//------------------------------// // 4: Activation. // Story: Remnants, Forgotten. // by AnkhOmega //------------------------------// Activation. Twilight flittered between states of consciousness, never quite waking but never quite falling into the soupy blackness of sleep. Thousands of voices whispered in the back of her mind, demanding attention, submitting requests, giving warnings. She wished they would be quiet, let her think. The sudden silence was unsettling. She wanted to wake up. She knew she was in danger, or that there was something very important she was forgetting. She couldn't conjure up specifics, just a screeching buzz and a deep and foreboding sense of dread. A whispered alert asked if she was sure. She had already replied before it had even finished. She needed to wake up. There was something terribly wrong. A whisper of acquiescence. Twilight woke up. ..//.. Five ponies were seen rushing around Ponyville late at night, mumbled shouts woke parents from their near-sleep. Dogs howled at the disturbances, cats hissed, and foals screamed. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had managed to gather up their friends with relative ease, the words which sent the farm pony into a mad dash to form a search party had a much similar effect on her four friends. "Twilight's in trouble!" The words echoes in her head. She had naturally started to fear the absolute worst immediately. Images of a wounded and dying librarian came unbidden to her mind. The fear of losing someone close, someone your own cowardice had prevented from becoming closer, would have crippled her, if it were not for the adrenaline fuelled haze of determination she placed herself in. Spike was found easily enough, but at the girls insistence he remained in the library. They had gathered the rough information on the dig site from him before setting off, even in a panic they knew it would be no use to go into the Everfree without at least a direction to follow. Five ponies were spotted entering the darkness of the Everfree, charging in with reckless abandon. The few onlookers to the strange situation dismissed them as another crazy happening in Ponyville. None could tell the gravity of the situation. None of the onlookers had seen the look on Applejack's face. Nor had they heard the thoughts she repeated to herself like a mantra. Hold on Twi'. Ah'm comin'. ..//.. Twilight woke groggily. She felt heavy in all the wrong places. Lifting a hoof seemed to require an order of magnitude more energy than it ever did before. She was struggling to open her right eye, that entire side of her face felt numb. She tried to sit up, which lead to her slamming her head into whatever she was lying on when it came back down. Not only did she feel too drained to move, but her head felt far too heavy. She tried to speak, to call out for somepony to help her. Her mouth moved but no sound came out, her throat felt dry, swollen, and sore. After struggling to speak she managed to make a single sound. A cough. She froze at the sound. Her cough had the same static undercurrent as the orb. Before she could fully process that bit of information the Core Unit returned. Hovering by the side of her bed with that same green glyph pointed right at her. "Query: Are you online?" It asked, moving far too close for her comfort. Just stay calm Twilight, maybe if you play dead it'll go away. She thought to herself. Whatever it had done to her hadn't quite passed yet. And she needed both her strength and the element of surprise if she was going to- "Conscious thought detected. Authority: Confirmed online." Twilight cursed. It could hear her thoughts. That was incredibly unfair. "Alert. Authority upgrades read offline. Do you want to be fully activated?" Wait, upgrades?...What'll happen if they're turned on? She thought. She was still a little surprised by it actually responding. "You have been upgraded as per Authority creation protocol. Activation will allow use of basic bodily functions, such as: full motor control, vocalisation, and network interfacing." Motor control, she thought, That means movement...What has this thing done to me?...I need whatever these upgrades are to leave, I guess I have to activate them. "Activation command accepted. Alert. Remain stationary after activation to allow self-test cycle to complete." Twilight felt a jolt of energy pass through her, for the briefest moment her entire body screamed in pain. Then there was nothing but an odd stillness inside her. Her limbs felt a lot lighter, and she could actually move them if she wished to. She was about to jump off the table when her right eye activated. There was some kind of overlay on her eye, text jumped up in several languages she couldn't even identify before settling in Equish. Words formed right in the centre of her vision, they read 'Self-Test Complete. Cybernetics have achieved 96% symbiosis. Compatibility errors: Negligible.' She blinked. She had only heard of 'cybernetics' as experimental technology in places like Neighpon, and as elements of science fiction. Another message flashed across her vision. 