Chapter 28: A Simple Answer
Twilight closed the book with a soft thump, fairly dampened by the walls of the hallway in which they walked. Mark Maker turned his head to look over his shoulder at her, noting her pensive expression.
"Wow, you read even faster than I anticipated!" he commented with an impressed expression, still walking ahead in the lead. He could clearly walk this path by mere memory, given he turned and stepped up where anyone would otherwise have to look ahead to do so.
"Sta--er, Mark Maker, why exactly did you want me to read this story in particular?" she questioned, curious what exactly it meant in relation to her journey.
"Eh... call it a lame excuse for a warning. It's the best story I can think of for the dangers of learning too much, and the burden of choice that comes with bearing it," he explained, accenting it with something of a shrug.
Twilight thought about the story, particularly its ending. The burden of knowledge... If I were in his position, would I make the right choice? WAS there a right choice? the princess wondered.
"We're here," Mark Maker stated simply, holding up a hoof for her to stop. They were in front of an old looking door, but that had many bolts and other things added onto it, as if someone took a very ancient thing and attempted to inject modern technology into it. After completeing some kind of puzzle on the door, he held his face in front of a camera, which let out a soft beep. The door clicked and swung open, and he gestured for her to follow him inside.
She did so with great anticipation, finding the small room nearly pitch black as the door closed. She was about to get into a defensive position, when Mark Maker pulled back a curtain, revealing that they were on the bottom floor of a MUCH larger room. She gasped as she bore witness to the very large object dominating the center of the chamber.
Inside was an enormous dark gray box, looking to be made of something mixed between black stone and steel. The machine featured faintly glowing, yet opaque, light gray tubes connected symmetrically at the corners and sides, a total of 12 tubes in all. Two in each corner, and one in the center of each side. The tubes led into the ground around it, implying even more complicated work underneath.
The duo walked up a metal staircase to a catwalk directly above them. The catwalk surrounded the upper half of the machine completely, with about a yard of space between the railing of the catwalk and the edges of the construct.
The upper half of the enormous invention folded up from a cube to a cone/funnel type shape. In the center of this upside-down funnel was what resembled a large spiraled unicorn horn, extending to a large crystal in the ceiling, which in turn extended higher into whatever was above this room.
Maker walked calmly, slowly up to the edge of the rail, sighing as he leaned his front legs over the edge. He gestured to the enormous device as a whole, and spoke up in a tone somewhere between pride and regret. "This... is the Brander. An automatically targeting, automatically casting, branding machine. And THIS, Twilight, is where Cutie Marks come from.
Twilight's jaw was slack, left agape in sheer awe of the magnitude of the machine. Not only its function, but the final revelation of her quest sat before her, leaving her utterly speechless.
Mark Maker knew she wanted to know how it worked, so, after breifly looking at her, he turned back to his machine, and continued to explain. "Much like the Crystal Heart, there is a central 'Branding Crystal' that stores Starswirl's original branding cast within it... and several backups if something goes wrong. It was quite difficult to find pure enough crystals to store a specific unicorn cast like that, but we managed. However, the cast he put into the central crystals is something of a 'blank slate,' if you will. It inherently will just enhance a pony's natural desires, which in some ponies may be violent or undesirable things, so to counteract this, I developed a special way to make the process a bit more specific. There are layers of crystals within the machine, each of which are moved in or out of the path of the charged energy blast originating from the central crystal. Think of it like holding different colored lenses in front of a flashlight, or using different filters on a liquid. Finally, the then-complete energy beam passes through one final 'template' of what the Mark will look like, before being broadcast up there. The Brand will be fired to a specific, matching pony, who matches the criterion that the second half of this machine searches for."
Here he paused in case she wanted to say something, looking back to her. Her slack-jawed look was gone, replaced by wide-eyed, absolute astonishment. She nodded in a way that indicated she wanted to hear more, and he was glad to oblige.
"This is a two part machine. One part is what I have just described, while the other portion is something of a giant tracking device, using countless crystalline matricies throughout this facility to track and target each and every unbranded pony. These matrices contain data, like criteria for what a pony needs to have in order for a Mark to appear. Lacking a Mark is one criteria, while feeling the exhillaration of the realization of a talent is another. There are many more, but those examples serve well enough. The Brander's broadcast crystal doubles as a reciever, and is capable of checking and tracking every unbranded pony all at once, much like how Celestia keeps track of many of her subjects. Such technology takes up a lot of space, but the most work happens in this room right here," he concluded solidly.
Twilight was able to clear her blind wonder for long enough to ask a relevant question. "So, what about those unbranded ponies, like Reach, or the Trident guards?"
