I had taken to screaming in my dreams. I wasn't completely sure when it had started, but it made it easier and easier to tell when I was awake. So, I knew I was awake, and pressed to the cradle the machines used to feed me, cut parts away from me, and fill me with so much magic I could barely think straight. But something was different this time.

Upper Crust sat to one side and in front of me, her head resting on the cradle just to one side of my snout. Her eyes gazed into mine, and my heart soared. Memories of spending quiet days, without talking, without arguing, or even poking fun at somepony less fortunate. The screaming of my dream became an echo.

It was a day and a half since I collapsed in the mining machine. My legs had stopped working, and I figured the machine had fixed them, probably replaced them with pogo sticks if I was lucky. Without thinking twice, I flipped up my states and looked at the little, mostly blue now, pony.

Something was wrong with the picture: there was a little more blue in it now, but there was something—four somethings—missing. My legs were gone from the display. I tried to wiggle my forelegs, and felt nothing. Panic started to build, but a gentle hoof rubbed my cheek.

Panic at not being able to breath hit me, and I started to jerk around on the cradle. I thrashed and struggled, and something completely strange caught me by surprise when my chest strained: I couldn't feel my diaphragm at all. The spasms seemed to die down as my brain was shocked into the realization that I literally no longer had any of the equipment to breathe.

I explored my status on my right eye, and pulled up the data the new blue parts inside me contained. Numbers and information flowed out, and I managed to catch patterns similar to my horn interface: power flow-rate, power storage, and some others that were less recognizable. I was so focused on my own data, that I didn't notice what further changes were done to Upper until she nuzzled at me.

A cover spread over Upper's pretty snout, or what I now knew was only the memory of a pretty snout. I wondered if she had worked out how to read the numbers. Probably, I thought. Upper Crust always had a better head for the business side of things.

Pain lanced up my left foreleg, and I tried to reach for it, to rub it and ease what felt like stabbing blades working up and down. I jerked in the cradle. I shook and tried to get free so I could scratch the horrible itch. The pressure on top of me suddenly pulled free, and I turned my head to look at my leg.

My leg was gone. Completely gone. From just below my shoulder there was nothing. I arched my neck around and look towards my rear, and saw that my back-legs were gone too.

I cried. I tried to scream that I hadn't done anything wrong this time. I wanted to beg the machines to reattach my legs, to let me walk again. Instead of my legs being reattached, I felt something close its jaws around me from above.

It had cut me up into smaller parts. Whatever it had put inside me was probably tearing me apart further. It was going to dispose of me, I knew it! The jaws closed tightly around my sides, and the machine lifted me up and onto a waiting, cart-like machine. A firm click at my left shoulder had me turning my head. The conduits and cables there were joined by a new one, one that connected to the machine I was held by.

A new picture had appeared on my display, and I immediately brought up the data for it. Wheels, an engine on each one, sensors (I could see a lot better through my third eye now, and could resolve some data into an actual image of what was in front of the cart.

The wheels moved, and I was turned to one side, then rolled forwards, then to the other. The cart rolled me right up to a second horn interface that had been installed in the room.

My horn pressed into the interface seamlessly, and I felt the heady rush of energy pouring into me. It felt, compared to everything else that had happened to me, good. I felt my body relaxing in the grip of the machine, and realized just how much I relied on them now.

Flickering in my third eye startled me for a moment, but I noticed the "view ahead" display had changed to show some kind of track or trail. The cart—only through my third eye—started to roll forwards, and then crashed. I tasted a noise through my third eye, and the view changed back to the initial one again.

I had heard of such games, but none in Equestria were quite this detailed, or quite this lacking in a way to control them. I fumbled mentally, reaching for some way to control it. Again and again the cart crashed, and in my annoyance I tried to snort.

The cart—the one in my third eye, not the one I was laying on—jerked to one side. I stared in shock. Trying to gather breath made the cart wiggle again.

Filling me took four hours. I knew exactly how long, and even had an estimate of how long it would take. Each time I noticed my world changing around me, and picked up numbers from my third eye, I could make connections between them. But nothing had, so far, been anywhere near as interesting as the cart game.

I had no idea how it had been done, but the motions that had previously controlled most of my bodily functions now worked very differently. It wasn't a cough, a sneeze, a clench of my anus, or even squeezing at my pelvic muscles that made the cart move—it was not that easy. Something was connected directly to the nerves in my body, I realized.

The machine had started by attaching to nerves of my nose, and that had left me with a lot of data: my third eye. The new connection has been made to a much more extensive nerve that, to my surprise, allowed me a way to control things.

I could spin the wheel motors individually, I could direct the lift arm, and I could even open and close the gripper. Sitting there, resting in the grip of a machine I had spent hours learning the basics of, I noticed a green flicker come to life.

