It all came down to this chip.
A tiny thing really, no bigger than a letter on a typewriter and built to be easily installed.
The emotional suppressor; a failsafe created in the event that Roboshi would become enraged or vengeful over the circumstances of his revival. It was a simple chip that effectively eradicated the processes in the brain that controlled emotions.
And he had plenty of emotions he wanted to eradicate. Though these were not born of his origins, or perhaps they were? Perhaps if he had arrived in one piece and not become this mechanical concoction it wouldn’t have come to this. Perhaps if he had just stayed in his time…
It didn’t matter really, the past had happened, he had had his fun, his enjoyment. And now he was paying for it. Leaving him with a debt of sorrow he had only begun to pay off.
It wasn’t fair. These feelings weren’t what he wanted, he only wanted to make others in this time enjoy their lives. Maybe save this world.
What was he thinking? He wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t strong, and his only talent was enduring pain. That was his purpose? To just endure what was thrown at him? To just take the abuse?
He slammed his hoof down in frustration, his thoughts only working to fester and mutate in his mind over and over deepening such a simple pain into a quarry of self loathing. He didn’t deserve this; he was just a child of war, thrown into the fray with no chance of a real life.
This wasn’t living.
The chip looked ever more enticing. Its sharp edges seeming to convey the very simplicity of life he was looking for. A life of no worries, no desires, no needs beyond his most basic survival with just his service to those he had hoped to help. Without his own selfish desires he might have a better chance of helping those around him. When put in those terms it seemed like a war-crime to not do it.
Rid himself of this pain and dedicate his life to those who needed protecting.
Especially her.
The Choice; Install the chip? Y/N
Y
With a sigh he made his choice.
Even if he ignored his own feelings, it was so much better that he simply devote his mind to completing the task he had intended to do from the start. His emotions for their lives, there was no competition.
He opened the small panel on his forehead, and took the chip in one of his hooves. The panel revealed the chips intended home on a circuit board connected directly to the remains of his brain.
“Thank you.” His last words before the click of metal prongs finding their place reached his own ears.
In a normal device, an additional part would be installed when the device itself was powered down. This would mean an upgrade or additional tool would be integrated into the startup sequence. With a living being this would be impossible and as such the chip was sent to work into the thick of a surge of emotions. This was not a worry for the chip as it was simply a filter, dampening the emotions it found and nullifying them.
The effect on Roboshi’s mind was immediate and as soon as he closed the panel to his neural network he felt a sensation that he could only describe as a flow of cold water through his mind. The fires of anger and passion put out. His wounds given a numbing chill. His emotions washed away in a sweep across his entire being. Leaving nothing but what he knew, who he knew and why he was there.
He got up and went to his work, this was his allotted work time, there was no reason to be here.
Once he was at work Bright Spark noticed his demeanour straight away; she had spent the most time with him since his arrival in their time and she was the one to create the chip in the first place. Examining his neural network she was able to confirm her suspicions and she looked back at her past notes about the implant. But once the chip was installed it was not designed to be removed, the emotions returning in full force would destroy his mind and leave him less than what he had become. It seemed she would have to leave him as he had made himself.
Over the weeks Roboshi retreated away from those around him. Conversing with those he had intended to protect was not a valuable use of his time and with each passing day he increased the time he worked every day. It took its toll on his body reducing his muscle mass as he spent his time working on paperwork, monitoring the placement of troops and their own shifts. Soon his last 2 organic legs were rendered useless and Bright Spark was once more asked to perform an alteration to Roboshi’s form.
If it was his “desire” to relinquish walking he would be granted his wish and with the passing months Roboshi’s organic body was reduced and replaced by parts that better suited his cold mind run by logic. Without the need to walk his legs were of no use, though simple grabbing tools were implemented for various miscellaneous tasks. He switched from the simple paper method of communication to a more advanced electronic method with his original broadcasting capabilities increased to the levels Bright had originally intended.
With each new addition to Roboshi’s new form, Bright felt a distinct pang of regret at the loss of what he used to be. Many of the others he once knew had stopped visiting and it was getting more and more difficult to remember that he was once a pony. However without these changes he would have starved himself, the medical download was installed too late for him to recognise his own muscle death and, even with new prosthetics, his body would not move beyond his place of work. Over time he had even begun working on his own improvements with Bright’s aid in providing the tools and with his own improvements set to work on improving the Equestrian military technology.
One day Roboshi expressed interest in research outside of work, a rekindled interest in the manner in which he had arrived in this time and the operations to his battered self. Bright took this as a glimmer of hope that the various upgrades had built some sort of work around the emotional inhibitor and she aided him as best she could with thoughts of his old demeanour returning. For weeks Roboshi analysed the old notes and data on his first implants and even the blueprints for the inhibitor (in a non-too subtle hint to push his mind towards overcoming his own chip).
Time went on however and there was no mention of his old self after he had read the data, even his name had slipped away in his memory banks. Taking on a new abbreviation for his new title he continued to work and expand his network of surveillance in order to keep a check on the flow of troops to their required destinations and work on maximising the efficiency of Equestria’s army. New laboratories build for new armour were developed, each commanded by the new organising unit, providing a new line of heavily armoured soldiers.
The first line of these new troops were unleashed on a calm spring morning, 3 weeks after winter wrap up, on the Canine Town of “Barkville”. Reconnaissance reported a cache of stored weaponry and other signs of an imminent invasion. The attack was ordered and the strike was swift and powerful. Though field reports only contained records of a very minor supply of weapons on site, on the scale of a skeleton crew of guards.
Barksville was, if anything, a defenceless town. Now reduced to less by the attack.
