Bit brought the injured pony back with her to the tower.
It wasn't easy to make the trip—even skirting the edge of the square brought stares and shouts of confusion and fear. Ponies scattered around them, shouting about “death machines”. Before her eyes, whole sections of the temporary town collapsed, as ponies trampled over and around each other to escape from within.
She thought about leaving Pathfinder there, so that his own ponies could find him. Whatever sickness he had contracted would be best treated by a doctor. The kindest thing she could do was leave him to someone else. But if their doctors were anything like their engineers, Bit had a decent idea of Pathfinder's odds of survival, and they weren't good.
So the "death machines" carried his body cradled between three of their legs, obeying her instruction without objection. She had to take the trip slowly, considering how damaged both of them were—but it was probably faster than she could manage with so much weight.
Bit was no doctor, but that didn't make her clueless. She had a decent guess for what was happening to him.
A few ponies had retreated to the tower at the shouts of “death machines,” and so there was a small crowd standing before her as she approached. They watched her come, eyes filling with despair.
"The wizard will save us!" a few shouted, banging desperately against the front door. "Any moment, she'll come down to help!"
"Please get out of the way," she said, her voice calm. "A pony in your group has become sick. I must have the tools of the tower to help him."
They barely seemed to hear her. But a few did, tugging the other ones out of the way. Bit recognized the plump mare they'd seen earlier that day as one of these, dragging ponies to the side and away from the door. She stopped a little way in front of Bit, glaring at her.
"Ponies saw you go into the palace. Nothing comes out of there that goes in, so they say. Pathfinder's ten times the pony you'll ever be, and you let him go to his death. Didn't you?"
"Yes. He insisted on accompanying me."
Ponies retreated from the doors, dodging as far away from the automatons as they could. A few actually clambered over the icy walls, rather than pass through the gate. Not the mare, though.
"Why'd you kill him, then? Only showed you nothing but kindness, he did. Convinced the Union you was good and all. This is how you pay him back?"
Bit fidgeted in her bag, removing the security tag, and scanning it against the door. It clicked, then swung inward. Without prompting, the automatons carried him through the opening. "He is not dead yet," she said. "He did tell me the palace was dangerous, but at the time I believed it was a product of security measures left by evil King Zircon. I should have realized that your revolution would have destroyed any active countermeasure, and what remained was more insidious."
The mare backed away from her, eyeing the opening. "You're trying to talk your way around this? It'll get out. Ponies saw, ponies talk. The Union ain't what she was, but we'll rise up. We'll fight like our grandparents, see if we don't."
She saw the flames flickering through the windows, heard their chants again. They screamed about breaking chains, of toppling monarchs. They surrounded her tower, and filled Crimson's face with fear.
"I'm going to try and save him," she said, pleading. "I believe Pathfinder is suffering from acute radiation sickness. There is a course of treatment, and now that I have power I have access to the tower's library computer. If I am quick, I will prevent his death. But every moment I waste explaining worsens his chances."
She turned her back on the furious pony, letting the security doors seal behind her. The loyal automatons were already halfway up the stairs by then, on their way to the tower infirmary as she'd instructed.
"Good work," she told them, sliding past them up the stairs. She flicked on the lights, clearing away a sheet from stiff sterile wraps. They deposited Pathfinder on his back, as gently as a feather pillow.
He looked up, wiping at the frozen vomit around his mouth. "I don't... what happened... where are we?" He tried to sit up, but the effort was too great, and he only flopped back to the bed. "It's so clean."
"The infirmary," she answered, taking a few steps away from the bed. She called up the library computer, entering his symptoms with a few rapid strokes from her hooves. "The artifabrians often performed unsanctioned experiments here. In order to prevent official notice, they treated their own injuries with doctors sworn to secrecy. The facilities are just as good as anything in Crown Medical."
He laughed, the sound dissolving into something between a cough and a choke. "The home of medical miracles? Are the stories true, Bit? Could they make blind ponies see? Could they give back their limbs, and cure any disease?"
"Some of those are true," she said flatly. "Not any disease, though. My master was on the way to curing every disease. But he—he vanished before he could finish."
A crystal printer hummed quietly in the corner of the room, and a roll slid out a slot into the station beside her. "Here we go: your medicine regimen. You're going to be fine, Pathfinder."
He coughed again, eyes turning towards her. There was something cloudy in them that hadn't been there before. "What am I suffering, Bit? It feels... like poison. Hard to think, hard to breathe."
