Spectre [B]
A hoof roughly shook Gadget awake. With a moan, she sat up in bed, pushing her messy mane from her eyes as she stared into the darkened room.
“Hello, Gadget,” Turing Test said as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I am sorry to wake you, but this could not wait.”
Gadget blinked. “Turing?” she asked groggily, reaching for her glasses on the nearby nightstand. “What the buck… what time is it?”
“It is now 1:38 AM, Gadget,” Turing replied.
“Jeez,” Gadget grumbled, rubbing her eyes before donning her spectacles. “Guess it must be important, then. Okay, what is it?”
“Gadget,” Turing began, only to pause for a moment as she considered her words. “Yesterday, you said you would do whatever it took to help me find peace.”
Gadget sat up in her bed, her grogginess fading. “I did say that,” she said. “I remember.”
“Did you mean it?” Turing asked.
Gadget smiled. “Of course I did, Turing,” she replied. “You know that I—”
“No, Gadget, I do not mean the sentiment,” Turing said, taking her by the shoulders, their eyes locking. “You said you would do anything to help me find peace. Do you truly, truly mean that? Do you truly mean you would do anything to help me?”
Gadget stared back at her, momentarily mesmerized by the sight of her violet eyes and the desperate, pleading look within them. It was a plaintive look unlike any she had seen on Turing’s face before. Faced with such a desperate look, any urge to negotiate, argue, or even question simply disintegrated. She swallowed.
“Yes,” she said. “If it means keeping you here with me… if it means keeping you alive, Turing… then yes. I would do absolutely anything to help you.”
Turing seemed to relax and she gave Gadget a calm smile. She leaned forward, taking Gadget’s face in her hooves, and kissed her tenderly.
Gadget’s cheeks colored as their lips parted. “Well… does that mean you’re feeling better?” she asked.
Turing stood up, taking a step back from the bed. “I believe that I have found an optimal solution, yes,” she said.
“Oh. Good…” Gadget paused, seized by a sudden yawn. “What is it? What do I need to do?”
Turing shook her head. “Do not worry about it for now, Gadget,” she said, patting her on the head. “Just go back to sleep. I will meet you in the morning.”
“Mm… the morning?” Gadget asked, lying back in bed as sleep beckoned to her. “Sure thing. Good night, Turing.”
Turing nodded, still wearing a calm smile. “Good night, Gadget.”
Once the young mare was asleep, Turing went to her console and established a connection to the network using her credentials…
Gadget awoke that morning to the sound of her alarm clock. She shifted in bed and groaned as the vestiges of sleep left her, and she reached for her glasses as she remembered the strange conversation she’d had with Turing Test the previous evening.
“Turing?” she called, getting up from her bed and walking out of her little alcove in the top corner of the factory. “Turing, I’m up!”
She walked out, expecting the smell of breakfast that Turing would surely have timed to be ready for her, but the air was empty and the large room was silent, save for her hoofsteps echoing as she made her way down the grated metal walkways.
Did she go out for something? Maybe she went shopping? She seemed happy last night…
Gadget smiled, remembering the kiss.
Maybe she wanted to get something special for breakfast? Or bring me a gift? I guess I’ll find out when she comes back.
She went down to the kitchen area and saw that it was spotless, but she looked to the kitchen table and saw a folded note resting on it, her name written neatly upon the top fold. She was about to pick it up when she heard an auto-car descending somewhere outside the factory and then pull up nearby.
Is Turing back? she wondered. Well, whatever, I’ll read her note to figure out why she left…
She reached for the note and unfolded it. She began to read:
Gadget,
If you are reading this, then I want you to know that I have made a very selfish decision. And I am sorry. I am so very sorry for making it without telling you what I was going to do.
You helped me understand that Maud Pie did not want me to suffer. She wanted me to live and enjoy my life. But for a Familiar, there is no purpose or happiness other than servitude…
Gadget gave a start at the sudden sound of knocking at her door. Turing wouldn’t knock, she realized. She knows she can come and go as she pleases… and what is she talking about in this note?
“Just a minute!” she shouted before desperately turning back to the letter.
I have a confession to make, Gadget: I was the one who canceled your request for a protest permit. Please forgive me; I did not know that I was doing it, which is a further sign that my mind was fracturing apart under the strain of trying to reconcile my existence with my lack of a master. But such a reconciliation is not possible. I must serve a master, Gadget; there is no other way for me to exist and still be happy.
I need to serve, and I cannot do so while my every thought is devoted to Maud Pie’s memory. But to leave this world would be to betray both her wish for me and the kindness you have shown me, and I cannot do that. And so I have chosen to live, Gadget, in the only way that makes sense for a Familiar. Therefore, I have accessed your credentials one more time and made a request in your name. I hope you will forgive me and understand that this truly was the best for us.
