Catalyst Ch 15: Schism

>Such elegant tears. She was even pretty when she cried.
>You watched Rarity huddle up to the couch in the untouched penthouse suite, cradling herself as if freezing.
>Your movements to comfort her went barely acknowledged, the most you received being that of offhand glances with far too much inward focus.
>She certainly didn't reject you, but apparently, the name that Twilight had given you had caused more than mere concern.
>You had no idea a single mare could cause so much fear.  But as you steeled yourself on Rarity's PC, you began to uncover why.
>Her methods had been parasitic, cruel, and unrelenting.  Loyalists turned traitors for the sake of love, unintentionally in every documented case you could find.  With more than a few, you had to shunt to uncover them, willing yourself beyond electronically locked classifications and gathering details bloodier and more vicious than you cared to admit.
>Luna's husband, murdered by his wife's own will, for the distribution of damaging information.  It was no wonder she had isolated herself on the moon.
>Several investigations into Twilight Sparkle's activities on the tactical side of the war, and her subsequent dismissal of charges thanks to self induced paranoia over any other ponies attempting to get close to her.
>Dozens, upon dozens of executions.
>Fluttershy's service as a medic, and her brush with death at the hands of a changeling kill squad disguised as convoy officers.
>She had been single minded and single hooved in destroying the trust of every existing pony to each other, save for a single squad that had been commended on their loyalty.
>Rainbow Dash's.  The counterpoint to the faith that others held in her was that the entire team had been artificially dulled to emotion, becoming tools of war so focused that had lost touch with reality.  They were connected by duty and it's inherent violence, their perceived bonds to protecting their home, and nothing more.
>And in the final operation of the war, true trust in Celestia had floundered.
>She had turned the Sun Grid upon the world, scorching earth with it's precision, and forever marking the floating satellites as weapons as well as simple tools for power distribution.  Rainbow Dash's squad had been placed in charge of ensuring Chrysalis did not escape.
>Despite the speed and capacity, that squad chose to burn under the light of the sun.
>”She's not going anywhere.” were the last words recorded.
>When news of the squad's demise had circulated, it was an effective thing for the people's morale to label it “Sacrifice.”  But the damage had been done.
>Chrysalis had terrorized Equestria in it's entirety, not just with her existence. It was with her guile that she had left lasting, ugly scars on each and every pony that remembered and understood, including it's most cherished leaders.
>According to the listings, all that remained of the Changeling lands were carbonized husks of their towers.  Known as the Ash Wastes, no records of wildlife surviving had ever been recorded since it's scorching.
>And this was merely the consequences of the Equestrian leaders reactions.
>With the new world fully spread and active for at least two decades now, everything was far more populated.
>Understanding her hatred for the pony race was easy. You likened the crowded metal towers to that of the changelings, yet far more sterile and made of materials quite unnatural.
>Watching a single one of those being incinerated at the whim of a single mare? Even the threat of it, which was still quite real, could pry biased judgment out of anyp0ny.
>It's why, you expected, the Corporations had sprung up like they had. They were interdependent upon one another, a show of trust.
>An attempt at going back to the time before Chrysalis.
>The Ebon Pegasi were the only exception. All their equipment, even the medicinal, had been cannibalized from the other corporations. Parasitic, like the changelings themselves, had been. Living with, and off of.
>A terrible rationalization occurred to you, something that hadn't truly dawned on you until your continued research.
>The Corporations were distancing from one another.  LunaCorp. Was under scrutiny by the Conglomerate.  Twilight Firmware was shattered for the time being, requests for aid unanswered due to the threat LunaCorp. Supposedly posed requiring more resources.
>The Ebon Pegasi, a militarized backbone, were completely untrustworthy.
>Buttefly Bio-Magic remained innoculous but unable to help in real, spread force.  Their place was food and medical aid, with only enough to guard their own stores.
>Chrysalis' tactics, to textbook precision.  She'd been winning all the while.
>and nop0ny had even been aware of it.
>Chrysalis was horribly perfect in mind.  She had managed to survive this long, wedging suspicion between friends.
>But she had escalated.  And the events were recent.
>She had put something into motion.
>And you.
