Equestria and the Machine

by SapphireRose87

8) Oh joy. My pocket dimension...

The next day I was back in that creepy white room again. I hated it because not only did it make my skin crawl, it irked me for some reason. Twilight wasn’t there to train me. I hoped she wouldn’t be here today.

“I heard about what happened yesterday. Between Princess Twilight and you,” said Oliver, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, “I don’t which is worse, what happened to me with that stupid code. Or what happened to me back in Equestria where no one even bothered to hear my side of the story!"

"Oh,” Oliver said.

I took a deep breath and exhaled slow, “It’s fine Oliver, let’s get this stupid training over with. I hate being in this creepy white room.”

“Okay then,” said Oliver, “we only have one more day to train you. After that, you’ll go out on assignments. Part of those assignments will be helping creatures break out of the Machine.”

“Is there any chance I’ll be able to rescue Spitfire?” I said.

Oliver shook his head, “I don’t know, that’s all up to what the Predictor says.”

“The Predictor?” I said.

“Yup,” said Oliver, “There’s-”

“Let me guess,” I said, “six Predictors?”

“Yup!” Oliver said. “Think of them as your boss that you will receive assignments from. The number of divisions that agents of the Sixth are…”

I rolled my eyes, “Six?”

“Uh-huh, the Predictors are the ones that locate an original creature stuck inside the Machine. They usually assign a team of six to break the creature out in a process of three phases.

"When a team gets assigned to a subject, it's their responsibility to activate trigger responses. We call the first trigger response Phase 1. That's the static vision phase you experienced. After the conclusion of Phase 1, the subject will be sent to one of the Founders of the Sixth.”

“Is that where the watch question comes into play?” I said.

"Correct! Next, the team activates Phase 2, where the subject will choose a watch. This will determine if they return to the Machine or not. If they choose the correct watch they're sent to their cell. Their cell exists in an intermediate layer where the Sixth can extract them. That is Phase 3," Oliver said.

“So how did I make my choice?” I said.

“Did you remember going through a thunderstorm before you went to Finn?” Oliver said.

I nodded, “Yes I did and that’s when I saw the watch before I went Finn.”

“That was the other part of your personality that was aware of who you are,” Oliver said. “That’s how you made your choice. The Machine seems to think that to keep you in its false reality, it needs to fool you into thinking that it’s real. It takes memories of your old reality and changes it.”

The Machine lies like a pro. The fact that it does this to trick people into thinking that its false reality is real was interesting to me. Oliver looked puzzled by the look on my face after he said that.

After that, I thought about it even more and I panicked. If the Machine needed to keep part of your personality aware of itself by adding similarities of your old life. to keep the lie going, then was it possible that I had a baby back in Equestria?

Nope! No way in hell that I had a baby back in Equestria! I would think I would remember if I did, I would’ve remembered it by now! To me, there’s no way that has anything to do with Jude! But now that you think of it, Jude wasn’t born until after Silas assaulted me! So I hope that’s because of the Machine, and not from Equestria! I was so busy back then I don’t think I would’ve had the time to have a baby let alone take care of it!

“Woah Rainbow!” Oliver yanked me down by my tail before I hit my head on the ceiling in my panicked flight.

“Hey!” I said. “What was that for?”

"To keep you from hurting yourself,” said a voice from the doorway, “or from breaking the room!”

It's Gilda. Geez, I'm not a stand-up comedian! Well, I’m glad I could be the entertainment for tonight. I should get a paycheck for this!

After Gilda stopped laughing, her lips curled into a mischievous smile.

“Whatever!” Gilda said. “Come on Agent Oliver, we should teach her the-"

“Blood barrier,” said Oliver, “I guess it’s time we do that. It’s the only way she can access the system for the Sixth and she’ll need it for her pocket dimension.”

“Okay sure,” said Gilda, “but word on the street is you two like each other and should be a couple! Or friends with benefits!”

Gilda put her claws on her hips waggling them, flashing a teasing smile.

“Really Gilda!” I said.

I should’ve been the element of laughter instead. I wish Gilda would stop laughing. At least she’s not munching on my ear like it’s a freaking apple! Or sneaking into my bedroom to watch me sleep.

I felt so annoyed with Gilda! I bit her feather, plucked it, and spit it out.

“Ow!” Gilda said. “Fine, I’ll stop teasing.”

“Good!” I snapped. “Or I’ll pull the rest of them out!”

I saw Oliver flinch.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“You know,” said Oliver, “I came out as an owl from the Machine and It would hurt to have all my feathers taken out! It’s bad enough the zoo clipped my wings so I couldn’t escape.”

