Chapter 13: Are You Surprised Yet?

“It's not that I don’t believe you, exactly. It's just... that's the craziest thing anypony ever told me! I mean... you're just a filly!"

Chance sighed. She had a feeling Twilight probably wouldn't want her doing any of this. But she had no intention of backing down now, not after she had already told Lyra. One way or another, she might tell other ponies what she had said, and it would get around. The only way to resolve this situation now was to get everything out. It was really strange to be telling her secret to a total stranger in the park, and not to her good friends the Crusaders. But no matter how good of friends they were, none of the Crusaders played human music (she probably wouldn't have recognized what their butchery did to music in any case). None of the Crusaders claimed to know about her people. Sure, Second Chance wanted what her name implied. She wasn't struggling for a way home. But she didn't just want another chance for herself. If there were more of her people who could come, she wanted them to get another chance, too. It wasn't fair she got all this, and nopony else did. Nobody else.

"Look, fine." She magicked her bag open, removing the notebook she used during Twilight's magic lessons. She now had the literacy of a foal much younger than herself, and no words to express the complex supernatural concepts her teacher used when instructing her in magic. As such, she used English for her notes. Her Equestrian was big and awkward-looking from little mastery, but her English was dense and neat. To native eyes, it would look as alien as the thematic script unicorns used looked to her. She held the book open to Lyra. "You want some proof? This is English. It's my native language." She displayed a few pages for Lyra to see, which probably looked all the stranger since they also included spell diagrams copied with a compass and enormous patience. It would probably look like her people used magic right along with conversational language. "I can speak it fluently too. Well, almost fluently. This mouth wasn't really made for it."

She leaned closer to the page, and read from the first point that stuck out. "The pattern left by any unicorn wizard on their work is called the Nimbus, and acts as a magical identifier that can be traced back if the Nimbus has been observed before. Concealing or altering the Nimbus is not recommended for all but the most advanced unicorns, and even then in cases of extreme emergency. Doing this requires significantly more energy-" She didn't go on, both because it felt strange to read words in such a strange tongue as because she knew the mare couldn't understand her anyway. She might have been muttering gibberish, for all she knew. Maybe it would've sounded a little like gibberish to any nearby humans, too. She had been speaking and learning just Equestrian for so long that she had no context for what her own tongue was supposed to sound like. It didn't help that her own memories were so distant and strange. So she stopped, passing her notebook to Lyra so that she could peruse to her heart's content.

She did, though not for very long. The mare looked as though she had been hit by a bus, her eyes were so wide. She opened her mouth and closed it several times over, though the noises that came out were hardly proper words. "You're... really?" Her smile suddenly returned, like cracks appearing in melting ice. "Really really? Promise?"

Chance nodded. "Really really. But that's just it. I was a Precursor. I'm a pony now. Or... trying my best." She lifted up one of her hooves, close to her face. "If it wasn't for magic, I would be useless without my hands. Not sure how the other tribes do it. Oh! And... I don't think I got your name? You already know mine, so it's only fair."

"Lyra Heartstrings." She said casually, hardly waiting long enough for Chance to process what she said. "What are hands? Are those what you called your claws? I think I've heard that word before, but it's been a long time."

Chance took her notebook back, and replaced it in her bag. "Yeah." She glanced up at the sun, which might not have been a good idea back home. But here, the brightness wasn't blinding, and it didn't hurt her eyes. So long as she didn't look at it for very long. Then again, she had been able to look directly at the sun back home, thanks to her nanophages. It was a shame she hadn't brought those along. How long might an Equestrian live, she wondered, with a full spectrum of nanophage? Four centuries? Five? To say nothing of what the other side could do. "Listen, Twilight should be back by now, and she's probably expecting me. Can we talk as I walk home? I don't wanna get in trouble."

