Archive - Ponies View B:TAS

A dark and stormy night within the magical land of Equestria. Due to some unforseen circumstances the city of Ponyville required a large influx of rain due to a few shortages of rain clouds over in the Cloudsdale Cloud Factory. This problem caused a few ponies to be trapped within the Friendship Castle due to that deluge of rain and the several streaks of lightning bolts raining from the sky. Seven ponies and one dragon sat at the Friendship Map looking over their cards.

“Do you have any sevens Applejack?”

The orange farm pony with the stetson on her head and the three apples on her flank grumbled as she slid her seven over to a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. A pink party pony chuckled while the yellow pegasus and white unicorn tittered as well at the sight. These five were part of the Elements of Harmony.

While Applejack mumbled at the loss of her cards Rainbow Dash merely smirked as she pushed aside another pair for her pile. Pinkie Pie munched on a couple of snack which disappeared into her mouth without causing her to bloat up like a balloon. Fluttershy and Rarity were busy talking about their unfortunately cancelled spa trip.

The lilac unicorn was busy in conversation with a purple alicorn. Starlight kept arguing about how the map could see into different dimensions since it could see through timelines. Twilight, on the other hand, argued that they needed to prove that there were other dimensions that could be reached through the map because only the mirrors that were hidden somewhere in Canterlot Castle and the one in Twilight’s home could go through alternate dimensions.

The small dragon was lost in his own thoughts though. Spike watched the scene before him and noted that no matter how any of them sliced it they were bored beyond all belief.

“Bored…” Spike sighed.

This got everypony’s attention. A few thought of saying something but nopony could actually think of anything to say. Even the exuberant Pinkie looked troubled about this development.

“He’s not wrong. But I feel like we should be able to do something about this.” Pinkie called out. The others silently nodded while Applejack and Rainbow Dash tossed their cards back into the pile.

“Well we could try that experiment then…” Twilight started out.

“Ooh what kind! What kind!?” Pinkie got into her face startling the alicorn into falling out of her seat.

“Pinkie sit down and we’ll tell you.” Starlight answered managing to get her to calm down. The others looked on in bemusement. This would obviously be something interesting.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Fluttershy asked no one in particular as she looked towards Twilight who was trying her best to get off the floor.

“C’mon Fluttershy she’s gotten better about not blowing us up. I’m sure she can handle something like this.” Rainbow interjected a bit crassly but her confidence spoke volumes of how much trust she had for Twilight.

“Ah reckon it can’t hurt to see what happens, right?” Applejack muttered. She was still not entirely convinced that it was a good idea to do something science-y when the lightning around the town was going crazy as it was.

“Tsk tsk tsk. My dear Applejack. I’m sure Twilight has everything under control. Besides we weren’t doing anything important. Couldn’t even get my dresses here in time... “ Rarity silently cursed under her breath due to forgetting to check the weather before they met for the day.

“Now girls I assure you that this spell will be harmless. All it will do is let us see whether or not the map has the power to see into other dimensions. We’ll choose a simple world to view to see if it works then we’ll try other worlds if we get it to work right. I just need you girls to calmly sit back and relax while Starlight and I work our magic.” Twilight slightly chuckled at the phrase she used. Trixie had been rubbing off on her since she had been visiting the castle.

With nary a word the girls and Spike all sat back while Starlight and Twilight pooled their magic into the center of the table. It took a long agonizing couple of minutes if Rainbow Dash’s moaning and groaning could be relied on. The magic started to tear apart a thin veil that covered the map’s surface and another sphere took precedence and floated over it. The other watched in rapt attention before the spell faltered and the map went silent once again. The sound of two pony’s heads slamming against a table resounded through the castle. The sphere above the map grew smaller and smaller until nothing was left but a small metal star.

In the center of the star was a glowing blue eye but it didn’t move an inch. The star was shaped like a two pyramids had been rammed together to get the strange shape it was in. The girls looked over the small thing but no one wanted to check on it. Twilight was the first up while Spike helped Starlight back up.

