A Derpy Apocalypse: Phantom Warrior

The first was stomped the second one torn. The old one's actions furthered her scorn.

Gray. Fuzzy and gray. As I'm being transported to the gymnasium for physical diagnostics, my vision is blurry and my color recognition is disabled. My technician –– my leader –– explained that it would keep everyone calm, given the fact that since I couldn't see color, my emotions wouldn't be triggered. I thought it was silly, and she did too, but still the science does make sense, and the people in this facility are unfortunate and naive. They are alone and scared. For this, I can forgive their actions and premonitory thoughts.

"We're almost there, buddy," my leader said, "just hang tight." I didn't want to call her leader, it seemed as if I was diminishing her true personality. I wanted to call her by her name, or at least by her last name. I tried to ask and realized I couldn't speak. She looked down at me.

"Sh, sh," she said, "I had to disable a lot for these weaklings, just so they don't try and kill us both. I promise you'll be able to speak when we're at the gym." I let out a single chck in response, she smiled, understanding my attempts at communication. I'm not sure if she was hinting at comedy, or if everyone would really try to kill us both. She must not be important if they'd kill her like that, or maybe it could be some sort of conspiracy?

A few moments passed and she rolled the bed, or stretcher, through some double doors. I saw a brightly lit room with multiple steel crossbeams across the top. Looking over I could see bleachers and a bit of a basketball court. I didn't recognize it from equine sports, but I understood the concept in terms of human sports. I also saw multiple weights and exercising machines, and no one else was present. Looks like I'm not just jogging and jumping.

Suddenly, I felt a weird sensation in my head.

"Ahhhhaaaa...." I groaned, closing my eyes tight and suddenly seeing colors.

"Oh—oh, are you alright?" she asked.

"Ye...yeah," I muttered, "just a little woozy from the saturation change." She smiled, pressing a few buttons on the stretcher. I felt metal clamps being released from my forelegs and hind legs. Even though I hadn't noticed them before, it was still a relief to be free again. I tried to sit up but noticed I was still weak.

"Careful now, prophet, you're still booting," she said, I'm not sure why she called me that, but I didn't say anything about it. "Let me help you." She put a hand on my back and lifted me up. She was very strong to do so, as I wasn't able to push myself up six inches before meeting my restrictions. As I set up, I could see multiple diagnostics running across my visor. Things like, "Physical Alignment Engine" and "Proprioceptive Responders". It was a bit distracting at first, but I used some sort of mental interface to shrink them to the lower right corner.

"What is your name?" I ask. She stopped piddling around with whatever she was looking at and looked up.

"Pardon?" she asked, giving me a baffled look.

"What is your name?" I ask again, with a stern expression. She looks confused.

"Have you not already established a name?" she asked me. I assume she was talking about 'Leader'.

"Yes," I replied, "but I don't like it. I want your real name." She suddenly looked to the floor as if in a trance. I kept my stern look towards her.

"You shouldn't have been able to assess that..." she muttered, her eyes looking dilated. This is odd.

"Why?" I asked confusedly.

"You're more sentient than I anticipated..." she said again. She closed her eyes and looked up at me, smiling. Not the happy, joyful smile she had given me so many times, but a sincere and humble smile. "You really are the one, aren't you?"

"What...?" I muttered, "What do you mean, 'the one'?"

"Time, time," she said, using a hand gesture to, seemingly, 'wave it off', "but first, let me introduce myself." She held out her hand, I supposed in the gesture of a handshake. She took my hoof — I think it is — and held it, saying, "Aviyah, my name is Aviyah," she said, "but here they call me Kristen, you should too, if we're amongst them. They don't need to know my real name."

"Of course, Aviyah," I said, "My name is...uh..." What is it?

"They call you Project Abaddon," Aviyah replied, "but I call you Prophet."

"They see me as a weapon, you see me as a warrior?" I assumed.

"Precisely," she replied, "except I'm right." She laughed for a brief moment before she patted me on the back. "Alright, you're booted. Let's start your diagnostics."

