Friendship is Software

by Rough_Draft

Unfinished Scenes No. 1: The Final Showdown

For Twilight Sparkle, what unfolded before her eyes wasn’t a battle.

Rather, it was a ballet.

She stood on the edge of the platform, watching her teammates leap into the fray. But she only half-saw them; on her visor, reams of data and network commands zipped by like a swarm of bees on a hot summer day. Twilight didn’t need to open her mouth or lift a finger. Through her Grid node, every thought was automatically translated into someone else's action.

Below stood Sunset Shimmer, whose face was locked in a permanent snarl as Nightmare Moon’s grip tightened. Silver ripples spread out from her fingertips, twisting into long tendrils that struck out at anyone who came near to the comatose body in the stasis pod. But Twilight wasn’t scared. She could see the bots’ source code firsthand: a rudimentary targeting software that had been obsolete for ages.

With a shrug, Twilight sent her strongest fighters into the heart of the swarm. Applejack hollered as she raced forward, slicing her gloves through the swarm to collect every stray bot that Rainbow Dash hadn't blasted with her repulsors. Second by second, the swarm broke apart, reformed itself into a new concentrated burst... and then fell apart again.

Meanwhile, Rarity knelt a few feet away from the stasis pod, just out of range of the swarm. Twilight could see everything through her eyes, every last bit of code as her elegant friend bit her lip and threw every code-stealer subroutine she could find.

Green lights flashed on and off on the pod’s glossy black surface, distracting Sunset long enough to redirect her swarm toward the defenseless Rarity—

Which was exactly what Twilight was counting on.

Now, she thought, putting all her focus onto the word.

She watched Sunset take a step forward, only to suddenly falter. The possessed girl doubled over and sneezed, scattering a whole silver cloud of bots right into Fluttershy's path.

Twilight flashed a sequence of variables to the thin girl standing closer to the platform. She saw Fluttershy answer with a resolute nod and raise both her hands.

Bright green ripples flowed out from her fingertips, intercepting Sunset’s bots en masse. Twilight tracked the telemetry of over ten thousand nanomeds grabbing hold of the hostile swarm. Her visor display registered a seventy-six percent success rate within the first five seconds of contact.

And as for the remaining twenty-four percent—

“Fly, my pretties! Fly!” a cheery voice cried out. Out the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Pinkie Pie dancing and waving her hands around. She sculpted elaborate illusions of color and detail. Lifelike replicas of Twilight and Spike, which the bots attacked out of habit. Like watching fruit flies attacking the image of a banana.

Bit by bit, though each rapid-fire line of code, the swarm was weakened. Between Pinkie’s distractions and Fluttershy’s conversions, the outdated bots didn’t stand a chance.

Twilight glanced left, finally sparing a moment to look Sunset Shimmer in the eye. The fiery woman stared back; her rage had given way to sheer disbelief.

In response, Twilight held her arms out wide, as if to say, What did you expect?

But as she looked over Sunset, Twilight felt a twisting sensation in her gut. She imagined that this was how Celestia felt when she faced her own corrupted sister. In the end, even Nightmare Moon was just a puppet of the actual virus. An unthinking hunger that took hold of whatever tools it could find, be it digital or organic.

Then it’s time we rooted out this out, Twilight vowed. She lifted her head, taking in the whole Vault.

“Got it!” Rarity declared. With a quick toss of her hair, she glanced back at Twilight. “The stasis pod is unlocked!”

Sunset—or whatever was using her—hissed and stepped forward. “Do not break the seal, her mind makes us real—”

“Too late,” said Twilight. She chopped her right hand down. “Girls, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash proceeded to stand guard on either side of the pod as the lid slid away. Then Fluttershy knelt beside Rarity. The two girls moved their hands in unison, coordinating a swarm of bright green bots and ghostly AI though the air, right into the pod.

As soon as she stepped forward to get a better view, Twilight got a sudden text from Rarity.

LadyCastellan: I wouldn’t look if I were you, darling.

Twilight shook her head and sent her own reply.

StarSwirl70: I’m not afraid anymore.

StarSwirl70: Let’s take a look.

Even from across the inner Vault, she could see the eyes squeezed shut and the pale complexion. Tangles of murky white IV tubes draped across her chest like seaweed. Magnifying her visual input, Twilight focused on the stern jaw of the pod’s occupant.

To say that Network Administrator Luna looked bad was an understatement.

“Don’t look at us,” Sunset Shimmer hissed. She dropped to her knees, arms falling slack as her face did the same. “D-don’t look at us, we beg you…”

Slowly, the five girls standing over the stasis pod turned toward Twilight. Even Spike stared up at her, his tail wagging fast.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Twilight replied, loud enough for all to hear. “Really, I am. But the virus isn't who you are.” She glanced from the pod to Sunset Shimmer. “Either of you. It’s time to wake up.”

Placing her hand on Spike’s head, Twilight paused to absorb all the code streaming across her visor. A million little inputs from a set of very unlikely friends.

And there it was: the Source Code Shield, in all its glory. A microcosm of the intricate language that formed the Grid. Spread out in the most remote section of Arcadia—and one piece of the code tucked away with one lonely stargazer in Citadel.

It was just as Sysadmin Celestia had said. A plan that was only crazy enough to work.

With a few careful blinks, Twilight wove together the underlying code that linked her friends. Then she stared out at Sunset and Luna.

And a million lines of code went screaming through the air, straight into their nodes.

Author's Note:

As promised, here's the glimpse of the final fight between our heroes and Nightmare Moon in the heart of the Vault. What would have followed was Celestia coming in person to reclaim her sister, now freed from the virus, and the girls inviting Twilight to come live with them in Oldtown.

Coming up next: The final scene!

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

All the codes!