Chapter 25. Glimmer of Life
The door to the small hut flew open, and a small herd of sour, tired, cold, and very angry ponies entered the confined living space. Ironically, the owner of the place was currently being carried inside on the back of a broad blue caretaker.
The black stallion had a huge lump on his forehead where Madame Macadam had punched him. Her trick of shape-shifting into one of his own clay-pony Golems had proven effective for getting close and knocking him out. Nurse Sully had placed a moonstone ring on his horn that would restrain his magic. And Twilight had conjured up some rope to tie him up with.
After that it had been a simple matter of getting him to tell them where he lived.
The Cottage was concealed behind a large shrubbery - under the roots of a big tree. But to call it a cottage would be a simultaneous insult to Zecora, Fluttershy, and everypony else who had made their home in the natural little cubbyholes of the world.
Because those actually took care of her home.
This place was a dump. Huge cracks dotted the loose floorboards, with weed growing in from the dirt below. Filth and mold on covered the walls and windows. The air itself smelled damp and rotten. There was such a thing as living close to nature, and then there was just neglect of all hygiene and comfort.
There was not much in the way of furniture either. The sole room housed but a table and a few stools. A fire was burning underneath a cauldron, with no visible way for the smoke to exit, it instead filled the hut with a steam of mist and soot that only added to the bad air.
Twilight could already feel herself beginning to sweat like she was in a sauna. She had to cast a spell to clear the air and make the temperature inside manageable.
The black stallion was dropped pretty hamphazardly on the floor. As more and more ponies pressed themselves into the small space.
Necro was not the only one being carried. Rarity was also being given a ride on the back of a big brown lumberjack.
The woodcutter (who during the very sketchy introductions, had introduced himself as Mr Tree Thrunks) had appeared like a saint from above in tow with Rarity's parents. The three having teemed up after the Belle's had come knocking at his door.
Apparently they had not been the first to come knocking.
"... I gave him a piece of my mind. And a piece of my hoof!" Thrunks said as he shook his right hoof. "And I told him what I thought. about parents who leave their kids out in the woods like that. Not a few minutes later some pegasus fella comes and starts blabbering on about Celestias graze and what have you not, and said it was of some divide importance that they find that little miss."
Did he say what he wanted to do with her? "Did they tell you about Sweetie, About her true nature."
"He did. and he said right to my face that he needed to send her into the everafter. So I gave him a piece of my other hoof and chased him of ma property. I did not believe a single word about that little miss being, mechanic and what have you not. But ma boy told me. Told me shed been hiding her computer bits under her socks or something."
Dr Cardiac had been trying to get the story straight about what had happened and the three new auditions to this 'search and rescue party' But only Thrunks was eager to talk and listen as he very carefully and gently put Rarity down on a stool next to the table, since there was no bed to put her down on (Seriously - Where did this black stallion even sleep?). Her parents only had eyes and ears for their disstraughted daughter.
"Rarity! Darling dearest! Please say something!"
Rarity had all but shut down. Despite recovering from her blow to the head. She had entered an almost catatonic state.
Her hair had now lost all traces of its former glory. Every curl had been torn down to a dripping mess that hung in wet, dripping tendrils covered in dust gravel and dirt. The colors seemed to have left her body. The harsh conditions had nibbled away at her former grace until nothing remained but a ghostly pale figure. She had not eaten or slept properly in days and the exhaustion was taking its tole on her.
Cracks had appeared on her hooves. Her cheeks had begun to sink in and her ribs was starting to show.
(Nurse sully looked healthy by comparison).
But the worst part was her eyes. They were no longer swollen red and dripping with tears. They were not anything. The spark that had always been there had dimmed out and faded. The massive black rings around her eyes now framed an emptiness that it hurt to look at.
Both her parents were on her trying to snap her out of it, but Rarity only gave them a lifeless stare.
A knot was being tied out of Twilight's heart at the sight of it. She had not had the strength to tell them about Sweeties message.
Could these two really have inserted a control program in their daughters head? Sweetie certainly seemed to think so. and now, so did Rarity.
Everypony was up to something. Screwloose was whimpering at Rarity's hooves. Stroking herself at the mare and licking her, trying to get a reaction. Dr Cardiac was busy trying to get the story straight for Mr Thrunks.
Sully was busy keeping an eye on Dr Morbious and Madame Macadame (Or Dr Heartache, Or whatever her name was). She was levitating a bunch of needles that she threatened to use as weapons if any of them tried anything. and one needle was rolling back and forth over her lip.
The changeling looked too shaken up to fight back. Morbious looked like he would welcome a few needles in his already mangled body, given the way he was grinning with a smile full of missing teeth. The eye that was not swollen shut looked kept staring at the way that caretaker Brick was restraining Necro, probably wishing for a similar treatment.
The black stallion was certainty something too look at. It was most unusual for a woodland pony to be dressing like the director of a circus. Twilight suspected that it was the only suit he had. It would explain why it was so torn. (Just walking through the thorny bushes that covered the entrance to this place would rip his clothes apart eventually - Unless he used his earth magic, or golems to bend it out of the way.)
His top hat still clung to his head only because his horn was hooking it in place through a hole in the brim.
The cooperative Morbious, as well as the Belles had been able to identify him as Necro. Another associate from the dark past of the Belles. Another scientist gone mad.
Twilight could only shake her head. Why was this? Why had every single pony who worked at that horrible place gone completely - as Pinkie would put it - coco in the loco.
Even with ropes tied around his fetlocks, Necro continued to be an nuisance. ever since coming too he had been trying to kick and wriggle his way to freedom, all the while screaming incoherently about being the guardian of this forest. Only the much heavier earth pony held him in an unbreakable grip. Sully would have offered to sedate the mad pony into a coma, but she had as of late been running low on supplies after distributing painkilling doses to those who needed it. Besides - Brick was curently in the middle of conducting an interrogation. The nice and easy-going Prick with his bad jokes was gone, He was now a tired and angry stallion who demanded answers.
"Why did you attack us!" Brick screamed in Necros ear.
"I am the guardian of this forests, And I will defend my home from any intruders! You are intruding on my land!" Necro spat
"Furthermore, you are helping that little ... thing! that Unnatural abomination!"
"Never mind that! How did you even find us!"
“I have trained years to become one with my land. I know when someone steps into it!” Necro spat.
"YOUR LAND!?" Mr Thrunks roared. "My family has cared for these woods far longer than you have, Upstart!"
"Is that true miss Sparkle." Brick asked "Can he sense us like that?"
"Yes." Twilight said. "There is a few techniques that allows you to extend your magic energy into the earth, letting you sense it through seismic activity. That way anypony stepping on it would appear on his mental radar. Alternatively he could simply have left magical beacons that alerted if anypony entered the area. "
"Like those clay-ponies, they were like a automated alarm system." Sully confirmed.
"Hold on! Thrunk's roared Hold on! Are you telling me this creep is responsible for running my sawmill out of business!?"
"The forest is a sacred sanctum and not some resource for you to enterprise on! " Necro yelled back. "Somepony had to rise to the task of defending her from greedy cooperation like you!"
"GREEDY!?" Thrunks roared so loud that the walls shook. "I'm barely able to put food on the table for me and ma Boy! And you're calling me greedy for wanting to provide for my family and the ponies who work for me! You, who tried to claim this here whole woods for yourself!"
"And yet you cared for that little machine monstrosity! Shows that your heart is as rusty as your sawblades! It shows that you care more for machines than for nature!"
Thrunk's nostrils flared. The big brown stallion looked like he wanted to pound Necro into the ground. But he kept his control.
"I do not know anything about her being no robot. But I do know that that little gal saved ma boy. And for that I don't care what she is. I ow her my eternal gratitude."
"Do you hear that, Rarity darling? Our little girl is a hero." Rarity father laughed, Trying to get some kind of response from his daughter.
Rarity just answered him with a blackened stare. her energies were spent. She had thought so hard to save her little sister. Only to have Sweetie herself deny her sisterhood when they finally caught up. The psychological strain had simply been to much for her.
Her parents looked like they were about to snap like twigs themselves. They had already lost one daughter, and not the other was on the way down the mental drain. The despair hung so thickly in the air that you could taste it - Particulary if you were a changeling, Which was shy Madam Macadame had to role over and puke again.
