A Machine in Equestria

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.