“For years, I’ve watched over this Stable. For years, I have seen it grow. But today, it all ends. I dare not tell them that I can’t open the door. In the blink of an eye, the values on the outside reached critical conditions, and the system refuses to let me open the Stable door. But the evacuations have already started. Hundreds of families stand in the entrance hallway, waiting for me to open the door, waiting for something that will never happen. How many of them would die if they panicked after I told them I couldn’t open the door? Ten? Fifty? A hundred? If I don’t open the door… It doesn’t matter. Security can’t hold back it forever. That creature will be free soon enough. I’ve sealed myself inside my office, and I’ll stay here until the values are low enough for me to open the door. No matter what happens, I’ll watch over the values. Maybe I can open the door in time to save one. If I can just save one of those ponies, then I can die happily. But with the circumstances… May Celestia watch over us all.”
“That’s all there is. The only log on the terminal,” Spitfire said as the words slowly wrinkled out and were replaced with a single command. ‘Open Stable Door’.
“So the Overmare couldn’t open the door, but you can, right?” asked Bolt from behind me. “I mean, I’ve been living out there for years! The values have to be acceptable by now! ... Right?”
I didn’t answer her. And after a moment she muttered something and her hoof started tapping against the floor once again.
“I can’t see any values at all.” I gritted my teeth and kept working despite my annoyance at Bolt. That tapping sound was driving me insane. She’d been doing it ever since the elevator came up. I probably wasn’t alone in thinking something would jump out at us, but the elevator had been completely empty inside save for a nice layer of dust. “So I assume the value is below the limit. Open Stable Door.”
“You know, you still don’t have to say it. A mere thought is enough.”
The sound of the tapping stopped. “Did it work?” Bolt asked. “Is the door open?”
“No,” I whispered as new text replaced the command. “No!”
‘Energy level non-sufficient. M.A.C. malfunctioning. Emergency generators offline.’ I stared at the text that enveloped the filter. “That can’t be true!”
“What’s the matter?” I could hear Bolt scramble to her hooves. Air rushed past me as she ran up to look at the terminal. “Is the door not working? Did the computer lock you out?”
“The engine is malfunctioning.” I beat my hoof down on the table. All this! We had gone through all this for nothing! “It’s impossible to open the door!”
“Does that mean we’re trapped here? I thought you fixed it! Can’t you do something?”
“I have already checked; you cannot start the engines from here.”
“I didn’t work with the M.A.C.. I was only some representative from the company that made it.” I carefully tugged out the wire from the terminal. “Or, at least that’s what I think I was...”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“There’s another way to turn the engines on.” But I don’t want to. I turned towards the elevator. “The elevator should go to the maintenance area. Down there are emergency generators, but they have to be started manually. I can’t start them from here.”
“Well, then what are we waiting for?” Bolt asked as she brushed past me towards the elevator.
“I don’t think we should--” I started.
“What?” She looked at me from inside the elevator with a raised eyebrow. “We go down, turn on the engine, and leave. Simple.” She looked expectantly at me for a while, and she started tapping her hoof again. “Well, are you coming or not?”
“That’s the thing,” I said as I took a step closer. “It’s too easy. We just need to go down to maintenance, in this elevator that conveniently arrived just a few minutes ago, without either of us calling it here.”
"Easy?” the unicorn sneered. “Easy would be us starting the engines from here. But you just said that’s not possible, so get in."
“But—“
"I guess I'll just have to go without you, then," she said as she raised her hoof, likely reaching for the button that would send the elevator to the generators.
“Wait,” I said as I stepped up to the elevator. “I really don’t think we should--“
Bolt didn’t allow me to finish the sentence. She slammed her hoof against the panel, and the doors started to slide shut. Luckily for me, they closed slowly enough for me to have enough time react and hastily take the last few steps inside the elevator.
"About time you got here." She laughed weakly. "I ought to encourage you like that more often. We never get stuff done with you just standing around."
I spun around just as the elevator started to descend. Quickly my eyes searched the panel for anything that would stop the elevator. The panel was right past Bolt, and I went to go push the button that would send the elevator back up.
Her eyes widened as I approached "Woah, hey! What are you trying to do?" She quickly pushed me away from the panel. "We're going all the way down to the engines. No stops, no detours--"
“But--“
"No 'buts'!" she said a bit forcefully. She coughed and looked away from me, lowering her voice back to normal. "Just pipe down and enjoy the ride, okay?"
I opened my mouth, but closed it again without saying anything. Instead, I took another half step back, walking into one of the elevator’s walls. I don’t like this at all.
“What’s the matter?”
Everything here. The clean state the Stable is in, the lack of… anything really. If the Overmare couldn’t open the door, why is she the only dead pony we’ve seen in the entire Stable? I shivered. Not that I want to see one, but… And that thing that the log spoke about? The thing that was coming up from maintenance? Is it still there? Will it be waiting for us? I looked at Bolt, who was absently looking around the elevator and tapping her hoof once more.
“Would it matter? You would have to go down to the maintenance anyway. The emergency generators weren’t operable from the Overmare’s office, and without them,” Spitfire paused. “We wouldn’t be able to get out of here anyway.”
But there were other ways down there; we wouldn’t have had to take the elevator.
“Does it matter?”
