Chapter 8
Vinyl Scratch continued to scream as she held Surprise’s lifeless body in her forelegs, she was sobbing heavily, never knowing until this moment just how much the Pegasus pony meant to her. Vinyl Scratch took her hoof and closed Surprise’s eyes. She could finally get the rest that she deserved...
No.
No. It wasn’t that simple. Vinyl Scratch got to her hooves and threw Surprise’s body over her back. She wasn’t going to give up, Surprise meant too much to her, and with access to the master archive not far from here... there had to be some way to bring Surprise back.
Surprise had been freed from the thrall that had held her her entire life. She deserved a chance at a normal life; Vinyl Scratch wasn’t giving up on her. Vinyl turned and galloped to the west, towards the Everfree forest, and to the Lake of Origin.
‘Vinyl!’ Octavia called out to her, but Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.
‘Let her go, she’s doing what she has to do’, Twilight said. Octavia nodded, and Twilight Sparkle turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was unconscious, alive, but unconscious. The kangaroo field medic was doing his best and had managed to stop the bleeding.
‘Wounds aren’t bad, missed everything important, your friend here’s got to be the luckiest pony on the face of the planet. She’s going to live’, the medic said.
‘We both are’, Twilight said as she smiled at Rainbow Dash. Willoughby and the kangaroo medic picked Rainbow Dash up and placed her on the back of the Lord Stuart, readying her for transport to hospital.
Twilight turned back to the rest of her friends. ‘Hey... Everypony? I’m sorry; I have to go do something, alone. I hope that’s all right with you’.
‘Twilight, darling’, Rarity said as she trotted over to her friend. ‘Please, tell me you’re not planning on doing something... rash’.
‘Not rash, no’, Twilight said. ‘But something that needs to be done nonetheless’; Twilight held her revolver out and turned towards the east, trotting along the path into Whitetail Wood. She followed the pathway until she discovered the entrance cave to EPMB, deserted, save for the lone combot that Monty Ulan had reprogrammed, for some reason, it had made its way here.
‘ALL HAIL THE MACHINE!’ the combot cried out as Twilight passed it.
‘Shut up’, Twilight said as she walked by, lighting her horn and making her descent into the dark tunnels of the hollowed out cave. She eventually reached the door to EPMB and pulled the lever on the opening console. Hazard lights began to flash, steam began to hiss, and Twilight instinctively covered her ears to protect against the cacophony of metal grinding against metal.
The door rolled to the left and Twilight Sparkle walked inside, she had gotten used to the door, and didn’t even jump when it closed behind her. She made her way into the control room, and looked directly at the mainframe terminal, the glowing image of Emerald Sparkle looking back at her. She entered the room and trotted up to the terminal.
‘I figured you would come. Are you happy? You won’, Emerald Sparkle said.
‘Yes, yes we did’, Twilight said. ‘It was a bold move you made. I can only wonder how many ponies died today because of you’.
‘Sacrifices, necessary sacrifices for the sake of progress’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘I was close, so close... had my combots made their way up the mountain...’
‘They still wouldn’t have been able to kill the princesses’, Twilight said. ‘They’re a little bit tougher than that’.
‘Oh, I know’, Emerald Sparkle admitted. ‘I know them better than you think. I know them better than you do. When I was a child, my parents died, and I became the student of Queen Gaia. Celestia and Luna were my friends, my playmates, I loved them dearly’.
‘And then you tried to kill them’, Twilight said plainly.
‘Times are different now’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘The princesses are dangerous. Twilight, you have to realise; you have to have at least had the idea enter your mind! The princesses, both of them, do not have pony societies best interests at heart! They only care about their own agendas!’
‘And you don’t?’ Twilight asked.
‘I admit, I have an agenda, with me in charge of the Republic of Equestria, we would have entered a golden age of science and technology! Give me twenty years; I will put ponies on the moon! Give me fifty, and we’ll be exploring the other planets in our star system, a hundred years?! We’ll be out among the stars, Princess Celestia stays in charge? We’ll be lucky if she hasn’t outlawed the thermionic valve in a hundred years’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘You cannot trust Princess Celestia to do what is best for ponykind!’
‘I know’, Twilight said, closing her eyes and breathing out a sigh. ‘But I can’t very well trust you either’, Twilight pulled her revolver out and looked back up at Emerald Sparkle’s terminal, a look of determination forming on her face.
‘So you’re going to kill me then? I wouldn’t do that if I were you’, Emerald said. ‘I have a failsafe system; you kill me, these base nuclear warheads will all go off!’
Twilight smirked at her ancestor and set the revolver on the floor, kicking it gently and letting it slide backwards towards the door. ‘I’m not going to kill you, Emerald. No, that would be me stooping to your level. No, instead, I’m going to disconnect you from the mainframe’.
‘... Twilight! No!’ Emerald Sparkle said. Even though her voice was artificial, Twilight could detect the fear in her ancestor’s speech. ‘I lied! I lied, there is no failsafe! Please, don’t disconnect me from the mainframe! I’d rather you just killed me!’
Twilight ignored her ancestor’s pleas; she trotted over to the mainframe console and pushed a few buttons. A wall panel opened up, revealing the elevator to where Emerald Sparkle’s body was located at. Twilight trotted over to it and rode down to the bottom. She exited the elevator and looked over the vast amount of life support equipment, maintaining her ancestor’s life.