“Did we mess up the spell?” Twilight looked at the thing that was laying on the table.

“No we used enough power for it but I think we accidentally dragged something in instead of scrying on the world. I can’t feel any magic in that thing either.” Starlight carefully spoke up. The accident shouldn’t have happened as it did.

“It’s funny looking. I don’t think it’s alive though…” Pinkie pointed out though her mane did straighten slightly. She didn’t like seeing dead things.

“Should I touch it?” Spike innocently spoke up receiving a glare from Twilight and the girls. He nervously wiped his brow of nonexistent sweat before Twilight spoke up.

“SPIKE! Don’t touch it! You don’t know what it is.” Twilight screamed out. Luckily the object said nothing.

“But I’m the only one here with scales and dragon scales are the toughest things in the world. Besides we don’t know if this thing could absorb magic if you tried to use telekinesis on it.” Spike yelled out though slightly subdued due to all the glares.

The girls broke out of their contemplative worry and realized that he made a few good points but they didn’t want to subject Spike to something dangerous.

“We can’t do that to you Spike. We care too much about you to let you sacrifice yourself for something so trivial.” Fluttershy gently chided and assured the drake what they wanted. While Spike was happy to be so cared about he wasn’t convinced that there were any other ideas. Even Twilight looked in abject curiosity and dread. Both arguments were sound and very few things could actually top that. None of the other ponies could deny it either.

“I… Well… But… ugh… Ok Spike we’ll try it. I really don’t want to but you did make a really good point. Please don’t do anything rash though. Just poke it and nothing more.” Twilight relented and everypony in the room held their breath.

Spike hopped onto the map and walked over to the metal star. Carefully, he pressed his index claw on the star. Nothing happened. He walked back to his throne and sat down. Everypony waited but nothing happened..

“Well that’s a disappointment.” Rainbow Dash claimed while everypony around her nodded in agreement.

What they didn’t notice was that the metal star began to float while they all nodded. The eye was glowing and staring at Twilight while blue energy pulsed along the seams that were on it. When they looked back at the star all of them jumped up.

“HORSEAPPLES!” The cry of all the beings in the room could almost be heard throughout Ponyville had a lightning strike not come at the same time.

The ponies all stood still while the star floated in a concentric circle examining each pony and dragon in greater detail. It made no sound and was floating without magic of any kind. While Dash took a more offensive stance the others remained defensive and watching. It bobbed in place. Then it turned back to Twilight and waited.

“It’s not doing anything…” Starlight spoke up. The metal star turned to her instead. It raised and lowered.

“It did something now.” Dash snarked out which the star turned to her.

The ponies stopped speaking but the star kept looking at Dash, unnerving her by its single solitary glowing blue eye seemingly boring deep into her soul.

“Excuse me…” Twilight called out dragging the star’s attention. The others relaxed a bit but the fact that the star was still staring at Twilight was still making them all anxious. Spike moved around hoping to find out if it reacted to movement. The star followed his movements with the same frozen stare.

“Little Star can you communicate?” Twilight asked the star which turned back to her.

The star bobbed up and down at a steady pace confusing the alicorn because it neither confirmed nor denied its intentions. It just stared. Then it lost the blue light and fell back to the table.

“Little Star!” Pinkie cried out as she got up near the table. The star didn’t break but the eye was blinking red.

After a few minutes and seeing something nearly die in front of them caused the ponies to return close to the table just to make sure nothing went wrong. Even Dash was concerned though nopony knew if it was from the star or if the map was ruined. The blue light returned and stared at the ceiling ignoring all ponies around it.

DESIGNATION: GHOST

NAME: ANTARES

JOB: ARCHIVIST

Everypony looked at the information before them. Twilight and Starlight looked similar to fish bobbing at the surface of a pond looking for bread crumbs or fish flakes. Pinkie seemed to have simple glee on her face that the little star was still ok. The others glanced at each other either confused or worried about what was going on.