Maybe not, I thought as the elevator slowed down. I had to come down here eventually, to find that ornament. I shivered at the thought.
Without a sound the elevator door opened up, revealing the hallway that lead to the maintenance area. The hallway was empty except for the small lamps placed on the walls that emitted the dim light that illuminated our surroundings. No dust lingered in the air or on the floor, making this part of the Stable as clean as any other part had been.
Bolt hesitated slightly before she stepped out of the elevator and looked down the hallway. Without a word, I followed after her. “Which way to the generators?” she asked her head going from left to right. “Why aren’t there any signs to tell us where to go?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think we should--”
She whirled around to face me. “Stop that,” she said, poking me in the chest. “I get it, okay? You don’t think we should be down here. You don’t have to say that at every chance you get. Just…” She looked down and shook her head, quickly bringing it back up. A curl of her mane fell down across her face and obscured one of her eyes. “Just stop.”
I nodded frantically.
The unicorn stood still for a moment, her hoof still in the air and her eyes locked on me. Then she sighed, letting her head fall down. “Good. Good.” She pushed the part of her mane that had fallen down out of her face. “Let’s get going, then.” She quickly looked to both sides of the corridor, before she started to walk down the path to the right.
I stayed behind, confused as to how Bolt was acting.
“Are you coming or what?” Bolt spun around to look at me. “You want to get out of here as much as I do, so come on!” She threw a quick glance behind her before she looked at me again. “Please?”
“Are you alright?” I asked as I walked towards her.
As soon as I started to walk again, Bolt turned around and did the same. “I’m fine, really. I just…” She paused. “What do you know about maintenance?”
“About maintenance?” I watched as Bolt kept walking, not looking around but simply looking straight ahead. “Well… There is the M.A.C., the main engine, and then there are the emergency generators--“
“Where are the emergency generators located?”
“From here?” I paused and tried to remember. “I think the terminal to control them was on the other side of the engine room, close to the locker rooms.”
“Wait, what’s that?” Bolt had frozen in her track halfway around a corner, one hoof still lingering in the air. “What’s that light?”
I hurried up my steps until I stood so that I could see the dark green light that I believe she was talking about. It was coming from another corner further away.. “That’s the light from M.A.C..” A gentle breeze stroked my coat, bringing with it the smell of the forest I remembered from the memory I had of maintenance. I shivered slightly. It felt as if a cold hoof ran down my spine as I remembered not only the fragrance of a forest, but also the fragrance of the glade. I could feel my heart beating faster as the memories of the glade brought with it the fear I had felt then.
“A predator, lurking in the shadows.” Free’s words echoed in my mind, and I thought I could feel a hoof against my chin. I tried to shied away, but with no success. It was like something restrained me with that simple ghost of a touch. I couldn’t move my head or any other part of my body.
"But I thought you said the engine was down,” said Bolt. “What was the point of us coming down here if it was on the whole time?"
I could feel something breathing in my ear, as if somepony had moved their mouth close enough to whisper to me.
“It will soon awake, Cogwheel.” A hollow laugh reached my ears. “I would hurry up if I were you.” The feeling of the hoof left my chin. “It will be hungry when it awakes, Cogwheel.”
“What do you mean?” I whimpered as I quickly shied away from where I had just stood, traces of sweat forming on my brow.
“Cogwheel? What’s the mat—“
"What do I mean?" Free chuckled lightly. I took a few steps back, trying to get away from the voice, but I didn't succeed. Free kept whispering, almost sweetly, in my ear. "It has your scent, Cogwheel. The entire glade practically reeks of you. It won’t be able to miss it. It'll be looking for you."
My heart skipped a beat.
"Recover and bring that ornament to me before It wakes up, and I'll stop It from tracking you down."
“How do I know that I can trust you?” I looked wildly around me.
“Cogwheel, who are you talking to?” Bolt asked. She had walked past me, but had now turned around and looked worryingly at me.
“You can’t,” Free hissed at me. With a hollow laugh, the breath in my ear disappeared, and soon the laugh had disappeared as well.
“Cogwheel? What’s the matter?” Spitfire and Bolt asked simultaneously.
My entire body trembled as I looked up at Bolt. She had walked closer to me, not standing more than a couple of steps away. She shifted slightly from one hoof to the other as she looked down at me with worried eyes. “Cogwheel?”
“It’s after me,” I whispered, my eyes darting from wall to wall.
“What are you talking about?”
"I need to get out of here," I whispered as I rose from the ground, my eyes locked on Bolt. “Now.” My heart started pounding harder, faster, as I saw the green light behind the unicorn. I broke into a gallop and headed for the maintenance room.
"Wait!" Bolt screamed after me. "What are you talking about? Cogwheel!"
I could barely hear her over the blood pumping in my ears. It didn't matter. I had to find that ornament. Bolt couldn't stop me, I wouldn’t let her. I had to get out of here.
"Stop running!" Spitfire shouted. I could feel my cybernetic legs lock under me just as I got into the engine room, sending me sliding across the floor even as I flailed to try and get back up.
"Cogwheel!" Bolt yelled at me again, rushing into the engine room. She skidded to a halt before me and leaned over to look me in the eyes. "What are you running for? What's wrong?"