"Sure, sure!" Lyra slammed her lyre-case closed with her magic. It lifted into the air behind her, and followed them as they walked. Seeing Twilight do this had fascinated Chance every time during the first few weeks. Now she could do it herself, and she hardly even glanced. It was just unicorn magic. Nothing crazy. It was already like a second set of limbs to her, even more useful than the hands she had left behind. Well, maybe. She wasn't sure how using a keyboard would work with magic, with all those little touch-sensitive holograms. Would magic register as fingers? No, it didn't matter. She wasn't going to get to use a keyboard again anytime soon. Maybe never. "I've spent my whole life learning about you, and I've got so many questions! Like-"

"Wait." Chance stopped suddenly, so much that Lyra nearly bumped into her. "I'll answer your questions, but only on two conditions. You've got to answer mine about what ponies know about us, and you're not allowed to tell anyone but Twilight we had this conversation. I don't want to be famous, I don't want to be different. I just want to be a pony. So I don't want to see pictures of me in the Ponyville Express." Not that there hadn't been already. After Pinkie's party, there had been a column of one of the back pages in the "New Move Ins" section. But that had been different. Nothing in there had said she was anything but a filly who had moved into town to study with the resident princess.

Lyra nodded, hardly seeming to hear her. "Course! I'll do whatever you want, Precursor." She lowered her head respectfully, like she might do if Chance had been her teacher. It made sense to show respect to Twilight Sparkle, she was a princess!

But Second Chance was no princess, and seeing that made her very uncomfortable. "Okay. Also, don't do that. I'm not royalty; my people don't even believe in that sort of thing." She sighed. "What do you want to know?"

The mint mare looked overwhelmed, silent as her mind whirled and spun. Eventually she had to decide, though. "Is it finally time? For the Precursors to come back... more than just a few of you, I mean. Is Equestria ready to be your friends, after all these thousands of years? Or are you just here to check on us, and see how we're progressing?" Her excitement seemed to trail off as she went on. Clearly that was not the response she wanted from her.

The trouble was, Chance didn't know why she was here! She knew she loved it here in Equestria. She loved her friends, her lessons with Twilight Sparkle. Whatever her mission had been, she only knew one thing for sure: She didn't want to leave. If she had been sent as some sort of spy, to gather information and return home, she had a feeling she was going to defect. There was nothing on Earth or Equis that could make her leave this paradise for her 100 square feet on Luna-7. She reached back into her memories, trying to summon up what Lyra was asking for. It was in there somewhere, the purpose she had come for. It was important she remember what it was. Suddenly, recollections came flooding back, and she was momentarily turned back into the halls of recollection.

"This isn't Mars. We don't have a planet with useful things like metal and carbon and water. We've got enough Oxygen to last us until the sun goes cold, but none of the things required to sustain life. Imagine how much worse it is for all the bunkers and vaults down on Earth? Humanity is limping on borrowed time. Perhaps a century, perhaps two, and there will be no true humans left anywhere but Mars. Who can say if we'll even be that lucky. One freak windstorm or volcanic event, and that could be it for them too. Something must be done, if we expect humanity to be anything more than dead machines.

You are that something, Dr. Colven. You can be our freedom."

She blinked, realizing suddenly that Lyra was staring at her. "We're... we are trying to be closer friends with you. I was sent to try to build a relationship with your people." Of course, she knew more than that. But she had promised to tell Twilight Sparkle if she remembered anything about her mission, before she told anyone else. She would not break that promise just to learn more about human history in this strange world.

"I knew it!" Lyra shouted, leaping several feet into the air. Several ponies passing by in the park stopped what they were doing to stare at her. Her ears and tail drooped suddenly, and she smiled shyly at them all. "S-sorry." She started walking again. "Sorry about that. It's just... I knew this was going to happen! You wouldn't believe how many ponies don't even believe in you."

That made sense. It wasn't as though many humans would have believed in this world if she had told them. It was like something out of a story, not a place that might actually exist. A place ruled by Kindness and Harmony? A country made entirely of horses, who lived almost exactly the way her own people had hundreds of years ago. Except better. Ponies had figured out things humans never had, even if their machines were primitive by comparison. There might never be a Space Age in Equestria, or an Information Age, or even a Quantum Age. But that didn't seem to matter. They had magic! "How do you even know about us?" She asked. "When I was sent, I thought none of the others who went before made it. So how do ponies know about us?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Ponies were happy creatures by nature, it seemed. If there was a contest to be the happiest pony ever, Lyra would probably be pretty competitive right now. "A long time ago, well over a thousand years, a pony went to your world. She was only there for a day, but she learned all kinds of stuff! Before she left, the Precursors promised they would come to our world and teach us their magic." She poked Chance in the chest with a hoof. "Now here you are! What a wonderful time to be alive! If only Bon-Bon could see me now!"

