Chapters At first it was just Twilight. Twilight Sparkle was her name, and after a time her name was known to everypony in Equestria. She was quite an extraordinary pony; a unicorn, in fact. The most unusual and extraordinary thing about her was her special talent.
Sparkle had a talent for magic. At first it was just the rudimentary stuff, the kind of thing any unicorn can do these days, thanks to her. Then she progressed, merging science and magic, closing the rift between the two to create magic that was available to anyone. She put it in clothes, tools, books, anything you could imagine.
She became famous, of course. Things like this, such incredible technological advancements do not just go unnoticed, even in a primitive society like that where the passing of news was slow and unreliable.
But Twilight Sparkle soon fixed that, with the creation of the Interface. The Interface was a virtual system that anypony could connect to, anywhere in Equestria. It was extremely limited, of course, but soon grew to become an Equestria-wide phenomenon that shocked the scientists and politicians to no end.
Sparkle's Interface became the most widely used method of communication within as little as twenty years. The amount of information contained in Twilight's databases grew and grew, never stopping. Anypony could add to it, anypony could talk to anypony else. It was a revolution like no other.
Then of course came the corruption. The Interface was almost 85% junk and a measly 15% solid information, and the percentage of information was dropping by the minute. But Sparkle was not the sort of pony to give up without a fight, and boy, did she give one.
It took Sparkle and her team five whole years to make a decision. But finally they found the solution. The Interface itself was making Twilight Sparkle alone 150 000 000 bits a year, with her team's inner circle (five ponies and a dragon) 70 000 000 bits a year between them, and all her outer circle (32 ponies, 12 griffins and 3 dragons) earned about 1 000 000 bits each. It was incredible profit, and Sparkle could have shut down the Interface then and there, with enough bits to live her entire life in comfort.
But she didn't. What she did do caused a tremendous uproar, but there weren't nearly as many protests as if she had shut down the entire thing completely. So, giving Equestria three month's warning, Twilight Sparkle deleted all the data from the Interface.
Then she rebuilt it. Slower this time, but with no more room for the faults she had encountered before. Twilight tasked 1 000 ponies with the job of moderating the information that was being added to the Interface. It was slow going, but eventually they managed to set it all up automatically. Nopony really knows how they did it, but after a while everything that a pony applied to put on the Interface was either accepted or rejected - with no questions asked. It had finally made it a safe, and fully automatic system.
Meanwhile, with funding streaming in from all her successes, Sparkle made herself even more famous by introducing programs for foals to help them with their respective genetic trade - flying, magic or strength. She got together some of the finest of all three pony races and together they started a course that could help a foal who was having trouble with the latter.
Soon enough, these programs were available in every Equestrian classroom there was. And they expanded, too. Not only to the basics, but to finer, more specialised things like making fudge brownies or trigonometry. These meant that each foal in a class could be studying something different, depending on what they wanted to do in later life. It changed the education system for the better, just as the Interface and genetic enhancements changed Equestria for the better.
Equestria was changing. It wasn't just the Interface, it was the magic that was everywhere, guiding those who couldn't use it and bettering those who could. It gave the population a freedom - the kind they'd never had before.
The freedom it gave was that to be absolutely whatever you wanted. Earth ponies flew in the skies, pegasi weilded magic, unicorns had the strength they wanted. All three races were finally equal in every aspect, simply because they wished it to be so. If an earth pony wanted a career in cloud-moving or weather management, he could have it. If a unicorn desired to work on a farm, she could make her dream come true.
There were no limits in this new age of discovery.
But it was short-lived. Twilight Sparkle was getting old, and age was the one thing she did not have a cure for. Perhaps she did not want to find a cure for it, we shall never know. Some things are best left undiscovered. Anyway, after another few years, she died, leaving her secrets and mysteries with no heir.
But she didn't leave her company and technology with no heir. Sometime along her journey, Princess Celestia told Twilight that she had nothing left to teach her, and that some of Twilight's discoveries had surpassed anything she was capable of.
A few years later, Twilight took a student herself. He was a colt, originally a pegasus pony as far as the records go, but with a passion for magic and discovery, just like Sparkle herself. Twilight Sparkle taught him, as Princess Celestia had taught her, magic and astronomy and friendship and harmony and everything else under the sun and moon.
The colt, after Twilight had died, took over everything she owned and kept it working, like she had before him. And like her, he continued to discover.
