• Published 18th Sep 2020
  • 1,919 Views, 243 Comments

Magic's Birth: The Sisters' Memories - The Psychopath



Luna and Celestia tell Twilight of the time when their makers were still around, when they were awoken, and potentially discover what the Blue energy that birthed the magic that gave life to the world was.

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CAKE!

Rahllup gestured to Biddydee. "Mah body's in the fields over there somewhere," she vaguely gestured. "Reckon ya should be able ta bring it back afterwards."

Biddydee saluted the giant and returned inside the large robot. Its engines roared with power as the torso locked down and the machine rose up. It stomped away into the distance with the four close behind.

"This place is fantastic!" Galah blurted out suddenly. "The creatures look just as horrific as the tiny ones in the city!" he laughed.

"What?!" Rahllup shouted. She felt quite insulted. "Our animals here ain't horrific! They're-!" She stammered to find a way to argue aginst what the prototype had said but failed to find any words. "They're better 'n the blue, at least!"

Galah gave a smug laugh. "Couldn't find a rebuttal, eh?"

The orange robot huffed. "Ain't no rebuttal needed."

"And yet both places we live in are filled with monstrous but oh-so fascinating creatures," he mused. "Ours are just smaller."

"Save the burrowing creature on the slopes leading to the port," Celestia corrected.

"There were burrowing creatures?" Galah stared into the distance. "I have no memories of such an event."

Celestia's eyes glowed a hot white in response to the prototype's response, but he just stared at her silently. His confusion didn't dissipate. Rahllup didn't miss the opportunity for more mockery.

"So not everythin' is paradise over in the blue, hm?" she said.

"No data suggests it is any of the multiple depictions of 'paradise' when cross-referenced with the limited data I have available on maker history." Luna turned to Celestia who shook her head. "I can confirm that it is not paradise."

Rahllup groaned and tdragged her hand across her face, producing a painful screeching that caused several small creatures to scurry away from the group's feet. "It's an expression," she moaned.

They had arrived at the home when Rahllup shrunk away. Biddydee was standing next to an angry two caretakers: The large female from earlier and a bulkier and slightly taller male. The orange machine's full body was slumped on the floor against her comrade's.

"They appear upset," Celestia noted.

Galah had already rushed towards the two caretakers and shook their hands wildly, causing them to shake in place.

"Greetings, makers!" he yelled. "I am Galah, and I am more than happy to meet makers from a place other than where I'm from."

"What is with this thing?!" the male shouted. "And its fingers are creepy!" he said as he massaged his wrists.

"Rahllup!" the female shouted. "Get this thing away from us!"

Galah scoffed. "I am not a thing," he corrected. "I am a prototype model--"

"I don't care," the female interrupted.

The prototype glared at the two, disconcerting them a bit. "How very rude, but understandable."

The orange machine hurried up. "Yeah?" she said nervously.

The female had her arms crossed and was tapping her arm with a finger. "What is that?" she asked as she pointed to the giant robots.

"My full body," Rahllup answered.

The woman's voice quieted and sounded all the more threatening for it somehow. "That's right, and it's empty." Her voice exploded. "It's empty! We told you to bring them back when they were at twenty percent power!" She clonked the large machine on the muzzle. "The energy to power those things doesn't come cheap!" she bellowed angrily. "How many times have you done this because you keep wanting to fight?" She grabbed the machine and, much to Luna's shock, managed to force it down into a crouch. "You're not a machine of the blue. You're of the black, and that energy doesn't last very long." She noticed the machines at the corner of her eyes. "Speaking of the blue..."

"They came here to find machines like us," Biddydee interrupted before she became angrier.

"They're of the blue?" the male gestured to the three with a finger. The two large machines nodded. "There are no machines like them here," he said. His voice was envenomed. "Tell them to go away. We have no need of them or their precious energy."

Celestia pushed her sister back, stunning her. The blue machine was always the one to take the initiative, yet here Celestia was, moving forward. Luna felt something in her processes. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation.

"We are not here for anything of yours. We came here because we were looking for machines like us." She pointed to the two large machines. "We would like for them to come with us in our bid to find others like them."

"What for?" the man asked.

"I want to have a larger family," the white machine said.

The two caretakers chuckled.

"You can't have a family. You're a robot," the male stated dismissively.

"Yes, but meeting other machines like us might bring something that my processors are incapable of conceiving."