"Spitfire, let me go!" I screamed, flailing with my organic leg in a feeble attempt to get up. "I have to get out of here!"
“You are not going anywhere until you calm down, Cogwheel.”
“What are you talking about?” Bolt stopped next to me, shifting nervously from one hoof to another, looking around. “Who are you talking to? Who’s Spitfire?”
“Cogwheel, listen closely to me. You have to calm down. Don’t let the fear take a grip of you. Fight it.”
“Please… release me,” I whimpered as I stopped flailing with my leg, tears running down my cheek and dropping onto the floor.
I could see Bolt standing there, looking between me and the rest of the room, her eyes darting back and forth as she shifted nervously. She looked down at me, and raised her hoof as to walk away, but quickly put it down again and looked away.
“Cogwheel, listen to me. You have to calm down. Tell me, what happened?”
Free… he talked to me. Told me that it was about to awake. He-he… I took a ragged breath.
“That’s impossible. How…” Spitfire paused. “Listen to me, Cogwheel. He can’t hurt you here. He wants you to be afraid. Breathe. Don’t let him play around with you.”
“Cogwheel? You’re scaring me,” Bolt whispered.
“I have to get out of here.” I looked up at Bolt. “Please...”
“What happened?” Bolt looked from side to side. “What can I do?”
“I will let you go, but you have to do one thing first,” Spitfire said slowly. “On the wall, there is a poster. Read it. Focus on the poster, forget everything else. Just breathe and read it. Don’t think about anything else but the poster.”
How will that he—
“Just do it.”
“Cogwheel? Talk to me,” Bolt pleaded as I averted my eyes away from her and looked at the poster behind her. “Please.”
My eyes darted through the text on the poster, not once stopping. There, I read it. Release me now. I pleaded as I kicked with my leg, hoping that the other legs would start to move as well.
“Listen to what I say, Cogwheel. Read it, without thinking about anything else. Take a deep breath, and then read it again.”
“But—“
“Just do it,” Spitfire interrupted me firmly.
“Cogwheel?” Bolt’s voice wavered slightly. “What’s wrong with your legs? They shouldn’t be able to lock like that. What’s going on?”
I looked up at her. She stood with her head lowered and her eyes gazing worriedly at me. I opened my mouth, but quickly closed it and averted my eyes to the poster on the wall once again. I felt my heart calming down as I took a deep, ragged breath and wiped the tears away from my eye so that I could see the poster more clearly.
Bolt mumbled something I couldn’t make out as I focused on reading the poster, ignoring everything else. Know your hazardous chemicals: Do not inhale the fumes, no matter how good they smell. I blinked and then quickly read through it again. Had that poster been one of the security measures that had been taken for the maintenance? Or was it just—
“Cogwheel! Say something to me!” Bolt begged.
My heartbeats had slowed down to a more steady rhythm. I took a deep breath and looked up at Bolt. “I’m fine. Just…” I met her worried eyes where she stood, shifting from hoof to hoof, and I sighed. “Fine.” Can you release me now?
“Repeat what you just read, without looking back at the poster,” Spitfire instructed me with slow and steady voice. “Then I will release you.”
What? Why can’t you just release me now?
“Take a deep breath and tell me what the sign warned you for,” Spitfire said firmly.
“Stupid…” I muttered and sighed. Don’t inhale the fumes, no matter how good they smell. I repeated silently to myself. Why should I—
“To calm down. Stress and or fear may be helping you to think clearer, but not in the amount you felt them. Your thoughts were clouded by the fear and stress, and the only one who could change that was yourself,” Spitfire said. She continued before I could say anything. “I have given you back the control over your legs. Be careful.”
Thanks… I guess, I thought as I waved slightly with my legs, taking a deep breath. “There, all better.”
Bolt still looked down at me. “You… what?” she asked as I slowly rose from the floor, wincing as a dull pain spread through my body from my side.
“I’m all better now.” I saw that the pony was back in the corner of my eye, notifying me that I had various scratches on my side.
“You’re… all better?” She asked with a dangerous tone, practically biting off the question.
“Yes. I’m—“ I went silent as I rose my head slightly and found myself looking into Bolt’s hard eyes. “Tha… That’s good, isn’t it?” I took a step back from her glare.
“Oh, yes, I’m sure that’s good,” she sneered as she stepped closer to me. “Then maybe you can tell what that was all about!” She took a deep breath.
“I fell and—“
"First," she interrupted me with a jab to my chest. "You stop moving. And then you just start cowering down like a filly getting being caught stealing something. And then," she jabbed her hoof into my chest again for emphasis. "You just take off and start screaming about how you have to get out of here!"
“I thought I heard som—“
Bolt didn't allow me to say anything. As I tried to speak, she jabbed her hoof in my chest again. "No, you listen to me. You just fall over and start crying for Spitfire to release you! Then you started practically begging me for help, but you just ignored me!" She jabbed her hoof at my chest one last time. "And you expect me to believe that everything's just fine?!"
“It’s not fine,” I quickly said, trying to get away from her hoof. “It’s better, but I’m not—“
The echoing of Bolt driving her hoof into the floor silenced me. “Then what was all that about?!” she shouted forcefully.
“I-I…” I hung my head and took a deep breath. “I swore that I heard something, whispering for me to hurry up, that it soon will be too late. I panicked and ran until…” I paused. If I told her about Spitfire, how many questions would follow? We didn’t have time for that.
