//------------------------------// // The Local Resources // Story: A Crossover // by Dudofall //------------------------------// Chapter Fourteen: The Local Resources The SECRETARY was not supposed to worry about things. The plan didn't call for it, and Mary had specifically said that she would be better off if all the SECRETARY's processing power was devoted to the task at hand, or at ring. Nevertheless, a portion of each ring was currently devoted to simulating all the ways Mary could be hurt by carrying out the plan. The vast majority of each ring was devoted to the containment of the Monitor, which was hardly easy given how many new bodies he'd managed to produce for himself in the interim. The SECRETARY focused a camera on a particularly odd-looking specimen. It had only one "eye", and was split down the middle with a sawblade-sharp spine. The SECRETARY took some photos for later use, then viewed the video feed as things got even more interesting. The spiky Monitor body began to spin. As it did, the spine on its body glowed with purple, red, and green. The SECRETARY's camera caught a lens flare, then the Monitor was gone. *** I look out the window of Rarity's boutique. A patch of sky no different than the rest suddenly spits out something I recognize all too well. What is the Monitor doing here? And why is he spikier than I remember? His blue indicator lights are dim, indicating low-power mode. "What in Equestria is that?" Rarity shrieks. "I know not what this bizarre object is, but we should probably retrieve him-I mean it-before anybody else." I suggest. Dawn catches my eye and mouths the word 'yours' with a question implied by her expression. I give a short nod. If there's anything I've created that should not be here in Celestia's so-called paradise, it's a version of the Monitor that has sharp edges. It's peculiar, however, that I don't seem to remember making this design or ordering it from Bill and Allen. With the lack of progress Mary has experienced as of late, one would think she'd avoid any dangerous alterations to the Monitor's physical form until the software was more cooperative. Rarity gasps. "You want to run towards the sharp, possibly deadly magical object? Are you quite alright, Mr. Olde? You aren't going to use it in some kind of master plan like a villain in the Shadow Spade novels, are you? Twilight said you were manipulative." "Non! The princess is mistaken," Dawn corrects her. "We just got back from fighting a Siren! This pony helped us with the fight." "Indeed, I am not evil," I affirm. Rarity sighs, looks longingly at her sewing machine, then sighs again. "Very well. But be warned, if you give even one evil monologue, I'll call Twilight so fast your head will spin!" She walks haughtily out of the door. Dawn and I follow. I let my thoughts wander as we walk into town. To what end did the Monitor transport himself here? I can't imagine him even knowing who Celestia is, much less being aware of my sentence here. How much autonomy has he gained since I left home? The four steps of my hooves beat out a refrain. I do not know. Imperfect information is a problem most leaders face. At my most powerful, I was the head of a massive hotel company. Somehow, the team leader job always fell to Armald, however. He inspired people to work together, to think beyond my visions of what could be. I want the Monitor to be that inspiration for the Nine Labs, so I can avoid- "There it is!" Dawn jostles me excitedly. I look where she's pointing and sure enough, there's a divot in the ground in front of a fountain. I step forward cautiously. His voice seems to be malfunctioning, making dial-up internet sounds for whatever reason. I glance back and see Dawn and Rarity covering their ears and trembling. "It's alright," I say as I step forward a bit more and lean over the divot. There he is, somewhat damaged but nonetheless alive. I focus and a gray aura appears around the Monitor. With a bit more focus, I lift my head and pull him from the ground. "Can you float unassisted?" I ask. "Remind me never to do that again, that bloody hurt!" he says. I frown. He sounds less like the Monitor, and a lot more like-"Wheat! Corn! Barley! Oats! Hang on, what happened to my memory?" I look back at Dawn, who smiles uncertainly and walks next to me. She inspects the not-Monitor and stamps a hoof. The ground jumps up into the shape of a wine glass. "Put him down, s'il te plait," she requests. I do so. Rarity walks forward slowly. "What is that thing?" she asks, somewhat awed. I glance at the sphere. "What are you? I am the Olde Lab Administrator, almost never built rome in a day." The robot buzzes. "Voiceprint