//------------------------------// // The Stars... // Story: The Aperture in my Heart // by matrixjorel //------------------------------// The Stars... “So, what devious scheme are you concocting now, friend?” asked the evil, if not slightly unintelligent, AI core. “We need to find a way off of this rock and back to earth,” answered the tall, slender, black mare with a cold voice The two had been sitting and plotting what they would do once they got to Equestria and what would happen. Most of this had been Nightmare Moon talking and Wheatley sitting there—not really listening, just happy to be with a friend. But this was the first time that Nightmare Moon put thought into HOW to get to Equestria. “Well, you can just teleport us there, right? Use your magic!” “I don’t have enough magic for that, Wheatley… if I did, I would have done it already!” yelled Nightmare Moon. “Sheesh, no need to be testy.” Nightmare Moon almost said something else, but she restrained herself. Even if this AI core was an idiot most of the time, he did have that spark in his…eye… that spark of evil. If she turned him away now, she could risk having to fight two battles once she returned to Equestria; one against the Princess of the Sun, and one against her ex-friend. For now, it seemed beneficial to remain “friends”; at least until she found a way to neutralize the threat he posed. “I’m sorry…buddy…”she said, adding emphasis on the last word. “Now it’s okay, I forgive you old buddy, old pal! I mean, we’re in this together, right?” “Of course we—“ “SPACE!!! It never gets old!” The Space core was still rolling around the moon. He must have gone around twice in their time here, and he just kept on going. “Wait…I’m bored.” He plopped next to the others. “Hold on… hold on a second… I GOT IT!” Wheatley jumped up in excitement. “And what is it that you have, Wheatley?” “We build a bridge!” “Come again?” “A bridge! We can dig up rocks here on the moon and make a bridge to earth, then cross it! It’s so simple! All we need is concrete… do you know how to make concrete?” “Concrete? I can’t say that I do.” “Hmm… what about a lot of chewing gum, do you know how to make chewing gum?” “Wheatley, as…good… as that plan is, I don’t think it will work. At all.” Nightmare Moon was nearly crying from the force it took to hold back saying anything that would turn Wheatley against her. But there was so much to be said to this idiot. “Oh well, worth a shot.” “Take a shot into space. Snapshot! Click.” “Will you please shut up! Where did you even come from? Nightmare Moon, you don’t want this thing here, do you?” “But he’s so funny, and a great friend!” replied Luna. “WHAT??” Wheatley’s scream startled the mare, who was silent for a second before responding; “I mean, no, I am already dealing with enough distractions as it is trying to devise a way back to Equestria. Leave us, Space core!” “Space core…space… did you know we are in space? SPACE??? I’m in space! I’ll never get tired of space!” screamed the obsessed sphere as he started to bounce around the moon again. Wheatley kept his eye on Nightmare Moon. For a second, she didn’t quite sound like herself, almost like… “Luna?” “Excuse me?” replied Nightmare Moon with a testy tone in her voice. “I thought I just heard Luna for a second…” “You heard nothing you id—I mean, Wheatley.” Try as she might to hide the truth, even someone as clueless as Wheatley had to have noticed that Luna did come out for a second. When Luna gave into the hatred she fought for millennia, Nightmare Moon was able to take over Luna and her body. But in that same way, the presence of powerful friendship weakened the evil mare’s hold, and allowed Luna to come out. The Space core was the source of this innocent, pure friendship that empowered the young, naïve alicorn named Luna. Before anything happened, he needed to be taken care of. The Space core had to go. ……………… Celestia was surprised at how few letters she received from her most prized pupil while she was gone at Ponyville. She knew that it would benefit the unicorn in many ways to develop friendships with other ponies, but for one who had never put work into socializing, Celestia knew Twilight was having difficulties. She could imagine it now; the entire town celebrating the Summer Sun Celebration, while Twilight was up in her room, reading her books and trying to drown out the sound with her hoofs covering her ears. And speaking of Summer Sun Celebration, Celestia still had a lot of things to prepare for tomorrow! She had to prepare her chariot, gather up the few guards who weren’t already gone partying for the holidays…see Luna… She knew that the prophesy predicted that Nightmare Moon would come back today. But prophecies have been wrong before. And this time, Celestia just knew it would be different. Luna must be ready to come back. After 1000 years, it had been long enough. Celestia had her royal helper Pompous Powderwig gather up her guards and ready the chariot, and she flew out into the Everfree Forest, where the powers of the Elements of Harmony still resided. Upon arriving at the Old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, she started to get chills up her spine. After so long, her sister might finally be ready to come back home. A thousand years… there was just so much to catch up on! Maybe Luna could be a guest of Celestia’s in the festival, and there be reintroduced as the second princess. Thoughts of her sister finally ruling by her side once again distracted Celestia until she found herself in the old throne room. “Wow, this place has really fallen apart.” She was right, of course. Holes in the ceiling, windows gone, vines growing all over the walls; this was what was left of the once exquisite castle that Celestia and Luna’s parents ruled from. But time for reminiscing would be later. The alicorn had to go to the moon and bring back Luna before she had to come to Ponyville to raise the sun. Calling upon the powers of the Elements, she summoned enough energy, pictured