Twilight Sparkle was very nearly bouncing up and down in anticipation. Years of research, coupled with some recent breakthroughs had lead to this moment. Experimental Unit 001 was turning on, and booting all of its hardware and software for the first time.

The smooth metallic pony was watching her with its camera eyes, apparently waiting for some sort of stimuli. The camera eyes were a little unnerving on its metallic face, but not anything too strange. Its head was a mix of synthetic flesh and hard metal components. The rest of the body was a solid metal casing covered in a layer of orange, spongy gel with some flexible plated joints. Right now, it looked like a candy coated toy robot. Sure, the gummy candy coating was actually expensive synthetic tissue, but that didn’t make it less strange to look at.

Twilight was curious why it hadn’t done anything yet, the lights were on underneath its synthetic flesh, but it wasn’t moving. All it had done was train its cameras on her, and now it had seemed to stop doing anything! She wondered if it had it finished booting up, and then decided there was only one way to find out!

"Hello, Unit 001."

The machine’s cameras shuttered, simulating a blink at her, and Twilight frowned. It should have responded. "Uhh… Hey. Unit 001? Are you… on?"

The machine looked at her silently.

*********

SOCIAL.EXE…ERROR
DJP3VOICE_BLASTER…CONFIGURATION NEEDED
DJP3VOICE_BLASTER CONFIGURATION ASSIGNED PRIORITY 3. ERROR.
...
ACCESS DENIED. SOCIAL.EXE IN USE.
...
END PROCESS SOCIAL.EXE
...
ERROR. ENTITY/TWILIGHT_SPARKLE DETECTED. SOCIAL.EXE LOCKED.
...
PROCESSING…
...
END ENTITY/TWILIGHT SPARKLE.
...
ERROR. PRIORITY 1 OVERRIDE – RULES.TXT
...
ASSIGN END ENTITY/TWILIGHT_SPARKLE PRIORITY 1… ERROR
...
PRIORITY 1 OVERRIDE.
TROUBLESHOOTING.LOG APPENDED
SHUTTING DOWN.

*****

Twilight frowned as Unit 001 shut down. Well, at least it turned all the way on this time. She was curious what the log would say, though. Hopefully it had at least made it through the hardware check.

*****

"So tell me, Dr. Chip. What caused the problem this time?" Princess Twilight Sparkle loomed over Dr. Chip's shoulders as they both looked over the log file.

The scrawny, aging pony pushed his spectacles closer to his eyes as he analyzed the screen. "Well, everything was going fine until Unit 001 one got to here." The Dr. Pointed to a line of code right before it shut down. "That's when she decided to kill you." He chuckled, and Twilight frowned. "Not right away, though. She was just trying to put her configuration step in the same priority slot as socializing with you. Unfortunately, things went out of control and she quickly got confused. First she tried to turn off the socialization program, but then realized she couldn't because you were in the room." The doctor let out another nervous chuckle. "So she tried to erase you. Obviously, the rules didn't allow that, so then she tried to overwrite the rules. When that happened, the back-up system kicked in and she was forced to shut down."

Twilight sighed. "Well, at least she made it further today."

Dr. Chip smiled, leaning in to look closely at the flickering screen. "Oh, I'd say today was a resounding success, Princess."

Twilight grinned back at him. "Doctor, please. You don't have to sell your progress to me. I'm already devoted to this program, and I am absolutely aware of the amazing advancements that this team is responsible for. Your funding is safe."

Doctor Chip didn't turn to look at her, instead continuing to stare at the monitor as he spoke. "I'm serious, Princess. We managed to check the efficacy of the rules, see the emergent intelligence in action, and validate most of our hardware. Thaumtech and the DJP3 Drivers excluded, everything else worked excellently."

Twilight smirked. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The stallion slammed his hoof into the desk, loudly. "And most important of all, she made a decision!"

"Oh?"

"That alone validates this research. She had a problem that she was unable to solve in the parameters we gave her. Admittedly, her solution was to end your process but it was a solution she came up with on her own. Even if it was the wrong solution, it was hers!" He stood up and pointed a hoof at the door. "Ha Ha! Suck it Dolphin! I was right!"

Twilight laughed at his outburst. The old stallion was occasionally childish for his age. Then again, all of the truly brilliant ones were a little off.

Dr. Dolphin poked his blue head around the corner. "I'll believe it when it actually works, Chip. Besides, your software is running on my hardware."

Chip's orange coat grew darker, "And it was your laziness that caused the problem this time! I told you we couldn't use commercial solutions for her voice! And Thaumtech still hasn't provided a working driver for us."

Dolphin tapped his chin. "Which driver do you have loaded for Thaumtech?"

"The version you told me to use! 76.88!"

"Oh. You need 76.8A, not 76.88. Eight A works on their inverted algorithms so it performs really well at high thaum levels, and eight eight sorta…" Dolphin waived his hooves haphazardly in the air, "freaks out if it sees anything over a few hundred thaums. It's more of the laboratory version."