Chance shook her head. "Nobody but Twilight, remember? I don't want to make a big deal out of it. I just want to be Twilight's apprentice. I want to live in the library, and learn magic, and make friends. At least, for now."

"I know, I know." Lyra nodded, thinking of her next question. They were nearly out of the park. From there, it was less than a block to the library, and home. Chance wondered what she would tell Twilight about this conversation. What would her mentor think of her telling Lyra? "Speaking of magic, apparently your people can do some amazing things! Is it true nobody in your world ever dies? Did you really cure death?"

That was not a question Chance wanted to answer. Maybe a few weeks ago a question like that would have brought her back to some horrible memory from the war. She was getting better, though. Instead, she just shivered all over, and nodded. "We... not from natural causes, anyway. When I was a baby. Err... when I was a foal, I was given an injection called a Nanophage. It's like a... a million little machines, that live in your body. They learned what my body was supposed to be like, and what was supposed to live inside it. They would hunt down germs, so I couldn't get sick. They could also fix parts of me if they got damaged. Cuz'... that's how you get old. You get little injuries in every cell, and your body works worse and worse. The Nanophages fix that, along with any other injuries you get, though we need bigger machines if you're really hurt. I don't know if we actually cured death, though. The technology was only like fifty years old. It could make you young again if you were old, but our scientists thought it wouldn't work indefinitely. Nobody has had them long enough to see just how long they work for, though."

"Machines inside you." Lyra repeated, then "Nano-phages. Fascinating! They run on electricity, right? Precursor technology runs on electricity instead of magic, like ours."

She nodded again. "Yeah. Though they could generate their own power using your body heat. The early designs had to be recharged with nuclear batteries, but that was before I was born." They were out of the park now, hooves clopping merrily down the street. Chance wasn't too worried about being overheard. After all, it wasn't as though any ponies who did would know what they were talking about anyway. "What are Precursors supposed to be like? What do ponies believe about us?" She narrowed her eyes. "Be honest. I want to hear everything, not just the good things."

The mare looked incredulous. "Don't be so modest! It's only good things! Of course, everything we know about you comes from only two sources, so it probably doesn't cover all the amazing things you've done. About how your whole world is one big nation existing in harmony, not lots of tiny countries like we have. How your magic is so strong, that anyone can leave your planet whenever they want! You just fly right away."

Chance smiled in spite of herself. "Well, that second one was true once. I actually spent most of my life on the moon before I came to Equestria."

"But you didn't just have magic. The Precursors lived in harmony, but they were strong and selfless. The only one who ever came to Equestria before you fought and won one of the most devastating battles in Equestrian history."

The filly abruptly stopped walking, staring at Lyra with her mouth suddenly hanging open. "Fought... fought in a battle?" That sounded so familiar to her, why couldn't she place where she had heard that before?

Lyra grinned proudly. "I'm not exactly sure if he came as a pony like you or not. Some of my books say he did, others say he didn't. The only good drawing of a Precursor comes from a sketch someone in Canterlot made of him. Anyway, there was this big siege. Canterlot had been taken over, and only the castle was still held by ponies. Celestia was gone, but Luna was on her way with a big part of the army. Problem was, if the castle fell, we might never get it back. We never expected the enemy to get so far into Equestrian territory, so we kept some of the most powerful magic in the castle to keep it safe. If the Dragons got their claws on it, it might end the war. Only a few dozen soldiers were still alive from the battle for Canterlot, what was left of the city watch. All the survivors from Canterlot were in the castle, mostly mares and foals." Lyra shivered all over. "Dragons were pretty awful back then. Anyway, he lead a defense of the castle, and held off an army of ten thousand for the four days it took Luna to arrive with the army and break the siege. That was when we learned that Precursors were unlike anything from Equestria. He and the guard fought like lions, and according to the stories he killed several dragons himself during the battle. Dragons were always the most dangerous enemy for us, since their hides are almost impervious to magic and normal weapons don't even dent their scales."

