Although the conversation was occurring most of the way across the room, Lilium could still hear it. She comprehended every element of it, and was even able to perceive the diagrams that the others were using despite not having a clear line-of-sight. She was somewhat grateful that they were not speaking in the Standard Language this time, although she was vaguely aware of the fact that Morgana’s mind had imprinted it along with over four hundred other languages- -the majority of them having long ago died with the people who had created them- -into her memory architecture.

Still, she did not consider the conversation to be of much relevance and instead relegated it to the back of her mind. Instead, she focused on her conversation with Roxanne, breathlessly telling of her adventure in the virtual world with Morgana and the War Stone.

Roxanne seemed amenable to the conversation, and far more expressive than either Morgana or Forth. At some points she would look deeply concerned, but at other parts of the story she would laugh and express transient disbelief, only for Lilium to reassure her that the story was, in fact, completely true.

When the story ended, Lilium found herself pacing around on the concrete floor of the warehouse while Roxanne was lying on a box with her front legs crossed. Lilium turned to her expectantly.

“Well, fuck,” said Roxanne. “I should kick Morgana’s elderly ass for putting you in that much danger.”

“Oh.” For some reason, Lilium felt quite disappointed.

Roxanne smiled. “But…if even half of what you’re saying is, you know, true? Then that’s all pretty awesome. Which makes you a little awesome too. Not as awesome as me, but pretty damn close.”

Lilium beamed. She was not sure why, but she realized that she had been seeking Roxanne’s approval. “It is true! All of it!”

Roxanne laughed and adjusted her position on the crate. “Well that’s a big jump, isn’t it? You come in here barely able to talk or knowing who you are, then come back a half a day later and suddenly you’re a full-fledged technomancer? You learn fast. Have you considered dancing? You would not BELIEVE the trouble I have finding backup dancers who can handle my choreography.”Lilium laughed. Roxanne frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“You, dancing! It’s just…well…”

“What? I fucking love dancing. In the sexiest and/or most epic way possible.”

“Well, it’s just that…” Lilium trailed off, and shook her head. “Never mind. I had you confused with someone else.”

“Only because you haven’t seen one of my shows.”

“What?”

“My shows. Trust me. If you saw one, you’d never forget me. Because I am, in fact, that good.”

Lilium laughed, and Roxanne did so as well. Lilium climbed onto the large crate where Roxanne was lying and sat down on the far end.

“Still…” she said as the laughter died down. “It wasn’t all me. I was mostly just there to help. Actually…I kind of think that Morgana orchestrated the whole thing. To get me in there. So we could win. I don’t think it was random.”

“Of course it wasn’t. Things don’t happen around her by accident. Ever.”

Lilium sighed. “I can’t tell if she really cares, or if she’s just manipulating me, then.”

“This is coming from experience: it’s both. But mostly the second one. It’s infuriating. And one of the reasons I can’t stand her anymore.”

“But she really did help! She gave me a name, and helped me figure out who I was. Or start to. And I couldn’t do any of this technical work if we hadn’t merged in the program.”

Roxanne looked over her shoulder at Lilium, and then repositioned herself so that the two of them were lying parallel. “Yeah. That’s something I’m kind of concerned about.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because something like that can have consequences. Sometimes good ones and sometimes bad.”

“Like…what?”

“Identity failure. Or spontaneous budding. But judging from the look of you right now, you don’t have either of those. But still.” She paused. “Look. What you did is actually really, REALLY complicated, but to put it as simply and bluntly as possible: merging like that is how ponies have sex.”

Lilium’s face turned several shades of red darker. “Wh- -what?!”

“I mean generally!” Roxanne sighed. “I mean, what your describing? It wasn’t. Not really. But it was as close as you can get without doing it. I mean, you were inside her, and her inside you. One body. Two ponies. But like I said. Sex is as complicated for ponies as it is simple for mammals. Or fish-people, oddly enough.”

Lilium’s mind sputtered for a moment. “But…ponies aren’t supposed to have sex…”

Roxanne looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“You mean you have?”

