//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Ponyville Horror // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Ten minutes later, Twilight trotted down the stairs wearing the new saddlebags that Rarity had made for her. ‘Sheash Twilight and I thought Rarity took forever to get ready’, Pinkie Pie said with a toothy grin, causing Rarity to give her an annoyed look, and getting a nervous sounding chuckle from Twilight. Ultimately, Rarity said nothing to Pinkie Pie and turned back to Twilight. ‘Twilight! Dear, you look absolutely smashing with those new saddlebags!’ she said leaping up from her seat and pacing around Twilight and giving her a look over. ‘Absolutely smashing!’ ‘Thank you so much Rarity! I really love them!’ Twilight said smiling brightly at her friend. ‘I have your payment right here, 1 pound two and six!’ Twilight added, levitating several coins out of her new saddlebag and depositing them in Rarity’s saddlebags to make sure that the unicorn wouldn’t try to ‘casually and accidentally’ leave the payment behind. ‘Oh you’re quite welcome Twilight!’ Rarity said with a smile. ‘Anything for one of my good and dear friends! Now come! Let’s go find Applejack and Fluttershy and have fun today!’ Twilight nodded and Pinkie Pie, being the closest to the door and opened it up. As luck would have it, Fluttershy was outside the door preparing to knock on it the second that the door opened, and as a result accidentally knocked on Pinkie Pie’s face. Fluttershy let out a gasp of horror. ‘Oh! Pinkie Pie, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!’ Pinkie Pie looked mildly disappointed at the incident. ‘Pinkie sense has failed me...’ she said quietly, but then turned right back around at Fluttershy and gave her a bright smile. ‘It’s okay Fluttershy! I know you didn’t mean it! We were actually just coming to find you!’ ‘You were?’ Fluttershy asked. ‘We’ll I’m glad I was able to save you the trip, I was coming to talk to Rainbow Dash, and she was going to help me move...’ Fluttershy stopped right in her tracks as she noticed a wave of depression overtake Twilight Sparkle at the mention of Rainbow Dash’s name. ‘Twilight?’ Fluttershy asked. Pinkie Pie took Fluttershy aside and explained the situation to her as Rarity stepped forward to comfort her fellow unicorn. Fluttershy’s eyes got wide at Pinkie Pie’s explanation. ‘That... that can’t be true! That doesn’t sound like Rainbow Dash at all!’ Fluttershy said. ‘Poor Twilight...’ Pinkie Pie nodded her head in agreement. ‘We’re all going to go find Rainbow Dash later and give her pieces of our minds!’ ‘You’re... you’re not going to hurt her, are you?’ Fluttershy asked, looking horrified. ‘Of course not Fluttershy! We’re just going to give her a good talking to’, Pinkie Pie said with a smile. Rarity and Twilight trotted out of the Library, Twilight was still looking sad, but no longer looked like she was about to break down into tears. Whatever Rarity had said to her had obviously helped. Rarity trotted over to Fluttershy and leaned in close to whisper into her ear. ‘Fluttershy, be a dear, fly over to Sweet Apple Acres and warn Applejack about what’s going on, the last thing we need is Twilight having another breakdown’. ‘Oh... okay, if you think that’s best’, Fluttershy said nodding in agreement. Before leaving, she trotted up to Twilight and gave her a smile. ‘Don’t worry Twilight, it’ll be okay! Would it be all right with you if I gave you a hug?’ Twilight nodded in affirmation and Fluttershy wrapped around her friend for a gentle hug. Twilight couldn’t help but smile. ‘Thank you, thank you all so much, you girls are the best friends a pony could ask for!’ ... Rainbow Dash had spent a couple of hours studying the robotics manual, and had decided to take a walk around the missile base, it wasn’t long before she’d found some kind of workshop, filled with several half assembled robots and various in assorted tools. She thought to herself, why not? What was the harm in fooling around with them? She trotted over to the workbench, where a single, mostly intact spritebot was lying on the bench. It looked as if somepony had been working on it relatively recently. Rainbow Dash looked to discover that the back panel had been taken off. She discovered quickly that one of the robot’s thermionic valves had not been screwed in all the way, and gave it a quarter turn to the right. More to her surprise, doing so caused the robot to snap to life. The spritebot began to chirp and buzz and make all sorts of noise. ‘Diagnostics complete, begin recording’, the artificial voice of Emerald Sparkle barked loudly. ‘Head researchers log, Doctor Emerald Sparkle recording, timestamp, 2259, 22/1/4006 ROG, I refuse to use that new calendar... Yes, Doppler, I know, stay on topic. Well, here we are. Spritebot, Durable, Subject Epsilon, SD-E is the only remaining prototype of the durable combat model spritebots. The Durable project was designed to increase combat effectiveness in Spritebots... a sort of just in case project. One of these days, that bitch is going to find out that I’m down here. I