Twilight Sparkle walked slowly out of town with her friends. They happily talked about their days, passing information on the small details of the past week. On the top of the hill they were climbing was their destination, their favorite picnic location. Though it was a steep hill, requiring a tough climb, they always thought it was worth it. As they reached the top Pinkie Pie pulled out a giant picnic blanket from her saddlebag, spreading it out. The other girls also took out their things, from the food to the drinks. Soon they had a wonderful little picnic set up.
Just as they were sitting down to enjoy, Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky and wondered aloud “Hey, what’s that bright dot in the sky?” The other ponies looked up and saw what Rainbow meant. Up in the sky was a small dot, as white as the clouds, yet incredibly bright. “Is it just me or is it getting bigger?” the multicolored mare asked, tilting her head to one side.
Twilight sighed “Hang on. I’ll see what it is.” She closed her eyes and began a spell. Her horn glowed as she reached out, trying to see the object up close. Before she could however, the object, a very small meteorite, though very dense, crashed right through her head.
“Ohh, damn it all.”
The other ponies jumped up screaming in terror.
“I hate it when this happens.” I sighed to myself as I pulled my keyboard to me.
-Run Devolper_Console.exe
-- Console active.
I turned my gaze back to the simulation, curious as to how the ponies were taking it.
Applejack had scooped up Twilight and placed the mare on her back. “To the Hospital everypony!” she cried, taking off back towards Ponyville.
I typed out a single command, intent on fixing the problem.
-Time-flowrate () = 0
The ponies all froze, midstride. As did everything else. The dirt kicked up from the pounding hooves stopped falling; the sun and clouds stopped their journey across the sky. Time itself had frozen solid.
“There we go. Let’s see…. Need to kill the other AIs, wipe them, and then reset. Hate it when a pony dies when they shouldn’t.” I sat back, my fingers flying across the keys.
-Kill_AIs (Apple, Rainbow, Rarity, Flutter, Pinkie, Twilight)
-- AI program(s) ended.
-Query( Time-Marker (hour. min) )
-- Time-Marker is at 1322
“hmmm…” I pondered for a moment. “1312 should be far enough back”
Time-Marker (hour. min) = 1312
Suddenly the ponies vanished, and then reappeared, still frozen. They were on the side of the hill, back when they were climbing up for their picnic. Twilight was perfectly fine. They all stood, looks of joy and pleasant conversation frozen on their faces.
“There we go.” All that was left before I restarted was to wipe the records. The whole system had nearly crashed the last time I forgot. I didn’t want a repeat of that, ever again.
-Wipe-AI-records (Apple, Rainbow, Rarity, Flutter, Pinkie, Twilight, 415822, 415832)
-- Records wiped
“Glad I only need to wipe the records of the affected AIs. So much less work. Now I need to make some modifications, keep Twilight from dying. Need something that can slow them down by three or so minutes. Or divert them” I thought for a bit. “Has to be subtle though…. Can’t have them figuring it out.” Coming up with nothing I asked for help “Hey, Discord. What do you think?”
{Well, you know me.} Discord’s face appeared on one of my monitors, his response typed out below. {I want it funny, chaotic. But knowing you, I guess you wouldn't go for that. I guess you could cause some disturbance, or some form of diversion.} The image rolled its eyes, obviously bored.
“Well, something entertaining is in order. What would you suggest?” I asked.
His face twitched into a grin. {Well, you could do something as simple as have one of them trip. That would delay them. You could also start deforming the world, send it into chaos. Or you could…} He stopped as he saw the look on my face. {Ohh, alright. I’ll shut up now.}
“Good. I can get away with creating a small divot to trip one of them up. There’s no logical excuse they could come up with if I change too much Discord. Keep that in mind.”
-Location (Twilight)
--Twilight is at [2015.18,1233.02]
-Direction (Twilight)
--Twilight is angled at 87 degrees
A small hole should be enough to trip her. I thought to myself.
-Edit Mesh. Groundwork, Hole
--Location?
-2012.18,1233.12
--Size?
-0.1, 1.15
“Hate to do this to Twilight.” I mumbled to myself. “Should be wide enough to stick her hoof, and deep enough to keep her there. I think it’s going to twist her ankle at the very least. Ohh, well, it’ll keep her alive.”
{Don’t take pity on them. It’s not like they’ll ever know what happened.}
“Quiet Discord.” I snapped. “You’re taking over for me after this. I need some sleep.” His image nodded.
-Time-flowrate () = 1
The ponies continued their trek for a moment longer before Twilight stumbled. Her hoof had sunk into a hole in the ground, and she was stuck. Her horn glowed as she tried to pull herself free, but to no avail. “Um, girls?” She called out to her friends “I’m stuck.”
The others turned around and saw their friend. Rainbow rolled onto her side in midair, laughing. “Ohh, hush up Rainbow.” Applejack shot at the pegasus. “Hang on a sec Twi. Ah’ll have you free in a jiffy.” The farmer pony trotted calmly to her friend, wrapping one hoof around Twilight’s shoulders as the other grasped her friends knee. “Now this might hurt a bit.” She calmly said.
“Wait, what?” Twilight’s head snapped to stare at her friend, just as Applejack pulled. With a sickening crack, Twilight’s hoof came free. Twilight screamed out in pain. “My hoof! What happened to my hoof?” The lavender mare’s hoof lay at the end of her leg, gently bleeding.
“Um, Ah think you may have been stuck harder than Ah thought.” Applejack responded sheepishly.
“Well of course I was stuck hard AJ! You think I would have called to you girls if I could’ve freed myself? If I couldn’t magic myself out, how hard do you think I was stuck!?” Twilight’s pain induced rage was obvious, her voice cracking as she roared at her friend. She let out another scream of pain as Applejack stared at her.
“Twilight! Calm down. AJ didn’t mean to hurt you. You need to relax so we can get you to the hospital, and now!” Rarity shouted back at her friend. Twilight’s rage instantly calmed, her face contorted with pain. “Now AJ, get Twilight to the hospital. She needs imediat medical attention.”
I stopped paying attention at that point. Twilight would be fine; she had nothing more than a broken ankle, possibly a bit of separated keratin causing the bleeding. Nothing a good doctor couldn't fix.
I rolled away from the monitors, intent on getting some sleep {Sir! If I may make a request?} a beep came from the speakers to call my attention to Discord.
“What is it Discord? I’m tired.”
{Yes I know sir. I was wondering if you would program me a voice. I would like to have an actual voice with which to communicate with you.}
I sighed. “All right Discord. I’ll program you one tomorrow. For now, I need sleep. Watch over the simulation.” With that I left, my sights set on a quick meal before bed. Discord would make sure nothing stayed wrong for long overnight. I trusted him to keep everything running. After all, that’s what I programmed him for all those years ago