Resoluteby LucidTechChaptersChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter OneCelestia bowed her head to enter the cave, glancing upwards at the roof until it rose again a few moments later, where she stood tall once again. She looked behind her to make sure the others were faring alright, which was answered as they too deserted the raging snowstorm in favor of the interior of the cave. Celestia removed her hood, the others in the group following suit, all of them looking at the walls that held strange markings, intrigued by them, even though they had all seen them before. The walls were grey and unmoving, as one would expect from stone, but etched into them were long lines that criss-crossed along in strange patterns. All the lines had been filled in with some kind of blue luminescent paint, giving the cave atmospheric lighting. Celestia recognized them from her memories of an old clan of ponies, long before the tribes had united, their numbers had diminished as they passed away and joined other tribes until there was none of them left. No doubt that they’d come here before fading away. This was the kind of paint that they’d used for shrines and other buildings of great importance. The discovery of a site like this, somehow untouched by the elements, was a magnificent find all by itself. But the ponies had spoken of something else in the chamber, even further down, at the core of it. Something alive. When they decided that she’d needed to hear of it they all left together, no one wanting to stay behind alone with the thing that none of them could adequately describe. The accounts ranged from minotaur to bipedal pony to varying explanations and comparisons with Discord, and that was why Celestia was here. She wanted to know if there was trouble entombed in the stone here, if there was something of dark power waiting to emerge. The exploration team led the way, progressing through room after room of paint lines and rock. They came across their own small encampment, the one they’d set up when they needed to rest for the night, and the ponies took a moment to gather water and a granola bar or two. They’d only needed to get to open air to send the message after all, after that they simply had to wait for a response. When Celestia asked about the supplies, wondering how long a walk it would be and if she should do the same, they assured it wasn’t necessary. They didn’t need it, they explained, they had just wanted to be prepared for the worst. Celestia was happy to hear of their preparedness and was more than willing to accommodate it. She waited for the ponies to get the supplies together, not more than a few minutes at most, and they continued. This time they came to another stop only moments after having begun, moving to the edge of the encampment. One of the walls stood resolutely under the gaze of the explores, and Celestia dared a glance among them to make sure they were okay. “This is an illusion.” Explained the lead of the group. “Pike found it when he stopped to rest. Lucky he did, we never would have found it elseways. It can’t be detected with spells, an oddity that we still can’t explain.” To prove his point, the leader raised his leg and pushed against the stone, only for his leg to disappear through it instead. He nodded to Celestia and proceeded through, the rest of his group only a few steps behind. Celestia held her ground for a moment, checking the claim of the lead, and found it was true. Even to her strongest spell it was as if the wall was merely stone. Not even that it wasn’t there, it seemed to be stone. She moved through the stone and past it, following the group once again through a very similar setting as the rest of the cave. It seemed, at least, that the clan had found this secret as well. Or they’d been the ones to set it up. Celestia wasn’t sure anymore, because even though she’d left the wall far behind physically, it still stayed with her mind. There had been several amazing feats of magic of course. But an illusion so strong that it didn’t give off any magical aura? In fact, only gave off an aura of stone itself? The level of deception was astonishing and Celestia found herself more intrigued to see what creature or being demanded such intricate protection. The group grew quiet and Celestia realized that she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The air seemed to grow tense and thick as they progressed. But whether it did or if it was a trick of the mind Celestia couldn’t say. The lines on the walls stopped suddenly, leading down into a room. The walls were even colder there, and they were a clean grey as opposed to the rough colors of the cave. A dim flickering light shown from the roof, the source unknown. And in the middle rested a small pod shape. Similar to the cocoons of the changelings. There was one side that was clear while all the others were opaque and as Celestia moved closer and closer with the group she began to see a form with increasing clarity inside of the strange device. It was curled up in a fetal position, legs to it’s chest. But that was where Celestia lost the ability to describe it herself. If pressed, she would say all the researchers had been correct in their descriptions. It was bipedal and yet it seemed so out of order. It’s legs, for one, were entirely different from it’s arms. The colors were different and the bottom half didn’t look organic at all, it was far too square. There looked to a schism of some kind, across what Celestia could only assume was a stomach. And it separated the thing into two dichotomies that may have made sense as two separate pieces, but seemed mismatched as a whole. She moved around the pod and looked at the back, where a pattern of lines marked the skin. These were also blue, but unlike the marks in the cave walls, they were straight and jagged. As if a line had started and then decided to go a different direction instantly and randomly. Regardless of the chaos that the lines made on the skin of the creature, Celestia was able to trace them all back to one point, a small nodule in between the shoulder blades. Hair decorated the top of the head, but there was very little elsewhere. Some on the arms and a few nigh invisible strands on the neck seemed to be all there was on the creature. A fact that proved it was not from here, at least not originally. It would be far too cold without any sort of body hair. The skin, at least on the upper half, was peach colored, slightly pink with a dab of orange. But the bottom half looked like the walls. A clean grey. The being inside the pod shuddered suddenly, causing even the stoic Celestia to take a step back in precaution. The others of the group had flinched away as well, some more quietly than others. They all looked to Celestia and she in turn looked at the creature. It seemed peaceful enough. It was thin and not all too muscular. It seemed rather weak really, as it lay there in the pod. But she knew that looks were very rarely everything. It could still hold the potential to wreak havoc on her little ponies just as easily as it could be a kind soul to them. Celestia determined she needed to know which it was. She stepped forward to look at the creature from the front again, a lineless ageless face mirroring her own was there, its eyes closed, its features without expression, so alone for some untold time. She wondered about what stories it might have, about what life it might have lived. She was pretending that she didn’t need to do what she was preparing to proceed with. Even if it was a requirement she despised doing it without permission, to dig into someone’s minds and see their secrets. She wondered if the creature would allow her to, if it was awake and conscious. If it would share the stories through words instead of intimate thoughts. But as she weaved the spell in her horn, she put away the pretending, she needed to give her escorts a briefing on how this would happen. She just wished, one last time, that it wasn’t necessary. “I’m going to link minds with it.” She said stoically. And while the escorts might’ve wanted to refuse it, to beg her against it. The calm in her voice caused them to simply look at her with questioning eyes. “I need to figure out if it’s malevolent or not.” Celestia explained looking at the group. “But I need your help to make sure nothing goes wrong. I would like to slightly link with one of your minds as well, just enough to share thoughts. It will give me the ability to pull myself out if need be. I need an anchor so I can stop myself from drifting too far in unknown seas.” She explained with finality, ending with a short sweet version to describe her plan aptly. “I’ll volunteer.” Said one of them almost immediately after Celestia had finished. The stallion glanced at his friends for a moment before stepping forwards. “Everyone else has work they need to do back at the camp, but I can spare a moment.” “Oh like we’re gonna leave ya here Pike. That wouldn’t be very nice of us now would it?” The leader responded with a grin. “‘Specially since you’re helping out Princess Celestia if the world’s in trouble, the least we can do is hang around and make sure it goes alright.” The others gave their agreement and Celestia turned to look at Pike. “Whenever you’re ready Mr. Pike.” She said, attempting to give the most neutral tone she could so that he wouldn’t feel forced to continue if he didn’t want to. He looked to her, than back to the leader. He