//------------------------------// // The Nightmare Continues // Story: Technicalities // by BionicBrony //------------------------------// Returning to the present time... “I may not have thought so before,” Rose conceded, “but this holiday just became much more interesting.” Twilight Sparkle and Rose continued to stare wordlessly at each other for a moment before bolting after the flying chariot. Rose ran at a constant, unhindered sprint with her lights dark and her tail flying behind her. Twilight, for her part, barely managed to keep up. Despite her best efforts, trying to keep up with something that didn’t know what it felt like to be tired wasn’t the easiest thing in all of Equestria, especially since she was wearing a long robe lined with brass bells. Glancing upwards, she couldn’t help but notice that dark clouds kept forming above the chariot, following it wherever it went.                  They arrived in the middle of town just in time to witness the chariot’s ominous passenger leap off and float to the ground. The stranger landed with a dull thud and flipped their hood off with a flick of their head. Everypony looked on at the new arrival: a tall, dark blue, horned pony with a starry, ethereal mane that flowed around a pure black crown. A perfectly timed lightning bolt arced through the air behind her. Everypony in the area immediately dropped to their knees in a deep, respectful bow, although their frightened shivering told a different story…                  “Princess Luna!” said Twilight breathlessly, moving to personally greet the princess. Spike, who was keeping low right next to her, thought differently, and pulled Twilight down with the other ponies, placing a claw over her mouth to indicate silence. She gave him a glare, but decided to stay quiet anyway. Rose, following their lead, ducked behind a nearby market stall, preferring to stay hidden and use her sensors to see what was going on behind it.                  Princess Luna advanced towards the ponies as her cloak disintegrated into a colony of bats that promptly flew away, allowing her to release her wings and expand them to their full length. Everypony could only watch as she spoke to the crowd with a booming voice.                  “CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!” A burst of static from Luna’s abnormally loud yelling caused Rose to cringe and lower the sensitivity of her microphones. Why someone would have to yell that loud to a crowd that was already dead silent was beyond her. “WE HAVE GRACED YOUR TINY VILLAGE WITH OUR PRESENCE SO THAT YOU MIGHT BEHOLD THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! A CREATURE OF NIGHTMARES NO LONGER, BUT INSTEAD, A PONY WHO DESIRES YOUR LOVE AND ADMIRATION. TOGETHER, WE SHALL CHANGE THIS DREADFUL CELEBRATION INTO A BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS FEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAST!” Luna finished her monologue by balancing on her rear legs and pointing a hoof in the air in an unnecessarily dramatic pose. Rose peeked around the market stall to make her sensors were actually accurate. Sadly, they were. She understood an Equestrian princess could make a scene and attract attention just by being present, but this was something else entirely. It was as if the “princess of the night” had never heard of the concept of subtlety. Evidently, neither did Pinkie Pie. “Did you hear that, everypony? Nightmare Moon says she’s gonna feast on us all!” Her sudden outburst caused all the foals around her to scream out in terror, sparking another stampede of fearful children with herself at the head of the pack. Princess Luna stared blankly at the fleeing ponies for a second before lowering her forelegs back to the ground. “What?” This time, her voice was an appropriate volume and her face was much more sympathetic. “No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear Us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!” Luna stomped a hoof on the ground to emphasize her point, but only caused a nearby pony to whimper from the force of the impact. Rose rolled her eyes. She knew that she wasn’t the best when it came to social interactions and making herself look pleasant, but even she understood that the princess was just plain doing it wrong. Safely behind the cover of the stall, Rose tossed a nearby pebble at Twilight, hitting her square on the side and attracting the mare’s attention. She beckoned her over with a simple hand gesture, illuminating her arm temporarily to make sure Twilight saw it. Twilight shuffled her way over; a thankfully short distance. “Yes?” “What is she doing?” Rose hissed. They both glanced back to see Luna pointing a hoof at various ponies. “This is the ‘nightmare’ that everyone is so afraid of?” “Technically, yes, but–” “Very well, then! Be that way!” Luna quipped, interrupting Twilight’s thought. “We won’t even bother with the traditional royal farewell!” The princess promptly walked off after speaking in a tone that was half entitled, half heartbroken. They all stared after her for a moment before everypony shakily got to their hooves, now that the coast was clear. Twilight stared in the direction Luna had gone in and sighed to herself. “I’m gonna go talk to her.” Spike immediately stepped in front of Twilight and blocked her path. “You can’t talk to her! She’s Nightmare Moon!” Twilight pushed him aside with a hoof and spoke to him calmly. “No she’s not. I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good. But it seems like she’s having some trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years… “And I thought I had social problems,” Rose commented. Twilight turned to her with a smile. “Want to come with me? I know you’re not the best at this sort of thing, but I think it would do you some good, too.” Rose looked slightly taken aback by the question. She glanced at Spike, then back to Twilight. Weighing her choices, her neutral expression dropped into a frown. “Might as well…” “Don’t do it!” Spike protested, holding his claws up. “You’re really smart, Rose; can’t you see that she’ll gobble you up too?” Rose re-illuminated herself and glared down at the young dragon with bright red eyes. “I’d certainly like to see a herbivore eat titanium without any issues.” Spike quickly stepped aside and stared after the unicorn and Liandri as they walked off in search of Princess Luna. After everything that happened up to this point, he couldn’t quite tell who was scarier.     