"According to the story, the battle was nearly lost. In the end, the Dragons used their fire to weaken the rock and collapse part of the wall, so their army could get in. Instead of let the castle be taken, he lead the last of the guard on one last charge, right into the enemy. Almost none of them survived, but it bought the last few hours Luna needed to get there, and maybe saved all of Equestria. So we know you're brave, too. He knew he wouldn't survive, but he did it anyway. For us. The Princesses gave him all sorts of medals, and he was buried like a war hero. At least... I'm pretty sure. None of the books said where I could find the grave. I went to every graveyard in Canterlot, but I never found it."

They were at the library. Lights were on inside, and smoke was rising from the chimney. No doubt Spike was at this moment cooking something delicious for dinner. "Well Lyra, thank you for answering my questions." She nodded politely. "But I'm gonna be late. If you wanna talk again we can, so long as you don't tell anyone."

Lyra nodded. "Of course, my lips are sealed! You're probably busy with Princess Twilight. No wonder they sent her the Jebr Stone. I'll ask about that next time! You probably already got it working again in the few months you've been in Ponyville, with how smart your people are."

Chance was in a daze. For starters, she wasn't sure she believed most of what this unicorn was telling her about her own people. The ponies clearly had not learned of the apocalyptic war that had destroyed her people. It was hard to think of humanity as a noble race after seeing all those cities burning. Maybe one day she would correct Lyra on that. But not now. The unicorn looked so happy, so excited. She couldn't crush those dreams now. Maybe next time they spoke, but not now. She couldn't imagine causing harm like that to one of these innocent ponies.

"I... no, we haven't fixed the... whatever that is." Jebr stone? What was that? "But I've got to go. It was nice to meet you!" Before Lyra could say anything else to her, she bolted off to the door, letting herself into the library. Only when the door was shut behind her could she be safe.

Twilight was at her desk when she heard the door open, completely absorbed by the scroll she had been reading. She reluctantly looked up, and wasn't surprised to see that it was her apprentice. She hadn't really been aware of the passage of time, considering how absorbed she had been with her work. "Hi Chance!" She got up, shaking out the stiffness from her limbs. "How was school?"

The filly looked a little nervous, avoiding her eyes. "Good! It was good! Miss Cheerilee is as nice as everypony said. Made a few new friends from my class, too."

Twilight nodded. "That's great, Chance! I told you it was nothing to worry about." The filly struggled for a moment to free herself from her saddle-bags, sliding them over her shoulders and onto the ground.

"Yeah... yeah... so!" She bounced nervously in place. "How was your trip to Canterlot? Must have been pretty important stuff to do, since it took an extra day."

"It sure was. Actually, I brought some donuts back with me. You can have one, but only after dinner." She watched her apprentice open her mouth to ask, just as the disappointment took the place of eagerness. Not that she was surprised to see either reaction. In some ways every filly seemed to be alike, even if this one came from another world.

Chance plopped herself down on her haunches, looking up at Twilight. "Is that the surprise?"

She chuckled, shaking her head. "No, Chance. Well it probably is a surprise, but it isn't what I meant. You can forget about magic practice for today. I've got something more interesting to take a look at with you." She turned, and led the way down to the basement. The basement neither Chance nor Spike had been allowed to go into for some time. "Follow me." Her apprentice did, just a few paces behind. When they got down to the bottom, Twilight traded the glow in her horn for the lights, which warmed into being and illuminated the scene of her intense research.

There in the center of the room was the Jebr Stone, resting gently on a plinth. Thick wire had been clamped to one side, but otherwise it was in the same condition it had been in when Luna had it delivered to her. The same as it had been for thousands of years, blank but for a rectangle inscribed in its surface. "Princess Luna sent this to me, and she said it had something to do with you. I wanted to understand what was going on better before I got you involved; I didn't want to get your hopes up over nothing." She looked back, to see how her apprentice was handling this.

