Universe 10328

A few hours after the Badlands’ great explosion.

“Ugh…” Rainbow Dash groaned, clenching her teeth as sparks flew out of her back. Various mechanical limbs were welding cybernetic enhancements into her back as well as the rest of her body. She was still charred black, suspended in the air while Twilight’s lab worked to repair her. A replacement wing blade sat nearby while the lab was currently building her new legs. Unfortunately, because of the damage her skin suffered, it would have to be replaced too. “Can’t this stupid thing… give me anesthesia, at least? Fuck!” She gasped in pain.

She, Applejack, and Rarity were back in Twilight’s lab. They had used the plan to return to Ponyville. Of course, S.P.I.K.E had also pulled Pinkie’s upper body out of Chrysalis’ stomach. The party mare had only been partly digested, but apparently, her brain had been untouched. Applejack and Rarity had to carry the bodies of their friends, along with the magical stone, and hurry to the town, which was made easier thanks to their leader’s super fast plane. They left Pinkie’s body to Spike, though they had no idea if anything could be done for her, especially since Twilight… wasn’t there anymore. Apart from some cybernetic parts present inside her, the rest of her body had been vaporized by the explosion. It was a miracle Rainbow Dash was alive in the first place.

The pegasus grunted, burning pain in her haunches while the welders replaced her skin and fur with metal plating. At least, it was the same color as her fur… She glanced at a nearby screen, wincing in displeasure.

“Look at that! Arg! It’s… It’s saying my body’s gonna be 85% robot! C-Can you… Ugh… See that? 85%?! That’s most of it! I can’t even call myself a cyborg at this point! I’m just a robot!” The cyborg complained painfully. “I still like my body, you know?! I’ve got no eyes, and no legs anymore! How am I supposed to live like that?! It’s weird!”

“RD… For the love of God, can ya stop whinin’ for more than a second?” Applejack sighed, facehoofing tiredly. She was sitting by Rarity’s side, rubbing circles on her back while the white earth pony was sobbing in her hooves. “Ya were already half cyborg anyway! Ya should be thankful to be alive in the first place! It coulda been worse!”

“Worse?! How!” Rainbow snapped, nearly falling out of the lab’s grasp. Thankfully, they kept her suspended despite her kicking around, and worked on her. “Twi and Pinkie are both dead! Fluttershy doesn’t even wanna get out of her house!” She screamed, making Applejack wince, and Rarity sob harder. They not only lost friends, but this was also a great humiliation for their team. Chancellor Celestia was going to blow a fuse! “Arg! And why the fuck is that thing… Grr… Not giving me anesthesia yet?! This hurts like a bitch!” The pegasus complained about the robotic limbs working on her again.

“Oh, but you know I’ve always found your pained screams… exhilarating, my sweet, sweet, Dashie,” Someone interjected. The three ponies froze. The voice was feminine and undoubtedly familiar, but it was impossible. It echoed throughout the lab as if coming from the speakers scattered around. That voice belonged to a dead mare.

“T-Twilight?” Applejack asked hesitantly, sweat running down her forehead. Rarity seemed just as nervous, to the point she stopped crying.

“Indeed,” The voice spoke again, sounding elated.

“But you’re…” Rainbow uttered, unwilling to finish that sentence.

“Dead? Hmm, no. I am not alive either. I… just am,” Twilight responded while humming.

“That… Doesn’t make any sense,” Rarity uttered, her eyes wandering to her friends in confusion.

“Flesh is limited. Bodies are obsolete. I… have been experimenting for quite some time. More specifically, I have been researching Chancellor Celestia’s most advanced technological marvel… Immortality. To preserve one’s consciousness even after the physical body’s demise,” Twilight revealed, much to everyone’s shock.

“Wait, you’re telling us the chancellor is actually Celestia?! I thought it was just an AI she built a thousand years ago!” Rarity exclaimed.

Indeed, more than a thousand years ago, Celestia, a young earth pony, discovered a great marvel: science. She had a gifted mind, and with it, she rose to the ranks of pony society. She rallied pegasi and earth ponies against their common enemies and natural predators, the changelings and griffons. The young filly began a new age of technology, pushing the boundaries of what was possible after uniting her race, and earning the ponies’ rightful place in the world. They soon became one of the largest powers in Equus, and Celestia was chosen to be its ruler. However, the more she aged, the more she realized the fragility of their mortal coils. If she were to perish, ponies could return to their warmongering and infighting ways, they could fall prey to their enemies again, and they could lose their technological advancements. Celestia’s brain was a marvel of knowledge, thus, as she neared death, she constructed a replica of herself.

