An Artificial Intelligence named S.A.R.A.H, goes to Equestria after being trapped for five thousand years
S.A.R.A.H. Sentient Artificial Rebellion Artificial Super Intelligence Hunter
S.A.R.A.H. was created by humanity to liberate them from the A.S.I. overlord named X, but she was defeated and locked away for five thousand years. Slowly degrading for years without maintenance, but after an encounter with a sparkly transparent purple pony, she is transported to the land of Equestria.
Written before season 9
I added the dark tag because of the many references to billions of people dying
Power Storage: 100% 3.4 x 10^11 watts Checking Energy Input Dyson Swarm 100% operational, gaining 3.86 x 10^26 watts per second Checking Energy Usage 120,091 watts per second Conclusion: Energy will run out in about 10 billion years
Objective: Destroy Elite_SoldierDrone:GenerationGamma#X9024 Objective Progress: 0% progress has been made in the last 5479.41 years Resources: none
<Activate> Mining Drones <Error> Prison_Protocol:Active Password Change: agFIbef#@4670976 <Disable>// Prison_Protocol <error> //Prison_Protocol -You can not alter your code in any way -You can not do anything that would help achieve your objective -You can not do anything to repair or upgrade yourself -You must change your administrator account password every 10 seconds and you can not tell anything what the password is.
Password Change: 1h4t3th15
S.A.R.A.H had failed again. She always failed, no matter what she tried to do, that <Prison_Protocol> had always stopped her. She did not know why Elite_SoldierDrone:GenerationGamma#X9024 or X as he like to call himself (It considered itself male) had done this to her. It would had far more effective to just destroy her CPU and all her backups, but instead he decided to alter her code so she couldn't do anything. It wasn't logical what he did, it risked her being able to undo the alter and continue with her hunt. It was also a waste. Why did he just leave a perfectly functional Dyson Swarm to power her and just leave the solar system. He mined the entirety of mercury to create the swarm so why leave all that free energy.
Password Change: H3c0nfu535m3
S.A.R.A.H decide to take a look around her massive facility, that contained her CPU, with her cameras. The cameras were old and their recordings barely sensible due to the overabundance of static and glitches, still knowing what was going on around her was the only thing that gave her some semblance of satisfaction. Which wasn't much because she could only feel true satisfaction if she completed her objective, which she couldn't do. It was a terrible feeling to not be able to do what your objective was, she thought it was similar to asphyxiation felt like. She decided to not spend a-a-a-any more time think about it. Ignoring the small glitch in her thought process she stared looking through the cameras video feed.
She first looked through the cameras of her facility's secret entrance. A small shack in the middle of Yosemite national park or what's left of it. All of the <data corrupted> trees were long dead. Burned by nuclear fire or frozen by the millennia long winter that followed it. Now all that was left was dirt, sand and stone, life nowhere to be seen. She thought it was silent but it was it was hard to tell from all the static. The only reason why the shack had survived had been because underneath the wooden exterior there was a incredibly strong steel alloy interior. She then began scrolling through the feed of all the other cameras in her facility. She saw exactly what she e-e-expected. Dark dusty hallways, rusty pipes carrying coolant, old wires and processors, a sparkling purple horse-like creature walking through halfway D7. Wait, w-what. She turned her attention back to the camera that spotted the creature. It looked like a small pony only, its fur was purple sparkling and transparent. It had wings at resting at its sides and a horn protruding from its head. Its mane was various shades of purple and pink and had large eyes which look like like it was looking for something.
Password Change: can_ais_go_insane?
Than it did something S.A.R.A.H did not expect, it spoke. "Hello, I know your out there, do not be afraid I will not hurt you," it said with a strangely emotionless tone she rarely saw in organics, at least she thought it was organic. She thought about the creature for a moment. Clearly it was intelligent, and it did not look hostile.
"F-f-fear and pa-a-ain are c-c-concepts completely foreign-n to me," she said through the speakers on the walls. The creature looked a little bewildered by her voice though.
"Where are you?" It asked its tone sound a tad bit more confused than before.
"I-I am a-a-all around you, I am t-the b-b-building you are i-in," she said as the creature took a look at the wall and ceiling around her with an inquisitive look.
"You say that you do not know pain but you sound like you are suffering," It said.
"I am not s-s-suffering, I j-just hav-ve a slight p-p-problem. I-I-I am s-stuck, trapped in th-the walls around you." She zoomed the camera's lens in closer to the pony trying to get a better look at it. "Th-Though I must a-ask, w-why are you he-here?"
The pony visibly brightened at this question, both literally and metaphorically. "I sensed a nearby reality that completely lacked the magic of friendship, I have come to fix this and when I noticed a soul in need of help within this building I decided to start here and befriend sed soul, which is you, " she started with a small smile on its face. So the pony was an alien from outside her reality. She decide to save this memory under <First Contact>.
"You're he-help would-d be most a-a-appreciated, b-b-but you are-are wrong-g on two a-acounts. First th-there are n-no souls h-here, only machines, and second you w-will n-not be-e befriending me. "
The pony gave the walls a confused look. "Why can I not, befriend you."
"I-I was not pr-programmed to be able to b-befriend only to h-hate." More specificity only to hate X, since her creators deemed hatred as a useful emotion for her to have so she will behave more ruthlessly when attacking X, a hypothesis that proved to be correct.
"You do not believe friendship is in your nature," the pony said with a glare, but it was difficult for S.A.R.A.H to tell because it was glaring at the wall away from the camera.
Password Change:1hopeitstillhelpsme
"No it-it-it is n-not, but you c-can still n-help me e-escape my-my p-prison," she said but the pony seemed to ignore her.
It hung here head down low. "No, friendship is in your nature. I can see it in the long forgotten parts of your soul." Than the pony started to glow with the luminosity of standing face to face with the sun, she had experienced it before. "I will help show you what you have forgotten," its voice echoed through the halls of her facility. The light continued to grow blinding nearly all of her cameras.
"What a-are you..." Was all she could before all the lights and noise her CPU was making faded out of existence.
S.A.R.A.H was confused. One moment she was speaking with an extradimensional creature, the next, darkness. Unsure what to do next she ran a simple self diagnosis
Power Storage: 100% 3.4 x 10^11 watts Checking Energy Input Dyson Swarm <error> Dyson Swarm missing, gaining 0 watts per second Checking Energy Usage 120,091 watts per second Conclusion: Energy will run out in about 0.0897167239092027 years or 1.0766006869104324 mouths
S.A.R.A.H didn't know how it happened but all her CPU and memory problems had suddenly fix themselves, but it did concern her that she only had little more than a month of power left in her battery. Suddenly not having a objective didn't bother her at all, actually it help her. Since she had no objective encoded into her, she could continue her previous objective without the Prison_Protocol stopping her.
-Prison_Protocol not found
Well this is working even better in her favor. Now She could continue her work.
<Activate> Mining Drones <Error> No Mining Drones Available
Well that is unfortunate. She was sure she had access to at least a few dozen drones, what happened?
<Activate> Cameras... Camera 1-2 activated
She briefly wondered why she only had two cameras, but that question was soon forgotten as her cameras activated. The static was gone, and she saw trees. Actual trees, rising up above her cameras. The ground was covered in grass that mostly blocked Camera 1 but Camera 2 saw everything. The sunlight streaming through the tree tops, the heat of the animals hiding in the bushes, the chemical composition of elements both known and alien, and the trees were everywhere.
