"You found this where, dear?” Cookie Crumbles asked. Before her, Hondo Flanks very carefully prodded at various parts of the strange foal Rarity had brought home… well, ‘foal’ was a bit of an exaggeration, to be honest. While the tiny creature bore the mane, tail, hooves, and general physique of a baby equine, the fact it was just standing lifelessly in the center of the room, with a section of its neck open to allow Hondo to inspect its innards, told of how it was clearly something very different.

“It was in the very back of that new cave I told you about.” A very young Rarity replied. “I… I thought it was some kind of doll. You know, like the ones they put the clothes on in store windows.”

Cookie looked to her husband as he lit his horn and shone the light into the foal’s neck.

“Well, that’s not a bad guess. This is clearly an artificial construct of some kind.” The stallion hummed as he finished clearing the dust and cobwebs off, then picked up a screwdriver. “Interesting, the mechanics remind me of the x-ray machines and sonogram equipment at Ponyville General Hospital.”

“What are… mek-niks, daddy?” Rarity asked. Hondo bid his daughter over and showed her how the inside of the foal was neither hollow, nor filled with the guts and bones depicted on the anatomy charts at Rarity’s school. Instead, wires, fiber optic cables, circuits, and synthetic tissues lined the interior of the foal, giving Rarity cause to gasp in amazement.

“It seems this… erm… pony wasn’t born, it was built. It’s a robot.” Hondo explained, much to his wife’s growing confusion.

“That was then abandoned in a random cave somewhere?” Cookie queried. Hondo looked up at her and just shrugged.

“What’s a… ’roh-bot’?” Rarity queried. Hondo smiled and cleared his throat.

“A robot is a mechanical agent, a machine created to perform a service that normal ponies might not be capable of doing. It’s like the things you’ve seen daddy fixing in his workshop for the ponies around town, only robots are more autonomous, and usually…”

“Hondo, dear, what have I told you about using your big stallion words around her?” Cookie chided softly. The pride promptly flushed away from Hondo’s face and he blushed.

“Right… uh… well, basically, this is a robot. It looks like a pony, but it’s not flesh and blood… at least… it shouldn’t be.” Hondo prodded the machine’s side, noticing how his hoof sank into what felt like real, living skin and fur. “Strange that this one seems to have been deliberately designed to be almost indistinguishable from a normal pony.”

Rarity ooohed some more as she tousled the machine’s purple and pink striped mane and watched how it flowed back down just like real hair would.

“I think we need to notify the Royal Guards about this. Princess Celestia, or somepony in her court, is no doubt going to be very interested to know there’s something like this just sitting pretty in Equestria.” Cookie suggested. Hondo nodded as he picked up his screwdriver again.

“Agreed, but first, I just want to try something. If I’m not mistaken, this part right here should be the connection between the CPU and power source… but it looks like the wires got pulled out, and…”

Sparks promptly flew out of the foal’s neck. Hondo stumbled back as it gave a violent shudder and rapidly blinked its eyes. Cookie’s breath caught in her throat as the foal looked at her, then at Rarity. It slowly cocked its head in confusion.

“Ooooh… hello?” Rarity asked. The foal blinked several more times.

- Hello. - It stated blankly. Its voice was rather high pitched, and feminine in tone, yet there was just a hint of a metallic timbre to betray its mechanical nature.

Silence held in the room for another moment or so. Finally Hondo got up from his sprawled position on the floor and stared in amazement at the machine.

“Huh… okay, well that produced better results than expected.” He said. The foal looked at him in confusion. “Uh, hi? My name is Hondo Flanks… and this is my wife, Cookie Crumbles, and my daughter Rarity.”

The foal turned to each member of the household again, staring at them with the same confused nature.

“I found you in a cave!” Rarity proclaimed proudly. The foal nodded mutely.

- A cave.- It repeated.

“Yeah, uh… we were wondering what you are, so I thought if maybe I could turn you on… erm… you could answer that for us?” Hondo asked awkwardly. The foal nodded and closed its eyes for a moment.

-Diagnostic scan reports all systems are running nominally. Memory records reveal…- The robot paused and opened its eyes again. Its head lowered to the ground. –No data available.-

Hondo’s eyes widened in shock. “Really? Uh… you can’t tell us what model you are? Or what your… uh… name is? Or anything?”

The robot closed its eyes, then opened them again with the same sad list of its head.

-No data available. Unit’s designation is unknown. Unit’s purpose is unknown. Unit is otherwise functioning nominally.- It replied. Cookie placed a hoof to her mouth, while Hondo sighed.

“Wow, not only does it look like a foal, but it’s as much of a blank slate as one too.” He replied. The robot looked up at him with what was almost a too lifelike expression of teary eyed want.

