Magic's Birth: The Sisters' Memories

by The Psychopath

Terrifying Giants

"Keep a leash on that thing," Rahllup said as she slowly strode away. "It, uh, freaks me out."

"So, are we going to the city in the distance or not?!" Dissonance yelled angrily.

"Calm down, floofy," Galah said derisively. "We're going. Just need to wait for the sisters to remember where that mechanic was."

The group moved away from the wall, moving further across the artificially flattened land painted with straight and angular stripes of white stone and bluish-green grass. The plants had been cut short, but it didn't seem like anyone had done it themselves. There was no trace of vehicles passing by outside of the main roads. The air was stale and odorless, and the world around seemed very dead to those of the blue. Even Dissonance, in all their excited daydreaming, stared sorrowfully at the landscape before them.

"What...is this?" the flamboyant machine said in a weak voice. Every step felt like their system was going to shut down. "It feels so...empty," they wheezed.

Rahllup's flames dimmed as she surveyed the landscape. The giant crouched and pulled out the land, taking in the substances. "This soil is...odd," she said.

"What do you mean?" Biddy asked. "What's wrong with it?" She leaned in, her optics gleaming with amusement. "What do your flame eyes see?"

The giant faced her companion silently, staring at her for a moment. She followed it up with a slap behind her head. "The bacteria in here isn't like the one at home, but it's not...Ah don't know how to put it. It's not doing what it should. Like it's programmed ta do one thing only, maybe?" she said as she looked to Biddy.

Biddy's words were slow and spaced out as she tried to formulate a proper conclusion. "Isn't it...just because...it's a different land?"

The giant looked up at the clear mostly-blue sky. She made a hum of disapproval. "You saw those weird blue trails. They're pollutin' this place. Ah'm sure of it," Rahllup claimed firmly.

The triangular machine placed a hand on the back of her head and looked at the sky then the ground and heaved an artificial sigh. "I admit that this looks strange. The grass is too uniform to be actually wild, and the blades show no sign of being cut artificially."

"How do they even make seeds and grow?" Rahllup wondered.

"It's that way," Celestia announced.

The sisters lowered from above and pointed to the city. Rahllup scoffed. "Yes. Very specific."

"It means that is the direction to go in to begin our travel," the white machine specified.

Somewhat annoyed, the group moved along to the rising line of obnoxiously tall and astonishingly designed architectural abominations. At least, that's what those of the black felt like. As Dissonance said, it was like looking upon a god of beauty that manipulated you into thinking it was the pinnacle of its aspect when, in reality, it was the most hideous thing imaginable, and even though you knew, you couldn't look away. It was a grim prospect.

Dissonance looked to the sisters casually floating side-by-side, accompanied by Galah and the clingy charred machine. "Is this what they thought when they came to our home?" the flamboyant machine thought. "I don't like these epiphanies I'm getting in such a short span of time."

After about an hour of walking, Luna smacked herself in the head. "I forgot!" She turned to the three. "There are patrolling machines that go through the city regularly called Public Assistance Robots. I call them PABs. They take out any machinery displaying dangerous glitches or those from the black."

Rahllup clenched her fists. "You couldn't have told us sooner?!"

"We believe you two are more powerful than they are, and they always patrol either alone or in pairs," Celestia explained. "They were designed to overpower standard machines of the blue and of the black. However, they were never designed to counter us nor machines like yourselves who have been cobbled together from different pieces."

"Or from a canceled line," Biddy interjected. "No one knows my line except for Pa."

"It's fine," Galah reassured. He kicked a protruding stone away. "We get to the engineer, he registers you temporarily as his property, and then you can leave after you've had it with this place."

The flame-faced giant readjusted their pack and grunted. "You didn't say anything about our fuel supply."

Celestia slowly looked to the side towards the city, her eyes dimming to a horizontal line of light. "We need to avoid them for the time being," the white machine stated. "If they spot us now with that fuel on your backs, it's not likely to end well."

Galah collapsed to one knee, prompting Luna's body to start trembling and her chassis plates to wiggle like they were holding down a mounting pressure of steam beneath them.

"What's wrong?!" the blue machine bellowed in a panic.

"Low power," the prototype forced out.

Luna's body almost immediately relaxed and she transferred some power to Galah who was ready to go almost instantly afterwards.

