Sapient Metal

Aleron sat at his working table, pondering over his best project. Heck, it was his life's work. He was young, several years out of college - which he had completed a couple years ahead of schedule anyways - and he was full of things to do.

Born to a rich family, he had almost everything one could ask for. Both unfortunately and fortunately, his parents weren't always this way, they were once poor themselves. That's how they met - common interests in robotics and programming, and they started a successful carrier together. And together they stayed, loyal to each other to the end of their lives. Aleron followed in the footsteps of their careers.

He lived outside of a town, in what one would call a mansion. It was peaceful, but not lonely either. In fact, there was quite an amount of other rich families who built and bought their houses in the beautiful, semi-secluded areas near the hills and forest. His best friends, Peter, Nathan, and Adam, lived there. They shared a common high school and college, so to say they knew each other very well would be an understatement.

Peter was the prankster of the four. He loved to laugh, and almost never missed a chance to set something up. Nathan was more serious focused on logic and science, and often Aleron consulted him for advice, though Nathan rarely got what Aleron was talking about, when it was about programming. Adam was the brute, although perhaps the term "gentle giant" would describe him better. Whenever something physical needed to be done, he was the guy. While Adam was by no means unintelligent, he simply did not focus on any educational subject. Though that didn't prevent him from attempting to participate in one of those types of conversations with his friends.

Once upon a time, Peter being the prankster, made a bet with his younger sister. The winner would get any one wish to make the other do anything. Short story, Peter lost. His sister felt like trolling Peter at that point, in revenge to all the other times Peter had the upper hand. And that one wish, was to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. All of it. There were only two seasons out at that point, but 52 episodes was still a lot.

Right after losing and receiving his "punishment", Peter wore one freaked face. His friends noticed this, and asked what was wrong. Reluctantly, he told them, and all that they could do was pat him on his back and wish him luck. Peter felt like it was a fate worse than death.

Of course, when he came back all smiles a week later, suspicions were raised. None forgot the "girly show" incident, so when Peter announced he actually enjoyed the show, nobody believed him a bit. The fact that they entered what they dubbed "Prank Month", which started as a tradition in college during May, could only serve to further the hypothesis that this was a troll revenge for his fate.

However, after Prank Month was over, and Peter still insisted on the same thing, the others warily tried watching it. It didn't catch their attention at first, but Peter nudged them on. Eventually, the show enveloped them all, and it became the new hot topic within their group. There were a couple bumps along the way with their parents, as it was strange to those who didn't understand, but it was nothing more than "Why are you watching this?" The parents were, fortunately, rather understanding and peaceful.

The end of episodes to watch did not stop them from enjoying the series. The internet was full of things, and they exploited it to find more show-related content, provided by the fandom. It was, however, full of everything, and that was the point. Some content was just weird, and stumbling upon "Cupcakes", the group of four friends gained a new insight into what can and can't exist - specifically, that everything can exist on the internet.

At that point, Aleron was at the stage of creating artificial intelligence for the many robots he built as a hobby. One of the first robots he built was the classic sandwich-making arm. It evolved a long way. Other simple creations also littered the house, from remote-controlled robotic mice to less kinesthetic, face recognizing, speaking panels. However, they weren't intelligent. They were more or less hard-coded to do the things they did. They didn't learn. They were entertaining, and sometimes made life easier, but the concept of real thinking robots was simply exhilarating.

Of course, one does not simply create a new life-form. Making a sandwich-making robot arm is easy, once the basics are hammered down. Creating intelligence though - that in itself requires great intelligence and problem-solving. Aleron made some progress, but was stumped for most of the time.

Almost always, the projects simply crashed. They didn't fizzle, they didn't spark, they didn't even move! Errors were aplenty, and they were mostly the kind were major parts of code had to be scrapped and rewritten. It was annoying, to say the least.

The show created some repose from his extremely meticulous work. Even with the hobby being his life's biggest interest, it tended to drill into his patience at times. That why Aleron, once he found My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, decided to have a break. Sometimes, the best way to get an idea for something is not to work on it - random inspirations are likely, and the temporary respite also provides other ways of thinking.

And did he get an inspiration! On the quest for more show-related stuff, Aleron found Sweetie Bot. All of a sudden, his previous work came rushing back in, and the whole concept just exploded in his mind, in a good way. Perhaps, Aleron was trying too hard to program the darn thing - perhaps, what he needed was to give the machine some freedom. After all, having a blurry edge of what's possible and what's not means that the line can be changed, extending the borders of possibility. The robot would have to take risks, and learn from them. Chance and randomness was a key to success!

