A Fatal Error Has Occurred

by Orderly Disassembly

Ch - 3 - spirited wires

Author's Note:

and the Monday update has occurred, Hazzah! please comment your thoughts guys. See ya next week!

I was giddy with the magic that flowed through me.

Like an old arm or leg being returned to me, having my strings just felt right.

My smile deepened at the vertigo I felt.

I got another piece of myself back. A small piece, but a piece nonetheless!

With a hurricane of creativity and joy, my excitement birthed a web of wire that tangled together in an endless self-perpetuating pattern.

The result was a wiry mess of red lines that took the vague shape of a scarf. My thread work was atrocious but I didn’t let that take my smile! However, my experimentation was interrupted by a peculiar sound.

I recognized the clopping of hooves but it was accented by the rings of hollow metal and the faint tinkle of glass.

I paused in my artistry and the traveler grew closer before I heard them talking to someone.

The speaker kept her tone near-silent but I’d grown quite accustomed to the quiet in the past few days so her speech still stuck out like a foghorn against roaring winds.

“Why do you want to see him? He’s just another Tartuaran creature. We have better things we could be doing, more important things, like rearranging the night sky. I tell you, they will notice this time, they will have to with our new ideas.”

She paused for a moment before continuing with a sigh.

“Fine, I suppose it is your turn to decide, but still, we could be doing far more pleasant things.”

When she finished the sentence, she had fully arrived in front of my cell. She was glaring past the bars, trying to see me through the dense jungle of glowing wire.

I decided to not keep her in suspense and walked out of my haven right up to the bars, though, apprehension echoed from my tentative steps.

“Greetings Guardian Moon, why do you walk the halls of Hell so soon?”

Her confusion fueled my grin but I sensed something off.

The air tasted wrong, like rotted meat, or the chemical bitterness of poison.

I stared at her in silence as I waited for her response. Her eyes darted between my web and I for several moments. My red eye’s scrutiny found nothing unusual besides the fact that my visitor was none other than Princess Luna, the Guardian Moon.

The blue one though…

Her being radiated a cool calm on the surface, but I saw nervous vibrations underneath. Little black streaks flashed through her code like bolts of lightning splitting open the night sky. It seemed fitting to me, for her to be the twin with a dark past. Guardian Sun and Guardian Moon rule their respective realms, both with an air of perfection.

However, the Guardian Moon had revealed an error in her programming. Moonlight may illuminate the darkness of night, but it seems that this one’s rays hold no light.

Luna took a deep breath before she spoke.

“My-”

She pursed her lips.

“My friend wishes to speak with you.”

I tilted my head as I leaned a shoulder against the bars.

“Oh, and who might that be?”

She scuffed the ground with a hoof as her eyes flicked ever so slightly to the side.

“She is… less than tangible.”

A ghost? and judging by her talk before, she can talk with this one. Best to not twist words between conversations.

“Go on.”

Luna took a deep breath.

“Just stay still and she will go to you, it will be easier if you two can speak directly.”

I nodded my agreement but recoiled when I saw a black mist float from her ears.

I felt a jolt of terror strain at my smile as I retreated to my maze of strings.

“Do not run, she does not intend you harm!”

It flowed right by my cables with only minuscule wisps getting caught on each thread. I kept trying to run but I was trapped like a rat, and eventually my back hit a corner.

Luna called out again, her voice making my cell vibrate.

“Do not make this take longer than it needs to, prisoner. We have better things to do with our time!”

The mist had fanned out to cover all avenues for escape so all I could do was glare into the swirling smoke. The inky substance gathered into a tight ball before shooting directly into one of my eye sockets.

I believe that she was fortunate to have chosen my red eye, she wasn’t ready for the truths held only in the blue.

The invader hesitated for only a moment, but that moment was all I needed. I picked out a black heart in the midst of the smog. With a vigor borne of desperation, I snatched the soul from the air and yanked the entity away from me.

It took me a moment to catch my breath before I realized something. The invader wasn’t making any attempts at corruption or assault, it was just trying to connect to me. I had to weigh my options but an anxious alicorn wasn’t making things easy.

“Be not afraid! You will come to no harm.”

Shut up, Luna.

I'm pretty sure that if her view wasn’t obstructed by the mess of wires in my cell, then I would’ve been subjected to a swift execution.

I glared at my prisoner before reaching another wire out to the thing.

“What is taking so long?”

I shook my head while my magic spread across the black soul. My voice has gained a sudden rasp but I paid it no mind.

“The connection failed, we’re trying a different method.”

“Which would be?”

A spike of panic drove itself into my mind.

Lies, lies, lies, I need a lie now!

My mind flitted through a dozen different possibilities before my smile strengthened once more.

“An artificial proxy, we’ll be fine.”

I got a harrumph in response, but that was fine by me. Anything would’ve been better than the sounds of bending steel at the time.

When I finished wrapping the black heart in string, I pulled my own splintered soul from my ribcage and touched the wire connected to the intruder with it.

