...

Power Restored.

CPU booting... tick...tick...tick..

Accessing ROM BIOS... tick..tick..

System Restored.

POST running... Instruction received. CPU status green.

BIOS chip stable... Checking for battery damage... None Applicable.

Activating CPU... hardware check initialized.

Video card- clean

Disk process- clean

Graphics initiation system- clean

RAM- clean.

Scanning hard drive.... system activated.

CPU processes initialized. Searching for OS...

Loading Rainbow_Blitz.exe... 5%...

10%... 20%... 30%... 40%... 50%... 60%...

70%... 80%.... 90%... 100%,

OS is booted. System activated.

Good morning, Rainbow Blitz! Ready to chase your dreams again?

Rainbow Blitz opened his ocular sensors. The bright blue of the vision input devices illuminated the dark room where he stood. He moved each of his four legs in turn, testing for any structural or internal damaged. There was nothing wrong. As wires and plugs ran off his I/O ports, Blitz found himself freed of his recharge and repair platform, the machine having fixed him overnight. He stepped off the metal stage, yellow-painted arms retracting so as to make his movement a bit easier. His CPU sent diagnostic programs through his body to make sure nothing was wrong before he began his morning run. As the motherboard compiled a report for the CPU to scan, his anti-virus and system integrity programs began to boot. The wave of safety that flooded over the mechanical horse was enough to placate the frantic CPU into archiving the diagnostics report for later. He quickly checked his dash module to see if it was working, opening up the flaps on his back. The internal components of the robot unicorn were exposed to the air as a yellow mechanical arm reached into his bowels and took out a rainbow-colored sphere. Blitz scanned the ball for any defects, his ocular sensors bathing it in x-ray radiation and scanning the area around it for energy leaks. The CPU was delighted that there were no problems, and the yellow arm returned the sphere back into Blitz’s body, plugging it into a special socket that was five inches away from Blitz’s motherboard. The motherboard didn’t like having a radioactive ball so close to it, but the anti-virus programs said that nothing could do damage to the board’s reinforced anti-rad shell. The board didn’t have access to the majority of RAM cards: it didn’t know that the CPU had ordered the shell alongside the dash matrix.

It was like this every morning. Blitz’s many different components would wake up along with the OS and talk to each other. Loudly. Loud enough that Rainbow_Blitz.exe had problems concentrating. It was these annoying times that caused Blitz to wish that he was a non-sentient computer, so that maybe his modules could shut up for a bit. But he had been made this way, and he couldn’t just delete his OS. So, over the course of several centuries (or was it thousands?) Blitz had gotten used to the endless chatter of his programs. Too bad his voice processor was still damaged from that one encounter with a star giant. The rig hadn’t yet gone and decide to fix it yet.

Oh well, thought the OS, moving his right fore-hoof to press a red button.

A door opened in the lightless chamber, letting in the bright morning sun. Blitz stepped outside, his servos flexing out as the light reflected off his metal body. Several plates of hardened titanium made up his flexible upper body, and larger, more clumsy pieces made his lower half. Mini-servos ran through the entire framework, allowing the metal plates to move and stretch: like a real horse. His head was made of a single piece, and his neck was stretchy, the carbon nanotubes that held the entire thing together were capable of extending and retracting his neck at will. A horn laid on his head, and inside several tubes of glowing plutonium allowed the focusing of the dash module’s radiation into a protective shield. His “dash attack” or so he called it. His legs were made of reinforced carbon-steel, being of a slightly different color than his main body. Inside, however, massive shock-absorbing springs took the place of bones, and more plutonium tubes allowed him to double-, triple-, and quadruple-jump in midair. The robot unicorn was nearly indestructible: his creators had made him that way. Of course, data corruption in his ROM card had erased those memories, and the lack of updates to his OS and system core had Blitz delete unneeded data. He stomped his hooves into the rocky ground, his ocular scanners doing a once-over of the floating archipelago that surrounded him. Yep. It was the same familiar scene. The same flying rocks, the same waterfalls that plunged through the air, the same gas giant filling the sky. At least the sun shone on the rocky moon.

Blitz pawed the ground for a bit before taking off, jumping off his platform and onto a long section of rock. His leg servos began to move, the unicorn breaking into a full gallop as he leaped between stones, bouncing to and fro as he narrowly dodged floating boulders. He aimed for the longer ones, those being easier to run on, and jumped the gaps like a seasoned pro. No matter how large the holes, Blitz would overcome them, and always landed safely on the other side, the springs in his legs absorbing the shock of impact.

Blitz chased his dreams again, bouncing over the archipelago as his rainbow-colored mane trailed on behind him.