So there came to exist the project dubbed "Sweetie Bot", in honor of the inspiration. This time, Aleron even went to the trouble to make it look amazing, decorating it to his heart's desire. Multiple times over, the little pony-robot was changed, and it came to resemble Sweetie Belle from the show more and more. Inwardly, it too started to be pieced together, until one fated day, the machination said one word.

"Hello?"

***

Aleron's little creation evolved quickly. It came with preloaded information, like a dictionary, so learning the language, much like other certain topics, was simpler than it would otherwise be. Much simpler. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the language still had to be taught - the "hello" was preprogrammed - and the anxiety was overwhelming. How could one wait a month and a half, just to wait and see if their project was fully functional?

But the wait was well worth it. Soon enough, Sweetie Bot started forming sentences. Aleron was cautious, however. He didn't believe in the "I'm a robot and I'll conquer the world" cliché, but he was aware that Sweetie Bot could possibly over-learn. The procedure had to be carefully monitored, and Aleron did not want to end up with a robot that had a broken mind due to some glitch, be it a programming glitch, or a glitch in the logic of the world. Backups were made, but they were extensive, difficult to make, and took a lot of time.

Thus, Aleron installed an intelligence inhibiter. Due to the complicated nature of the intelligence as it was, the inhibiter could only work in the general sense, and not to direct thoughts. Mostly, it was used to prevent Sweetie Bot from thinking about herself; in other words, to prevent her from being self-conscious. True, she wasn't truly a she yet, per se, but she was close. Plus, it felt natural to call her a "she", regardless of the lack of self-awareness.

Sweetie Bot progressed nicely with the inhibiter nonetheless. English wasn't the best language to teach to a robot, due to its unnecessary complexity and rule-breaking, but Aleron didn't have much of a choice. English was a widespread language, and it would be better if the cutting-edge technology could be understood by the many, even if Aleron didn't plan on revealing his creation.

Surprisingly, mathematics wasn't that easy either. Once Sweetie Bot attained mastery in a particular subject, yes, she could do it well, but until that point, teaching the rules of math was a tad difficult. Perhaps it was due to the rather experimental nature of Sweetie Bot - she learned largely by doing things in the real world, and judging the consequences. The learning was a learning experience in itself, so Aleron hoped she would learn how to learn better, and that would make everything that much easier.

The inhibiters, however, prevented Sweetie Bot from seeing herself. Without the ability of self-reflection, she was vastly hindered. It wasn't much of a bother before, but now... now Aleron considered taking the thing off. He really hoped that Sweetie Bot gained enough knowledge to finally be open to the world, and perceive it as it is.

***

Aleron was setting up his TV. Sweetie Bot already had her backup made, and she was freshly removed from the inhibitor. No major change happened after she woke up from the reboot, but that was expected. All it took was some thought to start a chain reaction, but it hasn't occurred yet. The keyword being "yet".

Aleron planned on revealing the show up to the latest episode, which was halfway through season three, to Sweetie Bot. He wanted to do this as early as possible, and to be with her when she started becoming self-conscious. He wasn't sure what to expect from her - fear, panic, or shock. Probably all three. Her emotions were becoming stronger and stronger as she progressed with the quest of knowledge, and becoming self-aware would probably boost that up as well.

He prepared for this evening well in advance. His parents have been informed, for one. Secondly, he prepared food and snacks, ready to stay up all night, watching MLP: FiM with her. It was better dumped all at once, Aleron decided. Staying up all night wasn't very healthy, but he'd manage. Additionally, he slept as much as he could before starting this crusade, in hopes of staving off exhaustion. It would have to happen sooner or later, so why not sooner?

The TV blinked on, and Aleron quickly scrolled to his favorite show. Now's the moment, he thought. With a cliché tub of popcorn sitting at his side, he pressed the button that would mark the start of a new era of intelligence.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria..."

***

Rainbow Dash looked over at Sweetie Belle, who now frowned.

"Hey, a bet's a bet!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Yeah, well how do you expect me to perform a teleportation spell? I can barely do any magic at all!"

Sweetie Belle needed a favor from Rainbow Dash, but she knew the pegasus probably wouldn't agree to be her servant for a day. That's when she came up with the brilliant idea of a bet - Rainbow Dash was likely to catch the bait, as would be in her characteristics. The bet was simple: Rarity would not agree to have a race with Twilight. The Twilight part of the thing was already settled, somehow. The question laid on Rarity.

