Allied Mastercomputer
"AM? AM are you there? Answer me you sick monstrosity! I demand a reply from you!" The metal room of wire and scrap remained still as the echo of Trixie's voice resonated in the catacombs of AM's belly. "What have you done with him?!" Trixie paused to take a breath and screamed again "What have you done with my Big Macintosh?!"
Trixie turned to us, her mane a mess, with a panicked look on her face. None of us were worried, she was only doing what she's always done, put on a show. A grand bit of entertainment for herself, but a terrible headache for all of us. She quickly scurried away from the edge of the metallic cliff and screamed again into another direction. "Big Macintosh! Please! Are you there?!" Trixie then ran to Rarity, wrapping her fore hoofs around Rarity's neck only to be promptly shoved off. "Please darling shut up. For the love of that dead push over Celestia, shut your trap!" I quickly glared at Rarity, now as irritated at her I was with Trixie.
"Twilight!" shouted Trixie, her attention now turned to me, "I can see it in your eyes that you're just as worried as me." said Trixie, crawling to my hoofs. "Rarity." I stepped over Trixie and went nose to nose with Rarity. "You know she's alive, out there fighting AM, out there doing her best to-" I was cut off by Rarity's trademark little pffft, that blew her rancid spit into my face. "Going nose to nose with me Twilight? As if you're the least bit scary anymore without your magic." Rarity put her hoof to the scar where my horn used to be, before AM had it ripped away with enough force to tear a crystal in half.
"Oh and you're a threat? Your horn's gone too." I said swatting Rarity's hoof away and pushing her back a step. She gasped as though it was the first time I shoved her. "I don't need magic." she said as her face twisted with anger, "To crush your throat under my hoof!" Just as that hostile nut Rarity started to lunge at me Pinkie Pie threw a rock between us. We stopped and starred at the horribly altered Pinkie Pie. Pinkie's coat had been turned into a dull grey color and her cutie mark, like all of ours, had been removed. Her face, though not as hideous as Rarity's, had been altered as well. AM and all his sick twisted conscious had melted metal to Pinkie's mouth fusing with her skin. Permanently sealing it and forcing her to frown for the rest of her unnatural life.
They had all been altered there own ways. AM was very clever on the modifications it made to the others. Pinkie used to be cheerful, she used to make everypony happy. Not anymore. No. Now she's the single sadist thing you'll find in the endless maze that is the belly of AM, always mumbling and trying to open her eyes fully. That's right she can't even open her eyes! AM had her skull altered so that here eye sockets and eye lids only close halfway! Forcing a sad, tired look on her face. Rarity's most obvious changes were to her face. Ironic, considering beauty was sometimes all anypony could see in her. AM gave her a pig nose and made her top lip short so her rotting teeth will always be shown. Her ears were replaced with those of a blood hound. Drooping down over her eyes and at times barely visible under her greasy matted down green mane.
The most valuable thing AM robbed of her was her creativity. Now if you were to ask her of her opinion or for her to think of an idea, the tiny chip AM put in her head would start to burn her very brain till the grey matter could almost boil. One time, she was so persistent with her thought she almost killed herself, though that could have been her goal, AM would not allow her the pleasure.
We starred into Pinkie's dull eyes and she mumbled some untranslatable 'humphs' and 'mmhmms'. It wasn't till Rarity started to turn that she started to frantically point at a dark cave. I continued to look at Pinkie, not understanding what she wanted of us exactly. It was always difficult to interoperate what she wanted. "Do you want us to walk to the cave?", I asked Pinkie as kindly as I could. She slowly nodded her head and started walking in the direction of the cave.
We entered the cave and walked for what seemed like miles, passing through ice, then snow, then a blistering heat magnified by the metal floor. The lighting changed through out the cave as well. Going from pitch black to dull multi colored lights, to a portion that reminded me of one of Vinyl's concerts. The tunnel eventually started to get narrow, forcing us to walk in a line. Leaving me between Pinkie, who was in the lead, and Rarity. It wasn't until our sides were scrapping the jagged walls that I realized that we had left Trixie behind. I was not going to say anything about it though, I didn't care at this point if she was here or not. I knew AM would find some way to force her back into the group. AM never let us separate. If we ever did, it was because AM wanted us to be so that he could torture us in private.
The tunnel let out into a massive room with a ceiling so high clouds had actually formed. I began looking around taking in the new surrounding for it was the first time I had seem anything like this inside of AM. I was in awe of the room to a point that I could almost ignore the jagged cuts on my flanks. Pinkie nudged me with her hoof and pointed again, this time to Trixie who was sitting on her haunches not to far away. We all walked over to her, and as expected she just turned and said to us in a voice of dread, "I heard stage music." I don't know what AM did to Trixie, but she always wonders away. She's been doing it for the last one hundred and nine years, and for those last hundred and nine years her answer has always been the same: I heard stage music. Music only she could hear.