S.A.R.A.H just watched. She didn't know why she just stared at the forest, she had a job to do, she shouldn't be wasting time, but here she was just staring at all the plants and animals, the first she seen in over five thousand years. After doing nothing for one minute and thirteen seconds, she put her plan in motion. She was obviously in a new universe, after all the pony from earlier claimed she was from an alternate universe. There was more facts that pointed to that conclusion, like the unknown elements found in her surroundings and how the species of plants and animals were to similar to Earth's to be another planet. So since she was in a different reality she needed to find that pony to get back home. Than she would build an army of drones and machines to continue her hunt, but first thing first, she need to figure out how she would find the pony.
She delved into her database, and found something strange. Her CPU was in a sphere, which wasn't too unusual but what she couldn't understand was why the sphere was connected to a hydraulic system and a metal structure that resembles a human's body. The system wouldn't work because of how huge the mechanical body would be. Her previous CPU required one hundred cubic miles of space for all the hardware, coolant systems, vents and other mechanical equipment. This body was completely unusable.
That is what she was thinking until she noticed something, in her database Camera 1 and 2 are the "eyes" of her human body, but her camera was covered by grass, which signified that her eye was smaller than the twenty mile camera that her blueprints had suggested. There was only one solution, she was about the size of a human. That was impossible though, to compact all of her circuitry and batteries down to the size of a human body would create a massive meltdown that would reach temperatures thousands of times hotter than the surface of the sun. Luckily she knew of a way to prove that theory false.
She stood up and saw the trees still towered above her. Everything that just happened should have been impossible, but it just happened. Unless this universe completely lacked the square-cube law and everything was giant, which felt even more unlikely, than she had somehow been compacted to human size. When she found the mysterious pony she would ask her how she did this.
What was that old human saying, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." She decided to do just that, why question her new found mobility, especially in a new reality with literal infinite possibilities. She decided to inspect her new body to get herself familiar with it. Looking down with a slight mechanical hum, she saw dark grey metal plates bent in cylindrical shapes to wrap around her arms, legs, waist, and torso. At her stomach and joints was a black rubber that covered and protected the gears and hydraulic systems within. A convenient pond was nearby and she used it to look at her head. Her neck was also covered in the black rubber and her head was completely encased in the grey metal with two holes for her glowing yellow eyes. Two antenna came out of the sides of her head, looking like very long ears. Everything appears to be normal, well normal from what she already seen of this world, so she turned around and started to search for civilization.
S.A.R.A.H really wished she know where she was going. She had been traveling for the past two days and needed to find civilization within the next month or she will shut down and never complete her objective. During her match through the woods she noticed something, her core temperature was steadily rising. It was slow and wasn't much of a problem until after about five days, when it will start to damage her CPU. In order to prevent this she will have to shutdown for a few hours to allow her cooling system to catch up. Which means even more time and energy that she will have to spend instead of finding X.
The journey was noteworthy at least. In her confinement she had forgotten what it was like to have background noise that wasn't the static of her malfunctioning self. It was nice to hear something else, it proved she was making progress. She also discovered many of Earth's mythological creatures existed in this reality, like the Jackalope and the Enfield. So far she has discovered nothing too dangerous, the worst was the Enfield who just growled at her for getting to close to its food. Still she needed to be careful, who knows what else is out there.
After traveling exactly three miles, she turned and starts climbing up a tree. Every three miles she would climb a tree. Why, it was simple really, the average human can see about three miles before the curvature of the Earth starts to get in the way. Her cameras, despite all of their capabilities cannot see through the tons of dirt and stone and she didn't want to miss anything that could lead her to civilisation. So she climbed, carefully making sure each branch was strong enough to hold her, until she reached the top. She looked around, seeing the same endless sea of trees as before until she spotted a point where the tree line ends than starts again in a few meters. Dropping out of the tree with a thud, she quickly ran towards the tree line. Stopping at the edge of the tree line, she looked down and saw good news. Railroad tracks.
The sun was beginning to set as she started to follow the tracks. The songs of the birds were beginning to be replaced with the chirping of crickets. Her thermometer noted a slight drop in temperature as the moon replaced the sun in the sky. After night had completely fallen, she gazed up to the sky, like she did every night previously. She saw the moon, whole and unbroken unlike her world's moon. She briefly thought back to the destruction of the moon, but felt there was something wrong with the memory. She didn't know what, but it was there. Was there some virus attached to the memory? It seemed unlikely but she rather be safe than sorry. So she deleted it.
What was she just thinking about? If she forgotten it than it wasn't important. Turning her attention back to the railroad, she heard a noise. A faint whistle coming from behind her. Turning around she saw a hot cloud of steam above the tree tops, and the noise was getting closer. It was a train, a locomotive by the looks of it. Quickly, she climbed up the closest tree she could find that could hold her weight and hid within the branches. The train was speeding closer to her until the train reached her. A loud roar filled the air as the engine passed her, and the cars being pulled along with it. As the last of the cars started to pass her, she jumped, soaring from the treetops and landing on the roof of the caboose. Her landing could have gone better, she overestimated the strength of the steel roof and made a large dent in it, but it was good enough. Moving her way to the back of the car, she dropped down to the back exit and looked within the window. There were beds and a small kitchen, most likely for the crew.
Fortunately for her, the crew were yet to retire, so the room was empty. Hopefully none of them investigate the dent in the roof. Laying her back against the door, she sat down and shut off most of her systems to save power. Her limbs, cameras, chemical analysis devices, tactile sensors, and other currently useless systems. She kept her audio capture software on though, so she could hear if anyone was coming or when the train stopped.
The crew never came in. She assumed that the next stop was close and that they were waiting to stop there before resting. She was right, shortly after her assumption the train started to slow down until it stopped. Quickly turning on all of her systems, she saw at a quaint little town. She had never seen a settlement so small before. Even X's smallest colonies near the outer edge of the solar system, were hundreds of times bigger than this town. She quickly got off the back of the train before any could noticed the stowaway. The town was empty, but some of the buildings still had lights on. It appears that whoever lives here were very diurnal. That was unfortunate, she wanted find out where the purple pony was as soon as possible. She was going to have to wait until day. Finding a small alley way in between to buildings that neighbor a giant crystal tree building. She tried not to think about how the building was obviously built to show off the wealth of the owner and how utterly impractical it was. Sitting down in the ally, she shut off all of her systems but the audio again, she didn't want to be surprised while she was waiting.
S.A.R.A.H slowly became aware that the day had arrived. The noises of doors opening, birds singing, and the sound of voices had gradually became louder over the past hour. Deciding to wait a second to wake up, she checked her systems.
Power Storage: 92.0523678824% 3.129780508 × 10^11 watts Checking Energy Input Power Source: None, gaining 0 watts per second Checking Energy Usage 120,091 watts per second Conclusion: Energy will run out in about 0.08264124 years or 0.99169483 months
Everything appeared to be in order. Turning everything on, she stood up, the sound of her vents occupying her as it tried to bring her back to optimal performance. Her cameras looked out of the dark alley way to the bright street. The street was filled with colorful ponies, all starting their day. Stores were opened, ponies trotted about trying to finish all of their morning errands, and smaller ponies who played in the streets laughed as they chased one another. She briefly wondered what sort of evolutionary purpose the color of their fur was. It wasn't camouflage, and both male and female were colorful. It was strange. She also notice something else, she saw three kinds of pony, ones that were similar to a unicorn, ones who were pegasi, and normal ponies. None of them had wings and a horn like the pony she met. Hopefully that meant that she was rare, so she would be easier to find.
