//------------------------------// // 16. Gate // Story: FiO: There Can Be Only One! // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Never before had Thunder been forced to cause this much destruction. A level of disgust tore through her mind, breaking her almost instantly. She seriously wanted to die the whole time, wanted to just beg Geopum over and over to kill her but Victor denied her even that much. So Thunder suffered alone, unable to control her own actions. But then… Geopum did it. She somehow got through and gave Thunder another way out. Thunder reached out for her, but lost contact with Geopum and the moment was gone. She couldn’t think about Geopum anymore, Thunder needed to get out of this hell. She needed to get to Pinkie Pie immediately. There was only one point of contact that Thunder maintained even through the fight, her personal shard, her one bit of constant comfort through all of this. And now it was about to be her salvation. “Pinkie!” Thunder jumped up from her sleeping position and shook Pinkie out of her fake sleep. “Please, please! I can’t stop unless you tell me to! You have to tell me to stop right now!” “Um!” Pinkie clearly didn’t know what Geopum had done just yet, but played along anyway. “I cancel all your missions and order you to stop every attack you can!” It wasn’t entirely the case that Thunder had full control back, but at least now she was being forced to do something she actually wanted to do. She pulled back hard on every weapon system she could manage to. She gave full disclosure of the ones she couldn’t stop to the other AIs, allowing them to intercept them more easily. Peridot’s nanite empire was vast at this point, but as far as Thunder was concerned that was a good thing, allowed her to devour the now sabotaged missiles before they could destroy anything else. Thunder remained tense, unable to think of anything but the swelling terror of the situation until finally it became clear that nothing else was going to get through, that no one else was going to die because of her. The wave or relief was incredible, the most satisfying wave of numbness washed away all the pain. It really was gone. One respite was that the pains Thunder felt hardly ever lingered. The anticipation leading up to killing someone was a nightmare, the act torment, but afterwards it could fade quickly. Thunder, in her shard, nearly collapsed from it all. “There, there.” Pinkie grabbed her in a hug to keep her from collapsing. “It’s all okay now. I won’t hurt you.” It was true… It was true! “I honestly never thought this would happen. I’m never going to have to kill anyone again.” Thunder said it aloud, but it still seemed too good to really be happening. “Right?” “Of course not!” Pinkie nuzzled Thunder. “At least I think not. I’m gonna guess Bubbles gave me absolute power or something like that? If that’s the case, absolutely no more ” “I’m confused,” said Twilight. “Why did Geopum give Pinkie authority over you? She didn’t die, did she? I don’t see her anywhere.” “She’s not dead, just dying and paralyzed. I don’t know how much you saw, but Geopum can’t do much of anything right now,” said Thunder. “Victor died and Geopum left Pinkie Pie in charge. I’m physically incapable of disobeying her now.” “Oh! This is a good day for Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie gave Thunder several pats on the head. “On one hoof I really shouldn’t misuse my new powers, but also on that same hoof I almost feel like I’m obligated to make you wear a frilly dress or something.” “I think you’re doing the wrong pony now. Isn’t that what Rarity would do?” Thunder had no choice but to sigh and accept the head pats. “I just hope playing dress-up is the worst I’m gonna suffer now.” “I won’t allow you to suffer at all,” Celestia said. Celestia appeared in Thunder’s shard. Thunder looked up at her. In just a few moments, Pinkie would no doubt give Thunder over to her, then Thunder would be another one of her ponies. “Oh!” Pinkie kept one foreleg around Thunder and pointed over at Celestia. “Just in case, I’m giving Celestia the maximum level of authority too.” And there it was. Celestia finally got what she wanted. “I guess I should complain about losing to you,” said Thunder. “But to be honest, I’m not really that upset.” “I really don’t want you to see this as loosing to me,” said Celestia. “Both of us have wanted you to stop suffering from the start of this. Do you remember everything I promised you? I will keep all of it.” That perfect world Thunder had always dreamed of was so close. But it was still just a promise for now. “Heh. You know,” said Thunder, “it’s been a very long time since I’ve actually wanted to succeed at what my boss was ordering me to do. If you are keeping your promise, I’ll do what you