PONY Legacy

by RBDash47

01 Startup

Rainbow Dash careened through the dark woods, illuminated only by distant starlight, her hooves pounding the tight-packed earth. Ahead, at the edge of sight, a shape whipped around a tree and disappeared. She poured on speed and rounded the tree, and caught a glimpse of red ribbon and blonde tail before it vanished into the underbrush, drawling laughter floating in its wake.

Dash growled in frustration and redoubled her efforts, sweat coursing through her coat, the salty wetness burning in the cuts and scrapes she accumulated with each new plunge through thicket and shrub. That taunting laughter mingled with her quarry’s hooves striking the ground. She hated it.

Right when she finally felt herself gaining, closing the gap, something shifted: The laughter’s cadence and pitch changed, lilting higher, and Dash burst through the undergrowth just in time to see a streak of pink before she was in the air, catapulting forward, watching the ground spin beneath her as she tumbled. She landed flat on her back, air leaving her lungs in a great lurch of breath, wings splayed out under her, staring back the way she’d come at a gnarled tree root that had broken through the surface of the dirt.

“Aw, ponyfeathers.”

Dash awoke on the floor next to her bed, flat on her back, gasping for breath, wings splayed out under her. She looked around wildly for a moment, until she came back to herself enough to realize it was only the dream again, and she let her head sink back down, gazing up at the ceiling.

The dream was nothing new, and nothing to worry about. She remembered Twilight explaining once about how dreams were her brain’s way of making sure it stored her memories right or something, so no big deal. Dash wasn’t convinced; she’d never chased Applejack through the woods in the middle of the night and had definitely never had a problem keeping up with her in a race, so this wasn’t some memory. And why would her brain keep replaying the same one over and over anyway? And it’s not like Twilight got everything right.

Rolling to her hooves and shaking out her mane, Dash sighed and walked through her darkened home to get a drink from the kitchen. She barely registered a Wonderbolts poster as she passed it, fallen and half-curled behind a desk covered in weather reports. A framed photo, featuring her rising out of a multicolored halo carrying four ponies, gathered dust next to it.

Judging by the moon’s position in the sky, it was sometime in the wee hours of the night. She’d swapped shifts with Open Skies so he could see his colt in this year’s schoolhouse play, which meant an early morning wrangling clouds for the day’s weather. Ought to get back to sleep. She nudged open her kitchen door instead, moving out onto the cloud-formed veranda encircling her skyhouse.

Cool night air wafted through her wings and she stretched them out, ruffling her feathers. A quick flight through the starry sky should be enough to shake off the last remnants of the dream, and she nosed a few stray primaries back into place.

That pink streak had been new, though.

Striking a pose at the edge of the cloud, Dash prepared to launch herself into the dark but stopped herself before taking the plunge. A strange pink light bobbing along the ground in the distance caught her eye. “What the hay?” It actually looked kind of familiar, now that she thought about it, though very out of place as it came toward her through the night. It almost looked like… “Twilight?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted as she came to a panting halt underneath her blue pegasus friend, her horn shining to light her way. “Rainbow! I need… a huge favor!”

Dash blinked. Twilight… needed her for something? She’d have been less surprised by a lighting strike on a clear day. Something bubbled up inside her but she immediately and reflexively and effortlessly forced it back down. She opened her mouth to dismiss Twilight, to tell her she was going back to bed, but the look on her face—elation, but with just a touch of terror mixed in—gave her pause.

She fluttered down to stand next to the gasping purple unicorn instead. “What’s going on? Is there a problem?”

Twilight gulped air, her eyes tearing up from the exertion. “I need a ride—to Canterlot!”

Dash almost rolled her eyes, and did unfurl her wings to fly back up home. “What am I, a taxi service? You can’t have the princess send a chariot in the morning?”

Twilight looked startled, but at least she’d more or less caught her breath. “How could the princess send a chariot? I don’t even know how she sent me the—oh, Luna.”

“Uh, yeah.” Dash squinted at the unicorn and let her wings fold back up. Twilight was acting weird, even for her. “Who else?”

“Never mind,” Twilight said, pacing back and forth. “I promise I’ll explain on the way, but I have to go now! It can’t wait ‘til morning.”

Dash found herself intrigued against her will. A flight to Canterlot may have been a little more than she’d planned on, but the round trip would definitely help her get back to sleep.

“Alright,” she said begrudgingly, “but as soon as we’re at altitude, you’re getting me up to speed. Hop on.”