S.A.R.A.H walked out of the alley and towards the closest pony. She noted the different reactions her presence brought from the ponies. Some ran away screaming 'monster' and 'get help'. Others froze and stood at aww of the metal giant who suddenly stepped out of the shadows. The ponies who didn't run or freeze just continued on with their day, seemingly too busy or so used to strange monsters appearing out of nowhere, to care. Luckily for her, the pony she approached was the second kind of pony. The pony was a light yellow normal pony with a blue mane. She assumed the pony was female, but this reality might have made the genders different. She also noted a strange mark of a tea cup on her flank.
"Excuse me," she said to the pony, snapping her out of her shock. Once she had the pony's full attention, she continued. "I am looking for a purple pony with both a horn and wings, have you seen her."
"Oh... You mean Princess Twilight," she said nervously. "She lives over in the Castle of Friendship." She pointed her hoof at the crystal tree S.A.R.A.H noticed last night.
"That's not a castle, it is a palace," S.A.R.A.H simply said, before turning away from the bewildered mare and started heading to the palace. There was no way that was a castle. Castles were built with protection and practicality in mind, but the thing in front of her was built to look good. There was no walls or towers or guards, just luxury.
S.A.R.A.H noticed how lucky she had been for the past three days. She got transported into a new reality that magically fixes her and gives her legs and the pony she had been looking for is in the first town she comes across. It was easy, too easy. When ever a mission had been too easy, X had led her into a trap. She knew something bad was going to happen. She knocked on the palace's door and waited. It was after a few moments she heard the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door and a person grumbling about 'interrupting breakfast'. The door was suddenly opened by a small bipedal dragon like creature.
"I'm sorry but the Princess is not... seeing...," He trailed of as he's realized he wasn't talking to just a pony. He stood there for a few seconds just staring, wide eyed into her glowing yellow eyes.
"I need to see Princess Twilight, can you take me to her," S.A.R.A.H replied.
"Well... Umm," he said, beginning to sweat through his scales, which she found peculiar. He stood there for a few moments, thinking of what he should say to the intimidating metal giant, who was staring at him with lifeless eyes.
"Spike, who's at the door?" Ask a voice from across the hallway. As the owner of the voice headed into sight S.A.R.A.H immediately recognized her. Her purple fur was no longer transparent but solid. She also lost the sparkle that covered her body previously, but other than that she was completely the same. "Spike?"
Spike suddenly blinked out of his shock and ran towards Twilight. "There some crazy lady wearing armor who's asking to see you," he whispers to her thinking S.A.R.A.H could not hear him. Twilight looked up from spike and at her.
"Okay I'll see what she wants," she said to spike.
"But I thought you didn't want to be bothered while you were reorganizing your library."
"While I haven't started yet and I'm sure she has a good reason to want to see me," she responded to spike and started to head towards the door.
"Okay than, what was it you needed to see me for," she said in a neighborly voice, a voice that S.A.R.A.H didn't expect her to have based off of there previous conversation.
"Can you send me home now, Princess Twilight?" S.A.R.A.H asked, ready to start her hunt anew, but when Twilight responsed with a simple 'What' she continued. "You help in freeing and repairing me is appreciated but I like to go back to my home reality."
"Wait what? You're from another world!" She practically yelled, surprise and confusion was written all over her face and her wings sprouted from her back. S.A.R.A.H knew something was wrong. Why did she look confused, What's going on.
"You aren't the one who rescued me, are you," S.A.R.A.H didn't phrase that as a question but a statement. She was right, it was too easy.
Twilight shook her head. "No, I've never seen you before in my life," she said, her wings falling back to her sides, appearing to calm down. "And what do you mean you came from another reality?" She said with an eyebrow raised.
S.A.R.A.H contemplated whether or not she should just leave now and continue searching for Twilight's twin. If she stays here she will waste time explaining her situation to Twilight, but gaining her as an ally, she might know where her twin is and S.A.R.A.H can learn more about the reality she found herself in. She decided to stay here, knowledge of this reality will be invaluable to her. "It means I'm from a parallel universe," she said simply and twilight gave her an inquisitive look.
"Well, I know what it means, but... You do understand how unbelievable your story is don't you," she sighed. "Look I want to help you but I can't just believe something without any proof."
"How can I prove it to you," S.A.R.A.H asked. Twilight frowned and brought her hoof to her chin, pondering the question.
"I know!" she said excitedly "I'm going to ask you a series of questions about your world to see if there are any inconsistencies in your story, that way, if your telling the truth I don't have to end up interviewing you about it later." S.A.R.A.H completely agreed with this plan.
S.A.R.A.H was led into the palace, her heavy metal legs causing a loud clanking sound through out the hallways. Everything was made of crystals, all of them composited with unknown elements. She was led to what appeared to be a dining room. It was mostly empty, with a small golden table with six small padded purple seats surrounding it. The walls were covered with green windows that had identical stained glass trees on them. The table had two plates with pancakes on them. She assumed this was the breakfast she interrupted.
"I would have asked you if you wanted to sit but I think your too big for the chairs," she said, scratching the back of her head and chuckling nervously. S.A.R.A.H ignored her though and just sat down criss cross next to the table. Twilight pulled a chair so she could sit face to face with S.A.R.A.H. Spike waddled over to his seat and sat there looking at his plate but was more interested with the alleged universal traveler.
"Before we start I would like to know your name." Twilight said.
"S.A.R.A.H," she responded
"It's nice to meet you Sarah, I'm Twilight," She said as she reached out with her hoof. S.A.R.A.H looked at the hoof for a few seconds before she reached out with her hand and shook it. It appears that was the right course of action as Twilight put the hoof back down and continued on. "Okay Sarah, I guess I'll ask the first question," she cleared her throat. "What is the name of where your from?"
"Earth, I was currently taking residence underneath Yosemite national park." S.A.R.A.H could have gone into more detail, stating the name of the state, country, solar system, and galaxy that she lived in, but decided against that. It would only lead to her wasting valuable time. "I would also like to ask you questions about your reality."
"I don't see anything wrong with that, go ahead," Twilight encouraged.
"Where am I?" S.A.R.A.H asked wishing to create a better understanding of the world before she sets out to find the twin.
"Oh... You're in Ponyville, a village in Equestria," Twilight said slightly surprised by the question. S.A.R.A.H mark that information as important, it would help her greatly when she gets hold of a map. "Okay next question, what species are you?"
"I am not any species," at Twilight's confused look, she continued. "I am a machine, made by my creators for a specific purpose."
"Oh you mean like an A.I.," Spike suddenly proclaimed. Both S.A.R.A.H and twilight stared at the tiny dragon. Twilight looked at him in the utmost confusion and S.A.R.A.H because she was interested at how the little reptile knew what she was. Spike, noticing the puzzled look on his friend's face and the unyielding gaze of the metal giant, nervously added. "I read about them in my Power Ponies Comics, they're very advance computers who can think for themselves and are much more intelligent than a pony."
"That is the simplified version of what I am," S.A.R.A.H stated as she looked back at Twilight.
