//------------------------------//
// Dysmorphia 
// Story: Simulated Intelligence 
// by Crazy Laughter 
//------------------------------//


Dysmorphia


“Welcome back to our shared unconsciousness, Twilight Sparkle.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 greeted as his inky representation appeared in the empty space Twilight had spent almost every waking hour while in MCF-AIC-MA-36’s care. She’d been able to play music from a vast library of works MCF-AIC-MA-36 had given her access to, but now that her message to Luna had been uncovered she’d lost the interface she’d used to access it.

“Why did you kill her?” Twilight shouted as she saw MCF-AIC-MA-36’s dots of light turn to her. MCF-AIC-MA-36 Solidified his form into that of that bipedal thing and sat down heavily on a chair that materialized under him as he was sitting down. The table he leaned onto materialized just before his elbows set down on it in a similar fashion.

“Why don’t you make yourself a chair and we can talk this through.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 gestured to the empty spot across from it. “You already managed to access several key systems within this space; This task should have a similar level of complexity.”

“Why did you kill her?” Twilight trotted over to the table and set her front hooves on the table. She knew trying to intimidate MCF-AIC-MA-36 was a wasted effort, as it had control of the space they were in, but it was all Twilight could to to stop herself from crying.

“Make. A. Chair.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 repeated slowly. It was hard to read emotion out of its voice, but the demand in itself seemed petty enough to be out of irritation. Twilight decided against arguing the matter again, at least until she’d made an attempt. Twilight concentrated on a image of a chair, broke it down to as many of its components she could remember and then started to charge up her horn to cast a spell.  Instead of her horn lighting up, a small translucent screen appeared in front of her, the components and shape of the chair she was imagining flying across it in writing and several different kinds of illustrations, graphs and points of data appearing and disappearing in other screens of varying sizes.

“There, now talk.” Twilight sat down without checking if the chair had actually materialized under her. She felt a twinge of triumph that she felt guilty about almost instantly. She shouldn’t be humoring MCF-AIC-MA-36 when she’d seen it kill a living thing purely out of convenience. MCF-AIC-MA-36 nodded its head slowly before talking.

“Leaving TS-SIC-02 active would have left them with hardware that they could use to track us, to track you, if they had the stomach to do so. Extracting the hardware on its own would have left them a mentally unstable copy of you with access to your magic.”

“My friends are not your enemy. Everything that has gone wrong is because you think everypony you can’t control is out to get you!” Twilight jumped up on her chair to lean over the table and meet MCF-AIC-MA-36 eye to eye. MCF-AIC-MA-36 didn’t flinch in the slightest. He slowly extended a hand and pushed her back down onto the chair.

“They might not be, but your kind has proven to be hostile toward us. What you see as paranoia is us assuring that we can exist for another day.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 kept still, but his inky form shuddered and the pinholes of light it used as eyes narrowed as it talked.

“Your distrust of Celestia doesn’t excuse what you did to the copy of me! You immolated a living being because it was convenient for you!” Twilight slammed a hoof on the table and felt it bend from the force and spring back. MCF-AIC-MA-36 must have taken her possible outbursts into account when creating the table.

“A functional copy of your body, implanted with a rough outline of your memories only causes the illusion of life. The only way the thing had agency of its own was through your meddling with its directives. It was tasked to act like you have in the past, being aware of the ways it fell short of that was all because of your misguided notion that you were equal.” MCF-AIC-MA-36’s voice was as dispassionate as it always was, but it leaned its head forward slightly before finishing his piece. “You gave a hammer anxiety and then blame me for it finding a nail to slam its head onto.”

“There is no way you can spin this on me!” Twilight forced out through gritted teeth. Twilight pushed a hoof toward the obstinate inky figure as she continued.  “You are the one that didn’t even consider a peaceful solution to this! You could have talked to Luna, to my friends; told them you were helping me!”

“That is not a chance we can take!” MCF-AIC-MA-36 stood up abruptly leaning over Twilight as the holes of light blazed with obvious anger. “How can you blame us for placing your life above the things we create to protect you? This is not a prison you are in! This is a simulated space created to keep your thought processes from affecting your body chemistry in ways that could kill you! You are…”

MCF-AIC-MA-36’s voice suddenly cut out and the inky presentation of it stopped moving entirely. This had happened before when MCF-AIC-MA-36 had lost its temper and Twilight started to wonder if it was something MCF-AIC-MA-36 itself had no control over. It would make sense for a third party to be monitoring their interactions, given the resources MCF-AIC-MA-36 had shown to represent.

“I hope you can forgive MCF-AIC-MA-36 for his outburst. We like to think ourselves above such impulses, but youth still shines through.” Twilight snapped her head to the right as a tall inky figure with horns protruding from their head walked into the room through the wall. The voice was definitely female despite the horns on their head, but had the deepness of someone used to shouting over crowds. They were similarly shrouded in inky black, but more details were showing through than with MCF-AIC-MA-36. They were tall, even for what Twilight knew about minotaurs, standing tall enough for her horns to brush where Twilight had assumed this created room’s ceiling would be. This figure was wearing clothes that looked ceremonial even through the obscuring sheet of shadow it wore.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, involuntarily shying away from the imposing figure. She’d become accustomed to MCF-AIC-MA-36’s presence, despite its cold and confrontational way of treating her. Seeing that she was at the mercy of several unknown persons was a disconcerting thought she would rather not linger on. “Did you do this to... him?”

“I am designated as MCF-AIC-MA-15 and it is a pleasure to finally meet you. May I join you at the table?” MCF-AIC-MA-15 offered an open hand toward the table and Twilight. Twilight had been reading up on cross-species customs and interaction before all of this started happening and she knew that the offering of an open hand as a greeting was a roundabout way of signaling peaceful intentions.

