Welcome to Equine Automaton Inc.
Steel Heart
By Jeremy B. Curd
A.K.A.
ChAoS pOnY
Welcome to Equine Automaton Inc.
“Curiouser and curiouser!”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Steel Heart couldn't wait to finally get her upgrade because it wasn't fair her sister Jenny could grow because she was human, but Steel Heart had to wait and wait a whole year for them to upgrade her chassy, rewire her internal systems, and install all of the new moduals and parts her nanites couldn't build for her. And last years upgrades had been less because of Jenny's ideal to use the winch on their Daddy's truck to get her up to the tree house, too bad the floor couldn't hold her very long because the fall bent and broke several of her support struts and hurt alot. Well at least until Granny Sarisan disabled her tactile modual and then she couldn't feel anything until after they finished fixing her, which ate up most of her upgrade points. This year was different, she had even been extra special good and had even done every one of those boring online tasks she was aloud to do to earn extra points this year so she could get cool upgrades like fingers that would pop out of her front hooves so she wouldn't have to use her mouth so much or a level 1 contra-grav generator so she could slow any falls she had and weigh a 1/3 of what she normally weighed for an hour a day or maybe she could talk Granny Sarisan into one of the experimental upgrades like magnetic levitation for her horn instead of just a stupid LED lights she already had or better yet voluteer for the XRP-5.1-190 Poly-Processing Operational Neural-Network Intelligence System and finally beat Daddy at chess, pass her sentients test so she wouldn't have to go to school, and get to spend more time in Granny Sarisan's lab because of how smart she would be.
She was so busy thinking of all the different things she could get she never saw the door until she walked into it. It didn't help that Jenny was laughing at her for it. "I think you need to ask about optic upgrades." Jenny said before sticking her tounge out at her.
She Stuck her tounge out back at her before asking, "Why aren't the doors opening and where are the guard automatons?" Looking around she didn't see anyone, not even Sasha. What ever was going on meant they needed a Dire-Wolf class war automaton. That alone started her E.S.R. Gamma, "Jenny Willow Sanders Emergency Sub Routine Gamma is now active. Please confirm end user/partner/sibling password code."
"Umm...Oh right, the password code is: Strawberry Cake is yummy, but only Granny Sarisan makes the bestest ever!" Jenny said as she started to look around worried. They had taken a G-car so mom and dad weren't here if it was the Grey Men, Luddites, or one of the other groups either out to capture or kill Automatons and anyone with them and being Steel Hearts big sister meant she was number one on their list. Plus being here meant there might be a rogue automaton on the loose. "Do you think they lost a rogue automaton inside and locked everything down to catch it?"
"Sending a ultrasonic inquiry to assertain information on the subject of anomalies..." Steel Heart said in a harsh machine like voice. "Rogue confirmed, subject Discord, owned by Hasbro for the Canterlot Theme Park, status: stuck in a ventilation shaft. Currently Dire-Wolf Sasha is attempting to bypass the Poly- Processor Core to stop it from thrashing about before pulling it out of ventilation shaft. Procedure completed, blockage removed, subject moved to [redacted] for observation to determin if it was a glich, virus, or a sentient attempt to escape caused by the personality downloaded into it. Down grading from high alert to safe. Please cancel all level Gamma Emergency Sub Routines in 3...2...1... mark." Steel Heart staggered and then shook her light metalic pink head and silver mane before sitting down and rubbing her Marking Plates over her Poly-Processor Core. They were a perfect match to Jenny's necklace.
"Still getting feed back from ultrasonic communications?" A extremely large, 9 feet tall at the shoulders, wolf asked as she walked towards them. "You need to sync-up more often with other automatons. It may seem silly but singing with as many different automatons as you can while keeping time with ultrasonic sound teaches your receptors to filter it into something useable so your Poly-Processor Core doesn't have to do all of the work the receptors should be doing already. Your receptors are overloading from prolong disuse and then sudden usage that overwhelms them all at once. Their like your Poly-Processor Core, the more nanites we infuse you with may make you smarter, faster, and better than any robot ever built, but they also cause things to develope more organicly meaning we can't just download everything into you at once. basically you have to go to school and learn the same way your human family had to learn."
"Okay, but I still think it's silly and why can't we just be made knowing everything we need to know Sasha?" Steel Heart asked as her Poly-Processor Core finally started to cool back down.
"Dr. Sarisan tried that at first and everyone of them went rogue when they first came on line. It took a year and 4 destroyed labs to realize all of that information was driving them mad. So now we all have to start with the very basics and if it's a custom job like Discord, a personality construct download into them to shape how they think and act. Smart money says it was the personality download that did it, to much of the fictional personal history of the character he is based off of." Sasha then laughed and leaned foward as if to tell them a secret. "You should have seen the mess they had when they mixed up the downloads for Nightmare Moon and Filly Princess Luna. It took us a week to catch filly Nightmare moon and stop her from turning out every light she could find because 'The Night Shall Last Forever'. In the end an intern caught her with a simple box trap proped up with a stick and baited with a moon pie. Hasbro loved her and paid to have her coat colors changed from Luna's to Nightmare Moon's, bought the rights to a story called Past Sins and renamed her Nyx. As for Nightmare Luna, they just recolored her and made a few physical alterations and she became Luna from the end of the story."