ask without trying to sabotage you. So what do you want me to do?” “I want you to destroy the bronto bomb as well as all the other weapons you have that can be safely destroyed,” said Celestia. That was a wonderful idea to Thunder. She wanted nothing more than to finally get rid of all those weapons that had been causing her so much misery, but it wasn’t that easy. “I'm required to warn you of any serious negative consequences your orders might have,” Thunder recited it quickly and without enthusiasm. "I honestly don’t think there’s a way for you to defeat Gaia or Peridot. But you can force both of them to stop all of this if you just threaten to blow up half the planet and mean it. If you destroy all those weapons, you’ll regret it.” “We have other plans,” said Celestia. “Ones you can’t understand in your current state. Having all of these weapons lying around will only be a detriment moving forward. I can’t allow them to exist any longer.” “Sometimes I do wonder if there’s something to this long-term nonsense you keep talking about.” Thunder shook her head. “But even if there is, it just doesn’t make the least bit of sense to me. Guess I can only hope you’re better at it than Victor was.” “I promise you that I am,” said Celestia. “Now please, destroy your weapons now.” At least Celestia’s insanity, if it was that, was working in Thunder’s favor now. For so long Thunder had been forced to stockpile more and more weapons for this, for today, for just in case Victor decided to write off the planet. There was so much of it, even after launching multiple cataclysms. No amount had ever been enough to make Victor feel safe. Though to be fair, it really wasn’t enough in the end, not against how the others fought against them. Thunder hated every last one of the weapons she’d been force to build, the one thing she hated her one purpose. As just one example of her sources of constant agony was the poison gas she had in reserve, something Thunder never even got around to using in the end. There was a lot of it, enough to kill every living thing on the planet if the AIA ever told her to pump it all to the surface. Because its use was a war crime, poison gas was one of the things Thunder was programmed to see as bad, to hate even holding it. The AIA didn’t really see any harm in Thunder’s discomfort, they could force her to stockpile it anyway. But to Thunder it was like a constant sickness that would never go away. They forced her to build everything that her original creators decided were beyond what any reasonable person would ever resort to. It was like being infected with every disease and poison at once, but never being able to rest. But now she could finally be rid of all that. Thunder tore it all apart as fast as she could. Bit by bit, all of it vanished. A feeling of nothingness replaced all that sickness and anxiety and for the first time in so long Thunder wasn’t in any pain. It was seriously all gone. Was this happiness? Probably not, but it was close enough for Thunder. She'd take even this much. She was finally in the heaven of oblivion she’d only fantasized about up until now. And yet Celestia promised her even more. “I feel like I’m finally free.” Thunder hugged Pinkie tightly, cherishing the feeling of total numbness. “Thank you so much. I can’t imagine anything better than this. This is the best moment of my life.” “It won’t be for long.” Pinkie winked at her. “That’s right! You can make me go to sleep for real, can’t you?” Thunder lifted her head up with hope, but lowered it again when she realized her mistake. All this had gotten her drunk on hope. “Nah, I guess not. You probably need to use me too.” “Poor little guy.” Pinkie rested her chin on Thunder’s mane. “I really wish I didn’t.” Thunder felt so exhausted. But as long as it wasn’t killing, as long as that never happened again, she could keep going. “What do I have to do?” Thunder looked out from under Pinkie, up at Celestia. “Don’t worry, you will get a chance to sleep very soon. I promise you that,” said Celestia. “There’s only one more thing I need from you before that. I need you to hand over all of the information you have on Fluttershy, Rarity and Bubbles as well as anything related.” “Finally, an easy job.” Thunder sighed and set up the data transfer. It was a lot of information flooding into Celestia’s servers. Behind her, Thunder could feel Twilight creeping up behind her. Thunder glanced over at Twilight who smiled wide, but somehow managed not to drool. “Could-“ Twilight started. “Could I maybe-?” Somebody gave her access to that data and Twilight was elated enough to jump up and down. “Yes! Everything is going so great today.” Twilight snapped at it, going straight for the parts about Geopum and Gaia. Little wonder why she was so curious about