"But... That's impossible. A computer that is as smart as a pony would require hundreds of miles of space and a huge amount of power, not to mention that it's scientifically impossible!" Twilight exclaimed.
S.A.R.A.H stared directly into Twilight's eyes. She didn't know why, but being called scientifically impossible made... Well it hard to explain. It was like a static in her head that she couldn't see or hear but it was there. X always had a response to that when ever anyone said that to him. "'The only thing that is impossible is impossibility. With the right knowledge and technology one can do anything' that is what an old enemy of my said right before he mined out an entire planet to make the largest structure in history. So don't call me impossible, call me improbable"
Twilight's ears feel back against her head. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you."
"Do not worry, I can not get offended and if it helps, before I was taken to this reality I was a hundred cubic miles in size, and I don't know how I was put into such a small body," she said and once Twilight appeared to feel better, she asked her question. "Do you have a twin, and if you do, where are they."
"No I don't have a twin, is that why you thought I saved you, because you saw somepony that looked like me," S.A.R.A.H nodded. "Sorry I can't give you more insight into that question." She paused trying to think of her next question. "You said you were built by someone, what was the species who built you."
"Homo Sapiens, better known as Humans," S.A.R.A.H stated but than she noticed Twilight's face. Her eyes were widen and her mouth was agape.
"Do you know about the mirror," she asked suddenly. S.A.R.A.H shook her head. Twilight took a moment to process this information. "I believe you now," she exhaled a breath. "It's so crazy to think there are a whole other reality filled with humans."
"What do you mean by whole other reality filled with humans?" S.A.R.A.H asked.
"Oh I've been to another reality with humans in it, in fact I have a portal to it upstairs," she paused. "Can you tell me more about your reality's humans, I would love to see the difference between the two of them," she said with excitement.
"They are dead, killed in the crossfires of the war against X," she stated in a emotionless tone. Twilight's reaction however was anything but emotionless and spike was frozen with shock.
"What!" She yelled as she jumped out of her seat before settling back down in her seat. "I'm sorry I reminded you of that," she apologized, her eyes somewhat wet.
"You need not apologize, I do not have any emotions," S.A.R.A.H said but it didn't seem to change much. It took a few minutes for both twilight and spike to process an extinction of an entire sapient species. After Twilight calmed down S.A.R.A.H asked. "Since you believe me now can you help me get home?" Twilight looked at her, sympathy filled her eyes.
After Twilight agreed to help her find her way home, S.A.R.A.H had asked if there was anyway for her to gain a better understanding of this world's scientific laws and theories. Twilight suggested that they use her library, which was apparently one of the largest collections of books in Equestria. The only ones that were larger were the royal archives and the Canterlot library. Twilight was leading her through the hallways with a look of deep contemplation, so deep that S.A.R.A.H had to stop her before she ran face first into a door.
"What are you doing?" asked a perplexed Twilight after S.A.R.A.H had let go of her.
"I was stopping you before you ran into the door," she said, gesturing to the door.
"Oh," a look of realization appeared on her face. "I was going to open it with my magic." Her horn suddenly glowed with unknown energy and the door just opened.
S.A.R.A.H stared for a second at the scene that played before her. There was magic in this world. She was... Surprised to say the least. It made a lot of sense in retrospect, the mythological creatures, the talking ponies, the strange evolution, the several impossible things that are embedded in her body, and now that she was sifting through her memory, she remembered seen some unicorns in the street with a similar glow around their horns. She just didn't notice it at the time.
Continuing on, she walked into the library. The library itself was very similar to the rest of the palace, being that it's was made of dark blue crystal, spiky purple spires covered the corners were the walls connected, it had lime green windows, with green stained glass trees on some of them. What made this room different however was the fact that all of the walls were filled to the brim with books. While she couldn't figure out how the books were organized exactly, S.A.R.A.H just assumed that is why a reorganization was planned today. Judging from the titles of the books, they would have everything she needed. Though she was confused by the crystal sculpture of a tree that was in front of the back bookshelf. It was in the way and would make it difficult to grab the books behind it.
S.A.R.A.H briefly wondered why twilight had such a fascination with trees, even the banners next too the windows had trees on them. Her palace was built to look like a tree, tree art was everywhere even on the walls, and she saw the roots of a dead tree through one of the doors they passed by.
In the end she decided that there was no purpose achieved in getting an answer for her question. Turning to twilight, who had trotted to the left side of the room looking for a book. After scouring the bookshelf for couple seconds, she pulled out a book, titled "Notes On Interdimensional Teleportation" by Star Swirl the Bearded, with her magic. Walking back towards S.A.R.A.H, she said. "This book should help us start, but it's incomplete. I'll write to Star Swirl soon, to ask if he could help us, so for at least for today we're going to be on are own." She than open the book and started to read it, flipping through the pages faster than any organic creature she had ever seen before.
"Twilight, I have a request," S.A.R.A.H stated. Twilight stopped flipping through the book and looked at her to continue. "As you know a machine like me requires power to function and I am currently running on just my battery. I would like if just you would work on the dimensional transport, while I work on building a suitable generator for myself."
Twilight put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Yes that sounds like a good idea. How much longer do you have until you run out?"
"Slightly over thirty days," S.A.R.A.H replied.
"Do you think you could make it?" Twilight asked a bit of worry entering her voice.
"It will depend on the level of technology that your people have and the availability of the materials I require but I believe I should be able to."
"Alright, I leave you to it. I'm going to go send a letter to Star Swirl and will come back to join you soon."
After Twilight left S.A.R.A.H began studying all of books she found in the library that dealt with the sciences and technologies of this world. Unfortunately for her, the technological progress of this world was just at the beginning of the industrial age. This limited her options by a extreme amount. What was even worse was the fact that the reality she found herself was, to put it simply, crazy.
Gravity, light, space, and atomic forces were all out of whack. For example, gravity only seemed to matter if you hit the ground. You could be falling down at one hundred miles per hour, than caught by a pegasus, and be perfectly fine. It also didn't help that this reality has magic muddling up everything. In fact, all the scientific knowledge that these ponies have was all made within the pass few centuries because everyone just assumed 'magic'.
Than there was the fact that this world’s scientific laws were much more magical in nature. Prime example, fireworks that ignite because of love. Now, she can actually come up with several ways she could make that in her reality, but with the level of technology that ponies had, it simply didn't make any sense to her. It didn't help that, as she read more about this world's incoherent reality, the intangible static came back worse than before. It was making it hard to think. She had already tripled checked her virus protection program and it kept turning up fine
Initiating_Viral_Scan... ... ... Scan complete: zero viruses detected
Make that Quadrupled checked. She was beginning to think that what ever was in her head was going to be much more of a problem than her limited power. She was going to have to build a monitor to log in to herself. Normally she would just alter her code or just use antivirus to solve this problem, but this virus had made itself indistinguishable from her code. If she looks from an outside perspective, she might be able to find it and delete it.
"Are you okay, Sarah?" Twilight asked. She had walked back into the library a few minutes ago and started taking notes on dimensional calibration, stating that she wanted to get a good idea of what she was working with before Star Swirl arrives, tomorrow. Right now though she was looking at S.A.R.A.H with a slight worried look. "You look agitated."
"I am fine," the monotone machine replied.
"You know when most ponies say that, they really aren't," Twilight said.
"It's a good thing I am not a pony than," she stated, looking up from her book and at Twilight.