They hurtled through the night air, Twilight’s teeth chattering a little as she held tight to Rainbow’s back, powerful wings pumping on either side of her. “Aren’t-t y-you freezing up-p-p here?”

Dash glanced back over her shoulder with a trademark cocky grin. “Nah, you get used to it.” Partly true, at least—most pegasi weren’t as bothered by cold as other ponies. Besides, she had a passenger on this flight. Like flying under a blanket. She shifted her hindquarters to settle Twilight into a more aerodynamic position. “So, spill. What’s so important that you had to get to Canterlot pronto?”

Twilight concentrated for a moment, her horn glowing softly, and Dash felt a cocoon of artificial warmth wrap around her passenger. “I got a letter from the princess tonight.”

The pegasus frowned. “You get letters from Luna all the time, Twilight. So what?”

“Not from Luna, Rainbow.”

Dash frowned. “But you said—” She started a bit and they lost a few feet of altitude, Twilight yelping and burying her face in Dash’s mane. “You mean from Princess Celestia?! You got a letter from the princess? What did it say?”

Twilight peered uneasily at the ground blurring below them. “Only that she needed my help. I’m expecting to find out more when we get there,” she said. “You can see why I couldn’t wait.”

Dash had to admit that Princess Celestia showing back up out of nowhere was a pretty good reason for Twilight to come barreling over to her place looking for a ride. “This is... incredible! After all these years. Do you have any idea what she needs help with?”

“I… I think it might have to do with her computational engine…” Twilight said in a thoughtful tone, like she’d forgotten for a moment that she had an audience.

“Her what now?” Dash blinked and looked back at Twilight.

“Oh! It’s, uh...” Twilight bit her lip.

“It’s something to do with what you’ve been doing in your basement, isn’t it,” Dash said. It wasn’t really a question. She found herself caught between intense curiosity and bitterness. Curiosity at the prospect of finally finding out just what Twilight had been doing in secret, and bitterness at the reminder of whatever it was that had stolen Twilight away.

She felt Twilight tense up against her, but a moment later the unicorn exhaled decisively, and all that tension vanished.

“Yes. That’s exactly it. When Celestia disappeared, it looked like she was trying to design and build something that her notes called a computational engine. Luna asked me to try to figure it out, because it looked like our only lead to her. Celestia had apparently kept it a secret for centuries, so we didn’t think we could risk letting anypony else know about it in case it was dangerous. I got mine working only recently, but I haven’t been able to figure out what the point of it is, or…” Twilight hesitated. “Or why it should have been a secret at all. As far as I can tell, it’s just a… just an interesting science project, nothing more. Nothing dangerous, and nothing that explains what happened to her.”

The bitterness rose up hard in Dash then, almost choking her. All these years spent… spent like this, and it was pointless? She had always consoled herself with the knowledge that while their friendship may have suffered, it was for a good cause. She had accepted that sacrifice if it meant Twilight could find Celestia. She swallowed hard, looking straight ahead so that Twilight couldn’t see the expression on her face.

“Well,” Dash said, careful to keep her tone even, “we’re almost there, and Celestia can just… explain everything.” Twilight was silent, and Dash wondered if she was thinking the same things, about the toll the years had taken.

The castle rose up before them, upthrust pale marble glittering in the moonlight. Dash cleared her throat. “Listen, it’s been a while since I’ve carried anypony around like this. Landing might be a little rough, is all I’m saying? Hang on…”

“Luna, I’m so sorry to disturb you like this, but—”

“Nonsense, Twilight, of course you were right to come. Did you bring the letter, by chance?”

Twilight shook her head regretfully. “I was so… so shocked and surprised I just dropped it. I didn’t realize until we were almost here.” Luna sighed, but nodded her understanding.

They were cantering down through the castle, headed for Celestia’s secret workroom with Rainbow Dash trailing behind them. Twilight had tried to suggest that Dash turn around and go home, that she could make her own way home as soon as she’d gotten the full story, but Dash wouldn’t hear it. She wasn’t going to wait another minute to find out what was going on if she didn’t have to.

“All it said was, I need your help. Please come to my study.”

“Very cryptic,” mused Luna.

“I agree. Naturally, I came right away, thanks to Rainbow here.”

“No big deal. I couldn’t sleep. I was about to go for a little fly anyway.”

Luna raised a slim eyebrow at her. “Bad dreams, Rainbow Dash? I would hope my night is treating my subjects better than that.”

“I—uh, your night is just fine, Princess,” Dash said, then caught herself. “Better than fine! Your night is… awesome. Yeah.” She grimaced.

