//------------------------------//
// 12: Discoveries 
// Story: Seesaw 
// by MintLynx 
//------------------------------//

	The still medically alive yet unresponsive bodies of dozens of ponies would be recovered and taken to a hospital for examination. Unfortunately, many suffered injuries in the police forces' methods of subduing them. Owl would be enjoying a break with friends and many other fellow Lunar Officers at a rather high-class pub in the Diamond Plaza, a place known as Shimmering Stream. The interior of the place was a modern style combined with traditional decoration with silver and white being the dominant colors. A portion of the day's budget was put forth by the chief himself to try and properly compensate his stallions and mares for their work. Data would munch on the leaves, dandelions, and hay of a salad while chatting with her friends in a telepathic call. In an earlier time seeing ponies simply stare at eachother would be a creepy and odd sight but in the age of advanced Wrist computers and telepathic calls, it was commonplace. 

"I gotta say, the longer this case goes on the crazier and more bucked up it gets, I mean the mall incident was scary enough now they're hacking pony's brain augs! What next they gonna make the traffic system turn every vehicle into a predatory death machine?"

"If the degree these buckers have thus far bucked with the CCS is any indication that might not be out of possibility. Might want to keep that Anomaly in a guard duty role when we're not using her for operations."

"Given she managed to take out that virus on the system and clean things I think we might want to use her as best we can. She's our best asset online right now," replied Data "Pretty cool how she can enter the net with her brain augs, seems believable that EQUE-TECH might make something like that. Lotta DB to be gained from an idea that innovative."

Owl would ask skeptically "You really thinking her claims of unwilling capture and experimentation are true?" 

"Not saying it directly but I can't imagine some shady tech junkies in a back alley garage making such an innovative form of brain augmentation. Seems only like something a Tech Giant would Cook up." Data would reply, chewing up the last leaf of her meal. 

Vision would reply "I wonder if she was actually unwillingly put into the project or if she's just trying to buck over the corporation with false claims of unwanted confinement and experimentation on. There have been ponies trying that kind of horseapples in the past hence the laws made to protect them from that kind of stuff."

Owl nodded to Vision. "Seems a possibility, she could either be doing it for monetary gain or with anti-corporate sentiment."

"We'll want to make use of her skills while being careful of the potential threat she might pose, hate to have an ally turn into another online based threat." Vision replied, finishing his meal of noodles and a fancy spiced up tomato sauce. "So let's keep an eye on her."

__________________________________________________________________

At the outskirts of Las Pegasus, once it's own city now a section of the Everfree Megacity Sprawl, Metal Heart sat on a couch watching old television shows though the on Demand service "Watch-It" on a large screen implanted into the wall of her apartment. The Sunrise over the cloud city which lay above the ground city was visible through an open window, and a bottle of Wild Pegasus whiskey sat half empty on the table. The Heavy Enforcement cyborg needed the free time she was given to drink and relax and maybe visit her grandchildren later. After what happened in the underground bunker she would try to neatly arrange her newest mental scar next to the many other scars she had, some dating back to the war. She was at least happy to put some bullets into the criminal scum she viewed as responsible but looking in that room to see the horrific sight of a lifeless filly and colt while the rest hid in terror. She had tried to no avail to comfort the children but only got tears, sobs, even vulgar insults. Though she had a military grade bionic body capable of withstanding over a minute of direct fire from a minigun, the flesh of her PTSD-stricken mind was very much vulnerable. Seeing those terrified faces hurt her more than even the airstrike which took her natural body from her and nearly killed her, and almost rivaled the news of her own daughter's death at the hooves of a crazed mugger. Her bionic body was cased in a layer of artificial skin and fur hiding the military machinery underneath, making her look merely in her late twenties when she was really in her mid-fifties. She took a moment to look out the window to the main center of her home city where the sky and earth strip both lay one atop the other. 

