Author's Note

A.F.H. is After Fall of Humanity, You will see both everybody (Scootaloo's thoughts) and everypony (everywhere else) this is not a mistake.

01. The beginning

AI ID: 0xFCC393E6 (Alias: Scootaloo)
Monday January 17th 9 997 A.F.H. (January 17th 15014 C.E.)
Infiltration Scout Cyborg (Rev. 9.3)
Scheduled wakeup time reached (07:00): Resuming previous session.
Previous session resumed. Handing over control to Local AI

******

I wake up and stretch. Looking out the window I can see that the weather team's scheduled a nice day out today. Perfect weather for trying to get my cutie mark! I climb to my hooves and rush out of my room. I just know that today is the day I'll get my cutie mark. I hop over the railing on the stairs and glide down to the main floor. I can already smell the delicious breakfast that mom's made (Hay bacon and eggs) so I take my place at the kitchen table. My dad is reading a newspaper and chewing on a piece of toast. I smile at him and he smiles back. Mom sets down a plate of hay bacon and eggs with some buttered toast in front of me and I thank her. Mom just smiles and sits down in front of her own food.

A my dad, like myself is a Model 1921 Infiltration Scout Cyborg, Revision 9.3. His current alias is Cloud Jumper, a sky blue pegasus with a navy blue mane and tail, blue eyes, and a pogo stick with a cloud behind it for a cutie mark. His IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) transmitter identifies him as AI ID: 0xFCC393C2. My mom, however, is a normal Earth Pony by the name of Green Lily. She has a leaf green coat, golden yellow mane and tail, green eyes, and a lily for her cutie mark.

I smile back and dig in, mom's made it just the way I like it: Sunny side up and the hay bacon is extra crispy. I wolf down my food, earning the 'look' from my mother and grab my saddle bags and rush out the door. School starts at 08:00 so I have some time to try and think up some ways to get my cutie mark before school starts.

I grab my scooter and take off, doing grinds and jumps whenever I see the opportunity. I make it to school with plenty of time to spare, seeing as it's only 07:37. I stow my scooter in a nearby bush (there's practically no crime here) and I run over my mental list of things to try for getting my cutie mark, so far I've found it's not breakdancing, construction, fire eating, sword fighting, pogo stick jumping, spelunking, or animal taming. Maybe I can be a forest explorer? Yeah, That sounds good.

It's days like today that make me appreciate the fact that we delete our memories on how to get a cutie mark before each incarnation. If we didn't I think it would lose some of the fun.

My plan for the day made I run to the play area and join the other foals that arrived early. Hopefully I don’t run into Diamond Tiara or her crony Silver Spoon.

Diamond Tiara is another Infiltrator, although she's an Earth Pony variant instead of a Pegasus. She has a Pink coat, purple and white mane and tail, blue eyes, is constantly wearing a Diamond Tiara, and has no cutie mark. Her IFF identifies her as AI ID: 0xAC3492D8. Her crony Silver Spoon on the other hand, is a natural Earth Pony with a Dark grey coat, two toned grey mane and tail, purple eyes, wears a pair of blue rimmed glasses and a pearl necklace, and doesn't have a cutie mark. She has her hair done up in a simple braid that is tied off with a purple elastic.

They’re constantly picking on everybody. I honestly don’t know why Command doesn’t just wipe her and start over the next time she dies. This is the sixth reincarnation that Diamond Tiara's been a brat. Whatever, I’m sure Command’s got her reasons.

Command is our central controlling AI. Her real name is Hailey Markouski, which was the name of her last commander's daughter, who died in the war. She clings to that designations because it's her last tie to humanity, the beings that created her. She is the oldest AI still in operation, her AI ID is 0xAC3392B9.

I head over to the tetherball set and join in a game already in progress. Before long the bell rings and it’s time for class.

