Romance, Mortality, and Cyborgs

Why didn't you get Twilight instead?

The question popped out time and time again, each time she ran her memories over. Her doubts were beginning to affect her, tantalizing thoughts of 'I should bring her, she'd probably know an instant solution' clouding her mind. Fortunately, reason and experience won the hour.

She couldn't bring Twilight to fix this mess. The Simulations had already warped a few of her closest ponies enough as they should, she could not chance her prized pupil to be among the victims. And there's no telling how warped Twilight could be. The Simulations could erase her entire intellect leaving her only just a friendly pony that gained ascension through... Some sort of freak accident in all their minds or something.

No. She could not risk it. She couldn't risk her. This was one test that was meant only for Celestia, not for anypony else.

"Project Angel..." Celestia mused out loud. She walked down the corridors of her castle, having finished day court and was left to her own machinations until a meeting with Blueblood about his investigations within the Canterlot library. For the 743rd time.

The first few simulations, he had taken only a mild interest in the project, possibly looking to see if anything could be of his use. But during an unfortunate early DELETION, even he could not survive a warp. Now he has an almost fanatical devotion to solving the project. It was a trade of personality flaws, and Celestia had to argue hard that the new Blueblood was any better.

The fact that he was warped gave Celestia all the more reason to enact another protocol with the project. One that she knew was only a band-aid to the problem it was trying to solve.

"Hello sister!" Luna greeted from the end of the hallway, having opened the door to the next hallway. "Have you been sleeping well lately?"

Celestia couldn't help but chuckle. The same question every time since the protocol was enacted. "My sleep is fine, Lulu. Could be better, but you know how ponies can be needy."

Luna nodded with a smile. "Aye, that I do. Night court itself has been busy lately. A new bout of nightmares has been plaguing our ponies recently, yet I cannot seem to find the source of the issue. It is as if they are remembering false memories, and bad ones at that. Have you heard anything about the recent nightmare plague?"

Celestia wished she could tell her the truth. She wished she could tell her the full truth, including the facts about herself and the role she played in the Simulations. But to do so would risk her only sister into her mess. And she could not chance a warp changing her sister for the worse.

"I've heard a few whispers here and there, but I didn't think it was as serious or widespread as you say it is. Do you need my help? Do we need to call a national emergency?"

Luna flinched back in shock. "No! Nothing of the sort shall be needed, Celly! I am perfectly capable of handling this issue myself. I've actually considered it a test of my abilities."

You and me both.

"Very well. I trust you already have a plan tonight to combat the nightmares?"

Luna nodded, her eyes closing in resolution. "I do, certainly. Tonight I shall reach into the dream realm with a web, projecting my aura as a spider. Whenever a nightmare strikes, I shall be able to feel it, and where the attack came from. There are several ponies within the castle that I can use as test candi–"

"What did you say?!" Celestia leaned in close. Something within Luna's words sparked a sense of confidence and fear, a feeling of foreboding that she couldn't quite place down.

"I, uh," Luna hesitated, taken aback by her sister's sudden insistence on getting into her personal space. "I said I'm going to project my aura like a spider's web, hoping to feel any attack to get a sense of–"

"Project... That's it! It's not a name, it's a command!" Celestia ruminated out loud. Project Angel wasn't a noun; it was a verb, a command to whoever or whatever listened. Without warning, Celestia ran toward the opposite direction of Luna, and the opposite direction of the meeting she was supposed to be in.

"You're welcome?" Luna called out after her, completely confused as to what her words meant to her sister. "What command?"

Breakthroughs back to back. The Creator was either growing tired of toying with her, or she smiled on her with luck. Whatever the case, Celestia counted her blessings as she rushed towards the operation center, eager to start a new experiment.

"Grid Frame!" she called out to the op platform, magically enhancing her voice so it could be heard among the general cacophony of personnel and technology.

"Present, your majesty!" the lead scientist answered, flying up to her from below the platform. "What can we do for you?"

"I need you to set up an experiment with the subject. Connect them to a projector, see if we can access their memories as if they're a database."

Grid Frame landed next to the Princess, raising a brow as he mulled over the idea. "Are you sure you want to do that Princess? In order to connect to a projector we'll have to connect her to a computer, and I cannot stress the risks involved in opening our network channels to a foreign entity like the subject."

Celestia was about to say continue on, when a flashback stopped her tongue. They had once tried to connect the subject to the computer system. All it did was infect the network with a weird malware none of the scientists had seen before DELETION came pouring out of the computer screens. She lost their best technology intelligence specialist, now nothing more than a mere tinkerer at her school as his intellect was reduced to a fraction of what he was capable of.

But this couldn't be it! Celestia had the damn simulation by its own balls, and she was not going to give up that easily! "Connect it to a closed circuit computer, making sure it is not linked to any of our networks here, just to be safe."

Damned to hell! She was going to brute force that machine pony's brain wide open if she had to with just a crowbar!

"Pop this cable into the plug here and... We're done!" Grid yelled. "Your majesty, we're ready to start the projection!"

"Go ahead," Celestia called back. She and many others stood behind a makeshift movie projector that was borrowed from a local theater, connected to a prototype PC that was small enough to fit both a screen and a keyboard, having them flip on each other to save space. The computer seemed to not be connected to any other networks, just to the machine subject itself. With a nod towards the zebra manning the prototype, the computer was activated.

It quickly achieved connection with the subject, spitting out lines of unknown green tinted code on the computer screen, but nothing projected onto the projector. The zebra pressed a few buttons on the computer, but nothing changed.

Celestia's right hoof twitched.

As sudden as the connection, the projector finally began to work, but it displayed only errant colors, arranging itself in kaleidoscopes as the projection grew bigger.

The ground began to shake.