Los Pegasus was a hybrid of advanced augmented cloud over top the jungle of metal and concrete. There was no place in Equestria with as many neon lights per square mile, it fit in well with the rest of the colorful places found in Everfree even if it's decorative lighting was a bit more traditional in many places. It was the gambling capital of the world, with over 1,000 casinos in the ground city alone. The cloud city was nowhere near close to Cloudsdale's size but was big enough to cast a shadow over the ground strip, a shadowed zone lit up by the neon and screen boards, unlike the Shadow District. Metal loved her home city, it was the only place not dominated by what the old cyborg viewed as an overly rebellious and flashy modern Cyberculture. Instead, it had its own culture which despite the modern world it lay in still kept many of the old classic design and styles of the old Los Pegasus of the pre-industrial and industrial days. As Metal looked upon these beauties the incident and death of children in the bunker ate at her, she didn't want to condemn one of her fellow lawbringers and thus pushed the blame to the 'caretakers' of the children. Doubt came to her mind as she decided to keep her mind off it all by supplying the blood vessels of her mind with some Wild Pegasus. 

______________________________________________________________

Anomaly was suspicious of her findings and was more than apprehensive to try to dig deeper. She knew she would have to be careful and cover her tracks if she were to enter the PRS Prototype network once more. She had her key into the system, but in order to keep in there and learn what she could, she would need to be stealthy in doing so. Bringing out the file where she kept the fragment of the virus, the mare would activate it. Once again she would find herself brought swiftly into access to the PRS Prototype network, quickly taking care to cover her tracks and make remaining undetected her priority. She would explore the network, like Daring Do traversing a jungle of deadly predators as she viewed the coding and pieced together the functions while reviewing her speculations. It seemed the network was on its own already built with accessing brain augmentations in mind if incomplete in those functions. The main program that ran on the network, identified as 'PRS Command' had its current mode set in 'Alpha Test Mode'. She would dig deeper to access the interfaces found within the core program.


PRS Interfaces 0.5 
[Alpha Test Mode] (Activated: 86% Complete)
[Beta Test Mode]
[Active Mode] (Non-functional)
___________________________________________________
Entering Active Mode Interface....
Warning, Active Mode is not in functional... 
________________________________________________________________________
Psychological Regulation System Command Interface (Work in Progress, do not a)
[Initiate Active Mode]
Select Citizen: _
[Monitor] (Alpha Mode Active)
[Evaluate Threat level]
[Modify] 



Anomaly looked over the various commands, simple so far but the evident meaning of the Acronym PRS brought her curiosity. "Monitor.....it must be to monitor ponies brain augmentations. Evaluate threat level...threat level to what? Modify....Modify? What could it modify?" she would ponder this while keeping her tracks covered as she could see some admins and ponies keeping watch over the program. The mare considered jacking out and taking a moment to think over and wonder what all he was seeing meant. Then she would think of the name of the program, Psychological Regulation System. "Psychological.....wait...why didn't I see this? Regulation, Psychological Regulation means this network was made to Regulate ponies minds through brain augmentations. But who would run a system like this? It's not the Freedom Fighters, but they seem to know how to jack into it." Anomaly pondered some more, the brain augmentations were obviously manufactured by Tech Giants, mainly EQUE-TECH and Crystal Corp. Would the corporate minds try to use such products for direct mind control? It seemed possible given the propaganda system of advertisements they ran, though Corporations weren't the only ones running a propaganda system. Anomaly began to realize just how major the discovery she found was, though if a virus was made specifically to jack into and control the system she was evidently not the first. Then again if they knew of this she wondered why they weren't exploiting it in their anti-government sentiment. The mare could not think of a reason why except the possibility of them saving it as some trump card. As if she wasn't given enough revelation she was curious enough to try to dig deeper, going deeper into the program to explore the Alpha testing.

She would enter the computer of a user who seemed to be running the Alpha testing, running the program commands onto a device marked 'Subject animal 4' where tests of the 'Monitor', 'Evaluate threat', and 'Modify' commands were run. Further digging would reveal a communication line between the system tester and an unmarked user. 

"Testing goes well, but we know not of any control based commands. We followed directives exactly in programming the PRS Alpha version. Only three commands those being to Monitor, Evaluate, and Modify, we have no programs designed to command ponies like puppets." Said the Tester.

