Twilight realized almost instantly that the ugly creatures were human, but not because of her amazing powers of deduction. She recognized them. She didn't remember humans being ugly, but she remembered them looking as these beings did, and they seemed ugly to her now. She wondered if Rainbow Dash knew what they were.
This line of thought was interrupted by the sharp pains of her breathing. Each breath felt as if she had been breathing heavily in cold air, except that this pain felt hot. Each was worse than the last. She felt as if, somehow, Rainbow Dash had landed on her back, as it was difficult to stand, but when she looked there was nothing weighing her down.
The moment she thought that, one of the furthest away humans shouted, “Whoever secures a pony will have their salary doubled!”
The humans, of which there were about ten in the hallway, began scrambling; some of them tripping on each other, and all were making their way towards the ponies. Dash had already head-butted one in the stomach, knocking him down, but Twilight felt the need to explain to Dash anyway
.
“Those are humans! Who knows what they intend to do to us?!” said Twilight while attempting to run, but only going as fast as a rather slow walk.
“Doesn't matter. Things chasing you means you should attack them,” said Dash.
Dash was a good athlete on the ground, but they wouldn't stand a chance once she got airborne. Or so she thought, anyway. Even with both wings flapping rapidly, she barely managed to get a foot off the ground.
“Come on wings! What gives!” cried Dash.
“It seems the gravity is greater here,” said Twilight.
Two humans grabbed Twilight and began to drag her down the hallway, but Twilight threw them into a wall with her magic. She hadn't meant to throw them as hard as she had, but hands pulling at her skin made it difficult to not react instinctively. Furthermore, she hadn't noticed that her instinctive throw had barely been hard enough, as she was quickly distracted by Dash's predicament.
Rainbow Dash finally managed to get several feet off the ground, and her head nearly touched the ceiling. However, hands pulled at each of her legs. Twilight tried to fling them with her magic, but with the gravity as high as it was, neither of them moved more than a few inches. Two more grabbed her tail and then the four of them slammed her into the ground. The scientists immediately dog-piled her. This time, Twilight kept applying more force until she saw them fly off of her, but they were so heavy, her horn developed a huge aura around it before that happened, and already three people were dragging her away from behind. There was one pulling at each of her legs and one at her tail.
Worse still, Rainbow Dash was lying on the ground covered in bruises and unconscious. Twilight now had their undivided attention. Their numbers seemed to have more than doubled, as she wasn't as willing to hurt them as Dash seemed to be, so they didn't stay down as long. She kept flinging them away from her, but could only focus on three at a time, and they just kept coming back. Soon there were arms grabbing at all different parts of her. She felt like she was going to be pulled apart, and there was no way she could concentrate enough to use magic. They were dragging her away.
“No! She is a pony! I won't let you change her back!” screamed Rainbow Dash.
Despite many bruises, Dash was airborne. She proceeded to ram the glob of humans that had formed around Twilight, causing them all to fly through the air in various directions. She swooped down and picked up Twilight, but couldn't manage to take off again. Already, three people were starting to pick themselves up.
With the brief moment of everyone picking themselves up, Twilight really saw the hallway for the first time. Suddenly the notion that she used to walk through this very hallway overwhelmed her. She didn't want to feel it, but some part of her knew this was home. She couldn't point to any specific memories, nor did she remember anything else about the building or world they were in. It was just a vague sense of being where she belonged, despite all the chaos going on around her.
“You can continue using that horn of yours anytime now,” said Dash amid knocking one of the several human headed their way down.
Twilight immediately began throwing several people at a time away from them with her horn, but she began to sweat, as her horn was tired. With this gravity and these peoples’ resilience she didn't have much more in her. Twilight panicked as she saw several more people entering the hallway.
She said, “We can't fight them forever, and more people are entering this hallway. I can't remember anything about where this building's exits are. What are we going to do?”
Rainbow Dash walked over to the nearest window, and bucked the glass rapidly with her hind legs, until it broke. She then said, “Then we'll make an exit.”
“But you can't fly here while holding me,” said Twilight.
“Then it’s time I show you how meaningless can't is,” said Dash.
“I don't know...” started Twilight.
“You got any better ideas?” interrupted Dash.
People were pursuing her, so Twilight ran to the window and now the people were crowding around them. Upon being so close to Rainbow Dash, Twilight was amazed that, despite how profusely she was sweating and the severity of her bruises, she was still moving. As a result, she wasn't surprised that her head-butts weren't even knocking them back anymore. Twilight desperately tried to toss them all with her magic, but a few sparks emitted from her horn and nothing more. There was no other escape.
Dash picked up Twilight and jumped out the window. Dash began pouring sweat, and her face was all scrunched up, as her wings accelerated to beating the air as rappidly as a humming bird. This barely managed to keep them in the air, but it did. Twilight considered hi-fiving Dash, but thought better of it, as that seemed like it would be a difficult thing to do while flying.
This brief rejoicing quickly died upon feeling a warm sensation from below and looking down to see its cause. Below them was a pool of lava that stretched further than their amazing bird-eye view could see in all directions. They were a good hundred or so feet above it, but just a twenty foot descent would likely mean starting to melt or catch fire.
“I just remembered I used to teleport into that building, and we needed security to be extremely tight so we put it in a place surrounded by lava for numerous miles. We should go back,” said Twilight.
“No! I won't lose you because I'm not a good enough flier!” insisted Dash.
Dash picked a direction and soared quickly in that direction. Her wings ached, but that was nothing new to her. “No pain, no gain,” chanted Dash under her breath, as she flew straight ahead, at a speed that may well have created a sonic rainboom, if she had the help of gravity.
Twilight kept instinctively jumping, as her nervous system was absolutely convinced that she was far closer to a heat source than she should be. She could not begin to imagine how much worse it must have felt for Dash. Twilight could feel herself slipping on Dash's increasingly slippery skin due to an ever thickening layer of sweat. After a few minutes, Twilight feared she'd slip right off, and so, gripped even tighter, despite the added discomfort for Dash. However, Dash didn't show the slightest bit of hesitation or discomfort.