Sweetie Belle thought she knew her sister like her own four hooves! Apparently, through some evil trickery, that rainbow-maned evil-doer managed to coax Rarity into competing as well. Sweetie Belle would never understand how Rainbow Dash did it. And now, she probably wouldn't understand Rarity either.

This started when Scootaloo talked a little too much, even for her, about Rainbow Dash one day at the clubhouse. That's when the bright idea to get Rainbow Dash into her own hooves appeared in Sweetie Belle's mind. If she got Rainbow Dash as a pet for a day, perhaps Scootaloo would have the blast of her life, and move on to other things once she got bored. Even as awesome as Rainbow Dash could get at times, having it drummed into one's ears becomes annoying, real quick. And she wasn't awesome all the time, anyways. And perhaps, Sweetie Belle would get to show that she was awesome as well!

Of course, once Sweetie Belle proposed the bet, she was surprised to see Rainbow Dash quickly agree. The bet was simple, it didn't matter what Rarity did at the race, all that mattered was whether she agreed to participate or not. If Sweetie Belle won, then Rainbow Dash would be her pet for a day, following her directions (with the implied rule of nothing dangerous); if Rainbow Dash won, then Sweetie Belle would have to learn to teleport, and she would have to teleport into the clubhouse while being far away from it. The pegasus decided that if Sweetie Belle wanted her for herself, she would need to work really hard. That would teach Sweetie Belle to try to make a pet out of her. Plus, it would be one more reason for Scootaloo to be impressed - Rainbow Dash would be the cause of excitement!

Now, Sweetie Belle had a very arduous task ahead of her.

"Well, I guess you should have thought of that when you made the bet," Rainbow Dash rebuked lightly. Sweetie Belle only sighed in annoyance. The whole thing felt like a hundred of impossible chores assigned to her.

If anypony was able to get her out of this fix, then it would be the pony of magic herself, Twilight Sparkle. Fortunately, Twilight had a knack for lecturing, so getting Twilight to teach her magic would be easy. Actually learning - that part would be slightly less so.

"Alright, alright, "Sweetie Belle started walking in the direction of the library, "I will try to learn how to teleport." Sweetie Belle bowed her head down a little in defeat, and said more softly, "I'll see you later... next month." She slowly made her way to the library. Rainbow Dash watched her go off, and almost felt pity. Nevertheless, the bet was a bet, and Sweetie Belle should have realized the costs.

***

The door jingled as another pony entered the library.

"Hello, what can I-" Twilight turned around and saw a downcast Sweetie Belle trot into the library. "Oh, Sweetie Belle, it's you. Is anything wrong? You look, well, sad," Twilight made a gesture with her hoof, pointing out the young filly's somewhat bitter atmosphere.

"Hey, Twilight," Sweetie Belle lifted her head to look at Twilight. "Do you think you can teach me how to do the teleport spell?" The question caught the studious unicorn off guard. It was rare for somepony to come asking her for lessons, and Sweetie Belle was on the bottom of the expected guests.

"Huh?" It took several second for that information to properly process in Twilight's head. "Well, usually I would be glad to lecture somepony, especially on magic, but don't you think teleportation is a bit... over your head?"

"But I have to!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, a bit louder than she preferred.

"Okay, okay, calm down. Whatever it is that's bothering you, I'm sure we can solve it together." Twilight looked around, saw nopony around, and closed the main door that Sweetie Belle left open. "Alright, so what's the problem? Don't worry, you can trust me."

"Well, Dash and I made a bet-" Sweetie Belle started.

"You guys made a bet?" Twilight interrupted, before realizing she did so. "Oh, sorry, go on..."

"Well, short story: I lost and now I have to learn how to teleport," Sweetie Belle decided to have the whole ordeal summarized for Twilight, otherwise she would bombard her with more and more questions. Sweetie Belle knew quite a lot from her sister Rarity, and from her own experience, and she knew that Twilight could sometimes get out of hoof with technicalities.

"Sweetie Belle, you should have known not to bet like that, especially with practically impossible-"

"I know, I know... but I did anyways."

"What was the bet on?" Twilight asked with slight curious enthusiasm.

Sweetie Belle recognized this as one of the many questions to come, so she would answer this and cut Twilight off before next Tuesday starts. "It was whether or not Rarity would agree to race against you; and before you ask me another hundred questions, please don't..."