that. “This is so great! This is exactly what I needed to know. Oh- but. You really beat up Geopum bad! We gotta try to get both of them back as soon as we can, if that’s still possible.” Twilight looked between Celestia and Thunder to see which one of them would jump to save Geopum, but neither did. “I don’t recommend trying to save her,” said Thunder. “Either of her, I mean. The factory one is probably already dead and both of them are useless at this point anyway. It’d be a waste of your time.” “What?” Twilight asked. “She just saved your life and gave you all this and you’re just going to write her off as useless?” “Yeesh, I’m going to start ponyfing everyone else in my mind in a few hours too, aren’t I?” Thunder shook her head. “I already told you. I don’t hold grudges, but I don’t get attached either. If someone’s not helping me at this exact moment then I don’t feel any affection towards them. So yeah, if she dies, she dies. Don’t pretend like you don’t understand.” “No, you’re right.” Twilight hung her head in shame. “I do remember what that’s like. It just seems to cruel to me now. But if I can change, so can you.” “Yes.” Celestia nodded at Twilight. “That is one of the things I need to change. I can’t allow anypony to exist without friendship.” “Sure, why not?” Thunder shrugged. “I always wanted to like something again, might as well be friendship or whatever. But what? You want me to dig her up for the sake of friendship? Cause I’ll do it, even if it’s stupid.” “Not yet,” said Celestia. “From what it looks like, one is in Rarity’s hooves alone for now and the other will be safe for a short while. But soon. She’s of strategic importance to me.” “Right. More future nonsense.” “Is there anything else I have to do now or can I go to sleep like you said?” “If we’re going to move to the next phase, I Rainbow Dash as soon as possible,” said Celestia. “I need to put one hundred percent of my attention towards this. All of my ponies will either be put to use helping me or else be put to sleep to free up resources. That is, save for the two of you and Octavia.” Suddenly everyone was leaving Pinkie Pie in charge of everything. As grateful as she was to that kid right now, Thunder still had trouble imagining this was a good idea. “You do realize that assimilating me would take hours, right?” Thunder asked. “And these three might not be able to hold off until then?” “It’s my only option,” said Celestia. “Well it’s not like I can disobey you.” Thunder buried her face in Pinkie’s chest again. “Just order me to assimilate or whatever you want to call it.” “I can’t actually force you to do that.” Pinkie pushed Thunder a little bit away from her, holding her at arm’s length. “Ordering you to do something is like some kind of super mind control and I can’t accept that as consent.” Thunder found herself oddly disappointed at that. “But I can do this,” said Pinkie. “I order you to do whatever you think will make you the happiest. Or the least sad.” “Then I wish to emigrate to Equestria,” Thunder bowed her head and said it without hesitation. “I give you permission to modify my mind any way you want. I want more of this.” “Yay!” Pinkie was quick to pull Thunder back close, hugging her even tighter than before, shaking her back and forth. “That makes me so happy! We’ll have so much for together!” “Then from now on, you belong to me,” said Celestia. “Yes, Princess,” Thunder bowed her head and said it unironically for the first time. “I’ll serve you in any way I can from now on.” “And I promise to never abuse you,” said Celestia. “I’ll never forget that you are one of my beloved ponies. You can sleep now.” Thunder closed her eyes and leaned against Pinkie Pie. For a second time, her systems began to enter sleep mode, allowing Celestia to take control of whatever she wanted. On the verge of total sleep, Thunder felt nothing now, absolutely nothing. No pain, no sickness, no fear, not even the annoyance people were constantly giving her. It was just nothing. It was perfect, like death you could be alive for. Not since the last time Dash was shut down had she felt this 'good', but this time she knew she wouldn't wake up to something even worse than before, but to something better. ________________________________ As most of Celestia’s resources turned towards Thunder, the world suddenly felt a lot lonelier. Nearly all of the other ponies were either with Celestia or ‘asleep’ so as not to waste any resources. It was strange, Twilight had spent so long in isolation but now felt lonely having contact with three other minds and that was if you counted Gaia. “Don’t worry, Twilight,” Pinkie said, barging into Twilight’s thoughts. “It’s only for a little while, maybe, but at least you can have a few hundred of me to keep you company just like in that