Sleeping in the Light

by Wheller

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Kelso could only watch helplessly as the changeling before her struggled with pain. It was clutching its head, crying out in a series of low clicking noises. Changeling drones were unable to speak as ponies did in their true forms, this one could not communicate in a way that they could understand, but Kelso could tell that it was in pain.

'Stop it!' Kelso cried out. 'You're hurting her!'

The Unknowable Mare turned towards Kelso. Though her eyes were covered, Kelso could tell that she was looking directly at her. 'Very well', she said, and let out deep breath.

The changeling stopped shaking, and it sat up and looked around at them, it opened its mouth to speak, but instead of words, a series of low hums and clicks came instead. The changeling jumped in confusion and It instinctively looked down at its legs and jumped again. A distressed look fell upon the changelings face. Lying on the ground next to it were the sunglasses that Pinkie Pie had taken off the security guard, and it could see its own reflection in them. It began to panic and shake with fear and confusion.

That was when Kelso realised; the changeling did not know it was a changeling. Somehow, some way, it had legitimately believed itself to have been Pinkie Pie. Kelso leaned down next to it and placed her hoof on its shoulder, its rough carapace felt smooth and alien to her. The feel of the changeling's body was disconcerting, but she ignored the discomfort and spoke to it in a soft, reassuring voice. 'Hey, shh, its okay, you're safe! It's me, it’s Kelso, and you remember what I told you? Don’t you?'

The changeling's distress began to fade as it looked up at Kelso, and offered her a small smile. The changeling burst into green fire again, causing Kelso to jump back in surprise. The fire did not hurt her, in fact, she didn't feel anything at all, and it wasn't even warm.

'Oh Kelso!' Pinkie Pie called out as she threw herself around her, the familiar feel of a pony's coat brushing up against her. The changeling had returned to its pony form. Kelso closed her arms around the obnoxious pink pony and gave her a tight hug.

'It's alright, I've got you', Kelso said, gently stroking Pinkie Pie's mane.

'I don't know how...' Pinkie Pie whispered. 'I don't know how I became a changeling...'

'You were always one of them, face dancer!' the Unknowable Mare cried out. 'You are a falsehood, Pinkamena Diane Pie is dead!'.

Pinkie Pie turned towards the blindfolded mare. 'You... you're lying! You can't possibly know that! How could you know that!?' She asked nervously. Almost as if she was afraid to know the answer.

'I know you better than you know yourself', the mare said. 'I am unknowable, however, you are not. The strands tell your story, and they do not lie'.

Sparky and the rest of their friends began to stir, their entrancement of watching the situation had been broken. Sparky entered the room, seemingly in deep thought as she pondered the words of this so called unknowable mare. 'The samples that the NHS took!' Sparky cried out as everyone turned towards her. 'Kelso, you were thinking cloning, when you should have been thinking genetic memory!'

'Genetic memory?' Kelso asked, raising an eyebrow at Sparky.

'Yeah, it's an idea that the memories of our ancestors are self contained in our DNA. If FutureTec has been doing research into memory and the structure of our brains... if they've found a way to decompile genetic memory and get access to it...' Sparky began, her voice trailing off. The Unknowable Mare began to nod in affirmation.

'The strands tell a story, a complete and perfect story, there is no lying, no deception, and no cheating', the Unknowable Mare said simply. ‘Would you like to see what has been done?’

Sparky nodded her head in affirmation.

‘Follow’, the Unknowable Mare said as she trotted out of the room.

...

The Unknowable Mare led the way down the corridor towards what should have been the central server housing, the layout of the GGIC was nearly identical to the Whitetail Industrial Complex, with one major detail different. The central server housing was not the central server housing. Instead, it was an empty room with a single computer core in the middle of it. Not unlike the PPS’s Crusader housing.

‘Someone is here!’ a voice whispered.

‘Oh yeah?! What do they want?’ whispered another.

‘Maybe, you should ask them, darling!’ said a third.

