Cyberpony Y2K

Fleur sat down in the chair again, still looking paler than she should. Fluttershy felt a pang of sympathy, but Fleur just needed time to process everything.

And, quite horrifically, sleep was the best way to process grief, yet she was robbed of sleep because of the chip in her head.

"Alright, Miss Fleur," Fluttershy said, pulling up her notes. "Are you aware of what informed consent means?"

Fleur frowned, but nodded.

"Good. So, let me explain. That chip in your head is not a CyWear chip. It is an unfamiliar, untested piece of technology. It hasn't caused the usual damage this kind of chip would cause, but it poses some considerable risk, especially being built with a sapphire." Fleur looked rightly concerned about that. Fluttershy continued. "I do not think it is wise to leave it in your head." She paused to skim through the notes. "There is some damaged tissue already, but it might still heal later on. To my current understanding, this chip shouldn't be any different to remove than a regular chip. However, I want you to know the risks involved first, okay?"

Fleur nodded. "I've been well aware of the risk the whole time, Doctor."

Fluttershy sighed. "Well, I need to tell you everything before you consent to the surgery. The main risk is obvious—death. Mistakes during this surgery will most likely result in immediate death for you. If you survive, you may end up permanently disabled, or otherwise develop horrible psychological problems." As she had done many times before, she listed out the most likely results of a failed surgery. Calmly, to keep the patient from panicking.

Fleur's steady resolve was definitely tasted, but it did not break. "Do you think you're likely to fail?" she asked.

Fluttershy considered that seriously, even though she already knew the answer. As she did every time. "No," she admitted. "I've done this plenty of times before. I just...I can't operate unless you know the risks. Otherwise, I would be tricking you. And I've tricked enough people." She set her notes aside.

"Then let me assuage your conscience: if I don't get back on a regular sleep cycle soon, I'm probably going to die anyway. Do whatever it takes."

Fluttershy sighed. "I wish ponies wouldn't say things like that," she muttered. "Alright. I want to get that chip out as soon as possible. Ten o'clock, tomorrow morning, unless you need more time?"

"It can't come soon enough," Fleur said.

"Okay. I'm going to ask you to avoid using your magic for now. This thing has a sapphire in it. A charged sapphire. It has a full magical current in it. And if you use too much of your own magic, it might trigger the sapphire and...well..."

"So you're saying," Fleur interrupted, "that on top of everything else, it might also explode my head?"

"Um...yeah, that's...that's the gist of it," Fluttershy said.

Fleur let out a bitter laugh. "That's stupid. Why? Why did they put this in my head over a regular chip?"

"Well, the actual damage it has caused is...rather low," Fluttershy said. "So, perhaps they didn't want a noble to get hurt by the normal chips. If so, this thing was...risky, to say the least."

"Who cares if it didn't leave much damage behind if it blows up my head?" Fleur shouted.

"Well, if I get it out, then all's well for you," Fluttershy said with a smile.

Fleur threw up a hand. "Not really, as the Inquisitors will still be on my flank."

"We're...working on that," Fluttershy said. "It seems that Lyra isn't acting on official orders. Whatever's going on, we're working on getting you back home safely."

"Are you going to kill her?" Fleur asked coldly.

Fluttershy shook her head. "We don't want to attract too much attention," she said. And it was horrible that that was the reason they weren't going to kill somepony. Not because killing was wrong—but because it might attract attention.

How had the world come to this? Shouldn't killing have remained the last resort? Why did even mares like Fleur have to think about killing ponies in vengeance?

"So she's going to walk free?"

"If the Inquisitors crack down on her, then she sure as hell won't be walking free," Rainbow Dash said from her post by the door. "We can't kill them, yet, unless the Boss suddenly changes her mind. If we kill Inquisitors, then all of a sudden, Discord becomes very dangerous in the minds of the Inquisitors. We don't want that yet. War would cause too much collateral damage."

Fleur clenched her fist.

"Trust me, Fleur, I've been there," Rainbow said. "I have a close friend whose parents were both killed the Inquisitors. I wanted so badly to hunt them down." She reached over, putting a hand on Fleur's shoulder. "But it would have put my friends in danger. And I couldn't do that."