Twilight kept her eyes open as they followed the path that Luna would have most likely taken. Rose, with her almost GPS-like sense of direction, couldn’t help but notice that Twilight was leading her right back to the statue of Nightmare Moon.                  Rose tapped on Twilight’s shoulder and pointed at the statue when it came into view. There, sitting in front of the monument, was Princess Luna, who had her head lowered in silent meditation.                 “Princess Luna?” Twilight called out. Luna’s head immediately snapped up and turned to face to the duo. “Hi, my name is–”                  “Starswirl the Bearded,” Luna finished for her, standing up. “Commendable costume. Thou even got the bells right.”                  “Thank you! Finally! Somepony who gets my costume!” Twilight’s excitement died away when she refocused herself on Luna, who was glancing curiously at Rose. With the Liandri lit up the way she was, it would have been difficult to not notice her. Twilight cleared her throat. “Princess, this is Rose. She’s a friend of mine.”                  “Rose…” Luna repeated. “An interesting name. Is it short for Rose Mary?”                  Rose frowned. “No, and your sister made a similar mistake.”                  Luna quirked a brow. “Thou possess an interesting voice and stature. Tell Us, since thou are not a pony, what species are you?”                  Rose crossed her arms with a smirk. “I am the town’s resident AI, currently occupying a humanoid platform.”                  “Thou art what?” Luna blinked at her.                  “An Artificial Intelligence?” Rose followed up, raising a brow.                  Luna still seemed confused.                  Twilight cleared her throat. “Rose, AIs are a relatively new concept in Equestria. Only a few decades old, really…”                  “Oh… Then let’s just say I’m new here and leave it at that.”                  “We… Uh, see…” Luna hesitantly turned to Twilight. “Tell us, Twilight Sparkle, why hast thou followed Us here?”                  Twilight immediately perked up. “Oh! You remember my name!”                  “But of course!” Luna flapped her wings and began hovering in the air. A wind storm suddenly blew in and dark clouds began covering the sky. “IT WAS THOU WHO UNLEASHED THE POWERS OF HARMONY UPON US AND TOOK AWAY OUR DARK POWERS!”                  All three of them shortly regained their proper footing, although Rose was getting increasingly annoyed with Luna’s ridiculous behavior. “Was that really necessary?”                  “Was what necessary?” Luna asked.                  “The yelling!” Rose said irritably. “We were standing right here! We could have heard that from all the way back there! That amount of noise was completely unnecessary!”                  Luna frowned at Rose. “But this is the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice! It is tradition to speak using the royal ‘We’ and to use THIS MUCH VOLUME WHEN ADDRESSING OUR SUBJECTS!”                  Rose readjusted her microphones yet again. It annoyed her to no end that she had to keep lowering the sensitivity so that she wouldn’t get static from Luna’s yelling and also have raise it back up just to be able to hear normally again.                  Naturally, she wasn’t afraid to show her disapproval. “Just because you’ve always done something a certain way, doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly stupid.”                  Luna gaped at her and barked back. “ARE THOU CALLING OUR TRADITIONS STUPID?!”                  “That’s enough! Both of you!” Twilight got between them before the conversation could get any more heated. She glared at the AI. “Rose, that was really tactless. I can understand if Luna’s way of speaking bothers you, but that was no reason to behave like that. You should apologize.”                  “Why should I? Do you have any idea what she does to my hearing when she does that?”                  “No, but that was incredibly rude and you should never talk to somepony like that, no matter who they are. Go on, apologize.”                  Rose glared daggers at Twilight for several seconds. The unicorn could almost see the processors in her friend’s head working out what to do. Rose’s face suddenly shifted to a completely neutral expression and she looked at Luna. “My apologies,” she said with equally pure neutrality.                  “Thou would do well to pay more respect towards royal traditions,” said Luna, narrowing her eyes at Rose.                  “Actually…” Twilight paused for a moment, choosing her words carefully. “Princess Luna, Rose kind of had a point…”                  Luna swiveled her head towards Twilight and looked at her curiously. Were it not for the respect she already had towards her savior, her reaction would have most likely been very different, but she decided to hear her opinion anyway.                  Seeing that Luna seemed to be willing to hear her out, Twilight continued. “You see, we couldn’t help but notice that your appearance was met with, er… mixed results. We sincerely think that if you changed your approach just a bit, you might be met with a warmer reception.”                  “CHANGE OUR APPROACH?”                  