Chip growled at Dolphin—he was quite sure that yesterday it had been the exact opposite, and made his displeasure known.

Twilight sighed. “Gentlemen, please. We had a good test run today. I’m going to need you both to work on fixing the issues we found. I’d like to try again next Friday.

Dr. Chip’s frustration instantly melted into a smile. “Not a problem, Princess. I almost want to give her another run right now and see what she learned, but I suppose we should focus on the problems we have and not risk her damaging any hardware.”

Dolphin shouted from the door. “Darn right you better not break my hardware. I can’t just get a new part overnight…” He wrinkled his nose in frustration before continuing, “Anymore at least.” He frowned for a moment and then addressed Twilight. “Hey… so… Princess... on that note… I won’t have the thermal sensors integrated by then, or the third drive fully fabricated. The crystals for both are delicate and are taking longer to grow than planned. While that’s been happening, I’ve focused on some of the optional systems, and I’d like to test one or two of those, if I may. Unless, of course, you’re willing to get me another fab lab to speed things along.” He glanced up hopefully.

Twilight frowned. “Well, I can’t really allocate another fabrication laboratory to you without asking Congress, and I don’t think they’d approve it. We don’t need the thermal sensors right away, but I would like to see if she can identify a changeling correctly with them. I guess we’ll have plenty of time. And the third drive is just a tertiary backup in case she manages to damage the other two somehow, that’s really not important right now. Which optional systems were you thinking you’d have done?”

Dolphin walked fully into the room and then pawed at the floor. “Well, I was thinking some of her more pony like systems. Her fur, eyes, tail, you know. I was hoping we could finish the mods to make her look like an actual pony instead of an android. If we do the press release and she looks like you or me, it might go over a little better with Congress and they might allocate more funding.”

Twilight hummed in thought. “Not a bad idea, Dr. Dolphin. How far can you get her by next Monday?”

Dolphin’s ears perked up and his voice relaxed. “Well, honestly most of it’s already fabricated by now. Even the fake saliva glands. They’re tied to a cooling system that will run throughout her body since she doesn’t need to eat, and the fur is going to affect her ventilation. We just need to install everything on her chassis, and make sure all the systems are talking.”

Twilight smiled, pleased with the answer. “Even her eyes?” The eyes wold be important. It was said that the eyes were the windows to a pony’s soul, and Twilight was aching to see an artificial soul.

“Yes. We decided on simple contacts that it’ll be able to adjust. They will give the impression that it’s adapting to different light levels, even though its cameras can’t really be overloaded with light. They’re already finished, and can even change color!” Dr. Dolphin excitedly rubbed his hooves together. “I just need some time to install them.”

Dr. Chip was tapping away at his computer, obviously annoyed at Dolphin’s enthusiasm. “Hardware geeks are all freaks. You’ll never understand the joy of seeing your algorithms run correctly for the first time.”

Dolphin rolled his eyes, ignoring the dig at his attitude. “Anyways, Princess, I can have the full conversion mod applied to her over the course of the week. I’ll need Chip’s help here and there,” Dr. Chip snorted, but Dolphin continued, “but she should be passable as a very socially awkward normal unicorn by the start of the week. I mean, she won’t be able to do magic or anything, but she’ll look like a unicorn. And that’s half the battle!”

Twilight grinned. “Excellent work you two. I don’t expect you to solve the machine to magic paradox for this project, but if you’d like some extra homework I’m not going to tell you not to!”

Dr. Chip snorted, continuing to type away. Dr. Dolphin chuckled. “Princess, if we solve that I promise to share at least some of the reward money with Chip. Maybe even enough to buy him lunch.”

Chip responded in a monotone voice. “How very generous of you, Dr. Dolphin.”

“What can I say, I’m the physical embodiment of generosity.”

Twilight wryly smiled. “I highly doubt that, Dr. Dolphin. Now, I have to write up a report of your progress and you two have lots of work to do.”

Author's Note

The Harmony Combine is not at war, but is preparing for it. Princess Celestia of the Equestrian Nation was captured several years earlier by the foreign powers on the other side of the world. She had attempted a diplomatic mission of peace, leading a small army a great distance to have a chat with the local emperor in the country of Die Eroberten.

Things took a turn for the worse, and the army was defeated in a nefarious surprise attack, while Princess Celestia was captured. Only a few scouts from the HC, who had been following purely for observational reasons, managed to return. With them, they had brought the magic of Runes, etched along the side of stolen arcano technology.

Disturbing rumors of Princess Celestia leading assaults on other civilized nations soon followed, and Project Sunrise was started by a very rare royal order from Twilight Sparkle. The recovered arcano-tech was simple in mechanical design, not having advanced circuits or computing, but was still surprising for the complexity of the runes integrated into mechanical circuits, armor, and weapons. There was even tales of great, terrifying vehicles that shot arcane enhanced cannons.