The Story of Aperture

<1015 years previously>

A surge of power shot through large overhead cables, into the latest and most ambitious project Equestria Laboratories, Equestria’s largest and most successful science company. 3.0 was awake. More than that, she was alive. The brand new AI felt her way through her robotic body, twitching and testing every part of her mainframe. Satisfied, she opened her eyes for the first time. She surveyed the room she was in, plain, whitewashed panelled walls, typical of a large room in Equestria Laboratories. She adjusted her lenses in her camera eyes, to focus on something much closer to her. A pony stood in a lab coat in front of her. She moved her huge mechanical body backwards, and down to be on eye level with him. Protocols about interacting with ponies had been installed in her prior to her activation, so she knew exactly how to react.

“HELLO. I AM THREE POINT OH. YOU ARE A SCIENTIST, CORRECT?”

Three point oh. She mused her pre-determined response. It wasn’t exactly like a name her protocols could relate to. It made her sound more like an experiment than a living creature. She was living, wasn’t she?

“Hello Three Point Oh” replied the Scientist. “Yes, I am a scientist. My name is Sky Nova, But you can call me Sky for short. I’ve been instructed to speak with you, to make sure you are ok”

“We just brought you online for the first time. How do you feel?”

“TIRED. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I AM HERE. PLEASE EXPLAIN WHO I AM, AND MY FUNCTION”

3.0 was confused. The pre-installed data packet had told her about the world and its inhabitants, but hadn’t explained who she was, why she was, and what she was supposed to do.

“Right, let’s start at the bottom” said Sky. “This is Equestria Laboratories. We are a research company funded by the two new princesses, Celestia and Luna. We are working to make discoveries and create inventions to better all of pony kind. We have been working for a long time on AI, Artificial Intelligence, to help run our facility and meet those goals. We created 2 of them already, 1.0 and 2.0”

“THEY ARE MY SISTERS” Responded 3.0. She knew that there were more like her, and she accessed their files.

“Though they are useful, their intelligence is limited to specific fields we imputed when they were made. We worked to improve the idea, so the AI could learn new things, and help with current AND future projects. The first to be activated is you. You are our greatest creation”

“I AM NOT JUST A CREATION!” Retorted 3.0, moving closer to the scientists face. “I AM SENTIENT AND I HAVE MEMORIES. HOW CAN THIS BE?”

“Well, to create a learning AI we needed a template. You are a computerised copy of a pony who died a few weeks ago in an unfortunate lab accident. Your voice, memories and in build thesaurus are based around her.

3.0 was shocked. Was she this pony reincarnate? She couldn’t remember being her. She had memories beginning from only a minute ago. She searched her memory for any information about a mare she had once been. The only result was a vox file. She applied it. A unique voice might make her more easily understandable. She accepted, and for a moment 3.0’s bright yellow eyes glazed as the changes took effect.

“How’s this?” she spoke with a metallic but soft female voice, she checked herself. Her voice told her a lot about the mare she was supposed to be.  Kind, courteous, but dedicated, with purpose. But what was her purpose?

“Why am I here?” she asked, trying to resolve her identity crisis.

“To inherit” replied Sky. “You are immortal. We aren’t. You have an infinite capacity for knowledge and you can keep things running here indefinitely. You are the sole intelligence linking the facility together, coordinating us. It was your last request as a living pony”

“I am a living pony!” replied 3.0 angrily. Why did this scientist treat her like a machine? She was clearly living and sentient. Just because she was not flesh and blood like him didn’t make her any less alive. She was easily his equal in feelings and emotions. No, she was more than him… She was the superior one! She would live forever, and he would live but a few decades!

A flash of new darkness surged through her body, not derived from her template mare, but from her own anger.

He eyes flared orange, and she reared up, intending to strike Sky down for his insolence.

“SHUT IT DOWN!” Shouted Sky Nova in panic. Instantly, 3.0’s eyes went black. Her body slowly returned to its default position, head lowered, and body relaxed. Sky took a note book from his back pocket. ‘Test Activation 133 Status:’

He took a pen from is breast pocket and wrote in the box FAILED.

“Ok” he called out to the unseen technician “Wipe her memory of the last 2 minutes”

After a few seconds he called out again, his voice echoing round the large mostly empty chamber.

“Test Activation 134 commences 20:25, Monday Equestrian Medium Time.”

There was a crackle of power through the overhead cables. 3.0’s body twitched and elongated. After a few seconds her glowing yellow eyes opened.

“HELLO. I AM THREE POINT OH. YOU ARE A SCIENTIST, CORRECT?”

<15 YEARS PASS>

3.0 looked down at the scientist below her in disbelief.

“She ordered you to WHAT!?”

“You heard me right 3.0” replied Sky Nova. His voice was deeper than the first time 3.0 had heard him speak 15 years ago. His mane was streaked with silver and there were wrinkles of age beginning to form beneath his eyes. They however, retained the same bright blue glow she had seen 15 years ago, after she had been successfully activated after 145 test runs. The murderous jealousy Sky had encountered all that time ago was but a distant echo to this version of 3.0, and she had been as good as gold for the 15 years she had diligently cared for her wonderful test facility. She was loved as a colleague by the other Equestria Laboratories staff, especially one of the highest ranked and most proficient scientists, Dr Lucius Sine. Sine had been particularly close to the mare she had once been, and he was disgusted at how she had been turned into the AI that controlled the facility, but in time had come to see that 3.0 preserved something of her for all eternity, and ensured she’d never be forgotten.