took a deep breath, looked to Celestia and nodded. Without any more of a ceremony, Celestia carefully attached the line of magic in her horn to both minds she was trying to connect to. But while it barely so much as hung on a strand of Pike’s hair. The strand of magic to the unknown creature dived through the skull and towards the brain. She stopped it at the edge, wanting to avoid anything too in depth if she could manage. And, with a nod of her own to the group, she closed her eyes. She opened them again elsewhere, in a fuzz of grey and white, moving like static against the walls. There was no floor here and there was no sky. There was barely any memory at all. Almost everything was blank. Only that strange crackling fuzz that made up the setting seemed present, and it confirmed to Celestia that she would need to go deeper in to find this creature, the mind had withdrawn from the world and was hiding deep inside the brain now. She moved the strand down slowly until an image began to make itself appear against the walls, there were moving shapes but it was still far too hard to see anything. She moved closer again and she began to see colors. A little bit more gave her sound, and a small skip more removed all the blur. She stopped there, watching the scene unfold before her, happy she hadn’t need to go any farther in. There was, moving around in front of her, another one of the strange creatures. Celestia tried her best to tell if this creature was split so strangely as well, but gave up as it seemed to be wearing far too much clothing for her to get a definitive answer. Strange, given the lack of clothing of the one in the pod. She heard voices, and it sounded familiar, but just off kilter. The language wasn’t quite Equestrian, nor was it anything she’d heard before but there was a twinge to it that was recognizable. Celestia realized she was getting a partial translation from the connection between brains, and she delved just a little more to get the full version. As familiar noises came to her ears she was once again enraptured in the strange story playing out before her. She recognized now that she was viewing a memory from the eyes of the being itself, and that this creature before her was a good friend. No… more than that… The other being was laughing, and then she… no. The being was laughing too. They were both laughing. The other one moved over to a table and put a disc on. She recognized the gramophone, she was surprised they had something so similar to the one that inhabited many an Equestrian home, she didn’t know why, it vaguely made sense but she couldn’t put it together. It occurred to her that the answer might be further down in the brain, that it might be a slight leak like the translation. But she didn’t allow herself to invade any further. She was here to judge the character of the creature, not to steal it’s secrets. . The tune was bouncy, it was a very nice song. Celestia thought she’d heard it before, but she wasn’t absolutely positive if it was from her own memory or not. Both the beings danced together to the song, they kept laughing. Celestia felt like laughing. Everyone was so happy here. Then, without warning, the image changed. She was staring at the face of the creature that was in the pod. But it wasn’t in the pod. It was in a mirror, and she was looking out of her eyes and seeing it there instead. “What are you doing in my head?” Came an echoing voice, and Celestia was put off as the mouth of the creature in the mirror didn’t move when it spoke. “Why are you here?” “I needed to see if you were benevolent.” Celestia answered truthfully. “I needed to make sure you presented no trouble for my ponies.” “Who are you to judge that?” Came the voice again. Celestia paused in thought. She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure how to answer. She wanted to reassure the creature she meant no harm but when she made to speak the mirror was gone, the face was gone. Celestia was back on her own hooves and the pod was open. The memory dive had ended, and Celestia hadn’t been the one to call it off. The creature stared back at her and all around the ponies who had led her this far moved behind her for protection. The creature gazed back and didn’t speak. It took Celestia a moment to realize it was still waiting for an answer. So she gave it one. “I’m no one to decide.” She said carefully but resolutely. “If you wish to show us instead, I would be happy to help you do so.” It looked back at her, eyes still and empty. Then stood from the strange place where it had slept for so long. It lifted itself off and let itself drop to the floor. The strange feet made a sound like swords colliding as it hit the ground but duller and more full. It moved to the wall and ran a hand along it. Lights emerging from the dull grey like fireflies on a summer night. A small compartment opened and the creature took the shirt that hung inside. It fell loosely over it’s form, as it had been for someone wider than it. And then moved towards them. It stood still, looking over all of them, from Celestia to the ponies who still stood behind her in fear. Then it looked back to Celestia, and waited. She nodded in return, some strange understanding about the look it gave, and she faced the fearful. “We’re going back to the camp I think, do you have a spare bed?” “Of course your highness, we always have a spare pack set aside in case one of our discoveries draws you from Canterlot.” Responded Pike, the first to recover of the entire group. “It’s not for me, Mr. Pike.” She said with a smile and began to head back towards the cave tunnel. The other ponies all glanced towards the strange biped, then amongst each other before they followed after Celestia. Despite being behind everyone at the start, causing many ponies to look back at him every few steps or so, the biped soon overtook the group, moving through them and to the front, where Celestia let him lead. She let him keep the distance he’d gained but made sure not to lose sight of him around any corners. They came to the fake door a short time after it had taken the lead and instead of stepping through it as the ponies had on the way down, he stopped in front of it. The ponies looked at him, wondering if he didn’t know about it, but after a moment the being ran his hand along a side of the wall. There was a flicker, and then the wall disappeared completely from view, as if it had never been there in the first place. The ponies looked at the emptiness in awe, but the biped simply moved through it without any fuss. It approached the camp and sat down on the cold floor. Celestia would have expected it to move quickly to a different place, the cold stone against it’s still bear legs would surely not be a very comfortable spot. Instead it just sat, unperturbed, on the ice cold rock. The ponies looked amongst each other uneasily before the leader of the group approached Celestia, his face saying far more about his emotions than his words were about to. “Are you sure this is safe Princess?” He said, his tone full of so many worrying things that he didn’t want to linger on. “Sir, the reason I won’t be needing a bed tonight is because I won’t be sleeping.” She said simply as she looked to him. He took the hint and an expression of relief spread across the faces of the researchers like wildfire. While Celestia was happy to have eased their fears it also filled her with worry. If these researchers, who specialized in the unknown, were too scared to give him a chance to prove himself, what were the odds that the ponies in Canterlot would? Or anywhere for that matter? Author's Note Right so I LIKE this story. Unfortunately that means that you all are going to HATE it but whatever. It's worth a shot. Chapter TwoIt was in the midst of midnight, the large white orb in the sky full and bright amongst the twinkling specks around it. The light it cast rested softly against the clouds, and the clouds stood steadfast against it, preventing it from touching the earth and keeping the world below cloaked in shadow. The moon shone on, resolute, searching for the little cracks in the cloud cover that let it pass what meager light it had onto the enshrouded world below, doing what little it could to keep it from total darkness. The moon and clouds fought like they had so many nights before, since the start of time, and despite the small victories to either side, no one ever won. Deep below the silent war, far from the string-like light that would make it to the surface, Celestia lay awake. Here, far from the moon, she provided her own light. A constant orb of trickling illumination. Far more dim than even the moon on that night, the light it cast barely pierced the shadows at all. But despite its weakness, it accomplished its goal. Silhouettes of the ponies who had asked her here were clear amongst the shadows of the walls, slumbering under Celestia's gaze in a sweet ignorant bliss of the disturbing light she had summoned. Each of the ponies slept in fragile dreams, worry and fear thinning the wall that kept them asleep in bed. Too strong a light would wake them, but no light at all would prevent her from giving aid if circumstances required it. It was a balance Celestia knew well, one that she’d practiced again and again through her long life. Both among the sleeping and those awake. She’d been brash and bold once, but too bright a light would blind. She’d grown cold and distant, but no light at all