> An Interview with Mini > by Clowitty > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: In The Beginning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! Mini, right? [He looks up from his desk in confusion] "Wait, who are you? How the hell did you get in here?" I'm..James. The reporter for the Gazette. "Oh god, is that today? Ugh, one second.. [He hurriedly signs a couple of papers before pressing a button, a chair appearing in front of his desk] Take a seat." [I ran over, taking a seat, admiring the space view behind him] Wow, that almost looks real! "Yes, um, almost. I forget, what type of interview is this?" The profile piece! "Oh! Well, ask away." Well, for a start, what's your name? "My actual name is Miniclip, but I shorten it to Mini. No clue why my parents decided to call me that, and I guess I'll never know." That was my next question: you're an orphan, correct? "Correct. Dropped on the stairs of the Solis Orphanage in Canterlot. I assumed I was born in Canterlot, other cities have orphanages, it would be a bit weird to travel to Canterlot just to drop me at Solis." I... wasn't aware Solis had an orphanage component. I thought it was just a care home. "Aren't they just the same thing?" I guess. What was your childhood like? "Quiet. Dull. Boring." Oh come on, you're having me on! "No, I'm being serious. I was very quiet, until... something happened." The Event! I heard rumours about that.. [I quickly flipped through my notes] Yes, the event that changed you forever. "And the event I refuse to ever confirm what happened." Will you still refuse? "Yes." Why? "Because what happened that day irrevocably changed my life forever. I'll keep that to myself, thank you very much." Sorry. "And so you should be. Anyway, after it happened, I became more like who I am now. Smart mouthed. Physical, if needed. An arsehole. I made the kids know who I was, and sorted out anyone who got in my way. The carers didn't like that, and so they tried to get me involved in the military, which I did." And you joined when you was of age, correct? "Immediately." See, funny thing was, I requested your military history from the Guard. [He leaned forward a bit, almost worried] "Go on.." It displays your basic training and initial recruitment, but other then that, nothing. Your history seems to have been scrubbed. "There are reasons for that. Classified reasons. Leave it at that." Oh go on, you can tell me something! "..eh, Luna owes me this one anyway. I was a part of classified operations. Way before the night guard. There was a handful of us, all gone now, and we trained.. differently then the current night guard." What do you mean? "Night Guard operatives are trained in Stealth. We were trained to inflate our numbers and overwhelm an army. Tactics that were surprisingly effective against people like Sombra." You... fought Sombra? [He blinked, seemingly realising what he'd said] "I-I said like Sombra, not actually him." If you had fought Sombra, that'd make you...at least 1000 years old... "ANYWAY, at some point in my career, I found the place where the event happened..and it happened again. But this time, it didn't stop. And I saw the future, and it had technology." And that's where you started? "That's where I started." That makes for a good break point, Mini. See you in a few for another part? "Absolutely. [He turned on his desk mic] Lyra, our friend is coming out for a break. Get him what he wants, please." Oh, thanks! "No problem. See you soon." > Chapter 2: To New Heights > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Oh, welcome back James. I hope Lyra took good care of you." She did! Now, where were we? [I flipped through my notes] Ah, yes, when you saw everything in your mind. "Oh yes. There." What did that feel like? "Like nothing I've ever experienced since. For a brief instant during the whole ordeal, I saw reality itself burn through my mind, and afterwards, I was granted the chance to go out and see it again. How could I not chase it?" I think we're getting ahead here; you haven't even talked about Equestria. "Oh, yes! Sorry about that. After what happened...happened, I quit the military. Well, I say quit. Fired on my own terms." How did you manage that? "One of my first creations was a tranquilizer gun. Basic, literally cobbled together. But it was enough to sneak up to one of the watch towers at the castle..and then shoot Celestia through the window with a dart during an important meeting. She went down like a rock, and I was politely requested to maybe not do that again." You did it again, didn't you? "No, I did it to Luna. The look on her face." Hehe. "I still have that gun somewhere. One of my most prized possessions. Why wouldn't it be? After that, I went to an empty piece of land, and called it my home. Set up Mini Inc. Recruited ponies from across Equestria, and