//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Confrontation // Story: Redemption of an AI // by ToscoFarrax //------------------------------// Present Day Ponyville - Equestria It was a normal day on Equestria, especially ponyville. The wind moved the leaves, the ponies were in the street chatting, some of them even moving little carts filled with vegetables and other kind of things. But inside a particular tree a particular lavender mare was jumping up and down in extreme joy. “Twilight!” Said the baby dragon “Can you calm down please?!” Since Twilight read a letter that Celestia, her mentor, sent, she wouldn’t stop jumping up and down and shouting “YES! YES!” “Im sorry spike!” Said Twilight “But this is simply PERFECT!” Spike just groaned at her response, she wouldn’t even drop the note so he could read what all the commotion was about. “Well, you are going to make the neighbors think that you are making a book fortress” Said the baby dragon with a little bit of annoyance “Again…” Twilight just stopped in mid air and then she fell to the ground with a blush on her face. “Im sorry spike, but this is just incredible! Princess Celestia is inviting me to Sarabia’s ruins!” Exclaimed Twilight Silence took over the library a few seconds and then spike finally spoke “So what?” He asked tilting his head “SO WHAT?!” She Shouted a little bit angry “Spike the Sarabia Ruins are so old, that they were made even before the princesses parents were born!,” Informed Twilight “And they are thought that they were made even before their Grandfathers!” “Still, they are a bunch of rock and sand” Spike said “ nothing awesome or out of this world” “Spike! The thing that matters is the knowledge of an ancient civilization, we don’t know what they could teach us…” Twiligh said with her eyes shining looking at specifically nowhere. “But this is the important part Spike” Twilight said turning her gaze “Im going to be absent around here for days, maybe a couple of weeks, so you are the one in charge of the library while Im gone” she said with a dead serious tone “Can I trust in you Spike?” She asked Spike was astonished, he couldn’t believe what Twilight was saying. Not the fact that she would leave him alone for weeks. But that the fact that he would have those weeks for himself! “YOOHOOO!” He exclaimed jumping in the air with his arms extended Then he looked at Twilight with a confused expression and suddenly corrected himself “I mean Yes! You can count on me to look over the library!” he said Twilight had the same deadpan face that she had a while ago “Ah, common Twilight, don’t you belive in me?”He asked as he got in his knees “Plus, Im going to be with Rarity and the girls most of the time!” “About that Spike” Twilight commented looking a little bit concerned of spike’s reaction “The girls are coming with me too...” “WHAT?!” Shouted spike A couple of weeks without Twilight was okay, But weeks without Rarity?! “Common Twi!” Spike said trying to appeal to her compressive side “Im sorry spike, But Celestia specifically said that she wants all of us with her” Twilight said putting a few books on her saddle bag “But if the girls are gone, how Im going to hang out with?!” Spike asked in desperation “Well, you can hang out with Applebloom, Scootalo, and Sweetiebelle” “Really?! They are going to include me in one of their crazy adventures to get their cutiemarks!” Spike said “Well then, you can always stay at the library and read” Twilight said “However,” She said opening the door “I need to get the girls, the royal chariot is going to be here any moment now!” “B-But Twiligh!” “Good bye!” She said Spike just got up the floor and started murmuring something as he got upstairs. 100,000 years ago Ecummene Council Unknown location 2 particular beings stood around a table. 1 of them wore a full body armor, obviously being male. And the other was in normal clothes, and revealing that she was a female because of her face and body complexion “ Why did you summoned me and only me, Master Builder?” said The Female one “Librarian” The master builder said “I have unsettling news that could not be appropriate for your husband” He said “And what would those be?” Asked the Librarian “I assume that you remember Medicant Bias…” He said with a little bit of sadness “Yes, The AI with the responsibility of taking care of the flood under dire circumstances” She said Silence took over the room and then The Librarian spoke “What about it Faber?” She asked in concern “Well…” he said moving his arm to a panel “It would be better if you saw on your own” Then a hologram of a big barrier, surrounded by forerunner ships appeared, and in front of the barrier there was a massive fleet of ships, over 4 million to be exact. “The Maginot Sphere” Said the Master Builder and the Librarian at unison And then a familiar male voice that was recorded by a ship that managed to escape “What has taken you millennia to create, I erase in seconds." Said the voice Then the massive fleet started to shoot at the Maginot Sphere, obliterating the defensive ships, and the barrier at the same time “Medicant Bias has gone rampant” The