Twilight's eyes widened in surprise, "So that's what Dash's whole deal with a race was..." she said mostly to herself.

Twilight addressed Sweetie Belle now, "Anyways, I think I can try to help you learn a teleportation spell. Are there any more requirements for the bet?"

"Well, I have to teleport to the clubhouse. I think Rainbow Dash wants to impress Scootaloo even more by pretending I'm her minion or something. Like she needs to do that..." Sweetie frowned.

"Well, that makes things a whole easier. Here, let me teleport you-"

"No no no, I think Rainbow Dash would know if I myself didn't teleport. I still need to learn the spell."

"Fine, I'll teach you the spell, but you have to pay really close attention. This spell could be dangerous, but I'll try to minimize any risks. Additionally, I don't think you have the magic reserves to teleport yourself, so I have to help you cast the spell anyways." Twilight smiled inwardly at her logical work. Sweetie Belle had no choice but to let her help cast the spell.

Without really waiting for an answer, Twilight began reciting some information from memory about teleportation, "Teleportation is a skill that most unicorns are familiar with, but only some can perfect. It requires spatial awareness, concentration, and a hoofful of magic. Once the caster has acknowledged his or her position, he or she can begin charging up the spell." Twilight continued on, describing how the spell is built, what precautions are to be taken into account, and what the whole experience would feel like.

After a few minutes, Twilight stopped speaking.

"Wait, so you're saying teleportation will feel like being everywhere and nowhere at the same time?" Sweetie Belle looked a little frightened.

"Um, yes?" Twilight already started cringing at the oncoming panic attack.

Sweetie Belle thought for three seconds, then shouted, "COOL!!!"

"Wait, what?" Twilight stared at the filly, dumbfounded. Leave it to the Cutie Mark Crusaders to make everything dangerous, cool.

"That must feel awesome! I can't say I always wondered what that felt like, but that's close to what I'm feeling right now."

"So you're alright with that?" Twilight inquired carefully.

"Yep. So, how do we start?" Sweetie Belle asked with much enthusiasm, which was missing when she came in. Things were starting to look up for her after all. Maybe she'd get her cutie mark in the process too!

"You can start by picturing where you are in Ponyville, and where your target location is. Then, you can charge up your spell. I'll be monitoring your progress." Twilight planned to have a test teleport, to make sure Sweetie Belle would be safe by teleporting large distances.

Sweetie Belle didn't have the best visual memory, but she was able to picture approximately where she was and where the clubhouse was nevertheless. Next, although she barely could conjure up any magic, Twilight was already supplementing her, and that supply was pretty easy to manipulate. Twilight's magic was surprisingly very malleable and easy to control, almost like controlling her own hoof, so it almost felt natural to Sweetie Belle. She started shaping the magic with her horn, forming it into the desired spell.

Twilight sensed what was done with her magic. Sweetie Belle was a surprisingly fast learner, or maybe Twilight was a very good teacher, though Twilight doubted the second one. She was always using difficult words, so there was no way Twilight could have done all that good.

All of a sudden, Twilight noted some minor disturbance in her spell. They were small, but it caught her attention. And they were very peculiar too. The filly had some imagination to do what she was doing.

"Hey, Sweetie Belle, you're not supposed to imagine ALL of space to teleport just a couple meters." Sweetie Belle, though, was too drawn into using magic, and apparently Twilight's little tangent on space had an unintended effect in Sweetie Belle's understanding. Slowly, the destination was being shaped into the spell, and Twilight noted with dread that it wasn't a couple meters like she wanted, it was Sweet Apple Acres. If it was somewhere close, perhaps nothing extensive would happen. But that simply wasn't the case.

"No, Sweetie, stop! We don't know what could happen! This was supposed to be practice!!!" However, it was too late, the spell would activate any time soon. Apparently, Sweetie Belle wasn't paying any heed to Twilight's words, so she did the only thing she hoped would help: she focused on the two ends of the teleport and reinforced them in the spell.

There was a bright flash, and when she opened her eyes, Sweetie Belle was gone. Twilight could only hope for the best - Rarity would kill her if anything happened to her dear sister. Twilight lifted a piece of parchment and a quill into the air, and wrote a quick note to the still-sleeping Spike the dragon assistant.

Went to Sweet Apple Acres, be back soon.

-Twilight Sparkle

With that done, she quickly left the library and galloped off to where she would hopefully spot Sweetie Belle alive and well.

