Is Everypony Really Happy?
Luna hated being back here again. After being reunited with her sister, only a few minutes passed before she was sent to the moon. The memories of what happened here, the years that passed… Luna shuddered at the thought. But she was here for a reason. She had to find him.
Both she and Wheatley knew that forgiveness would be something very hard for the AI core to earn, and even though he had promised that he turned over a new leaf, Luna would be the last person to trust him so easily. The fact that Celestia wanted to bring him back to Canterlot still sat uneasily for the princess of the night, but she knew her sister had good reason for doing this, and if her sister trusted that monster of an idiot, than she would tolerate his presence.
However, he did offer sincere news for Luna; “You know, he’s not dead. Even in pieces, our memory and personality matrices are stored in an unbreakable casing made of titanium, and have power sources that can last for eons.”
“So what does this mean?”
“You can save him.”
“Luna scanned the debris of what was left of the space core, looking for the matrices that he described to her. As she sifted through the rubble, she couldn’t help but feel guilt for what she did, even if she was under the control of Nightmare Moon at the time. She just hoped that Space Core would forgive her.
She found the housing, and teleported back to Canterlot.
………………….
“Is there anything we can do, sister?”
“I don’t know. Be patient, Luna, we haven’t tried everything.”
“But we have no idea how this machinery works, what can we possibly do?”
“Funny you should mention that…” called out Wheatley from an enormous stack of books.
……………………..
It has been a few weeks since Nightmare Moon came to Ponyville. Twilight and her friends had a quick meeting with the princesses as they briefly explained the whole “elements of harmony” thing to them. They even met Wheatley, who told the ponies everything that happened, and again apologized for everything that happened.
“Now, we must return to Canterlot, there is a lot that needs to be fixed, and we’ve told you all that we can. We will have to continue this later.” Celestia left them on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, and the six new friends how life will ever be normal for them.
But as always in Ponyville, life quickly returned to commonplace. Twilight was busily reorganizing her library, Applejack was repainting the barn, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash ran errands to Cloudsdale, and Rarity was busy in her boutique with what she called “the latest and greatest design the world has ever seen”.
Night came around, and the ponies who were previously busy found themselves walking down the street together towards Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie was celebrating what she termed a “monthaversary”.
“Does she never tire of throwing these parties?” Rarity sighed annoyed, though the makeup and dress she wore told the others that she spent a few hours at least preparing herself.
Rainbow swooped from overhead, “Hey, at least it isn’t as last-minute as that Dayaversary, right?” The group chuckled, and walked inside.
The turnout was larger than they expected, with at least 20 other ponies present. They quickly found their flamboyant friend by the punchbowl and immediately began talking about this and that, playing games and dancing. Even as most of the partygoers left, the six continued to talk.
Suddenly, everything became quiet when somepony walked in. Twilight turned to see it was her mentor, Princess Celestia herself. By her side was Luna, who seemed a little more annoyed than her older sister. Twilight wondered what was on Luna’s mind when two other ponies walked in and took their place between the princesses.
Nopony knew who these two were, or why they were with such prominent ponies. They were both grey with grey manes and tails, standing slightly shorter than any other pony around them. One had bright yellow eyes that seemed very excited as they darted in every direction, racing to see everything in the room as fast as they could see. His mane was very messy, yet his thick glasses seem to make up for his unkempt appearance, giving him an overall classy look. His cutie mark showed a yellow planet with two rings around it.
The other one, a unicorn, had dark blue eyes that continually dart back towards Luna, who was refusing to make contact with the mysterious pony. His hair, unlike his counterpart, was very smooth and appeared to be waxed flat with a very shiny hair gel. He was very scrawny, making him seem very fragile. Twilight was afraid that if she shook his hand too hard, he would break. On his hind was a jumbled mess of question marks.
“Hello again, my little ponies. I see that you are enjoying yourself!”
Twilight, being accustom to company with the Princess, responded; “Hello Princess, hat brings you to Ponyville? Did you need my report on friendship this week?”
“No, that’s not necessary right now. I actually came to introduce you to a few friends—“ Luna scoffed. ”—A few friends of mine. This is our newest astronomy expert in the Canterlot Library.”
“Hello there, my name is SPAAAAAACE… Chaser. Sorry about that. My name is Space Chaser, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” He spoke with a deep voice that seemed to speak a million words an hour. ‘My, this pony seems full of contradictions’ thought Twilight.
