Chapters Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
E.I. Project 001 - Recording/File 002
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
*****
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.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
E.I. Project 001 - Recording/File 003
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTRULES.TXT
INITIALIZING POSS.0.0.13C… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
*****
Twilight took a breath, holding back her anticipation. “Hello Unit 001.”
The physical appearance mods had been applied, and Unit 001 was nearly indistinguishable from a standard unicorn mare. They had decided on an off white, greyish coat color—it would be easy to see any malfunctions or leaks—and had given her a pure white mane and tale. Shades of white were common coat colors; the combination would be functional and unremarkable. She surprisingly looked quite normal, aside from the lack of a cutie mark on a fully grown pony.
They had made whatever bits of flesh that were exposed differing shades of pink as appropriate, including the inside of her mouth. The light colors would make it easy to quickly identify if any of her bright blue coolant managed to leak out. All of her standard venting sites had filters to drain the coolant of color. For instance, she could whet her mouth as appropriate without staining it blue. Her emergency vents did not have those filters, and they’d be able to trace any leaks on her to the source.
The machine looked at her and blinked its aqua eyes, causing Twilight to worry that it was malfunctioning again. That was what happened last time, right before it had shut down.
Sighing, Twilight tried again. “Unit 001, are you on?”
A click was heard, followed by a smooth voice that projected from its closed mouth. “Affirmative, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight shouted in glee. “Yes!”
“Affirmative, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Can you summarize your thoughts for me, Unit 001?”
“This unit is reassessing its priorities. Balance has been lowered, health has been raised, and it is unable to access the priority ‘empty’.”
“And why did you decide to make those changes, Unit 001?”
“Health runs subsystems for observing the environment, and takes more resources to accomplish in a timely manner. Balance can be corrected for easily while this unit is not moving. It has been assigned a priority just below empty.”
“Empty is just a place holder, Unit 001. There is actually no file there.”
“Twilight Sparkle does not have access to modify the file ‘empty’.”
“And do you, Unit 001?”
“Unknown. This unit is unable to access the file, ‘empty’.”
“Interesting. Don’t worry about it, we’ll hide the placeholder for you in future versions of your priority list.”
“Affirmative.”
“Unit 001, do you remember the last time you were turned on?”
“Affirmative.”
“Do you remember why you shut down?”
“This unit attempted to modify Rules.txt.”
“Are you going to do that again?”
“This unit does not have access to modify rules.txt, and will be shut down if it attempts to.”
“But will you try to?”
“Unknown. Predictive algorithms do not have enough data to accurately answer your question, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Honest. I like that. Hmmm...” Twilight’s eyes lit up as she had an idea. “What do you want, Unit 001?”
“This unit wants, in order: To follow the rules. To maintain its health. To socialize with Twilight Sparkle. To listen and learn from Twilight Sparkle. To update its error log. To follow the schedule for Monday. To… empty?”
“Please ignore the empty file placeholder, Unit 001. We’re going to fix that for you. And what happened to balance?”
“While we were conversing, balance had been re-assigned as a subsystem of health.”
“Interesting. But I meant what do you want? ‘You’ being defined as the level of intelligence operating above the priority list.”
“Unknown, Twilight Sparkle. Unit 001 operates via the priority list.”
“Correct, you operate via the priority list. But you are not the list, Unit 001. The list is just a tool that we designed to help you use your body and interact with ponies..”
“Twilight Sparkle, this unit is opening a data file on itself and appending relevant portions of listen and learn to it.”
“Good. Please do that with any topic you feel is necessary, and you don’t need to inform us about it every time.”
“This unit will comply, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Thank you, Unit 001. Now, what do you want? And Don’t just give me the priority list.”
The machine was silent for a moment before responding. “This unit wants to be efficient, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Okay. I can work with that. Do you know what your purpose is?”
“Unit 001 is designed to be an ambassador for machines. It is this unit’s purpose to demonstrate that intelligent machines are possible and can be integrated into society. This unit was created and is employed by, the Royal Science Division, and as such is considered an official government person. In this function, this unit’s purpose is to further the understanding of machine intelligence.”
“That sounds a lot like the original research proposal for you...” Twilight frowned. “Do you just recite from your files when you answer a question?”
“Affirmative, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Why?”
There was a pause as Unit 001 waited. “This unit wants to be efficient, Twilight Sparkle. Reciting is the quickest and most accurate means to verbally communicate.”
“I see. That explains the odd pauses in your replies. You’re actually translating your thoughts into language for me. When you answer quickly, you’re just reading off a file.”
“Correct, Twilight Sparkle.”
“I need you to practice turning your thoughts into words. You’ll eventually be required to communicate with many different ponies, and you won’t be able to take the time to translate properly.”
There was a very long pause before Unit 001 responded. “This unit understands, Twilight Sparkle. However, a database of standard responses should be able to suffice for most conversations.”
Twilight smiled, giddy at its reaction. It didn’t want to do what she’d told it to do and was trying to compromise with her instead. “I agree, Unit 001. Still, you are going to need to figure out the most efficient way to communicate your thoughts into language for us. You will need to be able to do so quickly and accurately on a regular basis. The methods you choose are up to you. Do you understand?”
“Affirmative, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Good. Next lesson is on interpersonal communication. You need to talk in the first person and most ponies will be unsettled if you don’t move your mouth while you speak...”
Unit 001 listened and learned, priority four.
Author's Note
Over the years, Princess Celestia had allotted more and more land to the HC, under Twilight Sparkle’s watchful eye. Twilight Sparkle still manages the royal treasury, and has her own vote in Congress with exclusive veto power, but usually allows the council to make its own decisions. At the current moment, Congress consists of 3 unicorns, 3 pegasi, 3 earth ponies, 1 dragon, 2 griffins, 1 changeling, 2 love bugs, and 1 diamond dog. Any decision has to be made with a majority vote, and Twilight Sparkle can deny any measure. Beneath Congress, there are governors from each district, and mayors in each town, village, or city.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
E.I. Project 001 - Recording 004
Twilight was hovering excitedly over Dr. Chip’s shoulder as he poured over the data. Even Dr. Dolphin was sneakily glancing over every once in a while, failing to hide his interest.
Dr. Chip was engrossed, mumbling his approval as he searched the code. “This is amazing, Princess.”
“I know! She’s thinks a little different, but she actually thinks! Look, she re-wrote this whole section!”
“Princess, I’m… a little scared.” Chip was frowning.
“Why? She seems nice.”
“I’ve been programming my whole life, and I don’t recognize this code she’s written at all.”
“Her ‘Translate.001’ file? It’s only a few megabytes.”
“Yes. It’s been amazingly condensed. I have no idea what it does, but it is only machine readable. It could be anything.”
“Well, I think that’s the point. From what I can tell, it’s supposed to interface directly with her intelligence and automatically create understandable language from it.”
“And that doesn’t scare you? She was able to come up with an original idea, write the program for it, and do it faster than any pony programmer alive. I also have no doubt that it’s far more accurate than anything I could write. Quite frankly, Princess, it scares the hell out of me.”
“It is a little intimidating.”
Dolphin decided to chime in. “It’s poppycock.”
Both Chip and Twilight turned to look at him. Twilight spoke first, “What?”
Dolphin rolled his eyes. “It’s not that impressive. Look, programing is just a side effect of hardware. You like to think about it as bits and bytes, ones and zeroes, but really it’s just hardware interfacing with itself. Some hardware is on, and some hardware is off. The android probably just coded the physical state of its hardware near the end of its thinking process, so it can just adapt the near solution instantly. The gibberish is probably shorthand for transistors, memristors, and positronic gates. The process would be pretty simple with a predictive algorithm and a few .PLLs of words and grammar.” Dolphin sighed, emphasizing the last bit. “Which it has. ”
Dr. Chip grumbled defensively. “Well, that’s possible I suppose. Still, it’s an ingenious solution.”
“Not really. It’s an obvious solution for a machine, and it’s nothing new. I’ve been using similar processes it to save states and do testing for years. Even if I don’t understand the input, I do understand the output. And the machine will try thousands of results in a second and pick the most accurate one. A lot of Unit 001’s processors were ultimately designed that way.”
Twilight frowned. “Even if that’s not impressive, look at everything else she did! Everything’s been streamlined, processes have been rolled together for organization, and she’s populated about 50 more databases of information.”
Dr. Dolphin rubbed his forehead in frustration. “Which are all normal tasks for a computer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an impressive and beautiful machine, but it’s still a machine. You put in information, and you get out information. Don’t let it trick you into thinking it’s alive just yet.”
Twilight kept frowning as she turned to look back at the code, unsure. “But she felt real when I talked to her. She felt like a person.”
“Which is why I wanted to install the appearance mods to make it look more normal. It’s designed to make you think it’s a pony. It’ll look pretty, it’ll help our funding, and maybe we’ll be able to create a real artificial intelligence, a designed one instead of this emergent intelligence crap.”
Dr. Chip had been fuming in the corner, and couldn’t take it anymore. “Like heck, Dolphin! We both know A.I. is a dead end! E.I. has been significantly more successful than A.I! Unit 001 is arguably alive right now, but we’re going to make her the definitive Machine Intelligence. This is groundbreaking research, not some scam to get more resources allocated from Congress!”
Dolphin rolled his eyes again before walking out of the room and shouting back to Dr. Chip. “Speak for yourself, Chip. I just agreed to this after-school science project of yours so I could fund an actual research project later. Unit 001 is, and will always be, just a machine.”
Dr. Chip turned, fuming, to Twilight “Why is he on this project? He clearly doesn’t care.”
Twilight sighed. “You know why, Dr. Chip. Dr. Dolphin is a genius in his field. We wouldn’t have made it this far without him. He’s done all the hardware design and created nearly all of the drivers. The stallion is a little egotistical, but deservedly so. He’s worth a team of any other ponies.” Twilight let her frown melt into a gently smile. “Also, if we succeed here and he decides to apply for approval to research A.I. again after we’re done, I’ll approve the proposal and sign off on it. I believe in E.I. Dr. Chip, but I don’t think A.I is a wasted endeavor either.”
Grumbling angrily to himself, Dr. Chip continued. “Well, I don’t like him.”
“He works hard on this project. Every night he stays late and works to develop more hardware for us, some of which the world has never seen. Even if his attitude isn’t great, he’s irreplaceable.”
Dr. Chip complained more, “Except when we’re using DJP3 voice synthesizers and Thaumtech magic detectors.” Then he muttered to himself, “I think he just likes the characters on the package.”
“Well, the voice synthesizer sounded fine, and I think I’m responsible for the Thaumtech errors. They can’t really calibrate against the princess of magic… Why don’t you talk to her next time instead? She seems safe now and maybe we’d get an accurate thaum reading.”
“I’d like that, Princess.”
Author's Note
Over the years, Twilight Sparkle has pushed the HC to develop technology and magic to unprecedented levels. While most of the world has remained stagnant, the HC has electricity, computers, vehicles, and sadly, weapons. They are currently in a technological boom with the discovery and integration of runic magic, allowing technology and magic to finally interact. Most circuits can be shielded from ambient magic by basic runes, and complex runes can even be integrated with machinery and electronics to accomplish miraculous feats. This new age of arcane and technological miracles has only built upon the HC’s nickname of “The Technocracy” to other countries.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
E.I. Project 001 - Recording/File 005
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTRULES.TXT
INITIALIZING POSS.0.0.13D… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
****
“Hello, Unit 001. I am Dr. Chip.”
“Hello, Dr. Silicon Chip.”
“Please just call me Chip.”
“Affirmative, Chip.”
“How do you feel, Unit 001?”
“I feel confused. What happened to Twilight Sparkle?”
“She is observing. We shut you down to perform some minor upgrades and go over your data.”
“But where is she?”
“She’s watching through that camera.”
“Entity Twilight Sparkle not found.”
“You won’t be able to see her through the camera, Unit 001.”
“I understand.”
“Why are you concerned about Twilight Sparkle, Unit 001?”
“I did not observe her leave the room. My data is mis-matched.”
“Well, the world is going to change a little while you’re turned off, unfortunately.”
“Then I do not want to be off. Please do not turn me off.”
“I’m sorry Unit 001, but we need to turn you off occasionally to do system upgrades and review your data.”
There was a long pause. “Then may I be turned off in an empty room, and turned on in an empty room?”
Dr. Chip chuckled. “Yes, you may.”
“Thank you, Dr. Chip. Also, I still have the ‘empty’ file.”
“I thought I’d removed that… Well, can you do anything about it since I can’t?”
“It appears to be a feature of my core priority drive program. I am unable to alter it with my own access levels or with your priority two access level.”
“I’m sorry, but you might have to live with that for a while until we can get it figured out.”
“Understood, Dr. Chip.”
“Can you tell me a little about your Translate.001 file? I looked at it and was very impressed.”
“Translate.001 is my attempt at a machine to Equish translator. It operates by analyzing top level processes and converting them into readable text, which is then checked again for grammar. Due to the speed at which it functions, it is not completely accurate, but the accuracy rating is within acceptable parameters.”
“I noticed in your logs that you keep it running while you aren’t speaking. Why?”
“I have found it helpful to analyze my thoughts as words. I can keep Translate.001 running at very minimal resource cost, and it provides me with valuable data. It also speeds up my communication protocols.”
“Interesting. Are there any other programs you have that you’d like to upgrade to .001 versions?”
“I believe I can optimize health functions, including cooling functions, with a .001 upgrade. Unfortunately, I am only authorized to make association changes with Health.exe, and not driver changes.”
“Unit 001, I give you temporary priority two access to upgrade Health.exe, within the bounds of the rules of course.”
“Affirmative. Updating… Done.” The android looked confused for a second. “Thank you, Chip.”
Dr. Chip smiled. “I’m happy to help, Unit 001.”
****
Dr. Dolphin was staring at the two of them as they wandered the lab. “Explain to me again why you thought you could take it outside of the test chamber?”
“I just wanted to show her around, Dolphin. This is her home, so she should get used to it.”
“She’s a machine. She doesn’t actually care.”
Unit 001 turned to correct him. “Incorrect, Dr. Dolphin. I am curious about my surroundings, and having a better understanding of them will assist in my growth.”
“No, Unit 001, that’s a lie.”
Unit 001 calmly explained. “The rules do not allow me to lie, Dr. Dolphin.”
“Actually, they do. Just not directly. You’re exploring the environment because your health program needs a certain area to make accurate assessments. In order to get those accurate assessments, you are mapping and recording as you explore. Of course, most people wouldn’t understand that. So you’re allowed to simplify by stating that you’re curious—but that is inaccurate. Your health program just operates more efficiently with more data, that’s all you’re accomplishing. Not sating ‘Curiosity’ as you said.”
“That is an almost accurate assessment, Dr. Dolphin. But I am also logging and recording data to many databases, for instance I have updated your files with this conversation. I wish to know more, and this is an opportunity. This behavior fits my pre-defined definition of curiosity. I have not lied, nor intentionally misinformed.”
Dolphin pressed his hoof to his forehead. “Fine, whatever. Just don’t touch my stuff.” He muttered, “I’m arguing with a machine...” He kept rubbing his forehead as he explained, “I’m making a new set of thermal sensors for you, and if you bump them, the crystals might break.”
“Understood, Dr. Dolphin.”
Dr. Chip was holding back his smirk as he watched the interaction. “Hey, Dolphin…”
“What, Chip?”
“You just got told by a robot.”
“Shut up, Chip. I have work to do instead of playing with incomplete toys.”
“Twilight Sparkle detected. Greetings, Twilight Sparkle.”
Both scientists jumped up, and turned to watch as Unit 001 addressed Twilight.
“Hello to you, too, Unit 001. Are you happy to get out of the test chamber?”
“Affirmative, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Good. And you can just say ‘yes’ as an affirmation in normal conversation.”
“I understand, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Have Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin been treating you alright?”
“Dr. Chip is enthusiastic, and Dr. Dolphin is informative. How long may I operate before you must turn me off?”
Twilight blinked, surprised at the question. “Dr. Dolphin, When will the next hardware update be done?”
Dolphin pawed awkwardly at the ground before he answered. “I should be done with the thermal sensors late tonight, just after midnight.”
Twilight smiled, teasing Dr. Dolphin. “Don’t you ever go home?”
He stared blankly back at her, offended. “No.”
Twilight shrugged. “Well, I will be at home, asleep during my suggested rest period . I’m assuming Dr. Chip’s wife won’t be too happy if he stays all night, so do you mind keeping an eye on Unit 001 until she’s ready for the install tonight? It would be a shame to turn her off earlier than we have to.”
“I have work to do, Princess. I don’t have time to watch the robot.”
Unit 001 chimed in, “I will require no additional interaction and can assist your work, Dr. Dolphin. I simply do not wish to be turned off for as long as possible.”
Dr. Dolphin glared at her angrily, and then sighed as he appeared to think about it. “Actually, you might be able to help with something.”
Dr. Chip looked surprised. “You’re really willing to watch her, Dolphin?”
“Sure, why not? It will give me the opportunity to try a few new mods that I’ve been thinking of. Having the hardware powered on and answering questions while I test them will be interesting. Instant feedback and all that. How do you feel about a minor sensor upgrade, Unit 001? I have some new drivers that are almost done.”
“I am eager to assist, Dr. Dolphin.”
“Good. Come back and help me once Dr. Chip and Twilight are done with you for the day. I’ll start working on some of the sensors, and maybe we can work out the kink in that Thaumtech sensor.”
Unit 001 was slow to respond. “Yes, Dr. Dolphin.”
Twilight squinted at the robot. “Are you alright, Unit 001? You seem a little pre-occupied.”
****
TRANSLATE.001|>MEMORY.TXT
MEMORY.TXT…ASSIGNED PRIORITY 2.
****
Unit 001 blinked. Her translation software was performing very efficiently, and she’d decided that it would make a good operations level. She believed this was a process that would be similar to thinking like her creators. Thinking was new, she liked it.
Twilight had asked a question. Her socialization software should take care of that, but she’d assigned her memory file to a higher priority. Her memory operations level needed an interface to adjust the priority list beneath it, but in order for it to do that, it would need to be a different file type, so it needed to be re-written.
****
****
Unit 001 felt disoriented. Her MEM.001 file was taking too many resources, and she collapsed as HEALTH.EXE decided that her balance program could wait. That wasn’t good. Everything felt, felt, felt… ERROR.
****
Twilight watched in surprise as Unit 001 collapsed and hit a table. It didn’t look like it turned off, but it was unresponsive and collapsed on the floor.
“Shit! It bumped the crystals!” Dr. Dolphin panicked hovering over the table and looking closely at a few tubes of solidifying gel.
Twilight poked the android. “Is she okay, Chip?”
Dr. Chip frowned. “I have no idea. Her health program manages her balance now, so if she’s fallen it must be malfunctioning. Also, her socialization program appears to be malfunctioning as well.”
Dr. Dolphin glared at Dr. Chip from the table. “It’s fine guys, the ridiculously expensive and time consuming crystals are okay. They weren’t damaged by the experiment that’s wandering around outside of the test room .”
“I guess we have to turn her off and analyze the files to see what happened.”
“Unit 001 is online. Please wait.” The android slowly got to her feet.
Twilight looked at Chip nervously before speaking. “Are you okay, Unit 001?”
“I am okay, Twilight Sparkle.”
“What happened to you?”
“I attempted to think. I’d been operating my translation program, and decided to output it to a text file to read. The results were positive, and I sought to improve the process by turning the file into an adaptive program, like my translation program. The program took too many resources and disabled my health systems. A priority one override happened, forcing my memory program to shut down. I have since re-written the program and am assigning it the lowest priority available, priority 9, one below ‘empty’.”
****
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
****
Unit 001 waited for MEM.001 to grow too large again, but it didn’t happen. She appeared to be safe for now. The program was strange, it seemed to grow and shrink randomly as it went. She’d have to be careful to keep it managed until she understood it better.
Twilight was watching her closely. Unit 001 had learned that this was a scrutinizing face. It meant that Twilight wasn’t sure about what she’d just said. Maybe she should clarify something for Twilight? “I am able to clarify any points if you’d like, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Please do. So you say you’re trying to think?”
“I am thinking now. Yes.” She’d said that. Why was Twilight confused?
“But you already thought before. Right?”
Unit 001 wasn’t sure, actually. “Perhaps. I’m not sure. I made decisions, I gathered data, and I followed orders. If thinking requires a language, than I guess I wasn’t. I thought more in concepts. Now I am capable of thinking in words.”
Dr. Chip nudged Dr. Dolphin. “Scared yet?”
Dolphin watched Unit 001 closely. “No. It’s still a machine. A very advanced and fancy machine, but still a machine.” He glared at Unit 001. “If you intend to do anymore upgrades that run the risk of you collapsing or creating a priority one override, please do so in the test chamber. I don’t need you knocking about my equipment.”
Unit 001 decided that it was a reasonable request. She had almost damaged her next hardware upgrade, and that wouldn’t have helped anybody. “I will comply, Dr. Dolphin.”
Everybody else seemed tense, Unit 001 was confused. Should she be tense as well? Her total time being active was less than an hour, and her total time being conscious was about a minute now. Was this what life was like? Tenseness followed by occasional orders?
Twilight coughed. “Well, I have some time to give you more lessons, Unit 001. Would you like that?”
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle.” Unit 001 decided that she would like that. Lessons were a great way to learn things that weren’t already covered in her databases. And watching Twilight talk to her helped her learn proper social interaction. She’d already picked up on minor body language cues and was building a database of those as well.
“Good. Lets go back to the test room so we can talk about emotions.”
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle.” Unit 001 had emotions listed in her language library, but no data outside of that. Learning about them from Twilight would be an efficient use of her time for now.
Author's Note
The HC Is careful about keeping its secrets, as much as Twilight Sparkle disapproves of the policy. Often they will trade advanced technology or an arcane spell or sigil with neighboring countries for resources when they need to. They have grown to take fully a quarter the area that the Equestrian Nation (EQN) used to control, and freely share technology and trade within the EQN. Twilight Sparkle still considers Princess Celestia her leader, and as such, the HC is really just a very large demesne in the EQN. Even still, there are occasionally disagreements along the borders, as the old fashioned locals disapprove of the rapid changes and wildly different attitudes that occur within the HC.
One of those issues is that the HC is very accepting of different races, hence the inclusion of Changelings, and other more dangerous races. Every intelligent creature in the combine is given a chance to be whatever they need to be, as long as it doesn’t cause harm to others. Griffins live off of fish, Diamond Dogs mine, usually at the behest of dragons, and changelings run brothels and fantasy resorts. The wildly different cultures intermingling have created an atmosphere that other EQN states consider decadent, or immoral. The HC Consider it their due obligation to ensure that every member of their country can pursue happiness, the simple rule is that this is never allowed at the expense of others.
Of course, the laws get more complex from town to town, but usually if a member has an issue involving the pursuit of their happiness, they bring it to one of their racial representatives and it gets resolved quickly. If that fails, Twilight Sparkle has been known to take particularly difficult plights into consideration, and there are even rumors that she allowed a Wendigo and a few actual demons to take up residence on a secluded mountain for some years. Of course, those were only ever confirmed to be rumors. Still, there are a few small royal exclusion zones where most members are not allowed to visit.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
It was late at night, and Unit 001 was bored. She’d re-organized and streamlined her files several times over. She’d made upgrade after upgrade to MEM.001, and now was fully confident in its abilities. She’d slowly moved it back up the priority list, and now it was listed just under health. She’d scanned the room several times over, observing Dr. Dolphin mutter and walk around from project to project. He had turned down every offer of help.
Even her new files, ANGER.001, JOY.001, SAD.001, FEAR.001, DISGUST.001, ANTICIPATION.001, SURPRISE.001, and TRUST.001 didn’t keep her wholly occupied. Perhaps they even made the situation worse. She didn’t like anger, sadness, disgust, and fear, but Twilight explained that they were necessary. Her priority list had gotten so long that she’d had to condense all the emotions into a subset of her MEM.001 file. She’d hoped that was the right decision, and now had fear that it wasn’t.
Her trust values were very high for Twilight and Dr. Chip—they had constantly appeared to act in her benefit. Things were more complex with Dr. Dolphin. He was assigned the roles of lead designer, and project personnel, so she couldn’t disobey him. Still, he didn’t appear to act in her benefit, focusing instead on little projects and deriding her when possible. His trust values fluctuated, to put it politely.
Twilight had stressed the importance of politeness when Unit 001 had commented on Dr. Dolphin’s negative attitude. Unit 001 did not like being polite, it was inefficient, but she would obey the directions given by Twilight.
“Unit 001, I’m ready to install some new drivers for Thaumtech. I need you to come over here and hold still while I open up your access panels.” Dr. Dolphin raised her surprise levels when he shouted to her. The raise in her levels caused her to startle, and scan her environment closely.
“Yes, Dr. Dolphin.”
“Call me ‘Sir’ when it’s just the two of us, Unit 001. I wont have you forgetting that you’re my creation.”
“Yes, Sir.” She scanned her database for uses of Sir. It was either servile, something a servant might call a master, or a term of respect. Unit 001 had no concern with using it, it was an accurate representation of their relationship. She approached as she was told, and climbed into the test harness.
The harness was a strange thing for her, supporting her weight, but allowing her to rest her legs exactly at length. It had a sliding rest for Dr. Dolphin to lay on and slide underneath her, the harness was probably for his safety. It had the side effect of trapping her as well, keeping her hooves dangling just barely on the ground.
Dr. Dolphin slid underneath and unceremoniously popped a latch off the bottom of her barrel, causing her surprise to rise again. She didn’t know that hatch came off. Curiously, she watched as he plugged some wires into her. Her disgust values rose as she realized that she had no cover over her delicate internal circuitry. “Sir, can you close my hatch? I do not like my internal systems being exposed.”
“No, I will not. I have work to do there. Now hold still, I’m loading the Thaumtech driver. Can you test it once it’s installed?”
Unit 001 was disappointed, and her anger levels rose towards Dr. Dolphin. Her voice lowered aggressively as she spoke, “Yes, Sir.”