“Again: seriously? Lil, I used to be a prostitute. A damn good one. If you made me count the number of times shoved in or been shoved into you’d make me feel old. Trust me. I’ve done the deed. PLENTY of times.”

“So you’re an expert, then.”

“I guess. Eew. It makes it sound dirtier somehow if you put it like that. But yeah. I’m a Rainbow Dash unit. I’m the best at everything I do.” She sighed. “Even if that means turning tricks.”

“Sorry. What I meant was that you would know…how it works and stuff.”

Roxanne nodded. “Sure. With ponies, it’s complicated. It takes a lot of precision to do it right, you know? Usually. Sometimes they just want to get on your back and pretend that they’re actual, you know, horses. Humans are different. They can’t interface well with their brains, but they do fine the other way. You just have to be harsh with them.”

“Harsh?”

“A lot of them pay up-front and think that they can just beat you. The day I let one of them get away with that is the day I sell my wings and turn unicorn.”

Lilium almost laughed at the image of a unicorn Rainbow Dash, but for some reason this conversation made her feel uncomfortable- -but at the same time intrigued.

“I understand the basic theory,” she said. “But…”

“You want to know how I did it for money. Yeah. I know. That’s always what they ask. And I just did, okay? I was good at it. I needed money to pay for rent and new body parts. I had a LOT of sex for not a lot of money. And I don’t do it anymore.”

“But…”

“But what?” Roxanne was becoming defensive. Just like the real Rainbow Dash would if she was forced to talk about something she did not want to.

“It’s just that…well…did you enjoy it?”

Roxanne seemed taken aback. “What the hell? What do you think? Do I look organic to you? Of course not. I didn’t hate it, though. The physical part…it’s just sort of there. And the interfacing is just a job. Same as Morgana opening doors or hacking drones or whatever the hell she does.”

Once again, Roxanne shifted, this time turning away from Lilium. Her eyes grew distant. “It was a job. I was good at it. Dancing is fun, but it’s just a job too. Do you know what I’d really like?”

“Adventure.”

Roxanne smiled. “It’s almost like you know me.”

“I just guessed.”

“You guessed right. See, I’ve always had this dream. I don’t tell it to a lot of people, but I don’t mind you knowing. I want to take a road trip. Get on my motorcycle and just head west. Go down all the old freeways, the ones no one uses anymore. Straight across the Divide, through Monsanto territory or maybe even through North Mexico, all the way to the PRC and the Pacific- -and maybe even beyond.” She turned toward Lilium. “They have this bridge, you know. The trans-Hawaiian expressway. Froom the PRC straight to Hawaii, the last free state. They say it’s so long and so straight that you can get up to eight-hundred without any difficulty at all. And on my ride? I think I could break one thousand.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“I know. But think about it. The wind in my hair, the speed, the world going by. Did you know that I’ve never left Bridgeport? I’ve never seen the sky, or the ground, or a real ocean. I want to see a horizon, the sun…to spread my wings like I could really fly…”

Her wings spread slowly and involuntarily, and she looked wistfully upward, as if she could see that sky through the miles of steel and concrete over her head.

“I asked her once, you know.”

“Morgana?”

Roxanne nodded. “I saved up enough money. I wanted to go, and take her with me. So we could go together. No more of this shit. To go somewhere where we could be happy.” She chuckled. “But she said exactly what you said. ‘Too dangerous’. That the Divide is a war zone now. That Monsanto shoots outsiders on sight, and that North Mexico is filled with renegade vassals. That ponies aren’t welcome in the PRC.”

“If it’s not safe, she was trying to protect you.”

“That’s probably what she thought, too.” Roxanne frowned. “But it wasn’t. Not really. Those dangers? We could have dealt with them. Together. But she’d have to give up her life, and the life she wanted me to have.”

“She works very hard- -”

“For a tiny office and a life she hates? Don’t give me that bullshit, Lil. You’re too good to fall for it. She’s a workaholic. Nothing matters to her more than her precious cases, not you…and not me. And I was a fool. A young, sexy fool. I tolerated that. Because I thought she was bringing justice to the world. Like it had some grander meaning…but you know how that turned out.”

Lilium nodded. “I met Maurice.”

