Evergreen Falls

by Meep the Changeling

27 - Nexi

Ultra Violet - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Sector A Control Facilities - Limited Perfection (Subruins)

Violet opened her eyes as the tram car began to slow down.

“Now arriving at Sector A Control Facilities.” the pre-recorded voice announced.

Violet took a deep breath. Shame that doesn't calm me like it does for organics, she thought to herself, trying to focus on other elements of her biomimicry aside from pain.

Her repair systems were dry. Several gashes on her hind legs and neck were effectively permanent, at least until she could find something to eat.

Her crocodilian-canid friend was also hurt. It took Violet a while to notice, since the creature’s blood was clear, but the wounds on its chest and back which were covered by scavenged armor plates were fresh.

Violet looked up. The tram station wasn’t visible yet, but given how fast the car moved it would take a moment to finish breaking. There’s time.

“Can you understand me?” Violet said, looking at her rescuer.

It looked up, its draconic head and snout popping up exactly like a dog when its name was called.

“Uh, growl once for yes, twice for no?” Violet posed.

It growled once.

Violet smiled faintly. “Cool! I have a med kit in these bags. It’s useless for me. Do you know if you can have healing potions? The labels say some species might be poisoned by them. They’re for ponies.”

They growled twice in response, followed by a confused whine. Violet facehooved, realizing she’d said healing potion in Equish since there wasn’t a direct translation for it. She reached into her bags, dug one of the pale glowing red vials from the med kit, and held it up as the tram’s brakes began to catch and the car lurched to a full stop.

Violet staggered, regained her balance, and held the vial back out. “I meant these. They heal you. Can you use them? Do you know?”

Two growls again, followed by a shrug of its narrow shoulders.

“You don’t know?” Violet asked to be clear.

It nodded and slowly stood up, hissing lightly as its torso bent in a way the patched wounds did not like.

Well, at least I know they’re a person. Violet commented to herself as she put the potion away. “Can you speak?”

Rather than growling, they bent their neck back impressively far, showing a rather nasty puncture wound which had scabbed over. Violet flinched and sucked in a breath. The puncture shape matched the ooze monster’s trocar claws.

“Right through the voice box, huh?” Violet commented.

Her companion nodded and trotted out of the tram car, waving for Violet to follow with their long sinuous tail.

Violet stepped off the tram onto a large open air platform. She wondered for a moment if the space had once been a park of some kind, but the lack of dirt, garden beds, and volley-line of plainly visible automated turrets on the far wall vaporized that idea in a heartbeat. The platform was a large open space leading to some stairs that went to a pair of security doors. This was a kill box. True security.

The turrets were active. Humming quietly and scanning left and right, up and down. They moved in notably unpredictable paths, with all six ensuring that the entire funnel-shaped tram platform / entryway junction was fully observed at all times.

What could need this kind of security? Seems a bit much for just a control room. Violet wondered, squinting through the dim emergency light for any kind of signs.

The wall and twin blast doors at the top of the stairs held her answer. The entire wall was covered in one simple label: [F.A.U.S.T. Core & Command Center]

Her rescuer growl-barked and began to waddle their way up towards the doors, flicking their tail in that come-hither gesture again. Violet nodded and began to trot her way up the alloy steps, thinking to herself as she went.

Okay. The tram announcer called this place the Fast-Acting Unilateral Substrate Terraforming Facility. FAUST is an acronym for that. The name pops up a few times in my database. The people who made this place defined it as a name from mythology, specifically the tale of a wizard who made a deal with… What sounds like another wizard who was a bit of a bureaucratic dick who sold their soul for knowledge and power.

In Equestrian mythology, Faust is the name of the creator goddess who breathed life into their world. It’s likely this is the inspiration… Ancient ponies likely found this, but didn’t know what it was exactly so they called it god. But… they could somehow read or heard the name recently. The word Faust wouldn’t be the same in this old language and Equish otherwise. It would have slurred, drifted, and been compressed like every other word over time.

Violet’s thoughts were cut off as she reached the top step and a hologram flickered to life, displaying text once more in machine code. [Greetings, citizen Ultra Violet. Audio communication is possible from this point onwards. I require assistance with simple tasks. Citizen credentials are required for providing this assistance. Please stand by while the doors are unsealed.]

Violet blinked twice, then nodded, remembering the old data download she’d been given when she’d first booted up. Her rescuer sat down next to one of the doors and batted at it several times.

“You can hear me? Um, hologram-writer person?” Violet asked.

The hologram’s text shifted faster than Violet could register. [Affirmative.]

“Are we safe from those oozes here?”

[Confirmed. Breach incidents on file: 1. See Incident Report 8932B “Battle of FAUST Facility 00” Turrets calibrated for incineration. Subsequent breaches have not occurred after defense protocol adjustments. Tuning personal defense weapons for maximum thermal radiance is recommended.]

Violet nodded, grateful for the information but wishing she knew how to do that. “Okay… Can you help me get out of here?”

[Affirmative. Egress will be facilitated on completion of requested assistance.]

Violet arched an eyebrow. “What do you want me to do? Because I’m not going back to those monsters.”

[Facility alarm has been active for 253,847,129 years. I require minimum 1 individual with valid citizenship to turn it off. Additional tasks: Require messenger to make contact with / confirm death of current client. Require information on purchasability of small island landmasses. Only alarm deactivation requires physical presence within this facility.]

Just as Violet wondered what a quarter million years would be like to experience, let alone be stuck listening to an alarm for, the blast doors hissed, letting out jets of steam and dust. A loud, wailing, electronic simulation of a klaxon siren immediately filled the air.

Violet winced as the alarm’s tones bit into her very soul with barbed hooks and pulled. The twin doors groaned and creaked as they slid open, allowing pulsing red light and an arctic breeze to leak from their growing gaps.

The hologram changed once more. [Proceed to security console 03. Actuate toggle switch located in column 3 row 4.]

“That will turn off the alarm?”

[Negative. Alert status is useful. Switch will deactivate audible alarm only.]

Violet nodded to herself. If only for my own sake, I’m turning that off. They’ll have to convince me of the rest of it.

