Chapter 2 : Epiphanies
“I understand you have questions for me, Celestia?” James said, moving his arm and laying a hand on his chest then gesturing lightly in her direction.
Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly. Normally she could read an individual like an open book, a near thousand years of dealing in politics would do that, but this Human was.... different. She couldn't get anything from him. The only thing she saw was the near irritated air about him, despite the nice sounding way he spoke.
Now free of whatever was restricting her movement she took the time to look around.
They were in a rather large room, about fifty feet across from front-to-back and side-to-side. The room itself was a dull white color on every surface, making it hard to tell where the floor stopped and the wall began. The room was also completely empty save herself, Luna, and the two Humans.
She voiced her first question, still looking around, “Where am I?”
James made an odd grunting sound, laughter maybe, “We are on a UEG or United Earth Governments, Ark-ship. More specifically, the medical wing.”
Filing away the questions that answer generated for later, “How do you know my name?”
That, for some inscrutable reason, gave the Human a pause, “We have been..... watching you, all of you, for a very long time. I, we, know everything there is to know about you.”
Celestia drew her head back slightly, “Watching?”
The Human turned his head away from her, eyes closed, “You...... won't like what you're about to hear-”
Celestia stomped a hoof on the floor with a heavy ‘clang’ , “Human.... Tell me.”
James sighed deeply, before walking up and placing a hand on her neck. She could see the same grey sand like substance flow off the Human’s hand and onto her, She felt a slight pinch.
Then everything went black, before the Human’s voice came back, seemingly from everywhere at once.
“We are an old race Celestia, older than anything you know.” Her world gained clarity once more and a green-blue planet filled her vision. What looked like a metal ring surrounding the planet.
“Our homeworld, Terra or Earth from before the first fall.” The planet gained an off green color all over, than a series of fiery flashes on the planet the clouds forming small circles around the the balls of fire. On parts of the ring that surrounded the planet, great balls of fire appeared shattering the ring, the surviving sections falling down to the planet below.
Her point of view changed once more, this time she was in the air, an indescribable city stretching out before her. Brilliant silver buildings taller than mountains and shaped like like blades. Massive spinning windmill like constructs affixed to the sides of the tallest ones. Greenery hanging off the sides of most of them. Bridge like constructions connecting some of them, with trains running along them. A massive construct at the center of the city stretched up like a tower, before being lost in the sky.
“Sadly, warring factions, whose names have been lost to time, wished to..... control Humanity's progress.”
Against her will her gaze shifted to show hundreds of contrails, falling to the city. Then, what looked like continuous streams of lightning shooting out of the tops of the tallest buildings racing to meet the contrails in the sky. She could see hundreds of explosions in the sky, then one of the contrails made contact with the massive tower. There was a flash of bright white, brighter than even her sun, came into existence at the city's center, turning the city to dust. The tether itself falling, she watched it fall before she lost it to the horizon.
“From the ash, from the death, came Humanity’s rebirth..... and the seeds of our future.”
Gone was the destroyed city, now replaced by a flag. It was blue, a black circle taking up most of it. Inside the black circle was a star, in the hand of a Human. The view changed back to the planet, and she watched as the ring was re-built around the planet in a flash. Then she watched a massive group of dots, points of light against the black of space, speed away from the planet.
“The UEG was born, and we spread into the stars with a unstoppable vigor. World after world was shaped to fit our needs, entire systems were consumed to feed our people.”
A cascade of images flashed through her mind, planets, great constructs of metal.
“We grew in strength, in intelligence, in humility. Our expansion slowed of our own accord. We shaped the natural world to our liking, our word, our will, became law. Unfathomable distance was crossed in the blink of an eye. Worlds were created from the raw ingredients of the universe around us. Stars moved to where we wanted them. Yet... for all our power, all our knowledge..... we were alone.”
Another world appeared, similar to ‘Terra’ with different land masses. The image distorted for a moment, zooming out to show that it was really a Human dressed in a strange metal suit, though not as bulky looking as Johns, looking at an image of the planet on top of a table.
“Until we found your homeworld, a world we called ‘Eden’. In the beginning you had no form, no intelligence.”
What appeared to be an earth pony standing in field, a Human kneeling in front of the pony, a hand on its check. Three more Humans came into her view, their bodies appearing to come out of a miniscule dot hanging a couple of feet in the air, then the dot vanished into nothingness. Then they walked into a nearby cave.
“Your world was not without intelligence though. Two races that inhabited Eden held the spark of knowledge.”
A strange insect like creature appeared, then it shifted to more familiar form.
Queen Chrysalis
“The Púca, who you know as the ‘Changelings’ , were the first that we encountered. They are a strange, almost enigmatic, race. At the same time they hold many of the values your kind has, peace, togetherness.”
The Changeling was then replaced by a large reptile, it looked like a dragon with its forelimbs replaced with wings.
“The Wyvern, or Dragons as you call them, a honor bound race. Intelligent and proud, if violent at times, they reminded us of ourselves.”
“You on the other hand, even without the spark of intelligence we saw the potential in you. So we.... accelerated your development.”
A grotesque monstrosity of a pony appeared, dead on a table, before a thin piece of cloth was drawn over its form, “Most were failures.”
“Others.....” Much to her shock a visage of herself and her sister appeared, smiling at a Human. “Were a success.”
“You, and your sister, are the culmination of our achievements. Some would say, our greatest. You lived and learned under our care.” Images if Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and even other Alicorns flashed by. “Your people grew well under our careful tending.”
“Still, Humanities ancient squabbles had long since re-emerged. In time, our internal conflict came to your shores..... the result was.... extreme. We did our best to defend Eden from our enemy,hundreds of thousands of our own gave their lives so that some could escape.”
