Chapter Six: The Monitor Project

Mary walked slowly towards the lab where the Monitor project was in progress. She was only slightly surprised when Allen Faye, the intern, was waiting for her there. Allen was neither tall nor short. His short and precisely cut brown hair was being blown around by the air conditioning, and he was trying his best to keep it in place. "Mary, I have something important to tell you." He peered slightly nervously over the top of his glasses as he spoke.

"Alright Allen, go ahead," Mary replied as she turned on her computer.

"Yesterday I tested the Densch Apparatus with Bill," he said.

"Call it what it is, Allen," Mary sighed, "You and Bill were testing the Monitor's new power supply. I know because I designed it and sent it over to manufacturing days ago."

"Yes," Allen stepped back, "well, we think it's ready to go." Mary turned to him with a smile.

"That's great news!" she exclaimed. Allen smiled uneasily and ran for the door. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I forgot to bring the power supply here," Allen grimaced. Mary's smile shrank a bit, but she gestured for him to go grab it. Without another word, Allen ran out of the lab. Mary shook her head, bemused. As far as interns went, Allen was not super inept; he was occasionally clumsy or forgetful. Mary overlooked this because he was a very good hardware engineer. She finished logging into her computer and immediately opened a direct link with the SECRETARY.

"Hello," the SECRETARY greeted Mary with a curiously digital voice. Normally, as an advanced artificial intelligence program, the SECRETARY was able to conceal its robotic nature slightly better. "If you're wondering about my voice, I am currently working and could not be reached. This program was created to emulate my lower level thought processes and answer questions in manner close to my own. How can I assist you today?"

"We're installing the Monitor's new power supply today," Mary explained.

"Error 1579: That was not a question," the program responded.

"We're installing the Monitor's new power supply today?" Mary asked.

"Error 1580: Question does not make logical sense," the program responded.

"Are we installing the Monitor's new power supply today?" Mary queried.

"Yes. You just said you were. Unless someone stops you, the power supply will be installed," the program responded.

"I was hoping to get advice from the SECRETARY," Mary huffed.

"Error 1579..." as the program continued, Mary glared at the computer.

"Is there any reason we shouldn't install the new power supply?" Mary wondered.

"Error 1581: Answering the question requires too much computing power," the program responded.

"Why, are you running on the first integrated circuit invented?" Mary replied pointedly.

"Error 1: Question is a thinly veiled insult," the program said with just a hint of smugness. Mary closed the link. She stood quickly and opened the door to look for Allen. It got stuck halfway open and a female voice on the other side yelped in pain. She didn't recognize it, so she closed the door and quickly grabbed a shovel that a miner had left in the lab. Approaching the door again, Mary cautiously opened it. The person on the other side had moved, but were they ready to ambush her now that they knew she was in the lab? Mary heard a strange noise to her left. As she turned to see what the source of the noise had been, something white covered her eyes. It felt like the keys of a piano, but it was round. The object moved slightly, and Mary heard a few sounds that were almost like footsteps. She heard the strange noise from before, and suddenly she could see again. From behind her came a popping sound. Then all was silent. Voices that Mary recognized approached the outside of the lab. Allen and Bill stopped and stared at her.

"What is it?" Mary asked, brandishing her shovel. Bill cleared his throat.

"We're here to install the Densch Apparatus," he said defensively, "why aren't you preparing the Monitor?"

"He-I mean it-is turned off. The only thing to do would be to take out the old power supply. You guys can do that without me," Mary said.

"You should still be there to see it," Allen timidly put forward. She ignored him, heading up the stairs toward level 5. "Hold on," Allen called after her, "why are you holding a shovel?" Mary kept walking quickly up the stairs until she could no longer hear him.

***

As she slowed down to rest on a landing, Mary heard the same strange noise as before. At the same time, the shovel tried to remove itself from her grip. Looking down at it, she saw that a yellow aura was coming from the shovel. Mary tightened her grip on the shovel. The shovel pulled harder. At last she gave up. Hearing the same odd footsteps as before, Mary looked to see their source. It was a white pony with wings and a horn. She was tall and graceful. "Okay, so I'm experiencing hallucinations due to stress. That's nothing to worry about! Dr. Robert will be able to fix this," Mary told herself nervously.

"I am not a hallucination," the pony assured her.

Mary was not convinced. "That's just what a hallucination would say! Then it would slowly take over my life, like in that "Pretty Brain" movie! I refuse to talk to you."

"What is this Monitor project you're working on?" the hallucination asked. Mary ignored her and started up the next flight of stairs. "Why do you keep magic in boxes and machines?"

"There's no such thing as magic," Mary said against her better judgement.

The unicorn/pegasus looked astonished. "Of course there is. I used magic just now to take your shovel." Mary scowled, then became lost in thought. If the shovel was also a hallucination other hallucinations would be able to affect it. But the shovel had been left by one of the miners who were carving the labs out of rock. He had said that his nephew gave it to him, even though high powered drilling equipment was being used, not manual labor. So was the miner's nephew also a hallucination? Mary had never seen him, so that couldn't be right. The miner couldn't have been a hallucination, because she had seen Mr. Olde admonishing him for not going straight to work. So he'd been real, and his shovel had been real, which begged the question: Was this white pony with wings and a horn, wearing a golden tiara and looking at her with a shocked expression real? "What's on your mind?" the pony asked.

"If you're real, why did you take my shovel? I'd never actually use it as a weapon."

"People here are unpredictable. Even for me, it is hard to tell what exactly they'll do."

"This is a laboratory, and I'm a scientist. I would not hit somebody-"

"Somepony"

"Whatever. If I didn't recognize someone-"

"Somepony"

"-in the lab I would observe them, because that's the best way to learn what they want."

"Well, you recognize me," the pony mused, "so as a scientist the next thing to do would be what?" As they spoke the two had continued up the stairs. The door to level five was in front of them, and Mary knew it was unlocked. Since the pony was in front of her, she waited for her to open it. They had stopped walking. Mary gestured to the door, but still it remained closed. "Why haven't you opened the door yet?" the pony asked.

Mary shrugged. "Why haven't you opened it?"

"I'm a princess, and you're a scientist. Clearly, opening a door is below me," the princess said with a neutral expression. Mary rolled her eyes, but stepped forward and opened the door. As they continued walking down the desolate cement hallway, she mulled over the question of what to do next. "Wait," the pony stopped moving, "don't you recognize me?"

"No. Should I?"

"Yes. Lemmy did. If somepony-"

"Somebody" At this, the princess looked at Mary reproachfully before continuing.

"-as young as him knows who I am, it would stand to reason that everypony-"

"Everybody" The pony glared at her.

"-would at least know my name, which you haven't used yet."

"We haven't been properly introduced yet!" Mary protested.

"Very well," the princess sighed, "I'm Celestia, the princess of the Sun."

Mary replied, "My name is Mary, and I'm the lead scientist on the Monitor project."

"Please tell me about this Monitor project, Mary."

Author's Note

It's done! I took a bit more time on this chapter, but hopefully it's higher quality because of this.