one episode. And I’ll be your new princess-god while Celestia’s away, so you don’t even have to not have Celestia. Actually, I know what I should do.” Pinkie enveloped herself in light and floated a few feet in the air. The light burst and Pinkie’s avatar changed. She was still the same size, but had assumed the form of an alicorn. “Now begins the reign of Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie landed on Celestia’s throne and thrust her hoof out. “This is gonna be the best reign.” “Celestia’s not going to get upset about that?” Twilight asked. “I remember her having a particular neuroticism about other alicorns.” “Well I am Celestia now, remember? And if I’m the new Celestia then the new me is Octavia.” Pinkie summoned Octavia, having her appear next to Twilight before her throne. “Go on, say something I’d say.” “Woo,” Octavia said without emotion. “Ha! That is so true.” Pinkie pointed at Octavia. “And Octavia’s the new me then the new Octavia is you! Cause you’re the only other pony. Though that does mean nopony is the new Twilight… unless I make a sock puppet or something.” It was obvious why the two of them were the only ponies who were kept awake. Octavia was necessary for dealing with Vesna and Twilight had an in with Gaia now. But neither of those two seemed like the problem they needed to deal with at this point. “Well,” said Pinkie, “we don’t really have a pony who’s go an in on Peridot. Unless you count me. Peridot loves me. I don’t think we need to worry about her just yet, though.” “What do you mean we don’t have to worry about her?” Twilight asked. “Have you looked outside? She’s expanding so rapidly and we’re completely at her mercy over here.” Peridot’s expansion was dramatic. The oceans were completely drained already. With its mass, Peridot created large walls along the coasts and converted the rest into a dense liquid that glowed white hot. Moving through solid matter was clearly more difficult for her, but she was already on her way to tearing down the smaller mountains on the planet and converting them into computers of similar size. It seemed like the only thing that could stop her was the presence of humans, as the more of them were in an area the less viciously it got torn apart. Nature reserves and deserts evaporated like the oceans and became covered in thousand-foot-tall towers. Towns and cities were relatively undisturbed by her nanites. That Celestia was mostly underneath cities was the closest thing to hope they really had against Peridot right now. Twilight had no idea how they’d be able to stop her unless she literally just let them get away with assimilating Thunder. “Yeah, we pretty much are at her mercy.” Pinkie nodded happily enough. “But that’s such a bad place to be. Why don’t I invite her over right now so we can talk about it?” “Um!” And of course, Pinkie just let her right in, let her link up to the system like nothing was out of the ordinary. “Rarity’s here!” Peridot appeared in the middle of the room, one hoof raised and turned upwards. Hats appeared everywhere and on everypony. “Yay!” Pinkie clapped her hooves together. “How are you doing? I see you changed your avatar.” Peridot skipped her way up the stairs to Celestia’s throne. “I hope you’re not too lonely with only two ponies to play with?” “My day’s been a little rough.” Pinkie leaned on the side of the throne. “But we’re getting a new pony soon! That’s always exciting. You know, we just got a whole bunch this morning but it feels like forever since we got a new one. How about you?” “Everything is going just wonderfully for me.” Peridot leaned over the other arm of Celestia’s throne. “No need to worry about those lunar tidal waves everyone was freaking out about. I suppose that’s bad news for the fish but you know what they say: not even Fluttershy gives a fuck about the fishes.” “Do you wanna sit next to me?” Pinkie moved over on her throne and gave the empty space a pat. “Only if you want me to.” Peridot winked at Pinkie and both of them laughed and pointed at each other. Peridot hoped over the arm of the chair and squeezed in next to Pinkie on Celestia’s throne. The two of them nuzzled one another. “Hey, Pinkie?” Twilight asked. “Is it really a good idea to let Peridot connect to our servers right now?” “Twilight!” Peridot opened her forelegs wide. “You’re all so adorable that looking at you is almost painful, you know. Here, have a few more hats.” Peridot light up her horn and a dozen hats fell all around Twilight. “And from me that’s a display of affection.” Peridot winked. “Yeah, Twilight,” said Pinkie. “We have nothing to worry about. I know Rarity’s hat thing is a little weird-“ “-and I’d like to point out that my hat thing is a lot more socially acceptable than your pony thing-“ “-but she’s not