Rarity’s life was absolutely amazing.
She was a successful fashionista with a prospering shop, she was one of the saviors of Equestria several times, and she always had a good time with her best friends. It was all so perfect, such as a couple of days ago. She was helping Twilight out with a couple of items, since Spike was sick. It was nothing unusual, and plus, she loved helping Twilight do things, whether she got what she was doing or not. She was content with her perfect life… until the incidents began to occur that is.
Twilight had become absolutely obsessed with science. She was a very active scientist already, but she had started to go off the deep end. The library she lived in was essentially a giant test lab within two days, and the books were moved elsewhere. It was frightening almost, and soon enough, the scientific fever began to spread.
Rarity was never one for science; it was just all too confusing. Electrons, neutrons, and things that end with ‘ius’, all too mind-melting to remember. Recently, the papers had been saying things about robots, and that’s something that caught her attention. She sat down for at least an hour and thought about a robot servant and how absolutely amazing it would be to have one in her possession. Do the dishes, clean the tub, make the bed, and she wouldn’t have to listen to ponies random scientific babbling, which was happening a little too much lately. It’s not that she was out of touch with reality, it was just that it felt, to her, that everypony was some kind of rocket scientist. One day, though, things changed forever.
Rarity welcomed the happy sun with open arms, and by opening up her sleepy, big, round eyes, she could see there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. She let out a heavenly sigh and leaped out of bed as energetically as a monkey in a bath full of bananas and went to go make breakfast. Hopefully, Sweetie Belle wasn’t cooking her ‘Sweetie Cakes’ again. Going downstairs, all was normal, and Sweetie was reading the newspaper… upside down and halfway into a cabinet, of course.
“Sweetie, what are you reading?” Rarity asked, completely ignoring the fact she was inside the under sink cabinet. That was pretty much normal by now, considering it was Sweetie Belle.
“The paper. There’s some interesting stuff about the history of genealogy and DNA today,” Sweetie said, looking at some bar graphs upon the paper. Rarity flinched.
“Sweetie, you’re eight years old, how do you even know what genealogy is? Have you been studying the dictionary?” Rarity asked, tilting her head.
“What? We learned about genealogy years ago. That’s kindergarten stuff!” Sweetie scoffed.
“It… it is? I didn’t learn about that until late high school, and I barely remember anything about it.”
“Then how do you expect to live in this advanced society? It’s paramount you know this stuff, sis! Science is the future, and if you can’t grasp the concept of it, then why even live?”
“Sweetie Belle, that’s enough. I don’t know what’s going on, but all this sciency stuff is just making my stomach urk. I’m getting some breakfast.” Rarity pouted.
Rarity didn’t feel easy about what Sweetie said. Genealogy? Isn’t that the study of DNA or something? The pristine, white mare didn’t know, nor care. all she wanted was some cereal, but when she opened the cereal cabinet, she flinched with a mild peep. Agitated about her findings, she turned to her little sister.
“Sweetie! Where’s the cereal!?” Rarity exploded.
“I replaced all of the food we had with batteries and chargers. I don’t eat cereal anymore. I run on batteries!” Sweetie said with a beaming smile. Rarity stomped on the ground with an iron hoof.
“Auugh! Sweetie, all this science stuff has gone way too far! I’m going to the cafe.”
“Rarity, wait! They only s--” Sweetie Belle was cut off by the door slamming.
Things were more off than Rarity had thought. What was Sweetie thinking!? She wasn’t a robot or anything… or maybe, she had been so caught up in all this science that she thinks she runs on a motor! What a crazy thought that was, and surely it was Sweetie simply playing a prank. There’s no way someone could clap their hooves and think they were a robot, even if you were little like she was.
The cafe was looking a tad darker than usual, on the inside and outside, and Rarity couldn’t help but notice the dozens of fuel lines connecting on the ceiling. That wasn’t there yesterday. She blinked twice and shook her head silently, moving on to the counter.
“Ah, Rarity, my favorite girl! How are you? I’ve got your coffee already brewing, for I say you comin’ down that road a mile away!” the pony at the counter said with an arm over the table.