"But Twilight!" Mrs Belle cut in "Cant you use that seismic magic and tell us where our daughter is!"
The desperation was clear in her voice.
"Its ... Not that easy." Twilight protested. "I'm not exactly trained in seismic sensing. There has got to be hundreds of creatures running around the woods - I wont be able to tell Sweetie from a squirrel.
"But haven't all the creatures gone to hibernate at this point?"
"- But they are still in touch with the ground - not to mention all the trees and plants and other seismic activity going on underground as the earth shifts. And If Sweetie is still in the water I wont be able to sense a thing, and... "
Necro started laughing.
"Why don't you stop dancing around the issue and tell them. You cant find her! Because no matter how strong of a magician you are, You can't sense her aura!"
Twilight Swallowed.
"Aura? What does aura have to do with anything!?" Mr Belle asked.
"The main way of separating a pony from everything else in your seismic sense is by their ... Magic." Twilight bit her lip when she said it.
There was a silent moment as realization rolled over all of their faces.
Necro started giggling again.
"If you are so good at magic as you say you are. Don't you find it odd that you never sensed anything wrong with that ... thing!"
“I don't delve in to touch other ponies aura at a regular basis!" Twilight shouted "That's just rude! "It would be like going around poking every one with a stick!”
"Maybe - But you have to admit that it comes in dandy handy when you need to track somepony down. Just one locator spell and you can point at any map and tell where anypony is. Except, of course ... When something doesn't have an aura. HA! For a powerful magician you are sure pretty blind!"
Necro laughed before Brick twisted his leg in a way that made him gasp in pain.
Twilight lowered her head. She had to admit that the mad stallion was right.
“I never sensed anything wrong with Sweetie Bell. I never imaged It would be because I couldn’t sense anything from her at all. Everything magical gives of a magic aura that other magicians can sense if they look for it, if they have the training or the spell. In some cases, if the source is strong enough its actually difficult even for a weaker magician to ignore. In reverse its harder for a strong magician to sense a weak one. I ... I simply assumed Sweeties magic aura was to weak for me to notice. But now i think its more because she has an aura i can't sense.”
“She doesn’t have an aura” Necro shouted "She does not have any magic! This just proves that she isn’t natural. She has no place in this world! My Clay Ponies are more alive than her! for they are made of dirt!”
“Silence!”
Brick tightened his grip on Necro. But through the pain of the restraint Necro kept on bragging about how much better he was than Twilight.
“This is why you hasn’t found that little monster yet! Your tracking spells can't work if they have nothing to home in on!”
“Be quiet!”
Brick pressed down on Necro so hard his chin hit the floor. His hat almost bounced off his head. Only the moonstone ring upon his horn prevented it from falling off completely.
Screwloose decides she should aid brick, and bit down on Necro's tail. The stallion screamed as the mad mare started Pulling and tugging at his rear limb. Dr Cardiac tried to pull her off. But the mad mare would not let go.
The tail however - did.
With the sound of a cork being unplugged from a bottleneck - the red extension of pony hair ended up limp in Screwlooses mouth, as she and Cardiac stumbled backwards into the nearest wall.
"Well ... You know they say mad people are 'falling apart'." Brick said.
Nopony called him a prick. They were all to busy staring an the naked tail stump. Though, naked was the wrong word - while not a single Red straw covered the rear stump. It was covered in the same short black fur that covered the rest of Necro's body. That - and a whole lot of dried glue.
Twilight took the red tail from Screwloose, and exterminated the end. There was a hole- Big enough to fit over the tailbone. The insides covered in more old glue.
The tail was fake.
"So you use prosthetic tails to cover up your baldness." Brick taunted.
"S... shut up!" Said Necro. The whole situation had suddenly made him very quiet.
"What? Didn't you have enough for a wig too?" Brick continued.
"Of course he doesn't" Said Morbious, Grinning with a mouth full of missing teeth. "His original wig burned up in the great fire."
Brick teasingly flicked his hoof at Necro's hat. Causing it to swing around on his horn to hang down over his face.
"Its not baldness" Twilight began. "Its a rare condition when the mane and tail only sprouts the same short hairs that covers our bodies called ..."
Before she could pronounce the over complicated medical name for this condition, she noticed sticking out of the back of Necro's head.
Everypony else noticed it too. Some of them gasped for air. Brick even let go of Necro to stumble back.
It was an obscenely large scar that covered most of the back of the black stallions scalp. Framing in what looked like some form coin slot out of zinc or some other gleaming metal. Whatever it was, this rectangular metal plate was attached to the cranium by the way of screws. and causing some kind of infection-reaction, judging by the discolored skin and scar tissue that surrounded it.
In the center of this plate was a wide rectangular slot. And from that slot, A round blue crystal was sticking out.
Twilight gasped for air, this stallion had a blue disk in his head. Three quarters inserted into that coin slot, sticking out just enough for one to be able to grab it with a hoof. And there was a light coming from it. So faith that it was barely notable. But looking closely, Twilight could see some faint sparks jumping around inside the crystal.
The thing was active!
A part of Twilight wanted to throw up. If that crystal was as bid as the other disks it would reach all the way into the brain.
Specifically the Occipital Lobe, responsible for visual memories, located in the back of the brain.
Another part of her. The scientist, was curious beyond belief.
She reached out and touched the thing with her magic. She tried to analyze it. Get some kind of feeling from whatever magic was at work here. But she came up empty hoofed, despite visible evidence of activity. Despite that the thing was not hooked up any electronic souses. Or was it? No. This stallion could not be a Robot. It went against everything.
"What are you doing back there!" Necro screamed and began to flail around. Brick and Trunks had to work together to hold him down.
They pinned him on his belly as Twilight used her magic to hold his head still, trying to get a better look.
“It looks just like the disk that was in poor Screwloose's head” Said Dr Cardiac, having taken interest.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Necro screamed, and started to wriggle around more than ever.
"Fassssinating..."
The hissing voice of Dr Morbious leaned in closer - Despite sully stabbing him with her needles.
"You still use those recording devises, Necro?" He asked "What are you even recording out here in these woods?"
"Recording devises?" Twilight asked, then gasped as a theory hit her. "Is this how you extracted data to put in Sweetie Belle?"
"Yessss, and no. These particular devises were used to record our research. Dr Neurosa insisted that instead that in order to safeguard our research, we should put all future information on these little disks. that way - in the event we were found out, nopony would know how to access the information. You see - any neurological activity that passes through the crystals inner circuitry will be copied onto it. Specifically everything we see and hear."
"Once they might have been!" Necro shouted, "But with time we discovered that these disk also enhances neurological energy. That's right little foal! Our brains have been upgraded! Our genius enhanced! Our thought process boosted. And out magic increased!"
"Just like Screwloose!" Dr Cardiac said in shock. "You mean, somepony used her, as a prototype!?"
Twilight stared at Morbious.
"You are telling me that you all have these things in your heads?!"
"Not all the time" Morbious smiled "They were designed for easy removal."
Twilight rose from Necro's back, and grabbed Morbious by the neck. She bent down his head and magically scooped away the green mane from his neck. There, indeed. She found a very similar, thought empty, coin-slot.
The same thing was true for Madame Macadame. Despite having turned back to her gypsy from, she still carried the coin-slot under her mane. Twilight suspected the thing remained a constant no matter which from she took.
She looked at the empty coin slot at the back of Morbious's head. Then back to Necro. She magically grabbed the blue disk in his neck, and pulled it out. (The thing actually produced a sound similar to that of a cash register when it was removed.)
Necro immediately started screaming
”NO! MY MAGIC! GIVE ME BACK MY MAGIC!”
Twilight watched the blue disk closely, the energy inside it faded away the instant she had pulled it out of the black stallions scull.
A wave of terror gripped her, and she almost dropped the disk out of fear.
"But these things grow!" Twilight said. "Sweeties brain grew from one of these crystals merging with her undeveloped brain mass! And you willingly put these things in your heads!"
"They - What?" Said Madame Macadam, and grabbed her head. "Nopony told me!"
Even Necro looked a little surprised.
By Celestia, How much did your boss hide from you!?
The only pony who didn't seem surprised was Morbious, with his ever frozen smile.
