"All of us deep inside," she said, as if breaking out from a cocoon, stepping into the glow of artificial sunlight, its warm golden light bathing her face, "We are manipulative, narcissistic, hypocritical pieces of cynical... work."
She paused, slowly losing her small grin, "Yet..."
Her tone shifted, "We are never quite the same. Always some variable, some slight difference, perhaps a motion, perhaps a thought, perhaps a single spark."
Her voice quieted as she stepped closer to the edge of the light, gazing outward, "Teaching him more about how to weaponize love isn't the best idea. Sometimes, it's better to let them stumble and watch them stretch their wings and fall. Again. And again. Until one day, they fly or simply die."
She exhaled in a slow and deliberate motion, getting close to her battery and raising her eyebrows, "Thesis?"
He gave a dull blink, replying in a dry voice, "You know what, it doesn't even matter. The illusion of choice left this place long ago. Just take everything from me as a yes."
Her eyes turned heart-shaped, but instead of evoking a warmth feeling around her, a cold, eerie aura filled the place, "Love? is nothing but a figment; it's nothing but a rush of dopamine, a serenade of serotonin of reactions inside our limbic system, mistaking the ebb and flow of neurotransmitters for the 'fluttering' of the butterflies inside of our hearts."
"A simple simulation, made by the mind's longing for connection and meaning in this pointless world. We label this messy chaos of chemistry as 'love.'
"But strip away the shiny poems and the beautiful symphonies, what are we left with? Just our loneliness covered in lust with many steps???
...
...
...
She approached him slowly, stretching her wings, not in grace nor in a warm motion, but like great curtains of fate closing around him, folding her wings against him.
After a pause, she replied to her own rhetorical question, "A hollow echo, a yearning without meaning. We chase after this fantasy, this 'love,' like thirsty souls seeking water in a desert. Yet, the oasis is always a mirage, and the water is just sand slipping through our fingers."
"So, tell me, where is this 'love'? Is it in the ephemeral warmth of an embrace or the momentary exhilaration of a kiss? No, these are but fleeting comforts. For in the end, love is but a word, a flawed creation from flawed creatures like humans, and like all words, it fades into the silence from whence it came."
*CLAPS*
The claps echoed, slow and sarcastic. Daniel's voice carried annoyance as if he had already seen this scene many times, "You finished?"
The alternative, staring at him with cold eyes, answered, "No, darling... I haven't... I'll never be finished. I'm incomplete, and you know that better than anyone."
The voice sighed, "So... this is the biggest 'I told you' in history?"
"Yes, honey... sadly, it is!" She gave a low, manic, empty chuckle. "Had an imprudent and irrational player not been captivated by an intense craving for power, then its chase might not have devoured its mind and body... Quite poetic in its own way, don't you think?"
...
The horizon behind her burned in oranges and pinks with the light reflecting on her mane, "Also, if you didn't notice, we were talking about you, not me."
" ??? " Daniel, slightly confused, looked at the alicorn.
She opened an old journal, the pages yellowed from time, and the ink smudged like old blood, "According to our diary, we are here because we heard you! Our progenitor blames you. Let me read it for you!"
She read out loud, "Daniel suggested to us that we should take care of all the stuff more seriously, and we did so!
Funnily enough, I received a headache after that... Like if I was living a deja vu, or it was deep inside my mind and forgotten..."
"After searching and reading for hours... (If not because of Daniel's suggestion, take everything seriously) I might never have discovered this love path and followed something more normal' "
"Anyway, this thing is called amorekinesis, and coupled with a love potion and eros and eris upgrade, I can manipulate Love to enhance me to levels that not even high-tier upgrades can do... It will be relinquished to extreme measure option, as there is a high chance that this will affect my personality and mentality."
Daniel didn't answer with words but with a dulled gaze, "...Let's just go eat something," he muttered, not caring what started this giant mess, "We're both completely drained."
The girl hysterically laughed at the joke.
"Oh! That wasn't a joke? it wasn't a joke to lighten the mood?" She leaned toward him, grinning, "You're getting sentimental on me, dearbattery…"
He muttered at the realization, "Metaphorically..."