"ARS. I believe the emergency fission reactor in the palace's basement may've suffered a critical containment failure. The palace crystal contained the radiation all these years, and so few openings limited the spread of contaminated particles," she answered, approaching him with the little roll of fragile paper.
By rote she opened the cupboard, selecting an empty pneumatic capsule from the stack and settling the instructions inside. "This will send your medical information to Crown Medical. The pharmacist will send back your medication in a few minutes, and treatment can begin."
She took the tube in her mouth, settling it into the waiting pipe on the side of the room. She sealed the door, pressed the button, and nothing happened.
"I don't know what ARS is," he muttered. "But earth ponies... we're stronger than other tribes, right? We just... have to wait it out. I'll get better on my own."
Bit pressed the send button a few more times, so hard that the thin shell cracked under the force of her hoof. "I don't understand. This line goes directly to the hospital pharmacy. Delivering medication in a timely manner is one of their foremost responsibilities."
"They're gone, Bit." Pathfinder slumped back in his chair, closing his eyes. "The whole world you came from is gone. The ponies who joined the revolution all died too. All those amazing things ponies could do... that's gone. We can't waste time on that when there isn't enough food."
Bit walked back to the screen, reading over the rest of what it contained. "You will not survive without them," she said. "You've experienced lack of coordination and nausea immediately after exposure. That indicates an extremely severe case. Based on the time of exposure and your first symptoms, you are unlikely to survive fourteen days.
"But these drugs can treat you! We need to prevent the destruction of..." She squinted. "Marrow tissue, and your GI. We have approximately six hours to administer the first dose, or your odds of survival drop to one in ten. You won't get better."
Pathfinder laughed again, and somehow managed to focus on her. "I've lived through things ponies thought would kill me before, Bit. If I can last through a Zircon winter without a home, I can... survive this. I'll have to. Those drugs ran out a long time ago."
There was no mistaking the truth of what he said. She'd seen what happened to Zircon. The ponies living in it now had forgotten what made it work—if they couldn't fix its power plants, they certainly couldn't manufacture a drug only needed in case of rare disasters. Everypony who goes into the palace dies.
"There are emergency supplies in the vaults below," Bit continued. "Not medication, but... food. There's water in the cistern I use to make cleaning solution. I will provide for you."
"Good." He sat up, settling his back against the padded cushions and meeting her eyes. "That's all I need. Somewhere warm, something to drink. I could use a little now, actually."
Bit hurried out to oblige, though she hesitated in the landing outside. The automatons waited there, sharpened limbs facing the stairs as though preparing for an attack. Of course there hadn't been any.
"I will do something about both of you," she said. "Please remain here, and avoid moving as much as possible. If you shatter, I won't be able to fix you. I would like to do it now, but Pathfinder's case is more urgent. He has only a few weeks, following which he will suffer an agonizing death if I do not assist him."
"I can hear you," came his voice from the open door. "Have a little more faith, Bit. I'll be fine."
"He will not be fine," Bit said simply. "Unless I find a way to treat him." The automatons obeyed her instructions, remaining on the stairs as she passed down into the basement. She found a clean metal bucket to fill with water, her mind already starting to spin.
The hospital didn't have the drugs she needed. It was possible she could find the machines to make them, rebuild them, and eventually produce enough. But getting the power on had taken... so long she didn't even know. Pathfinder would not survive that process.
But there was another treatment, one she'd memorized in great detail.
"Master, you say I'm the future of all ponies," Bit said, delivering his tea. "I believe you have made a mistake."
"Oh?" He levitated the glass up to his lips, took a sip, then settled it beside the transparent display. "You're probably right, I've made many mistakes. Which are you referring to?"
"I cannot be your future." She tapped one hoof on the edge of the table. "You already know how I'm created. You could become like me any time you wanted. You do not. Therefore, I must conclude that your statement is false."
The wizard's face became unreadable to Bit. But aside from the most basic emotions, his feelings were usually inscrutable to her. "Do you resent my decision, Bit? Do you think that I'm a fool for waiting so long?"
She stared back, expression blank. "You are not attempting to entertain me. What is 'resent?'"
He shook his head in his peculiar way, the one that meant he didn't want to answer one of her questions and wanted to redirect her to something more important. "The process will not be the same. You were built, given a spirit taken from the dead. Despite my best efforts, you have not yet achieved sapience.
"I would not be created in the same way, but would experience the same transition meant for all of Zircon. I might be unaffected by that process, or... I might be like you."
"Perfect," she supplied. "Without weakness, or fear of cold."
