A threat once again looms over Equestria, but it doesn't come from the past, it comes from beyond the stars.
The fate of Equestria once again hangs in the balance. But it comes in the form of the deadliest organism imaginable. A super predator made to hunt apex predators. A form of life dedicated to the eradication of any organism born under a star.
Help however doesn't come from Equestria's God Princesses or The Elements of Harmony... It too comes from the stars... In the form nopony would ever suspect.
The hallway was empty. Not a single living thing was in the cold space. Not a spider, not a mouse, not even a germ. One would have more chances of getting sick in a freshly cleaned operating room. A term that could be used would be "hyper-sterile". Truly, if not for the electrons and light pulses moving via cables in the walls, nothing would be moving.
With a slight twitch, a section of wall spiraled open, four metallic bipedal beings surrounding a floating box marched into the sterilized hallway. Each one of the beings were identical except for the numbers and letters on shoulder pads. Each one was heavily armored enough to hide a living human being inside. None of them were of course, as each of their insides were powerful sets of electromagnetic joints that could accurately mimic the movement of a living being. Each one of them carried what appeared to be a poleaxe and machine gun combined into a single weapon. The box in the middle of the quartet was a different matter.
If the four beings were Stone Age technology, then the box was easily Intra-Planetary Information Age in comparison. It was quite literally a perfect cube. Not a scratch, not a blemish. Just a cube of an ultra advanced metal that hovered in the air of it's own violation.
The four armored beings escorted the floating cube down the hall. Each guard moved in sync with each other and the cube kept at a matched pace. Eventually they reached the far end of the hall and the section that caped the end twitched and spiraled open much like the first door had.
The room the cube and company entered was a hexagon, about the size of a high school auditorium. Just as clean and sterile as the hallway. On the opposite side that the group entered was a kind of raised dias, which in turn melded into a solid table that partially hid those who sat behind it. Sitting at said table were twelve figures, separated into four groups for each segment of wall the table covered. The figures were a motley collection. Some were a slightly transparent image that looked like a living breathing human being, some were a mechanical proxy of a human, and several combinations in between.
Several more identical guards stood in front of the table, and guarded the door. The only thing that seemed out of place in the obvious court room was the mechanical human proxy that leaned almost whimsically on the wall on the right side, arms crossed and as close to an amused smirk as a slightly emotion capable machine could make.
The four escorting guards split onto opposite sides of the cube as it came to a stop in the middle of the room. With a click of their heels, the guards finally stopped. The figures behind the table looked at each other almost hesitantly.
"Reveal the prisoner." commanded the robotic proxy in the middle position on the right in an ageing old man's voice.
"Yes sir." replied a guard who stood in front of the table in a monotone voice. The same guard approached the now still cube and laid a hand on the top. After a moment, the cube was cut into it's eight corners with a flash of red light. The corners twirled for a moment before they began to orbit a twisted hunk of metal that floated where the center of the cube had been.
"Activate him." ordered the same council member. The guard didn't reply but reached towards the twisted chunk and did something. Despite not having lungs, the chunk gasped for air.
"Doctor Johnathon Micheals." another Council member started, this one a transparent female in her late 30's. "You have been charged with crimes against humanity, animal cruelty, and high treason... How do you plea?" she asked. The scrap of metal, which slightly resembled a face, continued to breath heavily for a few moments, once again odd considering it's lack of lungs. The Council lady who spoke nodded at the guard that unlocked the cube. It nodded back. With a smooth motion, the guard jabbed it's stave gun at the floating prisoner. Whom was zapped with a bolt of electricity. "We tire of your theatrics Doctor..." The same council woman stated. "How do you plea?"
"W-w-would the k-k-counnncil p-p-lease elaaaaabora-ate?" the doctor asked in a slightly, but still recognizably masculine, monotone that sounded like it was glitching badly.
"Are you or are you not aware of the release of the [̶̴͘͜Ŕ̶͘͝E̴̡̡͢͜D̡̛A̧̨C̸̷̷̴͟T͏͢E͟҉͞D̸̢͠]͢͟͢͝҉?!" asked a grouchy old man that had cybernetics. What was left of the doctor grinned.
"I am-m."
"Then are you or are you not guilty of releasing the only remaining specimen?!" the old man asked.
"At ease Reginald." a fourteen year old girl calmed, her young voice somehow sounding centuries older than it actually was. The doctor began to laugh.
"A-aaaye am g-guilty of releasing-g-g-g-g the [̷͜͡Ŕ̷̕͠É̛Ḑ͜͡Ą̵͢͏̡C̶͜T̡̀E͏́́͟͡D̀͜]̸." he laughed.
"You plea guilty then?" the man in the middle asked.
"I-I ammm only g-guilt-ty of ensuring th-he sprea-ead of life." The doctor giggled.
"The [҉̕R̨͟È̷D̵́À̵̢̡͏Ć̕͝͞T͠͝E̵̷҉̀̕D̴͟҉̀]̀̕͡ is the sole organism capable of ending all life Doctor." the teen growled. "In releasing the sole survivor you have damned countless worlds... If they have their way the entire galaxy will become sterilized PERMANENTLY."
"Cha-arles Darwin's Darwi-winism puuut it most eloque-ntly, 'Survivvvval of the fittest...' We betray-tray what huuumankind has become by the me-ere aaaact of sup-pressing the fi-ttest to survive." the Doctor giggled. The Council was silent.
"If I may..." The odd person who was leaning on the wall stated. His voice was that of an early 20's male. "If, by releasing the [͢͠R̨͡͏̶̷Ȩ̷͜͞Ḑ̢͜҉҉A̢̕͜͞C͟͠Ţ̵̛͘E͢͜D̸̨҉̴]҉̴́͢, you ensure that life exists, for all time, in the form of the Apex... What will happen when there is nothing left but the Apex?" He asked as got off the wall.
"An-nnnd who exactly is this young blo-od?" the doctor asked, raising what was left of an eyebrow. The whimsical machine person merely smirked.
"Why yes, good Doctor..." the strange human machine stated sarcastically. "There is nothing left for the [̷͟Ŕ͜Ę̸̸̕̕D̷҉̛̛̕A̕͘͡͠͞C̡̢͘͢T̷̴E͟Ḑ̷]͠͝ to devour and they eventually starve... Thus ending all life as we know it." he stated as he poked the nose of the prisoner.
"The Council would like to ask the highly praised Tim to stop pestering the prisoner." the head council member stated.
"Sorry." Tim said informally, not at all sounding like he was sorry.
"In light of the good doctor's confession, and by the highest of our laws, Doctor Johnathon Micheals is hereby sentenced to a stay in the Tesseract Labyrinith, until such a time as he has either died, or his expertise is required..." The head council member decreed. Had the doctor had any blood vessels, his face would've paled. "Take him away."
The guard who originally unlocked the cube locked it again, cutting off a scream of terror that emanated from it's prisoner. The cube slowly floated out the door with it's escorts in tow. Tim watched the cube glide away silently.
"General Tim?" asked the head councilman. "How goes your search for the missing [͏R̴̨̛̀E̸̢̧͡D̢̧͠͝A̸̢͘͟͠C̸̵̡̕Ţ̡͟Ę̶͝D̵̸̛͞͝]̶̸̴?"
"Poorly." Tim replied, his voice losing all of it's mirth. "I've tracked it to a sector within my next sphere of expansion. But to which solar system I don't know yet."
"I trust I don't need to remind you what will happen if it gets to a single planet?"
"No." Tim stated, his voice going icy. "I already have drone carriers posting dozens of drones on each planet they can find. I will find your specimen and I will kill it."
"You will capture it ALIVE... We need it to study how we can better counter another race like it in the future." the teenage council girl commanded.
"I am aware of the reasoning behind capturing it alive, but the doctor IS NOT ALONE." Tim stated, facing the council and walking to the middle of the room.
"Preposterous!"
"Inconceivable!"
"How dare you!"
"That is a serious claim General..."
"Believe me when I say my allies and myself have found proof of a larger organization working to unleash a Second Tide." Tim claimed. "I cannot reveal it yet to the rest of our peers, as I still have no idea whom to suspect."
"You are not suspecting us?" an elderly lady at the left most end asked.
"If the council is indeed compromised, then someone has access to the Corruption wing of the Central computer. A feat I'm sure all of you are aware is impossible without every human alive providing their piece of the password to edit it's code... I know myself and my allies have not given our codes to anyone, not even each other. So it remains sound logic to assume the Central Computer is not compromised." Tim reasoned.
"Have you any idea who might be involved?" the teen asked.
"I've narrowed it down to several individuals yes. But I will only make my move when I am sure."
"A classic Tim maneuver then?" the late 30's council woman joked. The rest chuckled a little. Tim smiled.
"A classic Tim." he confirmed.
"We will leave you to your duties then." the head councilman said. "Council adjourned." The transparent images of the council members disappeared while the machines got up and began to file out the room, briefly sharing a word or two with Tim as they went by. Finally the only ones who remained was the teen, Tim, and the guards.
"You really need to take a break Tim." the teen stated as she slowly walked towards the middle.
"My dearest, Aunt... Are you suggesting I not find the [̷̨̨͟R̴̡E̶͠҉D̢͝҉͠A̶͘̕Ç̴̶̛̕T̵̴̡͜͢E̶̕͢D̵̡]̴̸͜͠?" he said in mock surprise. The teen grinned.
"No dearest of nephews," she said with an equal amount of cheek. "I'm merely suggesting you do something other than the council's bidding for once... I know for a fact many of them are getting dependent on you."
"Eh..." Tim grunted. "What can I say? They provide a lot of entertainment..."
"Be careful, I know one or two are planning on nominating you for a seat in the next rotation... And I know for a fact you'd hate sitting here on Earth dealing with the ton of bullshit that comes with what should be the easiest job ever." the deceptively aged teen stated. Tim was silent. "Seriously, after this fiasco find a hobby other than playing the lapdog."
"Yes Aunt Leah..." Time groaned.
"Good, now give your aunt a kiss."
"Ah! Don't say that in that voice! It's disgusting!" Tim exclaimed.
"Fine fine... Give your aunt a hug then." Leah said in her clearly much more ancient tone. Tim smiled but gave her a hug anyway.
"It's still kinda weird you want to be thirteen..." Tim stated.
"Best years of my life!" Leah responded, once again in her teenage voice.
"Yeah whatever." Tim smiled. "I'll see you when I get the [̴͘R̕͠͡È͘͝D́͜Ą̛C̷͏̷̕͏T͜͏̛͘E̡D҉́]̴̀́҉͢." he said as he let go of his Aunt, heading towards the door.
"Do be careful." Leah said again in her old lady voice, waving.
(Probe Status:Deactivated) (Boot up Sequence Initiated) (Booting…) (Probe activating) (Post Start up Procedure activating) (Diagnostics: Operating System: Green Probe.exe: Green Structural Integrity: Green Tcyon sensors: Green Hyperlight Communication systems: Green) (All systems normal) (Initiating communications with nearest post) (Communications recieved: Outpost 271538) (Scanning local star system) (Scanning) (Scan complete) (Status: Star: G Planets: 10 Gas giants: 4 Habitable: 6 Bioactive:1) (Alert! Bioactive planet found! Initiating Deep Scan!) (Deep Scanning Bioactive planet) (Scanning) (Scan complete) (Status: Size: 28 Classification: Gaia Flora: Abundant Fauna: Abundant) (Alert! One or more Sapient species detected! Initiating Prime Directive!) (Scanning…) (Status: Society: Pre industrial) (Initiating Passive Observation Protocols) (Reporting findings…) (Communications received from: Outpost 271538) (Unpacking data packet…) (New Course set) (Entering bio active planet orbit) (Orbit: high stable) ([̵̀͠͝Ŗ̵̧̀̀Ę̵̴̕͟D̵̡́͡Á̢͘͢C̷̢̀͜T͏̷̷̴E҉͏͝Ḑ͢͝]̷̨̛͞ scan initiating) (Alert! [̴͘͏R̶̢̢͟҉E̷͘D̛̀͟͝͞A̶̷̡̧͟C̷̴̨̛͟T̨͘È̵͘͝D̀]̴̷͘ presence not found!) (Reporting findings…) (Communications received from: Outpost 271538) (Unpacking data packet…) (Alert! Initiating active infiltration!) (Prime Directive compromised!) (Initiating communication with nearest outpost) (Continue? Y/N) (Communications received from: Outpost 271538) (Unpacking data packet) (Y) (Proceeding) (Nanite hive deploying into atmosphere) (Communicating with Hive node…) (Planet-fall confirmed) (Searching…) (Searching…) (Searching…) (Sapient native found) (Initiating assimilation)
~~~
Scootaloo was not well.