Twilight recovered from the sudden burst of sound and wind with a modest smile, secretly thankful that Rose stayed quiet. “Lower the volume?”                  “Oh…” said Luna, thinking that the humanoid among them probably had a point after all, despite the mocking of traditions. “We have been locked away for a thousand years. We are… not sure We can…”                  “That’s why we want to help you, Princess!” Twilight said with a smile. “Right, Rose?”                  Rose looked at Twilight for a brief moment before turning back to Luna and nodding once.                 Luna eyed Rose. “We are not sure just how well intentioned thou are with this matter…”                  “My previous statements may have been crude, but they were meant to point out an obvious flaw that could be fixed in order to help you,” Rose explained in a partially monotone voice. “I meant no offense they may have caused.”                  Twilight doubted the truth behind that last part, but decided it was best to ignore it. Instead, she simply smiled and kept their momentum going. “Exactly! And I know just where to go to start getting you used to modern pony society!”                      “I still don’t quite see why we need to ask Fluttershy for help with this,” said Rose as the three of them walked towards the aforementioned pony’s cottage just outside of town. “Speaking quietly isn’t exactly something exclusive to her.”                  “True, but she’s a shining example for the Princess. She’s delicate and demure with the sweetest little voice! If there’s anypony she can learn from and use as an example, it’s Fluttershy.”                  Twilight knocked on the cottage door three times.                  “GO AWAY! NO CANDY HERE! VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!”                  They all blinked in response to the panicked yelling from behind the door, except for Rose, who never blinked once all night. She still looked surprised nonetheless. “Wow. In all honesty, I can’t say I ever would have expected that.”                  Twilight chuckled nervously. “Fluttershy? It’s me, Twilight!”                  The cottage door opened ever so slightly to reveal the pegasus herself. “It is you…” She opened the door a bit more. “…and one of Alex’s robots…” She opened it all the way. “Oh, and Nightmare Moon.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened when her brain registered what she was seeing. “Nightmare Moon!” With a shriek, she slammed her door shut again.                  Rose frowned and crossed her arms. “Frankly, I prefer the term ‘cybernetic…’”                  Twilight gave the other two another nervous laugh. “Wait right here…” Before another word would could be said, she promptly entered Fluttershy’s home, closing the door behind her.                  The two individuals waiting outside heard all manner of activity coming from inside the house. Everything ranging from scuffling around, to pans clattering, and even various animal noises. Whatever was going on in there didn’t exactly sound pleasant.                  Rose peered at Luna idly, thinking that now would be an appropriate time for so called ‘small talk.’ “So… the weather seems nice.”                  “Indeed,” Luna replied while looking up. “The pegasi have done an excellent job tonight.”                  The cottage door opened abruptly with Twilight pushing a reluctant Fluttershy out of her own door. “Fluttershy… You remember Princess Luna?”                  Luna extended a hoof. “CHARMED.”                  Fluttershy quickly bolted around Twilight and back into her house. The unicorn quickly caught her with her magic and brought her back out to face the Princess. She put on her best fake smile and spoke in a slightly more timid manner than she usually did. “Likewise…”                  Suddenly, a small white blur of movement caught Rose’s attention and she started to ignore what was going on with the ponies. What they were doing wasn’t terribly important to her, anyway. Instead, her eyes zeroed in on where she saw the blur: the cottage window.                  “TWILIGHT SPARKLE HAS—” Rose lowered the sensitivity of her microphones enough so that Luna’s yelling was practically muted. She slowly walked over to the window and looked inside, her eyes almost acting like search lights as their red glow cut through the darkness. From what Rose could see from her vantage point, it was a humble abode. Plenty of supplies for taking care of various animals were present, as well as regular furniture – exactly what would be expected from Fluttershy. Rose narrowed her eyes and focused her sensors, trying to pick up any possible hint of movement inside the home, as her usual method of detection wouldn’t work through solid objects. “I know you’re in there.” Rose adjusted the volume and direction of her sound waves so that they would be aimed directly at the window, effectively masking her words from the other three ponies some distance away. “You can’t hide from me forever, rabbit… Angel.” Rose kept scanning for any sort of movement while ignoring whatever shenanigans seemed to be going on just a short distance away. Not finding anything, she concluded her target must have known she was looking for him and was standing completely still in response. It was, in the end, the only way he could avoid being detected. After a while, she noticed that one of the ponies – Twilight – was walking towards her. She looked over at her and reset her microphones. “Yes?” “Rose, is everything alright?” asked Twilight. “Perfectly. Are we ready to–” Rose’s words were cut off. “Fluttershy! You’ve gotta hide us! Nightmare Moon is here, and–” Pinkie Pie, who was walking up to the cottage with the children who previously ran away with her, squawked in terror upon seeing that Princess Luna was holding Fluttershy in some vague attempt at a hug. The pegasus herself, for