Dimension 'Good'
St. Hooves/Ponyville General Hospital, Ponyville, Kingdom of Equestria
Daring Do looked around with wide eyes as she saw the dozens of cups displayed around her. There were so many cups! Cups of gold decorated with jewels, cups fit for a king, even cups that were shaped like ponies! But she then remembered what the old earth pony guard named Holy Cross told her, "Be sure to choose wisely, or else you will die."
Daring Do took that to heart, as she scanned and searched the room. She reminded herself that she was looking for the Blessed Cup, the cup Pure One drank from, right before he left for Harmonia. As she continued, she mumbled about each cup.
"Not those...He didn't want to be treated like a king." Daring Do said to herself as she passed a group of gold and silver cups."This isn't from the right area..." The cups that had key ancient Amareican influences were ignored. Then she saw a that made her stop.
"...Are you serious?" She deadpanned, as she to the beer keg that had a sign with 'TOTALLY PURE ONE'S CUP' written on.
After a while, Daring Do was certain that she found it. It was an old, beaten up cup made from clay that had no design or accessories on it. A smirk formed on her face as she carefully reached her left forehoof out and grasped the delicate object gently, so she would not damage it. She then pulled it towards her with the same dedication. After finally navigating around the shiny tall cups, she turned around with confidence.
"I had made my choice." Daring Do shouted.
"Are you willing to expect certain death with your selection?" Asked Holy Cross. His old, wrinkled face was half-covered by his long unkempt beard. His eyes looked at her with a serious expression. "If you want," he told her, "you can cha–"
"Nope! This is the one I want." Interrupted the legendary explorer.
"Okay then, your fate has been chosen..." wheezed Holy Cross as he wobbled towards her, using his rusty dulled sword as a walking stick to help him move about. "As you had selected your pick, now you must drink with it!" He pulled out a flask that was dangling from his rusted, filthy armor, uncorked it, and poured a clear liquid into the cup Daring Do was holding. Once he finished, he stepped back and watched her with a judgmental look. It was clear he wanted her to drink from the cup.
Daring Do looked away from Holy Cross, and down at the water-filled cup. She knew what she had to expect. If she had chosen wisely, she would live. But if she chose wrong, death would be swift. Shaking her head to clear out the thoughts, she closed her eyes, lifted her head, raised the cup, and drank. She did not stop until every last drop of the liquid was out of the cup and down her throat. Once finished, Daring Do opened her eyes and lowered the cup and her head, waiting for her result.
She had chos-⁵
"Girls?"
Abentfree was interrupted from the copy of Daring Do and the Great Cup Crusade she was reading as she was in the waiting room of the hospital. She closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh. And just when things started to get good. I must know what happened to Daring Do! She thought.
Against her urge to resume reading about her favorite explorer, she grabbed a bookmark from that was in her vest pouch, slid it in to mark her place, then closed the book to look up at the pony. It was Nurse Redheart, her white coat coupled with her blue eyes and pink mane instantly recognizable. Especially in a hospital.
The other mares that were also directed were what put her on edge, Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with her four friends and her pupil Starlight Glimmer. They had come here to see Rainbow Dash, who was there due to her slamming into the insane stallion back at the ruins. Speaking of ruins, the Princess of Magic teleported the three elements, her, and Techno here. The staff took everypony except the Princess and Fluttershy in the room where they checked up on their status. Rainbow Dash needed to stay for half a day as she was proven to have minor fractures on her left foreleg from said impact, while Abentfree and the then-waking-up Techno needed no help as they only had a few bruises and the most minor of rope burns.
"Both patients are ready for your presence." No sooner was that sentence in the air that the chair to Abentfree's direct right revealed its occupant for all to watch in horror. The sound everypony trembles when they are in its presence. The sound that no nation can stop nor defeat. The sound of fruitless resistance.
"Yay! Finally, Dashie can eat this I-hope-you-get-better-soon cake I made just for her! As well as the other pony, 'cuz I brought a second one!" The pink blob known as Pinkie Pie squealed in joy. Abentfree didn't like Pinkie so much, what irritated Abentfree was the random, in-your-face, and usually nosy actions the pink pony does combine with her high pitched rapid-fire voice. A pony can only deal with so much, but then again Abentfree knows that she doesn't like loud noises.
