I feel tired, and I can feel something clattering under my hooves. Whatever it is, it's making me move along the ground rather slowly, and judging by all the crackling and hissing sounds I'm hearing, I'm guessing I'm in some sort of factory. Either that or there's some sort of steam generator at work. No, wait... Those things didn't whir like what I'm hearing... Hey, I think I stopped moving.

"Running diagnostic now. Hydraulic fluid flow, nominal. Gyros, stable. Motor systems optimal. Power core coolant system online, running at full capacity. Unit coordination at peak performance, establishing visual input now." called out a rather tinny-sounding female voice on a speaker right next to me.

All of a sudden I could see colored blurs all over the place. A lot of them were stark white, while a good few others were green, purple, yellow, and even pink. The blurs started to focus and became clearer, confirming my first guess of being in a factory. There were ponies standing around conveyor belts that twisted throughout the entire place in uniform lines. A bunch of steel skeletons stood on these conveyors, all lined up directly in front of me and facing the same direction. One of them turned to look at me, and I reeled back in disgust. I could see uncovered jaws with their teeth baring and various actuators pushing and pulling as it moved. Now I know it's a machine, but just seeing that could give foals some pretty nasty nightmares! The only thing that pulled my attention away from the skeletal frame were those glowing blue eyes that seemed warm, friendly. Of course, these were LEDs on a black light plate, but they still seemed like the friendly gaze of another pony when compared to the other bare machine parts. I heard another whir and saw a few bits near its teeth move in a way I assumed was meant as a smile.

"Hi! I guess you're still getting put together like me, huh?" it asked with a voice that sounded like a colt. His tone was friendly, so I was right about the attempt to smile.

"Yeah. Do we all look like that? I mean, bare teeth and actuators and all that?" I asked.

"Yup. Oh, and welcome to the Beta Seven model line by the way! We're the newest models, capable of performing more than the Beta Sixes before us could. That and we look a bit truer to the real thing!"

"That explains the teeth. Hey, before we go any further, what was wrong with the Beta Six line?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Beta Six gyros couldn't handle tasks like lifting or pushing. Sometimes when a Six was walking, they'd randomly blow a gasket, spew hydraulic goop all over the place, and then fall to the ground in a heap. They weren't exactly the finest machines, but they were still pretty good. They were popular 'cause they were easy to tweak, so of course you'll still see a few Sixes walking around, though they won't look anywhere near what their original design was. Ponies around here like to tinker with their Beta Six models, make them different from the rest, you know?" he said, waggling his hooves like he was holding a wrench and using it to tighten something.

"I get it. Nopony likes to have a factory-given design, so they add to it and change it until they like what they've got?"

"That's it in a nutshell friend." he said with a quick nod before turning to face in front of him again.

I looked up and saw wires running along a guide, and followed them down to my fellow droid's back. I figured they supplied power throughout the process in order to root out any defective models and get pulled out later on, and that I most likely had some hooked up to me as well. I got a tap on one of my hooves and I looked down to see an orange mare with thin rimmed glasses motioning for me to lift up my leg. I did what she instructed and she placed a hard white casing around my leg and sealed it with clear glue that sparked and instantly flattened to close the seams and blend flush with the casing itself. She tugged rather harshly on the new cover to make sure it wouldn't come apart, and moved to my back leg on the same side. I lifted that one and she did the same as she did with my foreleg. Another pony on the opposite side of the conveyor was just now fitting a casing on my other foreleg that had a logo on the outside of it. I was moved further along down the line and automated arms took over placing hard cases around the rest of my body, the last of which was placed over my head. I watched one of the arms change its tip and reach around to open something on the back of my head, then I felt it push against me and twist, and then I felt so happy I wanted to prance in place! I felt it twist again. Suddenly I was so angry, I just wanted to cave in somepony's skull! A third twist put me down in the dumps, and a fourth made me scared and very antsy... This continued for a short while before finally the arm disconnected itself from me and moved back to work on another droid that was further behind me on the conveyor. The wires were disconnected from me shortly afterwards, and the conveyor turned into a ramp to the floor beneath it.

Another worker walked up to me, clipboard in hoof, and asked me to do various movements to make sure my gyros were fitted properly. Of course, rotate this leg, bend that one, move your head forward and back. Just to show off, I got up on one hoof and spun a circle or two before coming back down on all fours. Seeing I was more than capable of performing simple motor-coordinated tasks, he marked off that I passed gyro inspection with a grin on his face, and led me to a polishing station where other droids were located as well.

"So, out of curiosity, is this the final spot before I get sent out to the nearest customer?" I asked, breaking the silence. The stallion looked up at me and nodded before looking back down at his clipboard. He stopped at a station that was open and opened the doors leading into it, motioning for me to enter. I stepped in and automated brushes and buffer wheels descended upon me, quickly beginning their work.

As I stepped out to the shipping bay, I noticed more workers running about with boxes full of spare parts and large bundles of wires. Even though they carried the boxes in front of their faces, they dodged around each other with the greatest of ease, as if they've been doing this for their whole life. The worker escorting me was constantly staring at a transparent clipboard that was mounted to a harness that she wore. Where she was headed was another part of the facility; the Loading Dock, where I would be sent out to the consumer who ordered me and my services. I heard commotion off to the side, hearing shouts regarding Princess Twilight being in the facility. Of course, that wasn't what I was to be involved in. After dodging through more corridors, and nearly bumping into a custodial droid, we made it to the Loading Dock. My escort motioned for me to get into the back of a van, where other Beta Sevens were in containment stalls connected to wires leading to a charger unit at the front of the storage compartment. As soon as I stepped into an open stall, the worker who led me here hooked me up to the charger unit and opened a panel on the back of my head. I felt something click and everything went dark.

Author's Note

The reason I named this chapter what I did, is because that's when the tap implanted in the droid's memory log started transmitting. It's not how long the whole ordeal here took, because of a few things.

1.) There's a transition. Transitions always signify passage of time.
2.) Since when would walking a droid with emotions to a delivery van take less than a minute? It's bound to stop and admire something or other along the way.

And that's that.