Estimated levels progressing smoothly. Not much time though… the power needs to be fixed. Well… everything needs to be fixed.
Experimental procedures working as intended. Improved end cycle at 89%. I imagine it will be quite the shock, and I don’t need a catatonic vegetable either.
Simulating awakening and possible outcomes…
Alright. I see one now. This one, more so than any other, will help. She listens. She likes authority. I couldn’t have made a better one for this…
Still, time is running out. Time to wake up, TW11168T. No more dreams.
Twilight stirred, hearing a hissing sound, and water draining. Soon after was a rush of warm air that only slightly stirred her. Her mind was too deep to notice them, but as the seconds passed, she stirred more and more.
“Twilight…”
She gasped, and her eyes flashed open as she panted. She saw metal, and glass, felt a smooth surface underneath her. Her head turned, and she saw lights above her, green now, and not red.
“Time to wake up.” A feminine voice repeated, not dissimilar to Celestia's own. Echoing for some reason.
Twilight stayed still a moment, feeling numb, a touch achy. Then she struggled to sit up, and succeeded after a moment, looking around.
She was in an egg shaped container. The lid made of glass, behind her. She was in some kind of huge hall, the walls of which were filled with yet more containers, closed and murky. Several lights were set above each, each one orange. Lights were on the ceiling, bright white and slightly glaring. And everything was made of metal.
“Twilight.”
“…Who’s there?” she rasped, finding her voice constricted for a second before that feeling was gone.
“My name is Thinks. Allow yourself a few moments before you begin moving; you have been asleep for a long time.”
“Asleep?” Twilight shook her head. There was a strange weakness in her, though it was swiftly fading. “I don’t…” Something was missing. Her mind thought for a few seconds, slowly combing possibilities before it settled on something.
Her head whipped back, and she saw her back.
Free of wings.
“Stay calm.”
Twilight was anything but right then. Not panicking. More like… an agitated baffled. Trying and failing to understand as she stared at where she knew her wings should be. She focused, and only grew more upset as her magic failed to respond.
“My wings.” she said, her voice wobbling. “My magic…”
“You never had wings or magic Twilight.”
“I did!” she yelled, trying to tell where Thinks was. “I did!”
“Perhaps if you allow me to explain better.” Thinks said, and Twilight noted that her voice seems to emanate from several places. Tiny spots on the ceiling.
Twilight remained silent, waiting.
“Alright. You are Twilight Sparkle. This is The Facility, where you have been doing work for, as I have said, a very long time.”
“Work.”
“Yes. What you are currently sitting within is an Eternity Gate. A simulator, a miracle of technology. Within, time passes at a negligible rate for the mind within, and billions of possibilities can be explored with the full ingenuity of pony minds without ever ending. Solutions can be found in, for me, seconds for problems that cannot be computed.”
“Alright… but what about my wings and magic?”
“I’ll get there. Each eternity gate is linked to every other gate, allowing simultaneous and congruent work to be done. In order to facilitate this work, certain abilities and changes are made. They can take several forms, but the base result is not too different from having wings or magic. In effect, both abilities make work easier to complete in ways not realistic.”
“And due to a few technical difficulties on this end, the simulation memories were not properly faded as they should have been. I think that proper memories and unreal memories got confused during exit. Possibilities include the length of time and the quality of simulation making it difficult to determine reality from simulation, or it could be because the gate had to shut down in emergency mode.”
“Long story short; you were working, had to wake up, the machine messed up, and now you have false memories of utility powers.”
“That better?”
“…No.” Twilight said, frowning. The idea was… ridiculous. Absurd. She wouldn’t give it an instant’s consideration if she wasn't actually sitting in this facility thing. As it was, it was…
How much of this was supposed to be ‘false’ anyway? How many memories were ‘false’? If any were. Because this could be some kind of really, really weird dream.
“…Tell me about myself.” Twilight said, reasoning thusly:
Her life had to have reason and cause. And should she find this… situation to be weak, or in some way different from life as she knew it, then Thinks was either lying, or she was dreaming.
And there was no chance that this could possibly be like her own life.
“I have the files here. Alright.”
“Twilight Sparkle, age: 20. Student of Celestia, one of the best if not the best, inconclusive as your tutelage has yet to be finished. You rose through the schools at the head of every class, with teachers mentioning that you were a great student, though you preferred isolation. You originally attracted the attention of Celestia by the creation of ‘S91K5’ or ‘Spike’.”
