01 Startup

Rainbow Dash surged forward, glaring at Applejack's tail bobbing just in front of her. "Come on, Rainbow... show 'em a little Dash!" she muttered to herself as she put on an extra burst of speed, pulling abreast of her challenger. Red, orange, and yellow leaves rained down around them as they pounded down the dirt path that snaked through Whitetail Wood. As Rainbow came up alongside Applejack, she glanced over and their eyes met for an instant – hard determination gleamed in each – and suddenly Dash was in the air, catapulting forward, watching the ground spin beneath her as she tumbled, a confused AJ looking on, landing flat on her back, wings spread, looking back the way she'd come at a gnarled tree root that had broken through the surface of the dirt.

"Aw, ponyfeathers."

With a start, Dash tumbled out of bed, landing flat on her back, wings spread, and groaned. "That... is getting really old." Ever since their first grudge match years ago, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had held a much more friendly competition during the Running of the Leaves... but as this year's autumn approached, Dash had been plagued by recurring dreams involving her screwing up. It's so stupid... I'm not a dumb filly any more, I don't need to win everything!

Rolling to her feet and shaking out her mane, Dash sighed and trotted through her darkened home, getting a drink from the kitchen. Judging by the moon's position in the sky, it was sometime in the wee hours of the night. Nudging open her kitchen door, she moved out onto the cloud-formed veranda that edged her skyhouse. Cool night air wafted through her wings; she stretched them out, ruffling her feathers, turning to nose a few strays back into place as she contemplated a quick flight through the starry sky, just to shake the last vestiges of the embarrassing dream from her mind.

Striking a pose at the edge of the cloud, Dash prepared to launch herself into the dark, but caught herself at the last minute as she noticed a strange light bobbing along the ground in the distance. "What the hay...?" It actually looked kind of familiar, now that she thought about it, just very out of place as it came toward her through the night... it almost reminded her of...

"Twilight?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight shouted as she came to a panting halt underneath her blue pegasus friend, her horn shining to light her way. "I need you... to do me... a huge favor!"

Dash blinked – what could she need so badly at this hour? – then fluttered down to stand next to the gasping purple unicorn and grinned a little. "What's up, Twi? Isn't it kinda late to be out training for this year's Running?"

Twilight gulped air, her eyes tearing up from the exertion. "Just... give me a minute... to catch my breath."

"Uh, sure thing, take your time."

Dash looked around awkwardly, watching a few scattered clouds slowly cross the moon. A moment later, Twilight coughed and seemed as though she was back to her usual self. "So... you need a favor?"

"Yes." Twilight nodded quickly. "I need you to take me to Canterlot."

"What, you can't wait for the Princess to send a chariot in the morning?"

Twilight looked startled. "How could the Princess send a chariot? I don't even know how she sent me the – oh, you meant Luna."

Dash looked at her friend like she'd had one too many apple fritters before bed. "Who else would I be talking about?"

"Never mind, I can explain on the way, but it's extremely urgent! It can't wait 'til morning."

"Well... if you say so, Twi. Hop on, I'll get you there in ten minutes flat!"

• • •

They sped through the night air, Twilight's teeth chattering a little as she held tight to Rainbow's back, powerful wings pumping on either side of her. "A-aren't y-you freezing up-p h-here?"

Dash looked back over her shoulder, grinning her trademark cocky grin. "Nah... you get used to it." Partly true, at least – most pegasi weren't as bothered by cold as other ponies, though on this particular flight Dash had to admit to herself that having Twilight snuggled up against her was doing an excellent job of keeping the chill away. It had been a while since she'd enjoyed that kind of physical contact with somepony else. In fact, she realized abruptly her last date had been to Applejack's wedding a few years back... not a memory she cared to dwell on. She shifted her hindquarters slightly, settling Twilight into a somewhat more aerodynamic position. "Uh, so... what the hay is so important that we had to get to Canterlot pronto?"

Twilight concentrated for a moment, her horn glowing softly, and Dash felt a cocoon of artificial warmth wrap around her passenger. "Well... I got a letter from the Princess tonight."

The pegasus rolled her eyes. "You get letters from Luna all the time, Twi. So what?"

"It wasn't from Luna, Rainbow."

Dash frowned. "But... you said –" She started a bit and they lost a few feet of altitude, Twilight yelping and burying her face in Dash's mane. "You mean from Princess Celestia?! You got a letter from the Princess? What did she say?"

Looking uneasily toward the ground blurring past them, Twilight said, "Just that she needed my help in her study. Naturally, I'm expecting to find out more when we get there, and you can see why I couldn't wait."

"Totally, this is incredible! Do you have any idea what she needs help with?"

"Well... I'm kind of assuming it has to do with her computational engine..."

"Uh, her what now?"

"Right when she disappeared, she was working on a new invention she thought would make everypony's lives simpler..."

Twilight tried to explain about the work she'd been doing in her basement and Dash listened intently to her friend, even though a fair amount of the terminology sailed right over her head.

