Cyberpony Y2K

In the room where Vinyl had found the Diamond Duster mask, she found Rarity again. Her massive metal breastplate sat on the table this time, as Rarity was pulling out a bandage and a needle.

"Oh. You've been shot," Vinyl said, looking to Rarity's shoulder. Beneath the armor, the fashionista was wearing a tanktop, though it had a smear of blood on it near the injury.

"Yes, well," Rarity said, "it's only a flesh wound. I'll heal up fine. Octavia said you've been shot before, haven't you? At the Flight of Fancy?"

"Er...yes. She...remembers that, huh?"

Rarity chuckled. "Darling, you took seven bullets for her—she's going to remember that. She told me all about how stoic you looked, just sitting there, soaking up fire for her."

"'Stoic'. Ugh." Vinyl put a hand to her head. "I'm so glad she couldn't hear what I was saying. You, uh, need a hand?"

"Well, if you have one to spare. Hold my mane?"

"Sure! What?"

Rarity took off her mane, handing it to Vinyl. Vinyl took it, staring in mute shock as Rarity turned her attention to her wound, which she began to stitch.

"Ah—ah—" Vinyl stared at the mane, then to the side. On a mannequin head was Rarity's usual mane, all curls and fluff. Then she looked to her hands, where the Diamond Duster's ragged, synthetic mane sat, all sharp edges and chrome.

Then she looked to Rarity, who had no mane.

"What? You didn't think I did that to my actual mane, did you?" She gasped. "Shame on you, Vinyl! I may be a crude rebel warrior, but I still have my fashion sense!" She stuck the needle in her mouth, then began using her spare hand to work it through her skin, sewing the wound shut. Vinyl felt...nauseous? Could she get nauseous?

Vinyl put the Diamond Duster mane on. "So, uh...did it go poorly?"

"It went fabulously," Rarity said, through her gritted teeth. With the needle in her mouth, Vinyl wasn't sure if it was meant to be sarcastic, but thankfully, Rarity elaborated. "We dodged her, and they took the bait wonderfully. Just a few light bruises on us. I'm glad they sent Indigo—if it had been Minuette, things would have been harder."

"Indigo?"

"We have spies in Canterlot, keeping tabs on how many Inquisitors there are," Rarity explained. "Indigo Zap is the newest one. Did you hear about the Cottonpuff case four months ago?"

"No. I was in the repair shop at the time."

"Oh my. What happened?"

"Golfing related injury."

"I beg your pard--" Finished with her wound, Rarity looked back at Vinyl. "Take that off," she ordered.

"I rock this look," Vinyl said, shooting double finger guns at her.

"No. You don't. It wasn't meant to be rocked," Rarity said pointedly, picking her...mane off Vinyl's head and putting it on the table. She turned, opening up a locker on the side. She began taking off the pieces of armor, storing them away. Vinyl picked up the breastplate, struggled briefly, but then frowned at it. "It's not as heavy as I thought it would be."

"If it were much heavier, I wouldn't have any mobility in it," Rarity said. "It has to be light."

"Right." Vinyl handed the armor to her, then watched as Rarity got it loaded in. "You don't look that strong."

"Hydraulic muscles," Rarity said, flexing one arm. She smiled sadly. "Not particularly visible, unless you squint. But tis no matter. It's necessary."

Vinyl took her hand, and Rarity paused. Vinyl held out Rarity's arm, looking closely. From her elbow to shoulder, and again from her elbow to her wrist, there was a bulge beneath the skin, that felt hard when prodded. Vinyl's optics could even make out a faint glow beneath the flesh.

"Isn't...that bad?"

"There are safe cybernetics. And the 'unsafe' ones could probably be made safe, if we worked hard." Rarity gave her a smile. "But still. It's necessary."

"But do you need it? Couldn't you go without?"