-Unit requires programming. Are you able to assist?- It asked, its voice noticeably growing less mechanical with each syllable. The household all looked at each other.

“Uhhh… well, I still think we should turn it over to the Royal Guard… only, I don’t know how much good that would do if it literally doesn’t know anything about itself.” Cookie mentioned.

“I… hmmm… it sounds like it wants to learn. I’m pondering if that means I could teach it…” Hondo rubbed his chin.

“Could I keep her?” Rarity stated out of nowhere. Her parents turned to her in surprise. “She could be like… like my little sister!”

The surprise on Hondo and Cookie’s faces widened.

“She?” Cookie asked her daughter dumbly. Rarity turned to the foal and nodded.

“She sounds like a she.” The unicorn replied.

- ‘She’… female… vocal inflections suggest gender assignment. Like this?” The robot’s voice completely lost its metallic timbre in the space of four syllables, leaving it speaking like a typically adorable baby that had just learned to talk. More looks of shock were shared.

“Yeah, like that.” Rarity said proudly. “She could be like my little sister. She almost looks the same as me!”

Cookie looked to her daughter and then the robot. Indeed aside from the difference in their mane colors, the two could pass as siblings…

“I’m getting a very weird feeling here. I mean… I just saw you poking at it with your tools… yet… as I keep looking at her… it… well…” Cookie snorted and placed her hoof back against her head. “Honestly, even if it’s just meant to look like a real wide eyed little foal, it’s a very good deception.”

Hondo nodded as he looked down at the robot, a smile working its way across his face at it… no, she… kept staring up in want like any child would.

“She is kind of a sweetie… there’s no doubt about that.”

“Yeah! That can be her name!” Rarity jumped up and down. “Sweetie Bot!”

The robot’s ears rose. “Sweetie Bot?”

Cookie snorted and shook her head. “No.”

Her daughter promptly stopped her happy hopping.

“Whatever you’re thinking Rarity, we are not calling her ‘Sweetie Bot’.” The mare insisted. “Regardless of whether she’s living or a machine, calling attention to her status like that is rude.”

Rarity looked crestfallen for a moment, then brightened again instantly.

“What about… uhhh… ’Sweetie Belle’?” She asked. The robot looked down as if contemplating this.

“Sweetie Belle… a moniker invoking positive connotations and amicable reactions. Unit deems this a beneficial designation.” It said, its cuteness factor increasing with how it talked so eloquently in such a squeaky, infant voice.

“So you like it?” Hondo asked.

“Yes. I am Sweetie Belle… designed for…” The now named mare paused as she hit another hindrance. “Purpose not yet confirmed.”

“You’re my little sister!” Rarity exclaimed happily. Hondo and Cookie looked at each other.

“Dear…” The mare began. Hondo nodded.

“I’ll still send word to Princess Celestia. For now, well, let’s see how this develops…”

***

“So after that, dad sent word to Canterlot, and we got the biggest surprise of all. Apparently, Princess Celestia’s standing was we could keep her if we wanted, since she seemed to be acclimatizing to being a member of our household just fine.” Rarity explained to the ponies gathered around her in the hospital waiting room. “She still went in for regular maintenance checks, and the doctors here sent reports on her progress to Canterlot, but aside from that, she fit into her role as a sibling and daughter far better than we were anticipating.”

Spike blinked several times and scratched his head.

“Wait… wait… hold on a second… if Sweetie is actually a robot… how the heck has she still been aging like a normal pony? How did she manage to get a cutie mark like her friends? How is it she can eat and drink, and smell like the rest of us? How is it… erm… uh….” Spike’s voice broke as he realized he was about to ask a much more intimate and very inappropriate question. “Uhhh… actually, I’ll wait on that last one for later.”

Twilight Sparkle smiled and stood up from her seat.

“I think I can answer that. Celestia told me about this while I was studying under her.” The alicorn projected an image of a pony and a mechanical facsimile thereof with her magic. “As you all have heard by now, those of you who’ve met a certain Lyra Heartstrings at least, there allegedly exists, or once existed another race different to those on Equestria. Beings of a furless and bipedal nature, much like Spike, with hands instead of hooves and all that…”

Spike nodded. “You mean humans?”

Twilight smiled. "Something like that."

She created a magical image of one such creature for her friends. “Anyway, according to lore known only among Celestia’s scholars, they had a far greater grasp of and dependence on technology than we do. It’s believed that highly sophisticated robots, much like Sweetie Belle apparently is, were created by them, and left behind when they vanished without a trace. “ Twilight shut off her projection and sat back down. “Celestia actually believes there may be more machines like her littered around the world, evidence that humans, or a similarly advanced race, once lived on Equestria. Sweetie would technically be the first proof she was right, though.”

