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Slouching Towards Canterlot

by EbonQuill

Chapter 4: Incept Date

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I’d managed to jump start one of the elevators with my lightning rod, and saw Damask Rose for the first time since the hospital. To say she had changed was an understatement.

She'd ditched the black jumpsuit she'd worn back at Celestia Memorial, revealing an enameled coat of a very pale fuchsia. Her chrome mane had streams of magic pouring out between each strand, bathing her in the colors of the oncoming dawn. Her bare flank displayed a web of glowing strands but as I watched, a golden sun in its full glory blossomed in its place. She was flying on powerful wings made out of crystalline feathers. With each flap, feathers fell away and drifted to the ground.

The sky above her was a gray-blue brightening towards a periwinkle.

I jammed my lightning rod into the control panel, locking it into emergency ascent, and braced against the railing. It rocketed up the shaft, outpacing the ascending spiro. As I shot past her, a horn began to press through her brow.

The elevator collided with the roof in a shriek of rent metal and stink of broken wards. I tumbled out of the wreckage, a mess of scrapes and bruises. If I had not been prepared, it would have been nasty.

I’d landed near another hole in the casino, this one neatly carved out by magic.

To have that much power already….

I glanced down it at the spiro becoming one of the greatest lights ponykind had ever known. The transformation was almost complete. Her limbs and body had already become the graceful lengths of a true alicorn.

She looked my way, and opened her mouth. Twin targeting lasers in her mouth lit up my face. She spat a cable at me as I rolled away from the hole and took cover. A mnemonic net spun past me, landing nearby.

An idea occurred to me. I switched my lightning rod off, and opened my kit.

“ST Executive, this is Chance. What if we reversed the flow?”

“ST Executive, standby,”

I looped the net around my lightning rod. The glow from her blazing mane began to shine out of the hole.

“ST Executive. Chance, do you have access to one of the cocoons?”

“Yeah.”

A schematic of the mnemonic webs appeared over my glasses. Six areas were highlighted with angry lightning bolts.

“Gotcha.”

I spread the net on the ground, switched my lightning rod on, and fused five of the marked spots. The hum of the net became an ear-splitting whine.

She crested the hole. The horizon burned pink with a real, honest dawn. Her horn, easily three times the length of any unicorn’s I'd ever seen, was incandescent with a golden aura. The sun visibly brightened as she extended her wings.

I was out of time.

I twisted the web around the live rod, and stamped.

“H’y! Y’r hr’nss!” I shouted through gritted teeth.

She turned to face me, a beatific smile gracing her lips. “Yes, my little—?”

I whipped the net at her, and pounced. It coiled around her body, but her majestic wings had avoided the snare.

Before she could take off, I jammed the lightning rod into the coiled cables.

She shuddered and fell over, twitching.

“No, you can't—” she sputtered.

I jabbed her with the rod again. She shrieked in anger more than anything, but lay still.

“ST Executive. Chance, do it! We can't let her ascend!”

I raised my rod again, this time over the final node.

“Wait!”

It was the plaintive wail of a filly. I scanned the rooftop in the fading shadows, and saw her watching from a maintenance hut.

“Chance, dispatch it!” shrieked Skysign.

The filly had clearly been on the streets a while. Her matted violet mane framed her ice blue eyes, but her coat had been recently brushed. As she stepped out, a herd of baby ponies followed her out.

“Chance, dispatch the target!”

“I've confirmed the missing foals,” I said absently.

“And we have their parents en route! Now do it!”

I took my earblooms out and crushed them underhoof. Their magical auras died in a spray of glittering energy.

“Please,” the filly said. “Don't hurt her. She just wanted to bring the sun back.”

I turned back to the insensate alicorn-thing behind me.

“Please—”

I looked out at the city of Las Pegasus, and the first rays of sunlight.

“— leave Momma Sun alone! Me an’ the rest, we’re gonna be a circle of pony friends, like the song says! Once Rosie becomes Momma Sun, she said! She promised!”

“She's not Momma Sun, squirt. She's only pretending.”

I jammed my lightning rod into the last node, fusing it. Lightning danced inside her muzzle. She smoked.

The whine intensified, and a pale blue aura began to shine around the cocoon. The vanished Princess’s features began to melt away like wax in a blast furnace. The filly screamed so loud, I checked to see if she'd been hit.

It was only shock and sorrow.

After a few moments, there was only the spiro.

Only Damask Rose, with her pale pink coat, chrome mane, and delicate features.

I fried the latch, and pulled the cocoon off of her. More glittering spray as the net’s auras died. The filly ran up to her, and nuzzled her fiercely.

I was tired.

“… Why?” Rose choked, the glitter of dead magic on her breath.

Sweet Sun, even her voice was beautiful. It was gentle, lyrical, and comforting. She was brilliantly designed for her role.

I tried not to hate Skysign.

“You've seen what we are. You know who we need.” She sounded exhausted.

“Get out of here.” A voice said, sounding weary and defeated. Stunned, I realized it was my own. “Squirt, help her. You two need to hurry.”

I felt their gaze on me.

I continued, “Go! I won't hurt her. But somepony will if they catch her. Now go!”

They stood together, each helping the other to escape before the authorities arrived.

I couldn't bear to watch them leave.

A large skywagon appeared at the roof’s edge, and several armed SparkleTech security officers poured out. Behind them, several panicky ponies swarmed into the maintenance hut. Foals were rescued. Tears were shed. Happy endings all around.

I pulled my hat over my brow, and watched my first sunrise.

Spiros never work out on Equestria. They grow up out there Off-World, and the frontier societies raise them wild. They can't hack it down here. Our society’s ironbound laws strangle them. They stumble, fall, and usually take some of us with them.

But maybe Rose was different. Maybe she could manage to make it through to her expiry date.

For somepony like her to make it all the way, maybe that was a kind of freedom. One that would last forever.

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