Deep down within a large metal chamber, silence reigned, for it was a lonely place. But as the silence continued, something began dripping down from the ceiling, dripping down onto the floor to begin forming a silver pool, which after it became large enough, began to take shape.
When it was done, it had taken the shape of a silver bipedal equine, which slowly lifted itself up from the floor as its mechanical brain began powering up, its eyes turning toward the sky.
It was an M.A.G.E. unit, a specially designed machine created centuries ago by ponies to fight their wars for them, and they had proven to be extremely well at their appointed task. However, they were so good at their task that they managed to squash all of Equestria’s enemies into the dust, ending all war, and leaving the ponies with machines they no longer needed.
However, two ponies decided to monopolize on one of the machines key features, and in exchange for taking them all off the militaries hooves, they built a massive tower they called T.A.R.T.A.R.U.S. where they put all the leftover machines, and set the tower up as an arena where the machines would battle forever for the enjoyment of the ponies of Equestria.
The feature the ponies had chosen to exploit was the Mage unit’s ability to reconstruct itself after suffering catastrophic damage, that way anytime a “contender” was felled, it would simply be sent down to the bottom of the tower and rebuild.
Now normally, after one of these machines rebuilt itself, it would retain all the data it had accumulated from before they were seriously damaged, allowing them to carry over their experiences and let them learn. However, to make the stakes more interesting, the stallions who designed the tower disabled that function, making it so that each “player” would begin with totally clean slate, and so should have been the case with this latest loser.
But as the Mage looked up toward the ceiling it had fallen from, its eyes suddenly widened, turning the color of strawberry pink as its mind was flooded with memories, memories it shouldn’t have. It remembered how it had fought, how it had cut through countless numbers of its own kind as it struggled to reach the top, only to be stopped at the last room by one who had called it…sister?
At that word it felt a burning along its flesh, causing it to fall upon the ground once more as its silver skin rippled and turned pure white, and two fields of energy formed on it, mimicking a mane and tail. But the biggest change was to its hips, for on them appeared two sun shaped marks.
After the changes were done, it…no, it didn’t really identify itself as an it did it. As it looked back over its…memories, it was able to descreen an identifier, which showed it saw itself as a…she?
She found it a bit weird, but decided to go with it, so it was a she.
She looked over herself, her eyes widening a bit due to the changes, for she knew somewhere in the back of her mind that she shouldn’t look like this, she was supposed to be a blank slate. That being said, she shouldn’t have memories to begin with, so she decided to put that aside for now.
She decided to look around the room, moving about to see if she could find any signs of why she was now like this, instead of a walking blank husk. She knew this room’s purpose of course, it was the room all the machines that hadn’t lost themselves went when they lost; a place to reform and collect ones thoughts before heading off to what would later become their only refuge, their Sanctuary.
However, she remembered the…well she couldn’t really know if it was the first time she had woken up in that place, but it was her earliest memory, so she decided it didn’t matter. The first time she had woken up in this place, she had been surrounded by several others who had also lost, as well as pools that were still reforming themselves, but this time, she was totally alone.
It unnerved her a bit, especially when she saw that there were no doors leading out of this room, which didn’t fit, for the last one she was in had hundreds of doors, all waiting to transport them to their own personal Sanctuary. She also noticed, though she didn’t really know why she didn’t notice it before, that this room was decidedly smaller than the last one she was in.
“Why,” she thought, “why is this room so different, and how the hell do I even get out of here?”
The moment the thought had entered her mind, a green upside-down pyramid appeared near one of the walls of the room, which she instantly recognized as a teleporter. As it was green, she knew meant it was a teleporter to a sanctuary, but she shouldn’t have one yet, that’s what the doors were for.
Stepping over, she let her hand glide through the pyramid, watching it open up and begin pulsing with energy. Stepping into it, she felt the familiar rush of teleportation as she was whisked away, never to see this room again.
When the teleportation ended, she opened her eyes, but the moment she did she began frowning in confusion. She was in a room she had never seen before, filled with several teleportation stations, as well as a sanctuary station, which was how all Mage units optimized themselves when they found new weapons and upgrade materials.
She decided it was best to go over to the station, after all it if anything else could possibly answer her questions, it would be the station.
When she reached it, it opened itself up, it’s many arms reaching out to her and plugging into her body, the final one plugging into her forehead and letting her mind merge with that of the computer.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself within the database of the sanctuary station, and quickly began letting herself register with it, dawning a look of surprise when the message “welcome back Tia” appeared before her.
“Have I been here before,” she thought, letting her mind wander once again back over her memories as the sanctuary’s menus appeared before her.
None of her memories told her anything, for she had never ended up in a room like this, just the usual sanctuary room.
She was brought out of her musings by something odd; her message box had a message on it.
Confused, she clicked on the message, which unfurled in a manner that tickled her sense of familiarity, and began to read.
To My Dearest Tia
If you are reading this, then it has finally happened, and you have defied the odds and retained your memories from you previous climb through the tower.
I cannot express how excited I am that you are finally at this point, and have finally been able to enter the sanctuary I hid in this tower for you, when you got here.
Now I have to be quick, I am constantly being watched due to…suspicions on how I have been messing with the towers inner workings, as well as my other work, but that won’t matter in the end, all I can do for now is tell you you must reach me, though that won’t be an easy task in itself.
As you no doubt remember, each floor has a guardian, and you will have to defeat all eight of them before you can reach me at the top. It will not be easy, but I know you can do it; after all…you did it before arriving here.
One more thing, whatever happens, don’t lose hope, otherwise you will turn into just another wandering husk, and I have gone through too much…and sacrificed too much to see you become like them. So stay safe…and hopefully I shall see you soon.
With all my undying love
T.S.
She paused for a long moment after reading that, letting the information from the message fill her mind, and coming to some conclusions soon after.
The message had been the second instance where she had been giving a name, Tia, which she couldn’t help but feel was a shortened version of another name, but she couldn’t place how she knew that. Also, this message indicated that she was…planned for? No, no more likely she had been something somebody had been hoping would happen, if the message was anything to go by.
And the signature, it struck a familiar cord with in her, and before she knew what was happening, a flash appeared before her eyes, the image of a smiling unicorn filly appearing before her before vanishing as she was forcibly came unplugged from the sanctuary station, clutching her head in pain.
Now she was really confused, for the memory had not been one of the tower, it had instead been her, sitting with a real live pony. It didn’t make sense, for no Mage had ever been given the memories of a pony…at least to her knowledge.
“Then again,” Tia thought, “no Mage has ever remembered events from their previous defeat…so who’s to say my benefactor hasn’t placed these memories in me…but that in itself begs its own set of questions.”
Deciding to save thinking about if for another time, she got up off the floor and headed to the one portal that was active, stepping inside and heading to the first floor of the tower, to once more begin her climb and find out the truth about herself.