//------------------------------// // Knowledge Overflow // Story: Of Robots and Those Who Make Them // by Valtyra //------------------------------// Celestia took a careful step forward, her sensors working overtime to catalogue everything they could around her in the room. She peered up at the large locker with a quizzical expression on her face, her curiosity overcoming any and all alarm bells which could have gone off. "M.O.O.N?" she asked, running her fingers across the roughly Inscribed lettering. A beep emanating from the terminal broke her attention away from the locker and she stepped over to see that the terminal was in a sleep state, a small red LED blinking lazily on the monitor. Reaching out with a digit, she pressed the enter key and the machine let out a series of clicks and whirls before the screen lit up. Across the top of the screen, several categories appeared: "Project Index", "Network access", "Archive" and "Bios & Settings". Celestia tapped the arrow keys until Project Index lit up and she hesitantly accessed it, allowing the screen to list several projects, many of which linked to the archive. |- Project Ascension    - *Rejected* |- Project Slingshot    - *Ongoing* |- Project L.U.N.A     - *Archived* She tapped the down arrow, pausing for a second over each listing, then continuing until she reached Project L.U.N.A. Celestia frowned, looked over those letters and found herself confused. "Luna..." she hummed, feeling like she should know that word from somewhere but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Pressing enter, the terminal listed several video recordings, project reports and lab notes. Celestia scrolled down to the first video recording dated eight months prior and hesitantly pressed enter. Twilight sat down on a heavy metallic stool with a tired sigh. She took a few seconds to compose herself, her eyes clearly red from crying. As she sat there, her eyes drifted just past the camera, causing her to grow unfocused, until she tore her gaze away before closing them. Her horn flared to life as a click was heard somewhere behind the camera; the room darkened, but the camera adjusted and Twilight was once again clear. A soft beep off to the side caused Twilight to look off, before quickly levitating a bottle of pills over. She downed a few and left the bottle next to her on the table. "This is my first research log, I guess. These will be less formal than what I would have normally created before I moved here, but honestly," she said, looking down. "What's the point anymore?" She sniffled, then cleared her throat, trying to put on a brave face. "So, uh, research log one. The preliminary research is promising," she began, kicking her leg out anxiously. "The idea from Doctor Saffron was remarkable and helped to formulate several key leads, pointing to the ability to use dragon scales to strengthen the inner casing, due to their unique ability of negating magical influences. But as of yet, thaumic core containment continues to elude me and the biology department is starting to get suspicious due to the amount of materials I've been," Twilight hummed, thinking of the right word, "commandeering.” “Still,” she added, “progress has been made and with the level of technology I have at my disposal now, I should be able to finish my projects before their expiration." Suddenly, a look of grief cascaded over her and she tore her gaze away from the camera. With a wordless flick of her horn, the screen cut back to the terminal. Celestia stood there, staring at the screen in shock. She couldn't imagine what happened to Twilight to react in such a manner. "What did you do, Twilight?" Celestia whispered, tapping the table with her fingers. She then scrolled down to the newest video, dated just a mere two weeks prior to her waking up, and clicked enter. She needed answers, but from the look that Twilight gave, she wasn't sure she would like them. Twilight was standing behind one of the tables in the basement with what looked to be a replica core sitting in front of her. A soft azure light illuminated the table, emanating from its grooves. Twilight herself looked much healthier than the last video. The bags under her eyes had faded and there was more of a glow to her. "This," Twilight exclaimed, gesturing to the core, "Is the first functional thaumic core!" She let out a laugh and grinned. "Doctor Naut can suck it! He's not gonna get a positive relationship review this year!" With a wide smile, Twilight levitated the core off the table. "It's beautiful, if I may be a little egotistical," she giggled. "I found the spherical shape to hold a much greater charge than others of a similar density, thus allowing more of a so-" Twilight was interrupted by a soft beeping and she let out a light groan. "Oh, uh, hang on a second," she muttered, levitating an orange bottle of pills over. She popped a single one out and swallowed it. "There. So where was I? Oh, right," she giggled. "I'm so so close to fixing everything," she said, placing the core down and letting out a depressed sigh. "So close..." The terminal suddenly blinked on the screen with a flashing error message. Data file Corrupt Celestia frowned then let out a groan as the error flashed upon the screen. "Just perfect..." she said, bringing a fist down on the table. Countdown: 3hr 20m 13s As the countdown flashed up in her vision, she glanced over at the locker and stood up to walk over. She stood in front of it, her floating fingers twitching nervously as the M.O.O.N. seemed to loom over her, growing taller and taller and threatening to crush her. There was a sense of foreboding that Celestia couldn't place; a sense of guilt which was now eating away at her. She didn't know what she had done, but the pressure was enough to cause her to take a step back. Celestia placed a hand on her chest and turned around to break contact with the locker. "This weight... I can't stand it," she whimpered.