"Then we may have somepony else among us who's given away the working of the PRS, and likely created this virus to be able to tap into it and input its own command. We will ensure that whoever this traitor is they are dealt with and rendered no longer a threat to Harmonize."

"We will want them dealt with quickly before they damage the public reputation of brain augmentation. Our goals of societal control and security will be massively hampered."

"We will prevail, we're the ones fighting for harmony and we haven't been set back in a way we couldn't come back from. Fate favors those who fight for the betterment of others, history has shown that. Remember that, and don't ever be thwarted by the costs."

"I won't, and I will continue with this project even in this time of trial and struggle."

"We will put our assets to the best use, ensure this threat is dealt with decisively, I promise you. We eliminated the Anti-Bionics movement, we can take on whatever these 'Freedom Fighters' have in store."

Anomaly looked in and found some more interesting revelations, what she heard gave more evidence to suggest this was a direct mind control program. What she didn't expect were the apparent motives for such a project, ones seemingly noble in their intent of 'fighting for harmony'. Her current knowledge of the methods of the system made her suspect this to be a more internal form of propaganda. Speaking of the system this seemed to her like a next step from the system, from propaganda to direct monitoring and tampering with the very minds of ponies. Then she wondered, could this whole PRS thing be a project and this enigmatic "Harmonize" entity be something orchestrated by the Royal government. Like a computer's upgrading to the next operating system an upgrade to their current system of control and societal maintenance. Though she was not certain it seemed likely this group and its assets were an entity of the Royal government, and she knew one thing for certain. "I do not like the idea of this system expanding, even if well meaning it's flawed and corrupted. These ponies aren't going to make a better place through mind control." Anomaly would then pull herself slowly out from the PRS server, seeing as she had a good idea of what this all was and knew how the Freedom Fighters were jacking ponies brains. 

Relaxing her mind after pulling out of the system, remember for next time to not rush in like she did the Royal Guard Mainframe. She pondered on what to do with her newfound knowledge and discoveries. She had a feeling given her opposition to such goals she was going to make an enemy of them, alongside the Freedom Fighters. Digging into her files she took the fragments of the virus she picked up from the Diamond Plaza's CCS and started trying to reconstruct it. Like a biologist handling a bioweapon, she was careful not to accidentally set it loose or activate it. What she found even in it's broken state was advanced and quite the task to rebuild, it's algorithms complex yet cohesive like the workings of a machine. Even in programming GOUSSE seemed to be ahead of the times, and given the opportunity she was going to make full use of this new programming. One particular element she way able to partially recreate was named 'Castle Cracker' and was created to rapidly deconstruct and bypass defenses judging by her tests on it. The program was evidently made to assist in manual hacking into a system, likely via a specialized AI. Reconstructing the program she chose to make a copy with the PRS backdoor installed into it, filling in holes with whatever programming she could install onto it. Her own version of FF's digital weapon made she pondered on how she would use such a tool, evidently capable of breaking through defenses in seconds and sending a CCS system haywire while allowing one to control the action of brain augmented ponies. Suddenly she would get a message, a communication request from a familiar name 'Freemane' curious she would accept the communications request. 

"Greetings Miss Anomaly, I called to see how you are doing as of now. I have spied on your little fight against the Online Advanced Weapon System as it was released onto the CCS system for it's first run, a modified version of course. It was, I must say, a perfect test to truly see the capabilities of your Brain Augmentations. I was not disappointed, you did well despite some expected struggles."

"Hello, interesting you come along now. I've made some....rather interesting discoveries myself."

"Discoveries? What kinds of discoveries if I might ask and if you might trust me with knowing?"

"Well..." Anomaly thought carefully over what she would tell him, ultimately deciding to not be quiet. "...it seems your 'Online Advanced Weapon System' was modified to exploit a system put in place by some organization. I know not for certain but I think this organization is a proxy of the royal government, and what they seem to be doing is generating a way to control ponies far more directly?"

"Exploiting a system? Well, this is interesting, I was not aware of this, and the OAWS was not designed with 'exploiting a system' in mind. Evidently, the Freedom Fighters have made their own modifications of it. I hope you are willing to answer the questions I have."