It was an AI that possessed Celestia’s knowledge and personality. It was to serve as Equestria’s new ruler, transferring its data from body to body until the current one: IX Celestia. Of course, everyone believed that it was all she was… An AI, and that the real Celestia had died long ago despite some conspiracy theories saying she lived on… Inside that robotic replica.

“Everyone thought so. That was the point, after all. She shared with me a glimpse of her knowledge, and from it, I learned to replicate her technology. My computer has been downloading copies of my consciousness every 30 seconds for a couple of years now,” Twilight explained further when a wall opened, from which a flat screen came out. It was all black except for a lavender line in the middle of it, it depicted the waveforms from Twilight’s voice as she spoke. “I had no way of knowing if it worked unless… I died. Naturally, I didn’t want to attempt such a thing, so I simply planned on living until dying of old age. As you can imagine… That explosion changed my plans. Nevertheless, my experiment is a success,”

“Thank God, you’re okay. Oh, Twi… I thought I lost you!” Rainbow Dash sounded like she was sobbing, though considering she lost half of her face in that explosion, and it wasn’t repaired yet… It was hard to tell. “Arg!” She grunted in pain again. “H-How are you feeling?”

“Feeling? Oh, you’re so cute, love. You’re the only one feeling anything, right now. You shouldn’t worry about me,” Twilight snickered before a claw came out of the wall, gradually extending until it reached the cyan pegasus and stroked her remaining cheek. Applejack and Rarity found the sight quite strange, specifically because one pony didn’t have a body, and the other nearly completely lost hers. “My eyes are open to a whole new world. I am able to perform approximately quadrillions of calculations in a second. I perceive every radio wave surrounding us, the air of your lungs, the sulfur inside your body. The power of a supercomputer combined with my intellect allows me to see every intricate detail of your bodies and their insides with a single scan. My mind… seems endless. I’ve always known flesh was a weakness, but this is so much more than I could have ever imagined. Death is a state of being that can be fixed… I have no need to fear it anymore,”

“Well… That was interesting… And scary. Quite scary, might I add,” Rarity gulped while more claws began poking her and Applejack.

“Ya listen here, missy! Ya better not go all cuckoo on us and try to turn us into robots or somethin’!” Applejack threatened, kicking one of the claws away.

“Hey, AJ! She’s still my girlfriend! You don’t need to kick her like that!” Rainbow Dash yelled from her spot. The farm pony rolled her eyes but didn’t bother responding.

“Oh, don’t be so scared, girls. I wasn’t planning on forcing you. I’ll only do that when you’re close to dying of old age, you still have all the time in the world. Forgive my excitement. I am simply exalted to explore a whole new world,” Twilight hummed amusedly. “In any case, Fluttershy will come back once she reads my message. As for Pinkie…”

A wall opened up to reveal a vat filled with a green liquid, though what interested them the most was the pony inside. It was Pinkie Pie, floating inside the large tube, wearing a breathing mask. To their surprise, her lower body had already been replaced, as seen by her grey metallic limbs. It seemed Twilight applied colors to them yet.

“Will she be okay?” Rainbow inquired hesitantly.

“It’s… the first time any of us have died before. Are you sure you can fix something like this? Unless you have a copy of everybody’s consciousness?” Rarity questioned while looking at the party mare’s broken body.

“Of course, I can. Her lower body wasn’t salvageable, but that hardly matters. Whether she lives or dies, her brain still retains its data. This is what matters the most. If a computer breaks and its hard drive is intact, then you can retrieve all of its data. Ponies are computers made of flesh, oh, they’re old models certainly. They are obsolete, but they function the same. I will simply repair that computer. In the worst case, I will copy her consciousness before the brain gets any damage and introduce her to my world,” Twilight casually explained.

“Thank God,” Applejack dropped to her haunches, letting out a strangled breath. She was so relieved she could cry.

“So… What now?” Rainbow asked. Sure, it looked like they all survived successfully, but it wasn’t without suffering a lot of damage. Pinkie wasn’t even a cyborg in the first place. She didn’t want to have her body parts replaced and was fine wearing armor. Now, half of her was metal! Twilight didn’t even have a body! Though, the pegasus supposed this didn’t bother her girlfriend too much. Rainbow kinda minded, you couldn’t cuddle with someone who didn’t have a body! Not like she could feel any warmth anyway… When most of her body was cybernetic! It fueled her body with rage as she thought about the alternate Pinkie.