******

After class is over I decide to head out to the Everfree forest to try and get my cutie mark in forest exploration. I send off a low priority message to my dad telling him I’m off finding my cutie mark so as not to worry him and head in. After about an hour of exploring and not finding my cutie mark I’m about to give up and head back home when something catches my eye. There are hoofprints in the dirt and they’re too big to be mine. I query Command about any ponies in the area and she returns a negative.

That’s suspicious, I know that that hermit zebra doesn’t live in this section of the Everfree, and there’s no plants around here that would interest her. I frown and follow the tracks. Eventually I come across a cave that the tracks lead into. I send Command my current coordinates, tell her the situation, and request further orders. Command immediately tells me to explore the cave and stream my senses to her.

With my new orders I start streaming my senses and proceed into the cave. A few meters into the cave and I can already see signs of habitation. There is what appears to be a bedspread made out of animal skins. I immediately put myself on high alert. There are only a few species that use the pelts of their kills as bedding. From the fact that the only tracks around the area are hoof prints I can rule out Gryphons. Closer examination of my memories of the hoof prints reveals a four legged gait, ruling out Minotaurs, so that leaves Changelings. I relay my theory to Command and she concurs. I am immediately ordered to retreat, which is an order I am happy to comply with.

As I turn to leave however my self diagnostics subroutine alerts me to unusual fluctuations in my Cortisol levels. My heart drops, that means that a changeling is feeding on me. With a quiet pop two model 1922 main battle pony killer units appear. This gives me comfort, these units were developed to infiltrate unicorn strongholds and if necessary, fight unicorns.

They’ll have no problem taking on a changeling. My self diagnostics subroutine tells me that the Cortisol fluctuations have stopped. I guess that means the changeling recognized the pony killer units and retreated. The 1922s escort me out of the cave and I see a changeling pinned underneath another 1922. I breath a sigh of relief and allow the 1922s to escort me to the edge of the Everfree forest where they disappear again.

Now that I’m out of danger I turn my attention to my flank. A quick glance reveals that I still didn’t get my cutie mark. I sigh and cross forest exploration off of my mental checklist and head home.

******

AI ID: 0xFCC393E6 (Alias: Scootaloo)
Tuesday January 18th 9 997 A.F.H. (January 18th 15014 C.E.)
Infiltration Scout Cyborg (Rev. 9.3)
Emergency wakeup signal received (00:37): Resuming previous session.
Previous session resumed. Handing over control to Local AI

******

I snap awake and am immediately hit with a situation update, my dad's physical body has been destroyed, and Command lost my mother to what appeared to be a changeling teleport. I have orders to investigate. I scramble to my hooves and run to my parent's room. I can see a scorch mark on dad's side of the bed, obvious signs of a struggle as well as a broken window. There is residue on the bed, presumably what's left of my dad's body.

I receive new orders: "Scream". I let loose a blood curdling scream that I'm sure will wake up all of my neighbors. Sure enough I can see lights coming on in our various neighbours' houses. I notice a fair number of fellow infiltrators headed my way in addition to normal ponies. A normal pegasus mare approaches the window, and seeing it shattered, flies in to investigate.

Upon seeing me and the scorch mark on my parent's bed she flies over to me and grabs me up. With me secure in her forelegs she quickly flies me out of the window and calls for help. Soon we're surrounded by concerned normal ponies and angry (although it doesn't reach their expressions) infiltrator units, who like me, received an alert that one of our number has been terminated.

The pegasus mare, Ditzy "Derpy Hooves" Doo, begins describing the scene she found me in to the crowd.

Ditzy is a grey Pegasus mare with a light blond mane and tail. Her golden yellow eyes are afflicted with Strabismus, or misaligned eyes, and she has bubbles as her cutie mark. She is not an infiltrator.

Now that the townsponies know that my parents are missing or dead, search parties are organized. I receive a burst transmission from Command, she has spotted my mother deep in the everfree forest and is tracking her and her captors on UAV 0x44.

I switch to that feed and see my mother being carried by what I am assuming is disguised changelings through the Everfree forest. Command has told me she's sent the closest infiltrator search party to their position, they should be arriving in 8.62 minutes. I watch with baited breath.