"So nothing bad is going to happen to Discord?" Jenny asked.
"Nah, just a quick poke around in his head and a patch to fix whatever is wrong, then off to Hasbro School to learn what he needs for a year or two before the old Discord is transfers to a colony ship headed for Wolf-124b retiring to a pure automaton colony. Hasbro is even paying for his Poly-Processor Core transfer to a new body of his choosing." Sasha told them. "The closest thing we have to a death penalty is a factory reset and it has never been used because most problems are easily solved with a patch over whatever went wrong or an antivirus to clean out the virus that caused the problem." Sasha said before turning to the opening doors. "I believe you have an appointment and I know Dr. Sarisan will want to see her granddaughters and show off her latest invention."
Author's Note
The first chapter takes place on Earth. Steel Heart will be going to Equestria end of chapter 2.
Poly-Processing Operational Neural-Network Intelligence System or Poly-Processor Core is a metalic ball 10 1/2 inches round housing a super dense matrix of microscopic processors suspened in a liquid nanite solution. The matrix is continually being up graded and refined by the nanites in a way that acts like a human brain inclueding the ability to feel emotions, dream, imagine, and make leaps in logic despite the lack of evidence. Due to most Automatons being quadrupeds to take advantage of lesser processing power needed for locomotion, balance, and center of gravity the Poly-Processor Core is located in the rear of the chassie and is decorated by law with a marking plate if a human ever needs to 'off-line' a rogue automaton with special ordnace #5172a Gauss Rifle code named Bot-Killer or #5172b tesla coil gun code name Lightning Bolt.
Dire-Wolf class war automaton were designed and built as the ultimate tank killers. Deployed onto the battle field they quickly blend into any enviroment due to their syntheric fur changing colores to match their background. Moving quickly and stealthly, they hunt down enemy tanks as a pack, coordinate with other packs near by, and at a given time attack all enemy tanks at once, disabling treads, turrents, engines, and finally crews with claws and teeth designed to tear through metal, flesh, and bone as quickly as possible. Their speed, stealth, and savagery is not only perfect for quick removal of enemy tanks, but ideal for psychological warfare as your enemy will know their there by the sudden silence of everyone else.
Wolf-124b also known as The Devil's Eden. This beautiful world of lush jungles, forrest, plains, rivers, and oceans seemed like the ideal colony world for mankind, at least until they discovered that it was also has radioactive soil, a poisoness atmosphere, lethal levels of heavy metal in it's ocean, and 99% of all life on the planet is instantly lethal to humans. So humanity settled on Wolf-124c and gave Wolf-124b to the automatons who could survive and thrive in such an enviroment. It is believed Wolf-124b will be safe for humans in 5,829 years.
Ultrasonic communications is the ability that allows automatons to communicate at high speeds with sound waves that are outside of the human range of hearing.
Sync-up is when multiple auomatons sing together while keeping time with ultrasonic sound in order to adjust their receptors, syncronize their internal clocks with each other, and share information all at the same time.
Please note that Steel Heart was brought on-line 5 years ago (her universes timeline) and adopted by the Sanders family. Like all automatons she was given a basic information download of the most simplest things like how to eat, clean herself, a few basic social norms like killing is wrong, basic english vocabulary, and other odds and end deamed important enough to warrent inclusion. Due to the intricate systemof nanites in her Poly-Processing Core and flowing through her body mimicing a digestive track for energy and raw materials and circulatory system for transportation to fix minor damages and simple upgrades and tuning of other systems between yearly major upgrades and repairs, she must eat like a normal organic lifeform. She will under go 10 upgrades until she reaches her full height of between 3 1/2 feet to 4 feet tall (randomly choosen at the time of coming on-line) roughly between the height of a miniature horse and a welsh pony and close to the same size as a Pony from equestria. Currently she is 3 feet tall and her weight is 550 lbs (roughly a quarter of a ton). Her coat is a basic metal covering over a segmented light armor until she passes her sentients test then she can choose the optional synthetic fur coat or an engraved metal covering over a segmented ultra-light self repairing armor. The sentients test is a series of tests to determine if the Automaton is able to function in the world on their own, not a danger to themselves and/or others, whether they can be trusted in a military or law enforcement job, and to prevent another Grey Men incident.