"Ah'm excited to see 'em as well, Sugarcube." Replied the orange apple farmer on the pink Horsepony of Laughter's right. Applejack is...friendly, to say the least. When Abentfree goes and buys a product from Sweet Apple Acres in the marketplace, the farmmare is always there to do business with you and every once in awhile, they would put up a little chat between one another. The cons about her are the southern dialect she speaks with is hard to understand sometimes, and the stubbornness.
Fluttershy, she never really met with, as the two mares tended to be isolationist. Rarity, though, is number two on Abentfree's Top Ten Ponies To Evade list. The 'properly mannered' unicorn obsessed on dresses and materials and more likely the opposite of Abentfree. While Abentfree wants to trek through unknown lands like her idol, Rarity would be a scaredy foal to something as little as her hooves getting a speck of mud, preferring to make dresses, which Abentfree despises. But she does try her best to be nice, and she did create Abentfree's hat and vest, which neither had failed. Yet.
Twilight Sparkle is hard to pinpoint but seems okay. Sure, she goes ballistic if even a pen is just slightly misaligned. And sure, she praises her mentor a bit too much. But she is very friendly and has been one of the few ponies who think Abentfree's many misadventures are both humorous and interesting. Now that Abentfree thinks about it, she still needs to find a way to repay the several times Twilight practically saved her flank, including what had just happened.
Finally, Starlight Glimmer. She seems to be an oddball, as she went from the tyrant of Our Town and attempting to alter the fate of Equestria, to switching the roles of the two sisters and helping Equestria, all within four years. The only two times they 'met' was when she helped 'The Great and Powerful' Trixie perform the legendary Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive, which Abentfree went to see. Then was the time Twilight sent her into Ponyville to get more connected with the locals. After walking into Abentfree accidentally, she apologized and introduced herself in an embarrassing fashion (after chatting for a bit, they both agreed that Equestrian technology is odd).
"Miss Abentfree? Is there something wrong?" Once again Nurse Redheart had interrupted Abentfree's train of thought. She hadn't realized that everypony had left the room, except her and a concerned Nurse Redheart.
"Uh," Abentfree said as her dignity was lost, "n-no, Nurse Redheart. I was just thinking." She sat up trotted into the patient room.
Five minutes later...
"So, he made a banging sound when you hit him?" Asked Starlight Glimmer to Rainbow Dash. Five minutes ago she was getting to know about the three friends who had the encounter with the strange stallion. That was up 'till Stormsurge mentioned him, where the warm and fuzzy feelings melted away. But that also aroused several questions from her mind.
Why was he in the room if the entrance was locked? Why did he react and talk so oddly, as if he never had any knowledge of Equestria? Why was he so large? Starlight was about to ask them to her mentor when Nurse Redheart entered the room with a concerned expression.
"Sorry to interrupt everypony, but the princesses have asked the Elements, including Starlight Glimmer, to attend a meeting of national security." She said, finishing with the location. Not a moment longer, the elements, as well as Starlight Glimmer, said their goodbyes to the three friends and rushed out of the room. Except for Rainbow Dash, who attempted to get out of the restraints that were holding her to the bed. Nurse Redheart shook her head at Rainbow.
"Sorry miss Dash, but they also requested for you to stay here." Rainbow Dash fell back on the bed with her forelegs crossed in an angry manner. "But you can leave in only a couple of hours!" Nurse Redheart then replied in a cheerful mood. The angry Rainbow Dash instantly became a happy Rainbow Dash after hearing the news.
*******
1537 Golden Oaks Drive, Ponyville, Kingdom of Equestria
In the basement where the prisoners are being held, everypony watched in a mixture of confusion, shock, and horror in one area of interest. That area is the place where the massive red stallion occupies. But unlike before, his body was twitching in a violent manner the likes none of the observers had seen before. The reason was what they couldn't see, or understand. He was introduced to magic.
How is that possible? Well, when Princess Celestia used a truth spell on him, of course. Since he was created in a time before magic was even around, his systems were unprepared for the force of magic, which has the capability to move the sun (which is ironic considering the moment). But the equines didn't know about that. Nor the battle raging inside him.
