Ghost in the shell: Equestrian architecture

Twilight Sparkle rushed down the halls of section twelve headquarters. She had left Applejack while they were in the middle of going over the final details for the security plans for tomorrow and was heading for the E-unit. She pushed a set of doors aside and was meet by Osborn and Rainbow Dash. “What have you got for me?” She asked them.

“A homicidal android.” Osborn stepped aside to let her see.

The Major stared down from the observation window. Fluttershy, along with a few engineers were gathered around a pale, white male android placed on a table in the center of the room. The left arm had been completely torn of and the skin on the upper right arm was torn. Black stains and splatter of dried blood were spread across the chest and face. “What did it do?”

“Technical evidence seem to suggest that it murdered a truck driver who seemed to accidently run it over on the highway.”

“Identified the victim yet?”

“No.” Osborn replied. “The body was so disfigured we have to wait for DNA analysis before we can it identified.”

“So why have we been alerted? An android killing a human is certainly serious, but it has happened in the past with bootlegged models.”

“It laughed.” Osborn pressed a key and played an audio file sourced to the android. It played the same cackling laughter as the one found in Trixie´s decoy and the empty shell. “Fluttershy´s about to crack it open and take a closer look.”

“What if it self-deletes like the other ones? Before we can get a chance to look in to it?”

“Fluttershy´s already on top of it.” Osborn said. “She made an antivirus program to counter the self-deletion and keep all the files intact.”

“Good.”

“Trixie must be taunting us again.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Possibly.” But what does she want with me? Twilight pushed her thumb up under her lip. Or any of us for that matter. Up until this point she only vaguely knew of Trixie was a failed entrepreneur from blue solace and she had never been involved in any case against her up until this point. Osborn, though. He had encountered her a few times before this case, but never made an active effort to arrest her until now. According to what Osborn told me about her, Trixie was proud if nothing else. Maybe we did something indirectly to hurt that pride.

“If she is, then maybe she is pretty dumb after all.” Osborn looked down at the machine.

“Or dangerously clever.” Twilight said.

“We´re ready to begin.” A voice from one of the engineers came from over the speakers.

“Do it.” Twilight said over the microphone.

The engineer said something to Fluttershy and she started up.

The android twitched and contorted it´s arm to an unnatural angle. The machine hummed and the androids back arched upwards. Though sound escaped its mouth it seemed ready to scream in pain and agony. Then it fell back on the table.

“We´ll have the results in a few minutes.” The engineer said.

“Good,” Twilight said. “have Fluttershy display them in the chief’s office.”

Osborn and Rainbow Dash followed her on to Celestais office. Twilight updated the chief on what was going on.

She twirled a pen in her right hand when Twilight was done. “And what´s your take on it?”

Twilight wasn´t sure what to say. “I don´t know. Because I have no idea what her goal is.”

“Applejack assumed that she was going after you after the shell attacked. Would you still agree with that theory?”

“I can´t think of anything that disproves the theory, but at the same time there´s nothing I can think of that enforces it.”

“Osborn?” Celestia asked. “You got any theories?”

Osborn grumbled for a moment. “Maybe she´s trying to throw us for loop while she works towards some kind of greater goal.”

“And what would her goal be?”

He shrugged. “I don´t know. Maybe she´s aiming to eliminate all of us in order make something else easier or maybe our deaths are the only goal. But I can´t think of a reason why she would be coming after all of us.”

“She´s got motive for you and me.” Rainbow Dash butted in. “When you arrested her you insulted her intelligence and I wasn´t exactly giving her kind words.”

“But that was only when we arrested her.” Osborn said. “What was her reason before that?”

Rainbow Dash gave in. “Beats me.”

The door to the office opened and Fluttershy walked in with a tablet in her hand. “I got the results.” She said.

“And what did you find?” Osborn sat down on one of the arm chairs.

Fluttershy tapped her tablet a few times, the table in front of Osborn lit up and displayed a slowly rotating scan of the braincase. “To start with all of the standard android programs or protocols where deleted from the hard drive.”

“Explains how it was able to kill.” Osborn noted.

She nodded, tapped a few more times and the outer layers of the brain case where stripped away. The shape of the brain looked almost organic once the outer layers were of but it was betrayed by a series of wires leading up to the brainstem. “But that´s not all. When we looked deeper there was something else.” She pressed down on the tablet. “Fragments of human memories.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked with one of her brows raised. “How could that be?”

“Only fragments so far.” Fluttershy replied. “We won´t know for sure until someone dives into it and gets a closer look.”

“I´ll do it.” Twilight said.

“You seem eager.” Celestia said.

“I´m not going to let Trixie lead us by the nose anymore.” She turned to Fluttershy. “Set up a barrier maze. I´m going in there in a few hours.”

“Honestly think that´s a good idea?” Osborn asked.

“Trixie may have some other trick up her sleeve that we haven´t seen yet and she might disappear again. If there is a link to her in that android, I´m gonna find it.”

“So what do we do now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dashes face. She was still noticeably pale and dark patches had started to form beneath her eyes. “You can go home now if you want to.”

“You sure you don´t need me?”

What´s that thing Osborn loves to say? She asked herself. You can´t guarantee anything. “I can´t be sure, but you look like you could use a break.”

Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes.

“How long did you sleep last night?” Celestia asked.

“Two hours, maybe. I had to go over the security plans for tomorrow.”

“In that case I order you to go home and rest.” Celestia voice hardened.

“Alright.” Rainbow Dash yawned and walked out the room.

“Chief,” Celestia´s secretarie voice came from the desk. “a representative from the ministry of foreign affairs is here to see you.”

“Let them in.” She said and dismissed them.

“Another long night for the rest of us.” Osborn grunted and rose from the chair. Him, Fluttershy and Twilight left the office. They separated soon after that. Fluttershy went back to the android to have it disassembled and prepared for a dive while Osborn and Twilight entered the elevator.

“Hey, Osborn.” Twilight said.

“Hmm?”

“Did that android look similar to me?”

He leaned in closer and studied her face. “Yeah, you had the exact same plastic nose.”

Twilight frowned. “This isn´t funny, Osborn.”

“Sorry.” He backed up. “Why did you ask?”

“Ever since that empty shell with an almost exact copy of my body I´ve begun to fell paranoid. What if my memories aren´t real? What if someone has planted someone else’s memories inside my head or I never was an organic human to begin with and the memories I have before becoming a cyborg are just fabricated dreams?” She looked at her hand and closed it into a fist. “Maybe I´m just as fabricated has that machine.”

Osborn rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “I´m not sure what to tell you, Twilight. I´ve never had to face fears like that.”

“No, you prefer to fear a bullet to the head over a hacker in our brain.”

“Well we´ll both be dead some day and nothing will matter after that.” He shrugged. “Maybe there´s some small comfort in that.”

Twilight snorted before giving of a laugh. “You´re the worst sometimes, Osborn.”

Osborn shrugged. “You´re laughing aren´t you?”

“That´s true.”

“I actually tried to be a standup comedian before I settled on being a cop.” He looked out the elevator.

“Why did you give up?”

“I was rarely very funny when I tried to be.”

Twilight snorted again. “You´re making me laugh.”

“So what do you need me to do before you dive into that murderous android?” He changed the subject.

“Just help me gather up some of the equipment.”

“No problem.”