“Are you sure about this, Cogwheel? Isn’t it better just to tell her?”
“Until what?!” She slammed her hoof against the floor again.
“Until my cybernetics locked up. I fell to the floor, and…” I racked my brain for something to say.
"P-prosthesis don't lock unless they encounter EMP interference, but yours just suddenly stop working?" She snorted, still glaring me down. "Sure, sure. That still doesn't explain who you were talking to. Or how you could calm down so quickly."
“Uh…” My mind stood completely still.
Spitfire sighed. “If you aren’t going to tell her about me, and insist on lying, at least try to keep it as close to the truth as possible.”
“It was some kind of…” I hesitated.
“Medical program that…”
"Medical program that locked my prosthesis up," I said firmly, meeting Bolt's hard glare. "It noticed that my heart rate was higher than it should have been, and--"
“Medical program?” Bolt asked, raising her eyebrow. “Is it part of your eye or something? How is it able to control your prosthesis? What else can it do?" She started moving towards me, her eyes a bit wider than they had been.
It was as if her anger had completely vanished as she tried to peer into my eye. “Uh…“ I hesitated and took a step back.
“You have to tell me about it! Is it more advanced than the PipBuck’s health monitoring?” Bolt took a step closer. “Does it show heart rate? Blood pressure?”
“Can we talk about that once we get the engine started?” I asked as I turned around, letting out a sigh in relief that she seemed to have forgotten about everything at the thought of my cybernetic. “I I’ll tell you all about it when—“The words died in my mouth as I stared at the scenery in front of me, my mouth slowly closing.
“Hey, wait a minute!” she shouted behind me. But I only dully noted her words.
In the middle of the room stood the rhombus shaped engine that I could remember from my dream -- the M.A.C.. But something looked horribly wrong with it. The circles lay dead around the base of the rhombus where they had landed when whatever had kept them rotating had disappeared. A rift divided the rhombus in two, vines and ivy spreading out and around the giant engine. “This… isn’t right.” My eyes wandered from the engine and across the room.
“What’s the mat…” Her words died out just as my own had just a second ago.
The growth had spread alongside and over the cords and had followed them up to the five gathering crystals placed around the room. Each of the crystals were close to completely overgrown, but the light they still emitted shone through small cracks in the plants and was reflected a thousand times over by the rest of the ivy and vines to the point where the entire room where bathing in a dark green light.
“Is that… mac?” The unicorn whispered from beside me as she took a step closer to the engine. “It’s… beautiful.”
“I don’t think you should go any closer,” I said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s not supposed to look like this. I don’t think that we should…”
Bolt shrugged off my hoof as she stepped closer, stopping just before the ivy running across the floor. “It’s like the glades. Growing life in the middle of the wasteland.”
“I don’t think that M.A.C. was malfunctioning,” I said, taking in all of the damage the engine had sustained. “I think it was completely destroyed...”
“Bolt, listen to me,” I said as I stepped up to the unicorn, gently pushing her back a couple of steps from the ivy. She glared up at me and tried to walk forward again. “Bolt, please, just listen to me. M.A.C. isn’t supposed to look like this. The rings are supposed to float around the engine, and that rift is definitely not supposed to be there, neither are the plants growing out from it.”
“And your point is?” Bolt glanced towards the growth. “It’s not like some leaves can harm us.”
I sighed and removed my hoof. “Just don’t go too close to it. Please? We don’t know if it’s dangerous.” I took a deep breath. The fragrance from the countless number of plants around me reminded me too much about the glade.
She looked back at me, her eyes softening some. “Well…” she started, biting her lower lip. “You do know more about it than I do.” She looked wistfully towards the engine, before she sighed. “And if you think it’s dangerous… I guess I’ll have to trust you.” Whirling around towards me, she jabbed her hoof in my chest. “But don’t think you’re getting away this easily. You still have a lot of questions to answer.”
I took a quick step back in surprise. “Ye… yes. As soon as we get out of here.”
“Good.” She held my eyes for a second longer before looked towards the rest of the room. “Getting out… You said something about a terminal to get the generators running?”
“Yes, it’s on the other side of the room, close to the locker room,” I said, looking at the floor where I had walked so long ago, in a time I only remembered thanks to a single memory, now completely clad in ivy. Careful to not touch the growth, I walked alongside the stems until I stood so that I could see the other side of the room.
“Sweet Celestia...”
The ivy had spread out across the other side of the room as well, even more than it had here. Not only the floor, but the walls and even the glass panels to the locker room could only be partially seen through the layer of growth. I looked down at the floor again and steeled myself as I brought my hoof towards the closest ivy. Brushing against it, I quickly jumped back and raised my hoof to my eyes, looking for any traces of… anything really.
“What are you doing? It’s a plant,” Bolt deadpanned as she walked up to me. “It’s not like it will kill you or anything.”
“I know.” I smiled sheepishly as I put down my hoof again. “Just making sure.”
“Making sure of what? That they won’t bite you?” Bolt laughed, before her features turned worried. “They can’t do that, can they?”
“I don’t think so, at least they didn’t do that when I…” I blinked. “Why should I know?”