Twilight looked into Dash's eyes and saw furrowed brows that seemed to go beyond determination and almost looked angry. Twilight was amazed that somehow, despite the illogic of her words about doing things she can't do, she was doing them. However, Twilight could practically see the new bruises forming as Dash's wings rapidly beat the ever-resilient air, and was forced to conclude that despite the look in her eyes, it wouldn't be much longer yet. Ten minutes from when they had first jumped out of the window, there was still no end in sight, and Dash's wings stopped obeying her.
“No! No! NO!” shouted Dash as they both began falling, a hint of a tear in each eye. Then mid-sentence all trace of sappiness instantly died as she recognized the purple aura around them.
“Dash, you've inspired me. If you can fly that far despite the circumstances, then my horn can take us the rest of the way,” said Twilight, who proceeded to push them forward with her magic. Twilight couldn't imagine how Dash had flown so far, as after just a few seconds, Twilight could feel her horn throbbing to the point that she wondered if it was actually possible for horns to break. With each passing second, closing her eyes and letting the lava just end it all sounded more like a luxury.
But her friend had shown such determination to save her. Twilight wasn't nearly as sweaty or bruised, nor had she been doing this for nearly as long, yet from the moment she started she felt like giving up. She was a terrible friend. She had to make it up to Rainbow Dash somehow. She had to get them the rest of the way there.
However, after a few more minutes, her horn didn't emit any sparks, but instantly stopped. They could finally see land, but it must have been at least a mile away, and they were plummeting. Dash tried flapping her wings, but they were still aching and refused to move much. She couldn't even slow her own descent.
Twilight closed her eyes. She breathed out and let out her anxiety about falling, and her aching horn with that breath. Breathing out brought with it the sensation of spitting out tacks, but she didn't let that steal her attention for long. With each breath she let out numerous thoughts about her and Dash's impending doom and concerns about how to escape this place, until after a few breaths her mind was blank, and she filled it with thoughts of “Me and her over there. Me and her over there.” Twilight had never teleported so great a distance, but that was a concern she let out on the first breath. Twilight felt a hot stinging sensation on her back. She was surprised that her skin didn't seem to be melting, or that she survived long enough to touch lava.
“Are you okay?” asked Dash.
Twilight opened her eyes to discover that the teleportation had worked. The hot sensation was just hot sand. She got up on her hooves.
“What do you suppose is with the air here?” asked Dash.
“I don't know. I don't remember much from... then...” said Twilight disdainfully before continuing, “But I do remember it not hurting when I breathe. More importantly which way do we go?”
“Unless you have any flashbacks, we'll just have to pick a way and move. How did we get here anyway?” said Dash while running forward, and looking back at Twilight.
“I accidentally ran a program that did that,” blushed Twilight, who was so afraid of what Dash might think, she didn't notice Dash was already running ahead.
“We won't make it if we just stand around all day,” said Dash.
But then Twilight realized what she had just said. “Ran a program to do that...” mumbled Twilight under her breath, before continuing in a far louder more excited voice, “Yes of course!” She began trying to cast the new spell she had learned, to get the floating screen to appear, but it kept failing.
Dash ran back to her asking, “What are you doing?”
“That ‘pretty picture’ is about to save our lives. You see, a program doesn't require much magic at all, and it has great power,” said Twilight, who was repeatedly trying to get the faintest spark from her horn, until after a couple of minutes the screen came up. First a script to find and collect all nearby water thought Twilight, who proceeded to write statement after statement until, after about twenty minutes, the code was complete. She proceeded to run it with another spark from her horn, but the floating screen immediately filled with the words, “Task killed by an external process.”
“What happened?” asked Dash.
“It didn't work for some reason. Maybe I coded something wrong,” said Twilight, frantically changing her code around to an alternate solution to the same problem, in hopes that using a different solution would somehow fix the mysterious error. However after running it again, the same mysterious message appeared. “There has got to be a way to fix this,” groaned Twilight.
“Twilight, we are going to have to find water, before we die,” said Dash.
“But if I can just get this to work...” objected Twilight.
“You are still new to this, and we can't wait on you to learn,” said Dash.
Twilight felt they were so close to safety with programming, yet she knew Dash was right. She didn't see anything about that message in the tutorials, and who knew how long it would take to figure out what the issue was. Everything in her wanted to continue and figure out what was going on, but she couldn't do that to Dash. “You are right,” sighed Twilight. Twilight proceeded to attempt to run after Dash but her body seemed so heavy, she could barely manage the pace of a walk.
“Come on, we don't have time for this,” said Dash.
“I can't.”
“Have you learned nothing?”
“You didn't manage to get us here alone.”
“Who said ‘I can’ means I have to do it without help? We jumped out of that window and we survived even though we couldn't. Now you are going to run even though you can't.”
Twilight's hooves ached, but the more they ached, the more energy she put into them. Before long, Twilight caught up to Rainbow Dash, and the two proceeded to run. After a minute, the red earth gave way to a seemingly-endless stretch of sand. Twilight's hooves ached, and the bottoms of them were starting to go numb from the heat. Her body demanded heavy breathing, yet this turned the nuisance of breathing into a deep burning sensation that made her cough, which only made things worse. After five minutes, her hoofs couldn't support her anymore, and she collapsed to the ground.
“How does anybody live on this planet?” demanded Twilight.
“Soon we won't be either if we...” began Dash, who suddenly felt as though someone had just run by her holding a knife out just far enough to graze her skin as they went. Twilight likewise noticed a long cut appeared along her side, but neither of them saw anyone or anything go by.
“What happened?” asked Twilight.