'Please select thought broadcast preface: Computer, System, Command, Authority, Go Away, Bugger off.' She was very confused. “What the hay is a 'thought broadcast preface?!” she asked aloud. Her voice scared her, it sounded synthetic and carried the same static with it as the orb. She jumped when the Core Unit, who she'd forgotten about, answered. “Thought Broadcast Preface: A thought broadcast preface is used by the Authority to specify when a thought is to be interpreted as a system command. Common phrases have been displayed to allow easier choice.” the orb chimed out. She supposed that made sense. You wouldn't want a system that could read your thoughts executing every one. I'll..I pick 'Command'. She thought, reasoning that it wasn't a word she used often. Wait, why am I going along with this?! 'Preface “Command” selected. Please state all system commands as follows: Command: [Designation] [Command] [Timeframe]' her eye informed her and then all text cleared away from her vision. She turned to face the orb, preparing herself to strike at it and run. When her sight fell on it she hesitated. A white outline appeared around it as she focused, text began to spring up around it, displaying vital information about the unit. Core Unit-002. Energy Levels: 83%. Assigned to: Authority. She looked away, the text vanishing as she did so. This turned out to be a mistake. Her eyes settled on her legs, she nearly screamed. Her legs, hoof to shoulder, were gunmetal grey. They were inscribed beautifully, she raised her forehooves to her face slowly. She could feel them. She could feel the metal, like it was her skin. She flexed, her body responding completely naturally. She looked along her foreleg, hoping inch after inch that the metal would stop and her flesh would return. It didn't stop until it had passed her shoulder. She checked each leg, the metal ended above her shoulders and covered her flanks. Her Cutie Mark was still present, inlaid in amethyst and quartz, she was quietly thankful for that. The odd feeling of losing herself had begun to settle in. She didn't feel like she was in her own body anymore. She needed to check something. Something she couldn't see normally. “I need a mirror.” She said quietly. Unit-002 floated off for a minute, only to return with a small, cracked hoofmirror floating beside it in an eerily familiar magenta field of magic. It held the mirror at an angle so that she couldn't see anything before issuing a warning. “Alert. This course of action has a ninety eight point nine percent chance of causing emotional distress. Do you wish to continue?” “Show me!” She snapped, her voice becoming much sharper than usual due to it's new synthesized quality. The orb obediently floated the mirror up so she could see her face. She couldn't move, the sight in the mirror paralysed her. Her face was now split diagonally from left to right, most of her forehead, her right eye and most of her right cheek were now sculpted out of the same metal as her legs. The runes covering the metal glinted, the occasional glow of purple light coming from a select few. Her horn had a new inlaid spiral of metal leading from her forehead. Her gaze focused on her new eye. It was black. There was no pupil, no iris, no sclera. Just blackness, and the faint reflection of light on a glassy surface. She winked her right eye closed, watching shutters, reminiscent of a camera, descend and close. She felt faint. She needed air. She shakily got to her hooves, stumbling towards the elevators. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She felt horribly light. Every remaining muscle in her body felt tense, the 'upgraded' parts of her giving nothing but comfortable numbness. The disparity between the feelings in her body was unsettling. She had made her way to the door which let her in, being shadowed dutifully by the Core Unit, she issued the command for it to open. She stopped in place when she heard a familiar voice. “Twilight?” ..\\.. Applejack and her friends had managed to get to the dig site relatively quickly, the combination of Rarity's detailed memory of the directions Spike had given, and Rainbow Dash's aerial surveillance had led them there with little complication. The first thing they noticed was how quiet it was, it looked abandoned. There was the occasional table flipped over, a few bottles and canteens were strewn about, their contents spilled out onto the forest floor. They cautiously made their way through the site, looking for any indication of where everypony had gone, or what had made them leave. Their search through the tents, aside from disorienting a few with the larger tent, proved fruitless. Applejack had decided, after getting thoroughly confused by the home-in-a-tent, to descend into the actual dig site itself. It was there she found a blue unicorn desperately trying to drown himself with a bottle of scotch. She called her friends over before