Rarity cocked her ears forward.

“And… you’re not mad at the fact that I’ve been keeping her in secret all this time?” She asked. Twilight smiled soothingly.

“Hardly a secret. Your parents notified the necessary channels when needed, and they, in turn, have been keeping Celestia and everypony abreast of the situation all these years. There was hardly any need to complicate things, and Sweetie always seemed perfectly happy living here as your sister, so Celestia just let it be.” The alicorn assured.

“Well, yeah… but that doesn’t really update me with what I asked about.” Spike complained. “Seriously, if you found her as a foal, how is it she now looks like a normal teenager? Almost an adult even!”

"Maybe she's like the stone golems Daring Do encountered in her third book? The ones that can assemble larger bodies for themselves by adding more rocks onto their forms?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "Or...ooh, maybe she's like the giant spiders that guarded the lost Temple of Connemara! Daring said they grow bigger by shedding their outer bodies every year...wait..."

The blue pegasus turned to Rarity in suspicion. "If that's the case, how do we know those ponyquins at the boutique aren't actually Sweetie Belle's old shells, left over when she molted?"

Rarity replied with a blank look. "Because they aren't...and now you're freaking me out a little, Rainy."

Twilight’s smile lost a bit of confidence.

“Yes, well I can say is that whoever built her apparently designed her to resemble a normal pony as much as possible. According to the doctors who’ve been doing her checkups over the years, her body is somehow able to augment and build onto itself. Every time she's had an x-ray done or a physical done there've just been new additions to her internal workings. We’re not sure how, but I have several theories based on how sophisticated her construction is.” The alicorn got a strange blush on her face. “I was actually pondering… uh… now that the secret is out… maybe Sweetie could provide some answers?”

Rarity’s head wilted.

“No.” She said. Twilight sighed and nodded.

“Right, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that… I just…”

“No, I didn’t mean my response in that regard either.” Rarity interrupted. “I meant Sweetie won’t be able to help you because she has no idea.”

Twilight, Spike, and everyone else reacted in shock.

“All Sweetie knows is she’s a robot that’s remarkably similar to a living pony. How much alike, or how she can do everything a living pony can do, is as much a mystery to her as it is to us.” Rarity nervously toyed with her hair. “Honestly, I wonder if she in fact was deliberately designed that way, so she’d think she IS a living pony. Certainly there’ve been many times where even I’ve forgotten she’s actually a robot, so great is her likeness.”

Spike sighed.

"Is that why neither of you told me yet? Actually hold on..." The dragon looked at his friends in accusation. "How many of you were aware of this?"

Rainbow, Fluttershy and Applejack all looked perturbed at Spike's raised voice. Twilight snorted and bid her assistant to please calm down.

"Just me, and Rarity." She began, before Pinkie Pie's hoof shot up.

"I knew! I just thought we were keeping it a surprise, you know for when their first anniversary came around and we could celebrate with a 'Congrats on one whole year of robo-romance!' party!"

The pink mare paused as if now noticing her friends were gaping in slack-jawed shock at her. "Yes I know the title needs work, but I've still got time...right?"

Twilight took a deep breath. "Anyway we WERE going to tell you, once we knew for certain that your relationship with Sweetie was serious." The alicorn perked her ears. "You two are serious about each other, aren't you?"

Spike blinked as his thought process struggled to pick itself up from where it had derailed and put itself back on the tracks. He looked down at the floor in deep contemplation, only looking up when the ER door swung open and out stepped a stallion in surgical scrubs.

“How… how is it, doctor?” Rarity asked apprehensively. The stallion cleared his throat and smiled softly.

“Honestly, it’s better than we were expecting. Good news is whatever Sweetie’s body… I mean, her actual body, is made from seems to have done a masterful job of insulating her innards from the fire. We had to clean off some ash and scorch marks, but as far as we can tell, she’s working fine.” The stallion took a breath. “The bad news, of course, is we couldn’t save her skin...erm, the covering that was acting as such. That got pretty much destroyed by the explosion.”

Twilight nodded somberly. “And since we have no means of replicating a living tissue covering, we now face a new challenge: what can we do now if she’s no longer able to pass as a pony?”

She looked to Rarity who took a deep breath and brushed her mane aside.

“That’s a discussion I think she needs to be included in. Her and all those she cares for…” The unicorn looked at Spike. He wadded his hands and shifted his wings awkwardly.

“Can… can we see her?” He asked. The stallion nodded.

“Maintenance team is doing one final check. Far as we can tell, she shut down after getting hit by the explosion. Just needs to be turned back on, so if you’d like…”

Rarity nodded and rose. “I can take it from here. Come along everyone.”

