//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Memory // Story: Stargazer // by StrawberryGamer //------------------------------// Summer slowly strolled through the halls of Canterlot Castle. Before, she and her friends would have been meeting with the princesses to discuss what to do about the latest threat to Equestria. Now, she was left to figure out how to run a nation all by herself. Well, not completely by herself, but her friends and family all had lives of their own. At least her trusty assistant was always by her side. “Come on Twilight, we need to take this one step at a time,” he advised, holding a checklist in his claws. If we go through our options thoroughly, I’m sure the solution will seem almost obvious.” Summer sighed, her wings twitching anxiously. “I know, Spike. But if we take too long, King Windscar will see that we’ve been left vulnerable. They bloodied us once, if they strike again it won’t just be the sun they take from us. We need to act quickly, or even more innocent ponies will be hurt.” The new lighting system had yet to be set up, so the castle staff were still replacing burnt-out candles. They’d been burning for centuries, kept alight by the Princess’ magic. With her gone, they’d finally burnt out. So Summer and Spike picked up the pace, reaching the makeshift war room they had set up during their conflict with Windscar. Wonderbolt Captain Rainbow Dash and Prince Shining Armor were waiting for her by the war table, as well as Princess Cadance and Flurry Heart. It warmed Summer’s heart to see Flurry again. She had grown into a smart, kind young mare, and Summer knew she’d be taking over the Crystal Empire soon. It was actually surprising to see Cadance had made the trip, as the aging alicorn had not been faring well since Celestia disappeared. Of course Summer had not fared well either, but she had to stay strong. Unlike Cadance, she had no heir to Equestria’s throne should something happen to her. But with the discoveries she’d made, that would change. “Dash, Shiny. Thank you for answering my call,” she said, getting a salute from them both. “Cadance and Flurry, I’m glad to see you too, and I wish I had something for you to do.” “No need, Twilight. We’re just here to support you,” Cadance said. “Isn’t that right, Flurry?” “Yeah, sure,” Flurry answered impatiently. “So when do I get to blow somepony up?” “Flurry!” Her mother chastised. “We’re not here to start a fight. This isn’t like your games.” Summer couldn’t help but giggle. Ah, to be young again. “I might need your help after all Flurry, depending on how things go.” She lit her horn and cast a simple projection spell which showed many complex equations and spell matrices, none of which were understood by anyone at the table but her. However, one thing that everyone present understood sat in the center of it all - the Elements of Harmony. “I’ve been going over various ideas in my head over how I can keep Equestria running after I’m gone. This,” she motioned to the projection, “is the answer. An Arcane Intelligence-” “Woah, woah,” Rainbow interrupted, “woah. Twi, you serious? You wanna let a robot take over? They can barely make coffee right, let alone run a country!” “I know. We’ve got a long way to go before our technology catches up to the Precursors. But I have a way to make sure it goes right.” Summer pointed at the center of the projection. “With the Elements of Harmony, an AI can be given the same emotional and processing capabilities of any other pony. Maybe even greater.” “This sounds fine and all,” Flurry said, “but there has to be a ‘but’ somewhere in all this. If it were that easy, you would have a prototype already in front of us, not just a bunch of theories and formulas.” Summer smiled. “Nothing gets by you, does it? You’re right, I don’t have everything finalized yet. This is all a first draft. It’ll take much more experimentation to get this right.” “So that’s why you said you might have a use for me. You want me on this team?” Summer shook her head. “Not yet. I understand you’re not quite done with your studies. After you’re finished, you can join the team.” Rainbow put up a hoof. “Yes, great, but what do we have to do with this? We aren’t eggheads, we’re soldiers.” “Officers technically,” Shining corrected, “but yes, this isn’t our expertise. Why tell us this?” “Because I want your opinion. Maybe some input, if you have any security concerns or improvements.” “What does Spike think? There’s no way he thought this was a good idea.” Rainbow said, gesturing at the dragon beside her. “I still think it’s crazy, and we have better options, but you know I’ll support you no matter what happens,” Spike said. “Besides, this might actually work.” Summer nuzzled her assistant, wrapping a hoof and wing around him in a hug. “Thanks, my Number One Assistant.” “Computers are more my daughter’s thing,” Shining spoke up, “but I’ll continue to support you as long as I breathe, Twily.” “Yeah, you know I always got your back Twi,” Rainbow added. “We can turn it into an adventure! One last hurrah for us as we journey to save Equestria, or something like that. Ya know what I mean.” Summer laughed. “I don’t think it’ll go that far, but I appreciate your support. For now, both of you gather a few soldiers you can trust. They’ll be assigned to a security role. Afterwards, I dunno, I might be able to give you that adventure you want. I’ve got a side project in mind, and could use a private escort.” Rainbow pumped her hoof into the air. “Alright, just like old times! I’ll take off right away and get you some names. I’ve got just the ponies in mind.” After Rainbow had left, Shining gave Summer a hug before following suit. “It was nice seeing you again Twily. Maybe next time we can have some tea together, just the four of us? It’s been too long since the last time.” “Of course, Shiny. You know I’m never too busy for family.” Summer’s mind swam with multiple overlapping thoughts. Where she was, what she was doing, even her very identity was in conflict with itself. She tried to focus on one or the other, but a sharp stabbing pain in the back of her head threatened to drive her back into unconsciousness. “Agh!” She cried out, catching the attention of a nearby pony. “Hey, Summer’s awake!” Came a familiar mare’s voice, but she couldn’t identify it. Her head was still throbbing, and it was difficult to grab onto a single thought. “Ugh…” She tried sitting up and opening her eyes. Blurs of blue moved in her vision. A name came to mind. “Rainbow… Dash?”  “Who? No, it’s me, Amethyst,” the mare said, moving something off of her face. The blurs turned from blue to purple, and she got a clearer look at her friend. Yes, right… Amethyst. “What happened? Everything feels… fuzzy.” Summer asked. “You fell into the water. Hit your head something fierce,” Amethyst explained. “You dropped the suitcases into the river, but we managed to fish up yours. Not sure where the others swam off to.” She nodded in vague understanding. Her thoughts were getting clearer, memories were coming back. She just wasn’t sure if they were hers. Looking around, she saw nothing but trees. The Everfree Forest? But wasn’t I just in Canterlot? She shook her head. No, something felt wrong. She wasn’t in Canterlot. She was in some strange facility, there was an AI in there, and then the dragon chased them. That dragon looked familiar…  But it couldn’t have…  “Summer? You alright?” Came a voice to her right, belonging to a black thestral. Corona, she remembered. “That was one hell of a fall.” Summer nodded again. “Yeah… I think. Just gotta get my head together. I don’t think my memories are all mine anymore…” “What do you mean?” “I think I know,” Amethyst said. “Putting an AI in your head can have some odd side effects. AIs are created from a living pony’s mind, if you recall. Things tend to get pretty bad if you take any head trauma while one is sitting in there, like Summer just did.” “So… what, did the AI merge with her or something?” Summer shook her head. “No, not yet at least. If I don’t take her out soon, though, it’ll become harder to discern which memories are mine and which are hers.” She stood up, feeling uneven on her hooves. The phantom sensation of wings she didn’t have and the lack of feeling in her legs gave her a brief moment of panic before she remembered this was who she was supposed to be. “It’s not a feeling I would recommend. Everything feels wrong, like I’m trapped in a body that isn’t mine.” “I’m sorry,” the AI apologized. From the memory she saw, her name, or at least her creator’s name was Twilight. “I didn’t realize this would happen. AI were still new when I was created. I was supposed to be an experiment, and part of that was my creator copying a lot of her memories onto me.” It’s fine, it’s not your fault. Are you okay, at least? Summer asked mentally. “I’m alright, undamaged.” “Twi is intact, at least.” Summer said. “Twi?” Amethyst questioned. “A nickname of the pony who made her, I figured I’d give her that name too.” “That’s good, it would suck if she broke and got stuck in your head without having a name, now wouldn’t it?” Corona asked with no small hint of sarcasm. “Wait, shit, I didn’t jinx it, did I?” “If you don’t shut up, maybe,” Amethyst remarked. “So now what? We still have one suitcase left. Should we cut our losses and head back to Ponyville?” “I think we should just go,” Summer suggested. “I don’t want to risk any more of the AI’s memories bleeding into my head, so the sooner we get her home and into a proper computer, the better.” “With access to your computational glasses, I can plot a course out of the forest and back to Ponyville.” Twi offered. Summer nodded and set her Gear back over her eyes, tinting her world blue once again. The Heads-Up Display booted up again, this time with a little symbol of a smiling pony in the corner. “Ah, thank you,” Twi said in Summer’s ears this time. “I hope you don’t mind if I tap into local news feeds. I’ve been out of the loop since my creator passed.” “No, go ahead,” Summer answered. “So, about those directions?” After a few seconds, a little arrow appeared on the HUD. Summer picked up her suitcase and motioned for her friends to follow. The walk back to Hollow Shades was largely uneventful, though Summer still got the occasional flash from Twi’s memories. Small things, like reading. Pretty much only reading, actually. I used to be a pretty avid reader. Wait, no. She was, not me. “So what was that dragon’s deal?” Corona asked. “He chases us around, then just lets us go?” “Spike...” Summer started to say, that name hanging on her tongue. “He was guarding that cave. Probably defending those pods, like Twi was doing.” Corona turned to stare at her. “How do you know his name?” “The memories I saw, he was in them. He was much smaller though.” “Huh,” Corona shrugged. “Everfree Dragon still sounds cooler.” The trio didn’t bother stopping in town for anything, instead going right for the train station. As they waited for the next train to Ponyville, Twi opened up an article on Summer’s Gear. It was one of the articles they saw earlier about the missing star. “Why didn’t you tell me this was happening?” “Is there something you know about it?” “I know about something, yes. It’s not something I’m supposed to share though. But if you’ve got some of my memories...” Twi trailed off, then closed the article. “Twi? You alright?” Summer asked, but didn’t get a response. “Something wrong, Summer?” Amethyst asked. Summer filled her in on what Twi had said. “I see. Something must have her worried.” “She’s right to be worried,” Corona spoke up. They noticed she was looking directly up. “Take a look at where that star used to be.” Summer looked up, and her jaw dropped. The Windscar constellation, previously just missing its eye, was now missing much more. Where there were once half a dozen stars, only a black void remained, and it was slowly expanding.