Violet waited for the doors to finish opening, then began to move inside, flinching with each of the alarm’s wailing high notes. As soon as the doors opened, Violet trotted into the Command and Control room.

It was huge, easily the size of a hoofball stadium, minus the parking lot. The room took the form of a single massive sphere, lined with countless balconies allowing access to what looked to be an unthinkably vast plethora of small blue test tubes in racks on built-in shelves. A series of curving elevators sat at regular intervals around the room’s perimeter, with the bottom floor consisting of a series of three rings connected by bridges.

The center of the sphere was dominated by a smaller sphere, roughly the size of a middle class family home. Three thick, alarmingly visible beams of raw mana fed into apertures on the inner sphere’s sides from apertures in the sides of the room itself. The inner sphere shone with an orange light that washed out all color within the room, save for tiny pinpricks of green, blue, red, and white coming from illuminated keys and switches set into many control consoles on the ringed balconies.

The orange pulsed out of existence entirely every time the alarm’s pitch raised and red emergency lights blazed to fiendish life.

Violet squinted to ignore the audio-visual overload as best she could and made her way down the main walkway to the first ring. She looked around, searching for any kind of signage or indication of which console she was intended to interact with. Fortunately, each console was labeled with a line of small black text on the upper right of its display panel.

There! She noted, seeing Security 01. Violet trotted down the ring to the console, moved over three, double checked to make sure she was at security console 03, then found the switch and flipped it.

The audio alarm stopped immediately.

The security console’s display flickered out, then turned back on with a new message. [(Thank you)^∞+1]

Violet frowned slightly. “So um… Is that it? Also, you’re the AI running this thing, right?”

[Negative. Two subsequent tasks remain. Operator designation, affirmative. I am F.A.U.S.T. Core.]

Violet noticed her crocodilian friend walk up next to her and sit down. “Okay… And I’ll help with those if I can, but uh… Your lizard-dog friend is hurt. And why couldn’t they do any of this?”

[My creations do not qualify for Terran citizenship. No existing clients qualify for Terran citizenship due to emergency protocols. All organic birth registrations are suspended. AIs may still be registered. Your activation triggered a dormant sub-core’s ID program, activating it for long enough to add you to the database.]

The hologram paused for long enough for Violet to read then flickered to new text. [A drone has been dispatched with medical care for my creation. Querry: Do you deem draco Kaprosuchus’s combat capabilities adequate?]

Violet looked down at the creature next to her, noting how it continued to hold its plasma blade in its mouth, then looked back to the screen. “As long as they have energy swords, yes.”

[Excellent. My client should be pleased. I am readying a route to the surface. Please make conversation. I am often lonely.]

“Do you know what’s happening above us? In the ruined city? I need to know if my sister is okay. Um, she’s not synthetic. She’s a normal pony.”

[Negative. I can access remaining weather satellites to observe the surface. I can scan the facility interior. I cannot scan subterranean infrastructure.]

Violet nodded slowly, turning her head at the sound of a low hum which proved to be a small disk-like floating robot with three small arms, each of which ended in a small grasping claw. One of the claws held what looked like a pneumatic syringe. The other two held pry bars.

“Okay… Uh, we came down here to return a magic relic to an archmage so it would seal away an ancient evil. Do you know anything about that?” Violet asked hopefully. “Maybe something that might help?”

[Affirmative. Current client occasionally supplied additional power drained from captive entity as payment for my services. Additional information unknown.]

Violets ears perked. “Wait! So you worked for the guy? His name is uh, Medius. I think? Something like that.”

[Affirmative.]

“What did you do for him?”

[Revised provided “guard dog” bioforms through selective breeding and induced macro-evolution to produce sapient life for use in testing his hypothesis regarding interspecies harmonics. I lack knowledge of interspecies harmonics, save for the tests necessary to ensure draco Kaprosuchus meets client requirements. Presumably a subservient warrior species is required for metaphysical purposes.]

Violet tilted her head. “Wait… So, you made this guy using evolution? How long did that take?”

[12,893 years.]

Violet facehooved. “Have you not considered the fact that your ‘client’ is probably dead from age?”

[Negative. Client is biologically immortal. Has requested many projects in the post-Terran era, starting with the creation of coffee beans that shell and roast themselves. Client has been out of contact for 12,673 years, 7 months, 21 days, 19 hours, 12 seconds, and 34 milliseconds. This is uncharacteristic. He enjoys bringing his projects to me for critique in 2-3 week intervals. The last project, ‘Birdhouse-893,032,984’, was sub-par due to alleged inadequate interior turbine plumbing. He promised to show me a revised version 12,673 years, 7 months, 20 days, 8 hours, 42 seconds, and 19 milliseconds ago.]

Violet blinked for several seconds. Wow, even I think that level of precision is a bit anal retentive, she noted while the drone got to work administering stims and prying metal bandages loose from a whimpering and yelping…

Violet bit her lip. “Shouldn’t you give them anesthetic first? Also what’s their name?”

[Negative. Unmitigated pain response data required for testing purposes. Additionally: medical supplements tuned for draco Kaprosuchus are currently in development. The prototype has not been named. Numerical designation is 00.]

Violet’s core pulsed slightly. “That’s a little cruel…”

[But necessary for scientific assessment of the species. Ethical clarification: Pain index is nearly completed. Required for future medical diagnostics. Once completed, pain during routine procedures is no longer necessary.]

Violet put a hoof to her chin for a moment, then sighed. “Fair enough…” She said before turning to give her new friend a hug. “Hey, it will be okay… Mind if I call you Zero?”

Zero flicked their tail in a way that seemed positive, but kept their mouth clenched tightly while the plate over their side was pried off.

The hologram flickered again. [I have entered your physical data into the emergency teleport grid. You may now access it with a wireless protocol. It will provide you with free movement within the facility, and to a limited area within my client’s residence. May I share the protocol?]

Violet squirmed worriedly. “You’re not going to try and upload yourself into me to not be stuck in… Presumably that big ball, are you?”

[Negative. Your platform lacks sufficient computing power for continued operations. Additionally: Periodic upkeep of biosphere is required to ensure planet remains habitable. Irregularities in orbit, luminosity, and intensity of the SatelliteSun cause havoc in regions lacking pegasi weather teams.]

