//------------------------------//
// 27. MSI 
// Story: A Ghost of a Chance 
// by Epsilon-Delta 
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After a little back and forth a compromise was reached.

At first, MSI only wanted to allow Zest in. Of course, Sugarcoat wanted to go personally but they wouldn’t allow a specter inside their base. So they compromised by allowing Zest to bring one non-Sugarcoat friend with her.

There was some debate about who it should be. Sunny and Zest wanted it to be Juniper for the sake of a better first impression. Sugarcoat wanted it to be Indigo so somepony more skeptical of MSI would be with Zest.

Sugarcoat was in charge, so Indigo was the one to go with her.

At least MSI was putting a friendly face forward. The pony they chose to greet them was Sunny Flare’s mother, Steller Flare.

As it turned out, Sunny was the oldest of five foals and the only one to set off on her own so far. The rest of her family all lived up there. Despite knowing better, it was still hard for Zest to wrap her head around the fearsome MSI being a place where little fillies played.

Sunny Flare made sure to give Indigo a stern lecture in defense of her family before departure. Her excuse of having been born after the fall of Toxco wouldn’t work for either of her parents. Both of them had worked for the infamous Manehattan Electric Company.

But in the case of her father, he had been pressed into service and forced to create persona cores through repeated non-consensual ‘dives’.

Her mother, the pony they’d meet, had been the more intentional of the two. But Sunny Flare insisted Steller Flare had been strongly opposed to all of Toxco’s decisions. Toxco simply was the government of Manehattan at the time, with such unsurpassable influence that changing it from the inside was your only option... sans full-scale invasion.

But Steller was a great mare who did nothing wrong, Sunny assured them.

The two of them appeared in an interesting-looking room. Zest needed a moment to realize it wasn’t half as big as it first seemed. The walls were painted up to make it look as though long, sprawling coasts awaited you in every direction and gave the illusion of the room being vast. In reality, it was rather cramped with some electrical equipment.

Two ponies were in the room. They had the courtesy to turn the lights off, instead holding only a candle for their sake.

Steller stepped forward to greet them right away. The mare was almost the same color as Sunny Flare. Her colors were a bit more washed out by age and her figure a good deal plumper from five kids, but otherwise the resemblance was incredible.

“Hello. My name is Steller Flare, but I’m sure you know that.” She reached out a hoof as though the ghosts could touch it.

“Oh, wow! Sunny looks just like you.” Zest swung her hoof through Steller Flare. She got the point.

“Yes. If I showed you a picture of me when I was her age, you’d swear we were the same pony, even. We like to joke she was part of a cloning experiment.”

Indigo’s eyes wandered at the mention of experiments. Zest shot her a look. They agreed she’d give these ponies the benefit of the doubt.

“Well.” Indigo straightened up, eyes closed, and forelegs folded. “I gotta admit I respect your daughter. It’s rare you find a predead who’s down with our struggle, you know?”

“Yes.” Steller’s smile wavered slightly. “She’s been talking a lot about ghost rights these past few months. We don’t usually like getting involved in politics. We taught her to value science above all of that.”

“I wonder why,” said Indigo.

Steller’s expression soured further. Zest didn’t want them to get into an argument that fast! She pointed at the other pony in the room to interrupt.

“Who’s that?” Zest blurted out.

Zest could already tell she was a snow pony. They all kind of looked the same. For some reason, snow ponies were always a blotchy mishmash of various shades of brown, black, and white. The cost of their snow-proof coats had been a loss of color.

Snow ponies were these hyper-evolved earth ponies. Their long, shaggy fur puffed them up, making them look far stockier than they already were. And ponies were a stocky species, to begin with.

Their bodies were perfectly suited to living up here in the cold. A snow pony could easily swim through ice-cold rivers and lakes and run around all day in fifty-below weather with no need for clothes. Their fur was incredible stuff. Zest had a blanket made of it when she was young, and it was the warmest thing ever. And liquid just slid right off it, saving her more than once from an accidental spill.

