The air was cold, brisk. It glided over my skin, giving me chills. I was suddenly able to move, to feel, to see. It was a wave of feelings that seemed unusual to me. As if they were different somehow.

"22-49, diagnostic." The stallion ordered.

My head snapped to the voice, I was unable to control my motion, I felt my mouth moving without my permission or consent.

"System is running nominal, no flaws detected."

My hooves smashed over my mouth, covering it. Fear again stabbed its way into my soul as I realized what I had just done. I wasn't sure, however. I couldn't really be producing a sound like that, right?

"Uh, hello?" I attempted to speak. The voice had not changed. It was still a fuzzy, distant, poor-quality radio noise. I didn't feel the breath in my throat. It seemed like I produced sound in my throat in an alien way.

"Greetings 2249." The stallion in question was a pitch shade of white, yet seemed to have a slight yellow tint to his coat. His mane was a bluish color, a dark shade, but not a vibrant one. His eyes were green, they pierced my flesh and stared into my soul. They threatened to steal it if I stared too long.

"Who are you? What is this place?!" I leaped off of the table I found myself sprawled over, I started whirling my head around, taking in all of my surroundings. The room appeared much like a hospital room, the big dome light on the ceiling, the metallic table, the white walls and tile floor. It gave me a nervous feeling if I do say so myself.

"Quiet down! What was that, Pink?" He turned his head to a mirror on the wall, asking it the question.

"Not sure yet, sir. 2249's giving some very weird numbers. They're processing about four times as much information as they're supposed to be. They're heating twice as much, and they appear to be running codes that I'm not seeing here. Perhaps we forgot something we left in the torso?" The sweet voice from earlier peeped over an intercom. The voice became more distant as the blurp ended.

"2249, status? Diagnostics? Is anything running improper?" He asked me, turning his head in genuine confusion.

I felt more fearful of him the more he spoke. His voice dripped of mad power. As if it was taunting me with each word.

"I don't know who you are! Why do I sound like a tape recorder? What is this room? What's happening! Sweet Celestia I'm going to be sick..." I collapsed against the table in terror, I felt the feeling of bile rising in my throat. When it reached the top, I gagged, producing a sickening noise, but did nothing more. I was unable to vomit.

"2249, you know that's impossible. Now stop using invalid program. Use only the programs in your head." He tapped his with a hoof, looking at me condescendingly. "Only up here, got it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I started panicking, I backed into a corner and held my hooves up to my mouth. "SOMEPONY HELP ME! ANYPONY I'M IN HERE PLEASE HELP!"

"2249! Cease immediately!" He yelled, approaching me.

"Mr. White, sir. I hate to interrupt, but I think we found the bug. It appears to be interpreting the information we loaded onto it as memories. It's believing it's sentient, that's what it's interpreting. We're trying to fix it from here, but somehow it's locking us out. We'll keep trying to break his firewalls, but he keeps changing it." The harmonic voice of the mare 'Pink' intercommed us.

I didn't mind the voice, she sounded friendly, motherly, warm. But what she was saying was turning my fear into anger. Self-preservation started to kick in, and I felt myself tensing up, ready to slug this 'Study White' figure approaching me.

"I'm alive! I don't know what you're talking about! Don't kill me, you're killing me aren't you!? Look at me!" I pushed my hooves out at him, which revealed them to my own vision.

They were not hooves, they couldn't even be called "arms". They were metallic appendages full of hinges and wires that led up to my shoulder, which I could not see. I could feel them, I could see them, they were attached to me and I was controlling them, but they weren't mine. These weren't mine, this wasn't happening.

The room began to spin out, started to swirl out of control. I shut my eyes, bracing for the collapse I knew was coming. When I hit the floor, I heard the clank of metal and the shattering of tile. My mind wiped of all thought, I fell asleep.

Author's Note

Chapters will be getting longer, the first few are short since these chapters are all part of one plot point.