Master builder said Suddenly all the crowd on the Council Chambers started to shout “And what is the cause of this disgrace?” The Librarian said turning to Faber “Our creations, especially the Artificial Intelligences are made to be functioning for milenias, In this case it was Corrupted” “And how did this happen, If may I ask?” asked the Librarian The Master Builder just moved his gaze to the hologram, and then back to the Librarian “I sent Medicant Bias to Interrogate The Captive, without the Ecumene Council approval” “The Captive?, As in the last precursor in this galaxy? “Yes, for I was curious about what he was doing helping the humans” “But now, the problem that we are facing is a greater enemy than the flood,” he said turning to the librarian “And there is only one way to stop this” The crowd started to murmur, many of them knowing what would this solution lead to. “The Halo arrays” whispered The Librarian “Yes, But with Medicant Bias in the flood’s power we cannot do much…” “I will think of a way to Create an offensive AI to hold medicant Bias off” Said the Librarian addressing to Faber “And you must accelerate the Halo arrays completion” Said Faber “What about all living beings in the galaxy? The Humans? The San ‘Shyuum? “My life workers and I will search for a way to catalogize all living things on the galaxy, and then they may reborn from the ashes and ruins of our species” The Master Builder suddenly remembered the absent member of the council “What about your husband,” he Said looking at the empty pedestal “Will he support our actions?” He asked, knowing that the Didact wouldn’t accept what the council has come to The Librarian just sighed, knowing that all of his husband crimes against the living things of the galaxy had to be stopped “I will take care of that, for now we have bigger issues to worry about she said turning to the holographic panel. Present Day Sarabia's Desert air territory “Im so excited!” Twilight was so excited, she and her friends were in a chariot on the way to Srabia to investigate ancient ruins, possibly full of wisdom. “Grah, Twilight, why did you have to bring us with you?, you know that im not in that egghead stuff” Dash groaned and complained “Now Dash, I reckon that this isn’t the most excitin’ trip, but you dont to be so rude” Said Applejack “Im sorry Rainbow Dash, but princess Celestia said that she wants all of us to be there” Explained Twilight “Aww, Come on Dashy! It going to be fun! We even may find pony mummies!” Exclaimed Pinkie pie imitating the walking of a mummy making,wich made Fluttershy shiver like a little twig being moved by a storm “M-mu-mm-mummies?” She stuttered, while hiding behind her mane. “Oh, Don’t worry darling,” Said Rarity while peting her head “Im not as smart as Twilight, but I can assure you that there are no such things as mummies” She said, in an effort to cheer Fluttershy up “By the way Rarity,” Said Twilight while looking at her clothes “Why are you not using the archaeologist outfit that the guards gave us?” She questioned Rarity seemed somewhat insulted at Twilight's statment “What?!, You expect me to use that?!” She shouted insulted, pointing at Twilight’s outfit “Geez, its not like you are going to die from it” Rainbow Dash complained rolling her eyes “Oh why you little…!” While the Applejack and Twilight were trying to calm down Rarity and Rainbow Dash, no one but Fluttershy noticed that the chariot just landed “um- Twilight- um girls- we are here, we should stop fighting and get out if you don’t mind” Fluttershy tried to say Unfortunately for her and her quite voice, no one seemed to notice until Twilight catched a glance of sand and a archeologist camp out of the window “Oh girls” Twilight said opening the door “We are here!” While all of the rest of the mane six started the get out of the chariot, just Fluttershy stayed behind, with a look in her face of wanting to cry her eyes out “Uh?” Twilight said looking behind to see Fluttershy with watery eyes “Fluttershy are you okay?” Twilight asked concerned to her friend “Im okay, its just a little bit of sand that got in my eyes” Fluttershy lied “Well, then come on, there is a lot of interesting stuff around here” Twilight said to Fluttershy, helping her to get out of the chariot The camp by itself was amazing for any kind of pony that loved knowledge, there was from strange glyphs to ancient tools, and sometimes the ponies would see a camel, obviously being the traslators And there was a particular tent that highlighted between all of the conventional tents, it was atleas 10 feet tall, with with and yellow colors, with 2 guards on the entrance, obviously it belonged to Princess Celestia Once that the mane six approached to the tent, one of the guard noded to the other one, and then the same guard entered the tent, only to come back seconds later “The princess has been waiting for your arrival, please enter” the guar said as he opened the entrance from one side so they could get in “What a gentle colt” murmured rarity, making the guard to blush slightly, not enough to bee seen, but it was there When they entered everypony on the room