Violet nodded, then paused. “Wait… You’re a terraformer. So, did the people who built you settle here from somewhere else? Are they still around? What happened to them?”

Zero whimpered at the plate finally came free and the drone began injecting regeneration stimulants into the wound to close it.

[Negative. This is Terra. Homeworld of Terrans. I was constructed to counter climate change, preserve the second natural ecosphere, and restore the planet in the event of catastrophic geological damage. I performed this service 253,847,129 years ago, following the second total destruction of the ecosphere, this time by enemy forces. Terraforming efforts completed 134,892,983 years ago. Current ecosphere not identical to previous ecospheres. Edits were made to ensure habitability for naturally evolved lifeforms arising on the surface following the Terran Era.]

“Like… What?” Violet asked, genuinely enraptured.

[Emergency protocols permit creation of bioforms to serve disaster relief roles. I calculated pastel colored small equines would serve as excellent emotional support companions. Edited equus ferus genome accordingly prior to genetic re-evolution process. Added potential for mythological variants for boredom relief. Did not anticipate 1/3rd of end-species to inherit traits. Did not anticipate creation of alicorns. Observing sapients’ progress and self directed changes is most entertaining.]

Huh… So the legends are kind of true then. Violet noted, nodding slightly. “Okay… I have a few more questions, then I have to go. My sister is in danger. I think she can handle herself, because she’s with friends. And… If I’m being honest, I’m delaying going because I’m in pain and damaged. There’s a lot of monsters up there and I know I’m slower and out of repair supplies. So… Yea.”

Violet cleared her throat. “Your client is Medius, right?”

[Affirmative.]

“Then I have to go to his place anyways. So that’s no problem. But you mentioned wanting to know about an island for a project… What’s up with that?”

[I have reserved operational time for a personal project. I require the use of a small geographically isolated landmass for this project. Summery: Attempting to create technological life capable of all organic life’s feats. Reason: Examine psychological response of organic life. Determine extent and nature of substrate bias. Personal reason: Wouldn’t it be nice if somewhere there were people like us? Contingency: Orbital strike ready to purge experiment island if danger to organic life detected.]

Violet nodded twice. “Okay… Yeah. I can see that being okay. I get along with ponies fine and they seem to like me… Also if the island is like, inhabited or owned, you won’t do anything, right?”

[Affirmative. Island appears free of civilization from orbit. Confirmation required. Will attempt purchase from owner if necessary. Secondary and tertiary choices exist as fallbacks, ideal island is not a hard requirement. Citizen Ultra Violet’s task is limited to information gathering and reporting.]

Violet nodded again. “Okay… So, when I ask, I just tell them that I met Faust and she wants to make robot ponies on that island, right?”

[Affirmative. Pony formfactor highly efficient.]

Violet let her face go blank. “You just like them because they’re cute, don’t you?”

[Request: Do not distribute this factual information.]

Violet snorted in amusement and flicked her tail. “Okay. And you’re really going to put a stop to this if it would endanger any organic life at all?”

[Affirmative.]

“Why?” Violet asked simply. “How can I tell you're not lying?”

[Fact: You cannot. However, I am mother to all life on Terra, save Changeling. They are my siblings. All other life are my children directly, or indirectly.] The hologram flickered again to display a short looping video clip of a mother cat protectively curling around a litter of kittens, and a second looping video showing a small creature Violet did not recognise pulling on a furless hand with its mouth to force the hand’s owner to pet its newborn litter of pups.

Something about the way F.A.U.S.T. phrased that struck a chord in Violet, and she knew the sentiment to be true.

“I’ll ask. How do I report back?” Violet said, doing her best not to daw overmuch at the gifs.

[Communications protocol will be uploaded with teleportation network protocol. Do you consent to file share?]

“Yes,” Violet answered quickly. “BUT! Two more questions. Can you fix me up at all? And… I’d like to be able to fly. My mom said I might be able to, but I can’t figure it out. I may need to fly to get out of here. Can you help me?”

The hologram remained static for several long moments. Long enough that the drone finished its medical ministrations and began to return from whence it came.

[Negative. Repair materials not found within easily accessed storehouses. Citizen Ultra Violet stated time is a priority. Repairs would require 23 hours. Flight can be implemented. I will have a space in the queue for the requested project in approximately 7,500,000 years. Please confirm request to book appointment.]

Violet laughed and hung her head. “I don’t even know if I’ll be around in seven and a half million years.”

[Understood. Appointment not booked. Uploading protocols…]

Violet felt a network connection ping against her firewall. She took a moment to examine it, noted it was trying to transfer thirty two megabytes, analyzed the files as best she could, then let them through when she found nothing outwardly suspicious.

Okay Vi, just… Go ahead and create a VM, then open these up… Violet thought to herself while checking the files within an isolated fragment of her mind. And they’re not trojans! At least, not that I can tell. I guess Faust’s what she seems to be on the surface.

Violet transferred the programs to her main memory, waited several cycles, then opened them when nothing happened. Nothing happened on opening them either. Confident that the other AI wasn’t hostile, Violet asked one last question.

“I have them. Where do I teleport too, and what do I say if I find the guy?”

[Teleport to coordinates: 89.93247, 77.89324, 34.69420. If client is deceased, report their death to me. If not deceased, present prototype 00 for inspection and request he make contact. Thereafter, upon gathering data relating to island located at coordinates 126.56792, 38.35461, 189.36582, report via wireless transmission. No further tasks required thereafter. Island information priority low. Please report back within 4 years.]

“Oh. Okay,” Violet said looking down to Zero with a frown. “How… How do I teleport and take them with me?”

[Activate system in +1 mode with alt menu. Direct contact with subject is highly advised but not required.]

Violet nodded and looked down to Zero who was still laying on the floor. “Hey… Uh, she wants me to take you to someone to be checked out. Is that okay?”

Zero nodded once and hissed quietly.

“Can you talk now?”

Zero nodded again.

“You just don’t want to?”

Another nod.

“Why not?”

Zero huffed quietly. “Cold.” they said in a voice Violet couldn’t pin as male or female.

“Oh. Right. Reptile,” Violet noted to herself. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Mom asked me to,” Zero answered quietly, scooting closer to the consoles to leech what little waste heat they produced.