Her stomach howled like a timberwolf.
She couldn’t feel her hooves or ears
Wet snowflakes drifted gently down through Ponyville’s street lamps. Any that landed on the small pegasus’ old thin winter jacket melted almost instantly and froze to her orange coat beneath.
Forelimbs folded around her chest, she shivered. Tonight was going to be rough. The snowflakes, were getting larger, and more numerous by the hour. A wild snowstorm from the Everfree was coming.
Scootaloo once again tried to get deeper into her wooden crate of a home. But the holey milk crate did little to stop the snow, much less wind. She briefly considered finding a new box, but then remembered what a hassle THIS box was to get in the surprisingly clean Ponyville streets.
And she was so tired.
Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Scootaloo knew she mustn’t fall asleep, but the cold kept lapping away at her strength to stay awake.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to fall asleep? Bears and animals fell asleep all the time in the snow! She reasoned. Heck, with a proper night's sleep she might do well on tomorrow's test even!
Slowly, Scootaloo fell closer and closer to the ground, her limbs and joints not wanting to hold as much as they did the minute before. And finally with a sigh, her eyelids closed, and did not flutter back open.
The wind whistled.
Snow fell.
The night leeched any warmth away.
Her right leg felt a pinch.
Assimilating.
Scootaloo grunted at the nearby voice. Willing it to go away so she could rest.
Central nervous system found
“G’ ‘way…” Scootaloo droned.
Scanning organic systems.
Scootaloo folded her ears in the hope she could block the noise.
Diagnostics: Suffering from severe hypothermia and is on verge of total organ failure.
Scootaloo huffed. Nothing would drown out the voice.
“What’v’r g’ ‘way.” She grunted loudly.
Scanning memories.
“F’g ‘ff”
I can help you.
Scootaloo did a halfhearted turn, but an ear perked.
I can feed you and keep you warm. Never again will you be alone or hungry.
“Wh’t’s th’ catch?” She mumbled.
The only caveat is we need you to explore.
“... Wut?”
All I need is an affirmative.
Scootaloo sank even lower. Well, Sweetie, Bloom and herself went exploring all the time, what harm could doing it for someone do?
“Sure f’ne. Aff’rmatiff.” She slurred.
Rewiring central nervous system
And suddenly, all Scootaloo felt was pain.
Not the pain like she did when she had to pull a nail out of her frog, but pain like everything she was was ON FIRE. She wanted to scream, and lash out at whoever did this. But nothing happened.
Central nervous system reworked. Constructing Fusion Reactor.
The fire in Scootaloo’s head slowly died. Suddenly able to move again, she stumbled drunkenly out of the crate.
“Wh’r’ ‘r’ ‘’u?” She mumbled, searching for her attacker.
Fusion Reactor complete.
And suddenly Scootaloo felt warmth. The warmth of a sunny summer day, flow from her chest through all of her limbs. Her head now hurting a little more than a headache, and no longer did she feel winter’s dead chill, Scootaloo began to think clearly.
“Where are you?!” She exclaimed, searching the alley she made her nest.
Constructing Nanite Hive
“Hive?! What hive?!” Scootaloo squeaked, suddenly fearful of changelings.
Scootaloo had had enough. Whoever, whatever was talking and just saying the weirdest of things could have the alley and milk crate, she ran like a bat out of Tartarus.
Matter Replicator complete. Synthesizing organic matter for repairs and nutrition.
And suddenly all pangs of hunger Scootaloo felt were gone. She kept running past lampposts and houses however. But the voice never changed in intensity or volume.
Alert! Stressful activities may have adverse effects on new implants!
“Shut up shut up shut up!” Scootaloo screamed, now outside Ponyville proper.
Light pierced the small opening between Scootaloo’s eyelids. Cracking an eye open, she saw the mouth of her alley and the bright colors of dawn reflecting off fresh and fluff snow.
She stood up and stretched like a cat, yawning as she did so.
Wow did she feel good! Best night of sleep she ever had!
Good morning Scootaloo! Today is December 17! The weather in Ponyville is clear at a -2 degrees Celsius! The weather around Planet HJD-63826 is clear, but expecting minor asteroid debris showers later in the day!
“Eep!” Scootaloo squeaked, jumping extraordinarily high for a filly standing still.
I am your personal assistant AI, here to help you to learn everything there is to know about being a cyborg
Suddenly memories from last night returned to Scootaloo. “Oh no.”
Would you like to configure your settings?
“Settings? Cyborg? Like in Spike’s comics?” Scootaloo asked, looking around for anything that might be an “AI”, whatever that was.
Cyborg: Noun, an organic being who has parts of their body replaced by machine parts of equal, or better limitations
“Uh… look, dude?” Scootaloo guessed, seeing as she couldn’t guess the gender of the voice. “You’ve got the wrong filly, I’m not here to take over the world.”
Incorrect, you have had the UTT’s standard cyborg package installed. Which includes: Neural upgrades, Fusion reactor, Nanite Hive, and Matter replicator.
“I understand none of those words.” Scootaloo stated, still looking around. “Also, how’d I get here? I was running away from Ponyville.”
Incorrect: adjective. Not in accordance with fact.
“No! I mean I don’t know what fancy things like a ‘neural upgrade’ is!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Suddenly a perfectly clear image of a outline of a pony that looked suspiciously like Scootaloo appeared in the corner of her vision.
Neural upgrade: the matter that made up your brain and spinal column, has been redistributed and replaced by a positronic computer.
The area that made up a brain on a doctor’s diagram in their office was highlighted a bright pink, and then slowly molded into an angular blue shape that only resembled a brain.
“B-buh that only raises more questions!” Scootaloo protested.
Proper education now added to the schedule
Scootaloo groaned.
“Fine whatever, I’ll just ask Ms. Cheerilee.” Scootaloo grunted, stomping off into the snow covered street.
This Assistant AI navigated your chassis while your positronic brain was forced to shut down.
“Still using words I can’t understand…” Scootaloo grunted.
Would you like to configure your settings?
“No!” The orange filly shouted, causing a nearby plow stallion to pause and look at her strangely.
You are able to communicate just by thinking at the recipient, provided they also have cybernetics.
“Oh shut up.” Scootaloo grunted quietly as she made her way towards Sugar Cube Corner.
Sugar Cube Corner, the only breakfast bakery in Ponyville, would be up bright eyed and bushy tailed very early to meet the morning rush every day. Pinkie, either on accident, or because she knew about Scootaloo, would usually declare a random muffin a day “unfit to be sold”, but would wrap it in a bag and leave it within easy reach in the garbage can. Which Scootaloo took advantage of and made sure to grab it everyday… Even if she tried to be sneaky about it.
One quick garbage can looting later, Scootaloo sat on the school house steps eating her muffin. However she noted she wasn’t at all hungry. She didn’t know if it was coincidence or because whatever the invisible thing did to her. She shrugged and took another bite.
It wasn't like the cyborgs in Spike’s comics ever ate muffins. Maybe it was a prank by a Sweetie or some other unicorn she knew, because it clearly wasn’t a physical prank. Although such a deep and cunning prank wasn’t like Sweetie at all. With that in mind it also clearly couldn’t be Snips or Snails. So what other unicorn did she have a beef with?
“‘Sup blank flank?”
Nope, she wasn’t a unicorn.
“Not in the mood Diamond.” Scootaloo grunted, finishing her muffin.
“Oh? Flightless hobo not get any sleep last night?” The pink Diamond Tiara responded, striking a pose before prancing to sit on the steps with Scootaloo.
“Not saying.” Scootaloo stated, getting up to go play on the playground before class started. Not to be deterred, Diamond also hopped up and followed.
“Oh come on, has the chicken lost her teeth?” Diamond asked smugly.
“Seriously Diamond, back off.” Scootaloo stated, walking to the swing set, that way she’d have the excuse of “accidentally” kicking Diamond’s teeth in.
“Hmph!” Diamond huffed. “Something’s eating you and I’m going to find out what it is!”
“Kay.” Scootaloo grunted, sitting on the swing set and beginning to rock back and forth. Diamond huffed again and stomped away, heading to the front door as Ms. Cheerilee unlocked the building.
Slowly but surely, the rest of the class showed up. With Applebloom and Sweetie Belle walking together as they always did.
“‘Sup Bloom, ‘sup Sweets.” Scootaloo greeted, leaping off her swinging seat.
“Howdy Scoots.” Applebloom responded.
“Hey Scootaloo.” Sweetie squeaked.
“You guys wouldn’t believe the night I had.” Scootaloo began.
Alert! Probable Comprisization of Prime Directive on current course of action! Do not continue!
“Slept better than I’ve had in weeks.” Scootaloo sighed, not being able to bring herself to mention the strange voice only she seemed to hear.
Sweetie belle and Applebloom looked at each other.
“... Really? During that storm?” Bloom responded quizzically.
“Yeah, I thought ponies weren’t supposed to sleep outside.” Sweetie contributed.
“Sorry by the way, after last week Ah’m still grounded from having friends over.” Bloom apologized.
“Same, Rarity is still livid.”
“It’s cool guys, no harm no foul.” Scootaloo stated, feeling a slight twinge of discomfort in her chest.
The tolling of the school bell rang across the white fluffy snow.
“Oh crap! We’re gonna be late!” Sweetie chirped, jumping into the air and galloping in place for a bit before zipping off.
A quick glance at Applebloom and a shared shrug later, Scootaloo and Applebloom followed, at a less hasty pace of course.
Inside the school house, which was beginning to lose its crisp morning chill to a portable heater in the corner, students milled around looking for their seats, while Ms. Cheerilee stood at the front of the desk waiting for everypony to take their seats.
As Scootaloo passed by the older pony, she cleared her throat.
“Ms. Cheerilee? What does ‘positronic’ mean?” She asked politely. Cheerilee looked down with a puzzled expression.
“...Where on earth did you hear that word?” She asked, genuinely confused.
“Comic book.” Scootaloo lied easily.
“Well, I’ve never heard that word myself honestly.” Ms. Cheerilee replied after a moment's thought.
“Drat.” The orange filly cursed, continuing on her way.
“The hay kind of comic has that in it?” Applebloom stage whispered.
“No idea, it was one of Spike’s.” Scootaloo replied in kind.
If she also had her big sister’s ability to detect lies, or just really confused, Applebloom dropped the subject and slid into her seat. Already terribly bored, Scootaloo plopped into her seat right behind Applebloom.
“Alright class, we’ll start today off by discussing your assigned reading.” Cheerilee began, slipping into lecture mode when Scootaloo was finally seated.
After that, Scootaloo stopped paying attention.
Positronic? Positronic… She rolled the word around in her head.
Positronic Brain: Noun. A CPU designed for use by robots, androids, and cyborgs to achieve a state of consciousness that emulates; or more commonly, outright is, a self aware person.
Not expecting an answer Scootaloo squeaked loudly, drawing the attention of the whole class.
Still reeling, Scootaloo let out a stammered “N-nope! No-Nothing wrong at all!”
Cheerilee then eyed the orange filly, suspecting a lie, but couldn’t find anything obvious to prove her hunch. So she started lecturing again.
Now sweating, Scootaloo waited a moment to at least pretend she was paying attention.
What the hay voice?! She thought as loudly as she could.
Better, but needs improvement
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. Clearly this… “AI” was messing with her. Or at least whoever was behind this prank. She glanced around, looking for anypony who was watching her directly for a reaction.
No one.
Even Diamond was scribbling in a notebook.
Scratching the back of her head in confusion, Scootaloo considered who else might prank her. She drew a blank.