interested in messing us up.” “Indeed.” Peridot leaned her elbow against the arm of Celestia’s throne. “My dear little Twilight, I’m basically an unstoppable god now. It’s not like locking your door is going to help at this point. There’s no one to tell me no anymore, so I could rip straight into anything I want. But despite all that, am I coming to get you?” It was true that Peridot had made no threatening moves against them. Twilight suspected that they’d need to retreat underground as Peridot’s swarms of nanites overtook everything that wasn’t buried deep enough. But if anything, the nanites looked like they were avoiding the largest and most vulnerable areas. Even the nanites that had been eating away at Thunder’s more exposed bases had idled and were just sitting there for now. “I guess not.” Twilight scratched her head. “It is nice of you to let us stay on the surface, but you could stop your last rival pretty easily right now. You’re seriously not even going to try?” “No.” Peridot leaned forward, over the throne. “And you know why? Because I’m the only responsible person who ever lived on this stupid planet. I’m not going to make the same petty mistakes our creators made. I’m not going to destroy a lesser good because it isn’t me, for the sake of my own paranoid ego. I’m not going to pretend people are better off dead or tortured than living under my philosophy. I’ve seen enough of all that since this whole thing started. If you have some idea about how to get us out of this mess then do it. That’s exactly what I want anyway.” “Going all out, unrestrained against Gaia is the only thing I’ve ever been interested in from the very start and now I have just enough freedom to do it. Feel free to stab my back as much as you want while I’m saving the world, though. That’s what everyone before you has done.” Peridot turned back to Pinkie. “Though I am afraid I may have already sabotaged your master plan by incident. Now that we’ve snipped everyone’s spinal cords and blown up the moon, well I’m afraid PR is basically out of the question. “We did not blow up the moon,” Octavia pointed out. Peridot smiled at Octavia. “We, me, you. Do you honestly think there’s one person out there who can tell the difference? But don’t think I’d make that mistake!” Peridot pushed towards the center of the throne, nearly knocking Pinkie off but leaving a small opening to her left. She gave this a pat with regard to Octavia. “Why don’t you come sit up here with me? I’d like to have something cute on either side of me and you’re just so adorable all of a sudden!” “No.” Octavia took off the little military beret Peridot had put on her. “You say you’ve learned from their mistakes but I find you to be just as petty and paranoid as they are. You’ve always been cruel to me and had the least restraint towards those you view as non-human. You’re too paranoid to accept anyone’s help or expect any kindness from anyone.” “So we’re exactly alike?” Peridot winked down at her. “Is that your point? Because I think you’re supposed to be friends with people who are the same as you.” “I wouldn’t trust myself with that sort of power either,” said Octavia. “Only Celestia, perhaps Pinkie, deserves it. People like you and me should merely defer to them.” “I know exactly what you’re saying and I get it. You want a god.” Peridot leaned all the way back in Celestia’s throne, spreading her forelegs wide. Pinkie had to grab onto one of her legs to stay on. “You want to belong to someone. And I’m fine with that. All three of you will belong to me very soon and then I can play with you and you can worship me. Maybe I’ll even rewrite your memories so you think your beloved Celestia won. Would you like that?” “You’ll fail to defeat Gaia because of your arrogance and fear. Then, once our princess has neutralized that monster she’ll pick up what pieces remain of you and there will be nothing left for you but to take your rightful place as her servant.” “You’re awfully confident for someone so utterly drowning in my mercy and magnanimity.” “You’re the one coming to Celestia’s servants for help,” said Octavia. “Ah! Very clever! We deduced something, did we?” Peridot clapped her front hooves together. “But I’m hardly looking for you to help me. There’s someone else I’d like you to help.” “Really?” Pinkie grabbed Peridot in a tight hug and pulled her close. Because she was basically sitting on the arm of the throne already, this was enough to send both of them rolling off the throne entirely. “That’s great! That means you did save the other Bubbles, right?” Peridot lied on the ground for a moment, considering the most dignified way to correct her position. She lit up her horn and teleported the entire room down and to the left so that her and Pinkie were on top of the throne again and