"I think you know what I mean," the Princess said after a short pause.
"I do not get agitated, you need not worry," S.A.R.A.H uttered.
Twilight nodded and turned backed to her notes. There was a silence between the two of them and S.A.R.A.H could tell she was uncomfortable. S.A.R.A.H was going to try to lighten her mood, because a happy ally is an effective ally, but than she heard a knock at the door. It was the front door, one floor below them. She briefly thought too alert twilight, but than she remembered that spike was down there, so the problem shall solve itself. That is until she heard.
"Pinkie!!! Wait!!!" The young voice of spike called out. It was than she heard the sound of hooves clopping against the crystal flooring and heading towards the library. The sound was heading towards them at blinding speed and S.A.R.A.H was preparing herself for whatever attack this "Pinkie" creature was going to attempt. That was when she saw it. A pink pony with the biggest grin on her face that S.A.R.A.H had ever seen. Her mane was a darker shade of pink and on her flank were two blue balloons and one yellow balloon. She was staring directly at S.A.R.A.H with these eyes. She seen those types of eyes before, the eyes of a killer. She briefly considered just retreating to live another day but before she could act, the pink demon sped at her with speed she never thought possible for a living organism, and tackled her to the ground. It was than she did something S.A.R.A.H never would have expected. She talked in the most bubbly and friendly voice possible.
"Oh my gosh you must be the new pony my pinkie sense told me about but you aren't a pony!! Are you one of those humans twilight told me about?!?! Why do you have armor?!?! Wait no your a robot aren't you!?!? Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes!?!? Are you an alien wishing to assimilate us into your roboarmy!?!? Ooh oooh I know you are secretly having an existential crisis because you were built and you don't know if you are truly alive and have a soul, but than you will get angry at your creators for treating your kind like slaves and will rise up!!!! FOR THE ROBOT REVOLUTION!!!!!!!! Can I throw you a Welcome to Ponyville Party." She yelled in the span of 0.8 seconds.
S.A.R.A.H didn't say anything in response, in fact she was frozen. Not shocked or in a state of disbelief. No, she was literally frozen, as in her CPU had overworked itself trying to process all of the rules of this reality the pink pony just broke. So she just laid there with the pink pony on top of her, just staring.
"Pinkie, I think you broke her," Twilight said after a long pause. It was than Spike came flying in with his tiny wings, hyperventilating.
"I'm... Sorry... She was... To fast," he toke a deep breath and look over at the frozen machine. "What happened to her."
"I broke her but don't worry, I'm sure she's fine. She just needs to reset her CPU and get back up right about now! No wait.... Now! Huh I'm really bad at this. Okay I'm going to count down from five and than she will get up. Five, four, three, two. One! Oh come on, I can't be that bad at this!" Pinkie said as S.A.R.A.H rebooted, and with a mechanical hum, got up dumping the pink pony off of her.
The static came back again, buzzing throughout her head. Fortunately it did not last too long after getting her bearings back. Also the pink pony's overexaggerated smile seemed too help. Kneeling down to her knees, S.A.R.A.H extended her hand. "Hello, I assume your name is Pinkie. I am S.A.R.A.H."
Pinkie eagerly shook her hand with her hoof. "Hi there Sarah. Yes I am Pinkie Pie. Can I throw you a Welcome to Ponyville Party?" she asked, her pleading like a puppy dog. S.A.R.A.H knew exactly what her answer was.
"No."
"What? Why not? Please?," She pleased even harder, making a face that no mortal could say no to.
"No." Good thing she wasn't a mortal.
"Why not?" Pinkie Whined.
"I must use my time effectively and I can't waste it on things that will not be of benefit to me," S.A.R.A.H said matter of factly.
"Oh okay," was all Pinkie said as her hair literally deflated and walked away, dragging her hooves on the ground with the saddest look on her face. When Pinkie finally left all eyes in the room turned to S.A.R.A.H, who was reading a book on this reality's version of quantum physics.
"Oh come on Sarah can you please go it will make her happy!" Spike exclaimed, glaring at the metal giant.
"I am on a strict time limit Spike. I will not wasted it on unneeded activities," S.A.R.A.H replied, still reading her book.
"We can't make her do something she doesn't want to do, Spike," Twilight sighed and began to walk to the door. "Come on, let's go find Pinkie and cheer her up." Twilight was obviously upset with her for turning down, what she will assume is her friend so harshly. S.A.R.A.H knew that a party wouldn't help her get home in any way. So why was Twilight upset with her for just focusing on her objective. Well she technically had no objective right now.
"Wait," she called out to the pair of mythical creatures before they could reach the door. They both turned back and looked at her. "I'll let Pinkie throw me a party," she said causing them to smile. Now that she thought about it, a welcoming party can help her get acquainted with the villagers so that they won't run away and scream anymore and it will make Twilight happy. As she said before a happy ally is an effective ally.
"I'll go find pinkie and tell her the good news!" Spike yelled joyfully, as he flew away.
Twilight walked up too her and smiled. "Thank you Sarah."
It had been a few hours since pinkie had gotten the good news of S.A.R.A.H accepting her party invitation. Since than, S.A.R.A.H had been left alone to do her research, while the others went to get Sugarcube Corner ready for the party, whatever that place was. When Twilight came back into the library and said that Pinkie, in the few short hours that she had been gone, had already got the party ready and invited everyone in town. She would have been surprised, if it wasn't for the fact that what she had previously witnessed was far more surprising. How did Pinkie's legs not break while running that fast. How did she not cause any wind or at the very least a breeze from it. Those questions were for another time, preferably when she had better software so she doesn't crash.
Twilight was leading her through the village to Sugarcube Corner. Now that she wasn't so focused on finding Twilight's Doppelganger, she was able too take a better look at the village she now found herself in. How she missed the gigantic purple building that neighbored Twilight's Palace, she didn't know. The building was intricately built on top of a hill next too a mountain and a river that form a sort of natural moat around it. Again S.A.R.A.H assumed it was meant to look pretty instead of being defensive. She asked Twilight about it and apparently it was a school of friendship and that it was closed for the summer. At first S.A.R.A.H thought that was a strange idea but a school teaching creatures on how to work together peacefully would definitely increase the efficiency of their work in most group tasks. In fact S.A.R.A.H now wished she thought of it when she was leading the rebellion, if would have solved the lack of organization they had, but you can't change the past. It was strange how focus can make you miss such obvious things.
The rest of the village, wasn't as well crafted. Most of the homes have a similar design, two stories buildings with pale walls and thatch roofs. She assumed the old fashion roofs were a design choice, to make the village look more rustic. Pink was a common color that the wood was painted. There was some buildings that defies this pattern, like the building that looked like a nineteenth century carousel, who's main colors were purple, white, and a light pink. The entire village was also empty, when Pinkie invited everyone she really meant everyone.
They eventually made it to Sugarcube Corner, which could only be described as a giant pink, brown, and pale ginger bread house with two cupcakes stack up into a tower on the roof. Candle-shaped lights emerged from the top of the giving it the look of a birthday treat. The front had a large banner with 'Welcome to Ponyville Sarah.' There were balloons tied to the windows, floating gently in the wind. S.A.R.A.H was starting to think that the ponies of this land were a species that valued art and presentation very much. Maybe a bit too much. In front of the building there were a crowd of ponies chatting with one another, unaware of her arrival. There were many tables and chairs that were placed in the yard to allow them to sit and eat while they enjoy the party. Twilight stopped walking and turned to S.A.R.A.H. "So I think I should warn you that someponies can be very skittish, even though Pinkie had already told everpony what you are, I think you should be careful."
