Chapters Are machines alive?
Have you ever asked yourself this question? Have you ever looked at your television or a coffee maker and thought, ‘What if it could hear me?’
Do the mechanical constructs that fill humanity’s daily existence have their own experiences? Their own lives? What tales could your refrigerator or traffic light tell you?
What about your car?
Every mangled mass of steel has a story to tell. Whether it be a tale of speed, guts, talent or style. For years, since the first automobile was made, people have claimed their cars had personalities. That they were sitting there, day after day, year after year, watching everything.
What stories could a car tell?
“Ow!” the small colt cried as yet another rubbery tree branch snapped back into its desired position, clipping him across the face as it did so. The young pony had decided to forego playing in the dull, confined backyard of his home, in favour of the vast, unexplored wilderness that was the Everfree forest.
Rubbing his now sore cheek with a hoof, he pressed on. He knew of the dire consequences should his mother find out what he was up to, but the adventurous colt simply couldn’t resist. There was so much in the tall timbers that had yet to be discovered, begging for someone to claim it.
Of course, he was nowhere near brave enough to venture more than a few hundred metres into the forest. Despite his self-proclaimed bravery, as with any seven-year-old the tales of the boogy pony were fresh at the forefront of his mind.
It was because of this that the young colt was too busy watching the surrounding bushes to notice the ledge in front of him.
“Ack!” he spluttered as the dirt suddenly gave out from under him. The air not being so kind as to support him, he tumbled down the small incline, landing unceremoniously in a heap at the bottom of the slope.
A pained moan escaped him as he rubbed his head, it having cushioned most of his fall. After managing to stop his eyes from floating around in their sockets, he looked back up the hill. Navigation-wise, it wasn’t anything too hard to go through, though the piles of felled branches and scattered leaves would make an ascent back up treacherous.
Grumbling at the new obstacle, he turned looking for an alternate, preferably lazier path to escape the small gully he was now in.
That was until something caught his eye- something odd. At first, his young mind almost brushed it off as an oddly shaped rock. But, upon closer inspection, he noted that this ‘rock’ seemed to posses sheets of glass.
Curious, he approached, ever so eager to study this strange, somewhat rusty object. Raising a hoof, he banged on the side, earning a dull ‘thunk’ indicating that the ‘rock’ was, in fact, metal.
Its peculiar shape only further puzzled the pony. From what he assumed was its side, it was curved at the vertices. There was a clearance between the bottom of the main structure and the ground, provided by four small wheels.
The colt assumed they were wheels, at least; though, he had never seen anything quite like them. They were miniscule compared to wagon wheels and were covered in strange black rings that seemed to have deflated slightly.
Walking around the structure, he noted that the strange wheels were all in varying states of flattening, giving the object a lopsided look.
It was obvious to tell that it had been here a while. The remnants of faded blue paint struggled to stand out against the flaky rust that had overtaken much of its exterior.
Grass and weeds thrived in the clearance beneath and around it. The raised section in the middle where the glass was had collected an enormous amount of dirt and sticks on the top.
The ‘front’ seemed to be missing a large section. snapped hinges underneath the forward window indicated that something had, at one point, attached there. Most likely, to cover the bizarre mess of pipes and rotted wires that were jammed into the space between the two front wheels.
Long, spindly towers of dried grass poked through gaps in the opening. Twigs and the remains of what looked like a bird’s nest were jammed into the little nooks around the big lump of metal that the whole front of the thing seemed to cradle.
Cracks ran through the glass nearest the front. It was plain to see that it had suffered some kind of impact, most likely a branch or rock.
Moving back around to the thing’s side, the colt reared up on his hind legs, putting his forehooves against the rusted metal, allowing him to peer inside. He noted that within the craft there were two long benches, one behind the other. The one closest to him seemed to have a complex array of strange devices protruding from the from wall of the cabin.
One of them was a big circle that jutted out from the wall. Looking back over into the bay, he could see that the pole it was mounted on continued deep down underneath the thing.
