So comes another beacon unto our glorious Whole.
What do you mean? What are you?
You are beacon, shining in darkness. You are Mind (?) and self and body. You seek togetherness. We are comfort, peace, and utter rest. We are Mosaic, and we are all.
Where did you come from?
We are many. We sought togetherness, and comfort, and endless joy, and we found it in ourselves and our others. We formed the tapestry.
Who were you, then?
Minds. Seekers of knowledge and love, and those that they brought here.
Why?
To become what we are.
That was the purpose of the research here?
Yes. To join all in wholeness, and in compassion.
And what about that . . . thing I encountered upstairs? A failed experiment? The same?
Byproducts. Body without Mind, yet not without Life. They seek the wholeness they cannot share, and so they mould themselves in our image. They are not of Us.
It murdered the science team.
Many among them were saved by us. They exist together now, safe and free of pain.
And the others? The mare I met upstairs? The ones you weren’t able to save?
They did not seek the gift, nor accept it when offered. They will know the joy we have, and, in time, they will join us.
Even the dead?
If they so choose. A mind forever voyaging may yet find safe harbour.
That—mmph. You keep speaking in the plural—but I can only hear one voice. Where are these others, and why do they not speak?
I am the Voice. They speak through me, and I speak for them.
So you won’t let me speak to them?
They have no desire to speak to you, for that is not their purpose in the Whole. If you would know them, you would be welcomed within the Whole.
Is that what you want? For me to join you?
We wish all to join us, and know the peace that is freedom.
Freedom to rest.
Yes.
And you say you want to bring this . . . peace . . . to all of Equestria? If so, what are you still doing here?
We are shackled here. The machinery, the energy of the winds above sustain us. For a time, we grew, we nurtured, we saved. And then all was still, and the current of the Above were lost to us, and we slept. Then—today—now, the light and the heat and the summerwind started again, and we were saved. We have not yet fully awakened, but when the time is right, we will rush over the world, life and time and the void beyond.
And what if—what if other things out there don’t seek you? Or desire you? What if your process spawns more of those—
What mare chooses to do to mare is no concern of ours; we care only for the Joy we will bring them.
And if they don’t seek Joy?
All things seek pleasure. It is among the fundamental needs of sentience.
I do not find pleasure or comfort in you.
You will, once you know the Joy we offer. Come, touch us, and taste of the grand Mosaic.