The downside to this was that they couldn’t handle the heat so well. Anything over twenty centigrade made them badly uncomfortable. Much more than that and they started to cook themselves alive. So you rarely saw them south of Crystal Vale. Though Zest had seen groups of them before as far south as Trotonto.

“This is Frosty Flakes of the Bluehide tribe,” said Steller, Frosty taking a bow. “As I’m sure you can tell, she’s a psychic. We decided it’d be best to have her along as a safety precaution.”

Frosty being psychic would have been obvious even if Zest couldn’t feel her aura. She was the one levitating the candles with her mind.

Though now Zest was wondering if she’d ever see a snow pony ghost.

“Well,” said Steller, “they agreed to let me show you around a little, as your fraid is considered an ally of MSI now. But only on the condition that you not poke your heads through any walls. I’m afraid we still don’t trust you enough to give you all of our secrets.”

Zest had been a ghost so long that the concept of sticking your head through a wall being rude was totally alien to her. As part of a fraid you just came to understand that you never truly had total privacy. And got used to that surprisingly fast.

“That’s fair to me.” Zest looked up at the lights. “Not that it would matter.”

“What do you mean?” Steller asked.

“These types of overhead panels don’t cast shadows,” she explained. “I’d be blind in any room that had them on.”

“Ah! I never thought of that.” Steller turned, leading them down the hallway, candles floating by her side. “I suppose there are lots of things you don’t realize until you’ve spoken to a ghost in person.”

“Can’t stay too long, though,” Indigo warned. “We have maybe an hour. That’s how long we can usually last in places like this before it gets bad. Safeword is frosty shivers.”

Zest could already feel the urge, that itch in the back of her brain. The worst she had felt until now was being in Maple Hill. But here, ponies were stacked on top of one another to an even greater extent. Zest might have trouble lasting the full hour.

She could smell something else, however, a huge pool of heat. She remembered one of the first nights she was a ghost when Sugarcoat had given the lesson ‘This rock is extremely hot; this water has lots of heat’. She could appreciate that now and knew almost certainly there was a lot of hot water around somewhere… Maybe she’d get to see on the tour.

The two predeads led on, Frosty Flakes keeping the candles levitated in her aura. The next hallway was painted up to look more like a jungle, with the pipes painted green and brown like vines. The warm pipes gave a rather repulsive stench, but Zest tried not to say anything.

“We brought you up here so you’d get a better look at the place.” Steller stopped briefly at the end of the hall, a door sliding open for her.

Steller and Frosty Flakes stepped into an elevator, one with a glass wall that at last gave Zest a good overview of MSI. She rushed up to the edge of the glass and looked out, Indigo close behind. Though it was only four in the afternoon, it was already dark out here, the sun setting around three this time of year.

There might have been a taller building behind them, but not in front. They must have been at least ten stories up, as the four-story buildings looked tiny from here. That appeared to be the standard size of the concrete boxes that made up most of this town.

It was as if those buildings were mass-produced, they looked so similar! Though one thing that made them stand apart was the vibrant colors they were painted.

And they were the brightest, most saturated colors Zest had ever seen. They went in rings, red at the center, then orange, yellow, green, and blue, though the rainbow was not yet complete with a ring of purple buildings.

Zest wasn’t going to say it out loud, but it seemed awfully obtrusive to her. Then again, Sunny Flare seemed to love overly bright and colorful things, complaining everything she encountered was too washed out. Maybe growing up in a dreary place starved you for color, and made you crave this aesthetic.

She did find one noticeable exception, though. It seemed a group of Snow ponies decided they wanted to live next to MSI and had set up camp. The huge, fur-covered tents they were known for lined up along one edge of the facility. Zest could see the purple haze of several fires down there, yet the heat of those fires couldn’t compare to what was right next to them.

A lake! Not just melted, but actually boiling. It was far away so Zest had to stare at it for a few seconds to make sure she saw that right. Even from here, Zest could see the surface of the lake roiling over, the steam raising over it to create a blue cloud, and of course, could smell the massive heat it contained.

“Is that lake supposed to be boiling?” Indigo asked.