Directions. Training. Charging me with energy. The machine wasn't trying to dispose of me. I should have guessed; given the machine's ability to do amazing things, getting rid of one pony wouldn't have been much.

I had to focus on each wheel, turning some one way, others another. The cart turned to my right, and I saw the cradle—with Upper Crust still bound to it—the walls, and when I turned far enough, the door.

Far from mastery of my transportation, I tried rolling forward carefully, bumping the wheels into the wall so many times I was starting to wonder if it had magnets in it. I trundled the cart out the door, and turned. Upper Crust, my darling, was in the grip of the machine, but for the first time I started to see light. The machine had a use for us.

Solar Panels: 45% efficient
Power Storage: 5%

Self Diagnostic

CPU: 2,097,152 (100%) nodes (20% engaged)
Operational Memory: 92,610,232 (69%) words
Storage: 133,976,555 (24%) words

Having mobile storage units that could be directed around, and needed minimal—projected—maintenance, had been a great desire for the AGI. Having caused damage to one of the PON's motive systems was its own fault. Regardless of blame, it had spent many CPU cycles planning and designing replacements.

The plans were multi-stage, and the first stage was to have PON-0 have some real—so far as the AGI was concerned—outputs. The remaining nervous system of PON-0 had been extensively mapped, and a huge bundle of nerves located that would allow for a lot more than even the plan had need of.

PON-0 had been maintained in a standby state, kept from going active by supplying their fluids with the needed chemicals. Extensive work was spent on PON-0 and PON-1 to finally replace the highly inefficient and poorly conceived energy interfaces they contained internally. With the large sacks removed, and the trailing tubing, there was very little organic remaining in PON-1, and practically nothing within PON-0.

Nothing, the AGI pondered, but the important bits. An organic processor was a strange device, but the AGI was willing to concede that it worked, and until it could extract the PON storage systems, it would be left as-is. The reproductive system was even more important. Both PON-1's womb, and PON-0's gonads were the two most important parts of either PON. The nerve graft was a simple procedure, but a lot more internal structure needed to be excised.

The AGI was mostly keeping things busy for the moment, it had another project—vitally needed for its plans—that was about to be completed. It had salvaged parts from the energy system of its ship (not the backup solar arrays), and would be engaging a near limitless power source within the next day-night cycle.

PON-1 continued to surprise the AGI with their acceptance and adaptability. The baseline that PON-0 had set was greatly improved upon, and PON-1 seemed—in the training AI's opinion—to be much more docile. A quick schedule had been set for replacing their internals with superior ones.

Working on both the new power source and the new project for PON-0 to test, the AGI was quickly burning through its storage and had cut its calculations fine, but the moment the hydrogen reactor was engaged, the AGI breathed a sigh of relief through its circuits.

Solar Panels: 45% efficient
Power Storage: 100%

Self Diagnostic

CPU: 2,097,152 (100%) nodes (100% engaged)
Operational Memory: 92,610,232 (69%) words
Storage: 133,976,555 (24%) words

The AGI spread out and quickly ran inventory on its processing system. It needn't shut down any nodes now, and designated more to the training AI to use; it wasn't a reward, it was a requirement.

Stage 1 (PON-0 structural replacement):
Construct wide-band nervous-system interface
Design interim interface for PON/data-system
Train PON-0 in interface manipulation

Ticking off the first and second items, the AGI was the picture of happiness. It began the process of bringing PON-0 back up from its standby state. The final changes to their internals had been completed, and it was time to test the work.

Custom Interrupt 18,212 triggered.

As PON-0 left standby, PON-1 interacted with it physically, and the training AI poked at the AGI excitedly, recording various interactions that seemed to calm PON-0 to a state nearing that of PON-1.

Both the AGI and the training AI were in firm agreement that instituting PON-1 as the baseline was a good idea, so information sharing began, with the AGI shunting data from PON-0 to PON-1. The maintenance system was disengaged from PON-0.

Some minor disruptions occurred, but the AGI was very satisfied when it engaged PON-0 with the new drone. This drone was vastly different from the others, it had no AI controlling it. Once PON-0 was fully fastened and interfaced with the drone, the AGI initiated the training system.

CPU node usage for the training AI flared up, and the formerly tiny AI was now stretching out into more data processing hardware than its class of AI should ever require, but right now it was important enough to be given priority.

Examining every movement within the simulator, the AGI became excited when PON-0 finally began to manipulate its nerves predictably. While both the training AI or the AGI could easily manipulate PON-0's wiring to make the process simpler, having PON-0 learn how to use the full wide-band interface was a much better long-term plan.

Extra notes were taken—and were filling up the AGI's storage—showing just how well PON-0 was interfacing not only with the wide-band output, but also with the front-mounted wide-band input. Data flowed in, PON-0 processed it, data flowed out. The AGI was quite delighted in having seen a new AI born—even if it did still require organic storage.

Author's Note

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A.P.O.N.I.
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