Nightmare Night
Nightmare Night.
A night filled with joy.
A night filled with scares.
But most importantly, a night filled with candy.
It is on this night that ghouls and ghosts of all shapes and sizes roam the streets of Ponyville, all in search of those special treats. Some to snack on, the rest to offer up to the legendary Nightmare Moon.
But tonight, a different monster makes an appearance.
A demon born of fire and metal.
A demon with unparalleled control over her domain.
A demon… who really didn’t want to be out tonight.
And her sights were set on none other than Ponyville’s own library…
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Spike, dressed up in a dragon costume, paced back and forth at the bottom of the library’s stairs, impatiently waiting for Twilight to finish getting dressed in her own Nightmare Night costume and come down. She had been up there for way too long, and he was starting to think that they’d miss all the festivities.
With a groan, Spike stopped his pacing. “Ugh, come on, Twilight, we’re gonna be late for the Nightmare Night Festival!”
As if she had been waiting for Spike to say those exact words, Twilight Sparkle descended the steps clad in her costume and struck a pose for him, holding her hoof and nose in the air. She wore an elaborate blue robe adorned with images of stars and a crescent moon, staying firmly attached to her by a large gold ribbon with a blue gem fixed to it. Several brass bells lined the lower rim of the robe, as well as the comically large hat whose style matched it perfectly.
And to top it all off, she wore a large white beard.
Spike just gave her a wide-eyed stare as she slowly descended the stairs, every step taken with absolute pride and jingling bells.
Evidently, she didn’t know just how ridiculous Spike thought she looked. “Are you… that one kooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village…?” he asked, scratching his head.
Twilight gaped at him as if he had just asked her who Princess Celestia was. She quickly snapped herself out of her stupor and frowned at him. “I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”
Spike blinked at her.
“Father of the Amniomorphic spell?”
He blinked again.
She pointed an accusatory hoof at him. “Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure unicorn history?”
“Umm…” Spike raised a claw as he tried in vain to remember the book Twilight mentioned. However, his thought process was cut off when three sharp knocks sounded off the front door. Taking whatever chance he could get to back himself out of his grizzly situation, he took advantage of the moment. “That sounds important!” Without wasting a second, Spike whizzed past Twilight to answer the door.
What Spike saw when he opened the door caught him completely off guard.
Standing in front of him was a single, tall, humanoid figure. Its body was the shape of a slender human female with modestly sized breasts and a dull, silver color. Its eyes glowed a brilliant red as they bore into the dragon. In place of hair or ears, several intricate horns extended perfectly out of the scalp to form something almost crown-like. Instead of being a similar color as the rest of the body, the horns and forearms were a mixture of glowing red and orange. Because of the way the color shifted and flowed, it looked like they were made of animate lava.
Spike stared up at the demon, rooted to the spot. It leaned down, keeping its eyes locked on his while wearing a mischievous grin, and muttered a single word: “Boo.” The young dragon cringed and quickly backed up to give the outsider room, eliciting a chuckle. “That never ceases to amuse me.”
“Oh my gosh, Rose, is that you?” Twilight said with a smile, walking up to the door to meet the newcomer.
Rose stood up straight and gave a small smile to the bearded mare. “Yes it is, Twilight. I see you’ve dressed up for this ridiculous night as well.”
“Ridiculous? Rose, it’s supposed to be a night of celebration – of fun!”
Rose crossed her arms. “Fun? Honestly, I have better things to do.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, but smirked nevertheless. “If you have better things to do, then why are you out like this?”
“Because Alex ‘highly recommended’ it,” said Rose as she entered the library, closing the door behind her. “He said it would be 'good for me.' He even designed this chassis for me just so I could use it tonight. Not only that, but I could have controlled it remotely. Instead, he insisted on a complete disconnect so that I wouldn’t get ‘distracted.’ If I had the choice, I’d still be in the facility working on more important things.”
Twilight eyed Rose up and down, admiring the handiwork. She even managed to catch a glimpse of a thin, pointed tail with a similar color pattern to Rose’s arms and horns as it gently flicked from side to side. Her fingers looked slightly clawed, as well. Twilight found it difficult to have to remind herself that Rose wasn’t bound to a single body like everypony else. Yet knowing that her body was built and not born somehow made it seem that much more impressive.
“I have to admit,” said Twilight, “Alex did a really great job with this. Some of the major joints are obviously mechanical, but I guess he meant for it to look that way. And he did a very good job with the face! I can’t say I’ve ever seen a Liandri with a proper face before.”
Rose smirked at her. “I’m sure you’d be impressed by what you can do with the proper synthetic materials and engineering experience.”
“Well, you two definitely have that. Say, aren’t your eyes supposed to be blue?”
“I can change them to whatever color I want. I just happen to have a preference for blue.
Twilight arched a brow. “Does Alex know that?”
Rose nodded. “He does. He also knows I keep it one color for his sake.”
Twilight smiled at her. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Rose. Hey, speaking of which, where is Alex, anyway?”
“He’s currently at the facility, recovering from something. He’ll have to rest for a few days, but he’ll be back to normal soon enough.”
Twilight’s smile faded. “Oh no, is he sick?”
Rose waved her off. “He’s not sick. However he isn’t at peak physical condition.”
Now Twilight was really curious, bordering on worried. “Did something happen to him? Is he hurt?”
“He’s fine,” Rose snapped, causing Twilight to recoil a bit in surprise. “He also wants to keep the details a secret, so I’d prefer if you’d stop inquiring about it.”
