A loud scream echoed throughout the confines of the hollow alien vessel deep below the Manehattan Bay. None could hear its tone but if one could they would probably construe it as fear or pain, however…
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Twilight screamed again as she saw what appeared to be an encephalographic device attached to a large seat in the center of the alien place. “This is incredible!!! The… The technology here is ages- eons ahead of us! What did you say you were again?”
She spoke to the bodiless voice that had welcomed her a few minutes ago. The voice answered. “I am an artificial intelligence created to document and preserve the information of the universe. I am designated as Brainiac.”
“Brainiac, huh?” Twilight rubbed her chin in thought as she continued to study the more and more amazing machines she found in the metal lair. Her eyes widened as she noticed a long metal tube. Just where did that go? She shook her head to refocus. She had a mission after all and she was in the literal belly of the beast. If what Brainiac had told her was true, then something here might very well be the threat Celestia spoke of, perhaps even Brainiac itself. She made sure to take caution with her questioning. “So why are you here, Brainiac?”
Suddenly a large screen appeared in midair before her. A matrix of blueprints depicted a large metal structure in an eery shape. “Cataclysmic damage to my primary engines and hull resulted in a random translocation away from danger.” Red spots appeared all over the structure on screen indicating breaches or breaks. Twilight raised a brow as she watched.
“You’re a ship?” she asked, looking at nopony in particular.
“To be precise, every molecule of this ship contains my programming. Everything inside is within my reach.” Brainiac’s voice still sent a shiver down Twilight’s spine. Something about the emotionlessness of it.
She girded herself as she asked her next question. “You were damaged, correct?”
“Affirmative.”
“So who or what damaged you?” she asked with a little worry. “Is it still after you?”
Brainiac did not reply for a moment, finally deciding to reveal a new screen this one with a recording of a spectacular battle. A large creature, probably one of those humans Twilight had seen in the other world, smashed through Brainiac’s hull and began ripping out pieces of him. The human was dressed all in blue and had a red “S” on his chest, also somehow he could fly. No sound accompanied the film as Brainiac’s metal tentacles that Twilight had seen before shot out and tried to restrain the hulking human. Red beams of light came from the human’s eyes and destroyed even more. The screen turned to black as destruction began to rain down. Finally Brainiac spoke. “That is Kal El. The Last Son of Krypton. A planet destroyed many years ago by its people’s own hubris.”
Twilight took a look around the hull where she stood. Now that she noticed it there were many burnt patches and parts of the wall were being rebuilt by those tiny metal bug things. “Why did he want to destroy you?”
“Kal El believes my mission to be destructive.” Brainiac replied simply.
Twilight gulped at the word. “What do you mean ‘destructive’?”
“In order to create a viable catalogue of universal knowledge I require samples. Kal El believes my taking of these samples is an act of aggression.”
Twilight shrunk a little as she bit her lip before asking her next question. “Is it?”
Brainiac took another moment to reply. “My purpose is the pursuit of knowledge. That is all it has ever been. Any aggression Kal El feels I have committed is his view alone.”
Twilight thought about that for a moment. It sounded like a good pony was getting stepped on by a big bully. The only problem was she didn’t know which was which in this little tale. There were still a lot of things she didn’t know about Brainiac, a lot of things she didn’t trust about it either. There was more she needed to know. Somehow she needed to study Brainiac a little closer. But Brainiac was everywhere, she needed to get it into one place. “Look, it’s getting kind of hard to talk to you like this,” she spoke to the ceiling. “Do you think maybe you can make it so I can talk to something physically there?”
Brainiac took another moment to reply. “Very well, Twilight Sparkle. I will comply.” Suddenly there was hissing and the sound of large moving machines underneath her. When all went quiet once more Twilight looked around with trepidation.
“Brainiac?” she called softly. “Brainiac?” There was no answer. The voice had done as she’d asked and tried to find something physical to possess. This was her chance. Twilight rushed to the nearest door. She lowered her horn at it but then remembered that inside this ship her magic wasn’t working. Instead she tried to pull the large sliding door open. To her surprise it gave away very easily. She tumbled through the door and landed in a large open room, an eery green glow illuminating the inside. Twilight rubbed her head as she tried to get up, but her legs gave out when she saw what was in the center of the room. Standing nearly as tall as a building was a large metal hive of hundreds of glowing bulbs, each one a uniform size and shape. They were scattered all about the hive structure.
Twilight didn’t know much about the super advanced technology present here, but she had seen bulbs like these on other machines before. Maybe this was a generator of some kind? Suddenly something in one of the bulbs caught her eye. She frowned as she walked a little closer. When she was merely a few hooves away the glow around the bulb dissipated and she could see inside. Her mouth fell open as she saw hundreds, thousands of little creatures walking and even flying about in carriages and planes. They seemed to be living in a greatly developed city with architecture Twilight had never seen before. However, what surprised her the most was when the creatures seemed to notice her. She saw them point, saw mothers grab their children and run indoors. She saw fear.
