//------------------------------//
// Another day 
// Story: 343 New Spark 
// by Jhonn 
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"134 hours of uninterrupted work and most secondary systems still fail!" - Spark shouted in the ring's communications network.

Although Spark was the most advanced artificial intelligence in the ring, it was not the only one.

Each installation within the ring had its own "caretaker", of less power but specifically designed to keep everything in order.

This was one of the reasons why a key or strategically important installation could survive even without a monitor.

Unfortunately, they could not, in Spark's words, engage in a civilized conversation.

That did not exclude the reprimand (out of frustration) of Spark by not even finishing the repairs.

After reading, and rereading, even corroborating the report on his own, Spark came to a conclusion, the emergency jump was altered by something unknown (perhaps energy fluctuations or solar radiation, alteration of coordinates, or even thanks to their new neighbors).

All communications were cut, including communication with the ark.

In theory, for the ark, the installation 04 is destroyed.

No security protocol explains what to do in these cases.

The battle net should work anywhere in the known universe thanks to quantum entanglement.

But thanks to the strange rules that the few instruments still functional have reported, there is no doubt that they are in another universe.

Spark almost exploded when he discovered it.

Spark's only consolation is the existence of an emergency protocol in case of direct or indirect destruction of the ark by the Flood.

'Hydra protocol'

In simple words, the surviving ring or rings will activate their firing sequence after 12 hours of losing communication, clearing the entire possible area and the key facilities will initiate their self-destruct sequence.

Immediately afterward, they would make an emergency jump to gather the rings in a single solar system in another galaxy, leaving the Milky Way.

In addition, the monitors will have free access to all the technologies for the development of a better defense, with this and using all the power and materials available they would begin the construction of two coffers.

The rings would create a safe area around the new galaxy, concentrating its efforts on creating a 15,000 light-years light-edge block from the edge, making it impossible to travel through the skid space into the safe area.

At the end of the construction of the coffers, an assembly would be held with the remaining monitors to add more species to the catalog, in parallel, more rings will be built and updated for a total of 12 (to complete the sliding space) that are capable of protecting their occupants of the effects of the rings.

In case of finding a level 5 to 1 civilization, contact the leader of the civilization or the most powerful faction and report on the situation, requesting their cooperation.

The most primitive civilizations will be cataloged and put into suspended animation.

All efforts should focus on protecting and safeguarding life, by any means necessary.

Leaving aside the sudden surge of information, this security measure almost caused Spark a short circuit when several alarms sounded by the installation's attempt to activate its firing sequence, if its installation was not so damaged, it would have automatically started the countdown, firing the facility and killed its new neighbors, unable to do anything to stop it.

Fortunately, that was not the case, thanks to extensive damage, the installation canceled that automatic measurement.

A funny story to tell your new neighbors later.

Although Spark would love to interact with these new ways of life, the installation was a priority, unfortunately, the pace was very slow thanks to the lack of "labor".

"We have enough materials, but we can't use them" - replied one of the engineers' commanders.

"I need the help of the engineers to keep the containment facilities operational," replied the caretaker of the flood samples.

These and a thousand more requests from caregivers bomb Spark.

Normally he would not have to mediate resources, but each caregiver fought the few engineers and builders that were available to maintain their facilities.

"Flood containment and experiments are a priority, which does not compromise the installation is relegated and the rest of the resources will be used to replace the sentry factories" - said Spark, receiving an affirmation from the other caretakers and cutting off the communication.

One of the first things to be repaired was the control room, it was practically redesigned and does not look anything like what it was, Spark still appreciated that it was possible to repair.

Upon leaving the control room Spark was wrapped in an environment that could only be described as gloomy.

The section he was in was one of the few that had been "intact," or at least partially intact.

The mountains surrounding the control room looked like Swiss cheese thanks to the meteorites, and the underground roads no longer existed.

In general, the entire mountainous section surrounding the control room was a disaster.