"I get it," Fleur said. "There's nothing to be done, then."

"She'll get her reckoning," Rainbow said. "We're working on that, Fleur. It'll come some day." She stepped back, leaning back against the wall.

"I need to get things ready," Fluttershy said. "Unless you have more questions?"

"Can I...talk to Vinyl?" Fleur asked.

Fluttershy hesitated. "Well, I'm not sure that's the wisest idea right now. Vinyl's...ah...she stared upon a big research project, and while I'm very happy that she's found something to keep her busy, she's also learning a very important lesson for an android."

"What's that?" Fleur asked.

"Why sleep is important."

Vinyl was a freaking genius.

She had her music turned all the way up, as she fiddled with the small contraption in front of her, occasionally turning to check on the book besides her. As it turned out, they had a lot of spare parts here that were fine for Vinyl to take. And somehow, it was super easy to put them together into a machine.

"Is someone up here?"

Vinyl turned as Sky Watch flew into the room, frowning to herself. She wore her armor, her rifle strapped across her back, an apple in one hand as she landed. "Vinyl? What are you doing up here?"

"I get the best acoustics up in these old bell towers!" Vinyl said excitedly. "Listen!" She blasted her music for a minute, listening to the reverb travel up and down the tower. "Isn't that awesome?"

"Uh...right," Sky said slowly, before taking a large bite of her apple. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

"So what are you doing up here? Do you come up here to sing or something?" Vinyl asked.

"Um, no. Trust me, no one wants to hear my singin' voice," Sky chuckled. "I come up here before missions. I'm gonna be dancing with Inquisitors, so...I like to sort out all my thoughts first."

"Pfft! Who cares about sorting 'em? Just let them out!"

Sky stared at her. "What?"

"Look! I've been up here for...uh...hold on..." She checked her internal clock. "Only seventeen hours!"

"Um, what about sleep?" Sky asked.

"That's for mere mortals!" Vinyl laughed, waving it off. The sound effect bugged out, however, instead playing several instruments at once. "Ignore that," she said. "Anyway, seventeen hours of work! Look what I made!" She picked up the metal box.

"Uh...cool?" Sky asked. "Listen, Vinyl, that's...um. How about you go boot off for a bit? You'll feel better afterwards."

"I've never felt better than this!" she shouted. "I understand everything, Sky! Things make so much sense now! I cracked holograms!"

"You...did, now?" Sky said. "I mean, it took ponies, like, eight hundred years, so it makes sense that you did it in...less than a day. Maybe."

"I am a fucking genius, Sky!" Vinyl said, holding up the box. "Look!" She flicked the switch, pouring her magic into it as power. The box began to hum, playing the traditional music box melody.

Sky fluttered her wings, then pulled out a pair of safety goggles, fastening them over her eyes. "Look, Scratch, I'm not sure you should--"

"Wait! Just wait until it comes on! It only needs a touch more power--!" She poured everything she had into it, letting the magic stream, to bring her creation to life.

It hummed, rattling, the metal pieces barely holding together.

Sky leapt to the side just before it exploded. White light filled her vision, along with an ear-splitting ringing and mind-numbing pain. Then, for the first time in her life, Vinyl blacked out.

[ERROR]Audio systems rebooting...

[ERROR]6T Processor back online...

[ERROR]Thaumic generator overloaded...rebooting...

[ERROR]Damage to faceplate detected!

Vinyl's optics booted back online to see a very concerned Sky looking down at her. Her vision, however, was split in half, so Sky's left half appeared an inch above her right.

"What happened?" Vinyl asked.

"I thought you died there," Sky said, voice distant. "I was just about to--"

With a feedback whine, her audio processors booted back online. She cried out, sitting up and clutching at her face. "Ow ow ow ow--"

Sky helped her sit up, as Vinyl held her aching face.

"So," Sky said, "have you learned your lesson about making sure to get sleep?"

"Uh...I'm still not sure why," Vinyl said. "Does it help?"

"It's not about energy, pal," Sky said. "All that time in the library, and you didn't think to look at the books we have for adjusting androids?"

"Er...I was busy."