“What the hay is an archivist?” Dash roared out. Her frustration was evident when the words that were magically held before them made no sense to her. Aside from the name she didn’t know what a ghost or an archivist were.

“Does that mean it’s dead?” Fluttershy instantly curled up in her seat but never took her eye off the little star.

“I don’t think so girls. It seems like a ‘ghost’ is just a nickname for what the little star is. Besides it’s got mass and when it hit the map it made a sound when it hit the table. As for the job, Dash, that means that it catalogues and gathers information storing it for later...Wait…” Twilight’s eyes went wide as saucers and looked at the now floating ghost. It held knowledge. Knowledge of something far beyond what they knew most likely. The star was staring back at her now and the girls warily viewed Twilight. Her mane had become a bit disheveled and the twinkle in her eyes were shining far more than they usually did.

“Ooh Ooh… Do you know about entertainment? “ Pinkie spoke up receiving the same stare from the ghost as it fell back to the table and did the same thing it did when it told them what it was and what it did.

ANSWER: YES

QUESTION: WHAT KIND?

Everypony and dragon in the room stopped. It had deigned to ask a question and now they were all speechless. No one could could believe that they could ask anything like that.

‘Maybe something about science!’

‘Something awesome. Racing of course.’

‘I wonder what kind of animals it knows about…’

‘Parties! Parties! Parties!’

‘Maybe it has romance dramas or even tales of forbidden love.’

‘Maybe it knows a thing or two about agricultural things…’

‘Will it know about magic or something about making friends?’

“Can you show us the best superhero you’ve ever heard of?” Spike spoke up. That brought all the ponies in the room to a stand still.

“WHAT!?” Shouted a now visibly frustrated purple alicorn who was slightly smoldering at that point.

ANSWER: YES

PARAMETERS: LOCKED TO SUPERHEROES UNTIL USER HAS BEEN EDUCATED TO SUFFICIENT LEVELS.

SCANNING…

Antares began to fire a blue beam over Spike which brought all the girls out of their anger and disappointment. While the word scanning had been said when Twilight attempted to stop the process it was too late. The beam swept over Spike and nothing happened. While the ghost hovered another beam appeared below the star and created a three dimensional rendering of Spike standing up.

STATUS: COMPLETE

GATHER: INFORMATION GATHERED USER NAME IS RECOGNIZED AS SPIKE. MALE. AGE IS UNCERTAIN DUE TO COMPLICATED READINGS. REQUIRES SEEING DENTIST DUE TO CAVITY IN SMALL BICUSPID.

CLARIFICATION: ALL INFORMATION REGARDING INDIVIDUAL IS IN VIDEO FORMAT AND REQUIRES ME TO PLAY IT. UNIT DESIGNATED ANTARES REQUIRES ONE GREEN SCREEN IN ORDER TO RUN FOOTAGE FROM VAST ARCHIVES. OTHER INFORMATION HAD BEEN BLOCKED UNTIL THIS SUBJECT HAS BEEN SHOWN IN ITS ENTIRETY DUE TO INSUFFICIENT ENERGY STORES.

QUESTION: IS THIS SATISFACTORY.

“Uh sure. I think we have a green screen in one of the closets. I could set it up within the library seating area. Give me ten minutes.” Spike spoke up while the others processed what they heard. Unfortunately they were stuck because all of them thought what they wanted to see rather than impulsively speak out loud. A few groans were heard but at the same time everypony there was very curious about what kind of information could be gleaned from this little star. Also Twilight needed to call Minuette later to set up an appointment for Spike’s teeth.

The others wandered off towards the rest area and waited for Spike to set up everything. Pinkie being who she was gathered some snacks somehow and set up a modest spread. She unfortunately didn’t have time to gather everything due to the storm and could only host a minimum of three parties because of the weather and getting too wrapped up in a discussion with Bon Bon about cherrychimichangas.