I tilted my head, "You were in a zoo? That sucks. Sorry about that, but she ticked me off. I’m tired of the teasing right now. You're laughing at my so-called jokes Gilda, you should pay me for that!”

Oliver snorted.

“That’s so not funny!” I said.

“Okay Rainbow Dash,” Oliver said. “let’s show you the blood barrier.”

As soon as Oliver said the words blood barrier Gilda perked right up, eager to teach me that.

“Can I do the introduction to it?” Gilda begged. “Please?”

“Fine!” Oliver said. “But, I would like it if you stop teasing Rainbow or I’ll give her license to pull another feather out! Actually, I might let her pull out all your feathers one by one do you understand me?”

“I thought you didn’t like feather pulling?” I said.

“Never mind that Rainbow,” said Oliver then turned to Gilda, “you can go ahead and start now Gilda!”

Gilda smiled and took out what looked like a doorbell. It looked like the one Oliver used to open that secret passageway. When we escaped the seekers.

“Wait a second…” I paused. “But that’s a-”

Gilda rolled her eyes as if I should know the answer to that question, “A doorbell, yes! But this isn’t a regular doorbell, it’s a blood barrier doorbell. You only have access to the blood barrier for thirty seconds. Drop some of your blood on it... and bingo! You have your pocket dimension!”

“But Oliver didn’t do that when he and Clara saved me from the seekers!” I said.

“Actually,” said Oliver, “I did! But, you probably didn’t notice because of all the craziness going on at the moment. Anyway, I’m curious to see what your pocket dimension is.”

“Me too!” Gilda said with excitement in her voice. “As I was saying, to access your pocket dimension. The first time you access the blood barrier you have to do it for six minutes. And after that, the longest you can access the blood barrier is no more than two hours, period! You got that Agent Oliver?”

“Fine,” Oliver said annoyed with Gilda at this point.

“As I said before, you can do it Rainbow!” Gilda cheered.

Before she could continue I cut her off, “Yeah, yeah I know! I’m tough, I’m fast and I’m the definition of the word awesome! Again, the definition of the word awesome is definitely a big fat lie!”

This time Oliver joined in on the laughter with Gilda. I got frustrated with both of them. I showed it by flicking my tail much like Twilight did to Finn. Oliver saw me flick my tail and he stopped laughing. He frowned and pulled one of Gilda’s feathers out.

“What’s with the feather pulling today?” Gilda growled.

“I said stop teasing!” Oliver said. “Although I am guilty of this myself. You can feel free to kick me for that Rainbow.”

Gilda had me very irritated. She can eat her feathers! As far as Oliver went, I tripped him with one of my hooves knocking him to the ground. He wheezed.

“Oops,” I said, “sorry.”

“Well,” teased Gilda, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall!”

“Okay,” said Oliver getting to his feet, “I’ve had worse happen to me so it’s no problem. Can we please get this over with Gilda?”

Gilda stepped in front of me and flicked one of her claws right in front of my left eye and I instinctively closed it. When I opened it, I couldn’t see anything at first. But then my vision cleared up a little but not much. It felt like my eye was ready to come out of its socket!

“Good,” said Gilda, “looks like you’re a natural at this, I wouldn’t expect nothing less coming from you! Anyway, look straight at the wall in front of you. What do you see?”

I squinted at the wall and saw the same number I had on my bedroom door.

“I see the number fourteen!” I said.

“See?” Gilda said. “I knew you could take the pain!”

“This isn’t a field day you know!” I said.

“Calm down Rainbow!” Gilda said. "Now, focus on the number fourteen, this will only take a second!”

I focused on the number fourteen. The word 'accessing' appeared on the wall. After what felt like forever, the word changed to ‘access granted.' Gilda took some of my blood from my eye and dropped it onto the doorbell. Gilda looked as if she were a proud mama that had her child pass an important test in school.

“Good job Rainbow!” Gilda said, “you’ve already accessed the system for ten minutes! You can stop doing it now. Close your eye for a little bit and shake your head and your eye will be back to normal.”

I closed my eye and shook my head. The pain went away, but I was seeing double. Gilda held up a couple of her claws and put them in front of my face.

"How many claws do I have holding up?" Gilda said.

“A mix between two and four? Ow!” I said, rubbing my forehead. I shook my head around trying to fix my vision but it didn’t work.

“Oh yeah, I forgot!” Gilda said. “I should’ve told you that there would be double vision in the left eye the first time you access the blood barrier! My bad!”

