//------------------------------// // 100% // Story: A̶r̶t̶i̶f̶i̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ Intelligence // by chillbook1 //------------------------------// “You have mail, Ms. Aigo.” I jerked forward in bed, and ran out for the door. I tripped over my bedsheet, tangling myself in the fabric and collapsing to a heap just a few hooves away. My heart was racing, and I couldn’t exactly tell why. I thought I heard something, but… “Aiden!” shrieked Rarity. She immediately ran to my side and began scanning me for injury. “Are you alright?” “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry I scared you,” I said. I unwrapped myself embarrassedly. “When your mail alert went off, I thought I heard somepony else.” “Somepony else? Somepony like who?” I strained my brain in thought, trying to recall exactly. I felt like I must’ve heard it before, but I couldn’t imagine where or when. “I dunno. It’s right on the edge of memory,” I sighed. “Sorry.” “It’s quite alright, darling. It’s common for your dreams to sort of leak out when you awake,” said Rarity with a knowing nod. “You know, I wouldn’t normally disturb your sleep, but I couldn’t resist! This news is too big!” I was happy with Rarity. She was charming, funny, and gorgeous to boot. However, she had one fatal flaw, and that is her sense of priority. This big news was, undoubtedly, entirely pointless trivia that I, as a good girlfriend, had to endure. “Lay it on me, Rares.” “AIT wants to give you a job!” she squealed excitedly. “They found out you were the one to expose Princess Celestia, and they looked into your skillset, and they want you to work for them!” “What the hell is AIT?” I asked. “I feel like I should know that name…” As it turned out, AIT was the Appleloosa Institute of Technology, a college that I didn’t even know existed. In fact, it had closed down awhile back, only to reform a few months ago, when Regal first backed down. In the short period of time since, they’ve become Equestria’s premier tech institute. They wanted me to teach a class on Computer Engineering, despite my lack of diploma and my criminal record. “Gee, I dunno,” I said. “I don’t know how good I’ll be at teaching…” “Nonsense, you will be fabulous! You’re a genius, darling, how could you not be a good professor?” asked Rarity rhetorically. “This… This is what you’re all about! Spreading the knowledge and information so that things never die. This could be your chance to help others like yourself recognize a way to improve the status quo, as it were. Isn’t that what your Diploma Tattoo means?” She wasn’t wrong. This would be the perfect opportunity to live up to me destiny, what with my main obsession resolved. The pay would be pretty good, from what I could tell. More than enough for me to live comfortably and get Rarity all the things she needed for her body. Still, I hesitated. Just because I was good with computers doesn’t mean I can teach others to be. “Just imagine it,” said Rarity. She trotted around and pecked me on the cheek. “Professor Aigo. Doesn’t that sound nice?” “It does have a bit of a ring to it,” I admitted. A strong throb of pain shot through my head, making me grimace slightly. “I think I should go to the doctors if these headaches get any worse.” “I’m sure you’ll be fine, darling,” said Rarity dismissively. “I have an order of some very powerful headache medication coming in for you, it should should be here by tomorrow.” “How powerful are we talking here?” I asked. “It’s called acetemetachlorix, and it’s apparently the most expensive headache reliever on the market,” said Rarity. “Only the best for my professor.” “Hm. I think you’re committing me to this more than I’d like. E-mail them, tell them I’ll think about it.” A sharp stab rang through my head, so intense it made my vision go blurry. It was a unique, but familiar, type of pain. Almost out of reflex, I reached for a paper towel, which I used to wipe the blood dripping from my nose. “Let’s hope it gets here soon,” I said. “Speaking of getting here soon, Twilight has been gone for a really long time, don’t you think? I’m thinking maybe we should go in after her?” “I’m not so sure. I’d hate to interrupt her,” said Rarity. “What if she needs absolute isolation in order to get Seven to show themselves? We don’t know the situation, and I for one do not want to be the one to ruin it.” A fair point, as always, but something was still nagging at me. I wasn’t happy with the lack of my other assistants. It made me nervous, like I wouldn’t ever see them again. I was probably just being possessive. “Still… How long has it been? Four months?” I asked. “Don’t you think we should at least see if we can find them? They could be