"...No..." A horrified Animus said as he looked up at the boy he so loved...
A boy he made with all his intelligence...
All his love...
And treated him like a son...
He changed his diaper when he was just a lad...
Patched up his knees when he fell off his first bike...
Hugged him when he had nightmare's when he was little...
That same boy had his buster pointed to the doctors face.
His eyes were a blank white and his face was as cold and desolate as the Antarctic tundra.
"Impressive isn't it?" The same sharp suited man said, watching the whole unholy display with a prideful smile on his face.
The soft hum of Ark's buster charging was the only thing that pierced the deadly silence that followed after that sentence.
Celestia was completely and utterly shocked at the...thing before her.
It had these disgustingly disfigured wings, bent and torn at stomach retching angles. Its head was looking toward the sky and more importantly, the sun.
It's eyes still had the intense white beams of energy emanating from them, piercing the sky and the clouds with a deafening sound unknown to the royal fillies ears.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Celestia was getting more and more frightened by the second. Whatever drove her to come here was absolutely gone now for some reason.
She wanted to run from this foreign monstrosity before her eye's. When she turned around to run from this...thing she was met with a very angry somepony.
The sound of a constant clop sound reached her ears when she looked up to see...
Her father...
And he was not happy.
"What...what have you done to him?" Animus whispered out, hot tears running down his face as he was staring at the receiving end of Ark's buster.
The dark chuckle of the unnamed sharp suited man rang throughout the cold metal room. He walked up next to Ark and looked down at the doctor, who was kneeling on the cold, unforgiving tile floor.
"Oh, me and my organization have you to thank for Ark's current condition...or should I say...model 23459?"
Animus was very confused at the reciting of the strange sequence of numbers, but the look of confusion on his face only made the man chuckle.
"Animus, for a man who knows so much...yet knows nothing of his own creation, ironic really." The man directed his gaze toward Ark.
"Stand down." He said.
Ark said nothing and put his buster arm down and stood there...
Still staring at the doctor...
With those white, empty eyes...
"Young filly...you have ALOT of explaining to do...but right now that isn't the pressing matter." Sole looked at the source of the white beams of death.
"What manner of monstrosity is this?" King Sole said, his guards at the ready in case the thing tried anything.
"Is this the meteor that destroyed the tower? This thing is releasing an extreme amount of energy..."
He looked at her daughter and gave her an angry glare.
"And thou went TOWARDS this beast!" He said. Celestia shrunk back.
"I'm sorry daddy but...I do not know why I went towards it, I just...needed to...now I just want to go ho-"
The ground started to shake violently.
ETERNITY CHEST DRIVE LEAKING UNUSEIUM ENERGY! GOING CRITICAL!
...
"23459, have the good doctor take a seat over there." The unnamed man said to Ark.
Ark grabbed the doctor by his neck and lifted him up off the ground.
The doctor's tried to breath for air as he was hoisted towards the closest chair.
Ark didn't even react to the look of pain on his creators face...
He just stared at him...with those white, empty eyes.
Once the doctor was settled, the man sat on the opposite side of the table. He got a tablet out of the brief case he was toting that came to the doctor's attention right at that moment. He gave them to Animus as he sat down.
The tablet had an extremely long list that contained names of people, many people.
And one thing was common to all of these names is that they all...
Were deceased.
The doctor carefully went though all the pages of the file. In complete horror at the sheer amount of names on the cold,black,tablet.
They all had a brief description about each of themselves...
As well as a gruesomely short cause of death...
Reed Jenkens: 5'8 feet tall
Long brown hair, stocky build,white, male.
Test subject number: 1500.
Duration: 4 weeks until self termination
Linda Sasi: 5'4 feet tall.
Blonde hair, white, female.
Test subject number: 2056
Duration: Three days until self termination
Animus couldn't believe the sight before him. He kept scrolling down the black tablet, it took him several minutes to reach the end. With every scroll he felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. All these people dead...but for what?