asking, “Hey mister, Y'all alright?” “Hmm? Oh! I'm jusht fine! In fact, I'm sh-celebrating!” he replied, his breath smelling like an over-productive brewery. Applejack wafted the foul smell away from her with a hoof, “Yeah, ah can see that....uh, what're ya celebratin'?” “Oh, jusht the death of my career....and my impending banishment to the moon....or the shun...wherever you go when you get a Princesses shtar pupil killed...” He said, taking a swig from the bottle. “You did what?!” Dash yelled, landing before the drunken archaeologist. “I got Twilight Shparkle killed! She was looking at the door,” He indicated towards the massive metal monolith, “and then we got to talking...She was tellin' thish story about pudding or something...and a manticore came out of nowhere.” “Oh no...” the quiet voice of Fluttershy spoke the thought going through the five mare's minds. “What happened after that?!” Applejack practically yelled, she lunged and grabbed the unicorn by the shoulders. “I don't know!!” He yelled at her, “She was talking so much, and the damn thing went straight for her....I'm a sun-damned coward! I snuck off while it focused on her!” His voice became a soft, sorrowful whisper, “I let it get her...so I could survive...I didn't even think about helpin' her...” Applejack shook him, hard. She screamed in his face, a wordless scream of rage, tears welling up in her eyes. Rainbow Dash grabbed her and pulled her away, stopping her from harming anypony. Applejack was about to cry out in frustration, when Rarity spoke up. “Hold on a moment, Did you see her get...attacked by the manticore?” “Huh?...No, I was...I hid in my tent 'till it was gone.” He slurred. “Then, I don't think she's dead.” Rarity said, matter-of-factly. “Wha?...how..how can ya be sure Rares?” Applejack asked, hopefully. “Take a look around dears, there's a little magical scorching on the ground, but no blood. There's no bits of mane lying around, or.....bones, so I think it's fair to say she might still be alive.” she stated. Applejack smiled faintly, there was still hope. “Hah....Hah yer right...Hey, Rainbow, ya mind?” Rainbow let the farmer go, who sat down quietly. Her gaze shifted over to the door, wondering what had happened. The world melted away from her as she thought, the divvying of tasks to her friends went unnoticed. In her minds eye she saw the door in front of her open, the object of her affection revealing herself in all her glory. Being followed by a floating metal orb. Wait, the hay is that? She snapped out her imagination. Which, as it turned out, wasn't all imaginary. “Twilight?” She spoke out, disbelievingly. ..//.. There was an uncomfortable pause. Twilight was frozen to the spot, her mind being assaulted by the dissonance of being thankful to see her friends and not wanting them to see what had happened to her. Applejack wasn't sure what was happening. She could see Twilight standing there, but something looked wrong. She couldn't pin it down. The orb floating next to Twilight distracted the farmer, she wondered what it was, and why it was following her friend. “Huh, did you say some...thing...” Dash asked, trailing off as she turned her head and spotted the open door and the figure standing just inside it. The caused the remaining three ponies to turn their heads, all eyes slowly settling on Twilight. They squinted, something seemed wrong, but the shadows of the night may have been playing tricks on them. Twilight panicked. Command: Shut off the lights! She thought hastily. The tunnel was plunged into darkness, the moonlight seeping in barely reached the tips of her forehooves. This, although somewhat relaxing to Twilight, elicited gasps of shock from her friends, two of which looked ready to barge into the unlit tunnel in case there was something wrong. “Twilight?! Ya in there?” Applejack yelled, getting to her hooves. She moved to stand directly in front of the door, squinting as she peered in. Her friends moved close, all peering from behind her. “Y-yeah, it's me....don't come any closer. Please.” Twilight spoke out shakily, she hung her head in the darkness. She hadn't thought about what to do when she met her friends, after all, how could she explain something she only had an inkling of understanding about. “Are you okay darling? You sound a bit...strange.” Rarity inquired. The buzzing tone to Twilight's voice was setting the girls on edge. “I..I know. Just....Something happened.” Twilight stumbled out, “Please, just...stay out there for a minute, okay?” She delved into her own memories, desperately trying to remember as much illusion magic as she could. Maybe..maybe I can hide this? Think Sparkle think! Illusion magic requires a clear picture of the illusion to be kept in the mind along with the sym- “Query: Authority local storage lacks sufficient information, do you require a Library server query on the topic of: 'Illusion Magic'?” Core Unit-002 spoke out helpfully, this caused the five mares outside the tunnel to jump, their attention now focused on the