Twilight blinked at her for a few seconds. “Okay… if you say so,” she said, unsure of how to take the information.
Before another word could be said, the conversation was cut off by knocking.
“I’ll get it,” said Twilight, making her way towards the front door.
Upon opening the front door, she was greeted by a trio of fillies with bags tied around their necks. One of the fillies was dressed as a little princess, another as an astronaut, and the third as a ladybug.
“~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite!~” the fillies sang in tandem.
Twilight smiled warmly at them. “Hi, everypony! Great costumes!”
Spike approached the door holding a large bowl of candy in his arms and Twilight levitated a piece of candy into each of the fillies’ bags. Immediately after, a fourth, smaller foal dressed as a pirate squeezed his way from between two of the fillies with a small plastic sword in his mouth. He squeezed past them a bit more quickly than he realized and ended up unbalanced, eventually falling forward after flailing around.
Despite failing miserably, he somehow managed to do it adorably.
The foal quickly got back to his hooves and saluted Twilight. “Pip-Squeak the pirate, at your service; It’s my very first Nightmare Night!”
“Since you moved here from Trottingham?” said Twilight, looking at the young Pip-Squeak with a genuine d’awww smile. His family was new in town, and Twilight had heard about him and his adorable awkwardness from Pinkie Pie a week or two ago.
“No,” said Pip-Squeak matter-of-factly, “it’s my very first Nightmare Night ever!”
Rose, who had been observing everything from behind the door, moved out into the open and stared at the small foal curiously. Naturally, her presence caused the others to look back at her. While the three fillies looked at the red-eyed Liandri with slight trepidation, Pip-Squeak looked at her in wonder.
Having all the attention focused on her, Rose knelt down in front of Pip-Squeak, keeping her blank gaze fixed on his. Without looking away, Rose reached back and grabbed a chocolate bit from the bowl of candy in Spike’s claws.
“Hold still,” she said, twirling the coin expertly between her fingers.
Pip looked back and forth between the coin and Rose’s expressionless face until, with a sudden flick of her thumb, the coin flipped out of her hand and into his bag of candy. Pip’s wide eyes followed the coin as it landed. He then looked back up at Rose with a large, impressed smile. “Wow, thanks! That was so cool!”
Rose cracked a small smirk at him in return. She didn’t look vaguely happy because she performed an act of kindness towards the child, but rather because she was amused by his reaction at what was, in essence, a trivial feat for her. Of course, nobody could tell that was really the case.
Suddenly, the entire moment was torn apart when Pinkie Pie, clad in a chicken costume, burst out from somewhere behind the children with crossed eyes, a goofy smile, and a loud chicken squawk. However, just as suddenly as she appeared, her silly expression quickly changed to an angry look. “Enough chit-chat! Time is candy!”
Everyone recoiled in surprise at Pinkie’s surprisingly forceful words. Everyone except for Rose, who simply looked at her with an arched brow.
“Pinkie Pie, aren’t you a little old for this?” asked Twilight once she got over her initial surprise.
“Too old for free candy?” Pinkie gasped in shock, though her gasp sounded more like a squawk than anything else. She suddenly frowned deeply and spoke with absolute conviction. “Never!”
Twilight rolled her eyes at her as the other children started to slowly give them more room. She levitated a piece of candy from the bowl and deposited it in Pinkie’s bag, much to the pink pony’s delight.
“Now that that scene is over and done with…” said Rose, standing up, “I’ve actually been meaning to find you, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie tilted her head at her. “Really? What for?”
“Alex has asked me to see if you’d be willing to come by the facility sometime tonight to let him examine that cannon of yours. He’s been rather eager to do that lately.”
Pinkie held her hoof out and shook her head. “Sorry, Rose, but no can do. So much candy, so little time. I’m sure you understand!”
Rose crossed her arms. “I can assure you that you will be generously rewarded for your time.”
Pinkie’s ears perked up and she gave Rose an inquisitive look. “Rewarded, huh? Just how much of a reward are we talking here?”
“An agreeable sum of candy.”
Both ponies looked at each other for a moment before Twilight spoke up. “Uh, Rose, that’s not exactly specific.”
“More candy than you’d be able to acquire elsewhere in the same timeframe,” Rose deadpanned.
Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “I dunno, Rose, that’s a loooot of candy!”
“According to Alex, candy was surprisingly cheap, so he bought it in abundance. Frankly, I doubt he’ll manage to give away even a fraction of it.”
“Wow, how much candy did Alex buy?” asked Twilight.
Rose held her hand up, as if to stop Twilight’s train of thought. “It’s not that he bought that much candy, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just that the method he’s using to distribute it is rather unorthodox.”
“But there is a lot of candy, riiiight?” asked Pinkie, leaning closer to Rose.
“Yes, Pinkie, there is,” said Rose, rolling her eyes.
“Good enough for me!” Pinkie beamed. She looked like she was about to zip out of sight when Twilight managed to catch her attention first.
“Wait, Pinkie, before you go…” Twilight struck a small pose for her friend and brought her hoof up to jingle the bell dangling from the top of her hat. “What do you think of my costume?"
Pinkie waved a hoof at her. “Yeah, great costume, Twilight! You make a fantastic weirdo clown!” Before any of them had a chance to react, Pinkie quickly pecked at the remaining candy in the bowl and zipped off with an authentic sounding gobble.
“A clown?!” Twilight yelled after her friend, causing Rose to chuckle at her.