The fact is, since he requires a power source, he runs on a very experimental source: a thermonuclear reactor. If you don't know what thermonuclear reactors are, thermonuclear (or nuclear fusion) reactors work when you smash hydrogen atoms against one another until a miniature star is created in the process. There, you keep feeding the star as you harvest more energy than you put in. To sum it up, imagine a bottle of water that only needs a teaspoon of salt to create a shipping container full of water. The technology had been considered as an unlikely experiment by the society that had made him, but the result was that it created more than powerful enough to create the energy to power up the systems he was built with.
But that was all in the past.
Right now, the artificial star in the reactor is fighting against the invading magic, sending unwanted magical and electric energy throughout the machine's many wires that connect to all moving parts every time they collided. The magic danced around the star as if it was seeking an opening, a weakness. It non-verbally taunted the star as it slammed against the star again, sending another round of energy. The star seemed to ignore the taunt as it threw off the magic. However, it was clear that there was a stalemate between the two.
Both forces were depleted from the fight, as each was too powerful to get rid of. The star, despite being small and artificial, was still a star. And the magic was cast to be a very temporary spell, so they were equally matched in power. But yet they kept fighting. Each side knew that the other was unnatural, something that was not made by Mother Nature.
As the two lingered there, the magic unexpectedly began to degenerate, the time for the spell to be in effect had run out. With nowhere to go and trapped, the magic leaped at the star in a desperate attempt. The magic entered the star's surface before it could react. One it realized it was too late, the star braced itself for certain death. One that would never come.
Then it realized that the magic had actually merged into the fusing of the hydrogen atoms by dividing itself into little atoms of magic and joining into the reaction. The star couldn't find a reason how to explain it, did a non-physical shrug, and resumed its duty to before the fight. It created and sent energy to be harvested for power, and ate the hydrogen snacks it was provided with. The batch of energy it sent also had some of the magic variants, as they were converted into usable energy. The consequence of this was that it in effect created a new unusual form of power consisting of magic and fusion energy. As the energy was converted and sent to power the machine, the magic that now surged alongside the energy managed to achieve something astounding.
Up to this moment, there has never been a truly artificial living thing to have to exist. Sure, there were AI that was capable of thinking for itself and responsible for its actions in the past, but those were only because they were running on a program that 'told' it to do so. What was happening now was different. As the magic-infused energy reached where the memory chips were, that one chip responsible for that task couldn't withstand the immense energy that surged into it, causing it to overwork its job so badly to the point that it short-circuited itself, taking the sole 'brain' of the robot out. The magic, though, was easily able to replace the inferior dead device's job and accomplished something in a few moments what the most advanced and intelligent species in the planet's history tried--and failed--to create.
Pure artificial life, where a machine can think and act on its own without the need to run on any program, has been created.
|¦|¦|¦|
The red stallion had finally stopped twitching, and very weakly tried to get up. Crescent Night stared at him for a moment after his strength gave way to gravity in defeat, then turned her gaze at the 'Not-Daybreaker', or 'Celestia', as she calls herself. The white alicorn with the flowing violet, azure, green, and cyan-colored mane was returning her gaze at Crescent Night with her purple eyes, not giving her any emotion whatsoever. Whatever, Crescent Night thought as she looked away from her gaze and to the floor in lack of interest, rather than defeat or shame. At least those chains are gone...
The white alicorn then turned to what must be the Frightful Five (including an 'Apple' and some pinkish unicorn, by the looks of it), and told them in an exhausted tone, "The reason why I had called you all here is because I believe you girls can keep an eye on them," as she gestured to the prisoners with a wing, "Luna and I can't keep them in Canterlot unfortunately, as we are trying to stabilize a major diplomatic crisis at the moment."
If any of the mares wanted to ask her a question, none did. One look of her face was all that it took to see how tired and stressed she was. Her waving mane was limp and had a few hair strands out of place, as well as bags under her eyes bloodshot and ever-so-slightly twitching from a lack of refreshing sleep. Enough to get her through the day, but just. Crescent Night didn't know of that, and wouldn't have cared at all, to begin with.
"Applejack is responsible for...Apple Seeds, is it?" 'Celestia' asked Apple, turning her head to look at her with an unsure look. Apple hesitated, before nodding her head. "Thank you," Celestia said, before turning her head back, adding "Applejack, take Apple Seeds to Sweet Apple Acres so she can be of use under supervision, while Rarity can monitor the crystal ponies at her Boutique and keep an eye on them." Applejack and Rarity nodded as they walked to Apple and the equestrian prisoners with caution. Awkwardness ensued.
