//------------------------------//
// PostPony 
// Story: Identity 
// by jaked122 
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There was a pause. 

Twilight shifted uneasily in front of the lab. Her face shifted as she tried to find an expression to capture the cause of a distraught ruler whose duty moved them to tell the researchers that the reality of the research would never be seen by the public.


She sighed. Twilight's face became grimmer, perhaps a bit more appropriate for the task at hoof. She would inform the researchers of the whole truth. 


Immortality is fraught with dangers of megalomania. More dangerously, immortality, is fraught with the danger that such megalomania is actually reasonable. The lectures that Celestia and Luna had given her upon her ascension cast an expression of determination across her face. 

Approaching the cubicle, the sounds of the researchers’ eager chatter fell upon her ears. Her expression shifted uncomfortably once again. 

Twilight entered the cubicle. The scientists grinned at her. 
“So Princess, what good news have you come to give to us today? Maybe we can start testing.” Frenzy Idea was the only one that could bear to look at her directly. The presence of the twelve other ponies standing there, avoiding her gaze, was far too much of a reminder that she was no longer like them. No more of the entirely impotent nerdy bookworm.

The grins turned into glares. Their eyes were hard and their expressions counted not as sadness, as Twilight had expected, but anger. In general, it was worse than she had expected.

It got worse.  “You can’t get to that stage. This is too dangerous for our society. And perhaps, the entire world.”
All twelve of the ponies glared at her, directly, their eyes locking upon hers. Dozens of angers. Except for Frenzy, who stared at the rough stone floor disappointed.

Twilight strode out of the cubicle, pushed by anxiety and fear. 

She struggled to contain tears. Dreams had resurged without consideration of posited reality. They had to be crushed, lest they turn into sedition. 

Tears streamed down her face without consideration of such facts. The researchers heard hooves clacking in full gallop away from them. None of them thought much of the noises. The sounds of arguments began and died away as the lights flickered and cut.

The hum resumed its drone. The lights came back on. The researchers exhaled. Frenzy Idea felt a cold sweat on the back of his crest.  Exactly as planned. The atmosphere was bitter from then on. The work cut into everypony's life, but now, it was useless; a dream of practical use turned to pure academia, worse, it was a tool of the power structures of the kingdom. It was surely going to be used in the future. If it was not going to be used to benefit the people themselves, then it was a threat, or a tool used to keep power, it would not lead to liberty. 

The lights flickered again. Perhaps, it was that all of these things were weapons. In that case, who would want to develop them?



Twilight inhaled. She stood impassively near the door. She wiped her face. All that she once stood for, gone. Academics was once her life.

Who was she to take away her own life from these ponies? Twilight exhaled. Obviously she was a princess, a regent: a servitor and protector of the denizens of Equestria. Did that include ruining a few lives for the protection of the majority? Probably. Did this count as such an action? Only if the technology had the effect that the essay suggested.

She smiled. The hundred feet between her and the lab passed easily enough under this revelation. To confirm her speculation she would have to make use of this particular technology, it would have to be sly, quick, and hard to detect. Moreover, there would probably be bonus points added if it went well, or, on the other hoof, was properly cleaned up.