"Well, the system is one that utilizes ponies' brain augmentations to evidently 'manage' them. It's called the Psychological Regulation System, and is evidently in it's testing stages though it has an active connection to the augmented minds of countless ponies. Judging by the communications within that network that the PRS lies in it seems to be made to regulate ponies minds for purposes of 'security and control' in the name of 'harmony'. The group that manages it calls itself 'Harmonize' and though it may be internal propaganda seems to claim itself ponies who 'fight for harmony'. The Freedom Fighter's virus exploits the system's intended functions to allow control of ponies' minds. Ironic that they use such a system for the goals they intend, and strangely the ponies affected by the virus have been left almost as if in a coma."

"Is that so? Well, I was surprised upon seeing ponies suddenly turned into puppets, seems the Freedom Fighters have some methods and tricks not even we know of. And if the goals of this 'Harmonize' group seem in line with the path the Royal Government is taking, making your predictions of them being a 'proxy group' of the Royal Government very likely. As for what the Freedom Fighters' are doing, I am concerned given their exploits of such a system for their goals of freedom. It is unexpected and shows they may not be telling us all they intend to do. I would suggest you investigate further if you know of this system and its exploits. I wonder if you can try to 'access' the minds of the ponies, see why they seem to be in the state they are in. It would be nice if you could tell me what is going on."

"Don't consider me on your side, but I might be willing to tell you. I'm certainly curious to investigate, I do have one question I might like to know." 

"What is that question?"

"What do you know about GAI-7?"

"GOUSSE Artificial Intelligence 7, Developed by our Doctor Composite and modified for purposes of assisting the Freedom Fighters. It is Codenamed 'Seesaw' as a sort oh reflection on the world."

"Reflection?" Anomaly asked.

"Long ago, in the time of figures such as Twilight Sparkle, Technology was low but society was high. Equestria saw little in terms of crime and societal struggle. It was a happy utopia, Ponykind was in such a high place they could walk nude in public. Then times have changed, as technology progressed the old morals and ways began to fade and fall. Some in the underground say those old morals fell under Obsolescence in the new technological age, like two sides of a Seesaw one rose bringing the other to fall. Thus Equestria went from a low-tech squeaky clean utopia to the high-tech and rather rough reality we live in now. GAI-7 is meant to truly bring about the completion of this shift, to raise the tech side up and bring the moral and their limits down."

"So that's the whole goal, the whole end game. Well, I myself offer a different solution, instead of destroying the world and letting its remains try to rebuild. I suggest a surgical retooling of the system, eliminating the corrupt entities and putting in place something that won't be corrupted by power nor money. Putting a hard coded artificial intelligence in power, setting up its values and letting it moderate Equestria. Keeping freedom and order in check. If well created it could possibly prove to be a nearly infallible system, especially if safeguarded against self-awareness. Use of technology in a way that preserves and revives better morals and makes a better world."

"Removing the old system and putting a new one in place, having a computer program run the world. T'is an interesting concept of government, though I feel such a system may have problems. It may not be so well accepted, and might not work so well as you assume it will."

"Seems better than putting ponies in a place of power, or bringing the system down at the cost of ponies' lives and safety." Anomaly said firmly "It just needs to be built well and built durable, and society can be made to accept it via the reform it can offer."

"I stand by thinking the system might not work so well, and might even end up a computerized tyrant."

"Well I stand by the thinking it can be made to work." Anomaly would say "We will see who is right, for now I am going to investigate and see what exactly is wrong with these ponies. Farewell, for now, Doctor Freemane."

____________________________________________________

"We are going to have to hunt these Cyberterrorists down by any means necessary, even if we have to make the most of our deadly force. Even if we have to send you to hunt and kill them from the shadows yourselves." Said the Chief, now joined in the call with Owl, Data, and Vision. "They have gone too far in trying to use our own citizens against us, and have forfeited the right to any trial or quarter."

Owl would reply in question "Sending us to hunt and kill them? Aren't we normally supposed to avoid contact as much as possible."