“You knew about that,” she said, motioning towards the rhombus. “And it seems to grow from there, so I thought that you might know about it.”
I shrugged. “I was only a representative. I’m fairly sure I didn’t actually work with anything of this,” I said, warily eyeing the ground as I took a step forward, prepared to jump back should anything happen.
When nothing happened, I sighed in relief and continued going. I could practically hear Bolt rolling her eyes as she followed behind me.
“Besides, even if I did have something to do with it I don’t remember it.”
“Yeah, you say that.”
With a snort I continued walking, each breath bringing the scent of the forest to my nose. My eyes wandered over the room in search for the terminal I knew should be here somewhere. It didn’t take long before I saw a desk, partially overgrown, standing alongside the wall. On the desk stood a terminal, its dark green light melting together with the lighter green that was reflected around the room.
I walked to the desk and placed myself behind the terminal. Looking up, I saw that Bolt continued walk around the rhombus, her head going from side to side as she looked from the M.A.C., along the stems to the vessels. For a moment I looked at her as she made her way towards one of the vessels, gently brushing parts of the ivy away to peer inside it.
As I moved my eyes back to the terminal, something else caught my attention. Lying next to the terminal was a small pendant of gold with a silver link. The shining metal, carved as a tree with small leaves of emeralds, seemed to gleam in the green light.
“Is that... the ornament?” Spitfire breathed.
I... I don’t know. He never told me what it looked like. I gently picked up the chain with my hoof, staring in awe as the pendant slowly rotated around.
“He never told you? Then how were you supposed to find it?” Spitfire paused. “Didn’t he want you to find it?”
The pendant came to a stop, my face reflecting clearly a hundred times over in the gold and emeralds. He must’ve thought I couldn’t have missed it.
“It is pretty difficult to miss...”
I nodded as I, with a feeling of regret, tore my eyes away from the pendant and opened my already overfull saddlebag, gently laying it on top of the scrap therein. It seemed misplaced, a jewel among rocks. Shaking the thought about the pendant from my mind, I looked back to the terminal.
As always when I plugged myself into a terminal, the blue filter filled my vision nearly instantly. But, unlike the other times I had been interacting with terminals, the words stayed still instead of moving like they usually did, spelling out Logs and Options.
“The terminal wasn’t protected by any password,” Spitfire informed me. “I could take you directly to the main screen.”
Let me guess, I thought eyeing the two options. The ‘Options’ option is locked?
“Not that I can notice. However, I think that you should read this log first. Most of the logs are completely normal, reports on the daily work down here, all except one. It mentions a little filly being found down here, the same as every other night, but in this one...”
In this one what?
“Read for yourself,” she said, and the options on the filter was replaced by a log.
My night shift had just started, when I found a figure I recognized all too well. Sitting close to M.A.C., staring into the depths of the engine was the same filly as every night. She shouldn’t be able to get inside, not without a hazard suit equipped, and yet here she sits close to every night. But I don’t mind the company, even if she doesn’t speak much. It’s better than being all alone down here.
Anyhoof, I started my shift as normally with checking the values of M.A.C.. They were all off the chart, at least in comparison to the values they usually show at night. The Stable was using more energy than during a normal day, and M.A.C. was working with an efficiency of two hundred percent. I have never seen the circles work that fast before, the sound of the sparks jumping sounded like someone firing a fully automated weapon in here.
I was just about to start emergency protocol 11-b, but remembered the filly. Moving over to her, I told her that we had to get away from the engine. She looked up at me, a wide smile on her face. “But it’s about to be free, mister,” she said, looking back and placing a hoof at the engine. At her touch, it was as if the engine slowed down to normal, the green light from within pulsating slowly.
I hurried back to the terminal, and the values had gone down drastically. When I looked back, the little filly was gone. The rest of the night continued on, although it felt as if my every move was observed. I swear that I saw the little filly more than once in the corner of my eye, but when I looked, she wasn’t there.
My shift is now ending, and nothing else has--
“And that’s it. That was the last log on the terminal. There were multiple logs mentioning the filly, but this is the only one mentioning her speaking more than one word answers. The date of the log is the same as the date on the last log on the Overmare’s terminal, so I guess this was the start of the end for Stable 31.”
I reread the log once more, absently noticing what Spitfire said. It’s about to be free. What was about to be free? And what caused the engine to work that hard?
“It? The creature the Overmare’s log mentioned?”
Can it be the same It Free talked about? The predator of the glades?
The log disappeared and was replaced by the two options again. “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. The stable door was locked when we entered, and the terminal didn’t mention any opening of the door since the day the Overmare tried to get out.”
They all died down here then? The inhabitants of Stable 31? I took a deep breath. Killed by… it, whatever that was. Was it something from M.A.C. that killed them? Something that SAT was a part of? Was I a part of it as well?
The Option choice was selected without me doing anything. “Does it matter?” Spitfire asked as new options filled the filter. “If you had something to do with it, it’s nothing you can change. Right now, the only—“
“I don’t care if I can’t change it. If I had something to do with it, then…”
“If you had something to do with it, that was two hundred years ago! There is no possible way that you can change that. The ponies of this Stable are gone, you aren’t. So let us get out of here, and keep it that way.”
“Did you say something?” Bolt’s voice reached me.