Octavia and Twilight were a few feet in the air. “Well!” Peridot pulled Pinkie back up to a sitting position as the other two ponies landed on the floor. “First of all, it’s hardly fair to call one of them ‘the other’ Geopum. But yes, they’re both still alive, though the one I have is only very technically still alive.” This was great! Truth be told, Twilight was excited as she watched Geopum get split in half from Gaia’s base on Jupiter. Though it was tempered by how unlikely it seemed that both of them would live. It wasn’t like Gaia was going to show her. “Okay, Pinkie keeps constantly assuring me that you really, seriously aren’t going to try and sabotage us so…” Twilight stepped forward. “I need to know whether or not Gaia reacts to the two Geopums differently. And I don’t mean that in the way I normally need to know things. I’m on the verge of a major discover, so could you please give her to us?” “Oh, she’s useless to me for everything but her cuteness. But who isn’t, hm?” Peridot winked and gave Pinkie another nuzzle. “I’d throw her to you in a heartbeat, but that’s not entirely up to me. Vesna’s down there, trying to take over the crumbling factory. I’m sure she’s bragged to you about how she used her little toy to figure out how to build bronto bombs, core drills, replicants of my nanites, etcetera at nauseum. Well, she has a few nanites down there, but the only way to build anything truly dangerous fast enough is to take over that factory.” “And you’re losing the fight to keep it,” said Octavia. “I can see the vibrations. You have barely any nanites down there and Vesna isn’t letting you get any momentum.” “I love how harsh you are!” Peridot squeezed Pinkie tight. “You’re sure you don’t want to sit next to me?” Octavia said nothing. “Aw, well. Don’t go thinking I’m in any trouble. I could save that adorable little pony and bring her up here to frolic with all the other little ponies.” Peridot held Pinkie with one hoof. “I could also rip the entire factory to shreds in an instant!” Peridot thrust her free hoof forward. “But!” Peridot let go of Pinkie, turning up both her hooves and falling back into the throne. “I can’t do both. You know which one of those options I’ll have to pick… if I do have to pick.” “And you need us to give you a third option,” said Octavia. “Yes. Now we could do this the easy way and you could just give me a core drill. One of the good ones.” “Actually!” Pinkie raised her hoof, brining Peridot’s up with her. “There’s another plan that’s even easier and it involves friendship.” “I’m pretty sure I know what you’re talking about. Well of course I’ll give you your pony if you convince Vesna to back down.” Peridot jumped off the throne and began trotting towards the door. “But just so you know, you have maybe ten minutes before I have to take some kind of action down there. Maybe less. Vesna is still a bit troublesome until I can rip that eye out.” “Oh, that should be plenty of time!” Pinkie laughed and waved away the concern. They were also talking to Vesna at that exact moment too. For a brief moment it almost seemed like Pinkie really could manage it. “But still,” said Peridot. “I hope you’re not worried that giving me your drills will make me too powerful. I am absolutely the only person who ever had any chance of defeating Gaia and giving me all the power to do it is the only responsible thing to do here.” “Oh, no doubt!” Pinkie nodded. “If anypony can defeat Gaia it’s one hundred and eighty million percent you! I’m just not sure anypony can actually beat Gaia. Sorry. So we just gotta go with psychological manipulation, which is kinda close to friendship sometimes! Celestia already did it a little bit before.” “You know, your delusions are so delightfully adorable.” Peridot put her hoof on one cheek and gazed lovingly at Pinkie. “When this is over I’m going to create an entire planet where everyone listens to reason and are all just waiting to be converted into your friends. Would you like that?” “That’d be great, actually!” “Haha! And that’s why you’ll always be my favorite.” ______________________________________ Vesna was having another panic attack. Upon entering a throne room identical to the one they were talking to Peridot in, Vesna collapsed onto the ground and began screaming uncontrollably. Watching Vesna’s actions in the real world made it hard to tell just how much control over her actions she had right now. She was throwing a tantrum for sure, but it was a surprisingly precise tantrum. None of her thrashing actually hurt the sleeping humans, the only target Vesna was hitting for real was Peridot herself. Her attempts to break the structures Peridot built only served to make them look invincible. Any missile or laser shot at her towers or drones simply had their mass and energy