//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: The Lyrist and The Tempest // by Valiant wind //------------------------------// Clunk! The pain of a slid-open throat never came. All Lyra saw was a flash of grey, and then her world faded into blackness. There was a loud roar and a round of fluttering of wings, and then everything went still. Hoofsteps came to her side, and something warm and fluffy was pressed onto her forehead. “Come on, open your eyes!” she didn’t recognize this voice at first, “you are not hurt. You can do it!” And so she tried, focusing all her strength on her eyelids. They slowly opened. “Grey…?” “On your six, watch it!” Somepony shouted behind her. Grey Wind’s head swung to the side. Lyra barely saw the movements of her wings as she pounced over her body. “Gah!!!” The sound of claws digging into soft flesh. Grey Wind grunted, and Lyra heard a scream. A beam of violet magic shot past her and exploded on the pavement. A dark figure was thrown off into the air, dissipating into a black cloud and elapsing from her sight. Somepony grabbed her front hoof and supported her up, and then she saw Grey Wind in front of her. The wound on her front head was cracked open, and the fur on her chest was soaked with blood. “That thing escaped,” she said, “you are safe now.” “Grey…You are hurt…” “It’s only peripheral,” Grey Wind brushed a hoof against her mane, “take care of yourself first.” “Oh, in the name of Luna…” Lyra tilted her head around and saw Warmhoof, Cirrus, and Nebula on a balcony behind her. Warmhoof was still blankly staring at the street, Cirrus appeared as if he’d just been smacked on the head by the claws of a dragon, while Nebula’s expression was cold as hail. A small violet glow was still visible on her horn. Her mane was flowing freely, shining with glitters of magic. “After all those years…” she mumbled, then shook her head, “Cirrus, Warmhoof! Take her to the clinic, now!” “Lyra!” It was at this moment when Nightjar rushed to her side. Nebula walked over and softly patted Grey Wind’s tensed-up shoulder. “I got her,” she said, “go with Warmhoof and Cirrus. Let them check you up.” Grey Wind panted. She glanced at Lyra and Nightjar, then softly nodded. Cirrus and Warmhoof each took one of her wings, and they left away from the street and towards the plaza. “Return to the library first,” Nebula said to Lyra. Her voice was horribly calm, “I know a spell that can keep you away from that bastard.” “That…that was a nightmare beast, wasn’t it? I knew I wasn’t seeing things!” Nightjar was starting to sound terrified, “and—and—I heard it speak…” her eyes widened with fear, “it was coming for YOU?!” Lyra coughed. Every corner of her body hurt. “Once a nightmare beast chooses its prey, it won’t stop until it kills her,” Nebula said. She raised Lyra’s chin, her magenta eyes glaring straight into her soul, “let’s be quick. You are not safe out here anymore, Lyra.” That night, Grey Wind had a dream. This was unusual. According to her database, a dream is a result of unconscious pondering when an organic creature is asleep. “Pondering” was never a part of her program, and neither should dreaming be. But right now… Grey Wind looked around her. She was sitting atop a small hill covered by grass. In front of her was a valley surrounded by tall, green mountains. A small stream was running through its middle, glittering against the bright full moon hanging in the cloudless sky, surrounded by a river of stars. On one side of the stream sat two familiar creatures—Nightjar and Lyra. Nightjar was lying on the ground, reading a thick book. Lyra was holding her lyre between her lap, plucking its strings with her magic. The music gently flew into her ears, caressing them between their whispers. There were no similar terrains around Memento at least within a ten-mile radius, and the light of the moon was clearly violating the laws of physics by not being able to veil the stars. All the calculations were returning the same results—this place, everything around her, everything she was hearing, touching, feeling…they were all not real. She didn’t run a code scan & analysis this time. After her experience of the past few days, it was already meaningless. Grey Wind sighed. She couldn’t explain what was happening to her. Precise calculations, choices aiming for benefit maximization, the placement of self-existence above anything else…over the past few days, all the most cherished and prided traits her creators had placed into her had all magically vanished, replaced by a mindful of wild, logicless… emotions…She found that word in her database. Her brows furrowed. It was so strange. She was only supposed to exercise what had been written in her codes, but she had no codes for these emotions. All of them came out of nowhere, eating away her intricate algorithms like grasshoppers upon a field of weed. She could not shut them down and could only watch as they got worse. And today, she had just broken the most fundamental law of her entire existence. “Whistle…?” a near-inaudible gasp came from behind her. Grey turned backward, her wings spreading in alarm. A dark blue alicorn was floating in the sky above her. Her blue mane was long and curly, littered with many tiny light spots that resembled a night sky full of stars. Grey Wind saw the crescent moon cutie mark on her flank and immediately recognized this pony from the limited knowledge