“No, nothing.” I sighed and scrolled through the options until I found the one I was looking for. Protocol 16-C – Start the Emergency Generators.
The protocol was selected, and the filter became empty except for a couple of lines.
>Preparing M.A.C. for hibernation.
“Cogwheel, what did you just do?!” Bolt asked. She sounded nervous.
“I started the Emergency generators.”
>Warning: Damages in the vessel containing M.A.C..
>Warning overridden by Protocol 16-C.
“Cogwheel, is it supposed to be like this? There’s some sort of fog coming out from the crack in the engine.”
>Nitrogen activated, hibernation inbound.
“I… I don’t know! You might want to stand—“
>Temperature of M.A.C. core: 5 degrees Kelvin.
>M.A.C. core shielded.
“What happened? Everything turned dark! Cogwheel, are you still there?”
“I’m here. M.A.C. was just shut down. It should only take a moment before the emergency generator starts up.”
>Emergency Generators enabled.
I could hear a low humming from somewhere around me.
>Protocol 16-C finished. Terminating link.
Barely had I read the words before they, and the filter, disappeared. Looking up from the terminal, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The rhombus in the middle of the room had stopped emitting any light, the earlier clear glass now a muddy grey, and the vessels were in a similar state. A weak yellow light, shining down from the ceiling, had replaced the soft green color that had illuminated the room earlier. Before my eyes, the growth covering everything died, the green plant turning black and slowly crumbling to dust. At the base of M.A.C., white mist had started spreading over the floor.
“What happened?” I asked before I could think, my eyes drifting around the room.
“I think that the ivy was kept alive by the engine. Somehow,” Bolt said from the other side of the engine. “Is it done? Are the generators running?”
“I think so,” I said as I walked to her, eyeing the white mist.
“We can get out then?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Bolt said and turned around on the spot. “Let’s get out of here.”
I nodded and hurried after her towards the elevator, and together we left the maintenance, and the Stable, behind us.
{l_l}
A lazy wind welcomed us as we stepped out from the building. The sky above us was as clouded as it had been when we entered, but the obscured sun still hung up there, illuminating the street and buildings around us.
“How long do you think we were down there?” I asked as I took a deep breath. It was nice to be out in the open again. Not that I had a hard time down in the Stable, but there was something about an open surrounding that was much more pleasant.
Bolt glanced up to the sky. “I don’t know. Five, maybe six hours? And now that we’re out,” she said and looked up at me. “You have some questions to answer.”
“I do, don’t I?” I sighed. “Can I talk as we walk?”
“Can you focus on more than one thing at a time?” Bolt snorted as she started to walk down the street.
"Hey... uh, let's go this way," I said, turning to the path that lead to the glade.
"Why make the detour?" Bolt walked back to me and tried nudging back to the path we were on. "What's wrong with this road?"
"We came through this way, so... I just thought it'd be good that we... Sort of know where we're going." I started walking down the road.
"You know," she said, hanging back for a second. "That's probably the smartest thing you've said all day." She started down the path, following me almost gleefully. We had walked in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "... You never told me about that medical program, Cogwheel. And you said you'd tell me all about it once we got out of there. So." She turned to face me, her tone changing instantly from somber to cheery. "What is it? What's it do? How does it work?"
I didn’t answer directly. “To be honest, I don’t really know,” I said as she opened her mouth again. “I barely have any knowledge about it. As I understood it, it was created by SAT and what I have is nothing but a prototype.”
“A prototype? What was it created for? You said something about it being able to check your heartrate, and that it locked your prosthesis until you calmed down? Some kind of medical program?”
Here goes... I thought, taking a deep breath. “I lied.”
“You... lied?” Bolt stopped in the middle of a step.
“Only partially. It’s not a medical program. It’s more of an... AI.” I finished awkwardly, stopping next to her.
“OSAI,” Spitfire corrected.
“AI? Like a robot or something?”
“A robot? Robot?! I’m not just a robot!” Spitfire shouted.
I grinned in pain at the high-pitched sound. “Apparently, there’s a difference.”
“Of course there is! A robot is programmed to do one thing, and only one thing, forever! An OSAI can be programmed, but it can think for itself! It can help ponies take care of themselves! It can calculate, and understand, how much medicine a pony would need! It can change its way to calculate things after discoveries and experience! It can--”
Okay, okay, I get it! I smiled, apologizing to Bolt as Spitfire went silent. “Apparently, there is a great difference.”
“Was it... talking with you?” Bolt raised her head higher and tried to peer into my eye. “Did it say something about me? Can it hear me?”
“Yes, I can,” Spitfire said dryly. “I thought she was supposed to be intelligent.”
Woah, somepony’s grumpy, I thought. “She can hear you, but she seems to be pretty... cranky right now. Being called a robot seemed to hit a nerve.” I pondered for a moment. “Although, I’m not certain that she has any nerves.”
“She?” Bolt brought her head closer. “It’s a she? What’s her name?”
I took a quick step back, and before Bolt had had the time to close in once again I turned towards the street. “Well, it has a feminine voice, so I assume it’s a mare. Her name is Spitfire,” I said, starting to walk again.
"Spitfire?" she asked, hurrying after me. "You're telling me that the whole time you were flailing around on the floor in the Stable, you were yelling at some robot?”