He put on something of a scowl as he responded. "Oh, this baby still tracks them, but I've been ordered to prevent the machine from Branding them. Sometimes, the Trident selects fillies and colts with potential to remain unbranded for a while, to leave their minds completely unrestrained. If they develop into brilliant or... cold enough minds, then they recruit them through one of many partner organizations, or front organizations, whichever would better suit their interests. Personally, I do NOT agree with the practice, I think it rather defeats the point... but I have no power to object," Mark Maker finished with a very tired sigh.
She felt for him, she really did. It was clear that he had only ever wanted good to come of his device, but to see it abused and have no say in the matter...
He surprised her by speaking up again, eyes widening a bit, but head still down towards the floor. "And now, Reach wants to take away even more power, by having the Trident control the Brander more directly for something new... Though... Reach didn't specifically say what... About a month ago, he came here and was pretty vague about a new plan, as he is with many things that wouldn't suit his interests to explain in detail. So, he didn't give me those details, just that whatever the plan was would result in a 'major shift in society,'" Mark Maker said, with a comically accurate, raspier mockery of Reach's unique voice.
"But enough about the lamentations of an old stallion, I can see you're bursting with questions," he observed, looking back up to her with that grandfatherly smile he wore, as if his disappointment a moment ago had never been there at all.
"Well uh... what about Cutie Pox? What causes that?" Twilight inquired, remembering back to one of her very first notes.
His expression turned to one that read something like humor and slight
disappointment, though directed at himself rather than her. "Ah, Cutie Pox. For some reason, the chemical changes in ponies with Cutie Pox seems to act as a sort of copier for the Brander. In other words, every time one pony somewhere gets a Mark, whoever has the condition will not only register as blank, but also as a perfect match, and they both will recieve the same Cutie Mark. Now, with one Mark, the drive is there to complete your personal desires, of course, but it's not overpowering. Cutie Pox, however, demonstrates what happens when too many Marks are placed on one host. The drives overwhelm the user, forcing them to perform as many tasks depicted as physically possible," he explained thoroughly.
"Speaking of the Cutie Marks themselves... follow me..." he prompted, walking to a set of gray, handle-less double doors accessible via the catwalk they were on.
Twilight held her tongue and followed behind him, entering the doors, and this new sight before her nearly overshadowed the Brander itself in her mind.
The hallway was very long, with a shorter ceiling than the rest of the facility, although still fairly tall. The walls were what impressed her, however, for the walls, covered in glass, contained racks and racks of smooth crystals, each and every one holding a unique, detailed Mark on them. She was vaguely reminded of the cave found in Starlight Glimmer's town so long ago. The racks had some small wheels on the sides, implying that they could move, which in turn implied that these were just a taste of how many there were.
"What is this place?" she asked in heightened curiosity, peering at each crystal she passed. They weren't exactly intricate in detail, but there were so many of them that even the more simplistic designs appeared impressive, given the scale of these creations.
He halted as he got to the end of the hallway, and turned to face her, gesturing to the walls around them. "This, your highness, is my primary job: making each of these. These crystals are fed into the Brander, and serve initially as the visual portion of a Brand. Once they are used, however, a marked crystal retains the exact copy of the Brand's 'cast,' so to speak. In other words, if this were put into the Brander and fired, without any adjustment at all, it would give a match the Brand depicted, and the limitations plus desires that came with it. Think of these as... 'charged templates,' or 'premade Brands.' After a few centuries, recycling some of these was the only way to keep up with a growing population, though I still make plenty of new ones when I work." His words were calm, but she couldn't help but hold a heavy respect for all of the time and energy he put into these, as she looked and observed the faint glow of one of the crystals behind the glass.
He was quick to switch to another topic, however. She got the feeling he didn't quite like talking about himself. "Now... do you have any more questions for me...?"
Thinking once again to her notes, she still had another big question that he could answer for her. "In my research, I couldn't find a single thing about Sombra's Cutie Mark, but he existed long after you said the Trident started Branding ponies. So... was he one of the unbranded ones you mentioned?" she inquired curiously.
At this, he gained a dark expression again, though she seemed to read that he was holding contempt more for someone else rather than himself this time. "Many leaders throughout history have been under direct Trident control... but Sombra went rogue. Since he had no Mark, he was uninhibited in his aspirations. What began as simply attempting to build up the Empire turned into a tyrannical dictatorship. Thankfully, the sisters were more than willing to help remove him from power... but only when the Trident failed to do it covertly," he explained. "If they had just Branded him, or taken him out sooner, it could have meant a difference for the better for thousands of civilians..."
The explanation fit every note she had on the matter, but prompted her to dig a little further. "Was he always unbranded? Or... more genreally, is it even possible to remove one's Mark after they have been Marked?" she asked in curiosity, thinking back once again to Glimmer's village.
