Unit One, a prime example of the ingenuity of the UIP’s Artificial Intelligence Research Department, strolled the streets of the busy pony town with a merry tune on her lips. Currently she was sporting a very nice tan coat and brown mane, in addition to fairly generous hips with a generic ‘cutie mark’ on her flanks.

Surprisingly, she was enjoying masquerading as a pony mare, a cute one at that. She still couldn’t get over how her hooves clicked on the cobbled road, the satisfying ‘clip-clop’ sound soothing to her.

Still, she wasn’t here to enjoy parading around as pony and smiling at handsome stallions, she had work to do.

While her backstory as a café owner visiting from the largest city of this country was a little shaky, she was confident that she could divert everyone… everypony, with a few choice words. Local lingo was something easily picked up, the ponies just changing some words to sound more horse-like. More difficult had been working out how to control the tail; apparently she wasn’t supposed to be swinging it about everywhere.

The nice, embarrassed stallion that had told her that had received a kiss as a reward.

Smiling at the memory, Unit One began her trip to the town’s market area. If the last two days of observation proved correct, then her targets would be leaving their little hidey-hole to purchase their meagre supplies. She didn’t have that problem, needing nothing solid to subsist on.

Continuing to hum, she blinked her eyes and subtly changed her vision, the area in front of her lighting up with warm colours. Pony shapes glowing a bright white increased in number when she entered the market, Unit One glancing over all of the stalls and buildings until a cluster of large red shapes drew her attention.

Her vision returned to normal with a second blink, Unit One making her way around the stalls until she had flanked the five humans purchasing carrots. Biding her time, she adjusted the coin purse around her neck before the humans began to hurry back towards the street that led to the inn they had been sheltering in.

Waiting until the time was right, she rushed out from the empty stall she was hiding behind to intercept their path. Simon Vasquez, the leader, tripped over her while she crashed to the ground.

Looking up, she examined the weapons that each human was carrying, cloaks flying open to expose pistol butts and submachine guns. Her computer brain processed the images in a split second, coming to the conclusion that the amount of firepower would cause an issue if she just tried to kill them now.

‘When in Rome,’ she thought, remembering the saying that one of the scientists who had created her enjoyed repeating in their lessons. Curling up in a ball, she willed her fake eyes to shed moisture while the human leader landed heavily on her.

“They got Simon!” a women’s voice called out, Unit One identifying her as Harriet Snyder. Peeking out, she spotted numerous guns pointing at her, the humans’ heart rates rising rapidly. Seeking to avoid an issue at the current time, she quivered her lip and began to beg.

“Please, please I’m so sorry!” she began, weeping while she did so. The human leader started to get off her, while she continued her act. “Don’t hurt me please!”

Simon got to his feet, Unit One staying on the ground while trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

“It’s just a pony,” Harriet sighed with relief, lowering the ballistic submachine gun that had been pointing at her head. The others followed her movements, Unit One no longer threatened by the projectile firearms. She still continued to cry, however Simon soon grabbed hold of her forehooves to help her up.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “You made a mistake and we made a mistake, we’re not going to hurt you.”

‘Oh, I can assure you, rebel,’ she thought, hiding her distain from them. ‘I did not make a mistake, and it is you that should be wary of harm.’ Now back on all four hooves, she still looked up at them with big doe eyes.

“You… you mean it?”

“I do, are you hurt?”

She shook her head to confirm that she was injury free, one of the many advantages of being constructed from nanomachines and energy. Even so, no scratches on her fabricated body were detected, a good thing since realistic looking blood was annoying to replicate and a waste of resources. “No, I’m fine.”

Unit One held back a grimace when Simon patted her on the head. The feeling was… strangely comforting, and she chided herself for getting too ‘into character’. She’d already been warned by the bosses to not become overly interested in common biological processes and feelings, especially after the repeated attempted seduction… incidents involving a fellow intelligence officer. It wasn’t like she could help it; she was designed to replicate a living, breathing, being after all and with that came certain impulses normal to living things.
It was probably why she was classed as a ‘failed prototype’.

The human withdrew his hand, bending down to pick up his dropped bag of carrots. She briefly calculated just how easy it would have been to kill him then and there, over sixty-five different methods and ways. She held back her desire to spill blood, however, her orders stating that each human was to die one after the other.

“Good, just try to be more careful next time.”

The humans continued to flee back to their sanctuary, shooting her warning glares while they did so. She repressed a smirk, they were so clueless as to what they were afraid of, not even knowing that she was the one that they feared so.

“I will,” she replied, before moving to strengthen her cover. Leaving the humans be for the time being, she noticed two stalls side-by-side, both offering flowers. Able to see the mares operating them huddling behind the cover, she made her way over. Glancing back, the humans rounded the bend and the hiding ponies emerged, one mare white with a red mane while the other was pink with a light-green mane.