got impressed. From outside the tent seemed to be some 5 foot of height But from the inside it was as big as the trone room, it was filled with all sort of cushions, paintings, pastries and other kind of things Twilight was not impressed by the size of the tent, it was obviously a spell to make a confined space bigger, but what impressed her, it was the massive line of books that were in there Many of them were in Gryponian and Zebrican, but she did not care, many of them were ancient books, containing old and power full spells and other kinds of knowledge And at the very center of the room Celestia was sitting on a blue and yellow cushion “Princess Celestia!” All of the mane six said, as they bowed to her “Please rise my little ponies, this is no time for formalities” Celestia said, hinting worry in her voice “What’s wrong Princess?” Asked Twilight Celestia just looked at her side to see a crystal box with a very strange glyph, and then she returned her gaze to Twilight “Twilight, you know, that sometimes when ruins are explored, there might be very strange things awaiting to be discovered” She said “Well, yeah” Twilight answered Celestia sighed “Well, what we found was-” Celestia was cut off by Pinkie appearing out of nowhere “MUMMIES!” She shouted “EEP!” The now scared Fluttershy hid behind her mane shaking violently “Pinkie!” everyone on the room but Celestia and Flutteshy shouted “What?” Pinkie said “ I couldn’t resist it” Twilight just facehoofed at her friend’s logic “What where you saying Princess?” she asked putting herself together Celestia just chuckled at this and then she spoke “What I was saying is that after a while of excavating inside a pyramid, we started to find new and strange symbols” She said looking over the box again “Well, possibly they were Camel glyphs no?” Rarity said Celestia returned her gaze to the Mane Six “The thing is, that nopony could decipher them, not even our experts on the ancient Sarabian glyphs” She said, but this time she lifted the box and the she placed it in front of them, so they could see what it was Once she opened the box she levitated it in the air, revealing a piece of rock containg a very strange symbol It was a cyrcle, with some kind of sickle turned upwards, with 4 sticks coming out of its side and some kind of magnifying glass “What in tarnation is that?” Applejack asked pointing at the glyph “We don’t know but what we know, it is not from the ancient sarabia or any other civilization we know about” Celestia said as she started to turn the object in a 360 degree “Oh, Oh, Oh!” Pinkie Pie raised her hoof and she waved it around the air “What is it Pinkie?” Celestia asked, wanting to know what Pinkie Pie needed to say “What if that thing is ALIEN!” She said pointing at the glyph The mane six (except for Fluttershy and Twilight) just groaned in annoyance “Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said “Why on Equestria do you think of that thing be something alien?” “Actually, Rainbow Dash” Twilight said while approaching the glyph, “this may be of alien origin” “What?!” Rainbow Dash said “Pleas Twilight, don’t tell me that you belive in aliens” “This is the only logical answer that can be think of Rainbow Dash, plus”, She said, still looking at the object “I don’t think that we are the only things that exist, actually I don’t think that our planet and the sun are the only ones” Just as Celestia was going to support Twilight with her point of view, a pony came running in the tent, only to be tackled by a guard “Princess!” shouted the pony “The Archeologist, they found something outside the camp!” “Guard Realese him!” Celestia commanded The guard stood up, and the pony aswell, getting the dust off him “And What is it my little pony?” asked the concerned Princess “No body knows my princess,” He said, and then he pointed at the glyph “But it is exactly the same symbol as that one” Celestia just stood silent and then she levitated a box, a box wich contained the most powerful artifacts that Equestria had “Girls, take the elements and follow me” Celestia said, levitating the elements of harmony in front of the respective mare. Just as they finished putting on their elements, Celestia turned to the same pony that informed her of the new discovery. “Please, my little pony, would you lead us to the place you said the glyph was found?” Celestia asked with a motherly tone “Y-Yes, this way please” The pony said as he exited the room, being followed by the princess of the sun and the element of harmony “Why would the princess have the elements here?” Whispered Rainbow Dash to Twilight “Maybe she was expecting trouble with something unknown, or maybe just because we were going to be here” Twilight whispered back After some good 7 minutes of walking, Rarity finally started to complain, something that she didn’t do since they arrived “*whimper* the sun is too hot, and the san is ruining my hoofcure, not to be impatient, but are we there yet?” Rarity asked to the pony that was leading them “Actually , we are almost-” The pony was interrupted by an annoyed Rainbow Dash “Can’t you just endure some 5 minutes of