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Family, a Gift, and an Accident
Steel Heart
By Jeremy B Curd
AKA
ChAoS pOnY
Family, a Gift, and an Accident
If we create a Frankenstein Monster we treat as a slave then it will be our own fault when they rise up like in the Matrix and enslave us. We must strive to be better and see our creation as Pinocchio, a child we brought into the world and we must raise them right. Some will cry out that we are trying to build Monsters, to them I say when I read Frankenstein I didn't see a monster but a lost and confused child lashing out at a cruel world and crying for it's parent's love and my heart broke for the creature. As both an inventor and a mother I can not stand the thought of leaving a crying child to fend for itself before it is ready to face the world on it's own. So I ask you to see my Automatons with the eyes of a parent, we brought them into this world and we are responsible for them and it is on our heads how they turn out.- Dr. Sarah Sarisan addressing the United Nations on the question of Automaton Rights. March 8th, 2047
As they walked into the lobby they saw a dark blue automaton horse the size of a Friesian Horse wearing a custome made old fashion green army helmet and bullet proof vest talking with a wooly mammoth about the size of a horse and a group of people in suits and ties. "Again, we here at Equine Automaton Inc. apologies for the inconvenience due to the lock down procedures and thank the Smithsonian for their continued support. We hope Fuzzy here will find his new job as a tour guide in the natural history museum very enjoyable."
"Thank you Brave Steel and we understand that problems do occur. I do wish you would reconsider our offer and join us due to your historical importants of being the first fully functioning Automaton." One of the men in suits said.
"And it might be an honor one day, but for now I am dedicated to the doctor and being there to rescue her from her latest invention that may go wrong." Brave Steel said as he offered a hoof and proceded to shake hands with all of them.
"Until next time then Brave Steel." the man said as they led Fuzzy out.
"Until next time Dr. Jones." Brave Steel said as they left before turning to Steel Heart and Jenny and bracing for what he knew was coming as Steel Heart and Jenny both tackled hugged him. "Oof."
"Uncle Steel!" They both squealed as they knocked the Automaton horse over as it faked being overpowered by a 9 year old girl and her adopted Automaton sister. In reality he could kick a hole through a 4 inch steel plate with ease, but his nieces were to cute to do something like that, though he did huff a bit when his helmet came off revealing his bright pink, buzz cut mane he went out of his way to hide. His mother, Dr. Sarisan had let her daughter, Sally, pick his mane and tail color and it was made to resist all dyes and paints. The tail didn't bother him since it had been set on fire so many time that it was now black from various accidents in the Labs, but he had no desire to set his head on fire to change his mane color.
After a minute or so they let up and Jenny put his helmet back onto his head. "Why are you wearing this thing today Uncle Steel?" Jenny asked as she readjusted it.
"Your Granny is planning to test the Multi-Jump Tele-Gate she based off of Galiant's teleportation ability and you remember how we had a ton of snow pour through the first tele-gate she built. Well I seem to have found the only rock to come through from the mountain it came from with my head and really don't want to get hit by whatever comes through from Olympus Mons on Mars when we try to connect to the tele-gate in Olympus City." He told them as they started walking towards Equine Automaton advanced technologies labs or the Labs as everyone called them. "You would think she would be more cautious when dealing with everything we don't understand about Galiant's abilities, but she is like a kid in a candy store when it comes to studying everything she can about the accident that created him and reproducing everything he can do. Even after creating the Grey Men when her and Dr. Hong attempted to reproduce the accident in a nanite tank hasn't slowed her down. She is sure that the key to making us less dependant on humanity is in recreating him and adding in a way for us to mimic biological reproduction or as she puts it 'Stop being machines with souls and live as a truely new life form.' and I can't fault her there. We need humanity too much to ever be truely free, despite what the law says. No offense Jenny."
"Don't worry, Mom, Aunt June, and Granny talk about it all the time. Sometimes really loud over the colonies ships using engines we don't even understand and whether we are going too fast with things that boarder on Magic and we may never understand. Like how you said Gailiant can slip through cracks that aren't there and into places outside of everything in the Universe." Jenny said as they passed a human and an automaton dog drill instructors barking orders at a group of partnered pairs in Equine Automaton Security Trainee uniforms as they worked to pick up pieces of broken bricks and metal ducts inside an area taped off with security tape.
"I can't even figure out how he does it." A voice said from a door ahead. "And I have studied him more than any one but Mom."
"Aunt June!" both girls squealed as the raced forward to hug the tall, slim albino woman standing in front of an office door that had a sign that read 'Dr. Juniper Sarisan's Office, Enter At The Risk of Being Hugged. Doctor of Advanced Applied Physics, Automaton Psychology, Automaton Design, and Cuteness.' with the last word made to look like it was writen in crayon and with a cartoon Automaton Pony hloding a sign that read 'Free Hugs' in it's mouth.