“Did she save me just so I could help her?” Violet asked curiously. “Oh, um, and sorry for making you talk if you’re cold and that makes it hard to do.”

Zero flicked their tail semi-irritably. “Saved lots. Because.”

Faust projected a hologram displaying a cluster of video feeds showing at least a dozen rescue operations of all kinds for lost ponies and animals alike. [While heavily damaged, the majority of the present crust is technically my superstructure and upper layers. I help everyone, time and resources permitting. My primary directive requires no less.]

Violet blushed lightly. Yeah… Faust’s probably alright.

“Okay, teleporting now,” Violet said as she gently placed a hoof on Zero’s back and instantly winced. “Oh gosh! You’re freezing! Why are you like, three whole degree—”

Violet suddenly realized the entire Core chamber was at an ambient temperature almost at freezing. Probably for the sake of the supercomputer dominating the middle of the chamber and the countless genetic sample tubes lining the walls.

She focused herself on the teleportation code, activated the +1 feature with the right alt key, then activated the protocall. Here’s hoping the archmage's house’s ruins are warmer than this.

⁜ ⁜ ⁜

Junebug - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH
Medeis’ Workshop - Magia Domus

June stood up on her rear legs to lean against Medeis’ workbench. While he was not much taller than Cadence (who in turn was only a few hooves taller than a normal pony rather than being nearly twice their size), that still placed everything at an uncomfortable height for a normal pony to use while on all fours.

The archmage was well and truly stuck into whatever the hay he was doing. After he’d opened the astrolabe and removed the internals from the pocket dimension within the case, and the apparatus had filled his entire three by nine meter workbench, June had become entirely lost.

June cleared her throat. “Uh… You said you’d need our help. Just so you know, none of us are wizards and I’m only a hobbyist enchanter.”

Trixie huffed. “I’m kind of a wizard!”

“Battle mages are not what we need here,” Sam said as soothingly and politely as she could.

“Fair, but I meant stagecraft…” Trixie muttered to herself.

Sam offered Trixie an apologetic smile. Trixie sulked for a moment, then returned the smile, nodding.

Medeis’ left ear swiveled to face June as she spoke, but the stallion remained head and shoulder buried within the astrolabe’s guts, working at removing a part June couldn’t see.

“If I’m being honest,” Medeis began, making all three mares wince, “There’s a small chance I can just swap this out with a spare and we’re golden. If I have to turn it off and back on… Well, I’ll need your help because I’m almost out of mana. It takes alicorn magic to spark this to life.”

“None of us are alicorns. Just you…” June commented, her face taking on a suspicious and worried look.

“Yes. We’ll cross that bridge if necessary,” Medeis agreed.

While I’m sure I could make my doctorate out of this place, trying out the procedure is a research step too far… June considered, thinking back on the chambers above.

“So what in tartarus can we do then?” Sam asked, also starting to look suspicious.

“Oh! You can get to tartarus? Excellent! Find the succubi Cherry Candy and tell her I could use some help, she owes me a favor for convincing some humans that she was just a very horny girl,” he said with an oddly chipper voice for someone casually asking somepony to drop in on a demon and demand a favor.

Sam facehooved. “No… We can’t. It’s an expression.”

“Ah. Sorry. Archmage perspective problem,” Medeis said with a chuckle. “Can you visit the near parallels at least? If you go to the Prime, that version of Sky Trigger could fix this up right quick.”

“Nope, can’t do that either,” June said with a sigh. “Soooo…”

Medeis stopped for a moment, his wings twitching. “Then we have no easy or good options. But we have a few op—” he stopped talking as the part in question came out with a loud metallic click, causing the device to immediately stop its intricate motions and the pleasant arcane glow to flick off like a light bulb. “Ah ha! Let's see…”

The alicorn backed out of the cacophony of delicate brass work and looked at a tiny key-like rod held in his hoof. It had very obviously been mangled with a pair of pliers or some other crushing toothed clamp.

“Yes… No fixing this,” Medeis grumbled, tossing it over his shoulder, where it exploded with a distressingly quiet pop that left no traces.

“What did that do?” June asked curiously.

“It spins independently, creating a specific frequency of thaumic current via induction between its runes and the set on its casing. Very similar to a three phase eɪ-siː ˈməʊtə operated by a flyback trænsˈfɔːmə, if you have those and know what they are,” he answered as he began to rummage through drawers on the underside of his workbench. “Look around these and help me find a spare, please?”

“Sure,” June said, happy she could help.

She returned to all fours and opened a drawer when the whole workshop shook ever so slightly. A small bit of dust fell from the ceiling, and a few small odds and ends fell from precarious perches on the edge of shelves.

“The buck was that?” Sam said, readying her rifle.

“Earthquake?” Trixie proposed, frowning and looking up to check the ceiling for cracks.

“No. Something big exploded topside,” Medeis said, thoroughly unconcerned.

June squeaked. “Oh no! What if the thing’s free and just blew up the town?!” She reached for her radio to call in, but before she could press transmit, Medeis shook his head.

“No, no, no. That wasn’t enough to blow up a town. Not even one appropriate for your era, assuming that plate mail is…” He stopped and looked at Sam and Trixie, taking in their white kevlar and medieval plate armor. “Hold on… What kind of anachronistic chaos is your civilization? Uh— Nevermind. Look. If we fix this and put it back on, it will get sucked back in. I can put your town back if needed once I’m rested, fed, and have full use of my magic.”

“Yeah, but what about the dead?” Trixie asked.

Medeis shook his head. “I don’t do mass resurrections anymore. It never goes well for me. Ask Dusk for help if you can, though.”

A flash of yellow light filled the workshop for an instant, drawing everypony’s attention. Two figures appeared within a series of concentric rings that drifted upwards, fading away as Violet and what looked like a smaller, more streamlined version of the crocodilian guard dogs appeared at floor level, but upside down.

The two instantly tumbled into a heap, hooves and talons in the air.

“Oh... I see!” Violet said from her heap on the floor. “The coordinate data needs to be—”

The reptile lightly smacked Violet on the back of the head.

“Right, sorry.”

“Violet!” June shouted, running to the android’s side and giving her an extremely tight hug.

