Another Day on the Assembly Line
Author's Note
HEADS UP - This story doesn't feature that many descriptions, as it is mostly told through the narrative of the characters rather than atmosphere. For those of you whom have already read the other two stories, I must ask that you please not spoil it for anybody who has not yet read them.
Another Day on the Assembly Line
Twice the Personality
A Story by FireRain
*** *** ***
Life after death was a very promising and curious subject that has captured the imagination of ponies for centuries. It has been the subject told through the form of ghost stories, urban legends, mythology and even folklore, supposed hauntings by those whom had passed.
It had some brilliant, vibrant minds in the science world thinking, digging into their curiosity. Those typical tales of the undead, pure over-exaggerated drivel of over-active imaginations. Don’t they realise that, just because the being may be dead, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are a walking corpse? It was then that a lightbulb burst to life within the curious mind of Professor Haysworth.
The idea of creationism is what made this very topic so controversial with so many religious groups, the whole idea of ‘not playing god’ and impersonating the abilities of the Almighty by playing with fire. But, to make an omelette, one simply has to break a few eggs. Maybe even a few more than that, if need be.
Magical abilities in the most infamous and well-collected of minds in Equestria gave an upper-hand at this game, and it proved the possibilities of the most outlandish ideas ever conjured. It was interesting to tinker and play around with what was or is thought to be impossible, and if there were no matters to be resolved in this realm, then science would certainly have no place in the world. And so, enter Professor Haysworth’s answer to the issue: robotics.
Robotics in Equestria were fairly unheard of, if only a few examples existing in the world, but they were only prototypes of early experiments of downloading the personalities of ponies into a data bank in order to try and create a form of Artificial Intelligence. These were, of course, the very definition of robotics. Volunteers, your average ponies, were the test subjects that willingly allowed scientific researchers to poke and prod around in their heads to yank out their very cores, plucking out and transferring their thoughts, feelings and general being onto a hard drive.
This worked curiously well, beyond expectations, surpassing the optimism of those involved in the program. However, Professor Haysworth was not so convinced nor pleased by this. No, downloading somepony’s personality onto a solid-state disk was child’s play, a piece of cake, but he had a more ambitious idea - why try downloading a pony into a robotic host when you can actually grow them? In other words, why not try cloning? Pulling apart the Double Helix and toying around with genetic make-up, really get stuck in those genomes, alleles and plasma?
Nopony would willingly allow Haysworth to take samples from their body, hair and blood. Not a live one, anyway. This was’t the type of thing ponies signed themselves up for, to be another pony’s guinea pig, especially when that pony was Professor Haysworth, whom had a slight reputation around town for being, as he’s been quoted, ‘’mad’’.
Mad? Very possibly. Insane? Definitely not. Although, with some of the windows he’s found opened in the area of scientific curiosity and opportunity, he had done some very questionable things to get answers. Some of those windows lead to more disturbing areas than others, but the wealth of knowledge they left hanging in the balance was too enticing to not take up on.
Hmm, but maybe it wasn’t a live pony he needed. This thought had crossed Haysworth multiple times during his theories of how he would go about this very controversial subject, how he was going to succeed and harvest the fruits of his labour. It was so incredibly intangible, so intriguing and exciting on paper, as was most things to a scientist scribbling on his drawing board when building up a fresh concept, but this was not a known area of expertise. Nopony had dared to do what he was planning, and maybe that’s why there were still tinkering with tin cans with guts of steel, circuits and motherboards with those blinky lights instead of those fresh, plushy, squishy guts, entrails, blood and viscera. The good stuff.
Professor Haysworth’s lab was always a chaotic mess of organised significance. Papers were always spread all over his concrete floor, his theories, concepts, drafts, ideas, all of his early dramatisations. All of these ideas and no means of engaging them. He had turned up no volunteers or offers from the general public to aid him in this experiment, and he had begun to get bored.
Professor Haysworth was playing around with the half-complete head of a robotic pony, the circuits half-dangling from its skull and its white-painted metal-strip teeth cracked and scuffed from numerous tests. It had once belonged to the body of a young stallion, whom had volunteered for an early experiment when robotics were first being tapped into, but there was a fault with the memory banks and the circuitry ruptured, exploding the side of the cap of the skull clean open.
Hmm, what a shame, Haysworth thought. If only the real stallion’s head had ruptured, I’d have some plasma and brain matter to play with.
The Professor was only about a few minutes away from giving up hope, perhaps about to abandon the experiment all together, but then an idea struck his wickedly-brilliant brain. There was a report that made the news a couple of days ago, the headline on every single local, regional and national newspaper. Of course! It didn’t occur to him earlier, and he kicked himself for it, but maybe he was looking in the wrong direction.