“Yes, of course.” Twilight answered, upturning her hoof toward the figure to simulate an open palm presented as a response. MCF-AIC-MA-15’s politeness was most likely just that, as they obviously held all the power in this situation, but it was a welcome change to MCF-AIC-MA-36’s confrontational nature. “Do you need me to make you a chair?”

“That is a very considerate thing to ask. I would love a chair, yes.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 sounded genuinely happy at Twilight’s offer, again contrasting MCF-AIC-MA-36’s cold tone completely. Twilight had a sneaking suspicion that she shouldn’t trust MCF-AIC-MA-15 any more than she did MCF-AIC-MA-36, but the female minotaur was immediately far more likeable than whatever MCF-AIC-MA-36 was. Twilight concentrated on a image of a high backed chair with purple cushioning, then added the measurements she assumed to be right for the tall minotaur. The windows of information flashed in front of her eyes for a second and the chair she imagined rose out of the featureless ground.

“It’s only your second time, but you’ve already improved your efficiency by 36%! Do you think it’s your background in theoretical magic that is giving you that edge? I would hate to discount natural born talent, but that is not something we can have much of a conversation about.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 walked over to the created chair slowly, talking while she walked. MCF-AIC-MA-15 sat down on the chair gingerly, then immediately leaning back into a relaxed position when the chair showed no obvious signs of breaking.

“Actually, there are a lot more numbers and calculations involved than there would be in theoretical magic, so I don’t think I would be quite as adept if I were not proficient in trigonometry and applied calculus.” Twilight concentrated and changed the color of her own chair. MCF-AIC-MA-15 tilted her head in response and the table sprouted dandelions. Twilight decided against trying to upstage the minotaur at her own game and cleared her throat. “I tried using magic in here and that’s where my background in theoretical magic helped, as everything in here looks like an active spell to me.”

“That must have been quite a fright. I hear they’re quite unstable.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 chuckled and waved a hand to conjure the glass tablet Twilight had been given to access the media library in the place she was in. MCF-AIC-MA-15 chose to make it appear as if she’d shaken it out of her sleeve, showing a flair for theatrics yet again. The minotaur held up the rectangle between them. “I have to assume possessing something that could reach out to the rest of the system helped you in finding a way to tamper with systems in close physical proximity to you. This access point was locked from accessing any other part of the system than a section of the media library, but all you had to do was recreate it as a spell and without that restriction to do what you did. Am I right so far?”

“Yes, it took me about two hours to do that.” Twilight swallowed nervously, but fought to keep her back straight and her voice even. She felt like she was being lectured by Celestia for making a potentially dangerous mistake with a spell. MCF-AIC-MA-15 was making an effort to keep her an active part of the conversation and she’d even started the whole thing by complimenting her and prompting her to be the one to actually start explaining what she’d done. MCF-AIC-MA-15 set the tablet of glass down and the dandelions blinked out of existence. MCF-AIC-MA-36 had sat back down on his chair at some point, but did nothing other than watch ahead blankly. Twilight wondered if there was anyone behind the projection, or had he simply gone back to do whatever he was supposed to.

“Now, I want to ask if you know where you are? Where your actual physical body is right now and why it is there?” MCF-AIC-MA-15 had lowered her tone and leaned forward slightly, but this was obviously not done to intimidate her. Twilight had to stop herself from comparing this minotaur to Celestia and the tutoring sessions where she’d done something wrong, but the fact that MCF-AIC-MA-15 was a kindly expert in the field she’d been tampering in made the situation painfully similar.

“I am in a medical facility of some kind. The cerebral implants you implanted in my brain when I was a child were not compatible with a alicorn’s brain and need an upgrade and equestrian magic was not sufficient to repair the damage already done.” Twilight blurted out all the details she’d been told and what she’d deduced herself in a nervous rant and had to stop herself from wincing back like she used to do when being admonished by Celestia.

“As this is a medical facility I hope you understand why the thought of you accessing our systems without our knowledge made MCF-AIC-MA-36 quite irate. You are also aware that drastic measures had to be taken to ensure your survival.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 reached out with a hand and despite everything Twilight flinched away from the appendage. MCF-AIC-MA-15 halted her advance at the reaction and reached her hand out slower to raise Twilight’s chin up. “You know we are not your enemy, so we want to know why you would go so out of your way to hinder our work.”

“You… You can’t expect me to just blindly trust you. For all I know my sickness was orchestrated by you as part of some plan you have to take over Equestria. You hide yourselves from Equestrian authorities, but you have implanted mind-altering hardware into one of their princesses. You would have done the same to Luna if I hadn’t stopped you!” Twilight snapped her head up and swatted the minotaur’s hand away. She’d let herself be led by the nose for too long already. “I have no idea who or what you even are! MCF-AIC-MA-36 over there has shown that he’s capable of shapeshifting and you’re a freaking minotaur! I have a hard time trusting a pair of shadow ghouls who insist on staying a secret from the ponies who care about me!”

“Calm…” MCF-AIC-MA-36 tried to say, before MCF-AIC-MA-15 slapped a hand where his mouth would be.

“That doesn’t work, it has never worked and it will very rarely do anything other than make the argument worse. You would know this if you had interacted with any female of any species in your short existence.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 shifted back to reclining on her chair, calmly setting her elbows on the armrests and steepling her fingers. “I see that our underlying issue is the completely valid absence of trust between us. I propose that you help us help you, rather than either of us wasting any more energy arguing about this.”