whatever reason, looked dumbed out of her mind and half passed out. “She’s stolen Fluttershy’s voice so she can’t scream when she gobbles her uuuup!” As was the trend that night, Pinkie caused another loud scream from the children followed by a stampede as they all ran back in the direction they came from. Luna immediately dropped Fluttershy and called after them. “NAY, CHILDREN, WAIT!” The Princess silently gasped upon realizing her mistake. “I mean… nay, children, wait!” But they were already gone. Luna splayed her ears back and pouted in utter disappointment. Rose looked between them all in confusion before bringing a hand to her forehead. “I turn around for one minute and this happens.” Twilight brought her hanging jaw back to where it should be. “I’ll admit… that could have gone better…” She turned to Luna with a hopeful smile. “Come on, Princess! Time for plan B!” “I do hope plan B doesn’t involve terrorizing someone.” Rose looked back at Fluttershy, who was still dazed and lying on the ground. “Fluttershy looks like she’s gotten more than her fair share.” Twilight followed her gaze. “Oh, right… I’ll just go lay her down inside.” As the trio walked away from Fluttershy’s cottage back to Ponyville, movement could be seen in the window Rose had been looking in earlier. A furry little head poked out, checking to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that it was, Angel slumped down next to the window and let out a breath. Hugging the wall next to the window wasn’t the most stress free hiding spot.                    Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, and Rose marched back into Ponyville as if it were any other day. Although Luna carried a dour look with her.                  All around them, ponies were going about their usual holiday activities. Dancing by the stage, bobbing for apples, and some were even launching pumpkins at static targets with overly simplified catapults. At least, that was Rose’s opinion on them. There was laughter from friendly conversations, cheering from smashing the pumpkins, and overall merriment everywhere.                  And then it all went downhill.                  A single disguised mare spotted Luna and let out a yelp, quickly following up by dropping to the ground and covering her head with her forelegs. Nearly all activity in the area died as other ponies took notice and quickly followed suit, curling up in fright.                  “Twilight, I hope this plan B of yours works,” said Rose. “If it doesn’t, this may be much more difficult than we thought.”                  “We appreciate thy concern,” said Luna, who sounded more than little disappointed, “but it is of no use. They have never liked Us… and they never shall…”                  “Cheer up, Princess!” said Twilight, decidedly immune to everypony’s negativity. “My friend Applejack is one of the most likeable ponies around. If anypony can help you fit in, it’s her.”                  The three of them traveled through town using “less obvious routes” towards the apple bobbing spot Applejack told Twilight about earlier. Bobbing for apples was one of the longest lasting traditions for Nightmare Night, and, unsurprisingly, the Apple family was in charge of co-ordinating it and everything else that was apple related. It wasn’t a terribly stressful job since all Applejack really had to do was supply the apples from her farm and make sure nopony got hurt. Unfortunately, she couldn’t leave things unattended for very long because of her responsibilities, so going around with her friends wasn’t really an option. She didn’t mind, though, since they usually came to her instead.                  “Whoa, careful there, partner!” said Applejack, who was dressed as a scarecrow, as she caught a small colt who almost fell into the tub filled with bobbing apples. She gently lowered him to the ground and he hopped off with a thankful wave. Satisfied with another problem averted, Applejack turned to welcome any pony who may want to help themselves to some apples.                  Who she found was Twilight, who was eagerly smiling at her. “Oh, heya, Twilight! Say, that’s a nice cost–” She suddenly yelped and dropped down upon seeing who was next to her friend. Luna shared a look with Twilight, and then Rose. The latter of whom simply shrugged.                  “Uhh, Applejack?” Twilight lowered herself closer to her fright-induced-shivering friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t come by earlier, but Princess Luna is looking for a little advice on how to fit in around here.”                  Applejack stopped her shivering as she processed the words and looked at her friend with incredulity. “Fit in? Really?” Twilight gave her the death stare and she immediately shot to her hooves. “Uh, I mean – That’s easy! All ya gotta do is have the right attitude! Loosen up a bit; Be positive; Play a few games; Have some fun!”                  “Fun…?” Luna repeated. “What is this ‘fun’ thou speak’est of?”                  Rose held up a hand. “Hold on a moment. You don’t know what the concept of fun is?”                  Luna shook her head genuinely.                  “Are you serious? I don’t interact very much with others, I will admit that, but even I know what fun is.”                  “To be fair, Rose, your idea of fun is pretty different from everypony else’s,” said Twilight. After all, she couldn’t help but notice how Rose enjoyed scaring Spike. I need to talk to her about that at one point…                  Rose looked at her for a second and nodded. “I will concede the point.”                  “Well then, Princess, allow me to point ya in the right direction!” Applejack brought Luna over to a nearby bowl of fake spiders. Some distance away was a giant spider web that was suspended between two poles.                  