Memory Flash
None of the silvery constructs rang a bell in Twilight's head, even though her companions tried to assure her they would. Celestia had finally insisted on coming along, and though part of Twilight was thankful for the additional company, another part of her felt uneasy. True, having two ponies around she reasonably recognized was some comfort, even a small one. But with everything else so foreign, it just didn't seem right.
She wasn't sure which unnerved her more.
With Doctor Cobalt, Celestia, and Applejack accompanying her, Twilight got more than a few stares as they wandered past the office doors. It wasn't the fact that they were with the facility's "living thought experiment" that turned their heads—that wasn't too uncommon—but rather the way Asteria looked. Goe was the distant yet purposeful gaze and posture, the internal gears of her brain turning with another new thought or perspective or idea. She seemed to be struggling to walk bipedally, and several times even got on all fours, as if she were more used to walking that way. But even this seemed to prove difficult, like her elongated body was uncomfortable to use.
There was no more purpose, no more intensity, no more slight looks of a cold mistrust toward the others around her. It was as if any knowledge she had previously gained had been sucked out of her, and now she had no idea where she was or who she was.
None of them knew how close they were to the truth.
"Is something wrong?" one pony called, her head poking out from the door as her pale blue mane hung over her face. Her cream-colored coat looked disheveled, as if she got in a scuffle with a piece of malfunctioning equipment and lost. Judging by the burst of mechanical clicking that followed from the room's interior, it seemed that was a logical assumption.
"Just tryin' to help Asteria get her bearings," Applejack clarified.
"Bad simulation experience?"
"Yeah." Not a lie, but not the full details of the truth, either. A safe answer.
The mare nodded before shutting the door. Twilight could hear a slight kick of a hoof against the machine, causing the clicking to stop.
Twilight's attention was then turned to the doctor again as they left the cream-coated mare's room behind.
"Try to walk on your hind appendages, Asteria," Doctor Cobalt said gently. "Just try."
Reluctantly, Twilight did so, trying to hold back a scowl. The way Doctor Cobalt spoke seemed almost as if he were talking to a young foal who was just learning to take her first steps, rather than adult who was trying to get her bearings in a new world.
This place may be new, she thought, but I'm no helpless foal.
She hesitantly started flapping her wings to balance herself upright, turning her bat-like ears to focus on every sound as she listened to the other ponies murmuring about her—no, Asteria, not her. She wondered if that meant, if the life-thing was true, that she had been a bat at one time. Or a bat pony.
Did I have echolocation, then? she thought in wonder. Could I do it now? If she weren't so confused and uneasy, she would have wanted to test it. To see exactly what she was capable of in this new form. It was terrifying yet intriguing all at once.
But there would be time to test her abilities later. For now it was time to focus on her surroundings.
After traveling past some more doorways in the office-like hallway, a large set of silver double doors greeted them. Black spheres decorated the upper portions of the doors, glimmering with broken squares of silver light as if constructed of an unknown metal. Like a form of strange magic that went beyond the normal unicorn-bound range.
As Doctor Cobalt stepped forward and placed a hoof on an imprint embedded in the door, a green light appeared and scanned up and down his hoof imprint, something which surprised Twilight. After a moment, the indentation glowed green, bringing the same hue briefly to the upper spheres.
With that, the doors opened, and the small group stepped through into the room that lay behind.
Twilight's mouth dropped open in shock. She had expected a room, of course, perhaps about the size of the room she had awoken in. But never one this massive, especially with all the narrow corridors that they had previously traversed through. This room made those hallways look incredibly claustrophobic in comparison.
As Twilight got her bearings, she noted that It seemed more like a hub of an expansive complex, a large sphere that could fit her Ponyville library over a dozen times over. And it wasn't just ponies here, either—creatures of all shapes and sizes were conversing and mulling about on the expansive room's layers, each floor connected by spiraling stairs. Dragons, griffins, even a few chimeras.
But, as she noted, aside from the chimeras, for the moment she didn't see anyone who was a composite being like herself.
Twilight tilted her head upward. Though the large room was incredibly bright, the only windows that she could see were in the higher part of the sphere-shaped chamber. The rest was illuminated by artificial lights which shone along the ceiling and walls.