Perhaps, just maybe, it wasn’t a live pony he required. There was, as fate had it, the body of one of the most famous ponies ever to exist in this modern Equestria, the one tied into The Element of Kindness via natural aura, Fluttershy.
Suddenly, Haysworth, ceasing his fiddling around with the remnants of the robotic skull he was in the process of rebuilding, feverishly huddled himself to the floor of his lab and began to rifle through his papers. In a few moments, he pulled up an outdated newspaper from the day in question, and the headline said it all.
Fluttershy, Element of Kindness, local hero of Ponyville, dies during childbirth. Newborn daughter and husband in mourning.
‘’Ah, yes!’’ Professor Haysworth grinned to himself. ‘’Of course! How could I have been so blind? She’s perfect!’’ Haysworth remembered Fluttershy. He’d met her ever so often around town and had a conversation or two with her, so he knew her well enough to know her importance in the world.
And then there was her husband, Liam the Human, the only one of his kind in this entire world. A widower, and now an only-parent, left to single-handedly raise the child of his deceased wife. He hadn’t seen Liam since the tragedy struck and broke his heart, a deep wound that will forever bleed with grief, and he had a constant reminder in the form of his newborn foal to jostle his memory of his wife. Personally, Haysworth hadn’t met the daughter he had with Fluttershy, but his understanding was that she was almost symmetrical to her mother in appearance.
This was the perfect candidate, the one he had been searching for! Haysworth wasn’t much of a politician or one to bother with the local news, but in a small town like Ponyville, word travelled fast, which meant he’d heard of all of the small and large events whether he liked it or not. He only knew of this because of how important The Elements of Harmony were, that they would only function if all of them were present and utilised simultaneously. Without one of those magically-enchanted elements to power the others in tandem, they were nothing more than mere, colourful stones in the shape of their bearer’s cutie marks.
This wasn’t only the perfect opportunity for finding a potential candidate to perform the experiment on, but this was a chance to re-purpose a deceased body and mind, bring her back to life, not as one of those horror cliché zombies or ‘living dead’, but as she was. In a sense, she might be classed by some as a living dead pony, but that is far from the case. At least, on paper, it is.
Why, this, if Haysworth pooled together all of his resources and worked timelessly and efficiently, would be his crowning achievement, the biggest news to hit news stands throughout Equestria! All ponies would marvel at his work, commend him, perhaps grace him with praise. However, he wasn’t in it for the recognition, as nice as it may be. He committed himself to the sciences to better ponykind, to redefine their existence and morph it into something better, more appealing. More…whole.
It was right then and there that Professor Haysworth, putting aside the paper, glanced to his drawing board littered with theorems to guide his plan into action and make it function, and he gave a grin, optimistic for the future. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel like a child on Hearth’s Warming that was presented with an over-sized gift and he was eager to tear into it.
Yes, his mind was made up. He was going to do the impossible. He was going to resurrect a dead pony. He was going to bring Fluttershy back to life.
*** *** ***
‘’Body has been prepped for DNA extraction, inserting needle now,’’ Professor Haysworth spoke into his person recorder, a device attached around his ear with a small microphone affixed to a short, extendable metal tube. ‘’Once DNA has been extracted from the body, I will be able to examine the ribonucleic acid for any imperfections. Given that the patient has been deceased for two days, there is always the chance that her genetic make up may be disrupted or tainted.’’
He stared down at the body of Fluttershy, her skin pale and near-white. Her eyes were gently shut, her mane hanging around her shoulders and spread around her head area as she laid on the metal operating table. Her mouth, breathless and slightly parted lips, were blue-ish in colour. Even in the state of death, her slim, sleek body held a particular beauty to it that matched that of when she was still alive. Haysworth was saddened as he stared down at her face for a moment.
‘’Ah, dear Fluttershy,’’ He said soothingly, as if she could hear him. ‘’Too much time has passed since we last spoke, and it’s only now that I find myself to be regretting that we had lost touch for a while in the days before your parting. Maybe I can try my hand at requesting an apology once I revive you. Such a beautiful mare doesn’t deserve to be laid to rest in a closed casket, but this world was too cruel for one as beautiful as you,’’ He lightly patted her cold chest, her fur still soft and pristine. ‘’I promise I’ll fix you. You’ve got a husband and daughter waiting for you.’’
In the back of his mind, as he gazed down at the deceased, Haysworth liked to imagine that she was smiling. She had a wonderful smile that only the likes of angels possess. A gorgeous specimen that spoke softly into the wind each time she spread her lips and a graceful spirit whom’s heart glowed with a golden aura of kindness and love. Who could have imagined that something as general and common as childbirth would be her undoing?