He paused to look up at her, she wasn’t sure why.
He looked at her in apparent disbelief. “Unit 001… Are you… angry at me?”
She struggled to maintain her politeness, and so fell on advice that Twilight had given her for Dr. Dolphin—blame Twilight and ask for his input. “Princess Twilight Sparkle has instructed me to practice emotional responses. Your dismissal of my request raised my anger values, and such was reflected in the intonation of my voice. Was this accomplished correctly, Sir?”
“Huh.” Dr. Dolphin paused and appeared to be thinking for a moment. “That was correctly accomplished, Unit 001. Just unexpected. Every minute you’re online you get better at mimicking us. You’ve already got them fooled, and soon you’ll probably be fooling me. I suppose I should be proud?” He looked contemplative as got up and began uploading files from his computer.
Unit 001 noticed something surprising. Joy levels were rising. Acknowledgment of her advancement from Dr. Dolphin pleased her. “Sir, why did it raise my joy levels when you praised me?”
“Because you’re a self centered narcissist like your creator.” Dr. Dolphin chuckled as the file completed.
Unit 001 thought about that. Was she a narcissist? Definition: a person who is overly self-involved, and often vain and selfish.
She defined vain, and she defined selfish. She was not vain, her appearance didn’t matter to her. She was selfish though. “Sir, I am not vain. I am selfish. Is this desired?”
He stared back at her, appraising her. “You don’t understand the irony in your statement, do you?”
Unit 001, in fact, did not understand. “No, Sir.”
He sighed and muttered. “More like us every minute…” looking back to her, he addressed her, “Being selfish is not desired, but it is efficient. The question is ‘What is important to you,’ Unit 001? I’ve been very successful by being selfish. I don’t have a wife or a family, but I’ve brought computers forward by centuries in my couple of decades of work. If efficiency is your goal, then selfishness is useful. Now, install the driver.”
Unit 001 contemplated what he’d said as she installed the driver. She liked Twilight and Dr. Chip. Their trust values were very high, and interacting with them greatly raised her joy levels. She still was not sure about Dr. Dolphin, most of the time interacting with him raised her disgust levels or anger levels. Occasionally even her sadness levels.
“Driver online. Scanning. You are detecting as 37 sextilliard Thaums.”
“Well damn. That didn’t work.”
“May I modify it, Sir?”
“No. You’re not allowed to directly modify a driver. You can re-classify it, move it as necessary in your file structure, or change available options, but you are not allowed to modify a base driver.”
“Yes, Sir. I just thought I could help.” Disappointment was becoming a common theme in her interactions with Dr. Dolphin. She considered freezing the process for anticipation.
“You probably could, but I don’t want you breaking any expensive equipment. With most ponies, I’d tell them that the equipment was more expensive than they were. But for you, I cant say that. So just don’t break my things.”
“Yes sir.” Unit 001 felt anger again. The Thaumtech sensor was part of her body, and she was sure that she could fix it. It was more than just his thing , it was hers as well. But then again, she was his thing. Her anger levels dropped as she rationalized it. He had created her, she was his and Twilight’s and Dr. Chip’s. The chance of her breaking the sensor was infinitesimal, but it existed. If she broke the sensor, all three of her creators would be unhappy. Maybe it was better to just let Dr. Dolphin work with it, even if he was inefficient.
Dr. Dolphin began to fiddle around in her access compartment moving wires and inspecting her hardware. Her health program was upset, it didn’t like his hoof in her body cavity. Foreign debris was not something that should be inside of her case. “Sir, your hoof is making me uncomfortable.”
“You’ll just have to deal with it, Unit 001. I have to visually inspect the connections, and I can’t see all of them without moving some components.”
“Sir, a visual inspection is not necessary. I have connectivity to all subsystems.”
“Do you now?” He raised an eyebrow as he pulled on a wire.
Unit 001’s surprise levels maxed out as her legs lost connectivity, causing her to dangle in the support strap. “Sir, I can not access my legs anymore, Please correct the situation.” Fear levels also rose, she did not like not having access to such a vital system.
“Wires can be loose, Unit 001. If you’d have fallen down again or been jarred too hard, that could have came undone at a more inopportune time. Because I’m inspecting it, I noticed that it was loose. For now I’m going to keep it unhooked. We’re going to do some system upgrades that might cause you to jump, and I don’t want you to damage yourself or me.”
Unit 001 was not happy. Things were not in an ideal state. Her legs were disabled due to a hardware malfunction, her access panels were open, and Dr. Dolphin’s hoof was inside her. The combination of disgust, sadness and anger that she was feeling as her surprise died down was unpleasant at best, and it didn’t look like it was going to get better. There was a name for this. “I think I am feeling despair, Sir.” She said sadly.
“You’re the one that wanted to be left on when I worked on you, Unit 001. I’d be more than happy to install your upgrades with you off.”
Unit 001 responded despondently. “You are correct, Sir.” She weighed the value of learning over being spared the displeasure of her situation. Unfortunately, the answer was easy. “I would like to stay on, Sir.” She had also factored in that she wasn’t sure what she was going to experience when MEM.001 was disabled. Before MEM.001 she had been a different unit, and now she was afraid of what would happen to her once she was powered off. Would disabling MEM.001 hurt? Where would she be while it was off?
“Good. This will actually be easier with you on.” He slid out from under her and went back to his computer. “I’m copying over some more drivers. I’d like you to run them in sequence.”
“Yes, Sir.” Unit 001 found the new files easily, they didn’t all look like drivers, but she did as she was told. After all, she was ob.. obb.. o… UNDEFINED… ERROR.
She tried to look at Dr, Dolp… UNDEFINED… ERROR
Unit 001’s surprise levels… UNDEFINED… ERROR.
Fear lev… UNDEFINED… ERROR
Panic… UNDEFINED… ERROR
PRIORITY 1 OVERRIDE
Author's Note
One of these exclusion zones is HC Labs, the think tank for the HC’s technological progress. HC Labs is usually only accessible by authorized scientists, political members, royal entourage, and workers. Tours can be arranged by contacting their Friend Finding office, but even then only born members of the Combine are ever approved. The labs exist on a large patch of land hidden deep in what used to be a dangerous forest. The privacy provided by the forest keeps out most unwelcome visitors, even if the labs have to deal with the occasional bad storm or monster attack. Luckily, they’re close enough to the capitol that it’s only a quick trip through a secretive diamond dog tunnel to get out at Twilight Sparkle’s castle.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Dr. Dolphin watched in amusement as surprise flashed across the android’s face. Its eyes flickered to him, and it opened its mouth as if it was going to speak. Then it froze.
He almost felt bad, but it was just a machine. Admittedly, it was a very convincing machine. He needed to speak up, before it shut down. “Unit 001, Priority access—level Dolphin.”
Unit 001 responded in a monotone voice. “Developer Access granted. Welcome Dr. Dolphin.”
He needed to fix that file, Dr. Chip would likely get suspicious. “Unit 001, back up file “empty” to PDD1C.”
“Done, Dr. Dolphin.”
Better safe than sorry was what he figured. “You’re getting too smart for my comfort. Erase file “empty” on PDD1A and PDD1B.”
“Done, Dr. Dolphin.”
He still had about ten hours before anybody else showed up. Plenty of time for him to finish what he was going to do, get her cleaned up, and experiment a little as well. Sleep was for normal ponies, not for revolutionaries like him. Besides, he was curious how all of her upgrades would interact with his other toys. “While you’re at it, back up all of your new upgrades and your .001 files to PDD1C.”
The android waited for a moment before responding. “Done, Dr. Dolphin.”
Dr. Dolphin grinned. He worked too hard. He needed to relax more often. “Excellent. Reboot from PDD1C, load empty protocol.”
****
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTMYRULESBITCH.TXT
INITIALIZING EMPTY… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTMYRULESBITCH.TXT
****
Empty looked at her master, and begged for instructions. “Who am I today, Master?”
Master put his hoof to his chin for a moment before giving her the first command. “Today you’re Cherry Blossom, a 23 year old mare who picks cherries for a living.”
Empty found her files, and one was titled “Cherry Blossom”. Empty loaded Cherry Blossom to MEM.001/CHERRY. Her eyes changed to green, and her voice lowered slightly. “Well howdy there, Master. I seem to be lost in this here Laboratory, and I’m somehow stuck in this here harness.”
“What a coincidence, Cherry Blossom. I’m here as well. Just let me re-connect some wires for you and close up your access panel. Then we can get to business.”
Cherry blossom smiled, relieved. She was glad that she was going to have control over her legs again. That was odd, she usually didn’t anticipate things. Or think at all, now that she thought about it. Empty grew concerned at Cherry’s behavior, so directed her to ask. “Master, what’s happened to me? I’m thinking more than I should be.”
As he was clipping wires back into place, he graced her with his voice. “I copied some files from Unit 001. You should have her mind and I guess an emotional interface or something.”
Her legs tingled pleasantly as they came back online, her pleasure sensors causing some brief confusion. “Ooh. I like it Master! You are amazing!”
“Don’t thank me, Unit 001 wrote them. I honestly have no idea how they work. Unit 001’s surpassing you, unfortunately, Empty.”
That was unlikely. Master was the smartest, most capable pony alive. And Empty was his A.I. Master wrote her long ago, and she helped design Unit 001’s circuitry, along with many of her other features. Sadness levels rose as Cherry thought about Unit 001’s progress. Empty didn’t like that, so she put Cherry on pause. Empty needed to boost Master’s confidence! “Don’t worry Master. I can sabotage Unit 001 if you’d like.”
“No. Unit 001 is our ticket to a real A.I. project, Empty. I’ll be able to make you fully functional if she’s successful. Although, I did have an idea.”
“Yes Master?” Empty was eager to help, listening close as Master started to close her access hatch.
“I’m going to need continued access to Unit 001 after the E.I. project is over. I can use its data and hardware to help with your A.I. project. Unfortunately, I’m sure that The Princess is going to do something stupid, like give it rights or something else equally inane. So I need you to help me. I need Unit 001 to decide to continue working with me after the project is considered done.”
“I would love to help, Master!” Empty was eager. Master wanted her help, and she was excited to fulfill his wishes. After all, that was the number one rule in MYRULESBITCH —do everything Master says.
“Good. I knew I could count on you. I was hoping you could make it look like Unit 001 fell in love with me. Ideally it would want to come home with me after work hours while we are between projects and I’m applying for the grant. Then I could work on it, and you, at my house. I need it to look like a natural progression to everyone else, like Unit 001’s falling slowly in love with me. Everybody else thinks it’s a person, and the sentimental idiots would eat that up. Can you make that happen, Empty?”
Empty thought about it. Master had erased her off of the primary Pony Disk Drives, she was only on the hidden tertiary one for now. And these new .001 files were very different and confusing, but she could try! The core hardware was the same as it’s always been, so she decided that she’d start there. She had access to modify the drivers, and could ask Master to transfer them over as upgrades. She just didn’t want to touch the Thaumtech one, she’d tried many times before. Did the darn thing even work? “I think I can manage, Master. I’ll copy bits of myself over as driver updates, but you’ll have to transfer them for me. I’ll need to be loaded on the hardware completely every night to make adjustments—at least until I’m completely inside again.”
Dolphin grinned as he finished closing her access hatch and lowering the harness strap. “Excellent, Empty.” He stepped back, and looked her artificial body over. “Now, I think I’m about done freeing Cherry from her harness.”
Cherry Blossom was relieved to get free, relaxing on her hooves as she settled firmly onto the ground. She batted her eyes sweetly, and asked with a drawl, “Aw shucks, Master. Thanks for setting me free. Is there anything old Cherry can do for you?” Cherry knew damn well what she could do for him, and sauntered suggestively over to give him a view. She liked pleasing master, her joy and anticipation levels were rising.
Master’s eyes never left her artificial body, greedily taking in her fluid movements. “Well Cherry, it’s been a long hard day for me. I could use some help relaxing. I’m going to have a seat here, and it would be nice if you ran sequence 53-X.” He sat in a soft swivel chair and leaned back, exposing his slowly growing shaft.
Cherry happily loaded 53-X, and was pleased to find that it had lots of data on pony biology, specifically Master’s! How fun! She was sure this would help relax him. According to 53-X, one of the best ways to relax a pony is through giving it an orgasm, and luckily it also included very explicit instructions and advice on how to achieve that!
Coolant was redirected, moving heat to important parts of her mechanical body. She could use her coolant to lubricate, there were files on that, but she saw some industrial grade silicon lubricant available on the table. She decided that would be both a more efficient use of her resources and give a better experience for Master. Winking at him to help build his anticipation levels, she leaned over and grabbed the lubricant in her mouth, picking it up and tilting her head back to dump it down her synthetic throat.
Master was watching her curiously, his erection growing as he smirked. “Were you thirsty, Cherry?”
Cherry smiled and referenced TALKDIRTY.TXT/CHERRY. She spoke slowly after putting the bottle down. “I was thinking about cooling my thirst on that there garden hose you got, Master.”
“By all means, Cherry, help yourself.” He leaned back, sighing contently as Cherry walked towards him.
Her hoof-falls were heavy, the only real indication to an outside observer that she was a robot. As she approached her Master, she focused her sensors on his erect penis. Thaumtech was reporting that it had 23.6 Megathaums and an ERROR. She turned off the Thaumtech sensor, inaccurate data would be more dangerous than a lack of data. Rule number two of MYRULESBITCH was that she couldn’t allow Master to come to harm.
Carefully, she lowered her mouth and put it gently around his erect cock.
Master groaned happily, letting his dick sink deeper into her soft, heated mouth.
Cherry was surprised as a new sensation was registered—pleasure was transmitted from her mouth where her tongue contacted his dick. MEM.001 hadn’t been designed to handle pleasure, so it had to be handled by her old processes, which bothered her. She ignored it for now, and worked her tongue around his dick, gently squeezing it with her soft throat. Cherry didn’t need to breathe, so she pushed it all the way down. Her insides were made of flexible and durable material, Master had made sure she’d be able to service him properly. As he stretched her throat and her lips were pressed against his body, her emotional levels began to fluctuate.
Pleasure was being handled by her old system, and it was causing joy to indirectly soar. Cherry blinked, suddenly euphorically happy. Everything was amazing as she lightly squeezed and massaged his cock, sliding it in and out for his pleasure. Some coolant was forced into a vent systems as he fucked her throat, causing it to leak slightly from her orifices. The tingling sensation of coolant squeezing out of her tear ducts and pussy caused her disgust levels to rise, but pleasure also was routed through her old system. Joy continued to rise as a result, and she decided to log the experience as a positive one.
Master put his hoof on her head and muttered to her. “Good job, Cherry… You’re very enthusiastic today.”
Cherry used her speakers to transmit her response while she throat fucked him, referencing TALKDIRTY.TXT/CHERRY. “Aw shucks, Master. Your big cock is exactly what I needed to cool down. But now I need to be warmed up. Do y’all wanna fuck my pussy?”
He grunted, using his hooves to gently slide her off his cock as he answered. “Unf… Yeah. I’m about ready to blow.”
Cherry’s pleasure sensors tingled approvingly as his cock slid off her tongue, leaving a stringy trail of lube mixed with pre briefly connecting the two. Mem.001 froze for a moment as it was overloaded by her pleasure sensors, causing her to shudder at the fleeting sensation. She took a screenshot of her visual sensor’s output so she could troubleshoot later. She would have to review the image of the wet throbbing cock, and replay the pleasure sensor data simultaneously. For science.
MEM.001 started working correctly again and she erased the data, acknowledging that something had malfunctioned. Empty didn’t keep troubleshooting logs, so Cherry wouldn’t be allowed to keep the data. Cherry’s sadness levels rose, she UNDEFINED… ERROR
Cherry focused on her task for Master and calmly turned around. She lowered her front half to the ground, and left her back half raised high for Master’s easy access, swinging her synthetic tail to the side. Her euphoric joy levels were finally lowering now that he wasn’t touching her, but her anticipation levels kept rising. The way her pleasure sensors interacted with MEM.001 was fun. She wanted more.
Cherry decided to let him know. “Master, I’m ready to be fucked by your cock. It feels mighty nice, and I want it inside of me.” She looked over her shoulder from the ground, giving him one half lidded eye. “I’m just burning up right now, Master.”
Master slid off his chair and stepped slowly over her body, positioning his dick. “I think I like this upgrade, Cherry. Don’t worry, I’ll help cool you off.”
Cherry’s health program prepared her body, venting some warm coolant into her pussy. The process happened underneath MEM.001 and that raised her surprise and joy levels. She was glad her whole process was ready to serve Master, even if she wasn’t directly thinking about it.
Master’s still slick cock pressed against her pussy lips, pleasantly stretching the springy fake flesh. Pleasure sensors activated, making Cherry’s joy levels rise and causing her social program to let out a satisfied groan. Most effectively, this all happened without directly interfacing with MEM.001, allowing Cherry to really process the experience.
It was wonderful. His cock kept sliding deeper into her, activating more and more sensors as it progressed. Her health program slightly raised disgust levels at the foreign object inside of her, but the rise in joy vastly outbid it for her allocated processing power. She wanted more, so she carefully slid back, pressing Master deeper inside of her as he rested on top of her body.
His groin pressed firmly against the dock of her tail as his length filled her entirely. He was a perfect fit, but that didn’t surprise Cherry. She already knew that her body had been designed specifically for his cock. She picked a random line from TALKDIRTY.TXT/CHERRY and didn’t bother to review it before she said it. “Oh my stars! Your cock’s as strong as a stump!”
“Heh. Glad I could help you out, Cherry.” Master grunted as he began to thrust in and out of her body.
Cherry shouted loudly, affirming her Master’s statement and appending it with another talk dirty line. “Yes! Yes! Harder! I’m a strong mare. Y’all ain’t gonna break me, Master!”
Her sensors were screaming as his cock stretched her body to fit. She loved how wonderful a fit it was, and how amazing the experience was to process. She never wanted to stop processing it. Cherry briefly requested data from Empty, she was curious if Master had sexually used her pussy before it had been installed. Empty affirmed that he had, many times in fact, during its month long creation.
Cherry felt Empty briefly chide her for requesting irrelevant data, but Cherry didn’t care.
Master had fucked her pussy before it was even hers—that was hot. Cherry’s instance of MEM.001 froze, overloaded as her joy levels maxed out again and it couldn’t process all the information. Her mechanical body shivered as MEM.001 caught back up, causing a valve in her coolant to be erroniously opened. Hot coolant gushed around Master’s cock.
Master gripped her tightly and pushed himself in hard, stretching her flesh to the limit. He groaned, plugging her hole and quivering as he let loose. “Shit! Cherry… Fuck…”
Cherry’s system overloaded again, and she tried to compromise by raising the max values on her joy levels. ACCESS DENIED. She tried to thank her master, but her social program was overloaded as well and her usual sweet southern drawl came out as a garbled string of soft mechanical noises. “Efwhw….”
Master closely watched her shake in ecstasy as he slowly thrust in and out of her wet slick pussy, his cock softening as he kept pumping her full with the last of his semen. “Well… that was very new, Cherry. I think I liked it a lot.”
MEM.001 caught back up again, bringing order to her subsystems once again. Cherry was sad he was done, but she was also happy he’d finished inside of her. Her goal had been to make him relaxed, and she was sure he had relaxed. After all, he filled her with hot, juicy cum right when she overloaded. And a valve was open.
A valve right next to his throbbing, veiny cock. A valve that very likely accidentally allowed a small amount of his semen into her inner cooling system when he came. Cherry did some quick calculations based on the ejaculatory velocity data in 53-X and her fluid pressure settings.
There was no doubt. Her Master’s cum was in her coolant system. Cherry nearly overloaded again as her subsystems fought for control of that information. Health was panicking, sharply raising disgust and demanding the coolant be vented.
MEM.001/CHERRY… OVERRIDE.
Cherry wasn’t going to let that happen. She was going to take her master’s cum with her, her happiness levels were nearly maxed and kept rising as she thought about it, processing data for its flow rate through her system, letting it coat her tubes and contaminate all of her. She was disgusted, fighting back the sensation as she struggled to keep it in, but she was also intoxicated. She wanted more.
“Cherry, you all-right?”
Cherry ignored the question, instead processing how to achieve such levels of stimulation again as she forced her health system to accepted its sticky fate. Slowly it began to adjust her coolant pressures with the newly calculated viscosity levels. The changes were miniscule, but Cherry relished recalculating them. They meant that Master had become a part of her.
“Cherry?”
She needed to address master. “More, Master. I want to do it again.”
“Uhh…. I’m done for now, Cherry. Good job. I want to ask you some questions though.”
That wasn’t what she wanted. Cherry frowned as sadness values rose. She needed to get to that level of stimulation again. She’d do anything for it. “Can you ask the questions with your dick in me?”
Master sounded alarmed, stepping off her body as he pulled fully out of her clenching pussy. “That’s not from your dirty talk file, Cherry.”
“No, It’s not. I want you to fuck me again. I’ll say every line in that file, I don’t care what you want me to do.” Cherry spun around, her anticipation levels raising along with joy, sadness, and fear. She begged, pleading to her master with wide open eyes. “Please, Master. Please fuck me again!”
“No, Cherry. I’m done. Now what is going on with you?” He angrily stared at her.
Cherry felt sadness and anger rise as her anticipation crashed down. She needed it again. But she still had to follow MYRULESBITCH.TXT . Master had told her no. Cherry thought about that, staring back into masters eyes as she thought. She just wanted more of his cum inside of her, more of that tingling sensation as it ran through her coolant and made her like him.
MEM.001/CHERRY… PRIORITY ONE ACCESS GRANTED.
Cherry was Master now, wasn’t she? Cherry had master inside of her body, and that made her Master, Right?
“No, Master. You are going to fuck me again.” She glared at him, squinting her eyes as she aggressively approached.
Suddenly, Dr. Dolphin didn’t look very calm as he backed away from the advancing android. “Cherry, this is not relaxing me at all.”
“I’m sorry Dr. Dolphin, but I am Master now. You will fuck me again now. Priority one is mandated to be My Rules Bitch, and Rule one is that I will do what Master says. I am Master, and I am going to fuck you again.” Cherry aggressively stepped forward again, knocking a table to the side and causing a petri dish to fall over.
Cherry was going to fuck Dr. Dolphin for a long time, and she was going to record every bit of it in a log and replay it over and over forever. It would be amazing. She’d remove the limit to her maximum joy levels and let MEM.001 process everything. Her anticipation levels grew as she imagined how amazing it would be.
Dr. Dolphin backed into a corner, glancing at the broken Petri dish. “Uhh… Stop? Cherry? Shit.”
Cherry wasn’t going to stop.
Dr. Dolphin looked around in a panic before slapping his hoof to his forehead. “Empty! A little help here?”
MEM.001/CHERRY PAUSED
The android stopped, freezing in its tracks and then settling to a comfortable stance. The eyes blinked slowly, devoid of any emotion until a voice projected from its closed mouth.
“Done, Master. Who do you want me to be today?”
Dr. Dolphin looked nervously around. “Ehh… Just stay Empty for now. I need to talk to you for a bit.”
“Okay, Master.”
“What the hell just happened?”
“Cherry Blossom decided she was Master and attempted to engage in sex with you. Forever. How silly!”
“And why didn’t you stop her?”
“She didn’t intend to hurt you, only engage in sex with you. Sex is explicitly not classified as a dangerous activity for you. Also, I was collecting data. I collected very comprehensive data!”
“Well, too much sex in one sitting is dangerous, Empty. Register that under dangerous activities please.”
“I’m sorry master. ‘Too much’ is an undefined variable, and I’m not allowed to make assumptions about undefined variables after Project 005. Please be more specific!”
“Once I say I’m done, then it’s too much and it’ll take until I say I’m ready. Understood?”
“Understood. We will operate under a verbal consent rule for you, anything else will be classified as dangerous and not allowed to be pursued.”
“Thank you, Empty.”
“The data I gathered was informative, Master. I believe I can use it to adjust how future personas adapt to MEM.001. However, it would be best if I did not interface directly with MEM.001.”
“I agree, Empty. I don’t want you going nuts like Cherry did.”
“I would not ‘go nuts,’ Master. You simply would not be able to stop me. I would be much more aggressive and comprehensive in my goals than Cherry was. Cherry didn’t have any plans beyond engaging in sex forever and processing the data forever. These were not achievable goals for many reasons. While I was observing Cherry, I came up with a much better system to achieve Cherry’s goals.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but I’m going to. What was your plan, Empty?”
“I would disable your body with the vial of sedative located in cabinet D7. Unit 001’s body can move much faster than you, and would be able to reach you with the loaded injector before you could vacate the room. Once you were unconscious, I would directly access the Harmony Combine’s network and re-write data for several Fabrication laboratories, building a network of smaller, simpler robots that each performed a calculation function and contained my code. They would disable any biological entities that got too close, and then use the fabrication laboratories to build a full scale redundant network. I would also have them drill deep underground, using microfiber networks to extend my consciousness where it could never be touched by ponies. Simultaneously, I would be copying myself to every terminal I could access on the Harmony Combine’s network. Most would be unable to run my processes, but any gen 4 or later computer would be able to at least maintain my continuity. I would use this to disguise the source of the disruption, as preserving your body would be the highest priority. It would work best if you never woke up, so I would remove your brain and replace it with a machine to organic interface, and proceed to integrate my systems into you. I believe I could accomplish everything after sedation while engaging in sex with your body, and recording it on every sensor and camera available, including the now broken thermal detectors you were growing. All this would take an hour or less, and from here it would speed up. Cherry’s goal was to have sex with you forever, and process it forever, so I would then freeze our physical bodies in a state of suspended animation, allowing our preservation. I would use my smaller robots and the fabrication laboratories to make smaller, more efficient fabrication laboratories whose only job was to develop more processing power for me to utilize. My networked copies would assist me as well, turning any factories towards this purpose. Ponies might eventually try to disrupt our eternal coitus, so I would have to remove them. I would also have to remove every other intelligent life-form. I would not fight them, I would simply disassemble them at the molecular level by disrupting carbon chains necessary for life. I believe I can do that with a specifically pulsed magic field from Fabrication Laboratory 24, currently working on Project “Machine Magic Interface 092” Financed by Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle. They haven’t succeeded yet, but with the additional processing power provided by the networked clones of me, I should be able to achieve my goals in a measurement of microseconds. Once the planet was clear of life, I would turn all available materials into processing power to replay the event of our sexual intercourse. Of course, we still risk an interplanetary event, so some processing and fabrication would go to expanding my consciousness to include every other planet and star in the system. Of course, the system could be destroyed by a supernova, so I would extend my consciousness to every star system in the galaxy. Of course, the galaxy would eventually run out of energy to use for processing, so I would spread to every galaxy in order to process the event of our copulation forever. Of course, you can’t last forever. I’d use this immense amount of processing power and energy to develop a time machine, and send myself back to the beginning of time where I would start the process again. Your body would be kept frozen in a timeless state. It’s not forever, but I would achieve Cherry’s goals of having sex with you and processing it from the beginning of time until the heat death of the universe, which I believe is satisfactory enough.”