“It’s fine Pinkie. Let’s hope that this will be interesting at least. Who knows what we’re going to be seeing tonight. Though it is getting late. I hope this doesn’t take that long.” Twilight had managed to calm down over the loss of scientific knowledge for entertainment instead but at the same time she knew it would at least not be so one sided and only make her happy. Hindsight had given her the clarity not to immediately spring into science related questions even though she so desperately wanted to know about it.

Spike soon turned up with a large green screen and set it up against the far wall from the ponies who were now sitting down. Twilight and Starlight helped so that Spike wouldn’t need to get the ladder just to make sure that he didn’t need to pin the screen back by himself. Antares floated before the screen before getting close to it. Then it started to vibrate before turning more opaque It looked slightly transparent.

“What are you-?” Starlight began only for the little star to start taking over the green screen unfolding it’s body into a large metal rectangle that enveloped the entire screen. Another rectangle appeared within the center of the frame as several millions of files scrolled down the screen shocking Twilight on just how much information was contained within the little star. Carefully scanning through the files it soon came to a stop and chose a strange file only marked by the letters: B:TAS.

CLARIFICATION: FILE WILL PLAY WITHOUT PAUSE.

QUERY: DO YOU REQUIRE A TUTORIAL ON HOW TO USE MY FUNCTIONS?

“Yes please.” Several of the ponies responded.

STATEMENT: KEYWORDS HAVE BEEN MADE. ‘PLAY’ STARTS THE FILE FOR VIEWING. ‘PAUSE’ HALTS THE FILE. ‘STOP’ HALTS THE FILE AND REQUIRES TO BE PLAYED FROM THE BEGINNING. THESE ARE THE ONLY ACTIVE FUNCTIONS. IF INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORLD IS REQUIRED I WILL ONLY ANSWER ONCE THE FILE IT COMPLETE WITH IT’S PLAYBACK. I REQUIRE SCANNING OTHER USERS AT A LATER DATE SHOULD OTHER USERS REQUIRE THOSE FUNCTIONS.

“Thank you… Antares…” Fluttershy squeaked out in order not to be rude. The screen didn’t answer though they were all certain that it had heard.

“Do you have any previews before you play the file?” Pinkie spoke up.

STATEMENT: PLAYING PREVIEW.

A strange music seems to swell from the screen sending shivers down everypony’s spines. Even Spike felt chills from the music. It was strangely very dark and fitting for the visual. On the screen was a blue pastel painted sky with a large logo with the ‘W’ and ‘B’ characters within a shield design. Along the bottom was a ribbon that read ‘Warner Bros. Animation’.

“Well looks like this will be like an animated comic book.” Spike spoke up. A few of the mare groaned out though they stopped when the visuals turned to red.

Two bright spheres most likely representing lights could be. Several more shadows against the sky seemed to also be shining lights down. Police was the only thing that they recognized on one of the shadows.

“I wonder what those things are?” Twilight chirped up suddenly interested by what she could see from the first minute details.

“Those look way too big to be an airship that’s for sure. We only got up to balloons for those who need to get up to Cloudsdale.” Dash spoke up eyeing the shadows with a bit of wonder and disbelief. They were far too big to fly, weren’t they?

The camera slowly panned down to show what was called a bank as two shadows appeared. One of them looked slightly sinister and looked around cautiously. As they wandered off screen the doors to the bank cracked and exploded.

“Whoa nelly! What in tarnation were those two doing?” Applejack glared at the screen.

“Applejack those ruffians were obviously the bad guys. I’ve never seen that much force used to do something like that. This world seems far more violent than it should be.” Rarity huffed slightly and while she was unwilling to admit it the sudden explosion got her curious about the kind of world that was being portrayed. Applejack as well was no longer feigning interest either.
“Wow not even my biggest party bombs could do that! Do we even have explosions like that?” Pinkie looked towards Twilight.

“Not that I know of Pinkie. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“It’s really minimalistic, isn’t it?” Fluttershy spoke up. Everypony looked towards her while Spike said pause.

“What do you mean?” Dash quirked her eye towards her causing her to shelter herself behind her mane. A deep breath allowed her to start her thoughts.

