//------------------------------// // One-Zero // Story: Observations and Preservations // by Tolerance //------------------------------// Twilight galloped past scores of identical hallways on her way towards the brightly lit, central corridor of the structure. She didn't have time to check every passage in hopes of finding something that she could use to save her new friends, but she suspected that her current destination would contain either an object or an individual that would be able to help. As she burst into the room, what she witnessed brought her to a dead stop. The room was filled with a multitude of things the likes of which Twilight had never seen before. Lining almost every surface there were a multitude of lights, most of them maintaining a steady hue but some flashed rapidly as though they might be trying to convey a message through their quick flashes of light. Set around the room at constant intervals, were large rectangular squares that reminded Twilight of the viewport that she had used to communicate with Starswirl. Except, instead of being utilized as a way to communicate with somepony, they just kept showing some symbols that Twilight didn't quite recognize. Her intrusion into the chamber did not go unnoticed to the two beings that were monitoring some of the viewports facing the room's central platform. Two creatures quickly moved to surround her, Twilight noting their distant resemblance to a pair of dragons. "We were unaware of any visitors arriving." said one. "Indeed, records indicate that no visitors have arrived at all." said the other. Twilight looked at each of them in turn. They looked nearly identical, scaly skin that inexplicably vanished into thin air some distance from the head. The only way that Twilight could tell the two apart was due to the color of the highlight on their scales. The first one who spoke had a red coloring to him, while the other had a shade of blue. "And if no one has arrived-" started the one in red. "-Then who are you?" finished the one in blue. Twilight felt no small amount of fear as these towering creatures stood, or rather floated, next to her. Without any reliable magic she would almost be completely at their mercy if they turned out to be hostile. She audibly gulped before answering their question. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. A-are you the ones in charge here?" The two started to laugh uncontrollably. The unicorn was taken aback by their actions, but soon she remembered the urgent matter that she had to attend to. "Well? Are you or are you not in control of this place? My friends need help and I don't have time to play games!" They both broke out of their revelry. "Then there are others?" "How did we not detect them?" "An even better question-" "-Is how we didn't detect you." "Where is your ship?" "How did you access this terminal?" Their line of questioning was too fast for Twilight to fully comprehend. "I-I don't know of any ship!" "Then how did you get here?" the two asked in unison. "Well, there was this island, and we crashed into this place. Now my friends are disappearing and I know that something here is causing it. You have to help me stop whatever is doing this to them!" Twilight pleaded. "No ship?" "No access?" "An island, crashing." "This one's friends disappearing." The two disappeared from their positions next to Twilight and reappeared next to the viewports stationed on the center platform. For a moment the two acted as though she didn't exist. They were mumbling something to themselves as she edged closer to the platform. "Well, can you help?" Twilight asked once more. The one in blue turned to face her. "We cannot." "Why not?" "Because you are not supposed to be here." This time, from the one in red. The image on his viewport revealing a view of the island she had used to get here. "But what about them?" She asked, pointing to Red’s viewport. "The instant that the quarantine zone made contact with the control platform.-" started Blue once more. "-The System deleted them." finished Red. Twilight didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean deleted? If you know what's happening to them why won't you help?" What she didn't like more than whatever it was they had just told her, was the fact that they were both moving to encircle her once again. "Now we must learn why this one did not share their fate..." they said simultaneously.