"Darling. That breastplate is almost eight millimeters thick, and it's solid steel. Even Earth ponies would have trouble with it, without augments. And it's saved my life on several occasions." She closed the door, then locked it. She slipped one of her guns into her purse, which she slung onto her shoulder. "But enough about me. How have you been, darling?"

"Well enough. A little more practice shooting, but...my visor is causing problems." She knocked on the side of her head. "It does look radical, though."

"Uh...yes, darling, but it if impairs your aim, you might need to replace it."

"Yeah. I'm getting a total overhaul from the Pies, then I start training as a sniper."

"A sniper! Good, we could use more of those," Rarity said.

"Yeah. I'm just...a little nervous about it all. This'll be the biggest operation I've had." She chuckled. "Getting my steel-bones replaced. Then getting armor myself."

"So soon?" Rarity frowned. "Darling, don't you think..."

"What else am I gonna do, sit on my flank all day long while you bleed for the cause?" Vinyl shook her head. "No. I've decided. This is what I want."

"Very well, then," Rarity said. "Just...make sure you take care of yourself."

Vinyl stared at her.

Rarity sighed, then elaborated. "Rescued androids like you tend to have...trouble adjusting sometimes. Fancy Pants is a good colt, so...that's probably not what you're experiencing, but I've seen them suffer too much to not mention it."

"Like...trauma and PTSD?"

"Suicide," Rarity said bluntly.

Vinyl cringed. "O-oh. Yeah, that's not...that's not me."

"Good. Just...remember, if you want to talk about something, we're all here for you." Rarity put a hand on Vinyl's shoulder. "I've seen a lot of androids that couldn't recover. I don't...want to see it anymore." She leaned over, hugging Vinyl.

Vinyl hugged her back. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. And someday, I'll be out there, watching your six." She broke away from Rarity, giving her two thumbs up. "You don't need to worry about me, okay? I'm good."

"I'm glad to hear it. Now, I must go shower now. I'm jogged most of the distance here in armor, and I'm sweaty and gross."

"Could have mentioned that before the hug," Vinyl said, shaking off her hands. "Ugh."

Rarity laughed. "Oh, so now you care about decorum," she said. "Ta-ta!"

Vinyl waved good bye, then turned, heading back towards the library. There was still some time left in the day, after all. Might as well put it to use.

As it turned out, Octavia was no good at poker.

"Thank God we're not really betting," she muttered, as yet another hand was lost.

"You're no good at bluffing," Lemon said with a chuckle. "Nope! Not at all."

That didn't bode well for Octavia's immediate future, but she shook off that thought as Lemon began shuffling the deck again.

"Well, I didn't come here to gamble," Octavia said.

"Yeah, you came to play!" Lemon said, dramatically pumping a fist into the air. "Like a fuckin' legend. Cuz that's what we are, huh? Fucking legends."

"I'm not that good," Octavia protested.

"Uh...are you serious?" Lemon gave her a look. "You just waltzed into the Dazzle Den, got on stage, and played, and no pony knew your name before then. You may not have been a legend, but that is exactly how legends are born."

"Losing eight consecutive hands of poker?" Octavia asked with a smile.

"Well...you can just leave that part out," Lemon laughed. "I promise to only tell my gal pals."

"That...won't stay 'left out' for long," Octavia said, raising an eyebrow.

"Weeeell, I mean, I could ask Sunny not to gossip, but she would anyway. Silverspoon wouldn't even pretend, and Indigo—well, actually, you'd be fine there." She chuckled to herself. "Indigo can keep a secret."

"I envy her," Octavia muttered, before playing her hand.

Lemon threw down hers. "Royal flush!"

"How?" Octavia griped. "How are you getting all of these?"

"Easy. I'm cheating."

"What?"

Lemon grinned. "Aria talked about how to do it, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off." She shuffled the deck, then declared, "Ace of hearts." She pulled off the top card, revealing it to be the ace of hearts.

"You've been cheating?" Octavia said. "No wonder my bluffs weren't working. You knew I didn't have any good cards!"