“Please get her to stop saying that,” Spitfire groaned. “It’s humiliating. I don’t go around calling her an earth pony, do I?”
“She wants you to stop calling her that,” I snorted. “She said it would be as if she called you an earth pony.”
Bolt blinked. “Oh... I guess that means there’s a really big difference.” She looked around for a second. “What would that be, exactly?”
Maybe it was only my imagination, but I could swear that I heard Spitfire take a deep breath. “I think that an AI can learn from doing things, while a robot has to just do what it’s told. It’s more of a pony than it is a computer or a robot, but it’s still mechanical.” I said before she could start ranting. “When you attacked me yesterday, she quickly saw that I could block your attacks instead of trying to avoid them.”
”She can learn? Like us?”
“Yes, I can. The process of learning is fairly simple. It’s all about acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values or preferences...”
“You know what? It’s kind of annoying to be a messenger for both of you,” I muttered.
“Oh, hush. You promised me answers, didn’t you? Now, what did she say?” Bolt’s voice carried more than a small hint of glee.
I sighed. “She says that she can learn, and that it’s an easy process. According to her, it’s all about acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors... And a whole lot more.”
Bolt hurried up next to me, looking up at the eye with a puzzled frown. “But wouldn’t she have to be able to remember things to be able to learn from experience? Wouldn’t that mean that she has your memories from the past?”
We rounded a corner, and I could see the glades further away. “I wish. She hasn’t been in my eye for that long. She jumped in there after I woke up in the clinic two days ago,” I said, quickening my pace.
“Jumped in? I think you meant to say ‘downloaded’.”
“Jumped in there?” Bolt had to nearly run to keep up with my strides. “What do you mean?”
“I downloaded her. Or she downloaded herself. I’m not sure. I was locked in a room, and couldn’t open the door out. She didn’t have any direct contact with the door, and she couldn’t open it from where she was, so this was the only way. We’ve been stuck together ever since -- not that I really mind... When she isn’t cranky, of course.” I smiled.
“Hey!” Bolt tripped and staggered behind me, rushing afterwards to meet with me again. “Slow down, would you? What’s the hurry?”
“There’s something I have to do before I return to Green Valley,” I said, my smile slipping. “In the glade.”
I heard something like a squeak before Bolt ran ahead and turned around to look at me. “The glade? You mean you’re actually going in the glade again? “
“Yes,” I sighed, trying to emulate Bolt’s glee. “We’re going back into the glade.”
Bolt sat down with a confused look on her face. She tracked me with her eyes as I continued walking past her. “But the last time we were there, we couldn’t get in. The trees were too thick for us to actually get inside.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to find a way in,” I muttered. Someone’s going to let me in, for sure...
“Can I come with you?”
I stopped in my tracks and turned around to see Bolt staring up at me. “You can’t be serious,” I said, looking at her confusedly.
She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. “Why not?”
“You know how dangerous the glades are.”
“Those are just old mares’ tales my father told me to try and get me to stay away from them. Besides, if they are dangerous, I can’t rightly let you go in there yourself.”
“I’m not letting you follow me in there,” I said, stomping my hoof on the ground for emphasis and turning away.
“I’m not letting you go in without me,” she retorted, hurrying up to walk alongside me.
“Stay. Put.”
“Make me.”
I turned around, only to see Bolt staring at me with a smug look on her face.
She smiled briefly and passed me, flicking me sharply with her tail. Without a word, I fell in behind her. For each step I took towards the glade, I could feel my heart starting to beat faster.
“You know everything’s going to be okay,” Spitfire reassured me.
No I don’t. What if Free does something to Bolt? He could attack her... and I don’t think I could stop him.
“He doesn’t have any reason to do so, Cogwheel. All he wanted was the pendant. Once he has it, there’s no reason for him to hurt either of you.”
What if he doesn’t need a rea-- I stopped dead in my tracks as Bolt sprinted ahead, towards an arch of trees that seemingly opened up just for her. “Bolt!” I yelled and ran after her along the path the trees cleared. “Wait!”
The glade I ran into was silent -- to the point where the sound of dry leaves crumbling under my hoof shattered the otherwise eerie silence. A gentle breeze rustled against my coat, bringing with it the scent of the glade. The trees didn’t seem as alive as they had the last time. Many of the leaves had turned orange and were slowly drifting towards the ground before my eyes. This time, the sun was not shining within the glade. It was just as overcast as it was outside.
Bolt was hopping around, taking everything in. She stopped in front of me, still twisting and turning with wide eyes at the scene before her. “It’s... beautiful,” she breathed. “The colors. And the scent. I could live here forever!”
“Bolt, wait! Before--”
“Fall was always my favourite season.”
A whisper reached me from behind, and I spun around only to see Free standing before me. The trees that moved earlier to form the archway in slowly creaked back into place, closing us off from outside. The silvery threads Free’s mane reflected the bright sunlight that was now shining down on us. It was odd when considering the sun wasn’t shining just a few seconds ago.
“The end of life...” Free continued his speech. “Mother nature preparing herself for a new era -- a new life.” Free smiled at me. “Without anything of the past to weigh her down...”
“I brought the pendant,” I swallowed, a lump rising in my throat. I quickly pulled my saddlebag open and took the amulet out. “It was this one, right?”
