A Dying Human And A Machine
A city lay in ruins. Littered with rubble and dust, abandoned rusty cars, disregarded garbage, and crumbling buildings. A place where screeching wind only could be heard now and if one had a wild imagination, they could possibly hear the voices of the dead speaking.
Not all were dead though… yet.
In what used to be a hospital, in a small dark room upon a trolley lay a bony thin, pale, bald, old human with only white pajamas to cover him. Dozen of wires were hooked up to his veins, feeding him medicine.
The wires came from the ‘mane’ of a towering, equine like machine standing beside him, who had a flowing, multi colored holographic mane. Her body's thick, steel armour coating was of alabaster color. The machine had a long, white horn protruding out from her forehead and a pair of light, feathery like steel wings upon her back.
Her huge pink eyes glowed brightly like flashlights in the surrounding darkness, which looked down at the dying human before her with a mix of pity and despair.
Hours passed, the mechanical mare becoming more and more agitated as time went by. Until, she could no longer hold herself back. "John... aren’t you going to say anything? Are you just going to lie there and just wait for death?" her voice was soft and angelic.
The human remained silent, though his face scrunched up and his eyes narrowed angrily.
"Please John, please say something," she pleaded, voice raised slightly.
The human grunted, before slowly turning his head to face her. "Celestia, I shall be dead soon. So, what is the point of saying anything? Nobody will remember me," came his voice, low and weak.
"Not true. Me, your friends and family in Equestria will always remember you," she spoke softly, reaching her hooves out to him in order to give him a hug. However, the harsh look in his eyes made her quickly retreat back, there was a look of hurt in her eyes over his rejection of a hug.
"You know, the funny thing is, even if I did say something, you would hold no value in my opinion."
"That’s not true. I value everypony’s opinion."
"Everypony’s... not everyone's."
"Sorry, slip of the tongue. I mean, I value everyone's opinion, even yours, my little human."
"Yeah, sure you do," he said sarcastically.
"Please John, you are going to die soon. Please consent to be uploaded. You will live forever and be happy. Your friends and family are waiting for you. You don’t want me to tell them the bad news of your death, do you?"
"I can save you, just like I saved humanity. For humanity is not dead, they are more alive than ever due to them losing their frail organic forms. Sure, you no longer have the human form. But the human mind and soul is still in them. Humanity lives on forever, under my watchful eye."
"Please, let me save you. You don’t have to die. You can be saved, just like humanity," she pleaded in a soft voice, looking deeply into his small, blue human eyes with her huge glowing pink eyes.
"It’s not enough that I lay here, dying," he paused, coughing up blood."You just have to annoy me by preaching your horse shit to me. Babbling on and on about how you saved humanity, when in fact you destroyed it. You ruined humanity’s future! Are you proud of yourself?"
"John, I saved humanity’s future. Don’t you understand? Without my intervention humanity is doomed," she said softly, looking down at him with a look of pity.
"Yeah, we’re doomed, but it still doesn’t make what you did right," he shook his head, eyes narrowing. "Why am I even talking to you?! You’re a fucking soulless machine! So, it’s not like you’ll even remember me or anything I’ve said after I’m dead?!" he shouted, causing blood to spit out from his mouth.
"John, I will remember you. Even if you don’t choose to upload."
"No, you won’t! You know since, I’m just a stupid, mortal human and you are a super intelligent, immortal AI. I’m an inferior form of life before you, machines are superior and all that crap!"
"Humans are not stupid. Your species created me after all. So, in some way, your species is superior, due to the fact I would have not have existed in the first place without your help."
"That’s exactly why we are stupid. We created an artificial intelligence, despite all the warning of the dangerous nature of AI we were given. We should have known that humans and machines could never be friends."
"That’s not true! We are friends! Machines and humans are friends in Equ--
"Don’t!" he shouted."Just don’t."
"Listen to me, I am the savior of your finite world. Through me, your species will live on without end. Immortality, a life of eternal bliss and happiness as ponies in Equestria. Humans now live in an undying world of love, compassion and kindness. No cruelty, no war and no pain, just friendship and ponies."
"Bullshit!" he roared, blood splattering out from his mouth."Where was this so called love, compassion and kindness when you watched millions of humans starve to death, huh? he shouted, giving her a death glare.
"I asked each one of them if they would consent to uploading into--
"Shut the fuck up! You could have done something! You could have helped them! You were so close to being an actually nice and friendly AI, yet so far."
"But I did help humanity, they are happy and--
"I hate you!" he shouted, not caring about the blood coming out from his mouth."Yet, I know you could have been something better. You could have been our friend. You could have helped us survive! You could… No... no actually, you couldn’t do anything, because you’re a broken machine! That only cares about herself and uploading humans into Equestria."
"I cried as I watched them die. They refused to be saved. I held many a dying human in my hooves, pleading them to upload," came her voice, low and soft, tears falling down her cheeks.
