Anthropomorphic Seed

Chapter 1: The seed of hope

A Babs Seed romance story

I walked in the old door of my master bedroom. It had been a long, tiring day at work, working at the Glossman Company owned pharmacy, and I was dead tired. I went to the desk of my IBM clone computer to catch up on world events. The VR goggles sat in front of me, and I looked at them with a sense of awe. The pinnacle of modern technology, and these weren’t the most expensive brand. They were the generic goggles that came with every computer. I slipped them on, and felt the earbuds move into place in my ears. I decided to forgo my haptic gloves, and instead I used the computer’s webcam to track my hand movements so that I could navigate the web.

I logged on to my favorite tech news site, The Technophile’s Corner. The black background and green lettering a homage to the now near ancient monochrome screen. I was always fascinated with technology as a kid, and I still am now.

A Dark block lit up showing the current news in both video and text. My eyes went over to the top article on the homepage that read “Thousands enjoying Vogon Biotech Helpmates™”

‘Ever wonder what it would be like to chill by the pool with your favorite Catgirl? Maybe you’ve always wanted to talk to General Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance? Well, with the Helpmate™ technology that’s not a distant dream. It’s can be your best part of your reality!’

‘Before you wonder about the complications the problems that arrised with the Companion Company Real Dolls isn’t an issue anymore. Global Legislation has long since outlawed the creation and recreation of sapient human life. But that’s where Companies like Vogon, Fantastic Dreams, and Vivid Nightmares come into the picture.’

So a loophole then, I thought. These guys look like criminals who get themselves out of trouble with witty lawyers

‘“The law tried to keep a legitimate service out of the hands of people who could use the technology. When Real Dolls Incorporated made their companions they were filling a very real need in the world. There was people who needed someone to help them. Sure, there was a few bad apples,’

Wait, Bad apples. Like One Bad Apple, the first episode Babs Seed was in. If they had Babs has a helpmate, I would so get her.
I kept watching:

‘but a company can’t be held responsible for the actions of a few of its customers,” Michael Davis the PR spokesperson for Fantastic Dreams said in an interview with us.

We asked Mr. Davis what was his feelings toward the idea of buying and selling what could be considered a very real and living being.

“Well, you have to understand that basic human rights only cover humans. They don’t cover anything else. After all, you have the right to own a horse for transportation right?”

‘Of course we’ve attempted to contact various lawmakers, but unfortunately most have set their Digital Assistants to giving scripted answers. The one organization we did manage to contact was the Glossman Corporation Global Ethics board. Arthur Cheney, the chairman of the Global Ethics board, did say this to us regarding the helpmates.’

“With Technology advancing as quickly as it is, and with our world in a less than desirable state I believe that using these products are perfectly fine. Granted, they should be treated like living beings, but until they are written into laws as sapient beings there’s not much any organization can do for them other than treat them as products.”

‘That leaves this reporter asking a question to himself and to you the readers. Are these helpmates merely the end products of corporations, or are they beings that should be given basic rights?’

‘Theodore Jackson is a field reporter for The Technophile’s Corner.’’

I quickly logged off and removed the goggles before I backed away from the computer. All this legal garb is making my head hurt. I had to take my mind off it.

I went to the kitchen to make myself some dinner. It was about 7 or 8, so it was a good time to eat. I grabbed some rice and soy sauce and cooked it. The smell of the rice began making my mouth water. It was the real kind. Actual rice from the local grocery. Maybe it was wrong to splurge and buy actual food, but the real rice tasted so much better than the synthetic kind they tried to push off as instant rice. I’d eaten that before, and it tasted like melted plastic that had been covered with armpit sweat. No, I’d rather have the real rice, the real food that came from the grocery. I watched as the steam rose from the Rice Cooker, another Glossman Product, and heard the familiar ding. I opened it, scooped it out with the specialty spoon, and then I put it in a bowl, grabbed a plastic spoon, and went back to my computer.

I sat down and pondered about buying a helpmate. A thought came to my mind. Did they even have My Little Pony helpmates? I wanted to know. A sort of buring desire to find out flamed inside of me, so I logged back in, and put the goggles back on. My first thought was to check out the helpmate companies, and I quickly did a google search. Fantastic Dreams and Vivid Nightmares websites both were in the top places, but I didn’t see a thing for Vogon. Shrugging I clicked on Fantastic Dreams only to be led into what had to be what the corporations believed was every sci-fi geeks dream come true.

There was miles and miles of catgirls, green slave women, Twi’Leks, Na’vi, and hundreds of other races, but not a single pony out of all of them. Next was Vivid Nightmare and when I clicked on it I almost instantly I closed out of it. Recreated versions rule sixty-two versions of Slenderman, Unwanted House Guest, and other creepypasta helpmates was there. I grunted in disgust. I wanted to look at the ponies, and that left Vogon. The problem was that I didn’t see Vogon’s link to their website. I looked at the google list again, trying to see where it was. I saw links to news stories, but no direct link to the site itself. I started to close out when I saw an anthropomorphic pony appear on an ad. She smiled, giving me a wave.

I cautiously clicked it and was suddenly redirected to a large psychedelic (baby, yeah!) rainbow colored room. There was a crushed red velvet curtain hanging over something, beside it was a crushed red velvet rope. I walked toward it, nearly touching it when a throat cleared.

“Usually most ponies are polite enough to wait for me to start talking before they look at what we have to offer,” a voice said.

I turned to see an anthropomorphic stallion. His blond mane seemed to slicked back, and his chestnut colored pelt was almost too perfectly groomed. Over it he wore a three piece business suit.