“Yes, that’s the one...” Free took a step closer to me. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I could see his head tilted down at the pendant as he approached.. “After all these years...”
“You wanted it, right? Then take it and let us go.”
“Wanted it?” Free’s hollow laughed echoed in the glade, causing my coat to crawl. “I don’t want it. I want to see it destroyed!” He spat on the ground. “I want to erase it from the soil of Equestria!”
“W... what?”
“That... pendant. It was created many years ago in the fire of war and anger, by a pony mad with the thought of victory... Of revenge.” He began circling around me and hissing occasionally, always with his head pointed at the pendant. “When he started working, he did it to help those who needed it... But the further he strived to help, the deeper he sank. In the end, he wished for nothing but to see pain and suffering in the eyes of those who had brought those feelings upon him!” the earth pony sneered. “I can’t even look at it...” He turned away, looking back over his shoulder, sounding defeated. “Just... destroy it. End my mistake, and you’ll be free to go...”
“Destroy it?” I lifted the pendant up and stared into it, watching the reflections of myself and the forest jump around as it twinkled in the soft breeze.
“You want to get out of here, don’t you?” The wall of trees behind Free thinned out as he spoke.
I nodded.
Free whirled around and jump so that his face was merely inches from mine. “Then destroy it!” he boomed, blowing my mane back. The trees thickened once more and the sun disappeared as a cold breeze blew through the glade.
“Cogwheel?” I saw Bolt’s reflection flit around in the pendant. One of her hooves was protectively raised before her chest. Her eyes wide. “What... What’s happening?”
“Nothing!” shouted Free. “Nothing is happening! I’m sick of nothing! I’ve been watching nothing for too long!” Vines sprouted up from the ground and began to entangle Bolt. She barely got the chance to scream before the tendrils wrapped around her mouth. “Destroy it!” he said, turning back to me. “Destroy it now!”
“Let her go!” I pleaded as the vines began to cover the rest of Bolt’s body. “You’re going to kill her!”
Free became calm. He turned towards me and spoke. “I’ve done worse.”
“Just let her go, and I’ll--”
“You have the gall,” he said, stomping towards me. “To order me to save your friend’s life while you stand there with that atrocity in your hoof?! That pendant is responsible for the death of hundreds of ponies, and you’re trying to keep it intact while your friend is dying?”
I looked once more at the reflections dancing in the pendant. “But I--”
“Think, Cogwheel! This mare’s death is only going to be another casualty of that pendant unless you destroy it this instant.” I could see the vines starting to tighten down on Bolt’s body. There was the faint sound of a muffled scream. “Destroy it!”
I threw the gleaming pendant down onto the ground and brought the full weight of my metal hoof down onto it. The soft gold buckled under the force, and when I took away my hoof I could see a deformation in the emeralds. Before my eyes a spiderweb of cracks spread out from the center of the deformation, a soft glow emerging from within.
“Yes,” Free hissed, stepping closer and brutally shoving me away from the pendant. “Finally...”
I looked up at him from where I had landed, the glow illuminating his features from below. Just beyond that, I could see the vines holding Bolt release her and snake back into the ground.
“After all these years...” Free smiled down at the pendant, and it was if the glow pulsated with his voice. “I can finally be whole again...”
Thin tendrils of light worked their way out from the pendant, slowly ascending towards the pony standing above it. Some of the tendrils leeched to his legs and torso, while others worked their way up to his head.
“Cogwheel!” Bolt had rushed up to me and was now shaking my shoulder. “Let’s go!”
But I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Bolt tugged on me as the last of the light reached Free’s head, his entire body now covered in it.
“I’m Free!” the earth pony hissed as he turned towards us. “And I’m complete...” The light around him dimmed some, and two jade green eyes looked down at me. “After all these years, I’m Free...”
I stood up and looked around, not noticing a single path back through the trees. I pushed Bolt behind me. “There, I did what you told me to do. Now let us go.”
“Oh, I’ll let you go...” Free laughed, the hollow sound causing cold shivers to run down my back. “There is just one, last thing...” At his words, I felt my eyelids become heavy. and I heard a low thump as Bolt hit the grass next to me. “Sleep...”
I collapsed down on the ground, the dead grass pricking against my coat. Blinking, I tried to shake the feeling of disorientation from my head.
“Thank you, Cogwheel,” Free mused as he stepped up to me, laying a hoof against my head. “For finally setting me free...”
His body slowly turned to dust, starting with his hoof and going up to the rest of his body. The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was a face with a pair of green eyes smiling down at me...
{z-z}
Footnote: Level up
New Perk: The Calm of an OSAI: As long as Spitfire is a companion, you know that you can depend on her to keep you calm. It’s harder for you to become panicked, and it’s easier for her to help you calm down if you manage to panic.
First, as always, a really big thank you to Masquerade313, not only for proofreading and editing, but for giving the story a hell of a lot more life than it had from the beginning. I can’t thank him enough for all the time he devoted helping me with this!
Seriously, without this dude SAT would be deader than Stable 31 in the silent winter wind! Also, to give you guys (and girls, if there are any), an insight from this editing session, directly quoted from Masquerade313:
“Once again, I chuckle at your grammar. It's like "D'aw, that's too adorable for me to correct."