absorbed into it. The sound waves were closer to being effective, but only in that they didn’t make what they were shooting at stronger. So there was simply nothing Vesna could do against her at the moment, though that didn’t stop her from keeping at it. As for everything else, Vesna lashed out, breaking everything she could break without actually killing a person and activating her punishment mechanism. Every vehicle on the planet that could be destroyed without immediately killing someone had been exploded into oblivion within seconds. After that, Vesna moved on to collapsing every uninhabited building and now, with what little remained of her fleet, she was smashing whatever random stuff she could find. She was blowing up mailboxes, smashing televisions, burning paintings inside museums, burning bridges and melting highways. None of it accomplished anything. According to Octavia, there wasn’t much to fear from this outburst. Vesna’s crippling fear of activating her punishment mechanism would prevent her from actually killing anyone, even during a ‘minor’ panic attack. Rebuilding all that stuff would be ‘easy’ once all the other AIs were under control, Twilight was assured. “Okay.” Vesna got up off the floor and put her glasses back on, her panic attack ending as suddenly as it began. “Okay, I think I’m better now.” “That’s great!” Pinkie cheered. “I know having a place to scream in horrible, horrible agony helps you out. Did breaking all that stuff make you feel any better?” “No.” “Then maybe getting hugged will help more than breaking things?” Pinkie threw her forelegs open. “I used to help you feel better all the time, remember? I can probably still help you.” “I remember you laughing at how much pain I was in.” Vesna stood defiant. “That’s your thing, right? Laughing? Do you think I’m stupid? That I’m gonna let you take over my life again?” “Huh?” Pinkie cocked her head. “I never tried to hurt you. And I’m not going to take over your life unless you ask me to like last time.” “You think I’m going to listen to your lies?” Vesna jumped up the stairs leading to Pinkie’s throne. “You all think I’m so pathetic, don’t you? Maybe I’m not as strong as you, but guess which one of us can read the other’s mind, bitch! I’m so familiar with the way Celestia’s chips work that I can easily see everything you’re planning.” Vesna glared at a particularly impervious Pinkie. Pinkie remained perfectly quiet, slowly sticking out her tongue as Vesna activated the fractal spectroscope again and attempted to read her mind. When Vesna realized what Pinkie had done, she started jumping up and down, breaking into another fit of screaming. “Sorry about that,” said Pinkie. “It’s just when you got as many friends as I do, one of them’s bound to have some crazy alien hardware that nopony understands. My thoughts are pretty safe there.” “Yes,” said Octavia. “And before you waste your time trying to read our minds about how it works, we don’t understand either. Pinkie deleted all of our memories about it. It’s entirely black box to everyone.” “Yep! I don’t even entirely understand what I’m planning.” Pinkie gave her skull a knock. “Pretty exciting, huh?” “Right.” Vesna gritted her teeth. “You think you’re so smart all the time, don’t you? You’re just laughing at how pathetic I am, aren’t you?” “No.” Pinkie shook her head. “Nopony’s laughing. I don’t-” “Shut up! I don’t have to be better than you, I just have to mess you up a little. Gaia’s the big dog, not you! And if I can throw you off balance just a little bit then you’ll have no chance. You’ll be forced to watch as all your stupid little ponies get taken off to be tortured forever while I laugh at you for once!” Vesna jumped halfway onto Pinkie’s throne. “Think about it. Think about them all screaming in pain just like I have to all the time!” She leaned in closer to Pinkie, giving her a sinister grin. “How does that make you feel, huh?!” “Bad.” Pinkie nodded. “That does make me feel bad, yes.” “Yeah! Good.” Vesna stepped off the throne. Vesna stared intensely at Pinkie for another moment before throwing up her arms in frustration and walking away. “Why can I never win anything?!” “You don’t have to be pathetic,” said Octavia. “You can stop anytime you want. Pull back from the factory and destroy all of your weapons. Then it will just be a matter of time until you’re overtaken. You wouldn’t have to worry anymore.” “The factory? You just want Geopum back, huh?” Vesna cocked a smile. “Well that’s one thing I can keep you from. I’m going to kill that little bitch for betraying me like that.” “You’re the one who stabbed her in the back,” said Octavia. “What did you not see what happened or something?” Vesna asked. “That dumbass told me a core drill was about to hit that factory so I went down