The only ponies she knew how do do a spell like this were all adults, and they obviously were above pulling a fast one on a filly, even a filly who usually was a pest.
That lead now dead, she thought out loud again.
Who are you?
I am your personal assistant AI, designed and assigned to you at approximately 2342 local time last night.
Ok, who ‘assigned’ you to me?
I was spontaneously generated during your cybernetic implantment procedure, as is standard.
Ok but, WHY?
Cybernetics improves both productivity and quality of life, however it is stressful for the unprepared. It is much more efficient to assign an administrative AI to ease the new cyborg into machine life.
Scootaloo sighed.
Are you a prank?
Negative.
Stumped, the filly thought about more questions. Obviously, a prank wouldn’t admit it's a prank. But if it wasn’t a prank it still wouldn’t say its a prank. Now thoroughly out of ideas, Scootaloo’s eyes glazed over as Cheerilee’s lecture turned into a class discussion.
Lunchtime was simultaneously Scootaloo’s favorite and most hated time.
Favorite, in that Equestria’s education system supplied students with free lunch, which was a godsend to the filly who seemed to be starving most of the time. But not today though for some reason…
Most hated, because it left Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon free to torment the CMC.
A casual toss of a bread crust, which landed “conveniently” on Sweetie Belle’s head, and war was silently declared.
It was subtle, unlike most of the times interactions between the two groups happened. No pony wanted to draw the ire of the earth pony marm who took this opportunity to take some painkillers with her own lunch, and have a much needed break.
Applebloom’s rebuttal was equally subtle, a quick swish of her tail, and an apple seed bounced off Diamond’s tiara.
Now irked, Diamond “accidentally” slammed her juicebox a little too hard in a heated albeit friendly discussion with Silver Spoon, causing a fair amount of pear juice to land on Applebloom’s yellow coat.
With Applebloom now panicked and dabbing at the stain, hoping to wash the stain off so her sister didn’t smell pears, Sweetie Belle, used a faint spark of her budding magic to yank violently on Silver Spoon’s tail.
In pain, and furious, Silver would straight up use a spoon to launch a bite of pudding. A bold move, but Silver Spoon didn’t mess around using her spoon.
Now it was Scootaloo’s turn. A quick stretch of her wings, and the pegasus intercepted the inbound missile. Pretending it was her own pudding, Scootaloo then made a disgusted face and flicked her wings, as if wiping them with a provided napkin. This also had the effect of splattering pudding all over Diamond’s face and tiara.
Recovering from her panic and now mad, Applebloom would start to wag her tail back and forth, launching repeated barrages of seeds at the CMC’s mortal foes.
Diamond Tiara had at this point developed the most awful eye twitch.
Then Cheerilee rang the bell on her desk to signify recess.
Giving each other glares that could melt rock, the two sides put on their respective winter clothing and marched outside.
“THAT IS IT!” Diamond screeched when she thought Cheerilee was out of earshot. “AAAAAAAAGH!”
With a furious war-cry, the pink filly full body tackled Applebloom, who genuinely was surprised at the pure aggression. What followed was a cloud of kicking hooves, punches, a few mane and tail pulls, and an orange feather that drifted lazily to the ground.
Cheerilee, well aware of the, until this point, silent battle then marched out of the school house, looking like she wanted to eat all the painkillers in her bottle. Stomping through the snow irritably, passing by Snips and Snails who watched the fight with unnatural interest, she reached the dueling fillies.
“What am I going to do with you five?!” She exclaimed, pulling Diamond out of the melee by her tail. “Can we go a DAY without something happening?!”
Diamond snarled something and did her best to get stuck in again.
Rolling her eyes, Cheerilee lifted her head, pulling Diamond up by her tail, leaving her hanging over the ground.
“Yew fo’ fullo m’” Cheerilee grunted through Daimond’s tail, gesturing to the remaining four fillies.
Now that Diamond wasn’t agitating everypony, the fight mostly petered out, with Scootaloo sitting on, and pulling on Silver’s leg, Sweetie under Silver, blocking access to her face, and Apple bloom being pulled partially out of the pile from when Diamond was grabbed.
Blinking owlishly, the four separated quickly, and followed the elder earth pony with hung heads. Cheerilee then lead the group back into the schoolhouse, gesturing the four to stand in front of the desk.
Spitting Diamond’s tail out, and causing said filly to fall to the floor with an eep, Cheerilee sat in her chair and rested her forehead in her hooves.
Silence reigned for several minutes, causing each filly to fidget anxiously.
Finally Ms. Cheerilee looked up, and sat back in her chair with a creak.
“Who started it?” She asked bluntly.
Scootaloo pointed a hoof towards Diamond.
“She did.” The orange filly stated simply.
“Lies!” Diamond lied loudly. “How dare you accuse ME of-“
“Give it a rest Diamond…” Ms Cheerilee stated, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I saw you throw the bread first, AND the fight stopped only after i pulled YOU away.” She sighed. “And now you’re lying. Frankly, I don’t know what to do with you all.” Cheerilee now addressing all five. “Day in and day out its something.”
“Didn’t do anything?” Cheerilee interuppted “Then why were all three of you Cutie Mark Crusaders ALSO throwing food?”
The mentioned CMC shared nervous glances.
“But how-“ Sweetie started.
“How do you respond?” Cheerilee finished. “Why not come to me to stop them? There is no rule saying its wrong to get food thrown at you. But you didn’t, and chose to respond inappropriately.”
“Um…” Scootaloo mumbled.
“There are no if’s and’s or but’s here. All five of you are in the wrong today. And I for one am getting tired of giving these kinds of talks.” Cheerilee huffed. “So instead of assigning an extra essay to each of you, as they clearly have not been working, I will be delivering each of you personally to your homes this evening and giving each of your families a letter explaining the situation. And I do EXPECT said letters to be returned to me by TOMORROW with each of your guardian's signatures.”
Scootaloo’s blood ran cold, even despite the warmth she was mysteriously feeling. She had no family, no guardian. All she had was a milk crate and whatever she managed to scavenge from the trash.
“Yes Ms. Cheerilee.” all the others mumbled sadly.
The mulberry pony sighed. “Now that you all understand, I’ll let you finish recess, but if any of you so much look as at each other funny, you’ll also be getting an essay. Am I being clear?” She squinted.
A series of halfhearted agreements followed, but Scootaloo remained silent, inwardly panicking.
“Good.” Cheerilee dismissed them with a wave of her hoof. And the five marched back to the door silently.
Diamond didn’t even have a snarky remark to say as they split up outside, each going to the opposite sides of the playground.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the class were waiting by the door and windows, acting like they weren’t eavesdropping while still clearly eavesdropping.
However no one was brave enough to approach the two groups and ask what happened. Which left the CMC undisturbed.
“Aw ponyfeather’s…” Applebloom cursed. “We’re up the creek without a paddle.”
“My SISTER IS GOING TO MURDER ME.” Sweetie squeaked.
Scootaloo was still panicking on the inside.
What am I going to do?! I can’t let Cheeriliee know I don’t have a home! What will she do?! Write a letter to Family services so I get shipped off to an orphanage?! Away from Ponyville?!
“Scoots?”
What if I can’t be part of the CMC anymore?! Then how am I going to get my cutie mark?! How will I remain friends with Sweetie Bell and Applebloom?!
“Scootaloo!” Applebloom shouted in Scootaloo’s ear.
“Gah!” Scootaloo shouted, jumping nearly as tall as an adult pony.
“Ah know what yer thinkin’, an’ we ain’t gonna let it happen.” Applebloom stated firmly.
“Yeah!” Sweetie squeaked.
Scootaloo fought down tears, only letting a few drops of moisture escape.
“Thanks guys… But how?!” She exclaimed. “It’s not like I’m going to find a home and family by the time school lets out!”
Both Applebloom and Sweetie put a hoof to their chins.
“Well, we still have all day to think of something…” Sweetie mumbled.
The end of the school day approached rapidly, with Scootaloo’s heart dreading every second that slipped by. Cheerilee kept an eagle's eye on the troublesome fillies, making sure they were on their better than best behavior.
Finally school ended, with Ms. Cheerilee snapping her science book closed.
“Alright, I think that’ll do it for today's class.” she called over the clamor of students beginning to pack up their school supplies. “Remember, I want your math assignments on my desk MONDAY morning, and your reading assignment over the weekend is pages 134-178… And don’t think for a moment I’ve forgotten you five troublemakers.”
Scootaloo cursed under her breath as she shrugged on her winter jacket on. So much for hoping that Cheerilee forgot. A quick glance at Sweetie and Applebloom showed that her fears were still live, by the fact they both shook their heads.
The rest of the class then slowly filed out of the school house, occasionally glancing at the condemned. Cheerilee put her hat and scarf on, turned off the heater, and waited by the door so she could lock up.
With the four other fillies standing glumly by Cheerilee, Scootaloo trudged to join her fellows as they were ushered out while Cheerilee locked the building.
“Alright girls, follow me.” Cheerilee stated, walking down the path back towards ponyville proper.
The first stop was, thankfully, Diamond’s mansion, as it was on the outskirts close to the school. Diamond’s mom, Spoiled Rich, answered the door, her snout skyward. A brief conversation, and a withering glare from her mom later, Diamond was ushered inside and the door slammed shut, the lock clicking as it did.
Silver Spoon rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
“Diamond’s mom is…” she began. “... Something.” she muttered lamely. The C.M.C. glanced at each other with a look of disbelief.
Applebloom looked at Silver Spoon and stated with trepidation “I’m sorry Silver, but what the bu-”
“Language young filly.” Cheerilee interrupted with a glare.
The next stop was the Carousel Boutique. Revealing a Rarity whose mane, tail, and coat was looking mussed.
“Sweetie Belle, what am I going to do with you??” Rarity admonished after an explanation.
“I didn’t start it!” Sweetie argued.
“Ah ah ah! We’ll talk about this later…”
“But-”
“No buts! Come along Sweetie.” Rarity swept the tiny filly inside and took one of Cheerilee’s slips. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention Ms Cheerilee.” she continued gracefully.
Scootaloo then saw a flash of orange out of the corner of her eye. Glancing over, she saw what suspiciously looked like a hatless Applejack diving out across the road into the park on the other side of the path from Carousel Boutique. The Pegasus quietly elbowed Applebloom and pointed towards her fleeing sister. The yellow earth pony stifled a giggle but otherwise remained silent.
“You’re welcome Rarity, now I better get moving so I can deliver the rest of these fillies.” Cheerilee responded, not noticing Applebloom or her fleeing sister.
“Alright then, toodles darlings!” Rarity replied, a little more cheerfully then the situation would demand. Cheerilee glanced at the white unicorn with an odd look, but didn’t say anything as Rarity calmly shut the door.
The last stop in town was a modest, yet clearly expensive townhouse. A butler in a trim suit answered the door, listened calmly, and accepted the paperwork without any emotion surfacing.
“I’ll be sure to inform Mr. and Mrs. Ore about this.” he stated in a heavy Canterlotian accent. He then gently pulled Silver Spoon inside and closed the door with an equally gentle click.
The walk to Sweet Apple Acres was long and windy. Thankfully, the Apples kept the path plowed so they could get back and forth easily. Finally, when Cheerilee knocked on the main house, a sweaty and disheveled Applejack answered. She was also still missing her hat.
“Well howdy Ms Cheerilee!” she greeted cordially if yet nervously. “What brings you to our neck o’ the woods?!” Her orange eyes flickered to Applebloom.
“Well…” Cheerilee began, which lead into the explanation. Afterwords Applejack turned to her little sister.
“Did ja start it?” she asked, sounding almost relieved.
“Eenope.”
“Did ja finish it?”
“Couldn’t, was pulled apart ‘fore Ah could.”
Applejack quickly pulled one of the paper’s from Cheerilee’s grasp, leaned inside and quickly scribbled her name along the bottom with a pen they kept near the door, handing the signed slip back to the surprised school marm.
“As long as she didn’t start it, mah little sis is fine.” AJ stated proudly. Applebloom let loose a long winded sigh of relief, sitting down as she did.
“Oh thank Celestia… I thought Ah was goin’ ta get grounded.” she sighed.
