Sunset Shimmer stepped out of Twilight's garage/laboratory. She wore a long, loosely fitting cloth bag on her right arm, hiding it from the elbow down. Her opposite hand fidgeted nervously with her hair.
"When I show you everything that's happened," she said, "I have to ask you not to freak out."
Rainbow Dash stared incredulously. "Sunset, in the last few months, we've seen you and Adagio shoot rocket launchers at each other. We've seen the two of you swordfight with chainsaws. And after that, you had ANOTHER swordfight, and we saw the two of you literally cut each other's right hands off--"
"Blood spurting everywhere," Fluttershy agreed. "It was SO HARD to keep the two of you from bleeding to death."
"What in the freaking buck do you think even COULD freak us out any worse," Rainbow shouted, "after all the crazy things we've already seen?"
"Well..." Sunset fidgeted. "I guess it's easier to just pull the bandage off all at once. So to speak." She pulled the bag off her arm.
"My!" Rarity said. "Somehow your hand looks...good as new."
Applejack stepped closer, bending down to inspect it. "Does it work ok?"
Sunset grinned. "Twilight worked hard to invent a new kind of cyborg body part. So my new hand works perfectly!" She reached up to gently rub her own cheek. "I can do everything I could do before...even MORE than I could before."
Behind Sunset, Twilight went inside the lab.
"If you can do even MORE than before," Pinkie asked, "what did Twilight add? Do you have a built in bottle opener?"
Twilight pushed a stand-up electric piano out of the lab, rolling it in front of Sunset.
Sunset put her hand on the piano's keyboard, playing a short classical melody at about three times normal speed. She shrugged. "Twilight programmed it to play keyboard. Just one-handed, though."
Rarity slightly bit her own lower lip. "Oh," she said, thinking of her own keytar and the role she played in the friends' band, the Rainbooms.
Sunset raised both hands. "Don't worry! I specifically asked Twilight NOT to program it to play pop or prog rock. Besides, I'd really rather play lead guitar, like Rainbow."
Rainbow grimaced at Sunset, but the redhead didn't seem to notice.
"But...heh..." Sunset laughed nervously. "That's just the beginning."
"The beginning of WHAT?" Rainbow snorted. "Is this the part we're going to freak out about?"
"Heh...maybe. Just...remember how when I worked hard to become a better person after the Fall Formal, all of you learned not to judge me by my past?"
A woman with voluminous orange hair and an eye-catching figure sashayed out of the lab, giving each step some extra hip movement.
"Adagio!" Rainbow shouted. "What the freaking...freak..."
Fluttershy dived behind a raised planting bed, taking advantage of the shrubbery. "No!" she squeaked, flattening herself against the ground.
"It's not like that!" Twilight said. "She's...different, now."
"Different HOW?" Rarity sniffed. "Is her aim better or worse?"
Adagio took a deep breath. "I've...been thinking about things," she said. "Twilight helped. It was partly when Twilight said, if I tried to kill any of you again, she would take my new hand back."
"Oh!" Fluttershy said. "Now you're back to having TWO hands. That IS a change from the last time I saw you."
Adagio smiled. "But that's not the most important thing. I've...been coming to terms with some of my own feelings."
Twilight whispered to her friends, "The base I installed on Adagio's stump, that the hand attaches to...it automatically dispenses anti-psychotic medications directly into Adagio's bloodstream on a regular schedule. If the reservoir runs low, the wrist's 'check engine' light comes on and starts buzzing."
"SO annoying," Adagio rolled her eyes. "But as long as I get my new hand serviced on the manufacturer's recommended schedule, I don't have to worry about it. So that's one good thing."
Sunset said, "Tell them about the other good thing, 'Dagy!"
Rarity gasped. "No," she said.
"Yes!" Sunset replied.
Adagio took another deep breath. "Why I kept attacking Sunset was...I'd been having strange feelings, feelings I wasn't used to. And those feelings made me feel vulnerable, so my natural reaction was to attack the source of those feelings."
"So you tried to kill Sunset THREE TIMES IN A ROW?" Dash pointed an accusing finger. "What is WRONG with you?"
"Nothing at all!" Adagio smiled sunnily. "Now that I'm properly medicated, I've found another outlet for my feelings." She put an arm around Sunset. "I've got a hot, sexy girlfriend. What could be better?" She pulled Sunset close.
"Something about this seems horribly wrong," Fluttershy whispered. "I just can't put my finger on it--"
Adagio replied, "But I can!" Her left hand grasped her right, pressing a catch and twisting to pop the right hand off her wrist. Even separated from its wrist, her detached right hand's fingers gently wriggled.
Rainbow's eyes widened. "That is...really weird. Adagio, can you still feel what your hand is doing?"
Twilight interrupted proudly, "With the new long distance interface, Adagio can control her cyborg hand over distances as far as two to three miles!"
Adagio's left hand waved her other in the air. "Now Sunset and I can hold hands even while we're apart. And you know what else..." Adagio dropped her still wriggling appendage down the front of Sunset's shirt. "It's literally the best thing ever!"
Sunset blushed, reaching down her own shirt front. "I'll have to ask you all to excuse me." She ran back into the lab.
"I'll help!" Adagio ran after Sunset, slamming the door shut behind her.
About thirty seconds later, Fluttershy said, "Well...that was interesting."
Rarity fanned herself. "I think I might faint. Imagine...some cad...deciding to get fresh..."
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"It is NOT cool!" Rarity sniffed. "It is the EXACT OPPOSITE of cool. And if some bold miscreant decides to try that with ME...he or she might get their hand back in a BODY BAG. After I put it through a SHREDDER."
"Whoa," Rainbow said. "So you've made your feelings clear on that. Good."
Fluttershy blushed delicately. "Sometimes..." she said, "when I'm trying to do a delicate procedure, say...trying to check a pregnant cow's cervix..."
"Yes?" Twilight asked.
"I think having my hand pop off inside a cow or a horse or an elephant could be a real problem. So I'm glad my hand is real, not cyborg."
"Yep," AJ said. "Me too. But...don't you think it's weirder that Adagio and Sunset are dating each other an' NOT trying to kill each other, than Twilight building them some cyborg body parts?"
Rarity nodded. "With Twilight, one does learn to take unusual applications of science more or less in stride."
The lab door slammed open, and Sunset ran outside. "Got your hand!" she taunted. "I'll drop it in an aquarium, and snails will crawl all over it and you'll feel all the slimy slithering! Not any worse than what you just tried to do to me!"
"Don't you dare!" Adagio shouted from inside. "Or...so help me..." She ran after Sunset. "If you won't give me MY hand back, I'll pull off YOUR hand again!"
Twilight smiled nervously. "You see? This is so much better than before. Now, even if they get really angry at each other, they can remove each other's hands WITHOUT any serious violence."
Pinkie nodded. "This way does seem a lot better."
https://derpibooru.org/images/2970864
The other candidate for cover image was this collage I made by cropping and editing art by Nire. (see link above.)
Author's Note
It's POSSIBLE Twilight might be a fan of "The Empire Strikes Back."
***
Spyder27 won a custom story commission, and said:
"Well, if I had to choose a prompt for a custom story, I would say anything Sundagio would work with me~ It's my favorite ship and a story about them on a casual date or just hanging out would be so cute~ You can pick anything you want, but I especially love physical affection like hand-holding, hugs and cuddling, so any Sundagio story that includes those cute aspects would be great!"