“Well from just the first few seconds they already told us a very big story. Two figures are out at night and probably did something bad within the bank. Maybe they were thieves? They said a lot didn’t they?” Fluttershy pointed out.

“That does make sense.” Starlight looked at the contrasting colors. Blue objects against a red background with black shadowy figures in the foreground. Who ever created this knew what they were doing. Spike quietly said play dragging every pony back to the screen.

The music starts to rise as the two figures now ran away from the now blazing inferno. The camera switches to a strange vehicle starting up. The vehicle looked very big and seemed to exude coolness if Spike’s glowing eyes could be trusted. Then the two figures were running down what seemed to be an alley while another vehicle was chasing after them. It came to a stop as they reached a tall building where the two burglars had managed to reach the top of the building somehow.

“Those two sure can book it huh?” Dash spoke up surprising herself with how much the video had actually gathered her attention.

“I want to know what those things are that are moving around to fast.” Spike wondered aloud.

“I think those are cars.” Twilight spoke up and muttered pause under her breath making the video pause once again.

“Cars?” Everypony muttered while Spike just nodded sagely as if he knew what she meant.

“In the other Equestria they have things similar to carriages there that don’t require tracks to navigate nor pony power to pull. They move through a combustion engine similar to a train’s engine though it doesn’t run on coal from what I found out. I didn’t learn much because those situations were kind of deadly.” Twilight chuckled a bit while everypony chewed on that information for a bit. Twilight said play again.

The two thugs came to a stop looking shocked as another figure appeared from above somehow. It landed gracefully before the camera settled on it’s face. The scowl it gave sent shivers and chills across everyone in the room The two thugs pulled out something from their pockets. The lone figure pulled out something from his pocket and tossed it at the two. As the two thugs aimed their, what looked like weapons, at the figure the small object the lone one tossed knocked the weapons out of their hands.

“Woah…” Everypony was surprised how accurate it had been. They didn’t even need to pause the action.

Before either could recover the lone figure lunged for the thug on the left. With that single attack the foe was down for the count. Enraged, the remaining thug threw a punch only for the figure to slightly push his head to the side avoiding the blow. As the two fought only illuminated against the moon in the red sky the lone figure threw a single uppercut causing the thug to fly backwards what seemed like an impressive couple of feet. The police soon arrived as what was clearly two officers appeared. The light shined over the two thugs who were now bound together by rope. The officers look slightly confused.

The camera slowly panned up to a larger building which seemed to trump every other building the ponies had seen except for Canterlot castle. The music seemed to swell into a recurring riff that fit the mood. The lone figure stood against the dark red sky cape billowing in the wind. A large bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder illuminated the figure for all to see. He wore a grey body suit with a large yellow oval on his chest with the symbol of a bat on it. The cowl on his head was black as was the cape though the inner lining was blue. Around his waist was a yellow belt. As the illumination faded out so too did the picture. The preview was over.

“Holy buck…That was really awesome.” Dash yelled out. The action had perked her up.

“He looks a little violent doesn’t he?” Fluttershy shivered. The sudden influx of action did nothing good for her heart.

“I think that was right down crafty of him. He didn’t get hit even once during that scuffle. Took them both out with a single blow too.” Applejack pointed out. She seemed impressed.

“I want to know more.” Twilight spoke up. Everything looked interesting and so new. The fact that animation was something new and barely being used in Equestria made it even more interesting.

“Well this is a superhero but what’s his name?” Spike intoned. He was curious too. The bat motif said a lot about the figure and he looked similar to the humans from the other Equestria. “Those were humans right Twilight?”

“Yeah they did look like it. It’s a bit weird seeing them like that. These humans look much more developed than the ones from over there. All the limbs they had were kind of spindly with a few exceptions. The ones on this video were actually much more… heavier built.” Twilight mused.

“We have time to watch at least one video of this right now. I think the rain was supposed to stop before too long.” Starlight interjected. The others also were curious now that they knew a bit of what they were getting into.

Everypony settled in while another video started.