"That's 500. Try 600," Aviyah says, tapping a pile of 300 pound weights with her foot.

"My somatosensory receptors are in mid-optimal levels," I pointed out, "should we take a break?"

"On 700," Aviyah replies, "that's when we take a break."

"Of course," I muttered, attaching the two weights to the bar, which would have totaled up to 650 pounds. I lifted the weight with little effort, lowering and lifting it repeatedly ten times, and put it down. I could feel the pistons and artificial muscle tearing from the weight.

"Good, you can sit down now," she said, "I think it's time to tell Twilight about our success." She smiled, walking out of the double doors from which we had arrived.

I tried to lay back, but given my 'suit' being as blocky and annoying as it was, I couldn't rest comfortably. Surprisingly enough, I had a built in somatosensory cortex which allowed me to measure comfort like that. Of course, I could disable it in times of war. I decided to take a look at my internal computer to see if I could do anything else. There were multiple armor modes: war machine, reinforced armor, swiftness, cloak, disarmed and—

What's this?

TRUE

Odd...

"Looking at your codes, eh?" I hear a rusty male voice say. I exit the menu and stand up quickly. He backs away. "Whoa whoa whoa, friendly," he says. He's a dark blue stallion with short black hair and a dark grey goatee. He's wearing what looks like a demolition jacket.

"Identify yourself," I stated frankly, not wanting to engage in much social interaction. He looked at me.

"Or what?" he said. I don't think he's trying to make a good first impression.

"Or you may no longer have business here," I replied quickly, "now, please, identify yourself."

"Fine fine," he replied, "but first, I'd like to challenge you."

What?

"Pardon?" I ask. What was this equine trying to say? Was he really that stupid, or is there a catch? Surely I could beat him either way.

"There's a catch, however," the equine stated. I kept staring at him, "you'll need to turn off all assistance, and turn on your somatosensory reflexes."

"What's the point of them if I disable them?" I ask, confused.

"You'll learn something," he replied with a grin. He stood on his hind legs in a battle stance, "ready when you are, son."

I hesitantly disabled all armor, and battle assistance, and turned my somatosensory reception to 100%. I was almost stunned by what I could taste, hear, smell, and feel. Among all of that, I felt heat. Not cold metal, but warmth. It was odd, and definitely in contrast to my first awakening. I closed out all menus and stood up on my hind legs.

"Alright." I said, putting my hooves up. The equine grinned.

"Okay then, five...four..." he said. I clenched my hooves...if that's anatomically possible...and prepared for--- "one!"

WhatHeJustSkippedTwoNumbersHow--

BWAP-BWAP-BWAP-BWAP-BWAP

Before I know it, he's knocked me to the ground in five hits, and I'm aching all over.

"What...You skipped three and two..." I muttered. He laughed.

"Don't you know you're enemies don't play fair?" he asked, "Come on, get up."

In frustration, I pulled myself up to face him once more.

"I count this time," I said. He smiled.

"Alright," he said. I looked at him dead in the eye, using my bare optics to analyze him. What did I know? I remembered some old training a while back --- before the time of my initial death, as I remembered it.

"Five..." I said, squinting my eyes, "Four..." The tensity increases. "Three..." He steps one hindleg back. "Two..." We both get ready. "Six!" I shout, not moving. He looks at me confused. I then look to the door, closed and still. I then wave. "Hi Twilight!" He spun around to look, and as soon as he did, I darted towards him, sending four punches into his ribcage. I darted to the side and back to him, sending another punch towards him. Before I know it, he's ducked out of my view and I'm falling onto the floor. I realize he's tripped me, and I roll onto the floor and quickly spring myself back up. At an unnatural speed, he's charging me ready to deliver a nearly fatal blow to my head. This is when I decide to stop seeing it as a mere challenge. Will I impress Aviyah? Or will I fail? It's an easy choice.