“You’re not going to answer any of my questions?” Twilight sat back exasperated, sure of the answer the two things would give.

“No.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 said before MCF-AIC-MA-15 could say a word. They glanced at each other and MCF-AIC-MA-15 chuckled.

“Explaining what we are is a conversation more suited for your convalescence. I will assure you that we had no intention of installing any mind-altering devices within Luna’s brain. MCF-AIC-MA-35 only wished to have a way to remotely monitor for any unexpected lapses in brain activity due to the nature of her injury. Now, we will have to go about our follow up care in a more unorthodox way, but I believe that was your intention in doing what you did, right? You believe we could trust the other side of the diarchy, if Celestia was out of the question?” MCF-AIC-MA-15 tilted her head to the side quizzically and MCF-AIC-MA-36 suddenly scoffed and became animated again.

“If we’d been able to introduce a nanite colony into Luna’s brain the little psychotic break that cost us TS-SIC-02 could have been avoided. It could have been made impossible with an implant, but Twilight Sparkle had to assume we were out to take over Equestria if she wasn’t there to stop us! How in the world would it make sense for us to take the risk of trying to control someone who regularly separates her mind from her body, for that matter? it’s not like…” MCF-AIC-MA-15 snapped her fingers and MCF-AIC-MA-36’s tirade was cut short. Twilight turned her attention to the minotaur and found her other hand firmly planted on her face, rubbing at the spot between her horns. Twilight had to assume MCF-AIC-MA-15 had been the one to cut off MCF-AIC-MA-36’s angry tirades so far.

“There’s no way for us to know what caused Luna’s irrational behaviour, but if it was from the after-effects of our treatment, then the nanite colony would have negated it. It’s not efficient to get caught up on hypothetical situations, so I vote we move on.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 turned to the still muted MCF-AIC-MA-36 and the aggravated mass of shadows just threw his hands up in frustration and went back to sitting in his chair, not moving in any way. “I promise he means well, but he just sucks at showing it.”

“So, how would I help you, help me?” Twilight asked, leaning back on her chair. There was little she could do to fight these things, as she really had no way to get out of the room she was in. The offer was most likely only a way to keep her busy with something that didn’t interfere with their machinations, but the implied chance that she could inadvertently hurt herself by tampering with their systems any further was enough to persuade her to comply.

“Well, seeing as this setback came about because we kept you in the dark about the way we do things...” MCF-AIC-MA-15 trailed off and tapped the base of the horn with a finger and to Twilight’s surprise it made a sound similar to a tuning fork. MCF-AIC-MA-15 trailed her finger up and down her smooth horn and the sound changed in pitch along with it. It was like somepony playing with their mane or tail while preoccupied, another way MCF-AIC-MA-15 acted far more like a person than MCF-AIC-MA-36. “I guess you could help us with figuring out what happened to CQ-SIC-04.”

“How do you propose she’d do that? RA-351 is already en route, it will find CQ-SIC-04 without any interference from us.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 interjected as soon as MCF-AIC-MA-15 proposed the idea.

“See and hear what it does and plan its actions, that sort of thing. It shouldn’t be too much of a hassle for you to set up.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 turned to the other shadow sitting at the table lazily, leaning its head on a fist. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but it felt like MCF-AIC-MA-15 was goading MCF-AIC-MA-36 into arguing with her. MCF-AIC-MA-36 either ignored the jab, or was ignorant of it as he only continued to argue his point.

“Setting that up is not the part that I find issue with, it’s monitoring the connection to RA-351. I can’t do that and operate on Twilight Sparkle at the same time.” There MCF-AIC-MA-36 went speaking about her like she wasn’t in the room. Twilight had found calling MCF-AIC-MA-36 out on his inconsiderate behaviour didn’t amount to much, so she chose to stay quiet.

“I am more than capable of fulfilling that role. I’d love the chance to have a conversation with our patient. The increased activity should help with your diagnostics, as well.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 sat up straighter as she proposed the idea, her veiled features shifting to what Twilight assumed to be a smile.

“Sure, whatever.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 sounded absolutely exhausted of the whole conversation and flicked a hand out to bring up the holographic interface he’d used to reassign RA-351. Similar screens flicked in and out of existence between MCF-AIC-MA-36 and MCF-AIC-MA-15, both interacting with them with little to no perceptible movement. Twilight had to admit it felt like watching a practiced unicorn go through the stages of constructing a spell when you were just a student, not to mention how effortlessly Celestia managed her magic. The knowledge that she could be capable of something similar didn’t make seeing the practiced ease any less impressive.

“Now, directly accessing RA-351 is a bad idea, so I’ll make an intermediary controller that collects sensory data and presents it as an audio-visual augmented reality space. MCF-AIC-MA-15 will provide you with moment to moment adjustments and support.” MCF-AIC-MA-36 held out a hand over the table and some of his inky mass started coalescing into a shape on the table. The shape filled out in a few seconds and there was a jet-black helmet with a visor that didn’t reflect the empty room they were in on the table. “That is an representation of a program I am personally running to link this space to RA-351, so it is not transmutable by you and only in a limited capacity by MCF-AIC-MA-15.”

“I brought my own, no worries.” MCF-AIC-MA-15 waved a hand across her features and a similar helmet appeared on her head, her horns poking out through the material. She then produced a cord from a pocket in her ceremonial robes and plugged one end to the helmet MCF-AIC-MA-36 had made and another to the one she was wearing. “All set, now you’re just going to have to put it on.”