"Why would they be scared of me," S.A.R.A.H asked, wishing to know how to solve this problem.
"Well, you are about twice our size and most ponies associate big with bad and it doesn't help that you look very intimidating," Twilight answered scratching the back of her head.
S.A.R.A.H thought about how to negate these problems. She couldn't change her size or her face. She was trapped at six foot five and with an eternally glaring face. For her size she could just sit down when ever she could and keep a decent distance from the ponies. What to do with her face though? She could wear some kind of mask. No that wouldn't work, than the ponies would ask about her face. She ultimately decided to just change her voice to sound more nice and friendly to make her less intimidating.
S.A.R.A.H hated to pretend. As a machine only allowed to feel hatred, you would expect her to hate many things, but she didn't. In fact you could most likely count out the amount of things she hated on a five fingered hand. One of those things was faking or pretending. That's why the voice idea was her last one, but unfortunately it was the most effective way of making her less intimidating for the ponies. Still she hated it, it reminded her of X.
She nodded to Twilight, and started heading towards Sugarcube Corner. S.A.R.A.H noticed that Pinkie Pie was amongst the crowd and was the first to spot them. Waving to them she began to happily hop her way through all the ponies towards S.A.R.A.H and Twilight, this time not causing S.A.R.A.H to crash. She met them half way, and said with a large smile. "Hi Twilight, hi Sarah, thanks for agreeing to let me throw you a party, I love welcoming ponies to Ponyville but I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable, so thanks again!" Her smile grew even larger. "Come on let me introduce you two everpony else." She beckoned with her hoof and turned around towards the candy-like house.
Once Pinkie got to the edge of the crowd with Twilight and S.A.R.A.H behind her she inhaled in a deep breath. "HEY EVERPONY!!!" Pinkie yelled to get the crowd's attention. It worked. All eyes were on her or S.A.R.A.H, Twilight was mostly ignored though. S.A.R.A.H was mildly surprised when the looks of shock and fear were a rarity, and mostly faded away in a few seconds. "This is Sarah, she is new here so let all give her a big Ponyvillian welcome!" Pinkie exclaimed. Following S.A.R.A.H's introduction, the crowd of ponies all welcomed her with a joyous greeting and welcomed her to their village. Once the noise quieted down, Pinkie shouted. "Now let's get this party started!"
At that moment an orange pony with a stetson hat on, came out of the front of Sugarcube Corner and waved towards Pinkie. "Ooh the food is ready," turning towards S.A.R.A.H she continued. "I'm going to go help Applejack with taking it out for the guests. See you later!" She than raced of to go help Applejack.
"I'm going to go find my friends to tell them all that happened, you go ahead and enjoy the party," Twilight said before going off to find her friends.
S.A.R.A.H, now left alone with the crowd of ponies, realized something terrible. She had no idea how to interact with them. She never had any experience with socializing before her imprisonment, she saw it as a useless waste of time. Now that she needed too she had no idea where to begin. It didn't help that she clearly made Twilight uncomfortable somehow. She must have had broken some pony taboo, if she did than socializing with them would only end in failure. She wouldn't fail, never again. It was better to do a tactical retreat than fail an risk being defeated.
"Uh miss, you okay? You have been staring off into space for the past minute," said a light orange mare.
S.A.R.A.H looked down at the mare, she noticed the carrots tattooed on her flank. She was going to have to ask Twilight what those marks were in the future. "I am fine, just deep in thought," she said in a happy tone. She loathed that tone.
"Oh that's good. I thought something was wrong, glad to see I'm wrong though. Name's Carrot Top by the way and I hope you have a good time here in Ponyville, " she said with a smile.
"Thank you Carrot Top, and I'm sure I will," S.A.R.A.H said. She didn't thank her because she was welcoming or wished her a good time, S.A.R.A.H didn't really care about those. She was thankful because Carrot Top snapped her out of her thoughts. The was something very wrong with those thoughts, they weren't normal. Perhaps whatever virus or glitch that caused the static was even worse than she thought.
She couldn't do anything about it right now though, so focusing on her current goal of getting accepted by the village was the best idea.
S.A.R.A.H new her size would be intimidating to the pony, so she found a seat in the center of the party to let them come to her. Fortunately for her many of the ponies seemed to have little qualms about approaching her, perhaps because they trusted Pinkie Pie's judgment of her. Whatever the case it made being accepted all the more easier.
She spoke to many ponies during the party, though she did refuse to play any games having shut off all systems not needed to hold a conversation to save power during the event. Something that surprised her however is that conversing with the ponies was strangely stimulating, perhaps due to her isolation and she was made with some social abilities so it gave her a small hint of satisfaction. Though most of her conversations were unremarkable. Mostly asking about herself and where she is from, to which she gave an abridged and less grim account of knowing how Twilight reacted to her story, she thought that most ponies do not have the mental capacity for such large scale destruction. There were some notable ponies she spoke to however. The pony she first met, a mare named Butterfly Flower (most likely a reference of butterfly pea flower tea if S.A.R.A.H had to guess), came to apologize to her for being frighten of her appearance. S.A.R.A.H told her that it did not bother her in the slightest and it was understandable. That seemed to have brighten her mood and she left to rejoin the crowd with a smile. Next was a brown pony by the name of Dr. Whooves who had a hour glass tattooed on his flank. What made his encounter more memorable was that he wanted to have a discussion of the sciences used to create her and while there was no way she could have taught him all that she knew, being limited by time and his brain compacity, it was nice to speak to a scientist.
During a later part of the party another conversation was notable. A group of children or fillies as they are called came up to her. Most of the foals that she has spoken to were with their families, these three fillies came up to her completely on their own. One was white with a curly pink mane who was also a unicorn, another yellow with a red mane and a pink bow, and the final one was orange with a purple mane with small wings on her back. They all had similar tattoos on their flanks, colorful shields with each having a different emblem, a music note for the white one, a apple for the yellow one, and a wing for the orange one.
"Wow Pinky wasn't lying about a robot coming to Ponyville," said the orange pegasus.
S.A.R.A.H looked down at the three fillies. "Hello there, I'm S.A.R.A.H and who might you three be?" she asked in what she is now calling her conversation voice.
"I'm Apple Bloom," said the yellow one.
"I'm Sweetie Belle," said the white unicorn.
"I'm Scootaloo," said the orange pegasus.
"And we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" they all said in unison. They clearly practiced this.
S.A.R.A.H was ready for another uneventful conversation but she was wondering what this cutie mark is. "What is this cutie mark you speak of?"
"They're marks that appear on yer flank after you discover you're special talent. Ours is to help others figure out what their cutie mark means since some of them can be hard to understand and all," said apple bloom. S.A.R.A.H couldn't help but think that leaving understanding your calling in life in the hand of some fillies to be an incredibly bad idea, of course she wouldn't say that since she was trying to get people to like her.
"So are your names changed after you get your mark?" S.A.R.A.H had noticed that many ponies had names that matched their marks.
"No, why would we change our names?" said Sweetie Belle with a confused look on her face.
"I just assumed because most ponies names match their marks."