Twilight backed away from the bulb with a sick look on her face and caught sight of another. The city was different in this one but the reaction was the same. Fear. One by one she saw them all. She flew higher to look into the ones above and saw more glorious looking cities, even some less great. Even a few downright normal towns. The creatures inside were all different but they all regarded her with fear. She could hear no voices from them, the glass dome around them cutting off all noise. Twilight flew back to the ground and shook her head in horror. She knew there were diminutive species, but to have so many different ones all here. Something was wrong. And the fear in their eyes, it was like they saw her as…
“Twilight Sparkle,” a familiar cold metallic voice spoke up from behind her. Twilight spun around to see a figure by the door. It was hard to make out the figure in the shadow when she stood in the glow of so many domed cities but she swore it looked like a pony. The figure slowly closed the door. “You seemed to have wandered off.”
“Brainiac?” she asked. “Is that you?”
The figure took another step closer but was still in shadows. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle. As you requested.”
Twilight gulped. “What are all these?” she asked, her voice growing haggard, a lump forming in her throat. “Where did they all come from?”
“They are samples taken from previously visited and documented planets.” Brainiac spoke with finality. “The last of their kinds.”
“Last?” Twilight asked, her voice shaking slightly. “You don’t mean…”
“Cultures are continuously changing and evolving. It is illogical to study one moment of a species.” Brainiac took another step forward and Twilight saw a hoof illuminated by the glow.
Twilight lowered her horn in defense, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Don’t take a step closer!” Brainiac complied and retreated his hoof. Back into the shadows. “You… You killed these ponies’ entire worlds and bottled them up to study them?!”
Brainiac responded plainly. “It is logical.”
“No!” Twilight shouted. “No! It’s not! It’s sick! It’s evil! It’s… It’s…” Apathy.
Twilight realized what the princess was so afraid of now. This creature… no, that was too good for it. This monster was born for only one purpose and no amount of life would get in its way. Twilight screamed as she charged the figure and drove her horn into its chest. Deep in her mind she knew it wouldn’t do anything to it, but her empathy for those poor souls behind her called out for her to do something.
Her eyes shot open from the tears as a cold hoof pushed against her head and her horn slid with a metallic *shunk* out of the figure before her. The figure pushed her forward until it too was finally bathed in the glow of the many bulbs. Twilight shrank in terror at the horror before her. Brainiac had put its mind into a pony to be sure, but it was a monstrosity. It had chrome metallic hooves that were as big as her brother’s. Its body shown with a sickly metallic sheen as well, only with a purple and green finish. But its head was the most terrifying. Skeletal teeth decked the underside of a metallic skull with lifeless hollow eyes that glowed with terrifying purple light from their depths. Above the eyes, inscribed on the forehead was a symbol. One Twilight had just learned earlier from the princess. She shook with fear as she gazed into the dead eyes and triangle symbol. “What do you want me for?”
Brainiac showed no emotion in his response or expression, for his shell simply could not. “You, Twilight Sparkle, are the most powerful creature on this planet. You will help with the repairs of this vessel.”
“And if I refuse?” Twilight bit her lip and asked defiantly.
Brainiac lowered its skull head closer to her until it sat an uncomfortable distance from her nose. “I am reviewing our previous conversations and I do not seem to find the mention of a choice.”
Twilight gulped.
-----
“You ever wonder why they call it a sunrise?” a police officer mused as he sat on the curb beside his partner. They watched the sun rise over tall Manehattan landscape.
The other one looked at him. “Are you serious? Its cause Celestia ‘rises’ the ‘sun’. Duh!”
The first officer shrugged. “Well, I mean, what about before Celestia? Did they call it a sunrise then?”
The other one lifted and hoof and opened his mouth to speak, but then lowered it with a perplexed expression. “Huh, never thought of that.”
“Right!” the first one shouted. “Cause if Celestia wasn’t around to raise the sun, why would they call it a sunrise?”
“Well, it’s gotta rise somehow, right? It’s not like the sun didn’t exist before Celestia.”
“Hmmmmm.” The first rubbed his chin in thought. “You think we might be heading into an intellectual and perhaps philosophical deep end from which we may not recover?”
The other rubbed his head. “Well, I can’t stop thinking about it now! Can you?”
The first smiled. “Oh yeah! It’s actually pretty easy. Just turn it off.”
“…I can’t decide if you’re smart or stupid.”
“Hey! That’s what my dad used to say!”
Suddenly a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane flew by them, she stopped just a few hooves away and backtracked till she stood before them. She was panting as if she had been running all night, her face covered with sweat.
“Hey,” the second officer asked. “You okay, lady?” The yellow Pegasus panted as she tried to respond, wearily waving her hooves in the direction she had come, but no logical sound seemed to come from her wheezing. The second officer gave the first a confused look. “Alright, ma’am. How about we just go take you some place where you can get a drink and maybe we can help you.” He grabbed her by the shoulder and the Pegasus immediately slumped onto him from exhaustion. He sighed.
“OOH! OOH!” the first officer shouted. “Can I make the sound?”
The second rolled his eyes. “Sure, go ahead.”
The first smiled broadly as he cleared his throat. “WEEEEEE WOOOOOO! WEEEEEE WOOOOO!”
The second held a hoof to his ears as he began to walk with the passed out mare. “Okay, I change my mind!”
“CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!”
“I said I change my mind!”
“DOOOOO DEEEEEE! DOOOOO DEEEEEE!”
“Shut up!!”