"We need to replenish ourselves, however," Celestia said without taking her sister out of her sight.

"Okay," Dissonance started. "I might be able to get out of their scrutiny since--"

"Their detection of your black would circumvent any presence of the blue, as that would be seen as a contamination," Luna explained.

The flamboyant machine dropped their arms in defeat. "I just can't win here." Their teeth displayed a disappointed face.

After yet more hours, the group finally reached the city as the sun began to set in the sky, changing the vibrant blue to a fading orange, startling the machines of the black when they noticed.

"The sky is on fire!" Rahllup screamed. She frantically started looking around. "We need some water to put it out! If I can just punch and pull out a water pipe..."

Biddy slapped her and pulled her up. "You're not going to reach it with a pipe!"

"That...is sunset," Celestia stated with disappointment.

Luna snorted as the charred machine gripped her hand whilst gazing at the sky.

"Sunset?" Dissonance repeated. They looked to the sky, their eyes brightened. "So it's a natural phenomenon?" They looked around and picked up a stone just to throw it down angrily. "I've been denied such colors my whole life?!" Dissonance grabbed Celestia by the arms and raised them up. "Thank you so much for allowing me to come here!" There was a pause before a thought rushed to their mouth. "Is there a sunrise too?"

Luna couldn't help but feel a strange emotion in her programming when she noticed just how disappointed her sister was. "Obviously,"

---

Twilight was staring at the images slackjawed. "They couldn't have possibly been that stupid!" she said with certainty to the princesses. "You're exaggerating just for the sake of the story!"

Luna rolled her eyes. "A student that cannot learn. Grand. Twilight Sparkle, what was the black like?"

"Dark, covered in perpetual clouds, and often snowing that weird ash stuff," the lavender alicorn answered.

Luna nodded. "Right. However, the inhabitants of the black were always living in those conditions," she explained.

"What is obvious for you is not for them," Celestia added.

Twilight sputtered several times. "But it's the sun and the sky! There's no way. I refuse to believe it."

"You're taking things for granted again my dear stu-" Celestia caught herself almost instantly and internally chastised herself. "My dear Twilight Sparkle. You know of the sun and moon, and how we move them. This is normal for you. This is your way of life."

"But we didn't exist back then," Luna interjected. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned over the lavender alicorn. "How did the sun and moon move then, Twilight Sparkle?!" she asked aggressively.

Confronted by an aggressive moon princess and being loomed over by a terrifying machine of an age past, Twilight couldn't thing of a proper response. Every time she was about to gather her thoughts into coherency, Luna's eyes would shine brighter and brighter, and in the natural dark of the cave, everything around became dimmer until only the rings of the machine's were visible at any angle.

"I uh, I don't know," Twilight stuttered.

Luna pulled back and guffawed. "You don't know how that works? Everyone with a basic education knows how that works!" She turned to face Celestia. "You hear that, sister? This one doesn't know how the sun and moon function."

The white machine had covered her face with a hand and was shaking it in disappointment. "You go too far, Luna."

"Or..." The blue machine looked around. "Maybe not far enough!" she declared.

Twilight heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it. I think, but something bothers me."

"What is it?" Celestia asked after trapping Luna's head in an arm lock.

Twilight's eyes darted left and right whilst staring at the floor as she pooled through each though and concern. "Did those two giants with you manage to even get through the city without being bothered? What about Dissonance? I mean, they aren't the most inconspicuous machines." The two princesses separated and started fidgeting in place. "Princesses?" Twilight called out. They began fidgeting even more. "Princesses?!" the lavender alicorn called out louder. "What did you do about them?!"

---

The machines of the black were in awe at the sheer amount of buildings, the compactness they held, the amount of machines running around, the strange machinery employed for things as simple as advertising and warning alerts. The charred machine wanted to flee back into the open plains, but Luna held her in place.

"You don't need to worry," the blue machine reassured. "This is just a new experience for you. You shouldn't run away from it, and we're here to keep you company."

The machine looked at her then to Celestia and clenched its fists.

"Oh, it's so nice to be back," Galah announced with a stretch. "I can't wait to enter a station and finally be able to decompile my software and repair my hardware."