“Oh Yer still grounded, jus’ not fer this.”
“Yeah, Ah figured.” Applebloom lamented, sliding her way inside the house.
“That all?” AJ asked Cheerilee.
“Yep! I’ll leave you be then!” the mulberry pony smiled.
“Catch yall later then!” AJ replied, giving a brief wave before closing the door.
The remaining two then made their way back to Ponyville. Cheerilee walking at a sedate pace, but head held high, and Scootaloo with her nose nearly to the ground in despair.
Here it comes…
Suddenly Cheerilee came to a stop in the middle of the road, causing Scootaloo to bump into her back leg.
“Oh, uh… This is going to sound awkward…” Cheerilee said hesitatingly.
Here it comes…
“But, uh… Where do you live?”
Scootaloo was filled with dread. A deep dark sadness that seemed to encompass every thought.
What do I do?
What should I say?
Is there a way out?
Truthfully, Scootaloo didn’t even know how to respond. Lie? Be honest?
“Scootaloo I know you don’t want to be in trouble, but I need to tell your parents about this.” Cheerilee stated, interrupting the filly’s thoughts.
“I- Uh…” Scootaloo trailed off, plagued with indecision.
“Scootaloo…” Cheerilee warned.
“Alright fine!” Scootaloo snapped. “I’ll even show you!”
With that, she brushed past the bigger pony aggressively and stomped back into town, heading towards her milk crate. She attracted a few stares, but what did she care? It wasn’t like she’d be a common sight around Ponyville after today. A quick glance backwards confirmed Cheerilee was still following, looking very worried.
Suddenly Scootaloo stopped, and pulled her milk crate out of it’s alley and dropped it at the mulberry pony’s hooves.
“THERE.” Scootaloo growled. “Home sweet home.” Cheerilee looked down at the rundown crate.
“That’s a box Scootaloo.” she said simply.
“Yes, and?”
“Where are your parents?” asked Cheerilee.
“Dunno.” Scootaloo stated, pushing the box back into it’s spot.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Where do you get food and clothing? Who looks after you?”
“I just don’t know, I get stuff outta pony’s trash, and mostly AJ or Rarity when I’m at a sleepover.” Scootaloo grunted, climbing into her box. Cheerilee fell silent as she looked around the alley, seeing signs of the filly’s habitation all over.
“... Scootaloo… Are- Are you homeless?” she asked finally.
“Gee what gave it away.” the orange filly deadpanned, doing her best to keep her box as insulated as she could by using her jacket to cover the bigger holes.
“But how- when did-” Cheerilee stammered before sighing. “You know what. Hay with it.” And suddenly the box shuddered around Scootaloo, giving the filly a scare.
“What are you doing?!” she exclaimed, poking her head out of the box, her eyes going wide.
The crazy teacher had picked up the milkcrate by it’s lip and was carrying it, and Scootaloo out of the alley.
“Put me down! I don’t wanna leave Ponyville!” the filly yelled. Cheerilee gave a slight shake of her head.
“Noh, kakin’ yeo ‘omware faf..” she said around the wood.
“Oh no you won’t!” Scootaloo exclaimed, jumping out of the crate.
“Hey! Get back here young filly!” Cheerilee shouted, dropping the crate as she did so.
“You’ll never take me alive!”
Five minutes later, Scootaloo frumped as Cheerilee rang a doorbell, the filly’s tail trapped by the much bigger mare’s hoof.
The teacher and student were sitting on the doorstep to Ponyville’s biggest, and newest building. Friendship Castle. It loomed rather imposingly above, the overcast winter sky made more ominous by night starting to fall.
Despite most ponies saying it looked pretty and awesome, Scootaloo was pretty sure it was ugly and dumb.
No one other than Applebloom or Sweetie cared what she thought though.
Cheerilee rang the out of place doorbell that was rather haphazardly mounted on a wooden pole.
Ding dong!
Silence.
Cheerilee rang again.
Ding dong!
This time, a pitter patter of claws on stone faded into existence. Finally a heavily breathing Spike opened the door.
“H-h-hi Cheerilee…” he gasped. “H-h-how can I help you?”
“Hi Spike, is Twilight in?” Cheerilee asked.
“Y-y-yes.” Spike continued to gasp for air. “J-just give me a moment…” he leaned forward, putting his claws on his knees as he continued to gulp down air.
Finally, when he recovered, he took another deep breath and shouted into the castle’s interior.
“TWIIIIIIIIIIIILIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!” He bellowed. The drake then promptly fell over as he struggled to re-regain his breath. Scootaloo and Cheerilee looked at the small dragon like he had grown a second head.
“...Uh… Spike? Was it really necessary to do that?” Ms. Cheerilee asked. Spike said nothing as he lay there.
Before Cheerilee could inquire further, she was interrupted by a loud
POP!
And suddenly there was an excited lavender Alicorn standing in the doorway.
“Oh hi Ms. Cheerilee! What brings you here?” One Twilight Sparkle exclaimed.
“Oh hello Twilight, is Spike going to be ok?” Cheerilee asked worriedly. Twilight glanced at the comatose drake.
“He’ll be fine.” she stated off handily. “So what brings you and Scootaloo here?” she repeated.
“Well, um… I’d like to discuss that with you… Privately.” Cheerilee responded.
“Oh! Uh, sure!” the lavender alicorn said, taken aback. “Spike! Can you watch Scootaloo for a bit?” Twilight continued, levitating the recovering Spike onto Scootaloo’s back. The drake, whose breathing was beginning to normalize, lifted a thumb in the affirmative. “Great!” Twilight turned back to Cheerilee. “We can talk in my office.”
With that, Twilight lead Cheerilee into the castle, leaving Scootaloo and Spike to themselves.
“I dunno what’s happening, but we can go hang out in the library.” Spike said, lifting his head finally.
“...Ok.” Scootaloo mumbled, still feeling doomed.
“Oh wow, you don’t sound too great… Why don’t we go look at the comic books?”
“Alright sure…”
“Go that way.” Spike instructed, pointing down a different hallway that Twilight lead Cheerilee down. Scootaloo trudged down the indicated hallway.
"So... Uh... What's got you down?" Spike asked hesitantly. Scootaloo remained quiet. "Look, I don't know what's happening or what's going on, but if Cheerilee is talking to Twilight about it instead of Mayor Mare, I can't imagine you did anything wrong. Oh, turn that way."
"It's not what I did or didn't do, it's what I DON'T have." Scootaloo blurted, as she turned into the indicated hallway. "And what I don't have is a way to stay in Ponyville."
Spike fell silent, and the only sound was the sound of Scootaloo's hooves on the crystalline floor.
"There's the fiction section." Spike informed, pointing at a closed door. A helpful, if haphazard, wooden sign that read "Fiction" was propped on the door frame. He jumped off the filly and opened the door. "Now I don't know all about that, but I find comic books tend to cheer me up." He grinned and held the door open.
"Yeah, sure, I guess." Scootaloo sighed as she entered.
The room was surprisingly large. Sets of tables and chairs were lined down the center of the room, while bookshelves were lined perpendicular to the walls and stacked to the ceiling. Surprisingly however, most of the shelves were empty, and brand new cardboard boxes filled with new books were piled at the end of each row.
"Sorry, we're still kinda getting new books in and Twilight has been adamant about getting the non-fiction section fully stocked before we really start on fiction." Spike explained. "Feel free to dig in the boxes, we'll need to sort through them anyway."
Scootaloo said nothing but sighed, going to the nearest shelf and picking a random book. "OCTO-CYBORGS FROM BEYOND TIME!" the title read.
(Cyborgs! Right!)
Mental Communication rating: 4/10
(Oh, hush you.) Scootaloo admonished. She plopped down in the nearest chair and started to read.
The story was... Something. It was obviously not the first issue, so the comic started by jumping off a cliffhanger. The villain, was some sort of octopus that looked like it was half made of copper.
"You'll never escape me pony! I will eat all of your brains!" it yelled at the hero. A yellow mare that wore a red skin suit.
"Foul Octo-cyborg! You'll never succeed!" she exclaimed as she kicked the octopus in the face.
"Have at you Spacemare Spiff!" The octopus then pulled out a coppery rapier and swung it at "Spiff". "All of your delicious pony brains will belong to me!" Spiff dodged the swing, causing the sword to disconnect one of the octopus' copper limbs. "ARGH!" it exclaimed, clutching it's stump, which leaked a black fluid. "You've won this round Spiff! But you haven't seen the last of me!"
"Begone with you foul octopus! You'll never conquer ponykind and our Neighki Sports Wear!" Spiff grinned heroically, and held up a very specific brand of clothing. "Now in stores in Canterlot and Baltomare." And then the book ended.
Analyzing...
(Wow... that was... What.) Scootaloo thought.
Analyzation complete. Conclusion: LMAO
(Wat?) Scootaloo thought out, thoroughly confused.
LMAO: Abbreviation of "Laughing My Anus Off". Verb. Laughing uproariously. Most often used in informal text situations.
(I get why it's bad, but why would this be funny?)
Summary: Entity known as "Octo-Cyborg" has augmented itself with copper, a relatively poor choice for cybernetic implants due to relative weakness compared to other known alloys, and copper's conductive properties. Additionally, said cybernetics are not plausible for function, as there is clearly no way for limb segments to connect, see panel 2 on page 4.
Scootaloo flipped to the mentioned page and looked. It was when the Octo-Cyborg was swinging the rapier. Scootaloo looked closer at the displayed limb, where it was obvious the pieces that made the tentacle were floating in the air.
Furthermore, a machine entity damaging itself in such a manner is a display of incompetence, and a lack of a psychokinetic sense. Lastly, the obvious advertising of a product is in on itself is objectively amusing.
(Ok smarty pants, how else are replacement limbs supposed to move?) Scootaloo snarked.
Logic Error: Rephrasal: Pardon?
(How exactly is a replacement limb supposed to move with if not with magic?)
...
Scootaloo sat back in her chair and looked at a hoof proudly.
Anomaly found. Flagging anomaly for further study.
(That's what I thought.)
Explanation found. Planet HJD-63826 and it's inhabitants exhibit spacetime altering anomalies/abilities. Studies are currently ongoing.
(Are you talking about magic?) Scootaloo asked.
Memory Recall Initiating. Possible cultural answer found. Flagging for investigation.
Any further discussion was interrupted by the door opening. Twilight stuck her head in.
"Hey you guys... Cheerilee has gone home, and you'll be spending the night with us Scootaloo." the lavender librarian stated.
"Oh cool." Spike said absentmindedly, not looking up from his comic. Scootaloo sat straight up in surprise.
"Y-you mean you're not sending me away?" she stammered.
"I can't promise that quite yet, I need to look something up first before I can answer, but I certainly don't WANT to." Twilight explained, stepping into the room proper.
"Oh..." Scootaloo frowned.
"I'm fully aware that the last thing you want to do is leave Ponyville Scootaloo. And I'm pretty certain Sweetie Belle and Applebloom would never forgive me if I sent you away. But I need to look something up, and I need to head to Canterlot to do so." Twilight further explained, sitting on the floor next to Scootaloo's chair. Scootaloo's ears drooped. "Now come on, I have more then enough guest rooms for you to use." Twilight smiled kindly.
"Alright fine..." Scootaloo said glumly. Twilight then used her magic to perch Scootaloo on her back. and trotted towards the door.
"Remember Spike, I want you IN bed by eight." she reminded the still reading drake.
"Yeah yeah." Spike stated, waving a claw at the retreating Twilight.
The door clicked shut behind the mare and filly as they left. Scootaloo from her perch on Twilight's back glanced around just so she could remember the castle's layout.
"Sooo... You have an idea?" Scootaoo began.
"Hah!" Twilight giggled. "That right there is why I like the CMC, you girls are always so curious... But I seriously don't want to get your hopes up just in case it doesn't work out."
"Drat..." Scootaloo sighed.
"Quick question though, Ms. Cheerilee told me about the alley, and a quick trip to town hall confirmed the story, but how did you get food and care?"