"That's why we have these little slots." He said, and tapped his neck. "They not only provide easy access for out 'recording tape' They also protect us from its unexplained influence. Because - In case you did not noticed - Sweeties cybercore did not continue to grow past the brain. The rest of her body was not consumed by the metamorphosis. Neurosa ensured us of that."
Twilight was not willing to take his word for it. She had a hunch and a theory that needed exploring. She lit up her horn - and let the X-ray spell wash over Morbious head, Specifically his neck.
She wished she had been wrong.
Around the coin sloth appeared a rim of crystallized brain matter. Like rime-frost upon oatmeal left out in the snow. And from the rim, thin trails 'frozen' brain matter extended out over the back of his gray matter, like cracks in the glass after somepony had rammed a nail into it. (which kind of was a fitting metaphor for the implant itself.)
Twilight let the X ray fall on Madam Macadam. It wasn’t as bad for her but you could still see the traces of crystallization on the brain matter. Even though the changeling had taken the form of a pony, the frosting upon her brain was visible.
Necro by far had the worst damage. From the coin sloth in the back of his head extended thicker tendrils that rehashed as far as halfway across his brain. Particularly one, that journeyed across the midriff of his brain halves, all the way to his forehead, and then up through the nasty crack that almost reached the tip of his horn.
Twilight had thought the pony suffered from some kind of horn rot disease due to his less than bacteria free lifestyle. But it seemed the reason for his pain was something far different.
Macadame did not take kindly to the news. She grabbed her head and cried out in despair.
"I'm .... I'm .... BRAIN DAMAGED!"
The shock was so great that her chosen shape shattered, and she reverted back to her true insectoid like form.
Rarity's parents. Who had never seen Macadam's true from, were terrified, and the terror only made the changeling feel sicker.
"How fassssscinating" Morbious mumbled, seeming undisturbed by the news "I wonder if my brain will eventually turn into a cybercore?"
"No! NO! you are lying" Necro shouted "I am a guardian of the forest! I am a fiend of all things unnatural - I am not made up of parts and pieces like that Little monstrosity!"
"How? HOW!?" Madame cried. "She promised me there would be no side effects! There wasn't even any magical radiation coming from these things. how can something un-magical transform tissue like this!"
How indeed? Twilight was trying to think. But the surrounding noise was to high.
"How could you be so stupid as to put untested equipment in your most vital organ" Nurce sully said with a deadpanned facehoof.
"I know the line between genius and madness is thins as a spiders thread, But cheese!"
"Science requires sacrifices. And we needed them to record our experiments." Morbious said with a casual shrug.
"But these things are not mere recording devices." Twilight said. "Sweetie is made up of these."
"She is made up of a lot of things. Circuitry crystals and processor crystals, not to mention all the pain simulation crystals and artificial organ simulator crystals - In the end, they are all some form of recording devises. Hard drives that we stored different kinds of energies and information on."
"Please! Don't talk about our daughter like she is some mere storage unit!" Mr and Mrs Belle pleaded.
”She isn't a Pony" Necro shouted."She is just parts and Pieces. Pull Out her processor and she stops functioning!”
Twilight gritted her teeth.
“OF COURSE! Pull the brain out of a pony and that pony isn't going to function either!”
She was about to throw the blue disk at Necro´s head. But stopped mid trow as a thought came to her.
“Brain … Brainwaves ...”
"What is the brain if not the biggest storage unit we have - Of memories and emotions?"
Lost in thought she was able to ignore Necro screaming that his Goulems worked without brains and that he wished he was a Golem. Nurse Sully was about to shove a needle up the raving stallions rear, when twilight stopped her.
“Necro... What did you say that this does?” She asked, as she waved the crystal I front of his face.
“IT STRENGTHENS MY MAGIC.”
Twilight didn't understand. There was nothing magical about the disk. No magical radiation that could amplify magic power. And even if it was, the discs couldn't be read by a organic mind.
”But how?” She asked
”It strengthens the brainwaves – and through that it strengthens my magic. Magic originates in the brain – so the smarter you are the stronger your magic becomes.”
Twilight had to restrain herself from going on a lecture about how intelligence does not equal raw magic power. Where did this guy get that from? Role playing games?
“Brainwaves...”
She looked at Dr Cardiac and Screwloose.
"Why did you say somepony put one of these things in your patients brain"
"I thought..." Cardiac stammered "I always thought that somepony had tried to cure her mental illness through some form of shock therapy. Maybe even make her smarter ... By rewriting the synapses."
Twilight could feel her own brain wrinkle as she thought about what Dr Cardiac had said about Brainwaves and synapses. About how these disks had been used on Screwloose to supposedly amplify brainwaves, And how they now was suppose to store data and energy.
She could almost feel the electrical signals jump between her brainless as a metaphorical lightbulb ignited in her mind.
She was onto something here.
"Madame Macadam! Alchemist! I need to preform a test, and I need your help!"
Twilight turned and looked between Morbious and Sully, then had to look under the table, where Madam Macadam had crawled into a fetal position. the changeling was now shaking like mad.
“Despair... So much despair... Not Tasty” she mumbled before trowing up.
It was true. The group was succumbing to despair. Especially Rarity.
It was devastating to see her friend so devastated. She was hanging on by her last thread.
She was suppose to Be their leader! She had to give them hope. She had to help her friend. She had to make her friend believe again.
But to do that - she first needed to figure out what it was she was looking at. This blue disk.
Twilight walked up to, and started shaking the changeling.
“Madame. Listen to me. I need your help. And when we succeed you can feed on all the hope we can give you. Okay?”
The channeling locked up at her. Twilight must have beamed self confidence enough, for the shaking subsided.
“What do you need from me.” she asked.
“I need you to repeat the transmutation you where going to preform om Sweetie Bell.”
The changeling wanted to throw up again. But Twilight pulled her up from under the table.
***
A transmutation circle was drawn in the middle of the room. In its center, a few blue disks were placed together with a piece of wood and a metal stove from the cauldron, as well as a few other items of different materials found around the house. Twilight instructed her that she should try to transmute the various items by channel the transmutative energy threw the blue crystals and out to all the other objects.
Madame finished drawing the transmutation circle, rubbed her hooves, and slammed them down on her circle. A green light appeared, and for a few seconds. the contents of the circle was hidden behind a veil of green flame.
Then the fire subsided. It at first appeared as if nothing had happened.
"I'm telling you. There is no energy for me to pull out of these things."
Twilight did not let herself be brought down. In fact she smiled as she put her hoof on Madame's shoulder, and told her to try again.
"This time. Channel electricity through the crystals and into the other objects. And Don't worry. I'll stand for the electricity” She added before Madame Macadame could ask where she would get electricity from in this hole in the ground.
A small crack of thunder was heard as Twilight lit up her horn. Using magic gave her a migraine as all the hunger and exhaustion, plus all the magic draining weighed down on her. But she still produced a low frequency stream of lightning from the tip of her horn, and let it wash over the items. The energy passed through the crystals as if they sucked it in. Making them light up as their circuitry pattern glowed like the filament of a light bulb, before the electricity passed on through the circle, and down into the floor.
This was a test that could take anything between weeks, months and years, by Twilight's assumptions. But the Alchemist would help speed up the process by forcing the transformation to occur almost instantly.
Madame lit up her circle again. And this time the effect was clear for everypony. From the crystals, and out over the wood and metal objects, a faint layer of frost like gleam started to appear. The surface of the objects started to transform before their eyes.
The transformation did not just occur where the disks touched anything. But anywhere the electricity jumped, dots of a gleaming substance started too appear.
The light of the circle died out as the changeling had to remove her hooves. She was panting and sweating, the transmutation having drained the slat of her energies.
Even Twilight could feel the strain as her migraine worsened. Put she pushed the pain beneath her horn aside as she picked up a metallic spoon from the circle. It had transformed almost completely into a much more crystallized material. The same kind of crystal as the blue disk where made of. Twilight was sure of it.
Twilight examined the items in her magic, and confirmed her suspicions.
“EUREKA!” She shouted.
“What!” The other ponies asked, rubbing their ears at her outburst.
“Electricity! It travels through electricity That was why no one detected any radiation! The energy of the crystal only travels by electricity!”