need something to protect myself with, especially once I hook myself into the mainframe, there will be no going back, once I get in, there’s no coming back out. Disconnection from the mainframe will result in brain damage, test upon test confirmed that. Without taking measures to protect myself when I am most vulnerable is nothing short of a death sentence. Well, that was the goal of the durable model spritebots, sadly to say, the project was a complete failure. Of the five prototypes, Subject Epsilon was the only one to remain stable. Subjects Alpha through Delta’s artificial personalities went insane, and unfortunately self-terminated. While the project was an ultimate failure, SD-E, or Sadie, as I’ve come to refer to her, was not. While not a true artificial intelligence, Sadie is able to emulate certain facets of personality and emotion common in ponykind, thus, is able to mimic happiness, sadness, disappointment, regret, et cetra, while these emotions are not real and not genuine, it leaves a avenue open for further research into developing artificial intelligence. Sadie’s artificial personality is even more advanced than Doppler’s, who would be jealous, except his AP hasn’t been programmed to feel emotions... Unfortunately, it will be quite some time until that avenue can be explored, with the durable spritebot project a failure. I have to start from scratch, I’ve had an idea that I’m very excited about, but I can’t afford to waste much more time. I have to finish designing the combat robots and hook myself into the mainframe by the end of this year if I’m going to have any hope of getting them ready for my grand design. EPMB’s minifacturing facilities, while advanced, are slower than mass production, with only being able to produce an average of 1.6 combat robots per year, I need to get started... this could be so much easier... if only I had access to the Fillydelphia Ironworks, as luck would have it, somepony cut the hardlines, isolating the Ironworks from the rest of the network, probably thanks to some idiot digging a ditch or something. This is Doctor Emerald Sparkle, signing off.’ Rainbow Dash blinked a few times. ‘Huh’, she said to herself. Sadie, the spritebot lying on the table, began beeping at her, trying to get her attention. Rainbow Dash looked down at the robot and noticed that it’s rear access panel had been taken off and was laying on the work bench. ‘You... want me to put this back on you?’ Rainbow Dash said, picking up the rear access panel. Sadie beeped in a happy sounding tone. ‘Uh... okay, I’ll see what I can do’, Rainbow Dash said. She placed the panel on the open part of the robot, and picked up a screwdriver in her teeth, lucky for her, the screwdriver had a small magnet in the end and attracted the screws to it. Rainbow Dash screwed the cover back onto the robot. ‘Umm... okay, it’s on’, Rainbow Dash said when she was done. The spritebot chirped happily at her and began to flap it’s wings, rising into the air and flying out of the workshop. Rainbow Dash looked at it as it flew away. ‘I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not’. ... Twilight and Co. arrived out in front of Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy had flown ahead to warn Applejack of what was troubling the lavender unicorn. She trotted up towards the road that leads to the farm, greeting the group warmly ‘Howdy ya’ll’, Applejack said. ‘Twilight, Ah jus’ want ya ta know, Ah’m real sorry this happened to ya, if that no good lousy cheater can’t see tha value in ya, then she don’t deserve ya. Yer better than her’. ‘Thanks Applejack’, Twilight said. ‘It really means a lot to hear you say that’. Pinkie Pie, who was next to Twilight leaned over and patted Twilight on the back, she was about to say something, but the act had startled the lavender unicorn... which was odd, because it really shouldn’t have. Her saddlebags split open at the seam and the book that she had secretly been carrying fell out on the ground. ‘Uh... Twilight? There any perti’clar reason yer carryin’ around that big ol’ book?’ Applejack asked. ‘Yes!’ Twilight said snatching it up and pulling it closely to her. ‘Not that I’d expect an illiterate hick like you to understand’, Everypony’s mouths fell open and they all gasped. They couldn’t believe that Twilight had actually just said that. Applejack looked sorely at Twilight for that comment. ‘Yeah, maybe Ah can’t read like ya, but just cuz you got yer fancy Canterlot education don’ mean yer better than me!’ ‘How about you go buck some apples Applejack’, Twilight snapped at her. ‘It’s what you’re good at’. ‘How ‘bout you go soak yer head! It’s honestly what ya need!’ Applejack quipped back. Twilight turned and ‘accidentally’ swatted Applejack with her tail and galloped away. Applejack was furious she was ready to leap at the unicorn and beat the tar out of her were Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy not quick to hold her back. Rarity picked up Twilight’s tattered new saddlebags and looked at them in disappointment. ‘What was that all about?’ she asked. Nopony had a good answer.