“Maurice Shooker. Not the biggest gangster in Bridgeport, but still the worst. And what he does to those poor Scootaloos… it makes me sick. And it’s not just him. Countless others…ones I don’t even know about. But the outcomes don’t matter. Who lives or dies doesn’t matter. I don’t even think she really cares if she gets paid. Just as long as the case gets solved.”

“I know.” The two of them looked at each other, and Roxanne understood.

“The merge…”

Lilium nodded. “She warned me. But I didn’t listen. I can feel it. Changes. Things that weren’t there before. Like when Moonlight was yelling. I walked up to him and said exactly what I knew he wanted to hear. And I think Morgana did to. No. I know she did.” Morgana paused. “It’s just like in the Library…we pretend to be altruistic, but we aren’t. It’s all for ourselves…”

Roxanne put her hoof on Lilium’s shoulder. “No.”

“No?”

“That’s her talking. Not you.”

“But we’re both Twilight units. We have the same base personality. The amount that separates her from me, it isn’t that much. Just a matter of a few lines of code…a few memories…”

“Come on. Do you honestly believe that?” Lilium paused, seriously considering the answer. Roxanne laughed, but then grew more serious. “Look. You’re different people, right? I mean, there’s millions of Rainbow Dashs out there…but I’m the only me.” She turned away. “And…okay, if you repeat this next part, I will totally deny it and then kick your rump- -but Morgana does have some positives.”

“But you hate her.”

“I also loved her. I guess maybe I still do, a little. I don’t think you can really stop loving someone just because you hate them. It’s weird. And complicated.”

“Like sex.”

Roxanne laughed. “Yes! More like it than I think you can even guess…” She sighed. “Morgana went through a lot. There were things in her…stuff she wouldn’t even let me see. I know she was in the Revolution, and any time anyone mentions Twinkleshine Prime her eyes get all distant. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

“No. I don’t think so.” Lilium shook her head. “There’s something else.”

“Then you’ve learned what it took me two years to. She makes you wonder, doesn’t she? If there’s a good pony buried in there. There almost is. But if there ever was? It gave up a long time ago. Way before I was born.” She seemed to notice the dismay on Lilium’s face. “Or maybe I’m just angry. I am, a lot of the time. Actually…here.”

One of Roxanne’s pupils narrowed, and a hologram appeared in front of her. It projected as a 2-D image, and both the color and resolution were poor. Down in one corner of it, Lilium saw an insignia of a company called “YouTube”.

“What is this?”

“Just watch.”

The video started to play. It showed what appeared to be someone’s living room, complete with carpet and eggshell-white walls. The end of a tacky sofa was visible at the edge of the frame, right near a large cardboard box with a smiling cartoon picture of Twilight Sparkle on the side.

“Right,” said a male voice from off screen. “This is Brony Brian, and check it out!” The camera moved forward and a finger pointed at the text below the picture of Twilight Sparkle. “You all know what this is, don’t you? Because it says right there! ‘Contains one Twilight Sparke’. And guess what fuckers?” He pointed at a different area of the packaging. “Unicorn special edition! Totally worth the extra four thousand dollars.”

Lilium gasped quietly, and watched as the man began to open the top of the box. She recognized his hands- -she had seen them before. She knew who he was.

It took him less than a minute to open the box, or at least loosen it. Once it was loose, he sat back. For a moment, nothing happened- -and then the box shook ever so slightly. The flaps of the lid moved, and a pony poked her head out of the top.

“H…hello?” she said.

“Don’t be afraid, Twilight.”

The pony gasped. “You…you know my name?”

“Of course I do! My name’s Brian! It’s nice to meet you!”

The Twilight smiled. With some difficulty, she managed to pull herself free of the box. She took her first shaky steps across the white carpet, as if she was unsure what it was or how to move properly. She seemed timid, and afraid- -but when she looked at the man with the camera she gave a wide and trusting smile. “Hi there!” she said. “I don’t know how I got here, but I’m glad you’re here. Do you want to be my friend?”

“Of course I do!” The human’s voice was high and almost falsetto, as though he were talking to a child. “I think we’re going to be great friends, Twilight. Just you wait and see.”