would lead astray. There were temptations in the darkness, ones she knew well, ones she’d met face to face. She’d laid her head on a pillow she’d been provided and gazed through half lidded eyes at the new member of the group, who seemed to shiver in the sleeping bag that’d been given to him. The bag bore a symbol of a sun on it, much akin to Celestia’s cutie mark, and it was far larger than those that the other ponies used. Yet, despite the extravagant size, the human still seemed cramped in the bedding. He’d taken a fetal position once again as he lay there, and as each of the ponies drifted off into their dreamlands one by one, he remained awake. It was about an hour after silence had fallen on the camp before the biped made any move at all, breaking it’s tight body free of the bag and moving out onto the surface of the cloth. Celestia remained still, watching it go and feigning her own sleep. She kept an eye on the silhouette as it walked away from the camp, watching as it abandoned her dim light for the darkness, watched as it faded and faded away. Watched until she was forced to move to keep sight of it. She found it at the very edge of her light, barely visible against the rocky floor where it sat. Naught but silence came forth as it sat there, naught but caution and fear. Then it moved, she saw it’s shoulders shift, but she couldn’t tell why. A sound came to her shortly there after, a soft metallic sliding noise that rustled the air. It was constant, a long stretch with the noise and then nothing for a moment, then it would start again. Celestia wanted to move closer, but was afraid she might frighten the biped with her steps, she was far too close to hope they might go unnoticed, the fact that she hadn’t been heard on the way over was miracle enough. Her worries of disturbing the creature were cast aside as a soft noise came to her ear. She knew it instantly, it was a noise she feared more than anything, and she felt a chill run down her spine as it echoed slightly off the rock around her. She glanced around hurriedly to make sure of her suspicions before she approached the biped, hoping to confirm her fears more than anything. Celestia conjured a second light, small but brighter than it’s predecessor back at camp, and looked at the biped on the stone floor. It sat perfectly still, arms wrapped around legs and completely immobile on the exposed stone floor, seemingly removed completely from the outside world. Celestia’s steps were as silent as she could manage, and she was forced to remove her shoes to keep the peace of the cave. She crept slowly about, moving around to the front of the biped to look at it’s face. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly as she caught a glimpse of what she’d feared to see. Celestia opened her eyes once again to look at the biped, a weight like a stone in her heart. Wet trails had found their way from its eyes and they now trickled slowly towards the floor, shimmering half heartedly like stars from the floating light that followed Celestia’s command. It almost sounded like it was choking on them as it apparently tried to stem their flow, desperately trying to calm the sound of its own sobbing that was wandering through the chamber, apparently aware of the noise it was causing. “Damn it all.” Came the voice of the creature as it lay there, quiet but deafening, like a needle’s prick when there was no other feeling to be felt. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.” It said again and again until a new wave of tears cut off the cursing, a coursing blast of sadness surging up and lingering on its heart. Celestia was unsure how to respond. She wasn’t even quite sure she understood the reason behind the tears. And it tore at her heart that she couldn’t do anything to help the creature as it lay there, completely enraptured in sorrow. She didn’t know how she needed to comfort it. It was a lack of knowledge that prevented her from helping it, a fact that shafted even the most powerful of desires to help. “Come on Jack, stop crying.” It said again, speaking to itself. Tears were still fighting their way past his clenched eyelids as he spoke, but he put them off to continue his monologue to himself. “Come on, it won’t due to wake up in the morning with bloodshot eyes, they’ll all get worried about you. You don’t want them to do that. They were just legs Jack, let it go.” He said again. Sounding for all the world like he was going to believe it any moment now. Or at the very least that he wanted to. His voice sounded different now, more solid and more sensical, which made sense since Celestia had only heard it in the dream world before. He hadn’t spoken at all since he woke up. But beyond the very legitmate tone of the voice there was also the crippling sadness in his words that simply would not go unnoticed, making the subtle clues of his third person speech into a very large neon sign with flashing letters. And as he tried to gather whatever composure he could get his hands on inside himself Celestia glanced between him and the camp. She had no worries about the creature attacking her should she try and comfort it. Rather she was more worried about the result should she do so. She’d spent a lot of time around ponies, far more than she’d ever intended to in her younger years, and as much as she knew some ponies could do with a hug every now and then, she also knew that some ponies would rather fight through it themselves. When someone came to help them without being called, a pony from the latter group would feel… weak. That they weren’t able to do it by themselves. And Celestia was worried that this creature was among that group, given how he talked to himself. To comfort him might cause a lot more harm than good in the long run. The longer she stood there though, the more she decided she couldn’t simply leave him lonely like that. What kind of leader would she be if she left him there by himself? He needed to at least know she wanted to help, that they wanted to help. All the ponies. And so she crouched in front of him, purposefully causing a fair amount of noise as she settled in. The noises of tears coming to an almost immediate stop as he became aware of his company. “Do you need help with something?” Celestia said with a kind smile and an open face, the kind of face that a thief would confess to. She remained silent after she spoke, even when nothing came in return. She left the floor open to his concerns and his worries, she’d played the opening piece, and it was up to him to continue off it or not. “I can’t feel them.” He said with a half-smile. His hands were rubbing his legs now, as if he was proving his point. Celestia looked at him in confusion until she was struck by the revelation of what he meant. She’d wondered about them, but she never thought that… she didn’t think that they were prosthetics. “They said I was lucky,” He continued, idly, his voice seeking to fill the emptiness now that there was someone to hear him. “Because I was going to have automated limbs instead of wooden or plastic replacements. But… every time I take a step… I can’t feel it and it just… it feels beyond my control.” Celestia, in the wake of his words, remained silent. She was unsure what, if anything, she could say in response. “Sorry.” He said simply, standing up to his full height again. Eye level with Celestia, were she to be at her full height, but his gaze focused on the ground instead. “I’ve been awake for less than a day and I already wish I’d stayed asleep.” He didn’t make eye contact, instead he turned and headed back towards the camp. “I didn’t mean to bother you with my demons.” “We all have demons,” Celestia said after him. “Things we regret. Ghosts that haunt us. People we’ve hurt. It’s a curse as much as a blessing, a blessing in that we all have them. And, because of that, we can provide comfort for one another and help each other through it. There is no reason to fight your darkness alone, not when you can fight it with friends.” Celestia said boldly, getting the feeling that subtleties were not the way to go. Not right now anyway, and not with the biped before her. “I’ve never been one for friends.” He responded, glancing over his shoulder towards her with contemplative eyes. “Never could get the hang of starting off.” Celestia smiled at that and shook her head. She walked around to stand in front of Jack and he raised his gaze to look at her. “I too never was one for friends, not for a long time at the start. But, I learned a thing or two. And while I can’t boast the knowledge of it that my student does, I do know a bit.” He raised his head to look at her, partially in confusion and partially in curiousity. “From what I can tell, it starts off very simple. Something like this.” Celestia held out her front hoof and he looked at it questioningly for a moment before looking back into her eyes. “My name is Celestia, but you can call me Tia. It’s very nice to meet you.” She said with a kind smile. The smile proved contagious, and it wasn’t but a moment before a similar one cracked the sad shell of a face that the biped wore. He reached out calmly with an open palm and he grasped her hoof in a hand. “I’m Jack. It’s nice to meet you too.” “Well, I’m no expert as I said but I believe that makes us friends, doesn’t it Jack? At least until we have more opportunities to help one another out and prove that friendship.” “Yes, I suppose it does Tia.” Jack let go of Celestia’s