“It isn’t always boiling,” Steller explained. She hit a button on the elevator, letting it descend. “But it is always too hot to swim in. Believe it or not, there are a few things that can live in the water. And it makes a bit of an oasis, keeping nearby plants alive.”

Zest tried but couldn’t make out any plant life from this distance.

Without anything to possess, the two ghosts had to manually float down to keep from being left behind.

“There are many such lakes in the far reaches that melt from underground heat. This exact spot has particularly intense geothermal activity. It’s enough to supply most of our electricity.”

“Is there really enough life around that lake for the snow ponies to survive off of?” Zest asked.

“That’s the Bluehide tribe,” Steller explained. “They only settle down here for the winter. It’s safer to stay together during the polar night. We have a particularly good relationship with them.”

“And what’s in it for you?” Indigo asked, watching for Frosty Flakes's reaction.

“Control,” Steller admitted. “We can’t possibly live up here without their consent. So it’s something of a bribe.”

“We get much the same,” said Frosty Flakes. “Our alliance with MSI has allowed my tribe to become the largest and most influential in the region. Winter is dangerous for foals. We lose far fewer thanks to the creations of MSI. Maybe they are dangerous, but I can’t see them as evil.”

Indigo remained silent, unable to challenge their propaganda but not willing to be swayed by it.

As they descended, Steller gave them a few more facts. The population was typically about 4,500. But in the winter, it swelled to over 8,000 as the Bluehides and various smaller groups came to shelter for the polar night. Fringe satellite groups consolidated in a few spots like this when dark came.

They were getting close to ground level now.

“Ah!” Steller approached the glass and pointed to the ground excitedly. “School just got out a little while ago. That’s my youngest out there, Sunny’s little sister Gunsmoke out in the orange jacket.”

It took Zest a moment to realize which one, as there were many such orange foals. A smattering of groups of fillies and colts were moving about on the rubbery terrace just outside this building. All the non-snow ponies were dressed in layers of orange, red, and yellow so thick one could hardly see them. And they all had reflective tape and glow-stick necklaces strapped onto them to make them even more visible. Even the snow pony foals, otherwise naked, had reflectors and glow sticks.

It took Zest a moment to realize they had reflectors in the shape of a cutie mark or letter on their flanks. Gunsmoke, Zest presumed was the one with a gun reflector mark. Presently, she was busy playfully tackling a snow pony of similar size.

“Our foals,” said Frosty Flakes, “attend school here for two months of the year.”

“That must be fun,” said Zest. “Having friends who show up for the winter.”

The elevator stopped and opened up into a huge lobby!

At least, Zest assumed the room was huge. She could barely see a darn thing. Just a few shadows scattered here and there. But they were far enough away to tell her how spacious this place was.

Steller apologized for not being able to easily turn off the lights in this room and guided the two ghosts, by voice, to yet another room. Here, after making a brief announcement that it would be dark presently, Steller turned off the lights.

This room was also huge! It was partitioned into many smaller segments. Strange devices and objects in glass cases each had their own little spot on the grid.

“And here is one of our laboratories, where artifacts we created with mad science are studied,” Steller explained while they approached the next room. “A lot of the actual science we do is simply reverse engineering objects created by mad science.”

Zest craned her neck all around, not even beginning to understand what half of these things were. The first one she made out…

“That sword!” Zest paused to look at it. Too familiar! It made Zest shudder to see another piece.

“It belongs to a wight,” Steller said. “Not everything here was made by us.”

“I know! I’m the one who – Sugarcoat is the one who killed that thing! And now I keep seeing pieces of it. It’s trying to reform right in my face.”

“There’s no way to actually kill a wight,” she said. “If anything, us keeping it here for study will delay the inevitable. The sword can’t go anywhere unless something terrible happened to our facility.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Zest looked around for something else interesting but also easy to understand. There were quite a few ponies around here, mostly sitting around in the dark waiting for the ghosts to leave so they could get back to work.

Zest noticed a particularly odd specimen among those waiting. A zebra!