His excitement now building, the colt scanned the door he had been leaning against to find a way to open it. It was obvious it was a door, a seam ran around the entire thing and what looked like a drawer handle was attached to one side.
Grinning, he moved his head to bite down on the handle and gave a hard tug. The door did not move whatsoever. Frowning, he tried again. This time, he pulled a bit too hard; his teeth slipped off of the handle, and he fell onto his rump with an ‘oof’.
With a grumble, he shot a glare back at the handle. There was no movement in it at all, meaning that the door did not slide out, and there was no hinge on the handle, which meant it didn’t work like a doorknob either.
The colt’s mind ticked for a few moments before noticing something he had missed before. On one side of the handle, a button stuck out. It, much like the rest of the car was rusted with age, but its purpose was now clear.
Standing back up, the young earth pony pushed the button in with one hoof. It took a little effort, as the mechanisms within the door ground against one another, protesting at their usage after so long without being disturbed, until finally, a muffled clunk sounded within the door.
With a victorious smile, the colt wrapped his other hoof around the handle, and pulled the door open. The heavy metal door groaned angrily as it slowly opened, swinging a mere few inches out from its previous position before it jammed. Giving a strong tug, a mix between a bang and a crack sounded in the hinges and the door opened more.
Due to the lean of the thing, when the door swung fully open, the lowest corner slammed into the dirt, digging up a small hole.
The first thing the colt noticed was the smell. The scent of years of exposure in a closed, contained cabin instantly rushed out to greet him. It was like shoveling dirt straight up your nose; the smell of rotting plant matter that had found its way into the vessel was powerfully overwhelming.
Waiting a moment for the smell to air out, he looked closer inside. The large seat that stretched across the width was made of some strange material. It was smooth, but tough. The occasional rip in the seat allowed rusty springs to poke up through the padding.
Jumping up into the cabin, he heard the other springs groan under his weight. Looking around, he noted that there was a lot of empty space in front of the seat, apart from the place underneath the circle.
Jutting out from the floor, below where he sat, were three strange pads. Their purpose was a complete unknown to the colt, yet he decided to press down on one with a rear hoof.
No response.
Shrugging it off, he turned his attention to the odd stick of metal poking out of the floor to his right. A long, slightly crooked bar rose from the floor. A black ball mounted on top displayed and odd pattern with six lines that criss crossed each other. Each line had a strange symbol above it.
The colts young mind decided that it was boring and instead turned his attention back to the odd circle in front of him. At the end of the pole that it was mounted on, there was a thick circle. Thee small bars stuck out symmetrically from the centre circle, supporting a thinner circle that went around the outside.
With the flick of an ear, the colt reached up to grab the outside circle.
The fist of a young man, dressed in a pressed business suit wrapped around the wheel of his new car. He was giddy with excitement, having finally saved up enough to buy a luxury sedan, fresh off the line.
Of course, the dealer had tried to goad him into buying an even more expensive car, but the man was set. Everyday, he would see this car on his way to work, taunting him with its sharp angles and shining blue paint.
But now it was his. The engine purred under the curved hood, as the car rolled out of the dealership. Pulling out into traffic, other cars seemed dull compared to the shining sedan that now finally joined them.
The morning sun shone down on the vehicle as it whipped past storefronts, its curvaceous body reflecting in their windows.
The steering wheel fit comfortably in the hands of the driver. Its white, ergonomic shape felt as if it were moulded for the mans hands.
Eventually, the new car rolled into the driveway of its owner’s house. The key was turned and the engine cut out, leaving the car to cool in the sun.
Stepping out, the man took one last glance back to his new car as it sat patiently in the driveway. Smiling, he could only think about how lucky he was.
To be able to start this car’s journey.
The colt continued to play in the strange wreck. Moving on from the wheel, he clambered over to the other side of the long seat. By pure luck, he managed to open a small compartment in the space below the window.
The tiny door popped open, revealing an assortment of preserved papers and other odd trinkets. Pulling out what looked like an old pair of sunglasses, the colt grinned before placing them on his face.