I swat his hoof out of the way sending him to the side. He spins around to hit me, and I catch his hoof again, headbutting him. He stumbles back before shaking his head to regain consciousness. I throw a punch at him, he evades it, throwing me over him. I roll onto the ground again, springing up quickly and lunging at him again. I could feel wind flowing through me as I delivered a hard blow to his chest. We both crashed into the ground, and both got up. We were about to go at it again when we heard a voice.

"Seems like he knows how to fight, then?" It was Twilight, I just knew it. Within seconds, Aviyah walked in.

"Ark, would you stop beating up my bot?" she asked, running over to me.

"It was just a bit of practice, eh?" he said, getting up. I decided to get up as well, re-enabling all of my armor. I notice that Twilight seemed a bit impressed.

"No tactical assistance?" she asked.

"Y..yeah.." I muttered, rolling my shoulder to easy a bit of tension, "didn't feel good either." Twilight nodded in approval, looking at Aviyah.

"I have to say, I didn't expect this, you did far more than exceptional this time, Kristen." Twilight said. Aviyah looked at me and smiled.

"Thanks, Miss Sparkle," she said.

"Call me Twilight," Twilight responded. Aviyah and Ark gave her a weird look.

"What?" Aviyah asked.

"What do you think, Kristen?" Twilight asked, "This kind of work deserves a promotion!" Aviyah almost screamed in excitement.

"Really?!" Aviyah said, smiling brightly. Twilight patted her on the back.

"Yes, come by my office tomorrow and I'll have your badge ready."

It was about nighttime. I said in Aviyah's office. It looked more to me like a living area, but I wouldn't question anything. Aviyah soon walked into the office, closing the door and dropping a few papers on a nearby desk. She looked at me, ran up to me, and hugged me.

"Thank you, Prophet," she said, hugging me tighter, "thank you." Then, out of nowhere, she kissed my forehead.

"Oh," I uttered in surprise.

"What, you felt that?" she asked.

"Well, I never turned off my somatosensory receptors..." I said. She almost blushed.

"Oh uh...Well I should be going to sleep. You should too...I guess," her voice trailed off.

"Aviyah?" I say. She looked up at me.

"Yes, Prophet?"

"What are you ashamed of?" I ask. She looked down.

"Project Abaddon command override. Switch form to true," she said. I looked down and saw my body shifting, things I thought couldn't move had moved, my whole body twisted and contorted, but I didn't feel it.

"What's happening?" I ask. She says nothing. "Aviyah, what's going on!?"

After a bit, I felt a little dizzy. I looked at my hoofs, they were starting to look like hands. I looked at a stream of console commands in my visor.

ANTHROPOMORPHISIS ENGINE ACTIVATED

'True' was human. Human was the true form. I didn't understand. I saw skin growing over the metal parts and muscles. When the process was finished, I felt my face. A complex structure of bones, muscles, skin, and short brown hair on the top of my head. I could feel my ears, such an odd but intricate design. I looked at the rest of me. An unconcealed body of advanced structure, and nothing a human or equine of the highest intelligence could ever design on their own.

"Everyone is human inside," Aviyah said. "Most equines don't realize it, but human is more than a bipedal mythological being. It's the very consciousness that lies in all of us sentient beings, the ones who developed society, and who prospered through invention and not instinct. This, your human form, is the real you. The one I modeled you off of was the original you. Before you died. You were beautiful. I wanted to restore that, because I wanted you back."

Now I wasn't sure what was going on. Every time I think I've figured it out, it changes again. First I think I'm a message, then I think I'm a robot, then I think I'm a prophet, now I'm a part of a philosophical love story? I have to recalibrate.

• -

• -

"Aviyah." I said. She looked at me. "This isn't just about reforming the world, is it?"

"Miss Sparkle, please! Please I beg of you, anything, let me take him in! I can make him something greater for us!"

"For the last time, Kristen, I'm not going to let one of my dead men be your fucking experimental toy."

"Miss Sparkle, I promise you, you will not regret this, I'll put my life on it!"

"Fine. But if this is a failure, then I'll let you meet with some Skin-Seekers face to face."

"Of course...Miss Sparkle. Thank you."