Stopping at the second stall, she examined the flowers before nodding to the pink mare. “A bunch of daisies, please.” She kept her eyes on the coin bag, concentrating on getting the golden coins out.

She decided against forming two fingers to retrieve the troublesome coins, it would likely cause more of a commotion then when she first robbed that liquor store to obtain the funds. The sweet pegasus mare known as ‘Sticky Fingers’ was still currently wanted by the Canterlot guard, if the newspapers were anything to go off of.

Finally she managed to get ten coins out with her mouth, placing them on the stall and receiving a generous group of flowers in return.
“Here,” Unit One looked up when the other florist pushed across a single, beautiful rose. “On me, you look pretty shaken up.”

She didn’t know what to say, a gift was a rare thing for her.

“Thank you,” she answered, going for the stock response. “I’ll be fine, it was just so scary.” She joined the rose with her newly-purchased daisies, admiring the wonderful petals.

“Yeah, those humans are pretty terrifying.”

She smiled, less because of the shared agreement but more because she was reminded that the targets she was set to kill were nowhere near as threatening as the people that she worked for.

“Humans?” she asked, feigning innocence in the hopes to secure some local knowledge.

“That’s apparently what those bipeds are called, or at least that’s what they told Princess Sparkle when she visited them.”

The rose vendor was correct; it was indeed humans that she was hunting. The additional information that her quarry were communicating with a local leader was worrying, Unit One having seen the purple pony visit the humans while she had been watching them. Hopefully the Princess hadn’t been told too much, having to silence native royalty was always a chore.

“She sure seems keen to learn about them,” the daisy-vendor added with a scoff, Unit One tilting her head at that. The rose-seller shot her companion a glare, before looking back towards her.

“What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around in Ponyville before, I’m Roseluck.”

“I’m Mellow,” she turned to show off her flank-mark, something she had noticed ponies do when meeting a new person. “I run a café in Manehattan, and I’m taking a short break in Ponyville for the week.”

That was a lie, she’d never stepped foot in Manehattan and couldn’t cook to save her artificial life. The only experience with the culinary arts she had was spicing up food and drink with poison, and that was something that did not contribute to a healthy dinner guest.

After introducing her to Daisy, the… daisy vendor, Roseluck quizzed her on the details of her visit to their town. She stuck to vague answers, thankful that neither pony had visited the city in question. After placing her purchased goods in the saddlebag she had stolen from a cart when she had first arrived, Unit One made to leave but was halted by Roseluck.

“Listen Mellow, me and Daisy join some other friends for tea every night. Tonight it’s at my house; do you want to come along?”

She mulled the idea over, the meeting likely a great source of information regarding pony social etiquette and possible gossip regarding the humans. She still had their tracker registering in her systems, and she knew they wouldn’t leave town without the briefcase. One night couldn’t hurt, after all. Still, she’d have to play along to appear normal.

“I’d love to,” she answered before glancing back at her saddlebag. “I’ll make the same daisy salad that I do for my café.”

The next few sentences were lost with her brain telling her that she didn’t have a clue about making daisy salad. She caught the address and the fact that it had a rose garden out the front, however.

“I never would have guessed,” she joked, earning giggles from the two vendors. She waved and left, Roseluck requesting more information about Manehattan later on. Pushing aside the need to find out about the city to maintain her cover, Unit One made her way through the streets towards a store that sold quills and sofas.

She had already established that the local equine population weren’t all there, mental wise.

Ducking into the alley behind the store, she crouched down near a small window close to the ground. Opening it, she dropped her bag down before checking to make sure no one was watching. Convinced that the coast was clear, she commenced with her plan to gain entry to the shop’s basement.

The nanomachines that made up her body compressed, Unit One squeezing down through the window effortlessly. With a small smile, she plumped herself back up and added a little more to her rear for good measure. Giving herself an approving once over, she picked up her bag of ingredients and walked over towards a small workbench.

Plopping the flowers down, she peered under an old table.

Her metal case, as long as her pony body, was still there as well as the simple black bag containing all of the items that she had stashed two days ago. Pulling out the bag, she shifted through the numerous electronic devices to withdraw a simple plastic bowl.
Placing it on the bench, she emptied the bag of roses into it and stared at it, her forehooves planted on either side of it.

“Okay,” she said to herself. “That’s the flowers. Now what?”

Well, thankfully it turned out that a daisy salad only consisted of flowers and a dash of dressing. At least, that was what the old cookbook she had found said. Reflecting on this while she walked through the darkened streets towards Roseluck’s house, Unit One came to one conclusion.

Ponies were weird.

Trotting down the empty cobbled road, surprisingly merry thanks to the prospect of the dinner, Unit One stopped when she spotted a figure enter an alley way. What caught her interest was that the shape was bipedal, and when she looked closer she realised that it was alone.