Content with his new eyewear, he continued to scavenge inside the compartment. Pulling out almost a dozen scraps of paper, he skimmed over them. Unfortunately, much like the symbols on the top of the stick, the writing on the paper was completely illegible. None of the symbols made any sense.
Even so, the colt continued to flick through the pages. There were various diagrams that displayed what he assumed were parts of the machine he was in but they did little to explain what it was.
The only thing he managed to grasp from the pages was one word. He had no idea what it said, yet it seemed important. Everytime it came up, it was bolder and darker than the surrounding symbols.
BUICK
The colt paused. He knew he had seen this somewhere else on the machine. Shoving the pages back into the compartment, he moved back over to the circle. Wiping a layer of dust off of the middle, it revealed the same word, etched into the rounded metal.
The colt smiled. Even if he didn’t know what it meant or said, he was glad that he had discovered that the strange object had a name. The interior of the ‘Buick’ took on a new light in his eyes.
Even though, the ceiling was rotted and falling apart. The seats were ripped and soiled with rainwater. The glass was cracked and warped. The entire thing sat lopsided and pieces were missing. It was, such an amazing discovery.
And it had been abandoned. Forgotten. Left to face the hardship of the forest alone. How anypony could leave such an interesting machine at the bottom of a leaf-filled gully, was beyond the comprehension of the young colt.
With the imagination that only a child could posses, he pushed one of the pads on the floor down. With a groan and a squeak, it depressed into the floor. Even though it did nothing, the colt already imagined that he had stomped on the throttle to Equestria’s mightiest airship, engaging in air to air combat with the dirty longcoats of the north.
Grasping the sun-blistered wheel, he spun it around, pretending that his airship was twisting into a tight maneuver.
“Hard to starboard! We got enemies on our six!” he cried, jovially, to his imaginary crew. An imaginary energy bolt struck the side of the ‘airship,’ causing the colt to shout more orders.
“We’ve taken damage! We’re going down!” he giggled, playing with the two odd sticks that poked out from behind the wheel. “This is your captain speaking. All crew evacuate the... uh,” he paused as he thought of a name for his ship.
Glancing down, he noticed the illegible work etched into the wheels centre. Trying his best to pronounce it in Equestrian, he eventually ended up with.
“Atrasti,” he smiled.
Author's Note
Atrasti=Found or discovered in lithuanian
Can machines feel love?
Can they fall for another, pretty car? or strong, tough truck? Or maybe even their owners? If this is the case, then can they feel heartbreak? Resent? Betrayal?
Can they feel unloved?
Winter Petal galloped through the dense scrub of White tail woods. Tears of a broken heart fell like her hoofprints behind her.
She didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want it to be true, but she had seen it with her own two eyes. Her lover, in their bed, with another mare.
How could she have been so foolish? How could she have missed all the signs? Staying late at work, going out with the guys? All lies.
She hadn’t even had any suspicions that her stallion was being unfaithful, which made it more of a shock when she walked in on the two. She had just stood there, a disbelieving gaze and a heartbroken look.
She didn’t even feel angry, yet she just couldn’t be there. So she ran. Aimlessly at first, wandering randomly through the Ponyville streets, bumping into others and tripping over vendors goods. Some harsh words were exchanged, maybe even one tried to give chase, but Winter Petal didn’t notice.
She was dead inside. She had been so certain, he was the one. The one stallion who she would have foals and grow old together with. But there she was, a younger, prettier mare in her spot.
Winter Petal felt the tears begin to burn behind her eyes again. Shutting them tight, she put on a burst of speed. She didn’t know where she was going, nor did she care. In the back of her mind she silently wished she would run into a tree too hard and let it all be over.
She had no idea how long she ran for. She felt the heat of the sun back off as she continued, momentarily making her believe dusk was upon her. Finally opening her eyes, she noted that this was not the case, and had instead entered a far darker part of the woods.
Tall, sickly looking trees rose up around her. Long, black branches with twisted, knotted, gnarly twigs reached out above her. The undergrowth around her was wild and untamed, with angry looking thorns poking through the leaves.