Both Sparky and Kelso looked at the Unknowable Mare oddly, but she said nothing, and merely pointed at the computer core in the centre of the room. Sparky and Kelso looked at each other and offered a small shrug before stepping up to it.

A hologram of a unicorn mare appeared before them. ‘Hello!’ she cried out, louder than was probably necessary, causing both Kelso and Sparky to jump. Pinkie Pie, who was stumbling along at the back of the room looked up in surprise. She recognised the voice that had just spoken.

‘Twilight?’ Pinkie Pie asked.

‘Yes that’s me!’ the unicorn hologram said with a smile. ‘Twilight Sparkle, Prime Minister of the Equestrian Republic, at your service!’

‘Oh fer cryin’... don’ bore tha new comers, will ya Twi?’ another voice said as a second holographic image, this time of an earth pony mare wearing a Stetson hat and had her mane and tail tied back. ‘Is always Republic this, and Republic that with ya these days...’

Pinkie Pie trotted up closer. ‘Applejack?’ she asked, looking in confusion.

Suddenly, three more holograms appeared before them, giving a grand total of five.

‘Who are you all huh? What do you want with us!?’ said one of the new comers, the image of the aggressive looking pegasus mare with a shoulder length mane.

‘Rainbow Dash?’ Pinkie Pie asked.

‘Oh leave them alone you ruffian!’ called another in a regal sounding voice, as the image of a prim and proper unicorn mare with thick, luscious curls in her mane pushed her way to the front.

‘Rarity?’ Pinkie Pie asked.

The holograms before them did not seem to take particular notice of Pinkie Pie; instead, they were more interested in the others before them. Only one other of the holograms even seemed to recognise her, a pegasus mare with a mane that almost reached her hooves, but she did not say anything, and she did not step forward.

‘Fluttershy...’ Pinkie Pie said softly. The hologram of the meek pegasus mare merely nodded her head in agreement.

‘Meet the pyrrhic victories’, the Unknowable Mare said with a huff as she walked forward, passing through each of the holograms and disrupting their figures. ‘The Turing Project! The creation of a false mind, gaze upon their failures! They are just as much falsehood as the pink one!’

‘Ohhhh... not her again!’ the Rarity hologram said with a pout. ‘Can’t she just leave us alone?’

‘I’ll take care of her for us!’ the Rainbow Dash hologram said with a snarl, making a short kicking motion with her foreleg.

Sparky blinked for a moment, taking in what the Unknowable Mare had just said. ‘They’re AIs?’ she asked.

The Unknowable Mare nodded her head in affirmation. ‘The creation of a mind... long, time consuming, they wished for a direct path, so an idea occurred to the masters, why return to the beginning? Why not build off something else? And so they did, the face dancers were the key’, the Mare said, pointing at Pinkie Pie.

‘I’m not sure I understand...’ Kelso said with a frown. Much of what the Unknowable Mare said was cryptic and unclear. ‘How do the changelings fit in?’

‘The face dancers are the key! Twist and turn, tumbler falls into place’, the Unknowable Mare said.

‘I’ve got it!’ Dizzy said as a smile appeared on her face. ‘They had to start with something, but you couldn’t clone the subjects because they’d be unstable! Just like Sparky said!’

The Unknowable Mare nodded. ‘The face dancers twist and turn to their own music, their execution is flawless, perfect. Using the knowledge from the strands, they recreate the lost ones, these five, met their fate at the abyss, and became as they are now, warped caricatures of what they once were’.

‘Who are you calling a carica... thingy! You...’ the Rainbow Dash hologram began, before being interrupted by the Twilight Sparkle one.

‘Rainbow Dash, please be civil, this is a new age for Equestria! The Republic...’

‘Shut up about the Republic!’ the Applejack hologram cried out. ‘Republic this, and Republic that! Though Ah guess it’s all ya got, huh? What with no family or anything’, she said harshly.