“Are you kidding me, Agent Gilda?” Oliver said.

Gilda snorted. I glared at her. Then Gilda went straight-faced. It took a lot of self-control for me not to pull out another one of her feathers.

Gilda handed over my doorbell.

“Now,” said Oliver, “there are exactly-"

I rolled my eyes, “Six pocket dimensions. I’m getting tired of that number! Six this, and six that! That’s about as bad as people calling me Rainbow Dash!”

“Yeah I agree with you on that one,” said Gilda, “that’s exactly what I thought when I started working for the Sixth!”

“Moving on,” said Oliver, “let’s see what pocket dimension you have Rainbow.”

Oliver then threw the doorbell up and it stuck to some imaginary door.

“Now all you have to do is ring the doorbell,” Oliver said.

“That’s it?” I said.

“Yup,” said Oliver, “that’s it!”

I pressed my hoof to the doorbell and the door to my pocket dimension opened up. I hesitated, then went inside.

When I entered my pocket dimension I could not believe what I was seeing! There was a flat-screen Tv on the wall in front of me; it was currently off. There were six computers set up to the left of me; they showed images of what looked like a movie set and looking at it from every angle that I could see.

Oliver and Gilda walked around pocket dimension looking around in awe.

“What?” I said. “What is it? Did I do something wrong?”

“That’s not it at all,” Gilda said. “You did everything right. This pocket dimension is amazing!”

“You got that right!” Oliver said. “I’ve never seen this one before! I’ve seen the other five pocket dimensions a bunch of times and I’ve heard rumors about this one, but wow! They're only five other people that have this pocket dimension! It's the same one Finn has! I bet you that’s because-"

“If you say it’s because I’m Rainbow Dash, so help me," I growled.

Gilda went into a fit of laughter.

“Sorry,” Gilda said, “you’re Rainbow Dash, get used to it!”

“I’m going to get rid of that name!” I said.

“Uh-huh, yeah I don’t think that’s possible," Oliver said.

“We’ll see about that!” I said.

“Oh yeah,” said Oliver, “here’s your doorbell. You won’t be able to leave it behind. If you try to get rid of it, it will reappear behind your left ear, which is where you'll put it normally. When you’re inside your pocket dimension the doorbell goes inside it with you so you’ll be able to get out of it no problem.”

“So how does this dimension work?” I said.

“I’m not sure,” said Oliver, “since I’ve never seen this one before, you’re going to have to figure that one out on your own. You'll get summoned when you get an assignment.”

“So how do I know if I’m summoned?” I said.

“Your doorbell will ring in your ear,” Oliver said.

“What if you’re a deep sleeper?” I said.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Gilda, “the doorbell will ring in your mind and make you wake up! It’s not very subtle either. It's what I call a rude awakening!”

“Why’s that?” I said.

“It’ll give you a small electric shock and make you wake up!” Gilda said. “I’ve gotten it a couple of times myself. It is not pleasant!”

“No kidding on that one!” Oliver said.

“Tomorrow you will meet with your Predictor. That person will assign you to your original six-man team," said Gilda. “The first thing you’ll be responsible for is sending your assignment into Phase 1. You know the rest of the procedure from there. As for the rest of being an agent for the Sixth, you’ll have to figure out on your own.”

“So how do I get out of here?” I said.

Oliver pointed at the doorbell that was inside the pocket with us. I pressed my hoof to the doorbell and stepped out of it. I was out of my pocket dimension and Oliver and Gilda didn’t realize how late it was until we looked at the time.

“Well,” I yawned, “I guess it’s time we say goodnight…”

* * *

Finally, I was out of that creepy white room. I walked down the hallway with Finn. Where Finn and I were going, I had no idea.

“Okay Rainbow Dash,” said Finn, “you’ve finally completed your training. Now you’re an official agent of the Sixth. I hear that you’ve gotten a rare weapon and you also have the same pocket dimension I do! Not bad at all! I wouldn’t expect anything less coming from you. Step right this way and you’ll meet your Predictor and get assigned to your squad. Expect the unexpected!”

I rolled my eyes. I turned my attention forward. I stood in front of a bright light, confused about what to do next. I turned to Finn. This time Finn rolled his eyes to return the favor.

“Just step through the light and your Predictor will be on the other side. After this, you won’t be seeing much of me anymore unless it’s needed. Well, I’ll see you around!” Finn said.

Author's Note:

At this point, Rainbow Dash is ready for her training to be over with because she hates the room she's training in so that's why she's not impressed about her pocket dimension