“Hello, Brewster. Hey, have you noticed anything… unusual happening as of late?” Rarity asked. Brewster raised an eyebrow and looked left and right.
“Ehh, not really, why?” he asked, unsure of what she meant.
“All this sciency stuff is invading my life and I have no idea what anypony’s talking about. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Sci- Sciency stuff? Gosh, you do need a coffee,” Brewster said. Seconds later, a sound beeped behind him. “Well, speak of Discord, it’s ready! I’munna be right back.”
Good. Rarity thought. Maybe some coffee will clear my mind. I wonder what those pipes are for, though…
“Here y’are!” Brewster said, flinging the coffee across the table. Skillfully and nonchalantly, Rarity caught it without even thinking.
“Wow!” Rarity exclaimed with a chuckle. “Wasn’t expecting to catch that that easily.”
“Well your fuel gage is high, so that wasn’t necessarily a surprise,” Brewster said, grabbing a cloth to clean the counter.
“...Excuse me?” Rarity asked with a quick shake of the head.
“Oh, nothing, you kidder! Go on and have your coffee.”
At least it was a joke. Rarity conjured to herself. However, something was horribly wrong when she took a sip of the coffee: it wasn’t coffee, and it tasted like dead caterpillars. She quickly spit it out on the floor, leaving Brewster with a surprised, wide-eyed stare.
“What did you put in this!? This isn’t coffee, or at least the stuff I’m used to!” Rarity roared at the poor stallion.
“Wh-what are you talking about!? It’s just the usual! Oil mixed with some other tasteful chemicals!”
“OIL!? Are you trying to kill me!? That’s not what flesh and bones ponies eat! That’s what robots and vehicles use to function! Why does everyone think I’m a robot!? Am I that bland of a person!? Augh!” Rarity ranted, attracting attention.
“Rarity! Everypony drinks oil, what are you ranting about!?”
“No they don’t! They… bah! I’ll find another restaurant then!” Rarity yelled as she stormed her hurricane hooves out of the cafe. She was enraged, and was not going to stand for it anymore. She was going to go to Sugarcube Corner. There had to be something to eat there, surely.
As Rarity made her way to Sugarcube Corner, she began to notice something: the sky was getting darker in an oddly particular part of the sky: the sun. Nowhere else was as dark as the sun was; it was truly unsettling. Knowing Celestia would fix it, she attempted to discard it, but it was just so glaring. The sun was becoming darker, and there was a small patch of black clouds circling it. Staring at it only made it more ominous. It was almost like a black hole.
Arriving at Sugarcube Corner, the sky had become nearly dark, although nopony paid any attention to it. Was she going crazy? This wasn’t normal, and there were tubes all over the place. Oil was getting sucked out of the ground and put all over the place. This had to be a bad dream. Yes, a very realistic bad dream. She would wake up in no time, and hopefully, all of this would go away. Hopefully.
This all worried her too much. Her stomach was rumbling, and she decided that a good ol’ cupcake would make things feel a little safer. Walking in though, she sighed and nearly slipped on over dead at what she saw.
“Oh, come on!” Rarity groaned as she looked at the inside of what she thought was Sugarcube Corner. There Pinkie was, pulling levers and operating a giant machine, dirty with sweat and oil like a cartoon character. There was no pink, there was no joy, there was no love, and there sure as hell were no sweets. Everything was off, and Rarity felt quite reluctant to continue inside this… factory.
“Pinkie!” Rarity shouted toward her friend. “What are you doing!?”
Pinkie, racing back and forth between the machine’s levers, couldn’t even answer her, for she had to pay attention to the machine, whatever it was.
“Hi, Rarity!” Pinkie said. She paused as she raced to the other side of the mechanical monster. “I’m just drilling!”
“Wh-- drilling!? For what!? Pancake batter!?” Rarity asked. The stench was getting to her nose, and it was about the worst thing she’d ever smelled in her life.
“No, silly! Oil!” Pinkie shouted as the machine roared a bang through the air. “For the pancakes!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Sure it does! Just put the oil on the frying pan and a couple minutes later, you got yourself a tasty pancake!”
