We didn't move for a long time. I had long since forgotten about myself as a machine. I couldn't imagine it, couldn't believe it. Not for a second. There just was no way, this had to be a nightmare. I'd wake up any moment now, safe in bed, and laugh about this with my friends. Did I have friends? I couldn't remember.

Moving a foreleg back into view, I took a closer look at it, the detail. It was flawless and shiny. It looked like a Steel alloy of some sort, polished and chromed. As much metal as there was woven into the leg, it felt as weightless as a hoof. If not lighter. Wires of various colors were bundled together leading to various components of my leg. They seemed to be set up in such a complicated structure, I couldn't follow one wire without getting sidetracked by another one. Running much less frequently through all of it was a slightly less complex system of piping. Which seemed bendy and flexible, it connected itself through every component of my leg in a circuit that led down and around the leg.

I continued inspecting it, slowly turning it. Doing any justice to convince my brain that this was me, that this was something I had to come to accept. My brain, however, continued trying to reject this information. Was it even a brain? Was I nothing more than a laptop on legs? What did I even look like? Were these real emotions I was feeling? They felt real, I thought they were real. Could it simply be values in a computer, and my method of interpreting them? Perhaps every feeling, thought, and opinion I held was all written and scripted in code. Perhaps I wasn't even my own self. Only a vehicle piloted by wires.

I closed my eyes, this seemed so unreal. So out of body. I felt as though my soul had been removed from myself, and floated overhead. As if I was looking through something else's eyes, in another dimension. But this was no other dimension, and nopony else's body. This was my leg, this was my realm, and this was happening. No matter what I want to think, one thing will not change.

'This. Is. Real.'

I became faintly aware of the room gradually cooling down.

"Don't think about it too much, it can't be good for you." Pink spoke, jolting me out of my trance.

I let my foreleg collapse to the floor, which produced a loud, resounding *CLUNK* as if a much heavier weight had been thrown onto it.

"Can I see?" I turned my head slightly in her direction, staring forward at nothing.

"See what? Yourself? I don't think that's a good idea just yet." She replied, giving my back a short rub.

"I don't care if it's a good idea. I need to know what I look like. How different I really am. I have to know." I insisted, looking down.

She was quiet for a while, before she took her hoof off of me and slid away.

"Are you absolutely sure you can handle it? You won't like what you see." She warned.

"I can control myself, it's just so I know. If my legs look like this, I want to know how the rest of me holds up." I turned to face her. "Please, it's the only way I'll be able to accept this as reality."

Her face was no longer warm. It had lost much of its expression, into a cold stare.

She got up on all fours, and started for the door.

I watched her as she left closely, it felt almost natural to interpret somepony's personality with their body language. Every movement she made was slow, careful, but confident. It told me a silent story about her mentality. Her pinkish hue cast onto her grayish frame was more apparent in the hallway lights.

Walking into the hall, I heard her dig through something. Certainly metal, it was the sound of clicking in high tones. As if she was moving tools. They made scraping noises, as if they were being moved over a tray. Intrigued, I focused entirely on the sounds, my ears swiveling in the direction.

With no warning, no expectation, my vision flashed bright white. As if the sun had been pulled over my eyes. It lasted only an instant, before it faded to a new display. I moved my eyes, but they seemed to move slowly, as if they were slowly dragging back and forth. I was no longer staring at the door to the hallway, my eyes were now seeing endless hallway. It was painted white, with plated walls that rusted slightly. There were lights overhead in intervals of about 5 feet each, dust particles floated beneath them. Glistening in the light casted onto them.

I saw Painted Pink almost directly in front of my view, she was digging through a tray that looked much like a hospital's. It held two trays on two levels, and was absolutely smothered with various tools that a mechanic might use. I was looking down onto her and the tray. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Moving my view to cover the new direction, I looked into my own cell. Just as I did so, a bright light blipped up in front of me, a diamond shape that led behind a door.

My eyes zoomed in onto the diamond without my control, as if I was being showed this by force. Suddenly, I was blinded by the flashing light again. Now, my view covered a smaller room. It looked exactly like mine, the lights were out here as well. As if sensing my thoughts, the room glowed bright green, cast over with night-vision.

Sitting in the middle, was a small object, it looked like a metal pony. It was curled into a little ball.

My eyes again zoomed in without problem, just as they did so, the head of the creature moved to the side slowly. I leaned closer instinctively, attempting to get an even closer view. Just as I did so, the pony on the screen followed my motion exactly.