"Busy reinventing flashbangs," Sky chuckled. "Look. Take it from somepony who regularly skips out on sleep just so I can talk to the diurnal ponies. Your brain continues thinking while you're sleeping. It's not a complete shut off. When you get back up, you'll have finished sorting through it all. Same holds true for synthetic ponies, too." She sat besides Vinyl, then took another bite of her apple.

"I guess that all makes sense...and owwwww..." She bent forward, turning her music on quietly.

"Curse a few times, it'll do ya good," Sky recommended. "Then let's get you to the Pies to fix your face up."

"Okay..." Vinyl croaked. "Just...okay." She looked back to the crumpled sheet metal that had been her project for the last day. "Ffffff...fuck. Dammit." She shook her head, an action she immediately regretted.

Sky politely waited for her to finish an extended cursing spree. "Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah. Give me a hand?"

Sky helped her up, taking her to the stairs that lead to and from the bell tower. "Do you even know what half of those words mean?"

"I used to browse them online," Vinyl replied.

Sky chuckled. "Haven't heard some of those since I left Sires Hollow. Oh, you and me are gonna get along just fine, V."

Vinyl let Sky do most of the work, trying to fight through the pain that clouded her mind. "That's that old abandoned place, right? Supposed to be cursed?"

"Why do you think ponies believe it's cursed?" Sky asked. "'Cuz we're there. The rest of us live in Everfree or other foreign countries. Never mind that, though. What exactly were you trying to do there?"

"Uh...well...make a hologram generator?" Vinyl chuckled.

"Yeah, but...there's no way you understood any of the science."

"You'd be surprised," Vinyl replied, "how much an android can learn given seventeen hours of uninterrupted work. Except for that time Sunset came in."

"Yeah, I...hm?"

"Anyway, I thought I'd figured out how attach my own light spell to something else, I just needed to...create something with my magic. Which I'm not sure how that exploded..."

"It'll come to you after you wake up," Sky said. "Trust me." She reached out, knocking on the door to the Pies' workshop. It opened, and Limestone's bright red eye peered out.

"Vinyl blew herself up," Sky explained. "Needs a patch job on the ol' cranium."

"Are you serious?" Limestone growled.

"Sorry," Vinyl said.

"Huh, this might be the first time a new android literally blew herself up," Pinkie's voice came in from behind Limestone's eye.

"You're running on low sleep and made poor decisions?" Maude asked.

There was only one response Vinyl could possibly give. "Mm-hmm."

Marble gave a shy laugh. "Well, come on in," Limestone said, beckoning with one of her cables. "Not that I've ever passed up the opportunity for a lecture. Let's get you patched up."

Vinyl stepped inside, then turned around to Sky. "Thanks. I think if you hadn't come up there, I'd have just been stuck up there til morning."

"Dude, I'm the only one who goes up into those bell towers," Sky said. "The acoustics you like so much drive the other thestrals nuts." She twitched her ears. "We have sensitive hearing."

"Ooh...sorry."

Sky chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm content with how this night turned out. Night, V. Night, Pies."

A chorus of 'goodnights' saw her walking down the hallway, the door to the Pie sisters' workshop closing behind Vinyl.

It was only a considerable distance down the hallway that she asked the question on her mind. "Who's this Sunset person, anyhoo?"

Vinyl laid down on the surgery table for what felt like the millionth time in recent memory.

"What, exactly, hit you?" Limestone asked.

"Um...an exploding music box."

"An exploding...music box. Let me guess, Sunset's crazy new project?"

"No, I was, uh...trying to re-invent holograms."

"And it exploded," Limestone said.

"Mm-hmm."

"You should make sure you've slept recently before testing out any new device," Maude put in. "We had that happen a few times ourselves."

"Need a large trove of obvious-sounding tips?" Limestone asked.

"I...hmm. Is there, like, a list of the upgrades I'm allowed right now?"

"That list would be whatever parts we have in stock," Maude said.

"You miiight want to wait until tomorrow," Pinkie said, "but we can help you sort through it."

Vinyl leaned back on the bed as the Pies began pulling out their tools. "I think...that'd be a great idea."