"Hey, look at this. They're photos, of a holiday from our past. It's...It was called: "Hearth's Warming."
It was a time to celebrate unity amongst the many pony races. A time where...a time where you could trust ponies.
A time for family, for friendship, and...love. It's funny how some things can still survive against the test of time."

"Achoo!" The blue pegasus sneezed loudly. He was still shivering from being left out in the cold, 'I thought,I was going to freeze to death out there.' It was a good thing Sally unlocked the door to the roof when she did (he wasn't sure how she did it, but it involved technobabble). 'Heh, imagine that: A wingless pegasus, trapped on a roof, in the middle of a blizzard. Freezing to death!' The irony of it was more painful than his little scuffle with the purple unicorn. 'Speaking of that mare...'
Nox stood up from the couch and looked up to the camera in the corner of the room. "Hey, Sally. Where'd she go?"

"One moment. . . . . . She is on the floor below us. She is resting beneath a desk in the security office."

"She attempted to procure a replacement for her previous weapon, but was unsuccessful."

Nox eyed the metal hoof-sized cannon with concern, "What'd you call this thing again?"

"That is a pistol. More specifically, it is a Blacksmith .32 pistol. Designed to work in conjunction with the gryphon claw or unicorn magic. There are not many guns left in the world, the odds of finding ammo for it are slim in this environment."

"So every shot needs to count..." Nox was given a very brief description on how it worked a while ago, but he was in no mood to test the quite loud device. Not to mention he just fixed up this lounge to look almost habitable, and really didn't want any MORE holes in the wall.
Luckily, it hadn't taken all that long to clean up; like everywhere else, anything that wasn't nailed down/useful had been left behind. All it really needed was a good dusting. And by dusting, that meant knocking all the dust on the floor and then just sweeping off to the side with his tail (someone else's problem). It's funny, other ponies said he'd start to look like a mare if he didn't cut his tail short, well who's laughing now?!
...They are. Probably. Because they don't have to be here. The rumbling of his tummy made Nox's desires quite clear. "Hey Sally, is that fridge safe?"

Nox stared curiously at the plate of cake that he'd put on the table, "Sally, are you sure this stuff is safe to eat?" It HAD been stuck in a fridge for years, just because it looked like it was just made didn't mean that it wasn't home to all kinds of nasties. The more he thought about it, the quieter his growling stomach became.

"A magically augmented refrigerator safe, huh?" Nox was still trying to come to grips with the arcano-engineering advancements of the Crystal Empire. It was a fridge that was basically a time capsule, for food...at least, that's what he got out of Sally's technobabble. Besides, he wasn't willing to wrap his head around unicorn magic. Such things were beyond the wingless blue pegasus. "Well..." He picked up a fork and pointed it at the cake, "Might as well chow down." He, very slowly inched the fork towards the cake. With everything that's happened so far, he expected the cake to stand at attention and try to rip his spine out from his-
A LOUD VOICE SUDDENLY BROKE THE TENSION! STARTLING NOX ENOUGH FOR HIM TO DASH BEHIND THE COUCH!
"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" He repeatedly apologized to the voice...which he realized was someone singing. He cautiously poked his head up from behind the velvet couch (and half expected to lose his ear or something). Instead of an angry monster, he saw a transparent little pony dancing on the table. Nox stared at it curiously, "Sally. What is that?"

"It is a Virtual Intelligence, user. It has also been commonly referred to as a Virtual Program. It is similar to this one's programming but its functions are much simpler, it has little to no capacity for true sentience."

"Um, what?" Before Sally could explain, Nox just held up a hoof, "Nevermind. Is it dangerous?"

"I am not dangerous!" It suddenly spoke up, in a much more cheerful tone than Sally's usual monotone, mechanical voice. "I am VA-381. Welcome, guest. To our annual bzzt-2nd Hearth's Warming celebr-a-a-a-ation." The VP was acting very, odd. Then again, his only point of reference was Sally, but he didn't need to be an egghead scientist to know that 381 was damaged.

"Uh-huh. Wait, Hearth's Warming?" It wasn't anywhere near Hearth's Warming. "How broken is this thing?"

"VA-381 is wo-o-o-orking just-just-just fine, guest." It was skipping a lot more often now, "It is so wonderful to have gue-e-ests after so long."

"How long has it been?" Something in the back of Nox's head tried, in vain to stop him from asking the question. Why was he afraid to hear the answer?

"It has been bzzzzzt." Figures. Now that he thought of it, Sally had the same problem. Was it just a coincidence? "Dear guest, we should gather the other guests if they want to be here for the party."

"...Party? Guests?" Yeah, this thing was nuttier than squirrel poop. "Sally, how do I turn it off?"

Suddenly the music started to play again! "Welcome to our a-a-a-a...rth warming eve party!"

"This unit apologizes, this one attempted to find the process ID and delete it. However, VA-381 appears to be deeply routed into the system. This one could attempt to isolate and-"

"Just forget it." The transparent little pony seemed harmless enough. "And it is Hearth's Warming..." At least according to this, "I'm sorry for trying to get rid of you." He got down to the transparent pony's level. "Just a little stressed out."

"...." It froze before speaking again, "I understand, guest. What would you have me do to...bring your mood back up?" It seemed eager to please.

"Un-n-n-derstood." The crazy upbeat song from before was now replaced with something a lot more, quiet yet cheerful. Soothing, was a good way to describe it.