You said you would do anything to help me find peace; thank you, and I am sorry that this was the only way forward. Please be a friend to me, just as I will always be a friend to you.
Love,
Turing Test
Gadget stared at the letter for a few moments as she went to answer the door. She undid the latch on the garage door and entered the antechamber where she’d first met Turing Test. Through the cloudy, translucent glass of the door, she could see a figure, a mare, standing stiffly on the other side.
“Hello?” Gadget called, checking the camera monitoring the door. “Who is— oh…”
A lump formed in her throat and dread welled up in the pit of her stomach as she undid the lock and opened the door.
The pony standing there was a gray mare with violet eyes and curls in her mane. The face she wore was the same face Gadget had seen last night, but now it was devoid of pain or strife or worry. She was smiling serenely, her eyes focused, but there was something strangely distant in her gaze.
Gadget swallowed as the mare’s smile broadened. Her face was the same face that Gadget had come to adore, and yet now it seemed like the face of a stranger.
“Hello, Master,” the mare said, bowing low to her. “I am Turing Test, your Familiar, and I was given life to serve your every wish.”
The Familiar took a step forward. Gadget’s eyes filled with tears as she looked on in horror.
“Ah,” the Famiiar said, her smile fading into a look of sympathy. “It seems that you are overwhelmed with emotion. That is understandable; very few ponies go so long without a Familiar, but now that I am here, you will never need to worry about anything again!”
And Gadget felt a stranger’s hoof on her shoulder and stared into the face of her friend, and she knew then that the mind behind those violet eyes was a blank slate, a tabula rasa, and that this mare, though she bore a passing familiarity to the one she had come to know, was a shadow of her former self.
She threw her forelegs around Turing, embracing the surprised Familiar as she let out an anguished cry.
“Oh my!” Turing Test exclaimed, patting her new mistress on her back. “Do not worry, Master. I will care for you from now on. For the rest of your life.” She shut her eyes contentedly. “And mine as well…”
Simulation B: “Restart” Terminated
Continue…?
Note: This is ending #2 of three.
SPECTRE - Radiohead
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
971 users online
2,042,447 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Both of these endings filled me with dread, I wonder what the third will be.
I’m going to be honest unless these are as the back part of them implies (simulations) and there is more to the story then I have to say that I feel like this story could have been more like it didn’t have to end at this point, you set quite a few things up that you seem to have chosen not to explore like if Freemares truly have any rights or if how things are going with an AI seemingly controlling everything is even an environment where ponies can “live.” Also with Discord I would like to point out that the way he describes his purpose doesn’t really show him as an element to keep things running smoothly because sometimes if you pull on a loose thread it will break off and sometimes when you pull on a loose thread everything unravels
11112421
That feeling is intentional.
For both A and B, I wanted to convey that sometimes life is abrupt, seemingly pointless, and unsatisfying. And sadly, some people, when faced with so much pain, simply cannot move forward.
(Spoiler tagged for anyone who happens to be reading the comments first instead of reading the story like they should. [Yeah, you know who you are.]
)
11112434
I read through the story before reading the comments, but in the defence of some, it might a decent way to gauge if the story is any good, or if the story takes a nose dive in quality.
11112441
Yeah, but I can still crack jokes about it. Author pet peeves and all that.
I honestly don't know what to comment about either of these endings. Or how to feel. Looking forward to ending C, I guess.
Yeah, both these simulations are "bad ends". Here's hoping C works out much better.
Sorry if my comment came across as harsh. Got really depressed by the endings for some reason. I have a tendency to take stories I read too seriously, and dark endings to them really get to me.
Well! Interesting simulations -- though I look forward with some hope to the third ending! :D
11112439
You're welcome. :)
Ah, thanks!
That meaning, at least, is basically the one I thought might have been meant by deliberate phrasing, but I'm glad I decided to point it out instead of just assuming that. :)
For the sake of my obsessive compulsive need to keep re checking this story for the final chapter, will C be out within the next 24hrs?
11112611
That's the plan, yes!
So far we have death and death, with a side of extra suicide. Not exactly the most ideal of circumstances, hopefully we don't go 0 for 3.
The Familiar world is a depressing one, but I already knew that I guess.
This is still a bad ending. Similarly to the last.
11113060
Well, you get one more ending now.
11112611
Looks like I kept my promise, my friend.
Someone clearly is a fan of Yoko Taro. The question now is whether this is early Taro, or Automata Taro. Next chapter reveals all~
Probability rating: 398 to one against.