The male eyed her up and down and shook his head. "Fine. Come inside so we can talk more." He shivered. "It's cold outside."

The female groaned. "It's always cold for you. If we were on the sun you would wear a sweater," she complained.

The male laughed as he entered. "That's very true."

It was bright inside, illuminated by the orange lights of a fireplace made of bricks. The walls and floors were covered in polished, tanned wood that creaked slightly in some areas when the caretakers walked about. There were two large couches surrounding a television built into the corner of the walls. It was active and displaying caretakers talking to each other behind a desk. The sisters found the display to be rather uninteresting.

"That is quite the old design," Galah noted. "It can change size and move about the wall." He looked to a stairway next to the living room leading up. "They used to be used to cover the walls. Now it's just mobile projections," he explained to the sisters. "Easier to manage and much less space wasted."

"So what? We don't have your fancy tech," Rahllup said dismissively as she followed the two caretakers to a room in the back.

There were an assortment of wood-carved furniture sitting about. They had been carved with precision lasers and obsidian blades, something a machine would have done. Night stands, a table in front of the couches, portraits against the walls, and strange items and statues hanging next to or on hooks. Each being carved into a local creature, various farming tools, and even vehicles and makers riding atop them.

Three caretakers were sitting on the couches surrounding the corner of the television. Two infants and an elderly male. The infants were older than the ones Luna knew, but they were no less larger despite their ages. Luna's internal database was ringing alerts, telling her they had a medical condition and had to be sent to a hospital or the closest equivalent of centralized medical aid, and yet. Their bodies functioned just slightly above her the median she had in her database. Her systems were starting to clash with each other, with the scans saying the difference were tolerable while the physical observations were anomalous to an extreme. While the infants still hadn't noticed the three newcomers, the old male was staring at them through the corner of his eye. He was hunched over, trying to get a better look at the tv. He was extremely suspicious of the machines until he saw the sisters float next to each other. Very close. His suspicion and anger made way for a look of pleasant surprise.

"Alright, ah gots the cake slices!" the younger male shouted as he passed the small hallway holding two plates with a triangular slice of something white.

The two infants bounced from their seats and continued bouncing eagerly as they held onto the couch's back. The female followed behind her mate while Rahllup pulled up with an extra cake in hand. The infants were overjoyed and immediately started to nibble on the food. The wife passed one of her cakes to her husband and the two dropped next to the eldery male.

"Here ya go, 'pa," Rahllup said with as much of a smile her static face she could make.

"Thank you kindly," he said. "Glad to see your accent is still intact."

Galah and Luna watched Celestia put a finger to the bottom of her "chin' as she stared at the cake slices. She started floating towards the elderly male, prompting Biddydee to rush forward aggressively until Luna caught her with an outstretched arm. She didn't look at the machine but still shook her head. He tried to ignore it at first, but the elderly caretaker couldn't continue and dropped his plate in an exasperated grunt.

"What do you want, machine of the blue?!" he bellowed angrily.

The two infants coughed up their cake and looked around until they caught the eyes of Celestia. They yiped and jumped back and their cakes flew in the air just to be luckily caught by a vigilante Galah. He didn't like the sliminess left behind.

"What is that?" Celestia asked. Luna noticed her voice seemed strained.

"Th-this?" the elderly male asked. He looked to his plate then back to the machine. "I-it's a cake."

"Mmmmm...What kind of cake?"

"Cheese," the female answered warily.

Celestia scratched -or at least attempted to- her chin. "It looks...shiny."

She slowly leaned closer and closer to the slice while the two caretakers slowly leaned further and further away until Luna and Biddydee grabbed Celestia to pull her back and away.

"Don't overwhelm them, sister," Luna berated. "That's rude."

The elderly male shot up. "Sister?!" His eyes brightened up and sparkled. "You're exactly like Rahllup and Biddydee!" He forced himself over to the floating machines despite his family's protests. "Amazing. So those of the blue made some, too."

"Made what?" Luna asked with a tilted head.

"Why, sentient artificial intelligence!" He pointed to Rahllup. "Her ai programming comes from the blue! I was assured of this when I gathered and purchased the parts to remake her. I knew it came from there!" He awwed. "To think that you would develop a family bond."

Celestia stared at Rahllup and shook her head. "Her programming is not of the blue," she corrected.

It took several takes for the caretaker to be able to answer. "What?"