Coming to what she assumed to be the center of the ground floor, Twilight stepped close to a giant hologram that towered over them. A flashing light indicated their current location, leading the draconequus to realize that even this wasn't the extent of this place. A series of paths branched off from this Central Hub, paths that led to smaller spheres, each seeming to indicate an area of research: Dreams, Morphing, Existence. And even these had sub-levels for each floor, narrowing down the studies even further.
Celestia noticed Twilight's wide-eyed baffled expression. There seemed to be no recognition there, only the same look that had come over her when Asteria had seen this place for the first time in her life. Still, maybe it did jog something, anything at all. "So you remember this?" Her voice became softer. "Anything coming to mind at all?"
Dazed, Twilight shook her head. For the moment, nothing came to her mind.
Trying to judge her direction, and catching a glimpse of the large signs above each of the large, branching paths, Twilight concluded that the Morphing Sphere had been where she had just come from.
I was formed in Morphing Sphere, Theory Sub-Level A, Branch 9: Transformation, and I worked primarily in Existence Sphere, Theory Level C, Branch 3: Solipsism. Twilight froze as the thought came to her mind, in that same older voice that was now her own, like an answer on a test she had struggled to recollect. W-Where did that come from?!
For an instant, she suddenly remembered the entire place, as if everything was part of a blueprint she had committed to memory. But as quickly as it had come, the knowledge was forgotten.
"You remember!"
Twilight looked up, not having realized that in addition to the thought of where Asteria had been born and had worked entering her mind, she also had repeated it aloud. Celestia was beaming with a motherly pride.
A small smile crossed Applejack's face. "So it is starting' to come back to ya!"
"Seems like bringing her back to the Central Hub was the right course of action after all," Doctor Cobalt added, looking both pleased and yet slightly concerned. As if there was something he wasn't telling her.
Breaking out of her thoughts, Twilight noticed all three pairs of eyes staring at her. Anxious, seeing if she remembered anything else. She shook her head, trying to stand upright. "I-It just came to me... and for a moment I... recognized the layout of everything, but..." She shook her head. "The knowledge left. I don't remember anything else."
"Were you able to hold on to what you just said?" Doctor Cobalt asked. "The places where you were born and worked?"
After a pause, the Sphere, Level, and Branch of each place echoed in her mind again. Twilight nodded hesitantly, repeating the words as she remembered them.
A hint of a smile. "Well," Cobalt said, "it's a start."
Twilight took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Can I... can I see where Asteria worked?"
"In a few minutes," Celestia assured, looking strangely wary.
Her expression puzzled Twilight. Why did Celestia seem so uncertain all of a sudden?
Soon enough, that changed. "But first, I want to go back to the Morphing Sphere again. The wary expression that perplexed Twilight changed into a smile. "There's someone who will be happy to see you're finally up."
----
Rather than going to the Sub-Level where she had woke, Twilight took a lift with the others to Level D. She dared to peek out the large window as they went up, and her jaw dropped. The landscape didn't look anything like the Equestria she knew and loved. Rather than being filled with natural landscapes, though there were still some present, large metal structures dotted the area. There were even some that appeared to be similar in structure to the dome building she was in now, but their colors looked darker, as if in shadow.
Celestia pointed outward to said dome. "My sister Luna works there. She studies space, black holes, dark matter, that kind of thing."
Twilight's eyes darted back and forth in thought, trying to piece this all together. "So, this place deals with the metaphysical unknowns, and Luna works with the physical unknowns?"
Celestia chuckled. "Something like that, Asteria."
Twilight opened her mouth to protest at the name, but soon shut it. It was clear these ponies wouldn't call her by anything aside from the name they claimed she once had.
Reaching the proper Level and stepping out of the lift, the group went over to Branch 4. As they approached Room 10, which had a few papers sticking out from under the door, Twilight realized she recognized the voice from behind it.
"So what if some documents are a bit out of her order? It's organized chaos, that's what it is! I can find the right research papers easy!"
Twilight gasped at the voice, her suspicions only confirmed as she red the nameplate on the door:
Discord.