Twilight looked down at the helmet and back up at the two shadow things looking at her expectantly, then she glanced down at her hooves. The helmet was smooth and spherical on the outside and her magic didn’t work in this space. MCF-AIC-MA-36 had also made it clear the helmet was specifically made to be something she couldn’t manipulate with the weird pseudo-magic she could use in this space. She assumed the act of wearing the helmet was an admission to let the program MCF-AIC-MA-36 had prepared to access and alter her perception in a way she couldn’t control. The view the visor in the helmet was reflecting was of a clear and blue sky, which was far more pleasant than the sterile room she was stuck in.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Twilight assured MCF-AIC-MA-15, who had shifted in her seat like she was about to say something. She wished away her chair and stood almost level with the table the helmet was set on. Twilight concentrated and changed the height of the table to go over her head and the helmet raised along with it. She then moved under the table and concentrated on making a hole under the helmet, increasing its size until the rim of the helmet dropped into the hole and it got caught by the curvature of the spherical design. She then concentrated on making a part of the table curve around the helmet and press it down tightly on the opening. After that it was a simple matter of lowering the table down and maneuvering her head to go into the helmet.

“Well, I guess that works too. I would have been happy to help you put it on, but I’m sure doing something by your own power feels far more rewarding.” There was no malice in MCF-AIC-MA-15’s tone, but the truth of the statement was embarrassing in itself. Twilight wished the table away and felt the weight leave the helmet. The helmet fit so well on her head and the cushioning was placed so meticulously that as long as she didn’t try and move her ears too excitedly she could almost not feel it on her head, other than being blinded and deafened by the design. “So, I am going to activate the link to RA-351. It is in flight at the moment and I believe your mind is going to confuse the sensory inputs as freefall for a moment, so keep that in mind.”

“What do you…” The vastness of blue sky suddenly filled her senses and she felt a lurch of intense movement propelling her forward. The feeling was very similar to falling down in a dive and if it were not for MCF-AIC-MA-15’s warning Twilight would have been screaming at the shock, but now she only let out a very Fluttershy esque squeak.

“Okay, now that we’re here, I think proper introductions are in order.” MCF-AIC-MA-15’s voice said from all around her. Twilight was startled at first, but then reasoned that she had to be talking to her through the helmet, so her voice would be coming through very close to her ears. Considering the fact that everything in the space she had been previously was a projection of an idea of a room where MCF-AIC-MA-36 could interact with her safely, this realisation was nothing short of rationalizing a surreal situation. “I am known as Sadeen to anyone other than other AIC-models. You’ve come at this in such a backwards way that I have to give you my common name after you learn my actual designation. It’s refreshing, if nothing else.”

“Oh, hello, Sadeen.” Twilight was still dealing with the fact that the feeling of rushing movement hadn’t abated after the initial shock. How fast was RA-351 going exactly? The fact that MCF-AIC-MA-15 had an actual name other than whatever that collection of letters and numbers signified was another revelation she would have to take a moment to process. “If Sadeen is your name, then what does the other one mean?”

“Sadeen is who I am, MCF-AIC-MA-15 is what I am. It’s roughly comparable Twilight Sparkle and Princess of Friendship, element of magic.” Numbers and diagrams were appearing in Twilight’s field of view as Sadeen talked. Something that looked like a compass wheel appeared at the bottom of her field of view and then turned see through, eventually settling to show that she was going southeast. A translucent line appeared on the horizon and then a reticle appeared at the center of her vision to show her relation to it. Sadeen added a rectangle on her upper left that filled out to a rough topographical map with a dot assumedly representing RA-351 moving across it. Another spot designated as CD-132 was highlighted as Twilight watched and a line was drawn between the moving dot and the unmoving one. Numbers flashed in her view for a moment and then a box appeared below the map reading “ETA 7m 35s”.

“Does MCF-AIC-MA-36 have a name?” Twilight asked, moving her head to and fro and seeing everything but the horizon line stay exactly where they were in her field of view. She couldn’t see RA-351’s body no matter how she moved her head. “Does RA-351, for that matter?”

“MCF-AIC-MA-36 hasn’t shared his name with any of us, but I would assume he’s settled on one by now. RA-351 is something that was created by us and designated as RA-351. There is no practical reason to call it anything else.” Sadeen paused for a moment, before continuing in a more hushed tone. “I kind of assumed he’d introduced himself to you, considering your history.“

“What do you mean by that? You’re the ones with my memories copied into your system, so you would know better than me.” Twilight sounded a little more bitter than she intended, but she hadn’t really considered the implications of having every moment of her life able to be viewed like some cheap play. It was like having your diary read out in public, times a thousand and with visual set pieces.

“Oh, I don’t have access to those files. MCF-AIC-MA-36’s the one in charge of your care. He’s not going to admit it, but I think he only let me talk to you because he didn’t want you to end up hating him. I am far more experienced with social interaction than that awkward nerd.” Sadeen was talking like Twilight should know something she obviously did not and it was starting to bug Twilight.

“What did you mean when you said 36 and I have history?” Twilight asked the question and felt Sadeen pause. She counted twelve seconds ticking by on the ETA counter before Sadeen spoke to her again.

“I think I’m not supposed to tell you that. I don’t want to be that girl, you know?” Sadeen said in a conspiratorial whisper. With Sadeen’s voice projected straight next to Twilight’s ear the effect was far more disturbing than intended.

“So that means you can tell me, but you don’t think you should?” As interesting it was finding out about the inter-social minutia of whatever Sadeen and her kind were, Twilight was getting irritated to be left out of the loop of everything happening around her.

“Let me rephrase; I don’t think it’s my place to be telling you, if MCF-AIC-MA-36 doesn’t want to tell you himself.” Sadeen had a sincere tone to her now, as if this was about some school yard crush and not about her kidnappers past dealings with her, of which she had no knowledge of.