The ponies head into the ER, all save for Pinkie Pie who was still debating titles for her upcoming party.

"Maybe something alliterative? Like a 'Proud to be P-600 Party'? No wait, the P-600 series has rubber skin. Sweetie's a way more advanced model than that!" The pink mare said before the door swung shut in front of her.

In the ER, everyone approached the room where the entity that had apparently been masquerading as Sweetie Belle lay limply upon a recovery bed. With all the charred flesh and burn marks cleared away, she cut a very different picture than Spike had been expecting. Her mane and tail had somehow survived the fire intact, indicating they were made of a similarly durable material to her body, despite feeling like normal silky hair. Spike thought of the many times he’d run his fingers through both, either grooming or teasing the adorable filly, and never expecting she was anything more than a lovely, bubbly lass. He also noticed her horn looked a bit longer, and now bore three rings of what appeared to be lights spiraling around the pointed extension. On her legs, where her joints were located, there was a dial of some manner, set with another light. Her hooves now also revealed that each had some manner of a grille style vent underneath the metal cover.

Spike pressed his face to the window of the recovery room as Rarity gingerly stepped inside. For all the newly uncovered aspects that told of how his marefriend was apparently some marvel of technological innovation, on the whole, she still looked like Sweetie Belle. Her mane still had the right colors, her body was still the same brilliant shade of pure white, and on her flank, there was still her cutie mark, sitting there plain for all to see.

“Be ready, everyone. I’ve never had to… uh… oh, what’s the word… reboot Sweetie from a total shut down. Not sure how she’ll react.” Rarity warned as she used her magic to pry open a panel on the robot’s neck. Spike watched in shock as the unicorn pressed something inside her sister’s innards, and her whole body gave a sharp jolt.

“And to think, when you two started dating, I thought you’d defied all expectations by going for someone so plain and pretty. Looks like I should’ve kept my bets on one of you turning out to be something other than normal.” Rainbow commented, much to the dragon’s ire. Rarity carefully pressed her hoof on another part of Sweetie’s neck and stepped back as the lights on her body flickered to full brightness. The robot opened her eyes, revealing they now glowed with an uncovered evergreen aura. Sweetie looked at her surroundings, then slowly rose up off the bed.

-Rarity? Whuh-what happened?- Sweetie asked, her voice now inflected with the same metallic timbre as before. Rarity’s ears wilted as her eyes filled with tears.

“Th-There was an accident… the boutique’s kitchen… oh Sweetie!” She leaned down and hugged the robot. “I’m so sorry!”

Sweetie looked at her sibling in confusion…only for her features to likewise wilt as she held up a hoof and saw its now mechanical nature.

-Right… I remember I was trying to bake bread… but the oven… I remember smelling gas… then the pilot clicked on and…- Sweetie pushed herself back from her sister. – Did anypony get hurt!?-

Rarity sniffed and wiped her eyes.

“No, no, I’m fine… you’re… well, you got the worst out of everyone.” She tearfully replied. Sweetie blinked her neon toned eyes and held up a hoof.

-The worst? One second…-

Her eyes snapped shut and a low humming sound reverberated from within her body. Spike recognized it as the same kind of sound Sweetie made whenever she was warming up for singing practice.

-Diagnostic scan reports no internal damage. All systems operating nominally. – Sweetie took a deep breath. “So… I just lost my epidermal cover… heh, after all these years, and as a result of my continuing insistence on trying to learn how to cook.” She said, her voice now having returned to its normal, perfectly natural sounding timbre. Spike had to gape at how she was able to switch from sounding robotic to sounding like the mare he loved just like that.

“Sweetie, just what were you thinking?? After all the kitchen disasters we’ve had over the years!” Rarity exclaimed. The robot unicorn dipped her ears.

“I could go into a lengthy explanation… but I’d like to make a request first.”

Spike felt himself freeze in place as those unearthly glowing eyes were turned on him.

“Are you all going to just stare at me? Or are you going to come in so we can get the awkward part over with?” Sweetie asked, her ears wilting further in sadness. “Come on, Spike. We both know how this is going to end.”

Author's Note

So here's chapter 2, and hopefully the insight everyone was asking for in regards to how I'm approaching Sweetie Bot. What caught my interest the most about Vavacung's comic was that Sweetie was described as more of a synthetic bioroid, as opposed to a straight machine. Since it was confirmed she could do everything a living pony could do (eat, drink, sleep, breathe, etc) I wondered if that could extend to her also growing and aging like one too. We've had other robots in the past that apparently are made of materials capable of shifting size (Transformers, I'm looking at you ) so it's not that far fetched of a concept. If nothing else it's yet another avenue that hasn't been explored all that much so that makes it ripe for my own musings!

What do you all think?