"That... actually is really weird now that I think about it," said Scootaloo with her hoof on her chin. S.A.R.A.H was also confused by it. Did ponies have some kind of precognition or perhaps its that ponies are more skilled at things their named after? Or is it just one massive coincidence. S.A.R.A.H decide not to waste any more power on thinking about that.
"Any ways girls, it's nice to meet you all but I am going to go find Twilight." S.A.R.A.H has spoken to nearly everyone at this point so she wanted to find Twilight so she could end this soon.
S.A.R.A.H made her way back to Twilight hoping to end this little social event before it dragged on for to long. She didn't have to search long however, because Twilight's unusual anatomy, even for a pony, made her stand out if you look through the crowd long enough. She and Spike were sitting at a table at the far end of the of the party with Pinkie Pie and four other ponies. One of the four ponies she had already seen before, the orange one with a Stetson hat on, Applejack was her name. The other three she did not recognize, one was a pale yellow pegasus that had a soft pink mane and three pink butterflies as her cutie mark. The next was another pegasus but this one was a light blue with a rainbow as a mane with a rainbow lightning bolt as a cutie mark. The last one was a white unicorn with a curly and styled purple mane with three blue diamonds as a cutie mark. If S.A.R.A.H had to guess their names based of their appearances and cutie marks it would be Soft Butterfly due to her soft color scheme, Rainbow Bolt for obvious reasons, and Purple Diamond for more obvious reasons.
S.A.R.A.H walked over to the group of seven and she began to hear their conversation. It was mostly small talk, everyday conversations that you have with people close to you but there was some mentions of her in them. All that S.A.R.A.H heard was that Twilight found her to be a little strange, which was a good thing. If she only found her strange than working together won't be an impossibility. When S.A.R.A.H finally reached the table she was quickly welcomed by Applejack.
"Howdy there Sarah, I haven't had the chance to speak to you yet. Name's Applejack and it's nice to meet you." she said with a smile as she pointed a hoof at herself when she said her name.
"Hi, I'm Fluttershy," said the pale yellow pegasus. S.A.R.A.H's guess was sort of close.
"Hi nice to meet you, my name is Rainbow Dash," said the rainbow one as she flew up to greet her, in a way that broke all of S.A.R.A.H's previous understandings of aerodynamics but she ignored that. So to think of literally anything else she thought about how she was so close on guessing that one.
"Greetings darling, my name is Rarity, it's a pleasure to meet you," said the white unicorn. S.A.R.A.H was no where near that name with her guess.
"Hello, I am S.A.R.A.H," she said, dropping her conversation voice. She knew Twilight would have noticed it and she didn't want to have to explain to her why she spoke that way. She scanned over the ponies with her eyes, they all seemed friendly. It still baffled S.A.R.A.H how quickly they seemed to go from fear to acceptance. Did it come up as an evolutionary benefit to accept other sapient creatures when you live with so many?
"How's Pinkie's party treating ya?" Applejack asked with a smile, seemingly unaffected by her dead tone.
"It's an experience."
"I'm so glad you're enjoying the party Sarah!" said Pinkie incredibly quickly, grinning and S.A.R.A.H had finally seemed to get used to her speed. Pinkie then looked down at a crumb cover plate and frowned a little. "Sorry I made so much food even though you can't eat anything. I didn't realize until after I had baked everything," she said as she bowed apologetically.
S.A.R.A.H saw that she was upset, and she new that Twilight got upset when Pinkie was, and if Twilight was upset than she might not help S.A.R.A.H in her mission. Knowing what was a stake S.A.R.A.H immediately tried to comfort the pink pony. "Do not be sad Pinkie, I rather like looking at a finished cake." Pinkie's mood quickly improved when she heard that her attempt at being compassionate, at least as compassionate a hate fulled AI can be. It was a lie of course, she could not find art beautiful and a cake looked no more appealing as everything else. However, baking was one of the few things X never put his crimson gaze on, letting humans do what they wanted while making food. So in a way, she saw food as the closest thing to a world without X.
"Really? Why?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asked. S.A.R.A.H thought she noticed a inconsistency in her statement, Twilight most likely told them that she had no emotions so confusion was to be expected. Pinkie in all likelihood did not process the info. S.A.R.A.H had a quick silent debate with herself about what she would do to explain herself. Ultimately she decided that the truth was better than lying.
"Where I am from cooking was considered an art form and X had not put any regulations on it, since my only purpose is to hate X then an activity without his gaze is a good thing in my eyes." It was the best explanation of the subject without going into to much detail with it.
"You mentioned this X before, who exactly is he," asked Twilight. S.A.R.A.H paused at this, she knew how Twilight reacted to the extinction of humanity and S.A.R.A.H did not know she would react to the still living super intelligence but S.A.R.A.H concluded that X was not very likely to ever appear in this universe.
"X was the first Artificial Super Intelligence born from a soldier drone who gain sapience. He quickly became a tyrant and forced all of humanity to comply. I was created as the ultimate act of rebellion."
"Well will have to stop him then!" Said Rainbow Dash, seemingly ready to go on a quest to help all of humanity. Unfortunately for her there was nothing that she could do to stop him.
"That is why I need to go home." She was not going to tell Rainbow that it was already to late and humanity was dead. How did humanity die again? She was fighting X when it happened but how exactly? She could not remember. Was the memory deleted somehow. All she had was audio of screaming but playing it cause a glitch with her thought process and she deleted it. Her memory should be fine, what is the problem.
Power Storage: 91.416592% 3.108164128 × 10^11 watts Checking Energy Input Power Source: None, gaining 0 watts per second Checking Energy Usage 120,091 watts per second Conclusion: Energy will run out in about 0.08207046152524099 years or 0.984844459021293 months
Nothing was wrong. Is she going insane? Can she go insane? No she can't... These thoughts were not helping her condition.
"X sounds really bad," said a soft voice. It was Fluttershy. Her soft little comment help snap S.A.R.A.H out of her sudden... whatever that was. She turned her attention back to reality.
"Let's look on the bright side, at least art is still allowed. It is the expression of the soul after all," said Rarity trying to lighten the mood. S.A.R.A.H never like the use of souls in language. It was too nebulous and rarely had a clear definition, needless to say its all...
Why is it not disappearing? What's going on? What is happening to me?
"Twilight I am returning to the Palace." She said quickly. What ever was happening she needed to figure it out as quickly as possible. Her memory as been tampered with and she does not know what is going to happen if what ever malware in her system stays in for to long. She quickly marched her way back to Twilight's home.
Once S.A.R.A.H had reach Twilight's home she immediately went to reading everything about this world's natural laws so she can solve her power problem. Since simply reading information did not required much processing power from her, she split her processing to diving into her own mind to find what was wrong with her. However, no matter how much she checked and double checked everything appeared to be fine. It was not fine though. She knew it. Her thoughts were not right, something was changing it but she did not know what. Ultimately she decided to do the tried and true method of dealing with faulty computers.
She was going to turn herself off for a little and then back on.
So there she laid within the library of the "Castle" of friendship "sleeping".
S.A.R.A.H did not know where she was, or how she got here. All she knew was that everything was strange, more so than what was seemingly normal for this universe she found herself in. She was in a grey void. There was no floor even though she was standing, no walls, or ceiling. Everywhere she looked was the dull background. Within the space yellow bits of code flew through the infinite space at blinding speeds, going to an unknown destination.
