2040 - A Matter of Taste (4/5)

4. Heart of the Pegasus

Onyx wasn't available, so reluctantly, Alma walked up to the nearest unicorn and invited him. The stallion blinked and said, "Mount Improbable is a dangerous place. It's no place for me!" He trotted away.

Right. There were filler NPC ponies in this town too. Alma looked around for unicorns who were showing some initiative, and found a green one gardening in druid getup. "Noctis?"

"Greetings, fair filly. Do you need assistance?"

Alma's eyes narrowed. "I can't tell what you are. Come on; are you part of the town and do you want to go adventuring to Mount Improbable?"

"Yes, ma'am, to both. Give me an hour to prepare."

She found Kai again, now missing his wings but tougher and stronger looking. She found a shop in town and bought some leather barding that wouldn't hinder her flying. The druid waited for her at the entrance to a long, hilly trail. She looked over his eager expression, his bulging saddlebags of mystical doodads and potions, and said, "Noctis, why?"

He said, "Because you caught our attention. Even though you haven't been very nice yet."

Alma's thick tail drooped. "Guilty as charged. I'm just not used to this world, Talespace in general and Hoofland specifically. There are so many things going on here that it seems like a mass of conspiracies, sometimes. I'm also not used to being hit on." She sighed. She'd been male as a human and had only really switched to try something new, which made things more confusing. "What should I call you?"

"Grassy Knoll." He held out one forehoof.

Alma stared at it for a moment, then bumped hooves. "Let's explore."

She checked her saddlebags. "Should I get weapons? Oh! What time is it outside? I've got work Earthside on Monday."

Knoll told her as they walked. Two hours, objective time, had passed since she arrived in Hoofland. Alma said, "How? It hasn't seemed like that long. Did our time rate drop?"

Knoll said, "It's the magic of the Hooflands, changing those who enter and exit." Alma snorted. Knoll's serene expression faltered. "Would you prefer I speak out of character? It's rude to do that without asking."

"Yes, please. I should've said. Should I do... this?" She tapped her head with one hoof in the "OOC" gesture she'd learned.

Knoll nodded. "File transfer time. Hoofland is on its own set of servers, largely separate from the rest of Talespace and managed through a subsidiary. The code base is a bit different, partly because Ludo isn't so medd -- ah, directly involved in our lives. So it took time to move your data here."

Alma shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. It would be possible to keep her mind's data on one server (with backups) and operate a body in another. So long as her senses were hooked up to the body, she wouldn't notice being "remote". Instead it sounded like her mind was being copied and deleted whenever she visited Hoofland. That was just how file transfers worked. "Piecemeal, I hope."

"Oh! Yes, of course." Knoll's ears perked. "You were human. Many humans aren't comfortable with the idea of having their mental process shut down in one place like Earth and started fresh in Talespace. So, the transfer between servers is done in stages like the current uploading process itself. It takes some time, though, so there's a delay. Does that help?"

Kai said, "Were you designed to not care? I'm one of the Originals."

"Really." Knoll trotted closer. "Should I call you Grand-dad?" The unicorn's expression was carefully neutral.

"Whoa, no! I'm around three years old. I hardly know more..." He trailed off.

Alma thought she knew why. Kai had mentioned that the first 108 native AIs had their own no-humans clubhouse. It wouldn't do to admit that they were nearly as ignorant as newer AIs.

Kai said, "Uh. Let's get going. Lead the way, Knoll."

The three tapped a hovering "Crystal of Salvation" to mark their progress. A trail took them away from the town of Noctis and through the shadow of an airborne shipyard made of clouds. Alma stared up as she walked and felt her wings flutter.

"You'll be able to fly wherever you want, once we're done," Knoll said. "There's still a fatigue factor, but you can rest on clouds."

They were cartoon clouds, isolated cotton tufts. "A more realistic cloudscape would be even more amazing. A whole sky of white islands and mountains, sculpted into canyon cities."

"There's a place like that in griffin lands, and the big cloud town in the east. Our side has the bat-pony caves and some of the zebra settlements like Usilasimapundu the Colossus City."

"On a giant monster's back?"

"It's more of a golem."

Alma's wings spread and wouldn't fold back in, aching to take to the sky. She gave in and hopped into the air, twirling a few times before having to make an awkward, staggering landing. There were endless things to see in this world, preferably from the air.