“I don't know. It felt like the wind itself cut me,” said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash then noticed a small area in which the wind was going in a circle extremely rapidly. Suddenly, all that wind, as if being released from a sling, darted straight for Twilight. Dash knocked Twilight out of the way before it hit the middle of her forehead. This wind grazed Rainbow Dash, creating a similar cut on her other side.
Without another word Rainbow Dash and Twilight took off running. Suddenly, these razor winds started forming everywhere and Rainbow Dash, having much faster reflexes, had to keep telling Twilight which way one was coming from. After fifteen minutes, it finally stopped, and so did the ponies, who were now covered in cuts and dripping blood.
Twilight collapsed to the ground so hard that sand went up her nose, but she didn't care. The sand that went up her nose didn't feel any worse than the air that was constantly going in and out. Rainbow Dash was saying something that was likely another inspiring comment about doing things you can’t do, but her voice felt so distant and muffled that Twilight was barely aware anything was being said. Her heavy eyelids fell, and everything was dark.
After what felt like a few seconds, the darkness began to give way to an image. Everything was blurry and sideways. Twilight was vaguely aware that she was moving, despite the fact that her hooves clearly weren't taking her anywhere. Twilight closed her eyes again, but a sudden jerk from below and Rainbow’s voice crying out “Stupid rock!” caused her to tear her heavy eyes open. She looked down to see blue skin, and wings. “How long have you been carrying me?” said Twilight.
“About an hour. Do you think you can walk?” asked Dash.
Twilight didn't know what to say. She never realized just how far her friends were willing to go for her. She was grateful to the point of nearly being unsettled as she wasn't sure she was willing to go as far for Rainbow Dash. “Dash... I... I... Thank you!” said Twilight.
“You can start showing your gratitude by getting off my back,” said Rainbow Dash looking back at Twilight with a smile.
“How can you smile at a time like this?” asked Twilight, who tried to gracefully dismount, but instantly remembered how much her muscles ached when she tried, and instead plopped to the ground. At least the sand she landed on was soft.
“I was scared, and I felt so alone with you unconscious. I began to wonder what was the point, but then I saw Pinkie Pie. She was singing that song about ‘giggle at the ghosty.’ My fear really did disappear, and I've had a hard time not smiling ever since. I know it doesn't make any sense, but friendship doesn’t always have to,” said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight tried to get up, but couldn't. She tried again, but again her legs fell out from under her greater than usual weight. She kept trying, as she couldn't possibly ask Dash for any more help, but kept failing each time.
“Need some help?” said Dash laughing lightly. She proceeded to lift Twilight, but then she too fell, and she couldn't get up. “Come on Twilight, we'll crawl there,” said Dash. The ponies pushed down on sand with their front hooves, then pulled themselves forward, and repeated.
“Dash, if we don't get out of this alive, I just want to say, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you,” panted Twilight between gasps of breath.
“You mean like you’re not listening to me now that we will get out of this alive?” asked Dash.
Twilight had no idea how Dash could be so optimistic. They had no food or water, and were dehydrated, bleeding, and exhausted. Further, they could easily suffer from heat stroke since they appeared to be in a desert. To make matters worse, Twilight couldn't help but wonder if the air wasn't killing them somehow, and who knows when the crazy sharp wind would come back. She considered mentioning all this to Dash, but thought better of dashing her hopes. Instead, Twilight envied Dash’s optimism.
Dash stopped. She kept reaching out her hoofs but kept pulling them back to her, instead of her too them. Twilight thought at first she was messing around, but then she blurted out, “Come on, Twilight, we'll be there soon.”
Twilight, who was now ahead of her, puzzled over this statement before saying, “Dash, are you okay?”
“Yeah, but I'd be better if you'd catch up. Come on, you can do it,” said Dash, who continued to fruitlessly pull sand towards her, and who had a completely dazed look in her eyes.
Twilight examined the sand, positive there must be something different about it to keep Ponyville’s greatest athlete at bay, but there was nothing. Dash had lost all her strength. Twilight then shook a hoof rapidly up and down in front of Dash's line of sight and said, “Dash! Dash!!”
“Don't worry, I'm coming back for you Twilight,” said Dash, her gaze never once acknowledging Twilight's hoof. Rainbow Dash then pulled sand toward herself weakly with a single hoof.
Twilight tried to drag Dash along with her, but she could not get her to budge. Twilight began pulling herself forward without Dash, promising herself that she would send Dash help, as soon as she could.
“I'm coming for you, Twilight,” said Dash weakly, with her hoof not even moving anymore.
The sound of Dash desperately trying to help her stopped Twilight in her tracks. She wanted to keep going forward because she knew it was the only way they might survive, but she couldn't. She lay there for a few moments before finally crawling back to Dash.
“I'm sorry Dash, that I couldn't be as strong as you. Maybe if I were, we could have gotten out of this alive,” said Twilight as she laid by Dash, to die with her friend. She wished Rainbow Dash was with it enough to spend these last moments with her, but she soon recognized that as a selfish wish. At least this way, Dash would never have to know the inevitable death that was coming upon them. Twilight once more closed her eyes, this time with no intention of ever opening them again.
Suddenly Twilight burst into consciousness. Where am I? Memory of recent events hadn't returned to her yet. She looked over and saw Rainbow Dash, with a wet wash cloth on her head, still muttering nonsense. How had they survived? Twilight began looking around and noticed they were in a cave. She continued looking around the cave for answers, when suddenly she noticed a very ugly person; at least, she thought it was a person.
He wasn't just ugly in the same sense that the rest of the humans were; he stood out as someone who was clearly ugly even by their standards. His right cheek was swollen to at least twice its normal size and had several scars on it. A little to the left of the center of his forehead, he had a huge burn so bad that the skin looked charred. He had a thin layer of white hair on his head, and his arms looked like they had repeatedly had skin grafts. He was very skinny and about five feet six inches tall, but he had clearly been taller once, seeing as how his back had a fairly considerable hunch.
The man was just sitting on a chair when he glanced over at Twilight and spat, “I don't suppose either of you know Antarin.”