walking?” She said, while still walking “Well, aside from you” Said Rarity adjusting her sun glasses “ I have an appearance to look over, not like you” “What is that supposed to mean?!” Asked the now angry Rainbow Dash turning her head to Rarity “Well what that is supposed to mean is-” Suddenly the innocent question from Rarity transformed into an argument Nopony but Celestia, the guide pony and Fluttershy noticed that they arrived to the temporal archeologist camp “Um Girls, we already- uh the princess and the pony are waiting and oh-” Said Fluttershy, when Celestia just coughed and then the argumentation finished, all of the mares looking at Celestia “If you girls are done arguing with each other” She said moving aside, revealing the camp full of archeologist moving around “we arrived” Then, Celestia and all of the ponies but Fluttershy started to walk towards the camp, murmuring things between them Fluttershy just whimpered like a puppy and soon she followed her friend and the Princess looking at the sandy ground “There it is” the pony said pointing at the center of the camp, revealing a much larger version of the glyph that they saw with Celestia, but this one was written on a strange metal Celestia looked at the pony and soon asked “Would you tell us what is that material the symbol is written in?” “About that Princess,” Said the pony “Nopony knows, and when we tried to collect a sample of the material, nothing can affect it not even magic” “Haven’t you tried with tools?” Asked Twilight “Yes we tried, but each time we tried to do it, soon or later the tool would break, including the diamond ones” Said the pony a little bit ashamed that he and his team couldn’t get a sample of the new material “So are you trying to say, is that this thing” Twilight said as she approached the glyph, or more specifically the metal it was drawn in “Is physically stronger than magic, and the strongest mineral ponykind knows of?” “Yes, but for some reason, it reacts to magic” Said the pony “Define react please” Said the Princess “We don’t know what it does, but each time a unicorn tries to use magic near it, it starts to glow blue, and it doesn’t go off until the unicorn either gets away enough, or it stops to use magic” “Mmmm interesting” Twilight hummed “I wonder if I…” Twilight said to herself while laying a hoof on the glyph Then, the glyph started to glow an intense light blue, after 3 seconds the light went off, and all of the rocks around the camp started to levitate “Whats happening?!” Fluttershy said, obviously scared “Is someone using magic on those rocks?” “No, there isn’t any magical aura around them!” Twilight answered, a little bit confused, since this rocks were floating on their own “Well, what is-” Applejack tried to say before all the rocks fell on the ground A few seconds later, the ground started to shake violently, catching all the ponies off guard, making most of them fell to the ground, and a massive hole formed up a few feet away the camp “WHATS HAPPENING!” Fluttershy screamed, at the edge of crying “I DON’T KNOW!” Twilight answered, not that most of her friend could hear her because of the commotion After a couple of seconds the ground stopped to shake violently, but it was still shaking. And a massive curtain of sand started to rose up the ground, it kept on raising, until all the camp and more area was under its shadow, out of the sand, two objects with the look of wings started to get out of the falling sand, after another seconds all the sand was gone, revealing a gargantuan being that could even possibly match a dragon and win. Its wings made him look even bigger, including the feather like objects that were somewhat always suspended at the same distance from the wings, and it had 2 slanted yellow glowing eyes And when everypony thought that they saw all of that thing, many small creatures with a glowing eye and 3 like appendages started to fly around the creature You didn’t needed to be a genius to know that this being was not from this world Before anyone could say something the creature sent a magnetic pulse, pushing everything around it , and making many tents fly away “P-Princess W-What is that thing?” The astonished Twilight tried to ask Before the speechless princess could say ‘I don’t know’ a guard commanded “Attack that thing, don’t let it harm the Princess o the elements!” Suddenly all the guards on the area started to shoot either crossbows or magic bolts at the gargantuan creature, only to be either absorbed or deflected by some kind of invisible shield “Princess, you have to get out of here or that-” The guard got interrupted as a rookie shouted “I hit one of the little things!” He screamed in joy, as a charge magic bolt hit a sentinel, it wasn’t enough to destroy it but enough to reveal its inner system Suddenly all of the sentinels stopped and turned to see the pony that shot their fellow Artificial Intelligence, one of the sentinels rushed over to repair the damage done, as the gargantuan beast lowered its head to see the responsible of shooting one of his friends Yep, you didn’t have to be a genius to know that this creature was pissed.