Even after being repaired, the control room was still submerged in rock and debris (the greatest damage had been from the collapse of the doors).

Moving from the area, Spark teleported to the cartographer.

What used to be confused with a paradise island now was nothing more than a desert.

The sea surrounding the island had evaporated from the heat and low pressures since this part of the ring had lost its shields a few moments.

Cracks of building sizes were on the ground revealing part of the internal structure, this section was one of the most damaged.

Another teleport and Spark appeared at the doors of the flood containment room.

The swampy place seemed intact, some animals were still heard.

This part of one of the most defended, although the huge Retriever of hundreds of meters shattered every few hundred meters is a sign that it was not free to keep this part protected.

Even parts of the ring were covered with glass by heat.

Fortunately, some sections were almost intact, its biome still green and some bodies of water.

There is still much to repair to welcome their new neighbors.

But Spark couldn't help worrying, what would they think of the protocol?

Spark was tempted to eliminate the flood samples, all investigations had been unsuccessful and maintaining something so dangerous in a universe outside of such a nightmare would be an attempt on life itself.

But he needed evidence to convince biologists that the flood was a danger, even if they didn't exist beyond the samples, maybe a second opinion would be helpful.




7 of June of 1011 BNM

One week, one week of chaos in every way.

Although Celestia was grateful that international tensions relaxed a little by the appearance of the ring, the public's pressure for answers to difficult things, even more for not having them.

A few hours after the appearance of the huge Stalliongrad structure, they sent a study collaboration proposal, since they were in a serious situation because of the food, they offered their infrastructure that had progressed by leaps and bounds in exchange for support.

They put the labor and land for the construction of observatories and a joint development for a space program (which surprisingly they were already developing) in exchange for financial and logistical support.

This was a treaty of collaboration and peace that Celestia dreamed of for years.

The Crystal Empire and New Maretonia joined the collaboration.

The changing empire was surprisingly silent, the troops on the border that strained the relationship (even more), had withdrawn, intelligence reports that most of their military assets had congregated in space development projects.

The same for your neighbors of the grifffon empire.

Olenia was still in full civil war with Equestria to help.

Everything pointed out that the world was in a space race, Celestia honestly did not know what they expected with this since all attempts to contact the installation's aliens had resulted in a failure since each attempt was answered with static.

That or simply could not (or wanted).

This was something that Celestia and nobody had the experience, what scared the princess the most were her intentions, that and the curiosity to know that she would have enough power to damage something so big.

And resistant.

4 days after the appearance of the huge ring, Celestia received a report from one of its cities, a reconnaissance squad had found a fragment that had fallen a few kilometers from the Everfree forest.

The size of a small house, it took 5 heavy tanks and a special structure to tow it to the city.

Her scientists, with the help of Twilight, were fascinated with the piece of metal.

The material designated as Eterium, could withstand high pressures and extreme temperature changes, everything bounced, not even an atom could detach, that piece of metal was the toughest thing in Equss.

Only high tensions and extreme temperatures (higher than her sun) could do some damage.

The fascinating thing is that at the molecular level it looked like a spider web, each molecule woven over another with great precision.

Never in her long life did she expect to hear that they begged to be sent to the moon.

Celestia had to clarify that their spell cast them with the moon, they could not move, they would be ethereal.

And Luna, her poor sister was upset, to say the least, it took her three hours to convince her not to use the moon as a rock to break the ring, besides it would not be a good idea to provoke a civilization with an unknown power.

Things got worse when the stars began to be collected by the ring.

Before Luna could do anything, Celestia had to calm her down by saying that they probably needed it given the enormous damage to her installation.

It was that or that those huge machines will come down to undermine the planet.

It took time, but Luna accepted, even though at night she sharpened her sword while cursing the ring.

In her desperation for answers Celestia had called Discord, maybe he knew something.

By pouring another cup of tea, maybe it could help calm her nerves and stress.

"I knew you wanted my dear princess on your lips" - said Discord cup-shaped, which after a little scream, Celestia threw it on the wall.