Nox relaxed against the couch as the music calmed his nerves, and the food filled his tummy. "Hearth's Warming huh?" A memory of blue feathers took over his gaze, as he remembered a Hearth's Warming eve from long ago; back in Cloudsdale where the Wonderbolts were performing their routine. Nox, like many pegasi had assembled in the cloud stadium to watch them perform their aerial acrobatics. It was on that day that he first saw the blue mare soar across the sky, a tail of rainbow following after her. He remembered being awestruck by how easy she made flying look, it made him feel like...he could do things like that too, if he tried hard enough. Maybe someday, he could be a Wonderbolt? Or at least a really good flier. And then, years after he'd seen the blue, rainbow-maned mare, he'd gotten his cutie mark and then... 'No, no, no. Don't think about. Don't think about it.'
He needed to get his mind off things, "Sally, where's that unicorn, now?"

"....She is still in the security offices. She appears to be attempting to open a can of non-perishable food. It appears to be empty. She looks...disappointed."

"...." Nox suddenly had an insanely stupid idea, it was most likely the holiday atmosphere, or that monster from down below hit him harder than he thought- 'Don't think about it!' Nox cleared his throat, realizing that what he was about to say would probably get him killed. "Sally, can you guide her here?" Yep, his brain needed some serious repairs.

The mare cautiously peered into the room, scanning the contents thoroughly. She had no weapon, so a monster jumping out at her would probably get her. No threats detected, it seemed safe and she could smell the sweet aroma of food coming from inside. Her eyes locked onto the fridge in the corner of the room, by the counters. Her growling stomach was all the excuse she needed. She took one step into the room...
WHEN SUDDENLY THE LOUD MUSIC PLAYED!
Instinctively, her horn glowed as she wrapped herself in a protective bubble. She expected a writhing mass of teeth and claws, instead all she saw was a little, dancing pony on the table across the room (which also had some cake).

"I thought I said, no music!" Nox spoke up from behind the couch. He'd been planning to talk to her from the safety of the space behind the couch, but apparently VA-381 had misheard him when he said: 'Just use the soft music to get her attention, I don't wanna startle her and have her blow up half the room.' Because this had the opposite effect.

"**** ** **** ?!" That weird language again. Her gesturing to the room, the food, and whatever VA-381 was; hopefully conveyed what it was she was trying to ask.

Nox sighed in defeat, "Okay, let's try something else."
Nox stepped out from behind the couch. As expected, the mare tensed up, awaiting an attack or maybe she expected Nox to use the gun against her? Instead he, very slowly, picked up a plate of cake with his teeth. Then, ever so slowly, he stepped towards the mare. He lowered the plate of cake directly in front of her shield and then stepped back to the cake. When looking at her confused face, Nox looked to the piece of cake back on the desk, took the fork and ate a piece of it. "See, it's safe."

She looked to the cake, then back to Nox. Then back to the cake, and back to Nox again. She opened up a small hole in her a barrier to bring the piece of cake in. She sniffed it, smelled nice. She took one, very ladylike bite off the edge.
. . . . . . . .
And then a much bigger bite. She ate that cake as if she hadn't eaten anything in a while, which was technically true. She hadn't been able to eat anything that didn't taste awful in quite some time. And then the plate was empty, and she was sad that it was all gone.

"Ahem." Nox cleared his throat, gesturing to the much larger pieces of cake that still remained. "It's a bit too big for me to finish, care to join?"

"..." she understood none of that, but she got the gist. She carefully eyed her surroundings, Nox hadn't done anything YET. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to. Ah to hell with caution, she was hungry! She lowered her barrier and then immediately dashed up to the cake, taking a plate and just digging in.

"Good!" Nox gave her another piece of cake. He'd originally tried to tell her that his name was Noctilucent, but she had difficulty with that, so Nox would do. He then gestured to Sally's saddlebag.

"....?" They'd been at this for about 20 minutes now, the language barrier was nearly unbearable.

"...." She tilted her head in confusion, and then her ears perked up. Was she finally getting it? She pointed to herself and said with a straight face, "Mate?"

She pointed to Nox, "Nox." and then to Sally, "Sally." Then to herself, "Aurora."

"Nevermind." He gave her another piece of cake, which she happily dug into. He then turned to Sally and asked; "So, this is a rather...odd Hearth's Warming day."

"Well, I expected to spend this day with friends and family, and yet here I'm with you, a pony who tried to shoot me, and...whatever VA-381 is."

"VA-381 is a-" Was all he said before his audio cut out, and he flickered out of existence. But he'll be back, he always did.

"This one found records about an underground tram, tomorrow we should take it to the Crystal Empire. There, you may find other ponies."

"Good. Good." He then turned to Aurora, "Aurora." He got her her attention, using modern Equestrian was ineffective. So he tried some form of sign language. "Do you. Want to come. With us?"

Nox sighed in defeat and just passed the whole thing to her (whatever was left of it at least). "Try again tomorrow."

Was there a name for this place? There were lines of code and various objects scattered around Sally's AI. "Camera feed, sector 3A, west wing." A window popped up, revealing a dirty empty hallway.

"Excuse me." A voice broke her concentration. It was VA-381's small form off in the distance, "Rogue program, you do not have clearance to be in this sy-y-y-ystem."

"....." Sally looked at VA-381 with scorn, and then without a word, waved her hoof. VA-381's programming flickered and then vanished. She thought it was done with, but he reformed. Although, this time he paid her no mind. Sally watched VA-381 cautiously, it was so odd that a simple Virtual Program was giving her a hard time. Normally, she'd just shut it down but it seemed VA-381 had made copies of itself. Each one she shut down, another one just took its place. Maybe she should try to find the master program and shut it down at the source?
When the user resumes functionality in a few hours, Sally will alert him to VA-381's strange behavior.

Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Ch. 5: "Traditions."