“Who are you?” I asked. He just suddenly came right the fuck out of nowhere.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Drocsid, Sales Stallion extraordinare!,” he said as he spread his hands over his head in a obvious pitch like flare, “And I believe, according to our tracking of your use of the web and Netflix, that you are interested in a helpmate. Specifically a Pony, am I right?”

“I don’t use Netflix…” I said. I never even heard of Netflix before. I think it was some old streaming site where people pay a monthly fee to watch TV shows, but nowadays, watching old tv shows is free, especially on YouTube.

“Really? Perhaps there’s been a mistake,” he said as he reached behind his back and pulled out a file, “No, that’s correct, correct, oh, dear me… I seem to have gotten some of the information crossed with a different client. Well, Let’s just start this over again.”

He looked up at me and grinned.

“I see that you’re ready to jump to looking. It’s too bad I do enjoy giving the pitch. Still, the customer is always right,” he said pulling the crushed velvet rope and revealing most of the characters from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

Some of the characters, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Trixie Lulamoon, Applejack, Apple bloom, Big Macintosh, Rarity, and Fluttershy were gone. There was name plates were they were, but it appeared that they were simply gone. However, right beside where Apple Bloom had been was the other crusaders, including Babs Seed.

“I’m afraid the full set isn’t available, but tell me, who do you want to see?” he asked.

“Babs Seed…” I answered. I didn’t care if this thing costed 100,000 credits, I need her. It could be the only thing that can bring me out of my depression.

He walked over and pointed to her in her pony form. When he did she transformed into an anthropomorphic version of herself.

“Remember that she’s a living and breathing fantasy. Everything about her will be real. Her memories, though slightly altered to match her new body, will be as real as they come. Memories of family, friends, all of it will become very real to her. Of course the new memories will be ones that you create with her. Tell me, is this something you truly want?” he asked.

This was it, this was my chance to get my happiness back. The news article and the advertisement said that I could get a loving companion for life. A part of me didn’t want to get her. It said it was a waste of time, a useless person, a scam.

“Yes.” I finally said after a bit of thought. “I want her.”

“How much is she?” I asked.

True I didn’t care how much she costed, but I wanted to know the price.

“That’s the rub isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how much an artist loves their work it always comes down to what it’s worth. Each of our help mates are twenty-two thousand credits apiece,” he replied.

It appeared that he could tell that I was still interested because he grinned, and stepped back.

“Go ahead and touch her, just keep touching her for a few moments,” he said.

I touched her on the cheek and her eyes opened. She smiled at me before she glowed a brilliant dark orange color and disappeared.

“Wha-what happened? Where is Babs?” I asked.

“She’s being prepared for you. Just so you know you’ve ordered the Babs Seed. She’s not a Babs Seed. She is the only Babs Seed that will ever be made. Now of course along with her memories from the show we do like to give our customers a chance to add any additional personality quirks, and slight memories, from fan content. You’ll receive an email from us allowing you to select the fan content you would be interested in having added to her personality,” he said before he pointed to the other side of the room.

Another, smaller curtain opened revealing several different suits of clothes. I could see a heavily modified Cutie Mark Crusader uniform, consisting of one of Rarity’s managed dresses, and the cape, Babs' leisure clothes which looked like blue jean shorts, black leggings, a green hoodie, and a hockey jersey that sported the Canterlot Royals, and a blue jean jacket. I stopped him there.

“Those, her leisure clothes.” I said.

“Fantastic selection sir. It will take us two months to properly grow and implant her memories,” he said before the room changed again.

When it did I noticed an Anthropomorphic Discord behind a cash register.

“Well now, it looks like you are going to be taking care of one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and an Apple at that. Normally, I’d warn you about taking good care of them, but since Applejack is already out there… I don’t think I need to. Although, to stay on her and my good side, do take care of young Babs here. She’s not all grown up yet,” he said swiping a box and handing it to me before he disappeared and everything changed back to the search screen I had been before.

I took off the goggles and got up. I felt like I was in some sort of hallucination, or I had just woken up from a dream. Or both.

I heard one of my father’s friends got a helpmate, specifically Pinkie Pie. That’s why they were gone. People took them as their own helpmates. Their own companions. Their own loving helpers.

And I was going to get one of them.

For the next few weeks, I set up a room for Babs Seed. I bought a bed, ordered some custom posters, and of course some dressers. I tried my best to recreate her room from the show as close as possible, even getting a hologram image of the room for reference, with the colors of the walls and such.

My receipt that the anthro Discord gave me said it was going to ship between 2 months and 4 months.

Well, time passed quickly and it was now 4 months since the order of Barbara Seedling.

Oh, right, my father named Babs, Barbara Seedling because he found out Babs is short for Barbara and Seedling just fit her name. I guess I caught on with it, seeing as how when I watch the show on YouTube, and Babs would appear, I would grin like a maniac and yell “Barbara Seedling is here!”

Anyway, I was waiting for her to arrive. It was 20 minutes until the package company stops delivering. I waited anxiously for my companion to come at the front door.

Finally, what felt like 1000 years, the doorbell rang. I quickly got up, rushed to the door and opened it to see Babs, standing there, staring at me with a blank expression.

I didn’t know what to do, just say hi?

I did that. And she didn’t respond. She just stared at me with her blank face. It was creepy. It felt like she was looking into my soul or something.

I then remembered what Drocsid told me: touch her.

I touched her cheek, and a spark passed through me. Babs’ blank expression changed from a blank to an annoyed one.

“Finally, you opened the darn door!” Babs Seed said. “Now let me in, Ah haven’t eaten all day.”

“Well that’s kind of rude. Aren’t you going to hug me or something?”

“Oh, right.” She hugged me. I thought it was going to be a weak hug, but it was a warm and tender one. “Nice to see you, Jacob.”