"Every machine has a base understanding of the machines around them. It allows us to detect potential errors in programming and correct them within the blue." She looked to her sister. "Even machines that are not of the same model line still have base programming within them to help correct minor errors of code, but this ability is very limited. We cannot detect major defects, or even slightly important ones. This is just to keep a machine from requiring constant maintenance during its functioning." Her eyes dimmed. "It was to be phased out for a better system." She looked back to the orange machine. "But Rahllup does not have programming of the blue."

The elderly male stepped back. "But then, if they're not of the blue, then they're of the black?" Celestia nodded in response to the question. "But..." He cursed and slammed the ground with his foot. "I thought I had elucidated this mystery! Machines that are sentient!"

The trio of the blue stood tall. "We are not sentient," Luna said. "We are sapient," she corrected.

"Sapient machinery..." The man fell back against the couch arm. "Impossible."

"What's 'sapient' mean?" Biddydee and Rahllup asked together.

"Means that something thinks about itself and the functions of everything around it," the younger male explained. His eyes widened after he realized what he said.

"Ooooh." Rahllup chuckled. "Well, ah do that all the time," she said. "Why'd those stupid bugs gotta stay 'round here when there're better places away from our farm?" She shook her head. "Annoyin'."

The five caretakers stared at her then looked to the tv, distracted by a loud announcement.

"Ugh. The blues are on the tv again," the elder grumbled through a headache.

It showed a maker walking towards a glass pane behind which there were several other makers and tall robots manipulating a giant, pink, squarish crystalline lozenge floating in the air. They seemed to be struggling with keeping it in place. It also seemed to spark a bright pink light at random intervals and intensities.

"This is the new power source that this science institute have developed using our famed blue energy," the maker stated. He looked towards the crystal as a robot outstretched its hand and pulled the item down. "As you can see, it's still in its prototyping stages." He chuckled. "Looks like it won't be easy for the lead researcher. Her job is vital to our evolution as a people, but I wouldn't want to be doing her job," he teased. "Still, if this were to function, it would produce twenty times the amount of energy our current generators can, providing such an excess that we would be able to use our home as a nexus for..." the image started blurring and becoming static.

"What's happening?" one of the infants asked in a panic. Their question reflected that of the presentator on the television.

"The power supply is growing unstable," Galah explained.

The object started to glow brighter and brighter and hummed more and more violently until it let out a blinding burst of light, throwing the tv crew back. The group waited in baited silence until the image came back in several minutes. The camera was righted up and the presentator stared at the pane. He hesitated to touch it, then gradually rubbed his hand over it after determining it wasn't dangerous.

"It's...it's all a crystal, now...How--" He jumped in terror.

"It's alright!" a female voice said from the other side. She only appeared as a shadowy form. "Get medical aid. We still have minor injuries."

A sigh of relief came from the crew. "Well, guess we'll be doing that right away then. It's still good to document progress on all our futures, though. Signing out is the crew o--"

Completely unaware of the recording crew still there, the woman started to mumble quite loudly. "Still better than the last time. They all turned into crystalline statues." A vocal shiver emphasized her thoughts.

The presentator stared at the shadowy shape, mouth agape, then stared at the camera, speechless. The tv went out and replaced everything with 'technical difficulties'. The silence in the room continued until the elder burst out in laughter.

"Pahahaheeheejijiji. Those camera crews always do something stupid like that!"

"You aren't worried about the injuries?" Galah asked.

The elderly caretaker scoffed. "Of course not. They knew what they were getting into, and they wouldn't have shared any of that with us anyways." He crossed his arms. "Don't need it nohow."

The prototype seemed to tense up, and the sisters felt something odd and backed away, leaving him all the room he needed.

"Why do you and the makers despise each other so much?" he asked. "It is incomprehensible that such a thing happens. Even the machine you reactivated shares your views, 'pa," he spat out.

The elderly male stood up, his eyes filled with vitriol. "Wanna know why? I'll tell ya why."


"So the makers were still creating new power sources? You didn't mention this." Twilight scratched her head. "And pink? I thought there was only the black and the blue energies."

"There were," Celestia stated cryptically.

Twilight stared at her. "What? Is there something that happened later on? They cancelled it, I bet," she posited.

The sisters stared at her silently, their faces dark and morose as the light orbs faded out, leaving their bright, unblinking eyes staring down at the former student. The lavender alicorn felt her heart tense in the silence, and she wasn't sure why.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the wait. Took a little break.