That's where I come in. No, I'm not that colt, far from it. I'm the fifth pony to take the title of "Faithful Student" since Twilight herself. My name is Aurora Aura, and I'm also the first unicorn to take it, ever since Twilight, not that it matters. All the Faithful Students weilded magic anyway. But mine is more pure than theirs was, being straight from a horn.
The faithful students aren't taught by Celestia any more, they're taught by the previous faithful student. My teacher's name is called Auburn Blaze. She's a pegasus pony, and she's taught me everything she knows. When I'm not learning from her, I read books, search the Interface, and lurk around the database, scaring the living daylights out of everypony who works there by jumping out at them from unexpected places.
I'm not a child, but I'm still treated as one. It doesn't matter though. Underneath everthing that everypony sees, I'm a very smart pony. And I can see that there's something very wrong with Equestria.
Chapter one: Aurora Aura
I stalked through the claustrophobicly narrow service shaft, trying my best not to trip on the thick lengths of cable that ran along floor, walls, and low, cream-coloured roof alike. They ran vertically and horizontally in a seemingly random pattern, sometimes criss-crossing into my walking space, making it extra difficult to move.
Powerboards hummed at me from all directions, and little multicoloured lights blinked on and off in their own intervals from places along the cream-coloured walls. Little things buzzed and blipped, off in worlds of their own, like there was nothing else. I could feel the magic flowing through all of them, the power that ran the Interface and everything Twilight Sparkle had created.
I concentrated, and a smallish 10 by 10 holographic, yet solid screen appeared in front of my eyes. More concentration, and with access to the Interweb's databanks that surrounded me, I pulled up the plans for the building.
I'd almost memorised it. Very nearly. With Twilight Sparkle's ludicrous original plans that somehow made sense, and of course the dozen renovations the data building had had since then, no two rooms, corridors, or service shafts - such as the one I was in - were the same. So I'd almost committed it to memory.
After a glance at the map, and a quick calculation of my position, I dispelled the hologram and came up to the next intersection. With a small grunt, I leaped over a bunch of green wires and approached the control panel that regulated the flow of magic in this sector.
I then used the Interface to bring up on my hologaphic screen the live security camera system for this sector. Enter password , the thing bleeped at me. I scowled and repeated the twenty-two didget number in my head that was the password. Password accepted , it said.
The administrators of the building were always changing passwords on me. I don't know why they did it, and I really thought they would have found the virus I installed by now.
Oh well, it was just too bad for them if they hadn't. The virus sent me a message via the interface every time the password was changed, including the new password and the details of who had changed it, so that I could exact revenge on them if I wished.
It was really pointless of them to try and keep me out. They couldn't even keep me out of their building, let alone their computer system. Mind you, half the workers there were so clueless, they would have trouble keeping me out of the Royal Canterlot Palace, even if they had the whole guard at their service. And they did once, too. I still got in.
Once I had my sights set on a location, it really was too late. And so I had been accepted at the data building as a find of friendly ghost, or poltergeist was perhaps a more accurate term, given for my love of mischeif. There was one place, however, that I had never been able to get into, sector G of this very building, and that's why I spent the majority of my spare time here.
Once I had brought the cameras onto my screen, I was able to create a map of where everypony in this sector was. The staff appeared on my screen as tiny flashes of movement, flicking from the view of one camera to the next. I quietly made my way to the closest service door and sat myself there, waiting to open it at a moment's notice.
I was in Sector D5, quite close to the edge. That was bad, because I'd have practically no prior notice if somepony was going to come by me. Made it more fun though. Behind the door that stood in front of me was the sector. If I swung it open...
My eyes were caught by a sight on the screen. Multiple ponies were approaching quite quickly, flicking in and out of view of different cameras, changing position on my screen. I could see them approaching the very door I was behind. The corridor I was (nearly) in was dark-walled, smooth, and made of plastic painted with an alloy that was polished so meticulously that you could almost see your reflection in it.
I flicked off my screen. Now it was just a matter of timing, at which I was a master. Three... Two... One... I swung open the door with my magic, leaped out, and screamed "BOO!!" Several ponies jumped, and one gave an amusing squeak. The Administrator, who happened to be among the pack, gave me a furious look as I burst out laughing. "Bwa ha ha ha ha!"
As soon as I stopped, I noticed that the last pony of the pack hadn't given any reaction at all. I looked at her poutily, sticking my bottom lip out, before I realised exactly who 'She' was. My eyes widened. "Princess Celestia, dear , how lovely to see you! How was the trip? My, you look well. Visiting the gym often?" I just barely choked out my natural response to an unexpected arrival.