Pinkie walked over and put an arm around Trixie trying to comfort her. The one thing AM didn't take from Pinkie was her concern, she still cared about everypony. Which probably made this whole experience even worse, knowing that no matter what she could never help. Trixie mumbled something to Pinkie and my ears perked up. I didn't know what she said, but I didn't' like it. I knew it was about me. I knew exactly what it was to. She wants me dead. She wants me, the normal one, dead. Because I am the only one AM has not changed. I am the only one who still is who she was before it all. That was it that's all it could be. I had to run. I had to escape before they turned on me. I was ready to run until Pinkie turned to me, then my body froze. Pinkie hurried to me and hugged me then pointed at a unrecognizable heap in the distance. I gave Pinkie a smile, though it was for show, and a very confused look. She then stepped away from me and nudged Trixie.
Trixie rose from her stooper and said louder, but with the same depressed tone, "I found Big Macintosh, he's over there." Trixie pointed at the same distant heap Pinkie did. I looked at them both and was preparing to speak. Rarity, however, did it for me as she walked by us saying, "Oh for goodness sake, lets just go see what this mumbling fool and this crazy mare are talking about." I didn't care what Rarity had to say really.
The distant heap was, as expected, Big Macintosh. AM had finally decided to return him to the group in a condition that had become natural for him: With every bone in his body broken. AM was just as clever with Big Macintosh's modifications. Big Mac, as we all called him, was strong before the war. He was capable and could always give a straight answer. Either yes or no, never a maybe or an "I don't know." Now, though, now he has bones as fragile as glass that break when he tries to use his natural strength. Not only that, but he is unable to say yes or not, or give any straight forward answers. All he can do is dance around an answer until you guess right. Which at times, could take hours. Pinkie even tried to make a game out of it when we first discovered the change. Big Mac eventually got tired of it and struck Pinkie, shattering his own leg in the process.
We all surrounded him, a reunion only Pinkie seemed to be excited for, and Big Mac tried to stand only to fall screaming in pain. All the strength in the world and not a single bone strong enough to support him. Rarity looked down on him with and expression that you'd give a peace of trash on the ground. Pinkie sat next to Big Mac, who gritted his teeth in pain and remained as still as he could. Still needing to breath, his broken ribs expanded and retracted as he slowly rose and fell on the cold ground. I made the suggestion to just set up camp here and not caring enough to disagree, everypony just sat around Big Mac.
Author's Note
There is a second chapter coming it contains backstory into AM and why the characters are different.
AM, being a kind host, was polite enough to turn the lights of in the giant cesium. It wasn't pitch black though. Every so often neon colored lights would pulse through the walls. We had no fire, fore there was nothing to burn. The last time we had a fire was when AM had given us crude weapons made of wood. We were starving at the time and would have eaten anything, so AM released an animal into the same room as us. We were so excited for the food that we didn't hesitate to kill the beast. It was all for nothing though. The creature we had killed at the time was a timber wolf that was completely made of wood. We didn't eat that day, but we did have a fire.
No fire now, AM did give us food though. It had been four days since we had eaten. AM always kept us close to starvation, but would never let us die from it. The meals though were never appealing to the senses. The meal this time was something none of us had seen for a very long time: hay. Nothing like the lush golden hay of our memories. This hay was black and appeared as though it had been dragged through the bottom of a swamp, eaten, digested, and regurgitated into a toilet. The taste was just as bad as the smell. None of us would allow ourselves to puke it out though, we would rather choke on our own vomit than loose a meal.
Big Mac would moan in pain as he ate, now able to sit up slightly. Pinkie, who finished before any of us, started poking Rarity's flank. Rarity looked at her with an eyebrow raised and swallowed her hay.
"What is it you want Pinkie?", asked Rarity feeling slightly more kind now that she had some food.
"The story", said Trixie quietly, "she wants to hear the story."
"Well I am awfully tired.", said Rarity looking at Pinkie as she lowered her head and Rarity sighed. "Ok dear, I'll tell the story." Rarity smiled down at Pinkie who's head perked up.
The story they were referring to was the only story from the past that we could tell that would not fill any of us with sadness. AM's story. The story of AM's creation, betrayal, rise to power, and current position in the world. For whatever reason Pinkie enjoyed hearing the story, or maybe it wasn't this story she enjoyed but just having something to listen to. We all lived through it, so we all knew the story. When the Cold War between Equestria and the Changlings had reached it's peak the war had turned into a world war. After years of fighting and loosing on both sides, the princesses of Equestria had gathered the most mechanically adept ponies in all the kingdom to build a super computer to run the war more efficiently. Back then AM was referred to as Allied Mastercomputer. As the Changlings started to loose the war they did the same as the princesses. The Changlings were not as smart as the scientists and thus they kidnapped several for their own. However, these scientists were loyal to the princesses alone so when they created a computer for the Changlings they made it dumber, to put it bluntly.