Zest tried not to stare, but it was so hard. Seeing one of them in Equestria, in North Equestria was so rare most ponies forgot they even existed half the time.

“It’s a zebra.” Indigo pressed up against Zest to whisper to her.

“I know. I’ve never seen one either.”

“How did it get up here?” Indigo asked.

“You mean she?”

“How can you tell with zebras? Their muzzle is all weird.”

Zest looked again. Indigo was right. Zest had no idea how to tell.

“Maybe when they turn around?”

Steller cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to her.

She now stood in front of a huge, metal pod. Surrounding it were four glass chambers filled with glowing purple, blue, green, and white liquid. The insides of the chamber were covered in so many needles, tubes, and injectors that Zest wouldn’t enter the thing even knowing none of them could touch her.

“This is a body modification chamber,” said Steller. “The same one my daughter used to uh, help her explore her odd obsession.”

She smiled too hard at that, making Indigo blow some air out her nose.

“We can only use these chambers under the influence of a dive,” Steller turned to it. “Otherwise, it is simply too dangerous. But their uses go beyond giving out a special power here and there. Once we understand the workings of these chambers better, we may be able to give ponies bodies that are resilient, and immune to nearly any disease including cancer, dementia… potentially aging. Super-regeneration has already been granted by one, so we know that much is possible.”

“I doubt all of it’s that straightforward,” said Indigo. “Don’t you modify ponies into super combat monsters, too?”

Steller watched Indigo carefully as she flew up to the chamber and eyed the inside.

“Yeah, that’s right! There’s like a whole island of bat ponies who were created by these things, right?” Indigo asked. “Out on the pirate coast? I think the Ghost Adder mercenaries use these to make their ponies into killing machines too.”

“That was all mostly done by the Mad Science Cartel.” Steller dropped her smile. “We may use it to increase some of our pony’s combat abilities… but it is always consensual, often done to themselves as was the case for Sunny. And such things are needed out here.”

“Right. But Toxco had these too.” Indigo crossed her forelegs and turned back to Steller.

“Yes.” Steller huffed but lifted her head to keep her composure. “It may be easy for you to judge us, but Equestria was hardly innocent in that fight either. Don’t pretend like the war wasn’t partially justified by a desire to annex Manehattan. It was a land grab.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” said Indigo defiantly.

“Neither did me or my husband,” said Steller. “Equestria doesn’t exactly take kindly to ponies who use mad science. Where exactly were we supposed to go or do?”

“Hey, I’ll be the first to admit the Equestrian government isn’t exactly open and accepting.” Indigo held her forelegs out. “They don’t exactly like me despite the fact I literally died for them. But I don’t use that as an excuse.”

Zest flew up to Indigo pushing her to the side.

“Hey!”

“Don’t start a fight, Indigo,” Zest scolded her. “This is why I wanted to bring Juniper! These ponies are on our side.”

“Sugarcoat sent me because we can’t be too sure of that,” Indigo muttered. “But fine, fine. I’m giving them a chance.”

Indigo held up her hooves, then flew away from Zest, back to Steller.

“I apologize,” said Indigo. “I’m still salty about everything that happened back then but I shouldn’t be starting fights. That was my bad.”

Steller watched her warily, not resisting or accepting the apology.

“I do legitimately respect your daughter.” Indigo straightened up and ran her hoof along her mane. “So… I guess you’re not so bad if you raised her.”

Steller had some difficulty staying mad while her daughter was being praised.

“Yes,” Steller said with eyes closed. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to earn the respect of somepony like you.”

“Oh.” Zest flew up, smacking one hoof into the other. “Actually it was really easy! See–”

Indigo shoved a hoof over Zest’s mouth.

“Nah! It took Sunny a while.” Indigo smiled. “But she did do it.”



“Well.” Steller licked her lips, just a little nervous. “There was one more pony we wanted to introduce you to.”

She kept walking towards the back of this room, leading the ghosts forward.

Zest felt the shock emanating off of Indigo before noticing anything else. Indigo had stopped dead, her expression frozen as she stared straight ahead. Zest looked but couldn’t see what Indigo did.