the spot on the moon she always teleported to, and vanished in a spark of light. When she opened her eyes, the Princess found herself on the dead, white rock in the sky. No matter how many times she came here to check on Luna’s progress, she could never get used to the cold, or the silence. ‘It’s about time Luna gets out of here!’ thought Celestia with a smile on her face. She took one step forward—WHAM! The majestic princess of the sun fell to the ground. “What the buck was that?” Celestia wasn’t usually one to stoop to such language, but whatever it was that hit her really hurt, not to mentioned scared her worse than she had been scared in a few centuries. She turned to looked at whatever hit her. “Space. Pony.” Celestia screamed. ……………… Hmm. Bounce around moon. See stars. That one is Betelgeuse. That’s the Orion galaxy. So shiny. I’m in space, Dad! ‘Glad to hear, son! You achieved your-space-dream. What do you want to do now?’ Bounce around in space. I go to space pony princess. She’s fun. Space. She’s a pony, and she’s in space. She’s my friend. Bounce. Star. Bounce. Star. WHAM. Wham? What hit me? Not Space. Space can’t hit, space is emptiness. Pony. Not space princess. This one white. Like supernova. Supernova: a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. “Space. Pony.” Scream. ……………… “Pardon my outburst, I just was not expecting to see… well, anyone on the moon.” “Pony on moon. Another. Small space, huh? SPACE!!!!!!!!!” Celestia couldn’t help but smile at this amusing, if not eccentric and slightly perplexing eyeball. No, it wasn’t an eyeball… but what was it? “Excuse me, but what exactly are you?” asked Celestia. The orb’s voice changed into one a little deeper and more pony-sounding than before, “I am S-151, Space AI Core of Apert—SHOOTING STAR!” The voice changed back as the ‘AI core’ started jumping up and down again at the sight of a shooting star. Celestia looked up at the sky and smiled. This AI core was so innocent, why was he here? How long had he been on the moon? Maybe he knew where Luna was! “Excuse me, Mr. Space Core? Have you perhaps seen my sister? She looks like me, but is dark blue, and—“ “You mean space princess pony space? She’s in space. COME! To space!” The AI core hopped off again, and Celestia had the feeling like he was leading her somewhere. She followed, eager to see her sister once again. ……………… Wheatley and Nightmare Moon were sitting in the crater they had been in since… how long had it been? ‘If only I had a watch,’ thought the AI core as he sat next to his friend. “So, any brilliant ideas, best friend of mine?” Nightmare sighed. “No, nothing yet. Please don’t interrupt me while I’m thinking!” “Oh, sorry about that! I’ll just go for a walk, and I’ll be back in 5 minutes. Maybe by then we’ll make a smashing idea together, and go back to Equestria, and do all sorts of havoc!” “Yes, yes, just go ahead already!” “Okay… I’ll be back in a while. I’ll miss you!” “GO!” Wheatley hopped off a little sad. “Oh no, I’m losing her again. After all this work I’ve done. All I’ve done so far was being nice. I’ve came up with ideas, even if they had some tiny… catastrophic problems, but it’s the thought that counts, right? Then again, that’s what I thought with Chell…” Wheatley stopped when he mentioned her name. The way that human so nonchalantly abandoned him, after all the things he did for her. She was the first, and only, human he ever opened up to, and she sends him here to rot away without a second thought? That’s what he got for trying to be the nice friend. Maybe that’s why he was losing Nightmare. Maybe she too was getting tired of him because all he did was try to be nice. Niceness did not make friends. He had to do something for her, something so big, she would be eternally in his debt, and he would then have her on a friendship leash, to be his friend forever, no matter what. Wheatley started looking around for something he could do to make Nightmare Moon his friend slave—or rather, his friend that would be forever in debt of him. Fate seemed to smile on the horribly confused AI core, as he saw the stupid Space core bouncing towards them with… another pony? Wheatley bounced back to the crater with Nightmare Moon. “Nightmare? Nightmare?!?!” “What is it, Wheatley?” Asked Nightmare Moon, not even trying to hide her annoyance. “There’s another pony here…” Nightmare looked up to see the white alicorn in the distance. A smile came to her muzzle. “Perfect.” ……………… Celestia couldn’t hold back her excitement anymore. Any second, she would see Luna come out from one of the craters, come running up to her, and give her a big hug. She couldn’t wait any longer. “How much farther are we?” “Space. Almost at the space spot.” “Great!” “The stars…” The voice he spoke in was very solemn suddenly; it was so different from the usual voice the royal alicorn heard, she became confused. “Sorry, what was that?” “The stars… will aid in her escape.” “Where did you hear that from?” Celestia was a little perturbed at what the AI core was saying. He continued. “On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars… will aid in her escape… and she will bring about endless night.” Celestia was now freaking out. This thing just recited the ancient prophecy word for word. What was he? The eyeball of the Space core looked at Celestia and said, “Supernova pony, you are a star. You raise sun. Sun is star. Space. You must go.” Whatever possessed the otherwise innocent AI core to say these things was persuasive enough to convince Celestia. She would come back tomorrow to check on her sister, this was too eerie. WHAM. Celestia fell down, and the first thing she thought was, “Not another one!” Before Celestia blacked out, she heard two new voices speaking; “Did you see that Nightmare? Did you see how I took her out? Aren’t you in debt to me now?” came a voice that sounded slightly metallic like the Space core. “So… sister… did you miss me?” came the second voice, a voice Celestia never wanted to hear again.