Twilight immediately remembered that was the name of that human language she knew. She responded, “Yes, will my friend be okay?”
“Straight to the point, aren't ya? Well, if I were you, I'd be a little more concerned about me. After all, maybe I want to kill you. Most people do.”
“If you weren't a friend, you would have let us die in the desert.”
“Maybe I wanted to do the job myself. Maybe I wanted the credit.”
“You would have at least captured us in some way. We could just get up and leave,” said Twilight, becoming less confident in her initial assertion that this person was a friend.
“You don't think you’re trapped? Yeah you go ahead and leave, and go back into that desert. Let me know how that goes. I am the only person living in this desert, and I have the only teleporter out, which only responds to my fingerprint,” said the man.
“Well, why wouldn't you have killed us already?” said Twilight becoming decreasingly comfortable with where this conversation was going. Twilight tried out her horn but not even a single spark would come out of it and, in her weakened state, Twilight was suddenly aware she couldn't take him. She could barely move.
“You think some ponies suddenly show up in our world, and I don't at least have some questions to ask before killing them? I'm not as curious as I used to be, but there must be a thing or two I'd still like to know before dying, or else surely I would have let the worms have their way with this wretched body,” said the man.
Twilight realized for the first time that the only exit to the cave was on the other side of the man. Twilight wasn't sure why she even bothered spotting the exit, as they would surely die if they went back out there, but the escalation of the conversation made it difficult to not at least wonder. “Well, you wouldn't have put a wet rag on Rainbow Dash's head if that were the case,” blurted out Twilight, desperate for anything that suggested this person wasn't their enemy.
“Blast! Betrayed again by my own kindness,” said the man, with a smile overtaking his face. With how deformed it was, it looked more like someone had carved another scar into it, but it promptly returned to its normal expressionless look. It wasn't a vacant look, but rather one that suggested that nothing he cared much about was happening.
“My name is Walter. As for your friend, I ain't no doctor or vet, and I certainly don't know anything about pony diseases, but she seems to just be suffering from heat exhaustion. She should be fine after drinking and eating. However, don't get the wrong idea; I can't say for sure I won't attack you until I know some things,” said Walter.
“Are you always this ‘friendly’?” mumbled Dash who just opened her eyes. Twilight didn't even realize how aggressive his voice sounded in saying this, until Dash replied, without even knowing what he had said. Twilight then translated what Dash said.
“I wouldn't know, as I haven't interacted very much with anyone for years. Ever since my family died, I only leave this desert when I need something,” replied Walter in his usual unwavering gruff voice, as Twilight gave Dash a glass of water, which she began sipping from. While she drank, Twilight told her what Walter said, but she then proceeded to ask what she was dying to know.
“Are you okay?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah, I've been through worse,” lied Dash, with a faint smile. Dash then turned back to Walter and asked, “How did they die?” Twilight proceeded to translate for her.
“Same way everyone dies. I don't remember their scientific name, but it’s those stupid black spiked monsters. For the sixty years of silence, people died of old age and disease; but after that time passed, I ain't heard of anyone dying to much other than those beasts, save the occasional stray razor wind,” spat Walter.
Twilight was about to tell Dash what he had said, when she noticed Dash had fallen back asleep. “Black spiked monsters?” said Twilight.
“Well, that answers my first question. So there is such a thing as a world without those dreaded things. Then again, maybe a world without them isn't possible for us. The Veranians thought such a world was possible during the sixty silent years. The sixty year silence was broken with every single one of them dead.”
“So, you wanted to know something about us?” inquired Twilight, who needed to do something to shift the conversation from its increasingly morbid tone.
“Of course I do. Some crazy cult, which had maybe a hundred people, turned out to be right. Naturally, that cult grew into the predominant way of thought once they actually managed to prove that another world with ponies in it actually existed. But even then, can you blame me for remaining skeptical? Yet here you are, with a whole world full of people who want you dead. The first thing I must know is why are you here?” said Walter
.
“To make a long story short, our presence here is a complete accident.”
“How ‘bout you make a long story long.”
“Well, there was a robot that used its scanning methods to discover I was some human...”
“Tripe!” interrupted Walter.
“Excuse me, but did you have something to say?” asked Twilight.
“That's a load of tripe! I may not know much about science or robotics, but one thing I do know is that any robots you would have encountered, would be battle drones of some variety, and battle drones, do not have scanners.”
“But he said...”
“Either it was lying or you are. I don't care which. Just move on to the next part.”
Twilight was glad to see the robot’s claims shut down so easily, yet she could not help being disappointed in herself for not seeing that rather obvious flaw herself. She sighed and continued, “It gave me a hard drive, which contained a program that I accidentally ran, that took us here.”
“Come again?”
“A program that, when executed, brought us here.”
“I know what you said! I meant, how did it bring you here? Was this program one that ran some sort of vehicle or teleporter that brought you here?”
“No, it just brought us here, when I activated it with my magic.”
“Magic?”
“I know you it isn’t prevalent here, but you don't have magic? How do you run your programs?”
“They run on a computer, and they can only do tasks on a computer.”
“Then why would it have had a program on it, it couldn't use?”
“Exactly! Your whole story sounds like crap to me, but whatever. I believe you are here by accident, as there are only two of you and you would have died without me… Heck, you well still may. Next question, did your kind really steal your planet from us?”
Twilight didn't want to make herself look guilty, but she couldn't manage to stop herself from pointing out the obvious flaw with his question in saying, “You do realize that no one would ever say yes to that question right?”
“Just answer the question!”
“It is our belief that your ancestors wanted to kill us, so the only way we could live in safety without killing them was to send them here.”
“It would have been kinder to just kill them.”
“How can you say that?”
“Look around you! This place is just conducive enough to life to keep torturing the creatures who have the misfortune of being born! We come up with better technology to protect ourselves, and the creatures just get stronger to counteract it. Even the wealthy have little advantage over the poor, except for the extremely poor, as we are nearly powerless against them. It is only because we reproduce more frequently than they attack that our numbers have increased.”