“And you’ve already met Wheatley here.”
“Wait, you mean Wheatley that orb thing that caused all of this?”
Celestia sighed. “Yes, but he’s a changed pony… literally.”
“How is this possible?” Twilight asked. The other ponies were far behind her, now scared of the pony that brought back Nightmare Moon and almost destroyed Equestria.
“That’s actually a very interesting story, and I think Wheatley can explain the theory better than I can.”
“Thank you, Princess. Now, before I was a pony, and before I came here, I was that orb that you saw, an Artificial Intelligence. A really smart pony that lived in a computer….” Wheatley began to share his life history, and the time he spent with GLaDOS, and the things he did and learned. “During my time in her mainframe—body— I picked up her talent for manipulating other people, as I unfortunately did with Luna over there.” Wheatley waved over to Luna, who rebutted with a vicious scowl. “She still hasn’t forgiven me.”
“Do you blame her? I’m not sure if I forgive you quite yet.”
“Yes, and I’m so sorry Twilight, and I’ll do everything I can to fix this!”
“Wheatley was misguided, Twilight. I’m sure you’ll see that he is sincerely sorry for everything he’s done. And now that he is my student, I hope that I can—“
“HE’S YOUR WHAT???” Twilight yelled.
“My student, Twilight. He’s actually very gifted, and came up with the spell that changed himself and saved Space Chaser’s life.”
“Yeah, Space Chaser over there is actually an AI like I am, and I was able to transfer him from his orb to this new body.”
Twilight began to tense up. “Wait, he’s like you? But he seems so different, so… nice. Is he evil like you?”
Wheatley was noticeably bothered by twilight’s judgment of him. “No, he’s not… evil, he was trying to help Luna… and neither am I, I just… made a mistake…. But anyway, listen!”
Twilight interrupted again. “And how did you make yourself a body? I don’t know any spell that can do this.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Wheatley was now very annoyed and on the verge of yelling. The other ponies jumped. Wheatley knew that his situation was not getting any better. He sighed. “When I was in GLaDOS’s body, I also gained her vast knowledge of mechanics and engineering. Then last month, when Luna… I mean, Nightmare Moon… gave me her magical powers, the two mixed in my mainframe. Now, I see magic as a machine or series of machines.” Twilight looked lost, and Wheatley could tell.
“Here’ I’ll explain: When you levitate something, you see the object glow, but what I see is you creating a series of pulleys that lift the object. The heavier the object, the more pulleys you must create, the more you have to concentrate on the individual pulleys, and the harder it is. Or when you teleport yourself, I see a giant slingshot. The farther you have to go, the more the band must be stretched, and the more power it takes to teleport that far… do you understand?”
Twilight was quiet. She understood, but was still shocked and slightly appalled that such an evil pony, the one that brought back Nightmare Moon, is not only in Canterlot, but a STUDENT of the PRINCESS, just like her!
“Twilight, please understand that Wheatley has helped us understand magic theory, and is a very bright mind… which is why I’d like for him to stay here in Ponyville.”
“WHAT? Why?” Twilight was never one to question the Princess, but she was not willing to become neighbors with Wheatley either.
“Twilight, a word.”
Twilight hung her head as she dragged her hoofs over to the corner nook that Celestia lead her to. In this time, both Wheatley and Space Chaser made their way over to the other ponies.
“Twilight, I thought you would like to have another scientist in Ponyville to work with. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know… I just… he brought back Nightmare Moon! Can we trust him?”
“He isn’t perfect, but he’s a good pony. That’s why I want him to come here.”
“Please, can you explain why?”
“He’s a brilliant mind, but he has never had a friend in his life. Not by choice, I add. Everyone he met has either treated him with anger or belittlement, so that’s all he knows. That is his fault. I hope that you and the other Elements of Harmony could teach him how to be a friend. I just hoped that you girls would be more willing than… this.” She pointed towards the group Twilight left behind. Space Chaser seemed to be warming up to the ponies around him, and pinkie was already comfortable enough to offer him a piece of cake. Wheatley, however, was outside of the circle, either by choice of by the other ponies she did not know. She saw his eyes… full of misery and loneliness. She knew that look well. But were these really the same eyes of the unicorn that manipulated an alicorn?
“I… will try.”
“Thank you, Twilight. You never disappoint me.” ‘Now, if only it were this easy to convince Luna,’ Celestia thought.