#

After a long hike, a canoe-riding sequence, and a brawl against a slavering dog-man wielding a spiked chain, Alma had to lead. Her limited flight made her the best suited to fly up a cliff with a rope in her mouth, finding spots to anchor it for the others to climb in stages. Sometimes Kai did parkour, bouncing from one ledge to another with his enhanced strength and stability. Knoll was mostly along for the ride, here. It was nice to work with the two stallions to get past crumbling hoof-holds and recurring rockslides through teamwork. As they climbed, Alma started to get nervous about their height off the ground, despite the slope.

"Are you all right?" said Kai, brushing a hoof against Alma's trembling wings. They were catching their breaths in a shallow cave.

Alma peeked down over the cliff. "I'm a pegasus," she said. "Currently. I can glide down if I fall, and I can't really die anyway." Crashing would only mean wasting the others' time, letting them down, and even that wouldn't be so bad since they could fast-forward ahead and make up for it with a higher subjective time rate later. Climbing the mountain meant understanding this whole new life better, not just the Hooflands. She wasn't bound by human limitations anymore. Some of them.

"Where's your head?" asked Knoll.

"In the clouds," Alma answered. "Is that appropriate?"

"Good. There are some cloud puzzles ahead. We actually need to go through this cave, though." His horn glowed, and an arcane puzzle of shifting circles appeared on the back wall.

"You've done this before?"

Knoll looked back at Alma from examining the puzzle. "Details like this lock vary. We... I, Grassy Knoll, have not. Others of me have, many times. I enjoy the unicorn role in this quest better than the earthbound part. It's the Fire-Mine quest that really makes earthbound like Kai shine, but the spotlight is on them, there."

"Thanks for coming along." Alma scuffed at the cave floor, nervously. "I have to wonder, have you been trying to recruit me to join your collective?"

"By the Queen, no!"

"All hail Harvest Moon," Alma said before stopping herself. Kai rolled his eyes.

Knoll said, "We don't absorb people! We are a mind with many bodies, the way great minds Panacea and Hygea are."

Alma recalled the day she'd uploaded. There'd been a human in the room, but the main work was done by robots, trying to keep her from panic as they locked her head in a vice and began chopping her brain apart while she was still conscious. She thanked her past self for agreeing to the mood-dampening drug that kept the experience from becoming a lingering traumatic horror. Still, her wings shuddered again. "The surgery robots, right?"

Knoll nodded. "The surgeon and nurse are two of the first Collective Intelligences like us. Two minds with hundreds of bodies, trained by the best of all human surgeons, with unmatched skill and experience that can remake the most intricate machine of the Outer Realm!" The unicorn reared up on his hindlegs and, with swirls of green horn-light, drew a glowing portrait that made Panacea and Hygea look like saints in a church window. "They also play excellent symphony and choir."

Kai told Alma, "Pan's a bit stuck up, but he's an okay guy. Great at what he does. Kind of overspecialized. So's Hy but she works more on her bedside manner."

"We're a bit lesser," Knoll said. "My kind began as several villages of background characters. Fox-people for knights to rule, timid peasants who had their minds overriden one at a time by a submissive uploader in an abusive relationship; backup dancers and stagehands for a vain actor."

Alma considered this. "That's a more humble origin than being a super-surgeon, but you grew, right? My ancestors were a bunch of shaggy barbarians who eventually came to a country that got used as a dumping ground for prisoners and misfits."

Knoll smiled. "I suppose being a town of backgrounders isn't so bad. Here, let me get us through this door."

A few minutes of telekinetic rune-shifting and a few G-rated swears later, Knoll poked the cave puzzle with his horn and the wall fell open, forming a ramp to a staircase. He paused on the bottom step.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked.

Knoll startled and walked upstairs. "Sorry. We were busy."

Above, the mountain had a plateau marred by countless spikes jutting up from the stone. A tiny cloud here and there marked places where a pegasus could go. Alma hopped onto the first one and flapped over to the second and third. "I see the summit! I can't get there alone, though." She steeled herself and jumped down from the high cloud, yelped in fear, then flailed her legs and wings as she glided to a tolerable landing.

"Wait!" said Kai, too late. Once Alma was down he added, "Was there anything else?"

Alma shook herself. "The spikes had cracks in some places, easier to see from above. I guess it's a puzzle."

Knoll grinned. "Yep. I'll leave you two to figure out the solution, but it's earthbound time."

Alma hopped back to the clouds and directed Kai to bodyslam and kick one of the spikes in a certain spot. It toppled and formed a bridge over a gorge, where he and Knoll activated a gadget to create more clouds that let Alma help demolish a few more spikes to clear a path. Alma hummed to herself as she started to get the hang of gliding down from heights, like going down stairs.