He couldn't meet her eyes. "And without a soul. My goal for ponies is not just to escape fear of the cold—suicide could do that. Don't you remember, Moss Flower? We're building the future of ponies together. But if I cannot experience the joy of my success, I have failed. I will not allow anypony to risk themselves until I prove that a crystal pony can be a living thing. You aren't alive yet, Bit."
Bit stopped in the stairs, staring down at her full bucket of water. But if I desired to reproduce, I would be alive. If I use the wizard's research on Pathfinder, that would be an act of reproduction. I do not desire to see him die, no other treatment is available. I desire to reproduce.
I am alive.
She ran up the stairs, taking the rest of them two at a time. "I figured it out!" she announced. She scooped a glass full of the icy water within, settling it down beside him. "We don't need to go to the hospital, there's a treatment upstairs.”
Oh wow, she's going to convert him into one of her kind, isn't she.
The question is will he be willing to take the cure?
Bit is a crystalline Cassandra. She speaks the truth, and ponies only hear what they want to believe.
Um, about that...
And thus comes the spark of life. Cloistered wizards and neglecting the magic of friendship... Certain themes have a way of echoing across the ages. Though I can't imagine the locals will be thrilled with the results, especially if Pathfinder finds his emotional affect dampened. Still, it's his only hope of survival. Let's see how this goes.
Ah the accident truth of ignorance and refusal to believe in anything that would make you oh so slightly wrong. The doom of human and ponykind.
This will be akward...
Hey its me, Pathfinder. Yes i am now a crystalpony... what? oh no i just HAD TO DIE, but i cant freeze anymore. Look, no cloth!
Awesome chapter ^^ i really like Bit. She is adorable and maybe she lerns now what it really means to be alive.
I am very excited to see what comes of this.
10662090
Given how Bit approaches most problems, would she even give him the option of saying no?
Poor girl, she's trying her hardest.
And thus began the rise of the crystal ponies.
And so it begins. But will they like it?
this is twisted... I like it! hope pathfinder will be ok with it.
Bit desires the sexy times.laughterShe's gonna fail at making him like her, isn't she?
I think the mob is going to mess things up somehow, like stupidly trying to storm the medical ward or something.
If he received a dose like that and none of them have been decontaminated... They're literally walking death, especially the soldier.
Well...
This either goes horribly wrong.
Or incredibly right.
And then the Sombra nation attacksInteresting cure.
Well, if she makes him a crystal pony I suppose there is a chance that the problem with Bit was that she was created from a Corpse, and Pathfinder, being still alive, might come through with his sense of self intact. The wizard would not have known because he was unwilling to experiment on a still living subject.
Interesting
One the one hoof, here's to hoping the radiation leaked particles didn't cling to him, and thus only radiation poisoning. On the other, we got a dead pony now, and must now rush philosophy to determine if "saving" him is an accurate term.
It is certainly curious that they didn't (apparently) have any volunteers for conversion. Or did they?
Get out of the way, Karen! Important ponies have important things to do!
ya'll think this is the birth of the crystal empire. But even though Star didn't describe the moon, one dialogue hint this is post nightmare moon , Bit only mentions Celestia as 'one alicorn immortal tyrant'.
Oh, duh. This is going to be the creation of the crystal ponies.
10662233
Possibly. Or possibly not. It depends on the particular contamination. Not all radioactivity turns other objects radioactive. In the case of a fission reactor, if I recall correctly, the real danger at a distance is from breathing in the dust. You can get it on your skin without issue as long as you wash afterward. And the amount of dust matters a lot. It is likely that just walking the distance to the tower was enough to brush off most of it that would come off on its own and be a danger to others, so what is left would be mostly harmless as long as nobody licks them. Pretty sure it wouldn't be enough to cause radiation sickness.
10662086
I mean, it had to happen eventually. The entire story is an origin of crystal ponies.
Bit should probably deal with that radiation at the earliest opportunity. As much as it doesn’t affect her, or Zircon, it does affect literally every living thing, and if it keeps pouring out it’s gonna be a problem.
10662215
Much as that’s make things interesting, it’d make the story stagnate. Bit needs Pathfinder to develop as a character, so if he dies, if they interrupt this process, she will stagnate, and the story just ends.
10662841
You’re right, actually. I’m fairly certain it was mentioned by someone that there was two or more now. So this isn’t the past, it’s the present.
I’m also fairly certain it was made clear the Crystal Empire is something completely different, so I’m not sure why people are coming to the conclusion that Zircon is one and the same.