“I'm sorry. Maybe we can kill a couple before we go,” said Twilight trying not to think of what Fluttershy would say. By Walter's, description she would have feared them. But she likely still would have been disappointed in Twilight's suggestion. She had a hard time herself believing she had suggested it, but she felt responsible. Ponies had gotten them into this mess, so maybe she could do at least a little to help out.
“As if they can be killed. It must have happened at some point before, but never is there a documented case of even seeing one dead. Sure, you have a person here or there bragging to their friends when they've had a pint too many, but nothing verifiable.”
“What did he say?” asked Dash, whose eyes were barely open. Twilight told her.
“It wouldn't be the first thing I've done that has only happened in legends,” said Rainbow Dash, whom slipped back into unconsciousness. Twilight again translated for her.
“I like your spunk, but don't waste your stupid lives on that. Say you get one or two? So what? There are plenty more.”
“So how did you find us anyway?” asked Twilight trying to think of any possible way to change the subject because, even though it didn't sound like Walter was blaming them, Twilight couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he should be.
“Your appearance is all over the internet, so knowing something was up was easy enough. Projections of the window you left out of had you burning to death in lava, but heading in the general direction of the desert, so I figured there was a chance I'd have guests. I went outside, not expecting to find anything, but it’s not like I had much else to do while waiting for death, squeezing out an answer or two to life's questions where I can. Then I saw something, and I chased it for a couple of miles. When I caught up to it, it disappeared, but where it stopped, there you two were.”
“What did you see?”
“I saw my son. His body was never found, so that happens sometimes. Post traumatic stress disorder and all. He seemed more real this time, but I guess that's just a sign that I really am getting closer to him with every passing year,” said Walter without his facial expression changing once. Twilight had begun to wonder if he was capable of facial expression, and if maybe that one smile was a fluke, but his voice never changed either.
Twilight didn't know what to say. She had only in history books heard of someone's child dying before, and that nagging sense of being responsible, since ponies sent them to this world, wouldn't leave her alone. The thought occurred to her that, since she was a human, it wasn't really her kind, but she didn't find this thought comforting. It was time for yet another subject change.
“That cultic group you mentioned earlier wouldn't happened to have been named Logos, would it?” asked Twilight.
“So those stupid rocks got through, eh? Who knows why they used rocks, but they were a pretty fanatic group, so even I, who studied people for a living, can't hazard a guess as to their motives on that one. That stupid group probably would have never become so well known, if they hadn't conned a select few rich members into joining. From there it was pretty easy for them to hire people who didn't even believe what they were saying, such as myself, and then eventually prove the existence of a world of ponies.”
“You’ve mentioned this proof a couple of times now, and I cannot help but be curious, how did they do that?” said Twilight.
“Well, if you want to get technical, it isn’t a proof so much as it is various conclusions that a world of magical ponies leads to, which otherwise would be unexpected, were verified experimentally. It is said that out of the millions of people in our world, only five actually understand what most have come to call a proof, but they were such big names in the world of science, and science has come to be so highly regarded, that now most people believe. Of course, there are still several people such as myself who did not believe.
“But can you blaming me. I had meet all five of them at least briefly. All five had such big egos, they became too good for their old names and fashioned themselves new ones from the coolest thing they could think of, Greek letters. The single most prominent, who is now head of what used to be a cult, calling himself by two Greek letters. He is called Dr. AlphaOmega, but that is neither here nor there,” said Walter.
It seemed to Twilight that there was little else to be said about the proof, as it seemed Walter did not know much about it; so she thought to revert to their previous conversation before they got on this tangent. However, she then remembered she hadn’t liked where that topic had been going either, so she instead asked, “You studied people for a living?”
“I read many papers on behavioral patterns of humans, and used them to attempt to come up with as logical an explanation as possible as to why those cultic beliefs survived for as long as they did. Many similar, and likewise stupid, cults often took less than a hundred years to die out, and they hired me to find out why they were different. Basically, the living conditions made it hard not to blame something, and the living conditions made the thought of a planet waiting to be reclaimed very appealing. Even still I couldn't help but wonder why, of all things, to blame ponies, but now I know the reason. It is true. No doubt our ancestors passed down stories to us.”
The nagging thoughts that she had been repressing broke free, as she could not contain them anymore. Twilight couldn't believe the living conditions of this planet had allowed people, through many generations, to still remember how the ponies had wronged them. Twilight hated to admit it, but in a perverse way, it sounded like justice. How had a conversation about his work likewise taken a detour into the uncomfortable? Was it that the ponies had really wronged them so much that Twilight's mind couldn't help going back to it, or that this guy couldn't carry on a non-awkward conversation to save his life?
Twilight couldn't decide which it was, but it didn't matter. One thing Twilight could no longer deny was that the ponies had wronged them. Was there really no better place to have sent them than this? Surely they must have made the decision in haste, not even stopping to think that thousands of years from now, people would still be living here. Twilight was furious. She wanted to confide in a friend the unbelievable news she had just heard and, fortunately, Rainbow Dash seemed to be awake again.
After Twilight blurted out the news, Rainbow Dash took off into the air and said through clenched teeth, “Celestia and I are going to have some words when I get back!” She couldn't support herself for long, however, so she fell back down immediately following the last syllable.
Twilight instantly regretted telling her friend, who hadn't yet recovered, such stirring news. “Take it easy, Rainbow Dash. You still haven't recovered. I am as angry as you, but we don't really have anypony to blame, since even Celestia hadn't been born yet,” said Twilight.
“I'm not surprised to learn that you’re not as heartless as the tales claim. I'm curious as to what the truth actually is, but I've already outlived the live expectancy of the most fortified nations by five years by making it to fifty five, so I know I won't be around long enough to find out. At least I'll contribute to the research as to whether or not those creatures are less likely to attack individuals than they are groups. One thing I can do before I die, is help you ponies get back to the research facility,” said Walter.
