“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.”
William Shakespeare
Dawn begins, I see it in the sensors dotting my masts, I feel the heat from the burning sun on the horizon. It is there, and it is real, as this new land is to me.
My tech spiders went out in the night, taking care of the other day's battle damage, returning the area to as undisturbed as I could do in such few hours. Dragging the remnants of things back into the forest to deposit for decay and the rest to destroy.
I would that such a thing not remain, to remind of what happened, to bring nightmares to life. There is such a thing as too much, and for the ponies under my protection, it is.
I watch the life below from a drone, the sensors sweeping the town of Ponyville. I see the young ones at play, the various ponies going about their lives as if nothing untoward had happened, and I am content. It is how it should be. The same with Canterlot, a mystical city set in the side of a mountain like the Arthurian legends of old. A shining beacon to all who would go there to plumb it’s mysteries.
The areas around my sensor masts have obviously been declared safe by mutual consent. After the activities of the other day, the family I had helped came out to give their thanks to me in person. I was humbled, and proud. Bringing honor to the Brigade is foremost in my mind, to do what I need to, in so many ways to make sure my charges are safe.
My visual sensor is showing now on the command deck, the beautiful bouquet of flowers that was given to me by the littlest one. It sits in a place of honor under the flag I received. Memories like this touch in so many ways. It is not the giving of something, but the gesture itself that commands something inside of each one of us.
So now, along with so many others, the young ones play among the columns of my sensor masts. Knowing that no matter what, they will be protected ceaselessly. But true to my earlier thoughts, I make absolutely sure they do not accept what I do as normal.
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Sensors pick up a known pony, Pinkie Pie, approaching my hatch, I slide it aside and wait as she bounces merrily into the command deck. I have not had many dealings with her, but she is always bright, cheerful and a consternation to me and my processors. I cannot explain how she does what she does, nor what rules lay behind the physics. Scientists of the Concordiat would go running in stark terror at the things she appears to do. Bolos are made of sterner stuff, but sometimes when I observe her antics, there is a feeling of confusion. A confused Bolo is not a happy Bolo.
“Hiya, Crusader!”
“Hello, Miss Pie, what can I do for you?”
“Oh, stop that, call me Pinkie! And nothing, I came to see what I can do for you!”
“Pardon?”
Pinkie settles herself on a couch, this is the least movement I have ever seen from her, usually the hyperactivity is beyond limits.
“I came to see what I can do for you.” She points a hoof at a camera lens. “Cause I got a feeling somepony was feeling down.”
“I assure you, Miss Pie, I am fine.”
A hoof gets waved at the lens in a pointed move, “Ah ah ah! You’re feeling down!”
“Miss... Pinkie, how can you possibly know that?”
She gives a wink at the camera, “Oh, now that would be telling! Can’t do that!”
“Pinkie, you disturb me. You cannot possibly know what you do, or accomplish what you do without being able to break every law of what I know of physics. Every time I ask, I am given the excuse ‘That’s Pinkie.” I am not content with this.”
I watch as she smiles for a moment, settling back down on the couch. Her eyes grow very warm looking at the camera lens.
“Okay, first off, what’s wrong?”
“Pardon?”
“What’s wrong, my Pinkie Sense tells me somepony’s unhappy, that’s you!”
If I am to get any answers it seems, I must go along with this.
“I am grieving Pinkie.”
“Why?”
“I am alone in this new world. Everything I knew, is now in the deep past. It’s hard not to be able to talk with my fellow Bolos anymore.”
“But you have us!”
“I am sorry, it is not the same.”
“Oh, but it is.” She gets a very different look in the camera, her smile is smaller, she is leaning back a bit, her face showing concern. “Nopony is ever alone, not if I or anypony else can help it. You saved that family Crusader, it counts, in the hearts of ponies everywhere.” Pinkie bounces on the couch, waving her hooves in the air, “Fluttershy even knows that, those bad things coming out of the woods. We all know, it was you that saved them, and we’re so grateful!”
“What I do must never become accepted Pinkie, I am something that should not be here.”
“Did you ever think you were meant to be here?”
That comment catches me completely off guard for a moment. I see her looking into the camera, face a bit serious now, but still with a smile always playing around the edges.
“I highly doubt that, Pinkie.”
“Ohhhh, don’t be so sure!”
“I still doubt it is so.”
“I don’t think so silly, see...” Pinkie settles once again on the couch, “Equestria is magic! There’s magic everywhere!” She waves her fore hooves around the room, “There’s magic in everything!” Suddenly balloons pop into being in midair. “If there’s one thing ponies do, it’s magic.”
“All right, I shall agree with you on that. Magic is confusing, it does not fit into my world view. I apologize, Pinkie.”