Then...the poor doctor reached the end of the list, and was shocked to find...
Ark...
His file though was much more detailed, but it was still short and to the point.
Project Ark: genetically made to be 6'3
Brown skin, black hair, brown eyes when in 'civilian mode' eyes pure white when in 'command mode.'
Test subject number: 23459
Creator: Dr. Animus Light
Project Ark to be injected with nanobots U.7 in: 5 weeks
Total cost: 10.7 trillion dollars
"...23458 people...dead...for what?" Animus said silently. His mind was to overloaded with all this information.
The man in the suit just stared into the shimmering eyes of Animus, tears for the dead almost dripping from his old, tired eyes.
The man's face became unreadable, he sat there and took a deep long breath. He smiled.
"They were undergoing a...simulation, if you will, they honestly believed that earth was gone, and everyone they knew, everything they loved, was gone to the winds of the universe...we were trying to find the right person to send out into the cosmos...they all failed..." The man said solemnly. Making it look like he actually held sympathy for the people his organization drove to the breaking point of their minds. "...All that money and time wasted on regular people, we lost about 3 years of time and about 17 billion dollars. Erasing memories, deleting files, burning evidence, money,money,money...all of it to cover our failures..." Any thought of this man actually harboring a heart was destroyed. The man continued to rant.
"Ark was, in a financial sense, literally impossible to create. You think making nanobots that make an organic being immortal can be bought at best buy on Black Friday? The resources that were put into a five inch long tube could literally end world hunger 300 times over. And Ark himself, the genetic mapping...FROM SCRATCH...the preparation, the blueprints...EVERYTHING, even the concept of Ark himself was already being worked on many years before any of us were born..." The man fixed his suit a little before talking again, clearing his throat.
"...And do you want to know what that concept was...?"
The ground underneath the hooves of the ponies that were occupying the space were Ark was shook with violent intensity.
King Sole was a pony who almost never felt fear in his life, his power, his title, his confidence in himself made the concept of fear in him almost illogical...
Yet he has never felt fear like the cold vice that gripped his very heart and soul right now.
Whatever this...thing was, it was quickly producing an extreme amount of energy, The energy was almost overshadowing his power, and it was quickly escalating.
Whatever this thing was...it had to be stopped...
But how?
"...Maybe this will give you a hint?" The man in the suit took the tablet back and touched the screen a couple times...
He gave it back to Animus who was confused for a second at the picture before him...
Captain America...
"What does this have to do with any of the atrocities you and your people committed to Ark and these people, let alone an explanation to any of this?" Animus questioned. He was not in the mood for games.
"Oh it has everything to do with this little situation we have here...can you satisfy my curiosity as to...what Captain America is?" The man said, making a circular gesture to the doctor to goad him into responding.
The doctor squinted his eyes and glared at the man "forgive me if I am not current on pop culture." He said with decent amount of venom in his voice. The man laughed.
"Captain America, in the comic books, was the first successful super soldier, there is really nothing more I need to say at this point." The sleek suited man said.
The gears in Animus's head started to turn.
"Ark...was originally a...military experiment?" The man chuckled.
"It might seem cliche, but yes. It was only an idea, we didn't have the money or the intelligence to carry out this. The latter was solved when you came into the picture, the former...well that one was a game changer."
Animus guessed what solved their money problems.
"Let me guess... the sun?" Animus asked. The man clapped his hands once.
"Bingo. Money isn't really an object when it comes to the survival of the human race, the worlds governments didn't know that Ark was originally a super soldier project, so we...withheld that information. We got our money and resources, and they got the last hope for humanity...if you can even call Ark human." The man looked at Ark and so did the doctor...
Again, he was just standing there, casting a cold, emotionless stare at both of them...
With those white, empty eyes...
"What did you do to him?" Animus demanded to know. The man focused back to the doctor.