her database bore about this world. “Princess…Luna?” she asked tentatively. Upon hearing this, the alicorn’s hooves visibly twitched. Her sight fell onto Grey Wind’s flank, and she silently shook her head before landing and sitting down beside her. “It is I,” she said, putting up a smile, “greetings, Grey Wind.” Grey Wind didn’t know how to respond. She was facing a princess, one of the rulers of this world. Should she bow? Should she politely greet back? Her database contained none of the answers. “So, Grey Wind, tell us,” Princess Luna seemed to have noticed her frustrations. She laid a hoof onto her shoulder, “how is this? Are you enjoying your dream?” “I…” There was something soothing about Luna’s voice, that Grey Wind felt her anxiety melting away within it. After a second of inner struggle, Grey Wind decided it would be best to tell the truth, “I…don’t know…I was not…” her lips trembled upon saying that word, “…supposed…to enjoy anything. It is not a part of the program.” “Yet you have fabricated such a wonderful dream, all by yourself,” Luna raised an eyebrow, “you are confused. Tell us why.” “I…you won’t understand, princess,” Grey Wind sighed heavily, “what I did today…it was…” she pressed a hoof onto her head, “I don’t know how to say it, it was just…irrational." “Irrational that you bravely protected a pony whose life had been threatened?” “It could’ve killed me!” Grey Wind answered, “for any life form, this should be a basic! Survival is always the first priority! But when I broke that law, it felt so…” her wings fluttered anxiously. She couldn’t stop herself from describing those emotions, “natural! Like, it even made me proud and happy! I considered it as absurd when Lyra did it for me, but now…” her breath was becoming labored, “and everything I’ve been feeling recently, I wasn’t SUPPOSED TO FEEL THEM…they…they ruined all my codes…ruined…me…” Princess Luna only lay onto all fours, listening quietly during her entire outburst. As she finally went silent, the princess of the night softly wrapped a wing around her body. “Well…I know I’m probably tampering with things that I will never possibly comprehend,” she said warmly, “but I believe I can help you with this, Grey Wind.” “HOW?” Grey Wind cried, “I don’t even know where these errors came from! My codes are all intact—” “Emotions are NOT errors!” Luna’s volume raised. She threw a hoof into the air, “look all around you, Grey Wind. All that you are feeling recently—” she gestured towards Lyra. Grey Wind could still hear the music coming from all around her, “—haven’t they enabled you to enjoy the most beautiful music? The most glorious scenery? The purest of kindness?” “But it had also led to insensibility!” Grey Wind retorted, “it almost got Lyra and I killed!” she stared into Luna’s eyes, “emotion is just an evolutionary failure for you organic creatures…” “Then be it that way,” Luna simply answered, “if you are not ready for it, nopony can force you. There are other matters we have to discuss, Grey Wind,” she narrowed her eyes, “about these…xeomorphs I’ve been hearing about. I’m sure you could share some knowledge about their origins?” “I suspect you would even understand,” Grey Wind said coldly. “Will they be a threat?” there was no ripple in Luna’s voice. “I have only seen small portions of them here,” Grey Wind answered, while her wings involuntarily shuddered, “in their prime, they could easily consume an entire planet.” “Is there a way to stop them?” Luna was taking a much more serious tone, “please. This is crucial for all my subjects’ survival.” “There was one in the past,” Grey Wind plainly answered, “but not anymore.” Images were flowing out of her database, presented right in front of her eyes. Burning cities, screams of fear and despair, millions of arms reaching to the sky, only to be covered by a meters-thick cloud of death…the images slowly superposed on the bodies of Lyra and Nightjar, and she found herself gritting her teeth. “Please do not disturb my creators’ business,” she hissed, “I will find them, every last one that had escaped the jumpgates, and I will destroy them, every last one of them…” “Is there really no solution left behind?” Luna stood up and walked over, meeting her eyes with her own ethereal orbs, “but, to my knowledge…” What she said next made Grey Wind gasp. “You have always been in possession of the termination code, haven’t you?” “How did you—” Grey Wind’s eyes widened. This is impossible. Even her creators don’t know— “Well, I’ll just say,” Luna chuckled, “I was met with a similar situation…approximately ten centuries ago.” “I…” Grey Wind was speechless. Luna leaned close, whispering into her ear. “You could have ended this entire madness…just by clicking a single button. If you really wish for the xeomorphs’ destruction…then why didn’t you use it?” “I’ll…I’ll use it as a last resort…” Grey Wind lowered her head, “if things really come down to that, then I will…I will…” “The fact that you are not using it now proves that you’ll never use it, otherwise…” Luna looked up into the sky, “…you would not be crying.” Crying? Grey Wind gasped. She suddenly realized that the grass below her was already soaked wet. She reached a hoof up to her eyes and felt the trail of hot tears trickling down it. Luna had walked to the edge of the hilltop, gazing over the valley and the stream. “You don’t want to lose them, am I correct?” her voice was not