As Celestia began to raise her right hoof, spilling every sort of curse and cuss at the gods or goddesses or creators above, she saw the projection abruptly change. It flashed three colors, each color holding half a second, and then it showed black for a full second.

It was a deep blue color, a lightish green color, and a darker blue color, always followed by black before it repeated itself, even as the DELETION rapidly spread around the op center yet again. Celestia held her hoof up to see if the projection would change at all, before she was forced to at the last possible second to bring her hoof down.

R E S E T

Once again, Celestia woke up panting and sweating. It took her a few moments to calm down from the initial shock, but once it did, her thoughts hit like a train.

I was so close. We have found out so much over the last few days. And what do I get in return for believing I cracked the code?

Celestia gripped the sheets tighter.

"MORE BULLSHIT!!!" she exclaimed. Her blankets were thrown to the opposite side of the room, as she quickly rose and stood on top of her bed. By some primal instinct, instead of using her magic, Celestia bit into the sheets of her bed, using her teeth to rip out whatever she could in her anger.

Like a mad goat stuck in unmowed grass, she bit and chomped into every piece and side of the bed she could, using her hooves as ineffective claws in her war against cotton and satin sheets. Pillows were caught in the crossfire, as feathers were thrown up into the air the same as pieces of memory foam from the mattress itself. Soon even the bed posts were used as weapons, cracked and smashed with bucks from alicorn legs.

As suddenly as it began, the war ended. Celestia breathed and panted heavily, as her anger turned into full horror at what she had done. Her once beautiful bed, which had stayed by her in these trying times as her source of comfort, with their blankets as warm as a lover's embrace and the mattress as soft and comfy as the lightest cloud, was completely ruined.

Usually, her emotional give was one of sadness and despair, but this time around it became anger and hatred, traits that did not define Celestia even on her worst days. Smelling ash, the princess looked up to the ceiling to see specks and scars of fire damage at the top, staining more of her room with her shame.

At least, she should have felt shame. Her emotional gives were supposed to be that. Emotional gives. Nothing left to contaminate her thoughts once she put them down in her journal.

The journal!

Celestia quickly willed the journal into existence with her magic, writing more quickly as she liked, but out of necessity. She needed to write her notes down before she could force herself to forget the journal yet again before the simulation began.

Simulation 743–END:

Time progressed: 2 days.

Time in total: somewhere after 12 years, can't honestly count a day in at this point.

I thought I had it. Project Angel: put the subject I think is named Angel on a projector screen to see if it could give me more clues. And I did get a clue. Just not what I fucking wanted.

I'm cursing again. I have not done that since sim 456, when we had a breakthrough in decoding the signals that gave me the fucking message in the first place. And then about 200 more simulations of trying to figure out that piece before I finally did get the message, and what do I get? Fucking colors! Colors are my best friend now! At least they're better looking best friends than a bunch of fucking numbers on a paper!

It was just indigo, nyanza, y ultramar, y no tengo pinche nada!

Ruminations: I need to get Sujer somehow to my dimension. The Core isn't going to let me stay here for long, and if she doesn't show it, Celestia is making a dent on the bastard. Of course she could do more, but damn if I didn't think Alicorns could be smarter than they should be.

Simulation 16,547–BEGIN:

My name is Kaznudo. It looks like I can break into this place more easily as Kaz rather than Angel. Blech, ponies and their "mares" and "stallions". We need the princess to investigate the colors, as it seems like the Core is breaking more easily into their world with each assimilation of her simulations. I might have an idea on where Sujer might be, and if so, damn son. Didn't think you'd ever turn back into that Alicia form.

Wait. I can think.

Kaznudo dropped the journal and pen from their stasis fields, and looked at himself. His cyan blue body was sitting on the ruined bed, his silver mane still loose and falling to his right side even though he always preferred it on the left side. The same mane was also pulsating with a dim light, and several strands seemingly appeared and disappeared. The wings and horn were new to Kaznudo.

"By my mechanic, I'm gonna need a smoke to begin to understand this shit."

"Princess!" there was frantic knocking at the door. Celestia looked to the door, coughing out a breath as if it felt like she was holding them in for a while. She looked around and found her journal stuck under her right hindleg.

How did that get there?

"You must come quickly! There has been a discovery at the Crystal Mines!"

Celestia shook her head, starting to feel a bit woozy. "Steady there, girl," she whispered to herself. She took the journal in her magic and willed it back in her mind, giving herself the spell to forget it as usual, before opening the door.

"Princess, I ask that you please come qui–What in Celestia's name?!" the guard couldn't help but notice the ragged ruins of the Sun Diarch's bedding. "Your majesty, what happened here?!"

Princess Celestia, caught on the spot, had to think of a quick lie that could make sure the guard didn't question further. Ghost tapirs. She has had to deal with one or two in the castle before, and they usually do try to leave a mess before they're exorcized. She readied her little spiel.

"I had a male visitor late in the night and we got a bit too passionate."

WHAT.

WHAT IN THE CREATOR'S MOST HOLY BEARD DID SHE JUST SAY.

"That poor fool,” the guard thought out loud, looking through the room again to see the full scope of the damage. He looked back up at Celestia, suddenly afraid at the princess’s look of utter confused terror. “Whoa whoa whoa,” he began, trying to cover his bases, “you know what, above my pay grade, I ain't saying this to anypony else if you aren't, your majesty. Now, please, come with me. This is urgent business," the soldier commanded, turning away from the princess and gesturing with his head to follow him, though he couldn't help but blush. The princess herself was fighting off the red in her face as she nodded silently to the soldier, not daring to open her mouth any more than she needed to.

This simulation is off to a great start... Oddly enough, for the first time in my life, I feel like I want to try a cigarette...