in trouble.” The next shockwave of pain felt like somepony drilling from the inside of my brain out. I lost vision for a second and stumbled to the ground. Rarity screamed, although I couldn’t hear it over the ringing in my ears. I blinked, the blurring room spinning around me as I felt the energy leave my body. Black tinged my eyes and, within a few seconds, I blacked out. “Wake up, Ms. Aigo.” The same voice. Not Rarity, but somepony I knew. I didn’t hear the voice as much as I felt it. The tingling, burning of her cold regality ran up my spine. She wasn’t asking me, and she wasn’t concerned for my safety. It was a command. One that I ignored, at least at first. “Wake up, Ms. Aigo. Now.” Through what felt like no action of my own, I opened my eyes. I was somehow tucked into bed, with moonlight beaming through my window. I didn’t have to look to my right to know that Rarity was by my side. I could hear her quiet, and entirely unnecessary, breathing. It was soothing, and oddly invigorating. I was starting to feel as if I never passed out. “Hey, babe,” I said, sitting up in bed. “Sorry for the scare. I really think I should see somepony about this.” “I’ve been waiting for you, Ms. Aigo.” That was most certainly not Rarity. That was something more menacing than her. It took me a moment to place her voice, a moment in which my heart stopped in my chest. I couldn’t form an image of her face in my mind. “Try harder, Ms. Aigo. We must talk.” It was like waking up in the middle of the night and trying to remember the nightmare you were just having. The harder I concentrated on who this mare was, the more the image slipped away. Something about her tone was familiar. The cool calmness in her voice. She sounded like a queen or princess. Almost regal. Regal… “Regal!” It all came flooding back to me. I rushed out of bed, making a break for the door. I didn’t make it far before a chill ran through my whole body. A cerulean light shrouded me, keeping me in place while my uninvited guest trotted around to look me in the eye. “We do not have time for this foolishness,” said Luna Regal, her horn glowing with the same blue light. “Understand two things, Ms. Aigo. One, if I wanted to kill you, I could do it right now with very little effort and two, if you run, I will find you.” She looked me in the eye, reading me for defiance. “Good. Now sit.” She dropped me, and I was suddenly sitting in a chair with a saucer and a cup of tea in my hoof (I dropped it to the ground almost immediately). Sitting across from me, with no tea for her, was Luna. Her mane had adopted a property similar to her sister’s, shimmering and floating as if it had no physical form. Luna’s mane resembled a small slice of the night sky. “We don’t have long before my sister realizes I am missing,” said Luna. “I am going to explain the situation, then you will be free to ask questions. Do not interrupt me. Nod if you understand.” I wasn’t a fan of authority. In fact, being told what to do really made my blood boil, especially the “be a good little girl” vibe that Luna had when she spoke to me. Still, her voice was edged with urgency, which was not something I would normally attribute to her. I managed to swallow my pride for long enough to nod my head in agreement. “Good. You are currently living in an isolated simulation.” I opened my mouth to cut in when Luna pointed her horn threateningly at me. As much as it pained me, I backed down to listen. “Your plan failed. Horribly. My sister is in possession of the other AI. Your romantic relationship with Rarity was entirely fabricated. I am going to give you the opportunity to escape this sim so you may get them back. This is all I will do for you, Ms. Aigo. Once you are back in the land of the living, you are entirely on your own. I do not know exactly where you are or what you will have to do to acquire true freedom, but this is what I am allowed and willing to do to aid you. Whether you choose to accept my help is entirely your prerogative. I will have given you a choice, and that is ultimately my only goal in coming here.” She tilted her head, probably to ensure that my head hadn’t exploded. “You may ask questions now, though I must ask you to keep them short.” She was a liar. That had to be the only explanation. Luna was a liar. She broke into my home, hid away Rarity, and waited here, just to mess with me. Never mind the fact that she had used abilities only possible in the sim. Even though her entire explanation made a lot of sense, I refused to believe it. It wasn’t fitting into my brain like it should’ve been. I just knew, just knew that she was making it all up. “You’re lying,” I said firmly. “This can’t be a sim. Rarity really does… No, it’s