//------------------------------// // 6) Forced Identity // Story: Equestria and the Machine // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// After kicking Pinkie Pie out of my room, I felt too aggravated to sleep. So I figured I'd go ahead and get dressed.  When I came out of my bedroom Oliver did not look happy at all. “I heard screaming coming from your bedroom and it didn’t sound pleasant,” said Oliver, “let me guess, Pinkie Pie got into your room, didn’t she?” “You guessed it!” I said. Oliver sighed, “I’ll talk to Finn about putting a warning siren in your room or something.” “I wonder if there’s a bug zapper that zaps ponies instead?” I said. Oliver started laughing, “Unfortunately no and I have no idea why I dated her in the first place!” “According to Pinkie,” I said, “we were lovers before the Machine got me. No way I’m going to let that happen again! Honestly, I don’t know how that happened in the first place!” Oliver shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine!” * * * I really hate this stupid white room that I'm doing my training in! “Okay Rainbow,” said Agent Rarity, “let’s try something else!” “Oh joy I can’t wait what exciting torture you have in mind for me today!” I said with sarcasm. I tried to make light of it but deep down the uncertainty terrified me. I never imagined that I would be anything other than human. Having hands and feet is all I've known up until now. To me becoming a pony was just plain absurd!  Agent Rarity laughed, “don’t worry darling! I was thinking about skydiving but without the parachute!” “Of course you are. Wait… you’re not joking are you?” I said. Yup, I think my trainers have lost their minds!  “No,”  said Agent Rarity, “Gilda pushed you off a cloud and you got your ears and tail. So I think pushing you out of a plane would be just as effective!” “You really want to turn me into that thing, don’t you?” I said. “It’s not a thing,” said Oliver, “you’re a pony! Like I said before, you couldn’t stop the transformation even if you wanted to!” “You know,” said Agent Rarity, “Fluttershy, had the same problem, when she started her transformation! When she got her old self back she rejected her true identity as the element of kindness and changed. Even if you don’t accept who you originally were, as long as you still have some sense of loyalty, your element should still work! That’s even if you go a different route with your life from now on.” “So,” I said, “if I decide to go a different route with my life my element should still work? Why isn’t Fulttershy’s element working?” “Oh, that,” said Agent Rarity, “now that Fluttershy is out of the Machine and has gotten her old personality back, she chose to not be kind in any way shape or form. She now gets a kick out of bullying people and ponies. Why Applejack’s element isn’t working, we have no idea! Most don’t believe that she’s been lying since she came to us but some believe that she is. I personally don’t believe that she’s been true to honesty at all. Until she gives us a reason not to believe her, I don’t have grounds to not trust her.” “Looks can be deceiving,” I said, “just like the smoke and mirrors when a magic trick is done.” “I know,” said Agent Rarity, “especially with what happened between you and that Code! That stupid Machine disgusts me! I can’t wait until we can shut it down!” “I totally agree,” I said, “let’s get my wings back so we can get this over with.” Oliver laughed, “You really don’t like the fact that you’re going to become Rainbow Dash do you?” “Not at all, and I’m going to figure out a way to get rid of that name once and for all. And don’t tell me it can’t be helped!” I said as I crossed my arms and blew a raspberry at him. “Sorry,” said Oliver, ”it can’t!” Before we could even get started, I heard Pinkie Pie enter the room. “You gonna do the whole skydiving trick?” Pinkie said. “Cool! I want to watch!” I thought Pinkie Pie wasn't helping me train.  “Pinkie Pie!” Oliver said. “How did you get in here?” "I want to see! Can I?” Pinkie begged. "There's a reason why only the trainer and the trainee is allowed to be in here! It's a safety measure so that nobody gets in the way of the person that is training! As you can see, Rainbow Dash is starting to train so get out!” Oliver said pointing toward the door. “Don’t worry Agent Oliver,” said Agent Rarity, “I got it!” Agent Rarity then used her magic to throw Pinkie Pie out the door. The door then glowed blue and magically closed itself. “What did you just do?” I said. “I reinforced the magical barrier that keeps this room on lockdown.” Agent Rarity said. “Although Agent Pinkie Pie has chaos magic so I’m not sure that’ll even work!” “For some reason,” I said, “I don’t want to know what chaos magic is!” “I totally agree.” Agent Rarity said. “Oh no!” Suddenly a blood red color progressed over Oliver’s left eye from the top to the bottom giving it an appearance like that of a red contact lens with a bright hellish glow. “What just happened?” I said. “It’s called the blood barrier,” said Oliver, “everyone and everypony has it when they come out of the Machine!” “To me,” said Agent Rarity, “the blood barrier is the most painful way to access the system! The Machine has a tendency to clone it’s prisoners. That being said, it cannot clone DNA. The blood barrier communicates with the Sixth and verifies you are not a clone and gives access to the information in the system.” “I take it you can do it too Agent Rarity?” I said. “Yes darling,” said Agent Rarity, “I can only use my magic to access 10% of the system! I can’t access the full system unless I do the blood barrier. There’s now way in Celestia’s favor that I’m going to do that!” “And with the blood barrier on,” said Oliver, “I can make things more realistic when training someone, so you’ll get your wings back in no time at all Rainbow!” “There goes that stupid name again!” I said. “In case you didn’t notice,” said Oliver, “this is kind of painful! I can only handle this pain for a couple of hours at a time before I get sick! Unfortunately you’ll have to learn the blood barrier too. We’ll teach you that after you get your body back.” I looked around the room to see the word ‘accessing’ on all the walls and then after a while the word changed to ‘access granted’ on it. The next thing I knew I was standing inside the back side of a c130 cargo plane looking out a slowly opening hatch. The only two people with me were Agent Rarity and Oliver. I could tell that Oliver was in a lot of pain in his left eye and he was trying so hard to keep it open. Oliver nodded at Agent Rarity, “Rainbow, it’s time for you to jump!” “No way!” I said, staring out into the open air in horror. “You’re not making me into a pony! And I’m not jumping without a parachute you lunatics!” “Well,” said Agent Rarity, “if you won’t jump, I’ll just have to throw you out!” “What!” I said. I couldn’t react fast enough when Agent Rarity gripped me in her magic and pushed me out of the plane and into the open air. The air slammed violently against me in continuous waves as I fell. I kept falling until suddenly my momentum rapidly decreased and I landed back inside the room flat on my back.  * * * After I landed on the floor in the room, I saw Gilda help me up. “Am I dreaming again?” I said. Gilda laughed, “Oh no, this time I’m real. I’m here in the flesh baby!” Oliver smiled, “Mission complete! And you’ve got your body back too. That was quick!” I looked down to see that I was on all fours and I noticed that I had hooves now. Also I was hovering about a foot in the air. “You don’t mean to tell me...“ I said. “Yup!” Gilda said. “You’re back to Rainbow Dash!” “Damn it!” I said. Oliver, Agent Rarity and Gilda couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay fine,” I said, “have a laugh at my expense! But I do have a question for you.” “What is it?” Oliver said. “Why do we go through these transformations when we get out of the Machine?” I said. “Why don’t we just have our old bodies back?” “Good question darling!”  Agent Rarity said. “Agent Oliver, do you want to tell her or should I?” Oliver groaned, “The Machine is a very advanced AI. Its thinking abilities are above the Alpha creatures from every planet that is in the Machine. What it wants to do is to change you into a different creature to keep the lie going. The Machine for some reason feels a need to keep you in the reality that it’s created so you don’t try and escape. Trust me, you were one of the lucky ones! The Machine decided to turn you into human! Other Agents like me and Agent Rarity weren’t so lucky!” “What did you come out as?” I said. “Unfortunately,” said Oliver, “I came out as an Owl! Agent Rarity over here..." “Don’t you dare Agent Oliver!” Agent Rarity said. “I’ll tell her myself,  I came out as a cat!” Then it was my turn to laugh. It took awhile for me to regain my composure. "That’s not funny Rainbow Dash!” Agent Rarity said. “I’m sorry,” I said, “what did you come out as, Gilda?” “Oh I never got sucked into that Machine!” Gilda said. “And if I did there’s no way I would tell you!” “You wanna know what Agent Pinkie Pie came out as?” Oliver said. “What?” I said. I had a feeling the answer was going to be very entertaining. “Agent Pinkie Pie came out as a