I froze, my heart, assuming I had one, froze in beat. My brain ceased to think.

I slowly raised my hoof, I couldn't see it in pony, but I was seeing it on screen. This was a camera, the camera in the cell. My cell. Somehow, I was viewing myself, this had to be me. I slowly turned my head. As expected, the pony on screen turned their head to face me. The eyes glowed bright white in the dark, casting a glow onto the lens of the camera.

I couldn't quite see myself well, so I scrambled to my feet and approached. It was hardly a walk, it felt so... Foreign. My hooves instead, were simply falling in front of each other as I resisted the urge to pass out and collapse onto my own face. I stopped several feet from my camera, and stared into it.

The camera quickly zoomed out, and I was given a full body view of myself. This was regrettable, I couldn't look away. It was such a complex, and horrible sight.

My eyes glowed bright white, but they no longer covered my face. My cheeks were a mess of metallic beams that held my head on, my neck was a series of joints that gave it the ability to turn. My entire body was an open system of thin metal bars connecting to each other like a jungle gym. It was a cage, built around smaller boxes of metal, sealed only with latches. Likely for ease of opening should I need to be operated on. There was no flesh whatsoever. No organs, only components. No skin, only metal. No eyes, no tail, no mane, no teeth.

I opened my mouth, attempting to smile at the camera, to view my own mouth. What came into view, was nothing. My mouth dropped open, widening just far enough to be creepy. An inch or two wider than a jaw is supposed to open for sure. Inside was a small metal cylinder, I couldn't view it well, but the camera zoomed in on it without me asking.

"I use a speaker?" I asked aloud.

My mouth didn't move on camera, I didn't produce the words with my mouth, after all. The speaker simply did all the work for me. I felt like I was talking, whenever I spoke I felt my jaw open and close, I now felt my teeth clash, I felt my tongue move. But now that I look at myself, it was just an illusion. There was nothing.

"What are you doing over there?" I heard Pink call behind me.

The camera quickly snapped in her direction, viewing her in night-vision.

I had to collect my thoughts quickly, I didn't know what to say first.

"Why can't I see with my eyes? Help! I'm looking through the camera! It's hard to explain! I can see myself! With the camera!" I yelled, suddenly feeling panicked.

"Calm down! What? You can't mean you're seeing out of that camera, do you?" She pointed right at me-the camera. "That's part of our mainframe, you'd have to spend hours to get through the firewall to even have it appear on a system."

"I don't need to know why it's impossible! I need to know why it's happening! Help!" I yelled, backpedaling away from the camera into the corner of the room again.

As if answering my prayers, my view exploded with white again, before fading out slower than before. Back into my own eyes, staring in the direction of the damn camera.

"Hold on! I'll go get a technician!" She turned around to run.

"Wait! It's alright it stopped! Don't get anyone else!" I called out. "I don't know what happened, but it's not happening anymore."

Immediately after I finished my sentence, the room glowed with a bright red light, accompanied by an ear-destructive buzzing sound.

Pink yelped, covering her ears. She turned to face the light that was now sticking out of a hole in the ceiling, it rotated quickly, casting a display hard to miss. She looked in horror between the light and me. I felt guilty, I felt afraid, I felt as though the light itself was a danger to me.

"Did I do that?" I yelled over the sound, looking hopefully to Pink.

"I don't know yet! Come on!" She yelled, waving for me to follow.

"SECURITY BREACH! WE JUST LOST ALL SECURITY PROTOCOLS SIMULTANEOUSLY! WE'RE UNDER A CYBER-ATTACK!" Study White's voice screamed over the intercom, fuzzing out quickly.

She didn't hesitate, Pink raced into the hall, me close behind.

It was an absolute fuckfest in the hallway. Ponies were scrambling over each other like obstacles to get to the end of the tunnel. As if nopony else mattered, as if it was every pony for them self. Several appeared to already be hurt from each other, limping to the door, or crawling entirely.

I felt a strong impact to my side, as if I'd been hit by a bullet train at full speed. I collapsed onto the floor with a loud crashing noise that could've shattered stone.

"ANDY!" Pink screamed, skidding to a halt in front of me and whirling around.

Quickly, another pony moved to stop her. He was suited in a white uniform, and wore a helmet with a clear yellow face mask. A vest covered most of his body, and pads covered the legs. He waved a large, extendable, metallic baton in his hand, threatening to strike her.

"Stand down immediately! Vacate!" He shoved her away and moved between her and me.

Looking quickly to my left, I saw another of these armored tanks standing over me. He raised the baton over his head, ready to bring it down on me.