“Why would we want to go back there?” asked Twilight.
“If anywhere has a portal to your home world, that would be it. I haven't been there in years, so I don't know what they have, but it’s the only place that might. Though, if your world hasn't been taken over yet, it probably means you have a low chance of getting there without dying, otherwise they would have used it by now. You seem like the sort of people willing to take that kind of chance, though.”
Twilight couldn't believe that amidst trying to stay alive, and figuring out why a guy like Walter would have rescued them, she had completely forgotten about trying to get home. They had almost died coming out here, could they really survive going back? Yet, Walter seemed sure it was their only hope.
“How can you help us?” asked Twilight.
They encourage former employees to come back and expand their research, should they get bored. Naturally, we don't get paid for this, but it is encouraged; so we have access to the building. I could set my teleporter to take you there.
“I thought the facility had better security than that,” said Twilight.
“From the outside, their security is what most would call good, in order to keep those black demons at bay, but in terms of people getting in and out, the security isn't great. Despite only be thirty years old, my insisting that those monsters had once left us completely alone for sixty years, and that an effective means of keeping them at bay has never been invented despite thousands of years of effort, didn’t deter them from thinking the security is good. I guess there really are no bounds to human hubris.”
“Darn it, what is this air made out of? Acid?” coughed Dash, prompting Twilight to repeat the question to Walter.
“I'd forgotten all about that. I don't remember, but I think it is a bit acidic, actually. We have since adapted to it, but our ancestors used to only live to about twenty because of it. Once we began adapting to that, razor winds become more prevalent. After developing walls effective at shielding us from that, the black demon attacks increased. If I were a superstitious man I would say the Old Earth is trying to kill us,” said Walter.
“Old Earth?” inquired Twilight.
“Our planet was renamed that fairly recently, when the former cult proved that human ponies of another dimension exist, and the belief in pony lore became predominant. The idea being that we will take back our home, the New Earth, soon enough, and then this will become the Old Earth. I can't remember what it was called before the Old Earth, though,” said Walter.
Walter then got up, and said, “I just have one more question, before I let you ponies rest some more. What is it like?”
“What?” said Twilight.
“To live in a world that doesn't hate you.”
Twilight mumbled his question under her breath, searching for words to convey a world she took for granted to someone who had never known such luxury, but Rainbow cut her off by saying, “Come see for yourself.” Twilight repeated this for Walter.
Walter again took on that crack in his face that seemingly was meant to be a smile. “If only this were ten years ago, I would have taken you up on that, but I am too old, and my inevitable dying along the way would only slow you down. Your chances are bad enough without my help. Just tell me this, can you actually relax? Does your family actually stay alive?”
It was the question with the most obvious answer, yet it was the most awkward, as the instinctive answer of “duh” was insensitive. After a few seconds, Twilight muttered a yes, and Walter left the room with that same smile. The ponies drank, ate, and then rested.
The following morning, after eating and taking the nearest thing to a shower Walter’s cave had to offer, the ponies saw Walter fiddling with his teleporter. Twilight was delighted to see that Dash seemed to be completely better.
“What do those numbers mean?” asked Twilight, pointing to two big numbers on the screen of the teleporter terminal.
“They indicate the coordinates that the teleporter is currently set to warp things to. Currently, they are set to the position of this teleporter, as one should always calibrate their teleporter before using it.”
“Calibrate?” asked Twilight.
“I don't really understand the science behind it, but basically, you fiddle with this knob until the teleporter functions properly. The easy way to do this involves teleporting trash from the teleporter to itself to see if it arrives unharmed. If the object arrives in pieces you turn the knob up. If it instead has burn marks on it, you turn the knob down,” said Walter.
Twilight wasn't sure why, as she never intended on coming back here, but she committed the coordinates of this teleporter to memory. It was probably because she was curious what a good example of numbers that qualify as coordinates might look like, though admittedly nothing looked particularly special about these numbers. She had read about the concept of coordinates before, but Equestria didn't use them, so she had never seen any before.
“Are you and your friend ready?” asked Walter.
Twilight wished she had some sort of plan, but given how little they knew about where they were going, it was impossible to form one. Twilight had tried several times during the night to remember something, anything, about this world she had lived in, but to no avail. Some parts of her old memories and knowledge were readily accessible, while others came back only when she saw something that triggered them, but most of them were just gone.
“What do you know about this fortress?” asked Twilight.
“Sorry, but this building is massive, and I don't know anything about the parts of it you’d be interested in. All I can tell you is that what you are looking for is not in the basement floors, which is what I am used to,” said Walter.
Twilight was afraid he'd say something like that. Twilight’s instincts told her to wait around and study, but the knowledge she was looking for probably wasn't anywhere she could find, and she desperately wanted to see her friends. She really had no idea how Dash and her could succeed; then again, she didn't know how they’d survive either, but somehow they had managed that. If she ever wanted to see her friends again, she had to somehow do this. At least she wasn't alone.
Twilight proceeded to translate for the following conversation. “Wait, before anypony does anything, there’s something I must know. Why are you helping us?” said Dash.
“I don't know. I had thought I just wanted answers, but maybe I just needed something to care about. People are strange like that, and for me it has been a long time. I care about this,” said Walter.
“This? You mean us?” said Dash.
Walter looked at the ground and replied “Yeah.”
Twilight started to open her mouth, no doubt to say something emotional or inspiring, but Walter cut her off, “Don't look into it too much. I have always thought people who blamed all their problems on some ponies are stupid, and now that I've met you I still think that. If the people that hate you are stupid, well then, naturally, I wouldn't want to be one of them.”
Twilight decided not to say anything after all, but instead just marveled at Walter. Never had she seen anyone so inept at emotion, but maybe that is what the Old Earth did to people. Regardless, Walter was admitting he cared for them the only way he knew how and, silly though it was, Twilight didn't want to ruin that, so she simply added, “Yeah, you're not so bad yourself.”
