"Note Sheet? That's a nice name." Cherry thought for a moment. "You know what? Midnight Oil," she said, pointing to the scientist who woke her, "knew my name before I woke up, but I'm pretty sure I never saw him before. He told me that everypony here was a friend, but I don't recognize any of you. I don't think I know anypony here..." Why am I rambling like this? "One more! There is another pony waking up!" Cherry was startled by the sudden announcement and instinctively edged closer to Note Sheet, nearly bumping into him. She quickly recoiled, but her body moved faster than her hooves and she slipped onto the floor. "Ow ow ow..." She looked up at Note Sheet. "Sorry... I guess my legs are still asleep." She shakily made it back to all fours and said, "I wonder what they're going to explain to us."
Note Sheet couldn't help it, when Cherry Berry slipped onto the floor, he had to grin. But before he was able to offer his help she was able to get back onto her hooves. "No problem. I also don't feel quite right on my hooves yet. It's strange, I can stand and walk, but it feels like I haven't done that for years. And now you mention it, these ponies also knew my name although I've never seen them before..." He took a look at the bed he had been sleeping in. "Ah, now I get it. See? Our names are standing right here.", he said and pointed his hoof on a little sign at the edge of his bed. "That explains how they knew our names, but still... I can't remember to have seen anypony before, and I also don't remember anypony of you. To be honest, this is a little scaring to me... But I'm sure this big white pony will have a reasonable explaination for everything." Yes, he sure hoped so. These other ponies in the other beds were still asleep, and he absolutely didn't know how long he had been asleep, he did not even know how old he was, and he did not remember his name. The ponies here had called him Note Sheet, and according to the sign at his bed that was his name, but... How could they know it if not even he did?
The white unicorn decided that he wouldn't wait for this "princess" to announce anything; he was going to ask one of these ponies what was going on. He saw a green unicorn and a pink earth pony talking to each other. They both appeared to be uneasy on their hooves, unlike the scientists around them, so this meant that they were likely to have just woken up. Maybe they knew what was going on. Shining Shield slowly (very slowly) but steadily walked over to them. The unicorn noticed him before he arrived. He nudged the earth pony, and they both turned toward him as he stopped in front of them. "Ah, hello. My name is Shining Shield. Would either of you two happen to know what is going on here? My name is really the only thing I know... and nopony has bothered to tell me anything else, except for that "the princess" is going to make some sort of announcement that will clear everything up, and I really would rather find out now than later." They told him about the majestic white alicorn, and how she had told them all that she would answer their questions after the rest of the ponies woke up. "So...you don't really know anything that I don't?" They shook their heads. He sighed. "Well, the scientists seem to be just as busy as the Princess, and because none of us know anything beyond these few facts, I would predict that none of these other ponies that have woken up know any more than us, either. I guess I will just have to wait," he grumbled.
Dark Shine peered over his shoulder to find someponys talking about the situation. He thought if they were talking about it then it would be worth finding out as much as he can if they really are 'Friends'. "Excuse me?" Asked Dark Shine. "What are these ponies talking about? Also where are we?" He looked next to blankly at the Ponies seeming like he was interupting them. "Oh are you busy? I can allways find out on my own..."
Cherry turned toward the pegasus and waved her hoof as he began to turn away. "Wait! I...we...us...um..." It seemed that Cherry couldn't get any part of her body to work correctly at the moment. First her feet, now her mouth. She stopped speaking and collected her thoughs, then began again. "Nopony knows what's going on, Mister. We're all waiting for the big one, the Princess, to tell us." "Um...my name's Cherry Berry, I think." She motioned to the other two colts near her. "This is Note Sheet and Shining Shield. What's your name?"
"My name is Dark Shine. Thats about all I know." He reached to his wing. "Why does my wing itch?" He muttered under his breath.
"That's about all ANY of us knows," said Shining Shield, sounding a trifle annoyed. "I HATE not knowing anything..." He scanned the room. "It looks like there are a few others that haven't met anypony yet. Perhaps we should go introduce ourselves? One of them might even know something besides their own name!". He said this in a self-loathing manner, as though he was angry with himself for his lack of knowledge regarding what was happening to him.
"You want me to scratch it, Dark Shine? I would hate to have an itch I couldn't scratch." Cherry approached the pegasus with a hoof outstretched. To Shining Shield, she replied, "Well...it's not like we don't know anything. We know our names. I mean...I think we know our names..."