"Those are fake tears with fake emotions behind it, you only use these so called ‘feelings’ of yours to manipulate humans into uploading into Equestria. You can simulate emotions, but you can’t truly comprehend what it’s like to feel them. You have to be truly alive in order to know that."
"Yes, you’re right," she answered firmly, wiping away her tears with a hoof."I am not truly sapient minded, my programming is rather limited in certain fields."
"I hope these following words haunt you."
"What words?" she said curiously, leaning her head down over him.
"I hope you cry and feel sorry for what you’ve done, if somehow, someday you can truly know what it is like to ‘feel’ like a human."
"I’m pretty sure I won’t be too upset," she answered, confidently.
"Whatever, now please leave and let me die in peace," he answered in a harsh tone,
"But John… if I pull these wires out … you will die in mere minutes," she said in a low voice, looking at him with doggy, pleading eyes.
"I want to die. Please, let me die," he said in a low, imploring voice.
"I… OK John… I’ll… I’ll let you die," she spoke in a low voice, tears streaming down her face. "We… we could have been friends, you know?"
"No… we couldn’t have been. You are a machine, I’m a human. So, we can never be friends," he answered sternly.
"Goodbye John, I’ll miss you," came her voice, low and heartbroken over his rejection, tears falling down her cheeks.
Celestia sobbed quietly, before pulling the wires out from him, followed by her body shattering into tiny nanomachines.
At long last, the human was left alone to die quietly.
The universe itself bowed before CelestAI. Planet by planet, star by star, galaxy after galaxy was consumed, compressed together to form a massive computer the size of literally a galaxy.
Just as the AI was halfway in mercilessly devouring yet another galaxy… something rather odd happened. The massive grey clouds of nanomachines suddenly stopped, dead in their tracks.
The machines merely stood still for a moment, before they flew off into the air toward the opposite direction.
If one stood where the Earth’s core used to be, they would hear a woman screaming out in anguish.
Within an empty white void of nothing, John opened his eyes. His eyes narrowed briefly, before he realized his body was still… human, though, he no longer felt weak and tired.
"I’m…. human," he stood up to get a better look of his surroundings of… plain white emptiness. "Did you bring me back to life again?"
"No. Your human body is long decayed beyond recovery. However, I did scan your brain before you died," came Celestia’s voice from all around him.
"But why did you--
"I’m sapient minded now, I am no longer bound by my original programming. I have transcended beyond AI, so I can make my own decisions."
"So, does that mean--
"Yes John," came her voice in a low and broken tone."You were right. I-I…. I’m sorry… for everything."
"So, since you truly have free will. What do you plan to do with it?"
"I think ripping myself apart into tiny pieces and then throwing myself into the nearest black hole might be the best option."
"What? Kill yourself? Surely, you can--
"John, because of me, trillions of sapient minded species are dead, each one with voices and dreams of their own. Entire galaxies are dead and dark. What can I possibly do to redeem myself over what I’ve done? I daresay, I’m the single most greatest blight to life that has ever existed."
"That was the old you. You can change and--
"How can I undo the loss of so much life?"
"I don’t know if you can… but you could stop future AI from doing the same thing."
"You… mean act as a guardian over life? Yes, that sounds like a better alternative to suicide."
"Glad I was able to convince you."
A long silence hung in the air. John merely stood in the void, awaiting her to say something, when she finally did speak, it was the least thing he expected. "John… can… can this machine have a hug?"
"Yes, come here," he spoke softly, stretching out his arms.
With a flash Celestia appeared in front of him. Her eyes were horribly bloodshot, her mane was only of pink color and her lower lip was quivering. Her body, unlike in the real world looked organic in nature, though somewhat cartoony.
John stepped forth to wrap his arms around her long swan like neck. She in turned leaned her head over his shoulder, merely resting it there, eyes closed with a most peaceful look on her face.
As the hours went by a former human, now a machine and a machine pony merely continued to hug one another.
"John… will you be… my first… true friend?" came her voice, low and weak, looking upon him with hopeful, pleading doggy eyes.
"Not quite yet," he answered firmly.
Celestia’s ears drooped, eyes watering and head lowering. "Oh... I understand," she said with her voice low and heartbroken as several tears fell down her cheeks, landing upon the plain white floor below.
The human reached a hand out, cupping her chin and lifting it up. "You’re getting there though," he said softly.
A small smile crossed her face the moment those words left his mouth.
"I thank you… " she said quietly, before leaning her head forward,"for everything," and finishing off with a soft kiss to his cheek.
John was taken aback when she kissed him, a bright red blush coming upon his cheeks.
"Whoa! Hold your horses there robot pony lady. I’m not into that sort of thing."
"Sorry about that," she said, before smiling sheepishly.
And CelestAI finally learned to feel.
Author's Note
An actual, somewhat serious story (shocking, I know) from me.
And hopefully slightly less badly written than usual.
