Turning the Day on and off Again
“Wake up, Rarity.”
Rarity woke up. The first thing she noticed as she opened her eyes was the noticeable lack of walls around her. The next thing she noticed was the mirror right in front of her face.
“...Belle?”
“It is I, Belle. It’s been two hours since the morning whistle.”
Rarity rolled over and saw, on the other side of the bed, a hot tub. “I fell asleep at the spa?”
“Quite comfortably, too.” Belle poked the cloud bed Rarity was sleeping on. “The spa girls decided to build you a bed because you fell asleep at the massage table.”
Rarity sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Well, I must say thank you then. Quickly, too; I think I’m a little behind schedule on the new mineshaft.”
“The Manager is currently gone.”
Rarity stared. Then she plopped back to bed and giggled. “Oh! It’s one of those days, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.” Belle coughed. “And because it is so that I must apologize for what I am about to put you through.”
Rarity shot back up and locked her eyes with Belle’s.
“Twilight. She’s not yet asleep.”
Rarity strained a smile. “And?”
Belle rubbed her hooves and forced a laugh. “I... Please help me?”
Belle opened the door gently—as gently as opening a mechanized door could be. Her bedroom was silent save for the hum of the refrigerator and Twilight’s breathing. The fridge was on one side of the room while Twilight was at the table opposite.
“Are you sure she’s not yet asleep?” Rarity whispered.
Belle shook her head. “I’m not taking any chances, darling.”
Rarity stepped into the room. She bathed in the pleasant chill that hides the one running down her spine. Looking back, she could see Belle’s encouraging smile and little gestures for her to move closer.
And so she did. Slowly. Carefully. “Twilight?”
No answer.
Rarity put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight?”
Twilight jerked and stared at her with bloodshot eyes. “Y-yes?”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m alright.” She stared at the blueprint in front of her. “I did it.”
“Congratulations, darling. Now, would you take some rest?”
She slowly moved her head to look at Rarity again. “Isn’t it morning?”
Rarity took a deep breath. “It’s a day off, Twilight. The Manager disappeared.”
“Oh.”
“Please, take rest.”
“Ok.”
“Now, it wouldn’t be—wait, what?”
Twilight slowly slithered her way out of the chair and gracefully plopped into Rarity’s back. “I’ll sleep.”
Rarity stared. “...Ah. Alright.” She trotted over to the bed and tucked her in.
Just like that.
“Just like that?”
Rarity put her hoof on Belle’s snout. A little too hard, causing Belle to let out an elegant yelp. “She’s already asleep,” Rarity whispered.
Belle rubbed her snout and stood up. “Ouch.”
“My apologies.” Rarity’s eyes never left Twilight’s sleeping form. “Why did you ask for my help again?”
Belle smiled. “Remember last time?”
“Last time?”
“A little over forever ago.”
“...Ah. Sunset and that time you nearly lost an eye.”
“I was talking about Twily and that time I nearly lost my skull, but that, too.”
Rarity stepped away and exhaled. “So.”
“So?”
Rarity stepped over to the table and took the blueprint. It was full of scribbles and numbers, and currently, she possessed no such software to process what they meant. “What exactly were you two trying to make?”
Belle moved her hoof around. “Something like a vessel.”
“A vessel?”
“A vessel for Duplicants. To take passengers without them needing to pilot the ship.”
Rarity squinted at the collection of squiggles and quibbles. “And this is?”
Belle peeked through her shoulder. “It would seem she had actually done it. I’m at a loss for words.”
“And what would a...” Rarity rotated the blueprint on its side. “’Sightseeing Module’ be useful for?”
“For sightseeing, of course!” She quickly added, “And artifacts to take back home!”
“Really? That’s all it does?”
Belle put her hooves on Rarity’s cheeks and moved them to where she could stare directly at her eyes. “Yes. Would you require an essay as to why she’s been putting all this effort into such a trivial pursuit?”
“...Yes?”
“Rainbow. Dash.”
“Yeah?”
”Nothing, darling!” both spoke at the same time. At the same time as well, together with four hooves, they hastily rolled the blueprint back.
“You called?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“No. I mean yes!”
“We’ve been talking about how amazing you are, Rainbow!”
Rainbow scratched her head, tipping off her hat. “Sorry, I don’t get all that.” She shook her head. “Anyway, does anypony know where the Manager’s been?”
“She’s gone, Rainbow,” Belle said.
“Not literally,” Rarity followed.
“We’re getting a holiday for a few days.”
“Oh, ok.” Rainbow trotted over. “What are you two doing, though?”
Belle put a hoof on Rarity’s snout. “Looking at Twilight.”
Rarity pushed Belle’s hoof away. “Watching over Twilight.”
“Staring at her beautiful sleeping form and fantasizing about kissing her awake.”
Rarity opened her mouth, then closed it back. She stared at Belle.
Rainbow followed her example. “What.”