"Normally, but these aren't normal circumstances. These are extraordinary, and we will need extraordinary methods of dealing with them. That, and I am not unaware how well you have done taking on cyborgs. From Data's footage of your fight with that cyborg at the mall to you and Vision's fight with those maids. Frankly, our needs for capture and interrogation are lesser compared to the need to eradicate this threat quickly and efficiently as possible. Besides, we have plenty of  other I&I personnel to interrogate our current apprehended subjects."

"Couldn't you just let Anomaly and Data track them and send S4 or Heavy Enforcement to clean them up?" Questioned Vision with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, and we'll have them ready if things go wrong." replied the chief. "But I feel we should be reducing the violence and gunfire needed, with that the risk of causing public panic. That can be done with some clever use of your skills in stealth, and the effective tactic of deadly force. While Data and Anomaly track the threats and identify them by their computers, you two will be sent to hunt and eliminate any cyberterrorist that can be found. You will be given suppressors for your sidearms and swift backup should it be needed. If these hackers are going to terrorize ponies from the shadows behind the net then we are going to make them face that same fear of being stuck out of nowhere. If possible you can let one or two ponies live to be interrogated, but the ultimate goal is to make it clear they are not safe from the consequences of their actions."

Owl would skeptically reply "You seem to have a lot of confidence in our ability, which seems somewhat misplaced. After all, at that one nightclub hideout I did end up tracked and forced to fight my way though."

"And happened to do so effectively, once your limits to avoid contact were expired. I believe with the go-ahead to use deadly force you and Vision will prove deadly and efficient. This efficient usage of units will permit other I&I units to be utilized for widespread investigations, Interrogations of suspects, and for use in the search for your daughter. Like your namesake, you and Vision will be hunting these societal vermin, these punks who think they're so cool inciting terror while sitting around. Once you are done with your meals and get a good Day's rest we will begin out operations to seek and destroy. Should you three prove effective and do well on your objectives, once this is dealt with in full you will be given each 5,000 digibits in compensation and an optional month on leave. If you have any further questions I am willing to hear them now."

Owl, Data, and Vision would all look to eachother. They were taken aback by this unexpected change in their overall objective, from being spies of the law to assassins of the law. It seemed reasonable to resort to total lethal force given the Freedom Fighters were more than worthy of the level 13 threat classification. What was perplexing was this method that the Chief proposed, turning shadowy eyes into shadowy knives, turning surveillance into deadly force from the shadows. Ultimately Owl replied, "Your plans are understood Chief, we have no questions."

"Good, enjoy your meal and a good rest afterward. And Owl, I promise the search will not stop until your daughter is found."

__________________________________________________

Anomaly would enter the InterNet once more, heading on over to jack into the Everfree Central Hospital's network. Entering the cameras she would look for the Diamond Plaza incident's victims. She wouldn't need to search far as they were all kept in the same hall, a hall guarded by I&I ponies as well as local EPD police. The mare would look through the cameras, disturbing images of the victims displaying literally before her eyes. They lay back, solid as a statue yet visibly breathing, eyes open, no expression. It was like their very being, their very souls were taken from them with an empty yet living husk left behind. The mare pulled out the file, one she marked 'key' as it was her key into the PRS. Activating the command she would descend into the PRS network, searching not long before she found a section of the network marked 'Diamond Plaza Incident Victims'. The mare would need especially to hide among the digital shadows and cover her tracks as this part of the network was buzzing with activity. She wasn't the only one investigating these victims, multiple users were present trying to look in and using the Alpha version of the Monitor Command. Seeing an opportunity to learn without doing much, like a detective swiping their rival's evidence, she would spy on the users' activity. 



COMMUNICATION SUB-NET Name: New Discovery
H#9: There is no way, this has to be something else.
H#12: I know what I saw, these ponies minds are completely wiped! Wiped clean, there's nothing in there!
H#9: That's impossible, these brain augs aren't made to allow such deletion!
H#12: Actually.....
H#12: They are, it's part of the 'Modify' command.
H#9: The Modify command isn't made to allow a total deletion at once!"
H#12: The Terrorists made it do that, after all they seem to be able to breach the encryption of this whole server in an instant.
H#6: I recall having to fix some things on the Network after that virus came in and wreaked havoc. It might have created some artificial program to execute the deletion.
H#9: Seems like the most likely possibility, we will definitely want to tell Element001 about this. Keep an eye on this place 6, 12, I'm going to let them know what's happened. 
H#6: I'll keep an eye out, and try to see what that strange leftover coding in their brains is about.
H#12: Don't bother, you've been trying to decode it for the past 20 minutes. There's nothing there except maybe corrupted data if that.
H#6: Fine, guess it is nothing if not maybe some trolling crap from those terrorists. 