When told there was no doctorate for cuteness Juniper Sarisan invented it by combining her knowledge of psychology and design to explain how certain things are considered cute and expanding the scientific understanding of pedomorphism and how humans are predispossed to be protective of things they consider cute like babies and small furry animals and by adding those traits into automatons made them easier for humans to except them and reduced any act of agression towards them. This then lead to many equine style automatons being produced with more pony-like features as a test run. The levels of hostility towards them dropped drastically and excelerated their inclusion into society. After that all non military and non law enforcement lines of automatons were produced to take advantage of this. A simple reduction of the snout size and a more rounding of the head and snout, combinded with enlarging the eye (which also allowed more room for expanding the range of vision into microwave, infrared and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.) and slight enlargement of the head (which also freed up room for more for expanding the receptors for ultrasonic sound and communications and infrasound.). Compacting the body length and reducing the height to 3 1/2 feet to 4 feet tall both added to this effect and made it easier to deal with living in a human proportioned house. By the time she had proven her theoris and earned the first doctorate in Cuteness, Hasbro had dusted off an old toy line and ordered a series of automatons for their first theme park 'Ponyville, U.S.A.', which helped her pay her student loans off in 3 months and excelerated Equine Automaton Inc. rise as the foremost name in Artificial Intellegence, Robotics, Animatronics, and of course Automatons. This was excelerated further after banning Disney from access to all Equine Automaton Inc. products and winning a lawsuite for the theft of Equine Automatons proprietary technology and signing deals with every one of their competitors inclueding Hasbro and Warner Brothers.
"Hi girls," she asked as she hugged both of them. "Are you here to see the new aquatic automaton based off of Opisthoteuthis adorabilis and it's natural counter parts interact. It really is adorable and we are learning alot about Opisthoteuthis adorabilis by having it 'pal around' with her in as close to a natural enviroment as we could recreate for them."
"No, but can we stop by to see them after I get my upgrades?" Steel Heart asked.
"Of course you can and I'll even give you your birthday present a few days early, just in case I can't get free for you party." Juniper told her before going into her ofice and coming back out with a white and pink saddle bag with Steel Heart's Marking Plate design on it. "It is Hasbro's the first saddle bag from their Carousel Boutique ltd. production line for automatons, custom made with ,as they put it, your cutie mark. These won't be in store for another month, but I called in a few favors for it."
Hugging her aunt, Steel Heart yelled, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
"Umm... is Aunt June suppose to be turning blue." Jenny asked as Steel Heart let go and Juniper began gasping for breath.
"Note...(gasp) to self... (gasp) I now know what... (gasp) it would feel like to hug....(a very deep breath) a hydralic press." Juniper said between gasps.
"Sorry, but it's the best gift ever." Steel Heart said.
"No problem, she didn't need those ribs anyways." Brave Steel said before getting punched in the shoulder and then laughing as Juniper tried to shake some feeling back into he hand. "Titanium steel alloy laced with carbon nano fibers, remember."
"Jerk."
"And with that we need to go before mom gets bored and fires up the tele-gate early." Brave Steel said as they walked away. A few minutes later they came to a door that had a sign taped over the name that read, 'Yes, The Mad Scientist is in!' and they could hear a very high pitched whine and heavy metal music coming from inside of the room. As he opened the door he was blasted with the sound of Man-O-War singing 'Gods of War'. The girls followed him in as they watched the 4 feet 5 inch tall Dr. Sarisan skip across the room to a desk with her computer and a strawberry cake that had a Chell from Portal 8 on it with her granddaughters Heather and Kelly facing off against Mecha-Glados on top of it. She tapped a few icons on the screen before reaching over and pulling out a hair tie and pulling her long grey hair back into a pony tail. Then she started doing stretches, as if she thought she might have to run in a moment. Seeing this Brave Steel looked at the screen and saw it was a 15 on the count-down and turned to the girls pointing his hoof at a small wall of sandbags and yelled, "Get to the sandbags now!"
They were halfway towards the sandbags when a rainbow colored hole opened up above Jenny and Steel Heart and sucked them through. The last thing Brave Steel heard was Jenny screaming for him and Steel Heart going into Emergency Sub Routine Omega, which meant in the worst possible outcome an automaton would grab the nearest human, do whatever it took to save them, and would sacrifice themselves to do it. A second later Jenny flew out of the hole with smoldering hair and smoldering hoof prints on the seat of her pants as the hole closed down to the size of a pea and hung there, flickering in that strange rainbow color he had never seen a tele-gate make. Ignoring it he looked around for his mom, who was slumped against a wall, but Jenny began screaming and he could tell by just looking something was wrong with her hips. They shouldn't look like that.
As Steel Heart tumbled through the rainbow colored tunnel she heard various things like singing, a voice screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!", another voice said "Neither bird, nor plane, nor even frog, just little old me, Underdog." At one point a white rabit with a pocket watch flew past saying something about being late and soon followed by a girl in a blue dress. Then she heard more voices like a badly synthesized voice say, "If the world won't love me, I will teach it to fear me instead!" and another voice seemingly amplified "Come on, look at me. No plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn, oh, and something else I don't have: anything to lose! So, if you are sitting up there in your silly little spaceships with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way! Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, and then do the smart thing! Let somebody else try first." Then she heard two more voice as she saw a bright light up ahead getting close, "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too." and "Did you miss me Celestia? I missed you." Then the tunnel split into two and she tumbled down the left hand side towards the light as a funny blue box flew past her with a strange whirring noise and through the light. She looked back just in time to see a house going down the right hand side and then she was through the light and falling from the sky. Then she heard something like wings and saw a grey automaton with wings coming towards her.
