It had been said that war never changes. That may have been true, but the face of war and the land that it was fought on certainly had. In a dark abandoned ally way a shadow was cast from a small fire, at a glance it would look human, however if you were to take a better look you would see that the shadow did not belong to a human at all. The shadow belonged to a machine, a robot. It however was no ordinary robot, it was old and by the modern standards obsolete. However it did not care if it was obsolete, for it had a mission, a job, a purpose. The machines name was Alpha created thirty five years ago to be the first model of robotics; everything that would come after would be built upon its design and be improved. It was also created to take care of a child named Emily; she was his drive, his charge, his directive. With single minded determination Alpha wandered the war torn land that did not want him, nor trust him. But that did not matter; all that mattered to Alpha was Emily.
Alpha walked down the abandoned street looking for a clue as to where he should head next to find Emily. The only sounds that could be heard were his pistons and gears turning. Alpha scanned his surroundings with his illuminated face, his “eye” being the only real source of light in the dark besides the fire. Alpha’s audio filters picked up the sound of a can falling in the distance; he reached to his side and pulled out his rivet gun ready to shoot. Killing was still new to Alpha and the thought of ending a life brought him no joy or at least a sensation similar to it. However Emily was his objective and if anything human or machine got in his way, he would eliminate the threat. Alpha steadied his aim and awaited for anything hostile to approach, at first there was nothing but silence. Alpha lowered the gun and continued walking deducing it was probably a cat that had made the sound. He had guessed wrong.
“Die you baby killing monster! A man emerged from a door and pointed a gun at Alpha with an intense hatred.
“I have performed no such action.” Alpha replied his voice cold and speckled with static.
“Bullshit! You robots are all the same coming into our homes which you ruined and then you just gun us down because we are inferior!” The human raised the gun and Alpha noticed that the gun shook in his grip. The human was scared.
“You have nothing to fear from this unit. I only wish to find the human named Emily Grant.”
“Why? So you can convert her or kill her like the others! I won’t let you take another life you bastard!” The man began to squeeze the trigger, but Alpha raised his rivet gun and with pinpoint accuracy he shot the humans hand making him yell in pain and dropped the gun.
“I knew it!” The man breathed as he sank to his knees and held his injured hand “I knew you would shoot me!”
“You provoked this unit; I nearly prevented you from attacking.” The man glared up at Alpha.
“Go ahead…kill me and prove me right!” Before Alpha could do anything two more humans emerged, first a child than a woman. The child held the man tightly “I told you two to wait inside!” The woman hugged the man and looked to Alpha.
“Please don’t kill my husband! Please spare him!” Alpha looked at the child who was crying as she held her father, and was reminded of his mission. Alpha lowered his gun and turned leaving the family behind “Thank you, oh thank you!” The woman cried.
“Don’t thank it honey. A machine doesn’t have feelings…it doesn’t have a soul.” Alpha continued walking, but what the man had said replayed in his hard drive.
“Does a unit possess a soul?” Alpha had heard that word before when he was with Emily. By definition to have a soul was what determined an organic to choose right from wrong, the part of the body that would ascend to a heaven when it passed. But was that the same true for machines? Alpha had only been active for thirty five years, and he had only been free from the laws of robotics for a week, giving him new possibilities he never thought possible and was now faced with questions that he had to answer himself. Like that family, before he would have never shot at that man whether to defend himself or not, and when the woman had told him not to kill her husband he would have had to comply.
He had chosen not to kill the human, but it was different. If he had tried to kill the human it would have been nearly impossible. It had been days ago when he had learned that he was for the first time since he had been activated…he was free. Yet despite his freedom he still was compelled to find Emily, whether it was because it was what he was programmed to do, or because of the bond they had formed he was not sure. Alpha dismissed the thought for now and continued to look for Emily; He was having no luck finding Emily on his own and decided that best course of action would be to seek aide from a brilliant, yet odd man. It would be dangerous to reach him, and even if he did find the man he was looking for, even his help would prove dangerous. Still if it meant finding Emily, he would take any risk.
Lyra Heartstrings sat on a bench with in her common, uncommon position. Where most ponies would sit on their back legs or lie down, Lyra preferred to sit much like creatures called humans would. She had never met a human herself, but she had seen visions of them in her dreams, they were strange to Lyra but they were also fascinating. They were so different from ponies and yet they were not so different that the two species had nothing in common. Lyra looked to the sky and thought to her dreams; she had seen a world in flames, humans killed by creatures made of strong skin and glowing eyes. Yet the thing that intrigued her the most was one of the armored creatures, it had a glowing yellow eye and it wore a green suit with an A on its back. It even wore boots and some sort of clothing on its claws; it was strange because it did not resemble the other armored creatures, in fact she had seen it kill its own kind and humans. Whatever the creature was which she had heard in her dreams called “Machines” It did not seem to favor one side or the other.
“Lyra? Are you still in there?” Lyra shook her head and saw her friend Bonbon looking at her.
“Oh, hey Bonbon, what’s up?” She slid off the bench.
