Catalyst 2.0: Home

>Rarity smiled as she listened to her daughter.  She always had interesting things to say, even if it didn't at first make sense to her.  She had the perception of somep0ny much older, yet lacked the vocabulary.
>It made for a peculiar combination.  But once she had enough time to listen, Rarity always managed to have a great deal of fun with her.
>Her studies had taken a life of their own.  A new frontier, perhaps, that required creativity and poise.  She had to admire that little filly of hers in some ways; even though she was getting studied as much as she was studying, it was a point of pride.
>Rarity had never once mentioned to her daughter that she was special. Merely different.  She was critical, of course, but only so long as it avoided making her feel bad.  She wanted to be PROPERLY critical, not outright scathing.  When she did go overboard, Rarity tended to spoil her in order to make up for it.
>”Mommy! Can I stay up tonight and play Everfree Quest? I almost got the gold belt I wanted.”
>”Sweet Heart, that will rot your brain.”
>”No it won't, mommy. Not if I use the trick I learned at school today.”
>Rarity quirked a brow. “Oh? You mean the mental linking.  If I remember right, that's not something you learned today, is it?”
>Sweet Heart, bless her curly little mint mane, was grinning. “I was hopin you wouldn't remember.”
>”You know I don't like you doing that with strange colts on the internet.”
>”But it makes playing the game easier!  And besides, I back-pinged a couple of them and found out they're real mares.”
>Rarity sighed, but with that smile. “And if they were just using their mother's credit lines?”
>”Oh.  I didn't think of that.”
>”What's the first rule, Sweet Heart.”
>”All mare avatars on games are fat shaggy-manes.”
>”Good.  You can play as long as you keep at least two firewalls up when you link, okay?”
>She was so small, she was able to stand and cheer in the transport pod.  Rarity chuckled as the door opened.  She hated having to temper her lessons with such crude approaches at real world knowledge.  She did not, however, want Sweet Heart missing out on the harmless, fun things in life such uncouth ideas could bring. She learned that from Applejack.
>A voice came.
“Rarity?!”
>She turned to look at him.  A hooded figure, in a fresh, generically fashioned body suit.  It was not cheap, but it was far from definitive.
>Rarity placed herself between Sweet Heart and the colt. She held her foreleg out, keeping her daughter from moving.  She remained curious, however, peeking over her mothers leg at the stranger.
>An AR blip pinged.
>Moniker: Rarity. Something is really wrong at the tower.
>Moniker: Don't come back until I can lock the situation down.
>Rarity squinted.
“Rarity, I...”
>He stepped back, one foreleg lifted into the air as he creeped away.  There was a bizarre, uncanny glow from his eyes within the hood.
>”Sweet Heart, stay behind me.”  Rarity stepped once on each hoof, lifting them and limbering up quickly.
>”But why?”
>”He's not here to be friends, Sweet Heart.  Stay behind me.”
>He remained still.  He was breathing hard.
>”Conscience got the better of you, colt?  I've seen what your type is like.  You won't make it twenty yards in the city if you even TRY-”
>”Mommy, stop! He's not here to hurt us!”  Rarity didn't take her eyes off him for a second.  She'd never seen a strong use of voice make anyone cower- not in a situation like this. Yet there he was, edging away.
>”Sweet Heart, I'm going to back away. Stay behind me every step.”
>”Mommy, he's not normal.”
>”I know that.  Now stop arguing and-”
>”He's one of those funny computer colts mommy.  I can hear him thinking.”
>Rarity looked at her daughter out of the corner of her eye.  She could hear her own heartbeat.  It was slow, but it was powerful. Blood rushed to her head.  Sure enough, the ring around Sweet Heart's horn was glittering as it sent and received packets.
>The moment he moved, Rarity coiled herself up.  She pushed the furious energy into her horn, causing it to glow, and lighting up the area with a warm white. “Don't you dare come closer you...”
>The light let her see his face.
>” Don't come any closer you... You...”
>Their eyes met.  She hadn't taken the time to pause and really look at them.  As his face hardened, his shoulders lowered, and he was breathing with an open mouth.
>”... Bastard...”
>”Mommy, he's really really scared.  He just wants to run.”  She was tugging insistently upon Rarity's suit, pleading with her to stop.
“No.  I can't do that.  Not when I'm this close.”
>His voice.  She hadn't been listening at first. It had all been about her daughter's safety.
>Rarity approached him slowly.  “Sweet Heart, get in the pod.  Lock it up.  Break it to do so, if you need to. But just do it.”
>”But I-”
>”NOW!”
>Rarity kept her stance, watching him.  When she heard the door shut, and the locks click, she began to approach him.  He didn't budge.
>The closer she got, the more her eyes flicked to different spots.  She had an eye for detail.
>His neck had the seams.  The way his muzzle curved, the height, the lack of a mane, the shade of green.  Nop0ny had that shade of green.
>As she neared him, he had the faint scent.  Vanilla.  Something the pseudo-ponies were known for.  But it had never been as strong on him.
“I'm sorry.  God I'm so sorry, I never meant... to scare you, or-”
>He was shaking his head as she rose.  Breathing hard, the glow from her horn showed every detail.  She pushed the hood off his head with her magic.
>Even the way he stood...
>Her voice cracked, barely above a whisper. “W-why?”
>His eyes filled with tears.  Then, she saw them lose focus, rectangles of AR vision indicators passing over them.
“The guards are almost here.”
>He slumped, and it blossomed into full blown weeping. Rarity put a hoof to him. “Darling, you're here, you're right here! They won't hurt you! Nop0ny will!”
“I know. It doesn't matter.”
>He lifted his head up, and she put a hoof up to hold it there, looking at her. “I don't know what happened, but you're here now.  You're safe. You're home.”
“Home?”
>”Yes darling.”
“That's funny.  It feels like it.”
>He laughed a little.  Rarity heard a strange noise.
>Sizzling.
“I wish I had the time to stay.  If the guards hadn't come, maybe then, I could've at least found out,”
>The flesh that was exposed started to boil.  His eyes turned pure white.  Blackened blood oozed from every orifice on his face, and began to grow into dark stains on his clothing from his seams.
“Where I'd been during the interim.”
>Horrified, Rarity began to back away.  As he leaned over, he vomited a black ooze. Then, he  collapsed.
>Seconds later, Rarity agape at his body, he simply detonated.  His body burst from within, the chunks of flesh and blood dissolving in a bubbling mass after splattering onto other surfaces.  The only thing left was a quickly rotting skeletal structure, some thin fiber optics poking out of his eye sockets, and shreds of his gore-blackened clothing.
>The remains were left at the epicenter, a ring of carnage extending outward.  Rarity had been pushed onto her back from the shockwave. Combined with the fact that their had even been one, in conjunction with the sight of it, had her curled  up and starting to shake in shock.
>When she first noticed the generous amount of blood upon her, she attempted to wipe it off in a panic that resembled putting out flames.  When the guards did arrive, they had to restrain her.  Though they tried, her body suit let her break free when she saw Twilight.
>”Rarity, what in Celestia's name happened?”
>She breathlessly went through a series of gasps into her friends shoulder.  Staining her with his blood, she whimpered her words.  “He was right here, Twilight.  He was here in my hooves.”
>Rarity murmured.  “He was home.”