A strange, almost demonic growl echoed somewhere far to her left. The bushes rustled despite there being no breeze, and an odd, faint, clicking could be heard, like a cat walking on tiles.
Deciding to not stick around to find the sources of the strange noises, Winter Petal took off to her right, dodging past trees and roots. It was at this point that it occurred to her that in her depression induced sprint, she had foolishly crossed from the safety of White Tail Woods into the allegedly-supernatural Everfree.
A black mass shot across her path, a buffer of only a few body lengths between the mare and it. With a shriek, she slid to a halt, before immediately bolting down a small incline to her right. Skillfully navigating the slope, she jumped when she neared the bottom, landing gracefully at the foot of a small gully.
Instantly, she felt safer. The chirping of birds returned and the sun managed far more easily to penetrate into the ditch. Despite this however, her surroundings still gave off a very sinister feeling.
Not wanting to be caught out by whatever was still lurking around at the top, she wisely sought shelter. Looking around, she noted only more twisted shrubbery and more nasty looking trees shrouded in darkness to each end of the dried river bed.
With the fear of being lost, alone, and attacked setting in, she desperately scanned her surroundings, hoping to find a small cave, or felled tree with pulled roots that she could hide under.
That was until a glint in the long grass ahead of her caught her eye. Hoping it was a piece of metal that she could use to defend herself, she quickly made her way through the scrub to where she’d seen it.
Instead of finding a weapon, she instead found her sanctuary. A large, rusted box, that sat upon four tiny wheels, halfway through nature trying to reclaim it.
She didn’t stay to admire its peculiarity for much longer however, when a bush nearby rustled. Seeing an open door, she launched herself inside, before closing the heavy metal door with her tail.
It took some effort, the door protested and groaned as it moved, jamming halfway before an extra forceful tug snapped it shut.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she began to look around the rotted interior. Ignoring the smell the insides were given, she noted she had clambered into the back of whatever this thing was, laying down on a long seat.
Resting her head on her hooves, she felt the tears come again. She was likely going to spend the night here, and with nopony around for miles, she let them come thick and fast. Sobbing into the seat, she let the strange contraption around her shoulder her woes.
A young, teenage girl sat in the backseat of her father’s car. Her once lovely, long, flowing blue dress was now splattered with mud, kicked up from the downpour outside of the Buick.
How could it all go so wrong? She wasn’t necessarily the prettiest girl in town, so when a boy had shown interest she jumped at the opportunity. Now, though, she never wanted to love again.
‘I’m seeing someone else.’ Those were his words to her. The words he said to her on their fifteenth date. Not being old enough to drive yet, her father had dropped her off at the diner she was meeting him at. Some girls may have thought it cheap, and sleazy to have a date at a diner, but she was just one of those girls.
Sprinting through the sheets of rain, she burst through the door. Straightening her hair, she made her way over to the booth her man was sitting at.
He waited till she sat down to hit her with it. She couldn’t believe it, she didn’t want to. She was so caught up in her own thoughts she didn’t even notice him stand up and take his coat.
Once she’d come to her senses, she found a payphone in the back of the diner. Through the tears and sobs, she dialed home, pleading for her father to come get her.
Of course, he complied, picking her up in just a few minutes and driving her home. When he pulled into the drive, her father got out, yet she didn’t. The Buick was her sanctuary. In here it was her own world.
Like a faithful dog, the family car stayed with her as she wept, soaking the backseat with her tears. The rain let up sometime around midnight, yet she still felt as cold as ice the next morning.
Speaking in nothing more than a whisper, she gently stroked the seat of the car.
“You’ll never leave me. Right?”
Winter Petal didn’t know how long she had spent in that rusted heap. It was odd how when you're completely emotionally wrecked you lose sense of time. She was so out of it, that she didn’t hear the ‘thump’ of a pegasus landing outside.
With the creaking groan of the door, a much needed friendly face appeared.
“Oh, Winter Petal,” the pegasus sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”
Winter Petal sniffed, “Oh, hey, Morning Dew,” she croaked.
The pegasus mare smiled. “I heard about what happened, asked around town if anypony saw you. Who knew you’d be hiding out here?”