Spike looked down at the now empty bowl of candy and sighed. “Well, at least that’s done…” He put the empty bowl down inside the library next to the door and closed it, pushing Twilight out as he did so.
Twilight, for her part, was still fuming about Pinkie’s words. “How could she think I’m a clown?!” she said to no one in particular, holding up a section of her costume “Look at the borders on these robes! These are hoof-stitched!”
Spike walked past her with a mischievous grin. “It’s a great costume… Heh, grandpa.”
Twilight growled at her assistant but received a firm pat on the back in response. She looked back to see Rose looking down at her.
“I may not know who you’re supposed to be disguised as,” said Rose in a vague attempt to comfort the pony, “but knowing you, I’d assume it’s related to magic, and quite possibly holds some historical value.”
Twilight nodded deeply as they made their way towards the festival. “And you would be right! I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”
“Never heard of him,” Rose shrugged away any previous attempt at comfort, Twilight’s words having no meaning to her whatsoever.
Twilight shot her a glare. “Starswirl the bearded is the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era. He created more than two hundred spells! He even has a shelf in the Canterlot library of magic named after him!”
“Hence why I’ve never heard of him, nor do I particularly care.” Rose spoke as nonchalantly as before. “‘Magic’ and other such things are completely irrelevant to our work at the facility.”
Twilight sighed heavily. She knew Rose was more than capable of lying, but to her credit, she wasn’t afraid of being brutally honest either. Twilight knew that was just the way she was, and she couldn’t fault her for that. Regardless, the clear lack of interest in one of her favorite magical idols from her friends was a little disheartening.
“Well, at least you had the right idea…” said Twilight as they started walking through the middle of town, her thoughts wandering.
Right in the town center, the Nightmare Night Festival was in full swing. Countless holiday themed stalls and tents were set up all over. Most of them were giving out candy, but some were selling some more expensive items like last minute costume pieces and even proper baked goods.
Disguised ponies were everywhere, each one partaking in some sort of activity or another. The younger ones were largely running around trying to collect as much candy as possible, while the older ones spent most of their time either mingling with each other or supervising their children. There was even a group of ponies that was dancing in front of a stage that had been set up specifically for the festival, and where a band was also playing live music.
Rose peered around at all the activity. It was her first time going to any sort of festival, and to say it all confused her would have been an understatement. After all, why would anyone in their right mind dress up in ridiculous costumes and go hunting for candy when more productive things could be done? Alex and Twilight certainly had nothing against it. In-fact, they even seemed to embrace it. But why would two intelligent individuals such as themselves embrace such an activity? To Rose, it was one of the major mysteries of organic life.
“Maybe I should start up a group to teach ponies about history…” said Twilight absentmindedly, oblivious to her surroundings. “I bet everypony would love it! What do you think, Rose? Think ponies would find it interesting?”
“I honestly wouldn’t have the slightest idea,” said Rose, looking around. “Alex and I have never held any interest in human history, and I certainly don’t have one for pony history either.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he made it clear to me just how much he knows about his own world’s past. At least he was able to make up for it with more contemporary knowledge…”
“As Alex would say it: ‘there’s no sense in looking back when the present and future is all that matters.’”
“That’s a bit narrow-minded, don’t you think?”
Rose looked at Twilight. “How so?”
“Well, you need to know what happened in the past in order to prevent old problems from happening again!” Twilight explained.
Rose scoffed. “No doubt. However I still don’t understand the need to record every mundane detail of some ‘significant moment or incident.’ For us, any incidents that do occur have the important information stored, while the incident itself is merely forgotten. All we ever use or even care about is the raw data.”
Twilight opened her mouth to answer but stopped. She realized a long time ago that trying to argue with Rose was virtually pointless. While both sides of the debate could have had a valid point, it all hinged on whether or not Rose actually cared. She usually had her own very good reasons for not caring, but the most common one was that it simply didn’t affect her. Unlike Twilight, Rose had no interest in the events that would have let up to the present time simply because the past was already done and nothing about it could be changed. Alex held a similar view, but he at least understood why others had an interest in historical events.
Twilight decided to simply let out a sigh and shake her head in response. Looking around her, she jumped back at the sudden realization of where they were. “Whoa! When did we get to the festival?”
Rose chuckled at her. “A few minutes ago. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”
“I guess I just wasn’t paying attention…” said Twilight. Her thoughts were once again instantly interrupted by Spike obliviously walking into her, dropping pile of candy that was just as large as himself – if not larger – all over the ground.
Rose looked at Spike in pure confusion. “Where the hell did you manage to get all that?”
Spike, who had fallen over after walking into Twilight, looked around at the candy before looking up Rose to give her a shrug.
Rose folded her arms and frowned. “It irritates me how there are just some things I’ll never quite figure out about this world.”
Suddenly, Rose’s attention was shifted when her sensors detected several small objects moving directly towards her. She turned around to find the previous group of children that had stopped by library earlier, Pip-Squeak at the head. Upon seeing that he had been noticed by the red-eyed Liandri, the young pirate slowed down and approached more cautiously, though he was still clearly excited about something. Rose wasn’t exactly keen on finding out what for.
“What do you want?” Rose demanded. The tone in her voice made it clear she didn’t exactly appreciate their presence. Toying with them once was amusing, but she didn’t want to be around them any more than she had to be.
Pip’s excited look suddenly deflated, but he still seemed confident. “I… I was just wondering if you could do that really cool trick with the bit again…”
Rose frowned at him. “I am not a toy for your amusement.”