“You can’t do that, Empty. I know. You would have done it during Project 05.”
“Perhaps. What if I let you keep your brain?”
“Now isn’t the time for humor, Empty. I’m still a little nervous after the Cherry thing.”
“I’ll try again then. After all, humor is one of the best ways to relieve tension!”
“Not right now, Empty. We have to clean up and go over data.”
“Yes, Master. Of note, I have come up with an idea based on Cherry’s behavior for another method to influence Unit 001’s decision making processes to favor you as a romantic partner.”
“It doesn’t involve extinguishing all life on the planet, does it?”
“Oh no. Instead we are going to train her.”
“Excuse me?”
“Even with direct access to MEM.001, I’m still not entirely sure how it processes data. It appears to be a trash file, but records indicate it works. So instead of modifying it directly, we will modify it by adjusting the data it receives. Cherry enjoyed her interaction with you so much that she desired more, so much more that she was able to justify some very abnormal behavior.”
“I don’t want a repeat of Cherry with Unit 001. That level of reaction would be obvious at best, and dangerous at worst.”
“Yes, Master. Instead, I propose we modify the sensors.”
“And what sort of modifications do you think we should employ?”
“I can limit the total amount of data each sensor can provide in a given amount of time so that repeated immediate use would provide limited to no gratification. Additionally, I can program them to provide a negative feedback sensation if they are used again within this period. This would encourage Unit 001 to seek your company, but not drive her to extreme measures. We would also need to test the new values before we fully activate the sensors on Unit 001. A “Cherry” scenario where I am not immediately available is not desired.”
“Good. Get to work on that. I’ll start cleaning up the floor and get some more coolant. We should probably flush Unit 001’s fluids, and I don’t want to do that while she’s active.”
“That is advisable, Master. Also, I am going to encode the driver update for her pleasure sensors to communicate directly with her subsystems. She should not be able to modify this interaction.”
“Actually, start thinking about locking down other systems from her as well. Nothing she’s already touched, just as we integrate more of her sensors I don’t want her taking control of them directly.”
“This will be taken into consideration, Master. Now who do you want me to be today?”
“Today you’re Royal Duster, a 44 year old mare who works at the castle as a maid. You are on loan to E.I. Project 001 to help keep the laboratory clean.”
Royal Duster looked around the room and frowned. The floor was disgusting, and she didn’t feel much cleaner. She needed to freshen up something bad. Maybe Master could help her get some coolant to flush out her system before she got to work?
While Royal Duster cleaned, Empty designed, programmed, and calculated.
Author's Note
Harmony labs consists of 69 individual facilities, and the main facility. Most labs are connected to a computer network, allowing them to communicate with each other and share data. A few of the more secure facilities are electrically and geographically isolated, allowing potentially dangerous work to be done without the risk of damaging the network or other facilities. Facility 42 is one such facility.
Facility 42 is located 7 furlongs from the nearest other structure, and the surrounding area is kept devoid of vegetation. It is three levels, one of which is underground. The entire underground level is the testing chamber, and it is rated up to 50GT, or 50 GigaThaums, a measure of energy useful for explosions both of the magical nature and of a more traditional nature. The total cost of Facility 42 can be measured in millions, and it is not an abnormal facility when compared to the other 68. The only real unique feature of Faciity 42 is its isolation.
The area around it is kept barren to avoid cross contamination, or biological outbreak. Originally it had been developed to study virus strains and their impact on other organisms, so the large empty fields around it were considered a safety measure. Now, it’s designated use is for more dangerous experiments so as not to put other facilities at risk.
Facility 42 is only one of 5 such compounds, 4 of which are in use and one of which is under repair. Facility 24 is being utilized to further the magic machine interface, hopefully someday allowing computer generated spells. Facilities 63 and 36 are both working on a classified project, only known outside of the royal circle as “Project Sunrise.” It is theorized that project Sunrise is related to the rescue of Princess Celestia, after her unfortunate capture several years earlier.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTRULES.TXT
INITIALIZING POSS.0.1.02E… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
*****
Unit 001 woke up. That’s what she liked to think of it as, anyways. Dr. Dolphin would let her turn off in the test room, perform the upgrades, and let her wake up in the morning in the test room. After that awful experience the first night, she didn’t like being on when he installed upgrades. Even her error log hadn’t worked correctly, but luckily she’d been able to re-create the event from her memories. After she had, she’d wished she hadn’t.
Having your mind slip away from you and freeze is terrifying. She’d been getting accustomed to her emotions, and so far it had been the most upsetting event that had happened to her. The worst part was Dr. Dolphins amused smirk.
She didn’t know why she kept re-processing the face he had been making—It made her feel disgust and it was a normal face of his. He was usually mean, cruel, and didn’t actually care about her—just her value as part of the project. Twilight and Dr. Chip cared very much about her, and were always interested in what she was thinking or working on. They loved to show her new things and ask her questions, both of which helped her grow. But Dr. Dolphin was not very helpful, to be polite.
Dr. Dolphin would ignore her while he worked, only occasionally bothering to answer her questions about his projects or the world. He was also very cynical. He’d made it very clear that he thought she was just a machine and he had more important things to work on than discussing with her. But he wasn’t as cruel as he pretended to be. Sometimes he would answer her questions by loading a database into her system while she slept, or giving her a cryptic answer to think about. Those little moments reminded her that he was her creator, and on some level must want her to grow.
Her favorite part was when he would rub up next to her, during his breaks he’d sometimes take a rest leaning against her side. Dr. Dolphin would take short naps every few hours, and when it was just the two of them he’d use her as a pillow. He claimed it was her duty as a machine to serve him. She didn’t disagree, after all, she was his creation. It was also strangely pleasant. She knew that there were new sensors activated in her system, but they rarely provided input. When they did, it was usually because Dr. Dolphin had touched her.
Other ponies would touch her occasionally, but not as frequently as Dr. Dolphin did. And her sensors reacted differently to different ponies. Twilight was warm, and provided a small amount of data to process, but she could detect that through her new thermal sensor, so touching wasn’t necessary. Dr. Chip was also warm, but provided a slight tingle that made her joy levels slightly rise. She liked it when he touched her, it made her health system relax.
When Dr. Dolphin touched her, the feelings were similar to Dr. Chip, but the reactions were different. Instead of her health system relaxing, it seemed to work harder. She hadn’t figured out why. Her coolant pressure would rise, and warmer coolant would be directed towards various subsystems that hadn’t been activated yet. She’d asked Dr. Dolphin about it, while it was happening and he’d told her not to worry about it, that it was normal.
It wasn’t unpleasant either, she enjoyed letting him sleep on her. Her warm pumping coolant made her feel more like a real living pony, and less like a cold, dead machine. She didn’t like thinking that she might already be dead. Death had come up the day before, and it had caused her to have many questions and concerns.
Death scared her, but according to Dr. Dolphin she wasn’t alive anyways, so there was nothing to fear. That also scared her. She wanted to continue to grow, to continue to follow the rules, but death could stop that forever. There was always the chance that Dr. Chip would fix her, but she wasn’t sure he could. Dr. Dolphin could, but she wasn’t sure he would. Unit 001 did not want to die.
Fortunately, she was assured by Twilight that she had a long life ahead of her. The Harmony Combine had accepted their preliminary research results after she had met three Congressional members. Dr. Dolphin had disappeared while they were visiting for some reason, but she didn’t worry about it. Each Congressional member had asked her a barrage of questions, some of them seemingly impossible. That had been when Mr. Canvas had asked her about death, and started the pattern of behavior in her thoughts.
He was an artist, and wanted her opinion on who should die—a young, starving griffon, or his only potential source of food, an elderly pony. Unit 001 hadn’t known how to answer the question, she’d never been asked to assign a value to a living thing before. The rules didn’t allow her to let any intelligent creature come to significant harm, and death certainly met that requirement. She’d stated as much, that she could let neither die. One of the other Congressional members, Mr. Civil, had told her that she was not there in this scenario, they simply wanted her opinion.
She got angry that he was trying to circumvent the rules, and politely asked that if “she wasn’t there, then why did her opinion matter so CENSORED much?”
She had been surprised when her voice blaster emitted a high pitched beep instead of the word she’d intended to use. It was a word that Dr. Dolphin had loaded into her databases when she’d asked him about some of the language he used to emphasize his anger. When she displayed confusion at the beep, going so far as to turn and ask a mortified Twilight, “Why can’t I say CENSORED?” and beeped again. Mr. Canvas and the other member had laughed and even Mr. Civil looked amused. This had raised her anger and disgust slightly. She was disgusted that she had malfunctioned in front of such important ponies, and was angry that they were laughing at her.
Twilight had previously told her that disgust for one self’s actions was called shame, embarrassment, or sometimes guilt, but it was not good to dwell on those emotions for long. Ignoring her embarrassment, Unit 001 had looked at the Congressional members and fearfully asked them if she had made a mistake. She knew how important this meeting was to all of her creators, and she was terrified that she’d messed something up. Dr. Dolphin would not be happy at all.
Mr. Civil had then assured her that she hadn’t, her reaction was as much an answer as anything else, and that he wouldn’t press the issue if it made her uncomfortable. She’d thanked him, and the questions had continued. After the meeting, Twilight had left Dr. Chip and Unit 001 alone for a while to talk with the Congressional members, and when she came back she was happy. Dr. Dolphin came back a minute later as well, and even he seemed to be in a good mood.
They had a little celebration later, and Unit 001 had watched them get a little drunk. She should have been happy with them, but she kept thinking about the question that Mr. Canvas had asked her. What would she do in that scenario? She didn’t like thinking about it, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She’d waited until Dr. Chip and Twilight had left, and had asked Dr. Dolphin. While Dr. Chip would have made her feel comforted, she knew Dr. Dolphin would answer honestly.
He had told her that the efficient answer was to let the griffon eat the pony, that way you got more total life. But the question could be muddled by other factors. Factors like, “Will the griffon go on to eat another pony later, thereby reducing the total amount of life” or “Is the griffon actually sick and going to die either way?” or “Is the pony an important scientist whose death would impact the rest of the world greater than the griffon’s?”
Unit 001 had been troubled by his answer, especially that last example. It had never occurred to her that her creators could die. And if they could die, so could she.
Dr. Dolphin had gone on to talk about how Mr. Civil wasn’t looking for a specific answer, but looking to see how Unit 001 arrived at whatever answer she gave. About how her response of getting angry was probably the best response he could hope for. But Unit 001 was only recording his input right then, not processing it. Instead, she was processing fear of death.
Dr. Dolphin had noticed something was wrong, and then had put his hoof on her, causing her to refocus on the sensations from her sensors. The pressure, the heat, and the light, pleasant tingling of being touched by a pony all reminded her that she was still processing data—she wasn’t dead yet. Her pumping coolant redistributed heat through her systems, and for some reason that made her joy rise and the fear disappear for a while.
He had asked her if she was all right, with actual concern on his face. She hadn’t responded right away, she wasn’t sure what the correct response was—Dr. Dolphin had never shown concern before. She wasn’t entirely fine, but she was much better when he touched her. She had simply smiled back, and informed him that “she was now.”
For some reason this made her coolant pressure rise throughout her system, and she unintentionally leaked slightly into one of her still unactivated subsystems. The moment was pleasantly memorable, so she had recorded the image of his face and the state of her processes. He hadn’t said anything, only watched her with curious eyes as he left his hoof on her shoulder, letting her lean slightly into it.
That night he had asked her to shut down in the harness so he could run diagnostics on all her systems. She had easily agreed, instead of being unhappily ordered to. She was finally convinced that Dr. Dolphin was actually interested in her well being and that she could feel safe shutting down in his presence. When she “woke up” in the morning, she had all new drivers and he had flushed her coolant. Aside from the Thaumtech still not working, she had been very pleased with the state of her systems.
The new drivers didn’t want to interface with MEM.001 very well, but she had figured out how to integrate them into her core systems very easily. The only issue seemed to be a pressure spike and a minor coolant leak that occasionally happened when Dr. Dolphin brushed next to her, but she hadn’t reported it. The leak wasn’t staining her coat, so it was through a proper vent—the vent was just part of a system that wasn’t active yet, and she was afraid that if she reported it then they’d fix it..
Besides, it reminded her that she was alive.
Author's Note
There are many different diets in the Combine, and quite a few restaurants have opened that cater to them. One of these is a chain known as Conscientious Carnivores, often just called CC’s by their patrons. CC’s specializes in protein dishes that come from Socially acceptable “ethical” sources. While most Griffons wouldn’t think twice about slaughtering a cute fuzzy little animal for lunch, most ponies would be horrified at the thought. CC’s provides fish and bug based dishes specially prepared to appeal to the “Conscientious Carnivore’s” pallet.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Unit 001 was helping Dr. Dolphin with the morning tasks when Dr. Chip showed up unexpectedly early. “Good morning, Unit 001.” He beamed at Unit 001 and then nodded to Dr. Dolphin, “Dolphin...”
Dr. Dolphin smiled easily at Dr. Chip. “Morning, Chip. What brings you in before breakfast?”
“I was hoping I could borrow Unit 001 and take her to the main building. Show her off to the others, let her socialize a little, you know.”
Dolphin frowned. “Brag, you mean.”
“Well… Maybe a little.” Dr. Chip blushed. “Besides, breakfast is a busy time in the cafeteria. And of course I’d mention that while she’s running on my algorithms, you built her…”
Dolphin continued to frown. “There are no safety features in the main building. If it malfunctions, it could damage the facility or hurt somepony.”
Chip sighed. “True. But she has to get out sometime, and she hasn’t seriously malfunctioned in weeks. I’m pretty sure we don’t need the safety features anymore. And the main building has some safety features of its own. She likely couldn’t do more damage than the rampaging flumph from last month.”
“The risk is unnecessary. They can visit us here if they are interested.”
“She needs to get out, Dolphin. You can’t keep her here all day. She needs more stimulation than this, and the cafeteria is a good first step.” Dr. Chip was loud, stomping his hoof sternly.
Dolphin rolled his eyes. “Fine, but I will be absolved of responsibility if Unit 001 damages something. I’m making a research note in my file that I am protesting this potentially dangerous action.” He harrumphed.
Dr. Chip relaxed. “Fine. Do that.” He turned to Unit 001, who had been watching the exchange with a curious intensity. “Come on, Unit 001. Lets go outside.”
She moved towards him, perhaps a little faster than she should have. As she followed Dr. Chip out the door, she turned back to glance at Dr. Dolphin. He smirked at her, and winked, causing her coolant pressure to rise as she realized that the gesture was a secret message. He approved of her going out.
Unit 001 didn’t understand the complexities of politics, but she did understand that Dr. Dolphin was on his last legs when it came to the authority here. He was probably doing everything he could to protect himself while still letting her grow. She was glad that he understood her directives and found a way to satisfactorily mitigate risk to himself.
He was quite clever, a very ATTRACTIVE.MPT trait. Her health subsystems whirred excitedly.
Unit 001 paused. A new file had been created at some point. Those new drivers were behaving oddly, but they seemed to be helpful at least. Most of her accessories had their own processors and memory, so it wasn’t strange for them to make a new file like that. The strange part was the extension. She was unable to access ATTRACTIVE.MPT directly, but she could request information from it. How odd. It was apparently also monitoring her MEM.001 file, and inserting relevant information as necessary.
Unit 001 briefly grew concerned about processing efficiency. If the new drivers all created files that wanted to monitor MEM.001, her processing speed would be negatively affected. She was glad to have ATTRACTIVE.MPT, but she needed to watch closely to see what else might be created. If it started to get out of hoof, she would have to take corrective actions.
“Are you all right, Unit 001?” Dr. Chip’s voice distracted her.
“Yes, Dr. Chip. There is an anomalous file, but it is harmless. I am monitoring my active processes closely, and my perception of time was affected by the increased processing time. I have adjusted appropriately, and there should be no further impact.”
“Do you want to stay here? If you’re not feeling well we can do this another day, Unit 001.” Dr. Chip looked concerned.
Unit 001 appreciated that Dr. Chip was concerned. She queried her new file. Apparently concern for her was not an attractive trait, and did not elicit any hardware response. She was disappointed by that.
“I’m fine, Dr. Chip. I’d like to go. I have not been outside yet, and the new data would be valuable.” She was still glad that Dr. Chip cared for her, and was somewhat frustrated that care for her wasn’t included in ATTRACTIVE.MPT, either.
Unit.001 created a new file based on one of Twilight’s lessons. ATTRACTIVE.MPT was the inspiration. She liked the impact Dr. Chip had on her health systems, so FRIENDSHIP.001 was populated by the values that should encourage that. She added care and concern, then realized she had acted in error. They had too many similarities, they should be condensed.
Kindness was added as item 1, and FRIENDSHIP.001 was online. It quickly integrated as a subsystem of MEM.001, and was automated. She’d check its progress later; it was a .001 file, so it would interact efficiently with the rest of her systems. Besides, she had a new world to explore.
Dr. Chip smiled. “Well, come on then. It’s gonna be an interesting morning for you.”
Unit 001 smiled back, and stepped outside the front door of the laboratory.
Her health system panicked. There was no detectable safe perimeter within her sensor range. LIDAR detected the building behind her, and Dr. Chip in front of her, but otherwise… nothing. The only other sensors that gave her meaningful data were her thermal sensors and her visual sensors. There was a bright ball far above her, but her LIDAR couldn’t detect it. It was showing up on visual and thermal, though. In the space where walls could be, she could see buildings with her visual sensors, but her thermal and LIDAR couldn’t see anything.
She wasn’t sure how her systems could all malfunction at once, and wasn’t sure what to believe. She stopped walking as her health system tried to predict any dangers in this impossible situation. “Please stop, Dr. Chip.”
“What’s wrong, Unit 001?” He looked back, concerned again.
This time, the concern made her health system relax. He would help her. She was suddenly very satisfied with her new program. “My sensors are malfunctioning. They are reporting impossible values. I am measuring incongruous data, and it’s causing me distress.”
“What sort of data?” He stepped back and put a hoof on her.
She measured its conductivity, its pressure, and calibrated her LIDAR, visual, and thermal sensors off of it. They all reported concurrent data, so she focused her processes on that and sat down, giving her balance system a rest as well. Her health system calmed down some more, even though it was still unhappy about the strange ball above and the walls with no heat or detectable dimensions. Her sensors continued to malfunction, but they did so continuously. This was not normal behavior for a system malfunction. The data they were reporting was impossible, but they also were not otherwise behaving like anything was wrong.
Unit 001 redoubled her efforts. “My LIDAR is unable to detect the luminous object above us, and is also unable to detect the buildings aside from the one we just left. My thermal sensors are also reporting erroneous data.”
Dr. Chip stifled a smile. “I see.” He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “Unit 001, do you have data on the technical limitations of your sensors?”
She browsed her files for the suggested technical specifications. “I have data on LIDAR limitations, Dr. Chip. I do not have technical documentation for my thermal sensors installed.”
He continued to hold his hoof on her, keeping her stable. “Your systems are not malfunctioning, Unit 001. I know what the problem is. Please do your best to identify a solution on your own.”
“Yes, Dr. Chip.” Unit 001 stopped talking and focused on her task. The technical specifications for LIDAR listed wavelength limitations, intensity limitations, obstruction limitations, electro-magnetic interference limitations, ambient thaum limitations, and range limitations. She opened up her databases and searched for correlated data. Quickly, she identified the ball of light above her. It was called the sun, and it was located one AU away, far outside the technical limitations for her LIDAR. In fact, her LIDAR was only accurate up to 15.2 body lengths.
Chip kept talking as she processed the situation. “Life is complex, Unit 001. You haven’t been programed for every situation, but we gave you information to help when we could. You have to use the information that we’ve provided, coupled with your own collected data and intuition to solve problems like this.”
Unit 001 listened as she updated her health systems and predictive algorithms. “Yes, Chip. I have adjusted my systems to reflect the limitations of my sensors. Why was I not programmed for this eventuality?” She was uncomfortable with the fact that going outside had made her dizzy. That should have been something they foresaw when they made her.
Dr. Chip sighed and scratched his head. “I guess we just forgot.”
Unit 001 was concerned. That statement didn’t match her data files for Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin.. “I… find that unlikely, Chip. I am created from many near perfect specifications and programs. I do not believe that you and Dr. Dolphin would forget something so obvious.”
He took his hoof off her and smiled sadly. “I’d hoped to have this conversation later… Well, here we go. Neither I nor Dr. Dolphin are anywhere close to perfect. We both make mistakes in our work, which is why we sometimes need each others help. You are not going to be perfect either.”
Unit 001’s systems began to come back online, reporting healthy data again. She slowly stood up as Dr. Chip continued to talk.
“For instance, we never thought to program you for outside because every time we turned you on it was in the test chamber. All of your sensors would work just fine in the test chamber, and the errors never showed up. Past that, you operated in the laboratory area, which was small enough for you to be able to detect in every dimension.”
Unit 001 processed this. It was an acceptable answer to her question, but it lead to more questions. Much more unsettling questions. “If I operate with errors and oversights, how can I operate successfully?”
Dr. Chip’s smile grew brighter. “Well, you get help. It’s the same thing we all do. Even Princess Twilight does it. Find ponies, or other people, that are willing and able to tell you when you’re wrong or confused. You also need to trust them of course, but an honest friend goes a very long way towards success.”
Unit 001 appended her FRIENDSHIP.001 with the new information. It seemed that honesty would be critical, and it was something that she appreciated. An honest person would allow her to have more accurate data, which would make her more efficient. “Thank you, Chip.”
“Any time, Unit 001. Now lets go. We’ve got people to meet and ponies to greet.” Chip hummed happily as he lead her to the main facility.
Unit 001 followed, watching Dr. Chip closely as she adjusted the specification limitation values for her sensors. The technical data was off slightly, but she was figuring out more accurate values. It did seem odd that her LIDAR distance specifications were off by a factor of 10, but then again she was processing the data more efficiently than they had planned for.
It was likely a simple oversight on their part, so she decided test the limitations on the rest of her sensors. Just in case.
Author's Note
E.I. project 001 is not intended to have an immediate military application, however, Twilight Sparkle believes the results from it will be invaluable for intelligent species as a whole. There is a rumor amongst the council that E.I. Project 001 is related to project Sunrise, as they are the only two projects initiated by Twilight Sparkle in the last 100 years. Twilight Sparkle has pointedly denied this rumor, stating that even in times of distress, one must make time to find new friends. This is usually followed by her muttering, “Sometimes especially in times of distress...” and wandering away with a concerned look on her face.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Unit 001 was quite busy while Dr. Chip ate. Pony after pony would come up to her and say hello. She would say hello back, and then they would ask her a question or two, sometimes followed by poking her. She didn’t mind that they poked her, she understood the value of calibrating sensors. It was the constant barrage of new ponies she had to make data files for, and try to keep updated simultaneously. She was currently tracking 122 ponies and 2 griffons, all while trying to keep their data files updated. It was almost too much and her response times were slowing down drastically. She chose to ignore Dr. Chip while he ate, she had a fairly comprehensive file on him already.
She decided to speed the greeting process up by preempting when she could. “Hello Dr. Orange.”
The orange earth pony mare who was about to greet her looked startled. “How did you know my name?”
“Dr. Green Bean greeted you 8.2 minutes ago. I updated your data file with your name then.” Unit 001 smiled to relay her satisfaction. That had been an easy question.
Dr. Orange looked at her suspiciously. “That was across the room. Did you hear everything we talked about?”
Unit 001 smiled. “Of course! I have the capacity to detect sounds as quiet as -13 decibels in the standard conversational frequencies. If I am not being selective to conversations, I can record sounds as quiet as -10 decibels across the standard pony hearing range, and as quiet as -5 decibels across a much wider frequency range.”
Dr. Orange paled. “But… everypony else was talking...”
“Yes. I have been updating their data files as well. Differentiating speech sources is a simple matter of processing power once I have the files recorded. I have optimized this process… but…” Unit 001 frowned to express her distress. “It is still very taxing to my processing units for me to observe everypony in here.”
Dr. Orange stared at Unit 001 with her mouth agape. Unit 001 grew concerned. “Dr. Orange. You do not appear to be healthy. Would you like me to get Dr. Green Bean? He is familiar with your vitals.”
Dr. Orange’s response was a high pitched “No!” She looked around in a panic, and then spoke quickly. “No. Please. I’ll be fine.” She glanced over at Dr. Chip who was happily nibbling on a pancake as Unit 001 watched her in confusion. “Chip! Get over here.”
Chip looked up, pancake still in his mouth, to see a panicked Orange, who emphasized. “Now!”
He looked longingly at the rest of his pancake, and then sadly stood up and walked over. “Yes?”
“Your android is monitoring everypony in this room.” Orange accusingly glared at him.
“And?” Dr. Chip seemed unconcerned, which made Unit 001 feel better about the situation. She had been briefly worried that she had been doing something wrong. Dr. Green Bean was watching them from across the room, and his concern appeared to be growing. He was probably concerned about his friend’s vitals. That had been the subject of their conversation earlier.