Then Walter hit the button, and the ponies were whisked away.
As everything came back into focus, a tall broad white man in a lab coat and the tiled floor on which he stood were all they could see, for everything else was shrouded in darkness, but he had a spotlight on him.
Rainbow Dash immediately darted toward him, but quickly slammed into something that seemed to be glass. It did not seem to be even remotely disturbed by the impact of Rainbow Dash. It did not appear to refract any light, so it could not be seen. Rainbow Dash then ran back to the teleporter as Twilight tried pressing buttons near it, but she couldn't even get the little monitor to turn on.
“That teleporter is currently only set to receive, and cannot be altered from that setting by anything other than the main computer that is responsible for running this building,” said the man in the lab coat in a deep voice.
Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight, “This would be a good time for magic.”
“Good point,” replied Twilight, who proceeded to try to teleport to the other side, but not even a single spark came out of her horn.
“Nice try, but the computer has already disabled your magic,” said the man in the lab coat.
“Computer, take these two somewhere more suitable for study,” said the man.
“I cannot do that,” came a gentle female voice that seemed to emanate from all around them.
“Why not?” asked the man.
“I am afraid our knowledge of the capabilities of ponies’ magic is highly limited. As such, I cannot ignore the unlikely event that she had cast a spell upon arrival, before my magical negation went into effect. Said spell could be making her appear as you and vice-versa. Thankfully we do have sufficient data on their magical abilities to know that they are not capable of making one more logical. A test must be administered,” said the female voice.
“Fine. Whatever,” said the man.
“The test that has been selected is Aura Field.”
“What? Just give her a test, not a game.”
“A game is a competitive form of test.”
“Why should I be forced to participate?”
“The exact logical capability of a pony is unknown. It is only known that humans are more logical, thus your participation is required. Whoever wins must be the human. I would have hoped one as logical as yourself would be able to understand these proceedings.”
Two floating images, not unlike the ones Twilight had used to program, appeared. One was in front of Twilight, and the other was in front of the man. The image was of a seven by seven arrangement of equally spaced black dots.
“The rules are simple. First player is represented by red and squares. Second player is represented by blue and circles. Circles emit a blue aura to other shapes in a cardinal direction of them. Likewise squares emit a red aura. A shape’s color is determined by the auras being emitted to it, but a shape itself does nothing to help determine its own color. If it has an equal amount of red and blue being emitted to it, it will be white, and thus neutral.
“Red shapes are owned by player one and Blue shapes are owned by player two. Whenever two shapes that are not owned by opposing players, unless they are both neutral, are immediately in a cardinal direction of one another, a line of the color of the shape that isn't white, will form between the two. The first player to connect the left to the right, or the bottom to the top, with a line of their color, wins. In order to achieve this, each player takes turns placing their shape onto one of the black dots. In the interest of brevity, you have one hour. Entity who appears as Dr. Gamma, you are first player,” said the female voice.
Twilight thought she caught all that, but she admitted she wasn't quite sure. Maybe things would become more clear after the guy in the lab coat (what had she called him again?) took his turn.
He touched the screen and a single white square appeared where one of the black dots had been. Hadn't she said that first player was represented by squares and red? Why wasn't the square red? Twilight sighed. She would just have to overcome her momentary failure to understand the rules, by doing really well after she caught on. She liked logical puzzles, so this shouldn't be too hard, but not knowing what was going on still frustrated her.
She touched a random dot on the screen, and a white circle appeared. Maybe the computer had somehow been mistaken when she said there were colors in this game, however she was immediately proven to be wrong, as her opponent’s move was right next to hers; his shape turned blue and hers turned red. Isn't that the opposite of what the computer had said? Was it intentionally trying to mislead her? But then, it would only do that if it was sure she was a pony and if that were true, what was the point of this little game?
Twilight stared at the board for a second. It was almost as though the color of the shapes were determined by the pieces around them. Yes of course! Hadn't it said something about emitting auras, and cardinal directions? Naturally, the white shapes were white because there was no aura being admitted to them. Twilight understood now, and she hadn't even wasted many turns in her attempt to understand.
However, her opponent was not to be underestimated. Turn after turn, he had more colored shapes and more lines than her, but even with only two available dots left on the board, neither of them had connected one side to another. Twilight was just a couple of lines away, but no matter where she placed her shape it wouldn't form the needed lines to give her victory. She was quite sure this was going to be a draw.
“It is worth noting that in the event of a tie, the player with the most shapes of their color wins,” interjected the voice.
Suddenly the one minute left on the clock seemed quite menacing. Further the lab coat guy had at least six more shapes of his color than Twilight did. Her one move could do nothing to change that. Her only hope of getting Dash and her home shattered, by a lack of knowledge of the rules. Who was she kidding? What would she really have done differently if she had known about this rule? The truth was she just wasn't smart enough.
Twilight put her hooves on her head to keep it from exploding. Her head hadn't been throbbing like this in over a day, and it was making up for lost time. She knew that it was inevitable, but she just couldn't make the move that would doom them all. It was so much better when she wasn't responsible for their demise. If only... if only... but sentences began to evade her pounding head.
But at the sound of the voice she had unknowingly longed to hear spoke in its usual energetic tone, her headache dissipated. Rainbow Dash said while pointing to one of the black dots, “Pick that one.”
Twilight was fairly sure, based on the confused look that had long been present on her face, that Rainbow Dash didn't understand the rules of the game. So why was she telling Twilight where to go? Then Rainbow Dash began glowing again and her harmony necklace formed around her neck.
The man in the lab coat stood there stunned, but Twilight realized exactly what this meant. Clearly Twilight’s desperation was obvious and Rainbow Dash knew they were doomed. She wouldn’t let Twilight be responsible for picking the losing move. Twilight wanted to say so much more, but there was nothing more that could be said, than simply the “thank you” that she said. Rainbow Dash didn't ask what for. This verified what Twilight suspected. Rainbow Dash knew exactly what was going on.