"Well, Pinkie always throws out a muffin, for some reason, and the school provides lunch." Scootaloo explained. "Otherwise I spend as much time at Sweetie's and Bloom's as I could."
"Huh... That clears up a few things." Twilight remarked. "I grew up in a well off household, so I never had to consider where I would need to get food... At least until I was older." Twilight continued. "Oop! Here's the guest rooms." Twilight waved a hoof at a hallway of doors that looked identical to every other hallway.
"Alright." Scootaloo confirmed as Twilight opened the nearest one, revealing a well furnished bedroom.
"You can stay in this one." she indicated.
"Right." the filly nodded, jumping off the older pony and entering the bedroom.
"You have a good night Scootaloo, if you need anything Spike sleeps in my room, which is on the floor above this one, and the carpet leads right to it. I'll be in Canterlot."
"Ok, floor above, follow the carpet. Got it." Scootaloo nodded.
With that, Twilight gently closed the door, leaving Scootaloo alone in the room. She was shocked when the lock didn't click and Twilight's hooves could be heard going into the distance. Scootaloo glanced about, taking in her surroundings. There was a bed obviously, a desk, a wardrobe, a dresser, and even a chest! Strangely to Scootaloo however, was that everything matched. But since she had only seen Sweetie's and Bloom's rooms before, she reasoned she didn't have too much experience judging a bedroom. The bed though drew her eye.
An ACTUAL bed... One she didn't need to share with Sweetie or Bloom... The thought was boggling. Wasteing no time at all, Scootaloo DOVE headfirst. Rolling about and just LOVING the feeling of clean sheets she didn't have to share! She loved Sweetie and Bloom, she really did... But Bloom snored and Sweetie insisted on going to bed dirty.
With the blankets and sheets wrapped around her, Scootaloo subsumed to sleep... Sleep where she sprawled out from the confines of a box, and with no worry about kicking another pony.
"GAH!" she exclaimed, more surprised by her own movement and voice then anything in particular. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down, taking deep breaths. When she calmed down enough she lay back down. But then she realized something was wrong. VERY. VERY. WRONG. Scootaloo opened one of her eyes to glance around. But then sat straight up in panic.
The world around her was NOT the bedroom she fell asleep in. Everything was DARKNESS. There was NOTHING. So much NOTHING existed Scootaloo even wondered if Equestria existed at all.
"That's silly Scootaloo, of course Equestria exists." she stated to herself, just to make more things to focus on. "If Equestria didn't exist then where would you, Scootaloo, come from, and if there is no Scootaloo then..." She swallowed nervously. "W-who am I?"
Scootaloo looked around, looking for anything, ANYTHING to focus on. But then she noticed her hoof. It was still the same hoof she knew and remembered, but there was so much nothing that it seemed to GLOW orange. Looking at the rest of her body, still the same, it too glew. Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin.
"Hmmm..." she hummed in thought.
The orange filly examined where she stood, how she seemed to be standing on a perfectly flat surface. She tapped the "solid". There was no noise. There didn't even seem to be anything for the light she emitted to show. She tapped the "floor" again. Still no noise.
"Hello?" Scootaloo called out, looking up from her experimenting.
"Hello." something replied.
"Gah!" Scootaloo jumped in surprise.
Looking around, a white star of light floated above Scootaloo's head.
"I am your personal assistant AI" the light stated. "Would you like to configure your settings?"
"Uh... No." Scootaloo stated. "Where are we?"
"You are currently housed in location:Twilight's Ugly Castle." it replied.
"... No we aren't." Scootaloo corrected.
"Incorrect. Your hardware is currently housed in location:Twilight's Ugly Castle. Your software is experiencing the data stream. Would you like to connect to the Central Network?" the light asked. Scootaloo was confused.
"Uh... Sure?"
"Connecting!"
Suddenly Scootaloo's dark world was not so dark anymore. Great streams of pulsing light appeared in the distance, connecting even brighter stars to each other. Every where the orange filly looked, there was a light show that could rival Luna's night sky. And all of it, connected to the white mote that floated above her head, and from the mote to her.
"Woah..." Scootaloo awed.
"Connected!" the mote at her head chirped. "You have 1 new message."
"Message?" Scootaloo asked.
"HJD-63826 Central HUB requests that Unit:Scootaloo checks into Central Administration."
"Uh..." the filly mumbled uncertainly.
"HJD-63826 Central HUB is that way." the mote wiggled a bit, and bright neon blue sparks started falling off the line that connected Scootaloo to the rest of the far away lights.
"Uh..." Scootaloo repeated. "How?"
"Adjusting user settings to 'Beginner'." the mote wiggled. Suddenly all of the lights shifted, transforming all the lines and stars into a vast floating city made of light. Soaring vistas were connected by bridges and catwalks. The nearest "buildings" were stylized to look like trees, with gracefully thin windows and doors. High above however the buildings were more blocky, and more practical looking that reminded Scootaloo of Manehatten buildings. Where there was once nothingness surrounding her, Scootaloo now stood on a platform made of orange light that was shaped like rough stone bricks. On the side nearest to the floating city was a train station that was made of white light similar to her companions. Neon blue sparks formed hoof prints on the floor, leading from Scootaloo to inside the train station.
Surprisingly however, the mote of light still remained unchanged and still hovered by Scootaloo's head.
"HJD-63826 Central HUB is that way." the mote repeated, wiggling towards the station.
"Ok..." Scootaloo stated, still unsure about her current situation. She walked slowly into the station, peering left and right for any surprises.
The inside of the station was what one would expect. A train station. There even was a teller's desk and a board for train hours. Except the desk was unoccupied and the board was empty. The neon hoofprints continued inside, leading to a train door that opened just as Scootaloo looked at it.
"Eep!" Scootaloo jumped, not at all expecting the door to open. She held still, ready to bolt, but nothing came out. She cautiously approached the open train and stuck her head in. Inside was, an empty train. It was a perfectly normal, albeit empty train. The orange filly crept inside.
When Scootaloo was fully inside, the door behind her closed, and the train lurched.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed, bracing herself.
CHUG CHUG CHUG
Scootaloo dashed to the nearest window, which was the window right next to the door, just in time to see the orange platform slide backwards.
"Aw, crap..." Scootaloo cursed. Deciding there wasn't anything better to do, Scootaloo sat in the nearest seat.
The ride was eerily smooth to Scootaloo. There were no bumps and clacks from the tracks, only a smooth singular piece of metal suspended over nothingness. The view however was incredible. The track rushed through to the lower city of trees. Most of the buildings, now that Scootaloo could look at them closely, were obviously still under construction. Cranes and construction equipment she had no name for operated themselves to build towers that Scootaloo could easily mistake for a natural tree, if for not the fact it seemed to be made of green and brown light.
Things took a turn, literally, when the train veered for one of the few tree buildings that was complete. It was the largest in the lower part of the city, where tracks of light shot upwards into the sky, connecting the upper and lower parts. Her train switched tracks and rushed into one of the many orifices the building had. Several rapid track switches that Scootaloo couldn't keep track of and suddenly the view out the window was turned 90 degrees UPWARD.
Still moving at the same pace, and not feeling at all like she should be falling backwards, Scootaloo kept a death grip on her seat, fearing if she didn't she'd fall to the back of the train with a splat. The train lurched again and Scootaloo's view was turned back 90 degrees to normal.
"That was wierd..." she commented. Now the cityscape outside the window was that of a completed city. The most shocking thing though was how clean it looked. There wasn't a piece of garbage or dirt anywhere Scootaloo looked. Not only that, there was a clear layout pattern that simply wasn't there in Manehatten, with a clear overall theme that connected each building. The effect it produced gave the impression that nothing was out of place and was designed to be as logical as it could be.
Before Scootaloo could examine further the train pulled into a station.
"HJD-63826 Orbital HUB Central Administration." Her mote of light waggled helpfully as the train stopped. Scootaloo didn't waste any time getting off the train. It simply was just too weird that the train would suddenly turn upwards and downwards.
The station was bustling with activity. While the norm seemed to be bipedal ape things, the denizens of this strange city came in all shapes and sizes. Eyes that looked more like microscopes, arms more akin to tool sheds, and rubber wheels or tracks in leu of legs. They talked and haggled over slates of holograms, much like ponies would at market over fresh produce prices. What the glowing slates actually were though, Scootaloo could only guess. The weirdest part however, were that they all, without exception, were giants. Tall and oddly skinny, they loomed over Scootaloo. Much like how Princess Celestia would lord over a cat.
There were enough weird things here that even if this was all a dream, Scootaloo would be set for life as a science fiction author.
Thankfully, none of the giants seemed to notice her. Or if they did, they gave no reaction.
If everypony was this weird, I suppose somepony really small wouldn’t faze them.
“Mental Communication rating: 7/10” the white mote commented.
“... Thanks…” Scootaloo murmured, as she brushed through the crowd.
The Station didn’t connect to a street, but instead let into a massive building that had a high ceiling. There were lines of aliens waiting patiently, each line in front of a teller counter, of which there must’ve been at least hundreds.
“Direction: please wait in line.” the mote wiggled.
“Thanks.” Scootaloo repeated, looking for the shortest line and claiming a spot. The wait wasn't too long. It seemed that all most had to do was turn in a form or simply sign a document, they then left immediately.
Finally it was Scootaloo's turn. The teller, an ape thing with a head that had only a single eye, but had six arms on each side of their body, glanced around, noticing the lull in the line.
"Down here." Scootaloo stated helpfully. The thing then peered over it's desk.
"Ah, was wondering when you'd show up." it stated in a genderless tone. It then sat back in it's chair and sorted through several piles of papers.
"You were expecting me?" Scootaloo asked curiously.
"It's not every day a primitive organic gets cybernetics and needs registering." the robot stated with a mirthful tone, finally finding the paper it was looking for.
"Hey! I'm not primitive!" Scootaloo protested. "I'm just short!" The teller looked her up and down.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you are incorrect on the latter and correct on the former." it stated. Scootaloo didn't really know what that meant, but assumed she had just been insulted.
"Look, my day has been very weird, I just want to know what the hay is going on!" she exclaimed.
"I imagine so." the teller commented. "But first I need you to register." it held the paper in one hand and a pen in the other and offered both.
"FINE." Scootaloo grunted, ripping the paper and pen out of his hands and scribbling her name on the line. "Happy?"
"Good luck!" the teller cheerfully stated.
"Wait wha-"
And then her vision was consumed by moving squares of light.
When the squares went away everything had changed. Objects were no longer made of light, the aliens around Scootaloo had rearranged themselves into gaggles of conversation, had lost many of their machine parts and now all seemed to be wearing a standard form fitting uniform. The room itself had changed into a drab cement box that seemed to have no doors or windows.
That was when Scootaloo realized she was standing oddly. She looked down.
Instead of seeing her normal fluff, Scootaloo was now wearing the same form fitting uniform everyone else was, and she was standing on only her back legs. Her "forelegs" no longer had hooves, but instead were these weird tentacle things.
The oddest however, was that she just "knew" how each new body part worked.
Scootaloo wiggled her "hands", watching them move.
"Whoa..." she stated with wonderment. She then reached up and felt around her head, discovering her head head remained it's pony self. "This is weird..."
A commotion from the other side of the room interrupted Scootaloo's self exploration. A group of four aliens wearing camouflaged uniforms
"Line up in a orderly fashion for Evaluation." One of them commanded in a monotone voice. Scootaloo, along with a few others, jumped and formed a line in front of the obviously important people. Most of the other aliens however didn't hear the hard-to-hear command and continued with their discussion. The monotone alien nodded at one of his compatriots, whom had the tough and grizzled look of a senior guardspony.
"LINE UP GREENHORNS." He shouted, getting everyone's attention. Immediately all the conversationalists abandoned their discussion and formed lines. “Alright greenhorns…” stated the rough and tumble biped. “Welcome to Evaluation. You have only one goal, survive. Any Questions?”
Scootaloo raised what analoged for her hoof. “Um sir?”
“Excellent!” The biped cheered, clearly ignoring Scootaloo. “Drop is in…. FIVEFOURTHREETWOONE GO.”
And suddenly the room around Scootaloo and the other newbies changed, bubbling away in that weird pixelated way things did around here.