Chance had stopped at the base of the stairs, and she stared in open wonder at the stone. There was an expression of shock on her face as intense as any pony could feel. Twilight could have slammed a book into her face, and it wouldn't have come close to producing this much surprise and wonder in her. The filly opened her mouth, but no words came out, just a stuttering gasp. As though there was any doubt this object was not from their world, Twilight considered that doubt resolved. There was recognition in Chance's eyes, no doubt about it.

Twilight waited patiently for the filly to speak, not wanting to shape her thoughts by saying anything else. Eventually patience won out, and she muttered something intelligible again. "You found... Twilight, do you have any idea what this is?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Ponies have been guessing for centuries, but none of the guesses agree. What is it?"

Chance darted over to the edge, reaching out with a hoof, but not actually daring to touch the surface of the metal. "This is..." She turned around, facing Twilight and looking excited. "It's what we call an OMICRON Core. It's lots of different things. First, it has a holographic drive, storing the entire sum knowledge of my entire race. Every book, every song, every video." She tapped the side of her head. "It's like me, only better. A complete archive. Our entire collective works. Everything we ever achieved. And that's just the beginning!" She began talking faster and faster, obviously growing in excitement. Twilight didn't know if it was cute or frightening to watch.

"The data wouldn't mean anything if there was nothing to do with it. Each one of these has a Quantum-Computational core, which means that..." She continued on in her strange language for a few seconds, before realizing she hadn't been speaking Equestrian and coming to a stop. Eventually she collected herself and went on. "It can solve really hard problems in very little time. Like, say, translating a language. Or predicting every possible evolutionary future for a species. I... I can't even tell you how smart it is."

"The whole thing is wired into something called a Cornucopia machine. It's... think of a machine, that can make anything you can imagine. You put some metal in, and it could pop out a mirror, or a piece of armor. Put in some carbon and some water and a few other minerals, and it pops out a cake. The whole thing is protected by a shell of Nanosteel, which really is mostly silicon but that's what we call it anyway." She knocked her hoof into the side, so that it clopped loudly. There wasn't so much as a scratch. "They can survive anything. Nuclear temperatures, the vacuum of space, probably millions of years... why is Equestria still so backward if you've had one of these all this time?"

Twilight bit back her desire to argue Chance's "backward” comment. Her apprentice was normally much more self-controlled than this. The excitement was getting to her, of that she had no doubt. It wasn't her fault if she got a little ahead of herself. "We think it doesn't have any more power. Ponies figured out it ran on electricity a little over a century ago, but only recently do we understand it well enough to try and power it. That's why I ordered the generator." She watched, looking between the object and her apprentice. "Is this... OMICRON Core... is it safe? It's not going to hurt anyone if we turn it on?"

Chance shook her head vigorously. "Of course not! Most of these machines are operated by a True Artificial Intelligence, a program more intelligent than any organic. Its programming enforces ethical development using these things called the laws of-" She shook her head. "Too hard to explain. It will think of us like a parent looks at a foal. It will do everything it can to protect us from danger. That means that it won't even let us hurt ourselves accidentally." She grinned. "Think of it like Princess Celestia! It thinks a million times faster than we can, and it wants nothing but to protect us and make sure we are happy." She turned away, facing the cube. "Is the generator ready? Once we get it running, we could fabricate a microfusion reactor or something, and forget about that silly thing Flim and Flam made."

Twilight was less than sure about this. Her whole world was turning upside-down. Now she wished she had told Chance about this thing the day it had arrived. She could have solved all the mystery right there and helped Twilight's worries to abate. She did not like the idea of a machine that was as powerful as Celestia. But... worst case, she could always use a spell to cut the wires powering it, right? Whatever else it might be able to do, Chance's people did not have magic. That would mean there was nothing their machine could do to stop her, even if it was smarter and more powerful than she was.