"Well, I can't memorize the deck's entire layout," Lemon said. "I mean...some ponies can, I think, and there's a trend amongst casinos nowadays to use android dealers so ponies can't accuse them of cheating. That's much better than the, uh, usual job androids have at places like these."

"Hmm." A thought occurred to Octavia. "I wonder...why doesn't the Dazzle Den employ androids in such positions."

"Oh, Aria mentioned it!" Lemon said. "It's so they could claim to be 'higher quality'. Sounds horrible, I know, but she also said that she's been feeling empathetic for them recently. Got this weird look in her eyes, as she watched one of the Sonata androids at work. And ponies have been talking about how the Dazzle Den is changing."

"For the better, I hope?"

"Well, they didn't sound happy about it, but yeah. I think that the changes have been for the better."

Lemon set up the deck to shuffle again, but Octavia took it from her. "No funny business this time, let it be an actual game," Octavia pronounced. Unfortunately, a swift knock came upon her door.

She sighed, then got up and headed for the door. "We can hang out again some other time, if you want," she said.

"We should exchange phone numbers!" Lemon said. "I really owe ya big time."

"It's nothing, just helping out where I can." Octavia opened the door a crack, looked outside, then opened it all the way. "Hello, Seven. And Sonata."

"And Aria!" Sonata said, moving partly aside to reveal the violet Siren.

Aria blew a strand of hair out of her face. "There's a few...finer points I thought it would be prudent to discuss," she said.

"I see," Octavia said, stepping back inside. "Lemon, this is business, I'm afraid. We'll definitely pick up where we left off another time."

Lemon chuckled, before stuttering off after she saw Aria. Aria frowned, looking from Lemon to Octavia, back to Lemon, but then settled her gaze on Octavia. "Well, alright," Lemon said. "Had fun. Hope you learn how to bluff before our next match!" She passed by Octavia, then gave a polite nod to the Sirens. "Later, Aria," she said, walking out.

Seven closed the door, and immediately Aria launched into it. "I don't care what Sunset told you to do. You stay the fuck away from my friends," Aria ordered. "I'm not going to have Discord screwing with them."

Octavia held up her hands. "I was offering a hand, Aria. She's terrified of you."

"What? What are you talking about?"

Octavia sighed. "She doesn't want to sleep with you, but doesn't think you're going to let her say no."

Aria folded her arms, thinking.

"Ooh," Sonata said, holding her chin. "That's...awkward, huh, Aria?"

"Shut the fuck up," Aria told her. "So. What did you tell her?"

"That she should be honest with you." Octavia folded her own arms, meeting Aria's gaze. "I expect you to let it be a no."

"Of course. It's no fun if they don't want to."

Octavia raised an eyebrow. "Would you know?"

Aria gave a sharp-toothed grin. "Nah, not really. It would be way too easy to get caught. Hasn't stopped a few scandals from arising, but most of those weren't on us." She stepped past Octavia, adding, "Thanks for bringing that to my attention. But now, let's stick to business." She moved past Octavia, sitting down. She picked up the deck of cards, shuffling it.

Octavia took her seat, Sonata sitting besides her sister.

"Okay," Aria said, "I know what Sunset is like, Octavia. I know part of why you're here and not literally anywhere else is to investigate us."

"Might be little difficult at this point," Octavia muttered.

"Well, don't worry. Go into any of the employee facilities, talk to anypony you want. Ask any one, anything. Don't worry about us stopping you." Aria leaned back in her chair as Seven poured drinks. Sonata immediately grabbed her drink, but Aria didn't even look at her drink. Instead, she pulled out a Salt lick. She held it out for Seven to light.

"Am I to trust that?" Octavia asked slowly.

"We all know that we can't kill you," Aria said firmly, "assuming we wanted to. Sunset would know immediately."

"But we're more interested in getting rid of the Princesses," Sonata said.

"Why?" Octavia asked. "Aren't they keeping the country exactly how you like it?"