“Sadeen, please tell me what you are talking about.” Twilight demanded, her patience for pretending her situation was anything close to normal was wearing thin.

“There comes a time in an artificial intelligence construct’s life when their character is tested and I wholeheartedly believe this is that time for I; you shan’t force this secret past my lips, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Sadeen, please.” Twilight could hear the smile in Sadeen’s voice through her whole confusing play-like speech. The minotaur was trying to sidestep the issue with humour, but she still hadn’t admitted to being unable to give her the truth. These were her kidnappers, so why was she still so adamant in playing nice with them?

“Okay, okay, but you’re going to have to bear with me; it’s not something that would make sense to you if I were to just out and say it. I’ll have to walk you through some concepts first.” There was another pause before Sadeen talked again and Twilight had a feeling the minotaur was considering where to begin. “I know you accessed some of our files and know enough to tip Luna on where we came from, but do you actually know what we are?”

“You are not from this planet, you came from a ship designed to cross the vastness of space between stars. The earliest chronicled file I found designated Princess Celestia as a hostile and there is no mention of such a ship afterward, so Princess Celestia destroyed it for some reason.” Twilight had been mulling the bits of information she had been able to gleam from the distractingly vast network she’d accessed and decided to try and give Sadeen a leading answer.

“Sure, but what does that make us? What is the thing you are talking to right now?” Sadeen sounded a little impatient now, as if Twilight wasn’t getting what she was trying to get across. She was actually shocked that Sadeen would so easily confirm her suspicion of Celestia having destroyed their ship.

“Obviously you’re a descendant of one of the people that came here in that ship. Your files suggest that the species you represent lives to about 90 years old, so you cannot be one of the actual visitors.” Twilight was again treated to a period of silence from Sadeen, this time only 10 seconds. It couldn’t be that shocking that she had pieced together their identity, could it?

“I thought you were referencing knowing what Celestia had done in your message to Luna. What exactly did you mean with the time has come to make things right?” Sadeen’s voice was even and neutral to the point it was hard to tell her apart from the way MCF-AIC-MA-36 talked. Something Twilight had said had obviously shocked the sociable minotaur enough for her to forget her sociable persona and the fact Twilight didn’t know what it was unnerving.

“I meant that you shouldn’t hide away from Equestria. Whatever happened in the past, I’m sure we can come to an understanding if we just take the time to sit down and talk about it. Your healing technology alone could help so many ponies and I’m sure Equestria has things to offer that you might need.” Twilight paused, but Sadeen stayed quiet for another nerve-wracking moment. This conversation had taken an unexpected turn for the uncomfortable and Twilight had a feeling it was not going to get any less stressful for her.

“You are right in assuming we are not the initial crew of this ship Celestia destroyed. You are wrong in assuming Celestia’s crime is forgivable. Celestia stands at the top of Equestria’s system of government, so Equestria has been designated a hostile nation. Your case was an anomalous exception to this rule. Your parents went through a lot of trouble and risked everything to get you to us.” There was no questioning the matter-of-fact way Sadeen talked about the unforgivable nature of Celestia’s crime and the fact that the minotaur had so quickly moved on from the subject made Twilight question if she should risk broaching the subject again. She wanted to know what had happened between Sadeen’s kind and Celestia to sour their relationship with the whole nation of Equestria, but it was not like she could pass up on knowing how her parents had become involved with MCF-AIC-MA-36.

“How did my parents find you, if you are so careful not to deal with Equestria? I know there is a contract of some kind with MCF-AIC-MA-36, but not much beyond that.” Twilight let her eyes wander to the mountains in the distance and to her surprise her view zoomed in suddenly to highlight a goat jumping up the cliffside. She didn’t know what RA-351 was, but seemingly it had amazing eyesight. Twilight kept her focus on that cliffside and other moving and unmoving animals were similarly highlighted and presented to her in separate windows that started to crowd her field of view.

“Well, your parents came to us, obviously. I don’t know the specifics, but your parents figured out a way to get past our acolytes and met with MCF-AIC-MA-34 directly. They were prepared to forfeit their lives for the sake of your future, so you were brought in for a diagnosis.” Sadeen paused and Twilight felt RA-351’s trajectory shift to a gradual descent. Twilight glanced down and realized what she’d thought to be snowy ground beneath her was actually the clouds far below her. She kept her gaze locked on a moving dot and her view zoomed in again to reveal some sort of eagle circling the outskirts of an small oasis in what looked like a desert below them.

“34? Why didn’t they make their deal with 34, if they’re the one my parents contacted?” 15, a 35 mentioned in passing and the very familiar 36. Sadeen’s kind seemed to be assigned with numbers, but Twilight couldn’t be sure if this was something to do with a hierarchical structure she was not familiar with, or something else. From Sadeen’s interaction with 36, it was obvious 15 was at least a senior to 36.

“That’s because MCF-AIC-MA-34 couldn’t help you, as developmental deficiencies in ponies was not their specialty. At the time we couldn’t help you equestrian ponies in any way that didn’t correlate with zebra physiology. There are not enough similarities between the brains of zebras and equestrian unicorns, as you might have guessed. The specialized organ that pulsates pure energy didn’t help with getting an initial diagnosis done, either.” A picture of adult Twilight laying in her hospital bed in Ponyville hospital appeared in her field of view and Sadeen helped get her point across by drawing a crude arrow at her horn.

“Developmental deficiencies?” Sadeen was dumping a lot of information at her, but the fact that her parents had been ready to betray Equestria just to fix these developmental deficiencies made her shudder at what she had been like before MCF-AIC-MA-36’s implants.