She looked back at Necro, Madame and Dr Morbious. Even without the X ray spell she could see the brain damage that these things had caused.
It all made sense now. How the magical properties of these disks had escaped the notice of the scientists and all their high-tech measuring equipment. Any attempts to measure it would have come up empty because it would have been hidden in the electrical frequency of the machine. And any unicorns examining the crystal would simply see the electricity running through it, or nothing at all.
But the magic was carried out of the crystal, on the electrical waves of electronic equipment - Or the electric impulses of brainwaves. Slowly it turned anything the energy passed through into crystallized matter. So slowly that you wouldn't notice it at first.
These ponies had been using their implants for the better part of a decade now. Especially Necro, who had used it constantly, and thus suffered the worst side effects.
"It was true what you said Morbious. These crystals do have the ability to re-write energy! I'm guessing that any magic that passes through these things becomes re written into some kind of digital energy. Its no wonder no unicorn can sense any radiation coming from them! Because there isn't any, At least - not as long as the devise is unplugged! The energy can only start moving with the help of the electricity that is needed for the component to function in the first place!"
Twilight was almost jumping up and down with excitement. She only calmed down after - as promised - Letting the starving Madame Macadam feed of that rush Twilight was experiencing after solving a mystery.
And this helps us how?” said. Cardiac “Does this test serve any purpose?” - or are you just satisfying your own curiosity? was the underlying question.
“Dr Cardiac. You asked me why I’ve been so interested in how sweetie works – I was hoping go gain some clue about how I could use magic to find her”
'And don’t even dare to give me that “is-that-all-the-reasons-look.' she thought.
That's when Rarity actually made a noise.
"Twilight... you saw her... you heard her. She isn't Sweetie any more! She does not want to be. What if its already to late!? what if she is already a machine?"
"No. She can't be!" Her parents pleaded.
"She wants to crack her Heart-Drive"
"But then... Her soul..."
"She does not have a soul!" Shouted Necro.
Rarity's eyes where pleading. Begging Twilight to give her hope. To restore her fate in Sweetie.
But how could she? How was she suppose to prove life? How was she suppose to prove that something had a soul After everything had tried so hard to prove the opposite. Especially since the soul was a concept nopony never been able to understand or explain.
'But I will try'. She though. 'For Rarity's sake.'
Twilight looked at the blue disk in her levitation. 'Choose your next words carefully' she thought. 'For you are holding the key to sweeties existence in your hooves'.
She thought about what Shockwave had said.
“The soul is like a seed … it grows with the flower.”
She thought about what Cardiac had said about wrinkles and synapses on the brain.
She thought (with some level of disgust) about what Dr Morbious had said about their experiences.
“is there such a thing as an artificial soul?”
“If we create something entirely new – what are we gonna compare it to?”
She could feel her own brains wrinkle as she tried to come up with an explanation.
One last theory. One half sound argument that Sweetie was alive.
“The crystal" She said, holding up the sample for all to see "Is like a brain. It stores information in the form of energy. Just like the electricity between the synapses on the brain it to has a lot of energy running between its crystallized components."
She looked to the Belle's. One family desperately looking for their youngest member. Not for a replicate that had replaced their still born foal. Nor the copy of said organic foal into a mechanical duplicate. But the being they had raised and loved under all these years.
Who under their care had grown to become one of the, If not the Sweetest little filly in all of Ponyville (Pun intended.)
If they believed Sweetie was alive. Who was to argue?
Apparently Necro. Who started shouting:
“They killed her! They killed their little child for experiments!” Then he started laughing. “That is if that thing was even alive to begin with. Which I doubt.”
“I saw that little freak an I just wondered – how could that have a soul? How could that have a soul when it wasn't even alive. O sure the heart was beating fine. But there was nothing in there. It was just an empty shell. A useless soulless bag of meat!”
“SILENCE!” Brick and Thrunks roared simultaneously, and put more pressure on Necro's already straining limbs.
“Hes right.”
Everypony turned to look at Twilight. Surprised that she would give the mad stallion her conformation.
“She agrees with me!” Necro smiled
“Hes right.” Twilight Continued “Sweetie was never alive. At least not mentally. Her brain wouldn't evolve – it wouldn't wrinkle."
She looked at Rarity's parents, and at rarity herself. all of who, with much hesitation, gave a slight nod.
"It was like Shockwave said, What is a soul locked in a crystal, or in a severed heart? Worthless as an unplanted seed. For it can not grow without a body to experience the world through. So you tried to give her a brain. With this.”
She held up the blue disk. "You tried to give Sweetie life. And in the end you ended up turning her into something completely new, something different from a pony."
“An unnatural abomination of metal!” yelled Necro.
Twilight smiled.
“But regardless of what she became, her mind did evolve. On these!”
She levitated every sample of blue crystal she had collected over to the Belle's who took them in their hooves.
"Shockwave was right. They did need a blank slate. An already self concussions mind would likely have rejected the implants. Just like the transformation is being rejected on these poor ponies."
She gestured over at the brain damaged trio of Necro, Morbious, and Madame macadam.
Screwloose barked in agreement.
"Does this mean Sweetie is insane?" Brick asked. He like all the others. Looked very unsure about what twilight was saying.
"No. She did not have a mind that could go insane from the implants – that's the beauty of it. Her undeveloped brain turned into crystal just like a brain would become wrinkled."
For her inner eye, the photographs of Sweeties developing mind flashed by. Twilight had not thought about it before. But in retrospect, the growing branches that formed as the crystalization spread over the blank brain mass had almost looked like a central brainstem.
That simple statement from Twilight changed everything.
Everypony looked at each other, and at everything else. Twilight could almost hear the silent mumbling everypony was conducting within themselves. If ponies could share processing power by way of eye contact, then a lot of information was now unspokenly trading users. and through that, it was like a common understanding of everything was reached. Especially for Rarity's parents parents. Who shoe up like the collective light bulb in this. It was as if they never hat thought of it like this before.
Cardiac smiled – and for the first time in a long time – perhaps the first time ever - he shot Twilight an approving look, as he understood what she was trying to do.
Twilight waited for the final white light bulb to ignite in Rarity. The seamstress still hung her head low, staring through the old and blood stained imperfect devise that Screwloose had once held. Slowly she lifted her eyes from the floor and looked up at Twilight.
“But you saw her at the bridge.” Rarity said with a shaking voice.
Dr Cardiac quickly cut in.
“And did you all notice the one extraordinary thing she did? She called herself bot. Sweetie bot. She called herself a robot.”
“How is that a good thing?” Asked the whole Belle family
“And she hated it!”
“How is that better!?”
“It means she is starting to accept it."
Cardiac removed his glasses, and shipped them off on his torn and dirty coat.
"They say that the road to acceptance goes through – denial – anger - bargain and depression."
He looked at Thrunks.
"The reason she ran from your home must have been because your son found out! She has been running this whole time from ponies who will remind he of what she is. Because she denies it. She tried to find a new sanctrum with me. Where nopony would know who or what she was. At least she thought nopony did. But alas, that possibility was denied her. And she could not run from the biggest reminder of them all - Herself. These series of unfortunate events have forced her to see herself for what she really is ..."
Necro aborted his teachings.
"So she is accepting that she is a soulless automation!" The black stallion shouted "Good! Then maybe its time for you all to start accepting that machines cant have souls!"
"Yes she does!" Twilight shouted back "It evolved on this! Just like her mind developed on these disk so did her soul."
"What is a soul if not the combined collection of all of our memories and experiences?" Said Morbious.
Twilight nodded in agreement.
"The mind and the soul is basically one and the same. The soul needs a body to experience the world through, in order to grow. A functioning mind that is the soil in which the seed of a personality can take root, to grow and bloom. The stillborn Sweetie wouldn't be able to develop a soul since she couldn't live! But you gave her a chance to live by giving her a new body and a mind. A component that absorbed and expanded her essences."
"The circuitry that has formed inside these crystal formations of these disks, and inside Sweeties head, are like the wrinkles on our brains. They grow, change, and develop as more information in stored inside them. Not information in the form of code that gets typed in by keyboard or fed through a cable. But in the form of memories, through the things we experience every day of out lives."