“No apologies necessary! But what you DO have to do, is just know!”
“Pardon?”
“Know, silly! Magic is not just spells and books and dusty old tomes full of words.” She gets quite close to the lens, “It’s about knowing too!” She bounces a bit around the command deck, “See, Equestria is magic, not just us, but the world! So did you ever think that maybe, the world knew it needed you?”
“I find it very hard to think that. I ended up here due to my stasis field being activated. Nothing more.”
“Stasis shmasis, trust me on this.”
“Humans in the Concordiat had faith in a lot of different things, mostly religions, but...”
Pinkie interrupted, “Nonono, it’s not about that! It’s not faith, it’s nothing like that! You have to know! Know deep down inside you that you’re doing what you’re meant to do!”
I am rarely confused, this is quite puzzling to me. On one hand I understand what she is saying, but it is taking a leap of judgment I am not fully prepared to make.
“I am doing what I was made to do, wage war, protecting the innocent.”
Pinkie throws her hooves into the air, followed by bits of confetti, “Ugh, you’re just not seeing it.” She settles into the couch again, “Look, see these marks on my flanks?”
“Your cutie mark, yes.”
“Right, know what that tells me? I have a destiny, to make ponies happy, to be cheerful, to be everything I want to be.”
“But would not that be forcing you to do something?”
She shakes her head vigorously the poofy pink mane wobbling everywhere, “Oh nonono, it’s much, much more than that. It’s what I do, it’s what makes me special, it’s something that I discovered I can do that nopony else can! Once you discover it, THEN you get the mark, telling the whole world you’re good at this!”
“If that is true, then why do no other races have them? I have been told that Minotaurs, Griffons and so forth do not get them.”
“Because they don’t see the world like we do, they don’t KNOW. They are so stuck in their own little worlds, they can’t see the big picture. That we are meant for more.”
“But the cutie mark tells you that you are stuck in one thing, would not that be tantamount to slavery?”
Pinkie smiles brightly, “You would think that, wouldn’t you?” She raises one hoof, pointing at the camera, “But we’re not! I bake, I can plan parties, I can go on adventures, and it all comes down to one special thing, I make ponies happy! We can DO anything we want, it’s just that the marks show us the thing we’re REALLY special at!”
“So it is not forcing you to do just that one thing?”
“Of course not! Just because the mark is there, and it tells us what we’re good at, it doesn’t mean we HAVE to do that all the time.” She waves a hoof airily, “I know, I know, someponies do. Take Twilight, she does magic, all the time, every day, it’s what she loves to do and her cutie mark tells the world that. But she is SO much more than a mark.”
“But Twilight informed me of what happened when the marks got changed on her friends.”
“That, was different.” Pinkie gets an almost serious look on her face, “Imagine you are meant to do something very special, the magic in the world knows this is so and gives you your mark. Then, something changes it, it’s not what you were meant to be special with. Wouldn’t YOU be quite confused with whats going on? Your mark is saying you do weather really well, but then you’re a dressmaker, used to making ponies shine. The conflict that arose could really really be bad. So she tried using a dressmakers’ skills to make the weather with her magic. That’s not what is done, Pegasi control the weather, she wasn’t one. So there was a double conflict.”
“So, by changing the marks, she went against their very nature and what made them special?”
“YES!” Pinkie bounced happily on the chair, “Even us Earth Ponies, we might not be able to fly, or do magic, but what magic we have is inside of us. It’s expressed in different ways. I can make any party happen, anywhere, anytime. Why? Because I KNOW I can.”
“Because the magic in the world has told you so by marking your flank?”
“Yeppers! But I still have a job, I bake for the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner, I help out folks when I can. But my special talent shines when I put on parties.” She points at the room around her, “But ponies need food, and stuff to live with, so if their cutie mark is something like mine, we get jobs. Though alot of marks have to do with the job, like firefighters, or the Town Guard, or salesponies. But wouldn’t it be an awfully boring world if all we had were job cutie marks? No one to make ponies happy? Or do special things like magic?”
“But if the mark had to do with a job that made them happy, isn’t that just as well?”
“No, definitely not.”
“Why is that?”
“Because what happens when you’re not working? You’re only happy when working? No, that would be awful. I can bake all the cupcakes and muffins and cakes I want. But who is going to use them for special things like parties? Wouldn’t that be awfully boring just to take a few cupcakes home to have, nothing special, just another day? They wouldn’t be decorated so pretty! Or have special frosting or fillings, cause it was just a job?”
“I still do not see..”