At last, she, Kai and Knoll reached a rocky slope that spiraled up to the summit. A checkpoint crystal hovered just below it, and the actual peak was a flat space ringed by spikes and clouds and ledges. A few healing potions were scattered about.

"Boss arena?" said Alma.

Kai was already tapping the crystal. "Looks like. Ready?"

Alma adjusted her armor and practiced hoof-kicking. "I do get to command lightning and things like that afterward, right?"

Knoll said, "If you like! Pegasi have an affinity for weather-related magic. So, no fireballs or teleportation, but according to the Sacred Canon --"

"I know. Let's go!" Probably a giant wolf-golem ahead, or a dragon. A dragon would be scary but amazing to fight.

She led the others up the final slope to the obvious arena. Naturally, a glowing barrier sealed the exit sealed behind them.

Queen Harvest Moon herself materialized like a mirage becoming real. Here in the open air, with a late afternoon sun, the regal mare looked as plain as a living cartoon pony could be. "Greetings, Ratatosk. I'm pleased to see you taking an interest in my world and its ponies. Perhaps you shall be saved."

Alma crouched, ready to spring. "Hello, your majesty. I assume I'm not allowed to attack during your monologue?"

She smiled wickedly. "Try it if you dare. The good news is, you're about to earn the heart of a pegasus. The bad news is, I'm going to kill you until you agree to be my subject for a year and a day. Once we begin fighting, you have until I fully raise the moon to defeat me, and I will hasten that process while you're busy being dead."

Knoll looked at the queen, surprised. "Your majesty? Since when are there stakes like this?"

"Since just after the last time you escorted somepony like this." She turned back to Alma. "Will you take the bet or slink away?"

"Serve you?" said Alma. "My kind doesn't bow to anypony. This quest is supposed to be how you get your full powers in Hoofland, right? Not risking some kind of mystical contract to a dark queen."

"I haven't heard of this either," Kai said.

"Mister Kai Appian, it's an honor to meet you too. We haven't gone through a formal naming for you, but you're welcome anytime. I would like to see you make a similar bet to gain the full powers of an earthbound, or whatever else you prefer, as soon as it's convenient."

Alma took off and tried to hover, but flopped back to the ground. Too advanced a move. "I'm not going to get my brain rewritten just because I lost a fight. What does losing mean besides that?"

"No brain changes unless you volunteer. Simply wager that I, not the distant AI Ludo, shall be she who decides the residence of your soul. You shall answer to me for quests and magic and access to the Outer Realm or other worlds. I cannot compel you, but nor shall you be coddled. All for a year and a day." She smiled. "And you shall keep your current speech pattern."

Alma drew in a breath. What the hell is this? she thought. The rules of Thousand Tales would never allow me to forced into mental changes. There aren't even mind-control spells in the magic system that work on real people.

"You're wondering how such a thing is possible," said the queen, stepping closer. "You prize your freedom. Your new world values some definition of 'fun' above all things. My world values 'popularity', in a sense. Therefore, our little cosmology allows you to wager some of your freedom for something fun that might make you want to stay here, forever."

"I don't think I can beat an alicorn that rules half of the Hooflands," said Alma. Her mind raced, thinking both of tactics and of what it would mean to lose.

Harvest Moon waved dismissively. "Bah, you know how these things go. You'll have a fair chance, especially with Noctis in your party. Now, shall we?"

Alma looked to the others. Kai said, "I'll fight my hardest for you, with this at stake, but it's up to you."

Knoll looked uneasy. "We've beaten her like this before, but you don't have reason to trust us."

"Yeah, I do. You've put up with me." Alma had been starting to feel like a background character in her own life, relinquishing control of some things and accepting that she couldn't be the human she once was. Instead, though, she could try to be someone new. "I accept your dare."

The queen stepped into the air. Her phantom wings and horn of moonlight reappeared on her orange coat, and a wind stirred and pushed her three enemies toward the arena's edge. "Then prepare for your doom!" She threw back her head and laughed maniacally, cueing peals of thunder.

Storm clouds gathered in the sky. Harvest Moon raised her horn and made it glow, but nothing seemed to happen.

"The moon! Stop her!" said Knoll. The sky had already turned faintly dimmer than even the clouds had made it.

Alma charged for a wing-assisted hoof punch. Harvest Moon darted to one side, but her moon-raising spell fizzled. Kai bucked a flimsy pillar down and sent rocks flying at the queen. These missed too, but Knoll caught them with a magic glow and whipped them back around, catching Moon by surprise along one wing. She crashed to the arena floor, then conjured lightning from the heavens, forcing everypony to dodge the sizzling beams while she cackled.