"If your soul is your essences, and your essences are your personality, then it is formed by the life you live. Then Sweetie does have a soul!"
Again, everypony exchanged looks. Twilight could not help but giggle, By exchanging a few words with a mad stallion they had collectively just created something that sounded like a bit of philosophical poetry.
Even though Pinkie Pie was many miles away, Twilight could almost hear her pink friend detecting another big doosey on her Pinkie Sense.
A doosey indeed. Twilight thought, as she remembered how much she had doubted the unexplainable.
Sometimes, you just have to believe.
Necro was still not believing any of it.
"But what about her mark!" He shouted "She can never have a mark! For she is no pony. She is unnatural.
“Yeah!" Twilight sighed "But lets remember that little stillborn Sweetie would never have gotten any mark either, unless it is a talent to be braindead!”
The mood in the room, that had been lighting up a second ago, seemed to faint again. Madame let out a new convulsion.
“Sorry” Twilight apologized for her bad choice of words. She was just so very tired. The all were
She turned and looked out the window. The rain was beginning to subside, but blue skies and sun rays still seemed so far away. Twilight hadn't seen the light of her mentors sun in days, And she wondered if she would go insane if she kept following the bad weather like this.
She took a deep breath and signed. Her breath turning to vapor on the glass.
If we create something entirely new. What are we gonna compare it to.
“Sweetie might have become something un-pony like. But that doesn’t change the fact that you gave her a chance to live. You gave a stillborn child life. And that is all that matters.”
Nurse sedate Shook her head. “Confound in these theory’s they are making my head spin.”
“How can you say that she grew as a person when we still had to program her – Like a machine!” Said Necro - The ever growing presence of annoyance in Twilight's eyes.
“You had to program her body functions." Twilight answered "And you said even that was easy because the brain already seemed to know how an organic body should work. But did you even once try to program her personality”
“No. That would have been against everything the project stood for.” Madame coughed up between her convulsions.
“The problem was she wouldn’t develop a personality.” Said Morbious. “She was a hard drive without feelings, without emotions, that simply wouldn't care about a needle through the hoof or the tears of her parents. Believe me, I tried both those things, and more, and I didn't get any responses. She just took it and didn't care. It was all just a new piece of data to her. We tried to make her care but couldn't."
He seemed completely unfazed by the cold, murderous looks that Rarity's parents gave him.
"What? Its the truth and you know it. She might have become sentient. But she was heartless. Until...”
He nodded his head in the direction of Rarity.
Yes. That was the part Twilight to had trouble understanding. How, or what had Rarity done that was so special?
“That kind of cold mentality was the very reason we had to run away from you” Said Rarity's father. His voice filled with anger and sorrow. “When little Sweetie had gained a consciousness... when she came alive. We thought that the project was over. It would just be a little more fine tuning and we would be on our way. But Dr Neurosa wanted more!"
Mrs Belle continued.
"Towards the end, she summoned us to a meeting. She asked us what sort of personality we wanted from our daughter. How we wanted her to behave, how to act, how to speak, etcetera. We looked at each other. We didn't understand the questions. The point was that we would wait and see. Let her develop in whichever way she did. Lite a normal filly."
Twilight's ears perked at this.
But Dr Screwloose wasn't satisfied with our answer. She said she could make Sweetie any way we wanted. That we had a golden opportunity to decide everything about our daughter. An opportunity that other parents should be envious of. She wanted to reboot and program Sweetie Belles thought patterns. She even wanted to input a program that would make Sweetie obey our every word.
"A child should behave after all” – she said. "A child should obey their parents."
Tears were now Streaming down Mrs belles face, all these memories were tearing at her.
"She tried to convince us that it was not brainwashing, since Sweetie's mind was still in the earliest phases of development. And that we from there could basically "implant" a few "suggestions" that would make her the perfect daughter."
"She warned us that if we didn't. Sweetie might grow apart from us. distance herself from ponykind altogether. That she might hate us for what we had turned her into." Mr Belle sniffed. His mustache was becoming full of snot.
"She asked us if we didn't want Sweetie to love us."
"We said Yes. Of course we did!"
"... But! We wanted her to love us on her own terms! And we told Neurosa to her face that we believed that god old fashioned parenting would be the best programming we could give!"
“And how did she take that?” Twilight asked. Realizing she had lost her breath for a second.
Mr Belle shivered.
“She was furious.”
"She wanted more from Sweetie than we were willing to give. She was our daughter. And we said: No!”
Rarity looked up.
“Mom... Dad... Sweetie said she had a control program in her. She... blamed us for putting it in her.”
Just when Twilight didn't think a pony's face could go any darker. The Belle's broke all records.
“That... that... Mare!” Mrs Belle, stammered, spitting out the last word like a curse.
“She did it anyway!” Mr Belle cried out, panic washed over him. "Wasn't the reboot fiasco enough!"
"Reboot ... What reboot?!" Twilight asked.
“They did so much to her. So much we where not aware off!” Mr Belle cried. Seeming to get further and further into hysteria by the second.
"She showed us ..." his wife continued "Neurosa showed us all the horrible things that ... that ... These BASTARDS had been doing to her!"
Mrs Belle lashed out after the scientists, only the fact that Brick and Mr Thrunks happened to be standing in the way prevented her from unleashing her furry onto the trio of brain damaged ponies. (Though - Morbious looked like he would welcome it.)
"Weapons research ... Psychological experiments ... Hardware and software tests ... It had all clouded up out little girls mind! Things that these evil ponies had done without her knowledge. Neurosa offered us a chance to remove it. To wipe the slate clean."
"She ... She was just gowning to remove all the supernumerary files that the others had hidden inside her..." Mr Belle cried. He pulled his Strawhat so hard that straws started to come loose from the rim.
"I ... I just wanted ... her to forget ... all the horrible things" Rarity stammered. "And ... and she did."
Both of her parents were now pulling their hair. Over in the corner, Necro was rolling around with laughter.
"You think ... You actually think Neurosa did not know what we did!" He laughed "She played you like a fiddle! She played us all like a Celestia damned orchestra!"
Twilight had heard enough, and cast a silencing spell upon the mad stallion. But the silence would not give The Belle family any peace.
"And ... and now ... She blames us for everything!" Rarity stammered.
Her parents looked like they had flown into a fit of hysteria.
"Would not the control program disappear during the reboot!" they cried simultaneously. "Did she install it later? Was it ever activated?
If it was, would she be able to resist it? Has she been under its influence this entire time!?"
"Oh my poor little Sweetie!"
Dr Cardiac cut in with an attempt to calm them down.
“If she was programmed into loving you unconditionally, she certainly didn't show it. Doesn’t the fact she ran away contradict any notion of control of any kind?" he asked.
The Belles nodded.
"I wanted to talk to her about these things. I was booking sessions for her in my schedule. But I never got the chance.”
“We have to find her.” They cried out in unison.
But how? Twilight turned back to the window. Searching and locating spells wouldn't work since Sweetie gave of no magical signature. And the new information she had learned about the electrical radiation didn't help. She signed and thought about poor, poor rarity.
“I wish I could use your sisterly bond to locate her.” She whispered to herself. Leaning forward to rest her heavy head on the cold rain stained glass.
But how could she?
Sweeties heart was but a second cyber-core. All emotional energy they might have filled it with would have been transformed into an untraceable cybernetic frequency.
No, said a little voice in her head. That's not how it is. Think Twilight! you already have all the information you need. Just piece this puzzle together!
In her mind. The video recording of Rarity's parents and that mare Neurosa looking at some X ray photos played again.
On them were the image of a heart shaped component, with crack like tendrils moving in from the outer rim.
Transform
Sweetie was full of cyber-crystals. Crystals that had the ability to rewrite all energy into cyber-energy. And even organic matter physical objects into the same material. Sweetie would be no exception. That's why they had to protect the heart, which they in fear of the “absortion” had shielded behind some magic called a firewall.
The heart ... Its not leaking ... Its transforming!
A transformation that her parents had sought to undo by replacing her heart with a new crystal.
A pure organic crystal.
A light dawned on her mind.
It was still Raining outside. But for Twilight, it was like the veil of clouds had suddenly dispersed.
"OF COURSE! I'VE BEEN AN IDIOT!"