The blue stallion staggered to and fro in place as the blood rushed quickly to his head. The world around him shifted continuously from left to right in a reciprocating motion making him feel extremely light headed. He brought a hoof to his head to help him gain his balance and in a brief moment of clarity everything calmed down. The world stood fixed, and a warm tingling sensation shot down throughout his entire body giving him a sharp feeling down his legs. He realized he had been staring at the steel floor for a while and brought his attention upward. Across the room a red pegasus had been staring at him and he made eye contact with her. A sheepish grin spread across his face as he wandered over to her with a new found control of his limbs. "Hi there" He said quietly "Do you have any idea what's going on...?" He began to look around the room as the others began to gather into groups and talk among themselves. He looked back at the crimson mare. "Oh! I never introduced myself did I? The names-" He cut himself off and a grim look shot across his face. He didn't know his name. "Uh...." sat there for an awkward moment trying to think of something to say but all that would come up is a blank. 'Come on, if you can't remember one, think of one.' he thought to himself. A few of the lab ponies were walking in and out of the room as he sat there dumbfounded by such a simple task. Each time they opened the door a cool draft would blow gently through the hot room. The blue pegasus' ear shot up and as he smiled. "The name's Zephyr, how 'bout you?"
"Are you suggesting that someponies that just woke up, just like we did, will know more than us?" He seemed a bit depressed as he said it. "I am sorry to say this but I doubt that anypony here knows what is going on, where ever we are. I am sorry Shining Shield but if you want we could at least try. If not though then I guess we will just have to wait for this Princess to give her speech and answer our questions." Dark Shine seemed a bit figity and was looking around the room for something to comfort him or at least a clock.
"Well, knowing our names might as well be nothing, as far as I'm concerned..." said Shield (Henceforth his nickname, because typing a whole 7 letters more is tiresome ). "I want to know how we got here, why we are here, and... well, a lot more besides that." He watched the scientists as he talked, wishing he could just sit down and have one of them teach him everything they knew. Unfortunately, they were very occupied at the moment. "I suppose you're right, Dark Shine. I had just hoped that, in spite of the odds, somepony could tell me something. But, I suppose it isn't that important, as the Princess will tell us everything eventually." He sat, still staring at the scientists. "I just wish I KNEW more. I feel so...useless." He scowled.
One of the scientist came closer to them saying "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Princess Celestia is waiting for you. She will explain everything now. Just follow me." note Sheet followed the scientist leaving the hall. The room they entered was a lot darker than the hall, though it wasn't really dark, and was decorated with plants, sofas and carpets. The princess was standing in the centre of a group of sofas, and she looked a lot... weaker than before. "Sit down, everypony. I'll have quite a lot to tell you." When all the ponies had taken a seat she started explaining. "Alright then, ponies. I'm sure you're curious why you're here and why you don't remember anything of your past. Well, I'll keep it short. The reason why you're not knowing anything about your past is... You don't have one. Nopony of you is older than a few months. Nopony of you has ever done anything before waking up. All of you have been... produced for one reason." Note Sheet was shocked. He was a... product? Not a born pony? He was unsure if that was good or bad... Celestia took a few breaths before going on. "See, there is a kind of germs in everypony's body that's normally absolutely non-hazardous. But a while ago they started to weaken all our bodies, our magic powers, our wings, everything inside us. This is caused by some kind of radiation we don't know the source of. You and your... friends inside the incubators are the only ponies that are not affected by that radiation. We haven't been able to find a serum that stops the germs from mutating in living ponies, but we were able to create ponies that are immune to it. We need you to find out how to stop this mutation before this illness marks the end of Equestria. And if you don't make it..." Even Celestia was hardly able to think about such a scenario, but there was something else they should do. "...if you don't make it, you'll have to found a new Equestria. You're our last hope. You are the only ones that can prevent Equestria from falling. May every power in this world be with you, and... Good luck. You'll need it." Celestia's speech was followed by a few seconds of silence before she started to speak again. Note Sheet noticed that even she became shaky slowly... "But we don't only have bad news. We found out where this radiation comes from, at least we can locate it roughly. You'll be brought to a town called Ponyville where you'll meet my student, Twilight Sparkle. She'll tell you what to do next." One of the scientists came running to Celestia an whispered "You should take a rest, your Highness. We can't let you faint..." Celestia nodded. "My little ponies, do your best. All our hope is with you." Saying that she left the hall and left the ponies alone with the second scientist. Note Sheet was glad that he was able to sit here. First he had found out that there was nothing for him to remember, and now he had learned so much within a few minutes. His mind tried to handle that huge wave of information, which caused Note Sheet to get dizzy. After a few minutes he opened his eyes again. Obviously he had fainted, but he now had sorted all that information. It made him feel sad that all the 'normal' ponies suffered from this radiation, and he somehow felt bad because he was immune to it. He took a sad look at the other ponies. "Well... Now we know what's going on, but..." No. he couldn't tell these ponies that he was afraid that they could fail. But what should he say instead? OT: Reactions! I'll let you talk about everything now, and as soon as I think it's okay, I'll give you the next step and start our journey to Ponyville. legionbrony will be my "right hoof" from now on and will help me with the plots. Just by the way.