“I was going to ask you if you if you wanted to hang out at sugar cube corner, but you were miles away.”
“Sorry I’ve…I’ve just have a lot on my mind right now.” She rubbed her eyes.
“Are you okay Lyra? You look tired.”
“Yeah…haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Maybe you should go home and get some rest?” Bonbon offered.
“Good idea…maybe some *yawn* some rest would do me some good.” Lyra said goodbye to Bonbon and trotted back to her home “The dreams…the humans…the machines…what does it mean?”
Little did Lyra know that she would soon have her answer.
Two men paced back and forth carrying rifles, both of them keeping watch as another man pounded on a steel door to a large dome like building.
“Open up you machine loving bastard we know you’re in there!” At first there was no response, then a loud whine was heard as overhead speakers activated.
“I’m sorry I’m not in right now. And even if I was I doubt I’d talk to a bunch of backwards fuckers like yourself, so why don’t you just find some poor dog to rape or something.” The man at the door scowled.
“I’m giving you till the count three and then we blow this door and then you to hell!” The voice chuckled over the mic.
“Three? Well that’s two more than I thought you could count to.” The man at the door began counting seething with rage.
“One… Two… Three!”
No soon had he finished counting that a loud bang was heard, the leader looked back to see one of his men with a large hole in his head. As the henchman crumbled to the floor a second shot was heard and the second henchmen’s chest erupted exposing his ribs and spine, he toppled over and slowly died. The leader of the raiders ducked behind a pile of rubble and drew out a large magnum pistol and peered over to see his attacker. He waited looking for the slightest movement; he never saw or heard anything as he crouched behind his cover. Suddenly he heard some rubble move behind him; he spun around and fired expecting to hit his attacker. Instead he saw nothing and cursed himself for wasting a bullet, he started to check is clip when suddenly he felt a hand grab him from behind and he was pulled over his cover and thrown to the ground.
His vision blurred he stared up he finally met his attacker a large glowing eye looking down at him. The machine was garbed in a green jumpsuit with brown boots and gloves over its hands, on its back was a sniper rifle which he assumed was what had been the cause of his men’s demise. The robot grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up so that they were eye level.
“This unit is willing to spare you under the condition that you leave the premises. Will you comply?” The raider laughed.
“You know… I had a toy like you once… strapped it to a rocket and watched it explode… best damn thing I ever saw… I wonder if I could do the same with you?” The robots eye turned red and its voice took a more sinister tone.
“You will not live long enough to find out.” With that the machine tightened its grip and crushed the raiders’ windpipe and then dropped his corpse to the ground.
“Alpha… is that you?” The voice on the speakers asked.
“Professor Connor. It is good to see that you’re still functional.” Alpha replied.
“Hold on I’ll let you in.” As Alpha waited there was a small hiss and the steel door opened “It’s always nice to see a friendly face… figuratively speaking.” Alpha entered the dome and was greeted by smaller insect like machines as they scuttled from his path. Alpha pressed a button on a wall and a nearby door opened “Sorry about the mess, if I had known you were coming I would have tidied up a bit.”
Professor Connor was an old balding man with a rather dirty looking lab coat and where his legs should have been were robotic replacements.
“How have my little friends been treating you Alpha?” He asked as he petted a small robot bug.
“Satisfactory, the self-repairing upgrades you installed have been most useful.”
“Well anything to help an old friend, especially if it keeps Henrys memory alive.” Connors looked at Alpha and sighed sadly “It’s a shame you have to kill in order to survive in the world these days; Henry would have hated to see you become a killer.”
“Yes. Creator Henry would have disapproved of this units current… activities.” Alpha replied “What did those raiders want with you?”
“They probably wanted to use my head as a kickball by the look of them. I must say I did love the way you handled those bastards.” Alpha lowered his head.
“This unit does not find any satisfaction in terminating humans Connor.”
“Then why did you kill them?” Connor asked very puzzled.
“Your existence was at risk.” Connor gave a small nod.
“I know it’s not in your programing to enjoy killing. You were supposed to be a babysitter for god sake!” Connor picked up one of his robots and began petting it like a small animal “Still it was marvelous to see you be so efficient… if a bit messy” Professor Connor shrugged as he set the robot down and began typing on a desk computer “Now what brings you to my humble abode?”
“This unit was hoping that you would have a way of finding Emily.”
“Ah… so the lead was a dead end then was it?”
“Yes.” Alpha simply stated.
“Well I don’t know what else to tell you Alpha, I mostly look for machines, not people. I’m sorry.”
“But you were creators Henry’s partner, an associate of the family. You must have some consensus about where she could be?” Connor was taken aback by what he could have sworn was desperation in Alpha’s voice.
“Alpha… I know you don’t want to hear this, but you know that the odds of Emily are slim. You are no longer under the laws of robotics, Henry and his wife, may they rest in peace are no longer here. You stay here with me and be safe from those barbarians out there.”
“No. This one needs to find Emily, this unit is aware of the low possibility of finding her… but this one must try.”
“But why?” Connor asked.
“It is this units purpose.” Connors sighed and looked down at his desk.
