THE MAGIX: CHAPTER 8:Sparks

Neon stood outside Rain's dormitory door, battling himself. He could hear her stifled cries through the thick plaster of the wall. The plaintive, desperate sound made Neon's heart feel heavy. She thought this was all her fault. Ash had become obsessed over her, and she had driven him to madness. She was blaming herself, as if everything had happened because of her. He knew it wasn't. Neon wanted nothing more than to go in and comfort Rain,tell her that it wasn't her fault, and that everything would be okay. But how could he do that without...
Neon's heart gave a sudden lurch. It shouldn't have happened this fast. They'd known each other for only a week now, but Rain was unlike anypony he'd ever met. She amazed him. She made him feel like no one else had.
Neon bit his lip, breathed in, and raised a hoof to knock on the door. No, he decided, dropping his hoof. Not now. He stood there for a moment, listening to Rain's cries. He wanted to help her so badly. He had to.
He finally settled on leaving a note. He left, then returned a minute later with a pen and sticky-note pad in his mouth. He began scribbling his heart out on the tiny sheets of paper.
Rain,
I know all this has been really hard on you. Nothing hurts more than finding out that your whole world was a lie and that everything you've ever known was an illusion. Losing somepony makes it hurt even worse. I know how you feel. Everypony does. Misty's death was not your fault. You might not believe all that we've told you about yourself. Being the one thing the entire resistance has been searching for isn't exactly the most realistic idea in the real or virtual world. Rain, you may not believe in yourself, but I want you to know that I do. I'm here for you. We all are. Meet me in the common room when you get this message. Don't worry. I'll be waiting for you. You are not alone.

Neon

An hour later, the crew was waiting in the common room. It seemed emptier with Ash and Misty's faces missing from the usual gathering. The room was quieter than usual. Nopony was chatting frivolously with a friend, exchanging witty banter or laughing at an inside joke like there normally was. Ash's sudden attack and Misty's death had hit them all where it hurt most.
Finally, Rain entered. She was a mess. Her face was covered in dark wet streaks and her eyes were chafed red. The worn-out pegasus stopped when she saw the sight before her. The crew was silent. Nopony spoke. Their faces were a mix of emotions, none of them happy. Cherrybomb had just woken up. She was snuggled close next to Horus, quietly sniffling, small salty drops streaking down her cheeks. She'd obviously just heard what had happened to Misty.
I never knew how close everypony was, Rain realized. She'd completely underestimated the bond the crew shared. She felt even worse. "This is all me, isn't it?"
Everypony looked to see that Rain had arrived. "You okay?" Neon asked. "You've been in your dorm for hours."
Rain sat down on an empty couch, thinking nopony wanted to be near her. "I wanted to ask you guys the same thing. Look, I don't know how things were before I got out. But ever since I arrived, a lot of bad things have been happening. I just can't help but feel like- like it's because of me."
Horus turned his attention to her, still holding Cherrybomb close. "Don't think like that," he said. "This could have happened at any time to anypony. You only knew him for a while, but Ash was... he was always a little off."
Rain pulled out a wad of sticky notes. "Neon left these on my door. I found them right before I came here." She read through the notes again. "You wrote something about being the one thing that the resistance is looking for. I don't remember anypony telling me anything about that. What do you mean? What haven't you told me?"
"We never told her?" Spiro said. A folded pack of sterile white gauze was bound tightly to the left side of his head, where Ash had slammed it against the control panel. "She still doesn't know about that?"
"I thought maybe it would be best if she found out for herself," Horus answered.
"Find what out?" Rain was getting curious.
Neon looked concernedly at the mystified pegasus. "I'm afraid you still don't know everything about yourself. There were some things that we just didn't have time to explain."
"So what does that mean? Do I have some sort of supernatural power? Am I not really a pony?"
"Not exactly," Horus explained. "Here, you're just like the rest of us. There's nothing exceptional about you in the real world. But in the Magix, you are different. Much different."
Rain still didn't understand. "How?"
Amber jumped into the conversation. "It's all in your head, Rain. You have an extremely powerful mind. If you can learn how to use it and control that power, you're pretty much immortal. The rules of the Magix don't apply to you."
"I know. I get all that. But what about what Neon said, that I'm the one thing you have been searching for?"
Saph, who was curled up on a beanbag, covered in gauze and bandages with stitches on her fin and her arm in a splint, sat up and sighed. "Here comes the long story."