floating, glowing glyph near where Twilight was. “What the hay is that thing?!” Applejack called out, the other four mares murmuring their own questions. “We are Core Unit-002.” It toned out, amidst the next flurry of questions Rarity remained silent. A small flash of recognition in her eyes. “Twilight...why do you sound like him?” Rarity asked, loud enough to overpower the other voices. They slowly trailed off, the collective focus returning to Twilight. “That's....That's a mighty good question....And why was it talkin' about 'Illusions'?” “I..I ah.....Please, promise you won't freak out.” Twilight pleaded. The mares nodded and took a few steps back, allowing Twilight enough room to step out fully. She hesitated for a moment before doing so, doubt and worry nagging at her mind. As she stepped out in front of her friends she started to notice something she really did not want to see. Shocked faces. Horrified looks. Fear. She sat in front of them with a nervous smile, allowing them to view her 'upgrades' in the moonlight. “So...What do you think? Heh...heh...” She was answered by silence. She looked from face to face, there was little movement. Just the occasional twitch. A look of horror. A look of fear. A look of heartbreak. Twilight looked confusedly at Applejack. She looked like Spike did when somepony told him they didn't have anything with gems at a restaurant. “I...I uh, I think I left the stove on.” Dash said, before jetting off into the night sky. Her sudden evacuation caused a shock-wave of displaced air to ruffle the fur and manes of the remaining mares. The wave was enough to knock Applejack's Stetson clean off her head. It fell to the floor near Twilight with a light rustle. Slowly but surely, the rest of her friends made excuses, Rarity needed to fix her hair, Fluttershy needed to check on an animal or two, Pinkie was surprisingly honest about her discomfort. Applejack was last to leave. “Ah...ah can't take this...not now...Why'd it have to be you?” she pleaded. “I..I don't..” “No...Ah...Sun an' Moon. Ah'm sorry....Ah can't take this right now.” Applejack said, tears clearly welling in her eyes as she turned and fled. Her hat lay forgotten at Twilight's hooves. Twilight felt numb, rejected by her friends. She hung her head, noticing the Stetson lying in the dirt. She picked up the fallen hat with her hooves, that feeling of terrible numbness spreading through her. She put it on her head, not quite understanding what she was doing. She noticed a lightly crumpled piece of paper sitting where the head wear used to lie. She slowly picked it up, unfurled it, and read. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I ain't never been too good at this kinda thing, so I'm just gonna come out and say it before I get into the mushy stuff. I love you. I know, that's a little sudden, but it's the truth. I don't know how it happened, or when, but I do. I love you with all my heart. All of it, all over I can tell you how I know, I love who you are. I love the fact that you're one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria, magically and otherwise, and you're too humble to realise it. I love how every issue, even potentially world ending, is just a challenge to you, a problem to be looked at and solved. I love how cute you look when you're freaking out. I love the way you're always there for your friends, even when they're being difficult or stubborn. I love the way you look at the world and see the tiniest little specks making things work how they are supposed to. I love your smile. I love how you take the silliest little thing and can see it as the most important thing in all of time. I can't stop thinking about you, you know? You're in my head while I work, you're in my dreams while I sleep. I think about you in the sh Whenever something bad is going on, and all of our friends are in danger, the first thought in my head isn't 'I hope everypony's going to be fine'. It's 'Please don't let Twilight get hurt'. That sounds really horrible, but it's true. You have a really nice flank by the way, walking anywhere behind you is a treat for the eyes. Your body is buea Beuatt You're really pretty. Really really pretty. I need a dictionary. I'll understand if you don't feel the same. I'll understand if you could never like me in that way. Just don't hate me for this. Even if I could never be your special somepony, I'd still want to be your friend. With love, Applejack. She re-read. The contents stayed the same. She shook slightly and read again. The words stayed the same. She tried and tried again, but the message remained. Applejack was in love with her, and she had still run away. Twilight broke. She sobbed and shuddered. She collapsed into a ball, her horn glowing brightly as she drew on levels of power she didn't realise she could. A spell popped with a blinding flash of light. She was gone. Core Unit-002 looked around for a moment, locking on to it's target. It floated it's way towards the signal, towards a hollow tree in a sleepy town.