"Unit! Return to captivity immediately, or you will be deactivated!" He screamed at me.

His voice said nothing about reason, there was no way I could escape this threat.

The lights that were previously dim and floated in my view had come into perfect view in an instant. The hallway was now shown on the map, all of it that I had looked at, anyway. I stared at the baton, which was now glowing bright red the same color my HUD used to show its error messages. Beside it, was a large exclamation point with the letter '7' next to it.

I wiggled to escape his grasp, but he was much too heavy in the armor for me to simply push him off.

Without another word, he bashed the baton down into my face. I heard the metal on metal, the sound you'd get from slamming a hammer to an anvil. It made me cringe, knowing that these damages were going to reflect on me. But I felt no pain from the impact.

A sickening scream woke me out of my thought. Looking to my right, the other security pony had picked up Pink and pinned her to a wall, he was now shoving her head against it, his foreleg appeared to be covering her throat. She was frantic in attempting to break free, every move she made resulted in him getting more rough in return.

I took a deep breath, slowing time as it seemed. My lungs filled with fire, it felt as though every part of my body was tingling, as if I were going to simply explode. I felt an energy come over me that I'd never thought possible. It felt as though I could punch through mountains.

Another slam to my head caught me off guard, my head moved from the impact and slammed into the floor as well. Spinning to look at him, the baton was over his head again, reeling in to strike like a venomous snake.

The halls, the ponies, the table in front of my cell, it all melted away into darkness. The only things still floating in the void were me, the guard ponies, and Pink. They were the only things still visible to me, the only things that existed. Time slowed to a crawl, barely moving at all. My forelegs moved faster than my mind did, reaching out to grab the arm of the pony. He pushed against, but I was much stronger now than before. The baton couldn't move any closer to my head, even with all of his strength now attempting to force it down. I reached my other hoof up and grabbed his helmet, rolling over, I slammed him into the ground, me rolling on top of him from the weight.

He let go of the baton and attempted to strike me with an armored hoof. His mistake was letting the baton go in my hand.

I held it by the thin end, the much heavier handle faced in the attacking direction.

With a combination of all my weight, all my strength, and all my hate for this pony, I whipped the baton a full body length sideways across the helmet. The noise would have made me faint any other day, but it only fueled me now. I thought it was the sound of a skull shattering, and it still could have been, but when I looked down, the metal helmet had exploded inwards. Looking at the baton, I had completely warped the metal into an L shape, it wobbled more now, threatening to break. The pony beneath me groaned miserably, they weren't a threat. They seemed to disappear beneath me.

Leaping up, I looked at the other security guard holding Pink, who stared at me in horror. The guard slowly backed away, shaking her head.

I took a step closer, which triggered the pony to spin around and break into full sprint down the hallway away from me.

Following instinct, I raced after them. This wasn't my attacker, mine was curled up on the floor. But for whatever illogical reason, I hated this one hundreds of times more than I could ever hate the one who's head I just rang.

This one was slow, I caught up to them quickly, and leaped to tackle them. They collapsed to the ground and cried for help, frantically flailing beneath me in an attempt to break free.

I reached my hooves down and spun them around to face me, I was on top of this one the same way I was on top of the last one. I raised the baton high, to the pony's horror, and beat it down on the face mask. It caved in on the first hit, cracking all over and splitting down the middle. The baton barely made contact to the pony's nose. But it did, unfortunately, break the baton. I heard the end of it land somewhere beside me. Looking at it, the metal was sharp on the end, I was holding the thinner end.

I slowly turned to the pony, who began completely crying out. Not in agony, but in fear. Fear only comparable to mine when they woke me up.

Raised the sharp bar above my head, angling it at their face. They covered it with their forelegs, desperately cowering.

I heard Pink's voice, she was screaming something. I couldn't hear it. I was thinking too fast to listen.

My vision, at some point, had completely tinted red. I only noticed now, as my vision was slowly fading to a yellow color. A deep yellow that coated everything. I looked around for a source of light, but found none. Quickly, my vision blinked to green, quickly fading to a neutral color. Letters appeared in the center of my vision in bold green, before fading away again.

"THREATS NEUTRALIZED"

I looked down on the pony trembling underneath me, they were unarmed, afraid. I had quickly become the aggressor here.

I looked at the metal blade I had created one last time, and threw it to the floor. Getting up, I turned to face Pink.

Author's Note

Any typos? Thoughts? Ideas? Tell me in the comments! I love them! Please comment away!