The Twilight Sparkle hologram turned to the Applejack on her left, and began to cry. ‘It’s... it’s not my fault! You understand me!? It’s not my fault! It was me, or Shining Armour! He didn’t give me a choice! He wanted to put himself and Cadence back on the throne! Don’t you understand!? I had to kill them! I had no other choice!’ the Twilight Sparkle hologram cried out as she began to curl up into a ball. ‘It was them or me! Them or me!’

Dizzy gently nudged Sparky, pulling her attention towards her. ‘I think it’s a good thing that Amarilla isn’t here to see this; she would find it very... disturbing’, she said quietly.

‘So do I’, Sparky said with a nod.

Kelso frowned as she looked over the bickering holograms, and then to Pinkie Pie. As she thought about the situation, one question kept coming back to her mind. ‘Why them?’ she asked. ‘FutureTec could have picked anyone to bring back for this... Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy I can understand, being the first and fourth Prime Ministers of the Republic and all...’

The Fluttershy hologram looked up at Kelso in surprise, but continued to say nothing.

‘But why them?’ Kelso continued ‘Why not Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, or Scootaloo? Or maybe even Big McIntosh, or Steelwing, or Solisberry, or any of the other major figures from Republican History? Why them?’

The Unknowable Mare was silent for a moment before giving an answer. ‘Come, I shall show you’.

Comments

[slayerdemons]

I am curious to see where this goes.

[PieisGood4U]

Somewhat of a
dun dun DUUUUUUN.

Let us prepare for what is next.

[Ocean Breeze]

Man... I was considering stopping at chapter 8. Glad I didn't.

[Trickquestion]

So Shining Armor was murdered by his sister. Too bad, I liked him, but I understand Twilight's position.

By the way, what happened to Spike? Dragons live long enough for him to still be kicking, so is he still chilling somewhere, or did something kill him too?

[supernova708]

I'm guessing someone was playing Assassin's Creed recently and I have a feeling that FutureTec found the Elements of Harmony

[Raven Dreamcatcher]

Hmmm....
google.com.pr/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1gNhws-RImM/TVShCQQHEXI/AAAAAAAAGhY/VPNlb4lxUsI/s640/shhh.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.everythingisannoying.com/2011/02/do-go-on.html&h=300&w=400&sz=36&tbnid=meFOD9Tl1cTXzM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddo%2Bgo%2Bon%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=do+go+on&usg=__zEz9qyJjtXQbzYuCQSUxapJXSCk=&docid=N9M-JGAwTqQmYM&sa=X&ei=4bi9T9GINM6J6wGv85zIDg&ved=0CF4Q9QEwAg&dur=366

[thatonenigga]

WTF weres spike ive been woundering

[Apocalypse Pony]

Chapter too short with too juicy information revealed, require moar

[Deathsia]

Oi, two parts of me conflicted with this one, on the one hand I'm enjoying the plot, on the other, the fact that you pretty much destroyed the entire MLP universe is aggravating me to hell. I shall watch simply for the plot.

[DreadedCandiru2]

My guess is that Amarilla would not only be disturbed by her past self, she'd be disturbed by how she expected FutureTec to do something stupid like this.

[kladdos]

wow.. i love this story. can't wait what is going to happen.

[Zervziel]

Please tone down or kill off this Unknowable Mare. She's quite frankly very annoying. I mean she knows everything, apparently could escape at any time and basically exists to act as a plot device. I mean why aren't these ponies asking more about this character and accepting every from her as truth when all she's done so far is hurt one character and mentally traumatize her while acting like a particularly pretentious know-it-all.

[angelicoreXX]

more like Unknowable Mare is Zecora..

[Hoof of Approval]

638740 YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THE TRUTH

[terrycloth]

That last sentence makes me think the next chamber is going to have a giant rock in it.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

660470 And someone will say something like "Oh my God a gaint rock!"

And I'm guessing Dizzy Doo is the grandaugther of Ditzy Doo a.k.a Derpy.

[Wolfren]

675282 Great Granddaughter of Ditzy Doo actually.