Rarity shook her head violently. “But that doesn’t-- GAH! Why is everypony crazy but me!?”
Rarity could barely hear over the monstrosity before her. It was so loud that it made a metal band feel like a cricket chirp. She had to leave. Racing out of Sugarcube Factory, she sat to recollect herself upon the concrete road, which was not there when she went in. It had appeared within a minute.
“Why… why is this happening to me!?” Rarity asked herself, her heart beating as fast as a machine gun fires bullets. The sky was nearly black with smoke now, and the sun was barely visible through the black sky, and everything was dark. Rarity kept mumbling to herself please wake up, please wake up, please wake up, but it was doing no good. She felt too awake to wake up. Suddenly, something screeched in her ears from her left.
“E2-776 to center command,” it roared from a speaker. Rarity’s ears couldn’t catch a break today, but instead of covering her ears, she simply flinched in its direction.
“Oh my…” Rarity gaped as she saw a gigantic, at least fifty story black building in front of her. It was one of the most intimidating things she had ever seen in her life. Its dark, soul-smashing surface blended in with the dark sky.
“What!? I-- WHAT!? That wasn’t there when I walked in here!” she spouted aloud.
Rarity was getting an unshakeable bad vibe from the building, so she decided to move away from it, but as she kept moving away, the calls became louder and louder.
“E2-776 to center command. E2-776 to center command,” it repeated over and over again. It was a robotic voice, which didn’t surprise Rarity because everything was a robot all of a sudden. She couldn’t just ignore this building. Possibly the answer to all this lied within it. Rarity paced back and forth trying to decide.
“But then… But then I won’t… but then I’ll be… augh!” Rarity groaned, looking up to the black sky. “Fine. You win, dream! I’ll go in there and I’ll just… wake up. That’s it. That’s all I have to do! Of course! Let’s… uh… get going, then!”
Rarity was very reluctant to enter the black structure, but the siren kept erupting from it, and it was so curious that she had to enter. Plus, it was all a dream, so what mattered? Nothing. If something bad happened, it would just be dust in the wind when she woke up!
The building stood in the middle of the street, and had big, clear doors at least double Rarity’s height, as if the structure wasn’t intimidating enough already. The door opened so quietly, there wasn’t even a peep. It suddenly became dead silent, with nopony in sight. The door shut behind her, and the lighting was dim, as if she had entered an abandoned facility. However, it was clean as a whistle. Rarity felt as though she didn’t belong in… wherever she was.
The snooping mare quietly snuck through the corridors of the giant building, seeing if she could find anything, but there was nothing. Just big, empty hallways and locked rooms.
Suddenly, a murmur came from one of the doors. It was lighten up, and male voices were coming from inside. Rarity was not one to snoop, but she wanted to get in on what this strange place was and what exactly was going on in her world.
“...What do you mean you’re thinking of turning it on? Do you know how much that will cost us!?” Rarity heard.
“She’s been in there long enough. We can build another! We need to research her, I say!”
Rarity knew neither of the voices. But what were they talking about? It was truly a mystery and the deciding point that this was 100% a dream. Rarity remained conscious, however, simply because of her ongoing curiosity.
“You’re referring to that thing as if it were alive. It’s not! It’s wires!” one scientist roared to the other.
“We have given her the capability to comprehend thinking. This ‘thing’ is like us! She’s a pony without the innards. That’s it! Have a heart and comply with me this one time.”
“Don’t do it! You’ll endanger us all! That thing will kill us!”
“You’re wrong! I’m going up to the fourth floor to turn it on! Discord said it was okay!”
“No! Stop!”
The scientist marched angrily toward the door. Rarity had to escape, and fast. The closest hallway to the exit was too far away and the only route of escape was a stairwell to her right. She raced for it, hearing the door open behind her.
She barely escaped the eyesight of the scientist as the door closed and she began to race upstairs, sweating up a hurricane. Heart beating as fast as an automatic gun, she grabbed the handle on the 2nd level’s door. Locked.
