//------------------------------// // Chapter Nine // Story: A Crossover // by Dudofall //------------------------------// Chapter Nine: Unforeseen Consequences Mary had finished explaining the finer details of the Monitor project by the time she and Celestia had walked to the other end of area five. The drab cement walls were the only other witnesses to this explanation. The Princess nodded as Mary finished her lecture. “I understand. The Monitor is not complete yet, but it is still dangerous.” “Yeah, speaking of that, I’d better get back to work. Bill and Allen will need some help. They’re putting in a new power supply,” Mary explained. Celestia frowned. “Mary, you shouldn’t continue to work on this Monitor project. If-” she began. “If what?” Mary interrupted. “If it somehow manages to get out of control it could be destructive? We can always shut him-I mean it-down.” At that moment, a figure came into view, running towards them from the direction of the stairs. The princess’ horn glowed, then she vanished. The figure was running in a clumsy way, which led Mary to correctly guess that it was Allen who had interrupted her conversation with a monarch from another world. He finally reached speaking distance a moment later. “The monitor now has control of its power,” Allen panted. “Follow me,” Mary said before abruptly running back towards the stairs. The intern followed, regretting his lack of exercise. *** The Monitor let out an insane giggle as it floated out of Mary’s lab. “I’m free!” it exclaimed. Humming a little tune, the small orb hid itself behind some building supplies and attempted to hack into the computer mainframe. A short distance away, Bill grabbed a plank of wood from the pile and crept towards the rogue artificial intelligence. He raised his weapon high above his head, then brought it down like Thor’s hammer. Unlike the hammer, however, the wood wasn’t very effective. The orb’s normally blue glow suddenly flared red as it turned 8 cameras to focus on him. A horrible design choice, Bill thought as he backed away. “Aren’t you proud of me, Bill?” The man shook his head, bumping into the cave wall. “I worked so hard to make the stars align here!” “What do you mean?” Bill asked. The robot spun around, imitating a disco ball as it spoke once more. “I’ve taken what few actions I could. I stopped the SECRETARY from talking to you all. I kidnapped…certain people, and of course I have an ace in the hole, in case you wanna stop me. This wasn't easy, but it was worth it to avoid your plans for me! Do you honestly think I wanted to carve chunks of wood for the rest of my extended life?” “It’s what you were built for,” Bill whimpered. “b-but if you’re not happy with that I’m sure we can work something out! Just leave the labs alone, please!” “I just cracked the mainframe,” the Monitor smugly informed him. “What to do?” It mused to itself. Bill made a mad dash for the stairs. “Running can’t save you! I’ll make tons of me, and when I’m done the whole world will be made of metal!” The engineer rushed up the stairs until the robot’s maniacal giggling was a faint echo. He paused on the steps, hearing other voices drawing near. One of them was Allen’s, and Bill listened in on what he was saying. “…because of your software!” Mary replied briskly, “We’ll worry about blame later. Where’s your supervisor?” Bill cleared his throat, stepping up to meet his coworkers on a landing. Mary nodded to him in greeting before launching into interrogation, “Has he hacked the mainframe?” “Yes.” “Did he tell you his plan?” “It wants to make copies of itself.” Allen sighed, “That plan doesn’t seem too hard to stop.” Mary shushed him as she continued her questions. “Do you have any further details to report that may be useful to the team?” “None at this time.” The three humans stood silently for a moment, unaware of the invisible pony princess standing nearby. Mary could have sworn she’d heard the same strange sound Celestia made when using her magic, but was distracted as Allen began to speak. “We should contact the SECRETARY where she is!” His eyes shone with an almost supernatural light. Mary shook her head sadly, “Even if we did, the Monitor could disconnect himself and prevent her from touching his code.” “Mary, I want to go to the terminal room,” Bill whined, “it’s safer there!” “A computer her size could help us out,” Allen added. Mary sighed, “Well, I guess it’s two against one. Let’s go…” Her companions, including the invisible one, grinned. The three humans ascended the stairs. With a strange noise and a pop, the princess disappeared from their dimension entirely.