[Mainframe]

by RidiculousPony

[Moment]

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

---

Far beneath Canterlot in a top-secret laboratory, Twilight Sparkle slept at her desk. Mere feet away the monolithic relic called “the Object” emitted its faint blue light. The light rose and fell in time with Twilight’s breathing. It flickered in tune with her heartbeat. It synchronized with her dreams.

She saw the Object. It was in its normal location in the northern corner of the lab, but something sat upon it. Twilight approached and saw a grey helmet, its shape not unlike that of a Royal Guard’s. She lifted it with her magic and found it was lighter than she had expected.

When she looked closer the entire surface was covered with intricate runes, similar to those on the Object itself. She felt compelled to try the helmet on and she found it fit perfectly.

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a start. She whipped around and scanned the room for the helmet, but there was no sign of it. “Just a dream,” she murmured. “I should sleep in a real bed…” She gathered her belongings and trudged up to the castle guest quarters.

---

Twilight checked off another item from her comprehensive “Research the Object” checklist. Just one day of research had made it three-quarters of the way through. Twilight slapped a hoof on the desk and startled Turquoise Star as he cleaned up to leave for the night. This should be cause for celebration. Checklists are made to be checked off, but… we haven’t learned anything new!

She scanned the list, Spell reactivity? Zero. Material Analysis? Unreadable. Emitted Light Frequency? Blue and otherwise unremarkable. “Ugh!” She put her forehead on the desk and rolled it from side to side.

The pressure on her forehead reminded her of something, “Wait a minute… That dream. I had a dream about… a helmet!” she exclaimed. “Maybe the Object uses a helmet somehow. I’ll check the notes again for a mention of that.” She darted to the filing cabinet and levitated a large folder out. She dropped it on the desk and dove in.

For three hours, she read and reread everything about the excavation process. “There’s nothing here at all about a helmet, and they absolutely scoured that cave. That foremare was damned thorough. I like her style. I’ll have to remember her name… Geode.”

After thirty more minutes reading the reports, Twilight threw her hooves up. “Agh. Nothing! It was just a stupid dream after all. Just wishful thinking on the part of my subconscious.” She returned the reports to their folder and the filing cabinet. “Whatever. I’m going to bed.” She returned to her chambers, took a quick shower, and promptly fell asleep.

Once again, the Object thrummed in tune with Twilight’s body. Despite the distance, it knew her feel and it found her dreams. Like before, Twilight stepped forward to the Object. She lifted the helmet and examined the runes etched into its surface. Unlike before, she happened to look closely at the spot just below the hole for a Unicorn’s horn. Dead center amongst the scramble of symbols, clear as day, was her cutie-mark.

She gasped. Every detail was there. It was unmistakable. She frowned in thought, then opened her eyes wide. “Ah ha, that explains it… the perfect fit, the fact that there’s no record of the helmet…” Compelled like before, she lowered the helm over her horn and onto her head.

She sat up abruptly. “The helmet doesn’t exist yet. I have to make it myself!” she shouted into the dark bedroom.

---

In the morning Twilight Sparkle addressed the research team, “I believe the Object utilizes a helmet as a user input device, but the helmet must be constructed uniquely for the user. The specifications for the helmet are conveyed through a recurring dream inserted into the user’s mind.” The team just stared blankly at her so she gave a simple conclusion, “We’re going to construct the helmet from my dream!”

Blue Moon left the room in a huff and said, “She’s mad. They replaced me with a madmare!”. Despite their confusion, the three research assistants remained.

Cobalt Thorn whispered to Ginseng Rose, “I’m just happy to be pursuing a new line of inquiry for the first time in months.”

The mare responded, “We get our course credit either way, which is all I’m really here for.”

The Royal Guard’s best blacksmith was summoned to construct a helmet but he was given only Twilight’s crude sketches to work from. Furthermore, she insisted it be made from the lightest sturdy metal he could find. He shrugged as he left. “Scholars...” he muttered.

For hours Twilight drew as many symbols as she could remember from her dream helmet. She recognized some from the Object itself. She put the assistants to task matching runes on the Object and correcting the sketches that were muddled by her memory.

Next she set them to making paper-mache helmets so she could draw the runes onto them with the correct interrelationships. By the end of the day, she had high confidence in perhaps one-tenth of the runes. “I’ll have to pay better attention tonight…” she murmured, prompting a doubtful shrug from Ginseng.

---

For three more nights Twilight dreamed of the helmet and for three more days she worked to make it a reality.

The forged helmet arrived from the blacksmith. It matched her specifications perfectly and fit just as well. “Thank you very much, sir. I’ll be sure to add you to the ‘special thanks’ of our published findings,” Twilight said. She didn’t understand why he wasn’t thrilled at the prospect.

She carefully etched the runes into the helm with her magic. If I botch this, he’d have to make it all over again. However, the symbols had become second nature to her and she had no issues with the etching. She finished the process that night and added her cutie-mark last.

That night Twilight had no dreams and she awoke the next morning with a hollow, wanting feeling. “Today’s the day. It’ll be great, just you wait and see,” she told the unconfident reflection in the bathroom mirror.

She galloped down to the laboratory and wrote an agenda for the day. Turquoise was the first assistant to arrive and she sent him to find Blue Moon. “He needs to be here for this. His work was the foundation we built upon, after all.”

It took all day to get everything prepared and the moment of truth fast approached. “At five o’clock exactly, I’ll wear the completed helmet and you”—she gestured to the three assistants—”will record everything that happens. Everything! Even an insignificant looking spark is worth noting down.”

Blue Moon scowled. “And if nothing happens at all?”

“That’s a distinct possibility. In fact, since the Object has been using dreams thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised if I need to sleep with the helmet on to get an effect. We’ll start preparing for that experiment right after this one,” she said with a chipper smile.

“Everypony get ready,” Twilight said as Cobalt counted down the seconds to five o’clock. She approached the Object and sat on her haunches. At the end of the countdown, as the lab’s clock rang out the first of five bells, Twilight Sparkle lowered the helmet onto her head.

Comments

[sailing101]

Intriguing, if a little rushed at points. I'll keep an eye on this.