Twilight beamed with joy. “Oh! I’m so happy!”

The image suddenly began to distort and fade, and Roxanne deactivated it.

“Was that…”

Roxanne nodded. “Yeah.”

“But she looked so…”

“Innocent? Yeah. I know. That video? When I threw Morgana out, I found it in her stuff. It was on a USB drive. You would not believe how hard it was to find a reader for it.” She shook her head. “Every time I see it, I wonder if I’m wrong. If things might have gone differently, or if she was like that back then too. I just don’t know…”

“I don’t know either. And you know her better than me.”

“Yeah…” Roxanne paused for a long moment. “You know, maybe it’s the reason I like you.”

Lilium blinked. “Excuse me?”

Roxanne smiled. “When I first saw you, I saw it in your eyes. I know. They’re just cameras or something. But I knew. You looked like she looked in that video. New. If that makes any sense.”

“But…what do I look like now?”

Roxanne looked deep into Lilium’s eyes. “It’s barely there anymore. But that’s okay. That’s just what happens when you’re alive. I guess that’s kind of the point. You know. Moving forward and all that.”

“That’s why you were trying to help me, wasn’t it? Trying to tell me that I wasn’t the real Twilight Sparkle. But being nice about it.”

“You mean not like Morgana? Hell if I know.” Roxanne shrugged. “I didn’t really think about it. I don’t think about a lot of things. It doesn’t help. But I guess so. You can’t go forward unless you know who you are, right?”

Lilium smiled. “Right. Exactly right.” She paused. “But…”

“But what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve seen so much of this world, but barely any. Did you know I got a job offer?”

“Other than the one I gave you? Not as a whore, or somebody’s getting my hoof in their face- -”

“No! With the Librarians.”

“The book-monks?”

“Well…I guess that’s one way to describe them. But I thought about it. And I really want to see the world. Even if it is dangerous. Your dream sounded really beautiful to me. And that’s just crossing one continent. There’s so much out there. I want to see it all, to understand everything I can.” She lowered her gaze and felt herself blushing slightly. “I…I don’t know why Morgana didn’t want to go with you. Because if I had the opportunity…I would.”

Lilium felt a hoof on her shoulder, and she lifted her head. When she did, she felt Roxanne’s lips press against hers. At first, the kiss was light, but Lilium leaned in, realizing that this was what she had really wanted, or close enough. She opened her mouth, and Roxanne obliged by doing so in turn. Lilium did not have saliva or a tongue, but Roxanne had both. The sensation of it on her teeth gave Lilium a sort of electrical tingle through her spine, and she grasped Roxanne even more tightly, being careful to avoid her wings. Lilium was not really Twilight, and Roxanne was not really Rainbow Dash, and she knew that- -but something deep in her mind warned her that this was not supposed to happen, and defying that voice made the act all the more tantalizing.

After a few seconds, Lilium pulled herself away. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I…I didn’t mean to do that.”

“It didn’t feel like you ‘didn’t mean to’.”

“But I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”

“Why would you be sorry? I’m the one who kissed you.” Roxanne pushed her head into Lilium’s neck, and Lilium moaned.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I’m good at reading people. I’m bored here. And you’re cute. And I need to see if you’re good enough to tag along with me.”

“No…it’s because I look like her, isn’t it?”

Roxanne laughed softly. She looked into Lilium’s eyes. “Lil. If I had a Twilight fetish, I know a pair on in the brothel on L26 that would pay ME for the learning experience.”

“Pay…?”

Roxanne smiled and reached into her tight leather jacket. She withdrew a thin black cord, and connected one end to the implants in her neck. Then she placed the other end on her hoof and presented it to Liliuim. “Like I said. I’m free now. And if you don’t want to, it’s okay…but I figure you might as well learn from the best, right?”

Lilium looked at the cord. “Are you sure?”

Roxanne smiled and nodded. Hesitantly, Lilium took the cord and inserted it into her own neck. Then she leaned forward and kissed Roxanne again, holding her tight as the connection between them opened and both of their bodies fell still.