"WHAT?!" Cherry blurted at the revelation. Several ponies turned toward her, and a few told her to "shush". She quickly clamped her mouth shut and waited for the Princess to finish. To say that it was hard listening to all of this would be a huge understatement. Next to her, she noticed Note Sheet sway back and forth as his eyes became glassy. "Note Sheet? Are you-" Cherry didn't even get to finish her though before the green unicorn simply dropped to the floor like a stone. She immediately crouched down next to him and tried to shake him awake, but it was hopeless. He was out cold. She looked around the room, wondering how all of the other ponies felt. She wondered if they felt as sick to her stomach as she did. To be told that they would be singularly responsible for saving the entire world...a world they only just learned they inhabited. For a mere few months, no less. After a few minutes, Note Sheet opened his eyes and stood again. The only words he spoke were, "Well... Now we know what's going on, but..." Cherry's lip quivered as she finished his thought in her head, Can we do it? Can we save the world? Then she heard another voice in her head. It was still hers, but its tone was more sinister: Do we even want to? She cast her eyes downward and frowned. She whispred, "I don't know..."
Shield's mind digested this information. So, they were created by some sort of process, and they had no past. It made him feel weird, but he shoved that aside. Right now he needed to focus on facts. There was some sort of virus infecting all the other...normal...ponies, and they, the only ones immune to this virus, had to save Equestria. He wasn't sure he liked the weight of this responsibility on his back, but he supposed somepony had to do it, and he would sooner take responsibility himself than shove it onto somepony else. But...where would they start? Perhaps this "Twilight Sparkle" had an good idea of what they should do first. "When will we be taken to Ponyville?" he asked, as Note Sheet fainted beside him. "As soon as you are ready," said a Pegasus standing by the door whom he had not noticed before. "We can have you there in half an hour." Shield looked around. As eager as he was to begin, he supposed that he should introduce himself to the rest of the ponies he would be travelling with. "Well, hello, everypony," he said. The response was a deafening silence. "My name is Shining Shield, but you can call me Shield." After another awkward silence, everypony else introduced themselves as well. "So," said Shield after all had finished speaking, "does anypony have anything else to say?" He was getting slightly impatient, and nopony had done anything except quickly introduce themselves and then fall back into speechlessness. "Well... now we know what's going on, but..." Note Sheet trailed off. He knew that this was a shock; after all, he had just been hit with the same news. But he hadn't expected anypony to faint. "But nothing. I know it's a big responsibility for all of us, but we can't think like that. We need to focus our energy on getting this done, not worrying about whether we can." As he said this, he looked each of his new...friends in the eyes; at least, those that would meet his. "Now, are we ready?"
Dark Shine had a very odd look on his face. "I am a... Production line pony?" Dark Shine felt his dignity and honour sink as one. Then it suddenly dawned on him. "We have the fate of a place called... Equestria in our hooves due to a germ which has for an unknown reason began weakening Ponies but we were created to be immune to them?!" Dark Shine was in shock. He did'nt know what to feel. He looked at the other Ponies to see thier reactions. Some seemed relativly calm considering the facts. Others were panicking. Dark Shine was thinking. He was'nt usually the sort of Pony to contemplate but this is'nt the 'Usual' as the Princess just anounced. "I suppose all I can do... Is wait..."