“Bah!” she spurted. She heard the downstairs door open, and there was no choice, she had to keep climbing. Fourth floor, he said, so maybe that door was open. Nearly tripping, she ran up the stairs, panting as quietly as possible. What was this scientist talking about? Whatever it was, it was surely sketchy. For right then, though, all Rarity was worried about was not getting seen. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
An… an earthquake!? Really? This must be where I start to wake up, or at least I hope so. Rarity thought quickly as she reached the fourth floor. With brute force, she flung open the door so hard that it slammed the wall. She had notified her infiltration to the scientist below now, and all she had to do was find a hiding spot.
Another quick tremor nearly made her trip onto her face. Ignoring it the best she could, Rarity pressed on, attempting to find a room of some sort. Suddenly, down a small hallway was a light at the end of it. It was pretty dark, for the hallway lighting was very dim, but that room stood out to her. She dashed to it as if it were the end of her life.
She looked in the door window quickly to see if there was anypony in there that would notice her, and when it seemed as though it was empty, she entered.
At first, she was distracted by the room. It seemed to be a test chamber of some sort, and it sure was sciency. Rarity wanted this dream to be over so she would finally stop being surrounded by crazy science ponies, and she felt it finally coming to an end.
A giant test tube sat in the middle of the room, and it was very, very green. It had wires connected to it, but nothing was in it. It was the only thing in the room she could hide behind, however, so she lept behind it, breathing heavily.
Another tremor occurred as she heard the door open. The tremors were becoming more and more violent, making Rarity have a hard time keeping her balance even when sitting like she was.
“Well, well, E2-776. It’s time for you to wake up. I got some questions for you.” the scientist muttered to himself.
“I told you no!” came a scream behind him.
“Listen, you’re too late. I’ve already punched in the code. Now all that’s left is to pull the--”
“No!”
“...ACCESS GRANTED,” came a sudden female voice.
The building began to shake wildly as a siren went off in the top left corner of the room. Its bright light pierced Rarity’s eyes, and she tried not to look at it.
“What have you done, you imbecile!?” screamed one stallion to the other. Rarity could feel the life draining from her. It was indeed time to wake up from this robotic nightmare.
“I’ve saved the pony species.”
“OPENING CHAMBER. STAND BACK. WARNING. WARNING,” the voice roared.
Rarity screamed, but it was not enough to overpower all of the things happening. The warning sign and voice were too loud for her to hear herself think.
Suddenly, the building began to fall apart. Chunks of the ceiling were falling all around her, but she couldn’t be seen, not now. She had to keep hidden. But when she looked up, there was a large crack in the middle of the ceiling, making a clear cut oval above her. It dropped. She dove forward, eyes shut.
“E2-776 RELEASED.”
Rarity had woken up.
The green glass shattered, and Rarity sprang up off the ground and opened her eyes. Two scientist stared at her, horrified, as if they had seen a monster. Without a second thought, or even a thought at all, Rarity prepared to tackle them. One scientist was frozen, confused about the aggression the monster was giving them.
“T-turn it off!” one scientist screamed.
“I can’t!”
Rarity launched her body toward them at blazing speed. Her impactful hoof connected directly to the scientist’s face, and he was sent directly to the wall, cracking it on impact. The other scientist, attempting to escape, was grabbed by the tail with both of Rarity’s hooves. The scientist turned around, only to look at the monster’s blood red eyes.
“What have I--”
Rarity didn’t let him finish. She flung him against the sharded glass, and he was no more. There was a splatter effect and the scientist dropped to the floor. Rarity stared at him for a few moments.
“...Terminated,” Rarity said vulgarly and with anger. “Self-defense mode… de… activating?”
The mare dropped to the metal floor, making a loud “clang” sound. She was shaking, completely clueless as to the situation. She looked back and saw a green and moderately red test chamber, a flashing red alarm button in the corner, two dead scientists killed by her will, and when she looked down, two iron hooves, hard as a gem.
“What… what am I?” Rarity said as she looked up, unable to cry. "Was it all just.. a dream?"