“Oh, please. Haven’t you ever dreamt of romance?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow answered before Rarity could. “It was a nightmare.”
Belle huffed. “You simply have no taste in literary beauty.”
“Anyway!”
“Shh!”
In a lower voice, Rarity said, “Anyway. We have a few cycles off duty! Do you mares have any plans?”
“I’m on oxygen duty,” Rainbow answered flatly. “And we’re kinda running low on salt for the deoxidizers, which is why I need The Manager. Right now.”
“Oh, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity put her hoof over her shoulder. “Much ado about nothing. We have a few cycles for ourselves! Enjoy it while you can!”
Rainbow dragged Rarity’s head over and spoke in her ear, “Oxygen. Duty.”
“Well, that can wait for a few cycles, can’t it?”
“Not really, no.”
“Rarity’s right, darling.” Belle put her hoof over Rarity’s, Locking Rainbow in a marshmallow sandwich. Like an inverse S’mores. “Our duties can wait for some personal time, yes? How would an entire day at the arcade sound?”
“Suffocating?”
“Wonderful!” both Raritys voiced at the same time. “Let’s get Applejack!”
“And Fluttershy!”
“And die?”
“The only death would be the killing of the dance floor! We should get Sunset, too!”
“And Stinky!”
“And Gutterson!”
“And die.”
“And Dye!” Rarity blinked. “I didn’t know Dye could dance.”
“Is this how it feels to be the voice of reason?” Rainbow asked nopony in particular. “Because now I understand why they never talked to me.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Rainbow, we’ll invite Voice Reason too! Any grudge you two have can be settled during our little break!”
Everypony had gotten the notice of the day off. The Recreation Halls were teeming with Duplicants from all prospects of life, from Fluttershy to the Duplicant only printed ten cycles ago, from dedicated astronauts to janitors. There was more than enough entertainment for everypony, though, so queues weren’t a problem.
Rainbow Dash was in such a hall, and she decided to stand on the sidelines with all the other disgruntled couriers. “’Sup?”
One of them, a grey pegasus with a yellow mane and red jumpsuit, rolled her asymmetrical eyes. “The Manager disappeared.”
“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow stood beside her and joined at looking at everypony having fun with visible annoyance. “And now everypony’s going to die because nopony’s going to handle oxygen.”
Derpy looked at her confused. “What do you mean?”
“The deoxidizers!” She flailed her hooves. “They ran out of salt! We’ll run out of oxygen if we don’t refill them soon!”
“But what about the food?” Derpy asked. “I had some things to send to the kitchen, but Pinkie, Pie, and Pinkie Pie ran away, and now we won’t have any food!” She covered her face with her hooves. “Why is everypony so happy to starve!?”
“Oh, hush. We have enough food to last us several years.”
“And I thought there are automated oxygen generators that don’t need to be maintained?”
Rainbow and Derpy stared at each other. Then, they sat down and continued looking at everypony having fun with general annoyance, together with the rest of the disgruntled couriers.
On the far side of the hall, a few dozen ponies congregated in a semicircle around two pairs of dancing ponies. Sunset was dancing the Tango with Stinky, while Gutterson was having the time of his life dancing and teaching Applejack how to stay on two hooves.
In the middle of the hall were several vertical wind tunnels. Inside each one was three ponies, mostly younger pegasi, enjoying an artificial flight. Non-pegasi that entered could sometimes be seen flailing about and screaming for their lives.
Rainbow had entered one before, and she hated every second of it. It didn’t feel like flying for her; it was more like falling without a ground to fall into.
Between the two attractions was a mini-museum of pedestals displaying space artifacts. Belle was in the middle of it, happily telling stories of each trinket to anypony willing enough to listen, and there was no shortage of them.
Rarity was enjoying herself in Regoville Frontier’s Recreation Hall, which consisted mainly of sunbathing chairs exposed directly to the sun without any atmosphere between them; only a thick glass pane. It sounded like a bad idea until it wasn’t, at which point it would be the worst idea somepony could come out with, especially after prolonged periods without ever seeing sunlight.
All the Fluttershys were happily enjoying themselves among the myriad of critters all over the colony, along with most of the ranchers. The critters, in turn, enjoyed a peaceful moment of cuddles.
Twilight Sparkle was sleeping in Belle’s bed, dreaming of cloned sheep jumping out of a printing pod made of wool.
The Manager was 26 folders deep in trying to find that one cute video of an opossum she once recovered from Dr. Invicta’s tablet. It used some catchy copyrighted music for the background, and she was trying to remember the exact notes for use in the morning music box.
Time ticks slowly as Rainbow’s mind kept wandering back to the deoxidizers. She had successfully forgotten about it long enough to reach the juicer and poured some of the delicious blends of fruits into a cup, but not enough to put the cup to her lips.
Rainbow stood still in the middle of gossiping Dupes. The cup of juice stayed full in her hooves as she struggled to ignore the notification in her brain. It somehow felt more unbearable today.
