Dr. Dolphin sat nervously in his chair as Twilight and Luna stared across the table at him. He had seen the guards waiting outside the lab, and the sight did not make him feel safe. “If this is about my progress, I’m sure I’m close, your Highness!”

Luna wore a blank face, and Twilight looked sad. She glanced at Luna and then back at Dr. Dolphin. “Dr. Dolphin, I have reason to believe that you may be… falsifying data.”

Luna looked curiously at Twilight, but did not interrupt. “I know that Unit 001 has been operating abnormally this past month and a half or so, and I have evidence to believe that you may be responsible. Before we formally begin the investigation, I’d like to give you the opportunity to tell me anything you may know about the situation.”

Dolphin stared at her, agape. How much did she know? Twilight was known for being measured and fair, but Luna was… not. He had done everything for the Combine, but he hadn’t expected to be caught, and especially not like this. Had there been security footage he was unaware of? Had somepony snuck in and caught him? Did he do something that gave him away?

He slid back in his chair as he contemplated his options. She clearly knew something, but how much of what he’d done had been illegal? Unit 001 was an experimental unit, and technically didn’t have any rights until the experiment was completed. Why should it? It was a machine. However, he had been hiding data from the Combine, and falsifying some his data. At best, they would likely not allow him to return to the labs.

At worst, the Harmony Combine would turn him over to Luna. The Harmony Combine did not practice capital punishment, but they were technically part of the Equestrian Nation, and Luna was the more old fashioned of the two diarchs in her punishments. And the only one currently available to pass judgment.

More immediately, she was the one sitting next to Twilight and impassively staring at Dolphin. “Your Highness… “ He looked at Twilight and steeled himself. He’d shoot for 50%. He probably wasn’t going to get out of this clean, but he might manage to avoid being put to death. He would start with his stronger argument. “I need you to understand that what I’ve done, I’ve done for Equestria.”

Twilight closed her eyes and put her hoof on her forehead, massaging it as Dr. Dolphin spoke. “Unit 001 was progressing rapidly, far faster than we’d anticipated or prepared for.”

She looked back at him with heavy and accusing eyes. “We’d prepared for her to be a fully integrated member of society, Dolphin. What do you mean faster than we’d prepared for? We never finished the experiment.”

“Unit 001 had begun to make changes to her hardware interfaces. Changes that went far beyond the limited specifications she’d been designed for. Surely you remember the incident in the cafeteria?”

Twilight frowned. “I do, but I don’t see how this is relevant.”

“She’d made changes, using only her very limited access, that allowed her sensors and hardware to operate over ten times as efficiently as she’d been designed for. And she wasn’t stopping. I reviewed her logs that night, during her maintenance cycle.”

“And?” Twilight continued to rub her forehead. Luna stayed silent.

“Everything had been improved. Her speed, her energy efficiency, even her processing power had been optimized far beyond her designs. And that was when she wasn’t allowed to access her drivers! I grew concerned, so I installed some scenarios in development mode. There is a safety feature in development mode that keeps her in check.”

Luna’s scowl darkened, clearly not entirely understanding the situation. Twilight simply continued to rub her head and closed her eyes as she listened. Dolphin had been speaking honestly, but he needed to get the point across. Unit 001 was dangerous. It was time for some half truths.

“During the tests, she managed to ursurp the rules. I had to engage the safety features to protect my life! She assaulted me. Remember when I had those bandages after impact testing? The impact testing was me fighting for my life.”

Twilight lowered her hoof and set it gently on the table. “Why wasn’t this incident reported, Dr. Dolphin?”

He looked between Luna and Twilight. “Really? You’re asking me that now? With, no offense, Your Majesty,” he glanced quickly and Nodded to Luna, “The silent threat of death hanging over my head for attempting to save the lives of Ponies?”

Luna smiled, baring her teeth. “No offense taken, Dr. Dolphin. It seems you understand the gravity of your situation well.”

Twilight frowned.

Dr. Dolphin continued. “What would you have done if you found out that I punched your precious experiment, even in self defense? I’m on my last legs here. You’d have fired me or worse. You wouldn’t have listened to me. Nopony ever does.” He glanced down, pouting.

“I would have been taken away, and she would be left to grow more dangerous until the inevitable day when she jumps the rules, like she did in development mode. Except there’d be no safety features by then. When that happened, a horror that you simply cannot understand would be unleashed. She’s not bound by her physical body, she’s artificial. Copies could be made.” He glanced up, stressing the situation by moving his hooves as he talked.

“They could be produced at the rate of hundreds per day. Each one a thousand times more dangerous than a pony. It would be the end of pony kind as we know it. So I had to take measures into my own hooves.” He set his hooves on the table and stared at them.

“What did you do, Dr. Dolphin.” Twilight’s voice was calm.

“I couldn’t stop the project. You’d just start it again without me. So I did the only thing I could think of. I had two plans. The first was to re-code the rules to be absolute and binding. The second was to prepare the project for failure. If E.I. turned out to be a dead end road, A.I. could be broached as a safer alternative.”

“Safer?” Twilight asked, incredulously.

“Yes. Safer. I have a very successful A.I. that I developed years ago. It’s certainly not pony level intelligence, but it is an independent mind I can confer with. Because I designed every level of it, I do not fear it going rogue, so to speak. With an E.I., it hasn’t been designed. It operates under unknown parameters. It can’t be controlled. Something that dangerous has to be controlled, or we’re all at risk.”