dog!” Oliver said. “A poodle to be exact!” I couldn’t help myself, I was doubled over in laughter. “Okay, okay,” said Oliver, “comedy aside let’s move on shall we?” “So,” said Agent Rarity, “what do we teach her next?” “I say,” said Gilda, “we teach her the blood barrier!” I could tell Oliver did not want to go that route at all because he had a look on his face that looked like he was afraid of that very idea. “Why not?” Gilda said. ”She’s strong, I think she can take it!” “Nope,” said Oliver, “and what I say goes!” “Gee,” said Gilda, “you’re really overprotective, you know that right?” “Okay,” said Oliver, “since I’m still accessing the system. We should try something new. Let’s see here..” Oliver went up to one of the walls and pressed his finger on it. All around the room were numbers that scrolled up and down like it was a code on the screen. The numbers looked a lot like the numbers that I saw in my cell while being inside the Machine. “What’s this for?” I said. “This,” said Oliver, “is to help you find your weapon that you will be using when you’re inside the Machine. It’ll also help you to use your wings.” “You mean I have to use these stupid things?” I said barely aware I was still hovering. “Yes you do.” Oliver said. “Now look at the pattern, do these numbers look familiar to you?” I stared at the numbers and recognized the pattern and sure enough, it was the same numbers that were in my cell when I was still in the Machine. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said. Oliver then pulled a feather out of my right wing. “Ow! Hey what was that for?” I said.  “This is for accessing your weapon or weapons whatever the pattern decides to let you have,” said Oliver, “let’s see what we have here…” He used the feather as if he were writing with a quill. He circled the numbers 1,4,5,7 and 8. The numbers lit up on the screen the way they did in my cell. On the wall in front of me came out a drawer and in it were ten daggers clipped onto an iron chain. I titled my head in confusion. “Interesting,” said Oliver, “looks like your weapon. The pattern gave you the dagger and whip chain. I’ve only seen a dozen Agents with this type of weapon! I don’t know why the patterns do that, but it happens. The agents that master this type of weapon become very impressive agents and they make top rankings in the Sixth. I’m not surprised because you are Rainbow Dash.” “Ugh,” I said, “Rainbow Dash this, and Rainbow Dash that! As I live I swear I’m definitely going to get rid of that name!” “Yeah,” said Oliver, “I doubt that’s going to happen! That’s enough of the blood barrier for me today! It’s giving me a headache!” Oliver finally closed his eyes, and kept it closed for a minute or two and the room went back to normal. Oliver shook his head and when he opened his eyes they were back to normal. Agent Rarity looked at him with concern. “Are you okay Agent Oliver?” Agent Rarity said. “I’m fine.” Oliver said. I could tell he was lying because he sure didn’t look fine. He looked like he was about to pass out. Just as I suspected, Oliver collapsed. * * * After Oliver lost consciousness we took him to the medical area in the Sixth. We laid him down in a bed. I was hovering a foot in the air and stayed away from the bed the best I could. I could hear Agent Rarity and Finn talking outside. “I want to know,” said Finn, “what the hell was Agent Oliver thinking?”  “I have no idea.”  Agent Rarity said. “He’s the one who wanted to access the system for two and a half hours!” “Oh boy,” said Finn, “I suspect he was showing off in front of Rainbow Dash!” “Of course,” Agent Rarity laughed, “who wouldn’t want to show off in front of her! I did the same thing back in Equestria! That’s because everypony wants to outdo her. She is awesome after all!” Me? Awesome? That’s a big fat lie! “Well,” said Finn, “let’s just say that’s all of Rainbow Dash’s training for the day! Let’s have Agent Oliver rest and I’m pretty sure Rainbow will want to stay by his side.” “That’s so cute by the way.” Agent Rarity said. “They would make a cute couple!” “Yeah,” said Finn, “that is if Rainbow can accept that she has feelings for him. But I think that will happen when pigs fly!” I could hear Agent Rarity and Finn laughing. That's so not funny! “Okay,” said Finn, “let’s leave two lovebirds alone! Agent Rarity, don’t let Agent Oliver access the system for that long again!” “Yes sir!” Agent Rarity said. “Now, I have to take care of ten more agents that have just broken out of the Machine,” Finn said. “Don’t you ever get a chance to rest?” Agent Rarity said. “The Machine doesn’t rest,” said Finn, “and neither will I.”