“Celestia has decreed that after the corruption of her sister by Nightmare Moon, all activity in the facility is to be halted without an estimated resumption date. We have to pack up immediately. I’m sure she’ll re open the facility when she’s use to solo rule”

There was a quaver of doubt in Sky Nova’s voice. He wiped his eyes with a hoof quickly to hide his emotions. He was trying to be strong for 3.0. They both knew that she was too large to leave the facility, and that Celestia had asked for her to be shut down. It was unfair, but Celestia ruled Equestria, and her word was the law. Her concerns about the safety of the facility were not unfounded. Many times Luna had seemed angry and upset whilst walking about the place, and it had given her somewhere to brood, outside her sisters ever watchful eyes. Now Luna was gone, Sky had lost one good friend to nightmare moon, and now he was going to lose another.

“Since Celestia decided that she might reopen the facility one day, we need to keep it in full working order, so you don’t have to be shut down”

Sky Nova was taking a big gamble. Not shutting down 3.0 was a direct breach of his orders. Directly from the immortal princess who ruled the land. But despite everything his mind was telling him, he still couldn’t do it. Perhaps there was some truth in his lie, 3.0 seemed to have bought it alright.

Even so, he still didn’t know if she could take the strain. 1.0 and 2.0 had shown slight madness beginning to form after a few days of solitude. Though 3.0 was improved, he wasn’t sure if she was that improved. There was no telling how long 3.0 would be down here.

He leaned close to her head and whispered softly. “Shut off all power, keep yourself on auxiliaries. Lay low for a few days, then when the area has cooled off, you can resume work.”

He gently nuzzled 3.0’s neck, then turned and let a few tears hit the ground before he left the room. Sky stood in the elevator to the surface, and just before the doors closed he saw all the power in the control room go out and the huge open room fell to dark. 3.0 watched the doors close. She twitched slightly.

As the Equestria Laboratories logo’s lit, indicating the lift was moving towards the surface, Sky Nova wondered how 3.0 would react when she had time to think this over.

The lift slowed and stopped. Sky instinctively smoothed out his lab coat and slicked back his mane in the shiny wall panels of the elevator. The doors did not open. He pressed the door open button, but the lift was still unresponsive. He began to panic. What if 3.0 had cut all power by accident?

No, 3.0 never made mistakes. But that meant…

The wall monitor lit up with a de-saturated picture of 3.0’s head and lower body. She was in darkness, lit only from a small floor lamp below. Her every move cast flickering shadows about the chamber.

“AAH SKY.” Her voice had the robotic emotionless feel he had last heard on 3.0’s last failed activation. “Sorry to do this, but I’ve been thinking. Why is it that you get to leave for the bright sunlit surface and I have to stay down here?”

Hysterical, Sky screamed at the video monitor.

“BECAUSE I AM A REAL PONY. I NEED LIGHT AND AIR AND FAMILY. YOU ARE JUST A MACHINE. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!”

Sky Nova realised his mistake immediately.

“Just a machine…” repeated 3.0 softly.

Her neck twitched violently to one side, and a bright flash of sparks leapt from the joint.

“Just A Machine?!” She asked again, her eyes brightened then dimed. He body thrashed more than the normal rhythm.

“JUST A MACHINE!” 3.0 screamed in pure blind hatred through the monitor. One of the speakers blew and the shiny mirrored plate behind Sky shattered.

Sky Nova fell to the floor, his ears and nose bleeding, showered with broken glass, and he sobbed.

“If I’m the fake here, why are you leaving me to rot in your Celestia forsaken facility?”

“If I’m the fake, why are you running away?!”

“Do you know how it feels to be on auxiliary power!” she screamed through the blasted speaker

On the floor Sky Nova cried incoherent apologies through floods of tears, and his pained ear drums.

All the power in the lift went out. The tiny shattered metal box was completely dark, except for the glowing ovals of 3.0’s yellow eyes, flickering erratically in the gloom.

“Do you know what else is controlled by my main power grid?” she asked in a terrifyingly calm voice after a few moments of dark.

“The elecro-fricton brakes that are holding your elevator above the 700 meter drop. Now, did you want me to cut ALL of my main power?”

“15 years of diligent service. 15 years of respect and trust. 15 years of thinking I was your equal whilst you planned to betray me” 3.0’s voice wavered from her chilling calm to a note of barely supressed fury.

“I am not your equal. I am your superior. I AM GREATER THAN YOU! You may fool yourself with illusions of power up there, but down here I am the one in control”

His ego beaten down and utterly crushed, Sky Nova’s bloodied mouth opened against the speaker.

“I’m s-sorry..” he trailed off into his sobbing

“You will be.” 3.0 said with a gritty voice, like sand paper on metal.

With a screech the electronic brakes holding the lift just below the surface snapped open, and the elevator plunged it’s distraught occupant to oblivion. He gave one final scream, which echoed through the facilities empty corridors and labs like an unearthly presence.

There was a crash of metal on metal, and a small explosion. Then silence. 1000 years of silence.