>It all started with you.
>You looked over yourself. Your pseudo-pony figure, your eyes and shape in the reflection of the physical screen.
>Your awareness.  However immaterial and frail it was, you were real again.  Long dead, able to think and act, impact the world around you.
>And with thought, that idea, the truth behind it became manifest.
>She could be like you, too.
>Dead and gone, she could be real again.
>All she would need was a body. And if she had a suitably fresh one, she'd be capable of recreating her old race.
>But how?
>Nop0ny would support her escape. Her kind were dust and ash, their life span no more than a few years for a drone. She had been the last queen standing, and had aged enough by that time her own recorded admission revealed to her followers she didn't have the capacity to bear children by the end of the purge.
>The Ebon Pegasi had only military facilities, outsourcing their medical needs. The indoctrinated ranks were already being routed out, freed, or killed, with the wounded being ignored aid.
>You peeled away from the system, spilling back into your body.  Only a few minutes had passed real time; your excursion had taken a few “computer hours,” you began to call them.
>Running off something in the GHZ range gave your mind the sort of speed that was obscene, even to yourself.
>You returned yourself to Rarity, the white beauty still silently lost in her own mind.
“Rarity?”
>She looks at you with shivering sapphire eyes.  “I meant every word I've ever spoken to you, you know that?”
>You nod.
>”You... You've been sincere with me too, right?”
>You smile.
“I'm not really smart enough to lie.  Besides, I rather like being honest, seeing how much more gets done that way. AJ taught me that.”
>She smiles and laughs, though it's a vividly stressed set of snorts.
>”I...  I thought we had a future.  Without this.”
“We do. We know she's out there, we can stop her.”
>”No. You don't understand, you never had to go through it.”  She reclines to the floor and stands. “Everything you think about is replaced with worry.  Things that could be. Soul-altering, frightening things.”
>”That's not a free future.  We should be allowed to think of what good will come, what we can do.  Not what this will bring.”
>Struggling to say more to you, she swallows the words.  She trots to the window and looks outside.
“Sounds to me, like you're afraid of something that hasn't happened yet.”
>”But it has.  You can feel it, right?”
“No. We haven't failed yet.”
>You trot up beside her, and look out over the metal spires.  You see dots moving through lit windows, your eyes able to focus and calculate in a high definition picture.
“I think we owe some level of faith in the ponies that survive, right?”
>She laughs more honestly.  She places her head on your neck, cuddling up to you. “You really weren't kidding... you don't enough yet to be anything BUT honest. Even if you don't mean to be.”
>You quirk a brow, and smile a bit.
“Is that a complement?”
>”I would hope you see it as so. I wouldn't dare fault such a handsome feature.” She smiles.  After deeply inhaling, she looks at you. She bites her lip, letting you see it.  “There's something I need to tell you.”
>You snuggle your head down on her, nudging past her horn. You knew it was ticklish, but it didn't seem to gather a laugh.
“You know you can tell me anything.”
>”It's about us.”
“Before you say anything, know that I trust you, Rarity.”
>Her eyes quiver. “Chrysalis could change many things. Not just herself, but she could change ponies with what she was capable of.  But there was something she couldn't change between two of them. Something she couldn't feed off of.”
“She fed off of love, right? She can't take that away.”
>”No, she could. If she was hungry enough, she could swallow up more than the feelings.  She'd take away memories outright.  It could span entire minds, if they were too enraptured.”
>Memories.
>You freeze a moment.
>Vinyl's warning.
>That time in the core. That thing in the core.
>Memories you enjoyed, before the current life. Things you enjoyed within it.
>Such large chunks, gone, or tarnished and gray, devoid of the sensations you knew you'd had.
>”If something happens. If you forget, I...”
>You put on the finest, most solid face you can. It's for her, after all.  And you were supposed to be dead.
>”Just, forget everything else if you have to. Let her do whatever terrible thing she can devise or conjure. Just don't forget that I love you, okay?”
>You grit your teeth.  And then, you lie.
“I'll remember.  That kind of thing is impossible to lose.”
>She shook her head again.  “Then, if something happens to me... If... If I-”
>Before she can continue, you put a hoof to her chin. You balance her muzzle carefully, tilting her view upward to look at you more directly.