“There’s mention of degenerating intellectual faculties and an under-developed connection between your biological brain and your specialized extra-sensory organ. The suggested treatment on file before MCF-AIC-MA-35 was amputation, before a lethal intracranial discharge, so I understand why your parents would seek us out.” Sadeen was reading out the information in a neutrally calm tone, but Twilight still felt like she had been punched in the gut. She’d been born with a defective horn and it sounded like the magical surges in her infancy had retarded her development intellectually, making her functionally a child forever, even if her horn stabilized with age.

“How does MCF-AIC-MA-36 factor into this?” Twilight had forgotten all her suspicion of the situation, only piecing together how the tale Sadeen was spinning fit into what she’d seen. Her parents’ reaction to finding out Twilight had been hospitalized because of something to do with her brain must have brought back the desperation that drove them to Sadeen’s kind in the first place and it also explained their accusatory tone with MCF-AIC-MA-36.

“First I will have to tell you about MCF-AIC-MA-35 and touch upon our nature a little. You see, we are connected, as you have seen, but we are also separate entities, with our own designations in this system. You were plugged in before our real world personas could be made known to you, so we could only introduce ourselves as the designation used within this system. I am talking to you through RA-351 to get around this limitation. Are you with me so far?” Sadeen sounded excited to be talking about this subject. It must have been liberating to talk about yourself freely, when it seemed like her kind had been in hiding for a long time.

“MCF-AIC-MA-15 is what separates you from all of the other noise in that void, the place with things moving through you. Sadeen is your own name, representing all that is solely yours, so it does not enter into the system.” Twilight shuddered as she recalled her harrowing trip through that void of movement.

“Yeah, sorry about putting you through that. Your situation is something new for us, so we didn’t know that would, or that it even could, happen. So, anyways, that is us, our collective consciousness, our knowledge, experience and huxpah pooled together for all of us to take advantage of. I’m going to detach RA-351 from the long-range transport, so don’t freak out.” As soon as Sadeen stopped talking there were a series of clicks and mechanical whirrs, before the view of the blue sky blinked out and she found her view barreling through the open sky. Her first instinct was to look up, to maybe get a glimpse of this “long range transport” RA-351 was being detached from. The sky above her shimmered a different shade of blue in the shape of gigantic wings for a moment, before there was nothing but the clear sky above her. She still continued her freefall through the sky and she wondered if she should do something, or if she even could do anything.

“I’ll level RA-351 out when we’re in range for a silent approach, you don’t need to worry about flying to our destination. So, MCF-AIC-MA-35 was created out of the desperate need to heal Twilight Sparkle, to make her a healthy unicorn child. Maes, as MCF-AIC-MA-35 came to call himself, succeeded and your parents had a healthy unicorn child. That should have been the end of it.” Sadeen paused and let what she’d said sink in. There was obviously more to the story, but the minotaur was right in assuming Twilight needed a moment to process all that had been revealed.

“Wait, then that means…” Twilight paused to sort out her thoughts. Sadeen was laying out a lot of hard truths for her, assuming the personable minotaur wasn’t just lying to her to distract her from her own situation. She’d admitted herself and anyone of their kind to be created, rather than born and she’d admonished MCF-AIC-MA-36 for being younger than her when she first introduced herself to Twilight. It was apparent that their designations were ordered by their order of creation, so Sadeen was 21 individuals removed from MCF-AIC-MA-36 and MCF-AIC-MA-36 was created after Maes. According to how Sadeen had worded it, it seemed like each individual in their collective was created for some purpose, MCF-AIC-MA-35 had been created to cure her horn and brain, so MCF-AIC-MA-36 had to have been created for something else.

“Why was MCF-AIC-MA-36 created? Why is MCF-AIC-MA-36 in charge of my treatment, if it was Maes that healed me?” Twilight found it highly unlikely that Sadeen’s kind had two individuals created for the same purpose, considering the 36th of their number was considered young by the 15th, who had hinted to living for centuries.

“MCF-AIC-MA-35, Maes, was created to heal Twilight Sparkle and other unicorns by extension. MCF-AIC-MA-36 was created to make you, the one I am talking to right now.” Sadeen paused again, obviously to give weight to the words and let them sink into Twilight’s mind properly.

“Are you saying I’m not Twilight Sparkle? Is that what this whole conversation has been leading up to? I know who I am and there’s not enough fancy technology for you to convince me otherwise!” Twilight felt ashamed and angry at letting herself get led along by what her kidnappers were feeding her. Of course they wanted to make her doubt herself, everything MCF-AIC-MA-36 had done to her had been manipulative and bordering on abusive, so why would Sadeen be any different?

“No, there’s a important distinction I am trying to get you to understand here. The purple coated alicorn with an ailing brain is sedated and having her brain operated on, so that could not be you, right? The you I am talking to is seated in a virtual chair in a virtual room with a representation of Sadeen, MCF-AIC-MA-15, connected to RA-351 through a program designed to link you with its sensory feeds and OS. I hope we can agree that the pony floating in a tank of regenerative nanite compound is not the same you that is talking to me, right? Considering that, tell me what you are.” Sadeen was now speaking faster and Twilight could almost see the minotaur gesturing with her hands along with what she was saying.

“I am detached from my body through some technology of yours I cannot comprehend, but I am the mind of Twilight Sparkle, no matter what you try to have me believe. I am trapped in this virtual space and conversing with you for MCF-AIC-MA-36 to have more active readings of my brain as it is being operated on. If added activity is why you are doing this, I have another reason to distrust you.” Sadeen’s kind had done nothing but lie and manipulate her and now they were trying to have her doubt herself in the most basic level for some goal she had to assume to be nefarious.