There were crystals in the rocks, The CPU called them stars. The OS that was Blitz called them mincemeat. A crystal stood in front of him now. Unable to stop and unwilling to crash, Blitz fired up his dash module, focusing the radiation to his horn. A shield formed around the unicorn’s front, glowing with any and all colors. As the barrier persisted, Blitz felt himself move faster, like the shooting stars that constantly broke the small moon’s atmosphere. He smashed through the crystal, sending a blast of energy around him as the star burst apart. The motherboard always worried about the aftershocks, always predicting a 80% chance of utter destruction. The CPU always got angry after they survived, and the OS always had to calm the both of them down. It sometimes cost him his life, distracted as he already was, usually he would slam into another star, or fail a jump, or maybe even smash his robot body into the side of cliff. Sometimes a giant would blast him with their lasers. Or a winged dolphin would snatch him away. Whatever it was, Bitz simply couldn’t handle distractions. He just couldn’t. This time, however, the voices of his components didn’t get too loud, and the robot unicorn managed to make the next few jumps, smashing through two more stars and breaking a giant in half.

As he charged forward full speed, the sun reflected off his metallic body and sent the glimmer to the other side of the moon. The dark side.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...

Rewop Derotser.

CPU gnitoob... kict....kict...kict

Gnissecca ROM BIOS... kict...kict...

Metsys Derotser.

POST gninnur...Noitcurtsni deviecer, CPU sutats neerg.

BIOS pihs elbats... Gnikcehc rof yrettab egamad... Enon Elbaclippa.

Gnitavitca CPU... erawdrah kcehc dezilaitini.

Oediv drac- nealc

Kisd ssecorp - nealc

Scihparg noitaitini metsys- nealc

RAM- nealc

Gninnacs drah evird.... metsys detavitca.

CPU sessecorp dezilaitini. Gnihcraes rof OS...

Gnidaol Inferno_Runner.exe... 5%...

10%... 20%... 30%... 40%... 50%... 60%...

70%... 80%.... 90%... 100%,

OS si detoob. Metsys detavitca.

Hello, Inferno Runner. Your nightmares are ready to be found.

Inferno’s ocular sensors booted up by themselves. No input was needed from the CPU. The red orbs lit up his dark cage, scanning it to make sure everything was still in place. Good. Everything was. He checked his system over again, unable to read the corrupted boot process. No one could. He bet that the people who made him would have been able to, but the bad data that clogged his pathways and filled his memory chips had long since been destroyed. The only memory that Inferno held in his solitary RAM chip was that he chased his nightmares every day with the dawn, and that his younger brother Blitz chased his dreams on the other side of the moon. Everything else was completely and utterly illegible.

He pulled himself out of his charging rig, the long-dead wires popping off his I/O ports. The yellow arms that were supposed to service him had broken long along, and Inferno had forgotten how to repair them. The only piece of machinery, beside him, that worked in the tiny hut was the reassembly arm, which was rusted and sparky, and the door that led to the outside. Even his own body was in deplorable condition. His CPU had long died, and his motherboard was corrupted beyond repair. It was a lucky stroke that kept his OS running and his body stable. Being the beta form of his brother, Inferno’s problems with long-term data storage, poor serviceability, and faulty modules were all addressed with Blitz. And that was why he was sentenced to eternity on the dark side of the moon, so that his creators didn’t have to worry about a broken machine like him causing havoc.

Lacking any modules to talk with, Inferno simply pressed the red button on the wall and waited for the long-rusted door to open. He stretched his servos, shaking off black residue and spilled lubrication fluid, and tested his dash module for any problems. The only thing Inferno had over his brother was a Geiger counter in his internal structure: he could sense problems with his dash without taking it out of his body. It was implemented because of Inferno’s lack of flexibility: his body was made out of three pieces of metal, not the segmented ones that Blitz had. He lacked microservos, instead having six hydraulic pistons to move his plates. His head was made out of a single piece of titanium, like his brother, but his neck was static and unmoving. Only the ball joint connecting his head to his neck and the hinge joint that connected his neck to his chest was capable of movement. As thus, when Inferno ran, he moved stiffly, as if suffering from some sort of cramp. He was slower than his brother: that was almost certain. However, he was comparatively more durable than Blitz, for he lacked many of Blitz’s fragile, specific parts. Gross motor skills was all Inferno needed. Blitz required much more fine motor control. Inferno could survive a heavy impact, thus lacking the springs in his legs. More space could be used for increased armor and reinforcement. Blitz would be lucky if he barely survived a fall without his springs.