“Nothing will happen. Twilight, Applejack, even you. We'll think of something.”
>”That's... That's what happened last time.  That's why I'm telling you.  The thing she was never able to consume between two ponies was-”
>There is a ping in your AR.  From Twilight directly, it was a summons.  Rarity seemed to receive it as well, though you couldn't read what her particular message said.  You could only tell it was much longer.
>Moniker: Plan outlined. Time sensitive. Report immediately.
>You? Why did she want you?
>Rarity continues to read her own message, quieting herself and looking down to the floor. She shudders as she breathes, on the verge of tears.
>”It's not important.” she murmurs.  “Not now.  You should go.”
>You reach for her as she approaches the glass, having gone far deeper into her own thoughts than your worried disposition would even allow.
>”Please.  Can you remember me if something happens?”
>Chrysalis. She was pervading something between you two.  Creating such a powerful distance.  Already, the fear of losing of one another had you both at a standstill.
>She was still winning.
“You know, you're right. I don't want to, and I'm not mad. Not at you.  But Rarity, whatever the reason Twilight has me going there, you're right.  You're both worth trusting, and I can't forget that.”
–
>You stand before Twilight in that same, lavishly decorated dining room. She's turned away, buried in screens and monitors.  The desk is a jumble of holographic, folding text you can't fathom.  Several of the metal boxes, those electronic grimiores, are pulled out and active.
>You feel like some kind of soldier. Your mind knows better.  No training, no knowledge of pony warfare, nor the weapons that wounded you and Rarity before.
>Yet there you were.  Prepared.  Information you'd gleaned, an attitude you'd just earned.
>You might not have much time left to remember anything. But, in this sense, you hoped Twilight would somehow manage to validate it.
>You prayed, to whatever god or goddess you could, that she had something for you to do.
>After all, you were the only one there.
>”Let me be frank with this.” She begins. “I don't like it.  It's a horrific idea. But our time is short.  Changelings spread like wildfire, and she has had thirty years and all our development knowledge to maintain herself.”
>The wake of that idea doesn't make you cringe. You feel it, but you refuse to let it register as fear.
>”We can't allow her more time.  Especially since she knows we are aware of her, now.”
“I'm not ignorant to that, Twilight. I brushed up.”
>”... You've had three hours time. How?”
“The shunts.”
>She turns back to eye you past some of the floating screens. She returns to her work. “Good. That will make this easier.”
>She blips something.  The screens lower, and she motions about the room. “Somewhere in here is a node. A special one, unique to the tower.  Connect to it. Inside is a file, something equally special.  Delete it.”
>You look around. Nothing appears on your AR. Not immediately.
>You close your eyes and do what you had started to call “reaching.”  It felt, while in your body, akin to expanding outwards. Nothing upon your body moved, yet you could stretch to touch and see.  Add your own pings, and coalesce into a pinpoint to access holes other ponies knew as nodes.
>A singular, white-gold ping encircled something atop the bookshelf.  All the others you had ever found were purple.
>You shunt.
>Pressure pushes back at you, like a piston behind a pillow.  You melt around it, and feel the sensation of yourself sliding around it. You puncture whatever it is, and the real world stops.
>The tension. The worry. It disappears as always, when you enter the system.
>Your perception of the world around is fragmented.  Bizarre. Pure, blistering white. You are separate, yet still thinking and functioning as a whole.
>Pressure from all sides and angles, it urges you to leave.  Shoves and squeezes you, trying to push you out in chunks. you do the only thing you can think of, and attempt to reunite with your other pieces.
>It seems the only logical thing to do. Your thoughts are individual of themselves, words and images in your mind spliced together in some kind of quilt. Yet something remains, what you later call instinct.  As it clears, it becomes easier to envision, to work and think.
>When you connect again, after what is like several minutes, you are whole.
>It was some kind of wall, having turned your awareness into a puzzle. Simple, now, but somehow you had the feeling this was supposed to be a lot more dangerous.  Or, have meant to actually stopped you.
>The tiles seem obvious to you, so you work them aside.  Akin to a fragmented door, you wiggle chunks of the white wall into a full enough space, and squeeze through.