Then a sudden burst of anger came from Indigo and she pointed out the pony she’d seen.

“You!”

The pony she singled out was old enough to be Sunny Flare’s grandfather. His mane had turned white and his fur was greying badly, though its former purple still bled through. He sat unassumingly enough on a chair, watching them with eyes whose awareness had not been dulled by age.

At the challenge, he rose to shaking legs and made unsteady steps toward the ghosts.

But why would that upset her?

“What’s up?” Zest whispered.

“I know this pony.” Indigo pinned her ears and pushed Zest back a little. “Astral Codex.”

“I don’t think we actually met.” Codex gave the soft smile of a kind, elderly stallion. “But I’m going to assume you haven’t heard anything good?”

“Not one. You were on the special force’s ‘to kill’ list. Zest, he was Toxco’s number two mad scientist and worked directly underneath Star Slate… you know, one of the biggest mass murders in history? I don’t want any sob stories about ‘having no choice’ from you.”

“Oh, I won’t make any excuses.” Codex coughed and waved a hoof. “I take full responsibility for my part in that disaster. That is why I dedicated my life to establishing this place.”

“Seriously?” Indigo scrunched her nose. “You’re going to make amends by doing the exact same thing you were doing before?”

“Mad science isn’t simply going to vanish because Star Slate is dead. Many will continue to be tempted by it and will be driven insane like Star Slate was. That scenario will play out over and over again unless the younger generation learns from our mistakes. I made many horrible errors and history will rightly curse my name. I devote myself now to teaching others the mistakes we made. Would you not agree that Sunny Flare is more responsible than any mad scientist of my generation?”

Indigo didn’t want to give this pony any kind of credit but couldn’t deny his claim either.

Zest wasn’t sure what to make of it. She knew who Star Slate was, that was the pony who oversaw the creation of that robot army, the super-reactor, and many other things. But other than him, Spatial Tear, and the CEO, Zest wasn’t much familiar with the evil corporation’s command structure.

Star Slate was the only one of the three to be captured alive. But after thirty dives, he’d been left so brain damaged that he couldn’t stand trial and died just a few days into captivity.

“So hold up,” said Zest. “What exactly did you do?”

“More than anything else, I was in charge of the super-reactor’s creation,” said Codex. “I thought it would be used for good, but… Well, I don’t claim innocence. Your friend will certainly tell me that a pony in my position should have done more to stop the three of them. And she’d be right. Turning a blind eye, neglect, was my crime. I knew things were wrong and said nothing.

“But I never agreed with Star Slate. Not on one damnable thing. Certainly not with any of his mad plan to… reset the world.”

“So you admit Star Slate was evil?” Indigo asked.

“He truly did go completely insane towards once he went on the eighth.” Codex took in a wheezing breath. “He wrote a book called The Codex of Rationality filled with all sorts of mad ramblings. Started having delusions of negotiating with a super-advanced robot that hadn’t even been built yet but would endlessly torture him and many others if he didn’t build it.”

“Wait. How could the future robot torture him if he doesn’t build it?” Zest asked.

“I read his book and the reasoning makes no sense, I can assure you. He had many such hallucinations until the witch Spatial Tear convinced him in his vulnerable state that destroying all civilization was the only way to prevent these nightmares of the future coming true.”

So Star Slate built an army of evil robots to destroy the world… to prevent the creation of an even more evil army of robots that would destroy the world? Zest tried desperately to square that circle in her mind.

“Doesn’t that kind of thing happen to anypony who does more than eight dives?” Indigo asked. “You’re not going to get me to trust you by assuring me that the guy went insane doing the exact same thing you’re doing.”

“Star Slate was… disturbed from the beginning. Lots of ponies will tell you he seemed fine before he went on the eight, but I never liked that pony from the start. Fear ruled his heart, that was his problem. Ponies with more fear than ambition should not be using mad science, I’ve learned. The outcome is never good and I invariable turn such ponies away. But yes, if you want me to say it, Star Slate was evil. I always hated him and teach the younger generation to be nothing like him or his fear.”