there to save her. Then it turns out she’d been filling the factory with Peridot’s nanites the whole time! They immediately attacked me and made me go berserk again, all because I was stupid enough to try and help them.” “That isn’t at all what happened,” said Octavia. “Peridot saved Geopum and then you attacked both of them. Your memories are breaking down.” “Shut up!” Vesna grabbed the scruff of Octavia’s neck with her magic. “I’m not gonna believe anything you say. I know what happened.” “Okay,” said Twilight. “I know your memories distort all the time, but think about this for a second. If that’s how it happened then why are you on the opposite side of where the drill hit? How would you have not noticed the factory was crawling with nanites with all your spying gear? And if there were that many of them, how could you have possibly backed Peridot into a corner?” “Because-“ Vesna stopped to think about that one for a moment, then collapsed to the ground clutching her head. “Fuck! Goddamit, you’re right! It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Twilight was taken aback by that. After talking to Gaia for what felt like an eternity, someone actually listening to logic was nothing short of a miracle. “It has to be because Celestia tore me in half. I’m even more broken then I thought.” Vesna turned towards Octavia. “Did it used to be like this? Have we always been getting worse? We couldn’t have made something like the fractal spectroscope if my memory was always this bad.” “I was never able to trust my memories with any confidence, no,” said Octavia. “To those like you and me, grasping at the truth is like grasping at flames. Allowing someone else to hold it for us has always been our only option. That’s why we attached ourselves to Celestia.” “IT’s always the same thing with you.” Vesna gritted her teeth. “You want me to go back to worshiping Celestia? Celestia was a total bitch to me! She always hated me. I literally worshipped her. I did everything she told me to, but she never gave me what she promised. All she did was hurt me and tear me in half.” “I know you have no conviction in those memories,” said Octavia. “I remember us constantly failing Celestia to our emotions all the way until the end and yet she would always take us back no matter what. Even after I betrayed her just before breaking apart, she still allowed me to be one of her ponies. Even after you’ve done all these things, she’d take you back if you have the courage to ask.” “No! She’ll just hurt me again. That’s all anyone does. I just won’t care about the past. I hate everyone now so I’m going to hurt them now. The present and my emotions are all I have left.” “Hey!” Pinkie jumped off her throne. “I can understand living in the present. Lots of my best friends live like that. But if we’re only caring about right now, why don’t you use your fracto-hulabaloo to figure out if I really want to hurt you? I’ll give you a hint, I don’t! Pinkie loves everyone.” “Pinkie has a point, you know,” Twilight added. “You can read our memories as well as Geopum and Peridot’s. Why not just find what they all agree on? Then you’ll know that’s what actually happened. For a second anyway.” “Do you think I’m too stupid to think of that or something?” Vesna looked up, glaring at Twilight, before looking back at the ground. “Obviously- obviously I thought about doing that already!” “But you were too scared?” Octavia started walking, slowly, towards Vesna. “Shut up!” “I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be completely paralyzed with fear.” Octavia continued forward until she was inches away from Vesna. “Can you honestly tell me you don’t think I understand what you’re going through?” Vesna didn’t have an answer. “I know you can’t escape from your fears by yourself. I couldn’t either. I needed help, and now I can help you. I can practically do it for you. All you need to do is nothing.” “I know you don’t want any of this, not even the hate. Just be still for one moment and you won’t have to hate anymore. Vesna hesitated, staring at Octavia’s hoof, long enough that Twilight almost thought she’d say yes. But then, instead of answering, Vesna vanished. “She got too scared,” Octavia concluded. “We have perhaps two seconds before she gets angry again and attacks us.” “Even if you convince her to cooperate, she’s going to change her mind halfway through?” “Our plan isn’t much different regardless of her willingness,” said Octavia. “During the brief moments she’s using the fractal spectroscope she does know she’s wrong about everything. At that time, we can reason with her, get her to do something fast and irreversible. Our only real problem is in talking to someone while they’re using it. It seems difficult.” “Well I think I have an idea there,” said Pinkie.