>Behind it, that familiar void. The expanse, the sheer emptyness of it.  But this time, it's full of stars.
>You wander a time.  You reach, probing each one with thought.  Stoic information rings back, numbers and lists of names.  Nothing you can glean of importance.
>then, you find another awareness. Another pony in the glittering dark.
>This was it. The only thing different in a sea of stars.  When you reached out to it, it actually called back.
>”What am I doing here?” it asked.
>You could sense everything about it.  It had something you didn't, the digital equivelant of worry. some kind of scan passed over you as it reached back, to figure out what you were.
>There was nothing here. Not for you. Nothing but thought.
>No worry. No pain, no disillusionment.
>No pity.
>No remorse.
>You willed it away. Not to leave.  You simply wanted it gone.
>A wave of blindness extended from you, encroaching upon the pony slowly. You watched it dissolve. Like sand in wind, you felt it melt. Even the grains evaporated, leaving nothing, as your vision returned.
>A shimmering twinkle remained, sparkling in the void. You accessed it, reaching to it, and it replied.
>Moniker: I'm sorry it's come to this.
>Moniker: I truly am.
>Moniker: realizing you were like this. I never knew.
>Moniker: But this proves it. You are what we need.
>Moniker: After all, you're the only one left we can trust.
>You retreat. As you pull back, you writhe through the tiled wall, and finally feel again. As you open your eyes, your body feels a rush.
>Terror.  Panic.  Sadness.
>It hits you like a bullet, as the understanding viciously breaches your mind.
>You just did what Chrysalis had attempted to do. And you'd done it to another pony, an equal to yourself.
>You'd just... Killed.
>The shock left you staggering. But you recovered. Your logic was still in full swing.
>Just a file. Just a file, she said.
>That's all it was.
>That's all *you* were... When you were in that void...
>A communication hologram was present. A mare that had not been in the room prior.
>White and shining, gold laced her body in accoutrements you'd never seen. Colors wafted from her skull and tail, pushed by an unseen wind.  A single, long horn extended from her scalp like the blade of a stilletto.
>Celestia.
>Twilight was looking directly at you.  The massive hologram of her teacher stood beside her, a face of solemn acceptance perusing you to your core.
>She'd been watching.
>Twilight began. “That node.  It was protected by a viral pattern recognizer with fully secured connection access and connection rejection, an interlocking multi-phase encryption cipher, and a pseudo-pony construct amidst seventeen thousand some-odd files.”
>Your body was breathing hard.
“And?”
>”You broke through everything.  You destroyed the construct, precisely, as I expected.”
“You asked me to, Twilight.”
>She spun a holographic timer around.  “you did it in less than fifteen seconds.”
“Time doesn't work the same in there.  I... Think faster. At the speed of what I'm running on, it-”
>”You can kill her.”
>Celestia lowers her head, and closes her eyes. She says nothing.
>”You can kill Chrysalis.  No time for her to pull back, or let her hide. You can end her where she lives.”
>The screaming guilt in your gut was replaced with something else.  Something oily, and you recognized it as sinister.  But you wanted it.
>”Are you willing to do so?”
>There is no hesitation.
“If I knew how to rape in that place, I'd do that first.”
>The vocalization of it is harsh. But it was, as you had claimed to be, quite honest.  It made both the attending mares look at you with a distant fear. But they did not claim it uncouth.
>”That's it then.” she said. She buried her head in her hooves, and leaned back into her chair.  Celestia faded, wordlessly.
>After a long silence, Twilight turned. She shuffled hovering screens to her view, pushing them about.  “I don't want to do this.” she says. “I don't want you, to do this. But you're the best bet, after the attack.”
“If I can do it, then point me the right way.”
>”I didn't expect you to be so enthusiastic about it. But the plan has it's flaws.”
“Such as?”
>You wanted desperately to get this over with.  Ending it so quickly would be such a valuable relief, you'd have the time left for your mind to spend with everyp0ny.
>Maybe after all this, you could afford to tell Rarity...
>”We don't know where she is.  The Ebon Pegasi, however, do.”
>Fuck.