Luna eyed the spiders suspiciously. “Pray tell, what purpose do these serve?”                  “It’s real simple.” Applejack came over, picked up a spider in her hoof, and gave it to Luna. “All ya gotta do is toss the spiders as close to the middle of that web over there as ya can.”                  Rose walked up next to them. “Really? Is that all? And you consider that fun? That hardly seems challenging.”                  “It’s not as easy as it looks,” said Twilight. “Trying to get them in the center is actually pretty tough!”                  Taking that as her cue, Luna bent back tossed the spider in her hoof towards the net… Only for it to fall short. Very short, in fact.                  “Come now, I’m sure you can do better than that,” Rose goaded.                  Luna glared at Rose for a second and picked up another spider. With a newly invigorated look, she launched the spider. This time, her aim was true, and the spider stuck itself to the net, dead center. Almost immediately, Luna’s face lit up. “Ha! We did it!” She turned to Rose with a smug look. “Let’s see thou try to do that!”                  Rose gave her a challenging smirk and held out her hand. “Give me a spider.” Luna levitated one and dumped it in the Liandri’s outstretched fingers, which snapped closed. Rose kept her optics locked on Luna’s eyes, deciding to use her other sensors to gauge the distance between her and the web. She quickly tossed up and caught the spider to better judge its weight. Still looking at Luna, Rose slowly brought her throwing arm across her chest and then suddenly whipped it towards the web.                  The spider flew with a much greater velocity than Luna had thrown it. It landed square on Luna’s spider with enough force to flex the web and, like a rubber band, caused it to slingshot both spiders back and onto the ground.                  Luna stared at the spiders for a moment and turned back to Rose, whose gaze had never left her, and smiled. “That was well played, and might We add… enjoyable!” She turned to Twilight and Applejack. “Is this the fun that thou have spoken of?” They nodded with returned smiles. “Interesting… In what other ways may we experience it?”                  Applejack pointed with a hoof. “Right this way, princess!” The three of them started following her, as well as a small crowd of ponies that had seen them play the spider game.                  Twilight walked up alongside Rose as they followed Applejack. “That was pretty impressive, Rose! How did you manage to do that?”                  “Do what?”                  “The spider toss! You did it perfectly without even looking at where you were throwing. I don’t know anypony else who could do that.”                  “Why shouldn’t I be able to do that? It’s not that difficult to do. It’s simply kinematics with air resistance taken into account. I also factored in force and angle of the throw, weight of the spider, power of the motors in the arm, etcetera. Although most of it is allocated to subsystems.”                  “Wait a minute…” Twilight furrowed her brown in thought. “You calculated all that? Just to toss a rubber spider?”                  “Of course,” Rose responded plainly.                  “But why? That seems like a lot of effort for a friendly game with no real consequences. I mean sure, you wanted to do just as well as Luna, but to do all that for something so… natural…?”                  Rose tilted her head and gave her a questioning look. “What do you mean? It is natural. It’s a requirement for all movement. Limbs do not move themselves.”                  “But– Wait…” Twilight halted in her tracks. Required for movement… subsystems… subconscious, maybe…? She thought long and hard, but eventually, realization crept across her face. Oh! I think I understand now! It’s either all or nothing! She doesn’t do the all those calculations for limb movements because she wants to, but because she has to. It’s the only way she can actually move! That makes advanced movements easier for her, but basic ones are just as difficult as a consequence…                  Suddenly, a previous conversation she had with Alex about the Liandri a few weeks ago made much more sense to her.                  I had this math teacher a long time ago who taught me a very important lesson about computers: they only do exactly what you tell them to. If it does something wrong, or something you didn’t want it to do, that’s because you told it to do that wrong thing and you were just being stupid about it. Because they’re machines, a similar principle can be applied to the Liandri, too. If you tell them to do something, and it’s within their ability, they will do it. Unless they’re physically damaged, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t be able to. They don’t half-ass, either. We try to accomplish things, they don’t. They always do their very best, and can’t do anything less.                  Twilight trotted back to everypony else with a grin, feeling incredibly proud of herself for figuring out not only a key aspect of the Liandri’s behavior, but Rose’s as well. Rose… Her grin suddenly faded. But Rose is more than just a machine or computer…                  The AI in question looked at Twilight as they all stopped near the catapults they had seen earlier. “You seemed pre-occupied. Something the matter?”                  “No, I was just thinking about something…” Twilight mulled over her words for a moment as Applejack was showing Princess Luna how to operate one of the pumpkin siege weapons. “Hey, Rose, could I ask you something personal?”                  Rose perked a brow in response. It wasn’t very often she got a question like that. “Yes?”                  “Have you… ever thought about the way you think?”                  “What kind of question is that?” Rose deadpanned.                  “Sorry!” Twilight defended. “What I meant, was… Do you feel bored all the time?”                  Rose stared at her for a moment, raising a brow. “You’ll have to elaborate.”                  “Well… From what I understand, every one of your body movements is precise and calculated up to the point that you can do things like the spider toss perfectly. I’m assuming this is just second nature to you, but don’t you ever get bored of that? Having no physical challenges?”                  Rose continued to stare at Twilight with a blank expression, but didn’t say anything, allowing the unicorn to continue. “I mean, the reason why it’s fun is because it’s difficult to do perfectly, at least for us. So when we do manage to do it, it feels very rewarding. But if you can do it perfectly on a whim, then… do you even know what that feels like to overcome a challenge like that?”                  Their one-sided conversation was suddenly cut short by the sound of a splattering pumpkin and an excited princess. “Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!”                  Twilight’s attention was torn away from Rose to look at Luna. A group of ponies was cheering for her, and for the first time since arriving in Ponyville, the princess looked genuinely happy. Twilight couldn’t help but smile along with them.                  It suddenly crossed her mind that she hadn’t gotten a response from Rose yet. She turned back to where the AI was supposed to be standing only to see she wasn’t there. “Rose?” Twilight looked around and her eyes eventually settled on the glowing red figure that was her cybernetic friend. For some reason, she was over by the spider toss game they just left. Whoa… she’s quick…                  Rose’s eyes bathed the rubber spider in her hand with a faint red glow. Can a true sense of accomplishment really be extracted from something as mundane as this? For the first time in a long time, she found herself not thinking about core energy manipulation, Tarydium refinement, fluid dynamics, or the fundamental components and requirements of BCIs, but about herself. Or rather, herself in comparison to them; the organics.                  Rose gauged her distance from the web and cocked her arm back, ready to throw the spider. Everything was calibrated and the prop’s trajectory was as clear as day to her. I’ll be on target. I know I’ll be on target. How could this be fun if I know I’ll succeed? Perhaps if I… No, then I’ll clearly miss… What’s the point of the exercise if I don’t try to do well? Rose disengaged her arm and stared at the spider again.                  The fact of the matter was that Rose did exactly what ponies or humans would do when throwing something. They would weigh the object, then approximate how hard to throw it and in what way. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Rose, on the other hand, didn’t approximate. She had actual numbers. Numbers that not only made tossing a spider on a web trivial, but were necessary for even the most basic of movements.                  Rose frowned inwardly at the fake arachnid, but her physical face remained neutral. Figuring it was just a waste of time at this point, she shook her head and turned to leave. This is ridiculous. As she started walking back to where she had previously abandoned the others, she chucked the rubber spider over her shoulder. It landed squarely in the bowl with the others.                  She only took a single step before finding herself face to face with Twilight. “Hey, what were you doing back here?”                  Rose walked past her nonchalantly. “A thought experiment.”                  Twilight followed her with a smile. “I like experiments, thought or otherwise. Care to let me in on some of the details?”                  “No,” Rose responded simply.                  Twilight had a feeling she’d say that, but she kept her smile anyway. She was able to hazard enough of a guess based on what they were talking about before Rose disappeared. In her experience, the AI was always reluctant to show anything she thought was a weakness, so it didn’t surprise her that she didn’t want to talk about it. But that only meant that her guess was probably right.                  “How is Luna doing?” Rose continued, obviously changing the subject.                  “Great!” Twilight answered. “Better than great, actually. Ponies seem to be really–”                  “Hey, gals!” Pinkie Pie seemingly appeared out of nowhere, as was her usual habit. “Anypony seen Pip? We lost him last time we had to run from–”                  “No!” Rose interrupted her with wide eyes, holding her arms up in front of Pinkie. If previous events were any indicator, then Pinkie’s sudden appearance meant she was going incite another Luna scare, and starting over was not an option at this point. “We haven’t seen the child!” Rose quickly turned to Twilight and hissed in her ear. “Where’s Luna?”                  Twilight quickly looked around, fully aware of Rose’s urgency. “I don’t know! Last time I saw her, she was headed over to the–”                  A startled squawk cut her off again. “Gah! Nightmare Moon is gobbling Pip-Squeak! Everypony ruuuun!”                  Rose immediately looked up and zeroed in on where Pinkie was pointing. Luna was holding Pip-Squeak by a piece of clothing over one of the apple-bobbing bins with her mouth, looking at them with her own startled eyes. A single thought looped through Twilight’s and Rose’s heads: Oh no…                  Luna dropped Pip-Squeak, who promptly ran off with little hops. “Heeeeelp! My backside’s been gobbled!”                  “Tis a lie!” Luna yelled after him, getting progressively more annoyed. “Thy backside is whole and ungobbled thou ungrateful whelp!” She accentuated her point by smashing her hoof into the ground while baring her teeth. Lightning arced behind her as well, something that even made Rose uncomfortable.                  