Finally, the creaky door decided to let Inferno out, and the rusted robot unicorn walked into the Dark World again. Like the Floating Archipelago, the Dark World consisted of thousands of flying rocks and continents. Unlike the Archipelago, it lack much of its light. The only colors present were black and grey, and the flames of Inferno’s mane. Unlike Blitz, who had faux-hair attached where a mane and tail should be, Inferno only had a series of small holes, with a larger one on his flank. These were not simply for show: they were modifications Inferno did on himself, so he could see better in the shadow-covered land. By sending a corrupt file of instructions to a small module in the front of his chest, flames burst out of the holes, making a mane and tail of glowing red fire. The napalm that fueled the combustion was highly explosive, and Inferno had been blown up countless times because the tank had ruptured. His durability had been put to the test by having a napalm reaction burst out of his neck and flank.

He pawed the ground, shaking off a final few specks of rust, before running off into the blackness, the flames that trailed behind him lighting the way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blitz had never went this fast.

Inferno had never went this fast.

The two machines raced across endless plains, having left their respective worlds behind. Gone were the floating stones, the flying rocks. Only an endless stretch of grassy land, utterly flat, without a mountain or hill in sight. The hooves of the two robots slammed into the ground at speeds beyond counting, leaving deep indentations in the dirt behind them.

Blitz’s motherboard complained to the OS that they were going too fast, and that they should slow down before they got hurt. The CPU, however, shrugged off the board’s complaints as rubbish, saying that this was what they were made for: speed and quickness. The OS partially agreed with both of them, for he was excited about running this fast, but also uncomfortable as the ground became a blur beneath him. His wish had gone past the boundaries of his realm, and worry found a pathway into the OS. What if they met something they didn’t want to see? What if something dangerous tried to scrap him? They were past the Archipelago, and the recovery drones couldn’t follow him any longer.

Inferno ignored the screaming alarms, warning him that his core was overheating. Never had he exerted himself like this, never had he worked his rusted joints this much. At 700 mph, the horse bolted across the ground, his ancient servos begging for a break. His napalm had ran out hours ago, and his OS was being flooded with a series of illegible diagnostics reports and warnings. No matter. Inferno was having the time of his broken life, sprinting across a plain with the sun in sight. He would find his nightmares of light today, and his brother would find his dream of rest in the night.

Of course, neither robot had calculated where the other was, and at first Blitz mistook the incoming shadow as a threat. Inferno did the same to Blitz, his rusted mind thinking his brother was some sort of mobile star. And we know what robot unicorns do to stars.

Both unicorns fired up their dash modules. Both lowered their horns, preparing to break the incoming threat. As light and dark ran towards each other, Blitz’s ocular sensors met Inferno’s red orbs. And suddenly, just before they crashed headfirst into each other, a network formed between the two OSs. they each managed to transmit a single line of code before their systems suddenly shut down to prevent damage to the processes.

Brother? said Blitz.

bROtHer? said Inferno.

The two unicorns collided in a spectacular explosion that completely decimated both bodies. Both Blitz and Inferno disintegrated in front of each other, falling to pieces as the force of a ten thousand newton impact ripped metal and smashed precision instruments. The pieces of the robot unicorns flew across the ground, digging long trenches where they landed. Blitz’s system core smashed into Inferno’s, breaking each into a thousand tiny pieces that scattered like glass.

The world lay silent as the unicorns finally stopped their endless charge.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A meteor shower flew through the air, the streams of countless space rocks burning away through the skies above. Twilight had been up nearly all night watching the storm with her friends, and had finally dragged herself to bed at three in the morning. She yawned as the asteroids burned up overhead, leaving long white tails of dust behind them. Spike had fallen asleep seven hours earlier, and Twilight really needed a proper nap, at least. Bags had already formed under her eyes, and her eyelids grew as heavy as a filled saddlebag. She had managed to walk back to her library, and climb into bed before her energy failed her, instantly incapacitating the purple mare without so much as a warning. She didn’t even have time to throw her blanket over herself, that was how tired she was. If maybe I had drunk that last coffee, she thought as dreams took her over. I...could...stay awake...with...my...ughh.....

The library stood completely still for the next five minutes. Indeed, if Twilight had stayed awake and paid attention to the skies, she would have seen the meteor break through the atmosphere and fall towards the library. She would have heard the stone scream as it crashed through the air. And she would have certainly felt the asteroid smash through the roof of the Golden Oak, and not have been suddenly and rudely awakened by the loud smash of something hitting the ground. Hard.

Twilight’s eyes snapped open as whatever had fallen through her roof groaned. She climbed out of bed, curiosity fueling her actions as she lit a candle and walked down to the ground floor.

“Hello?” she said. “Is...is anypony there?”

“Ugh.....yeah.” said a strange voice. “Do...do you mind telling me why i’m here,”

Twilight lifted the candle, revealing a white unicorn stallion with messy rainbow-colored hair and pure blue eyes that stared at her intently.

“...and why I’m biological.” said Rainbow Blitz.