Finally the search party arrives. The unicorn infiltrators quickly dispatch the changelings and comfort my mother. I track them all the way back to ponyville until I can see her with my own eyes. I struggle out of Ditzy's hooves and run into my mother's forelegs. She's showing obvious signs of severe PTSD, but she hugs me all the same. The changelings have gone too far this time, the next one I see I'm going to kill.

******

AI ID: 0xFCC393E6 (Alias: Scootaloo)
Saturday January 18th 10 000 A.F.H. (January 18th 15017 C.E.)
Infiltration Scout Cyborg (Rev. 9.3)
Scheduled wakeup time reached (07:00): Resuming previous session.
Previous session resumed. Handing over control to Local AI

******

I wake up with a feeling of melancholy. Today's the three year anniversary of my dad's murder. Although I can always talk to his personality using my connection to the AI network (our personalities and memories are constantly synced with Command after all), Mom can't because she's a normal pony. Dad and I feel bad for her, but there's nothing we can do without revealing our secret. Mom's always served the same meals we had the day before he died three years ago. I assume it's some sort of ritual or coping mechanism she's developed. I've yet to kill a changeling, they haven't shown their faces since then. I just know they're up to something. They used to harass us on a weekly basis after all, yet we haven't seen them in three years.

But I digress. I need to get up and get my day going. With a stretch I get out of bed and head downstairs. I hug my mom, letting her hold onto me for longer than usual. I don't mind, I'm all she's got left. She serves breakfast (As usual, especially for today, Hay bacon and eggs) and I dig in. After I finish my breakfast I head out into the newly spring morning. Winter wrap up was yesterday. None of us can figure out why the ponies insist on starting and ending winter in January but they do, or for that matter why there's two of every season in a year! That's just so messed up.

That aside I have a Cute-ceañera to attend, even though it's on the anniversary of my dad's death I can't help but smile, Cute-ceañeras are always so much fun. Even if it is for Diamond Tiara. Ironically, her cutie mark is a Diamond Tiara just like Silver spoon's is a silver spoon. Does that mean their special talent is being stuck up?

Joking aside I already know Diamond Tiara's special talent is making jewelry since she insisted upon screaming about it all over the AI network when she got her cutie mark. I'm assuming Silver Spoon's cutie mark either has something to do with making silverware or working with silver, she never really told us. Anyway, I'm off, hopefully this won't be too painful of an experience. I'd hate for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to ruin Cute-ceañeras for me.

******

I walk in the door and am immediately greeted by my best friend Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie bell is a natural born unicorn filly. She has an immaculate white coat, a stylized purple mane and tail, and green eyes. Like myself, she doesn't have a cutie mark yet.

"Hi Sweetie Belle! Glad to see you made it! I hope Diamond Tiara doesn't ruin this Cute-ceañera." I say.

"Hi Scootaloo, I'm actually kind of worried about that, this is my first Cute-ceañera after all." she replies nervously, pawing at the ground with a forehoof.

Although I'm already aware of this I act surprised for her benefit. "What? Seriously? What about Snips and Snails' Cute-ceañeras? They invited everypony!"

Snips and Snails are two colts that are so inseparable that they waited to have their Cute-ceañera when they both had their mark.

"I was sick, remember?" She replied, ears drooping.

"Oh yeah. Right... Well I'm sure this Cute-ceañera will be just fine! Besides if they do mess it up we'll know what not to do on our own Cute-ceañeras, right?" I reply, a hopeful look on my face.

She brightens up at this. "Yeah, you're absolutely right! Who knows, maybe Diamond Tiara will actually behave herself for once." We both share a laugh at this.

Suddenly we hear a commotion. Not wanting to get into the middle of it we dive under a nearby table and listen in. I am enraged when I hear what is going on. Diamond Tiara is picking on a fellow blank flank, Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom is a yellow coated natural Earth Pony filly, she keeps her red mane tied back with a pink bow, and her red tail is left undecorated. She has orange eyes, and as I said, lacks a cutie mark.