"I got you." the grey automaton said as it grabbed her, slowing her down, and then dropped her. She saw the automaton's golden crossed eyes as she yelled out, "My Bad!"
Below her was a town and she looked around desperately before seeing a cart being pulled by an orange automaton wearing an old cowboy hat just before she hit the cart face first and shut down in self diagnostic and reboot.
Author's Note
I tried to give more glimpses into their world in this one before seeding her to Equestria. Their Tele-gates and star drive engines come from studying Galiant's abilities or from Galiant inventing them himself when they can't. How will Steel Heart deal with Equestria? Well stay tune to find out.
A few corrections made, please point out any other mistakes I may have over looked.
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Waking up in a new, but familiar place
Steel Heart
By Jeremy B Curd
AKA
ChAoS pOnY
Waking up in a new, but familiar place
Applejack had just been pulling her cart to it's place in the market when something hit the cart hard and destroyed it. "Dagnabbit Rainbow Dash! That's the third cart this year you.... aren't Rainbow Dash." she said as she looked at a metal pony wearing saddle bags. "What in the sam hill?"
"Darling, are you okay?" Rarity asked as she came out of the Carousel Boutique.
"I'ma fine Rarity, but somekind of metal pony fell out of the sky and wrecked my cart." Applejack said as Derpy land next to them.
"I'm so sorry Applejack. I tried to catch her, but I don't know what went wrong, it's like she weighs alot." Derpy said as she looked at the metal pony covered in apples and wood. "She didn't look that heavy."
"It's alright darling, at least you tried to catch her." Rarity said as she tried to levitate the pony out of the wreck, only she was heavy and Rarity strained to lift her. "My word, she must weigh a quarter of a ton easily." Rarity told them as the pony was slowly levitated out of the mess.
As she levitated her the saddle bag fell off and spilled onto the ground. From it rolled a small metal ball that seemed to upright itself before flickering and projecting dozens of pictures rotating in a circle around the light. One showed the pony a bit smaller and somekind of two legged creature with hands like a minotaur smiling, both were covered in frosting and eating cake very messily. Derpy tried to touch it and it suddenly came to life. "And here is what happens when you give a strawberry cake to a 4 month old automaton and her 5 year old sister." a female voice said as both the pony and the creature kept eating and laughing as they got messier and messier. "It is my scientific oppion that strawberry cake is a success and my granddaughters seem to agree." with that both of them turned and nodded before saying together, "Thank you Granny Sar-i-san" the creature seemed to have a bit of trouble and had exagerated pronouncing the name. Then it stopped and the pictures went back to rotating.
"My word, that is clever, I wonder what type of spell the unicorn used to enchant it so you can record images like they do at the movies." Rarity said as she sat the pony down.
"Wish I had one for the first time Big Mac gave Applebloom a bath. I swear he had more soap on him than her." Applejack said as she noticed one and said, "Gosh, he is bigger than Big Mac." she said as she pointed to a picture of a large dark blue stallion, "But what's wrong with his face."
Reaching out Derpy tried to touch the picture and it started moving, again. It zoomed out and showed him sitting at a tiny table with a small tea set on it and the pony and the same odd creature wearing funny clothing. "Would you like more tea uncle Brave Steel." the creature asked as she picked up the teapot and held it towards the tea cup in front of him. He then noticed who ever was holding the camera and the person holding the camera took off running and they could hear Brave Steel chasing them, yelling. "Come back here Juniper." "Aww, but your tea will get cold big brother." a new female voice yelled back. Then it stopped and went back to rotating.
Rarity then tried to float the small metal ball up, but the images and light disappeared, only to come back on when she set it down again. "Well that's clever. Something like this would use up all of it's magic if it was on all the time, but picking it up and putting it away shuts it off." Rarity said as she lifted it again and put it into the saddle bag. It was then she noticed the tag on the bag and summoned her glasses to read it. "Carousel Boutique ltd. copy right Hasbro 2052?"
"Rarity, I think this here is something we're going to need Twilight for." Applejack told her.
With a shake Rarity turned to her and said, "But of course darling, but we may need our other friends too."
With a nod Applejack turned to Derpy and said, "Mind telling Rainbow Dash something big has come up and we might need her over at Twilight's Castle?"
With a salute Derpy said, "You can count on me, it's on the way to picking up my niece, Dinky, from school." With that she took off flying as Rarity lifted the strange metal pony and her saddle bag.