“Well, well, well,” she muttered to herself with a smile, around the bag handle that she held in her mouth. “Running away from home? It’d be a shame if something was to happen.”

Heading towards the alley, she adjusted her vision to improve the brightness and slipped in after the human. Watching him move deeper into the alley, kicking trashcans as he did, she moved to a set of cans and waited for an opening.

“Stupid ponies,” the human muttered, giving a trashcan a vicious boot. Unit One put her plan into action, using a forehoof to knock the lid of a can to the ground.

As the lid clattered to the ground, the human whirled around a whipped a gun out of his cloak, a compact machine pistol. Drawing back in fear, Unit One widened her already large eyes and gazed up at him like a frightened puppy.

“Fuck’s sake,” the human breathed out, running a hand down his face while lowering the gun. “Pony, do you any idea how close you just came to being killed?”

“K-killed?” she stammered out, shaking. She deliberately fumbled with the bag in her mouth, the human pointing to his gun.

“Yes, killed,” he answered, before peering at her. “What are you even doing back here this late?”

She could see that his heart rate was dropping, and his movements began to relax. He had obviously come to the conclusion that she was not a threat, something that would prove to be his downfall.

“I was taking a shortcut to a friend’s house,” she explained, lowering her head. “Sorry, Mister Human.”

“It’s alright,” he sighed, stepping aside for her. He returned his gun to his holster, Unit One catching a glimpse of a second one on the other side. Nodding her head in thanks, she hurried past him towards the other end of the alley. Stopping out of sight around the corner, she looked back to find him sitting on a trashcan. The human had his head in his hands, Unit One grinning at his distraction.

Turning towards a group of four cans, she carefully placed the bag holding the salad container on the ground before leaping towards them.

Trashcans banged on the ground, lids flying off and a small amount of garbage spilling out into the alley. She lay in the middle, shutting off her nasal sensors and trying to appear hurt and weak.

“Pony Mare?” the human called out, Unit One smiling to herself. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t respond, but she did prepare to take his life. A stream of nanomachines, herself, quickly transferred themselves from the inside of her right foreleg to the middle of her hoof. They moved so fast that a normal observer would think that a thin spike was actually emerging from the hoof, when in fact the spike itself was forming from her own body.

The grey weapon was completed in seconds, the edge a mere atom thick. As long as half her foreleg, she concealed it under her body and awaited her ‘rescue’.

Her advanced hearing tracked the human as he stepped around the corner, paused and then resumed his advance. “Pony?” he inquired, slowing as he approached. “Pony, are you okay?”

“No,” she sniffed out, the human closing in on her. She heard him place his weapon on the ground while he bent down, and she soon felt rough hands place themselves on her shoulders.

“Come on, let’s get you up,” he told her, Unit One allowing him to turn her around while she kept her right foreleg hidden. Looking up at him, she was met with a concerned face.

“What happened?”

“It was terrible,” she sobbed out. “There was five of them.”

“Five?” he replied, his hand going for his gun. “Five of what?”

“Humans,” she replied, her saviour’s hand stopping. “Five of them.”

“Five humans?” he breathed out, before leaning in. “Pony, what did they look like, quickly, we’re in great danger!”

‘Oh, I know you are.’

Unit One stopped crying, beginning to move her right foreleg. Looking him deep in the eyes, she took a deep breath.

“They looked like filthy, rotten, traitors.” His eyes widened at her harsh tone. “And one’s right here now.”

She allowed him a second to comprehend just how badly he’d messed up, his eyes widening still. His hand began to reach for his discarded gun, but she was faster.

Her hoof-spike was rammed into his chest, Unit One smiling when she saw the shock in his baby-blue eyes. Since it was formed from her, she could feel it break the skin, part the flesh and pierce the organ. It was amazing, the feeling invigorating her and causing her to let out a groan of satisfaction. As good as the feeling of warmth was, however, his face was far more satisfying.

She could see him trying to figure it all out, his mouth opening and closing like a fish while his body struggled to live. All of a sudden, his eyes went wide for a final time before the light in them faded away, his mouth locked open with his dead pupils staring at her in horror.

Unit One felt a surge of elation when she registered no life signs from him, one target down with four more to go. It felt good, completing a mission objective, and she found her tail swishing happily at the result. Withdrawing the spike from his chest, she shook off as much blood as she could before returning it into herself.

Glancing at her bag, she checked the local time and realised that she still had an hour before she was due at the dinner party.

Looking down at the lifeless corpse in the trash, she shrugged.

“Well,” she mused to herself while selecting which tools she wanted to form and use. “Might as well kill some time with a spot of decorating.”

Author's Note

One down, four to go. Expect the next few chapters to be short but fast, about the same size as this one.