"This is our rash , Aurora Aura," said the Administrator dryly. The Administrator of the Interface headquarters and databanks was an earth pony, but she had an implant and a fake horn that enabled her to work magic just like me. She had a royal blue mane that was neatly-cut. Her coat was pale pink.
"That's a new one. Your analogy, no doubt, that I'm an irritation that clings to the skin, then? Because I really do get under it, don't I?" I gave the Admin my evillest grin, before turning back to the Princess, "Lovely to meet you. I'm Aurora Aura, the one and only Faithful Student," I said, running a hoof through my mane, before holding it out to her.
I shook her hoof with an enthusiasm only mustered by the truly reckless. Celestia gave me a small smile in return. "You study under old Auburn then?" I nodded.
While Celestia's back was turned, I poked my tongue out at El Adminno. She scowled lasers in return. "We were just showing the Princess around. Care to be not here, if you don't mind?"
"They are a bit dim," the Princess admitted.
"Thank you. Princess, can I get you a coffee?"appear . Actually, sometimes it does, but not always. I ask again: Princess, would you like a coffee?"
"No thanks," she said.always watching."
Celestia laughed. Adminny rolled her eyes. And with a flash of magic, I was gone.
Chapter two: A friendly ghost
Chapter two: A friendly ghost
I followed the Administrator, her group of ponies and the Princess as they walked along the corridors. Luckily, they were walking quite slowly, so I had no trouble keeping pace with them in the tangled service shafts. I hooked up visual and audio from the security cameras so that I could stalk them properly. It's an art, it really is.
"So tell me about Aurora," said the Princess casually..some security she can't get past."
"Interesting. How often does she come here?"
A glow eminated from my horn as I walked, the magic amplified through the cords and powerboards, making it's way to sector B2, where the light controls were. A couple of seconds later the lights grew several times brighter, saving the corridor from it's gloomy fate. It also improved the quality of the visual I was getting
"That's better," I heard Celestia remark through the audio feed. Her voice was clear as real life, a happy side-effect of my pure magic running through the veins of the database.
In order to transfer magic through items by any efficient means, it had to be diluted and put on a kind of loop, like a self-charging battery. Pure magic, directly from a unicorn's horn functioned better, but it required more energy to keep working and frequent charging.
Quick transmissions though, like the one through the wires, ones that completed their function almost immediately, were more powerful, but you could hardly give such short-lived magic to a pegasus or earth pony. The extra boost I had given the system would fade in about half an hour.
I followed Celestia through the walls for a few more minutes, then, as they entered a long corridor with no turn-offs, I bounded ahead as quickly as I could, climbing the thin ramp into the roof.
A minute later, the Administrator guided Celestia along. As they approached my position, a thin pole with five slender, automatic fingers slid down from the roof. "What's that?" asked Celestia.
Celestia went closer, "It's holding something."appear ."
One of the younger workers, a stallion who was amused by my antics, took the coffee. "Thanks."
The audio feed sent me the rest of the conversation. "So anyway..." The Admin said grumpily.
I considered leaving them there, and going off to rig the taps in sector F to explode or something, but I smelled something fishy going on. A few of the workers here had been acting weird for a while now, and I wanted to find out what was up. And of course, there was the continuing mystery of sector G. I followed Celestia and the rest of the group to the information holds.
There was nothing but idle chatting from the group all the way there, and I was beginning to doubt that this line of investigation would reveal anything, but I had nowhere else to go, so I decided to tag along for a bit longer
"This is where we store all the information that's uploaded onto the Interface," said the Admin, "The ponies do it all telepathically, and the magical currents tranfer it here, so that it can be stored and accessed whenever anypony needs it."
"First Sparkle embedded magic into different items, as you know. This was what did it you see, when Sparkle first invented the Interface, it only stretched around her home town, Ponyville. A while before that, she had discovered a spell that allows ponies to be connected by a telepathic field. At first it seemed useless - she couldn't read thoughts or do anything like that, it only served as a kind of link - but later she had the idea. What if there was something the ponies could connect to? So she made the databanks, and put the telepathy spell on them. Then she put small towers around the place that spread the spell, and rerouted it back to the databanks.
"But how did ponies access it? Does the spell have any side-effects?"
"Ponies could access the databanks simply by concentrating on them. As the spell was embedded in an object, in this case, the towers, it performed a very specific function, and as such had no side-effects.
I growled quietly. Come on, Celestia, ask the question, just do it! I couldn't do it because they woudn't answer me, and I don't have the authority to make them. But who in Equestria has higher authority than the alicorn standing in the corridor? Come on, Princess, pull some rank. You know you want to.