"So, let me get this straight... it's like a machine that can think about what you tell it to think about... and you can have it think about all kinds of stuff, like how to do math or what the weather could do..."

"Well, more or less."

"And you have one of these things set up in your basement and it's thinking about Ponyville?"

"It's running a simulation of Ponyville and everything in it. It's surprisingly accurate. In fact, I'm quite impressed with its performance –"

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Here's what I don't get: what does any of that have to do with the Princess disappearing?"

Twilight bit her lip, lost in thought for a moment. "I don't know, Rainbow. I'm hoping to find out."

Dash looked back at her friend, who appeared so lost and – young, all of a sudden. She frowned, determined. "We'll find out, Twilight, I'm sure we will. Look, we're almost there!" She lifted a forehoof and pointed ahead: in the distance, the castle rose up, pale marble glittering in the moonlight. "Now, uh, I don't mean to scare you, but it's been a while since I've carried somepony around like this. The landing might be a little bumpy, is all I'm saying..."

• • •

"Princess, I'm sorry to disturb you like this, but –"

"Nonsense, Twilight, of course you were right to come. Did you bring the letter, by chance?"

Twilight shook her head, looking regretful. "I was so... so shocked and surprised I left it at home."

Luna sighed, but nodded to show she understood.

They were cantering down through the castle, headed for Celestia's secret study, Rainbow Dash trailing behind them. It had been a long time since Dash had been to Canterlot and she'd never been this deep within the castle before. It was kind of creepy, and she picked up her pace, reluctant to be left behind – not that she was afraid.

"All it said was, I need your help. Please come to my study."

"Very cryptic," mused Luna.

"I agree. Naturally, I came as quickly as I could, thanks to Rainbow here."

"Aw, it was no big deal. I couldn't sleep, I was about to go for a little fly anyway."

Luna looked back at her, a slim eyebrow raised. "Bad dreams, Rainbow Dash? I would hope my night is treating my subjects better than that."

"I – uh, your night is just fine, Princess. Er, better than just fine, your night is awesome, it's perfect! Perfectly... awesome. Yeah..." Dash grimaced.

Twilight rolled her eyes, smiling to herself, and Luna grinned. "Don't worry... I'm sure neither I nor my night is insulted. I do apologize for the interruption of your sleep, whether due to nightmares or bringing Twilight to Canterlot."

"Heh, really, it's fine, your Highness."

"Surely after all we've been through you needn't be so formal, Rainbow Dash. You may call me Luna."

"Well... Luna... you can call me Dash, everyone else does."

"Very well, Dash. ...Ah, here we are."

Luna drew to a stop. Twilight, apparently recognizing where they were, halted easily alongside her. Dash managed to catch herself before bumping into either of them, but only just. She looked around with interest and was disappointed by bare stone walls and an unremarkable door set into one side of the hallway. Luna opened the door and they peered in; there was nopony inside.

The three ponies stepped in cautiously, looking around. Dash saw nothing but a workspace and some books. "So... where is she?"

Twilight frowned. "I don't know... maybe..." Her horn lit and she swept it in an arc across the room, gasping when it passed over the bookcase. "Luna! I can feel her!"

Luna turned, her own horn sparking to life, and she gasped as well. "Sister!"

The two ran forward to the bookcase. Feeling slightly out of place, Dash looked on as Twilight and Luna performed more spells, talking excitedly with each other. She gathered that there appeared to be some sort of passageway behind the bookcase that wasn't there before, but they couldn't figure out how to get in. Finally, Twilight noticed something and reached for one of the books – Dash caught the title Simulacra and Simulation, by Boerdrillard – and as she pulled it toward her, a low rumble grew up around them before the bookcase slid to the side, revealing a stone passageway leading even deeper below the castle.

Luna stared. "I had no idea this existed... it's not in the official plans for the castle. Sister, what were you up to...?"

"She must have dug it out herself with magic, and used more magic to seal and cloak the entranceway," Twilight suggested.

Dash looked over their shoulders, down the rough steps, eyeing the wall sconces that had sprung to life when the bookcase had shifted. "Well... shouldn't we check it out?"

Twilight nodded. "Right, of course. Princess?"

"After you, Twilight."

They all headed down the passage single-file, the sound of their hoofsteps echoing around them. Dash felt the air growing even damper as they descended, the humidity making her feathers stick to her fur uncomfortably. Worse, she couldn't help but picture how deep they must be below the ground, how far they must be from the open sky, and she shivered slightly. She tried to keep her unease from showing, since her companions seemed no worse for the wear.

The passage eventually leveled out into a hallway. As they headed for the end, the temperature began rising, the air turning warm and muggy. Dash grimaced and ruffled her wings, lifting them slightly off her body in an effort to stay cool.

The room at the end of the hallway would have seemed fairly cavernous, had it not been packed full of humming boxes like nothing Dash had ever seen before. A few wall sconces flickered to life as they entered, pushing the darkness back, but not by much. As the room became more visible, Twilight bounded to the nearest box and examined it excitedly before turning back to the others.

