Short Circuit

A few hours had passed since I had arrived at the abandoned house, and it was now late in the evening. The only light remaining was from street lamps and house windows.

A middle-aged, green earth pony stared at me with wide eyes. He had a metal bat wrapped in one of his forelegs, poised as if he were about to strike at me. I could see that he was shaking, I assumed it was either from fear or adrenaline. Since he hesitated to strike me, unlike the previous ponies in the alley, I didn't think that he had any intention to hurt me without cause.

"W-what are you doin' here? Who are you?" His voice wavered as he spoke.

"I only hid here to avoid a fight with some other ponies. I apologize if I'm encroaching on your property. I will depart, if you wish me to," I tried to reason.

"You're on the run from the cops then?" he asked.

"I do not know who, precisely. I just know that most ponies that I have encountered since being activated have wanted to harm me."

He seemed suspicious, raising an eyebrow at my claim.

"What do you mean activated? You ain't a robot; You only look like you have a few minor implants."

"I have no memories from before I was activated, so it would stand to reason I am not originally a biotic organism." I explained.

The earth pony lowered the metal bat slowly, without taking his eyes off of me. He stepped to the side to allow me room to leave the closet. I walked into the main room of the home, seeing that he had moved the chair I covered the window with, and a large saddlebag of tools now sat upon it.

"So what do you remember?" he asked after several moments of scratching his head.

"I only remember waking up in a laboratory with Doctor Sparks, then some ponies came in and attacked us. I ran until I reached an alley, where some more ponies tried to take my cybernetic implants, and then I ran here." I paused for a few moments, then gestured to the bag of tools on the chair. "Are you a mechanic?"

He digested what I had said for a few moments before nodding.

"Yeah, and I've fixed a few robots and cybers in my day. 'Course it don't pay as well as it used to since robots can just fix themselves now. Hence squattin' in this old place." He sat down. "I ain't never seen a robot with so much of a real body before. You only got a hind leg and some fancy sensory and brain implants from what I can tell."

"Do you know why I'm being attacked?" I asked.

"You really don't know anything... Well, in this part of town particularly, cybernetics aren't exactly popular."

"Why is that?"

He sighed and relaxed himself a bit.

"Well, gettin' metal parts and microchips stuck in you isn't exactly cheap, and it takes a specially trained surgeon to do it. When cybernetics first came around a lot of ponies didn't like the idea. There were those that chose to get them and those that didn't. Once ponies found out cybernetics weren't as bad as they all thought, it was too late for 'em. They had already lost their jobs to robots and cybers who were much more qualified, and so they no longer had the money to get them."

"So those with implants are seen as over-privileged?" I deduced.

"Pretty much, you got your purists that just hate 'em for the sake of it too, but that about sums it up." He stood up and walked to the window. "So where you headed now?"

"I do not know. The doctor who built me is dead, and he gave me no orders except to stay alive so that his work would not go to waste."

He continued staring out the window for a while before turning to face me once more. He ran a forehoof along his tool bag.

"Well then, if you aren't busy, do you mind if I take a crack at finding out what you are, exactly?" He grinned.

"What would that entail?" I inquired.

He opened the bag removed a small laptop from one of the pockets along with some wires and tools.

"As I mentioned before, I have had a little bit of experience working on cybers and robots, I got the stuff to hook up to that port on your flank. Maybe I could find out some more information with whatever you got stored in there." He continued unpacking tools, as if I had already agreed to his request.

"Would this put me in danger?"

He shook his head.

"Nah, this port does hook up to the implants in your brain, but I can't edit any of your commands or any of that, I can just open and view any files or programs I come across. Really I just want to know why you don't have a memory when you just have a few implants." He booted up his computer. "Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't mind knowing what's in there either."

"If you can assure that no harm will come to me or Doctor Sparks' research, then I will comply."

I walked over to where he was setting up his tools and sat down. He plugged a cord into my flank similar to the one that I had in the laboratory.  He tilted his head far to the side, causing his neck to pop.

"Let's see what we have in here then, shall we?"