Celestia then focused on Crystalline. "Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie will look after the Changelings.”
"Hooray!" The pink pony practically screamed as she bounced over to the Changelings, who were slightly panicked.
"Fluttershy shall care for anypony that is injured as well as the equestrians. Starlight Glimmer and my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, take Crescent Night and the rest." Crescent Night heard three sets of hooves slowly walk toward her. Her only response was her rolling her eyes upwards to meet theirs, not lifting her head up in the slightest. She met the eyes of Twivine Sparkle or at least a version of her. The alicorn had the same lavender-colored coat of the dark magic princess, but her mane was of a lighter tone, and her eyes were full of innocence.
She could feel the fear of the lavender alicorn long before her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. The yellow pegasus with the pink mane had her caring, shy eyes somehow managed to shrink even smaller than the lavender pony's did and quickly cowered behind her. The pink unicorn that had purple and teal hair that seemed to belong in a tube of toothpaste had her eyes act in a similar manner, but instead with not as much fear.
"P-Princess Celestia?" The terrified pony stuttered. "Th-That's Nuh-Nightmare Moon!" The mention of that name seemed to have turned the very air toxic to the captors while leaving the remaining FEA soldiers with a confused look. Except for Crescent Night and her alter-self.
Alter-Crescent Night first expressed confusion. Then in quick succession came uncertainty, shame, regret, fear, and finally ending with anger. Crescent Night, however, felt her own anger rising even faster than what a geyser would even dream of. If geysers were sentient, of course. But she wasn't blowing off smoke, or steam, in that matter.
Not even the Big Bang could have been such a big a fireball.
"ENOUGH!" Screamed Crescent Night with a voice comparable to the R.C.V as the growing night black magic surrounding her horn exploded in a black burst. The orange countrypony with the funny-looking hat who was bewildered and the hysteric white unicorn who was ratting all sorts of, let's say, 'secret words of respect' to the former lunar princess. The pink happy unlikely-to-be-Pinkameana who was calling her much more filly-friendly but still rude words, the angry black alicorn princess and the white tired and terrified one. The three mares in front of her were scared. In fact, even her fellow soldiers, they all shut their mouths up and didn't make a single word, with eyes full of terror.
Whenever it was because of their fear, Crescent Night's spell that was just used, both, or neither, it didn't matter. What mattered was that everypony was silent. Crescent Night released her spell and continued,
"I DO NOT KNOW WHO, OR WHAT, THIS 'NIGHTMARE MOON' IS, BUT BY THE MERE MENTION OF IT, I AM NOT A NIGHT OBSESSED POWER MONGER."
"B-But y-" squeaked out the cowering lavender alicorn. The toothpaste hair pink unicorn jabbed at her side. The purple pony whipped her head around with a confused look and her mouth opened as if to speak. The opportunity never came.
"BUT AM I WHAT?" Crescent Night demanded as her face shot towards the purple pony's, just not touching. The mare snapped her head back with the previous terror on her face, and slowly backed from the snarling black alicorn.
"GO ON, SAY IT. SAY THAT I'M THE SAME BUCKING BIG BAD EVIL MARE THAT NEEDS LOVE AND HAPPINESS TO DEFEAT ME." Crescent Night, at this point, had gone mad with all the anger she had been keeping bottled up for two painful years, which all started when the wedding happened. All of it was unleashed on the poor mare, who was now covered in a ball, trembling.
"EXACTLY, JUST BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE HER AND TALK LIKE HER, I MUST OBVIOUSLY BE HER, YOU BUCKING PIECE OF S- Before she could confirm that claim, however, her head was jerked to the left as she felt a sharp pain in her right cheek, followed swiftly with loud cracking of bone as a white hoof wearing a golden horseshoe designed to resemble a saint's cross coming from the right entered her line of sight.
*CR-RNCH*
The force ended her rambling as she was flung to the left, hitting the stone wall hard. As she fell to the ground and had her vision, sound, and pain fade away, she looked up to the source of the punch.
"Nopony talks or treats my student like that..." Said the white alicorn to Crescent Night.
Blackness consumed her.