I felt its terror, its anger, its anxiety, its arrogance, its… perfection

This wasn’t the hideous type of perfection where everything is normal, everything is fine, everything is clean. No, this being held the same perfection that I did, the same beauty that I sought with every work of art.

‘Greetings, why have you come here?’

My question hovered in the air as the entity struggled to formulate a response.

‘Wha-, who, why, what did you do!’

The mental shout caused me to flinch.

‘Do mind the volume please, I can hear you just fine.’

‘Who are you, what have you done?’

‘I am a prisoner of Tartarus and I’ve got you locked in my strings. Right now, we’re speaking through direct communication.’

‘… So you’ve established a two-way telepathic link?’

The voice paused between its words and gave off an air of unease

‘Not exactly, but not entirely wrong either… It’s complicated. Enough of that, why are you here?’

‘You dare hold me captive while Luna is near? I should-hurk’

I cut off her monologue with a lash from one of my many strings.

‘Why are you here?’

‘Insolent fo-argh!’

I gave her a moment before repeating my question. She stayed silent for a moment before responding in a calm voice.

‘You have a reputation for breaking ponies. I have a pony I wish to break and you shall teach me how to do so.’

‘Oh ho ho, a fellow artist are we?

‘What? No, I wish to break the mind of a pony, not draw a picture!’

‘Then you misunderstand what I do. The minds of sentient creatures are but canvases upon which everything paints.

I grasp the strings holding the spirit in a bony fist before bringing her before my blue eye. Her bare code swirled like a swarm of hornets, white numbers outlined by a wispy black peaking through the smog.

‘Every little word, every little interaction, every little failure alters the lines that make up the piece. I don’t smash vases, friend, I repaint them into beautiful masterworks, I rend hideous perfection and sow the beauty of flaws! ’

I shake the soul, letting my teeth clench as I glare into it.

’I am an artist!’

She held her silence for a few moments before responding.

‘Then teach me your ‘art.’ I have use for it.’

‘Why should I?’

My ever-present grin didn’t phase the spirit.

‘Because I shall be royalty! Why would you not serve your future monarch?”

Arrogance, ambition, and hate swirled around her like a hurricane of poor attributes, sending shivers down my spine with each rotation.

I saw so much potential…

But what would I gain, even if she learned?

‘You say future royalty little spirit. What guarantee have I for your success? What guarantee have I for your favor?

I leaned my head back, putting some distance between us. The numbers were starting to make my blue eye hurt, so I shut it off.

The way I see it, you are but a caustic spirit that has grand ambition with little ability to act upon it.’

The strings around her began to blacken as I felt my connection to them fade. I flicked her with an uncorrupted one.

‘I can corrupt anything, and Luna trusts me. Given enough time, I will take over and then I shall be royalty!’

It took me a few moments to cleanse my strings but I could feel the spirit’s attempts to reinsert its taint.

‘I will succeed with or without you, fool. Serve me and be rewarded or rot here in eternal imprisonment.’

I delayed my answer to think.

I could try warning Guardian Moon, let her know of the plight that may befall her, but she wouldn't believe me over her 'friend.' No, best to help the parasite or neither.

So should I help the spirit?

On one hand, she could be wrong. She could fail, implicate me in the process, and even if she succeeds she could just leave me here to rot.

On the other, she might succeed. She might win.

She might free me.

‘If I aid you, you will free me?’

‘I shall reward you if you serve.’

‘All I seek is freedom, everything else is secondary.’

She paused for a moment as tension started to build in the air.

‘Very well, if you teach me your ‘art’ then I shall free you when I am able to.’

Freedom, an impossible goal, was now just within reach. All I had to do was teach this spirit and I’d be out of this rotten hellhole! It was a comforting thought.

A warm dream.

Hope.

Poisonous, acidic, caustic hope. I could almost feel my rationality melt and my foresight rot.

Very well, my pupil, let’s get you started right away!

Before she could respond, I ripped a tiny fraction off of her blackened heart and attached the fragment to a string on the inside of my tattered jacket sleeve.

‘Why did you do that!’

I grunted in pain as the mental scream started a piercing headache so I responded in kind.

‘I gave you a way to see and hear me while you’re away you dolt! I assumed that your host is ignorant of your true nature so I gave you a form of discrete communication!’

Her boiling rage eventually cooled and she left with a mental huff when I released her from my snare.

Luna glared at me as her ‘friend’ floated back into her and out of sight.

“Have you two come to an agreement?”

I nodded, taking a shallow bow as I did so.

“Indeed, Guardian Moon.”

“Refer to me as Princess, Princess Luna, or some other honorific of that nature.”

My smile deepened as she looked down her muzzle at me.

Yes, assume the worst. Underestimate me all you like, I won't complain

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

With one final glare, Luna turned around and left me in silence once again.

Three minutes.

What a short time, what a small opening, but those are all I’ll ever need.

The smallest of tools and the shortest of times.

Comments

[zmg]

I like the way it goes. and I'm looking forward to the next Monday.

[mortsllaf]

Ah so pre-NM

[Zake]

This story has my interest.