we got to work." But, wait, how did the ponies know what to do? "They didn't. But I wrote books. The Equestrian Enhancers. Combined with a few..ahem, pills, people were able to quickly absorb the knowledge of a field of their choosing. We started from base principles, but within a year, we had computers. A week afterwards, we had the internet. And it never stopped. We never stopped." Wow. That... sounds amazing. "It was. We kept a lot secret, of course. Didn't want to advance Equestria by too much too fast, we'd send the country into chaos. But at a stable pace, we released what we had. We even got the attention of the Royal Family, who asked us to work for them. I said no, of course." Of course? "I didn't want to bow to any sovereign power." But..you were in Equestrian borders? Surely you had to follow their rules. "Well, follow is a loose word. Eventually, creatures from outside Equestria heard about what we were doing, and wanted in. Mini Inc was one of the first places in Equestria to take in non ponies. Their biological expertise was helpful. For example, now we had dragons, they could take over duties with extreme heat." You didn't answer my question. "Because, to be honest, the answer is psychopathic. The Royals didn't ask for us because they thought it'd be a good idea. They asked because they were absolutely terrified of what I could do. They were right to be. By that time, we were developing laser weapons, grenades that jam magic, and I even managed to launch and activate one of my most used items, Project CANNON." Magical teleportation! I have one of those implants. "Everypony does. Why wouldn't you? But, soon for the royals, it was too late. I was powerful enough to overthrow them. But..I didn't. I couldn't be bothered with the paperwork, quite frankly. Plus, I was already working on spaceships by this point. To take ponies out to the stars. And then..then I got the Rip working. An-" Yeah, we're leaving Equestria now, I think we should break there for a bit. "Oh, of course. Lyra will see to you again, see you soon." > Chapter 3: Beyond Equestria > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Welcome back, James. I take it this will be the final part of the interview? Beyond Equestria?" Ooo, that's a good title. And yes, it will be. So, the Rip. "The Dimensional Rip. Using a gem created by a division who were trapped in the Crystal Empire with nothing to do for a week, it exhibited unusual, unstable properties. It turns out if you pump enough energy through it, and send the energy on the other side around a metal frame, what you get is a dimensional portal." Where did the first test lead to? "Oh god, some weird place. Full of vertical pink creatures. Completely backwards. I tried to interact, but the 'Brony' tribe tried to capture me! I ran and shut the portal. We then learnt to control the flow through the crystal, allowing us to go wherever we wanted." And that's where your empire kicked off? "Yep. We imported stuff from other realities, and used them to construct galaxy class cruisers to explore the cosmos. Then the dimensions. Then the Nexus of reality itself. Although, opening the rip did have a..strange side effect." Oh, the other you's! "Yep. All the other Mini's from across the dimensions gained intelligence like me. Some got a minor boost, others got a major one. One of the most improved one was a feline version of me. Working on using electrical storms as an FTL method. Haven't heard from him in a while, the Unchained beacon has gone dark. Must remember to find him.." Um, Mini? "Anyway, after that, I expanded. Took on more staff, and became bigger then big. Took over most of my dimension, interlinked everything together, and reached out to other dimensions when I needed to. That's..pretty much my story." Ok, thank you so much Mini! "My pleasure." ------------ Mini waved James away, letting his assistant take him out. He sighed a breath of relief, spinning in his chair to face the view of Equestria. The planet where he started from. The interview was right, of course, but so many details had to be left out, or they'd be here all day. Luckily, Mini knew every detail. He got up, walking over to his bookshelf with a smile on his face. He knew most people assumed bookshelves are decorative pieces, which is why he felt comfortable storing his diaries on it in plain view. A gift from one of the first dimensions he visited, he was told he didn't need to write a word. The books would write themselves, literally, with his life story. And when the bookshelf runs out of space, Mini's life would be over. He giggled at remembering the shopkeepers face when they saw that his bookshelf seemed to run on dimensional engineering. Bigger on the inside. Mini knew that he had many, MANY more adventures to go, and many to read back on. His legend was not over yet.