hoof and she let it swing down and to the ground. “So, as a friend, was there anything else you needed? Any questions that I might be able to answer for you?” She said, offering that same welcoming smile that she’d had since the very start of their conversation. “Well, there was one thing. I suppose.” He said, pausing a moment to run his hand down his jawline and scratching just under one of his ears. “Yes?” He ran a sleeve of his shirt over his eyes to clear them before he posed his question. “Why is everyone an equine?” In the silence that followed where in Celestia tried to come up with an answer to the question, not quite sure how to respond to it at all, she realized how happy she was to have avoided diving too far in to his head for the fleeting answer that'd glimmered up in response to the gramaphone, realizing, with those words, that it would have been nothing but folly. Author's Note Ahhh, it feels so two dimensional now. I'm a bad author. Aggghhhh. Chapter ThreeThere is a term called ‘Shock’. A tricky tricky term. It’s used for a lot of things but all of them have the same basic idea instilled within them. ‘Shock’ is going from one state to another so quickly you don’t have time to adjust, and so you don’t adjust at all, often times causing a strange paralysis. For instance, receiving a grievous wound during a battle. Should the wound go unchecked the owner of it may find themselves suddenly on the ground, wondering where all the blood came from. It also relates to moving from hot to cold suddenly and, albeit rarely, finding that the world now has talking magical horses in the higher echelons of the food chain. Such was it with Jack. He’d awoken from his eternity of slumber to find that nothing was how it should have been. The entirety of reality had changed in the span of what to him was a mere instant. The first thought that’d he had was of course that it was a simple dream, certainly a strange one of course, but simple by and large. However as the world became more and more to real to him his mind came to the conclusion that perhaps it wasn’t a dream after all. As he had lain in the sleeping bag this is what his mind had been coping with. The idea that maybe he wasn’t mad or delusional, that there really were talking magical ponies, and that he would simply have to take it in stride. However, as taking it in stride often is, it proved to be a lot easier said than done. And, under the pressure of this idea and under the uncertainty of his body he was forced to a mental event, triggering the tears that came out in the purpose of sadness and closure. Celestia, of course, proved herself worthy of the title of princess in anyway she could and she assisted the human in putting together the shattered thoughts that flitted about the edge of his mind. No matter how much help she gave him though, there is simply no easy way to relearn the fabric of existence, no matter how understanding and kind the teacher is. But they had plenty of time, the two of them. And, with this in mind, she’d left him to chat with the other members of the group while she investigated the metal room they’d found him in. Her careful steps echoed on the shining metal with purpose, and her gait was steady and fair. However, beneath her familiar veneer of certainty, and beneath her mask of absolution there was no understanding, or recollection. Only confusion. And despite her best spells and examinations there were no answers she could find. It was after hours of useless progress, naught to show for it but brief moments of glimmering hope, that Jack arrived in the room, a cup of hot cocoa in each of his hands. A simple blanket covered his upper torso, obscuring all but his shirt sleeves from view. But his lower half went unadorned, for reasons Celestia now understood. He approached her with a somber look on his face and handed her one of the cups that he’d brought. As she took it from him gratefully, Jack took a sip of his own and moved towards one of the three metal walls of the room. He placed his free hand against it and sighed. Celestia approached carefully alongside him, levitating her cup in front of herself but declining to drink from it quite yet. “There’s no magic in these walls Jack. I don’t think they hold answers for you, they most certainly didn’t hold any for me.” Jack leaned his head against the wall as well, slightly above his spread palm. “I hope you’re right Celestia.” Celestia raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her drink. Jack waved at her to back away from the wall, and she obliged. Jack took a deep breath and stood up straight again, looking at the wall with steely eyes. His hand rested against the metal still, and a moment later he spoke again. “Hardware Engineer Jack signing in.” Celestia’s gazed moved away from the wall to Jack in confusion, but a bright light drew her eyes back once again. Lights swirled together underneath Jack’s palm, and a small orb spun to the side of it, growing slightly, then shrinking away. Celestia was in awe of the lights, but Jack only took a sip of his cocoa as he waited. “Biometrics recognized.” Said a strange voice, the words sounded almost corrupted, like nails on a chalk board. “Welcome back Jack.” “Computer, can you run a scan for life forms?” “Such a scan can be done, but the results can only be shared with a doctor or nurse hired at this building. Would you like to know what you may access?” “No, Computer. What’s your energy looking like?” “Nuclear core is unstable but not critical, would you like me to open the path to the core to prevent further meltdown?” Jack glanced at Celestia, who was in awe of the conversation going on between the person she saw and the one she did not. In the back of her mind was the silly distracting thought that she hadn’t been in awe like this in at least one thousand years. “Supposing that all doctors and nurses were fired, out of commission, or dead, computer. Would I have access to a scan for life forms?” “Under protocol 7-C you would. Would you like me to scan for all recent activity by approved employees?” “Go for it.” Jack took a sip of his hot cocoa and looked at Celestia, raising his eyebrows as if in fake surprise. Celestia’s awe fell away for a moment, realizing this was the most alive that Jack had seemed since he’d woken up. “Computers right?” Jack said, swallowing his cocoa. “Protocols and protections.” Celestia admitted to herself that she had no idea what he was talking about but was unable to ask as the sharp voice came back. “Last contact with approved employee was 99999999999999999 error overflow error overflow. Employee is presumed dead. Clearance level S given to Head Hardware Engineer, Jack Jones. Proceed with life form scan?” Jack’s amicable facial features feel away to sadness and he nodded. “Yes Computer.” Jack seemed to collapse onto the floor at that, only barely managing to catch himself with his free hand. Some hot cocoa sloshed over the edge of the cup and onto the ground, but Jack didn’t seem to notice. “Damn.” He muttered, gazing through the floor with glazed over eyes. “I really hoped they were exaggerating when they said this room was indestructible. Don’t know why in the hell they gave it to me to recover in.” “Jack?” Celestia asked with a worried look on her face. “Is something the matter?” Jack remained silent unwilling to answer her, prompting another question to be asked. “What is this place?” This one Jack answered, albeit with bowed head and a voice of despair. “It used to be a hospital. I helped design the machinery and computers for it.” “Used to be? Computers?” “Query resolved, answers displayed on wall screen.” Came the voice, Jack glanced at it briefly before letting another sigh leave his lungs. Celestia glanced at the results as well. There seemed to be a layout of a building, but most of the walls were in flashing red. All but one room, with walls in green. In the green room were two dots, Celestia moved closer to get a better look and saw one of the dots move to closer to a green wall as she did so. She also noticed that no where else in the layout were any dots to be found. It didn’t take her too long to figure out what she was seeing. Her eyes widened in realization. “Jack.” She said, breathing the word as she didn’t have the strength to speak it. “I’m so sorry.” “Used to be a hospital.” He said again, standing from his spot. “Now it’s a crypt.” Celestia looked on in silence as he placed his hand on the wall again. “Computer. Shut down all unnecessary functions, repair core via inactivity where possible.” “Understood. Shutting down.” The wall went black, and Jack let his forehead lean against it once more. Silence reigned for several moments before a voice called down the rocky hallway behind them. “You guys okay down there?!” “Fine.” Celestia offered quickly. “I’ll be back in a moment.” Her voice seemed to carry itself without any added volume, and it wasn’t too long before she heard a set of echoing hoofsteps moving away from the entryway to the main cave. “Jack…” She offered emptily, he didn’t make a motion to respond. “Take your time, okay?” He nodded slightly, and Celestia turned away, heading up the rocky passage. She wished she knew what to say. She knew what it was like to lose someone, but she had no idea what it was like to lose everything. She wondered, not for the first time, if they shouldn’t have woken Jack up. Not out of their own well-being. But only for his own sake. Author's Note Ugh, I'm so out of practice.