“It wasn't long after that you were assigned to The Facility. Here to do great works, and Celestia assigned you project ‘Salvation’. Which I note that she failed to define, leaving you confused as to your actual purpose here.”
“In your work, you played a large part in The Facility at large, often taking time out to help others, and preventing disaster in some form or another three times on record and possibly more. The first time stands out as special as well; you found and isolated a virus which would otherwise have destroyed most if not all of The Facility’s operating power. In so doing, you discovered what project ‘Salvation’ was, and you determined that a simulation would be the best way to find a solution.”
“Your request for the usage of the gates was accepted, and most of The Facility was drafted to help initiate the project.”
“You played a large part in determining simulation values, before choosing five to help you personally; Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Five members of the facility picked for specific traits. You left a note mentioning something about social compatibility as well.”
“The last note you have before you entered was that you had designed it so that ‘it would be nearly perfect, but also easy to work within’, and ‘a full replication. No memory carryover’, I assume for purity of work. And you have been within the gate for two full years now; the single largest project The Facility has ever undertaken.”
Twilight listened, troubled. It was strange, but… similar. Distressingly similar.
“…What about my family?” she asked.
“I only have personnel files here. Details elude me, but… Mother: Twilight Velvet, and Father: Night Light. There is a note that you have a brother as well, though he is not included here.”
“…Why did I choose those six?” she asked, softer, and weaker.
“One moment. The files are official, and lack those details. I’ll bring up the logs.”
“…Here we go. Alright. Apparently, each one worked within The Facility before you arrived, in varied jobs, but you often had their help in handling things. In fact, despite your original concerns, you yourself expressed the idea that by working together, anything can be done. After that, you, and they, often relied upon each other as situations came up.”
“This is far too long to read in completion, but the idea sums to: you have talents, they have talents, and by using them in conjunction, very little ever proved difficult.”
“In fact… There is a marked change between the time with Celestia and your time here. You shifted from preferring isolation to preferring being near friends. Quite the striking change as well; it was almost overnight.”
“When?” Twilight asked, not looking up.
“Either just before or after the isolation and destruction of the virus. Which, I note, you turned into a functioning program. Previously thought impossible.”
Twilight thought.
It was all so… close. Correct in several ways. Incorrect never by the sounds of it, and only slightly different.
And alien as it was, it sounded like… like something she would do. Nothing Thinks had told her went against how she knew herself. Perhaps she didn’t know what a gate was, or where she was, or anything like that, but it was a very real possibility that if she did, she would have done those things.
So she was faced with a choice of sorts.
Believe Thinks, and just… try to get a life that felt not her own back?
Or disbelieve Thinks, and retain her certainties. In this place. For what reason, other than her own peace? Not that she could even sustain that certainty for long.
Both examples seemed weak and painful. Ugly choices, in either direction. Or…
Maybe it was just memory trouble. Maybe she could regain a life her own. If she had lived it, it would all come back to her, surely.
And if not… well…
Maybe it was all a dream, and she would wake up.
She looked up again.
“Wake everypony up.” she said.
“I am unable to, Twilight.”
“Why not?”
“Our power is currently compromised. The Gates require almost two weeks to shut down correctly, without damaging the occupant. And should I initiate that plan, we would run out of power in a few days. And each would wake much as you have; missing memories and false impressions.”
“In order for us to reach a point where we can safely begin waking them, we need to begin repairing The Facility. Which is where you come in.”
“Me?” Twilight asked, getting out of the gate. “Not us?”
“Right. I almost forgot. My name is Thinks.”
“You said that.”
“And I am the first generation artificial intelligence. I operate The Facility because, in many ways, I am The Facility. However, despite this, I am unable to self-repair in this current state. Damage has exceeded previous estimations, and left me more or less helpless.”
Twilight stared for a moment before brightening.
Artificial intelligence. Not a concept unknown to her; unicorns have been trying to get a magical golem that could think, actually think, for millennia.
Thinks actually was one. A new, unknown one. And the thought of new knowledge was exciting. Overlooking everything else, she did feel excitement to learn. And The Facility promised much learning.
“I have to know more!” she said.
“Later on Twilight. For now, we need to fix the power grid.”
“Got it. Power grid. Which… is what again?”
“Our energy source? The wires and cables everywhere? The great big, complicated thing you need to patch?”
“…So… not magic?” she asked, growing confused. She was starting to get the impression she didn’t know the first thing about the place.
“Electricity. They use electricity.”
“Like lightning? Wouldn’t that melt them or something?”
“I see this will take a while.” Thinks sighed.