Crystaline Twilight chp 4
Alkaline Throat
Some time had passed since Barb had first awoken and Twilight was still over the moon for her success, the pony Bray showing off the AI’s body to all of her family, even Clovis the First. The old man grudgingly acknowledged that Twilight was intelligent, but obstinately refused to call her family. The mare just flashed him with an impulse of light from her horn and went about her day, telling herself that she didn’t need the old man as long as she had her other family.
Ana, who had been there for most of the project was just as happy as Twilight, the scientist happily showing off Barb to everyone who had asked, with Twilight’s blessing, of course. Elsie laughed at the dog like behavior of the AI, commenting that Rasputin may have seen dogs as the perfect companion for his own AI processes. Their parents, Clovis the Second and Sylvie were beside themselves with pride, throwing a small party with just their immediate family involved, though Clovis 1 had stayed far away from the event. Likely because his presence would set off everyone there and he wanted nothing to do with it.
During the party, however, Clovis II had to sit down, claiming trouble maintaining his balance. When Twilight looked closer, she noticed the heavy bags under his eyes.
“...How long has it been since you slept normally?” the mare asked, concern written all over her face.
Clovis sighed and said, “About two weeks now. I’ve been talking to doctors and scientists about it, but all they can tell me is that I should get my affairs in order… and make myself comfortable.”
“What do you mean, dad?” Elsie asked, her tone trembling a little, “What’s happening?”
“It’s some kind of insomnia,” Clovis said as he started to explain, “my thalamus, the part of my brain that controls my sleep and wake pattern is messed up. I’m pretty sure I know how it happened too.”
“What?” Sylvie asked sharply, “Is it something we can fix?”
“No,” Clovis replied, Ana, Elsie and Twilight about ready to burst into tears, “Clovis I, he did it. He’s been messing with my DNA since I was a kid… this one was some kind of thing to remove the need for sleep. It’s been there, on and off for a while now, but…”
“It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?” Twilight asked.
Looking around at the party, or what was left of it, Clovis nodded, a sad smile on his face.
“I wanted to have a few more good memories with my family before I leave…” he said after a long pause.
They partied like Mardi Gras after that.
`~`~`~`~
Clovis the First was busy tweaking the latest experiment he’d had going the last time he was on Europa. It was a small thing, an AI to run the Deep Stone facility while he was on Earth or visiting the other Bray facilities around the system, but it was definitely taking its time to get going. No matter, his experiment would be going off without a hitch soon and he would be able to see it come to fruition all the same.
Thinking about Twilight, however, made the scientist growl a little with frustration and impatience, Clovis I not being used to being so utterly stumped by anything.
“Impudent, asinine little horse…” Clovis muttered under his breath.
“Pony,” Twilight said from the doorway, the mare having arrived not too long ago.
Turning to look at her, a brief look of surprise on his face before he schooled it into his characteristic scowl as he replied, “Twilight… to what do I owe this… dubious pleasure?”
“Dad’s dying,” the mare said as she walked into the room, her furious glare never leaving the old man’s eyes, “and it’s YOUR fault.”
“Oh,” Clovis began, turning in a dismissive manner, “I fail to see how that is my problem. Unless it’s important, could you leave now? Your energy readings will throw off the results of my experiment.”
With a sound like a glacier cracking, Twilight disappeared in a dark blue flash, then reappeared in front of Clovis I, rage in her eyes. The old man took notice of her fury and actually balked, taking a step backwards as crystals began to form on Twilight’s body.
“It is YOUR FAULT,” Twilight said, her voice distorting in her anger, “You need to do something to help him.”
Clovis wondered why he spoke the next words for a very long time afterwards. He had done the math several times before his end and, ideally, simply agreeing to take responsibility for what he had done would have been the safest, most productive route when facing down someone that could only be described as paracausal.
Instead, what he said was, “Or WHAT?”
Twilight’s muzzle broke into a snarl that made the mare seem far more terrifying than cute. She flared her wings wide and a burst of energy so cold that the consoles around her froze instantly, their circuits unable to handle the sudden shift in temperature.
“Or I END you, old man…” Twilight breathed out, the energy still pouring off of her. The crystals that had begun to form on her body at the beginning of the exchange now completely covered her from horn to hoof. A staff of the same crystals had begun to form next to her and was hovering just inside the reach of her hooves. All in all, Clovis supposed, it was beautiful in a terrifying, ‘should have worn the brown pants’ kind of way.
“His insomnia, it’s gotten worse then,” Clovis said, attempting to maintain some shred of dignity in the face of certain annihilation, “...I may have an answer for it, but the genes I tampered with are irreparable. Going in and messing with them any more would only make things worse.”
Calming down a little, Twilight nodded, the force of the blizzard she had summoned lessening somewhat.
“He needs to come here, to Europa,” Clovis continued, “I can have him uploaded into an Exomind body. Disease, pain, weakness, they will all be a distant memory.”
“And you can guarantee he’ll be the same?” Twilight asked with force, her voice cracking under the weight of her grief, for she was grieving. Losing someone who was a Father to her was something she didn’t ever want to face.
“I guarantee it,” the Bray patriarch said, conviction in his voice, “I can save your father.”
Reigning herself in and letting the paracausal energies she’d unknowingly summoned dissipate, Twilight folded her wings against her side and glared up at Clovis once more, the crystals falling off her body to hit the floor like ice cubes falling from a freezer. The consoles around her were still frozen over, however.
“I’m going to be there,” the mare said, her tone brokering no argument.
“That would make the transition more smooth, so it will be no issue,” Clovis replied as he looked down at the pony. He stood up a little straighter, trying to hide the tremble of fear in his body as he continued, “Ana, Elsie, and your mother would likely be of some help as well.”
Walking past Clovis I to the door, Twilight looked over her shoulder at the man and said, “As if you could keep us all away from our family.”
And then she left.
Clovis surveyed the damage to his lab, then looked to the scanners he had set up for whenever Twilight was around. Seeing that they were completely intact, if a bit frosted over, the old man grinned. Looking around a little more, Clovis also saw a crystal laying on the floor. Where the others had melted upon touching the ground, this one had remained.
Grabbing a sterile glass container from a shelf by the door, Clovis went and scooped up the fragment of crystal and sealed the container. Whispers from the dark corners of the room came to Clovis and said, so faintly that they might as well have not been heard, “A Desire for legacy… to be known, preserved in sterile glass. The world will start and stop at your command…”
“With this… I will secure my legacy,” Clovis said to himself as he walked out of the room. The still frozen AI experiment all but forgotten in the wake of this new discovery.