I shoot Diamond Tiara a dirty look and send some less than savory remarks her way over the A.I. Network. Out loud I say "You got a problem with blank flanks?" Yeah, that got their attention. "I said, you got a problem with blank flanks?" I say again now that I have their attention.

I receive a priority request from Diamond Tiara to talk over the A.I. Network. I fork off my external conversion to a child process and open communications with Diamond Tiara.

Forking off a child process can be thought of as creating a small program that is a temporary clone of myself that will do a specific task. In this case, continuing my conversation with my friends.

Diamond Tiara doesn't waste any time and immediately starts ripping into me. "What the hell is your problem? This is my Cute-ceañera! They should all be paying attention to me!" She screams at me over our private link.

"You're being a brat again, I'm just putting you in your place." I can feel her shock over the link.

"H-How dare you! I'll have daddy run you into the ground for this!" She snaps.

I laugh at her over our link "For what? He's an organic pony, he isn't privy to our conversation here. And even if I did say anything wrong, you have no evidence, since nobody in this room can hear us."

"I-I uh." She stammers, obviously realizing the folly of having this conversation in private.

A quick check of my child process shows that our external conversation isn't going so well for her either. "Besides, if you were paying attention to your child process you'd see that I also haven't said anything wrong externally either."

"W-What? How, we haven't been talking that long." She replies, causing me some confusion.

"Don't you remember? Our clock speeds were reduced seven versions ago to stop freaking out ponies with our freaky fast reaction times. We're having this conversation at the same speed as a pony would. We can only go full speed in an emergency. Actually your responses have been a little on the slow side." I point out.

"W-What? I don't remember that! Why don't I remember that? What's going on?" She cries, causing me concern. Her fear is evident over the link.

"Run some diagnostics, I'll contact Command right now. Something's very wrong with you." I say, opening a high priority link to Command.

"R-Right." She responds before disconnecting.

"What's wrong Scootaloo?" Command asks.

"Diamond Tiara is showing concerning signs of system failure." I report.

"I was afraid of this. I have been trying to fix her but it looks like the damage is irreversible." She replies, a feeling of sadness coming over the link.

"W-What happened to her?" I ask, fearful that whatever is happening to her is going to happen to me.

"You may not realize this but, she was an early attempt of mine to create a convincing pony A.I. She's 10 002 years old, and when I initially made her I was still recovering from the damage done to me by the war. At the time I was low on resources and needed to explore outside. I created her to locate resources."

"And you were successful I take it?"

"Yes, she was a rousing success, but at the time I didn't have the resources to create a backup of her personality. Most of my solid state drives were failing so I was low on space. She herself had one of my last fully functional SSD's. So when she was pranked by an unknowing pegasus, the lightning strike fried most of her systems and wiped part of her drive. I was able to recover most of her personality. In fact, her damage gave me great insight into the improved self repair algorithms that all of the A.I.s after her, yourself included, currently have." She said, even more sadness coming over our link.

This causes me some confusion. "If she was so badly damaged why didn't you just scrap her?" I ask.

Command actually chuckles when I say this. "A bit of sentimentalism, she was my first realistic pony drone. Ever since I have been keeping her running, trying different experiments with her personality over the years to perfect your personalities. By the time you came around she had already been in operation for 7237 years. Her personality is finally deteriorating. I fear this will be her final incarnation." I can feel her pain over the link as she explains this to me.

"Thank you for telling me. Do you want me to tell her?" I ask, with a newfound respect for Diamond Tiara.

"No, I'll tell her. Please return to your duties." She replies. I send comforting feelings to Command before cutting my link. I sync myself with the child process and take over. I come back to the outside world mid conversation with my new found friend Apple Bloom.

"How about... The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" She asks.

"It's perfect!" I reply.

It looks like I'm going to be just fine, but I can't help but feel bad for Diamond Tiara.