A terminal similar to the one upstairs, albeit somewhat smaller flickered to life. ‘Twilight! I beg of you. Do not disconnect me from the mainframe!’
Twilight ignored her and trotted over the console at the front of the life support tube, with the click of a few keys, she pulled up the correct menu. ‘Goodbye Emerald Sparkle. The world doesn’t need you anymore’.
‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’ Emerald cried out as Twilight hit the execute key.
The image on the terminal flickered out, and was replaced with a single message.
Connection Lost...
...
Vinyl Scratch arrived on the shores of the Lake of Origin, she set Surprise down on the ground, gently, making sure not to harm the Pegasus mare.
‘Shh’, Vinyl whispered. ‘Don’t worry; you’re going to be all better soon, before you know it? You’ll be up and about, bouncing around, pulling pranks on Octavia, eating exploding cupcakes with Pinkie Pie... going on late afternoon walks in the wilderness with Fluttershy, maybe even reading books in the Library with Twilight... and then, we’re going to be best friends... just like you deserve’.
Surprise said nothing, she continued to lie still. Vinyl was about to drag her into the water when a bright light began to immerge from the lake.
A glowing golden earth pony with ruby red eyes immerged from the water, shining brightly, and even with her goggles on, Vinyl had to shield her eyes.
Then the light began to fade, and Vinyl Scratch looked on to her newcomer.
Actually, there were two new comers; both of them appeared in a blink of an eye, replacing the golden glowing pony.
‘Oh you have got to be kidding me’, Vinyl Scratch said as he saw who they were.
The first one was Montana Ulan, the second one was... Surprise?
What?
Vinyl Scratch looked down to where she had set Surprise’s body; it was gone, vanished just as quickly as the new comers had appeared.
‘Oh... oh, wait, don’t tell me!’ Vinyl said, pointing at Monty. ‘You’re God! And Surprise is one of your angels!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Vinyl Scratch’, Monty Ulan said plainly. ‘God isn’t real... Although... I suppose I am the being that the nephites pray too... okay, yeah sure, if it’s easier for you to fathom, I’m god... as for Surprise here... well, it would be a pretty fucked up universe if she was an angel, no offence Surprise’.
‘None taken!’ Surprise said brightly. ‘It’s totally true!’
‘Let me explain something to you, Vinyl Scratch’, Monty Ulan said turning back to her. ‘There are things in this universe that can never hope to be understood by really anybody on your level. This is one of those things, Surprise and I have had a good long talk, and I’ve determined that she’s not ready to move on yet’.
‘Huh?’ Vinyl Scratch asked.
‘Surprise has so much potential; her entire life up to this point was taken from her by Overdrive. When the old world was turned into the new, Surprise’s unique position in life, not unlike my own, forced her exactly how she was, taking her directly out of the old world and plopping her down into the new one. The Surprise that belonged to this world never knew a normal life. She was plagued by mental illness for her entire life, until one day she couldn’t take it anymore; she took a coil of rope and bound her wings together, and then hung herself from the rafters in her home in Dream Valley. What kind of life is that?’ Monty asked, he looked to Surprise and smiled brightly at her. ‘Then, what did you and your friends do? You freed her and I’ve decided that Surprise deserves a normal life, so I’m giving it to her’.
Vinyl Scratch blinked a few times in confusion. ‘Doesn’t that like... go against the laws of nature or something?’
‘Ohhh yeah! It pretty much breaks all of them’, Monty said nonchalantly. ‘Some of the others weren’t happy about it, but then I threatened to make this dinky little yellow star some 12 or so light-years from here go supernova, they backed down after that. My opposition has a thing for one of the species that’s there... Australopithecus or something the likes of that...’
‘So... that’s it then, no strings attached? Surprise gets a normal life? Why? Why her?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Because, Overdrive ruined her life, and because you deserve her as a friend’, Monty said.
‘What makes me so special?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Everybody is special, Vinyl Scratch’, Monty said. ‘But if you need a reason? I’ve got several, you and your friends stopped Overdrive, defeated the Siblings Nightmare, you held the tide against Legion, and you kept Emerald Sparkle from establishing dominion over ponykind, and frankly? You all deserve a happy ending, so I’m giving it to you’, Vinyl Scratch looked at Monty suspiciously, but he only chuckled at her. ‘I’m not an Alicorn, Vinyl. I don’t have an ulterior motive, I don’t have an agenda. I’m doing it because it’s the nice thing to do, because it’s what you all deserve after doing so much’.
‘Come on Vinyl! I talked to him in heaven for a good long while, he means it, and he really does!’ Surprise said.
‘It’s not really heaven... but I guess if that’s easier for you...’ Monty said under his breath.
Vinyl smiled at Surprise and trotted over and gave her a hug. Surprise took her place at Vinyl’s side and the two of them looked at Monty Ulan. ‘So what happens to you?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Me? You don’t have to worry about me. You don’t need me anymore, to be honest? I don’t think any of you ever did’, Monty said with a smile. ‘Just remember something, Vinyl Scratch, all good things must end, everything dies, but there is nothing that says that anypony has to die today. Take care of yourself, and Surprise? Keep her out of trouble’.
Surprise and Vinyl Scratch smiled at Monty Ulan, and turned to head back to Ponyville. Monty Ulan waded into the water of the Lake of Origin, disappearing from the world, forever.