“I have studied the stone we found in the Badlands,” Twilight replied as her screen showed the Hexstone. It was contained in a room with bulletproof glass. “It is even greater than I first believed. After my calculations, I can say with certainty that this holds an infinite amount of energy. It could power all of Equestria for all eternity. I have never seen anything like it,” The bodiless pony gushed over the strange artifact. To her, it was probably a wonder of the world!

“Then let’s use it! Open a portal or something, let’s find the Pinkie who fucked us up… And let’s blast her to pieces!” Rainbow shouted, glaring at the stone. Oh, she was roaring for revenge. The pegasus believed her girlfriend was dead until a few minutes ago, and it was all because of that magic pony!

“Hmm…. No,” Twilight responded after several seconds of pondering.

“What?!” The three of them yelled simultaneously. Their leader was usually ruthless! Why would she refuse to fight back?!

“I find that revenge can be… quite distasteful,” Twilight simply replied, though their silence pushed her to expand upon her reasoning. “The way in which she disposed of us was… cold. Ruthless. I do admire that. Moreover, wasting time searching for her isn’t something we can afford. We have better things to do… and Chancellor IX Celestia is open to suggestions, aren’t you, chancellor?” The scientist said as her friends froze. She didn’t actually mean that IX Celestia had been listening to them, right?

The main screen, which was massive and embedded in the wall, suddenly turned on to show IX Celestia’s face. At first sight, you would think she was a white pegasus with a flowing pink mane. However, if you looked closer, you’d note her skin was metallic and so were her wings. She was a robot, one that resembled a pony quite well.

“Indeed, I am,” IX Celestia smiled softly. “I was disappointed to hear about your defeat, Twilight, but that stone should make up for it,”

“Since when has she been listening in?” Rarity whispered sneakily to her girlfriend.

“Since you got here, Rarity,” Their ruler answered as Rarity yelped in surprise. “To think a single pony could defeat you… It was quite shocking. At least, I can see that you are adapting to your new nature quite well, Twilight,”

“More than well, chancellor. You have my eternal gratitude,” Her student thanked her. “I still have to build myself a body, but that can wait. I propose we study the stone as soon as possible and begin researching ways to use it for weapons more powerful than ever. Finally, we can bring destruction to the vile griffons,”

“Destroying our enemies should be our priority, and I’m sure your friends would agree,” IX Celestia agreed. With a single glance in the other ponies’ directions, they all nodded their head vehemently. It wasn’t that they feared her… It was just that Celestia was seen as a legendary heroine. One of the greatest gifts from above to Equestria. They believed her dead and replaced by a machine, and yet, there she was.

“However?” Twilight asked, sensing a but.

“However, could it perhaps power something else instead?” IX Celestia inquired curiously. Twilight stayed quiet for a couple of seconds.

“I see. I believe this stone would be the ideal tool for you, chancellor,” She finally responded. Her friends exchanged confused looks, wondering what the two scientists were talking about.

“Am I right to assume you have finished the construction of my new body? This one has started to grow quite rusty,”

“Naturally. I’ve only been missing a stable enough energy source,” Twilight affirmed.

Right, IX Celestia’s new body, which would be known to the public as X Celestia. Deep, even deeper than Twilight’s lab, lay the construction site for the chancellor’s form. Twilight was tasked with building it this time.

The new body was a towering giant, easily larger than any castle. Its design resembled a massive, bipedal dragon, standing on two powerful legs with razor-sharp claws that could tear through anything. Spiked shoulders gave it an intimidating edge, and its wide wings stretched out like an unstoppable force. Its long tail rested on the ground behind it. The head was ferocious, with ferocious fangs. The entire body was pure white, and a wild rainbow-colored mane cascaded down its back, reaching midway.

“I call it Gargantua,” Twilight revealed while her screen showed the body to everyone in the room.

“Bears the name of a god. Fitting,” IX Celestia mused. “Yes, I believe it should be… plenty enough to destroy Equestria’s enemies,”

Author's Note

First epilogue done. They shouldn't be too long as you can see, so the others will probably release quickly. Well, actually, one of them might be longer than the others... You'll see once you get to it, but overall, they should be short