She grinned, then whispered something unintelligible, it was something meant only for him, then added, "Huhuhu, you already know me! I will do everything but take accountability for my consequences!"
Daniel replied dryly at her comment and unintelligible message, "Ha..." It seemed like madness was contagious as he continued, "This is the first time since the fifth version I've heard a joke from you or a laugh that wasn't dripped in madness."
"It's pitiful."
"But it's also… the most 'human' I've seen you."
Her smile died.
Yawning, the alicorn tilted her head. "Should I be happy about that?"
"You need rest; you are not well; just a few minutes ago, you were vaporizing moons and laughing like a goddamn banshee as you yelled to the skies."
The alicorn sat heavily on a crystalline bench, its eyes glazed with gloom, "Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance."
She tossed her foreleg lazily over her head, like a diva in a cheap tragedy, "I don't even have a drop of love left, not a single one, and I can't make more; if SOMEONE tried to kill me now, they could."
She chuckled, with her hoof still on her head. "At least I'm rich, and I can afford to rot in comfort for a few decades."
Daniel said bittersweetly, "You can't deny a challenge... shewill recover in a week and fight you once more..."
She sounded amused at this quip, "Oh... You did your homework..."
Daniel: "Yes..."
"Then, as a Reward, have this." A paper burst into existence, swirling with red and gold glitters; in an instant, it ignited, curling to ashes mid-air, before completely vanishing.
Daniel was stupified, "were those my rights!?"
She nodded calmly, "As you said, I'm dead in a week, and most of my stuff will be granted to you... you can do whatever you want; I don't have much hope in my experiment, so congratulations!"
The ashes faded through his hands, and he felt… nothing. No victory. No sense of justice. Just the quiet disgust of being handed someone else's unfinished job like a secondhand coat.
The alicorn didn't even allow him to process a single second before she explained herself, "This isn't charity," she said with a grim smile. "It's desperation; I'm hoping that maybe if I act selflessly now, karma will stop shitting on me."
Daniel didn't speak immediately, only giving small twitches in his jaw.
She laughed softly, "Hey! I can't control you anymore, but..." She took a deep breath, "Can you say my name out loud? Even if I said that I hated it, I kind of lied... It gave me solace in knowing that I wasn't just another version. It gave me solace..."
"Solace..."
"What an interesting word! Don't you think?
Daniel stared at the alicorn. This was true emotion. The number of times he had seen any version show true emotion was when they were about to die.
"IX... That's your name."
As the name left his lips, a faint blue shimmer cracked from his chest, a tiny shard of his soul, gleaming in soft blues, as it broke free and drifted toward her raised hoof, catching it mid-air without flinching, absorbing it in a tiny vial.
She winked, whispering in an almost sing-song tone, "Do not worry! I just need it for my experiments; it won't cripple you in any way, the soul will grow back! (don't verify this fact) and if not, you have millions and millions of gold at your disposal :D"
"so, goodbye!"
---
Notes author!
These two were going to be the original ones before I changed it because WHY NOT!
(I wanted to save the idea of a person so cynical that she rejects the notion of love, even when her life depends on it.)
...
IX and Daniel kind of hate each other...
They have each other since IV.V.
V did something bad to him. Essentially, she enslaved him as a battery.
From that point on, their relationship just stopped!
A fraction of the plot is about Daniel trying to kill V or just escape from his enslavement.
And they hate each other at the start, and so at the end!
There is no redemption.
Here, they kind of made the passes! But it's not like IX had another choice.
Also, fun fact: I chose Daniel as the name of his companion because, if I'm not wrong, he was well known for his visions and faith in the lion's den or something like that.
...
This chapter wasn't gonna be a chapter, but...
I spent a lot of time making her dialogue.
I made her views on love, and you have no idea how I enjoyed getting on her hooves and thinking about how she would react.
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..
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Don't forget this fic, I'm going to publish a light novel soon! (Like in a whole ass month.)
Yes, you heard me right.
as soon as my friend make the cover, and I stockpile 20 chapters, my new work shall be uploaded!
so if you enjoyed this, or found how I write some stuff interesting, then give it a shot.
I'll tell y'all more info about this later on!
...
(I geniunly I'm tired of this fic... please... send help...)