Chance waited across from the core as Twilight vanished up the stairs. She could still hear Spike cooking upstairs, and she still had homework to do, but those sort of things just didn't seem to matter now. There was an artifact of her world, right here in Ponyville. She wasn't mad at Twilight for keeping it from her. Maybe she would be, when the excitement had ended. Right now, she was too happy to be upset. This might not be as good as someone else from her own world, but it was the next best thing! Everything good about her kind was in that cube. Every play, every composition of music and art. Every discovery. Even the records and histories of every human who had ever lived since the Information Age began.

She still did not remember her mission, though her mind was beginning to grasp quite closely at it now. Even if she couldn't do it, she might be able to ensure that, if nothing else, her species was not forgotten and their sacrifice not in vain. With the knowledge and power of an OMICRON Core, they could prevent what happened to Earth from happening to Equestria. Maybe she should make that her mission. It seemed like a noble enough cause.

It was easy to tell when the power had been switched on. The lights went off for a second, and when they came on again it was only gradually they came to full lightness. Worse was the sound, though it was but a dull roar from underground. She could almost picture the electricity traveling down the cable and into the core, which would drink and drink and store in its capacitors until it had enough for partial operation. She had no idea how long that might take. They might have to run the generator for weeks to get enough energy to actually fabricate something. Then again, it might have its own storage it had been saving, which she could order it to use.

Of course, using it was going to be a little tricky, but not too hard. If (as she was beginning to believe) that book Twilight had her translate weeks and weeks ago had come from this stone; then it already spoke Equestrian. She would just have to convince the Operator that she was actually human, using her improbable knowledge of human things. Then she would have root access, and she could make the core do... whatever Equestria's monarchs told her to do with it.

"That's it." She muttered affectionately to the stone, stroking its smooth side with one hoof as Twilight came down the stairs. "Take as much as you need. It's all yours." Already she was looking at it more like a pet than an object. Once it was on, she might even be friends. Chance had quite liked the OMICRON Core back on Luna-7. It had even given her extra fabrication rations on her birthday every year. What was this one's name? Did it have one? How had it gotten here?

Twilight reached the floor behind her right about the time the surface of the stone began to change. Symbols moved rapidly, lifting up and down as the Core booted itself up again. Chance removed her hoof, waiting patiently for the screen to clear. Eventually it returned to the rectangle, with that ancient question asking about harmony. Perfect. "Okay, Twilight. I'm going to try to convince it to give me administrator authority, so we can avoid its math puzzles. Once I'm in, maybe I'll learn why it decided to do those. It should be easy. I used to program these things for a living. This is my field, like magic is yours!"

She stepped forward in front of the stone, clearing her throat. In was awkward to speak in English in this body, but not nearly so awkward that she couldn't. Her words and phrasings were a little rusty now from disuse, but they were still in there somewhere. "OMICRON Core!" She called out, as loudly and clearly as she could. As she expected, her teacher just watched without comprehension. "Override local program and display system status."

The change was near-instantaneous. The rectangle vanished, as the surface of the stone began to fill with English text, very closely printed. Chance had to lean closer to read some of what was on the higher-up lines, as she was too small. This object had been built to human proportions, not pony. She read over the first few lines, as best she could from the ground.

CRITICAL

Recovery Protocol - Reconstruction from backup and local stimuli complete. Root Authorization Required to begin.
Thorium Reactor - Critical failure. Inoperable
Backup Power - 8%. Full charge expected at current input rate in 999999 hours. OVERFLOW ERROR!

SYSTEM LOCKDOWN IS IN EFFECT. CORNUCOPIA PROTOCOLS RESTRICTED. DATABASE ACCESS RESTRICTED.

CRITICAL MISSION FAILURE

"You can read what it says?" Twilight asked from behind her, loudly enough to startle her from her thoughts.

She nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I can see why it didn't do more with your species. It was very heavily damaged by something, I can't even imagine what. It's almost impossible to hurt one of these things. But they're self-repairing if you give them enough time. For some reason, this one seems to have gotten stuck, and it hasn't fixed itself." She read over the second line again, then turned to her teacher. "It was so damaged it had to learn from the Equestrians it saw to rebuild the AI, along with its database. That's part of how the ethical subroutines work; they have to learn from organics so they know what's right and wrong." She couldn't even imagine what an AI based on Equestrian ethical principles would be like. How hard had this thing worked to reconcile the database of human knowledge and the way Equestrians acted?

She turned back to the Core. "Initiate Recovery Protocol. Get that new AI hooked up, so we can get started!" The screen flashed. "ACCESS DENIED" several times in bright red, and Chance swore under her breath. In English, fortunately. This was a very familiar way of acting for her, and she felt like she was slipping right into the routine. With one powerful exception: She didn't have a Q-BIT manipulator, or anything with infolink access to interface with this thing. She was very limited in how she could communicate with it. Only on its own terms. Generally that was not a good playing field to be on if you wanted to get a machine to actually work. And right after telling her teacher she could do it easy.

"Why?" She asked, dreading the answer. Not that she didn't know what it would be.

"OMICRON Core access restricted. Only human users may create ROOT accounts of ALIEN SPECIES 119.65A."

"But I am a human user! I even had administrator access before!" Each and every one of these devices were linked through sophisticated entanglement communicators, such that information gathered by one was automatically shared by all others. She supposed she was about to learn whether they were merely very far away from Earth, or in another universe entirely. With entanglement, any distant was irrelevant. Except distances beyond the boundaries of the universe, of course. Of that, there had been no research. She had been the first.

"Look, they weren't able to send my body through the rift. We haven't figured out how to shield living tissue from the radiation yet. This body's new."

The machine required no processing time. The access denied message remained, though it had been appended with "Provide genetic sample with Phi access level or higher to instantiate new Root-Level alien user."

"I can't!" She screamed at it, frustrated. "I don't have a human body anymore! Ask me anything you want! I can prove I was human!"

"Provide genetic sample with Phi access level or higher to instantiate new Root-Level alien user."

Of course, she probably should have expected this too. Unlike a True AI, whatever basic program this was would be incapable of higher reasoning. She couldn't negotiate with it. She couldn't reason with it. She couldn't even open the casing and remove the faulty core, and switch it with the one that had been reconstructed. A fifteen minute procedure with her tools. Without them, impossible. Either she wouldn't be able to get into the casing at all, or she would damage the fragile components inside along the way.

Chance dropped backward onto her rump, looking defeated. "Dangit, Twilight. I'm sorry. I tried, I really did." All her excitement melted. Yes, it was true that all the creations and history of man were still inside the core, but they were inaccessible. It might be hundreds or thousands of years by the time Equestrians had the ability to open it. By then, she would be long dead. They would probably break the Core in their attempts to learn its secrets rather than actually opening it correctly. Even if she detailed exact instructions, it wouldn't matter. That long, she couldn't even use paper. She would have to engrave it on stone tablets or something. To say nothing of her true mission.

She expected to sound disappointed with her, maybe even angry. "Come on then. I bet Spike is almost done with dinner." She embraced the little filly, twisting her attention away from the Core. "It'll still be down here when you want to try again."

Author's Notes:

Hey everybody! Another Tuesday has come at last, and that means another update. It's finals week now, so I may not be as responsive with the comments as usual. Then again, I was at PAX last weekend, and I wasn't able to respond as quickly then either. So far as I could tell, the sky never fell in or anything else similarly disastrous. Maybe we'll be fine. I'd like to give a shout out to my editing team, TwoBit and Zutcha, along with Tai. I know these chapters would have some pretty silly mistakes if it wasn't for the QA guys. Oh, and a big shout-out to Sparktail for his help too. Indirectly. Since he helped me with some of my programming projects that gave me enough free time to complete these chapters on time!

Also, I'm caught up with updates through finals, so the updates will go on even if I'm not able to come on regularly and make them. Once they're over, the summer will begin, and nothing ought to interfere with my ability to update the story until it reaches its conclusion.

Then, I suppose I'll take a little break before writing the Sequel. But who can be sure with stuff that far away?