Alma swerved past the warning glow of incoming lightning strikes, edging in toward Moon. When she got close enough she flapped hard and flew at the queen again, landing another hit that stung Alma's left foreleg with its force. It was working!

Lightning caught her and blasted her to ash and feathers.

Alma woke up screaming but only in slight pain. She was back at the checkpoint and the others were busy fighting. Then Kai appeared beside her with a yell of his own. He'd been killed too. "Come on!" Alma said, helping him up so they could charge back into battle. The moon had peeked over the horizon. The arena's barrier parted for them and the fight went on, with Knoll harrying the queen.

Harvest Moon mixed lightning blasts with gusts of wind that threatened to impale everypony on spiked walls Kai had to break, and a dense fog that let her make terrifying leaps at them from hiding. Alma died three times and the others a few times too. Every time the queen had a safe moment, her moon-raising advanced.

"She's using pegasus attacks," said Knoll, helping Alma up at the checkpoint yet again. "Counter them."

"I haven't got weather powers yet." They ran back into action, still bruised and aching. Death seemed to get more painful the more times it happened in quick succession, but they'd gone a few minutes since the last one.

Kai was frantically kicking rocks at the queen to break her concentration. One of their empty healing-potion bottles lay at his hooves. It seemed to take at least two ponies to do any damage. Clouds ringed the battlefield at various heights. The queen had used them, but so could Alma. The new pegasus feinted at Moon, then bounded up the clouds like a spiral staircase. Another round of fog started to fill the arena. Alma willed herself to sink down through her cloud, just in time to dodge a wicked ricochet lightning bolt. She spread her wings and looped back up to the next highest cloud, grinning. From up here the queen didn't look so tough, even with her magic.

Once at the highest cloud, Alma jumped up into the sky with her forehooves raised. The air around her crackled; the storm clouds overhead seemed closer than ever, and moonlight was starting to shine through them. It was too late to dodge the lightning that was coming for her.

I'm a pegasus, thought Alma. I should be able to take a bolt or two if it's part of a cool, flashy attack.

Instead of stalling, Alma's wings carried her higher than ever before. She could see the voltage building up between her and the storm as a magical twinkle, like massing armies of sparks. She reached so high she grabbed them in her forehooves, in time to stall and come crashing down.

Harvest Moon was backing Knoll into a corner, while Kai ran up into the arena after yet another death. She looked up just as Alma slammed into her with the fury of a magic-charged lightning bolt. The electricity ripped through both of them but Alma was in midair, Harvest Moon on the ground, and the queen took the brunt of it. The dark alicorn staggered and collapsed. Alma landed nearby, wobbling and singed.

Moon coughed, shaking off ashy feathers. Her wings and horn flickered and faded into nothingness. "Ugh. You win, Ratatosk. Know that this was but a fraction of my true power."

"It's true," Knoll said to Alma, propping her up.

Alma said, "How did you get to be a Noble anyway?"

"I used one of two main methods, involving seizing control of mystic energy sources and having ponies defend them for me. So, popular acclaim and violence. The usual." She stamped the arena floor and sent out a burst of magic that reached into the clouds. A crystal floated down, holding a heart symbol with wings.

"No strings attached to taking this, right?" said Alma. "No signing on to be ruled by you?"

Harvest Moon lay there catching her breath. "Your speech filter will be deactivated. You agree to a minor mental change that enables you to read the air, more intuitively than you must have seen it just now. Aspects of Talespace that have rules for 'auras' will read you as slightly air-aligned, more so if you keep at learning the pegasus way. No obligations."

Alma had so far avoided anything that would change her mind, her soul. This one seemed harmless, and again it was worth starting to explore what she could be in this new life. "Any objections, Kai or Knoll?" They had none.

So, she stepped closer and touched the crystal, feeling it vanish into her own heart. The sky went mad for a moment, then shifted subtly in color. Air tickled her feathers and swirled around her hooves, violet and salty, up past her ears with a whisper of mint and trombone. She looked around. "I... my brain can't handle this. It's not making sense."

The queen smiled. "Minds adapt to greater changes. I'm very glad you've taken a step along this road. There's much more for you to explore along it if you're willing. For now, though, which way is the wind blowing?"

There wasn't enough to be obvious now that the battle had died down. Alma shut her eyes and tried to sense the currents around her, air and voltage. She looked again at the confusing static of mixed senses and felt a subtle difference of pressure. "Up. The wind is rising."

She took off into the sky, as high as her wings would take her.