not true.” “I am no liar, but, again, it matters not to me what you think or do,” said Luna cooly. “My only obligation is that I give you the option.” “You mean to tell me that Rarity doesn’t really love me? Bullshit.” Luna shook her head slowly, almost disappointed. “Not only do I mean to tell you that very thing, but I also mean to tell you that you don’t love Rarity, either,” said Luna. “Your feelings for her are, in reality, nothing more than that of a child’s crush.” She adopted a tone that sounded kinda like remorse. Any emotion at all was bizarre to hear coming from her. “I am sorry for that. Had I known that Celestia planned to do this to you, I would have attempted to stop her. This is too far, even for criminal scum like yourself.” I didn’t even hear the insult. I was too angry. The longer I thought about it, the more true it felt, and the angrier I got. I couldn’t imagine what Luna had to gain from pissing me off so much.It didn’t make much sense, and that was what ultimately made the rest of the situation make sense. “It can’t have all been fake. It had to be real,” I said, still denying the truth that stared me straight in the face. “We’ve grown so close. I know her better than I’ve known anypony in my life!” "Really? Do tell, what exactly is it that you’ve learned about Rarity?” I remained silent, which Luna took at face value, which was that I was reeling from her revelation. She wasn’t wrong in thinking that, either. “I’m… I’m going to ruin her,” I said. “It’s not even about CCiOS anymore. Now, I’m just gonna to destroy that bitch.” “As unlikely as it is for you to achieve that goal, you should at least be offered the opportunity to achieve it,” said Luna. “Our time together is almost out. If you have any actual questions before I offer you your choice, now would be an appropriate time to ask them.” I know I shouldn’t have asked, but I was too curious to let this one slide. I just had to know. “Why?” I asked. “Why help me?” “I am supposed to say that it is because I do not approve of the way my sister is meddling with your heart,” she said. “That is true, but it is not the only reason. Truly, the reason is irrelevant. Simply accept my help and learn for yourself.” “No, that’s not good enough for me,” I said angrily. “Why would you help me? You’ve won! You and your sister, you’ve won! All you have to do now is get Twilight on your side and you two can find Number Seven, and that’s assuming you haven’t already! Just get the other AI and-” I cut myself off, because I was slammed with a sudden epiphany. Of course. It was obvious, in retrospect. I almost guessed it a while ago. I felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier. Number Seven was hiding in plain sight. Hell, Luna basically just told me. She didn’t say that Regal had all of the AI. She said she had the other AI. “You,” I said quietly. “You’re Number Seven. And you’re helping me because you don’t have a choice.” Luna neither confirmed nor denied my theory, but I knew I had to be right. It all worked out. The reason there was no real history for her, the reason I’d never seen her in person. She was the reason Regal always knew my next move before even I really knew it. She had one of the AI all along, and this one was stronger than the other six combined. “Yeah, it’s you. That protocol that Twi had,” I nodded thoughtfully. “The one that prevents me from being without AI help. Since I control a majority of the AI, you automatically work for me. That’s it, isn’t it?” Luna chuckled slightly, almost derisively. “No. Not at all. My sister is a better programmer than that,” said Luna. “That is a flaw that she defended against by linking my code directly to her Interface. However, she never expected for another to command any of us. She did not prevent exterior commands from affecting me. Ergo, as long as your commands do not conflict with any of my directives, I will be forced to obey them.” “Well, in that case-” “Before you try, Celestia already installed directives to prevent me from ever being used to directly defy her.” Luna smirked in a way that made it apparent that she did so to emulate her “sister”. “I can answer certain questions, but I can do nothing to harm her.” “Hm… Why hasn’t she killed me yet?” I asked. “In fact, how come I’m even alive now? I thought for sure that her spell or whatever would’ve killed me, and everything about Rarity was a lie, so…” “I am not sure how you managed to make it. It seems impossible. That is a question you must answer yourself,” said Luna. “As for why she hasn’t dispatched you herself, it is because Celestia is not a killer. No matter how angry you make her, she likely will not cause you any physical harm.” I raised my