The mention of some 'coding' intrigued Anomaly, and though she now knew what happened she could not refrain from investigating the coding. Slipping carefully past the two users who patrolled the network she would soon find herself literally inside the mind of another pony. Like an abandoned home it was eerily empty inside given it was supposed to make up where the thinking part of the mind was. She felt concerned and sorry for the mare she was inside, she was not dead yet she was seemingly gone. What was going to be done to her? How was the system going to hide the fact that some ponies lost their brains and were now in little more than a hopeless coma? It seemed almost fitting to her that the system's attempts to upgrade its control over pony's minds had gone so horribly wrong, and yet she lamented the cost of life that this brought. What a consequence to such a seemingly promising technology, Myriad seemingly wanted to make a mass market product of her brain augmentations. It seemed like a great innovation at first, but now more and more Anomaly was starting to fear the idea. 

"If pony's minds get turned into computers, it will allow for a revolution of computing, an advancement of computing that would no doubt bring a quick death to computer desks. Bring the functions of a computer together with the power of the brain. But....if a pony's mind becomes a computer....then it will mean their very mind can even he hacked. It can be deleted, manipulated and changed. Are we even ponies if our very minds can be changed and manipulated just like that? I can't let this happen, this technology is not turning us all into little more than fleshy machines." 

After her time of pondering she would go on to look for this hidden code, and would, sure enough, find it. It was heavily encrypted and quite the complex code, akin to what the Virus was using. Using her mind's augmented thinking she would not find as much difficulty in trying to decode and decrypt it. Looking inside she would find a new discovery, a revelation which would give her a sudden rush of hope like the sudden high of partycake....



Liberator Command:
Command integration completed
[Upload Mind]
(Mind Already Uploaded)



"Upload mind? Wait, that means...." Anomaly would then realize. "....she might not be deleted. She might be somewhere, possibly imprisoned on a drive if not lost on the net. She's got to be somewhere, all these ponies have to be somewhere. I have to find them...." 

Pulling out of the PRS Network Anomaly would put to her mind a new set of objectives, shorter term than her growing long-term goals. Seeing hope of saving these ponies and maybe bringing them back to their bodies. Anomaly was also intent on destroying the PRS, eliminating the system's upgrade and leaving nothing but a network of corrupted and deleted files. She knew exactly how she was going to do it, taking her fragments of the virus she would examine the offensive programs Golden Gave her. Like a military engineer building the next high-tech missile Anomaly would be building up what she had from the virus to create her weapon against the PRS. The virus was made to break down defenses and wreak havoc, she was going to hone that function and try to improve on it. It wasn't quite complete however, she knew there was a lot she could not acquire from what was left the virus. 

"I'm going to need more of their programming to make this work, and guarantee that server gets destroyed without any hope of salvaging it...."

_________________________________________________

"Complete your call with your team mister Vest?" Asked Myriad as she rode in the autocarriage sitting next to golden. They rode in a large autocarriage with around eight seats, six of them facing eachother. 

"Yes I have, I'm taking drastic measures. We're going on the offensive against them, only they won't so easily see it coming."

Golden would say "Now onto the subject of Anomaly, we're going to want to be careful how we present this to her."

"That we do, but I will try to have better means of insurance in case things go bad. Online monitoring is proving difficult and often impossible. Might have to keep her on a more direct leash and watch."

The autocarriage would stop in front of the Inn and Out, and the three would hop out along with another mare dressed in a simple suit and tie. Together the four would walk into the place, approaching and entering the elevator before choosing a floor on the touch screen pad next to the sliding doors.