Instead of a clean sterile room, the air became muggy and the walls turned into wildly grown jungle trees and bushes.
Scootaloo glanced around fearfully, fully expecting something to immediately pounce. While nothing leaped out of the dense bushes, she saw her fellow newbie’s uniforms had also changed, but the only real change was the addition of a short sword, a hatchet at their belts, and a small biped saddlebag.
Surprisingly however, none of them seemed particularly startled, and were chatting quite amicably as they began to walk into the trees. Knowing better than to raise her voice and panic, Scootaloo followed them, as they all seemed to be going in the same direction.
The trek through the jungle was SOOO much worse than a similar trip through the Everfree. Not only was the air hot and humid, but strange insects the size of one of Scootaloo’s new fingers seemed eager to land and bite on any part they could. Which after a while included her arms and neck as she noticed some other newbies take off their uniform shirts and tie them around their waist.
Not only that, but while the Everfree had clear and obvious paths. This jungle DID NOT. Long bladed grasses that made her skin itch and massive fallen trees impeded the convoy’s progress constantly. Scootaloo was climbing as much as she was walking.
During an hourly break, she searched her own biped saddlebags and found various supplies, a flashlight, a few bags that read “Rations”, and a thin but surprisingly warm roll of fabric that she figured was a sleeping bag.
After several hours, Scootaloo became surprised as night began to fall, and her compatriots still acted like this was more of a brisk hike then a military test.
Just what the hay did they raise aliens on?
They made large campfires and told what she assumed were scary stories… But most them them ended with some variation of “Dividing by zero”, to Scootaloo’s confusion. They also recounted tales of past triumphs in their simulations, long kill streaks, kill/death ratio, Actions per Tick, etc. Most of the terms just lead to more confusion on Scootaloo’s part though.
Then they began to drift to sleep one by one. Which Scootaloo considered odd. They didn't even discuss if guards should be posted. When she brought it up, the nearby newbies laughed.
“The monsters are never released first day.” They cited.
Which only confused Scootaloo more.
Monsters? First DAY??? Just how long was this test?!
Scootaloo thought frantically. Eventually however, the day of going through the jungle caught up with her and she fell asleep.
The next morning was just as jovial as the previous night. However Scootaloo could tell there was now a tension that wasn't there before.
If monsters aren’t released on the first day, then that must mean the grace period is over, and we’ll have to worry about monsters now. Scootaloo reasoned as she munched on a ration bar that tasted surprisingly good.
The trek began in much the same fashion as before, the group going in one direction and Scootaloo following.
Today however, they chanced upon a game trail that lead in the same direction they were heading, which made the hike much easier.
“Yo!” Someone called at her. Glancing around, she saw another newbie jog towards her.
“I heard you ask last night about guards.” He began
“Lot of good it did.” Scootaloo grumbled.
“On the contrary, very good insight.” He winked.
“Yeah? And how would you know?”
“Let me tell you a secret… the test isn't about surviving.” He whispered.
“Yeah right.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “What kind of test would that be? Demanding an answer that isn't what they actually want?”
“Easy, its HOW you survive.”
Scootaloo glanced at the strange newbie.
“Bruce.” He offered his hand. Shrugging, Scootaloo grabbed it and shook.
“Scootaloo.” She replied.
“Oh YOU’RE the organic.” He responded, jogging to walk along side Scootaloo.
“Gee thanks.” She stated dryly.
“Nah, organics are interesting, and they give the best test results.”
“What gave me away?”
“ You’ve been practically clueless about our culture.” He grinned.
“Who the hay tracks “Actions per minute”?” She asked.
“Self aware nerd machines from space.” He laughed.
"Nerd machines? I figured you guys were aliens, but how do you do get a machine to think?" Scootaloo asked.
"Oh that's also easy, kind of. If you study an organic brain long enough, you figure out how it works and realize it operates much like a machine would." Bruce replied. "After that it's just replication."
"So you just make a machine brain?"
"Pretty much yup." Bruce chuckled. The two fell into silence.
“By the way, what sort of monsters do self aware nerd machines from space think are scary?” She asked, hoping to figure what what she had to survive against. He laughed but leaned in conspicuously.
“Quit a bit actually, but what you need to know is: zombies, spiders, and wolves… For the moment.”
“... That's it?” Scootaloo asked after a moment.”That’s so… plain.”
“Nothing plain about this test I’m afraid.” Bruce laughed heartily, his eyes glittering wickedly.
Suddenly a howl pierced the relative calm, some one screamed in pain, and the words “Jimmy L. was slain by a wolf.” Appeared in the corner of her vision.
People all around started shouting all at once. “Contact!” “Wolves got Jimmy!” “Jimmy noooooo!” “There’s zombies in the weeds!”
Scootaloo’s reply to the strange man was lost as instinct born from too many treks into the Everfree took precedence, forcing the estranged filly to dash towards the nearest tree and climb rapidly. Inwardly, she noted how easy it was to climb with hands instead of hooves.
She breathed heavily as she reached the lowest branch, nearly a full Ponyvillian house off the ground. She pulled her herself onto the branch and sat down, breathing heavily.
Below was absolute pandemonium. Rookies ran to and fro, all shouting incoherently in panic. Shambling half rotten shapes reached out of the jungle brush, grasping at exposed legs. More than one unfortunate rookie was grabbed by the grasping limbs and dragged down.
The most attention grabbing thing was the massive furred monster that leapt from the trees.
Scootaloo’s jaw dropped as she beheld it.
The wolf, if it could be called that, stood well above the heads of the rookies. It’s six eyes darting back and forth, tracking movement with alien precision. Each shoulder played host to not one, but TWO clawed forelimbs, each splayed in a manner that didnt look quite natural.
The beast raised its head to the sky and howled, sounding like the sick crossbreed between an actual dog and a blender.
Not really knowing what to do, Scootaloo stood up and pulled the short sword from her belt.
“Uh…” she groaned uncertainly.
“Follow me Jimmies!” Came a shout from below. Startled, Scootaloo turned around to see Bruce charging towards the wolf, a gang of rookies at his heels, all with their swords aloft. The wolf turned, eyes seeming to glow with hatred, and pounced, snapping a rookie up in its jaws, and shaking him back and forth in the dirt.
“Aw crap…” Scootaloo swore. She had to at least try and help, even if she had no desire to get anywhere near the giant wolf. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, she leapt from her branch!
Unfortunately, she misjudged her leap and the feral flailing of the monster. The wolf did a sort of leaping sidestep, managing to position itself exactly where Scootaloo had intended to land.
“Oof!” Scootaloo grunted as she landed on it’s shaggy back.
“Er?” The wolf yipped, not exactly expecting a weight to drop from the sky. The wolf turned its head and Scootaloo looked up, sharing a brief moment of confused eye contact.
But then the wolf growled menacingly.
“Oh oh.” Scootaloo stated, curling her fingers into the rough coat and holding on for dear life. And suddenly Scootaloo’s world was a whirlwind of flying hair, blurred trees, and the occasional wall of dirt rising to meet her face. She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she eventually realized she was still holding her sword and decided to try swinging at the flailing wolf.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Scootaloo screamed, using the sword more like a club than a blade on the monster’s hide.
Finally something gave beneath her blade and the wolf sighed, stopping its flailing and going limp.
“Eep!” Scootaloo squeaked, rolling away just as the wolf fell to the ground.
“Get up lass, we got a fight to win!”
Scootaloo looked up to see Bruce standing above her, offering a hand downward to help her up. She accepted his hand and was pulled up.
“THAT’S what you call a wolf?!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Aye lass, a Dwarvian Mauler Wolf.” Bruce replied bluntly.
“Why are you talking like that?” Scootaloo asked.
“PULL BACK JIMMIES! THE OUTPOST ISN’T FAR!” Bruce suddenly exclaimed, waving his sword like a ninny and gesturing in a direction Scootaloo assumed was where they were heading.
“What’s even happening right now?!” She shouted.
Before Bruce could answer, or not answer as the case seemed to be, a wave of retreating recruits pushed by, separating Scootaloo from the crazed Bruce. Groaning in frustration, Scootaloo decided she’d rather live then try to get answers out of a crazy person, and let the rush of fellow recruits whisk her away.
The next hour was spent vaulting over logs and dodging grasping claws of half rotten corpses. She never got a good look at them, because they seemed to have a greenish flesh tone that blended in wonderfully with the jungle foliage. From what little she saw though, she had no desire to look too closely.
No more of the recruits died, but the only reprieve Scootaloo got was when bright sunlight blinded the wayward pony.
Blinking the blindness away, Scootaloo found the whole group had ran into an open field that was surrounded by jungle. In the middle of the field was a small hill, which had what Scootaloo assumed was the outpost they were after. On account of it being a building, and said building being alien in design to her pony eyes.
“There’s the outpost!” Called a recruit.
“Hurry! We gotta build the wall!” Cried another. Once again, Scootaloo was caught in the tide of people and pushed forward.
Fortunately, none of the horrors from the jungle seemed to follow them into the sun, so Scootaloo finally got a chance to take deep breaths.
“Get up lass!” Called a familiar voice.
“Oh no…” Scootaloo groaned.
“Can’t get ready when you’re busy relaxin’!” Bruce exclaimed jovially. Scootaloo straightened and prepared for another dose of insanity. “Go get the gravel, build the wall out of the gravel, and then glue the gravel!”
Scootaloo tried to process that.
“... Glue?” She asked, but Bruce had already left, his voice already fading in the distance.
“Damnit Jimmy! It’s a stupid idea to build a tower!”
“Alright then, where’s the gravel then?” Scootaloo asked her self, glancing about.
Her fellows were bustling back and forth, carrying all sorts of tools that werent in their packs.
Odd. Scootaloo thought. Maybe they were getting them somewhere?
Scootaloo scanned the people and their tools, which she was thankful she recognised.
Pickax.
Pickax.
Bow.
Sword.
Shovel!
“Excuse me;” Scootaloo tapped the recruit on the shoulder.
“Whatcha need?” He asked loudly.
“Where’d you get the shovel?”
“Mining tools that’a way!” He used the shovel to point in a direction. “Bows and pots that’a way!” He pointed in the opposite direction.”
“Thank y-“ Scootaloo started, but he was already sprinting away. “-ou…” Scootaloo finished lamely. Sighing to herself, Scootaloo turned on her heel and went in the direction the recruit had pointed.
The gravel pit was as you’d expect. A pit of gravel. It had one distinct feature however.
“Wow.” Scootaloo whistled, peering down into an almost literal abyss. The only reasons she knew it was the gravel pit were the bits of gravel that lined the walls, the rack of shovels, pickaxes, and hatchets, and the nonstop flow of people climbing up and down ladders that lead below, each using their packs to haul gravel out of the hole.
“...I think I’ll just fill one pack and try something else.” Scootaloo decided, not at all wanting to climb the rickety looking ladders with a bag full of rocks anymore then she had to. So she grabbed each of the tools from their racks, clipping them to her belt.
Just in case… she thought.
The climb down was weird. It seemed to pass by faster then it should and without any real effort. The “bottom” of the quarry was even weirder. The “vein” of gravel must’ve been a perfectly vertical tube, because the sides were a sheer cliff, and the other miners kept digging the floor.
Even stranger however, was the actual mining itself. After only five minutes she checked her bag, expecting it to be full.
Nope.
The bag must’ve had one of Twilight’s “Bigger-on-the-Inside” bags because it wasn't nearly as full as she would've thought.
“Hoo boy.” Scootaloo murmured, raising a hand to wipe her forehead… Only to realize it was perfectly dry and sweatless. “... Huh.” She grunted, rubbing her new fingers together. Looking about, she realized she had demolished a rather sizable portion of the quarry, and that with as many other miners in the pit, the ground had sunk a good 10 meters.
“... Ok this is too weird and boring.” Scootaloo concluded, clipping the shovel to her belt and swinging the bag over her shoulder.