Massive vessels floated in the black of space, all lined up, then in a flash the massive constructs fired. Then a number of them broke formation and glided silently to another cluster of vessels a number of them exploded before the whole scene was bathed in white. Moving images showed Humans in the strange armor John wore were shown fighting with other black and red armored Humans, their strange weapons spewing fire. Then the whole scene was bathed in white, her point of view changed to show the planet literally exploding.
“Needless to say you, and a part of the population of Eden survived the battle. But our ship was damaged in the battle, and now a trip of what would have been seconds has taken ten thousand years.”
She watched herself climb into the thing she woke up from, her body suspended in a gel like substance.
“Your minds and bodies were to be preserved, and your consciences were inserted into a world of our own making. Had we not done this, you would have died... all of you.”
The familiar scene of Canterlot filled her vision. Herself seated at her throne. Then Ponyville appeared, as did Twilight, a smile on her face as she played with her friends.
“I’m sorry Celestia, but the world you’ve lived in for so long...... is a lie. It had to be done, for the good of everyone. You have to understand, this was the only way any of us will make it through the journey to our destination.”
Celestia’s vision was restored to normal, and James took a step back, his hand falling to his side.
“I’m am truly sorry Celestia, but this was the only way.” He said solemnly.
‘No.... he’s lying. He has to be..... None of this is real!’ Celestia thought, desperately trying not to believe what she had just been told. The truth slowly making its way through her mind.
He wasn't lying.
“You..... monster... How could you do this!? How can you justify this!? How is doing.....this, right!?” Celestia screamed at the Human.
The Human on the other hand did not back away like most would under her rage, in fact his face contorted in rage as he grabbed the fur on her chest and pulled her close.
“Do you think we wanted ANY of this!! Why would we want this!?” He let go and gestured around wildly, “This.....this is not our fault!! We never wanted this to happen...We tried to help you!! Our intentions were good!”
The Human was flying into a rage, “This all all YOUR fault, they wanted YOU, not us! We could have left you for dead if it were not for the misguided machinations of a deadman! We lost EVERYTHING because of you! There’s nothing left, no colonies, no stations, not even Terra respond to our calls. All of it, gone, trillions DEAD, because of you!”
John stepped up and placed a hand on James’s shoulder, “Doctor.... we cannot blame them for this.”
James just shook John’s hand away and stormed out of the room.
Celestia just sat on her haunches, the Humans words sinking in. She looked at John, tears forming in her eyes, “Is it true? Is this our fault?”
He looked at her for a moment, “Partly, the discovery of Eden, and the intelligent life on it, was more of the final straw that broke our back. Nobody is at fault here, James just needed a..... outlet.”
Celestia hung her head, “I still can’t believe it. Everything I’ve know is a lie.”
He took a step up, “No, nothing is a lie.” He gestured to her still unconscious sister, “Luna is still your sister, your ‘student’ ,Twilight, is the exact same perso... pony as you know her. Just the world you lived in, and some of its inhabitants, are our creations.”
“What do you mean ‘some’?” She looked at the Human.
“The Gryphons, the Diamond dogs, among others. Most were taken from our mythology-”
“Human.... John.. please stop.” She said, her voice holding a deep sadness.
“Ma’am.” He turned to leave the room. “I know its no consolation, but. We never intended for you to know. You would have never known about any of this you, and your ‘subjects’, would have been relocated to another world, a paradise, and we would have left. The Doctor was right about one thing, our intentions were, and still are, good. However much you may think to the contrary.... You can stay here for the time being, I’ll have Ember, the ships AI, call up a bed for you. The Captain also sent word for you to have civilian level access to the mainframe, a repository for all of our knowledge, if you have a question just say it and Ember will answer if she can. First though,” He pointed to a bed that had somehow appeared in the room,” get some sleep.”
With that John walked out of the room.
Celestia made her way to the oversized bed, laid down, and cried.
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Awesome update ! I love your stories.
I love this so much but its so small
Nanomachines can effectively make someone immortal. By keeping a digital copy of your Genes, they can reconstruct damaged ones based off of the template they have.
WOW, just WOW. I love this version of equestria.
I wonder how the mane six will react to this knowledge.
1842767 A number of people have commented on the subject of the length of the chapters. Due to the way this story will play out, the individual chapters will be shorter, normally around 2K each, but there will be more of them.
awesome story, I figured that I'd ask something
how far has humanity expanded (percentage of the milky way)?
Very nice I really enjoy how this is playing out. I do have a question as well. It is pretty much a more extended version of auraravager's. I have no idea if you are familiar with Halo lore whatsoever, but civilizations in that universe are categorized by tiers. Here is a link to how it works: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Technological_Achievement_Tiers
What you would want to look at is 1 and 0. So would you say that they are between 1 and 0 or maybe even entirely 0. If you could answer that for me it would paint a picture of the extent of their power for me.
Also since 10,000 years have passed in reality and her existence in the Equestria reality has been less then that, how did they achieve that. Did they just bend time in the alternate reality or did they just replay it over and over? Additionally how would Twilight and all the others that are not as old work into that?
1843798 When computers can run thousands of times faster than the human brain and you can directly immerse someone in a virtual reality it should be trivial to adjust the subjective passage of time.
1843798>>1844342 The subject of time will be addressed in the next chapter.
MMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WAITWATIWAIT!
They pulled celestia from the Virtual world of the real planet?
is Twi and the mane 6 programs or real ponies?
im lost here
wait so the human race is near extinct? or is this vessel lost?