He took on a pensive expression at this, prompting her close attention. "Funny you should ask actually! A while back, a former student of mine actually looked into the subject. She did research with the Trident on it, and had some success, although there were side effects, such as personality supression."
Former student? That has to be her... Twilight thought to herself. "Did your student's name happen to be Starlight Glimmer?" she asked directly
"You know Starlight? Well, I can't say I'm too surprised, you and her are very much alike!" Maker responded, his face lighting up a bit at the mention of her name.
Twilight wanted to know more now. Maybe she could better understand Glimmer's personality through this. "Well what happened? You did say 'former' student."
"Well... she was a failed attempt at training a sucessor. She had incredible power, but lacked direction. I took her in with Trident permission, and taught her much about the Brander and its operation. I found her in a library actually! She had some interest in Marks as well, but after getting to know her, I took her in to spare her from the Trident's... information supression," he elaborated.
He continued with drooped ears. "My hope that Starlight would carry on my work utterly backfired. Instead, she thought the whole idea of the Brander was scary, she thought it so very unequal. She wanted a way to remove Marks from everyone, believing them entirely unfair... and something inside me wouldn't let me try to stop her. She never told her plans to anyone, except me, so her research was under the guise of allowing the Trident to make people unbranded after recieving a Mark. The R&D branch was fascinated by the idea, and took her up on helping research efforts."
So there was more to her hatred of Marks then just losing a friend... the princess thought. Actually, Twilight found herself wondering how she had ever fallen for the excuse that something so simple would have driven a pony to go to such extremes. Glimmer was brilliant with her powers, but was an atrotious liar.
Mark Maker continued on after a moment of thought. "When she got her answer, however, she ran away. I managed to get the Trident to turn a blind eye for a while, but I haven't heard from her since. Do you know what happened to her?" the old stallion asked of her with a hopeful expression.
Twilight opened her mouth to explain, but both of their attentions were jerked to an intercom speaker in the corner of the hallway as it emitted a sharp tone.
Suddenly, the sound of alarms blared through the facility, and a flat toned voice spoke over the speaker system.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I thought you both should know that this facility is now under my direct control. Twilight, I should have known you'd make it past Flak, I knew you had such potential. Thank you by the way for leaving the door open for me, it was quite considerate!" Reach said with a booming voice.
What? But I never opened the door, I couldn't bypass the locking mechanism! she thought to herself, wondering if perhaps Flak had gotten free and opened it.
"And old Mark Maker, I suppose you're helping the girl! I really can't say that I'm surprised. Your former loyalty is appreciated, and you will be remembered for your service, but as of this moment, you are completely unesessary. I have bypassed your duties, rendered you obsolete. You have finally been freed from the job you so loathe, old man," Reach spoke loudly, earning concern from both of them.
He can't be here this soon! Unless he somehow flew here by himself... the princess found herself noting.
Mark Maker turned to her and spoke quickly. "Twilight, we have very little time. There is a room above the Brander that contains the primary broadcast crystal in the peak. If the alarms are going off, than the hatch to access it from the Brander room is locked, so to stop him, you'll need to head to the primary broadcast room through the main hallway."
She was confused but knew she had to do something, anything, so she started to walk away, when Mark Maker stopped her.
She turned to look, and saw a new expression, one that almost scared her, because it was a very dark, solumn kind of expression, yet dead serious, and full of resolve.
"Twilight. I have one more thing that I must ask of you before you leave..."
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I just had a shiver go up my spine. So what will Twilight do I wonder? Hopefully she knows what to do, summon Discord and let him decide.
PLEASE tell me that Trident will be reformed, abolished, or destroyed, particularly that Reach will meet a poetically just fate.
I expected Mark Maker to pull a "you know to much" sorta thing. The new information made me temporarily forget about Reach. Well done!
THIS IS GETTING INTENSE
particularly it's ending
its
Not only it's function
its
the Brander and it's operation
its
Hmm. Were the Crusaders, then, being groomed for places in the Trident? Or was it just coincidence, given that they were still fairly young?
7130138
No, especially since they've already gotten their Cutie Marks.
7130176 Mmm. I was just wondering, since their marks seemed to be a long time coming even in canon, whether they might have been initially pre-targeted as potential recruits, but then circumstances changed and they were allowed to get marks.
7127242 You want discord anywhere close to the brander? think of the the insanity man. And the CHAOS!
HA. of course not. there's no such thing as a 'right choice'.
on a side note. that is NOT how you spell 'vague'. I can't blame you though, I used to have trouble spelling the word 'tongue'.
7139720
Whoops! Thanks for the fix!