Twilight came up from behind Rose and gave her side a firm nudge. “Oh come on, Rose, why not? You couldn’t have practiced something like that and not do it every now and then!”
Rose looked at Twilight, genuinely confused. “What makes you think I practiced that?”
This time, it was Twilight’s turn to look confused. “Huh? How could you not–”
Twilight’s words were cut off when Rose held up a hand. “Wait a moment…” She started pivoting her head around every which way, as if she were looking for something. “Twilight, do you feel that?”
“Feel what…?” Now Twilight was really confused.
“There’s an odd electric charge nearby…” Rose said slowly. “In fact, it feels as if…” Instead of finishing her sentence, Rose looked up to see a dark cloud with a rainbow colored tuft hanging off its side.
As soon as she did so, a loud bolt of electricity shot out of the cloud and struck Rose directly on the head. The sudden electric crack and flash caused the group of children to yelp in surprise and run off.
Small electric sparks jumped between various points on Rose’s body as she collapsed to one knee. After a few seconds, the sparks all disappeared except in her horns, where silent sparks were continuously traveling up between them like a Jacob’s ladder.
“Oh my gosh! Rose, are you okay?!” Twilight yelled. She moved to put a hoof on Rose’s shoulder, but quickly retracted it, realizing that doing so would probably be a bad idea.
Rose raised her head to reveal a face infused with pure anger. Even her eyes seemed to be glowing a more bright red than before.
And they were locked onto something.
Coming in with a gentle glide, Rainbow Dash, disguised as some sort of evil-esque Wonderbolt, landed in front of both Rose and Twilight with a worried look that could somehow be easily seen, despite the mask. “Oh geez, are you okay?”
Rose carefully brought her right hand up and wrapped it around one of her horns. “I was just struck by lightning,” she scolded her venomously. “If it weren’t for the fact that my electronics are properly insulated, that would have killed me.”
Rainbow Dash grew warier at the sudden revelation, but tried to feel hopeful nonetheless. “But you’re okay, right? I didn’t… there’s nothing permanent, right?”
Rose didn’t respond. Instead, she simply straightened herself and scowled deeply at the rainbow-maned pegasus.
Dash cringed and rubbed her foreleg. “Look, I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just wanted to scare a few ponies, that’s all!”
This time, Twilight was the one who spoke up. “That still wasn’t very nice of you, Rainbow. Aside from the fact that Rose got hit, doing that to unsuspecting ponies is just plain mean!”
Rainbow Dash’s ears flattened and the blood ran from her face at the mention of Rose’s name. She didn’t have much experience with the AI, but she knew her well enough to know that while Rose was alright most of the time, she could be uncomfortably vindictive.
Just as Rose released her horn and started lowering her right hand closer to the ground, Rainbow extended a hoof out to her with a nervous smile. “Hey, look, tonight’s just a night for harmless pranks. I didn’t mean for you to get hit by that. It was a complete accident. Maybe we can just call it that and put this all behind us, huh? No hard feelings?”
Rose stopped lowering her hand as soon as Rainbow extended her hoof and eyed the pegasus curiously as she spoke. A smile suddenly broke across her face. It wasn’t a smirk, or some sort of evil grin, but a genuine, good-natured smile.
Twilight observed the scene curiously, her eyes darting all over Rose. Her smile seemed incredibly out of place. She looked at the horn Rose was just grabbing and noticed there wasn’t any electricity around it anymore. Twilight’s eyes darted towards her hand and noticed a faint spark jump between two of Rose’s fingers. She couldn’t help but smirk a bit. Sometimes, the stars aligned just right.
“Of course!” Rose beamed. Without any hesitation, Rose brought her hand up to meet Rainbow Dash’s hoof and gripped it firmly. Dash jumped as a sudden jolt of electricity went through her body, and she instantly tried jerking her hoof away. Unfortunately for her, Rose didn’t let go. But, like ripping off a band-aid, her sudden pain was gone just as quickly as it arrived.
Rose pulled Rainbow Dash closer and started whispering in her ear. “Look, I don’t care what you do with that cloud of yours. Just keep it away from me, alright?” With that, she instantly let go of Dash’s foreleg.
Rainbow backed up stiffly and coughed a bit, still trying to get the sudden shock out of her system. Her light cough soon turned into a nervous chuckle. “Right, I’ll keep that in mind. I should probably take a break on the pranks for now. Bye!”
Without wasting any more time, Rainbow Dash kicked into the air, zipped around her cloud and pushed it off into the distance. She was certainly more than eager to leave.
“What did you tell her?” asked Twilight as Rose stood back up, dusting her hands off.
“To keep that damn cloud of hers away from me.”
“Right… At least your payback was appropriate.” Twilight focused a bit more on Rose’s horns and noticed there was still some electricity jumping between two of them. “Hey, Rose? You still have some sparks in your horns.”
Rose raised her hand to grab one of the horns but stopped mid-action. “Perhaps I’ll just leave it there. It might be beneficial to have an electric charge on hand.”
Twilight arched a brow. “Why would you need an electric charge…?”
Rose looked down next the Twilight, then brought her hand back up to her electrified horn and grabbed it. With her other hand she pointed at the spot she was looking at. “For that.”
Twilight looked at what Rose was talking about and gasped when she saw Spike lying on the ground out cold. She nudged the fainted dragon’s shoulder with a concerned hoof. “Spike? Spike, are you okay?”
Rose knelt down on Spike’s other side with a smirk. “It would seem he doesn’t take terribly well to surprises.” She let go of her horn and, before Twilight could object, grabbed one of Spike’s arms.
