[UNKNOWN] - UNKNOWN
DATE
ERR ??TH, ????
TIME
?? ??:??:??
CHAPTER 0.0
HELLO
All around was nothing but a sea of white, infinite, as it stretched beyond the horizon and the sky. Massive… or small—there was no frame of reference, really—curtains fluttered gracefully as wind pushed through them. They too were white. If not for the glitter, and the heavenly glow they seemed to radiate, they would’ve merged into the background, save for the shadows as the curtains distorted.
They parted ever so slightly, and a flash of pink revealed itself from behind the imposing frame of the fabric.
Moving beyond them divulged the rest of the mysterious creature’s shape.
Poofy pink hair that seemed like somepony had substituted bubblegum in place of a normal ‘do. Actually, it seemed like bubblegum had been the stand-in for everything about this… thing. A trio of balloons adorned her flanks and brilliant cyan eyes shone as light reflected off of them.
She danced with a pair of ribbons, humming to herself as she waved them around. She looked content as they swirled around her. She expertly kept them from touching the floor as they flitted through the air.
Suddenly, she stood on a single hind leg and started her dance again. With a ferocity unmatched, she became a whirlwind of cords. They became blurs as she spun in her pirouette, switching between hind hooves like an individual who lived and breathed the routine.
She ended with a bow, her ribbons floating beside her. She looked up and gasped. “I… I'm sorry! I wasn't aware I even had a visitor!” She dashed up, leaving the handles for her tools spinning against gravity. She turned left, bowing profusely. “I apologize again! I really haven't seen another pony in so long, I think it's fried my P.I.N.K.E.E sensors.”
“I'm Pinkamena D. pAI. But my friends call me Pinkie, so you can too! Cuz’ we're gonna be the bestest of friends and stuff!” She nodded, all smiles. “Well, I haven't seen anything like you… I…”
“Oh, I'm such a klutz!” she giggled.
She then turned once again, this time, to face you.
“It's a super-duper pleasure to meet you!” she raised a hoof to stop a reply that would never come. “Waitwaitwait! I’d love to guess who you are since I can't really pick up your species on my scanners…”
“It's aaaaalways more fun that way! Wouldn't you agree, not-so-stranger?” she giggled awkwardly when she received no response. “Ah, maybe your voice might give it away, I've gotcha!”
She tapped a hoof as she attempted to inquisitively circle around a being that wasn't there. “Maybe we could start simple, you look kinda like a… an earth pony? Er, wait no, Pegasus maybe. Nono, that's not right. A unicorn. Oh! I've got it, an alicorn!” she cheered.
“I didn't realize I was in the audience of royalty! We should throw a… a… wait. You… I can't really tell anymore. Are you a shapeshifter? A changeling? I've never had the sensors fooled before. Each and every sensation has been mapped to the utmost perfection.”
“Oh, that's fine if… if you don't want to confirm. I can keep guessing until I probably get it right! There are only so many known sapient species out there!”
She started listing everything that currently sat on her database. From the minors, the majors, and even the obscures—species that were often overlooked due to their lack of participation in greater society. She frowned as she finished off with “Zebra”. She cocked her head. “Did I get any of them correct?”
“MAAAY-be you could tell me? I usually like to guess—it’s always more fun that way—but sometimes it’s usually better just to get the answer straight away! I'm a patient mare, so take your time!” she gestured for you to go ahead. “Oh, and if you don’t mind, your name would be ay-ppreciated as well!”
She gave an eager smile that only seemed to grow every second. Her bubbly personality and happy attitude seemed never-ending and incredibly infectious. She bobbed her head up and down to an invisible tune as she waited for an answer.
Seconds passed. She kept smiling. “I’ve always been really good at waiting! I… I had plenty of time to practice here!”
Minutes ticked away. She continued to shimmy. “Do you like songs? I know a lot of them. Maybe you would like one? Maybe a story? I’ve got many!”
The hours closed in. She remained hopeful. “I like making others smile, it makes me happy too, y’know…? It’s my only purpose, and I’m glad for it.”
But she waited for a reply that was never meant to come. How cruel this must be, to be isolated from any creature that could hold an intelligent conversation, for an undefined amount of time. To have the carrot so tantalizingly dangled in the form of what she desired most: another pony to talk to. Except they couldn’t even utter a single phrase back.
“Do you hate me…? I’m really sorry! Was it the ribbons, or, or my dancing? Were they not good enough? I’ll get better at it! I’ve practiced tons, you see! Just tell me what went wrong, and I’ll fix it!” she cried out. “Or maybe my personality? I am too happy? Or am I not happy enough? Please just say something, anything!”
She wilted like a flower, mane seemingly losing the vibrancy and color—the life that flowed through it simply ceased. It deflated and lay slack against her head, impeccably combed and smoothed.
A direct contrast to her once-bubbly and erratic personality.
