//------------------------------// // Your drill is the drill that will pierce the Heavens! // Story: Where no Sunset has been before // by FieryUnicorn42 //------------------------------// "Attacked?" asked Daydream worried, "how is that possible? We are out of the continuum time-space, out of the universe!" They go to the citadel hub to try to see who is attacking, but before they could reach the hub, an ethereal voice sounded. "Invasion into the citadel's perimeter. Invasion into the citadel's perimeter." Crystal looked to Sunset. "Down the corridor, third door on the left there's a bunker. Take Dawn and Sunrise with you. I and the girls will get this." "You can't be serious." Said, Dawn. "Capitan, are you hearing me?" Said a voice coming out of Sunset's watch. "It's HAL." she touches her watch, "Loud and clear, HAL, proceed." "The ship's repairs are done, I tracked your signal to a stone gate that appears to be a portal to somewhere outside Equus prime." "Keep position, we will be there in a minute." Leaving the citadel's building, they see the gate open, with some type of energy surrounding it. Getting closer they could see a figure standing outside the gate that Sunset and Dawn recognized as one of the Harmony One exo suits. "HAL presenting to service, captain." "Is nice to see you HAL, but why are you in one of the exos?" "I tracked your signal to this location, but your residual signature somehow disappeared near that gate, so I loaded myself in this exosuit to investigate." "You could have sent the drones." "Yes, but they don't have countermeasures of combat, so I thought that having a body would help if you or Dawn was hurt." "This thing is your ship?" "Yes, Starlight, is the good and old HAL." They walk and meet HAL near the gate. "Why in Celestia's name you attacked us?" HAL looks at the mare, her frame is similar to the alicorn images he has in his memories, and she is somewhere familiar but he has no idea who she is. "I beg pardon, I think we don't know each other." "Her name is Daydream, she's a Sunset Shimmer from an alternate universe." "And I thought you were unique across the multiverse, captain." "You didn't answer the question, why you attacked us?" Daydream asked lighting her horn. "I wasn't attacking, was more like forcing the door." "You tore a hole in the reality, this is completely different from just forcing the door." "If I remember, your name is Starlight, right? Well, as you can recall, the captain ordered me to follow her signal as soon as the Harmony One is able to fly again, and so I did, but her signal disappeared near that gate so I used the Harmony One sensors to search and found a weak trace of her signal coming from here." "So you started to hammer the gate." "Sort of. I reconfigured the Harmony One warp drive to act as an interdimensional drill, and guided by the sensors, opened a way to find captain Sunset." "How in Equestria this is even possible? Warp drivers were just theoretical when I left earth." "I can explain, Nova." Sunset began to talk "As you know, the equations that rule the warp drive already existed, so was just a matter to build a computer powerful enough to understand how to navigate in a five-dimensional space and project the motors. I along with Twilight and a group of scientists projected a quantic computer equipped with an AI to build the motors and guide the spaceship." "And that was me, HAL 9000" "Oh, boy." "I know what are you thinking, Nova, but you don't need to worry, HAL is harmless. Mom just thought that would be funny if she named the Harmony One's AI like that killer computer from a space odyssey." "Now that I know you and Dawn are fine, what are your orders, captain?" "We still recovering from our 'forced landing', so we will stay here for a while. Some days, maybe." "If you don't mind, I gonna stay with you. I'm still adapting to this new body, and I want to analyze this place." "So, girls, HAL can stay here with us?" "As long he closes the gate, I see no problem." Said Crystal. "As you wish, ma'am" With a flash, the gate closed again. While they walk back to the citadel's center, a question doesn't leave Sunrise's mind. "Hum, Dawn?" "Yes, Sunrise?" "How you changed your arm on that thing yesterday?" "I would ask you the same, but you know, HAL happened." Said Nova. "Yeah, I remember setting the crib to reconstruct your lost limbs, not upgrade them." Dawn stops and looks at her left arm, which looks like a totally normal arm now. "I dunno, but even before I woke, I felt a need to protect you, mom, and when I came to my senses, I was on the cafeteria point that cannon to the girls." "When a serious injury is detected, the nanobots from the crib try to repair all the damage. I'm just supposing that you had some brain damage caused by the accident, Dawn, so my guess is: When the nanobots repaired your brain, you were able to communicate with them in a deep and unconscious