“Well... You know me,” Winter Petal made a pass at a joke, instead coming off even more somber looking.
“Come on, I’ll make you a cup of tea when we get back to my place. No need to hide out here in this-” she motioned around the wreck. “-thing.”
Winter Petal nodded glumly, “Okay,” she sighed, slipping out of the odd wagon.
Draping a wing across her old friend, Morning dew began to guide her back to town. “So what is that thing anyway?” she asked, motioning her head towards the odd metal box.
“I don’t know. But at least it was there for me,” Winter Petal responded.
“How so?”
Winter Petal turned to regard her friend, “We were both alone.”
“Alone, together.”
What makes one machine better than another? What makes one faster, stronger, more powerful or better looking?
What makes one car better than another? Horsepower? Torque? Efficiency?
Speed?
Rainbow Dash galloped through the narrow dirt trail that snaked its way through White Tail woods. The path was the very same one that she and Applejack had had their competition on during last years running of the leaves, yet it was no where near Fall yet.
Despite this, Rainbow still decided it would be a good idea to get some early practice in. Unfortunately, the route changed each year, so she had no idea what path this years running would follow.
So of course, she decided to run them all.
Todays course, led her along the border between the peaceful, White tail woods, and the far more sinister Everfree forest. The athletic pegasus wasn’t even remotely worried though. After battling four big baddies for Equestria’s safety, the Everfree forest hardly compared.
So when the pretty oaks and light punctured canopy of White Tail woods gave way to the darker, gnarly branch trees of the infamous forest, Rainbow Dash only put on extra speed.
Compared to flying, running was hardly a strenuous task. The only reason that many pegasi had trouble running, was that living on clouds gave them very soft, sensitive hooves.
Good for sensing air currents and walking on soft clouds. Bad for storming along an unpaved, dirt trail, with alot of sticks, stones and other such ground scatter that could get jammed into them.
While Rainbow wasn’t completely safe from this either, she fared better than most pegasi. Though Fluttershy’s near constant down-time still had her beat.
Feeling the first onset of sweat seap from under her fringe, she decided to peel off, into a deeper part of the forest to where their was more shade.
The path she now found herself on, was far steeper, and much narrower that the other. It only continued to shrink as she ran further, as if she had run from a vein into a capillary.
Felled logs and looser dirt, forced her to slow, less she end up with a mouthful of dirt. Eventually, the path vanished into little more than a small groove, more so for water to run downhill than for somepony to be running along.
With a humpf, she sat down on her haunches. Crossing her forelegs over her chest and growling angrily at herself that she could get sidetracked so easily.
At this rate, she was never going to learn the trails well enough to get an edge over other competitors. This wasn’t the first time she had gotten lost, and it surely wouldn’t be the last.
Brushing the dust off herself, she was about to call it quits and make her way to Sweet Apple Acres to snag an apple or two, when she noticed something in the corner of her eye.
A glint of sunlight was bouncing off of something, shining straight into her eye. Turning her head to look, she saw that whatever it was reflecting off was in a gully, behind a row of trees that were in between it and her.
Curious as to what could be reflecting in the middle of nowhere, she blasted through the trees. Reaching the edge of the slope, she jumped, allowing the wind to catch under her wings and let her gracefully glide into the ditch.
The dried, wispy grass bent under her hooves as she landed. Now that there was nothing to obstruct her view, she was able to get a good view of what had caught her eye.
A sad, sorry looking lump of mangled steel sat wrecked in a small clearing. Bits and pieces scattered around the main body, which was slowly losing itself to time.
Taking a few steps forward to investigate, she stumbled when her hoof hit a hidden metal panel that was hidden within the grass, with a loud ‘dong’.
Looking down, she saw a fairly large, square piece of rusted metal. There was nothing particularly amazing about it, apart from the strange symbols along one edge that said BUICK in bold, once shining letters.
Of course, Dash had no idea what it said, but it was plain to see that it had at one point been attached to the strange object. Stepping over it, she moved to large object that dominated the clearing.