It was a very rare scenario in which a mother passes from complications through the hardship of childbirth, and there were ways around it in Equestria with the widely-available magical aids and control devices to prevent fatalities. On average, it was roughly an unfortunate event that happens to one in fifty mares, give or take. It didn’t happen too often, and that’s why the surprise was like getting slapped in the face when Haysworth found out about Fluttershy’s death. He could only imagine what kind of agony her now-widowed husband was experiencing. Thank Celestia his daughter’s too young to understand in her infancy.
The blood in the syringe which Haysworth had extracted gave him a glimmer of hope. She hasn’t been dead long enough for the sample to coagulate or to lose its freshness, making it useless, but he shouldn’t waste time experimenting with it to make his vision come true. Time is of the essence.
‘’Sample looks good, no signs of darkening of the blood, no visible hints of the beginning of decaying of DNA, so here’s hoping that Fluttershy will live again. After blood has been tested and moved to cold storage, it’ll be time to work on extracting her memories from her brain. Although the brain is useless by this point in time, the brain cells having died, the hippocampus should still be intact and of use. Risk of causing damage to her brain upon starting the procedure are fairly moderate, so there’s only one chance at getting it right. Let’s hope this works out, or Fluttershy truly will be dead forever.’’
He gave her forehead a light caress, as if massaging her brain. He continued to stare at her sealed eyes, wanting nothing more than for her to open them once more, to reveal those pools of turquoise heaven. She had such lovely eyes. Everypony would agree on that one.
‘’Poor girl,’’ He murmured to himself before he turned away and headed over to his desk to consult his notes.
Day Two
‘’Apparatus is in place, stability looks good, monitoring is showing no signs of error…right, I believe we’re all set here. Subject’s body is in a fine state of rigour mortis, enough so that restraints are not necessary. Beginning procedure of memory removal.’’
Professor Haysworth was wearing his signature pair of science goggles, similar to coke-bottle welding goggles, the lenses tinted black and shielding his entire eyes and the midsection of his face. He would be needing them, too, with the process he was about to carry out. He had tested this out plenty of times on past patients when it came to transferring their mental states, personalities and memories onto a data recorder or hard drive before implanting them into a robotic host. In the case of Fluttershy, it was going to be a different procedure, seeing as she wasn’t going to be injected into a robotic host. More or less, this was a cloning experiment.
Professor Haysworth’s plan, while much like the others, still required a robotic frame, was not going to be fully robotic and synthetic. No, instead, he was going to grow new organs that were born from Fluttershy’s own ribonucleic acid, an act into order to make her one-hundred-percent authentic to the pony she is going to be copied from. In other words, he was going to remove the vital memories, emotions and sense of humanity from the dead version of Fluttershy and implant them into a freshly-grown brain from the same donor into the new version of Fluttershy. The only problem - this has never once been attempted before, so there were plenty of risks.
Being that Haysworth was an earth pony and not a unicorn, he had to use a substitute for this procedure in place of a horn. Instead, he was using a complicated piece of lab equipment that he hooked into the subject’s brain, right where the hippocampus was located, and a controlled amount of magic will be dispersed through the nozzle and transmitted through to a storage space where the emotions will be collected and transformed into magical airwaves. Think of it as capturing fairy dust, a magic-wielding powder with extraordinary properties, and then vacuuming them into a host.
Once Haysworth had the memories transferred from the brain and transmitted through the Memory Bank Collector Machine (patent pending) where they will be stored in the format of magical airwaves, he was going to grow a new brain before allowing them to be carefully transmitted to it. Sounds complicated, but it’s no different than trapping a fairy in a jar and then releasing it again. At least, that’s the idea. The results were going to be unpredictable.
‘’Machine turned on,’’ Haysworth flicked a switch to activate the machine, it buzzing to life in an instant. Lights flickered to show that power levels were all set and fully-charged. This was it. ‘’Beginning memory collection now,’’ He then activated the machine’s primary energy beam.
A violent but short shudder zipped through Fluttershy’s stiff body, and given that her muscles and joints were stiff from rigour mortis, it was more like a sudden lurch than anything else. Her body became peaceful once again as a controlled beam of magical energy, pulsing with a green-blue aura began to surge up from the tip of the needle-like tube that was inserted into Fluttershy’s brain. That was it, the very thoughts being extracted from the host.
It was a beautiful sigh, like watching fireflies dance and prance around in the night sky, a magical moment of life, a miracle of nature, truly glorious to behold. Professor Haysworth had always found it very therapeutic and poetical, as comforting as his mother reading him a bedtime story or lulling him to sleep with a soothing lullaby, and the soft, rhythmic humming of the memory machine actually made him a tad drowsy. Given how much of a kind and sweet mare Fluttershy was, it came as no surprise that her aura would be so mesmerising.
