A False Hope

by Emotion Nexus

Reliving Memories

“...What happened? Where am I?”

Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes to see a laboratory of machines whirring and moving on their own. Wires overlapped, and soft beeping filled the air. She was confused until she heard a loud, “YES!”

“What?” Looking around, finding her neck stiff and almost creaking as it moved, Fluttershy saw her friend and Princess, Twilight Sparkle. She was wearing a white lab coat, her mane wildly ruffled as her wings flapped excitedly. Timidly she asked, “Twilight, what are we doing here?”

Twilight jumped around excitedly, tears in her eyes. “Fluttershy, I thought I’d never see you again!”

The unease Fluttershy felt was compounded by the hollow feeling in her stomach, not to mention that something about her own voice felt… off. “Twilight, wait, I’m confused. What’s going on?”

Embarrassed, Twilight cleared her throat. “Mmhmm, yes sorry about that. Basically, you may not know this, but…” she paused, her elation suddenly faltering, “a few years ago... you died.”

Fluttershy did not for an instant think her friend was lying to her, but tilted her head all the same; “But, that makes no sense. Years? H-how?” if anything, the yellow pegasus’ volume shrank further, “What… what happened?”

Twilight seemed determined to spur herself back into a happier state, assuring her friend “It… It is a long story—and I know, by all accounts it doesn’t make any sense, but somehow it worked! I managed to transfer your soul into a robot.”

Twilight returned to her excited prancing amongst the myriad machines, their mystifying noises, lights, and purposes doing little to settle Fluttershy’s unease. She could tell Twilight was hiding her own anxiety under that foalish glee, though whether that anxiety was simply left over from what was clearly many hours if not days… or years... of work, trying to bring back one of her friends, or if it was something else, Fluttershy couldn’t say. Her own disquiet trotted over her patience, and wishing for answers, Fluttershy walked over to her, finding herself rather unused to her new body as its metal hooves clattered on the unyielding floor. Not knowing just what these new hooves could do, she made certain to place her hoof softer than a falling rose leaf on her friend’s shoulder.

“Twilight, why did you do this?”

Twilight almost reacted like the pegasus was joking, “Why? Because I missed you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I needed to try and help you.”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but frown, a little; “So, did you do it for me, or for closure?”

“I… uh…”

Fluttershy was afraid to hurt her friend’s feelings, but she had been awake for all of two minutes, and she could feel deep down that things were not right.

“Twilight, I’m happy that you’re so excited about this, I can tell this is… some huge magical breakthrough for you, or something... but... I-I… I feel that... you should have let me go.”

Fluttershy winced at Twilight’s reaction, as if the pegasus had just slapped her dear friend with a hoof to the snout. Only the slightest edge of anger tinged the Princess’ voice, the rest was something nearing desperation, “But, I brought you back to life; you should be thanking me!”

Fluttershy moved to hug Twilight. Whatever this body was, despite how accurate it conveyed the feeling of contact with the floor, the air currents, another pony... it felt almost like a dazed dream. A nuance of true feeling was missing, and Fluttershy didn’t want to put her friend through what would be an endless sequence of tweaking iterations of this body just so that that hollow feeling would go away. And as much as Fluttershy was not the Element of Honesty, she couldn’t bear the thought of lying to Twilight just so that the poor alicorn would not be consumed and drained by this project to undo nature. Twilight embraced Fluttershy back, at least feeling no hesitation in treating this reincarnation as that of her true friend. The yellow pegasus’ nearly-perfect voice was muffled as she spoke into the mane of the Princess, “I know that this is a miracle, Twilight… I know that you feel this is an unbelievable gift and… and that you’ve worked so hard and long to see it happen, but… please... think about how I feel. To me, it doesn’t feel like I’m actually alive. This all… I’m sorry I just don’t know how to describe it… But it feels fake.”

None of Twilight’s triumphant confidence was left, nor was there anger as she tried to reply with her head resting on her friend’s shoulders, “I…”

It tore at her to make this request, but Fluttershy’s certainty of what she wanted won out as her gentle but firm voice spoke, “I’m sorry, Twilight, but if you can, could you release me, please?”

The Princess pulled her head away from the hug but continued to hold onto this yellow robot containing her friend’s soul. The tears she struggled to hold back only led her to sniffle, “...Could you just hold me for a few minutes first?”

Fluttershy smiled and held Twilight tighter, she didn’t need to be afraid now of this body, “Of course.”

As Twilight felt the mechanical pony’s metal wings join in wrapping around her, the lack of warmth she had hoped for—had expected—was like a winter gust... It proved to her that Fluttershy was gone, and could never be brought back.

“T-Twilight? Could you tell me about how things are now? I know I missed a lot, and I’d like to at least go knowing how everypony’s been doing.”

Twilight gave a pained laugh, trying to make her short time with her friend worthwhile, “Of course, Fluttershy, it’s the least I could do. Who do you want to hear about?”

“Everypony.”

Twilight talked for hours, regaling the robotic Fluttershy with tales both happy and sad about their friends. As she kept talking a smile stretched across her face. When it finally came time to set Fluttershy free, she didn’t want to, but knew she had to.

That night, she cried for her friend.

Comments

[Mechawrecker]

Good God dude, it's like a masterpiece. When I first read it during the panic, I thought it was a little light. Now though, it's much more fleshed out (pun intended). Makes me wonder what I could do with my own submission.

[Emotion Nexus]

10424468
Thanks! I loved your entry quite a lot. Love your CloudFlitter stories too.

[Mystic Sunrise]

Yeah, this failed. Mostly because it's too short for this sort of thing. You shoved what should have been several thousand, at least, words into just over 1000.