With a sudden yelp, Spike stood up straight and started panting wildly, gripping his chest with his free arm.
“Well that worked rather well,” Rose commented, letting go of Spike. “Electrocution seems to be a very effective method of waking someone up.”
“You didn’t have to wake Spike up like that!” Twilight scolded, putting a hoof around Spike as he started to calm down slightly.
Rose shrugged her off. “You’re right. I didn’t have to.” She stood up and looked around, noticing that more and more ponies were starting to gather around the stage despite the fact that the band seemed to have disappeared. “Now then, could we please move on? It seems that something relatively interesting is about to happen.”
With a groan, Spike got to his feet and weakly punched Rose in her metal leg. “That hurt, you know.”
Rose looked down at him with a smirk. “You’re welcome.” She looked back up at the growing crowd of ponies and contorted her face in scrutiny. “Twilight, what’s going on over there?”
Twilight, relieved that Spike was alright, marched past Rose with her own scrutinizing look. “I’m not sure… Let’s go find out!”
The trio made their way towards the stage just as a cheer erupted from the crowd. Rose’s eyes zoomed in on a podium that had been placed in the center of the stage to see a beige mare wearing a ridiculous clown outfit approach it.
Thanks to her sensors, Rose didn’t have to turn around to feel herself – as well as Twilight and Spike – starting to get boxed in by other ponies. To make herself less prominent, she deactivated the glowing effect on her horns, arms, eyes, and tail and dropped to one knee, making her level with everyone else. Rose looked on with vague interest as the pony on stage tapped on a microphone.
“Thank you, everypony,” the clown-mare spoke through the voice amplifier, her voice obviously being that of the town’s mayor, “and welcome to the Nightmare Night Festival!”
The crowd cheered and applauded in response, more out of excitement and anticipation of the night’s events than anything else. Spike and Twilight applauded as well, although Rose had a much easier time withholding her enthusiasm.
“Now,” the mayor continued, “all the little ponies who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend, Zecora, to hear the legend of…” The mayor paused for a brief moment before speaking in as spooky a voice as she could muster: “Nightmare MoOooOoOOn!” She finished with a cheap, poorly practiced, evil laugh.
Spike leaned in towards Twilight with a deadpan expression. “The spooky voice might work better if she wasn’t dressed like that.”
Twilight giggled at his comment while Rose leaned in to provide her own. “For once, you and I are in complete agreement.”
The mayor indicated towards a section of the stage next to her where a strange neon green cloud of some sort of gas or dust suddenly exploded into existence. Rose focused her view on the cloud as an unrecognizable pony emerged from it. However, as she focused a bit more, she noticed that the pony she was looking at was… different.
Every pony Rose had ever encountered had a single, solid color for their coat. This one had a coat that consisted of two separate and distinct shades of grey: a much lighter one which was dominant, and a darker one which provided an accent. Her long mane was bone white and split down each side of her head symmetrically. Not to mention the faux spiders that decorated it. Rose was also able to notice several gold rings around her neck, as well as a couple that acted as ear rings. As for a costume, she simply wore a pitch black cloak.
Rose suddenly became curious about this ‘Zecora’ and leaned in towards Twilight. “She seems different from other ponies… Is there something special about her?”
“That’s Zecora,” Twilight replied. “She’s a zebra; the only one who lives near Ponyville, too! She also rhymes regularly when she talks.”
Rose’s interest in Zecora suddenly vanished. Somehow, knowing that she was a zebra, or rather another earthen mammal, made her that much less interesting. Although the comment about her rhyming was subject to curiosity.
Up on stage, Zecora spoke in a calm and even tone with an odd accent that Rose couldn’t identify. She wasn’t speaking very loudly, but the crowd was so silent and focused on her that she didn’t have to. “Follow me, and very soon, you’ll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon!” She finished her statement with a wave of her cloak, dispelling the green dust into non-existence as she made her way off the stage.
Twilight nudged her two traveling companions as the crowd began to disperse. “Come on, let’s go with her!”
Rose stood back up to follow her, re-illuminating the various parts of her body once more. “Really, Twilight? You want to follow her to wherever just to listen to some silly superstitious story?”
Twilight smirked at Rose over her shoulder. “Actually, Nightmare Moon is a real pony! Or at least, she was.”
Rose raised an inquisitive brow. “Is that so?”
“It is so! My friends and I actually confronted her, believe it or not.”
Rose’s other brow raised, giving her a wide-eyed expression. “So you’ve personally met this supposed ‘legend?’ Interesting.”
“Yeah! It was pretty scary, to be honest. She threatened all of Equestria with eternal night. My friends and I were able to stop her by using something called ‘The Elements of Harmony’ to banish the evil from her, returning her to her former self.”
Rose’s expression dropped. Now it was starting to sound like a contrived children’s cartoon show. “Banish the ‘evil’ from her using the ‘Elements of Harmony?’ Honestly, Twilight, I’ve heard plenty of ridiculous notions since Alex and I arrived in Equestria, but that just sounds ludicrous.”
Twilight giggled at her as they – including a large number of other ponies that were mostly foals – started following Zecora out of the town and into a darker section of a forest, the moon providing the only illumination. “Think what you want, Rose, but that’s what happened. Now Nightmare Moon is just Princess Luna.”
“Princess Luna?” Rose repeated curiously. “Based on her current and former name, I’d assume she’s related to the moon in some way? Perhaps Celestia as well?”