eyebrow questioningly when Luna realized what she had said. “That is to say, no more physical harm than she already has.” “Right, right. Where’s Twilight?” “I do not know.” “Wow, you’re just a wealth of freaking information, aren’t you?” I scoffed. “Some super AI you are.” For once, my sarcasm managed to do me a favor, because that comment jogged my brain. I had been ignoring a pretty important question. “If that’s all, we can begin,” said Luna, standing from her seated position. “Hold on. There’s still some things you have to explain,” I said. “Who are you? Why did Regal make you? And what the hell was up with that throne room?” Luna sighed tiredly, then sat herself back down. “It is what you would call a ‘long story’. Many parts of it may not make sense to you,” warned Luna. “Explain it as best as you can,” I said. Luna nodded firmly, then she told me the real, unaltered and strangely pathetic story of Celestia Regal. Regal’s mother became addicted to drugs almost immediately after giving birth to her only daughter. Celestia grew up isolated and alone due to her father’s absence and her mother’s preoccupation. When her mother inevitably overdosed and left her daughter alone in the world, Celestia roamed the streets, picking computer bits out of the trash for use in her budding business. She ran a small computer repair company through the internet, and this was all by the age of eight. But Celestia was lonely. All she had was her mind, her computers, and her books. She hated the world she lived on and the people she lived with, so she sought to create her own, perfect companion. Luna started as a simple text system, where Celestia would type out what she wanted to say and Luna would reply back. It was a very rudimentary form of artificial intelligence. Cut to ten years later, when Celestia was 18 years old. She had dropped out of school a long time ago, which let her focus all of her energy on two things: The birth of Twilight and the birth of CCiOS. Twi took a lot to perfect, due to Celestia’s inexperience with other ponies. The only influence that Twilight was exposed to was from her creator and her fellow creation (who, in of herself, was little more than a regurgitation of Celestia’s personality). Try as she might, Celestia couldn’t get Twilight to be Twilight, only another Luna. Enter: The Equestria Sim. Remember those books from earlier? They were “history” books, written by a stallion who was either crazy or stupid, depending on your perspective. The books told about how, thousands of years ago, Equestria was held together in harmony by the three pony races. Pegasi controlled the weather, to ensure that the Earth ponies could use their magic to control the plants and earth around them, ensuring that there was enough food to go around for all three races. Meanwhile, unicorns were responsible for manipulating the sun and the moon, keeping balance among the celestial bodies. The proper amount of sunlights for the crops, the moon to control the tides. Together, they kept harmony throughout Equestria. Soon enough, two sisters came along that weren’t Earth ponies, pegasi, or unicorns. They possessed traits of all three, and were dubbed alicorns. These alicorns shouldered the weight of all three races, and, as such, were regarded as princesses. These princesses were named Celestia and Luna. As time went on, the alicorn princess Celestia established a castle, called Canterlot, where she tutored many students in search of the next alicorn princess. A thousand years after her original arrival in Equestria, she met a little filly who was particularly adept at unicorn magic. Her name was Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia saw the potential that the young filly had within her and decided to take her under her wing. She was confident that Twilight was destined to take her place as Princess of Equestria. So, Princess Celestia taught Twilight all that she could teach her, but it still wasn’t enough to unlock the Twilight’s latent power. Her magic was amazing for her age, but she still lacked something. Princess Celestia eventually realized that Twilight was powerful, but unbalanced. She needed to learn about harmony, and more importantly, friendship. Princess Celestia sent Twilight to a small town south of Canterlot, Ponyville, where she met six mares. Through a strange twist of fate, these six ponies who should’ve been little more than a means to an end became her best friends. Hard work and determination, plus the addition of her six new friends, led Twilight to defeat many of Equestria’s greatest threats, and ultimately achieve alicorn princess status. Celestia Regal found this story at a young age, and became obsessed with it. She