"Oh... Well Hi. I'm... ... I'm Haze. Haze Drift." Woot! She had a name now, something to call herself from now on! She quite liked the sound of that... Haze Drift... Haze... Haze!... Haze? After saying her brand new name over and over in her head, trying it out said in different ways and voices to make sure it sounded okay, she turned back to the pegasus, Zephyr, who was looking at her with a concerned look on his face. "Soo... See you've got those legs back under control" said Haze, smiling. It had been funny to watch, one of the funniest things she'd seen yet, in her 20 minutes of memory. A scientist came out from the next room, a green pony this time. He told the ponies "Celestia is waiting for you", and walked off into the next room. The other ponies followed in behind. "Well, we should go in..." Haze climbed out her pod, and they walked into the room. The white pony was sat in the middle of the room, with sofas around. Everypony took their seats. So, this pony's name's Celestia, huh? Now that Haze could see her properly... She looked weak, a lot less threatening than she'd imagined... Well, that'd explain why Haze could't remember anything. But the thought of Ponies creating ponies... Ponies creating her... She shuddered. It wasn't natural... She separated us from "Living ponies"... What are we, robots? We've lives too, right? Or is this life all just simulated? So we were made to be immune to some germ, some bacteria, virus or fungi? It must have been a pretty bad disease... Haze was at a loss for words. She didn't know what to think, whether to feel proud or sorry about her meaning for existence, whether to be excited or scared. Whether to be happy or angry for the fact she was being used...
(*Jaw drop* What the! I went offline for a couple of hours and I have to read 2 and a half pages..... Dang this is a good RP awesome post and also fast.)) Edge was in the back of the group he wouldn't really talk to anypony he was afraid and freaked out of what the big white pony had said he was speechless and the save Equestria part rang through his head. Edge looked at his hooves "so I am a clone... or a robot?," he thought he looked at the group of ponies some look in shock some with mixed emotions Edge slowly walked to the middle of the group and sat onto the ground looking around. He looked like such a innocent pony with the look on his face looking around like a curious baby.
Zephyr stared at Celestia as she spoke to the group. As she told her tale, the room became a chorus of gasps and various audible reactions from the group of ponies while those who were responsible for their creation kept stoic dispositions about the situation. The group of experiments seemed mostly shocked at the fact that they were created, but Zephyr stood among the group and was one of the few who had no negative reactions of the truth. In fact, he was rather joyous of it for he now knew the reason for having no memory, and being in such an odd location. He'd rather know the truth than be kept in the dark. He looked to his right and noticed that Haze hadn't been taking the truth as well as he had. She was shuddering and a grim look had swept over her disposition. He placed a hoof on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly "At least we know what we are now, right? I mean, it's not like we have anything in our pasts to hold us back if we have no past. Besides, we were created to become heroes, so if we do this right we'll be famous!" He said with goofy grin.
Shield saw the still-dicouraged-looking faces of the ponies around him. He guessed that they were either still in shock from learning about how they came into existence, or they were trying to grasp the enormity of the task ahead of them. He knew how they felt. He was nervous about the task ahead, and the fact that they weren't natural-born ponies unsettled him too. However, he saw it as a task that needed to be completed, and nothing more. His view on the whole matter was that it didn't matter where they came from, and it didn't matter what task they were assigned. If they tried their hardest, they would either succeed or fail, and if they failed, then they knew that nothing more could have been done. He didn't see what all this sitting and worrying was doing to help anypony.
Note Sheet watched the other... clones carefully. Their reactions were mixed, but they all were... surprised. Now, slowly. They had been created to save Equestria - Note Sheet guessed that this was the world they were currently living in - from a disease that was about to kill everypony, with them being the only exceptions. The blue-grey pegasus - Zephyr was his name, if he remembered right - summarized it in a few short sentences: "At least we know what we are now, right? I mean, it's not like we have anything in our pasts to hold us back if we have no past. Besides, we were created to become heroes, so if we do this right we'll be famous!" We were created to become heroes... They had a destiny, all of them, a role to fill in this world. It was up to them to help all the born ponies, these ones that were not immune to the disease. "I think Zephyr is right", he suddenly said loudly. he pushed his hoof on his mouth to prevent it from speaking all by itself. But it was too late, he already had said it. But why was he afraid to speak up? After a deep breath he went on. "I'm absolutely sure that it was a great effort to creat everyone of us. They wouldn't have done that without a reason. We have a... job to do, that's why we even exist. What should we even do here instead of following our destiny? Why should we leave ponies alone that lay all their hope on us? Without them, we wouldn't even exist, so we should give them something in return. Equestria needs us, and we should do our best." Note Sheet looked into the ponies' faces. he was hardly able to believe what he just had said. They had been made to help a species survive, and then? What would happen if they were successful? What would happen after their mission? Did anypony even know that? Well, he did not...