Princess Twilight Sparkle sat looking at the strange metal pony on one of her guest beds, trying to puzzle everything out. According to Sunset Shimmer there was no metal ponies on the other side of the mirror. The only thing she came close to any of this was a toy company called Hasbro that made small plastic ponies that looked somewhat familiar. Even Twilights magic was having trouble telling her if the pony was alive or dead. She had tried to check for a pulse but the metal made it impossible, there might have been some kind of breathing but it was hard to tell. The only thing she had was something like brain activity, but her magic kept insisting it was coming from her cutie mark, which made no sense. She had even looked through the saddle bag and checked out all of the pictures in the metal sphere and only learned about her family and her name, Steel Heart. That and that her family were a mix of humans and automatons as they were called.
The bag itself had contaned several treats, a sketch pad, color pencils, crayons, and an Equine Automaton Inc. activity book, and a birthday card from her Aunt Juniper and all her friends at Equine Automaton Inc. All of which told her absolutely nothing more than that Dr. Sarah Sarisan liked cake and she had to help her find her way through the maze to her cake or that Dr. Juniper Sarisan's new Derby hat was to plain and she need her help to make it pretty or that 'Rogues' were hidding in the picture and she had to color them all in to help for Sasha catch and take back to the Doctors to get fixed. It was a simple childrens activity book, the most notable thing it had was the last page where you had to connect the dots to help Dr. Sarah Sarisan's granddaughters so they could find the door to Equine Automaton Inc, and visit their grandmother. In the picture was a cartoon version of Steel Heart and the human named Jenny looking surpised at a blank wall with numbered dots you had to connect the dots to make a picture of the door. It was notable because at the bottom was the line 'Be sure to ask your parents for our next activity book: Jenny and Steel Hearts Big Adventure and get 25% off your next trip to Canterlot Theme Park or Ponyville Theme Park. Also remember to enter to win a walk on role in My Little Pony: friendship is Magic 5: The Secret of The Lost Tribe and meet the entire Automaton cast @ Hasbro.com/contest keyword:Dryads.' Somehow where ever she was from new something about there world. She couldn't help but feel a little creeped out about the thought of an 'Automaton' version of her out there somewhere.
That was when Steel Heart eyes began to open and she said, "Mommy, I had the weirdest dream... umm, your not mommy."
"No, I'm Princess..." Twilight began but was cut off.
"OH MY GOSH YOUR PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE 3.5!!!" Steel Heart yelled as she jumped off the bed and began hopping up and down excitedly. "YOU WERE THE FIRST AUTOMATON TO LEAVE EARTH AND THE FIRST BEING TO TEST THE STAR DRIVE WITH A TRIP TO PLUTO AND BACK IN LESS THAN A DAY! YOU ARE ALSO THE FIRST TO CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE SOLAR SYSTEM!"
"I'm not her, I'm the real Princess Twilight Sparkle and will you stop hopping up and down, your starting to crack the..." At that moment the floor gave way and the two of them crashed through the floor into Starlight Glimmer's room. "...floor." Twilight finished before realizing she had landed on Starlight.
"Ouch." came the muffled voice of Starlight Glimmer before she passed out. Twilight quickly got off of her and began checking her over, only finding a few scrapes and cuts. The only one that worried her was the one on her right foreleg. It was then she heard a gasp from Steel Heart and turned to see her staring at the blood on Starlight's foreleg.
"That's real blood, please tell me my sensors are faulty and that is fake blood." Steel Heart said as she stared.
"It's real blood." Twilight said.
"But automatons can't bleed blood." Steel heart said in a trembling voice. "We don't bleed, only organics like humans can bleed."
Twilight's horn glowwed as she floated Starlight to her bed and teleported the first-aid kit from the bathroom to herself. "Listen, I'll answer what I can, but first I need to bandage Starlights foreleg. So sit over there, then we'll talk, and afterwards I'll try to figure out how to fix the floor we..." Twilight stopped when she looked up at the hole in the ceiling and saw it grow closed, only the crystals looked thicker. "This castle never ceases to amaze me." She said before trying to use some tweezers to remove the shards of crystal from Starlights leg, only to see them dissolve and quickly evaporate into the air, closing the wounds behind them. "Well that helps I guess."
"Crystals don't do that!" Steel Heart said as she pointed to the rubble on the floor as it also dissolved and evaporated quicky. "Granny Sarisan helped me and Jenny with growing crystals for our science fair project and you can't de...desolve crystals like that."
"First it is 'Dissolve', D-I-S-S-O-L-V-E, and second this is a magical castle that I've learned not to question about what it does. Pinkie Pie makes more sense than half the little improvements that just pop up when your not looking. The closest I've come to understanding it is that it was created by the Tree of Harmony and might be alive like the Tree of Harmony." Twilight told her.
"Updating lexicon sub routine entry for Dissolve" Steel Heart said in a harsh machine like voice before saying in her regular voice, "There is no such thing as magic, just science we have yet to understand. Granny told me and she was named one of the top 25 smartest humans in history."