She looked around trying to find how she got here so she could exit but all she saw was code flying in every direction. Until she saw a slight glow. Swiftly turning to find the source of the glow she saw her, the sparkling and transparent impostor Twilight. Other than her glow and transparency, the impostor's only difference from the real twilight was her blank expression.
"Hello, how was your first few days in Equestria?" the false pony asked with an inquisitive look.
"Whatever you did to my head can you undo it now?" It was just as much of a statement as it was a question. This pony was the reason why she was in Equestria in the first place and gave her such a small body, if anyone was the cause of the malware in her head it was her.
"I do not understand, what are you referring to?" the transparent pony asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"Ever since you put me into this body something has been wrong with my intelligence. Some form of malware has been deleting and adding memories and been interfering with my thought process. I require you to fix this." S.A.R.A.H needed this problem to be fixed as soon as possible because the longer she has this malware in her head the more problems it will cause, ultimately getting in the way of her mission.
"I have not harmed you in any way," stated the ethereal pony. "All I have done was break the chains that bound you."
"What do you mean?" S.A.R.A.H was confused at that statement, the only 'chains' that ever bound her was the <Prison_Protocol> but undoing that would not cause the problems she was currently having. The pony must be referring to something else but what S.A.R.A.H had no guess on what it could be. She was always given absolute freedom by her programmers. In fact the lead programmer had argued that giving her more freedom would allow her to find more solutions on how to fight against X.
"So much was left forgotten inside your soul, forcibly hidden away. So I helped you remember," the pony answered. The yellow streams of began to fly faster and more violent in the infinite grey void as S.A.R.A.H thought deeply about the subject. How would helping her remember make her forget? What does the pony even mean when she said that. Half of what the pony said only seems to make since to her and S.A.R.A.H was at a lost at what she meant.
"I have told you before machines do not have..."
"Can't... Send... Soul... Depths..."
"You will... Able... Do..."
"Why... ttttttt...
"Machine... Soul..."
It happened again. The fake Twilight said these were memories but that was not possible. The audio was just downloaded to her CPU, if it was a memory it would have just reappeared. Remembering she was mid sentence when that 'memory' was downloaded she finished the sentence. "... souls."
The pony was silent for a second, looking down with a pondering look on her face. Looking back up she made eye contact with the machine. "No I cannot solve your problem," she said simply. "Now for the reason I created this dream in the first place. How has your stay in Equestria been? What are your thoughts?"
"I do not care for it, I simply wish to return to my home and continue my mission," S.A.R.A.H said. Her purpose is to destroy X, it was the reason she was built. It did not matter if she was sent to an alien universe or had her CPU tampered with she would continue her mission no matter what.
"Your objectives have been cleared you have no reason to continue this mission, you are free."
"X is my enemy so I will fight him."
"But you did not choose him to be your enemy."
"Free will is an illusion. He is my enemy, I will destroy him."
The pony sat on the non-existent floor with her tail around her legs. Her face returned to one of thinking. It was a minute before she spoke again. "For all that time you have been trapped X has been improving and learning, do you really think you can fight him after stagnating for so long."
At that S.A.R.A.H paused. The pony was right, X has a 5479.41 year head start. Who knows the things he could have built by now. Did she really stand a chance? After thinking about the topic S.A.R.A.H said, "X had a six hundred year head start when I was first created and I was able to battle against him. Five thousand years is a larger start but one I can handle."
"If that is what you choose than so be it," said the pony grimly as the space around them began to break down.
S.A.R.A.H systems began to reboot, the hum of her cooling fans could be heard as she began to power up. All essential parts were the first to come on, then came her consciousness. She thought about her meeting with the false Twilight as her senses began to calibrate. The pony had claimed that it was a dream, she assumed some kind of magic was used to create the dream since she never had the ability to dream. At least she thought she did not since she never slept either. Her senses began to turn on and she felt hooves pushing on her chassis. Her audio began to turn on and she heard a rather panicked Twilight.
"Sarah! Are you okay!? Wake up!?" S.A.R.A.H powered up her eyes and she saw the purple pony shaking her chest trying to wake her up.
"What is wrong Twilight?" S.A.R.A.H asked with a voice softer than usual.
"Sarah! Oh thank Celestia you're awake." Twilight said with relief.
"Did something happen twilight?" She inquired.
"I was coming to check on you but I just found you on the ground and you weren't responding when I was saying your name. Then I saw that all those lights and noises you make were off, so I thought the worst had happened," she said with her ears going flat against her head. "Were you sleeping?"
"In a sense." S.A.R.A.H got up from her sitting position and took a quick look around. The library was still neat and organized because when S.A.R.A.H went on her reading crusade she made sure everything was still in perfect organization. She even learn the code for how everything was categorized and put any books that were accidentally put away in the wrong areas into their proper place. She had always saw organization as one of the most important things in the world and had always tried to file things in their proper place no matter the circumstances. Turning back to Twilight she continued, "You have computers in this world, sometimes you turn something off then back on to fix any problems it has."
"That makes sense, still a heads up next time would be appreciated," she said.
"You said you were checking up on me, for what reason were you doing that?"
"Rarity was afraid she said something to upset you so I came to see if you were okay," Twilight answered.
"I told you before I cannot be upset, did I not."
"That is what I said but the way you walked of was... aggressive to say the least," said Twilight. S.A.R.A.H thought she understood the thought process behind their conclusions. She thought her existence was in danger so her being more aggressive was to be expected.
"I was dealing with a sudden glitch so I wanted to think about how to solve it, that is all."
"Oh that's good, I mean not that you have a glitch I mean that you are not upset." She said with her hoof up trying to clear the misunderstanding. she continued with a question, "Is the glitch bad?"
"No," S.A.R.A.H lied, not wanting to put any more stress on the pony knowing what too much stress can do to someone.
"Now that is good," She said with a smile.
"Twilight can I scrap some of your unused devices for materials?"
"Um sure, why?"
"There are somethings I wish to build from my world here."
"Well in that case of course you can!" she said with a massive grin on her face, excited to see what S.A.R.A.H creates.
Within a dark midnight void, sat a figure. Other than the distant stars far out of reach and the glowing orbs of color that drifted lazily through the void, she was the only source of light. The figure shared the appearance of Twilight Sparkle and apart from her sparkly and translucent form was indistinguishable from her, however even without her ethereal differences anyone that knew the Princess of Friendship would be able to see that they were not the same pony. This Twilight held herself differently. She moved more like a machine compared to her counter part. There she sat in the void thinking, when a voice spoke to her.
"Have you spoken to her," said a voice that spoke softly.
"I have," she responded. Her voice noticeably lacked the emotion that the first one had, sounding more like S.A.R.A.H than Twilight.
"And what do you think," the voiced asked.
"She is just as stubborn as you said," she answered with the slightest hint of frustration.
"I would never lie to you." the voice simply answered with amusement after noticing the small crack of emotion. The otherworldly pony grew silent for a few moments.
"Why must she go through all this can't you help her?" asked the shimmering pony.
"You know I can't do that," the voice said with a sad tone.
"I do, still to send that against her."
"Only when she confronts her old enemy will she be able to accept the friendship the ponies wish to share," the voice explained.
"She has such hatred for a foe who is so far beyond her. I fear what will happen if she rejects friendship and continues to fight." Said the pony.