Chapter OneCelestia bowed her head to enter the cave, glancing upwards at the roof until it rose again a few moments later, where she stood tall once again. She looked behind her to make sure the others were faring alright, which was answered as they too deserted the raging snowstorm in favor of the interior of the cave. Celestia removed her hood, the others in the group following suit, all of them looking at the walls that held strange markings, intrigued by them, even though they had all seen them before. The walls were grey and unmoving, as one would expect from stone, but etched into them were long lines that criss-crossed along in strange patterns. All the lines had been filled in with some kind of blue luminescent paint, giving the cave atmospheric lighting. Celestia recognized them from her memories of an old clan of ponies, long before the tribes had united, their numbers had diminished as they passed away and joined other tribes until there was none of them left. No doubt that they’d come here before fading away. This was the kind of paint that they’d used for shrines and other buildings of great importance. The discovery of a site like this, somehow untouched by the elements, was a magnificent find all by itself. But the ponies had spoken of something else in the chamber, even further down, at the core of it. Something alive. When they decided that she’d needed to hear of it they all left together, no one wanting to stay behind alone with the thing that none of them could adequately describe. The accounts ranged from minotaur to bipedal pony to varying explanations and comparisons with Discord, and that was why Celestia was here. She wanted to know if there was trouble entombed in the stone here, if there was something of dark power waiting to emerge. The exploration team led the way, progressing through room after room of paint lines and rock. They came across their own small encampment, the one they’d set up when they needed to rest for the night, and the ponies took a moment to gather water and a granola bar or two. They’d only needed to get to open air to send the message after all, after that they simply had to wait for a response. When Celestia asked about the supplies, wondering how long a walk it would be and if she should do the same, they assured it wasn’t necessary. They didn’t need it, they explained, they had just wanted to be prepared for the worst. Celestia was happy to hear of their preparedness and was more than willing to accommodate it. She waited for the ponies to get the supplies together, not more than a few minutes at most, and they continued. This time they came to another stop only moments after having begun, moving to the edge of the encampment. One of the walls stood resolutely under the gaze of the explores, and Celestia dared a glance among them to make sure they were okay. “This is an illusion.” Explained the lead of the group. “Pike found it when he stopped to rest. Lucky he did, we never would have found it elseways. It can’t be detected with spells, an oddity that we still can’t explain.” To prove his point, the leader raised his leg and pushed against the stone, only for his leg to disappear through it instead. He nodded to Celestia and proceeded through, the rest of his group only a few steps behind. Celestia held her ground for a moment, checking the claim of the lead, and found it was true. Even to her strongest spell it was as if the wall was merely stone. Not even that it wasn’t there, it seemed to be stone. She moved through the stone and past it, following the group once again through a very similar setting as the rest of the cave. It seemed, at least, that the clan had found this secret as well. Or they’d been the ones to set it up. Celestia wasn’t sure anymore, because even though she’d left the wall far behind physically, it still stayed with her mind. There had been several amazing feats of magic of course. But an illusion so strong that it didn’t give off any magical aura? In fact, only gave off an aura of stone itself? The level of deception was astonishing and Celestia found herself more intrigued to see what creature or being demanded such intricate protection. The group grew quiet and Celestia realized that she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The air seemed to grow tense and thick as they progressed. But whether it did or if it was a trick of the mind Celestia couldn’t say. The lines on the walls stopped suddenly, leading down into a room. The walls were even colder there, and they were a clean grey as opposed to the rough colors of the cave. A dim flickering light shown from the roof, the source unknown. And in the middle rested a small pod shape. Similar to the cocoons of the changelings. There was one side that was clear while all the others were opaque and as Celestia moved closer and closer with the group she began to see a form with increasing clarity inside of the strange device. It was curled up in a fetal position, legs to it’s chest. But that was where Celestia lost the ability to describe it herself. If pressed, she would say all the researchers had been correct in their descriptions. It was bipedal and yet it seemed so out of order. It’s legs, for one, were entirely different from it’s arms. The colors were different and the bottom half didn’t look organic at all, it was far too square. There looked to a schism of some kind, across what Celestia could only assume was a stomach. And it separated the thing into two dichotomies that may have made sense as two separate pieces, but seemed mismatched as a whole. She moved around the pod and looked at the back, where a pattern of lines marked the skin. These were also blue, but unlike the marks in the cave walls, they were straight and jagged. As if a line had started and then decided to go a different direction instantly and randomly. Regardless of the chaos that the lines made on the skin of the creature, Celestia was able to trace them all back to one point, a small nodule in between the shoulder blades. Hair decorated the top of the head, but there was very little elsewhere. Some on the arms and a few nigh invisible strands on the neck seemed to be all there was on the creature. A fact that proved it was not from here, at least not originally. It would be far too cold without any sort of body hair. The skin, at least on the upper half, was peach colored, slightly pink with a dab of orange. But the bottom half looked like the walls. A clean grey. The being inside the pod shuddered suddenly, causing even the stoic Celestia to take a step back in precaution. The others of the group had flinched away as well, some more quietly than others. They all looked to Celestia and she in turn looked at the creature. It seemed peaceful enough. It was thin and not all too muscular. It seemed rather weak really, as it lay there in the pod. But she knew that looks were very rarely everything. It could still hold the potential to wreak havoc on her little ponies just as easily as it could be a kind soul to them. Celestia determined she needed to know which it was. She stepped forward to look at the creature from the front again, a lineless ageless face mirroring her own was there, its eyes closed, its features without expression, so alone for some untold time. She wondered about what stories it might have, about what life it might have lived. She was pretending that she didn’t need to do what she was preparing to proceed with. Even if it was a requirement she despised doing it without permission, to dig into someone’s minds and see their secrets. She wondered if the creature would allow her to, if it was awake and conscious. If it would share the stories through words instead of intimate thoughts. But as she weaved the spell in her horn, she put away the pretending, she needed to give her escorts a briefing on how this would happen. She just wished, one last time, that it wasn’t necessary. “I’m going to link minds with it.” She said stoically. And while the escorts might’ve wanted to refuse it, to beg her against it. The calm in her voice caused them to simply look at her with questioning eyes. “I need to figure out if it’s malevolent or not.” Celestia explained looking at the group. “But I need your help to make sure nothing goes wrong. I would like to slightly link with one of your minds as well, just enough to share thoughts. It will give me the ability to pull myself out if need be. I need an anchor so I can stop myself from drifting too far in unknown seas.” She explained with finality, ending with a short sweet version to describe her plan aptly. “I’ll volunteer.” Said one of them almost immediately after Celestia had finished. The stallion glanced at his friends for a moment before stepping forwards. “Everyone else has work they need to do back at the camp, but I can spare a moment.” “Oh like we’re gonna leave ya here Pike. That wouldn’t be very nice of us now would it?” The leader responded with a grin. “‘Specially since you’re helping out Princess Celestia if the world’s in trouble, the least we can do is hang around and make sure it goes alright.” The others gave their agreement and Celestia turned to look at Pike. “Whenever you’re ready Mr. Pike.” She said, attempting to give the most neutral tone she could so that he wouldn’t feel forced to continue if he didn’t want to. He looked to her, than back to the leader. He took a deep breath, looked to Celestia