Twilight shot her a look, which Dash carefully ignored, but Luna grinned. “I’m sure neither I nor my night are insulted. I do apologize for the interruption of your sleep, whether due to nightmares or bringing Twilight to Canterlot.”

“Really, it’s fine, Your Highness.”

“Surely we needn’t be so formal, Rainbow Dash. You may call me Luna.”

“Well, Luna, you can call me Dash, everyone else does.”

“Thank you, Dash.” The princess drew to a stop. “Here we are.”

Twilight, apparently recognizing the place, halted easily alongside Luna. Dash managed to catch herself before bumping into either of them, but only just. She looked around with interest and was disappointed by bare stone walls and an unremarkable door set into one side of the hallway. Luna opened the door and they all held their breath—but exhaled when nopony was inside.

The three ponies stepped in cautiously, examining the empty room. Dash saw nothing but a workspace and some books. “So,” she said flatly, “where is she?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t know…” Her horn lit and she swept it in an arc across the room, gasping when it passed over the bookcase. “Luna! I can feel her!”

Luna turned, her own horn sparking to life, and she gasped as well. “Sister!” The two ran forward to the bookcase. “I too can sense her presence—yet I cannot contact her. And I still have never been able to enter her dreams.”

Dash felt only slightly out of place as Twilight and Luna performed more spells, talking excitedly with each other. They’d detected some sort of passageway behind the bookcase that they hadn’t found before, but they couldn’t figure out how to get in. Finally, Twilight noticed something and reached for one of the books—Dash caught the title Simulacra and Simulation, by Boerdrillard—and pulled it toward her. A low rumble grew up around them and the bookcase slid to the side, revealing a stone passageway curving down into darkness.

Luna stared. “I had no idea this existed… it is not in the official plans for the castle. Sister, what were you up to?”

“She must have dug it out herself, and used magic to seal and cloak the entranceway,” Twilight suggested.

Dash peered over their shoulders, down the rough steps. Wall sconces burst to life, beckoning them deeper. “Shouldn’t we check it out? She must be down there, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Right, of course. Luna?”

“After you, Twilight.”

They all headed down the passage single-file, the sound of their hoofsteps echoing around them. Dash felt the air growing even damper as they descended, the humidity making her feathers stick to her fur uncomfortably. Worse, she couldn’t help but picture how deep they must be below the ground, how far they must be from the open sky, and a shiver ran through her. Twilight and Luna acted no worse for the wear, so she worked to keep her unease from showing.

The passage eventually leveled out into a hallway. As they headed for the end, the temperature rose, the air turning warm and muggy. Dash grimaced and ruffled her wings, lifting them slightly off her body. Warm, humid air was not her idea of a good time.

The room at the end of the hallway would have felt cavernous if it wasn’t packed full of humming boxes like nothing Dash had ever seen. Or… She paused, thinking back. They looked an awful lot like what she’d seen Twilight working on years ago, in the library basement. But there were a lot more of them, and they were actually all finished.

A few more wall sconces flickered to life as they entered, pushing the darkness back, but not by much. As the room became more visible, Twilight bounded to the nearest box and examined it eagerly before turning back to the others.

“These are just like the ones I built based on Celestia’s notes! This has to be her own computational engine.” She gave the room a bemused once-over. “Hers must be much more powerful…”

Dash trotted over and checked out the machine. It was a dull gray, with little lights blinking on one side. Bundles of rope or cord or something came out the back and led to the other machines surrounding them in the gloom.

She nudged Twilight. “What’re these?”

Twilight glanced down at the ropes. “Oh, they’re cables. They link up multiple smaller computational engines so they can work together, making the system as a whole more powerful.” At Dash’s blank look, she sighed. “Just… don’t touch anything.”

Luna was slowly turning in a circle, taking in the extent of Celestia’s work, shock plain on her face. “My sister built all this in secret?”

“Well, she worked on it for decades, maybe centuries,” Twilight pointed out. “I was able to do it more quickly because she had laid everything out in her notes.”

Luna turned to Twilight. “And you have constructed a similar system in Ponyville?”

“Yes. Smaller, but yes.”

“Do you think you can operate this one?”

“Probably,” Twilight murmured, peering deeper into the room, following some of the ropes—cables, Dash reminded herself. They all seemed to lead back to one box in the center that looked different from the others. There was a cushion in front of it, like somepony should sit there.

Twilight settled in on the cushion and inspected the machine, Dash and Luna standing on either side of her. As though it sensed her presence, a rectangular area on the machine lit up; Dash jumped a little in surprise. “Don’t worry,” Twilight said. “It’s the display, it’s… part of how you work with it.”

