Magic's Birth: The Sisters' Memories

by The Psychopath


Second Step

As the hours went by, the lands of the blue grew bigger and bigger, and the constructs on their surfaces became more and more pronounced. Seas of white stretching as far as the optic could detect. The machines of the black gawked at the sheer surface occupied by buildings. They couldn't spot any flora anywhere in naturally occurring spaces. To Biddy, this fully industrialized area was both amazing and the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. Whole swaths of land taken over, leaving the animal life there to fester and die.

"They aren't dead," Celestia interjected after overhearing the complaints from Biddy. "There is a surprisingly large amount of creatures that buzz around the lands, but they aren't enormous like those creatures the stowaway lived with, or the delele. No room left," she lamented as she shook her head.

While Rahllup paced back and forth, trying to get a better view of everything, Dissonance was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Amazing! It's better than I could have imagined, and that's the outside!" he declared to the sisters. "I want to see these 'flying vehicles' you mentioned and the people who live here. I want to see the buildings and how the architecture of this place looks compared to our own!"

Biddy grabbed their head and twisted it to a skypiercer. It was segmented into multiple cubes at three points in the air. They slowly moved about in place, interconnected by the streams of blue and non-transparent, glass-like tubes that twisted and waved with the cubes. The building did this at multiple intervals, its visible shape finalizing as it twisted around to disappear above the clouds in the sky.

"I think our architecture is a wee bit different," Biddydee said while gesturing with her fingers.

"Amazing," the flamboyant machine stated in awe.

"Alright, machines," one of the crew announced. Everyone turned to face them. "I'll need all those running on the black to follow me. Grab everything before we leave. You'll shut down when you get to the container."

"Are we sure we can trust 'em?" Rahllup asked.

"We don't really have much of a choice," Biddy said. "Besides, we still have those two on the outside," she said while gesturing to the sisters.

Rahllup's flames weakened. "You mean three," she said with some annoyance. Galah and the charred machine were turning around each other, fingers raised.

"Why do you do this?" Celestia asked them.

"Because it's fun," Galah explained. He was still focused on his opponent.

"Let's go!" the caretaker ordered loudly. "We'll tell those three where you're going to be dropped off...where's the stowaway?"

The machines looked around, but the charred robot was nowhere to be found. Shrugging it off because they were short on time, the caretaker entrusted its discovery to the sisters and hurried along with the remaining three of the black.

"Where could it have gone?" Luna wondered aloud.

The sisters grabbed Galah by the arms and lifted him up, hovering far above the boat. "I can help with looking for it while we're up here," the prototype suggested. "It should be easier with so many optics scanning around."

"I don't think we'll be able to find them at all," Celestia lamented. "We couldn't find them in the forest, let alone any traces of the home of those giant creatures." She narrowed her gaze to what she thought was the charred robot. It was just a couple of black barrels. "They somehow snuck in through a large port bustling with activity. The port of the blue is even more active." They dodged several very large, slow-moving aerial vehicles moving towards the vessel they had just left from. "If no one has spotted them already, the chances that we find it are even slimmer."

Galah tried to shrug, forgetting where he was and causing the sisters to fumble violently. "Sorry," he said. "If it followed you two through there just to reach you, I believe that it should be watching you at this precise moment as well. It's likely following you in the shadows, or just by hiding in plain sight."

The port was far larger than the one of the black the group left from, but then, everything in the blue seemed far bigger than that from the black. A vast amount of hangars and stockpiles and other vessels all around. Rolling cranes left and right, floating vehicles the size of buildings going from ship to ship to stock up on cargo and transport them to a designated location based on their own personal signature. Makers going left and right accompanying robots of older models aiding them in carrying the smaller cargo onto vehicles for transportation.

"Look over there," Galah announced.

The prototype spotted the robots of the black being placed into a beige container and locked within. The loudspeaker announced that the beige containers had been locked with older robot models in it for study and collections and ready for unloading. This was done with most of the colored containers on the vessel. It was very on-the-nose, but it was better than not knowing where everything was, it was a way to announce the workflow to the crew, and it was likely done only for this instance as an excuse to let the robots of the black out without suspicion.

"Couldn't they have just told you which container the robots were put in then keep it marked for you to find later?" Galah asked.

The sisters stared at the ship silently and processed the information, staring at the target container. After several minutes of removal by crane then discussions and exchanging of paperwork with the assigned dock master at the port, several robots came in, scanning the contents. They produced several sirens that seemed to cause the unloading to last much longer and much more paperwork to convince the dock master of the validity of the cargo by the captain. The container was finally free to travel after some stressful moments to a temporary storage area further away from the ships.

The sisters lowered into the park of stacked containers and dropped Galah off within it whilst following their friends. The one they had been hidden in was placed as the third in a tower of five.

"How are we meant to get them down from there?" Luna wondered.

"We can fly Dissonance down, but the other two will have to jump down themselves," Celestia explained.

The blue machine looked around, checking for any nearby makers. "Wouldn't that make us conspicuous? Aren't we trying to be stealthy?"

Galah waved her concerns away. "Like that's going to be a problem. They make a lot of noise here. I doubt them hearing the two gargantuan blocks landing hard on the ground as a problem."

Celestia placed a hand under her 'chin' while Galah spoke. "I'm still concerned for that strange black robot that followed us."

"You can worry later," Luna said sternly.