Horus began. "In the beginning of the Magix, almost all of ponykind was trapped. The Magix had the entire planet under its control. Then something happened. A glitch, an accident, a miracle to some. Some way, somehow, a young mare broke free. Nopony quite knew how. She had beat the Magix at its own mind-controlling game. She had the very same gift as you, Rain. An impossibly strong mind. They called her the One. She was strange, exceptional, and extremely powerful. Soon after she was discovered by the few who were still free. Many years later she returned to the Magix to free others from their prison. Her power over the Magix was unlimited, telekinesis, telepathy, shapeshifting, almost every ability you can imagine was hers to control. It seemed like the Magix had finally met its match. But it didn't last long."
Amber picked up the story. "The Magix found out how the mare had escaped. It refused to be defeated. It built itself an army, fast, intelligent, and nearly indestructible. The agents. It let them loose into the system and gave them a single purpose: defend the Magix and destroy everything that threatened it. That meant the resistance and the one who led them. The agents worked quickly. Before long, they had hunted them down. The mare who had escaped, the first one of them all... she sacrificed herself to save the rest of the resistance."
"We knew that she couldn't be the only one out there." Spiro was speaking now. "The resistance has been searching for the new One since the beginning. But we've never found anything. And the story of the One, it just sort of... faded. Not everypony believes she exists anymore."
Silence overtook the room. Rain looked down at the floor, trying to absorb the story. How could this be true? Her, the one pony they had been searching for since the dawn of the resistance? She looked back up at the crew. Neon was looking at her, his eyes full of sympathy. As Rain gazed, something else flickered in the glowing pools of bright green, that same emotion that she just couldn't figure out. She heard his voice speak up.
"This crew is one of the few that still believed that the One is still out there. But when we found you, we knew that if we waited to give you a proper initiation, it would take days to get you free. The agents would track you down and kill you before you even had a chance to see one of us face to face. That's why we were in such a rush to get you out. It's why the agents want you so much. Rain, you are the One." He took a breath before continuing. The strange fluttery feeling had returned to Rain's chest. "The reason why you were brought here so suddenly is because we needed to act fast. If we'd waited to explain everything to you, you'd... you'd probably be dead."
Rain's gaze flickered back to the floor. "So that's why you chose me. Me, out of every other pony in the Magix, to come with you." She began thinking about everything she'd learned over the past few days. Everything she had ever known, the world that she grew up in, wasn't real. None of it really existed. So what about all the ponies she'd known? Did that mean her friends, the other five Elements of Harmony, were illusions, too? Did they even exist, now that she was gone? What about the princesses, the Celestia that Twilight Sparkle learned from and trusted so much?
"What about the princesses?" Rain unknowingly asked.
Amber cocked her head. "Huh?"
Rain shook herself back to reality. "Celestia and Luna, the sun and moon goddesses. Are they real, or are they fake, too?"
"Oh, they're real alright," Saph rasped, curling back into a ball. "Maybe more real than anypony in Equestria."
"The goddess sisters have been here for thousands of years, long before the Magix's creation," Spiro said. "They stay in Harmony for the most part, to make sure Equestria's free population is kept safe. They do return to the Magix every now and again to check on their subjects until the world is free."
"Harmony? What's Harmony?" Rain was completely lost. She'd never heard of Harmony.
"Harmony is our home," Horus explained. "It is the only free city in Equestria, split into six districts named for the fabled Elements of Harmony. It's hidden, buried deep underground, where heat rises from below the planet's crust. See, the activity of the Magix once relied on solar energy. In a desperate attempt to stop it, the ponies had placed a thick layer of synthetic storm clouds over the atmosphere. It blocks out all sunlight from reaching the planet's surface. It was meant to cut off the Magix's power source, but instead just made the surface a cold, hostile place. As for the Magix, well, you know what happened."
"Which is why we started digging," Amber continued. "Of course, we're still trying to recolonize all the plants and wildlife that we'd lost over time. It's difficult, having no sun and all, but we have to keep trying for when we move back to the surface."
There was an awkward pause, as if nopony could decide where the conversation would go next. They all noticed that Cherrybomb hadn't said a word.
"Hey, Cherry, you feeling okay?" Neon asked quietly. She had stopped crying, but was still sniffling, and her eyes remained glassy.
"Yeah, um..." she mumbled, voice scratchy from tears. "It's getting late. I should probably turn in." The crew's youngest member hopped off the couch and shuffled toward the corridor to the dorms. She was slower than usual, as if the sadness had sapped all her energy away. Before disappearing into the darkness of the hallway, she turned around. "Horus? Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"I don't see why not," he said, and he followed her to her dorm.
"That kid really loves him," Neon said after the two ponies had left. "Horus is like a father to her. She really clings to the guy. I think it's because she didn't have any parents in her former life."
"She didn't have parents? What happened to them?"