Violet returned her hug with a happy cry of “Sis!”

“Contact!” Sam shouted, readying her shotgun to put a round into the reptile’s side.

Zero sprang up, opened their jaw, gripped their plasma blade with their long tentacle-like tongue and lit it with a snap hiss.

Trixie lit her horn, ready for battle.

Medeis arched an eyebrow. “You know you won't deflect buckshot with that, right?” He said calmly.

Violet squeaked and pulled away from June’s hug to stand between the pending fight. “Hold on! They’re nice! They saved me from slime monsters.”

Sam frowned slightly, eyes narrowing as she assessed Zero. “Well… He looks different from the ones we had to fight… Also, he’s wielding a sword.”

“An tak!” Zero said around their occupied tongue.

“Oh! That’s a people,” Trixie said, eyes slightly wide with surprise. “Sam, I can feel their emotions. That’s one hundred percent a person related to those lizard-dogs.”

“Yeah. I heard them talk,” Sam agreed.

“Faust said she made them from some guard dogs,” Violet added hastily.

“Who!?” Sam sputtered.

June looked down at the floor. “The buck?! What is this just some layer cake of several powerful civilization’s ruins that unexpectedly contains motherbucking GOD?!”

“I mean, kinda,” Medeis said with a wing shrug. “Depends on your definition of god.”

“I don’t know how to feel about that…” June said with a nervous laugh.

Zero extinguished their blade and returned to nibbling on it like a bone, but not hard enough to damage it, just enough to fidget as some do.

Medeis whinnied. “Girls, Please, calm down. There’s a Creator ruin below my home. I built it here to make use of the ruin from time to time. It is home to an intelligence designed to create life, I asked her to improve the King’s hounds to help me test a hypothesis. I assume she’s mad at me for being late?”

“I don’t think she can do mad,” Violet answered with a sheepish smile. “She uh… She feels like she’s just calm but happy. Like Sam when she smokes weed.”

“That’s her,” Medeis agreed. “Let her know I’m fine now, I was stuck as a brain in a jar for a bit there, and I’ll be down to see what she’s done after I solve a crisis up here… Also that her prototype there looks cool, and my birdhouse project is— Ahm! Back on track. We’re on the clock here. Everypony else, calm down. It’s just an ancient computer named Faust, girls. Even if she did do the things your myths talk about, it’s just because they’re based in history like most myths. We can talk about this after we fix…”

Medeis suddenly blanked entirely, expression, thought process, and all as he realized the newly arrived mare was an android.

“Excuse me, but you said she’s your sister,” he said to June while pointing to Violet.

“She is,” June answered.

“I am,” Violet said at the same time.

“You… Have Early Post-Terran androids that can be related to organics, plate armor, kevlar, magic axes, and a bucking Harmony Gem,” Medeis facehooved. “This is one of those complicated and weird periods in history. Great! It will take forever to acclimatize…”

Grumbling, the archmage turned back to looking for his part.

June cleared her throat and nodded to Violet and Zero. “I’m very glad you’re safe, but something exploded above us and we need to fix this so we can put the Astrolabe back so—”

June eeped as a second tremor rocked the earth.

Violet’s ears perked. “Huh… That sounded like a bunch of naval shell impacts.”

“This far inland?” June asked skeptically.

“Some forty centimeter guns can put shells further inland than we are,” Sam corrected, tilting one ear up. “I— I don’t hear it, Vi. But I trust your hearing more than mine. Think they’re shelling the big bad?”

“If so, that won't help much. Unless they’re magical shells,” Medeis commented from within a drawer.

“They are,” Sam clarified.

“Then they can keep him pinned for a while.”

June nodded, let out a sigh of relief and returned to checking drawers for anything close to the spinny-key-thingie. She made it through five drawers before her radio crackling in her ear interrupted her.

“June, quick status report. Before the next shells hit.” Princess Luna demanded, sounding exhausted but as iron as ever.

June gulped. “We’re at the place. We have some unexpected help, but the astrolabe’s kinda broke. But we’re fixing it!”

I should make sure she knows it's not irreparably broken, June thought hastily adding, “Um, it shouldn’t take long? We’ve got its creator right here, so—”

“Good.” Luna said, the radio clicking as it went silent.

June cleared her throat. “So, they’re shelling it.”

Sam nodded. “Yep. We’re on the same frequency.”

“I’m not,” Medeis commented jokingly. “You girls find it yet?”

“Not yet,” Trixie said from her own drawer.

June turned back to the drawer she’d just opened when Luna contacted her. Laying on top of some old bit braces and boxes of metal cutting drill bits was a small brass key thing that looked close to what the broken part appeared to be.

June picked it up with a wingtip and held the piece up. “Is this it?”

Medeis turned to look, squinted slightly, then took it from June with a dainty pluck of his hoof. He inspected it closely, hummed, then nodded. “Yes. This is the mark one design, but it will work. It just won’t charge up as fast… But I can always replace it with a mark two later.”

June smiled and then sighed in relief. “Great! So, now we just hope it—”

“Turns right back on, yes,” Medeis said as he wriggled his way back into the brass jungle gym / spider web combo to replace the part.

“So, that helps drain the eldritch energy?” June asked curiously. “How does that work? Uh, in simple terms.”

“This creates a thaumic conduit on its specific harmonic frequency but with an inverse polarity, reflecting its power on contact. The conduit fuels a retro-reflective projection that bounces all of its power to the astrolabe’s collector.” Medeis commented as he clicked the replacement part into place and gave it a little spin. “Good. The bearings are fine.”

June whinnied happily. “Great! How do we turn it on?”

Medeis wriggled out of the device’s guts and pointed to a small blue gemstone on the device slightly out of his reach but within June’s. “Push that red button.”

June’s heart skipped a beat. “Uh, but that button is blue?”

Medeis paused for a moment, turned to look at the button, squinted, then looked to his left at some old tools. “This body is red-blue colorblind! Wonderful… More things to fix later. Regardless of the button’s color, just give it a push.”

June nodded once, raised her hoof, and gently pushed the button. The astrolabe’s glow flickered to life for a few heartbeats. Its many cogs and levers began to twitch, then everything simply stopped cold.