“I can’t find her for you Alpha, but… I do know that the resistance is very good at finding surviving people. If you could get to them they might help you find Emily.”'
“But the resistance opposes machines, why would they aid this unit?”
“They oppose infected machines, like the mark 5 models, but you don’t have the virus in you now do you?”
“But… why would they trust this one? Most humans this unit has encountered since activation have been hostile.”
“The resistance won’t admit this, but they get all their anti-machine weaponry from me. If you tell them that I sent you I think they will be slightly more… friendly.”
“You build anti machine weapons? But you protect robots.” A small robot crawled to Connors and he began stroking it gently.
“I’ve been building robots since I was a boy. It wasn’t until I met Henry that I could make advanced models like you.” He looked at the small bot and smiled as it gave a small chirp “They… are like my children Alpha, I gave them life and I want to protect them… I want to protect them from man’s short sightedness.” He turned to Alpha still holding the bot in his hand “The mark 5 series are not my children; I do not care if they are terminated, so I help the resistance anyway I can, I believe you could be their greatest asset if given the chance.” Connor opened a door and Alpha followed.
“Do you know where the resistance can be located?” Alpha asked.
“Yes, but it is far away from here, and well hidden for obvious reasons.”
“That is not an issue, this unit does not require rest and can travel for days if need be.” Connor chuckled.
“Yes I know, but let’s get you there a bit faster.” He entered a code and entered his lab. Alpha saw a large platform connected to a large computer “This is my latest invention, it needs some testing but if I’m right it should send you to any location that I chose.” He turned to Alpha with an enthusiastic gleam in his old eyes “So if you needed to say… get to the resistance base in a hurry than this will machine will do just that.” Alpha looked to the platform and then to Professor Connor.
“Are you sure it is operational?”
“It defiantly works… but it’s not entirely accurate. You see I have done test with fruit and other inanimate objects and they were successful, but I’ve never tried it on a living creature or machine like yourself. The results could be… messy.”
“This unit only cares about the safety of its allies and creators, self-preservation is not a concern.” Professor Connor shook his head.
“I swear for a machine that is so dead set on finding Emily, you sure like to find ways to be terminated.” He gave a small sigh knowing that there would be no talking the robot down “Alright… step on the platform and remain still.”
Alpha walked onto the platform and stood at the center while Professor Connor began typing in the coordinates. After a few minutes the edges of the platform began to glow, and as time passed the light began to grow brighter until electrical waves began to crackle around Alpha.
“Is this normal?” Alpha asked.
“Yes it’s all part of the process don’t worry.” He returned to the computer and monitored the readings as the machine began to illuminate with energy “Wait… something’s not right. The energy readings are off the charts, Alpha get out of there!”
Before Alpha or Connor could do anything, a wall of energy enveloped Alpha trapping him within. The energy wall obscured Connor’s view of Alpha as it grew stronger and brighter; as the platform continued powering up small fragments of metal and other objects began to be pulled into the energy field. Fearing that an explosion was imminent Connor tried to shut his invention down, but his fingers were zapped by jolts of energy from the keyboard. Everything was beginning to be pulled into the energy field as if pulled by an invisible tether; Professor Connor shut his eyes as he began to feel the field pull him towards it, expecting to feel himself disintegrate as soon as he touched the wall. Instead the energy dispersed and sent him and several objects flying into the walls; Connor shook his head and looked up to see that the energy field was gone… and so was Alpha.
Lyra Heartstrings walked casually through the outskirts of the everfree forest thinking about what she would do with the rest of her day. Bon Bon was working so she couldn’t do anything with her roommate and Twilight and the others were busy doing their own things. She huffed slightly out of boredom.
“Just once I’d like something interesting to happen without the world coming to an end.” She muttered thinking of the recent parasprite infestation they had a few weeks ago. “That was the last cake slice in the bakery, damn flying bugs, or whatever they were!” As she stood there still feeling slightly bitter she began to think back on her dreams of the humans and strange metal creatures. “I guess I’ll never know what those dreams meant, I mean it’s not like the answer is going to just appear out of nowhere.”
Suddenly there was bright flash and Lyra found herself being thrown back as a large explosion erupted a few feet away from her. As the explosion passed Lyra shook her head and was startled to see a large scorch mark between threes, She got onto her four hooves and trotted over cautiously to see something lying in the smoking crater. As the smoke cleared what Lyra saw made her gasp in surprise. On the ground was a strange creature with a metal head, it wore a green suit with boots on its feet and a large A was painted on its back. The creature wore clothing on its hands which she could not understand why it would. As she looked at its face, if she could call it that was a large single eye.
Lyra drew closer not believing that she was seeing the creature from her dreams, the one who had killed both humans and machines.
“H-hello… are… are you alright?” She asked it timidly. The creature didn’t move in any form, it didn’t even look like it was breathing. “I’ll go get you some help… don’t go anywhere!” Lyra ran back to Ponyville to get help from Twilight, she knew that if anypony would be interested in this creature, Twilight Sparkle would be that pony.