Something had gone wrong, the field reports were genuine, the troops all trustworthy, the ordered sent by Celestia herself on information given by a multitude of trusted diplomats and even Spies in unfriendly territories. All organised by their new system for improving efficiency.
Their Robotic Organising Disk Operating System; High Intelligence
R.O.D.O.S.H.I.
The official word was that all the information provided was correct and that the Canine inhabitants had moved the weapons offsite prior to the attack with the possibility of an enemy spy warning of the incoming troops.
This was the news that was sent to the Ponies of Equestria, but it was not the news Bright would accept. Though she hated to admit it, RODOSHI was the weak link of trustworthiness in this chain of command and it demanded attention.
“Wake up Roboshi!” She called out, her anger causing her to revert to his old name.
“RODOSHI Online. How may I be of service?” His single red eye powered up and looked down at the pony his past self and called a friend.
“Where did you get that information about those weapons?” she couldn’t skirt around the issue, it needed to be addressed.
“Your voice appears to be wavering. Are you suffering from a tracheal infection?”
“Answer the Question!”
“Category information received on the date of 23rd of the 4th 2 A.L. from operative; “Blue whisper” and transferred to printing station for royal inquiry.”
“Okay…” Bright regained her composure a little, she was getting somewhere, “What is the status of Blue Whisper?”
“Operative; “Blue Whisper”. Current status; Missing. Notes; Last known location, deep cover in Canineda, lost contact 24th of the 3rd 2 A.L.”
“…One Month before the information arrived?” The composure was not going to hold out against this revelation.
“I apologise. It appears my memory has been corrupted.”
This had to be a lie, even with Equestria’s first steps into the information age Bright knew what corrupted data looked like and to leave such a glaring omission from the data could only be from a being making its first attempts at covering its tracks. Bright paced back and forth in front of RODOSHI as he watched silently trying to think of a way that she could prove the error was no accident.
Luckily thinking was her forte and with a jolt of intelligence bright enough to power the bulb on her flanks she turned and stared directly into RODOSHI’s optical imput.
“What is your objective RODOSHI?”
“The unit RODOSHI is built around the ailing form and personality of Roboshi, with the express purpose of using the computational power of an organic and mechanical mind to further the protection of Equestrian citizens”
“You were built by me and yourself to protect Equestria. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“Could the falsification of vital intelligence taken from our own spies be used to protect Equestria?”
“…Processing…”
Silence fell over the room once more as Bright dared not move a muscle, she felt the cooling fans of the processors working in overtime to handle this inquiry and the low hum of the disk readers grew to an audible level.
“I have come to an answer.” RODOSHI shifted his form, “With the correct situation, political climate, correct alteration of information and the correct military force administered in response to this false information Equestria would be protected greatly from a greater threat.”
This answer sent a chill down Bright’s spine, “What sort of threat? Elaborate!”
“The original body used for this very unit arrived here via an unknown method of time travel from a Future this Equestria is set to experience. When the Roboshi form was revived in this time he was allowed to pursue his own interests and take up an occupation. The Roboshi unit was recorded as being determined to alter the time frame he had come from using his knowledge of his future.”
Without saying a word in response, Bright listened. She remembered the day Roboshi’s body was brought to her workshop and the times he had told her how he wanted to protect the time that had saved him. All these memories were so real in her mind she felt as though she could just leave this room right then and enter them were it not for that unbreakable wall of reality.
RODOSHI continued, “Once the RODOSHI unit was assembled from the remains of the Roboshi unit, I began to process all the data that could be taken from the original organic mind before it was to be disposed of. Every byte of data was copied to a digital copy for analysis over the duration of my downtime and a vital error was found.
There was a Paradox, the motivation for the Roboshi unit and the means by which he came to this time were dependant on the very war he sought to prevent. However if he were to be successful there would be no war to motivate him to come to this time and so the war would not be prevented.
This paradox has been the reason for a multitude of incalculable shutdowns over the course of this unit’s lifespan. This Unit also postulates that, should this Paradox occur, the effect on Equestria would be greater than any war recorded.”
Bright had little time to take in this new information as their conversation was interrupted as the room suddenly filled with the red glow and sirens of a warning signal.
“What’s going on?” her demeanour somersaulted once more to distress as RODOSHI produced a set of emergency armour placing around his central unit.
The doors to the chamber locked her inside with RODOSHI as he gave his final report to his creator;
“PARADOX RESOLVED.”
No!
His hoof came crashing down in anger. It hit the chip with a force great enough to smash something twice a durable. Smashing the chip into a multitude of unworkable pieces and leaving no hope of its reconstruction.
It wasn’t what he wanted, this wasn’t him. Killing his emotions? Loosing this pain was still naggingly tempting, but it wasn’t worth the loss of everything else he had felt. The warm feeling of walking through the doors home, of talking with those he worked with. His friends, their ready acceptance of what he did. Finding a place was a background joy he had left unnoticed for so long it was so easily forgotten.
This was a time that rebuilt him; his body battered and bruised then build back up. He was a product of this time as much as the time yet to come.
It still hurt though, that wouldn’t change with this revelation. Roboshi took in a deep breath as he noticed his breathing had begun to shudder with the choking weight of the last few days.
Looking down at the chip’s remains it almost seemed silly now that he had believed that erasing his pain would solve him. An empty promise literally smashed under his own wrath.
Now he needed to rest his mind, do something simple. In choosing to keep these emotions he had taken on the task of dealing with them and hopefully console his mind into a happier place.
Perhaps it was time he explored some of the ties this time had to his own. After all, his parents must be alive in this time at least.