"So how many other sectors are there?"
That's better, almost there.
"We house sectors A to G.
Yesss .
"Sector A is purely administrative. That's the entrance, reception and information all in one. It's all where the guests are, and where the workers check in and out for the day. It's also where we keep our in-and-out security. There's only one door in and out of this place. Sector B is the service area. Sector C is where we lock our scientists away to study and keep the world progressing. They do all kinds of things, it's really quite amazing. But anyway, if we provide them with labs and pay, they'll give us 15% of the profits from their inventions. It's been quite a fundraiser. D, E and F are where we keep all the information stored."
There was still one question left, and Celestia asked it
"...So what about sector G?"
Chapter three: Answers... Kind of
Chapter three: Answers... Sort of
The Administrator cleared her throat, a tiny noise of no importance that I wouldn't have noticed had it not been for the fact that my attention was focused on every. Single. Sound.
"Such things... Are better seen than heard," the Administrator said. "If you're done here, I can take you there...?"
What.taking a guest to sector G?! The only ponies I had ever seen in sector G were, well, nopony actually. I'd never seen anypony inside it, because I'd never seen inside it. Sector G was the most heavily protected and dangerous place I'd ever heard of. The only pony I'd ever seen go in or out of that place was the Administrator herself, and even then it was rare.
G was not protected by any conventional means I'd heard of. Guards can be tricked, keys can be stolen, computers can be hacked, magic can be dispelled. So instead they had settled on a deadly combination of all four.
There were guards on the outside of the sector, of course. Just the average two on either side of the door. They were four of the best, the smartest too, so it would be a very hard task to fight or trick them. I know I couldn't do it.
There was also the most ingenious key. Upon entry, a pony's DNA was scanned automatically. If the DNA consisted of more than 5% of that of an unauthorised ponies', they were either incinerated or just thrown out, depending on which story you believed.
The computor system, the one that scanned the DNA, was the most state-of-the-art, well-protected, and constantly monitored system that existed. Any disruption, any disturbance, no matter how slight, and it could send the entire place into lockdown in under a minute.
If all that wasn't enough, there was also a field of magic pulsing around the entire setup, protecting and enforcing it. Any attempt to dispell the magic resulted in - ah - explosive consequences, which also also sent everything into lockdown.
The security made it clear why I had never been inside, but there was more to it than that. My teacher, Auburn Blaze, had no problems with me annoying the staff and running around the rest of the facility, as long as I did no proper damage, but sector G was the one place she had expressly forbidden me from visiting. Sigh.
Life mission: Sometime before I inherit Sparkle Inc, break into sector G, find out what all the mystery is about, then get back out alive without leaving a single trace.
I was in for one hell of a ride.
But back to the present.
"I'd love to see it," said Celestia.
I followed, almost too excited to breathe. Somewhere along the way, the Administrator dismissed the rest of the group. They broke off and went back to their regular jobs. I was breathless with excitement - it looked like we really were headed to sector G.
I jittered as I went, the anticipation was killing me! I was nearly having a panic attack, for goodness sakes, I'd been trying to get into that place for a little over four years!
Finally, finally, we got there. The Admin said to Celestia: "I'll just add you to the DNA scanners. May I have one of your hairs, please?" Celestia pulled a single, long hair out of her royal mane and handed it to the Administrator.
"If you'd be so kind as to wait here?" the Admin asked, then went past the guards and entered the first set of doors. They closed behind her before the second opened. Auburn said there were twelve doors in total, one of which was painted bright pink. I didn't believe her. I bet there were only two.
After waiting for about sixteen seconds, Celestia started humming a tune, one I didn't recognise. I decided to pop out of the roof again. "What's that song?"
I shook my head. "I didn't expect you to, it's a very old one," she said. "So what's in the sector?"
I saw a crack as the doors to sector G parted, and I darted back into the roof, not wanting the Admin to know I was lurking. "All done," she said, "But we should probably wait a bit, just to make sure it processes properly." I frowned. The processing, from what I'd heard, was instant. This didn't make sense. But I watched as the two mares stood for about twenty seconds, until the Admin nodded.
"That should do it. If you'd care to step this way?" she said, motioning to the door.
I sucked in a breath of conditioned air, calculating how I could possibly get in. There couldn't possibly be enough space between the first door and the second for the two of them, maybe I could....?
They walked, at such a cool, casual pace towards the door I thought I was going to actually die waiting. There it was, the second, the instant before the doors would open. I was poised to leap at nothing in particular. The moment of my life, so close....