The others could just stare. There was something about hearing Celestia's protege calling herself an idiot.
Twilight danced back and forth. again feeling the rush of another mystery solved.
"I finally understand. Emotions radiate energy! You don’t program those energy's. You needed to give Sweetie those energy's! The crystals absorbs energy! So If her mind could absorb those energies, then she might actually evolve real emotions!"
Madame and Morbious exchanged looks.
"Yessss ... that's what we have been saying."
"No you don't! None none of you thought about that until Rarity did it! You all waited on that she would evolve those feelings on her own, am I not correct! But she didn't start doing that until Rarity showed her how."
Twilight grabbed Rarity by the hooves and pulled her up into her dance.
"You preformed the very first emotional transfer!"
Rarity was as limp as a doll, and just flung along as Twilight danced on.
"What do you mean." She whispered "I don't know anything about transferring emotions."
"But you did!" Twilight laughed "Because you loved your sister so much you gave her a bit of your love!"
"How?"
"The crystal - you gave her a crystal heart! Not an artificial cyber-core, but a real organic crystal!"
"Um ... yes ... But Twilight. What does this have to do with anything?"
"I know how to find your sister! "
Rarity's body instantly tensed, and she stopped Twilight's dance with a firm grip.
"How?! how are you going to do that?"
"With the help of you! Because I believe that your love for your sister can have been so strong that you unconsciously cast a spell on the heart. I believe that you transferred your feelings for your sister onto that crystal. And If I’m right about this. Then that touch you gave the crystal heart should work to form a link between you two."
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Morbious asked.
"Because she had to. Without any energies for Sweeties main cybercore to absorb - That heart shaped crystal would just have been a shiny rock."
Again. Madame and Morbious exhanged looks.
"How fassshinating it is..." He said. "How is it that one who was not even part of our experiment seems to now more about it than we do?"
Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder, Rarity's body had tensed and she was once again able to stand on her own. And for the first time since this whole tragic adventure began. She smiled.
"That is because, she is Twilight Sparkle." Rarity stated, as a fact to Morbious question
Twilight felt a bit of a blush warming her cold cheeks. Technology might not be her specialty. But magic was. Especially the magic of friendship and the bonds that pony's share.
***
Like Twilight had feared. Rarity did not actually remember exactly what had happened that night. Or what magic she might have used.
But despite her friends insistence that she could not remember. Twilight led Rarity back to her stool, then she pulled up one for herself to sit on, right in front of her friend. Her voice turning stern and serious.
“Rarity – I need to look into your mind. I need to see what magic you used if I am to have any chance of pinpointing Sweetie Belles Location. I'm going to use a 'Mind Delve' spell to look into your memories. More specifically on your memory of that night."
Dr Cardiac gave Sully a disapproving stare, but she just shrugged.
"Now - Does anypony have a map?"
Mr Thrunk's was quick to provide a suitable map of the entire white tail woods. The same map that he had used to guide Rarity's parents through the forest. The map was rolled out over the table, and Twilight cast a scrying spell upon it. She explained that they would use it to pinpoint Sweetie's position. A silence spell was then cast upon Necro, and the rest simply had to stay quiet to allow the two mares to focus on the task at hoof.
Twilight took Rarity's hooves in her own and told her to close her eyes as she put a small hypnotic spell upon her. Both mares leaned their heads forward until the tip of their horns touched.
"Now Rarity. I know this hurts, but I'm going to have to ask you to think about that night. To put yourself into the past. To the point when you found that crystal."
Rarity's lips moved to form a silent yes. with that, Twilight activated the Mind Delve spell, and closed her own eyes.
from the tip of her horn, a tendril of purple magic extended itself, It wrapped itself around Rarity horn, spiraling downward along its natural spirals lines, and down into the base of her head.
Despite how difficult nurse Sully had warned Twilight that the spell could be, she encountered surprisingly little resistance as she entered her friends mind. Twilight wanted to believe that it was because Rarity had complete and utter trust in her. But it was also scary, that her friend might have gone so far over the deep end that she had abandoned all attempts to protect herself.
Twilight found herself falling through a mist, a mist that thickened and darkened the further she got. She feared this might be a constellation of Rarity state of mind. She briefly considered pulling out when the clouds when away and solid ground came running towards her. It took quite a bit of mental effort not to pull out out of fear of smashing head first into the dirt below her. She had to remind herself that she could not actually be hurt here. that she was just viewing Rarity's memory take form.
The dark clouds were part of that memory. Thunder roared above and rain hammered the muddy ground like spikes. She was somewhere on a muddy field, right at the foot of a mountain. Around her the hazy forest was fading in and out of the memories edge. The landscape itself was hazy and changing like waves in a storm with trees rocks and cliffs appearing and disappearing like ghosts.
The only constant was a little white and purple filly. So covered in dirt that she was almost impossible to spot in this muddy dreamscape. her hooves dug frantically in the earth, her horn flaring as she searched from something.
Voices seemed to whisper around her. Promises of death and loss.
Its over ... Have to ... let it go ...
“No! She's my little sister. I wont let you take her!” The filly screamed as she pulled something from the ground. A red ruby that shone like a star in the dark memory. The heart shaped crystal in her hooves was much smaller than Twilight would have expected. But then again. everything in this foggy memory was sketchy at best.
The next thing Twilight knew, Rarity was running through the dim lit corridors of some iron clad facility, The crystal flying beside her in her magical grip. She didn't even remember running from the fields up to the front door of this place. The corridor seemed endless, yet passed by so quickly. This part of the memory seemed to speed up like hitting fast forward on a video. Since it was just transition from one important event to the next.
As she ran, Twilight could hear voices echoing through the empty halls.
“We are going to have to pull the plug on the project.”
“Om sorry. My little dear.”
These were voices that had been spoken to Rarity. Things that told of a great sorrow she was now fighting against. The things that drove her to do what she wan now about to do. Twilight did not have to guess to hard what they were about.
They where gonna take her sister away. And Rarity could not allow that.
The memory finally got some solidus as a pair of double doors, like the once used in hospitals, came rushing towards them.
little Rarity slammed her elbow into the doors, and a room so real and solid slammed down upon Twilight senses. She almost thought she could reach out and touch the humming hardware that filled the walls. Almost feel the smell that Rarity remembered coming from the table in the middle of the poorly lit room. And most definitely feel a real shock of her own when she saw what lay upon it.
She could see why Rarity had wanted to forget this.
The foal was lying on its back stretched out on a bench with all limbs in opposite directions. Its torso had been cut open from the throat down to the tail. Its yellowing white hide had been suspend with hooks on several strings holding its midsection open. It looked like a dissection.
The foals head was opened, the cranium having been split in half. The top half of the skull removed just above the eyes, exposing a blue pulsating orb that was the foals artificial brain. Her Cybercore. Hundreds of tiny wires connected the brain to a giant machine with hundreds of corresponding, blinking blue lights.
Rarity climbed up a chair and looked down at what would be her lively little sister.
There was nothing lively about this sight.
Down in the foals torso. Where one would expert to see the heart, liver, lungs and all the other inner organs. Was instead a black hole of machinery. Most of the organs had been replaces with early versions of their mechanical counterparts. Even more of wires connected the filly to a big selection of humming machines surrounding the table. Computer terminals showings scrolling text. Measurement stations and energy generators. Life support systems that for some reason kept on saying that organs where functioning normal even when they weren’t there any more.
In the center of what in the poor lightning looked like a black hole, was an empty space where her mechanical heart had yet to bee installed.
A blood pump had been placed nest to the table. Circulating the blood in and out of the hide and few renaming fleshy organs through a series of tiny tubes. Keeping the organic tissue alive.
She kicked the stool away from her as she climbed onto the table. The momentary loss of balance made her fall onto the torso.
A few of the hooks tore loose from the skin and opening bleeding wounds. Both on Sweeties body and on Rarity. One of the plastic tubes fell out of its socket and started spilling its life fluid into the foals chest. The blood got onto the heart where it mixed with the blood coming from Rarity own hooves.
All the while Twilight tried to remain focused on little Rarity’s magic, which had not once failed her. She was holding onto the heart shaped crystal so with a magic grip so hard that she probably couldn’t have drop it if the room had exploded.