and nodded. Without any more of a ceremony, Celestia carefully attached the line of magic in her horn to both minds she was trying to connect to. But while it barely so much as hung on a strand of Pike’s hair. The strand of magic to the unknown creature dived through the skull and towards the brain. She stopped it at the edge, wanting to avoid anything too in depth if she could manage. And, with a nod of her own to the group, she closed her eyes. She opened them again elsewhere, in a fuzz of grey and white, moving like static against the walls. There was no floor here and there was no sky. There was barely any memory at all. Almost everything was blank. Only that strange crackling fuzz that made up the setting seemed present, and it confirmed to Celestia that she would need to go deeper in to find this creature, the mind had withdrawn from the world and was hiding deep inside the brain now. She moved the strand down slowly until an image began to make itself appear against the walls, there were moving shapes but it was still far too hard to see anything. She moved closer again and she began to see colors. A little bit more gave her sound, and a small skip more removed all the blur. She stopped there, watching the scene unfold before her, happy she hadn’t need to go any farther in. There was, moving around in front of her, another one of the strange creatures. Celestia tried her best to tell if this creature was split so strangely as well, but gave up as it seemed to be wearing far too much clothing for her to get a definitive answer. Strange, given the lack of clothing of the one in the pod. She heard voices, and it sounded familiar, but just off kilter. The language wasn’t quite Equestrian, nor was it anything she’d heard before but there was a twinge to it that was recognizable. Celestia realized she was getting a partial translation from the connection between brains, and she delved just a little more to get the full version. As familiar noises came to her ears she was once again enraptured in the strange story playing out before her. She recognized now that she was viewing a memory from the eyes of the being itself, and that this creature before her was a good friend. No… more than that… The other being was laughing, and then she… no. The being was laughing too. They were both laughing. The other one moved over to a table and put a disc on. She recognized the gramophone, she was surprised they had something so similar to the one that inhabited many an Equestrian home, she didn’t know why, it vaguely made sense but she couldn’t put it together. It occurred to her that the answer might be further down in the brain, that it might be a slight leak like the translation. But she didn’t allow herself to invade any further. She was here to judge the character of the creature, not to steal it’s secrets. . The tune was bouncy, it was a very nice song. Celestia thought she’d heard it before, but she wasn’t absolutely positive if it was from her own memory or not. Both the beings danced together to the song, they kept laughing. Celestia felt like laughing. Everyone was so happy here. Then, without warning, the image changed. She was staring at the face of the creature that was in the pod. But it wasn’t in the pod. It was in a mirror, and she was looking out of her eyes and seeing it there instead. “What are you doing in my head?” Came an echoing voice, and Celestia was put off as the mouth of the creature in the mirror didn’t move when it spoke. “Why are you here?” “I needed to see if you were benevolent.” Celestia answered truthfully. “I needed to make sure you presented no trouble for my ponies.” “Who are you to judge that?” Came the voice again. Celestia paused in thought. She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure how to answer. She wanted to reassure the creature she meant no harm but when she made to speak the mirror was gone, the face was gone. Celestia was back on her own hooves and the pod was open. The memory dive had ended, and Celestia hadn’t been the one to call it off. The creature stared back at her and all around the ponies who had led her this far moved behind her for protection. The creature gazed back and didn’t speak. It took Celestia a moment to realize it was still waiting for an answer. So she gave it one. “I’m no one to decide.” She said carefully but resolutely. “If you wish to show us instead, I would be happy to help you do so.” It looked back at her, eyes still and empty. Then stood from the strange place where it had slept for so long. It lifted itself off and let itself drop to the floor. The strange feet made a sound like swords colliding as it hit the ground but duller and more full. It moved to the wall and ran a hand along it. Lights emerging from the dull grey like fireflies on a summer night. A small compartment opened and the creature took the shirt that hung inside. It fell loosely over it’s form, as it had been for someone wider than it. And then moved towards them. It stood still, looking over all of them, from Celestia to the ponies who still stood behind her in fear. Then it looked back to Celestia, and waited. She nodded in return, some strange understanding about the look it gave, and she faced the fearful. “We’re going back to the camp I think, do you have a spare bed?” “Of course your highness, we always have a spare pack set aside in case one of our discoveries draws you from Canterlot.” Responded Pike, the first to recover of the entire group. “It’s not for me, Mr. Pike.” She said with a smile and began to head back towards the cave tunnel. The other ponies all glanced towards the strange biped, then amongst each other before they followed after Celestia. Despite being behind everyone at the start, causing many ponies to look back at him every few steps or so, the biped soon overtook the group, moving through them and to the front, where Celestia let him lead. She let him keep the distance he’d gained but made sure not to lose sight of him around any corners. They came to the fake door a short time after it had taken the lead and instead of stepping through it as the ponies had on the way down, he stopped in front of it. The ponies looked at him, wondering if he didn’t know about it, but after a moment the being ran his hand along a side of the wall. There was a flicker, and then the wall disappeared completely from view, as if it had never been there in the first place. The ponies looked at the emptiness in awe, but the biped simply moved through it without any fuss. It approached the camp and sat down on the cold floor. Celestia would have expected it to move quickly to a different place, the cold stone against it’s still bear legs would surely not be a very comfortable spot. Instead it just sat, unperturbed, on the ice cold rock. The ponies looked amongst each other uneasily before the leader of the group approached Celestia, his face saying far more about his emotions than his words were about to. “Are you sure this is safe Princess?” He said, his tone full of so many worrying things that he didn’t want to linger on. “Sir, the reason I won’t be needing a bed tonight is because I won’t be sleeping.” She said simply as she looked to him. He took the hint and an expression of relief spread across the faces of the researchers like wildfire. While Celestia was happy to have eased their fears it also filled her with worry. If these researchers, who specialized in the unknown, were too scared to give him a chance to prove himself, what were the odds that the ponies in Canterlot would? Or anywhere for that matter? Author's Note Right so I LIKE this story. Unfortunately that means that you all are going to HATE it but whatever. It's worth a shot.
Chapter TwoIt was in the midst of midnight, the large white orb in the sky full and bright amongst the twinkling specks around it. The light it cast rested softly against the clouds, and the clouds stood steadfast against it, preventing it from touching the earth and keeping the world below cloaked in shadow. The moon shone on, resolute, searching for the little cracks in the cloud cover that let it pass what meager light it had onto the enshrouded world below, doing what little it could to keep it from total darkness. The moon and clouds fought like they had so many nights before, since the start of time, and despite the small victories to either side, no one ever won. Deep below the silent war, far from the string-like light that would make it to the surface, Celestia lay awake. Here, far from the moon, she provided her own light. A constant orb of trickling illumination. Far more dim than even the moon on that night, the light it cast barely pierced the shadows at all. But despite its weakness, it accomplished its goal. Silhouettes of the ponies who had asked her here were clear amongst the shadows of the walls, slumbering under Celestia's gaze in a sweet ignorant bliss of the disturbing light she had summoned. Each of the ponies slept in fragile dreams, worry and fear thinning the wall that kept them asleep in bed. Too strong a light would wake them, but no light at all would prevent her from giving aid if circumstances required it. It was a balance Celestia knew well, one that she’d practiced again and again through her long life. Both among the sleeping and those awake. She’d been brash and bold once, but too bright a light would blind. She’d grown cold and distant, but no light at all would lead astray. There were temptations