Naturally, the display didn’t go unnoticed by ponies around her as they all started to back up slowly. Luna brought a hoof up to her mouth upon realizing she had probably gone much too far.                  “Come on, we have to do something.” Rose stepped towards Luna direction, but was held back by Twilight’s magic grabbing her hand.                  “No!” she whispered loudly. “She has to do this on her own! It’s the only way she can get ponies to fully trust her!”                  Rose gave Twilight her best “you can’t be serious serious?” face in response, but kept quiet.                  “Fair villagers,” Luna started, walking slowly towards her audience. “Please do not back away! Let us join together in… fun!” She gave them all an awkward smile.                  “Now?”                  “Give her a chance…”                  Feeling the anxiety starting to build, Luna glanced around quickly and noticed a rubber spider sitting by her hooves. Completely unsure of what to do, she picked up the spider with her teeth and tossed it at the hooves of the slowly retreating ponies with her own, hoping the fun would translate over. The ponies, however, only looked on in confused silence. Twilight and Rose shared their own confused looks.                 Luna’s eye suddenly twitched. Just a moment ago, they were all having fun alongside her; throwing spiders and launching pumpkins. Now they dared to ignore her attempts at merriment? “Not enough fun for you? What say you to this?!” Luna’s horn lit up and launched a bolt of magic at the rubber spider. A ball of light enveloped it for a brief moment and disappeared in a flash, a larger and, more importantly, live spider taking its place.                  Almost as soon as it began moving of its own volition, the ponies closest to it let our bloodcurdling screams. It didn’t stop there, though, as Luna shot another bolt of magic at a nearby bowl of fake spiders, bringing them to life as well.                  And then chaos.                  Twilight’s jaw practically hit the floor as the spiders started crawling on top of everything and everypony. Ponies started screaming and running left and right, Luna yelled something about receiving points, and Rose promptly stepped on one of the mobile arachnids, twisting it with her steel-toed foot for good measure.                  “Everybody, just calm down!” Rose yelled over the panic. Nopony listened to her, however. Even Luna’s commands for calm went unheeded. Rose’s head zipped around, using her optics to help her other sensors take in as much information as she could. Everywhere she looked, ponies were running blindly, both into each other and inanimate objects, knocking things over, causing accidental property damage… Her processors worked overtime to figure out a solution, to determine how to get them all to just simply calm down.                  There’s too many variables, too much going on; too many individuals acting irrationally and spontaneously. We don’t have any means of pacifying a crowd like this!                  “BE STILL!” Luna’s voice boomed outward, even more loudly than usual. Its effects reverberated throughout the town, almost as if a bomb had gone off and shook the foundation of every nearby building.                  Rose instantly turned towards the princess with a scowl, but quickly reset her expression upon noticing what else the princess had done.                  Everypony stopped moving and was back to hugging the ground.                  Interesting… Rose remarked to herself.                  “Princess, remember! Watch the screaming!” Twilight urged Luna.                  Luna whipped around to face Twilight and stared directly at her with pure white eyes that possessed a light glow. “NO, TWILIGHT SPARKLE! WE MUST USE THE TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE FOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO SAY.”                  Twilight took a tentative step back as the threat behind Luna’s tone sat in her gut.                  The Lunar princess turned towards the rest of the crowd and started flapping her wings, slowly raising herself skyward. Wind began whipping around them and thunderous clouds started circulating above her in an incredible display of raw power. “SINCE YOU CHOOSE TO FEAR YOUR PRINCESS RATHER THAN LOVE HER – AND DISHONOR HER WITH THIS INSULTING CELEBRATION – WE DECREE THAT NIGHTMARE NIGHT SHALL BE CANCELED! FOREVER!”                  It took a moment for her words to fully sink in, but once they did, a pit formed in the stomach of everypony listening. Although by that point, Luna had already flown off. The thought that one of Equestria’s favorite holidays was now permanently canceled because of their own actions left them feeling nauseous.                 Rose, on the other hand, remained completely unfazed, and continued to stare after Luna. Perhaps not intervening was for the best after all. Now I won’t ever have to deal with this insipid excuse of a holiday ever again. I least I discovered something potentially valuable.                  Suddenly, her microphones registered a foreign sound. For once, what Rose was hearing was completely unfamiliar to her. She had no idea what could have been causing it, or for what reason. She oriented her head towards its source and discovered it for what it was: a filly.                  And she was crying.                  Rose continued to stare at the strange sight until another young pony started doing something similar. And then another. And then another. Her gaze hovered over them all as parents did their best to comfort their children, despite the gloomy looks they themselves wore.                  Applejack and Twilight walked up next to Rose, surveying the scene for themselves.                  “Aw, shoot…” Applejack said dejectedly. “We had everythin’ goin’ our way… Luna was happy, everypony in town was happy… Now look at ‘em…”                  Rose wasn’t sure what to make of it all. All around them, ponies, both young and old, expressed their grief. The young ones wailed while their parents did their best to ease them, all while trying to hide their own disappointment. To see them all like this was… unpleasant. The noise was annoying, to be sure, but there was more to it than that. Something else. This… This is a problem…                  Applejack kicked at the dirt. “Hay, if I never left the bobbin’ bins, this probably never would’ve happened…”                  Her words jumpstarted Rose’s thoughts. Not about “what if,” since that never mattered, but about “what now.” There must be a solution to this… Her optics soon settled on far off a building, one of the more popular establishments in town, as she understood it. Sugarcube Corner.                  Electrons fired off. Currents of electricity flowed through gates, sensors, and circuits. A seemingly infinite number of these electrical streams worked in complete harmony with each other, processing information at the speed of light through a device of virtually unrivaled complexity. Within a second, Rose had her solution.                  And it all started with a single mare.                  “It’s not over yet,” Rose said with absolute conviction. She turned towards her faux-bearded companion. “Twilight, I need you go get Luna and bring her over to the bakery as soon as possible, understand?”                  Twilight blinked at her. “What? I- uh, yes, but–”                  “Good! She went that way!” Rose quickly pointed in the direction she saw Luna fly in, and, without wasting another second, started sprinting off in her own direction.                  “Rose, wait!” Twilight called after her. “What are you doing?”                  Rose stopped dead in her tracks and looked back over at them. “I’m fixing this!”                  “Whoa, hold on,” Applejack yelled back. “What should Ah do?”                  “Don’t get in the way!” With that, Rose was off again like a bullet.                  Applejack gaped at the Liandri as she disappeared behind a building. After a brief moment, she turned to her friend, looking highly unamused.                  Twilight chuckled nervously. “She’s trying – honest.”                  “Ah ain’t gettin’ the impression…” Applejack deadpanned.                      A set of blue eyes poked above the edge of a box, followed by a pair of bright pink hooves. The rest of the chicken-feathered head came up next, looking around frantically. Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure how, but she somehow managed to lose track of all the ponies that ran away with her last time, now suddenly finding herself alone. She wasn’t sure just how long she had been hiding.                  Clambering out of the box, Pinkie Pie continued looking around. Somehow, she fled all the way across town to her place of work and less-than-humble home that was Sugarcube Corner. The sight of the familiar, sugary sweet building helped ease her. It had been a really scary night, after all!                  Pinkie looked away for a moment, but then did a double take back to the bakery. Something was off. The shutters and blinds on all the windows were closed, which was normal after closing time. But one thing was out of place.                  The lights were on.                  That’s weird… Pinkie thought. The Cakes shouldn’t be back yet, it’s still way too early… Did somepony forget to turn the light off when they left?                 Pinkie slowly approached the building with an air of skepticism. Everything was closed up, but light was definitely coming through the little gaps that weren’t perfectly covered up. Now what silly could have left it–                  Her eye suddenly caught something out of the corner of her vision.                  A piece of candy, lying on the ground.                  Pinkie stared at it for about a second and a third before her face lit up with joy. Completely forgetting about her previous concerns, Pinkie Pie chicken-walked her way over to the piece of candy and gobbled it up with quick pecks. As she was happily chewing on it, she immediately noticed another piece of candy.                  Letting the more base part of her brain take over, Pinkie followed a trail of candy that led around the back of Sugarcube corner, eagerly sucking up each piece. She kept going even after the trail led through the open back door of the bakery. She completely ignored that the door was open to begin with, as well as the fact that the lights were turned on as well.                  She ate the candy trail all the way up to a large bowl sitting on a counter. Pinkie’s heart leapt with joy as she reared up to look inside the bowl at what was surely going to be one of the bestest, tastiest, most amazingly fantastic–                  The bowl was empty.                  Pinkie’s jaw dropped. The bowl that was expected to be filled to the brim with delicious candy was, in reality, completely empty save for a single piece of paper. Pinkie Pie squinted at it. The paper seemed to be an extremely wordy letter with incredibly neat hoofwriting that was addressed to… Her?                  Out of sheer curiosity, Pinkie Pie began reading the letter aloud to herself. However, she was completely oblivious of the fact that a figure silently dropped down from the roof of the building and into the doorway behind her. She still didn’t notice when said door closed just as quietly behind it. Although she did notice parts of her body start to twitch uncontrollably, and she definitely noticed when the room suddenly went dark.                  Before she had a chance to react, Pinkie felt herself get tackled by something really, really hard.