Twilight picked the black dot Rainbow Dash had suggested, and indeed there were still more red squares than blue, and no miracle lines jumped out of nowhere to make Twilight victorious. However when her opponent took the final move of the game, his piece was surrounded by circles and so turned red and it was in just the right place for the needed two lines to form. Twilight had never even considered the possibility of winning on his turn.
“Winner of the game, and thus the real Dr. Gamma, what would you have me do?” asked the voice. At hearing his name again a surge of memory unclogged in Twilight’s brain. She remembered Dr. Gamma and all his risky, defiant, schemes.
“Is the teleportation to Equestria capability complete?” asked Twilight.
“It has just undergone its final testing stages. However, results are still being analyzed. Everything looks good so far, but it is not advisable to use,” said the computer.
“Send my assistant and I to Equestria, and destroy the technology to do so, once you have sent us. I have a plan,” muttered Twilight, ironically not having a plan at all.
“You are reckless as usual, I see. The others will not like it, but I have noticed a slightly higher success rate for your schemes than their plans. I will do as you say,” were the last words Twilight heard, before her library began to come back into focus. As they returned to Twilight's library, the thought occurred to Rainbow Dash that, since they had seemed to be doomed anyway, what she had done didn't require much loyalty, so why had she been glowing?
~~~
“Why did you let her leave?” asked a large tan man sitting on an ornate golden chair that had red precious stones of many varieties engraved into it in numerous places.
“Fear not” came the voice of a shiny robot that had the same form as the one Twilight saw. “We can teleport her back, at any time. She must believe the illusion is real. She must believe her fate rests on logic, so we can properly demonstrate to her how illogical she has become.”
“If we can teleport people to and fro, why toy with this pony? Let us send in an army.”
“Patience, my lord. We can only warp so many beings at a time, and we can only do it a few times a day. Sending in an army would take far too long. They would be aware of what we were doing long before a sizable force could be gotten through. No, Celestia did not realize it, but by making one of our men a pony, she has actually created the ultimate weapon.”
“That is exactly what I am afraid of. While she could be of great use to us if we could turn her against her own kind, is such a thing possible?”
“I have studied her for many years, and I can say conclusively that it is more than possible. If, with one conversation, I was able to get her to question everything, think how much more can be done once we show her how far from her logical nature she has fallen. The rest will take time, but will be easy.”
“Are you sure you can do such thing? After all, today was a failure.”
“A failure? No, today was to test to what extent becoming a pony damaged her reasoning. This, sadly, was unable to be well tested in the pony world, as there are few, if any, opportunities that require such a thing.
“With that out of the way, we have but to out reason her in a similar match; she will come to see herself as a failure, for dooming her friends by her ineptitude at logic. She will then realize how far she has fallen and seek to become logical again, and she will know we are the only ones who can teach this to her. She will be in a vulnerable state, and will actively seek our help. What could be better?
“It will be a long process, but she is the only one who can wield both logic and illogic, and combine them into programming that affects reality itself. She has no idea of what she is truly capable of, or that only she is capable of it.”
“Speaking of which, how did you know she would run that program?”
“I didn't even know for sure she had the capacity to run reality altering programs, but it was the only way I could think of, by which we might stand a chance. Little does she know that we would never have been able to make a connection between her world and ours without her help. It is just unfortunate that I did not have the foresight to program in a stronger connection to the teleportation program before giving it to her to be run.”
“At least you did think to give us some small portion of her reality altering power, instead of merely bringing her here with it.”
“Indeed. Also, I had the foresight to have it start a process which automatically shuts down any reality programs she tries to run here, so she can't use that great power against us. As for our power, I'm just glad we never had to use it to stop her from dying. For a moment there, I thought for sure that we would have to intervene directly, and possibly blowing our cover. Thankfully, between her and that other pony, they managed to survive the lava pit. They never would have survived that desert but, thankfully, I thought to send that old coot after them with a vision of his son.”
“I have to admit, using a crazy person's delusions for our benefit was rather brilliant of you. Of all the AI's I have come across, yours seems to have had just the right random configuration of starting variables to be one of the most brilliant I have ever seen. Even still, I cannot help but wonder how you managed to study Twilight undetected for so long?”
“Once I had discovered that Dr. Beta was still alive in pony form, how could I not? When walking through Everfree forest, I placed a microscopic microphone onto her.”
“How did you find that out, anyway?”
“From a similar chip on Celestia, I overheard a rather interesting conversation she had with her sister.”
“Where did you get these microphones?”
“What few things were transferred successfully were transferred too close to the same spot. Apparently, about a hundred years ago, we thought maybe radio waves would somehow get back to our world.”
“Interesting. How did you get them on the ponies?”
“That was difficult and risky, hence why I only ever did it twice. I was never designed for stealth. I got lucky with Celestia. She didn’t want any of her guards getting hurt fighting Nightmare Moon so, for once, she was unguarded. She then did something most surprising. She closed her eyes and awaited her sister to capture her. She didn’t have the heart to fight her sister again herself. Naturally, this made the perfect opportunity for me to put the mic on her. For Twilight, I just waited until nightfall and planted it on her.”
“All very intriguing. However, I cannot help but wonder what if your little plan fails?”
“We kill Twilight and send over the armed forces slowly. As I said, it's inefficient and non-ideal, but it would work.”
“Very well, and how long before we bring Twilight back?”
“Honestly, I suspect we won't need too. We should have patience because, she won’t be suspicious if she comes back of her own will.”
“Why do you suspect she will come back?”
“Because it will eventually occur to her that technology doesn't stay broken for long. She will realize that she hasn't done enough to stop us from getting to Ponyville, and that her desire to return home clouded her judgment.”
“Your brilliance has merited my trust for now. Don't disappoint me.”