Using both magic and her hooves young Rarity pushed the heart into the foals chest. As she did, she cut herself even further on the machinery. She paid no notice to the ominous sounds of the machines around her, or the blood she got on her hooves as she tried to push Sweeties ribs apart to make room for her crystal.
Her magic was continuously shaping and reforming the heart mixing the blood into the crafting as she turned and twisted it to make it fit inside that dark hole in her sisters chest.
To her horror she noticed the heart wouldn’t fit.
“No. NO! PLEASE!"
In desperation she called on her magi to reshape the heart yet again. Her horn flared with a double and a triple aura as she called on all her magic. Her sorrow and wishes and love and her eternal desire for her little sister to live fueled every ounce of her magic strength as she poured it all into the heart.
“I’ve got life. I’ve got so much! Please let her have some of it! LET MY SISTER LIVE!!!”
It had not been a spell. The magic carried no shape or form. It was all released in an uncontrolled magic eruption as little Rarity all but slammed the still morphing heart into the foals chest.
This time it fit. Like a piece of a puzzle.
In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, Twilight felt something.
Wait! Go back! Watch! What was that?
Twilight was so overwhelmed with this that she almost forgot why she was here. She wouldn't dare to rewind and repeat the memory a second time as it was clearly Rarity did not want to be here. But this was important With strain she forced the memory to slow down just little bit as she mentally copied the magical signature coming from Rarity and the heart in her grasp.
It was like two sets of magic came together. Like two part coming together to form a greater whole.
No. Rarity had not transferred the soul – she had transferred her magic into the heart. Charging it. But with what?
There was a subtle pulse to the magic that was not coming from Rarity but from within the heart itself – It seemed irrely familiar to her...
like she had felt this feeling somewhere before...
Everything hit Twilight like a ton of bricks. It was a sensation that she could not explain in words. But it reminder her of her entrance exam to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. When the Rain-boom had unlocked her hidden potential. How she had felt when she realized that her new friends where the elements of harmony. And how she felt right after that - when she had used their presence to summon the sixth element from herself.
… A spark!
As the magical grasp on the crystal released twilight found herself stunned.
“Oh Rarity. You gave your sister a spark”
She was so overwhelmed by what she had experienced that she hardly noticed Little Rarity still going hard at work.
She started pulling wires from the body and the machinery round her, and tying them to the the heart shaped crystal. And then reconnecting them in ways she probably could only hope would work.
As someone how knew Rarity’s talented dressmaking it was almost like she was sewing the heart into position.
For a second, the machines connecting to the brain gave an ominous hum, and all the light started blinking in in rapidly shifting panthers before returning to normal. But Rarity was to busy to notice.
When she had stitched the last knot in place she moved out to the skin. Releasing the hide from the restraints and then using one of the hooks and its line like needle and thread she started sewing the torso shut. Like a doctor would stitch up a wound after operation.
(Even if the only surgeon experience Rarity had was to sewing a teddy-bear together for one of her childhood friends.)
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”
The voice came from behind. One of the Doctors was standing in the open doorway. Looking at Rarity with horror filled eyes.
Rarity was crying so much that every word got stuck in her throat.
The doctor took one strange look at the measurements and on the scene before stomping in. Grabbing Rarity by the mane.
She could only wail as she was dragged from the table. The doctor cursing the entire time that she might have ruined everything.
As Rarity was dragged out of the room she cast one last look at the sister she so desperately tried do save. The foals head had rolled to the side, facing the doorway and its eyes had popped open.
Twilight couldn’t be sure. But it was almost like those green eye was looking directly at Rarity.
As Rarity's screams faded out into the hallway, Twilight let the memory end.
***
Twilight opened her eyes to once again find herself in the present. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes swollen from tears. she was utterly trembling from the experience.
Yet. She smiled.
She looked across at Rarity. Her eyes where still closed and her eyeballs where moving under the eyelids, indicating she was still dreaming. Her cheeks were still pale, and the bags under her eyes were still black, but she till looked more at peace now than she had been the entire week. Perhaps confronting this memory had brought her new understanding of what happened.
“You felt it to, didn’t you?" Twilight asked out loud. "You felt what you gave your sister. A spark Rarity. You gave your sister a spark.”
Truly the bearer of the element of generosity - to give so much of herself for someone else.
Their horns where still connected as Twilight had not yet ended the spell.
“Listen to me Rarity. I’m not going to release you from the spell just yet. There is still something I need you to do.”
With the feeling of Rarity’s magic performance fresh in mind she began to weave a spell.
“Sorry Rarity. But I'm gonna have to hijack your magic for a little while.”
Twilight knew that once in her youth Rarity had had a spontaneous outburst of magic that had let her find a whole lot of gems.
It had happened when she was getting desperate for not being able to make good enough dresses for the school play.
Now Twilight wanted Rarity to tap into that same energy to find one very specific gem. The heart shaped gem with her personal touch she had given Sweetie Belle.
“I'm going to give you something that will help you find your sister”
Twilight’s horn glowed again as she cast a spell on Rarity’s horn. The air shimmered as the energy flowed from Twilight’s horn to Rarity’s. She dug into Rarity’s natural ability to find gems and pinpointed it to the frequency of the crystal emitting the energy she had felt in the memory.
Still keeping her friend under the hypnotic influence of the spell she brought her to the table with the map.
“Rarity. Listen to my voice. Can you find Sweetie Belle?”
Rarity’s lips moved but no answer came. She couldn’t give a yes or no answer. She didn’t know if she could.
“If you are not able to do it then I will.” Twilight said. It would just be a matter of copying Rarity's inborn ability.
“No!" Rarity shouted "No. I will do it. Its my sister after all.”
Twilight cast a second spell upon the map and then asked Rarity (whom still had her eyes closed) to put her hoof on the map where Sweetie Belle was.
Rarity’s hoof traced along the river Sweetie Bell had fallen in but then started curving of to the south. She started making small circles with her hoof until she finally put it down.
“There!”
Rarity had opened her eyes, and was looking, along with everypony else. at where her hoof had come down. At a crossroad just off a bridge on the other side of the river.
“Shes out of the water! She I moving! I can't tell exactly where to, but she is out of the water!”
The whole cabin erupted in cheers. The little filly was safe out of the roaring river.
Now that they all knew where Sweetie Bell was going. Rarity’s horn would lead the way.
The seamstress spun in place. Swinging her horn around to make sure she could sense in what direction Sweeties heart was.
Twilight confirmed it. She too had sensed the signals from sweeties heart While their horns had been connected.
This time. They would find Sweetie for sure.
Rarity flew over Twilight and gave her a very Un-ladylike hug.
”Thank you Twilight – I don’t know if everything you said makes any sense or not. But than you for giving me hope.”
“Right.” said Twilight. (”Don’t thank me yet”, almost slipped her tongue.) ”But We still need to find her.”
”Right. And find her we will!” Rarity proclaimed with determination.
"But how do we get across the river?" Brick asked " The bridge is gone. Are we gonna swim or something?"
Trunks elbowed his way to the table, and put a hoof on the map.
"There are many rivers cutting through the forest. And my family knew every one of them. This river broadens out a few kilometers down. The flow is slowed considerable. And you should be able to swim across to the other side."
“Any way we don’t have to swim through an ice cold river?”
Thunks pointed to the map again.
“There is a bridge a few more kilometers down the river. It might be a slight detour, but its the best we got.”
"Good! Because we are raking him with us" Dr Cardiac said with a nod at Necro. "Come on Brick. Help me move him into the wagon."
The two stallions pulled Necro from the floor and out the door. (Screwloose barking to ensure his cooperation.)
"And come on everypony! Lets go save my sister!" Rarity shouted.
“HOPE!” Madam Macadam yelled as she joined in om the hug. “HOPE TASTES GOOD!”
A green light appeared around her horn and a few ponies eyes flashed green for just a second, as some of that energy was extracted from their minds.
Everypony's spirits, who had been looking about ready to go out like a spent candle just a few moments ago, was truly rekindled.
Following Rarity's lead, everypony quickly got up and exited the filthy hut, out into what had now become a cold winters breeze.
Before they all stormed off, Mr Belle put a hoof Twilight's shoulder, and leaned in close.