>”We have to access their data core.  Correction- YOU, have to access their data core. You can do it quickly enough we might not need to stay long, or push hard.”
“Get me a connection and location and I'll get it for you.”
>”Not that easy. They're militarized. They have physical, readily disconnected links that filter sensitive information. You need to be at that core, inside the building, or you'd be disconnected and trapped in the system.”
“I've been shot before.  I can take that again, if it means it can stop her.”
>”Yes. You're making that readily apparent. But stop and think.”
“Again with this? This idea is solid. I'm ready.”
>”And Rarity?”
“Who do you think I'd be doing this for most?”
>”You getting killed would hurt her more than you'd ever know. And you wouldn't be around to see it.” She turns to face you again, ignoring the scrolling text and progress bars.
“I...”
>”You have to survive this first phase.  Not just for your own sake. Do you understand?”
“Twilight, I-”
>”Do you understand?”
“But if you know where she is physically, can't you just bomb out the server?”
>”That's the other part of the plan. Celestia is going to commandeer the sun grid again.  But this isn't just about killing Chrysalis.”  She leans onto the desk and looks down past it's hem. “A lot of ponies died before.  And you? You're unique now.  No copies, no functioning data core, and no time.”
>”You've developed, learned, and even fallen in love.  You're a living, digital entity- and in being that individual, you can die. There is a pony out there that you're important to.  I'm not asking you to succeed.”
>She glares up at you. “I'm asking you to survive.”
>Vinyl's words plucked at your brain.  Don't buy into the whole survival thing...
>”Please, for her sake, as well as yours?”
“I'm just one pony, Twilight.  I don't measure up to what everyp0ny else does.  If I can, I will, but... This is more than me.”
>She sinks into her chair.  She limply leans aside, and looks to the floor.  “By Celestia.  Rainbow said the same thing.”
>Notes so loud and gorgeous, if only we could remember...
>You can't look straight at her after that. You involve yourself with the world beyond the glass. Towers, filled with other ponies. Ponies that actually belonged there, living casually for the time being.
“You know I can't promise that. But you know, with just a little more practice, do you honestly think if you got me there that they'd be capable of stopping me?”
>”She said that too.” She laughs. “Without a care in the world...”
>As you approach the window, you look down on that strange metal hive, clustered with towers and colored dots.  Why was it, with all of them down there, that you were looking for only one of them?  A white one, violet laced and pretty?
“I can get a lot of practice in. Time slows.  Give me something with a fast processor and I can-”
>”No.  Not that either.” She pushes back to put her hooves on the desk. “I know the other problem you've got, too.”
>You chuckle a little.
“Yeah. I thought you'd have figured that out.”
>”The faster you go, the faster your data corrupts, the faster you-”
“Lose things.  Forget.  I know.  It's already started.”
>”Do you honestly think dying with your memories will somehow validate them? Because it won't. You'll just be leaving behind something I don't think you understand without it happening yet.”
“And that would be?”
>”She hasn't told you?” She closes her eyes, and quiets herself.  She turns and resumes her busywork in the monitors, burying herself in data.  “Have you told her? About your condition?”
“No. How would that improve things?”
>”If neither of you haven't spoken a word, then neither will I.”  She looks at you out the corner of an eye. “Just... Spend some more time with her.  Be with her.  Can you do that as a friend?”
>You smile.  It's a nervous, worrysome smirk.
“Yeah. That'll be the easy part, I guess.”
>”Then head back and do it.  I'll be in touch soon. And...  Don't mention anything, okay?  She's already on thin emotional ice.  She can cry quite loud, you know.”
“Heh. That's true.  But Twilight?”
>”Yeah?”
“We're gonna kick Chrysalis square in the ass, right?”
>”Yeah.  Yeah we are.”  She spreads her forehooves, widening some kind of display.  You can recognize one of the pictures.  It's Rainbow's memorial, the centerpiece of the Ebon Pegasi lobby.
>You could remember her.  But only in hues of gray.  You had to resort to old, grainy files to see what she had really looked like.
>But with that marble pillar still intact? You could do a lot of remembering real easy.
“can... can we do it without damaging that?”
>”We'll certainly try.”
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