Then the fire alarm went off.
...
Fuck.
Chapter four: Fire
One moment I was so close, the next I was so, so far away from my dream. The fire alarm rang out, loud and clear. There was a moment of surprise from everyone in the corridor as they looked around, before Celestia spoke. "Is it a drill?"
The Administrator shook her head. "We use a different bell for drills. This is a fire, and we'd better run." She lied; we never had any drills. It was everypony for themselves if the fire alarm went off.
The entirety of this building was underground, and it was built like a fort. Each sector had separate power sources, and backups if they went off. There was also a master switch in sector A that could shut them all down remotely, but that was only for extreme emergencies.
The building could survive under a blackout, not that we ever had any, for two whole days, as there were oil lamps and oil stored everywhere. The place was especially designed to survive under siege for some reason. We had an entire other level below us that was full of canned food. Nopony knew exactly how long it would last, but it would serve for a few years, at least.
I didn't know why in Equestria this place was designed to withstand a siege that may last up to five years, but hey, I never got to ask Twilight Sparkle.
And that's just another part of the mystery: Why does a place of learning and discovery need to be protected? I could only assume the answer lay in sector G.
In the case of a fire, an actual fire, everyone was to get to the entrance as quickly as possible and get out. But everypony still had to pass all the security checks and everything to get out. It was a slow process, and (from the stories I'd heard) usually resulted in casualties. No, not casualties. Fatalities was a better word. Casualties made it sound so unimportant. This was pony life we were talking about.
We rushed quickly to the entrance, the sector G guards behind us. The trouble was that sector G was located at the very back of the building, away from everything. You had to pass through every other sector to get there, if you were coming in from the entrance.
Somewhere along the way, we were going to encounter the fire.
I bounded past the lengths of multicoloured cords, through several hatches and cream-coloured corridors, past a multitude of rainbow lights, down and down and down ever so slowly, a bit at a time, until I was into the loading zone. The loading zone was the middle level of the building, with the sectors being the top level and the food being the basement. It was the place where new arrivals were put before they could be transported to their respective sector.
Such arrivals also went through a meticulous combing, including a scan for unexpected metal, debugging, and other security processes. But for me, the loading zone was a clear path to freedom, aside from the last hurdle (the entrance) of course.
A couple of other ponies were running through the loading zone as well. I caught up with the main pack of them, about five or six ponies. "Aurora," one gasped.
"You picked a great day to come in," he said. 'He' was called Lucky, so I figured I'd be safe if I hung around near him, ha ha.
From the level above, I heard a pony scream in agony. I looked at Lucky. "Don't you dare, Aurora! Hey, where are you going? No, stop!" But I was already wriggling up a service shaft and into sector C.
I popped my head up into a room, and immediately retreated, coughing, eyes watering. This was a big fire. I took a deep breath and poked my head up again. I was in one of the labs. Across the other side of the room, flames were licking at the door. Another scream caught my attention, and I looked around for the source.
A mare in a white coat, one that was now stained with ash and smoke, was struggling to get away from the fire. She appeared to have broken something, judging from the way she was dragging her left leg.
I plunged into the thick cloud of smoke, trying not to breathe in the foul air. The heat of the fire felt like it was burning my fur. Maybe it was. I crossed the room to the mare and started dragging her to the service hatch. She screamed in pain, but I couldn't stop because I knew that if I did, we'd both die.
The fire was advancing into this room now. I tried to levitate the poor pony, but the smoke was clouding my mind and I could only concenrate enough to lighten the load a tiny bit. I needed air, but I couldn't leave her. I tried to keep myself as low to the ground as possible, away from the heat. I finally reached the hatch, and lowered the mare down.
"Lucky!" I sceamed, "Lucky!!" Lucky looked back from his position about twenty metres ahead. The other ponies were gone, and it was obvious he had lagged behind in case I needed help, torn between his natural fight for survival and concern for me.
He galloped over, and I lowered the half-concious mare onto his back. He and I galloped to the entrance side by side, and we got out of that place alive.
Ponies milled around the entrance of the building, nervously chatting to each other. The Administrator took a list of everyone's names, and compared it to the list of staff who had called in sick today. Finally, she called everyone to attention.
"Thanks to the astonishing bravery of a certain pony, we can all continue as usual. There won't be any funerals tonight. We give our deepest thanks to you... Lucky."
Sigh. Figures. I went home, done for the day, with the quiet satisfaction of being better than them.