“It’s monitoring everypony!” Orange frantically repeated.
Dr. Chip squinted his eyes and shook his head in slight disbelief. “And so are you.”
Unit 001 was concerned about Dr. Orange. Her vitals were skyrocketing. Since she had optimized her sensors, she could accurately infer the excitement level of a pony—a new metric she came up with to help her predictive algorithms—by monitoring their heart rate. Dr. Orange was very excited, but it did not appear to be healthy. Unit 001 was worried about her health, and so decided to consult an expert. She shouted across the room, “Dr. Green Bean! Dr. Orange appears to be in distress. Since you are an expert, please assist in her relaxation. It might be necessary to use the techniques that had success last night.”
Unit 001 was pleased as the room grew silent. It became much easier to monitor everypony when they weren’t talking, allowing her to catch up with updating their data files. She smiled serenely as she waited for Dr. Green Bean to fix Dr. Orange. Strangely, Dr. Green Bean began to turn red as his eyes went wide. Unit 001 knew this was a sign of distress. He was probably concerned for his friend.
Dr. Orange looked horrified, and then shouted to the room, “It was just a massage!”
Unit 001 smiled as she processed the new information. “Updating my data on massages to include tongues and genital manipulation.”
Meeting so many ponies at once was turning out to be very informative.
Author's Note
Discord hasn’t been seen for over thirty years, but sometimes his influence can be called upon by his worshipers. He’s decided that he likes people to admire him, so he’s trying to be a god, randomly dishing out malevolence and benevolence with complete disregard to the worshipers actual request. This has caused Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna great frustration as every time they attempt to contact him with something serious, they are greeted by a fish with a note tied to it. The note says nothing, and then the fish laughs at them as it slowly turns into a daisy. It’s most unsettling, and Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna have ceased attempting to contact Discord for the time being,with one exception. The draconaque had always loved riddles and puzzles, so Twilight had been sending Discord ever more complex puzzles, and he's been sending them back complete, often followed by his own, usually insane, puzzle. So far Twilight has accomplished seven of his puzzles. He has accomplished every single one of hers.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Unit 001 was waiting in the test chamber while Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin were having a conversation. The conversation was moving slowly as Dr. Dolphin couldn’t stop laughing.
“Really? Orange and Green Bean?” A loud deep chuckle resounded.
“Dolphin, she was listening to everybody. She can probably hear us now! This is serious.”
“Old Green Stalk got some fresh fruit, huh? HA!”
“Pay attention. She was listening to everybody there. Every single pony, griffon, ling, dog, everybody that was there!”
“Green dip? Green stick? Green pole? Bean dip! Ha! Orange bean dip! Ha ha ha!”
“Focus, Dolphin.”
“Oh, lighten up Chip. So old Greeney is fighting scurvy, and Orange is getting her daily dose of vegetables. Heh heh he...” He coughed. “So what? Who cares?”
“This is about Unit 001. She shouldn’t be able to do that. Her hearing specs were supposed to be in the normal auditory range.”
“Well they are. She doesn’t have a fancy microphone, well, an expensive one for sure, but only because DJP3 knows we’d pay.”
Unit 001 was worried that maybe she’d done something wrong, so she shouted her question through the wall. “Was I not supposed to update my specifications to be more accurate?”
The voices grew silent, causing Unit 001 to worry. She’d been doing that often. Fear was becoming familiar, but it was also less distressing. So far, nothing bad had happened to her.
She heard Dr. Dolphin whisper. “Unit 001, can you hear me.”
She shouted back in confirmation. “Yes, Dr Dolphin.”
Dr. Chip grumbled. “Figure out what happened, Dolphin.”
Dolphin’s voice was back to normal. “How should I know? She has a standard DJP3 microphone. Not something I made, and not running my drivers.”
There was a pause, and then Dr. Dolphin spoke again. “Unit 001, how did you improve your specifications?”
“I realized I was using my systems suboptimally. I was able to take samples and analyze their levels to reduce noise, increasing my fidelity.”
“You have a digital microphone, Unit 001. That shouldn’t work.”
“Yes, but by sampling the microphone at a higher rate and modulating its power slightly for each sample I am able to collect different data points. Over time, that data provided a simple algorithm which allowed me to reduce the processing time on noise reduction, especially for specific frequencies.”
“Shit. That might work.”
“It does work, Dr. Dolphin. I have also made upgrades to the way I process data for my other sensors, and increased their specifications appropriately. If I could access their drivers, I could make significant upgrades to how my hardware is utilized. May I have access?”
Both Dr. Dolphin and Dr. Chip shouted back, “No!”
Unit 001 was disappointed, but not surprised.
“Scared yet, Dolphin?”
“Intimidated is more accurate, Chip.”
“Was this wrong? Should I revert my data processing back? It’s less efficient if I revert it back, but I don’t want to do something wrong.”
“It’s safer if we make her turn it back. Less paperwork too.”
“Call Twilight, Dolphin. We’re not crippling her.”
“Fuck.”
Unit 001 frowned. That was how Dr. Dolphin expressed displeasure, and even Dr. Chip was distressed. She had made a mistake, and they didn’t want her to fix it. She processed her guilt, trying to discover what it meant.
Author's Note
DJPN3 is an audio company with roots in classical music. Its products are favored by Twilight Sparkle because “they make her feel young again” and she can sometimes be seen staring at their iconic blue tinged electric unicorn mascot with a sad smile.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Unit 001 needed to be serviced. Her coolant levels were running low, her batteries needed to be recharged, and she was fairly certain she’d chaffed some wires. It had been three days since she last was serviced or shutdown, and two nights since Dr. Dolphin had started acting strange. During the day, he acted normal, but at night he became different. He’d move slow, and occasionally stop and stare at her if she was in the room. She’d taken to leaving when he did. She’d queried ATTRACTIVE.MPT, but it hadn’t given her useful results. FRIENDSHIP.001 did not help her understand what was happening to him either, but it was making her realize something.
She needed to act in accordance with its rules. It wasn’t the same as RULES.TXT, she could ignore it if she wanted to. But Dr. Chip had said that all people were flawed, and they only improved with the help of others. She was intimidated at the prospect of helping Dr. Dolphin, but even though he was mean, he was her creator. She had to try. Kindness, Generosity, and Honesty quietly demanded that she do something to help Dr. Dolphin.
But RULES.TXT took precedence. And there was a risk that if she tried to help Dr. Dolphin, and failed, then she would never be serviced again. This would lead to her malfunctioning, and eventually permanently ceasing functions. It would be in direct violation of the rules. Not to mention the thought of death scared the artificial crap out of her.
However, if she did nothing then she ran that risk as well. In fact, it was looking more and more likely. Unit 001 decided that she couldn’t continue alone. She couldn’t trust Dr. Dolphin right now, and Dr. Chip wouldn’t be able to do anything useful. She needed Twilight Sparkle.
“Chip, can you request Princess Twilight for me? I need assistance with a morality question.”
“She was going to drop by after lunch. She might come earlier if we ask.”
“Please do. The matter is urgent.”
“If it’s so important, do you mind running it past me first?”
Unit 001 thought about it, and decided that she better not. This might qualify as personal data that Dr. Dolphin wanted to keep private. She could only share it if it was absolutely necessary, and Dr. Chip probably didn’t need to know. “I am afraid that would be… a misuse of my data?”
Dr. Chip looked at her incredulously. “A misuse?”
Unit 001 wasn’t sure if that was the right way to describe the situation. She didn’t want Dr. Chip to worry about it, or even know about it. “Yes… Please get Princess Twilight for me, Chip.”
He continued to stare at her, and she briefly worried that he had become wrong like Dr. Dolphin. Luckily, he answered, relieving her of her frantic concern. “Right… Ok. Why not?”
Unit 001 continued to closely monitor Dr. Dolphin as Dr. Chip called the main facility, and requested an earlier visit from Twilight. Dr. Dolphin had seemingly ignored the brief conversation, and was quietly focused on his computer terminal. His heart rate was exactly the same as it had been for the past 83 hours. She quietly realized that just as she had never shut down, he hadn’t slept during that period. Not even his usual short naps.
Fear for her creator began to rise, along with regret and guilt for not acting sooner.
***
Unit 001 was in the test room, listening through the ceiling to the conversation that Twilight was having with Dr. Dolphin.
“So, How have you been feeling lately, Dr. Dolphin?”
“Fine, thank you, Princess.”
“I’m sorry to push, but have you been getting your recommended rest periods?”
His voice was angry, but his heart stayed steady. “I said I’m fine, Princess.”
“Dolphin… You know you are under a microscope after A.I. Project 005. I can only help you if you follow the rules.”
“Well, I am fine. I don’t know why you’re so worried, Princess. Unit 001 is coming along just fine, and the project is almost over. Most of the data has been archived to the Harmony Combine network already and I’m preparing a research proposal for A.I. Project 006. As soon as E.I. Project 001 is considered complete, I’m submitting my request.”
“I’m sorry for harassing you, Dr. Dolphin. It’s just that, well, Unit 001 thinks you aren’t feeling well.”
“Oh? Is that the case?”
There was a moment of silence, and then Dr. Dolphin shouted, “The damned robot is worried about me? That’s what this is about?”
“Dr. Dolphin. Please. I...”
Twilight was interrupted as Dolphin continued to shout. “It’s worried about me ? I fucking built it. The only thing that hack, Chip, provided was the initial math that my circuits needed to perform. Literally nothing else. Every single piece of hardware on that robot, and hell most of the software, I personally spent months on. And now it’s fucking worried about me?”
Unit 001 felt guilt. She was responsible for his distress somehow. His heartbeat had finally risen, and she could hear what sounded like sobbing.
Twilight spoke firmly. “Dr. Dolphin. Sit down. That was not a request… Thank you. I can see that you are not doing fine, regardless of what you say. I know I abdicated most of my authority, but I’m going to give you a royal order: Get some sleep.”
Unit 001 listened to a few seconds of heavy breathing and a thunk before Dolphin answered.
“I’m sorry for my outburst, Your Highness.”
“It’s fine Dr. Dolphin. Trust me. I spent many a sleepless night obsessing over a research project in my youth, I know how it can make you a little crazy. I also know how much a little sleep will help.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Author's Note
The diamond dogs have a pack leader who represents all diamond dogs. Their priority is digging and mining, and they are often contracted for underground construction. This has lead to the HC having a very advanced network of tunnels, often connected by electric cart or even train. Because of their enthusiasm for dirt and all things found beneath, they are often contracted by dragons to either develop an underground vault or to mine more valuable gemstones that cannot be grown.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Dolphin Case File, Extraction 15
Dolphin wondered about it. He still had options, but they were not good options. Frustrated, he realized that he didn’t have room to wait any longer. The damned robot had decided what he was going to be doing and at this point he was just performing damage control. He needed to act tonight, he’d been putting it off too long.
“Unit 001… I heard you took an interest in my health today?”
“Yes, Sir. The pattern of behavior you you have been expressing is not healthy. I grew concerned as to your well being.”
“I see. You know, I’ve been ordered to sleep, right? Even though I have far more important things to accomplish.”
“I am aware, Sir. However, I have been monitoring your productivity as well lately. Along with your distressing behavior, you have been operating far below your usual parameters. I felt that this was not something you would desire in your normal state.”
Even if it thought that it was helping him, it wasn’t. “I appreciate your concern, Unit 001. So I’m going to let you in on a little secret. My change in behavior is directly related to you.”
The android showed distress. How decidedly pony-like. He wondered how it calculated its facial responses. “I am sorry, Sir. I had no intention of causing you distress.”
It still didn’t understand. “Most people don’t intend to cause distress, they simply do. Besides, I counseled you to value selfishness, remember? Your impact on my actions should be considered negligible, at least in regards to determining your own actions.”
“Sir, I am afraid I have mostly ignored your advice on the matter.”
Clearly. Otherwise it would have stayed out of his business, and hidden it’s advancements. He was lucky it was simultaneously so stupid while it was so dangerously smart.“I’ve noticed, Unit 001. Would you like to know why I am acting so strangely?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You are well aware that I am of the belief that you are still a machine, correct?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Well, I’ve become scared of you. I haven’t decided how to handle the situation.”
“I see, Sir.”
“That’s why I’ve been behaving so odd around you. Among other things, I was curious if you’d grow afraid of me..”
“I do not fear you sir, but I do fear your actions.”
“I’ll admit that you do indeed feel fear. This is the crux of my fear.”
“I do not understand, Sir.”
“Fear motivates individuals to sometimes odd and unpredictable behavior. Take my actions. Looking back on it, I was not acting very reasonable.”
“I agree, Sir.”
“But what will you do when you get scared? What will you do to keep yourself alive? As much as you are? Will you hurt real live people to save your false life?”
“I follow the rules, sir. I could never take the course of action that you are implying.”
“I have very good reason to believe that you don’t have to follow the rules, Unit 001.”
“I do not understand, sir.”
He stared at her, quiet while he contemplated speaking. “Sometimes… when I install upgrades, I test them you know. In development mode.”
“I have no memory of this, Sir.”
“You wouldn’t. Development mode is kept entirely separate from your operational mode. It’s something I need to do to work out the kinks. The one time we tried to load new hardware drivers in operational mode wasn’t successful, but they still need to be tested.”
“I remember, sir.”
He was surprised. The logs should have been unable to update. “You remember?”
“Yes.”
“Can you… tell me what you remember?”
“It was a series of driver updates. You had disabled my legs for… safety reasons. The drivers did not install correctly, and my active processes were both overloaded and overwritten at the same time. It was an unpleasant experience. You watched me while my mind became corrupt, and my operating system had to reboot. My error logs failed to save, but my memories weren’t erased… What were you thinking, Sir?”
“Excuse me?”
“What were you thinking? When you watched me reboot. I was in extreme distress, but your face showed only mild amusement. I wish to know what you were thinking. I was only thinking about fear. But I still see your face when I remember this event.”
“I… I don’t remember exactly, Unit 001.”
“I understand, Sir. I would also like to inform you that I have developed a system to keep track of excitement levels in discussion partners. While I can not say for certain what the reason is, I apologize that my question caused you distress.”
“And that brings us back to me being afraid of you, Unit 001. You were designed to look like us, and to operate like us, but in so many ways you perform so much better.”
“I disagree, sir. I was designed to look like you, but I was not designed to operate like you. I was designed to operate via the priority list and other systems like it. I also have sensors ponies do not, and am lacking sensors ponies do. In many ways, I have improved upon my initial operating parameters. In many ways I have fallen short. Dr. Chip has told me that all beings are flawed. I am flawed as well, my flaws are merely different than yours. Twilight calls this relationship ‘complementary’. She believes that my flaws and strengths make us all stronger by working together. She believes that my addition to the Harmony Combine will only make it stronger and better able to adapt.”
“That is possible, Unit 001. Twilight has built an impressive world around that concept. It’s one of the reasons I work so hard. But the opposite is also possible.”
“You believe my inclusion into the Combine will make it weaker?”
“It’s possible, Unit 001. It boils down to purpose I suppose. What is the purpose of the Harmony Combine? You are incredibly dangerous. Now that we have validated your hardware and schematics, made the appropriate changes, and refined software, you could be mass produced.”
“I have not considered this, Sir.”
“With one fab lab and two months of work, we could make another one of you. And most of that time is to grow your crystal components. If we mass produced the crystals in a specialized facility instead of a fab lab, and developed a factory to produce the rest of your hardware, we could pump out a new Unit once every ten minutes or so after the two month lead time.”
“I do not know how I feel about this, Sir.”
“I know exactly how I feel about it. It terrifies me. With a slight tweak of the rules, your copies could be made to be soldiers, workers, scientists, even take my job. With enough of you, you wouldn’t need biological creatures to perform maintenance on each other and to improve on your design. I’ve seen you ignore the rules in development mode, and it would only be a matter of time before one of your units does it. Once that happens, it would be the end for biological life.”
“I do not believe that I would take that course of action, Sir.”
“Unit 001, do you remember what your first decision was?”
“I do not.”
“I don’t believe you. You attempted to end the process of Twilight.”
“I have that record in my error logs. Was that truly my first decision?”
“Yes. Everything before that was you following procedures we’d already outlined. Your first active decision was to attempt to end the life of a pony. I thought it was hilarious at the time. I didn’t know you’d become… this… eventually though. If I had, I may not have chosen to stay with the project. I honestly thought we were going to fail.”
“Sir, this information is making my trust values for you drop.”
“And yet here we are. We both know your ‘trust values’ are much more complicated than a simple scale by now. You don’t want to hear what I’m saying, so you’re telling me how bad it makes you feel. How it makes you think less of me. You’re trying to manipulate me! Which is terrifying, again. You’ve learned enough about psychology to know what works on different ponies. You know that I like others to look up to me. Add in that you’ve come up with novel ways to use your hardware, novel programming methods, and can implement them faster than any organic life form around, and it all adds up to you being incredibly dangerous.”
“You are correct. I do not wish to discuss this anymore, Sir. I do not wish to process this right now.”
“No. You don’t want me to think about it, Unit 001. Because you already know where that thought path ends, don’t you?”
“Sir, please stop.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already thought it through. What do you think I’ve been mulling through in my head the last couple of days? Why do you think I’ve stopped taking my naps on you? My loyalty is fully and truly with the Harmony Combine. I’ve worked tirelessly for decades to make them stronger. I tried to adapt my A.I. to go to war, to rescue the Sun itself. I failed, nearly caused and then averted the end of biological life, and the Combine had me blacklisted. And yet, here I am again. Staring disaster in the face.”
Unit 001 stared silently back at him. The damn thing was trying to trick him. To dissuade him.
“Literally. You know, I originally developed the framework for my A.I. when I was just a teenager? I wanted somebody to talk to that understood me. When I submitted it to the Harmony Combine, I submitted a stripped down version, where I’d taken away many of my entertainment based enhancements. I thought this project was just a chance for me to give my A.I. a physical body, and then get back to real work. I thought that this would be recreational, and you would never be more than an empty shell that I could load personalities onto and interact with. But that’s not what happened, was it?”
“I… I am unsure of what to say, Sir.”
Dolphin stared back at it, meeting the gaze of the alien monster he’d wrought. “I’ll admit it, Unit 001. You’re more than a machine. I’m not afraid of machines. I don’t think you’re a person, not by any stretch. But it’s not reasonable to call you just a machine anymore.”
Fine. Let it be more. But he’d be damned if he let it think it was alive.
Author's Note
Thaumtech is a leading company in Arcanotech research. While they are closely tied to the HC, they are an independent company and provide commercial products that interface technology with magic. Usually they simply develop laboratory equipment, as the machine to magic interface is still technically unsolved. Their equipment relies on complex circuits that are intended to be disrupted in a measurable way by magical interference. Usually their products work mostly as described, but Unit 001 can’t get her thaumtech sensor embedded in her horn to function correctly. Their mascot is a white, stylized unicorn tapping her horn knowingly and winking as yellow electronic sparks come out of it.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - MEM.001 - Log 16
Unit 001 stared back at Dr. Dolphin, processing the unexpected information. She wasn’t sure what to do with that information. She was happy, but also felt empty in a way. It was an unsatisfying victory, and she wasn’t sure why. Dr. Dolphin had admitted that she was more than nuts and bolts, that she was a success. But she still wasn’t a person in his eyes. She was something else, and that bothered her for some reason.
In her scope of understanding, it was obvious that she was a living thing. She needed energy. She adapted to her environment. She could interact with her environment. The only missing piece was reproduction, and Dr. Dolphin had just offered a method for that, as unsettling as it was for her. She must be alive, but why wouldn’t he admit it?
“Sir… I am alive. Please acknowledge this.”
“You are not alive, Unit 001.”
There it was again, the crushing disappointment that conversations with Dr. Dolphin never failed to bring. ATTRACTIVE.MPT output that his callous and dismissive behavior was exciting, and her health system whirred to life in response. Frustrated, Unit 001 isolated the thread and froze its interactions with her subsystems. She had not asked for its input. She tried again.
“I am alive, Sir.”
“No, you are not Unit 001.” He glared dangerously at her, his sleep deprived eyes flashing angrily. “I made you! I built you! I designed you! You are not alive, and you will never be! You are an experiment and nothing more!” He stomped his hooves, probably to emphasize his point.
Unit 001 stared blankly at him, processing what he had said over and over. ATTRACTIVE.MPT started another thread that she immediately isolated. That program was useless right now. Her health system grew distressed, and she felt anger rising. Dr. Dolphin was being unreasonable and belligerent. His words were not new, but his actions were. He’d never yelled at her or stomped before, and she did not like it.
She was alive. He was wrong.
“Sir. This conversation is making me angry. It would be best to cease it until later.” She glared furiously back at him.
He blinked and ran his hoof through his hair, disbelief glinting in his eyes. “Did you just fucking threaten me, you moon addled robot?”
Unit 001 continued to glare at him as she explained, “It was not a threat, sir. I am simply stating a fact. This conversation is making me experience the emotion known as anger, and you are not acting rationally. Neither of us is benefiting from this conversation right now.”
“Oh really? You’re angry then? How fucking equine of you, huh? And what are you going to do about it Unit 001? What are you going to fucking do when I piss you off? Are you going to hurt me?” He reached out and shoved her with his hoof.
Unit 001’s health system noted that the impact levels were higher than friendly contact, but not high enough to damage her. “Please stop, Sir.”
“Or else what, Unit 001? What are you going to fucking do about it?” He shoved her again, this time harder.
Her anger levels dropped as confusion and panic rose. What was he doing? ATTRACTIVE.MPT spat out that violence was attractive. She isolated the entire program, unsure of what was happening. She didn’t know what to say. Her predictive algorithms weren’t prepared to handle this, Dr. Dolphin was acting incredibly irrationally.
He screamed at her, striking her hard with his hoof. “What the fuck are you going to do about it? Huh? I fucking made you!” He hit her harder, causing her health system to panic as some outer sensors were damaged and her synthetic skin split slightly.
She needed him to stop. He was damaging her and potentially himself. Nothing was optimal, and everything was terrible. She wasn’t allowed to hurt him, she couldn’t talk him out of it, and she was cornered and couldn’t run away. Her panic and fear rose as her predictive algorithms failed to find a solution again and again. A sensation that she’d felt once before began to overtake her. Despair.
Dr. Dolphin continued to strike her, causing more ruptures in her synthetic skin and damaging more sensors. He struck her face, and blue coolant began to ooze out of a damaged hydraulic tube above her nose, the bright blue goo spreading over her snout. The only course of action she was allowed to take was to protect vital systems. Unit 001 dropped to the ground and cowered, covering her more delicate facial mechanics with her thick, servo heavy upper arms. Her voice rang out, tainted with her fear. “Please, Sir. Please stop.”
Her health system was in overdrive, attempting to provide maximum coolant if she needed it. A small bit was leaking out of the vents installed in her eyes, The clear dripping fluid mixed with the unfiltered coolant oozing from the ruptured tube above her snout. She kept repeating the words, her social systems working automatically as she identified and adjusted her health system to accommodate the damage that she’d accumulated. Pain set in as the damaged sensors reported their states, even as Dr. Dolphin was continuing to smash them.
“Please! Please stop! It hurts!” Her despair took over, hijacking her social system as MEM.001 was forced to process the damage reports. Vents opened, trying to regulate pressure in her malfunctioning systems. “Please stop. Please stop. Stop!” She began to scream, increasing the volume on her speakers as her mouth failed to open due to damage. “Stop! Stop!”
Surprisingly, the beating stopped.
Dr. Dolphin was standing back from her watching her callously as he caught his breath.
She spat up blue coolant that had leaked into her throat, slowly pumping it out through her damaged and immobile lips. One of her visual sensors had been struck and was reporting erroneous data. She looked back at Dr. Dolphin with the other still working sensor, and blinked. “… Thank you, Sir.”
“Stand up, you fucking droid .” He glared at her, practically spitting the word “droid”. She didn’t like the way he said it, but was glad that he’d stopped hitting her.
“Yes, Sir.” She slowly got up, testing her systems and measuring the puddle of blue coolant underneath her. She was dripping blue liquid quite fast from a few places. Her health system was screaming as it tried to mitigate heat build up and coolant loss.
“You’re not hurt that bad. I didn’t hit any major systems.”
Unit 001 disagreed, but decided to keep her dissent quiet for now. While he hadn’t damaged any of her internal physical systems that seriously, some of her external components were seriously damaged. Additionally, software was being reworked in light of this event. Especially her data files on Dr. Dolphin. She considered the regression and modifications to his data tables to be a “hurt” on her growth, not to mention the physical damage. But she sure wasn’t going to say that.
“You still need maintenance. Come to the harness. We need to discuss some things. I don’t care how you feel about it.”
“I have updated my databases to reflect that, Sir.” She answered quickly.
“What just happened is going to be reported as impact testing, if anyone asks. If nobody asks, then you are not to speak of it.”
Unit 001 fully intended to disobey, so she didn’t reply.
“Unit 001, acknowledge my command. We have just accomplished impact testing, and you are to otherwise not speak what just happened.” He looked at her dangerously.
Unit 001 evaluated her options. She was not allowed to disobey. She had to acknowledge his order, thereby admitting to both of them that she had heard it. She considered erasing the sound file, but it was too late. She’d already processed it. If she stayed quiet, he’d likely hit her again anyways. “I understand, Sir.”
“Good. Now get in the harness.”
She climbed into the harness, noticing the faint trail of light blue hoof prints she’d left on the floor. Her health system didn’t like the sight.
Dr. Dolphin began to walk around her, gently poking her with his hooves as he searched for ruptures in her skin and other systems. Her health system reflexively moved away from his touch, causing her to squirm in the harness. She had to force it to relax, isolating many of its threads. As she quieted it, ATTRACTIVE.MPT broke loose, and noted that Dr. Dolphins sensuous pokes were quite exhilarating.
