Twilight sat there, looking up at the stars. Every night Luna painted them anew, giving new detail to old pictures.
It was something she enjoyed, regardless of how often she found herself staring at the same pictures over and over.
“Twilight, are you coming down for dinner?” Spike called up the stairwell.
Twilight’s head turned, before a spark of movement in the corner of her vision made her turn back. It had looked like the sky had gone grey, but now everything was normal.
Wait.
“Two of the constellations moved.” She said, worriedly. She grabbed several of her notebooks and pulled them off the shelves, flying across the room to land on the table in front of her. She flipped through the pages frantically, before coming across the constellations she had recorded.
“They were reversed before.” She said, before looking back up to the night sky. The constellations were in the right place now. “What? I know I wasn’t seeing things.” She said, rubbing her eyes with her hooves. She stared at the stars, daring them to move.
“TWILIGHT! Are you coming down for dinner, or am I just talking to myself?” Spike yelled at her.
“I’m coming Spike.” She replied, closing the journals. She floated them back to their normal spots on the shelves before turning and heading downstairs. Behind her, the sky flashed to its default grey.
“We almost had a breach of submersion. I want to know what happened and why.” Celestia’s voice echoed around the workers. Several unicorns sat at banks of machines, their eyes watching the flashing numbers and symbols cascade down as their hooves floated across the keyboards, hitting keys and numbers at a pace that was near supernatural.
“It was a simple bug. We already implemented a patch, although we don’t know what effect it will have on the rest of her world. I don’t know how that bug got past the first three trials in the first place.” A mint green unicorn said, a tablet device floating in front of her. A birds eye view of Twilight’s library was on the screen.
“I want no mistakes. We’ve already dumped millions of bits into this project, and I need to see results. Or else.” Celestia’s voice echoed, before a short screech signaled the connection was lost.
“You heard the boss. If we have another bug like that, we’re gonna have to shut her down.” She said, the other workers turning and saluting.
Twilight’s fur stood on end, the feeling of being watched returning. Her head turned on a swivel, scanning the entire library for any peepers.
The curtains were drawn, and the door was closed. So where were they watching from?
“Twilight, it’s getting cold.” Spike called from the kitchen, bringing her back to Equis.
“I’m coming.” She replied, trotting through the doorway. She cast one last look over her shoulder, before shrugging it off.
“I made your favorite, since its all we have. We’re going to have to go to the market tomorrow.” Spike said, dropping a plate of pasta in front of her. “Spaghetti, with basil and daisies for you. And for me, sapphire souffle.” He said, his eyes glistening as he eyed his dinner.
“I thought we went just yesterday?” Twilight asked, an eyebrow raising in query.
“Yeah, that’s why I made you your favorite. You usually have me go out and get everything, but you were nice enough to do it yourself. Thanks for letting me sleep in.” Spike replied, his voice never changing once.
Twilight got the chill of being watched again.
“Who’s in charge of Spike? We’ve got problems out the wazoo already and they’re only getting worse.” The green unicorn shouted. Several hooves pointed to a white unicorn.
“They’re happening too fast, I’m trying to fix them but the hotfix we put in is messing with a bunch of the other systems. I’m seeing crashes everywhere, from memory problems to the world stabilization algorithm. Whatever that bug was, it was a lot bigger than just the constellations.” He said, the letters on his screen turning red as they fell.
“We are not losing another one. Someone dig into the deepcode and find out what is causing all these problems.” She said, the unicorns going back to work. Several more of the screens flashed red. “This is going to tartarus in a handbasket.”
“Twilight, are you ok?” Spike asked, staring across the table at her.
“Yeah, just having weird feelings.” She replied, twirling some of the pasta around a fork and bringing it to her mouth. It tasted sweet this time, rather than tangy. “Did you put something else in the sauce?” She asked, chewing the food.
“Nope, just the usual.” Spike replied, biting a large chunk out of the sapphire.
“It tastes rather swee-” The flavor abruptly switched to tomato like it was supposed to be. “Spike, where did you get these tomatoes?” She asked, swallowing what was in her mouth.
“I picked them up from that stall next to Applejack’s. They always have the best tomatoes.” Spike replied, finishing off the sapphire.
“But I thought you said I went out and got everything.” Twilight said, hopping down out of her chair and backing away from the table.
“You did. That’s why I made your favorite meal.” Spike replied, his voice the same as ever.
“What’s going on here?” She mumbled to herself, before turning and running upstairs. She slammed the door to her room shut behind her, and floated over several of the bookshelves. She climbed up onto her bed, pulling the sheets around her like a security blanket.
“We have a Level Two breach. I repeat, Level Two. Move to reset conditions?” The white unicorn asked, sighing as his monitor turned and stayed red.
“Is it unfixable?” The green unicorn asked, sighing as she floated the tablet over onto a nearby table.
“The cascade is too far gone already. The only way we can fix it now is with a full reset.” He replied, swiveling around in his chair.
“Very well then. Bring her out.” She said. She turned to the center of the room, as vents of steam filled the air. A low humming sound soon joined, as a large tube climbed towards the ceiling.
“May I ask what happened?” Celestia’s voice resounded in the small chamber.
“Uncontrollable cascade. The bug with the constellations turned out to be much worse than we thought, and it got out of hand. Corrupted other systems, including the stabilization algorithm apparently.” The green unicorn replied, as the steam cleared. Inside the tube was a purple body, several limbs only half formed.
“Another system reset?” Celestia asked, annoyance evident in her voice.
“It can’t be helped.” She replied, as she walked up to the tube. A small red button flipped out as she got close enough.
“I want results soon. This is the last chance you get, before I put someone else in charge of Project Ascendance.” Celestia said, before the speakers screeched again.
“Make sure that bug gets fixed right, don’t just leave it to the patch. Your next boss might not be as forgiving of you guys as I am.” She said, pressing the button. A horrendous screech filled the room, making the other unicorns all recoil in horror.
The purple body was flailing, as thousands of amps of electricity and magic were dumped into its form.
“This next one needs to succeed, or else we’ll all be in deep trouble.” She said, as the screeching stopped. The form still twitched every now and then.
“Bring in the next subject.” She called out, as several earth stallions moved to replace the tube.