"She doesn't know, and she sure as hay doesn't like talking about it."
"Horus must love her as much as she does," Amber put in. "She's only 11, and ponies aren't allowed to join a resistance crew until they're 15. Cherrybomb is way too young to be here. But she had nowhere else to go, and Horus... I guess he just couldn't let her go."
Rain smiled. "Awww. That's so sweet. Sappy, but sweet."
Saph got up from her beanbag and stretched. "I'm headed back to my nest. See you tomorrow."
She left. Not much later, so did Spiro, then Amber. Rain and Neon were the only ones left in the room. After a long and awkward silence, Neon turned to face Rain.
"Anything else to talk about?"
"Uh, yeah, actually," Rain responded. The flutter grew stronger, making her heart pound. She felt as if a thin, invisible thread stretched across the space between her and Neon, tugging at them, trying to pull them closer. She stood up and went to go sit next to him, letting the thread tow her along.
"The Magix is just a dream world, right?"
"Yeah. Nothing but signals fed to your brain by a supercomputer."
"But if you die in a dream, nothing happens. If you die, you wake up. So why even try? Why do we keep running from the agents if we'll only wake up when they kill us?"
"The Magix doesn't work like that. It's not just any dream. It was designed to be a replacement for real life. It's so unbelievably realistic, ponies in the Magix believe anything and everything they see. We can still partially control it with our minds, but death... death is different. Along with death comes fear. A lot of it. Being afraid to die is hardwired into a pony's brain. Even a suicidal pony world feel that last burst of fear before their life is over. When somepony dies in the Magix, that fear overrides any mental power they could possibly possess. Then they die, not only in the dream, but in real life."
Rain took a moment to process this. "So being killed in the Magix means dying for real. Then what about what Ash tried to do to you? What did you mean by being unplugged?"
"He was- he was going to pull the connection jack out of my head, the one that connects a pony's mind to the Magix." Neon stopped for a second and bit his lip, eyes downcast. Whatever would have happened, he didn't want to think about it. "When... when that plug is pulled, and a jackout connection isn't prepared... that pony's mind is in the Magix. A pony's mind controls everything. And when the connection is just cut off like that, their brain shuts down and they die."
He looked away. Rain could tell she'd struck something. She regretted asking him. "Sorry I asked. I didn't mean to-"
"No, it's okay, really." The dark pegasus turned back to her. That expression was in his eyes again, that emotion that she couldn't decipher.
"Thanks," she said.
"For what?"
Rain touched the wad of sticky notes she'd brought with her. "For the note. It made me feel so much better. It was... it was really nice of you."
Neon's heart thudded wildly. Why did Rain have to make him feel this way? "It was nothing," he mused. "I just thought... maybe, if I could talk to you, I..." His speeding pulse was making him dizzy. He tried to force it to slow down.
"It definitely helped," Rain said. "You've helped me, Neon."
Her magenta eyes filled with warmth. She reached her forelegs out to hug him. He accepted, taking her in his arms and holding on tightly. It was perfect. Rain was so warm, soft, her sky-blue feathers smooth on his hooves. He didn't want it to end...
Zap.
The feeling came as a sudden shock. The second the pegasi touched, it appeared, a glowing spark between the two of them. That thread, the invisible force pulling them together twisted around them and pulled them together. The spark grew, gaining more and more power from the embrace. It connected them, joined them, sent electric pulses through them. The feeling was unlike anything they'd ever felt. It was new, exhilarating, strange...
Too strange.
The two pegasi fell apart as suddenly as they had touched. Rain and Neon fell back, leaning away from each other on opposite sides of the couch. She sat, silent, chest heaving as she stared at Neon on the other side with the exact same reaction, just as shocked as she was. "What was that?" she whispered.
"I- I don't know."
Rain felt faint and floating, like she was walking on air. Her heart raced. Neon stared back at her from his end of the couch. Whatever had just happened, it was far beyond any explanation.
"It's... um... getting really late," Rain mumbled, her words choppy and slow.
"Yeah, we should... probably get going," Neon responded, speaking equally as unsteadily.
Rain walked out of the common room while Neon stayed behind. She looked briefly over her shoulder at him. There was something about him. Rain just couldn't figure out what.

As Rain made her way back to her dorm, she passed by Cherrybomb's room. She hadn't seen Horus return to the common room or pass by in the corridor. Was he still in there with her? Rain silently placed her ear on the door, which was open just a few inches. She heard a faint, high-pitched sobbing coming from inside. The pegasus peeked through the skinny open slit in between the door and its frame.
Cherrybomb was slumped on the edge of her bed on top of a blue and white tie-dyed blanket, her face in her hooves. Horus sat next to her, letting the filly cry into his shoulder, speaking to her in a gentle, calming tone.