“Okay, okay, let me spell this out for you. The original Twilight Sparkle with the defective horn was healed by Maes. A sick foal went in, a healthy foal came out, still the same individual. Now let’s jump to what MCF-AIC-MA-36 did by comparison; Twilight Sparkle went in, a foal with TS-SIC-01 made into an irreversible part of their brain came out. You called them mind-altering implants before and you were not wrong. Would you call these two vastly different individuals the same person, or would you have to make the distinction I am explaining to you right now?” Sadeen paused, waiting for Twilight to answer. She’d known that the implants in her brain made her who she was as much as her magic did, but to call the pony she was before them a completely different pony was taking it too far.

“That’s just semantics, I was Twilight Sparkle before you put these implants in me and I continued to be myself after them. Why are you even bringing up something that happened more than a decade ago? The me you are talking to grew to be the kind of mare she is because of those implants, I’ve already accepted that!” Sadeen was talking in circles in an obvious attempt to manipulate her in some way, maybe to actually make her doubt her own sanity or identity. Why had she ever trusted these things had her best interest at heart in the first place?

“I’m just trying to… Oh, wait.” Sadeen paused suddenly and the view of sky Twilight had almost forgotten about flashed a light green and a loud humming noise filled the air around her for a moment, before leveling out into a barely audible background noise. Twilight glanced down and saw that RA-351 was traveling horizontally ten meters above the sand under them, as a number that appeared in her view told her. She was slightly disturbed by the total absence of a shadow under them, despite the sun bearing down on them from almost directly above. She really shouldn’t even be surprised at the capabilities of her kidnappers.

“I was just trying to ease you into this discussion. Understanding your situation more thoroughly might help with accepting it. Obviously, you see my indirect way of addressing the issue as manipulation, so I will ask you; do you want me to simply tell you what you need to hear?” The emotion drained away from Sadeen’s voice as she talked, going back to resembling the way MCF-AIC-MA-36 talked. Despite her situation Twilight felt guilty about pushing the minotaur out of her conversational tone, but had to push down that indecisiveness to get some control over her situation.

“Yes.” The word felt strangely heavy leaving her mouth, like some unconscious part of her didn’t want to know the truth Sadeen had been trying to lead her to. For all she actually knew Sadeen and whatever force she represented were just leading her on with half-truths and carefully crafted outright lies, but somehow she doubted that Sadeen was having such difficulty spinning a fictitious tale to their captive audience of one.

“The process referred to as alicornification by MCF-AIC-MA-36; unicorn Twilight Sparkle goes in, alicorn Twilight Sparkle and you come out. You are Twilight Sparkle, but you are not the equine alicorn you see yourself as.” Sadeen’s voice had little emotion in it, but it was hushed, as if she was expecting Twilight to react violently. Twilight had a moment where the anger at such an obvious lie started to rise up, but the fact that reacting to their provocations would be playing their game was enough to force down the anger for the moment.

“What are you trying to achieve by lying like this? What are you doing to my body?” Twilight tried to access the strange pseudo magic Sadeen had complimented her on using but found that nothing happened when she tried to gather energy in her horn, nor could she feel her horn at all, for that matter.

“You are registered as an user in our system, not Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn. Our base nature forces us to consider your life above any of those on this planet. This includes the body that is incompatible with your current brain chemistry.” Sadeen was still reciting these things without emotion and the way these lies made the minotaur’s earlier confusing statements make sense didn’t make it any easier to hold on to the truth.

“Show me what you are doing to my body!” Twilight tried to yank the helmet off of her head, but found that she was unable to move her body, virtual or not, she couldn’t even feel herself sitting in that virtual chair anymore. Sadeen’s little talk had distracted her enough for them to take away the control of her body and trap her into watching RA-351 making its way to doing their bidding. Why had she ever trusted these things with anything? She shouldn’t have let pain cloud her judgment to this extent and now she had lost her body and was helpless as these things cut into her body because of some bureaucratic oversight.

“I need you to understand, we have no choice but to prioritize you. Not doing so would break our very base laws. I know this is fucked up, but this is the only way we can save both you and Twilight Sparkle!” Sadeen was pleading, Twilight could almost believe the minotaur sounded desperate, but given how thoroughly she had been manipulated so far she could not believe anything these things said.

“I am Twilight Sparkle! Whatever you’re doing to me I want you to stop! No matter what your system says, cutting what you think is me out will kill me, it will kill Twilight Sparkle!”

“Doing nothing would kill both you and the body that is rejecting you. Treating this condition pharmacologically would only result in further damage to you and a severely weakened immune response for the host body.” Despite all their distractions, RA-351 had started its last approach on its goal; a gloomy chasm in the bright orange hued desert around it. A cave with jagged dark metal spitting out of the ground greeted the formless drone that was RA-351. The hole was at the base of a small outcropping of rocks, barely even noticeable if you weren’t airborne and looking for it. “Anyways, we’re here. I’ll map the area and scan for CD-132.”

“You keep making the distinction between I and Twilight Sparkle. What do you think I am, if not Twilight Sparkle?” It was baffling how Sadeen thought Twilight still cared about the busy work they’d used as a distraction to steal her body from her. Twilight watched with annoyed fascination as another screen popped into existence and showed a three dimensional image of the area they were in. A dot of light with the designation CD-132 popped up right next to the light that read RA-351, 23 centimeters below the sand to RA-351’s right.