From the pieces appeared small Discords, looking quite hurt, even one mourned the supposed death of another.

"Enough of games Discord !, I'm not in the mood for your jokes" - said Celestia angrily, but with a slight blush on her face.

"Very well, God, my apologies for wanting to make your day, what do you need from me, Celestia?" - asked Discord while floating with some popcorn.

"Do you know anything about a huge ring in the sky? Have you seen anything like it before?"

"I'm afraid not, it's something new, but I already anticipated your request your majesty" - Discord said as he snapped his fingers, making a fairly large screen appear.

"What you do does not matter to me as long as there is chaos and as long as it does not harm my dear Fluttershy, but that thing gives me a bad feeling" - said Discord while an image appeared on the screen.

Celestia knew that the ring had been damaged, but the position in which the ring was placed on the moon made further investigations impossible.

A shattered wasteland, even the dragon lands were gardens compared to what she was seeing on the screen.

Some places were still on fire, Canterlot-sized holes in the ground let the machinery underneath.

"What the hell happened? ..." - whispered Celestia.

"I do not know, in the short time I managed to explore only certain parts seemed intact, or at least partially intact, I did not find anyone on the surface except those strange metal flying birds" - said Discord while on the screen appeared an image of All the guys he got to see.

"They are very varied, ranging from 40 centimeters to about 500 meters, I tried to bring one but they seem to be resistant to magic, even mine" - said Discord with strange seriousness.

Changing the image again, the screen showed more things at ground level, there was a lot of debris, even small silver mountains, or at least that Celestia thought before knowing the dimensions of those robots.

Noticing Celestia's face, Discord amplified the image in one of those small mountains.

"I knew you would notice, those things are not mountains" - said Discord, while admiring the huge pile of deformed metal.

"The most powerful thing we have are the prototypes of mega-spells, if without immune to magic and assuming they are made of the same material we found ..."

"Nothing could stop them if they decided to attack us, even with my help, but relax my pastry friend, I doubt that is the case" - Discord said as he casually switched to another image.

"Just as our magic is immune to them, we are invisible to them, they are unable to see something hidden by magic, at least they didn't see me with my invisibility cloak" - in the picture was a photo of Discord stroking One of the metal birds.

"Besides the material that your soldiers found I think is more of the structure, I happened to see how a rock moved accidentally crushing a metal bird, and before you say something, it wasn't me, you saw the state in which that is place "- Discord said while passing a black and white movie of the tragic scene.

Celestia did not know if she was relieved that if something happened they could defend themselves or worried about whatever it was that made such a structure so damaged decided to finish the job and on the way to her little planet.

"Any sign of the inhabitants of the ring other than those ... .. birds?" - asked Celestia.

"Nothing, unless they hide under the surface or are dead, I didn't find anything else," said Discord as he closed the screen with a click.

"... what do you think of this? It is not common for you to be so cooperative with something that is not your fun"

"I also care about Fluttershy, but as I said before, that thing gives me a bad feeling, something tells me that it hides something very dangerous, I don't like it, it reminds me of your disturbed student"

"... Rosa," Celestia whispered sadly.

"Hey, at least you tried, even your daughter eventually returned to her path, two out of three is better than just one, don't you think?"

"Thanks Discord, you can go" - said Celestia tiredly.

"Do not worry, I will keep an eye on that ring until the meteorites do not fall from the sky, so unless Lulu provokes them to play with their things I think they come in peace" - said Discord as he disappeared into an outburst.

At least Discord's information helped her calm her nerves a lot, they still had time to prepare, and there was truth in Discord's words, they could undermine the planet or the Moon, but instead, they prefer to interfere as little as possible.

That is comforting, at least they could initiate a dialogue when whatever controls these birds.

But such variety and power, even the largest of those birds were the sizes of a destroyer, and there were hundreds, a whole military nightmare.

Trying to calm her discomfort, she began to write a report of the situation, her allies needed to know this information.