Celestia knocked on the door.
"Come in, come in!" Discord called merrily. "Door's unlocked!"
Celestia opened the door, and she shook her head in exasperation. It was a lab room, but papers were strewn in haphazard piles all over the place. Discord, wearing a white lab coat covered in pockets, was bent over a table projecting a hologram that showed a forest landscape. He snapped his fingers a few times, changing the trees to look a bit more twisted and colorful.
"Perfect! Much better decoration than those boring ones!"
He finally turned, facing the group that had entered, his eyes falling on each member.
He froze, then, as he noticed Twilight. His red-pupiled eyes widened.
Twilight instinctively stepped back a step, her eyes wide. Discord was a scientist here? One of the top ones? Why would he be happy to see her? Her eyes narrowed, preparing for a fight.
"A-Asteria?"
Twilight blinked. There was absolutely no trace of malice or mockery in Discord's voice. There was shock, but a gentle sort of shock.
It was then that Discord did something that caught Twilight completely by surprise: he flew over and gave the young draconequus a hug, his mis-matched forelimbs tightly embracing her. "I was beginning to be worried about you!"
Twilight instantly pulled back, stumbling in the process. Why was Discord here? Why did he seem so concerned for her well-being? Why did he hug her?
Confusion crossed Discord's face as she pulled away. After what seemed like a minute, he spoke, his expression changing to harbor slight amusement. "Oh, what? After nearly a month of being asleep, that's the kind of 'hello' you decide to go and give your father?" He chuckled. "Don't tell me you're in one of your solipsistic research moods again!"
Twilight blinked. She felt as if she had been slapped in the face to wake her up, except she was already awake.
"... You're my father?!"
I know it's been FOREVER since I updated this, but I finally got up the resolve to update! Hoping to get to this more now that my motivation has been restored!
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
1,007 users online
2,110,947 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Heh.
At least she's making progress.
That's -- that's impossible!
Search your heart, you know it to be true.
Wow, I had almost forgotten this existed.
Still a good read, though; and I can't wait to see more.
Damn! When you send you were going to update soon, I was expecting at least several days, not immediately! This is great! Hope to be able to read more soon.
Glad to see it back. Very curious where this is going.
HWAT
I'm a draconequus. Wow. Hey look, there's a draconequus named Discord. I didn't see any other draconequui..us...es in the entire complex. WHA WE'RE RELATED??? WHAT A HUGE SURPRISE MIND BLOWN WOAH THERE NELLY
This is how I feel about this story.
No really what the fuck is going on?
6280283 To an extent, yes.
6280625 That is way too fitting. XD
6280716 Hoping to update with more soon. :)
6281006 Too bad I haven't updated as fast since, lol. Hope to have more soon though!
6285170 It'll go places, that's for sure. ;)
6285628 Pretty much Twilight's reaction. XD
6346841 Well to be fair, Twilight's still getting used to the fact that she's a draconequus, and considering how different everything is (Discord's born and she's created), I think we can forgive her for not pricing it together.
6528297 Existential crises, that's what.
Beacuse I'm reading this quite late my imagination is a bit closer to the dream level
I can see it somewhat from the eyes of Twi
unfortunately I'm out of practice (or maybe fortunately)
I wen't through a bit of existential crisis for a few minutes, and then saw some more possibilities about reality
(in no way connected to stuff here - I just thought about some infinity stuff and connected with some other infinity stuff and connected that with a few concepts)
(Now excuse me I've gotta either go insane, ignore the theory and go on with life, or become on some degree of infinity - infinitely powerful)
also headache !!
I want a new chapter
I was excited for a moment when I saw this on EqD claiming there was a new chapter...
Did EqD beat you to the punch? I'm still caught up from a year ago.
7768618 I'm intending it on updating it with chapter 5 in a few days. :)
7768820 I forgot to submit that I updated to Chapter 4 for forever til now. Probably should have waited til I updated to Part 5, which I plan to in a few days.
Its past the seventh and i need moar.
Coming up on 10 weeks and no update. :( Would be sad to see this die.
7769610
But it's been over a YEAR!
7763276
If you are listening to me, well.
Same question about Empress of Harmony