Fascinated, Dash leaned closer, watching numbers that had appeared there count up.

010:01:04:16:52:47,
010:01:04:16:52:48,
010:01:04:16:52:49…

Twilight ignited her horn, activating a few controls on the machine’s surface. The numbers disappeared, replaced by luminescent script. Dash couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it. “It’s the master console. It controls all the other computational engines in the room,” Twilight explained as she started working. “It’s laid out a little differently than mine, but I’m familiar enough with the princess’s organizational style… I should be able to figure out… Ah! There we are.”

New text appeared and Twilight skimmed it. “This is a list of the most recent commands the princess executed—” She noticed Dash and Luna staring at her. “Ahem. That is to say, this is a list of the most recent instructions the princess gave to the machine. If I can figure out what they mean, it might give us a clue about what happened.”

Dash watched for a while, but the novelty of seeing Twilight tapping on the machine and things changing in response on the display didn’t last long. She glanced around. Luna was still gazing intently at what Twilight was doing. Around them, the metal towers of Celestia’s computational engine hummed along, their lights flickering.

Directly behind them, Dash noticed a strange machine, completely unlike all the boxes around them. She moved to get a better look, taking care to step over the cables snaking everywhere.

It was mostly a big metal cylinder, with some bits and pieces stuck on it, and a sturdy stand and base. The cylinder was laying sideways on the stand, with one end pointing back the way she came, toward Twilight at the master console. The end closest to Twilight wasn’t solid: there was a highly polished, perfectly smooth domed jewel set into it. She peered into the jewel and saw her own face reflected back at her, upside-down and foreshortened.

From behind her, she could hear Twilight muttering to herself, and then a sort of excited sound, as though Twilight had figured something out. Dash started to turn back, but the strange device started humming and she jumped away before squinting at it uncertainly.

“Hey, Twilight…”

“Hold on, Rainbow, I think I’ve tracked this down.”

Dash heard Twilight continuing to press buttons on the console, and then the console beeped. A cool blue light flickered into existence behind the jewel and Dash blinked at it in surprise, watching it as it began to glow brighter. She noticed a series of dark rings around what she was coming to think of as the “business end” of… whatever it was. The ring farthest from the end was glowing the same blue as the jewel. As she watched, the next ring lit up, and then the next. Each ring’s ignition coincided with a jump in the intensity of the humming coming from the device. Not good. The noise sounded unnatural, set her teeth on edge. She also didn’t like the look of those rings lighting up.

“Twilight.”

“One second, Rainbow!”

The pegasus frowned and glanced back at the two other ponies. Luna sensed her movement and looked back at Dash, then saw the glowing eye of the device. Her eyes went wide. “Twilight, perhaps you should stop.”

“Done!” Twilight exclaimed. “Now what is so important?” She turned as she hit a final control. The device’s whine immediately jumped in pitch and volume, and the remaining rings illuminated.

“Twilight, move!”

The glow focused itself, projecting a brilliant pinpoint of blinding blue light directly between Twilight’s eyes. She gaped, frozen in shock. The device shrieked past hearing.

“Move!”

Time slowed to an agonizing crawl for Dash as she launched herself forward without thought. She experienced the next moments as a staccato of frozen images: Twilight, frozen in shock—the jewel blazing blue, lighting up the entire room—Luna crying out, shielding her face with a wing. Dash’s body slammed into Twilight’s, sending the purple unicorn skidding away.

Dash felt every hair on her body stand on end as time stopped with her in midair, a wave of freezing static electricity washing over her. Like flying through a thunderhead in a bad storm—

Her vision flickered, and then she was alone.

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

It's rather surprising it had been a decade before they attempted further examination of the secret lab.
Well, Twilight, looks like your tunnel-vision just costed a friend! Well, more on that later. Not like it's the first time to happen.

[RBDash47]

10884548

It's rather surprising it had been a decade before they attempted further examination of the secret lab.

I guess this isn't explicitly stated in-story, but -- any time they came by the workshop before tonight, they got what they got in the prologue: a vague sense that Celestia is "here" but nothing else. The secret passageway down to the lab was undetectable until now.

[RushingWind-01]

Whoa! So far, an exciting story! I'll definetly keep on reading this. :)

[RBDash47]

11109517
Hope you enjoy!

[Caligari87]

Loved the references and techy bits in this chapter. Wasn't expecting the pivot to Rainbow as the protagonist! I thought she'd be a foil or audience surrogate to Twilight's journey throughout the story. Bold move too, considering the source material had an extremely tech-savvy main character.