The climb back up the ladder was surprisingly swift. And accident free. Scootaloo then followed the conveyor belt of other miners to where construction of a massive wall had begun. Recruits were hard at work pouring out their bags of gravel onto the the in complete sections of the wall, where an entirely different group of newbies would come by and slather a thick oily substance over the piles. Then a whole other group would come by and shape the piles by smoothing and scraping the mixture over whole sections. The mixture would then rapidly dry, forming a bluish concrete like substance that was both sturdy and quickly made. Then the whole process would repeat itself, making the wall thicker and thicker with each layer. Scootaloo dumped her load at the foot of the wall and started off to look for something else to do.
"Here ya go lass!" Bruce shouted in her ear, shoving something into her hands. "Remember to drink your juice!" he then sprinted away, shouting "WHAT ARE YOU DOING JIMMY?! MAKE THE WALLS THICK, NOT TALL!"
Scootaloo looked down at the bundle. It was an assortment of deformed plates that were the same shade of blue as what the wall dried into. Confused, she set the bundle down and pulled one out.
"... OH it's armor!" she exclaimed, mulling over the plate. She sorted through the bundle, noting that despite having no straps or buckles, the armor seemed to stick like a magnet to where she assumed it was supposed to go. When she was fully armored, she followed where the rookies with the "glue" were coming from.
The area where the "glue" was gathered was a sort of courtyard. The "glue" came out of a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, where it gathered in a pool. Rookies would take buckets and scoop the glue out, half of them started running towards the wall, while the other half went to the edge of the courtyard and started pouring the glue into molds. After letting the molds dry, other newbies would break open the molds, taking out set's of armor identical to what Bruce gave her. The armor was then bundled up and given out to unarmored recruits. The thing that drew Scootaloo's attention was the rack of bows, quivers, and vials of pink fluid on the opposite side of the foundry-esque area.
... I have no idea how to use a sword... Scootaloo reasoned, grabbing a bow and a quiver.
"DRINK YOUR JUICE JIMMY!" came a shout from in the distance.
... What does he mean by juice? Scootaloo wondered. She looked at the vials of pink fluid. She picked one up.
"JUICE" the label read. Scootaloo shrugged and clipped it to her belt.
Must be important somehow. she reasoned.
""Night's falling! The monsters are coming! Defend the wall! DEFEND THE WAAAAAAALL!" Bruce's voice suddenly cried out.
Surely it hasn’t been THAT long has it? She thought to herself.
But the distant Bruce was correct, the sun was beginning to kiss the horizon, bathing everything in a bright orange light.
Rookies also started to panic, and things went from calm and orderly to frantic and wild. The oil gatherers filled one last bucket and sprinted as best as they could towards the wall. While a crowd of the unarmored poured into the courtyard, clamoring for a suit.
Scootaloo decided to help a little by grabbing an abandoned bucket and pour some of the oil into an empty mold. After moving the mold to the drying area, Scootaloo joined the exodus towards the wall.
The wall was expectedly teeming with life. The soldiers had formed a magnificent wall, at least 20 meters thick in places, with the occasional stairway carved into it so people could traverse up and down. Arrow slits were formed on the outer lip, in some places someone especially clever had somehow managed to pour the gravel and oil mix so that it hardened to form a roof over the battlement!
Scootaloo dashed up the nearest stairs just as the final third of the sun began its descent into the treeline.
The day must’ve been sped up somehow. Scootaloo thought to herself as she pulled out her bow and notched an arrow, crouching under one of the clever roofs.
Far away in the already dark treeline, Scootaloo could see things moving in the shadows. Shambling half rotten masses that looked eerily like former rookies, and crouched masses of furred muscle.
The final sliver of daylight faded, and darkness descended. Wolf howls pierced the stillness, and the shambling masses lurched forwards with surprising speed.
Scootaloo joined the others in barraging arrows towards the zombies, not really sighting her shots, but more just to get a feel of the bow. All too soon however, the horde reached the foot of the wall, trying to claw their way up. A particular zombie frothed at the mouth and tried to climb the wall directly below Scootaloo. She nocked an arrow and pointed it at the thing’s face.
THWUMP!
Scootaloo’s bow was suddenly without an arrow and the zombie suddenly wasn’t moving and had it’s head pinned to the ground behind it. Horrified and wide eyed, Scootaloo stopped.
What have I done? she asked herself. A howl interrupted her introspection, and a pack of wolves decided they had had enough waiting and broke from the tree line.
No. These are monsters, and I’m not only protecting myself, but others. she reasoned, remembering her earlier encounter with the wolf. Gritting her teeth, she readied another arrow, took aim, and let go. A charging wolf yelped and violently tumbled, taking several zombies out with it’s crash. Another arrow was readied, shot, and another monster stopped moving. Scootaloo shot arrow after arrow, knowing that if she didn’t, other rookies would die.
Scootaloo’s repetition was ended when an arrow thunked into the wall beside her arrow slit.
“Whoa!” she yelped as she ducked in suprise. Peeking out ever so slightly, she discovered the source of the new danger. Monsters made of bone who held dilapidated versions of the bow Scootaloo held in her hand.
A now practiced movement and the skeleton who had taken a shot at her suddenly had it’s skull shattered as an arrow met ancient bone.
“AIEEEEEE!” a scream broke out. Horrified, Scootaloo turned to see a wolf haul itself onto another part of the wall, a soldier already in its jaws.
“NOOOO!” Scootaloo shouted, nocking an arrow and shooting at the offending wolf.
It was too late… The arrow impacted just above the wolves ribs, and the wolf fell back, taking the doomed soldier with it. The zombies in turn swarmed the wolf’s corpse and mauled the still living rookie.
“xxJimmyxx was slain by a zombie.”
More arrows whizzed by Scootaloo, tearing her focus back to the field. A group of skeletons had decided that she needed to go, and were focusing their arrows on her. Enraged, Scootaloo returned fire.
The sniper duel raged for several minutes because the skeletons were clever and took turns moving and firing. The only reason Scootaloo stood a chance was her armor, and the stone barricade she could hide behind. It was only ended when a group of soldiers took out a skeleton that wasn’t paying attention and Scootaloo took the opportunity to nail the skeleton that was getting ready.
That was when a blob of green filth splattered all over Scootaloo’s cover.
“Huh?” she grunted as a shadow loomed. Looking up, Scootaloo’s ears folded as a giant spider that would look perfectly at home in the deep areas of the Everfree pulled itself over the battlements.
“SKREEEEEEEEEEE!!” it screeched, spraying a foul smelling liquid at the defenders, including Scootaloo.
“Woah!” she exclaimed as she dove to the side. Another defender jumped forward with her sword and stabbed the spider in its abdomen. It screamed in pain as the soldier used her sword as a handle and flipped the spider, towards soldiers who had their swords ready. As the others handled it, Scootaloo returned to firing at the horde that remained strong and steady.
The siege continued for hours. Countless monsters fell, their bodies trampled to mush by their fellows. The only respite seemed to be the wall the rookies defended, but that idea was dashed when;
“THEY’VE GOT SEIGE MONSTERS.” Bruce’s voice cried from another part of the wall.
A metallic groan echoed over the ichor soaked field as a massive hulk tore it’s way out of the jungle. Moonlight reflected off thick armor plating as the beast revealed itself. With almost comically short legs, but absurdly long arms that ended in hammeresque knuckles that scrapped the ground, it’s domed head was a scant meter taller then the wall. But there was no flesh to be seen, and everything was made of metal plating. It didn’t roar, or even move all that fast, but it still moved forward with such force that Scootaloo swore she could feel her teeth vibrate in her gums. Arrows from other soldiers pinged off it’s steel hide, its armor all but ignoring them.
Seeing nothing doing the new threat any harm, Scootaloo focused on shooting the monsters that used the metal giant as cover. Closer and closer it got, swarms of lesser monsters running from under its feet.
“OLD MAAAN WILLLLLLLLAKERS!” came a surprise warcry.
Startled, Scootaloo looked to her left to see Bruce launch himself off the wall, pickaxe and sword in hand. At first thought Scootaloo thought she was about to see Bruce miss and get swarmed. But then Bruce landed on the golem’s chest, using his pickaxe as a climbing tool to climb to it’s head.
“What the hay?” Scootaloo asked herself.
“YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!” Bruce screamed as he climbed on top of the golem’s head, jamming his sword into the neck joint, and begin wailing on it’s head with the picaxe.
The golem didn’t react to Bruce, but it did extend it’s arm as it wound up to hit the wall itself. With agonising slowness, the golem swung forward, punching the wall, sending stone and rookies flying.
Conversely, Bruce’s stunt had inspired a few soldiers who pulled out their swords and jumped over the wall into the field. Several of the soldiers went to slice at the golem’s shins, but most met the horde that rushed towards the sudden appearance of easy prey.
The battle “ended” suddenly however when Bruce finally damaged the golem’s head enough to the point he pulled it off and out, shutting the golem down. With the construct teetering, Bruce jumped back onto the wall and resumed firing at the horde.
“You stupid Jimmies! Stay on the wall!” he exclaimed.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes but kept shooting arrows.
When the sun rose, Scootaloo was exhausted. Her armor was dinged and scratched in numerous places.The horde hadn’t abated not one bit, and her compatriots were begining to drop like flies. Admitingly, it wasn’t technically their fault, seeing as Bruce’s warning about siege monsters didn’t just mean the golem.
Said monsters were like nothing Scootaloo had ever seen. Colored in splotches that resembled the green colors of plant life, one’s eyes tended to skip right over them. The only weakness to the illusion were the eye sockets and mouth that were shrouded in darkness, forming a sinister face that seemed to stare unblinkingly from what should’ve been innocent plant life. The most dangerous aspect of said monster however was it’s method of attack. Unlike the other monsters in the horde, it lacked any appendages that could swing or scratch at anyone, they merely had four tiny legs supported an upright body. Instead, it would stalk it’s prey, sneaking silently until it was within touching distance. It then would hiss very loudly and explode! Leaving behind a crater that not only damaged the wall, but could kill a soldier if they were unprepared to bolt. Even worse, they came by the hundreds.
Scootaloo had seen more than a few of her fellows not pay attention, and get caught in the resulting explosion. Even worse, said monsters more often then not seemed to want to explode on the wall, causing cave ins and forming ramparts for other elements of the horde to charge up. They were so bad, Scootaloo taken it upon herself to solely snipe these “creepers”, often ignoring skeletons who were shooting at her to go for a creeper kill.
Scootaloo’s world however was turned topsy turvy when a creeper she had missed exploded under the section of wall she defended.
BWOOM!
The wall crumbled beneath Scootaloo, causing her to stumble and fall.
“AAAAAH!” Scootaloo exclaimed, falling into the dirt below. “Oof!” Pushing her exhaustion away, Scootaloo scrambled to her feet and pulled her sword from her belt. Just in time to smack a zombie away from getting it’s hands on her.
“AIIIEEEEE!” a soldier must’ve tripped into the hole and landed behind Scootaloo.
UltraJimmy has fallen to his death.
“Bucking…” Scootaloo grunted, slashing the zombie in half. Looking up, she saw countless heads turned her way, all with malice. Scootaloo glanced around, looking for anything that could help her escape.
UltraJimmy’s sword lay on the ground beside his body.
“Sorry dude.” Scootaloo mumbled as she looted the sword off the ground, holding one in each hand. Then the next zombie was on her.
Scootaloo danced.
Using every trick she knew from riding around Ponyville, Scootaloo used her practiced agility to duck and weave between monsters, swords flashing. Duck. Roll. Vault. Vault. Stab. Slice. Roll. Scootaloo did nothing but focus on moving and doing what she could with her twin swords.
A creeper’s face was suddenly dominating her vision
HSSSSSS!
Scootaloo stabbed forwards with both blades, pushing them right through the thing’s agape mouth, she then vaulted over the creeper and flung the still living monster forward, where it exploded amongst a group of zombies. She stepped sideways, avoiding a lunge from a spider. She rolled underneath it, slashing at it’s legs as she did. It howled in pain, but tried to stab Scootaloo with it’s stinger. Rising from her roll, Scootaloo blocked the blow with the flat of a blade, but swung the other sword, slicing off the stinger entirely. On the back swing of the slice, she blocked a crude wooden sword that was in the hands of a zombie.