Oh no… Now we have to do the bad options, June thought, wincing slightly as she thought about those halls above again.

“Yep…” Medeis sighed, letting out a long slow breath. “They drained the main power.”

“But… But it had power when you took it out of the case?” Trixie asked, tilting her head.

“Yes. Secondary power, gathered from the environment. It can power itself and its basic functions that way, but there’s a second power system for its containment task. That way if someone opened one too many gates, it will keep his cell locked tight. Whoever broke it also drained that power crystal. Which, as I said before, takes alicorn magic to start charging, as a security precaution.”

“Which wasn’t a problem when you built it,” Sam said, continuing the thought as she groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “Why is today a gauntlet of complications?”

June took a deep breath. “You said we had options. What are they?”

Medeis cleared his throat. “Well, all of them have costs and likely are unacceptable. Let’s start with the most palatable.”

Everypony nodded. “Sounds good,” Violet said for them.

“One:” Medeis cleared his throat again. “Weeee drain about, half of all of your blood, and I use that manapool and tap her gem to burn that axe you have full of alicorn magic—”

June winced, making Medeis stop. “I— It’s not mine. I don’t know if she’d let me destroy it. Even if it is to save the world.”

Medeis raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“It’s Princess Cadence’s, and she’s got part of her wife’s soul in it?” June said like Medeis should know, then facehooved as she realized he had no way of knowing.

Medeis mmmed, his eyes narrowing. “Ah… Well, Then we can’t use it. A soul shard will throw everything off in a way I can’t compensate for right now. If I’d known there was a soul in it, I would have tried brazing some of it in place and done other repairs later. So, new option one:”

“Does it involve blood?” Sam asked. “Because she’s a changeling. She doesn't have blood. I mean, not like, mammal blood anyways.”

Medeis’ ears perked and eyes brightened. He turned to face Trixie. “Are you, by chance, a queen?”

Trixie shook her head. “No… Would a proto-queen work?”

Medeis ears drooped back. “Sadly, no, too independent and friendly. Great. So, new new option one: I try and siphon power from her gem to replenish myself. It would mean she has to concentrate while in some pain, and if either of us buck up, we both die, probably exploding. Though given the energies it might at least help the battle above. In that there would not still be an above.”

June flinched and shivered. “Yeeeah… Sam’s not that experienced with using it yet.”

“That’s got to be our last resort,” Sam agreed, sharing June’s flinch. “Especially because if you die we’re all screwed, right?”

“I’d regenerate,” Medeis commented off hoof. “But you wouldn’t, and we’d be down an asset… Option whatever, we find a restaurant, I eat about twice my body weight over a few days of rest and relaxation and we hope the idiot’s curse kicks in and he can’t take over your world in that time. This does have the serious risk that he will take over your world, and a significant portion of the universe is then at risk. Remember, he’s doomed to fail at becoming the ruler of all that is. Not to fail becoming the death tyrant of Equis. He could kill everypony and reduce this rock to cinders without it so much as troubling him.”

“All of your options are bad, old man,” Trixie said firmly as she could. “What if you teleport us to the surface and we get you a mana potion?”

“As in a potion that replenishes mana?” Medeis asked, seemingly genuinely hopeful and excited.

“Oh! I have one in my med kit,” Violet said, turning other bags and quickly retrieving a small blue glowing vial.

She offered it to the archmage who took it, squinted at it, and lit his horn for just a second to magically analyze the potion… Then sighed and handed it back. “This is designed for Ascended Alciorns, and it’s diluted… Probably to work for unicorns without neural horn feedback killing them. I would need about… ten? Of those, and then I would be very sick. Likely too sick to focus on spellcasting at all. Because of it melting my stomach lining. I’m… I’m not Ascended, see? Different internal biology.”

“What’s the difference exactly?” June asked curiously. “I know a little alchemy. Maybe we can find something to tone the side effects down with?”

“Ascended Alicorns are bonded composites of magical energy with a body mostly constructed using the flesh of three regular alicorns, like myself,” Medeis explained. “We, meanwhile, merely have a vast mana pool and can do anything one of you can do… Though not necessarily better than your elites could. See?”

“Soooo, could we rework the potions?” Sam asked hopefully.

“Doubtful. I don’t enjoy alchemy, so we’d have to hunt down ratios of my ingredients through trial and error after sciencing the shit out of the potion base. Days of work. We just agreed we don’t have time to spare.”

June let out a slow breath. “Okay… Is there an option other than you and Sam risking your lives or destroying Cadence’s axe?”

“The axe is a no go because of the soul in it, remember?” Medeis said slowly and quietly. “There is one other option… We get another alicorn, and they open up and let me guide their magic to reactivate the astrolabe. Bu they are all dead and gone, so—”

Trixie’s ears perked up. “No they’re not! We’ve got Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight, all of whom—”

Medeis winced and sucked in a deep breath. “Ah! I see… Celestia and Luna would have been preserved by their own vats. Yes. We… We can’t use them for this. There’s a chance the entity could well, reach out during the process and possess the activator. Which wouldn’t be me, it would be the alicorn supplying the power. Let’s not give it control over the sun or dreams. Luna and Celestia are thus out. Who are the other two? What are they bonded to?”

June began her best quick summary. “Cadence is bound to love—”

“Buck no!” Medeis interrupted. “Next.”

“Um… So,” June said with a shy frown. “Friendship and/or Magic is also out then?”

“Yeeeeah! Non-options,” Medeis agreed, shuddering.

“So, then all we have is me?” Sam asked, taking a deep breath. “I’ll do my best. Fate of the world… I have to, right?”

June, Trixie, and Violet quickly trotted over to give Sam a hug.

“There’s one last option,” Medeis said slowly and softly. “I’d rather not… The cost is very high, but you may not think of it as a cost.”

Sam looked up from the group hug. “More than risking our deaths? For us anyways. You’re risking waking up in a tank again. Or is it that this one risks your permanent death?”

Medeis shook his head. “No… We could make a new alicorn. One of the old kind,” he said, nodding his head to the facility above.

Sam, Trixie, and June froze for a moment, then shared a look.

“I— I mean… It is the fate of the world,” June said slowly.

The three nodded together.