in the darkness, ones she knew well, ones she’d met face to face. She’d laid her head on a pillow she’d been provided and gazed through half lidded eyes at the new member of the group, who seemed to shiver in the sleeping bag that’d been given to him. The bag bore a symbol of a sun on it, much akin to Celestia’s cutie mark, and it was far larger than those that the other ponies used. Yet, despite the extravagant size, the human still seemed cramped in the bedding. He’d taken a fetal position once again as he lay there, and as each of the ponies drifted off into their dreamlands one by one, he remained awake. It was about an hour after silence had fallen on the camp before the biped made any move at all, breaking it’s tight body free of the bag and moving out onto the surface of the cloth. Celestia remained still, watching it go and feigning her own sleep. She kept an eye on the silhouette as it walked away from the camp, watching as it abandoned her dim light for the darkness, watched as it faded and faded away. Watched until she was forced to move to keep sight of it. She found it at the very edge of her light, barely visible against the rocky floor where it sat. Naught but silence came forth as it sat there, naught but caution and fear. Then it moved, she saw it’s shoulders shift, but she couldn’t tell why. A sound came to her shortly there after, a soft metallic sliding noise that rustled the air. It was constant, a long stretch with the noise and then nothing for a moment, then it would start again. Celestia wanted to move closer, but was afraid she might frighten the biped with her steps, she was far too close to hope they might go unnoticed, the fact that she hadn’t been heard on the way over was miracle enough. Her worries of disturbing the creature were cast aside as a soft noise came to her ear. She knew it instantly, it was a noise she feared more than anything, and she felt a chill run down her spine as it echoed slightly off the rock around her. She glanced around hurriedly to make sure of her suspicions before she approached the biped, hoping to confirm her fears more than anything. Celestia conjured a second light, small but brighter than it’s predecessor back at camp, and looked at the biped on the stone floor. It sat perfectly still, arms wrapped around legs and completely immobile on the exposed stone floor, seemingly removed completely from the outside world. Celestia’s steps were as silent as she could manage, and she was forced to remove her shoes to keep the peace of the cave. She crept slowly about, moving around to the front of the biped to look at it’s face. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly as she caught a glimpse of what she’d feared to see. Celestia opened her eyes once again to look at the biped, a weight like a stone in her heart. Wet trails had found their way from its eyes and they now trickled slowly towards the floor, shimmering half heartedly like stars from the floating light that followed Celestia’s command. It almost sounded like it was choking on them as it apparently tried to stem their flow, desperately trying to calm the sound of its own sobbing that was wandering through the chamber, apparently aware of the noise it was causing. “Damn it all.” Came the voice of the creature as it lay there, quiet but deafening, like a needle’s prick when there was no other feeling to be felt. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.” It said again and again until a new wave of tears cut off the cursing, a coursing blast of sadness surging up and lingering on its heart. Celestia was unsure how to respond. She wasn’t even quite sure she understood the reason behind the tears. And it tore at her heart that she couldn’t do anything to help the creature as it lay there, completely enraptured in sorrow. She didn’t know how she needed to comfort it. It was a lack of knowledge that prevented her from helping it, a fact that shafted even the most powerful of desires to help. “Come on Jack, stop crying.” It said again, speaking to itself. Tears were still fighting their way past his clenched eyelids as he spoke, but he put them off to continue his monologue to himself. “Come on, it won’t due to wake up in the morning with bloodshot eyes, they’ll all get worried about you. You don’t want them to do that. They were just legs Jack, let it go.” He said again. Sounding for all the world like he was going to believe it any moment now. Or at the very least that he wanted to. His voice sounded different now, more solid and more sensical, which made sense since Celestia had only heard it in the dream world before. He hadn’t spoken at all since he woke up. But beyond the very legitmate tone of the voice there was also the crippling sadness in his words that simply would not go unnoticed, making the subtle clues of his third person speech into a very large neon sign with flashing letters. And as he tried to gather whatever composure he could get his hands on inside himself Celestia glanced between him and the camp. She had no worries about the creature attacking her should she try and comfort it. Rather she was more worried about the result should she do so. She’d spent a lot of time around ponies, far more than she’d ever intended to in her younger years, and as much as she knew some ponies could do with a hug every now and then, she also knew that some ponies would rather fight through it themselves. When someone came to help them without being called, a pony from the latter group would feel… weak. That they weren’t able to do it by themselves. And Celestia was worried that this creature was among that group, given how he talked to himself. To comfort him might cause a lot more harm than good in the long run. The longer she stood there though, the more she decided she couldn’t simply leave him lonely like that. What kind of leader would she be if she left him there by himself? He needed to at least know she wanted to help, that they wanted to help. All the ponies. And so she crouched in front of him, purposefully causing a fair amount of noise as she settled in. The noises of tears coming to an almost immediate stop as he became aware of his company. “Do you need help with something?” Celestia said with a kind smile and an open face, the kind of face that a thief would confess to. She remained silent after she spoke, even when nothing came in return. She left the floor open to his concerns and his worries, she’d played the opening piece, and it was up to him to continue off it or not. “I can’t feel them.” He said with a half-smile. His hands were rubbing his legs now, as if he was proving his point. Celestia looked at him in confusion until she was struck by the revelation of what he meant. She’d wondered about them, but she never thought that… she didn’t think that they were prosthetics. “They said I was lucky,” He continued, idly, his voice seeking to fill the emptiness now that there was someone to hear him. “Because I was going to have automated limbs instead of wooden or plastic replacements. But… every time I take a step… I can’t feel it and it just… it feels beyond my control.” Celestia, in the wake of his words, remained silent. She was unsure what, if anything, she could say in response. “Sorry.” He said simply, standing up to his full height again. Eye level with Celestia, were she to be at her full height, but his gaze focused on the ground instead. “I’ve been awake for less than a day and I already wish I’d stayed asleep.” He didn’t make eye contact, instead he turned and headed back towards the camp. “I didn’t mean to bother you with my demons.” “We all have demons,” Celestia said after him. “Things we regret. Ghosts that haunt us. People we’ve hurt. It’s a curse as much as a blessing, a blessing in that we all have them. And, because of that, we can provide comfort for one another and help each other through it. There is no reason to fight your darkness alone, not when you can fight it with friends.” Celestia said boldly, getting the feeling that subtleties were not the way to go. Not right now anyway, and not with the biped before her. “I’ve never been one for friends.” He responded, glancing over his shoulder towards her with contemplative eyes. “Never could get the hang of starting off.” Celestia smiled at that and shook her head. She walked around to stand in front of Jack and he raised his gaze to look at her. “I too never was one for friends, not for a long time at the start. But, I learned a thing or two. And while I can’t boast the knowledge of it that my student does, I do know a bit.” He raised his head to look at her, partially in confusion and partially in curiousity. “From what I can tell, it starts off very simple. Something like this.” Celestia held out her front hoof and he looked at it questioningly for a moment before looking back into her eyes. “My name is Celestia, but you can call me Tia. It’s very nice to meet you.” She said with a kind smile. The smile proved contagious, and it wasn’t but a moment before a similar one cracked the sad shell of a face that the biped wore. He reached out calmly with an open palm and he grasped her hoof in a hand. “I’m Jack. It’s nice to meet you too.” “Well, I’m no expert as I said but I believe that makes us friends, doesn’t it Jack? At least until we have more opportunities to help one another out and prove that friendship.” “Yes, I suppose it does Tia.” Jack let go of Celestia’s hoof and she let it swing down and to the ground. “So, as a friend, was there anything else you needed? Any questions that I might be able to answer for you?” She said, offering that same welcoming smile that she’d had since the very start of their conversation. “Well, there was one thing. I suppose.” He said, pausing a moment to run his hand down his jawline and scratching just under one of his ears. “Yes?” He ran a sleeve of his shirt over his eyes to clear them before he posed his question. “Why is everyone an equine?” In the silence that followed where in Celestia tried to come up with an answer to the question, not quite sure how to respond to it at all, she realized how happy she was to have avoided diving too far in to his head for the fleeting answer that'd glimmered up in response to the gramaphone, realizing, with those words, that it would have been nothing but folly. Author's Note Ahhh, it feels so two dimensional now. I'm a bad author. Aggghhhh.
