." He said with a single nod.

"We'll be heading out in about one hour. Get everything situated."

"Of course."

With that, as we descended into the ground, Lucisco spread his wings and took to the sky, flying away for the other end of the dome.

The walls around us were not of the brown powdery grime, but of steel, with lights evenly spaced from one another. Had it not been for them and my natural glow, we would have been cast in total darkness. Even then, our vicinity was dim.

By the time we reached the bottom, the hole to the surface was no more than the size of the nutrient pills I and everyone else had been living off of.

Fire tapped my shoulder, and upon catching my attention, nodded her head to the right.

"This way." She said quietly, before walking for a corridor.

I followed in her hoofsteps down the stretch, where at the end, I saw Dancing Flame walking past. He stopped in the opening, looked at us, then proceeded across, disappearing from our sight, due right.

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking down at her.

She glanced over her shoulder, and without a word, simply smiled.

At the end, I saw Polarity, Dancing Flame, Firefly, and Taurus.

The changeling came into my view just in time to see him tap a hoof to his chest. At once, starting from where he touched, metal began to consume his form. A metal that matched his color. First the chest, then barrel, legs, neck, and finally head.

The Humans had advanced tech, but nothing like that...

The visor consisted of two eyes that matched his, both of which glowed.

Polarity did the same to herself. At the end of each hoof was the colors of her mane portrayed in layers. Yellow, orange, red.

Flame's had red neon stripes all along his armored body, over where his real ones would be.

Firebright began to move for a spacecraft that sat deeper in the expanse of the bunker. Frigate class, by the look of it.

They all looked at me in silence before Taurus spoke.

"Now it's your turn."