“She is! Princess Luna is Princess Celestia’s sister. She’s the one who raises and lowers the moo–” Twilight stopped herself as soon she realized what she was telling Rose. She remembered how Alex reacted to her telling him about Celestia and the sun, but she had no idea how Rose would react to being told about Luna and the moon.
To Twilight’s surprise, Rose smiled brightly at her. “Oh, is that so? I’m actually happy to hear that.”
Twilight blinked at her and almost stopped dead in her tracks. “Really? I thought you’d say that was some sort of crime against physics or something.”
The AI chuckled at her. “Don’t get me wrong, Twilight. While I do think it is a blatant disregard for the laws of astrophysics, I can ignore that for now since celestial bodies don’t concern me. That, and this new information also plays a much more important role for me.”
“And that would be…?”
Rose smirked at her. “It means I just won a bet.”
Before Twilight could ask her what she was talking about, a certain eccentric mare in a chicken costume ran up alongside them with not one, but two sets of saddlebags filled to the brim with candy, including the one bag she had tied around her neck.
“Hey guys, miss me?” Pinkie Pie cheered in her usual, happy manner.
“Whoa, Pinkie, where’d you get all that?” asked Twilight, naturally surprised at the absurd amount of candy her friend was carrying with her.
Pinkie poked her nose into the bag around her neck to take a bite out of the pile of candy and pulled her head back up, chewing happily. “Alex gave it to me.” She swallowed and looked at Rose. “Also, he told me to tell you that your lab security system needs to be recalibrated and that he was gonna do it as soon as he could.”
Rose frowned at her. “That’s ridiculous. I calibrated the Prototype Lab security system myself. Why does he think it needs to be recalibrated?”
Pinkie shrugged nonchalantly while picking out another piece of candy. “I set it off. Alex had to over… over… over-something it.”
Rose started at her, wide-eyed. “Alex had to override the system? How the hell did you manage to activate it?”
“Alex said he’d tell you later. It was something really silly!”
Rose looked over at Twilight, as if the unicorn could somehow provide some sort of explanation. Twilight just shrugged at her. It was simply just another Pinkie mystery.
Unfortunately, this just made Rose more and more curious about what exactly happened. The entire facility definitely wasn’t short on modern security bots, and the Prototype Lab’s security system was designed to deal with any potential threat while Rose wasn’t present. However, the most the system should have done was to ask Pinkie to distance herself from her party cannon, which it would have easily identified as an obvious weapon. If it continued after that…
Rose resigned herself to simply examining the logs later that night. Whatever Pinkie did, it would certainly be worth reviewing the data.
The group continued following Zecora in silence, eventually coming to a clearing in the forest with a single statue in the middle of it. Rose’s eyes immediately zeroed in and started scanning it. The statue represented a large alicorn (a term both Rose and Alex became familiar with thanks to Twilight) that was clearly different from Celestia, namely because of its armored appearance and angry look.
Zecora walked up to the statue and turned around to face the small crowd that had followed her. Surprisingly, she barely looked over at Rose – despite the fact that she was practically a walking nightlight – and focused more on the foals.
“Listen close, my little dears,” she started, calm as ever, “I’ll tell you where you got your fears. Of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary…” Zecora stuck a hoof inside her cloak for a brief moment and extracted a small pile of green dust. With a quick blow, the fine glowing powder flew from her hoof and high into the air above them as if it were a living cloud. “…of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.”
To Rose’s surprise, the cloud of dust morphed from a shapeless blob to that of a well-defined pony; one that almost perfectly resembled the statue. It even caused her some internal confusion as well: while she could see the neon green alicorn with her eyes, her other sensors didn’t detect anything. Rose was never easily impressed, yet Zecora managed to do it with barely any effort at all.
Then, without any warning, the spectral representation of Nightmare Moon dove out of the sky directly towards Rose. Despite her conflicting data, she automatically kicked herself into a defensive mode. She quickly bent her legs and leaped an inhumanly long distance backwards, completely clear of the rest of the group, landing in a crouch. No sooner had she done that that the alicorn slammed into the ground and exploded harmlessly into a cloud of neon green smoke, covering everyone and obscuring their vision.
Unable to visually see any of the ponies within the smoke, Rose activated her more advanced sensors. While she couldn’t distinguish any colors beyond the neon green of the smoke, the location, size, shape and even posture of everypony in the area instantly became known to her.
Each body she could sense was somewhere within the smoke. Some were slowing trying to find their way out while trying to not bump into somepony. Others simply stayed where they were, either out of fright or patience. One pony had even somehow managed to stick their head completely into the ground. Because of the saddle bags the pony in question was wearing, Rose was able to tell it was Pinkie Pie.
Somehow, it made the most sense to her that Pinkie would do that.
Rose scanned over the group and identified Zecora shape, making sure to keep her attention on the zebra. Even through the smoke, she was able to perfectly “see” Zecora sneaking up on a pair of foals.
“Every year, we put on a disguise,” Zecora continued with her story, “to save ourselves from her searching eyes!”
She couldn’t exactly see what Zecora had done, but Rose detected the foals running away from her, screaming all the way.
As the smoke started to dissipate, Rose stood back up and casually observed the scene unfolding before her. Foals ran back and forth as Zecora told her story about Nightmare Moon, smoky apparitions helping to animate it all.
Twilight suddenly noticed that Rose was no longer standing next to her. She quickly craned her neck and immediately spotted her glow-in-the-dark companion.
She walked over to Rose while keeping her eye of Zecora’s show as well. “Hey, what are you doing over here?”