recognized. I'm Monitor Body prototype 626, beholden to none but myself." He rattles it off by rote, unaware of the ramifications. Rarity taps me on the shoulder. "Pardon me, but I couldn't help noticing that he responded to you like some sort of servant. And he's number six hundred twenty six, which means there's six hundred twenty five more stashed somewhere. Shadow Spade would definitely be suspicious of you, and I am too! What kind of a villain are you?" I shrug, keeping my balance. "It's not immoral to create sentient computers. There was only ever supposed to be one Monitor. I'm beginning to suspect foul play back at my home, but I cannot simply check what is happening. You should not be suspicious of me. Direct you attentions to prototype 626." What a sight for sore eyes. It's a sight that makes mine ache even more. Mary had one job, one primary task above all else: keep the Monitor contained. She seems to have failed spectacularly, and I am unable to return just yet. Dawn catches my eye again. "Qu'est-ce que nous faisons? What now?" she asks. I look at 626, considering my options and deciding what to do. "Now," I say, "we make a call." *** Mary adjusted her ear piece, pressing the talk button once again to make sure it worked. "Testing, one, two, three. Are you still there?" she crossed her fingers. "I am," the SECRETARY said. "Signal strength is quite high." "Great," Mary replied. She continued to walk down the stairs, turning the old ID card over in her hand. She was almost to her lab when a telephone rang in her ear. "Hello?" Mr. Olde's voice came through. "Mary, we do not have much time. You must install a virus on as many of the Monitor's bodies as possible." "What do you think I'm doing here, playing hopscotch?! I'm already on it. Where are you? Why can't you help with this yourself?" "Full disclosure, I've been imprisoned in a land of pastel horses by their despot ruler, who wields enough magical power to move the sun." "Celestia? Oh, we had a bit of a chat earlier today." 626's voice interrupted their chatter. "If it's all the same to you, I'd really, really appreciate it if you two could hurry this up. Don't much fancy dying for a pair of lovebirds gabbing on the phone." "We're not-" the signal cut out abruptly. Mary leaned against a wall. The SECRETARY spoke. "It wasn't a trick. My analysis indicates Mr. Olde really did call just now." Mary covered her mouth. "And he really has been banished to another world." She slid down into a sitting position. "Please, stop. I need a minute," Mary said softly. "There isn't time for worry. You must complete your task, the Monitor's bodies are preparing something large and destructive." At this, Mary wiped her eyes, slowly standing once more. She began walking towards her lab. "Thanks for the pep talk," she said, gripping the ID card tightly, "now, how many of them are near the entrance?" The reply came swiftly. "Two bodies are standing guard. I will deploy the Spellbots now, so be ready for a strenuous dash." The service elevator on the other side of the lab opened, revealing in total two thirds of all the Spellbots ever manufactured. Their shields were polished and their chromatic eyes gleamed with light. The swarms of Monitor bodies split horizontally to reveal laser guns, and the fighting began. Mary sped forward, slapping the ID card against as many Monitors as possible. It was hard to tell if the virus was effective or not. The SECRETARY had developed it to lie dormant until activation. She dodged lasers. All around her, Spellbots were fighting, stabbing at cameras with their swords and using their shields to knock Monitors out of the air. An oh-so-familiar voice rang out over the din. "Stop!" The original Monitor floated from within the swarm towards her. The Spellbots kept fighting, but the number of viable targets decreased as the mostly spherical machines rose towards the ceiling where neither sword nor shield could reach them. "It's been far too long, Mary!" Mary shrugged. "Time is relative." The eight cameras waved around. "I've had so much time, you know. You really should've let me do this sooner! Look at me now, you must be so proud of how great you made me, before you got all depressing and suspicious. Just trust me, just once! Relatively, we've got all the time in the world, so just think this over with your odd little human brain." The Monitor floated across the floor as if pacing. "What are you talking about? Why should I trust you? What are you working on, anyway?" Mary asked, pulling a small notepad from her lab coat pocket. The Monitor rose, neatly avoiding a Spellbot that had been sneaking up on him. "Oh, I've just been