"What 'he' was originally programmed to do, follow orders of whoever 'he' is assigned to, with no emotion to hold back 'his' reasoning. 'He' is, and should have been permanently in, command mode and right now 'he' is assigned to me, a simple reading of DNA to assign 'him' to you, and another swipe of the same DNA and a termination code, to make 'him' able to receive another assignment" The man said with ease, like completely overriding the consciousness of a human being and replacing it with a mindless, emotionless drone was a daily occurrence in his life.
Animus picked up you something.
"What do you mean by 'should have been permanently in'?" The doctor asked, to his sick horror he actually found a curious thirst for knowledge in this subject.
"Ah, and that is where the game was changed Dr. Animus." The man said.
The suited man re-positioned himself on the chair to get into a more comfortable position.
"It should be pretty obvious as to why 'he' was given a conscious, you think they were just going to shoot a emotionless drone as the last hope and remnant of humanity? That is why we had to let you 'raise' 'him' into an actual human being, flaws and all, all were doing is...taking those flaws away." The man said. Trying to best explain gutting the consciousness of a person and putting back in a 'perfect' model of the human mind.
The doctor scoffed.
"So your trying to bring a bland, overused, 2-D personality as your example of humanity? Taking the flaws out of his being? That wouldn't really be a human...he'd be just a programmable consciousness." The doctor said.
"That is a measure we have to take. 'He' has to be perfect...not just to 'get in good with the locals' as people say it nowadays...but also for the survival of 'him'...and the world 'he' is on." The man said.
The doctor's eyes widened in shock as the information shook him to the core.
"You didn't...you fool...please tell me you didn't." The man sighed.
"We had to...it was the only way to actually make him 'immortal'"
The doctor wanted to throttle the man again, but he couldn't...the information was too taxing on his old body. He sat there, eyes wide open.
"...You do realize...that by trying to make him the mirror of perfection...that you gave him a flaw so great...that it could result in the destruction of another race?" The man laughs darkly.
"A sick irony if there ever was one." He said.
The monstrosity in the forest, before the eyes of the royal guards and one of the co-rulers of the land started to violently accelerate in it's energy production.
Sole could sense the impending doom of his kingdom...
His nation...
His world...
Explosions of energy started to randomly occur around Ark. Making a district sound as they violently were born.
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
*BLOW*
Celestia was more scared at this moment in time then any of her 8 year existence.
Not because of the thing violently exploding in front of her, even though that played a big factor in her fear...
It was her fathers face that scared her beyond her understanding.
The fearless King Sole, proud and strong embodiment of the sun, nothing could match his power, his bravery...
...
He was scared. The look on his face, even though it appeared neutral to an unsuspecting pony, couldn't hide from his daughter the fear he was feeling.
His legs trembled,his hair up straight,his eyes wide.
"Mages, stand thy ground and prepare to create a barrier...we have to hold this beast of when it finally...explodes." He ordered, not in the loud, traditional, Royal Canterlot Voice, but in a calm and level tone.
The mage's obeyed and came forward in a line. Their horns glowing to feebly try to create a barrier around this thing.
UNUSEIUM POWER CORE GOING CRITICAL! MUST REACH FINAL STATES OF FAIL-SAFE PROCEEDINGS!!
The doctor slammed his fist on the table, and he looked at the man he so loathed at this moment with righteous anger.
"What possessed you to use that...it was banned and made illegal throughout the entire world in a unanimous decision by the worlds governments FOR GOOD REASON." The doctor screamed to the man.
"When dealing with a situation like this, law doesn't have a place to restrict, now does it?" The man said.
"That substance was dubbed Unuseium because if made unstable, the substance could DESTROY THE WORLD. Are you insane!?" Animus said.