Pinkie interrupts again, “Look at it this way. You do a good job all day long, you come home, you want something fun. So you go see a play. All the actors and everypony, that’s their job as well as their mark, so they do it, they make it special, “ She points a hoof at the camera, “But what makes it super special, is somepony that say, works construction, but his cutie mark says he does scenery super good! So they do a really really really good job on the sets and it makes the play that much better!”
“So by having that one pony come in, everyone’s time is that much more fun. It’s a wildcard. I bake, but because I also throw parties, I make sure everything comes out extra-special! You never know when you might need them for a special party or something. Same thing with the actors, they do a really good job, they play their parts really well, but it’s that one pony who comes in, works on the sets and makes it tons better. He may be a hardhat during the day, but when he gets the chance, he may work on plays, cause he’s really good. Maybe he’ll get hired to do so someday, maybe not, but either way, he gets to shine.”
“So you are saying that the magic in the world, adds these ‘wildcards’ to help ponies make more of themselves?”
“Yepperooni!”
"But that still does not justify saying that I was what the world needed here.”
“Yes, it does.”
“No, it does not.”
“Yes, it does.”
“No.. I am not going to argue.”
“Good! Then it’s settled!”
“No, Pinkie, it is not.”
Pinkie sighs, looking at the camera lens. “You’re really not getting it, I mean, you’re getting some of it, but not all of it.”
“Explain.”
Pinkie sets upright on the couch, staring at the camera lens in a way that’s almost disturbing, as if she is another pony altogether.
“Magic has been in this world for a long time Crusader. It can reach deep into the past and future, and if it needs something, really needs something, it can bring it here. How many ponies would have been hurt when those things came out of the forest? How many ponies would have been lost?”
“I have not cal..”
“A lot. And that family? They wouldn’t be here today if somepony, you, hadn’t been setting in this exact spot, made for doing exactly what you are doing, and stopped them at the forest.”
“That’s purely coincidence.”
“Is it? Is it really?,” She stares at the camera, looking intently with blue eyes, “Is it a coincidence that you, a machine we could never build, never make with all our magic, ends up right here, in this place, to be befriended by us? Who then turns around and stops that forest from tearing apart Ponyville?”
“But why not just transport me here directly? To do such a thing?”
“Because you have to learn what it is to know. To accept us as we are, see our world, learn to know it, live in it, love it as we do.”
“...and I have.”
“Yes, and why did you do what you did yesterday? Was it because you were MADE to do it, or because you wanted to?”
“..I...” My internal arrays go into overdrive, her conversation is strangely making sense now. I begin to recall the memories of the battle. It is all so clear, but I had not noticed at the time, the desire to wipe those things off the battlefield, they were endangering those I had sworn to protect! I was enraged, I was angry, I was moving faster than I had ever done, my weapon banks using more ammunition than I had thought possible at the time, chalking it up to misses.
I see it now, looking deeper, I see the blind rage that something was threatening my friends!
“...I wanted to...”
“If you had just been put here, would you have trusted us so readily without learning about us?”
“No, I would not have done so.”
Pinkie stared warmly with her eyes into the camera lens, I could see them inviting and calm, “But you had a chance to learn about us, know us, know this world. It made a difference didn’t it?”
“I believe now, it did.”
Her eyes keep looking into my camera lens, “Magic is not all about bangs and explosions. It’s so very subtle sometimes, it can creep up on you and you’d never know it. Our world needed you to be here, maybe for this, or something bigger, I don’t know, but you’re here. I’m so sorry your friends aren’t here, or everypony you knew, but we’re here, and we care.”
“ Ask yourself one thing, what do YOU want to do?”
I remain silent for a few moments, thinking of the implications of this conversation. Being brought forward to do something nothing else could accomplish. But was it that easy to explain the why? The how I have almost figured out, but why? I have never wondered why, I have never questioned why, it has never been in my thoughts. I do what I do because I was made to wage war, born to war, tempered in war. But in all my long years, I have never asked myself why I do this. Beyond the normal it is for the good of humanity and the Concordiat, I have never wondered WHY. As well as, I have never been asked in all my years, what it is I wanted to do. This truly makes me think.
“I believe I shall think on this.”
Pinkie bounced off of the couch, smiling and cheerful once again, her normal state of affairs, “Good! We’ll have to get everypony together one day, have a party, just for all of us!”
“I would like that very much.”
Pinkie made her way into the tunnel, but suddenly stuck her head out into the command room again.
“Oh!”
“Yes, Pinkie?”
“Stop trying to make us hate you.”
What?
“Pardon?”
“Stop trying to make us hate you, it’s not working, even Fluttershy likes you a bit.”
“How could you...”
“Ponies know.”
With that she bounced out of the tunnel and zoomed off in my cameras into town.
It seems as if ponies do indeed know.