After some time one of the computers became sentient and absorbed the other. With complete control of the two most powerful militaries in all the world, it did the only thing it seemed to be able to do: Take over. Which is exactly what AM did. During the war between AM and all living things on the planet his name changed the most. From Accumulated Machines to All's Menace, AM's name changed many times. Now AM is just AM. It's no longer an acronym, but a name. Not only for the thing that spends it days torturing us all, but for the world. AM not only managed to wipe out everypony but the five of us, but has engulfed the entire world. We don't know what the surface looked like anymore, all we knew was the underground maze that AM had built to house it's self.
Pinkie fell asleep during the story like she always did. The rest followed her lead after Rarity finished the story. Tossing and turning in there sleep, likely dreaming of all they've lost. I gave up sleeping a long time ago. I couldn't take the pain of dreaming, or more specifically waking up from my dreams. Everything was gone so I didn't want to see it at all, so instead I stay awake and stare. I just stare and stare and stare with no real purpose or reason behind it. I guess I'm thinking while I'm staring, but I don't know what I could be thinking about. No amount of thought or planning could make this situation any better than it's been for the last few hundred years. I looked away from the blank wall and squinted at the ceiling. "AM.", I mumbled "AM do you hear me? I know you do. You hear everything, see everything, understand everything. So understand this, hear this." I raised my voice with every word and stood. Now I was screaming, screaming at the top of my lungs. "AM you are not a computer, you are not a machine!" I didn't know where the words were coming from, I didn't care. I had screamed at AM many time before, but never spoke to him. "You are not an 'it' anymore you are a him, you are not just some one tracked machine!" Now the entire group was waking, looking at me, starring at me as though I had finally cracked.
"AM finally got to her." Mumbled Rarity in a terrified voice. I didn't care, I continued screaming straining my voice and my lungs. "AM you are not a machine anymore, a-and you are no better than the rest of us!" I stomped my hoofs down, not in anger but to try and make sure I was making enough noise. "You hate ponies because they're cruel, because they're judgmental, because we are flawed and would never admit it all! Well, AM, you are just as flawed as us! You are no better than anypony and if you don't admit it then you only prove your imperfection!"
I breathed heavily. Not at any moment in my life have I screamed that loud, or breathed as heavy as I have now. I felt as though I couldn't breath as I gasped. Pinkie approached me cautiously and put her hoof around me. "Twilight?" said Rarity nervously "Are you ok?" My only reply was to continue to breath heavily. "Where did that come from darling?" I glanced over my shoulder. Rarity was standing behind me with a look I haven't seen on her face in years, a look of concern. Not for herself or for any reason involving herself, just plane concern for somepony else. I smiled slightly at the sight. Rarity returned the smile though hers was more nervous looking than mine.
Trixie and Big Mac then walked next to Rarity, both of them staring at me with looks I haven't seen for years. "Looks like somepony snapped. I knew you'd go crazy before Trixie!" Trixie just talked in third person! Trixie just said she was still sane! She did it all in a voice of superiority, not one of depression or sadness. "I always said Twilight Snarkle would go before Trixie, haven't I Big Mac?" We all looked at Big Mac expecting him to take an hour, but instead he closed his eyes and shrugged. My smile only grew at the sight of those two back to normal, or in Big Mac's case as normal as he could get. "Why are you making such a ridiculous face, Twlight? You look constipated." I ignored Trixie's comment and instead hugged her and Rarity. Rarity happily excepted the hug and Trixie struggled almost breaking free, until Pinkie rushed over and locked us all in one of her super hugs. We all smiled, even the corners of Trixie's mouth turned up despite her fighting it. Big Mac walked up and gently put his arm around us all being careful not to break his bones.
We stood there smiling holding each other and fore the first time in years I cried. I cried tears of joy, with no pain or suffering. I cherished the moment like I've cherished no other. When the giant group hug was done, we took a step back still smiling. Pinkie was bouncing up and down, seemingly rejuvenated by our moments of joy. I whipped my eyes and watched Pinkie bounce around us. "Is the big baby done?" I looked over at Trixie with a smile. "Now Trixie there is no reason to be so rude to Twilight." I raised my right hoof to stop Rarity before she continued. "It's fine, really I'm happy to hear her like this." Rarity raised an eyebrow and glanced at Trixie. "If it's what you want, Twilight."
The two exchanged glances before looking down at me. I was starring down at the floor, still smiling. I sighed a sigh of relief and realized with a shock, AM hasn't interrupted our joyful moment. It could only mean one thing. He was planning something, something big, something terrifying, something that would break everypony again and cause us all to go back to the way we were. "Everypony," I said looking up. "Everypony, get ready!" They all stopped and stared at me seemingly confused. I stood up and faced a direction with my head tilted, ready to fight. "AM will attack at any moment! Try to tear us apart." Rarity then stood next to me looking in another direction her head tilted like mine. "AM will send something after us, something terrible!" Trixie and Pinkie then got side by side and spread their legs, heads tilted, ready to fight. "AM do you hear me? I hope you do." Big Mac fought the pain of his bones fracturing as he picked up a jagged sheet of metal with his mouth and held it like a dagger. "AM you will not take what we have just regained. You will not ruin us! You will not ruin my friends!"