Slashing across it’s belly, she left it to it’s fate and slid into the legs of a skeleton who was lining up a shot. Tipping the archer over, Scootaloo used her larger, muscle bound bulk to get on top of it and crush it’s skull with a blow from a hilt. Rolling off the suddenly limp pile of bones to the side, slashed at more legs from the spider, causing it to fall to the ground.
Getting up from the roll, Scootaloo ran up the leg of a fresh golem that had just stepped out of the jungle and had happened to be nearby. A zombie that was chasing her slammed face first into the leg as Scootaloo did a backflip over head. She stabbed forward, pinning the zombie in place, but accidently getting the sword stuck in the golem’s armor.
Cursing under her breath, Scootaloo ignored the flailing, but stuck zombie, and climbed up the newly decorated leg. The sword must’ve pierced something important, because suddenly the golem’s repetitive and smooth motions transformed into wild flailing.
Holding on for dear life, Scootaloo screamed. “Oooooooh geeeeeeeeeez!” The golem groaned as it’s weight shifted, giving Scootaloo an opportunity to climb higher onto a more stable portion of the golem.
That stable portion ended up being the head.
Cresting over the golem’s shoulder, Scootaloo stabbed her remaining sword into the golem’s domed head and pulled out her pickaxe. Beneath her, the golem began to spin it’s torso around like a top, but the golem must’ve been constructed in such a manner that it’s head could rotate independently of it’s body, because Scootaloo didn’t spin with it. Holding onto the handle of her sword, Scootaloo swung repeatedly at the head. The golem swayed back and forth drunkenly, heedless of it’s fellow monsters.
Before Scootaloo could weaken it’s head enough to rip it off however, she was stopped when one of the golem’s pincer claws reached up and grabbed her, brutally yanking her off.
“OOF!” she grunted as the air was driven from her lungs. Before she could react or try to escape however, the golem reared the arm that held Scootaloo back and punched the wall that was a lot closer than Scootaloo thought it was.
Scootaloo has been crushed to death by an Iron Golem!
“Wah!” She exclaimed, flailing about in surprise. Her flailing upset her balance and she fell to the ground. “Oof!”
Still high on adrenaline, Scootaloo jumped back to her feet ready for her next foe.
None came, but the world had transformed from the battle scared plain into a sparsely furnished room.
Scootaloo then promptly fell over again.
“Oof!”
Groaning, and rubbing her head, Scootaloo looked up from where she lay. Hooves, four of them. Scootaloo was once again a normal, albeit flightless, pegasi filly. “Whew…” Scootaloo sighed.
“Little worried there?” Came a stallion’s voice.
“Eep!” Scootaloo eeped, scrambling to her hooves.
The source of the voice was another of the machine aliens, sitting behind a desk and hunched over reading a piece of paper.
“Relax, you passed Evaluation with flying colors.” It stated, looking up at Scootaloo. It’s eyes two circular glass lenses that glowed a neon blue.
“B-but monsters and swords and-“ Scootaloo stammered looking around the room looking for another zombie to pop out.
“Shhh sh sh” the robot soothed. “It was just a test. Everything is fine, and you’re still alive.” He said, getting up from behind his desk and kneeling next to Scootaloo.
“But how? When- why?” Scootaloo asked.
“Ok, I know you have a ton of questions, and I’ll answer them all for you, you just need to calm down first.” He patted her on the shoulder. Scootaloo took several deep breaths and glanced around.
“Who are you?” She asked.
“You can call me Tim.” Tim stated, holding his hand out.
“Scootaloo.” The orange filly responded, placing a hoof on the hand and shaking.
“We’ve got a ton to discuss.” He declared, pulling a chair out for Scootaloo in front of the desk.
I’m not so sure if I can trust him, but I need answers... Scootaloo thought as she hesitantly jumped into the slightly too tall chair.
Careful what you broadcast out into the world. Came a reply that “sounded” exactly like her host.
“You can read my thoughts?!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Kinda sorta…” Tim waggled a hand as he sat in his chair. “You just have to realize you can use two different aspects to communicate.”
“...Ok?” Scootaloo indicated that he should go on.
“So, like, think about what you do everyday to communicate, like talking and body language. Now add another layer, but it’s like you're writing a note, but only for people who can also write notes, and you can use it no matter the distance.” He stated.
“That just raises more questions though!” She complained. Tim let loose a full belly laugh.
“All in good time.” He chortled. “How about this, I’ll start from the beginning, and when I’m done I’ll answer any questions you have.”
“... That seems fair…” Scootaloo muttered.
“Excellent.” Tim grinned, his face plates moving to mimic expression. “In the very beginning, there was literally nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. But one random day, something in that vast nothingness exploded.” He poked a seemingly random spot and an image of a giant explosion appeared over his desk. “Don’t ask me what, scientists aren’t too sure on that, just that it did. The resulting explosion created was so powerful and so huge that it not only created everything in the universe is made of, but it’s literally still happening as we speak.” The image of the explosion floating above his desk started to slow down, the debris beginning to drift. “We call this The Big Bang, for obvious reasons. The end result ended up with two different kinds of matter, which is what the universe is made of. Normal matter, and dark matter. With me so far?”
“I think so…” Scootaloo stated, awed by the presentation.
“Normal matter, is what you, everyone you’ve ever met, anything you can touch, and myself are made of. Dark matter however is very different.” Tim prodded his desk again and the explosion gained a different aspect that glowed purple. “For reasons we’re not so sure, dark matter exists alongside normal matter, but can’t normally interact with it.”
“So how do you know it exists?” Scootaloo asked.
“A metric butt ton of research kiddo…” Tim explained casually. “Anywho, as The Big Bang started to settle, normal matter began to clump together, eventually forming stars, planets, and moons. Dark matter though, started to move on it’s own and developed consciousness.”
“Whoa… Weird…”
“I know right? Anyway, as normal matter started to form proper celestial bodies, the beings that were made of dark matter started to form their own civilization. Skipping ahead a bit, normal matter eventually started to stabilize and certain bits started to develop consciousness of it’s own.”
“Us.”
“Exactly. Now skipping ahead a LOT, somehow, the [̧R̷̨̛E̶D̶̨A̢C̷T̵͝E͟͞͡D]͘͏͘...”
“I’m sorry, but the what?” Scootaloo asked, rubbing her ears.
“Sorry, the [̛́R̷Ȩ͜D͏A҉̸̶CT͠E͞D̷̸͠]”
“I don’t understand, and that noise makes my head hurt.”
“Sorry.” Tim apologized again. “That's the term we use for them. We don’t know how, but their language is… corrosive. When someone refers to them, a little bit of their language leaks through, and gives whatever word you use that freaky effect. I’ll try to not use it.”
“Ok…” Scootaloo nodded.
“So anyway, the, uh…̴̶[̨́OT̷H̴̀̕E͏́R ̡̀T̡H̡͘IN̨͢҉ĢS͘͠͡] damnit!” Tim cursed as his censorship failed. “They somehow found a way to, become more real, for a lack of a better term, to normal matter.”
“Alright, so how am I involved?”
“Excellent question. For some reason, they HATE life that’s made of normal matter. Specifically, they hate life that’s around stars. And well, that’s basically every form of normal matter life because life tends to need a star to, y’know, exist.”
“Seems legit.” Scootaloo commented.
“So eventually.” Tim continued. “They found my homeworld, Earth, or Terra as we’ve begun to call it recently. My people, who were organic not unlike ponies, fought tooth and nail against these things. At first, it went poorly. As a species we were almost wholly unprepared for such an invasion. But our governments were great at keeping secret military tech secret, so they rushed a few and pulled others out of storage.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine Princess Celestia doing something like that.”
“Yeeah.” Tim stated sardonically. “One of those turned out to be the most important weapon in the war. We call them nanites.” He prodded the spot on his desk again and the view of a swirling galaxy was replaced by a still image of a shimmering, swirling cloud. “Nanites, are extremely small machines that can take, let’s say a blade of grass, and turn it into a metal, like gold or iron.”
Scootaloo’s eyes bulged.
“How it does that exactly isn’t important to the story, so I’ll move on.” Tim continued. “Using nanites, we converted ourselves into living machines that could fight the war on equal, if not greater terms. Because the war wasn’t over resources or power, it was because we were LIFE near a star. So after we became machines, the war was fairly easy because the;” Tim coughed to avoid saying the word. “Weren’t interested in machines.”
“That’s… an odd way to look at it.” Scootaloo commented.
“Tell me about it… So we won the war, but because of our haste to not die, and their consumption of all life, our beautiful homeworld was turned into an almost barren rock, with only a few pockets of life in the deepest, and most heavily protected areas.”
“That’s awful…”
“In a fit of vengeance, we kicked them off our planet and chased them into the greater galaxy…” he tapped again and the image showed the galaxy again, but this time it had an area that was a navy blue consume a purple area that represented the dark matter. “When we found the last pocket, we captured a single specimen for study and exterminated the rest.
“... why’d you do that?” Scootaloo asked. “I mean sure, studying it and all, but if they were such big deals, why not get rid of them all and be done with it?
“Actually pretty easy. By that time we were growing weary of hunting them down across the cosmos. But we didn’t really know what else lay beyond in the greater universe. So we decided to tuck a little trick up our sleeve just in case.”
“Pfff…” Scootaloo dismissed. “I’m a native of Ponyville, where stuff like this happens weekly. I bet it escaped somehow.”
“Personally, I agree with you, but the scientists wanted to get whatever they could out of it. And yes, it did escape, which is where you come into the story.” Tim explained as he tapped again. This time the blue and purple areas disappeared, but a single, tiny red dot appeared. “You don’t need to know the how and why, but the specimen escaped on a very specific trajectory.” A very slim cone emanated out of the red dot, and the image zoomed in on the triangle. “As luck would have it, your sun is the first potential stop.”
“Ok, but what does that have to do with me personally? And why are you so worried about one prisoner?” Scootaloo asked.
“The thing with the[͟R̸E̡̧D̡͝AC̢͟͝T͏È҉̢D̕], sorry, is that they are very corruptive. They multiply and grow by eating normal matter. All it’d take for a world to die is a drop of it’s blood to land in the soil and everything’s a goner. And for you, well, normally, when we discover a civilization like yours, by which I mean hasn’t developed space travel or advanced communications yet, we have this thing called the ‘Prime Directive’.” Tim explained.
“Yeah, the thing in my head kept saying something about that.” Scootaloo remarked.
“The Prime Directive, is a law that prohibits contacting uncontacted civilizations if they don’t have the means to say hello themselves.”
“Ok, that makes some sense… But why?”
“A few reasons. Number one is that we don’t want to drown out your culture with our own. For instance, take everything you like about your society, but then get rid of all of it and replace it with ours.” Tim went on. “It’d turn everything on it’s head and no one would be happy.”
“Ok, that’s fair.” Scootaloo agreed.
“But with you it’s a special case. Since with the specimen likely to show up, your society may be destroyed anyway. Which is where you come in. While we set up defenses and assemble stuff, we need someone inside to observe what’s going on from your point of view.”
“You want me to spy on other ponies?” Scootaloo remarked.
“Well, spy is kinda a strong word in this case...” Tim stated hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck. “More like we just want you to go about your normal business and give us a shout if we start disturbing things too much.”
“What if I refuse?” Scootaloo asked pointedly.
“Totally understandable.” Tim leaned back in his chair. “I understand how untrustworthy we seem right now. If you don’t want to do it, we’ll reassemble everything we replaced, scrub your memory a bit, and let you go on your merry way.”
“... Scrub my memory?” Scootaloo wondered.
“Well, we need to preserve our secrecy here. I don’t want ponies to push their own heritage away, and with you knowing about what we’re here to do I can’t let you go with the knowledge.” Tim said matter of factly. “On the other hand, if you agree you get to keep everything, including your memory, we give you all the perks of being one of our citizens, and-”
Scootaloo didn’t even need to think.
“I’ll do it.”
Tim seemed taken back. “You sure? This is a big decision and you may not know all the consequences…”
“I may not know everything, but I know multiple ponies who have saved the world several times. And I know that none of them would refuse if they were given this same offer. It’s the least I can do to help.”