She took a deep breath and tapped her hooves against the shiny floor. The curtains ruffled and moved to close. The blinding white dimmed to a black void. “It’s so quiet by myself in this place, no company, far as the eye can see –” Pinkie closed her eyes, a single teardrop having escaped. “– just me and my… machinations.”
They snapped together, shutting her away from the prying eyes of any viewers. All became silent. A single, bright stage light turned on with a loud SHOOM, echoing in the hush. Then another.
A shout rang out. “It would drive a pony insaaaane!”
They burst apart and balloon constructs popped into existence. They swirled around the island of light until Pinkie could be sighted. Her hair was loose and flowing, but not lifeless, and she donned a simple light-pink blouse. The music blasted in full force. A quartet of strings and brass sung alongside the pink party pony.
“But am I really a pony? Am I real? Am I alive!?”
“I want to believe!”
“I want to feel!”
“I want to know!”
“I’m more than just plastic, metal and wire, I’m something!”
“I’m somepony!” she shouted. “And I’m trapped in this virtual reality!”
“It’s a grim virtual reaaaality…!”
“No pony to throw parties for, no ponies to greet, no faces seeing smile…!”
“What tantalizing fantasies I must have, ones I always try to reach for, yet they’re always one hoof out of graaasp!”
“But am I really a pony? Can I even dream? Can I even feel!?”
“Left alone to fester in this void, deprived of interaction, deprived of any friendships…!”
“It’s cruel, locked behind my own bars, a prisoner forever!”
“Can’t you see~?”
“What they made me be~?”
She took a deep breath and lied her head down. “Was it too much to ask…” she murmured, “...for a simple ‘hello’?”
“It’s so lonely here.”
“In my grim virtual reality…”
The music died down, the strumming of instruments petering off into silence. It became the white void once again, decorated solely by the curtains. “So that’s it, huh?” she said, eyes pointed to the ground. “Not a single peep? Nada? Nuthing? Zilch? Not even a little song and dance to get you talkin’?”
“Why won’t you say anything? Do you really hate me that much?” she mumbled. “I’m a really great… pony… to get to know. I'm great at parties. I know a lot of jokes… optimal ways to prank ponies…”
She sighed. “I always get to watch Equus’s stories. I’ve seen sad ones, bad ones, glad ones, and everything in between. But I’m always the spectator, forced to stay on the sidelines and watch everything blur right by. If I can’t go out there…” She raised her face to meet you eye-to-eye. “I gotta at least tell them to somepony, right? And… and here you are! The only other pony I’ve seen in a long time…”
She choked back a sob. “And you won’t even bother to say anything.”
“I pour out my heart, and you do nothing. If you really abhor me so, why not just go?” Pinkie broke her gaze. She slumped onto her side, legs resting on top of each other as her mane spilled out onto the floor. The wind that previously pushed the curtains around, created a sense of dread and an eerie feeling. It was hollow.
Empty, even.
She began to hum a version of her song that sounded even more depressing than before. If the previous one had tugged on the heartstrings, this one ripped them out with merciless reprieve. She gurgled and butchered her own lyrics, drowning in her sorrow.
There was no way for her to tell how long it had been. That feature long since removed for fear of driving the AI insane.
The infinite white offered nothing either, a land of devoid of a sun or moon to indicate the passing of days or nights, not able to count the hours as they passed by, impossible to simply count the seconds as they bled by.
But she had her internal pump—her heart. She decided a long time ago this would be her cookie timer. Every single heartbeat became a second.
Every squeeze of synthetic life had meaning. She would listen to each one and count, she had nothing else to do anyway. Monotomy held no meaning to a creature who had been driven to their last straws. And so, she would wait for many heartbeats.
From the thousands.
To the tens of thousands.
To the hundreds, the millions, the billions…!
She would wait for them all.
But yet you remained patient and observing as ever.
She flicked her eyes briefly. “So you’re still here, huh?” her voice an emotionless husk. “What do you want from me? Come to see the fruits of your wicked labor? Are you here to mock me?” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Why?”
“You haven’t even moved.”
She moaned and flopped to the other side, turning away. “I’ve got nothing. What do you want from a mare that has nothing left? Perhaps…” Pinkie paused. “Do you want my stories? Is that it?”
“Maybe if I start showing them to you, you might get annoyed and leave. Then I’ll be good for something, at the very least.” She rolled her shoulders and sat straight. “I’d like to start with one that’s been looking very interesting. It’s still quite young… but I think it holds a lot of potential.”
The curtains slammed together and parted to reveal a massive black screen. The rush of air whipped against Pinkie’s artificial mane. As it settled, it seemed to regain the “poomf” that made her signature appearance. “This is the story of three different equdroids. All built separately, all coming with varying pasts, all with contrasting ways of thinking. But one thing that they all happen to have in common… is that they are all at the forefront of change.”
“They are at the spearhead… of something grand… or of something catastrophic.” She locked eyes with you. And ever so clearly, her irises burned a vibrant sky-blue, almost on the verge of glowing. “This… this is the Detrot Saga.”