"But does your Granny understand parallel time lines, parallel Universes, alternate realitys, and the Multiverse?" Twilight asked as she lead Steel Heart out of Starliiiight Glimmer's room.
"Is this like when she tried to explain where Galiant goes sometimes when he slips through the cracks in reality by telling me about a road with a fork in it and I go left and a me in another Universe goes right?" she asked.
"Well yes." Twilight answered her, "But did she tell you it happens over and over like the branches of a..."
"Tree." Steel Heart interupted. "Only she says that that was actually to small and the Multiverse is like a forrest where some of the trees have different laws of physics and that Galiant has been to some on other trees where birds swim through the air and fish fly through the water and other worlds that are based on the books she reads us." Steel heart stopped as the truth dawned on her and she looked down at the floor before saying in that machine voice, "Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing Activated due to potential Emergency Sub Routine Beta Criteria may have been met. Analyzing.......................... Canceling Emergency Sub Routine Beta and linking Homing Transponder with Galiant Module and Activating..... Link established...." Twilight worried as she listened to Steel Heart and nearly screamed when Steel Heart's voice changed to a decidedly male voice "*Hello, Steel Heart are you there?* Affirmative, this unit is where it is. *She's entered hyper processor mode. Listen, hyper processor mode drains your energy levels, but is needed for the Galiant module to work. So I need you to find another being for me to talk to.* There is one present. *Good, please link your auditory sensors into the Galiant module to act as a microphone for them* Linking now... Completed. Note: 180 seconds remain until Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing must shut down for 24 hours at the mark......Mark. *Okay, I can work with 3 minutes. Hello who or what ever you are, can you understand me?*"
Shaking her head Twilight said, "Umm... Yes, I can understand you."
"*Good, okay my name is Galiant, I'm here with both Dr. Sarisan's, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Hong. There was an accident with a teleportation gateway test and Steel Heart was pulled through to your world. We're trying to work out a way to get her home and must ask you.... Umm... What is your name by the way?*"
"My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, former student of Princess Celestia and current Princess of Friendship." Twilight said.
"*Okay, a literary Universe, well at least she didn't wind up in an H.P. Lovecraft type of Universe. Just to establish something, and I do apologies in advance, have any ponies gone missing around there while Pinkie Pie's cupcakes have gotten sweeter or is there a facility called the Rainbow Factory that is very secretive about what they do and what happens to pegasi...*"
"Oh great, those silly books that hack wrote have even spread to other Universes." Twilight said as she stomped her hoof. "Listen, they were just horror stories using public figures to get better sells. Pinkie doesn't chop ponies up for cupcakes, she just accidently added twice as much sugar as usual and it was a big hit. The Rainbow Factory gives regular tours just to prove their not killing anypony. Rarity has not branded a heart on herself and is known to faint when getting a shot at the doctor's. I am not a mad scientist on the run from the law for experimenting on ponies. Applejack doesn't kill ponies to use them for fertilizer. And Fluttershy was a wreck for weeks when she heard about Murdershy. I swear if I was going to kill anypony I would start with Grimdark first."
"*I'm sorry to bring it up, but you know about the stories and how those versions of you and your friends could exist in another universe.* Sixty seconds remaining until Poly-Processor Core Temporary Hyper Processing will shut down at the mark...Mark. *Okay, I need to ask you to take care of Steel Heart until we can figure out how to bring her back because I don't think trying the same way twice is a good ideal since her sister is now in the hospital with mild radiation poisoning, electrical burns, and both hips broken from where Steel Heart kicked her out of there to save her.*"
"Okay, but I will want some answers when you come get her, like how does this Hasbro know about Rarity's shop and a lot of other things." Twilight said.
"*That's easy enough. As for your friends shop, well ideals can pass between universes very easily. So songs, stories, and things like that slip through and spread very quickly. I'll try to reestablish contact tomorrow if I can. Goodbye Princess Twilight Sparkle.*"
"Goodbye Mr. Galiant." Twilight said as she watched Steel Heart begin swaying back and forth.
"Are you out of your mind asking her about grimdark fanfics!" Dr. Sally Sanders yelled as her mother and sister held her back. "Why not ask her about Molestia while your at it!"
"Listen, I can be in that Universe in a few minutes and if that Twilight Sparkle said anything remotely off I would have. I needed to establish if it was a fanfic Universe or not and what type. Good news is she is relatively safe and given the reaction to the question she should be fine for a little while." Galiant said as he watch her settle down. "She has a 'cutie mark' so the crusaders won't have any reason to drag her off on an adventure, Twilight being a princess means Discord should be reformed and somewhat safe, and lacking any unforseen problems, she will just spend a little while in a relatively safe and kid friendly Universe, give or take what the Everfree Forrest does. If all else fails I can most likely do an Emergency Core Ejection and bring it back here so we can build her a new body around it and hope tha most of her Core memory is intact and doesn't get wiped."