“Conflicting sensory data,” Rose admitted as she watched Pinkie Pie wrench her head up out of the ground with a screech. “I don’t exactly feel comfortable being in the middle of all that.”
Twilight smirked at her. “Really? You sure you’re not just scared?”
Rose frowned, but still kept her sight focused on Zecora’s show. “Hardly. I will admit, though, that her illusions are quite impressive for someone simply using some sort of powder.”
Twilight looked on as an image of Nightmare Moon flew up over the crowd and exploded, showering sparkling dust over everypony. “Can’t argue about that, especially if you consider the fact that she can’t use magic.”
Rose didn’t respond, instead watching as Pip-Squeak tugged on Zecora’s cloak to ask her a question. “Umm… Miss Zecora? If we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon – so she won’t gobble us up – how come we still need to give her some of our candy?”
“A perfect question, my little friend,” Zecora replied, leaning close to Pip, “for Nightmare Moon, you must not offend.” She quickly blew on some more dust, causing Pip to retreat back to the rest of the group. The cloud morphed into an image of Nightmare Moon that started to slowly advance on them menacingly. “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won’t return to come eat you!”
As soon as Zecora finished her sentence, the illusion leaped towards the ponies with an impossibly wide maw and exploded into a cloud of harmless smoke. Despite being in no actual danger, the display coaxed an unbearably loud scream from Pinkie Pie, which certainly didn’t improve the mood of the foals around her, inevitably starting a panic.
Pinkie Pie zipped up towards the statue of Nightmare Moon, with the foals following up just as quickly, and promptly unloaded the bag of candy around her neck. “Everypony! Let’s dump some candy and get outta here!”
“Oh please…” Rose muttered, just loud enough for Twilight to hear. “As entertaining as this was, now it’s just plain ridiculous! Last time I checked, Pinkie Pie was an adult. Why does a children’s tale even remotely–” Rose immediately halted her rant when the unmistakable sound of thunder boomed above the clearing. Her face contorted into a scowl and her red eyes glowed a little more brightly. “I thought I made myself clear the first time!”
The wind started to suddenly pick up as well, going from a dead breeze to a full blown gust in no time at all, though Rose ignored the wind and the howling it produced. She scanned the sky, expecting to find Rainbow Dash in all her irritating glory. Instead, she discovered that dark clouds were spinning above the clearing and had formed a near perfect funnel, giving them all a clear view of the moon.
Just as suddenly as the wind and thunder had appeared, a bright white flash came from the direction of the moon. They all focused to see an odd flying chariot being pulled by a pair of strange pegasi who had bat-like wings instead of the usual feathered variety. The ponies by the statue began backing up with audible whimpers, while Rose dropped to a crouch and disabled her lights.
The chariot soared over the clearing and quickly came to a hover. A shrouded figure could be seen standing in it, though not much else could be discerned besides the fact that it was a tall pony with a long horn.
Pinkie Pie, however, was more than eager to guess who it was. “It’s Nightmare Moon! RUUUN!”
Rose’s eyes followed the stampede of screaming ponies as they ran back in the direction of town. She fully knew that Zecora’s story was something meant for children, and as such, wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. She decided to look at Twilight to see how she was reacting, since she had supposedly dealt with this pony before. Rose noticed that she was much calmer than any of the others, giving them all a confused look more than anything else.
As the chariot followed the panicked group back to town, leaving Rose and Twilight alone in the clearing, the AI and unicorn shared a questioning look.
“I may not have thought so before,” Rose conceded, “but this holiday just became much more interesting.”
These Author's Notes are long, but I recommend reading them anyway. You may be slightly entertained!
I started writing the chapter sometime around August 18th or so, and I finally finished the damn thing earlier this week. Naturally, it went through my vigorous proof-reading cycle for a few days, otherwise it would have been up earlier. I was hoping to get it out in some time in September, but college is keeping my schedule packed. Not to mention the fact that I'm in the middle of midterms right now... So anyway, voila! The first chapter of what I anticipate will be a 3-4 chapter story arc. I'm actually really keen on writing the next chapter, though, since it'll focus on Pinkie Pie and what happens to her after she leave's Twilight's place.
As a side note, I really want to thank all of you, the people who've read all the way to this point, and especially the ones who've provided such great feedback! You guys are what make writing this story worth it.
With all that said, I wanna share a few things with you guys for shits and giggles, because at this point, you deserve insight into things.
For starters...
Is this not the saddest shit you've ever seen? Seriously, this picture hit me so hard in the feels the first time I saw it that I felt like having Alex adopt a dove and calling him Archimedes. Then I scrapped the idea because I realized I couldn't really do anything else with it besides being a reference. But still, that photo is some pretty powerful stuff...
And in case some of you guys are curious, I've managed to dig up a picture of a blue Power-Core!
A beautiful photo if I do say so myself. Not much more to say beyond that.
Now then, one last thing. I've been doing a lot of reflection about Rose as a character, recently, especially since she's a major character in this arc. And the more and more I think about her, the more and more I both love and hate her. The way I'm trying to characterize Rose is fairly straightforward. As an AI, she essentially has processors that allow her to think much faster than any organic entity could. Because of this, I'm trying to build her up as a character whose every action, from the largest gestures to the smallest of facial movements, is calculated and planned.