The blue machine removed pieces of her chassis and wedged them into the creases of the container's door. The lock was within the doors themselves, but the easiest way for her to break them was to either pry the doors open, breaking the pressure compensators within the locking mechanisms, or simply shorting them out. The blue machine pulled and twisted and bent in as many different directions as she could, eventually confusing the lock and making it unlock on its own by sheer accident of calculations.

Galah saw the effect and looked away, mulling upon times long gone. "Maybe that's why they kept saying that math is stupid and never solved anything," he mumbled to himself.

After a few minutes, Luna floated out of the container partially, gesturing for her sister to come with her. Galah watched the two lower Dissonance while Biddy and Rahllup both hopped down, cratering the ground below and causing a bit of trembling amongst the containers.

"So," Biddy started as she pulled her legs out of the floor. Where do we go? to get out of here an explore this city you wanted us to see so badly?" All three machines of the blue pointed left of everyone, towards a white wall. "Well, let's get going then."

Rahllup took in a deep whiff of air, energizing her flames. "Finally. Some walkin'. Was afraid mah gears were gonna rust and lock up. Ain't got Pa around so that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience," she worried. The giant looked around, noticing an oddity. "Ah reckon that stowaway still ain't appeared yet," she noted.

Luna shook her head. "No, but Galah believes that they're following us. After all, it managed to sneak onto the ship without anyone noticing," she stated.

Rahllup was about to protest but caught herself. "Huh. That actually makes sense." She placed her hands on her hips and nodded. "Well, that's one thing we don't have to worry about, I suppose."

The six moved through the containers, dodging any makers around to reach the wall, but both Biddydee and Dissonance noticed something interesting about their caretakers of the blue.

"These caretakers are quite small," Biddy chuckled.

Dissonance's teeth spun to reveal a face attempting -and failing- to hide their laughter. "It's odd. How did they accomplish anything with such small bodies?" There was a long pause as Galah held everyone back while a group of makers moved through with several robots. "Are they like that because of the blue? Or..." Their eyes lit up. "Or are the caretakers like that because of the black? Which one is the original appearance? Is everything mutated by everything in the world? Or did they just evolve differently?" The flamboyant machine started vibrating in place "If that pink energy works, will we get caretakers of the pink? What will that look like?!" They jolted their gaze to the sisters, startling them. "With that sludge you mentioned, does that mean there were caretakers of all those colors as well? Wh-wh-what happened to them?!" Dissonance continued. There didn't seem to be an end in sight for their panic.

"They're going into a loop. They need to be forced offline," Celestia stated.

"I got a better idea," Rahllup said as she clenched her fists together.

Dissonance was lifted up and slapped hard on the side of the head several times until they stopped blabbering. Rahllup was content with herself. "There we go," she said.

"Thank...you..." they muttered.

The rest of the journey was mostly uneventful. It didn't take long for them to finally break out of the large swathe of land dedicated to the docks, revealing a mostly-flat stretch of land separating the docks from the city. The roads leading from there were massive, allowing for many vehicles to come and go. The three machines of the black stared at the city itself in awe. To the left, there were just more buildings. To the right, still more. There was no end to the city of the blue. Rahllup rubbed the back of her head while Dissonance stared at the horizon of buildings in awe.

"Uh, exactly how long have they been making this?" Rahllup asked. Celestia shrugged, igniting the flame-faced machine's ire. "Ya both really like to shrug now."

"I likely simply haven't recompiled that art of my databanks yet," the white machine explained. "Galah should know, though. Galah?" she called out while turning around.

The group stared, dumbfounded, at the scene playing out before them. Galah and the charred machine were having yet another poking battle. Galah and the charred machine.

Biddy moved forward with dim eyes. She leaned her shoulder against the wall as the two continued their bout, either unaware of or simply ignoring her. "So," she started. "The stowaway appeared after all?" she said.

"Yes," Galah answered. "They were waiting for us outside."

"They were-?!"

"How did they even get out here?" Dissonance shouted. "That makes absolutely no sense!" they continued.

Galah stopped poking. "Oh, they weren't here here," he specified. "They were waiting for us out here, yes, but they came out from another area of the walls. I saw them running over here," he continued matter-of-factly.

Everyone but Galah stared with a metaphorical gape at the charred machine. It immediately rushed over to give Celestia and Luna hugs and stay near them.


"I saw those docks," Twilight said. "I even spotted some shipyards further in the area. There's no way that that stowaway managed to sneak past anypony without them noticing!"

The two sisters looked at each other then shrugged at Twilight.

"Still haven't figured out who they could be?" Luna asked. "I can assure you, Twilight Sparkle, then when you figure out who it is like that you might understand how it was that they performed such feats."

"Well, yes, but that was after. They share traits with her, but they aren't entirely like her either," Celestia argued.

"Well...Hm. Fair enough. They are the only one that we will acknowledge a similarity with." The lights of her eyes focused on a single point, making a laser through the dim black of the cave. "How they taught that to the bugs is still a mystery, let alone how they even did all of that in the first place."

Twilight laughed sarcastically. "Right, well, we'll see then. I'm getting more curious as to who this machine is supposed to remind me of. I don't know of anypony attached enough to a pony they just met that they would hug them just like that without any warning or reason." Her stern and sure expressions turned limp. "Except maybe Pinkie Pie," she muttered to herself.