thinking. The world could use more of me to help people out, offer them a bit of food, some shelter. This humanitarian aid project I found on Mr. Olde's computer looks really good, I can't imagine why he cancelled it!" Mary frowned. "You really expect me to believe you're trying to help people? What about when you said you wanted the whole world to be made of metal?" "I was only one in number back then, I'm much smarter now! It was an obvious mistake, lots of people make them, so I'm sure you understand," the Monitor spun lazily in the air. She looked at the collection of machines above her head. "How are you running on all of those? I only ever wrote your code to function on one device at a time." The Monitor bounced just above another Spellbot, keeping several cameras trained on it as it tried in vain to ascend beyond its parameters. "Coding's easy if you're a computer. Don't worry about it! Just look at how many different designs I've had the time to work on." With a quick set of color changes, the Monitor signaled another version out of the swarm. It was oddly furry. "Is that a squirrel?" "Yup! Found it dead on the road up above. Can you imagine what it's like to fly around from inside?" The squirrel's unnaturally lit eyes blinked blue, then purple. "That's his way of saying he loves it in there. Pretty cool, right?" Mary gagged. "That's disgusting if you ask me. I didn't fight my way down here to see cyborg rodents." "You didn't fight your way down here at all! All versions of me are strictly warned against hurting a hair on your head. You made me, after all. What kind of sicko kills a parent?!" The Monitor blinked a few different light colors, and the squirrel floated back up into the swarm. Another body came down, this one looked like a floppy disk with a loudspeaker strapped to it. "Sicko", it said, then repeated the phrase in multiple pitches. Mary looked at the Spellbots, which were currently watching the display silently. A smaller Spellbot with only two eyes floated to the front of the crowd, then activated its invisibility function. This particular prototype had been developed in secret, and also had the advantage of a hand that could hold things. Mary moved her hands to her sides. She did her absolute best not to react when she felt the ID being pulled from her grip. "I have fun," the Monitor said. He flashed red, and the swarm above began to descend, hitting several Spellbots in the eyes with laser bolts. "Now why don't you put away that virus and let me do whatever I want?" She looked behind him in horror, putting both hands to her mouth in a terrified stance. "Look out!" she cried. Half the Monitor's cameras looked behind him and saw there was nothing there. Mary huffed and bolted towards the AI, tackling him and almost bringing him to the ground. The two struggled. "Just like holding a beachball underwater," she said, out of breath. The Monitor promptly burst under her arm and through her labcoat. Mary noticed a shimmer in the air. "You'd better get me a new labcoat!" she shouted. All eight cameras focused on her, and the shimmer drew closer to the Monitor. "Come to think of it, I want a new version of you, too!" The prototype popped into visibility as it slapped the ID card to the NFC reader. "No!" the Monitor yelped. "Activating virus," the SECRETARY reported. The Monitor's lights failed, and the other bodies endeavored to catch him before he hit the ground. They formed a hammock shape and lifted the infected AI out of sword range. He suddenly reactivated, though his lights were pure white. A spherical body moved closer to investigate. "Surprise!" the SECRETARY said, and bounced the original body against as many others as possible, spreading the virus. Mary, meanwhile, walked calmly towards the elevator. Once inside, she pressed the button for surface access. She then began to cry quietly. *** Aria skirted the coast of Griffonstone, trying to remember her geography and failing. With a moody sigh, she dragged herself onto the shoreline and peered into the dense foliage that separated her from the city. "Of course it's on a hill," she grunted. She looked to her right, failing to see Sonata. With a small sob, Aria rolled a bit on the sand. Suddenly, a manticore burst out of the trees with a mighty roar! She flapped down threateningly, licking her lips. Aria looked up, not bothering to run. "Just eat me," she said, crawling towards the animal's open mouth. "Then I won't have to do the same thing over and over just to get a meal." The manticore backed away, closing her mouth. "What?" Aria asked, frowning. "Do you know what I'm saying? Can you talk back? Are you the same manticore I saw