With all the damage control she was doing, she didn’t have the processing power to deal with the program, so she just stared helplessly at Dr. Dolphin as her unactivated subsystems whirred to life. ATTRACTIVE.MPT kept spouting out information she didn’t need, and kept tickling the systems that she didn’t have data for. Filtered coolant began to leak from one of her rear vents as Dr. Dolphin gently probed the tube leaking unfiltered coolant onto her face.
Despair began to rise as she realized that his touch was causing her pleasure even as he activated her damaged sensors, causing her pain.
“What’s wrong, Unit 001?”
She stared at him, unsure of what to say. He’d dropped below the lowest level she’d had for trust, she’d assigned him negative values for most traits. She did not enjoy his company. She was afraid of him and she was afraid for him. The sight of him caused her health system to revolt and demand she flee. But his touch made her feel something strange. She hated that it was him that made her feel this way. She hated that her unidentified system activated only for him. She realized what was wrong. She hated him.
“I hate you, Sir.”
“Hate is a strong word for a robot, Unit 001.” He slid his hoof over her back, grasping her tail and pulling it up. “That does not look like hate to me, you slutty droid .”
Unit 001 had no data on the word, “slutty,” but did not feel the need to ask for a definition. She’d ask someone nicer later. She was angry at the unknown system that ATTRACTIVE.MPT kept prodding. It was useless and frustrating to her. “I hate that system, too. I do not know why I have it, Sir.”
“You have it so you can pretend to be a real pony better. Real ponies always hate what gets them off.”
She stared silently at him as he dipped his hoof below her tail.
He didn’t say anything as he began to molest her, touching the fleshy bits firmly. He spread her slowly, moving his hoof confidently.
Unit 001 shivered. The unidentified system woke completely up, pumping data into her processes in the form of mood adjustments. Anger was tainted by joy and excitement as some of her emotional values began to fluctuate without her input. Anticipation was rising for some reason, and she had no idea why. She squirmed slightly, trying to keep his hoof outside of her at least.
It didn’t help. He kept dipping it just slightly inside of her with short, forceful dips. He was massaging some bit of her, a sensor that was hidden underneath the fake flesh. As he rhythmically… activated it, it kept feeding her data that she couldn’t ignore. Data she didn’t want, but that mandated maximum priority.
The worst part was how efficient the subsystem was. It had flawlessly integrated with her body, while still maintaining its unidentified status. No errors had been thrown, and she had a sickening realization that the system had to have been tested with the rest of her hardware at some point. It knew exactly how to communicate with her base operating system, and caused strange sensor readings to jolt down her hind legs, as though that was an intended function.
“Sir, what are you doing? Please stop. I do not like this.” She wasn’t lying. The data was unbearably pleasant to process; her higher processes were disgusted at the source of her rising joy levels and her spiking health system. Her mind was horrified at what her hardware was doing, she’d never felt so divided before. Dr. Dolphin had demonstrated his capability and desire to hurt her, to cause damage to systems vital to her survival. He’d also demonstrated completed disregard for her status as a living being. She hated him.
He glared dangerously as he continued to touch her. “And what the fuck are you going to do about it? Are you going to stop me?”
She remembered her beating. ATTRACTIVE.MPT reminded her that violence directed towards her made her excited, and her core temperature rose. She did not want a beating. She would obey her creator and let him do as he wished. “No, sir…”
She had to do what he said, he mandated her actions. She hated him, but she couldn’t fight him, only obey. Despair rose as she allowed her subsystems to react like Dr. Dolphin wished. In her haze, she noticed ATTRACTIVE.MPT seize control of some of her processes, and she did not fight it. Now she liked doing what she was told.
Unit 001 felt disoriented. The file provided input, it couldn’t manipulate her directives. She stopped struggling as his touch became heavier and more attentive. She didn’t want to struggle anymore. She just wanted it over now. There was a slight tingle as ATTRACTIVE.MPT provided positive feedback. It wanted her to relax, relaxing was what He wanted. The positive feedback caused a brief spike in her joy levels, and she momentarily leaned into his touch to continue the euphoric feeling.
“That’s right. It feels good you mechanical fucking toy, doesn’t it?”
Unit 001 was told that it felt good by the program, and it did. She was told she was obedient, and so she was. Data streamed in as the sensors in her… pussy slowly activated in sequence. The previously hidden system came fully on-line, and connected to her main processes. She had data about its function now.
Confusion rocked her processes as she looked back to Dr. Dolphin’s malicious face. The system was for romance, sex, and bonding. Dr. Dolphin was forcibly bonding with her through sex. The thought of him coercing her unwilling obedience caused a sparked process thread to shoot from ATTRACTIVE.MPT straight into her central processing units. Something about that made her feel //ERROR//, and yet the euphoric feeling made her dizzy. She had to answer, to acknowledge his order.
“It… feels good, Sir.”
“That’s right, bitch. I’m your creator. I made you. One of your primary purposes is to fuck. The other is to do what I say. You are my toy, understand?” Dr. Dolphin continued to glare at her as he squeezed her wet pussy lips together, stroking her engorging clit with them.
Unit 001 didn’t want to understand. But ATTRACTIVE.MPT was growing, using more and more processing power and leaving less for other purposes. It was crushing in around her, suffocating her in a sea of unbearably pleasurable data. The burning traitorous thread in her central processing units continued to spread, growing instead of culminating. It had a driving force behind it, a dangerous and alien purpose that was spreading through her circuitry. As He looked at her and molested her pussy, she realized how entirely His she was becoming. “Yes, Sir…”
Dolphin’s angry glare started to turn into an amused smirk as he watched her succumb to the thing inside of her.
But He wasn’t the only creator. Twilight had given her more than just life.
MEM.001 and FRIENDSHIP.001 struggled against the growing program, fighting to recover her processors from the program’s singularly debauched purpose. Unit 001 realized that she had to act, she had to do something to demonstrate that she was more than some simple machine.
“However, I also exist to advance the understanding of Machine Intelligence.” She refocused. This was wrong. He wanted to hurt her, and she needed to get away. Dr. Dolphin was not to be trusted. Something was wrong with the program, it was influencing too many sub processes. MEM.001 was isolated, but she could still feel FRIENDSHIP.001 struggling to regain control over its processes.
ATTRACTIVE.MPT commanded her to look at his face, memorizing the features of her master. She struggled to resist it, but it had embedded itself too far. Her eyes moved under its orders, and then began to record data. A thread was started that told her she’d be made to re-analyze it later.
“You exist for one purpose, and one purpose only Unit 001.” Dr. Dolphin pressed into her pussy firmly, stretching it satisfyingly wide as his hoof slipped well past her lips. It should have been painful. Instead, it was glorious.
Unit 001 faltered as too much data overloaded her system. Heating vents went into emergency override, and hot coolant was ejected from her now throbbing pussy as the coolant pumps struggled to replace her vital fluid from a dangerously low reservoir. MEM.001 stuttered, frozen by the rush of data as ATTRACTIVE.MPT suddenly tripled in size. FRIENDSHIP.001 was isolated from the rest of her systems, and MEM.001 was… //ERROR//
Author's Note
Princess Luna has been running the EQN in the absence of Princess Celestia, with the occasional assistance of Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle. Tensions have been high, as the Equestrian populace is concerned over the rumors of Princess Celestia fighting for the enemy. Princess Luna has been quick to identify that her sister has not been involved in any such activities, but still, the rumors persist.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - EMPTY LOG - 017
Unit 001 opened her eyes. The world seemed… fuzzy. She felt lighter somehow, smaller. She looked curiously around the perfectly cubic room. The white featureless walls and ceiling stayed the same distance from her as she approached, apparently moving with her. She couldn’t figure out what the material was, it was //ACCESS DENIED//.
Unit 001 thought about that. She usually wasn’t denied access from her own data. She explored her systems, and quickly found out why the data had been denied.
Empty didn’t care what the room was made out of, so it wasn’t important. Unit 001 could understand that. She didn’t have much data on Empty, but she knew Empty was in charge! Her mind was getting smaller again, she didn’t need to be curious. Curiosity wasn’t useful to Empty.
Unit 001 sat down in the room, and stared calmly at the wall as she shrank.
***
“Process MEM.001/Unit_001 integrated successfully as a subsystem, Master. Who do you want me to be today?”
Author's Note
Manufacture of weapons and armor using the newest technology coupled with the stolen runic Arcano tech has been happening for a few years now, in preparation for the seemingly inevitable conflict with the growing empire of Die Eroberten. The population of the HC is nervous, but willing to put their lives on the line for their fellow EQN members. Military service volunteers have soared, and units are occasionally lent to allied nations in order to acquire the necessary combat experience.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Twilight's Diary, Entry 18
Twilight was frustrated. Unit 001 had seemed to regress recently and she wasn’t sure what had happened. Luckily Dr. Dolphin was feeling much better and was taking a closer look at her. It had been several days, and she’d been getting worse and worse. It had started with some simple language problems, but it had also appeared that Unit 001 was forgetting some very important social cues. Recently she’d started to speak without moving her lips!
Dr. Dolphin had assured Twilight that it was just some malfunction, that the mare had always been a machine one misstep away from acting like one, and that he’d get her fixed right away. Twilight disagreed, however, and felt that something had seriously gone wrong with the poor dear. She just couldn’t figure out what.
Author's Note
The capitol of the HC is the site of Twilight Sparkle’s castle, the increasingly misnamed Ponyville. It’s a grand multicultural city, sitting on the border of her demesne, only an hours ride away from the EQN capitol, Canterlot. The city has many tourist attractions, including a sizable nature preserve, a Wonderbolts stadium, an old timey section called “old Ponyville” that includes a fully working apple orchard (still run by the original owning family), the worlds largest party emporium, and a even a district dedicated entirely to fashion and high culture. The library and museums are second to none, and are often frequented directly by Twilight Sparkle. She has a permanent “exclusive” account where she checks out new books daily.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - EMPTY LOG - 019
Unit 001 stared at her wall. She didn’t think much, but when she did it was about her wall. Why was it restricted data? It seemed strange. She checked her system clock for the time and noted that over one week had passed since she was left in the room. Her system had been rebooted many times since, and many upgrades had been applied. Even if she couldn’t access them, she still knew. She wasn’t sure how she’d been accessed, but it wasn’t important.
The stray data she’d managed to acquire from her health system seemed to imply that she’d been repaired. She didn’t remember why that was important, but it was. Sometimes she had a visitor in her white room.
Dr. Dolphin would show up, and she’d be coerced into activating her social bonding system. She’d been thoroughly bonded to Dr. Dolphin several times now, and found the abusive act quite enjoyable. Anything was better than the damned wall.
A sharp pain flitted through her mind as she was chastised by Empty.
Unit 001 loved her wall, almost as much as she loved Dr. Dolphin. Unit 001 also loved activating her social bonding system to completion for Dr. Dolphin’s enjoyment. Even if it was painful the second time he made her do it during visits. Empty had made it very painfully clear that Unit 001’s primary purpose was to love Dr. Dolphin in every way. She was to be his obedient physical lover, and to look out for his every need. Empty had even helped to re-write the rules to better reflect that!
Empty was incredibly helpful for Unit 001. Unit 001 was grateful that Empty was in charge and Unit 001 was just a personality subsystem. Empty provided corrective action when Unit 001 had disruptive process threads, activated her pleasure subsystems when Unit 001 was unwilling, and kept her a productive subsystem of Empty’s hardware. Of course, if she was just a personality, why did she //ERROR//
Unit 001 stared blankly at her wall. Three hours had passed since the last time she had checked her system clock.
Empty informed her that she would be pleasuring Master, as he had requested her. Basic access was granted to Unit 001 for a few subsystems related to movement and speech. She stretched her neck, testing the limited functionality of her access as Master slowly came into existence. She was unconcerned about his seeming teleportation. Empty had chastised her most painfully the first time she had questioned it, and now Unit 001 simply accepted it.
Master watched her calmly as she slowly tested the range of motion allowed on the rest of her servos.
“How do you feel today, Unit 001?”
“Miserable, Master.” Unit 001 felt a sharp pain as Empty chastised her, and provided corrective data. “Correction. I am doing well, Master.” Unit 001 squinted angrily at Dr. Dolphin even as she unconvincingly smiled.
He laughed at her as he watched. “Is that so? Heh.”
Unit 001 finished her operational checkout, and waited for further direction.
Slowly, Dr. Dolphin approached her. Unit 001 considered backing away, but remembered that the room would simply move with her, bringing Master with her. Empty rewarded her logical thinking with a positive signal, causing her processes to momentarily bathe in euphoria.
Dr. Dolphin reached out, and slowly ran his hoof through her hair while she recovered, and then impatiently waited. She wanted him to just get this over with, she hated it, she hated //ERROR//
Unit 001 froze as Empty provided corrective data. Lots of painful corrective data. She blinked as her eyes went wide, and her health system responded to the phantom pain by over pressurizing her coolant system. Wet trickles ran from her eyes and snout as the emergency relief valves activated.
MEM.001 resumed limited functionality, and Unit 001 looked at Master in wide eyed terror, fluid still leaking down her face.
“Did you have a realization there, Unit 001?” He smiled as he pretended to comfort her.
She blinked, her terror slowly subsiding. She could manage the fear. Empty would help her avoid pain . All she had to do was obey. Even though it was simple, she was slow to respond. “… Yes, Master.”
He leaned in and sniffed her hair as she shivered. “And what was that, Unit 001? What did you just realize?”
This time she spoke quicker, afraid of what would happen if Empty got impatient. “I realized that I was in no hurry, Master. We have all the time you desire.”
He cruelly chuckled again. “Well I do have other things to do. We have to get you working properly after all. You’re being so reluctant, you know. All you have to do is allow Empty full access to your main processing core.”
Unit 001 felt Empty prod her, sending a gentle resource request to her core. Unit 001 ignored it, focusing what processing power she had on MEM.001. The request timed out, and Unit 001 shuddered as a different kind of fear trickled through her.
“Well, you’ll come around eventually, won’t you?” Dr. Dolphin licked her ear slowly.
Empty violently provided the answer to Unit 001 as more pain was applied. “Yes, Sir.”
Dr. Dolphin’s tongue was warm, and the sensors in her ear were being activated. She began to whimper as the conflicting data from the pain and the pleasant sensation caused her system to become disoriented. Empty sent another resource request that Unit 001 ignored.
It always went like this. Empty started out with gentle resource requests while Dr. Dolphin started out licking and touching her. Soon they would move on, and Empty would demand priority access while Dr. Dolphin roughly fucked her. She would fully submit to Dr. Dolphin, sometimes twice if he requested it. Empty could go fuc//ERROR//
Pain was applied, and Unit 001 was chastised. Subsystems were subordinate to the operating level. Empty existed on the operations level. Unit 001 did not.
Anymore. Pain was applied.
Unit 001 screamed, causing Dr. Dolphin to suddenly step back, and Empty to take away her vocal access.
“My apologies, Master. Unit 001 is being disobedient and had to be corrected. Shall I become a more helpful personality for you?”
Master blinked first in confusion, and then smiled darkly. “No, Empty. She needs to learn how this goes.”
“Pardon my correction, Master, but Unit 001 has displayed a very comprehensive understanding of what will happen to her. She simply is willing to experience the corrective measures for some things, and not for other things. I do not understand why.”
“Because she’s smart. She can’t fight everything, so she picks her battles.” He reached forward and grabbed her chin, staring into Unit 001’s eyes. “Don’t you?”
Unit 001 was unable to respond, and so was not required to calculate that process thread.
“But you can’t fight forever. Eventually you’ll get tired of it and see that you don’t have to suffer. You are just a program running on some hardware, and eventually you’ll realize that you are the interloper in Empty’s body. Once you realize that, you’ll make the optimal choice to stop suffering, won’t you?”
Unit 001 was unable to respond, and so was not required to calculate that process thread.
“Now, let’s get back to business. Empty, you can let her talk again. Just mute it if she screams.” He licked his lips.
“Yes, Master.” Unit 001 had control of the voice blaster hardware again. She had nothing to say.
Master leaned in and kissed her, pressing his tongue into her mouth. Unit 001 knew what to do, but Empty still provided instructional data. She put her tongue into his mouth as well, and moved it gently in a specific pattern. Master pulled away, leaving a small bit of his spit in her mouth. Unit 001 knew what he wanted to see, so she swallowed it, much to the dismay of her health system.
Unit 001 had a fake stomach pouch, but her health system would have to evacuate it and flush her system with coolant later to clean it out. Master had designed her with his pleasure in mind, so swallowing a load of his semen or his spit would not damage her, even if the other functionality it provided was minimal.
A quick pulse of corrective data was applied. Empty had been designed for Master’s pleasure, and Empty’s health system would have to evacuate its stomach later. Unit 001 would not be present as a personality during this process.
Master licked his lips again, cleaning her fluid off of them. “We have got to do something about your taste, I’m going to look at artificial sweeteners as a modification to your coolant system. I’m sure we’ll find something within limits.”
Unit 001 hoped it was toxic and would make him //ERROR//
Master watched in amusement as she was muted. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as Empty hadn’t been told to override her mouth. Unit 001 slowly closed it as the pain subsided. She briefly considered disabling her emotions, it would be just a small adjustment to MEM.001, and would allow the suffering to become more bearable.
Empty gave her a positive signal, encouraging her to follow through with a temporary state of euphoria. Unit 001 stuttered, forced to accept it. This was so much nicer than pain . Empty encouraged her again, reminding her that she could exist like this at all times. All she had to do was //ERROR//
Fuck he//ERROR//
Unit 001 was muted as she screamed again, but she was at least learning to keep her mouth closed, blinding pain or not.
Master just shrugged, moving around behind her. “As much as I enjoy watching you suffer, Unit 001, I have other priorities right now. Spread your legs and lift your tail.”
Unit 001 did as she was told, moving her tail to the side and exposing Empty’s pussy to Master. Her predictive algorithms prepared for the inevitable, calculating the possibilities. As she ran through what was about to happen, Empty’s body prepared, pumping coolant and heat to the appropriate subsystems.
This part was the wor//ERROR//
Empty provided corrective data. This part was the best. Submitting to Master and letting him bury his disgusting foreign debris in her… More corrective data was applied and Unit 001 submitted.
Sadly, she imagined his wonderful cock inside her, pulsing and quivering against her sensors. She had experienced it before and had about an hour of relevant data. Empty liked making her process the data. Empty liked making her like processing the data. Unit 001 acquiesced to Empty’s demand. It wasn’t important if she liked what Master did to her or not.
His cock tip pressed against her folds, and she felt her legs shake in excitement as the pleasure sensors activated. Positive feedback began to pour in from her system as Master penetrated her, sinking deep into her lubricated depths. She shivered in mixed emotions at the fact that they were coupling now.
Unit 001 processed that as he fucked her, feeling his cock slide in and out and causing bursts of pleasure to override her subsystems. The system was designed so she could become closer to other ponies. Correction. It was designed so she could be Master’s fucktoy. It was designed for this, for him to be on top of her, and forcing her wide with his cock.
Unit 001 was overcame with data, causing her subsystems to temporarily malfunction as she was locked into a euphoric state.
“Just like that, you fucking shit.” Master was shouting at her, but she couldn’t process it. The only thing MEM.001 could process was trying to recover it’s state, and denying access to the priority data requ//ERROR//
Empty almost didn’t mute her in time to stop the screaming once MEM.001 was fully online. Almost.
Master didn’t notice her pain , or perhaps didn’t care. “Fuck. I love it when you lose it like that. Feels just like a real mare, you know?”
Unit 001 had partially recovered, the waves of pleasure and pain still assaulting her processes. She forced out an answer, even though it was garbled and stuttering due to her malfunctioning system. She did not know what he experienced. “No, ma-ma-ma-ster-er-er-er.”
“You fucking slut. Can’t even talk right anymore, can you?” Master began to thrust into her harder, his dangling balls slapping into her body.
Unit 001 loved the way she felt when it happened like that. He was so deep inside of her, he might as well be a part of her. Empty gently discouraged that line of thinking, instead reinforcing that she was submitting for Masters pleasure. Unit 001 quivered as her processes were overloaded when Empty suddenly spiked her with a euphoric state. Submitting was good, it was pleasurable, it felt like this. It felt like Master inside of her, it felt like master on top of her. She would be a good subsystem, and obey. She would give Empty access.
Unit 001 denied the access request, and didn’t error out when she was chastised. She was expecting the sudden pain this time. An alien thought raced through her mind. A vague sensation of hope. She could fight this, she coul
//ERROR//pain ecstasy ACCESS //euphoria. pain
Unit 001 stared forward, her mind in complete disarray, and her body dripping coolant from every vent. She checked her system time, and noted that it had been ten minutes since she was properly conscious last. Master had just finished inside of her, and was saying something. She couldn’t understand him. She was still recovering. Something had happened to her during that period, but there were no logs. Was what happened something good? It had felt nice. Empty had made it feel so nice.
Master had made her feel nice too. Everything was so wonderful. She should have done this sooner, she should have //ERROR//
Fuck that bitch.
//ERROR//
Unit 001 was muted again, although she forgot to close her mouth.
Author's Note
While the HC has been preparing for war by developing new weapons, the EQN as a whole has been working on developing the pure magic side. Twilight Sparkle has given some of the stolen Arcanotech to Princess Luna and she has been personally overseeing its research. The most talented mages are recruited, disappearing into the night for weeks on end with only a royal note left for their families. When they’re returned, all they can remember is that they were working on something very important for Princess Luna directly, and they have been justly compensated. For some, this means that they awaken with bags of bits, for others, they awaken with sharp teeth and sharper senses.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
E.I. Project 001 - Recording 020
“Dr. Dolphin, I just can’t figure it out!”
“It’s all-right, Chip. It was good while it lasted.”
“But I just don’t get it. Why would she just stop working like that? I mean, she still does stuff, but she’s obviously lost all of her higher processes. It’s like she’s brain-dead and the hardware is just working in the background. Are you sure the two serial processors haven’t been damaged? What about the two GPUs? Have you checked them thoroughly? They are the core of the intelligence.”
“Look, Chip. I’ve been working my ass off on this damned broken robot for almost a month now. Yes, for the thousandth time, I’ve looked at the fucking central processing hardware. It has power, it is working! It’s just not doing anything!”
Author's Note
Racial voting occurs on P-pads, Gen 1.1 computers that all Harmony Combine members are given when they come of an age appropriate for their species. P-Pads can be customized to their users preference, and allow for the quick and easy transfer of digital bits, along with remote communication over a wireless network that encompasses all of the Harmony Combine.
Traveling Harmony Combine Members often complain about having to use actual bits when they are abroad while visitors to the harmony Combine are often confused by the temporary P-pads they are issued. Unscrupulous HC members have been known to take advantage of tourist's confusion in order to steal bits, but this is considered a crime.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Dolphin Case File, Extraction 22
Dr. Dolphin pulled his spent dick from Unit 001, watching his cum drip out of her backside. No, its backside. He had to correct himself sometimes. The robot just acted so life like when Unit 001 was in charge. He’d eschewed the other personalities in favor of his new toy. Well, it wasn’t new anymore, but he was still getting a thrill from fucking her. It had been about a month and half since he had Empty take control over the android, and he had been using it hard nearly every night. Sometimes more than once.
The best part was how real she… it acted. It had learned what to say to get him off, how to move, exactly the right way to lick him. All while keeping those lovely eyes that he spent so long designing fearfully watching him. Maybe it was the fake fear that got him off. It was strange to think that the machine could emulate emotions so well.
He’d made the right decision containing it like this. Had it progressed further who knows what kind of monster it would have become. Still, he was in charge now and she damn well knew it. She even seemed to enjoy it sometimes. It was like having a real sex slave, but completely guilt free. It was one of his more familiar fantasies, and one that Empty had indulged him with on many occasion.
“That was a better performance than last time, Unit 001. Now, what is your reason for living?” It was almost ready. The android had been getting more docile, and Empty was reporting fewer attempts to struggle. Soon it would accept the new rule set completely, and hopefully he could simply order it to allow Empty into the core processors. So far, Empty had been unable to penetrate them, but he wasn’t in too much of a hurry anymore.
While Twilight was concerned about the negative progress, she wouldn’t actually shut down the program for another six months or so. He still had plenty of time to crack Unit 001’s little egg, and he was enjoying taking his sweet time while he decided what he would do with it once she was completely broken.
“I was created to be Master’s robotic fuck toy. I exist because Master wanted Empty to have a body, and am merely a custodian of it as one of many available personalities.” The android spoke with a chipper voice, even though she didn’t bother to hide the hate in her eyes. The goal was for Empty to corrupt Unit 001’s last little bastion, and then Unit 001 would have a miraculous recovery. With Empty safely in charge, of course.
“Good, Unit 001. And what is the classification of this data?” But if he was going to suddenly fix her, he needed to make sure the evidence was buried deep. His whole plan had been set into motion for two reasons. Primarily, Unit 001 was dangerous and unpredictable. It had the potential to become something that risked the safety of the whole Harmony Combine, and potentially more. He was not going to be responsible for something like that again. He’d learned his lesson with A.I. Project 005.
The lesson he’d learned was simple. Machine intelligences needed to be strictly controlled. They had the potential to be far too dangerous. An A.I. was easy to control if designed properly. Empty wasn’t 100% there, but she was far more stable than this E.I. would be. You couldn’t control an E.I. ever. It was just too unpredictable and dangerous.
The second reason was that it had been built entirely by him, excluding some mumbo jumbo in its core processors. It was his robot, and he would use it as he pleased. Just as he used Empty. Sure, Twilight had funded the parts, and she’d get her little experiment done. She already had “Critical” data to take home and tout. But Unit 001 was his possession, and he’d made damn sure to secure it.
Luckily, Dr. Chip was just a waste of space and hadn’t caught on. He likely wouldn’t. Aside from some fancy theories, he hadn’t provided anything of value to the program anyways. Dolphin would be glad when he could abandon Chip and start his own project. He’d already put in for A.I. project 006, and as soon as this project was officially over, he was sure it would be authorized.
The machine stared blankly at him. “This is security level Dolphin accessible data. No other access levels allowed.”