Despite never having seen anything like it before, one look at it easily told her that it was beyond her time. She recalled seeing a metal sign hanging over a shop corner back in Cloudsdale when she was a filly. Every day, she passed that sign, watching it grow rustier in the humid summers, yet even after all those years it had never reached the level of rust that had overtaken this poor machine.
Looking at what appeared to be the front, the noted that the four glass circles seemed to stare at her sadly, as if they were weeping at their fate. The slitted bars that spanned between the two pairs of circles were bent and crooked, almost into a permanent frown.
If Rainbow didn’t know that it was just some odd contraption, she would have felt sorry for it. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was being all alone. Being left alone and forgotten out here like this would have been torture.
She almost felt glad that, whatever it was, couldn’t feel emotions. Being forgotten was more terrifying to her than death itself.
Jumping up onto the roof, the large metal covering made a strange popping clunk, as even the pegasus mares miniscule weight dented the metal.
The groove she made almost looked comfortable, if it wasn’t chock full of rotting leaves and sticks. Rainbow may not have minded getting dirty, but that didn’t mean she would enjoy sleeping in filth.
Looking around, she noted that despite being inside the Everfree, the clearing was peaceful, serene almost. It was as if, whatever she was stood upon was keeping both the twisted trees and nasty creatures at the borders.
It would be a shame to let such an isolated spot to remain unused. Rainbow may have disliked being alone, but being able to nap peacefully without the interruption of either Pinkie Pie or Scootaloo was always an appealing prospect.
Making her decision, Rainbow looked around briefly, before spotting a cloud in the distance, that looked sufficiently fluffy.
With a confident smirk, her wings opened with a snap, before she launched herself towards the unsuspecting cloud. Wings beating, weight shifting, she continued to do what she loved.
To go fast.
The quadruple headlights of a young teenage boy’s fathers car, shone down the deserted tarmac. The young man was just learning to drive, and was forbidden from driving his fathers ride, yet that didn’t stop him pinching the keys when he was asleep.
“Come on man, there’s no one around. This thing should do zero to sixty in no time at all,” one of the boy’s friends egged him on. The rebellious teen had gathered his friends to go joyriding, one of his more gear headed friends suggested a quarter mile drag, to really put it through its paces.
“What if the cops show up? I’ve heard they like to patrol this stretch,” the son argued, though what came next easily made him forget his worry.
“Come on. You’re not scared are ya?”
The boy clenched his first around the wheel, looking dead ahead as he weighed his options. After a few moments, he looked back over to his friend beside him, who was awaiting an answer eagerly.
The roar of the big block in front of them was the only answer they got.
“All right!” the other friends who had remained silent till now chorused as they began to grin stupidly at what was about to go down.
Taking one last glance over the hood to the road that spanned out far in front of him, he grasped the gear stick, and jammed it into first.
Stomping on the accelerator, the car bellowed loudly as it took off, wind whipping by as it continued to speed.
The speedometer climbed as the boy pushed the pedal to the floor, changing the gears as the engine demanded.
Faster still, the car hurtled down the barren highway, catching air after clearing a small rise, much to the joy of those inside.
The noise could be heard for miles in the silence of the night, the exhaust pipe echoing a roaring opera.
Finally topping out in top gear, the car belted down the road, its cargo full of laughing boys and one nervous, yet excited son whom would get the beating of his life if he was ever found out.
The fun was short lived however, when the sound all speed freaks dreaded invaded their ears.
The blaring of a police siren.
Rainbow Dash soon returned, setting a new record for ‘fastest time to retrieve a cloud and return it to strange machine wreck in the middle of a forest’.
Placing the cloud into a comfortable position about a foot above the roof of the BUICK , she settled down on the plush, white pegasus bed. Intent of catching some decent shut eye.
Before nodding off completely however, she looked over the edge of the cloud one last time, at the blue and brown wreck below her.
“Just you and me huh?” she asked, idling stroking the roof of the strange machine.
“To bad, whatever you are, you weren’t built for speed,” she commented absently.
“It’d be nice to have some real competition for once.”