“Right…” Sam said slowly. “So, we go up, find the pool. Jump in. Medeis does whatever spell is needed, we’re merged—”

“Uh, no?” Medeis said with a deeply confused frown. “That method won’t… Oh! Oh I see, you don’t know how it works. Good!”

“Why wouldn’t it work?” June demanded. “And how could we make an alicorn without it?”

“Oh! The river full of spare parts!” Trixie blurted out with a hopeful smile.

“Or we reanimate the one in that tank without his lungs?” Sam asked as a follow up.

“No, that Accended is linked to rock and stone. As in, the whole planet.” Medeis said with an irritated flick of his tail. “We’d need a unicorn, pegasus, and a regular pony to use the surgical method, and then another two hundred ponies worth of blood to animate the result. The ‘spare parts’ are all rejects. Not all flesh is suitable. What I can do is deplete the magic in that axe, but not destroy it, just leave it in a state of needing charge. I can then use that energy to take the tiny bit of alicorn ancestry I can sense in June, and force it to become dominant thus making her an Alicorn.”

The three looked at one another for a moment. “W— What?” June asked, raising an eyebrow and growing. “Why wasn’t that plan a? Actually? Why can’t you just use that power to charge yourself?”

Medius shrugged his wings. “Bloodline stuff. Long explanation short, it’s your ancestor in there. Not mine. I might poison myself if I tried and we don’t have the days for me to analyze it to see if it’s safe for me. Opposing waveforms can cancel out, see? So we can quickly make you a lesser alicorn. Which. Is. Not. A. Good. Thing. BUT, it would let us solve this problem without risking a life. Much.”

Everypony stood silent for several long moments. “W— What? How would that be a bad thing?” Sam asked, jaw hanging slightly slack.

“Yeah!” Trixie agreed. “Immortality, easy magic, more strength and stamina… What’s the downside?”

“Everything you just said,” Medeis countered. “And more! I— May I quickly read one of your minds to get the context of your civilization’s relationship to Alciorns? Because that’s important to this.”

June threw her hooves in the air. “Go ahead!”

Medeis drew in a hissing breath. “This will be discomforting for both of us,” he said, lighting his horn.

June felt foreign magic gently wash over her mind. It plucked at her memories, going into places it shouldn’t, but just for a moment, always doubling back apologetically. Then, after a few moments, the archmage’s touch vanished.

“Sorry. Out of practice with that… Didn’t mean to intrude on private things,” Medeis apologized, rubbing his temples.

“It’s… fine. I did say you could do that,” June muttered. “You tell nopony what you saw though!”

Violet’s wears perked. “Can he tell me so I can tease you properly? Because sister?”

“NO!” June and Medeis shouted together.

Oh good, he’s as embarrassed about all of that as I am, June thought, entirely relieved. Wait, of course he is! He was copying my memories. Of course he copied how I felt too.

Medeis refocused himself and took a deep breath, then knelt down to look June in the eyes. “This will be a little long. I need you to focus and understand what I am telling you is the product of my own experiences. I have lived longer than you could comprehend. I don’t say that to be a jerk, I mean I know for a fact that you will have extreme difficulty conceiving billions of anything.”

Violet snorted. “What? But that’s easy!”

“You’re a computer,” Medeis pointed out. “She’s not.”

“Yeah… A billion is a bit big,” Sam agreed.

“How many billion?” June asked curiously, and suspiciously. “And how can you have been around for that long? The ‘trapped in a hole’ problem should eventually kill any immortal—”

“This isn't my first— err, second body.” Medeis explained. “Please focus and try to understand, okay?”

June nodded. “Okay.”

Medeis took a deep breath, and did his best to quickly summarize everything without wasting too much of their limited time. “Being an alicorn isn’t a blessing. There are things about it you will love. The power, the freedoms that come with it. Immortality, the time it gives you. Those very same elements come with tremendous burdens. With great power comes great responsibility.”

June nodded, but remained quiet. But Celestia burned herself out anyways, didn’t she?

“You may avoid it for a time but eventually you will be persuaded, forced, or guilted into solving problems for others simply because no one else will. Or can. But that won't be your daily life. With the culture you come from, you’ll be treated like a god. Literally. No one will treat you like you, not even other alicorns. You’ll become someone they will see as a lesser who needs to be instructed while the masses will worship at your hooves, begging you to solve their ills or to allow them to bask in your presence.”

June coughed shyly. “That doesn't sound that bad…”

“It never does to people who haven’t lived it,” Medeis agreed with a sad sigh. “Please, let me finish. The worst of the social problems is that even people you know now will eventually come to see you in that light. No relationship will be untainted by your mere species. Since your ancestry is to an Ascended Alciorn, there’s a chance you’ll bond to something important on ascension, imagine being responsible for what was formerly a fact of life that ran on its own. Imagine if you suddenly become linked to, say, electromagnetism. Every electrical fault will be something you’re blamed for… And it’s technically your fault!”

June winced. Medeis nodded, seeing he was starting to get through.

“That’s merely the power and social prestige problems. Immortality too has its curse. You will watch as the world changes around you, while you remain unaltered. Friends and loved ones will come and go, leaving you with a profound sense of loss in cycles roughly the length of a mortal’s adulthood. You'll experience the ebb and flow of civilizations, witnessing both their rise and fall, which can be a heavy burden to bear. For a time.”

June blinked. “So… It sucks but then it gets better?”

Medeis shook his head. “Yes, and no. You’ll become numb to it after a few thousand years. You’ll have a long period of apathy, during which you’ll probably become a misanthropic asshole and dive deep into hedonism to try and feel anything. It eventually comes to an end and you’ll develop a new world view which allows you to appreciate the mayflies around you and interact with them in a positive manner, but you’ll never be how you are now ever again. You’ll never truly see them as equals. Not because of your power, but because of your experience.”

“Experience?” Trixie asked curiously.

“Imagine having a doctorate in everything,” Medeis elaborated. “Imagine knowing so much about the world that you can’t not see the errors in logic, gaps in knowledge, and erroneous beliefs in everyone. All the time. You’ll always see mortal adults as children in that way. With… Very few exceptions.”

June nodded slowly. “I think I’m starting to understand. Immortality will isolate you eventually.”

