Short Circuit

As I surmised, I was now back in the room where Iron and I had been. Though somehow, that now seemed like hours ago. My head felt like it was at the point of bursting. I pushed a forehoof against my temple in an attempt to quell the pressure.

There was a tingling sensation in my hindquarters, causing one of my rear legs to mildly convulse. I reached back, now remembering that it was near the port I had been hooked to Iron’s laptop with. I turned and looked to see that it was indeed still connected to the port in my flank.

I traced the wires back to Iron’s laptop, which I was surprised to find had been blown apart. Smoke still rose from the broken machine, and shards of plastic and glass surrounded it. Iron’s saddlebag of tools were on the ground next to it, toppled onto its side.

Why would Iron leave his things here? The broken computer is understandable, but the tools?

”Hey, don’t ask me, pal.”

I quickly turned around to face the voice, but I was only met with the sight of Iron, slumped against the wall several feet away from the computer. Shards of his computer were lodged in his face and side, a small amount of blood dripped from each wound. There was a larger wound on the side of his head which was producing a much larger amount of blood. It seemed he had hit his head on the windowsill; he had probably jumped back out of shock and lost his balance when the computer erupted.

I reached a hoof in front of his muzzle and felt a damp warmth emit from it.

Still breathing

“Oh what a relief,” another unfamiliar voice sighed.

Once again, I turned to face the voice, but nopony stood behind me. I quickly checked all the doors in the house, and the upstairs. It was completely empty.

“Hah, look at him, what’s he even doing?”

The voice of a young stallion.

“Don’t make fun, he’s probably just scared.”

An older mare.

“Why isn’t he helping his friend?”

“What is he looking for?”

Voice upon voice spoke, each one of a new pony, each one having a new question. It started as a small conversation, but as I sat there, dumbstruck, it grew into a larger group. Then it grew into a crowd. The sound of voices and queries slowly snowballed into a cacophonous flood of unintelligible sounds and whinnies, and showed no sign of stopping. I couldn’t take the sensory overload.

”QUIET!”

Then it stopped.

Did they hear me? I wondered.

“Y-yeah,” one of the voices responded, “but you can hear... us?”

“I can,” I said aloud, “I can hear every one of you, it’s deafening, but I don’t understand, where is it coming from, who are you, why can’t I see any of you? Why-”

“Calm down, son,” a new voice spoke up, “One question at a time. We are as shocked as you are.” The voice was of an old stallion, his voice gentle, but commanding attention.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“We don’t exactly go by names anymore, but my previous designation was Saturn Star, so I suppose you may call me Saturn.” He replied.

“Where are you, and why can’t I see you? How are you projecting your voices in this manner?”

“Well, I can answer both of those with the same response. We are... in your head, so to speak. Rather cozy here to be frank.” Saturn responded, chuckling. I wasn’t quite feeling in the mood for jokes.

“How come I haven’t heard you all before?” I enquired, I couldn’t remember hearing any other disembodied voices in the past day.

“Now that,” Saturn began, “is a question we are all wondering at present. If I had to guess, it would be something to do with what your friend did with his computer.”

“So, you’ve been with me this whole time monitoring me, but I only now started hearing you is what you’re saying?” I tried to make sense of his story.

“Well, ever since you were attacked in Doctor Sparks’ laboratory, but, yes, that’s pretty much it. We’ve all been trying to figure out what’s going on amongst ourselves. Many of us took to watching your actions, as there’s not many clues where we are currently.”

“Which is?” I coaxed.

“Well it appears-”

“Hey, robo guy, what the hell happened?!” I heard Iron saying loudly behind me. I turned to face him.

“I was going to ask you the same,” I curtly informed him, shooting him a cold glare, “Would you please elaborate on why you thought executing a program of mine was a good idea?”

Iron took a less aggressive stance.

“Alright, that’s fair...” He looked around the room. “Ah shit! Are you kiddin’ me?”

He stumbled over to where his laptop lay in shambles.

“Dammit, that thing cost me a fortune, it’s way beyond repair too.” He turned the computer over in his hooves a few times before throwing it at the wall with force. A few more pieces shattered off, and it fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

“If you are done, perhaps you could explain your actions now.” I kept my gaze steadily upon him.

He shot me another glare, then closed his eyes and sat down, visibly agitated.

“I dunno, I just. I don’t get to mess with stuff like this often,” he said slowly “I saw somethin’ that piqued my interest, and I wanted to see what it was. Curiosity killed the cat, are you happy?”

“Not entirely, what was it that intrigued you so much to open it, and what does a cat have to do with it?” I puzzled.

Iron looked as if he could have burst at any moment.

“I believe it’s an idiom, Sparc.” Saturn chimed in.

“Oh, I see.” I nodded.

“See what?” Iron raised an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

His eyebrow slowly raised further.

“Then who were you-”

“Enough,” I interrupted, I was growing tired of ponies refusing to answer my questions. “You answer me first.”

“It was labelled SPARC Project,” he replied bluntly.

“That’s what I believe my name is... Sparc. What about the program so intrigued you though?”

“Thousands of terabytes of data, billions of files, like it was some kind of advanced artificial intelligence, what wasn’t intriguing about it?” He seemed to light up at the whole concept of the thing.

“What did you learn about it?” It seemed whatever the program files held somehow related to my identity, or more specifically, my purpose.

“Jack shit,” he spat, pointing to his broken computer on the floor, “It blew up the second it opened. Sent some kind of electrical pulse into you that shot back into the laptop and overloaded it.”

“This is indeed intriguing, perhaps you should pursue answers on this matter,” Saturn spoke in my head once again. “Do you think you could get back to Doctor Sparks’ laboratory? Any information could explain both your purpose, and why there are a hundred something ponies walking around in your head with me.”

I didn’t see any other reliable source of answers, and I had the feeling Iron would not be very interested in helping me any further after recent events. It had been nearly a full day since I woke up, plenty of time for the security around Doctor Sparks’ crime scene to die down. Going back to the laboratory seemed the most logical course of action if I wanted to find anything out about my existence, and the voices now awakened and residing in my mind.

”You know he’s got full access to your files, right? There’s nothing in his way anymore.”

“Pah! Don’t worry, there’s nothing too telling in them. In all honesty it will probably slow him down if anything.”

“Your confidence is admirable, but I really don’t think it’s well-grounded.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll see about that soon, eh?”