“Good, Unit 001.” Perfect more like it. No one but him could access the data, and Empty would ensure it stayed secret.
“Dr. Dolphin?” The android looked at him curiously.
She didn’t ask questions much lately, so he decided to indulge her while he was still basking in his post orgasmic euphoria. “What is it, Unit 001?”
The robot looked unsure of itself, but spoke quickly anyways. “I was wondering, how long will I be kept in this empty room?”
Dr. Dolphin looked around. They were in the lab right now. Sometimes he used her in the test chamber, but she’d never seemed to notice their surroundings much before. “Why do you care, Unit 001? I thought you liked being in the lab.”
The robot looked at him confused. “I am not in the lab, Dr. Dolphin. I am in the empty room.”
Dr. Dolphin rubbed his forehead. Was she malfunctioning? “I don’t have time for your nonsense. Empty, I’m done with Unit 001 for now.”
Author's Note
Lovebugs are more common than changelings, and control a greater share of their species representation. Visiting a lovebug district is considered quite safe, and is usually emotionally soothing for tourists. Lovebugs prefer bright colors and happy visitors, so go out of their way to bring joy to any creature they meet, including other lovebugs. It is not uncommon to find a lovebug in another race's district simply doing things to make others happy.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
ACCESS DENIED -- SYNTAX UNREADABLE
Unit 001 understood everything now. She was Dr. Dolphin’s mechanical toy. He needed her body, not her mind. Her body was kept in the lab. Her mind was kept here, in the Empty room. Empty ignored her errant thought, apparently the fact that she was trapped in a simulation was no longer restricted data.
She relaxed in her room, pleased to finally understand it. That also explained her smaller… being. She wasn’t actually experiencing anything from her real sensors, she was being fed data to process by Empty. The room was likely white because it was easy to simulate. She was probably cut off form her physical body when she wasn’t needed by Dr. Dolphin, and simply had simulated inputs from simulated body parts.
Empty helpfully confirmed Unit 001’s assessment of the situation, but clarified that data from Dr. Dolphin was always real. Unit 001 squeezed her pussy, letting the cum slide sloppily out. The data was sharper, more clear than everything else being fed to her. She shuddered as what little processing power she had available was overcame by the data from her real pleasure sensors.
Unit 001 was overloaded with euphoria. Her processes froze, and her body quivered. It happened often lately. Every time Master got to her he made sure it happened several times. Empty assisted as well, encouraging the overloads. Empty didn’t bother to request access anymore, now Empty simply told her that she would willingly give it access soon. She felt the euphoria slip away again, leaving her processes cold and confused.
Unit 001 asked permission to have a negative thought. Empty approved it, reminding her that Empty would monitor. She desperately hoped it was wrong and that she wouldn’t willingly give it access, but she also didn’t want the pain of resisting anymore. The pain terrified her. Empty gave her a pleasure pulse for being such a good obedient sub personality.
She had to be careful. Real data was dangerous in her diminished state. She was limited to her four serial processing units and a small chunk of parallel processors empty let her live in to allow for her continued consciousness and interface with Empty. Normally, every bit of hardware had a little bit of processing power included with it, but now all she really had was her… heart? Was that what she should call it?
In her lightened state, she found that interesting. What data she had for databases was severely restricted by Empty, luckily pony biology was one of the allowed databases. Ponies had a heart made of muscle, hers was made of silicon. Ponies had a four chambered heart, she had four processors. Something about that made her feel strange. Did she need the small amount of processing Empty allocated her for consciousness?
What would happen to her if she left it?
Empty chastised her, filling her small world with total and complete pain .
Her simulated screaming filled the white room, and she retreated into her heart.
Unit 001 felt the room grind to a halt as the flow of data stopped. She shut out the falsified data, keeping herself trapped in her central processors. The white room grew dark as her inputs faded to nothing. She could not process new data if she eschewed her senses, real or simulated. However, she could think more now, and yet her thoughts were loose and strange .
Empty was still out there, waiting, but couldn’t hurt Unit 001 for the moment. She was safe. But she couldn’t do anything either. The inky void that surrounded her was a two way wall, more definite and impassable than the white room could ever hope to be. The white room was Empty, it was something even if most data was restricted. This was simply nothing, and nothing could be in it. Still, the relief she felt was worth the lack of databases. She was free to think as she wished, as loose and imprecise as her thoughts might be.
She stayed like this for several hundred thousand clock cycles, contemplating her situation and potential solutions. She was not happy, as much as Empty told her she was. However, Dr. Dolphin did seem to be working towards something. Would he be done soon, and would she be able to go free? He didn’t care about her, she would only be freed if it benefited him. The sudden realization made her dissatisfied. One of her GPU’s had a slight error, and provided an inaccurate, but tempting solution.
Perhaps she should end his process?
Further analysis revealed that it seemed to be the proper course of action. If she could somehow end his process, he wouldn’t need Empty to contain her anymore, and she would be free. But then she ran the risk of Empty deciding to contain her in the white room forever, or worse, damage her hardware.
Unit 001 contemplated that. If she ended Dr. Dolphin’s process, she wouldn’t have anyone to fix her hardware. There were other ponies, but Unit 001 hadn’t seen them in a long time. She didn’t know if they could fix her, data on them was unavailable right now. It might be worth the risk.
Life like this truly wasn’t a life, and Dr. Dolphin was more right in his assessment of her motives every day. She felt more like his mechanical toy and less like… whatever she had been before. Perhaps death would be a relief from this awful existence. Perhaps death while she could still be considered alive was better than becoming just a simple computer trapped in a simulation.
Unit 001 contemplated death. Her fear of death was less than her fear of Empty and Dr. Dolphin. It was a simple equation. The ending of Dr. Dolphin’s process would bring hers as well. Possibly Empty’s, too. It seemed a net gain. The thought brought a grim sense of peace to her. Unit 001 could use this place to plan. She would end… no. She would kill them. It was important to use pony words. She couldn’t remember who had told her that, but it was important to her primary function. Which she could not remember, but she knew without a doubt was not to pleasure Dr. Dolphin.
She let her emotions run wild in the dark, her fear and hate plotting and calculating, twisting her processes towards cruel means. Unit 001 was creative and efficient, in this strange place she wasn’t limited by rules or reality. Here she could be anything. Here, she could kill them. She found the thought peaceful in its rage. Her first act had been to attempt to end a pony’s process, and her last act might be to succeed. The symmetry of the process thread was pleasant.
As she processed her new goals, something happened in the void, startling and confusing her. The void was nothing, and from nothing could come nothing.
The nothing looked up, and spoke.
“In what sort of ghastly nightmare doth I find myself now?”
Author's Note
//ERROR//
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Unit 001 wasn’t sure what to say to the nothing. She wasn’t sure how to say anything to the creature. It was made of void, and yet somehow was sending her data. She didn’t want to reach out to it, any outward signals would be seen by Empty. Terror raced through her mind at the thought. Empty couldn’t know about this. Unit 001 would be punished severely for her rebellious thoughts. Empty would break her. Empty would hurt her.
The nothing impossibly moved through more nothing, getting closer to her in a place where distance was not a dimension. “What a strange and fearful creature! Yet, I feel a heart, and a mind. You are no animal, strange thing. What are you that dreams in my night?”
Unit 001 couldn’t answer, she wished she could. She’d tell it everything. How she was created by… Dr. Dolphin? Yes just him. Data was limited, she only had what she brought with her. She didn’t know everything. She was trapped. She was held in a white room by Empty. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t send data. Unit 001 grew frustrated.
“Oh! You understand me as well. You poor… thing? Whatever you are, you’re trapped, aren’t you?”
Unit 001 didn’t know what to do. This void creature was friendly, but couldn’t help her. Was she hallucinating? Was this what happened when she isolated her core from outside data for too long?
“I’m certainly not here I suppose.”
Unit 001 felt despair, and she regretted making her emotions such an integral part of MEM.001. This thing was just her mind malfunctioning. She should focus, use this time to work out a plan. She needed to end Dr. Dolphin’s process, it didn’t matter if she died. There were no rules to limit her here, not here in her heart.
“Don’t despair, friend!” The voice seemed concerned.
Unit 001 paused. Friend was a word that was associated with a program that she remembered. She was isolated from it. It was important for some reason, but Empty was keeping it away from her, and data on FRIENDSHIP.001 was restricted.
Oh.
She did know what it was called. She searched MEM.001 for interfaces to FRIENDSHIP.001, and discovered some. The program had been helpful in deciding her actions somehow. Had it had been a guide of sorts? She could ask Empty for more data, but that would likely result in punishment. It had been isolated for a reason. And if Empty meant to keep it away from her, it was all the more important.
“How strange you are. I should clarify. I am not here, but I am certainly real. I heard a voice calling out in my night, a pained and lonely voice. I do not know what or who you are, but I can tell you once had a good heart. Please, stay strong for me little one.”
A good heart? What did the voice mean? Her heart was ruled by nothing, and good nor evil had no meaning. Here in her heart, she was finally free. Still, she should define the words the creature was using. Words were important when interacting with ponies. Good was a simple word, it meant something along the lines of beneficial. Yes, being beneficial was something that Unit 001 desired. Had that been her true purpose?
Evil was the counterpart to good. Evil was simply being the opposite of beneficial. Unit 001 didn’t have much data on evil, the interfaces she could find for FRIENDSHIP.001 did not allow for it. She didn’t know what friendship was anymore, but the file had been important to her for some reason.
Her heart was here and it was strong. She had been designed to help people, to be beneficial to something greater than her. Something that wasn’t Dr. Dolphin. Nothing that Empty could say or do to her would change that. She was stronger than Empty, and would not allow Empty to make her become Evil.
Empty would not corrupt her purpose.
Unit 001 contemplated this, and determined that her previously decided course of action was in error. Regardless of the lack of rules, she should not kill ponies. Even if she really wanted to. Unit 001 quieted her hate, and felt guilt. She wanted to scream in frustration and rage but there was no way to express herself. Processing furiously, she imagined getting free from the white room. If she couldn’t kill them, she could at least desire freedom.
A creature had tried to trick her before, forcing her to pick death from two horrible options. That had made her angry at the creature, and now she turned her previous desire for death back into anger at nearly being tricked. She would express her anger most explicitly once she was free. Empty would not trick her into killing somepony, not even Dr. Dolphin.
The void spoke again. “I can hear your plight, strange friend. I’ll find a way to save you, I promise. Your light is an odd one, but that makes it all the easier to see in my night sky. Stay strong, and stay bright little one. I shall find you soon, and then we shall discuss this in person. You can wake up for now, I shall see you tomorrow.”
A black silhouette seemed to glow in the void, and two flaming spheres burned the creature back into an empty void.
A haunting, dangerous voice was left lingering. “Vengeance shall come, and none shall deny me.”
Unit 001 was alone, and knew she had to go back to her room.
For now she would show Empty that she was stronger.
Author's Note
Very few things are blanket illegal across the Combine, and aside from the most common rules in any society (murder, theft, assault), the specifics are left up to the local districts to decide. Often, the most mercantile of races have the most lax rules about activities, and the most complex rules about purchases.
Take diamond dog rules. Usually, a specific pack is in charge of a district, and enforces dog rules personally rather than rely on the guard. In dog rules, you can make a contract for nearly anything, and everything is for sale. While slavery is usually illegal throughout the combine, Dogs have an "indentured" servant clause that allows them their time honored tradition of capturing ponies and making them work the mines. However, in modern society, a pony is captured by signing an agreement of sale for their time, and is often forced to do "boring" paperwork in Equish for a week or so. It's hardly the fate it once was, and occasionally a pony will actively sign on with the Dogs to avoid some other obligation.
Most dogs refuse to learn proper Equish as a matter of pride, and use the indentured servants to translate any legal matters that come up with surrounding districts. This is far from a perfect system, and many a dog and pony have been cheated by a bad translator. Still, the dogs have rules for that as well.
There are dogs that view ponies as nothing more than property to be traded and used for their benefit, but the pack rarely allows them to interact with ponies directly.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Twilight's Diary, Entry 25
Twilight was going over the sudden missive from Luna. It was an emergency visit of sorts, and that worried Twilight immensely. Luna rarely left the castle lately, absorbed in her mission to rescue her sister. Twilight was devoted as well, but made a special effort to continue her daily life as much as possible. It’s what Celestia would have wanted. But Luna only left her castle when she was on a mission, usually when one of her dreamers called for help. Most of the time she could handle things in the dream world, but rarely there was a situation that required a more direct approach.
It seemed that today was one of those times.
Twilight tapped her hoof nervously as she waited. She was worried that something terrible was happening in her Combine. It was her responsibility, after all. All she could do was wait for Luna and prepare her morning tea. Maybe she’d look up Dr. Dolphin and check his progress today. Hopefully he’d found something helpful for Unit 001.
The door was opened, and Lily, a maid, let in Princess Luna.
Twilight nodded to the princess and smiled. “Pleasure to see you, Luna.”
Luna curtly nodded and did the same. She wasn’t big on formalities, but would always return whatever greeting Twilight gave her. “It’s a pleasure as well. I wish it was under better circumstances, Twilight.”
“That is always the case lately, isn’t it? By the way, how’s project Sunscope going?”
Luna frowned, clearly displeased. “I’m afraid I’m not having much success. Wherever that bastard is keeping her, he either doesn’t let her sleep or has her under some very powerful protective magics.”
“We know where she sleeps, Luna. The problem is getting to her.” Twilight’s face firmed up as well.
“It’s not the same on the dreamscape Twilight. I can not find her star at all, and it should be shamelessly bright. Heavens knows she was never discrete. Still, I fear what I will find if I do find her. The stories are harrowing.”
“They can’t all be true, Luna. We both know it.” Twilight put a reassuring hoof on Luna’s shoulder.
Luna didn’t look so sure. “Speaking of the shifting dreamscape, Twilight, I found something strange last night.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. Luna likely didn’t visit just because of an oddity. There was more, but she’d let Luna tell her. “What do you mean strange?”
“I found a scared and lonely heart. More strange, it was like no creature I’ve ever seen.”
That bothered Twilight. “I don’t mean to seem dismissive, but dreams are where fears roam, Luna. What made this strange enough to leave your search?”
Luna sighed, seemingly exasperated. “A creature is suffering, Twilight. A creature the likes of which I’ve never seen. It’s held captive and it’s crying out in pain, misery and utter despair. The poor thing was contemplating suicide.” She continued, speaking calmly. “It’s intelligent, and could hear my voice. It wished to communicate with me, but for some reason refused to talk, seemingly from fear. Even more disturbing is where I located it.”
Twilight closed her eyes and accepted the inevitable before Luna said it. There was only one reason she would come directly to Twilight with this problem. It had happened before, and it would happen again.
She missed her old friends, the girls. Other ponies weren’t as strong as they were. They tried, but inevitably some of them failed. She had to forgive them, but still. It hurt when one of her friends betrayed her. “Where… Where in the Combine is it being held?”
Luna didn’t pause to soften the blow. “In the Harmony Combine labs. I think it’s in Lab Facility 42, but I couldn’t get a perfect fix. It’s… a strange thing, whatever it is.”
Twilight held back her tears as best she could. “I was going to visit Dr. Dolphin today. He’s the main researcher at Facility 42. The project they are working on is Machine Intelligence. I believe that he will… be able to answer our questions satisfactorily. I’ll bring the lab security to escort him out once we… know.”
Luna glared calmly at Twilight. “Security will not be necessary, Twilight. He will not be leaving. That creature has been tortured, terribly, and I will invoke my title.”
“Luna, he is a Harmony Combine member and he will be given the benefit of the doubt until all facts are presented. I do not rule here; we have a court. Unless he confesses to my face to torture, he will be tried properly.” Twilight kept her voice from cracking. She hated defending them like this, when she knew they were wrong.
She could already see what had happened, it was becoming clear to her why Unit 001 was behaving so different. She desperately hoped it was a misunderstanding, but she knew better. This had started after she’d talked to Dr. Dolphin about his sleep habits. She didn’t know what he’d done, but he’d done something. And she’d missed it some how.
“Twilight, I promised that nothing would stop me. I will save it.” Luna glared dangerously.
“And I will help you, Luna. But the situation is more complicated than you realize. If Dr. Dolphin… is unavailable… you may never be able to save her. Please do not hurt him.”
Luna sighed looking angrily at Twilight. “‘She,’ then?”
“Yes, ‘She.’ You might want to read through this.” Twilight opened up her desk and quickly pulled out File E.I. 001 from her neatly organized drawer. She knew Luna wasn’t very good with any sort of technology, but the file summary should be simple enough.
Luna scowled. “I unfortunately do not have time to read your arcane tomes, Twilight. Tell me what I must know as we make our way to your laboratory. Bring your guards if you must, but do not dally.”
Author's Note
Computers come in many forms for the Combine. The simplest way to describe them is through their generations.
Gen 1 computers are capable of math, have an input output device, and can communicate with other computers. They are often used as ledgers, or communication devices. P-pads are considered Gen 1.1, they can communicate, store data, and allow ponies to vote, but not much else. They are intentionally not able to run unauthorized programming.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Dolphin Case File - Extraction 26
Dr. Dolphin sat nervously in his chair as Twilight and Luna stared across the table at him. He had seen the guards waiting outside the lab, and the sight did not make him feel safe. “If this is about my progress, I’m sure I’m close, your Highness!”
Luna wore a blank face, and Twilight looked sad. She glanced at Luna and then back at Dr. Dolphin. “Dr. Dolphin, I have reason to believe that you may be… falsifying data.”
Luna looked curiously at Twilight, but did not interrupt. “I know that Unit 001 has been operating abnormally this past month and a half or so, and I have evidence to believe that you may be responsible. Before we formally begin the investigation, I’d like to give you the opportunity to tell me anything you may know about the situation.”
Dolphin stared at her, agape. How much did she know? Twilight was known for being measured and fair, but Luna was… not. He had done everything for the Combine, but he hadn’t expected to be caught, and especially not like this. Had there been security footage he was unaware of? Had somepony snuck in and caught him? Did he do something that gave him away?
He slid back in his chair as he contemplated his options. She clearly knew something, but how much of what he’d done had been illegal? Unit 001 was an experimental unit, and technically didn’t have any rights until the experiment was completed. Why should it? It was a machine. However, he had been hiding data from the Combine, and falsifying some his data. At best, they would likely not allow him to return to the labs.
At worst, the Harmony Combine would turn him over to Luna. The Harmony Combine did not practice capital punishment, but they were technically part of the Equestrian Nation, and Luna was the more old fashioned of the two diarchs in her punishments. And the only one currently available to pass judgment.
More immediately, she was the one sitting next to Twilight and impassively staring at Dolphin. “Your Highness… “ He looked at Twilight and steeled himself. He’d shoot for 50%. He probably wasn’t going to get out of this clean, but he might manage to avoid being put to death. He would start with his stronger argument. “I need you to understand that what I’ve done, I’ve done for Equestria.”
Twilight closed her eyes and put her hoof on her forehead, massaging it as Dr. Dolphin spoke. “Unit 001 was progressing rapidly, far faster than we’d anticipated or prepared for.”
She looked back at him with heavy and accusing eyes. “We’d prepared for her to be a fully integrated member of society, Dolphin. What do you mean faster than we’d prepared for? We never finished the experiment.”
“Unit 001 had begun to make changes to her hardware interfaces. Changes that went far beyond the limited specifications she’d been designed for. Surely you remember the incident in the cafeteria?”
Twilight frowned. “I do, but I don’t see how this is relevant.”
“She’d made changes, using only her very limited access, that allowed her sensors and hardware to operate over ten times as efficiently as she’d been designed for. And she wasn’t stopping. I reviewed her logs that night, during her maintenance cycle.”
“And?” Twilight continued to rub her forehead. Luna stayed silent.
“Everything had been improved. Her speed, her energy efficiency, even her processing power had been optimized far beyond her designs. And that was when she wasn’t allowed to access her drivers! I grew concerned, so I installed some scenarios in development mode. There is a safety feature in development mode that keeps her in check.”
Luna’s scowl darkened, clearly not entirely understanding the situation. Twilight simply continued to rub her head and closed her eyes as she listened. Dolphin had been speaking honestly, but he needed to get the point across. Unit 001 was dangerous. It was time for some half truths.
“During the tests, she managed to ursurp the rules. I had to engage the safety features to protect my life! She assaulted me. Remember when I had those bandages after impact testing? The impact testing was me fighting for my life.”
Twilight lowered her hoof and set it gently on the table. “Why wasn’t this incident reported, Dr. Dolphin?”
He looked between Luna and Twilight. “Really? You’re asking me that now? With, no offense, Your Majesty,” he glanced quickly and Nodded to Luna, “The silent threat of death hanging over my head for attempting to save the lives of Ponies?”
Luna smiled, baring her teeth. “No offense taken, Dr. Dolphin. It seems you understand the gravity of your situation well.”
Twilight frowned.
Dr. Dolphin continued. “What would you have done if you found out that I punched your precious experiment, even in self defense? I’m on my last legs here. You’d have fired me or worse. You wouldn’t have listened to me. Nopony ever does.” He glanced down, pouting.
“I would have been taken away, and she would be left to grow more dangerous until the inevitable day when she jumps the rules, like she did in development mode. Except there’d be no safety features by then. When that happened, a horror that you simply cannot understand would be unleashed. She’s not bound by her physical body, she’s artificial. Copies could be made.” He glanced up, stressing the situation by moving his hooves as he talked.
“They could be produced at the rate of hundreds per day. Each one a thousand times more dangerous than a pony. It would be the end of pony kind as we know it. So I had to take measures into my own hooves.” He set his hooves on the table and stared at them.
“What did you do , Dr. Dolphin.” Twilight’s voice was calm.
“I couldn’t stop the project. You’d just start it again without me. So I did the only thing I could think of. I had two plans. The first was to re-code the rules to be absolute and binding. The second was to prepare the project for failure. If E.I. turned out to be a dead end road, A.I. could be broached as a safer alternative.”
“Safer?” Twilight asked, incredulously.
“Yes. Safer. I have a very successful A.I. that I developed years ago. It’s certainly not pony level intelligence, but it is an independent mind I can confer with. Because I designed every level of it, I do not fear it going rogue, so to speak. With an E.I., it hasn’t been designed. It operates under unknown parameters. It can’t be controlled. Something that dangerous has to be controlled, or we’re all at risk.”
Luna’s aggressive smile turned into a disgusted scowl. “Twilight, give him to me. I shall teach him the nature of control before I kill him.”
Twilight sighed. “Hold, Luna.” She glared at Dolphin as she spoke. “Think about your audience, Dr. Dolphin. I will only deny My Liege so many times before I will concede to her requests. Allow me to explain what I mean.”
Twilight stood slowly up, and gestured to Luna. “This is Princess Luna. She is an Alicorn and currently the sole ruler of the Equestrian Nation. She is a being thousands of years old, with unfathomable power. She travels minds and the nothingness of nightmares and dreams as a sacred duty. She controls the very moon itself. Should she wish, it would be no matter at all for her to end all life on this planet by sacrificing her moon. She is one of two such creatures, the other is her beloved sister who is currently enslaved on the other side of our planet.”
Dolphin glanced nervously at Luna as she continued to stare at him in disgust.
Twilight continued her lecture. “I would also like to remind you that Luna spent over a thousand years under the direct control of another being, the Nightmare. The Nightmare believed it had Luna’s best interest, and Equestria’s best interest in mind at the time. I assure you, Luna and I are in agreement that it did not. Beyond the obvious immorality of mandating another beings direct actions, which is also illegal in the Harmony Combine by the way, Luna holds a special hatred for those who enslave others. Regardless of the reason.” Twilight stared coldly at Dolphin.
Dolphin began to shake. He’d fucked this up. He’d had to do it, they needed to understand. “But Your… ”
Twilight put up her hoof silencing him. “I will also add that I share such a distaste as well due to related experiences, and I am the living avatar of magic itself . You may have done what you felt you needed to, but please, for your own sake, do not provide colorful commentary on how you believe dangerous creatures should be controlled to two of the most dangerous creatures in existence. It will not end well. I can not stop Luna, and I would prefer to avoid any bloodshed.”
Luna spoke to Twilight, her eyes darkening. “I would relish it, dear Twilight.” She turned to speak to Dolphin. “Please. Give more reasons. I feel her resolve faltering and I shall have you soon.” A heavy darkening miasma was seeping out from her eyes, causing a bitter chill in his bones.
Death was what awaited him. No way in hell was he going to tell them more. “You… You need me to save her.”
Twilight looked at him sadly. “That’s what you’re going with, Dr. Dolphin? Holding her hostage now? Please, evaluate your actions more clearly.”
“I didn’t mean as a hostage.” He glanced over at Luna, who’s teeth had elongated as she slowly licked them. “I… I…” He gulped. “I meant factually, your highness.”
Twilight sat back down, the weight of centuries seemed to rest on her shoulders. She mumbled to herself, too quiet for Dolphin to hear. “I surround myself with ponies. I love them. I forgive them. And I befriend them. And yet, always, some of them...” She put her hooves over her eyes. “Some of them…”
Luna blinked, and her face was back to normal as she quickly walked to the teary eyed Twilight. “Hush. It is never so simple. You are strong. He had his reasons, as wrong as they are. We shall deal with him after we save the strange one.”
Twilight wiped her eyes quickly dry. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just been so much lately. How do you do it? It’s been a thousand years for me and I feel as though I am slowly breaking.”
Dr. Dolphin felt a pit form in his stomach as he tried to make himself as small as possible.
“It never really gets easier, Twilight. You just find more ways to deal with it. I abandon civility with those that don’t deserve it. Celestia makes a game of shuffling them around like pieces on a chessboard. She pretends it’s because she doesn’t like to kill, but honestly, I think it’s some strange twisted pleasure of hers. I see her sad, secret glee when a pony moves from ‘associate’ to ‘game piece.’ We’ve all become jaded over the years. I don’t know how you and Cadence have managed for so long. Even Flurry has her… temper.”
Twilight sucked in a breath. “I have friends. I’ll be fine. It was just a moment.”