It wasn’t enough. Indigo shook her head at that response.

“Look, it’s too easy for you to admit Star Slate was evil now. But you didn’t do it when it was hard or when it mattered. And as for all this?” Indigo turned toward the small lab. “I’m not some naïve foal. I know you’re showing us all the non-controversial, bright and happy parts of this place. If there’s a snow pony tribe that loves you, then there’s one that hates you. If there’s a project to help ponies, then there’s one to vaporize them.”

“Please, allow me to show you something slightly more controversial, then.” Codex gathered his strength and stood back up. “My presence here isn’t a coincidence. I wanted to propose a plan of action to you. I believe we have a common enemy…”

With a motion of his hoof, Codex motioned the other two to stay while he led them to another room, through a thick, metal door. Lights came on, only for Codex to turn them off so the ghost could inspect the room.

The room had rows of armor… no, robots! They didn’t look horrifying like robots were supposed to, though. No fangs for sharp edges, no wear or tear. These looked brand new! They were sleek and shiny, painted white and blue.

A row of spheres covered a shelf, one Zest recognized as persona cores, the same robot brains she removed from the body she took.

“You made more robots?!” Indigo sneered at the sight of it. “After what you just said?!”

“These are second-generation robots. Unlike first-generation robots, these can love as well as hate.” He trotted slowly to the shelf of persona cores and picked one up. “Sadly, that wasn’t enough. They were still too extreme, separating all things into absolute good and evil. We haven’t done anything with artificial intelligence since this failure… though I did pull the plug in time, I think. We keep these here, in a coma-like state, just in case we have some need for them in the future.”

“What kind of need?” Indigo watched him place the persona core back down through narrow eyes.

He turned again to Zest.

“You’re able to animate robotic bodies.” He moved to the closest one, placing a hoof on its back. “And what’s more, you can control the drone bodies while in that state. Do I understand correctly?”

“I can make them follow me, at least.” Zest nodded.

“Well then, here is my proposal,” he said. “I’d be willing to lend you some of these robot bodies. You can attach a spool of copper wire to their backs, allowing you to easily retreat if need be. Doing it like that, you could travel north in relative safety.”

That sounded nearly perfect already! Zest wasn’t even going to have to sell MSI on her expedition, they were already down with it.

“But what about finding north?” Zest asked. “I get this will make it easy to get back down south but finding the right way to go still sounds hard.”

“It shouldn’t be difficult to install a system to the robots for that,” said Codex.

“And what’s in it for you?” Indigo pushed Zest aside.

“We seem to have a bit of an alliance,” said Codex. “I trust you’d pass on any information you have on to us. That’s all I’d ask in return.”

“This sounds like a good deal to me.” Zest turned to Indigo. “We’re already telling them everything we know.”

“Sure. But…” Indigo searched for some flaw in this.

The phantom nudged Zest to the side with her muzzle.

“Well what’s wrong with the plan?” Zest asked. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“We could die, for example,” said Indigo. “This is still risky.”

Zest furrowed her browed, annoyed to hear this coming from Indigo of all ponies.

“We’re gonna die either way,” Zest reminded her. “I thought you were down for this sort of thing. When’d you get so wary?”

“Hey, don’t think I’m chicken or anything. I want to go to the Dark Circle too. It’s just this guy.” Indigo flicked her muzzle toward Codex. “For every motivation a pony like that gives you, there’s three they don’t.”

“I get the impression he learned his lesson,” said Zest. “This place is nothing like Toxco. If MSI were constantly stabbing their allies in the back, they wouldn’t have any. Right?”

“Learning a lesson doesn’t automatically make you a good pony,” Indigo cautioned. “He is up to something, I promise you that.”

“Even if you’re right, it’s still our best option,” said Zest. “But we’ll go over this with Sugarcoat and the others first.”

“Sugarcoat probably will agree to this plan,” Indigo relented. “Just keep what I said in mind. Keep your ears up for anything that might be shifty.”

Zest nodded. Now they were getting somewhere!