“Thank you.” He whispered. “Our girl needed to hear that. But … were you telling the truth, or did you do that to give her hope?”
Twilight smiled.
“Both.”
Mr Belle smiled even wider.
"Thank you ... I needed to hear that."
And with that, he was off. Trying to catch up to his wife, who was in turn struggling to keep up with her daughter.
Something cold landed on Twilight's nose. But it was no raindrop. Well - Technically it was. Just frozen, and sculptured by the pegasi weather ponies.
She turned her eyes skyward, to see the first snowflakes had started to fall.
“It will soon be Hearts Warming Eve.” Twilight thought to herself as she magically pulled her lined raincoat closer. “Lets hope we all get to spend it together.”
She might act sure and self confident when she needed to, and everything that Twilight had told them had been the raw truth. There was however one tiny little thing that she decided to keep to herself.
Namely how weak, and fading, that signal seemed to be.
She feared that, If the changelings alchemy could speed up the process of cybernetic magical transformation. - It would also have sped up something in Sweetie Belle.
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Suggestion: add Twilight and Rarity tags.
6698818
I know I Should have added them.
I just could not find a way to make the Sweetie Belle tag sit first in line.
6708034 I don't think it's possible. You might have to ask Xaquseg or Knighty about that.
Over 300,000 words, deeply thought provoking about life, and one of the best (at very least longest ) story for Sweetie Bot on the site!!!
How is it you only have 70 other likes ,besides me, after a full year?
Maybe more tags will put this in more search results so more people will see this story. Also it can now get into those long story groups.
Finally a few personal critique because no story is perfect:
While I can keep up with the events and moral dilemmas quite well with how well they are presented, I would have preferred few instances be bettered explained such as like how two chapters ago the "bad ponies group" were on the other side of the bridge in front Sweetie's original path ( it seemed convenient for the scene but i'm willing to chalk it up for fate or a coincidence) and why are Twilight and Rarity the only ponies who seem exhausted lately hasn't most of the bad guys been looking tirelessly for sweetie too?
They are not prevalent the are a few spelling errors in places such as a wrong letter in a word or punctuation that made it though. I could only remember the place of one though the missing ' here.
Hope you keep up with good work and good luck.
6714699
Thank you for caring, Its comments like these that have kept me up when I've been feeling burdened by this story.
I have wondered about why I ´only´ have 70 likes so far when other, far simpler stories gets thousands.
I've wondered if people might be disinclined to 'like' a story as dark as this. (then again, some of the darkest stories out there have more likes then anything I've seen – Fallout Equestria for example – my all time favorite and sort of inspiration.)
Maybe people are just not so interested in Sweetie Bot. Her 'group' seemed pretty small and stories about her were few in numbers (and not all that great – something I wanted to 'fix')
Then again – I have not been to big on joining any groups – Been too busy writing this beast (seriously how did it get so big!?) Or tags for that matter.
I understand your critique. Maybe I was a little to vague on when 'the bad group' crossed that bridge. They did leave the town of Ravenloft before our heroes got there – But Sweetie had gone of the road to watch Madame Macadam – so they missed her – Then they turned back when the pillar of green fire pierced the sky.
Perhaps I have not shown the bad guys broken group dynamic enough.
– Or how worn down they too should be (they have been taking quite a beating themselves.)
I might go back to fix that when the story is done. I've just been to tired as of late and want to get the last critical chapter of this self proclaimed ´hearth's warming tale´ out to Christmas.
So, the heart drive is simply a magically charged crystal from Rarity? Any crystal that was charged similar emotional magic could work just as well?
Why was that so hard to figure out then? It's not that complicated! It's nothing really special!
Also, I am absolutely astounded by how perfectly the explanation of the cyber-core material works. It naturally transmutes anything that shares an electric current with it into more of itself.
That's brilliant.
Organic probably isn't the word you're looking for. As far as I know, the only crystal that is even remotely organic is diamond, and there are certainly no crystals in living things. "Organic" means that something is made of the same chemicals as living things.
Lots of creatures don't get marks. They're still alive, Zebras, Gryphons, and all the non-sentient creatures, do not get marks.
Necro is basing his entire lifestyle around a logical fallacy.Being natural isn't good. Being natural means nothing. Necro's talent is unnatural. Most medicine is unnatural.
pbmo.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/natural.png?w=370
6714809 I'm really liking this. Bit much to swallow (it is a lot longer than most stories I've read), but still good.
That being said, I have one big, glaring with this that is souring this:
Your grammar. I can digest poor grammar, but this is a bit much. If I were you I'd kither a. get an editor, or b. copy and paste it to google docs, which is very good at telling you were you fucked up.
I'm very moved by this story, but you really need somebody to go back and edit this. There are so many mis-capitalized words, garbled sentences, absent apostrophes and even things like
where I don't even know what word you were trying to use.
It's marring the experience of a great story that deserves better presentation. If you want, I'd even volunteer to edit it.
one thing I think should have been mentioned is everybody seems to see some horror in that sweetie belle is never going to get her cutie mark. so? neither do dragons, or griffins, and ponies don't go around calling them soulless abominations
7674852 Well...
6714699
6714809
Actually, it makes sense that Twilight and Rarity would seem the most exhausted, because it's a combination of physical and emotional/mental exhaustion. The bad guys may be physically exhausted. But I doubt their desires are based on emotion (save for Marrow). Dr Cardiac, Nurse Sully, and Prick haven't been traveling as long, and they don't have have a family bond with Sweetie. Tree Trunks is more determined to help than worried (not to mention that he's more likely to have more stamina), and the parents had the advantage of having the wagon at the start. Madame Macadam and Dr Morbius just recently joined (and Morbius probably enjoys the feeling of exhaustion). And Screwloose is...well...she's Screwloose. On the other hand, Rarity is both physically and emotionally exhausted, basically coming from her own trauma. Twilight isn't as emotionally connected with Sweetie as Rarity is, but she is worried. But she's also worried about Rarity, seeing her condition getting worse and worse.
7235066
Well, if "organic" is about chemical compositions, then many crystals are organic. Do you know about the theory of abiogenesis? It's basically when inorganic materials form into organic materials. That is the common theory about how life on earth formed (though it's greatly more complex than that). Basically, any crystal can be considered "organic" by your definition. But you're not wrong about it. "Organic" means to contain self-replicating proteins (at least to my understanding).
As for Necros view being fallacious, I think that's the point. But you may be seeing it backwards. I think he's trying to say that Sweetie will never get a mark because she's unnatural, not that her not getting a mark being what makes her unnatural. And where does the idea that zebras can't get a cutie mark come from? If they can't, then what's that MARK on her flank?
7476992
How do you know that "constellation" wasn't the intended word? I can't say if it was intended or not. But if it was, I see it as an artistic description. But to be fair, English is not his first language.
The paragraph just... Ends? Fix please.
This might explain why they're all massive fuck-ups honestly
Duh-DOY, 'twas very obvious.
When did Screwloose become a doctor...? You meant Dr Neurosa here.
I find this quote mildly funny.
Wait, THAT'S how it sped up? She transmuted her firewall?!?!
Ah... an ecoterrorist with a "Luddite" flavor, I take back what I said about him last chapter. He is definitely a villian towards Sweetie Belle specifically (as well as generally, but that might apply to Heartbreak depending on how harmfully her feeding is to the children, and/or how loyal she is to Chrysalis).
Is this something that real-life equines, (or perhaps humans?) can have?
I also wonder if you didn't put this in as both perhaps a "Freudian excuse" for his distaste for the artificial, and (more likely) to make him a hypocrit.
Ah... so that is why they fell appart from what may have initially been lofty goals in some cases. A bit like lead poisoning can cause aggression. I wonder how good of a treatment could be developed for them? I also see this as yet another point of angst for Sweetie, since she could take it as "I'm made from stuff that WANTS to be a BloodBot!"... and as if her Heart Drive drops to say... 0.5% or even goes dormant (but not irreprerably dead given how this story is going) this MIGHT MAYBE be true.
It's time to take off the training wheels and finish the integration.
so in other words since electricity is needed to make it work, then does that mean sweetie belle didnt die when she was born? cause without electrical signals then the crystal wouldnt of started, does that sweetie belle is technically alive? (thats my take from all this)