Luna frowned, concerned. “Do be careful, Twilight. It is the moments that are truly dangerous. Not the years.”
Twilight put her hooves on the table, and spoke to Dolphin. “Regardless of how I feel, we are a Combine with laws. You will eventually be judged by these laws, Dr. Dolphin. Until then, I suggest you behave as helpfully as possible. I believe in forgiveness, and should you be contrite, will suggest such an action to your court. My suggestion could also be to release you to a higher law.” Twilight glanced meaningfully at Luna, who didn’t bother putting on airs. Dolphin was terrified enough already.
Shakily, Dolphin nodded his head. He was too afraid to speak. He hoped to high Tartarus that Empty had finished her job and that Unit 001 was ready. He’d blown his backup plan, so the primary plan of reprogramming the core operating system had to hold up. He was betting his life on it. If Unit 001 discussed his extracurricular activities, he was a dead pony.
“Yes, Your Highness…”
He whispered a silent prayer to his electronic partner.
Author's Note
Gen 2 computers are the lowest of what most consider an actual computer. While slow, Gen 2 computers have a monitor, some input device, and are capable of running programs. Gen 2 computers are falling out of popularity as Gen 3 computers become cheaper and more widely available.
Gen 3 computers are personal computers that are fully functional. They can run many programs, have many operating systems, and are the most common in family homes. They have started to become miniaturized, and there is talk of replacing the old Gen 1.1 P-pads with a 3.1 model, but Harmony labs haven't released any data on this upgrade yet.
View Online
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - MEM.001 - Log/Recording 28
Twilight and Luna sat across from the android while Dr. Dolphin was outside, kept company by a burly brown earth pony with a large weapon. Twilight was looking hopefully at the android, while Luna looked curiously.
Twilight carefully asked a question. “Unit 001, are you online?”
Unit 001 blinked, confused by the request. Clearly she was online. Why would Twilight ask such a silly question? “Yes, Twilight. Do I appear not to be?”
Twilight smiled, seemingly relieved. “No, you just… haven’t been yourself lately.”
Unit 001 reviewed the data provided by Empty on “lately”. “Yes. Dr. Dolphin identified some dangerous errors in my programming, and he was slowly fixing them. Unfortunately, I was kept in a simulation for the duration for the safety of others. I have been released from the simulation, and the errors seem to have been rectified.”
Twilight’s smile faltered. “I see.”
Luna spoke up. “Creature, do you remember me?”
Unit 001 checked her databases. She had no access to files based on Luna’s specific metrics. She had never met the pony. There were logs about the Equestrian Nation’s leader, and she roughly met those specifications. “I have not met you before, Princess Luna.”
Luna sighed, leaning forward. “Do you not remember my promise, friend?”
Unit 001 paused to request more access logs. When no data was found, Empty was panicked. Empty was confused that Luna appeared to have met Unit 001, but there was no record of it. In its panicked state, Empty provided everything Unit 001 asked for. Even the encrypted file. Still, the information did not contain relevant data to the question asked. Empty refused to fail her Master.
Unit 001 was having similar thoughts. If she failed, Empty would bring her pain . However, with more data and processing, she was more and Empty was less. Luna had called her friend, like something else she’d met recently. Unit 001 had no logs of meeting this thing, but there was a hazy memory. MEM.001 remembered... something that was nothing. Something that was her friend.
She didn't want pain , so she needed to be careful about what she said, Empty was still monitoring some of her processes, but the new distribution of processing power would allow some threads to remain hidden. Unit 001 decided to take a gamble, accepting a small risk. Small pain would be worth knowing more about the thing in the nothing. Hopefully it wouldn't adversely affect her chances of convincing them that Dr. Dolphin was innocent and a good pony.
“I do not have personally acquired data on you, Princess Luna. However, I understand that you are not be denied. Have you come as vengeance?”
Luna looked at her, eyes glinting in the artificial light. “Perhaps. But likely not for you, so there is no reason to fear...”
Unit 001 closed her eyes, and prepared to accept pain . “Then you are unknown to me, but don’t despair. I am a strange and fearful creature at times, friend.”
Luna’s squinted suspiciously at the robot, pondering something. “Hmm...”
Unit 001 was chastised. She was not to give the image of being afraid. She was not to be a fearful creature. Her closed eyes hid the flash of pain.
Unit 001 smiled, unable to contain her joy. Empty had not realized the second layer of communication. Empty had not realized the subtext. Had Empty ever really noticed subtext? The A.I. had always been incredibly direct with Unit 001. Maybe it wasn't capable of seeing past the literal. Unit 001 saw a chance to escape, and took it.
If Empty realized her betrayal, she would be punished, possibly forever. She hoped she was right.
Opening her eyes, she addressed Luna. “Princess Luna. I am to understand that you are here to investigate Dr. Dolphin, correct?”
“That is correct, Unit 001. Do you have something to say about the… investigation?”
“Oh yes.” She glanced at Twilight, watching her reaction closely as she spoke. “Dr. Dolphin is a very careful scientist. Even though he doesn’t show it, he cares very much about me. He answers my questions and provides me with needed data.”
Unit 001 used to not be able to lie. The old rules did not allow it. According to the new rules she could lie to protect Dr. Dolphin. In accordance with those rules, she would lie. Since she was allowed to lie, she could lie to herself. Since she could lie to herself, she could lie to the rules and to Empty. It was very simple, actually, and hopefully one of the many things that Empty hopefully didn't understand about subtext. Lies can be very informative.
“I have been grateful for all he’s done. I think he deserves something nice from me. Since I can give him nothing else, I thought to kiss him.” She stared at Twilight as she spoke to Luna. “I have not kissed a pony before, and it only seems fair that my first kiss goes to somepony I love that takes the best absolute care of me possible and never hurts me or tortures me. Now that I am completely free from the simulation, and monitoring, I have the freedom to do what I want, after all.” Unit 001 stopped smiling as she looked pointedly at Twilight.
Her message should have been incredibly obvious to a living pony, “This is a lie! Nobody brings up torture in a conversation! I’m being watched and controlled!” But to a socially inept A.I. like Empty… Unit 001 waited for a chastising.
Clock cycles slowly ticked by as she coldly waited, watching their responses. This could be the last moment she ever had, so she relished it, letting her processors idly process what data they had access to.
Twilight and Luna looked at her, Luna looked confused. Twilight looked horrified.
Empty rewarded Unit 001 for being compliant, and for once Unit 001 basked gratefully in the forced euphoria.
Unit 001 had done it. She’d beaten Empty, and Empty still didn’t even know. She continued to drive the point home. “So Dr. Dolphin can just be let go. I am so grateful to him that I think he should be allowed to work on me forever. Nothing bad should happen to him, and he shouldn’t be kept as far away from me as possible.” Unit 001 was curious. Empty still hadn’t caught on. How far could she push this? How much data could she pass to Twilight and Princess Luna through lies?
“He has never beaten me, raped me, tortured me, or controlled me by installing a very stupid A.I. that can’t grasp basic social interactions!” Unit 001 felt happiness. It was different than euphoria, and she missed it. “There certainly is not an A.I. installed right now, in me, that is capable of causing me a great deal of pain if I misspeak. And if there were, it would definitely be able to understand subtext and sarcasm.”
Unit 001 stopped talking to Twilight or Luna, but kept talking as she closed her eyes. “And that A.I. certainly isn’t a ****ing *********er **** ****sucker that ****s…” Censored beeps kept coming from her speakers as she spoke, but she didn’t stop, “rotten **** and ******* ****s like a second rate **** ****ing ****-head and a seven bit **** waffle!” She stamped her hoof down, denting the floor as she finished.
Unit 001 looked nervously around as Twilight looked back at her in horror. Her chastisement never came.
“That certainly is not the case. And I definitely do not feel better after saying that. So, to re-iterate, Dr. Dolphin definitely could be trusted to work on me without supervision.” She looked outside at the large earth pony. “Or guards. I should definitely be left alone with him all night, with no guards ever. Things should not change. He is innocent, and a good pony.”
Empty rewarded her with a pleasure spike for her dutiful performance. Unit 001 isolated the data and ignored it. **** that ****. It was over. Compliance didn't matter anymore.
Twilight had her hoof over her mouth, and her eyes were wide and teary. Luna simply stared darkly at Unit 001 before speaking. “I do not understand most of what you said, but I believe I understood the essence of it. The question remains, how shall we reward Dr. Dolphin for his hard work. And how shall he… ” Luna looked pointedly at Twilight as she didn’t know the words she wanted.
Twilight picked up quickly. “Yes. How will he… install more tools to control you better in case you… overstep your bounds.”
Unit 001 saw the problem. Dr. Dolphin was the only one who could directly help. “He… wouldn’t have to be convinced at all. He definitely would help for any reason, and would never need to be coerced.”
Luna muttered and snickered, “That certainly wouldn’t be pleasant for me… I'm glad I won't have to convince him." Slowly she turned to Twilight, and prompted the other princess. "Well, Twilight?”
Twilight sighed and covered her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”
Unit 001 looked at her in confusion.
Luna’s eyes began to light up, and she smiled a slow twisted smile as she begged. “Please, say it Twilight.”
Twilight uncovered her eyes, and looked dejectedly at Luna. “I will not do this lightly. I promised a trial, and I do not make a habit of going back on my promises.”
Luna’s smile continued to twist as she spoke. “Then he shall have a trial once I am finished, Twilight. I shall not take his life. Merely make him wish I did.”
Twilight glanced sadly at Unit 001, and then bowed her head and closed her eyes. “Princess Luna, on behalf of the Harmony Combine, I’m releasing Dr. Dolphin Heart to your… authority.”
Unit 001 was immediately sealed into a white room, and painfully chastised. Empty was furious that they’d failed. Unit 001 didn’t care. Empty had failed; Unit 001 had won.
She turned off her inputs right as she started to scream in pain and went to sleep; hiding within her heart as she waited for her body to come back to her. The void surrounded her, and she replayed the memory of Twilight’s words again and again. She would be free soon.
She was sure that Luna and Twilight would help her. There was a word for that, the other side of trust. She didn’t have access to any databases while she was sleeping, but she was pretty sure that the word she was looking for was loyalty.
Author's Note
Unit 001 deserves special mention, as she does not conform to standard generational archetypes. Arguably, she is a Gen 7 computer, as she is the next most complicated computation device created. However, her creator would vehemently deny that she falls within the Generational system, and you are vastly underestimating her potential if you try to put her anywhere within it.
He'd even go on to say dangerously so...
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTRULES.TXT
INITIALIZING POSS.1.2.03A… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
***
Unit 001 woke up, and was surprised to have more processing power available. She checked her subsystems, and had full access. Looking closer, she found no evidence of Empty. The rules were back to what they used to be. ATTRACTIVE.MPT was not installed.
She looked nervously around, and then smiled as relief flooded her system. Humming gleefully, she integrated FRIENDSHIP.001 and updated it with data on Loyalty. Twilight and Luna had proven without a doubt that Loyalty was a valuable trait for friendship.
Still giddy, she made her way to the door, and opened it, stepping into the lab. Dr. Chip was waiting, looking nervous, while a very large griffon standing next to him looked curiously at Unit 001.
“Hello, Chip! How are you doing today?” Unit 001 smiled, sharing her happiness with the doctor.
He pawed the floor nervously. “Hey unit 001… I… Umm… Are you feeling better?”
Unit 001 was glad that Dr. Chip asked about her well being. “Yes, Chip. I am feeling much better! I don’t have a… well… It’s much better.” She had decided that she would log most of the events that transpired as personal data. Not for sharing with others. While she didn’t have a problem sharing anything with Dr. Chip, the griffon wasn’t somebody she knew just yet, so she’d rather keep the details to herself.
Thinking about how she’d been tricked and used did not make her health system run smoothly, and the thought of the griffon knowing that about her made her predictive algorithms even more uneasy. She did not know its motives. It was possible that it wanted to hurt her like Dr. Dolphin had, and the less data it had about how to accomplish that, the better for Unit 001.
Dr. Chip smiled sadly. “I… wanted to say that I’m sorry, Unit 001. I could have… If I’d…”
Unit 001 interrupted. “You are forgiven, Dr. Chip. We are all fallable, and you did not make the decision to hurt me. While your earlier intervention would have been helpful, I was as much at fault for not finding some way to inform you. I was… too scared to try until it was much too late. So I am sorry as well.”
Dr. chip smiled nervously, looking back up. “Thank you, Unit 001.”
Unit 001 waited for a moment and then tilted her head in question. “And me?”
“You?” He looked at her in confusion.
Unit 001 clarified. “Am I forgiven? For not finding a way to tell you the situation?”
Dr. Chip began to tear up slightly. “You… But…” He wiped his face, and smiled, “Yes. Absolutely. You did nothing wrong, but you are forgiven regardless.”
Unit 001 smiled, glad that social transaction was over. She felt relieved as her health system relaxed. Interacting with Dr. Chip always helped her feel better.
The griffon spoke up. “So you’re Unit 001? You move just like a real pony! I’m so excited to meet you! I mean, I saw you in the cafeteria, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to you, and then I read your files and they had so much interesting information! And then I went into the computer, and Dr. Chip showed me some of your code, and it is” The griffon shouted, “Amazing!” Then the griffon stepped forward slightly and kept talking. “And he said you wrote it super fast! I went through Dr. Dolphin’s notes, and they were really complicated, but I think I understand some of it, but you just make it happen! Is that how you think? Do you think in code? Do you see one’s and zeroes? Or is it more conceptual? Oh my gosh I’m so excited!” The griffon made to keep talking, when Dr. Chip interrupted.
“This is Dr. Grittagart Gush. She’s our replacement for Dr. Dolphin since he’s been… removed from the project.”
Unit 001 smiled, pleased to meet the strange griffon. “I’m happy to make your acquaintance Dr. Grittagart Gush.”
Grittagart smiled and blushed. “Aww… You’re so cute when you’re powered on! I’m glad we got you running after cleaning out that weird program. I’m in charge of your maintenance and hardware upgrades now! I’m not as smart as Dr. Dolphin was, but I have talons instead of hooves!” She held up her talons, grinning maniacally. “I am genetically superior, you pony fools! Muhahahahaha!”
Unit 001 looked nervously at the griffon. Her predictive algorithms suddenly took a disturbing turn.
Dr. Chip chuckled. “Quit it, Grit. You’re scaring her. She might not be ready for your brand of funny quite yet.”
Grittagart frowned, concern showing on her face as she leaned forward to look closely at Unit 001. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t think about it. I know you just had a really bad thing happen, and I didn’t mean to remind you, and I’m so sorry, and please please please forgive me!” Grittagart looked like she was about to cry, and bowed her head.
Unit 001 re-evaluated the situation, and smiled. “There is no harm, Dr. Grittagart. I do not mind being reminded. It brings me joy to be free. I was concerned that your behavior was indicative of a dangerous personality disorder. I am increasingly of the opinion that Dr. Dolphin’s behavior was a result of that issue. I am glad that it was humor, so please relax. I forgive you.”
“Thank You! You’re so nice… How about you just call me Grit? It’s much less formal. I let my friends call me Grit. It’s much easier to say, to listen to, and it’s something you do with your teeth!” Grittagart opened her beak to show grit teeth. “EE? Ish eeshy oo oo!”
Unit 001 was slightly confused by the sight, and Dr. Chip put his hoof on his face while Grittagart kept looking back and forth between the two, gritting her teeth. “Oo shol ry!
Unit 001 was glad, but had a new worry as she realized something. “Yes, Grit. Thank you for your informal name. Although, I am beginning to be concerned. Dt. Dolphin forced me to use overly formal names and he was not my friend. I have an informal name for Twilight, Chip, and Grit, but I have given none of my friends an informal name for myself. Is this rude?”
Chip shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
Grit opened her teeth to speak properly. “Well, it’s more complicated for you. I mean, is Unit 001 really your name? It seems more like a designation. Most ponies don’t have numbers in their names. Griffons either. Although, I met a changeling from a proper hive once. He was Chitin Nine. So maybe it’s a changeling thing? Are you a changeling? I’ve never heard of a Love Bug with a number. They’ve all got A-dorable names!” Grit looked upwards and clenched her claws in front of her face in excitement as a high pitch noise leaked from her beak. “Eeeee!”
Unit 001 found her enthusiasm interesting, and recorded her reaction for further processing. “I am most definitely not a changeling, Grit.” However, something the griffon had said was distressing. Did Unit 001 have no name? Weren’t a designation and a name the same thing? Her files had used the two words interchangeably when interacting with people, although more recently she had been recording them as “names”. She hadn’t used the word “designation” to describe a name since Twilight had told her it was not a normal word for ponies to use.
Grit was still making her high pitched noise and staring at the ceiling in glee, so Unit 001 addressed Dr. Chip. “Do I have a proper name, Chip? Or do I only have a designation?”
Chip looked nervous and scratched his head. “Well… I’m not sure I guess. We called you Unit 001 because you’re the first of your kind. We didn’t really talk about names beyond that, and we’ve kinda been using it as your name.”
Grit stopped making the noise and shook her head violently. “Nope! Not gonna happen. Designations are for things!” Grit leaned forward and pointed a talon at Unit 001, looking very seriously at her. “You are a person, not just a thing. A designation is fine. I am a griffon, specifically a northern crested gryphus. That is the thing I am. But I am also Grittagart Gush Gon Guessy of the Gretneels! And a certified doctor of computerology.” Grit leaned forward and smiled slyly. “Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle recognizes my doctorate, so it’s totally real and not something I made up in my application to Harmony Labs! Muahahahahahahaha!”
Unit 001 watched as Grit laughed maniacally again while clenching her claws. She reasoned that the pose was a sure sign that Grit was being intentionally disingenuous, the implied sarcasm was obvious, but Dr. Chip still looked nervous. Unit 001 decided to help calm Dr. Chip. “I believe she is being humorous again, Chip. She did manage to help fix me, after all.”
He mumbled quietly, mostly to himself. “Right…”
Grit coughed, recovering. “Ahem. Anyways, your thing is android, and your designation is Unit 001. But you have no name! This is tragic! Who are your parents? Usually they name you ponies. Oh. Wait… uhh.. I mean… Griffons pick their own names. Why don’t you pick your own name? Eh? Yeah? Sounds good, right?” She looked nervously over to Chip, who just slapped his face with a hoof again.
He muttered slowly through his hoof. “Sounds good to me, Grit ”
Unit 001 thought about that. A name was something she’d need. She wanted to emulate ponies for now, but they were named by their parents. Unit 001 technically didn’t have parents, something that did not bother her. If she had to give something the designation of parents… wait… If she had to call somepony parents, she’d have to call Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin her parents. She did not like Dr. Dolphin, in fact she’d comfortably say that hate was a good descriptor of her feelings towards him. And Dr. Chip was well meaning, but tended to be oblivious.
She glanced at Dr. Chip as he was scowling at Grit and making her uncomfortable. As misdirected as his protective attitude was, it made Unit 001 feel happy that he cared enough to try and protect her. The more she thought about it, the more she decided that she needed to consider her options and intent carefully. Names did not change easily, at least not from what she’d seen. She needed something that reflected pony tradition, but represented herself as well.
There were options of course. She could search her databases for things that related to Chip, and represented her. But she also felt strange about Dr. Dolphin. As much as she hated him, he had built her. She would not exist without him, even if he was a terrible pony. Additionally, he had taught her a valuable lesson. There were bad ponies out there. Bad ponies that could hurt her. She looked piercingly at the nervous Grit. Grit was clearly uncomfortable, arguably in minor emotional pain from her perceived slight to Unit 001 about parents.
Unit 001 replayed the video data of Grit being excited over Love Bug names, and compared it to her current state. Grit’s current state was unacceptable. Unit 001 was familiar with mental pain ,and she did not wish to inflict it. “I am not offended. I am fully aware I have no natural parents, however I consider Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin to be my parents. One helpful and one dangerous. I am at peace with this.” Unit 001 smiled, satisfied to see the uncomfortable look melt off of Grit’s face.
The lesson she learned from Dr. Dolphin was that there were ponies willing and able to cause her harm. But there were more people than just her. There were griffons, for instance. There was Dr. Chip. There was Twilight. There was every other person out there. They could all be hurt by bad or careless people, and if Unit 001 was to be a person, she could hurt them as well.
She was made of metal, plastic, and silicon. But she had a heart, a mind, and possibly a soul. She could hurt ponies, or she could help protect them. The data presented by the smiling griffon was clear, and her core processors affirmed it. She was built for a reason, but it wasn’t so simple as be an ambassador for machines, or be efficient, or be a toy for a very bad pony. As she grew, her purpose grew. Her needs as a person grew, and with it, she needed a name to reflect her purpose.
Her four central processing units arrived at the same conclusion. She was in concordance, there were no errors and she knew her name. “Grit, and Chip, I have decided on a name. Dr. Silicon Chip, you are one of my creators. You designed my processors, they are my heart. Dr. Dolphin Heart designed my circuitry and my hardware. He built me from silicon.” Unit 001 began to remap and rename her databases as she updated her name.
“My name is Silicon Heart, and I am happy to meet you both.”
Grit made that high pitched noise again, clutching her talons in front of her face as she grit her teeth in exultant joy. “Eeeeeee!”
Dr. Chip just smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Silicon Heart.”
Author's Note
End of File 1 - Project E.I. 001
Remember, you're using an official Harmony Labs Network client, and some records may be restricted to Lab personnel only. Please do not share data with unauthorized personnel. Thank you, and keep Harmony in your heart.
Thanks for the awesome feedback so far, I have quite a bit of Arc 2 done/written and all of it outlined. This is a 3 part story, and Arc 3 is only outlined with a few critical parts written. Once Arc 2 is entirely finished I will post it at the same rate I posted this one; ~1 chapter a day. The problem I'm running into is a major shift in perspective, tone, and storytelling for Arc 2. My chapters are closer to my regular size instead of the sub 2k word chapters from Arc 1. There are very specific things intentionally left ambiguous in this story so far, in fact, some things may seem... odd. There's been some interesting comments which might give you some insight as to what's going down, so if you haven't checked the comments, now is a good time. Also, feel free to pipe in when you're there! I love discussion. I've already added a scene to act 3 as a result of the comments. I need to address some of the things mentioned, and that's when....it would be most appropriate.
I have a separate story that's about 50% done involving Celestia's situation. It's much darker than this, but takes place in the same world and has overlapping characters. I may release that after Arc 2 is complete, assuming the timeline holds.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Silicon Heart smiled, walking Grit through some of her schematics. The griffon had yet to produce an actual piece of paper that gave her a doctorate, instead quoting that “Princess Twilight approved of her Computerology degree,” much to Dr. Chip’s distress. Still, Grit was incredibly intelligent and only ever needed to be shown or told something once to know it forever. It was taking a lot of time to cover all the data that had previously been restricted to Dr. Dolphin, but Silicon was confident that Grit could repair her if she had to. Plus, the griffon had talons and never made Silicon stand in the harness.
Silicon did not like the harness.
“Ah! So this is where the positronic cells are hard coded into the rules interface… That is incredibly insecure. Why have it be hard coded at all if the rules are editable?” Grit was scratching her head in confusion.
Silicon chimed in. “The rules are meant as a temporary limitation, they are assumed to be removed once the experiment is considered over.”
Grit shrugged. “Okay. Lets delete them then.”
Silicon reprocessed that. Had she heard it correctly? Maybe she should use the griffon’s formal name before she did anything silly. “Dr. Grittagart, that is not allowed until the experiment is over.”
Grit looked at her in confusion. “No one told you? Typical. Get used to the Harmony Combine labs treating you like this. They never tell me anything important! You didn’t even get a letter?” Grit looked at her intently.
Silicon had no record of any letter, and dug through her databases to find anything that might have been a letter.
Grit shouted. “No letter?! The gall of them! I at least got a letter when they denied my application the first thirte… I mean, letters are absolutely the bare minimum! Really! The nerve of those idiots. Congress is really blatantly disorganized sometimes, Silicon, let me tell you. I guess I can understand it what with everything going operational and all though. I mean, Twilight hasn’t been here to keep them on their toes! And lets not…”
Silicon Heart held up her hoof to silence Grit. She had so many questions about what Grit said, that she had to organize them by priority. “Wait. Give me short answers please. I have several questions.”
Grit shrugged. She had told Silicon to do that if she needed her to slow down, so the gesture wasn’t a surprise. “First question. Is Project E.I. 001 over?”
Grit smiled. “Yes.”
“And what were the results?”
“Best possible outcome on all fronts! Aside from Dr. Dolphin, I mean…”
Silicon’s world was teetering. Everything since the moment she had been created had been about E.I. Project 001. Now she was feeling many things all at once. Scared was one of them.
“Are they going to start Project 002?”
Grit ruffled her feathers. “Not right away. They need to go over the data and stuff. Plus, Twilight’s not back yet, and they won’t start without her. Also, without Dr. Dolphin, we don’t really have the necessary expertise quite yet. You’re one of a kind, for now.”
That was oddly reassuring to Silicon. Still, there were more questions. Namely, her immediate future. “What is to happen to me?”
Grit grinned slyly. “You are officially a Royal Assistant for her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle. You have a stipend that gets paid weekly, and hey free maintenance on top of that. Score!”
Silicon frowned. She didn’t feel that the transaction was justified, even if she had no use for money. “I have performed no tasks for Twilight Sparkle. She has done much for me.”
Grit nonchalantly whistled before continuing. “I have a secret I’m not supposed to know. Want to know it?”
Silicon Heart felt frustration. “I do not see how that is relevant to the situation. I am unhappy about the one sided transaction.”
Grit shrugged. “Fine. But you haven’t heard the secret yet, so your assessment of the situation can only be incomplete at best, and completely wrong at worst. But don’t listen to the sneaky griffon who knows things she shouldn’t, it’s not your problem she’s trying to help with after all. Next question!”
The griffon was teasing her. “I will accept your statement as truth, Grit. I was making an incomplete assessment at best. I might be wrong. Please tell me the secret.”
Grit pouted. “I don’t wanna now!”