As much as I hate stories that have Twilight become like this, most at least are smart enough to have the story be longer to get it across.

[Mechawrecker]

10424500
Keep in mind, most of it was written during a speed writing contest. No offense, but I think that's a little harsh.

[Mystic Sunrise]

10424503
I've read spead writings before. Some make it work with small word counts. This isn't one of them.

I don't apologize for not having an opinion filter.

[Snow Quill]

I loved reading this, both during the panic and again here. I think the edits really did help a lot. It’s a solid story that yes, could very easily be expanded into 5-10k words, but sometimes all you need is 1,000. Short and sweet and simple, something that hits you with a quick one two punch and doesn’t require the investment of an hour or more to read and comprehend. I thought this one was really good, and now that I’ve followed you, I can keep up to date with more of your work

[Solarfollow]

Fluttershy wants to die, because her body doesn't feel right? Well that sometimes happens after an accident! If you lose a limb, or get nerve-damage, or something. It was wrong for Twilight to "set Fluttershy free", that's just a nice way of saying "commit murder".

[Emotion Nexus]

10424750
In all technicality, Fluttershy had already died. Twilight bringing her back was unhealthy for Twilight mentally and just serves to keep Twilight from making peace with her death.

Fluttershy knew this and didn't want to do that to Twilight, and since she already didn't feel right, she asked Twilight to let her return to the afterlife.

[Solarfollow]

10424762
Yes, Fluttershy had already died. So what? We bring people back from the dead all the time, it's called CPR.

And maybe it was unhealthy for Twilight to spend as much time and effort as she did, bringing Fluttershy back. Maybe it would have been healthier for her to just accept Fluttershy's death. Again, so what? The damage is already done, that time and effort has already been spent. Killing Fluttershy isn't going going to give Twilight her time and effort back.

[Shaslan]

10424514
I don't think its 'not having an opinion filter' so much as it is just being rude. All the stories on this site are something someone worked hard on, edited, and wanted to share with others. Stamping all over someone else's creation, especially when they're new to writing, just isn't called for.

10424762
For what it's worth, I thought your story was excellent! Short, yes, but it didn't need to be any longer to get in the scenes you wanted to depict. I can definitely see Twilight going a bit neurotic and trying to restore a friend to life, and Fluttershy's character in particular was spot on. She would definitely want to be released. You even had Twilight learn a friendship lesson at the end! 10/10

[Arkane12]

Interesting read. I do think that the story could be slowed down and stretched out a bit more. It does feel a little quick. That said, it's an interesting concept. The fact that Twilight put Fluttershy in a new robot body (correct me if I'm wrong) instead of reviving her old body reminds me of the Ship of Theseus paradox. All in all, I find the concept works and the story well written. You get a like from me, mate.

[C_II_R]

She was wearing a white lab coat

I like the ending scene where Fluttershy asks to be told about everything and everyone she’d missed, and that she was content to stay for the hours necessary to hear it all: it shows that even though she can’t bear to stay (which as sad as it is, it's believable for the story given our real life ignorance of the effects of a years-later resurrection on a person's well-being), she still cares for her friends, and Fluttershy gives Twilight the closure that she suspected the Princess needed.

[Emotion Nexus]

10425356
Thanks! Means a lot coming from you.

[SigmasonicX]

This was a nice sweet story. Of course, as others have mentioned, this could have been expanded a lot. However, I think there's also some truth in Fluttershy realizing right away that this was the wrong thing to do and Twilight realizing she's right. Given this was a speedfic, you got the characters' voices down. Good job!

[Echo Breeze]

A masterpiece, my friend. You've just earned another upvote on the story.

[Emotion Nexus]

10426312

10426314
Thanks to both of ya.

[Solarfollow]

10425290
I think there's one important difference between this and the Ship of Theseus: The Ship of Theseus is a thing, Fluttershy is a man.

If you replace both the handle and the blade of your ax, then it's highly questionable it it's the same ax. Because every component of it has been replaced, nothing of the original ax is left. That's because an ax is a thing, not a man. Men are not mere objects, made of components. Men can think, men have minds. And it's our minds that make us men.

So long as Fluttershy's mind is intact, she is alive. It doesn't matter if every component of her body has been replaced, because Fluttershy's body isn't what makes her Fluttershy. Her mind is what makes her Fluttershy!

[Arkane12]

10426733
Fair point

[flutterJackdash]

Reviewed!

[applezombi]

Hello Emotion Nexus, it's applezombi from My Little Reviews and Feedback!

Here is the first of two reviews for the day!

[Holtinater]

I heard you liked reviews! Here's another one!

[Ice Star]

This wasn't what I expected it to be at all, and I really enjoyed it. Twi being sad because she misses her mortal friends far into the future is nothing new, but that doesn't mean it can't be interesting or handled in vivid and believable ways. However, bringing a pony's soul back from the dead and putting them into an artificial body like the machine Twilight constructed is new. Admittedly, I would have loved to see a sequel or a dramatically expanded piece of this because there are so many things that can come from this idea. For example, the way Fluttershy talked about the legitimate wrongness of her experience and knowledge that she should be dead implied that there was somewhere she needed to be, yet you manage to dodge the question of whether or not there is an afterlife for these creatures in a believable way. While I would have loved to see how you painted the future of Equestria and its familiar immortal faces, that Fluttershy decided to be de-powered within one conversation was still well-written and evocative. I'd just be satisfied with a longer, richer version of this story that the current word count doesn't really cover.