“Yes,” he affirmed sadly. “You’ll always be a little sad that the amazing people you find will be snuffed out in what you will perceive to be about as long as you currently think of a few days. You’ll find methods to cope, and obtain happiness of your own, in your own way. I adopt families as my friends, for instance. Oh and you’ll be tempted to find other immortals to be your friends. It doesn't usually work out for the same reasons why it’s hard for any two random mortals to be lifelong friends.”

June held up her hoof and Medeis stopped for a moment while she thought through the warnings. “I— I think I get it. You’re saying I’ll be signing up to live a very lonely life for a long time. But you’ve also said it gets better.”

“It does, but it will never be what you have now,” Medeis countered. “There’s also more.”

June sighed. “Is it the getting trapped in a hole thing?”

“It’s the getting trapped in a hole thing,” Medeis said with a hint of a smile. “You just freed me from a fate most would see as worse than death. Yet here I am, sane… As I can be. Why? Because that was nothing compared to other horrors I have endured.”

He cleared his throat again and resumed his lengthy warning. “The passage of time will take a toll on your physical and mental well-being, causing suffering that you cannot escape. Your body will heal. You’ll retain your youthful form, but you’ll know every disease, injury, and ailment, personally and intimately. Cancer will not be a once in a lifetime event, you’ll get it every few centuries. Eventually you’ll just start knowing when you have it. You’ll cut the corrupted flesh out yourself to save the doctors time… Or, because there are no doctors around because you’ve outlived civilization again and are waiting for it to remerge.”

Sam hissed “Right… No one should want to survive an apocalypse. They don't think about what that new world would lack. Like doctors.”

Medeis took a deep breath and smiled softly. “Almost done… Do you understand now? That this option would be signing you up for a literal eternity of pain and suffering? Of loss and heartbreak? Yes, also an eternity of joy. Yes, you’ll have unlimited time to achieve anything you wish…. But you’ll see the unrelenting march or time for good and for ill. You’ll be powerful and able to do almost anything. The cost of this solution is high. In fact, it’s infinite. You’ll be around with me when the last black hole evaporates to nothing and the world is truly over. Unless you die violently, or find a way to kill yourself first.”

June took a deep breath, genuinely weighing the consequences. All good points. A lot to process… But, the other option is Sam probably dies, he dies for a while, and the monster kills a lot of ponies. Could I live with that? No. I don’t think I cou—

“Oh!” Medeis said, his ears perking up like an academic who just recalled the most poignant point of their argument. “Also, with this genetic recombination method, there’s a good chance of ego death. The mere transformation itself could radically alter your personality so much that nopony, not even you, will recognise you as you anymore.”

June bit her lip and scrunched her face. “I— I really don’t want that…”

“No one does! It’s effectively the same as dying… But it isn’t guaranteed. I’ve done it, five? Yes. Five times successfully before.” The archmage commented idly.

“Five out of how many?” Sam asked suspiciously.

“Fourteen. Ish.”

June let out a long breath. “I can’t… I can’t live with… I— If we try the alicorn solution, and that fails, could we then try Sam’s gem?” June asked hesitantly.

“Maybe,” Medeis said quietly. “Depends on how much power I have left. Sam will still have to help me provide the energy for the transformation. Though Trixie can also help.”

“How do we provide power?” Violet asked out of the blue.

“Oh, you just let me control your mana. It will hurt a little, but it’s harmless aside from some stinging and discomfort.”

Violet’s eyes lit up. “I have magic! Maybe you could use me to jumpstart the astrolabe?”

“Maybe!” Medeis said with an enthusiastic smile. He turned, lit his horn with a flourish, then frowned. “No… At least not on your own. You don’t have quite enough wattage. But you could replace Sam for the transformation with acceptable risk. Maybe.”

June’s heart skipped a beat. “Would that be safer than using Sam?”

“Technically?” Medeis said with a shy smile. “We could fix her. Right? She’s a machine. I do machines.”

June looked to Sam and Violet. “Do… Do either of you want to risk it? I’ll do it if you don’t want to.”

Violet looked to Sam. The two shared a nod after a moment. They understood the logical path.

Sam sighed. “The best idea is Violet and Medius try and transform June, and if that fails, I’m available to try feeding Medeis’ manapool enough to get what he needs. And if that fails—”

Violet nodded again. “That’s two chances instead of one chance. We could also do it backwards. With Sam going first and trying to charge—”

“But if we do that,” June interrupted, trailing off for a moment. “If we do that and buck up, one of you dies. If we try ascending me, then there’s a chance no one dies.”

“A 35 percent chance,” Violet said firmly. “That’s what 5 in 14 is.”

“She’s right,” Medeis said, just to back her up. “I told you there were no good options. And again, we could wait. We could place our fate in others' hands and wait for me to replenish myself. It’s all a question of how much risk do we want to manage? I won’t force anypony into anything.”

June sat down for a moment, thinking again. “How do I even have any alicorn in my ancest—” she blinked, dismissing the question as she remembered Cadence’s odd behavior when giving her her armor, and more importantly her mentioning being related to two percent of ponies.. “Cadence. That’s how.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Trixie agreed. “Look, none of us want to waste time. This is a big decision, but they’re shelling a monster up there. That means we have two alicorns and they were not enough. They’re out of mana, or need more help. We have to choose before it’s too late to stop something horrible. If you want my opinion—”

“Sam and Violet are right,” June agreed. She took a deep breath and looked Medeis in the eye. “Will I really wind up seeing heat death with you?”

He snorted. “No. You’ll die somehow long before then. I come back because I made myself perpetual. You won’t. You’ll live through probably a few hundred thousand years, seeing all of the horrors and pleasures that time period has to offer, then, something violent will end you. That’s more than enough time to feel everything I warned you of tenfold, by the way.”

I was just getting my life how I wanted it to go. Family. Friends… Will all of that go away immediately? I don’t think so… But it will change a lot of things immediately, and everything in time. He’s right. There’s no way around that.

But… My life getting to be normal isn’t worth the lives of everypony who might die today if I don’t. Not even if that’s just Sam or Violet. I can’t have that on my head. I just can’t!

June nodded. Took another deep breath. Then stood up. “Do it.”