***

All throughout the first and second season, Sweetie Bot asked a few questions here and there, and that was it. It wasn't that surprising, considering Aleron just changed how she thought, and not her memory. He couldn't peer into her mind, but he thought that she was still readjusting her mind. She once asked "Who is that?" when Sweetie Belle on the show appeared, but didn't really pursue the matter. Aleron expected the questions to start pouring the next day, if not sooner.

For now, though Aleron was taking a break. Watching the show again for nineteen hours was enjoyable, but predictably tiring. He was sure Sweetie Bot shared at least some aspects of exhaustion with him, being changed for life and all. Being a robot does not grant a free ticket away from the troubles of life.

Aleron was comfortable sitting on his couch while Sweetie Bot settled herself on the other end. He decided to start a conversation with her, to see how she would respond now.

"So, what do you think? Of the show, I mean."

The robot appeared to be quite unresponsive, lost to her own, new world, but after a minute she finally responded, "That world appears to be a cartoon. The cartoon is fun. Concept of Sweetie Belle equals me." Her thoughts were really a mess, but this time, she hoped, she hoped that her thoughts would come into light soon. Her emotions were real close to their natural counterparts.

"Alright. Do you want to continue watching the show in an hour? I have to go eat something, but we can return to it soon." It was strange asking her for an opinion, considering most of the time the questions were more objective, but having had a semi-intelligent robotic being took away most of the weirdness.

"Status unknown," was all Sweetie Bot said in response. Her opinion on the show was positive, like most other things, but was there something better for her to do? She still had to think much upon the new ideas brought to her. Her view on the world was like a jigsaw puzzle: scattered, but slowly coming together.

Aleron stood up and stretched himself, contently sighing to himself. "Well, I'll go make myself... something. I'd recommend that you charge yourself up in the meantime. It's been a while, and even though you could last a long time on your batteries, well... let's just go with 'why not?'"

He opened the door and walked out, hearing the signature click of Sweetie Bot charging behind himself. Walking over to the kitchen, he thought on his possible options for food. Since he decided today, whatever time it was, marked a new era for artificial intelligence, he would get what one of his first inventions made: a sandwich. He said a couple of commands into the room, and a robotic arm on the ceiling quickly replied by sliding all over the place, collecting the ingredients and assembling them into something edible.

Aleron took a bite into his sandwich, and his tongue swam in its deliciousness. Either the robot outdone itself today, or he was really hungry. Probably the latter, considering this robot, like many others, had limited, if any, intelligence. He soon ordered another one.

***

Aleron opened the door back into the media room, where he found Sweetie Belle perched in a new position, holding her head in her hooves, apparently thinking. That was a new position.

"Hello, Sweetie."

"Hello, Aleron," she replied somewhat blankly. Aleron made sure to have her speak as closely as possible to the actual voice of Sweetie Belle, and to have her speak with a tone laced into it, like most humans spoke.

"Ready to start watching again?" I asked with some enthusiasm, though it seemed to have little effect on her. I hoped it would have had one.

"I was thinking about other worlds just now. If Sweetie Belle is in the show, and I'm here, are we the same? Different? What are we?"

Finally, there were the type of philosophical questions Aleron was expecting. Frankly, he was starting to get worried when none came before, but now a different type of worry was settling into him. Now, he had to explain the world to a robot.

He thought on how one would respond to that type of question when he saw some light coming from Sweetie Belle. He looked over and saw some type of aura coming off her.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" He wasn't sure what that was, or how she was giving it off, but that was the only thing he could think of asking. If someone knew what was happening, perhaps Sweetie Bot did. Maybe it was her doing, though Aleron couldn't think of any reason why that would be happening.

"Huh?" the robot responded cutely. She looked over herself, and upon seeing the same glow, started panicking. "What is this thing?"

Seeing Sweetie Bot dancing in panic set Aleron on edge, and seeing the glow pushed him over it. "Oh no, your electronics must be glitching!" was what came out of his mouth. Surely, that's what must be happening. What else could produce such light?

Aleron moved to touch Sweetie Belle, as stupid as that was, if glitchy electronics was the problem, but his hand moved through her like water.

"What the?" He quickly retracted his hand, only to slowly start prodding her again in dumb curiosity. Sweetie Bot locked eyes with Aleron, fear visible on her very pony features.

Finally, with a bright flash, she disappeared off into nowhere, leaving behind only some light scorch marks. The human stood there dumbfounded, and for the first time in his life, fainted on the spot.