high, but to Grey Wind, it was a strike of thunder. “The Gray Tempest is a threat to the entire galaxy!” Grey Wind ordered to stop crying this instant, but the tears were only dropping down quicker. She was starting to stammer and choke, “it’s for the best! For—for Lyra—for Nightjar—for every living organic creature in the galaxy—I must—I must…Oh—” she finally allowed herself to collapse onto the ground, covering her head with her front hooves, “I—I don’t know what is wrong with me…” A powerful hoof lifted her chin up. Eyes blurred, Grey Wind saw Princess Luna smiling at her. “Grey Wind, that is because you are experiencing Friendship! You want to spend more time around some pony, and are willing to throw out a helping hoof whenever they are in trouble, even when it may harm yourself…This—” she glanced at Lyra and Nightjar, “this, is what they have been trying to prove to you for all those past days, that you, my dear, can feel its magic as well,” she laughed, “even in Equestria, such pure friendship, friendship that does not ask for any form of return…is also the rarest gem. You are very lucky, Grey Wind.” “But…” Grey Wind sniffed, “the power of the Gray Tempest, nanomachines…” she glanced uneasily at her wings, “…they are evil. Their existence was my creator’s biggest mistake…” she lowered her head again, “my existence…is a mistake…” “Stop pulling out excuses for yourself,” Luna sharply said, “you and I both know that there is no good or evil for power. I could bring ponies sweet dreams, but I could also create nightmares. It is your behaviors and decisions that define the justice of your strength,” she brushed her wings with her own, “you could either stay here, watching your friends from afar while blaming yourself, or you could also use the same time to think about how you could help your friends with your power. The decision is yours.” Grey Wind wiped her eyes. She could not resist it anymore. “I’ll…try…” “Very well,” said Princess Luna, bearing a confident beam, “in that case, I think you should wake up. Your friends are waiting for you.” The dreamscape around them was starting to shatter. Grass, mountains and rivers were dissolving until there was nothing left but whiteness. A beam of light was pouring down from above them, getting stronger and stronger. For some reason unknown. Grey Wind was feeling a warmth rising from her heart, as if something within it had just been melted. “Princess Luna,” Grey Wind suddenly remembered something. “You said that you had a similar experience in the past…what happened?” “Let the past be left in the past,” Luna shook her hooves, then smiled, “good luck, Grey Wind. I am sincerely looking forward to meeting you in reality.” Grey Wind wanted to ask further, but the Princess was already engulfed by the light. “Ah!” Grey Wind gasped as her eyes snapped open. She was staring at the brown-tiled ceiling of Doctor Warmhoof’s clinic. She sat up on the bed, her wings fluttering open. Her hoof touched a wet stain on the blanket—it was her tear. Was I…really crying? She thought cluelessly. Crying should be one of the strongest expressions of an organic creature’s emotion. This, along with all those anger, frustration, sadness, and confusion she’d just felt in that dream, Lyra’s wonderful music, Luna’s warm wings…they were all way above the range of system errors. All of them…were true. She still couldn’t find an explanation. These emotions never existed in her program, but… Then that means…the happiness I felt when I am with Lyra and Nightjar…must be true as well, right? …maybe they are so bad after all. How I can use my power to benefit my friends… Princess Luna’s final words were still coursing through her mind. She looked out of the window. It was still very dark, but she could see beams of sunlight shooting out of the horizon. She suddenly realized that there was actually a lot she could do. Flexibility had always been the most important advantage of nanomachines. As long as she wanted to do it, there could be a million possibilities. If…I am really going to try this…then…she thought, watching the tree growing out of the Cosmetic Balcony across from the street, why don’t I start now? She jumped off the bed and tried her wings. After making sure they were still working, she quickly creaked open the window and jumped outside, flying off into the night. Lyra felt as if every single bone in her body was being crushed into crisps. The black tendrils were closing around all her limbs, the black spear reforming above her head. Tomorrow is the last day…come to the forest this midnight…or be fried into oblivion… The spear thrust down, penetrating her skull. Lyra screamed as she jerked up on the bed. As soon as she calmed her breath, she found Grey Wind standing in front of her bed, eyes full of concern. “Had another bad dream?” she said, spitting out the words like a shower, “don’t worry, I just scanned you. I know what is wrong.” “S—scan?” Lyra blinked. “I—I owe you an explanation,” Grey Wind winced and shook her head, “but first we’ll have to fix you,” she looked straight into Lyra’s eyes, appearing dead serious, “I can get rid of your nightmares, Lyra, but I need you to trust me.” “What are you talking about, Grey…?” Lyra groaned, “of course I trust you…” “Good,” Grey Wind nodded. Lyra forced out a smile. And then Grey Wind whirled around and struck her wing on Lyra’s forehead. She fell unconscious right away.