The thing is as well that it’s kinda been made clear Bit isn’t a Crystal Pony. She’s an Automaton. Crystal Ponies need to eat, sleep, and reproduce like any living thing, and are vulnerable to cold, heat, etc.. Bit doesn’t and isn’t.
10663376
See above.
10663486
so she's like Turing Test? But more crystal than metal.
10663483
It could, I guess. If the author had no creativity. There's plenty of room for character development there in having success yanked away by stupid, emotional meat-bags.
10663486
This is, to quote Starscribe's announcement of the story, "A story about the first crystal pony." https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/930578/new-story-anemoia
Furthermore, Zircon and its four sister crystal cities all fell before even the cities that eventually formed Equestria were founded. https://www.patreon.com/posts/lore-article-of-46620552
This is absolutely the past.
10663496
I have no idea who that is.
10663574
Yes, and no. There is ways for Bit to develop as a character even if Pathfinder dies, but the problem is she'll develop in ways that are counter to the story. Pathfinder needs to be there to show Bit that her time is gone, she's in a new time and all the things she knew have faded. Without him, she'll never truly know that, she'll continue as she has been in denial and eventually she may just... give up. Or otherwise fail. It'd become a very depressing story.
10664240
It seems implied in the story itself that that's not true. I wonder...
10664543
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/257491/the-iron-horse-everythings-better-with-robots
10664543
I really don't think Pathfinder is relevant in that way. The whole story up to this point has been her adjusting to circumstances, recontextualizing and reinterpretating memories. Nobody told her to do it, nobody helped her do it, nobody guided her. Every time she comes up against a problem, she's changed in order to get past it. Pathfinder doesn't need to tell her that her time is gone: "her time" wasn't really relevant to her as a person, if only because her time never provided the incentive to develop her personality or intelligence to much extent. I'd say pathfinder's worth as a character is that of a companion rather than a guide. And losing him could be the catalyst to helping her truly understand why the wizard wanted to make ponies like her in the first place, and give her an independent goal that she pursues for her own sake.
There's also the question of whether the process would even keep Pathfinder "alive". Wasn't there talk earlier about how they had to use a soul to make Bit? How much remains of the original pony if Bit still hasn't graduated to full sentience, never mind memories of her previous life?
In any case, we'll find out soon enough. I can imagine how things might work out either way, but I don't really mind either. I personally think "it'd be too depressing" is kind of a weak reason to not follow through on something if an author has an idea they want to explore or a specific story they want to tell. I dunno where the author is headed yet with thus story: it seems like it could be part of their extended fanverse, but I can't tell.
10664543
It seems you're reading implications into the text that don't exist.
oops
Huh. So it was a nuclear reactor.
He must feel like he's been beamed up to the Starship Enterprise, ha.
Um.
Rethink every part of that sentence for a moment, Bit
Uh-oh. She's going to do SCIENCE!
But you still haven't gotten around the "no soul" part
10721113
Well, she's doing something selfish, a moral decision can only exist in something truly sapient.
She saw the flames flickering through the windows, heard their chants again. They screamed about breaking chains, of toppling monarchs. They surrounded her tower, and filled Crimson's face with fear.
The worst day of her life.
The pharmacist will send back your medication in a few minutes, and treatment can begin."
DAMMIT POOR GIRL! I know she's naive, but after all this garbage you think she'd have realized the infrastructure is in ruins ALL ACROSS THE BOARD!
If I can last through a Zircon winter without a home, I can... survive this.
He doesn't know what he's up against.
"Everypony who goes into the palace dies."
They all stayed too long and fell over dead? With no coming out?
Seems the automatons are not mindless puppets after all. They're able to understand abstract instructions.
But there was another treatment, one she'd memorized in great detail.
"I've gone too far too turn back now! There's nothing left for me to decide! I am the mod-dern Pro-me-the-us and ready to create this bride!"
you have not yet achieved sapience.
You know she's achieved sapience now. She's about to do something selfish. Therefore, she has a self to be selfish for.
"We don't need to go to the hospital, there's a treatment upstairs.”
"I've gone too far too turn back now! There's nothing left for me to decide! I am the mod-dern Pro-me-the-us and ready to create this bride!"
10662092
"I've gone too far too turn back now! There's nothing left for me to decide! I am the mod-dern Pro-me-the-us and ready to create this bride!"
It's only centuries later, after society has collapsed, and Bit has undergone crisis, that the Wizard's vision is realized...