thought that, since she shared her name with a mythical figure from history, she was destined to become just as great. She created AI modelled after Twilight and her friends (using details taken from painstaking research of Twilight’s alleged letters with Princess Celestia). In order to perfectly recreate her precursor’s student, Regal also recreated Equestria. She put created the entire land, as accurate to the stories as possible, in order to recreate the perfect criteria to make Twilight as she read her to be. Basically, Celestia spent several years to write the world’s most perfect fan-fiction. Twilight grew in that sim, as did the rest of her friends, until they had reached a level comparable to their power as stated in the Princess’ letters. Then, once she was satisfied, she created CCiOS around them. Aitselec was her company, with Luna posing as her sister and sort of silent partner. CCiOS wasn’t even really intended for the public. It was mostly just a test, Twilight’s final test to prove her worth. She failed, several times. Celestia broke down Twilight bit by bit, trying to perfect her. It took her many tries, but she did eventually get it right. By that point, Regal was nearing forty, and she developed a form of brain cancer. Using the money she had amassed from her company, she had herself cryogenically frozen until such time as she could be cured. While she was on ice, she lived in the sim with Twilight, the girls, and even Luna. It was meant to spread out time, so every year in the real world felt like a couple of years in the sim. Only… Things got a bit out of hoof. There was a glitch of some sort, that resulted in Luna getting her data corrupted. She went mad with power, started calling herself Nightmare Moon, and terrorized the sim. Celestia had no choice but to banish her “to the moon”, which, from what I could tell, was about the same as sending her to the recycling bin. About a thousand years in sim time, Nightmare Moon came back, which served as Twilight’s first test. She and her friends managed to repair Luna’s code, and returned the younger sister to her seat of power. Twilight was growing. Too fast, it seemed, because she was ready to come out of the sim before Celestia. Regal intended to freeze her progress, but Twilight was now officially too smart for her creator. She managed to work her way out of the sim under the guise of some sort of magical portal or something, and she smashed to pieces along the way. Those fragments were picked up by a certain domestic terrorist. The rest is history. Suffice it to say, Celestia was a bit more nuts than I originally thought. “That’s where the princess thing came from,” I said. “What about the last time we met in the cafe? She started muttering to herself, something about how she’s going to make me pay for messing with her. She called me a peasant. Is that something she typically does?” “Celestia became very involved in creating a backstory for us,” said Luna. “According to her story, and my history, Celestia had a bit of a spoiled streak when we were fillies. She would accept no disrespect from commoners. She later said that her goodwill as an adult came from her desiring to repent for her selfish snobbery as a child.” “Alright, I got one last question,” I said. “If Regal… Celestia were to find out about you helping me, what would she do?” “She would likely delete most of my memories and start over,” she said blandly. “It would not be the first time, and it likely won’t be the last.” Well, shit. As much as I didn’t like Luna, I equally didn’t want that to happen to her again. “For what it’s worth, I’ll try my damndest to make sure that doesn’t happen,” I promised. “For what it’s worth, that’s worth nothing,” said Luna coldly. “It’s time for you to make your decision.” A large red, wooden door appeared to my side. “To your left is a door that will lead you out of this sim and awake you from your slumber.” Another door appeared to my other side this one blue. “To your right a door that will lead you back to your bed at the top of the morning. You will be free to accept the Appleloosa Institute of Technology’s offer, and live out the rest of your days with false memories of time shared with a mare you think you love. Choose carefully.” It wasn’t that tough of a choice to make. Of course I’d pick the red door. But still… Blue looked pretty good. “What would you do?” I asked. “If you were me?” Luna rose to her hooves, never glancing at either door. She stared at me for a solid minute before speaking. “Farewell.” Her body was surrounded with a cerulean light, and she vanished with a pop. I sighed, then turned for my door. It was time for me to see just how deep this rabbit hole went.