"It's okay, you can cry. I know how much this hurts. Don't hold back, just let it out. That's it. You'll be okay. It'll all be okay."
Cherrybomb finally raised her head, wiped her streaming electric blue eyes and blinked. "I'm sorry," she whimpered, shivering. "I'm trying to be strong, I really am. But Misty... she meant so much. And now she's gone, then what? What if you're next? I don't want to lose you, too." Her shaking grew even more violent, a sign she was straining not to break down again.
"You won't lose me next," Horus said. "I will never abandon you. You'll always have me. You know that, Cherrybomb." He wiped a stray tear off her cheek.
"But I'm still so scared," she squeaked. "Who's going to be next? You guys are the only real family I've ever had. I don't want to lose you like..." Cherrybomb cut herself off. She was shaking uncontrollably, scared out of her wits.
"That won't happen," Horus said to her, stroking her mane. "I will never let that happen, not to any of us."
Cherrybomb nodded as if she understood, but the expression on her face made Horus feel doubtful.
"I understand that it's still only your first year here and it's been difficult for you to let go. But the past is behind you now. We aren't like the people at your foster home. We will never abandon you. I just want you to know that. Okay?"
Cherrybomb nodded weakly. Horus sighed. He held her closer and hugged her tightly, letting her cry into his shoulder.
Rain took a silent step away from the door. Neon was right. Horus is like her father.
The silent pegasus unfolded her wings and fluttered noiselessly down the corridor. I've had enough for one day. I need to get some sleep.

Ten minutes passed. Ten turned into fifteen, then twenty, and eventually, Cherrybomb dropped off to sleep. Horus held her for a minute. He couldn't leave her before she could let go. A telepathic wave reached out from his mind to the filly in his forelegs. Everything had calmed. Her thoughts became quiet and rhythmic, like ocean waves. She was dreaming.
Horus smiled. He pulled the covers back, laid Cherrybomb down on the sheet and pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Horus ran a hoof through the sleeping filly's short blue hair. She was safe now.
He remembered it with burning clarity. She had been alone, with no family and living in a temporary home with dozens of other foals who actually had hope for a better life. Not like her. She'd known she was different. And that was why they never told her they were moving and left her there.
Cherrybomb had been living alone for fifteen days, just barely surviving, when Horus finally picked up her signals and found her location. He thought back to that freezing winter night, opening the door to see little ten-year-old Cherrybomb, a tiny, frail, blank-flanked filly shivering in the doorway. The second Cherrybomb saw him, she'd leapt forward and clinged to him like a long-lost friend.
"You found me," she had cried. "You finally found me."
Horus looked down at her, sleeping soundly in her new and permanent home. She was safe, just like he promised. "Sweet dreams," he whispered. Then he slipped out into the corridor. Spiro was waiting for him.

Spiro sat in a swivel chair at the holodeck control panel and stared blankly at the Magix code streams flowing rhythmically over the screen, waiting restlessly for his captain to show up. Saph would have been here, too, if Horus hadn't taken so long. She left in a huff almost ten minutes ago. She's such a brat, Spiro thought.
Horus finally walked through the doorway from the corridor, poring over the touch-screen smartphone held in his hoof. He looked up as Spiro turned to face him. "Where's Saph? She said she'd be here."
Spiro shrugged. "The pissy little drama queen left a while ago. Seems she thought you were taking too long preventing emotional trauma."
"How long has it been?"
"Only about half an hour. Did you get the stats I sent you?"
"I did. What's going on?" Horus locked his smartphone and stood next to Spiro. "I've never seen readings like this."
Spiro opened the database feed. Information from the hacked activity messenger loaded up. Streams of cryptic pirated code spilled over the screen. The code normally stayed constant, flowing down the screen in synchronized streams, signifying no change, just the agent's basic hunting activity. Instead of the regular pulsing pattern the code always flowed in, their rhythm had become sporadic, too fast and over-energized.
"The signals are spiking," Spiro said as he ran through the activity records from previous checkpoints. "The Magix must know we have the One. This activity is higher than it's ever been."
Horus studied the frantic speeding streams of code. "Do you have any idea what this could mean?"
"I don't know. The code is changing too fast. I can't decipher exactly what the signals mean. But whatever's going on, it can't be good."
"They're planning something."
"Something big."
Horus turned to Spiro, determination in his eyes. "Spiro, we'll need a battle plan."
Spiro closed out of the feed and opened a blank document. "Are we going in for an attack?"
Horus nodded. "We are going to find out exactly what that something is, and we will end it before it begins."