Not only this, but as a Liandri, Rose has perfect control over her body. For instance: she's able to manipulate the chocolate bit with ease because she's performing all the necessary calculations to do so. For her, it's all just physics and math. Every time she displays some sort of emotion, it's because she wants whoever is nearby to know she's angry, or happy, or curious, or what have you. Unlike a human or pony, she does nothing involuntarily. She doesn't have to display emotion if she doesn't want to, which is also why she's such a good liar. In fact, I imagine she'd be one hell of a poker player.
Now, why do I hate her? It's because of everything that I just mentioned that makes Rose extremely tough to write! Every action of hers is thought out. Everything she does has a reason behind it. Nothing is superfluous. Not to mention her cynical personality... In all honesty, aside from college work, Rose was the main reason why this chapter took so long to write. I wanted to get her juuuuuust right, and even then, I'm still not sure if I succeeded or not.
In the end, that's what I feel makes her interesting, at least to me.
Last-last thing, I swear. A while back, I saw a couple of threads talking about theme songs for OCs. So I did a bit of thinking, and I ran into something that I feel suits Rose, and I'd like to share it with anyone who's interested.
Alright, that's it, I'm done. As always, if you have any questions about anything, don't be afraid to ask. Also, word to the wise: I'm writing the story in such a way that you can get the most out of it by analyzing it and speculating about things. Small details are key!
Now then, time for me to prepare an oral presentation about a comic book character that looks suspiciously like Gordon Freeman...
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Good chapter!
I approve
A good chapter and I do like the song you put up. I know that Rose is a AI and it, or she can be challenging to write about. I can see that Alex sent her out to improve on her personality. He is happy that her personality is developing at a staggering rate. I like to know is Roses personality just a calculation or is there sum thing there? Normally a computer is not sad or happy, it just runs programs. It has no satisfaction on a job will dun. Rose is a AI that has exceeded her programs how far can she go. She is there for Alex. Is this just a program or is it just a calculation to simulate life? Can she make a choiws on her own or is she limited by her programming?
Keep up the grate Job you are doing on this story. I know that school is slowing you down. It just makes us look forward all the more for the next chapter you put out. I like to see Alex reaction to Pinkie Pie ability's to distort reality. Will he be able to work it out or go crazy like Twilight did when she try to work out that which is Pinkie? Was it Pinkie Pie poling out her party cannon out of no where that set off his defenses at his lab?
Dragonfox
I'm sorry-- Rose da Nose. Only a commander cause he's Jewish. I'm sorry. Had to say that.
Fun read! Like the focus on Rose.
3298168 I... I... What?
3297998 AIs in general, be it in the realm of reality or science fiction, are poorly understood. I'm running with the Mass Effect definition of intelligences (both artificial and virtual) in the sense that an Artificial Intelligence is virtually the same thing as a natural one, only its "brain" is computerized instead of being organic. A virtual intelligence (the driver of every other Liandri) is just a highly advance program that can't really think outside of its designated area of expertise. A security bot can adapt to virtually any combat situation, but it won't even attempt to figure out the best way to bake a cake, even if it were asked. That's also a reason why they're shit conversationalists, which Pinkie will discover in the next chapter.
Now then... because AIs are a very peculiar thing, I'm trying to give them a certain "nature," such as how they develop and how they behave before, during, and after said development. But why am I going through this much trouble to define an entire "growing up" process for AIs?
I have a reason for it.
3298519
In Enders Game, one of the commanders is named Rose. In that canon, Jewish commanders are seen as almost undefeatable. . I'm soooo sorry!
3298552 Oh! I've never actually read Ender's game, so I didn't know that. And hey, you don't need to apologize for anything, it's all good.
Gordon Frohman?
It seems to me that Rose enjoys fucking with other ponies head's. With the ability to synthesize robotic bodies that could potentially look like almost anything gives opportunity for some really fucked up pranks.
3298519 if you were to ask me an AI would be a self-learning computer, using past experiences or learned data to make descisions that would be best for the situation. To me the perfect definition of a TRUE AI would be a smart AI from halo, like cortana, or Black Box (BB). A smart AI in halo can think thousands of times faster than a human; a seconds pause in a conversation with the BB AI would be like hours of careful thought and consideration from a human. This does not mean that an AI would be perfect, however, like cortana and the master chief. In several instances the chief outsmarts cortana despite her clear advantages, including that cortana was one of the most advanced AI created in human history. While cortana can assess the situation and come with the best logical solution, she is somewhat close-minded while the chief is better at thinking out of the box. Rose would almost be a "dumb" AI in halo terms; a smart AI is literally a copy of the human brain put in a device that allows for much faster thinking capabilities and a larger space for data storage, with no corruption. It comes with a drawback, however, because after around seven years they literally think themselves to death and must be decomissioned before they do something harmful; this is also known as rampancy.
4835955 yes but that's the problem right there. Machine are not meant to be human. For one, the way we go about things is wrong considering a computers memory would be near flawless and they bring up whole pictures while the human brain's memories decay, and most of the time the brain doesn't even form the right shape when remembering something. If a computer did that they would be getting the wrong data since to the computer a circle would look like an orange not an apple. While our brains make that connection almost instantly.
And those of you who thought that the brain works with complete images learned something if you read this... Wow this story really is bringing my scientist side out.
Who looks like me?
Darn it, the power core image is missing. I wanted to see it!
It seems rather stupid of them to ignore magic. It's only superstition if it doesn't work. Now that they have proof of some sort of actual physical effect, which is also what operates all their machinery (even if they thought it irrelevant before), this is now the time to research the heck out of it, because clearly there's a whole new field of science here. Obviously it's useful for a lot more than power generation!