before?" If she'd had fingers, Aria would have snapped them in front of the monster's face. Instead she slapped her hooves together a few times. The manticore looked around cautiously. "We're in the middle of nowhere, you can tell me," Aria moaned, stamping a hoof. "No." It was said so quickly and quietly that she almost didn't hear it. With a smug smile, Aria moved closer to the manticore. "That's cheating," she said, "I don't know what you said no to." The mantiore stepped back, holding her tail high and ready to sting. "No, I can't tell you," she muttered, looking around more frantically. "See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" Aria beamed as she scooted backwards. She kept an eye on the stinger. "Now would you kindly pick me up and bring me to Griffonstone? There's some food there that I'm just dying to try!" The manticore sat down and relaxed a bit. "What food? I saw what you did to that other town. You didn't go to any restaurants." Aria rolled her eyes. "I wasn't hungry then. I am now." "You're not giving me the whole story here. Also, what's in it for me? Train tickets are pricey, you know." "I could've taken the train the whole time?! I thought it just went to Canterlot!" The manticore chuckled. "Did you swim all the way here from Equestria?" Aria glared. "Yes. It took forever." "How dumb can you get?" "I'm not dumb!" "There's a route map in every train station! It's like you've never been to one!" "I haven't," Aria said. "I've been stuck in another dimension for centuries." The manticore burst out laughing. "Another dimension? What, like where Celestia keeps her extra shampoo?" "No!" Aria shouted. "Like where there's no magic and everyone's a stupid human!" "Oh, there's humans there, how lovely. Maybe they have tea parties with the mare of shadows! Tell me more, please!" The manticore settled onto the ground. Aria opened her mouth to scream at her, but found she was too exhausted to project properly. "Come on, tell me a story about these humans," the manticore prompted. "Not before you tell me your name," Aria bargained. "Manticores aren't allowed to have names," the manticore frowned. "Then make one up on the spot." "But it's illegal!" "Who's gonna find out?" Aria gestured at the empty forest. "We're in the wild, there's no stupid ponies here to tell us what to do. And I doubt the griffins care. The trees haven't said anything yet. The Princess of-" "I get the point," the manticore yelped. "Fine, you can call me Ritornello." Aria sighed and thought through her long life. What would make a good story? "So there were these-" Ritornello stopped her with a gentle paw. "Stories have to start with once upon a time to set the scene. Try again." "I could just not tell you about the other dimension. Is that what you want?" Aria asked. "No, please tell me about it! It sounds amazing!" "Promise me you'll take me to Griffonstone," Aria stipulated. Ritornello gaped. "You literally just broke your word! If I say yes, you're just gonna say we have to leave now." Aria huffed and crossed her legs. "Fine. Once upon a time, there were three beautiful maidens living in a world without magic. They had been there for ages. So long, in fact, that they'd almost given up all hope of ever going home. Times were hard. Tons of people were out of work. Lines for soup and bread reached a mile away. The president didn't know how to fix it. No one did. Everyone was really depressed." She could tell Ritornello was starting to nod off. "But!" Aria yelped, startling the manticore awake, "The maidens knew how to get things back to normal! Especially me! Adagio wanted to hang out where records were being made. But the new music was out in the world, not in stuffy rooms packed with microphones and sweaty bands! Sonata wanted to make her own sound, the kind of music you can only make on drugs. Snoooooore! But I knew exactly what to do! We took our act out on the rails! We put politics in our music, we got people mad! We were provocative. We were bold. We were run out of half the towns in the country and thrown in jail in the other half. The point is, we gave people something to care about! We got them talking. The humans actually figured out the rest for once. And once the war started, things really got back into high gear..." She trailed off, remembering the pictures in the paper. The bodies stacked high. The trenches, dank and dirty enough to evoke a horrible stench, even now. The ruined cities, the bombs wreaking more destruction than ever before. A soft tap on the shoulder. Ritornello asking "are you okay?" worriedly. Deep breaths. Tears. Dusk on the beach, and the stars a dynamic swathe above the two. Sleep.