"Yeah. We're positively gorged right now." Sonata rubbed her stomach, briefly showing a pained face. "But the thing is, that won't really last if there's not a country in a hundred years."

"And we learned the hard way how badly trying to take over you lot can go," Aria said stiffly. "Don't ask for details; I'm still sore about it."

Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"It was two thousand years ago," Aria said. "and has nothing to do with the current situation. The point being that this world will contain food for us so long as it still has ponies in it. But we've been watching this past hundred years. Adagio did the math, too. The population is declining. They're killing people faster than they can reproduce." She grimaced. "Which is a staggering feat, all things considered." She extended her Salt lick, offering it to Octavia.

Octavia shook her head.

"Oh, right. These things are toxic to you lot." She stuck it back in her mouth, then blew a puff into the air. "You finished the operation to shake the Inquisitors in Ponyville, right?"

"Yes, it was a resounding success," Octavia said.

"And Lyra?" Sonata swished her tail, meeting Octavia's gaze.

"We haven't received word yet, but Lyra's most certainly back in Canterlot by now. My own feelings aside, it would be good if they got rid of her for us."

Midnight Sparkle strode down the steps of the medical ward, keeping her wings close to herself. While they covered most minor treatments at the Canton of Inquisition, most severe injuries were treated at the Canton of Justice's barracks.

And it sounded like Lyra Heartstrings had sustained severe injuries.

Minuette was outside the hospital ward, and jumped to her hooves when she saw Midnight. "Sit down," Midnight ordered, Spike flitting along behind her.

Minuette obeyed wordlessly.

"Well? What exactly happened here?"

"Multiple cracked ribs, a dozen holes in her stomach, and she teleported. Twice, while injured. I didn't....even know that she could do that."

"It's not a miracle. I could do teleports before I was an Alicorn." Midnight frowned. "She did it twice?"

"She just about passed unconscious by the time we were on the train. I had to carry her here." Minuette gave an awkward chuckle. "And...the, uh...orders-issue..."

"I'll talk to her about it," Midnight said.

"Are you going to kill her?"

Midnight considered it. "I don't think so," she said.

Minuette let out a sigh of relief, shoulders relaxing.

Midnight opened the door to the room, motioning for Minuette to stay where she was. She closed the door behind her, stepping into the private room.

Lyra opened one eye, then closed it again. "Do we have to do this now?'

"Yes, Lyra." Midnight folded her arms, doing her best stern face.

It didn't stop Lyra from laughing. Until she sat up, groaned in pain, then let out a sigh of relief.

"Care to explain this to me?" Midnight asked.

"I recieved the order from Cadenza," Lyra said. "I couldn't--"

"Fuck that, Lyra. You should have come to me and you know it," Midnight said. "Why didn't you?"

Lyra sighed. "I went to her about the Gilda case. I told her I could...frame it in a way so that she could pin it on Griffonstone's government. So we could...go to war and wipe them out."

"And she said yes?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Midnight took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "You are not to go on any missions until further notice," Midnight said. "I want you staying in Canterlot unless I say otherwise. And if you ever go behind my back again..." Midnight stepped forward, then kicked Lyra in the stomach. Lyra gasped, rolling onto her side, clutching her wounds.

"I will kill you. This is your final warning, Lyra. No more." Midnight didn't wait for her to stop gasping before she left the room.

Minuette stood up, saluting again as Midnight slammed the door shut.

"I need you to carry a message to Princess Cadenza," Midnight said. "She is to meet me at the Solar Spire as soon as physically possible."

"Y-yes, Your Majesty. And Lyra..."

"Off the hook," Midnight growled. "For now. Keep an eye on her, though."

Minuette hurried off, discarding her usual patient stroll for a high-speed blitz. She left Midnight alone, with no company but Lyra's pained wheezing.

Midnight listened to it for a long moment, before reaching for the door again. She hesitated, then pulled her hand away. Her horn lit up, and in a burst of light, she teleported.