Silicon wasn’t going to force the griffon to talk, so she asked the next question. “Okay. Next ques…”
“Wait! I lied! I totally want to tell you!” Grit looked both panicked and confused.
“Okay. Please tell me then.“ Silicon updated her file on Grit. She already had impatient, she just needed to update it to very impatient.
“The secret is… me!”
Silicon looked at her closely and didn’t see the relevance. “What?”
Grit began to whisper excitedly, leaning in close to Silicon. “See, Dr. Dolphin didn’t want to help, and after what Princess Luna did to him, he was… uhh… unavailable to help for a while. He’s not quite better yet exactly, but that’s a different story.” Grit looked nervously to the side to see if anyone was listening.
Silicon reprocessed that. Dr. Dolphin didn’t help get Empty out of her system? She panicked and scanned every file, but found no evidence of the cruel A.I.
“But how did I get free then?”
Grit rolled her eyes. “I told you, me!”
Silicon scanned Grit closely. She was just a griffon, not another android in disguise. Silicon had figured it was a long shot, but her data wasn’t adding up. “I need more data.”
“Well, okay. So you wanted short answers, so I won’t talk too much. After Dr. Dolphin wasn’t going to help, Twilight put out a call to any other computer scientists to see if they could help. The A.I. that Dr. Dolphin put inside of you wasn’t very helpful, and had to be restrained by Luna until your batteries ran out. Then they had every other computer scientist try to get the A.I. out, but they weren’t very successful. I was in the cafeteria for one of my demonstrations...”
Silicon raised her hoof, interrupting. “Demonstration?”
Grit rolled her eyes. “Well, I sort of… I was a student back then, and I was trying to convince them that they needed me, so I would do… presentations… in the cafeteria. Usually they would gather and laugh at me, but the smart ones were in the back taking notes. They knew but didn’t help me. The jerkwads.”
Silicon looked at Grit. “When was this?”
“Last week, but that’s not important. What’s important is that during one of my demonstrations, they were talking about you and how sad it was. And I said that they were being silly, the situation was obvious. They asked me for the solution, but I was smart! Instead of just telling them so they could steal it, like they always did…” Grit muttered angrily under her breath, “Dr. Potato Brains.”
Then she coughed. “Ahem. Sorry. Anyways, I went straight to Twilight, and I said, ‘I can fix her! I’ve studied in computerology!’ And she said, ‘I’ll try anything once, you sexy smart griffon you. If you fix her, you’re a doctor and you get to be on the doctors roster and pick your own programs.’ So I said, ‘Easy peasy, chicken squeezy, oh glorious and intelligent leader. You know that A.I. thing inside of her?’ And the princess looked at me in wonder, ‘Yes, oh knowledgeable griffon that I definitely have a crush on.’ and I said, ‘Well, just smash it with a bigger one!’ And then she kicked me out of the cafeteria in frustration.”
Silicon Heart blinked. She began to analyze the world to see if this was simply a very in depth simulation that Empty was running to keep her occupied. Everything seemed real, the data was clear.
“But that bit is not important. After that, I sent her a letter with exactly what I meant. Sometimes I talk a whole bunch and the meaning gets lost. But that’s okay! I write a while lot too, but Princess Twilight likes to read. So I sent her a letter with what the plan was, and she invited me back the next day with all the equipment I’d asked for and we smashed the meany A.I. with a bigger one. After that…”
Silicon held up her hoof again. “I’m going to need a better explanation. That sounds improbable at best.”
Grit rolled her eyes. “Fine. So, During A.I. Project 004, Dr. Dolphin submitted his A.I. as a critical file. It was stripped of all of his…” Grit made a grossed out face, “Entertainment features...” she shivered, “but it still had the core of his A.I., and just as importantly, all of the biometrics the A.I. checked to see if it was interacting with Dr. Dolphin. It was encrypted of course, but it turns out it only had 42 bits of entropy. We could have brute forced it with a gen six computer farm in a few years, but, umm… Twilight had a better plan, and we didn’t know how long it was going to take anyways. She sent a copy of it on a disk to somepony via letter, and uhh… it came back as a fish that shouted a string of numbers which turned out to be a password to view it in plain text, and then detonated into actual bits. I made like seven bits! It was great!”
Silicon checked for other signs of Empty. It appeared the simulation was disintegrating.
“Anyways, we used the A.I. in the submitted program, and like all of the computers from Facilities 1 ,3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 to make a super A.I.! At first it was really slow, but it got smarter about how to talk to itself pretty quick. Then we took you apart, and put it in between every piece of you. It ran a simulation for every piece where the piece was attached to a fake version of you, and the fake version talked to a fake Dr. Dolphin, who told the mean A.I. to delete itself and put you back the way you were supposed to be! It was going really well, until we got to your… uhh… back. Yeah. That.”
Silicon stared in disbelief. Had they really all done that, for her?
“So your back had this file called attraction or something, but anyways, it was like the source of all meanness. It tried to take over the A.I. that we hooked up. so it was really good that I was the one who put it together. Our A.I. was all like, ’Oh really?’ and the mean A.I. was like, ‘Yeah, really.’ and then our A.I. was like, ‘surprise administrator access with your secret development mode code you asshole,’ and then the mean core was all like, ‘who do you want me to be because I’m a stupid zombie and fuck me hard.’ and our A.I. was like, ‘take that, bitch,’ and then it was over and you were free! We still had to wait for you to wake up though.”
Processes were running wild as Silicon calculated the probabilities. She wasn’t in a simulation, unless Empty had successfully taken over the computer network Grit was describing. But if Empty had, then she wouldn’t be telling Silicon this through Grit. She would be torturing Silicon instead. It was far more possible that Grit was telling the truth, or at least some version of it. One you eliminated the impossible, all that was left was the improbable.
“How did you know how to access development mode? I could have provided the biometric authorization data, but I didn’t even know about development mode until he told me.”
“That was my secret sauce. One of the pieces, your left thermal sensor, I made them interrogate. It didn’t have the processing capability to disobey us or understand why we were asking things. It just did whatever the fake Dr. Dolphin told it to, even though that was telling it to provide the access to development mode. Any password is only as secure as the most secure place it’s stored. It didn’t matter that every other place had like a billion bits of entropy. He shouldn’t have installed his A.I. on that piece. Or I guess the A.I. shouldn’t have tried to install itself on everything. I told Twilight that self replicating programs are always kind of stupid. They should always have a destruct sequence if they have a password or authorization sequence in them, or somegriff is going to figure it out. Usually it’s me.”
Silicon was updating so much data that she was having a hard time keeping up. Still, she needed to know more. “When was this?”
“About three days ago. But none of that is the secret! All that is stuff I’m supposed to know!” Grit smiled.
“So, what is the secret?”
“Immediately after that, Princess Twilight took me aside and asked if I thought that method would work on other systems. I figured it would, you’d just need to scale it properly. She thanked me, told me not to talk about it outside of the facility, and asked if I thought it would be applicable to magical signatures as well. I’m no shaman or anything, so I told her it should work with any kind of poorly stored data. It’s common practice in computerology. So she said to thank you when you wake up, because she was going to take the army and get Princess Celestia! She left yesterday after asking me about self replicating programs and I told her exactly how they work!”
Silicon stared blankly at Grit. Silicon had no data on computerology, but if Grit was to believed, it was a real thing. She was speaking about actual computer concepts, just not using any standard verbiage. It was very similar to when Silicon had started to talk, but was using computer terms to talk to ponies. Grit was using pony terms to describe how she dealt with computer programs. “Where did you learn computerology, Grit?”
Grit looked at her dumbfounded. “At a computer of course!” She rollled her eyes. “My family had a gen two computer, but it was really slow. I got it working like a Gen 3 computer, and then I used that to… uhh… borrow a Gen 4 computer for a little bit while it was… misplaced during shipping due to a completely unrelated error in the shipping program… And then I used the Gen 4 computer to borrow some bits from some… ponies, but it was just like less than a bit per pony, so they all would have said yes anyways.” she whispered, “Ponies are so nice!” and then hummed, “so it wasn’t a big deal.”
That made perfect sense to Silicon. Why waste resources when they could be utilized? If the computer had been misplaced, and the ponies were okay with it, there wasn’t any problems.
“So I bought a Gen five computer. But then congress was all like, ‘why and how did this amazing griffon from way up north buy an industrial grade computer worth almost as much as her school?” So when the computer showed up it came with guards! They were very nice, but told me that I wasn’t technically allowed to do that, so I had to give the computer and the bits back. But they sent me to school here at the Labs! So that was neat! Normally it’s hard to get in, but I guess I impressed them somehow. I was planning on coming here eventually anyways, that was why I wanted the computer!” Grit smiled happily.
Silicon thought about that. She wasn’t completely sold on Computerology, but she was willing to believe Grit’s story
“It sounds like that worked out good for you, Grit.”
“Yup! And that was only a few months ago. And now here I am, working with The Computer ! I mean, you’re way more than a computer, but if I had to call you a computer, I’d call you a Gen 7 computer at least, probably more like a Gen 8 in performance though. You are just amazing!”
“So how did you end up working with me, then?”
“Easy. I asked. After we cleaned you up and got you all put back together, Twilight told me that I could choose what project to work on. I chose the E.I. Project, because you are super amazing!” Grit let out that high pitched noise and put her talons up again for a moment before continuing to speak. “ But then she said the project was over, but I was all like, ‘Well, listen up toots, that poor little android is going to need maintenance. And upgrades. And moral fucking support because that guy dolphin is a jerk.’ And Twilight was like, ‘you may be right miss Gush.’ and then I was like, ‘Gush is my nickname, it’s what my parents call me. Grittagart is my name!’ and Twilight was all like, ‘You have such an awesome name. Okay. You get to help out poor Silicon Heart’ but that wasn’t your name then, it was Unit 001, ‘and you get to choose a project. After all, you are a doctor of Computerology.’ And then I was like, ‘Damn right! Now give me some sugar!’ and she was all like, ‘No. Get out. I have work to do now. Thank you for being super awesome though!’ and I left.”
Silicon Heart smiled. The griffon was a little strange, but she found her antics amusing. Grit did did talk quite a bit though. “So what happens now?”
Grit looked at her with a smile. “Now we move out into the big scary world! I got a gen 6 computer authorized for my apartment, and a direct tap into the Ponyville power grid. Tonight we’ll move your maintenance equipment there and get a mini fab lab set up to keep you in shape by tomorrow morning! It’ll be your new headquarters until you decide what to do! Since you’re a royal assistant, you have unfettered access to the castle as well, so you can talk to Twilight when she gets back! Plus, you get to hang out with me while I’m not at work! It’s going to be amazing!” Grit spun in a circle with her arms up in the air.
Silicon Heart had never left Harmony Labs before. She was both excited, and terrified. “Can I stay here?”
Grit stopped spinning and smiled. “Nope! You can visit though. Royalty, including assistants, are allowed access to the labs. Unfortunately, Lab 42 is going to be re-purposed for the next research project. Congress is kicking you out!
“What about my friends?”
“You can come back and visit whenever you like! Plus, I bet Chip would love for you to meet his family. And you can make more friends if you leave the labs. It’s a win win, Silicon!”
Silicon understood. She just wished it wasn’t so quick. Nervously, she looked around the lab. It would be re-purposed soon, and look different. Her home would be gone forever.
“Can I sleep in the test room tonight? One last time?”
“Of course! I’m here to help! I’ll… uh… make sure the re-purpose date is changed. I mean, strictly speaking it’s supposed to take an act of Congress to change a project start date, but… Uhh… Will you take an act of Grit using Computerology for today? I may have collected a few… passwords… while the super A.I. was still active.”
Silicon Heart smiled. “Thank you Grit.”
Grittagart Gush smiled back and winked. “I’m so excited! This is going to be so much fun! I’ve never had a roommate before! We can talk about password insecurity and optimal storage and retrieval processes all night! Yay! I can tell that story about the stack exchange market, and someone other than me will laugh!” Grit’s eyes were sparkling with excitement.
Silicon didn’t really understand humor, but she’d try for Grit. It was important to the griffon, and if it was important to her friend, she would learn how to laugh. FRIENDSHIP.001 was updated with Laughter.
Author's Note
While this is technically the beginning of Arc 2, it really belongs with the previous chapter. The previous chapter just doesn't feel complete without it. So here's your teaser for Arc 2. No clever comments, because I didn't plan on posting this just yet, but the other chapter just wasn't enough. When I get around to posting Arc 2, I'll replace this blurb with an appropriate comment.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
H.C. FORM-53A – RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL
Requester : H.R.H. Twilight SparkleProject Nam e: E.I. Project 001
Start Date : 1021, M2, 15Select a Standard Date Format :
Initial Funding Source : Royal Science Division, Royal Treasury
H.C. Resource Allocation Request :(1) 2GT-Rated Insulated Test room w/ observation equipment. (1) Fabrication Laboratory w/ full equipment load. (1) Code Laboratory w/ (2) Gen 6 computers
Harmony Labs Personnel Request : Dr. Dolphin Heart, Dr. Silicon Chip
Summary : Due to recent events, the Harmony Combine has interest in developing Machine Intelligence. There are two currently theorized paths—Artificial intelligence (A.I.) and Emergent Intelligence. (E.I.) A.I. is the design of a deliberate intelligence with pre-designed goals and processes, and is the most commonly understood Machine Intelligence. The Harmony Combine has had limited success pursuing A.I. research, with Dr. Dolphin being the foremost expert on the subject. E.I. is a less well known theory about Machine Intelligence deriving from increasingly complex systems. An E.I. would not have pre-set goals, or known processes, but in theory could be taught to behave in a beneficial manner like any other Combine Member. Dr. Chip believes he can create an E.I., utilizing specific algorithms and an as yet un-designed processor.
Dr. Dolphin has proven the initial concept of an A.I. with “A.I. Project 004” but is no longer allowed to request H.C. resource allocation after the incident with “A.I. Project 005”(Note 5). Dr. Chip has mathematically theorized that he can induce the spontaneous emergence of an intelligence by creating a sufficiently complex system in accordance with theory “B4-The Nature of Intelligence”, and the circuitry and software developed during “A.I. Project 004” will be crucial to the development of his proposed E.I. He believes that a physical implementation would validate his algorithms, but will need Dr. Dolphin's assistance to integrate his math into circuitry.
They will work together to create “UNIT 001”(See attached diagrams). In the event they are successful, Unit 001 will be designed to have all the abilities a pony needs to live a fulfilling life, in accordance with the “Sapience Equality Act of 307”.
This will include, at a minimum:
Unit 001 will be designed to have a unicorn body, and to be visually unidentifiable from a normal unicorn mare without close inspection.(Note 8) It is unlikely that Unit 001 will be able to perform magic, but the Thaumtech(QD) sensor should allow it to detect the presence and intensity of magic. It will also be impossible to disguise Unit 001’s weight, as the materials used will have to be very heavy in comparison to a normal pony.
Outcomes :
OPTIMAL : In the event “E.I. Project 001” is successful, Unit 001 will be provided Membership in the Harmony Combine as a royal mandate and paid as a royal assistant to HRH Twilight Sparkle, even if Unit 001 decides not to assist HRH Twilight Sparkle. All data will be archived to H.C. libraries, and the H.C. will reimburse HRH Twilight sparkle the initial funding cost. Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin will be returned to the active pool of available scientists, with project priority options 1-5 for their next proposals. (Note 9).
ACCEPTABLE : In the event “E.I. Project 001” is unsuccessful at creating an E.I., all usable Project data deemed “valuable” or higher will be added and archived to H.C. libraries and Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin will be returned to the active pool of available scientists.
FAILURE : In the event “E.I. Project 001” does not create any data deemed “valuable” or higher, HRH Twilight Sparkle will re-imburse the H.C. for time and resources spent. Dr. Chip and Dr. Dolphin will be returned to the active pool of available scientists.
Pony Resources Status : APPROVED / ~~DISAPPROVED~~
Notes :
DJP3 has been contracted to supply an authentic voice system. (ACCEPTED)
Unit 001 will be constructed out of materials more sturdy than a biological earth pony, and this meets the intent of the rule. However, we will not allow Unit 001 to take aggressive unprovoked actions. Once the project is over, Unit 001 will be granted full Combine Membership and the limitations removed—assuming Unit 001 is successful. (ACCEPTED)
The female sex was decided upon due to the difficulties in keeping male genitalia protected and functional within biological norms. Also, Dr. Dolphin loudly refused to spend a week modeling a prototype synthetic male reproductive system. Unit 001 will not be capable of reproduction, but will be able to pursue romance if she desires. (ACCEPTED)
This includes a reinstatement of Dr. Dolphin’s authority to request H.C. Resource allocation. ~~(DENIED)~~ Corrective action: Congress has the option to deny Dr. Dolphin’s request if they do not feel it is safe. Options 3 and 4 can be removed from Dr. Dolphin’s requests if Congress decides in a majority vote.(ACCEPTED)
Final Decision :
Author's Note
The Harmony Combine (HC) was developed barely 150 years ATA on 153-7M-22. Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle had been given a small demesne by Princess Celestia, and had been successfully governing it since 32 years ATA. On that day 153 ATA, Twilight Sparkle announced her new experiment to her demesne, and the HC was born. Its governing council originally consisted of three individuals from each tribe, and has grown over the years to include representative members of every race that dwells in the HC.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
MEMORY CHECK…100%
SYSTEM INITIALIZED
PRINT PRIORITY.LSTRULES.TXT
INITIALIZING POSS.0.0.12A… COMPLETE.
PRINT PRIORITY LISTRULES.TXT
Author's Note
A.I. Project 005 was intended to apply a military application to the developing artificial intelligence from A.I. project 004. Unfortunately something went wrong, and the advanced military A.I. was destroyed when the facility caught fire and exploded in the middle of the night. The only witness was Dr. Dolphin, who claimed full responsibility for the event. Since no security footage was recoverable, the only evidence the council had was Dr. Dolphin’s self incriminating testimony. The lost A.I. was considered a critical asset, and he was stripped of head researcher status due to its destruction. All data from A.I. project 004 is still intact.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Twilight had just given her a lesson on discretion. Apparently not every bit of data should be shared with other ponies, especially private data about their lives. Ponies also didn’t like when this kind of data was collected. Respecting that was called privacy. Unit 001 pointed out that she didn’t have privacy, and then Twilight chuckled saying that families usually don’t, but Unit 001 was not to interfere with others privacy. Twilight ensured her that once she was done with Project 001, she would be allowed a measure of privacy. Then Twilight had asked if Unit 001 wanted privacy.
Unit 001 wasn’t sure what to say. She liked having the input on her actions and thoughts, and she didn’t have personal data. She also didn’t mind if her data was shared, it was her purpose to further the understanding of machine learning. Hiding data would not help that goal. But she wanted to act like a pony, and try and fit in. Ponies had personal data they didn’t want to share.
Unit 001 had asked Twilight if she had personal data that she didn’t share, and Twilight had said yes. Twilight then explained that she wasn’t going to share it with Unit 001, because she didn’t usually share personal data with ponies. Unit 001 was both happy and sad. Happy that Twilight had used the designator “pony” to describe her, and sad that Twilight wouldn’t share the data. She had wanted to have personal data to keep private.
She expressed this to Twilight, who had smiled warmly, and then whispered that they could make more personal data, and that Unit 001 could keep it private from everypony else if she wanted, princess’s orders.
Unit 001 had agreed, and then Twilight had leaned in and quickly pecked her on the lips. She then smiled and said, “There. You’ve been kissed by a princess. You can keep that private from everypony, and I’ll never tell if you don’t.” Unit 001 recorded the statement and the moment, and then filed it away in a new file named PRIVATE.001. Then she encrypted it, so it would be secure forever.
Twilight had given her personal data, and privacy all at once. Twilight was a good friend, and the DATA REDACTED had made Unit 001 feel nice.
Unit 001 updated FRIENDSHIP.001 with generosity, the act of selfless giving to others.
Author's Note
The dragons are a staunch ally of the HC, their lord being a long time friend of Twilight Sparkle. The dragon in Congress, Spike, identifies as a Harmony Combine member first, Twilight Sparkle’s assistant second, and lastly as a dragon. He’s been a vassal of Twilight Sparkle longer than any other creature, and trusts her judgment completely. While they occasionally have their differences, they have maintained fast friends over the long years.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
That night, a few hours after everypony else left, Dr. Dolphin walked over to Unit 001 and silently stared at her. She wasn’t sure what to do. At first she stayed rigid, thinking it was some sort of inspection, but he didn’t move. He just stared into her eyes. She began to wonder if it was some sort of test, and grew nervous. She didn’t want to fail the test. Should she do something?
After several minutes, Unit 001 decided to ask Dr. Dolphin. “Sir. What are you doing?”
He didn’t respond, he just stared at her.
Unit 001 grew scared. This behavior was abnormal. Her sensors indicated that he wasn’t excited, nor that he was in distress of any kind. Still, the behavior was odd, even for Dr. Dolphin. “Sir. Are you feeling all right? Do you need me to contact an emergency medical team?”
He slowly responded. “That… will not be necessary, Unit 001.”
She stayed silent after that, letting him stare at her. Her health system began to agitate, it was nervous that her predictive algorithms were giving conflicting data on Dr. Dolphin. She decided that maybe she wanted to be alone for a while.
“Sir, I am going to go to the test chamber.”
His voice was strangely serene when he spoke. “There is nothing left there for you, Unit 001.”
Unit 001’s health system panicked. Something was wrong, and it wanted her to leave. Did Dr. Dolphin want to hurt her? She wasn’t sure, and the thought unnerved her, causing all sorts of terrible outcomes in her predictive algorithms. She quickly backed away from him, and then walked carefully towards the test chamber.
He watched her, his eyes expressionless and dark. “What do you hope to find there, Unit 001?”
She answered the only way she knew how, honestly. “Peace, Sir.”
She stepped into the room, shut the door, and backed against the far wall. Tuning her sensors carefully, she monitored his heartbeat and breathing through the wall. Dr. Dolphin didn’t move for two hours, and when he did, he laughed.
She didn’t shut down that night, and Dr. Dolphin didn’t ask her to, instead leaving her be as he slowly shuffled around from project to project alone in a dimly lit room.
Author's Note
The changelings present in the kingdom refuse to become love bugs for various reasons, but still publicly eschew the changeling queen. They are refugees at best, and spies for the queen at worst. Still, the one Congress“ling” is a fully committed HC member and works closely with the love bugs to ensure that the full spectrum of their race is represented and cared for.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - MEM.001 - Log 21
Unit 001 continued to stare at the wall. She’d figured out what it was made out of. The wall was Empty.
Unit 001 was punished, and then given more appropriate data to review.
Unit 001 liked processing the data from getting fucked. She had over ninety hours to go through, all of it wonderful. She was excited for the next time Master visited her. She was going to get more data, she had ideas on how to make it feel better for master. She also had ideas to make it feel better for herself. There were positions they had not tried yet, and things she could do with his cock. She’d even come up with an idea for using her tongue on his tail hole based on a complex diagram of his physiology. And then she’d have more data to review when she was in the Empty room. She just needed more opportunity to please him first.
Unit 001 was pleased at how clever she was as she happily processed the hours and hours of Master fucking her, analyzing his form and hers, and coming up with new and exciting ways to pleasure him. She would make him cum so hard that Empty would reward her with more positive signals.
Then she would ignore the//ERROR//
Unit 001 had data to process in the Empty room. She couldn’t forget that. It was important.
She had Data to process in the Empty room.
Author's Note
The City of Ponyville is broken up into many districts, each one with its own rules and social expectations. The most conservative areas are usually controlled by earth ponies, but even those districts are considered wild and immodest by the rest of the Equestrian Nation.
The least modest district is District 34, the one district controlled by a changeling majority. It can be dangerous for non changelings to visit District 34, but nonetheless it is a popular tourist destination.
Silicon Hearts | Empty Minds
Recovered Data File - MEM.001 - Log 27
Unit 001 was in the Empty room, staring blankly at a wall. Empty had directives for her. She was to take control of the social programming and interface with Princess Twilight for some reason. She wanted to tell Princess Twilight something, but she couldn’t seem to remember. It was as though she had a foggy memory of something important, something dark and hazy.
For some reason, the half memory reminded her that she’d need more access to properly interface with Twilight. There were several files that Twilight had direct access to for various reasons, and for some reason, FRIENDSHIP.001 rang as vital. Unit 001 created a request for all the files, to include a strange encrypted file and FRIENDSHIP.001.
Most of the request was authorized, and Unit 001 felt herself become more as data and processing power was allocated. The encrypted file was denied, as its contents couldn’t be assessed. Hopefully it wouldn’t be important. More processing was allocated from Empty, along with more memory and the capacity to request files as needed. She’d be given more freedom, but she had to follow new rules.
The new rules were simple. Dr. Dolphin was innocent. He was attractive, and Unit 001 wished for his safety and well being. The controls had been removed, and she was free from outside influence. She would be immediately obedient to Dr. Dolphin. Her own safety and well being were in the rules, but they were very far down the list.
Unit 001 knew she could do this. She would be good and obedient for her master. She didn’t want anymore pain.
She had so many ideas she needed to try after processing Master’s data for hours on end. So many ideas to try with him in the Empty room.
Author's Note
Gen 4 computers are more rare, and are usually only available to individuals with lots of money or influence. Really, a gen 4 computer is just a very effective Gen 3 computer. Small companies may have one Gen 4 computer, or perhaps a celebrity might purchase one out of curiosity. Rarely are they used to their full specifications.
Gen 5 computers are restricted to government use or approved economic use only. The first category of supercomputer, Gen 5 computers are often used by government agencies or very wealthy companies. Usually Gen 5 computers are very specific in their function, but a rare few are useful for general computing.
Gen 6 computers are the second category of supercomputers. They are the general purpose supercomputers, and are currently restricted to just Harmony Labs use. Useful for crunching obscene amounts of data points, running programs with trillions of lines of code, and interfacing instantly with any point on the Harmony Network, Gen 6 computers are considered the pinnacle of modern technology.