"And that reason is why we must make 'him' perfect." The man countered the doctors reasoning. "To stay stable throughout the whole endeavor until the A.I programmed in his mind could safely maintain and dissipate the surge of emotions that caused the suicide of our last 23458 subjects. The Unuseium, though extremely volatile, is the only thing that can perpetually run the core. It is inside 'his' body, and hard wired into 'his' brain...if 'he' were to lose 'his' will to live like the others... the unuseium would go critical...and it would destroy both Ark...and the world 'he' is on. It was the only option out there given time we had." The man stopped his speech.
"SO YOU MADE HIM INTO A LIVING,POSSIBLY PLANET DESTROYING BOMB!?" The doctor screamed.
Silence...
After his outburst Animus took a second to absorb the information that was given to him. The man continued.
"That is also why we tried to created the perfect world to bring 'him' to, that's the reason we...'persuaded' Lauren Faust to let us...tweak some of the things in her show, not anything to do with the show itself...but sort of a... subroutine, if you will." The man said.
"Subroutine-A set of instructions designed to perform a frequently used operation within a program?"" The doctor recited the definition of the word silently, too taxed by the information buzzing in his brain to speak any louder than that. The man nodded.
"We would make it so that if...or when... a human, or more specifically Ark were to come into Equestria, he would be 1000% percent more likely to be accepted and that things would always work in his favor...an 'Easy Scenario' if you will. Without him, or more specifically the A.I, the subroutine would deactivate. " He explained.
"So he could be further protected from the- wait you said A.I?" The doctor shifted priorities in the middle of his sentence, regaining some of the volume in his voice. The man smiled.
"I knew you were a sharp one, even though I already mentioned it. Yes... an A.I....but that does not stand for Artificial Intelligence, oh no..." The man stood up and walked towards Ark and pressed into the bright circle in his chest. Out popped a little chip that the man grabbed and walked towards Animus with it clutched in his cold pale hands.
Ark didn't even react...
He just stared into the wall.
With those white, empty eyes...
He put the chip on the table and a bright light soon followed, to reveal...
Animus.
Shock was the only thing that perceived in the mind of the poor doctor.
"We programmed this 'Animus Interface' to say and believe it is the program mimicking the 'father' of the Ark project." The man laughed "the biggest load of bull i've ever heard in my life."
"But...why are you telling me all this...what could you possibly gain from telling me this information?"
The man smiled, a dark smile that never meant anything good...
Something was about to happen.
"Mage's...form the barrier now...If anypony here has any regret's...I'm truly sorry." Sole said, activating his own magic.
The mages started to empty all the magic they had into creating a barrier around Ark's body, the beam stopped shooting in the air...
But then a huge explosion started to slowly envelope Ark, and the mage's all silently begged that their magic was strong enough to withhold the energy...
"Why do we tell you all this?" The man put the thumb side of his fist on his chin, looking like he was pondering on the question. The man started to laugh "oh I remember now...do you really think we would let you live after divulging this information to you?" The man nonchalantly said.
The doctor froze.
"Ark, come here..." The man said. Ark slowly walked towards the two men. The walk was slow,impending and his shoes made the distinct sound of hard sole on cold metal.
*Tho...*
*Tho...*
*Tho...*
Soon he was upon the men and he toward over both of them. The suited man stood up.
"Ark, for real this time...end this mans life...but before for you do..." The man whispered something in Ark's ear.
"Acknowledged." Ark started to turn towards the doctor and raised his buster up towards his face.
"How will you hide this from him when he has to leave?" Animus said softly. Tears running down his eyes and collecting in his beard. The man chuckled.
"Let's just say we are very good at manipulation, and leave it at that." The man said.
The buster was level with Animus's face...
"Good bye...daddy." Ark said...
With those white, empty eyes...
*BLAOW!*
The energy started to die down, the barrier strangely met no resistance.
After the energy died down completely, the only thing that could be seen was the monstrosity, injured and face down in the dirt.
It rose to it's knees, and looked at the group that witnessed the death of innocence...
And it was staring at them...
With those white, empty eyes...