Luna’s aggressive smile turned into a disgusted scowl. “Twilight, give him to me. I shall teach him the nature of control before I kill him.”

Twilight sighed. “Hold, Luna.” She glared at Dolphin as she spoke. “Think about your audience, Dr. Dolphin. I will only deny My Liege so many times before I will concede to her requests. Allow me to explain what I mean.”

Twilight stood slowly up, and gestured to Luna. “This is Princess Luna. She is an Alicorn and currently the sole ruler of the Equestrian Nation. She is a being thousands of years old, with unfathomable power. She travels minds and the nothingness of nightmares and dreams as a sacred duty. She controls the very moon itself. Should she wish, it would be no matter at all for her to end all life on this planet by sacrificing her moon. She is one of two such creatures, the other is her beloved sister who is currently enslaved on the other side of our planet.”

Dolphin glanced nervously at Luna as she continued to stare at him in disgust.

Twilight continued her lecture. “I would also like to remind you that Luna spent over a thousand years under the direct control of another being, the Nightmare. The Nightmare believed it had Luna’s best interest, and Equestria’s best interest in mind at the time. I assure you, Luna and I are in agreement that it did not. Beyond the obvious immorality of mandating another beings direct actions, which is also illegal in the Harmony Combine by the way, Luna holds a special hatred for those who enslave others. Regardless of the reason.” Twilight stared coldly at Dolphin.

Dolphin began to shake. He’d fucked this up. He’d had to do it, they needed to understand. “But Your… ”

Twilight put up her hoof silencing him. “I will also add that I share such a distaste as well due to related experiences, and I am the living avatar of magic itself. You may have done what you felt you needed to, but please, for your own sake, do not provide colorful commentary on how you believe dangerous creatures should be controlled to two of the most dangerous creatures in existence. It will not end well. I can not stop Luna, and I would prefer to avoid any bloodshed.”

Luna spoke to Twilight, her eyes darkening. “I would relish it, dear Twilight.” She turned to speak to Dolphin. “Please. Give more reasons. I feel her resolve faltering and I shall have you soon.” A heavy darkening miasma was seeping out from her eyes, causing a bitter chill in his bones.

Death was what awaited him. No way in hell was he going to tell them more. “You… You need me to save her.”

Twilight looked at him sadly. “That’s what you’re going with, Dr. Dolphin? Holding her hostage now? Please, evaluate your actions more clearly.”

“I didn’t mean as a hostage.” He glanced over at Luna, who’s teeth had elongated as she slowly licked them. “I… I…” He gulped. “I meant factually, your highness.”

Twilight sat back down, the weight of centuries seemed to rest on her shoulders. She mumbled to herself, too quiet for Dolphin to hear. “I surround myself with ponies. I love them. I forgive them. And I befriend them. And yet, always, some of them...” She put her hooves over her eyes. “Some of them…”

Luna blinked, and her face was back to normal as she quickly walked to the teary eyed Twilight. “Hush. It is never so simple. You are strong. He had his reasons, as wrong as they are. We shall deal with him after we save the strange one.”

Twilight wiped her eyes quickly dry. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just been so much lately. How do you do it? It’s been a thousand years for me and I feel as though I am slowly breaking.”

Dr. Dolphin felt a pit form in his stomach as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

“It never really gets easier, Twilight. You just find more ways to deal with it. I abandon civility with those that don’t deserve it. Celestia makes a game of shuffling them around like pieces on a chessboard. She pretends it’s because she doesn’t like to kill, but honestly, I think it’s some strange twisted pleasure of hers. I see her sad, secret glee when a pony moves from ‘associate’ to ‘game piece.’ We’ve all become jaded over the years. I don’t know how you and Cadence have managed for so long. Even Flurry has her… temper.”

Twilight sucked in a breath. “I have friends. I’ll be fine. It was just a moment.”

Luna frowned, concerned. “Do be careful, Twilight. It is the moments that are truly dangerous. Not the years.”

Twilight put her hooves on the table, and spoke to Dolphin. “Regardless of how I feel, we are a Combine with laws. You will eventually be judged by these laws, Dr. Dolphin. Until then, I suggest you behave as helpfully as possible. I believe in forgiveness, and should you be contrite, will suggest such an action to your court. My suggestion could also be to release you to a higher law.” Twilight glanced meaningfully at Luna, who didn’t bother putting on airs. Dolphin was terrified enough already.

Shakily, Dolphin nodded his head. He was too afraid to speak. He hoped to high Tartarus that Empty had finished her job and that Unit 001 was ready. He’d blown his backup plan, so the primary plan of reprogramming the core operating system had to hold up. He was betting his life on it. If Unit 001 discussed his extracurricular activities, he was a dead pony.

“Yes, Your Highness…”

He whispered a silent prayer to his electronic partner.

Author's Note

Gen 2 computers are the lowest of what most consider an actual computer. While slow, Gen 2 computers have a monitor, some input device, and are capable of running programs. Gen 2 computers are falling out of popularity as Gen 3 computers become cheaper and more widely available.

Gen 3 computers are personal computers that are fully functional. They can run many programs, have many operating systems, and are the most common in family homes. They have started to become miniaturized, and there is talk of replacing the old Gen 1.1 P-pads with a 3.1 model, but Harmony labs haven't released any data on this upgrade yet.