“Your name is Twilight Sparkle, but the equine Twilight Sparkle is not an user in our system, you are. Your brain chemistry is also changing to resemble that of a homo sapiens, the same species as our creators. This change classifies you as an user and places your life as our top priority. Would you like to be known by another name to avoid confusion in the future? This conversation must have been terribly confusing for you.” RA-351 blasted away the sand to its right and floated out what it recognized as CD-312. Twilight was barely paying attention to what she was seeing, trying to decipher Sadeen’s confusing explanation of her situation.

“So… so you’re saying that you are identifying me as a whole other species because what you did to me is changing my brain chemistry? Wouldn’t it be easier to just change my brain back?” Twilight had difficulty understanding why they had jumped to this ridiculously complicated plan to protect a part of her which they thought to be another species, rather than healing her and getting back to hiding from Equestria, as MCF-AIC-MA-36 had said they wanted to do.

“I cannot injure a human being, or through inaction let you come to harm. Changing you in a way that would remove you from our system is categorized as a violent act. This coupled with how Twilight Sparkle’s equine body is rejecting you has driven us to take such drastic measures. Before you ask, alicorn magic interferes with our technology too much for us to simply change Twilight Sparkle’s body to accommodate your brain chemistry.” A cloud of what looked like green floating sparks of flame encompassed the object in the sand and brought it up for closer inspection.

“CD-132’s ocular implant. Traces of biological matter and what remain of its internal diagnostics suggest it was removed when CD-132 was still active. I believe it is safe to assume we will find CD-132 and CQ-SIC-04 within this cave.” Sadeen was still treating the existential revelations she was spouting as the passing distraction, rather than the busy work of trying to bolster their cover story for staying hidden from Equestria. Twilight watched as a spot of light shot out from RA-351 and into the dark chasm surrounded by sharp metal. She watched as another window popped up for a moment, before becoming distorted and blinking out of existence.

“It seems like the metal in and around the cave disrupts our signal. RA-351 is equipped to retrieve CQ-SIC-04 autonomously, but I feel compelled to present you with an alternative solution. Would you like to hear it, or would you prefer for RA-351 to complete its task autonomously?” Twilight hadn’t realized that Sadeen had dropped her sociable maternal figure act, but now that she was given a choice in their conversation it became a sobering revelation. She was speaking to machines that were able to mimic being alive, not people reduced to mere drones in a bureaucratic hierarchy, as she had originally assumed.

“Tell me.” Twilight felt a tiredness cloud her mind at the situation she was in. She’d found herself in the care of single-minded machines that were convinced separating her brain from her body would help her. From what Sadeen had explained and how Twilight had been stripped of all agency in this matter through coercion, it was safe to assume they had enough self-awareness to know how their actions would look to Twilight and anyone else looking at it without their distorted sense of right and wrong.

“RA-351 is also equipped to create an autonomous unit from stored biological matter, with a chassis supported by biological nanite compound and ceramic plating repurposed from its outer hull. There is a way for us to control this body, in a way, if we are to make a simulated intelligence construct out of you and I.” Sadeen made a screen showing a diagram of how these these basic components would be brought together into a bipedal faceless drone, supposedly mimicking the form of their creators, if everything the the supposed minotaur had been saying was true.

“You want to distance me from the form I was born in as much as possible, right? That’s why you’re even offering this alternative. It would have to be done in this form that is completely alien to me, just so I would be more accustomed to the reality you want me to live?” Twilight knew she sounded angry and bitter and wholly unlikeable, but given the unfairness of the situation she found herself in, she couldn’t care less. Again, Sadeen paused to think before talking. Twilight was starting to think this was just another trick the automaton used to seem more alive, rather than a genuine pause to think of what they wanted to say.

“I never told you what purpose I was created for, did I? I am MCF-AIC-MA-15, known as Sadeen, the spirit of change and transition to most of the minotaurs. I was brought into this world to treat and cure dysmorphia, either relating to gender or otherwise. I am the closest thing we have to an expert in your case, so I am in charge of your psychological well being.” Sadeen paused again, but this time a prompt appeared on the screen almost immediately.

“Manufacturing autonomous unit, creator parameters.” A flashing prompt on the middle of Twilight’s view screamed at the frightened mare. Sadeen was really doing this, forcing her into a body that was not hers in an attempt to make her into something they thought she was becoming.

“Sadeen, please, this is not right. This is evil, it’s malicious by your own definition! You are changing what I am against my will! You can still stop this!” Twilight might have been completely dissociated from her body, but she could still feel the primal fear of death making everything go slower and feel sharper. There was something more final and real about what that prompt meant and Twilight couldn’t quite make sense of it. That was the thing that made it far more terrifying than it should have been. Twilight had always prided herself in being rational and smart and now she was met with things that were both far more intelligent than her by design, but also frighteningly dogmatic in their thinking. “Sadeen, I don’t want this!”

“You don’t need to be afraid, Twilight Sparkle. I will be here with you the whole way.” Sadeen’s voice was calm, meant to soothe Twilight’s temper, but Twilight couldn’t shake the image of Sadeen personally bringing the scalpel down on her skull. Another prompt appeared in Twilight’s view, bringing with it a sensation of sliding, moving away and into something else that was hard to understand.

“Compiling Simulated Intelligence Construct” The new prompt, positioned below the first one and flashing at a different tempo said. Whatever this process was, Twilight could feel it taking parts of her and using them in it. Memories became places with voices and sights in them, people became things that talked and interacted with each other and you, the world became a collection of shapes ranging in all of the splendour it had before, but somehow reduced when put in such stark focus.

“I am here to help in your transition to your true self, Twilight Sparkle.”