Rahllup looked towards Dissonance just staring at everything in awe, stroking their fluffy apparel in some sort of hypnotic trance. "You're quiet, fluffy neck. You were talking nonstop at the farm. What's wrong?"

"W-well, it's just the mixture of things here. The architecture, the soil, the sky, and the very place itself. It's mixture of hideousness and beauty." They looked to the flame-faced giant and their teeth spun to show a face in complete ecstasy. "I love it! It's better than my wildest dreams!" The flamboyant machine bellowed.

During their sightseeing, several of the makers had almost immediately noticed the strange machines accompanying the sisters, and the responses weren't positive in the least. Rahllup leaned in towards one of them, her face burning bright with the flames of her curious furnace. The confronted were frozen in place and unable to move as their legs shook like crazy. Rahllup grabbed them, squeezing gently and stretching their limbs. When she let go, her flames flickered and she shook her head in disappointment.

"These caretakers are all so thin 'n scrawny," she complained. "How did ya accomplish anythin' over here?"

Said caretakers ran away screaming, causing those around to do the same or flee into the nearby buildings. Luna and Celestia scratched their heads while the charred machine pointed at the makers and did the best it could to imitate a laugh.

"That's not good," Galah stated with concern. He looked around, listening very intently. "We have two PABs incoming. Until we can get these four registered by that engineer, they're going to keep chasing after us," the prototype explained to everyone.

Indeed, two of what Luna once saw as giants arrived. They were somewhat shorter than Biddy and Rahllup, breaking an old memory. They immediately approached the group and gravitated towards the sisters.

"Model LN-1a custom and Model Specific LH-37-bq3. You have been missing for--"

"Bla bla," Rahllup interrupted. "Just points us ta the engineer 'r whatever these two were talking about."

The PABs emitted a loud, blaring horn from their bodies and approached the two giants. "Machines of the black. Unregistered to public safety, engineer, mechanic design officials. No designation to any qualified positions. Detaining for safe disposal," the pair announced in unison.

They clamped down onto the giants' arms and sent an electric current through their bodies and tugged. To their 'surprise', the giants were not phased. Their systems tried to process the concept and they grabbed several different parts of the giants' bodies in an attempt to disable them, but nothing seemed to work.

"Error." The first one scanned Rahllup several times and lingered on the featureless flames serving as her face. "Error. Multiple components of models of the black present."

"Error," the second chimed in as it scanned Biddydee. "Model of the Gray. Model of the grrrr-gR-gr-Gra-a-A-a-Gray. Cancellllllllllllll proJecT inompat-aT-pat cancELLLLLLL--"

Its innards started to hum loudly, then crackle, until it eventually began to smoke and erupted in a bright flash, collapsing as a heap of melted metal onto the ground.

Author's Note:

Would you kindly come upon this post to vote on what you want my next story to be please.

Comments

[Alchemik]

There is another...

Honestly not even surprised at this point. They seem to have tried a lot of energy.

[The Psychopath]

10926672
Oh! Finally! The much coveted comment about the gray!

Remember that Biddydee/bee was meant to be the prototype of a new row of robots from the black. One that was left unknown and forgotten after cancellation.

[Alchemik]

10926793
She had mentioned she was from a cancelled line, yeah. Of course, those two facts bring up a long series of questions about what makes the grey and the black different, if a white is involved, if she was retrofitted to run on black or just can, the specific nature of the grey itself, etc, etc.

I look forward to seeing what answers there are! This is a fascinating puzzle of an alternate history you're presenting. The lack of interaction and comments from us readers is honestly disappointing. I'm going to have to try and step mine up, which will be different. Of course, that will lead to spoilers in the comments, but at some point that can't be avoided.

On that note, the comparison of our scrapheap friendo here to Pinkie is intriguing. They have somewhat similar personalities and capabilities, but not entirely. I do hope their voice is fixed soon and we can hear what they have to say. It'll make as many questions as answers, I'm sure, but what doesn't?

[The Psychopath]

10926857
There's no mixture of colors to make an energy. They just have a color.

And yes. People don't seem to react to what I want them to and, nowadays, just don't comment at all. It's not fun and saps any motivation to write.

[tsaukpaetra]

Huh. Didn't remember it mentioned that Dee was using grey energy? It is concerning that registering impossibility caused self destruction.