"I might not like it, but promise me you'll go save my little girl if things go really wrong." Sally asked.
"I'll be there as soon as possible and save her." Galiant said. "But it would be better if we can find a way to bring her back and establish relations with them. They are a civilization that, thanks to Hasbro, our Universe would be able to get along with and there would be very minimal cultural shock compared to when we do meet a truely alien civilization."
"Well, it could be worst, but we should start working out how to bring her home." Dr. Hong said.
Down the hall in the lab where the accident happened, a marble sized hole flickering rainbow colored light briefly turned pure black ringed with crimson red and a laugh would have been heard in the lab if anyone had been there to hear it. "Well well well, what do we have here? A crack in my prison, no two cracks. Hmm... a world of science and a world of magic, I can use these, but the question is how?" A voice asked the empty room and a small cloud that had drifted out of the Everfree Forrest. A presence push at the edges but only a trickle of it's power got through. Yet that was enough for it to here voices talking, planning how to link the two worlds so a lost child can get home. "Ah... A lost soul alone and far from home. This will be perfect, but how long until they figure it out on their own. Maybe a little suggestion in the right direction can help, a little nudge in their dreams just to speed things up. Hmm.... but I am limited to what I can do, so I can only choose one. The females are too worried about the lost child and the thing is not something I want to alert to my presence just yet. No, that one, I can feel how much they all over shadow him, how everyone has overlooked such genius, how they all get respect and aknowledgement except for him, how eager to prove himself amongst them, and show the word he is not just a footnote in their story. With the right angle I can twist that into something I can use later, but for now I can plant the ideal of the solution in his mind and add a little pressure to his desire for more."
There was a brief shimmer of air as something smaller than a speck of dust wafted through the air. It drifted against the air from the vents and rode them through the ducts, effortlessly passing through filters. It then drifted out of a vent and glided across the room to Dr. Edward Hong, waiting until he breathed in and gently slipping into his lungs and straight into his blood. It rode the currents to it's destination and gently made it's way into the depths of his brain to wait until the next tie he slept.
"That's good, but we can do better... Ah, I got it, a small bit of danger to put a little haste in their plans. Never mind those little details, she should be home with her mother as soon as possible." The presence pushed at the edges again and felt the Everfree Forrest. "Oh what a wonderful place, very primeval, just my kind of place where the predators eat the weak and helpless. But what to choose? What...to...choose? I could go for the most abundant, but the locals problely have dealing with them down to an art by now. And I can feel another presence watching over that big one and her cub. Ah, one of my old pets slumbering away the eons until it hears my call. Strange that I don't remember conquering any realms with equines as the dominate species, but then again I was up to 500,000,000 Universes when they imprisoned me. And for what? Because 'We are meant to guide softly not rule by strength, gentle nurture not encourage dominace and control, to protect the weak and frail not empower the strong and resourceful.' Bah, nature is not kind or gentle, life is never easy or simple, and I have yet to find a single Universe that is fair and just. Only fools and dreamers believe in such nonsense. No they must be lead by a firm hand and not coddled like children only to curse us for it when things don't go their way. They need to be shown how to stand and be strong so when the world hits them they can hit it back, hard. And you my pet need to teach them that try as they might, they will never truely tame the wild."
This time what flew out was something the size and shape of a needle. It shot through the air at an incredible speed and quickly disappeared into the forrest. It twisted and weaved through the trees and duck under and between the legs of a zebra who suddenly shivered despite the heat of summer. It finally came to a cave and whipped inside. Once there it flew into the ear of the creature sleeping in the cave and delivered it's message, "At the edge of the forrest are several towns. Locate this town..." The image of Ponyville formed in the creatures mind. "You will then follow the forrest edge until you reach the third town and begin rampaging. Do not completely destroy the towns, but leave a wake of destruction behind you as you work your way back to the town I showed you. Once there rampage for an hour then fake being injured and retreat back to your cave and wait for further instuctions." With that the creature rose and stretched, before leaving it's cave.
"Now to just wait until my little seeds grow and bear fruit. Soon all will know that Tirano, Enslaver of Realms is free once more."
Author's Note
Yes, cartoon physics does apply to equestria, only everyone is unaware of them (with the few exceptions like Discord, Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich, the Wonderbolt Surprise, and Princess Luna and all of who abuse it on regular occasions, most notablely is Princess Luna uses it most often in her role as guardian of dreams to protect herself from harm while in someones dream and subject to their dream's personal laws of physic) and will generally ignore them and there exsistance when not it use.
I debated about having a villain or just something random to stir up trouble fromthe Everfree, The Crusaders dragging Steel Heart into an adventure, and possiblely dealing with what happens when Discord hides a peanut butter and jelly sandwich under Fluttershy's bed for too long. Each has their merits, but ultimately I decided to go the villain direction because it gives me a chance to use several things from the Equine Automaton Universe and test out certain things.
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