"These are just like the ones I've built in my basement based on Celestia's notes! This has to be her own computational engine." She glanced around the room, looking bemused. "Hers must be much more powerful... this is several times the size of my own setup."

Dash trotted over to Twilight's side, looking the machine up and down. It was a dull gray, with little lights blinking on one side. Bundles of what looked like rope came out the back, and led to the other machines surrounding them in the gloom.

She nudged Twilight. "What're these for?"

Twilight looked down at the ropes. "Oh, they're cables. They link up multiple smaller computational engines so they can work together, making the system as a whole more powerful." At Dash's blank look, she sighed. "Just... don't touch anything."

Luna was looking around, shock plainly evident on her face. "My sister built all this in her spare time?"

"Well, she worked on it for decades... maybe longer... I was able to do it more quickly because she had laid everything out in her notes."

Luna turned to Twilight. "And you have constructed a similar system in Ponyville?"

"Yes, just smaller."

"Do you think you can operate this one?"

"Probably," Twilight murmured, looking deeper into the room, following some of the ropes – cables, Dash reminded herself. They all seemed to eventually lead back to one box in the center that looked different from the others. There was a cushion in front of it, as if somepony were meant to sit there.

Twilight settled in and inspected the machine, Dash and Luna standing to either side of her. Seeming to sense her presence, a rectangular area on the machine lit up; Dash jumped a little in surprise. "Don't worry," Twilight said. "It's just the display screen, it's... part of how you work with it."

Fascinated, Dash leaned closer, watching numbers that had appeared there count up.

010:01:04:16:52:47, 010:01:04:16:52:48, 010:01:04:16:52:49...

Twilight ignited her horn, activating a few controls on the machine's surface. The numbers disappeared, replaced by luminescent script; Dash couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. "It's the master console... it controls all the other computational engines in the room," Twilight explained as she started working. "It's laid out a little differently than my own at home, but I'm familiar enough with the Princess's organizational style that I should be able to figure out... ah, there we are."

New text appeared and Twilight skimmed it. "This is a list of the most recent commands the Princess entered..." Dash and Luna stared at her. "That is to say, this is a list of the most recent instructions the Princess gave to the machine. If I can figure out what they mean, it should give us a clue as to what happened." She set to work.

Dash watched for a while, but the novelty of seeing Twilight pressing controls on the machine and then things changing on the display in front of her wore off quickly. She looked around; Luna was still gazing intently at what Twilight was doing. Around them, the metal towers of Celestia's computational engine hummed along, all their lights flashing on and off.

Directly behind them, Dash noticed a different-looking machine, quite unlike the boxes. She moved to get a better look at it, stepping carefully over the cables snaking everywhere along the floor.

It appeared to be a large metal cylinder, with several other objects attached to it, on a sturdy stand and base. It was mounted horizontally, with one end pointing back the way she came, toward Twilight at the master console. The end closest to Twilight wasn't solid: there was an opening which contained what appeared to be a highly-polished, perfectly smooth domed jewel. She peered into it and saw her own face reflected back at her, upside-down and foreshortened.

From behind her, she could hear Twilight muttering to herself, and then a sort of excited sound, as though Twilight had figured something out. Dash started to turn back, but the strange device next to her started humming and she jumped away before looking it over uncertainly.

"Hey, Twi..."

"Hold on, Rainbow, I think I've tracked this down."

Dash heard Twilight continuing to press buttons on the console, and then the console beeped. A cool blue light flickered into existence behind the jewel set into the end of the cylinder and Dash stared at it in surprise, watching it begin to glow brighter. She noticed a series of dark rings around what she was slowly beginning to think of as the 'business end' of... whatever it was; the ring farthest from the end of the cylinder was glowing the same shade of blue as the jewel. As she watched, the next ring lit up, and then the next; each ring's ignition coincided with a jump in the intensity of the humming coming from device. She didn't like the noise, it sounded... unnatural, set her teeth on edge. She also didn't like the look of those rings lighting up.

"Twilight..."

"Just a second, Rainbow!"

The pegasus bit her lip and looked back at the two other ponies. Luna sensed her movement and looked back at Dash, then saw the glowing eye of the device; her eyes went wide. "Twilight, perhaps you should stop."

"Done!" Twilight said triumphantly. "Now what is so important?" She turned as she hit a final control. The device's whine immediately jumped in pitch and volume, and the remaining rings began to light faster.

"Twi, move!"

The glow focused itself, projecting a blue circle between Twilight's eyes as she stared back; the device shrieked past hearing.

"Move!"

Time slowed to an agonizing crawl for Dash as she launched herself forward without thought, diving for her egghead friend – Twilight, frozen in shock – Dash flapped, hard – the final ring lit – the jewel blazed blue – Luna cried out, shielded her face with a wing – Dash's body slammed into Twilight's, sending the purple unicorn skidding away –

Dash felt every hair on her body stand on end, a wave of freezing electricity washing over her. Like flying through a thunderhead in a bad storm, she barely had time to think.

Her vision flickered briefly, and then she was alone.