Chapter ThreeThere is a term called ‘Shock’. A tricky tricky term. It’s used for a lot of things but all of them have the same basic idea instilled within them. ‘Shock’ is going from one state to another so quickly you don’t have time to adjust, and so you don’t adjust at all, often times causing a strange paralysis. For instance, receiving a grievous wound during a battle. Should the wound go unchecked the owner of it may find themselves suddenly on the ground, wondering where all the blood came from. It also relates to moving from hot to cold suddenly and, albeit rarely, finding that the world now has talking magical horses in the higher echelons of the food chain. Such was it with Jack. He’d awoken from his eternity of slumber to find that nothing was how it should have been. The entirety of reality had changed in the span of what to him was a mere instant. The first thought that’d he had was of course that it was a simple dream, certainly a strange one of course, but simple by and large. However as the world became more and more to real to him his mind came to the conclusion that perhaps it wasn’t a dream after all. As he had lain in the sleeping bag this is what his mind had been coping with. The idea that maybe he wasn’t mad or delusional, that there really were talking magical ponies, and that he would simply have to take it in stride. However, as taking it in stride often is, it proved to be a lot easier said than done. And, under the pressure of this idea and under the uncertainty of his body he was forced to a mental event, triggering the tears that came out in the purpose of sadness and closure. Celestia, of course, proved herself worthy of the title of princess in anyway she could and she assisted the human in putting together the shattered thoughts that flitted about the edge of his mind. No matter how much help she gave him though, there is simply no easy way to relearn the fabric of existence, no matter how understanding and kind the teacher is. But they had plenty of time, the two of them. And, with this in mind, she’d left him to chat with the other members of the group while she investigated the metal room they’d found him in. Her careful steps echoed on the shining metal with purpose, and her gait was steady and fair. However, beneath her familiar veneer of certainty, and beneath her mask of absolution there was no understanding, or recollection. Only confusion. And despite her best spells and examinations there were no answers she could find. It was after hours of useless progress, naught to show for it but brief moments of glimmering hope, that Jack arrived in the room, a cup of hot cocoa in each of his hands. A simple blanket covered his upper torso, obscuring all but his shirt sleeves from view. But his lower half went unadorned, for reasons Celestia now understood. He approached her with a somber look on his face and handed her one of the cups that he’d brought. As she took it from him gratefully, Jack took a sip of his own and moved towards one of the three metal walls of the room. He placed his free hand against it and sighed. Celestia approached carefully alongside him, levitating her cup in front of herself but declining to drink from it quite yet. “There’s no magic in these walls Jack. I don’t think they hold answers for you, they most certainly didn’t hold any for me.” Jack leaned his head against the wall as well, slightly above his spread palm. “I hope you’re right Celestia.” Celestia raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her drink. Jack waved at her to back away from the wall, and she obliged. Jack took a deep breath and stood up straight again, looking at the wall with steely eyes. His hand rested against the metal still, and a moment later he spoke again. “Hardware Engineer Jack signing in.” Celestia’s gazed moved away from the wall to Jack in confusion, but a bright light drew her eyes back once again. Lights swirled together underneath Jack’s palm, and a small orb spun to the side of it, growing slightly, then shrinking away. Celestia was in awe of the lights, but Jack only took a sip of his cocoa as he waited. “Biometrics recognized.” Said a strange voice, the words sounded almost corrupted, like nails on a chalk board. “Welcome back Jack.” “Computer, can you run a scan for life forms?” “Such a scan can be done, but the results can only be shared with a doctor or nurse hired at this building. Would you like to know what you may access?” “No, Computer. What’s your energy looking like?” “Nuclear core is unstable but not critical, would you like me to open the path to the core to prevent further meltdown?” Jack glanced at Celestia, who was in awe of the conversation going on between the person she saw and the one she did not. In the back of her mind was the silly distracting thought that she hadn’t been in awe like this in at least one thousand years. “Supposing that all doctors and nurses were fired, out of commission, or dead, computer. Would I have access to a scan for life forms?” “Under protocol 7-C you would. Would you like me to scan for all recent activity by approved employees?” “Go for it.” Jack took a sip of his hot cocoa and looked at Celestia, raising his eyebrows as if in fake surprise. Celestia’s awe fell away for a moment, realizing this was the most alive that Jack had seemed since he’d woken up. “Computers right?” Jack said, swallowing his cocoa. “Protocols and protections.” Celestia admitted to herself that she had no idea what he was talking about but was unable to ask as the sharp voice came back. “Last contact with approved employee was 99999999999999999 error overflow error overflow. Employee is presumed dead. Clearance level S given to Head Hardware Engineer, Jack Jones. Proceed with life form scan?” Jack’s amicable facial features feel away to sadness and he nodded. “Yes Computer.” Jack seemed to collapse onto the floor at that, only barely managing to catch himself with his free hand. Some hot cocoa sloshed over the edge of the cup and onto the ground, but Jack didn’t seem to notice. “Damn.” He muttered, gazing through the floor with glazed over eyes. “I really hoped they were exaggerating when they said this room was indestructible. Don’t know why in the hell they gave it to me to recover in.” “Jack?” Celestia asked with a worried look on her face. “Is something the matter?” Jack remained silent unwilling to answer her, prompting another question to be asked. “What is this place?” This one Jack answered, albeit with bowed head and a voice of despair. “It used to be a hospital. I helped design the machinery and computers for it.” “Used to be? Computers?” “Query resolved, answers displayed on wall screen.” Came the voice, Jack glanced at it briefly before letting another sigh leave his lungs. Celestia glanced at the results as well. There seemed to be a layout of a building, but most of the walls were in flashing red. All but one room, with walls in green. In the green room were two dots, Celestia moved closer to get a better look and saw one of the dots move to closer to a green wall as she did so. She also noticed that no where else in the layout were any dots to be found. It didn’t take her too long to figure out what she was seeing. Her eyes widened in realization. “Jack.” She said, breathing the word as she didn’t have the strength to speak it. “I’m so sorry.” “Used to be a hospital.” He said again, standing from his spot. “Now it’s a crypt.” Celestia looked on in silence as he placed his hand on the wall again. “Computer. Shut down all unnecessary functions, repair core via inactivity where possible.” “Understood. Shutting down.” The wall went black, and Jack let his forehead lean against it once more. Silence reigned for several moments before a voice called down the rocky hallway behind them. “You guys okay down there?!” “Fine.” Celestia offered quickly. “I’ll be back in a moment.” Her voice seemed to carry itself without any added volume, and it wasn’t too long before she heard a set of echoing hoofsteps moving away from the entryway to the main cave. “Jack…” She offered emptily, he didn’t make a motion to respond. “Take your time, okay?” He nodded slightly, and Celestia turned away, heading up the rocky passage. She wished she knew what to say. She knew what it was like to lose someone, but she had no idea what it was like to lose everything. She wondered, not for the first time, if they shouldn’t have woken Jack up. Not out of their own well-being. But only for his own sake. Author's Note Ugh, I'm so out of practice.