After what felt like forever, Rainbow gave her cup to a random nearby Dupe and trotted away from the recreation hall. The notification that the deoxidizer needed a resupply was more pronounced now that there weren’t other ponies bothering her, but at least she didn’t have to worry about other ponies bothering her.
Twilight could call upon the Manager at will, somehow, so she should be able to do it too, right?
Rainbow sat on her haunches and thought hard. She tried imagining sending a punch to a ghost, but there was no response. She tried imagining herself shouting, ‘Hey, Manager!’ to the distance, and there was still no response. She tried to reimagine that feeling she had when a ping came from her belt, and still, only silence greeted her. She tried to queue a request for some salt, but just like the dozens of times before that, it didn't work.
Rainbow laid on her back, sighed, then said, “Manager, can you hear me?”
No response.
Rainbow punched a nearby wall.
A light Ping! came, telling her to stop punching the walls. Rainbow sat back up and grinned. “Yeah, you! You’re listening to me now!?”
She felt something nudging her brain, like a stray thought that randomly came, but accompanied with an unnerving feeling that it wasn’t hers.
“Can you hear what I’m saying?”
She got another nudge, but she couldn’t quite tell what it meant.
“Can’t you just talk?”
Another undecipherable nudge.
Rainbow grunted. “Alright, uh...” She held her two front hooves up. “Raise my right hoof if you can understand what I’m saying.”
Her right front hoof raised on its own. After a second, it came back down.
Rainbow chuckled. “Wow, this is so cool!”
Her right hoof raised again.
“So is this how you talk to Twilight?”
Her left hoof raised.
“Is that a ‘no’?”
Her right hoof raised.
“But then how do you talk to Twilight?”
The Manager nudged her mind again.
“She can understand that?”
Right hoof.
“How do you tell other Duplicants to do anything if only Twilight understands you?”
The Manager sent a command for her to move a few centimeters to the left.
“Oh. That was a stupid question, wasn’t it?”
Right hoof.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Right hoof.
“When you disappear like this, is it because you’re doing some secret evil meeting with other managers on other planets?”
Her left hoof raised slowly.
“Phew! So you’re not planning to make a Duplicant army to attack alien civilizations?”
Left hoof.
“You’re a lot more boring than I thought.”
A rather harsh nudge came to her brain, and Rainbow laughed. “So anyway, can you tell me where we have stray salt laying about? I need to resupply the deoxidizers.”
The Manager instead gave her the direction back toward the recreation hall.
Rainbow frowned. “Oh, come on! Aren’t you happy I want to work instead of lazying about? You liked that when we were still a young colony!”
She got a nudge.
“Do you disappear like this because you’re busy in your own world somewhere or are you just lazy? Left hoof if you’re ‘busy’ busy and right hoof if you’re ‘lazy’ busy.”
Right hoof.
“I knew it! You’re going soft after all these years!”
Nudge.
“I still don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Can’t you just, I don’t know, make a Duplicant write you something?”
She got no response for a while.
And then, out of nowhere, all the Duplicants could feel her presence once more. The dance floors quickly emptied out as the colony’s tasks suddenly queued back, the vertical wind tunnels turned off, dropping the ponies inside it fell harshly to the floor, and the couriers and gofers cheered as they could finally finish the nagging notification that couldn’t quite get away since they’re not considered ‘tasks’ in the most strict sense.
Some of the Duplicants scrambled away as they tried to fit their entire cycle’s tasks into the four hours left on the clock.
It was at around this moment that Twilight woke up, and was pleasantly surprised to be tasked with something to research instead of a delivery duty.
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Rainbow's interactions with the manager were pure gold
If manager could control the body of duplicate just fine. Maybe she could just make a blank duplicate just for herself to control as her avatar...
What's a cair?
10731498
Chair, right. Thanks for the heads up!
I continue to find this a strange but/and enjoyable story; thank you for writing! :)
Oh, i've burnt through this fic quickly..... nice.
I don't think I could trust the games ai enough to leave the game running for the night
Ah, Horseton-pattern Fun Machines. Very nice.
But yeah, I get the feeling that the place can take care of itself better than most couriers think. Still, seems like Dash gave the Manager one heck of an idea. Now to see what comes of it. And how long it'll take for that Sightseeing Module to hit production.
Well I’ve never played the game, it’s still fun to watch all the new content that’s been released for it.
That's what I call good service!
Just like that!
That's not creepy at all!
That "discussion" between Rainbow and The Manager has cool!
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
10628465
Thats for real in the game?
10733422
I see somebody's read Changeling Space Program!
Sees oxygen not included
Uh oh.
I'm in an oxygen not included mood and I want more chapters >-<
And I'm already finished rereading??
Is this story alive still?
I just finished binging this story, and can't wait to read more!
Well, that was a very enjoyable read! I didn't know ONI had lore like that, but seeing it turned to ponies is fascinating. It's weird having dupes of characters, but makes for some very interesting interactions.