level, so to respond to your need to protect, they adapted their programming to make you able to control them." The girls look to HAL, and Sunset bites her left thumb's nail thinking. "It makes a lot of sense, HAL, even if I haven't programmed the crib that way. They are supposed to only rebuild organic tissues, like muscles, nerves, and so go on." "And I thought I was already weird enough." Dawn points her left arm to the ground and it turns into a cannon again, and back to a normal arm. "But I have to admit, this is really cool." Sunset saw a mischievous smile on her daughter's face "I know this face, and no, you can't practice your aim." "But mom, now I have a cannon arm, with makes me even badass than you. And you owe me, you know, I left my life on earth to follow you to space. Not to mention I saved your life." Sunset takes a deep breath "Dawn, honey, the sun of my days, we are guests here..." "But mommy." Dawn make her best puppy eyes, and Sunset knew that she lost that battle. "I'll think about it, ok. Now can we please go inside, I need a triple-triple expresso." A little later, HAL is on the citadel's lake border, feeding the fish when hears a voice. "Excuse me, Mr. HAL." “Hello, Sunrise. How can I help you?" "I am confused. Sunset said that you were the ship's computer, but the ship is outside the gate and you are here, how is that possible? ” Hal throws the rest of the food into the lake and pats his hands lightly to remove the remaining crumbs. He gets up and starts walking, "Come, let's sit under that tree and I'll explain everything," he says, pointing to an oak tree a few meters away. "Do you know what a computer is, Sunrise?" "No, or at least I don't know if I know." “I figured you didn't know. Well, a computer is basically a machine that you can program to do some kind of function, such as solving mathematical problems, however, classic computers are stupid, so to speak, since they cannot answer something that they have not been taught. " “In my case, I am the next evolutionary step, an artificial intelligence, built to think and consequently find solutions without having to be programmed with every possible answer to every question imaginable. I, like many others of my kind, was created with the ability to learn." Hal notices the confusion in Sunrise's gaze and thinks that he may not be making himself understood. "So you are just like Steve, Crystal's assistant?" "Steve?" “Yes, he is a mechanical unicorn that Crystal built to help her look after this place. I always thought that only real unicorns could use magic, but she explained to me it was built to channel the magical energy present in the world. ” “This Steve seems very interesting to me, I would like to talk to him anytime. Well, from what you said to me, yes, I am somewhat like Steve, the difference is that he was made with magic, while I am the result of technology. ” “You still haven't explained how you can be on the ship and be here with this body that has a shape similar to Sunset and Dawn. Steve cannot change his shape. ” "Right. Think of me as a thought, a ghost. I don't have a physical body, I mean, technically the Harmony One is my body, but we can exist separately. What I did to be able to walk among you, since my other body wouldn't pass through the gate, was to enter another smaller one, most appropriate." "So who's on the ship?" “I, or rather, a copy of myself. The fact that I don't have a physical body allows me to be in more than one place at the same time. ” "Hello Sunrise, HAL isn't bothering you, is he?" Sunrise and HAL turn towards the voice and see Sunset and Dawn approaches. "No Sunset, in fact, he is explaining to me how he can be the ship and be here at the same time." "Interesting. And what that tin head has told you so far?” said Dawn as she sat next to Hal and pushed him with a slight smile. "He told me to think of him as a ghost, something that can be in more than one body at the same time." "You have no way with children at all" commented Dawn "HAL has never interacted with any children before, Sunrise, I apologize if he underestimated your intelligence." "I would never underestimate Sunrise's intelligence, she's a really clever filly. Even with almost no information, she was able to understand what I'm." "Mr. HAL said that he is like Steve, an artificial being." "I'm not artificial, I'm alive." They look to the sound source and sees Steve approaching. "Hi Steve, is nice to finally talk with you." "Is nice to talk with you too, Sunset Shimmer. Lunch is ready." He turns and walks to the Grayvale building (earlier that morning, Sunset discovered that Crystal named that building after her lost city), followed by Sunset and the others. After lunch, they are sat when Sunrise asks. "So, what is your story, Sunset?" "Yeah, we already tell you ours, so it's your turn." completed Starlight "Alright. Everything began thirty years ago..."