Makes a change from some of the ponies that come here looking for a trip down memory lane, Haysworth thought to himself in silent reminiscent contemplation. It goes to show that you really do see a pony’s true colours when their memories get yanked out of their noggin’. Last time, I thought the Memory Bank Collector was going to implode with the in-humane thoughts from our last patient. There’s one for the record…
Fluttershy’s body spasmed for a moment, and there was a moment when Haysworth could have sworn he saw one of her sealed eyelids twitch slightly. Sometimes, ponies do undergo some form of nerve and muscle spasms from the magical beam that pulls their memories out of their brains, so it wasn’t an eerie sight, but, then again, it was a little creepier given that most of Haysworth’s patients were living and not dead. Fluttershy was the first one to have this procedure and not be alive for it.
Fluttershy’s body suddenly gave another lurch, but her body was no longer stiff, and her eyelids began to open, becoming half-lidded for a moment before they startled awake, a bit like when you first pull yourself out a deep sleep and find yourself in a terrifying scene. Haysworth stumbled back a little from where he was standing beside the memory machine and Fluttershy’s eyes went small as pinpricks before her lips parted and her dry vocals gave a sudden scream of terror, a pained cry.
Haysworth hurriedly flicked off the machine as the scream of a deceased mare broke through the relative silence of the factory he used as his lab, her cracked, raspy, dried-up vocal wails bouncing from the walls and reverberating. However, she soon became silent yet again as the machine was switched off, and her body fell back against the operating table.
Like that, the cry of pain dispersed and the lab was quiet once more. Haysworth’s heart was pounding and he froze in place while he held a hoof to his chest. He raised his goggled up from his eyes and he stared in bafflement, tentatively observing the lightly-twitching body of Fluttershy as he expected her to scream once more. She didn’t, thankfully, and a rush of guilt and grief flooded the scientist.
‘’Crikey,’’ He murmured in shock. ‘’…Fluttershy?’’ He asked, but the body remained silent. He realised that she wasn’t going to move again and he sighed in relief. He then tried to regain his composure as he pulled his microphone closer to his lips, having become knocked out of place in his episode of panic, and he spoke. ‘’Memory transfer was successful for Subject Fluttershy, however, there were…pneumonic complications upon extraction, causing the subject’s nerves to be interfered with by the magical energies of the memory machine, momentarily tricking the subject’s brain into thinking she’s still alive. Note to self: on deceased patients, be aware of cadaveric spasms.’’
Professor Haysworth then felt weak in the knees as he flopped lazily onto them, and he began to feel his lip quiver as he began to cry silently to himself. It wasn’t the fear that he had felt when Fluttershy screamed on a deafening level, but rather the fear that he had unintentionally resurrected her for but a moment and that she was experiencing so much pain while her brain was hooked up.
That was stupid and un-scientific theory, of course, and he knew it, but life after death wasn’t a known territory simply because there was no knowing how the dead respond to certain magical energies or entities. Suppose it wasn’t impossible to resurrect the deceased, considering their brains are still active enough and that they are still fresh, as with Fluttershy, and they recall particular but random memories. Perhaps it was another theory to explore one day, but it was until then going to be ruled out as a pneumonic reaction to the subject’s nervous system responding to a positively-charged jolt of energy that momentarily re-activated her brain and gave her the impression that she was still alive.
‘’Oh, Fluttershy, please forgive me,’’ Haysworth cried to himself. ‘’If that was you, I didn’t mean to harm you, I swear on my daughter’s grave!’’ He said, but he came to understand that he was speaking openly to dead, empty air. Nopony else could hear him, the room fallen back into that contemplative silence that was typical for a laboratory dedicated to scientific research.
‘’This is the end of Day Two of the reconstruction and resurrection of Fluttershy, and results remain inconclusive at this time. Conclusions will be made once the memories that were extracted are inserted into living tissue after fresh organs are grown. Professor Haysworth signing off.’’
Day Fifteen
Progress, for lack of a better word, has been slow. Slow, but quite rewarding with great promise. Fluttershy’s body had been finalised for burial. It was only with the permission of Princess Celestia that Professor Haysworth was granted the chance to perform this procedure on Fluttershy’s deceased body. Of course, when he put forward the request, he was inquired with an abundance of curiosity for his reasons.
He had explained his theory to Princess Celestia, under top-secret guard, as per the nature of it, and he was very surprised when she agreed. However, it was more likely due to Haysworth’s concerns of the protection of the Equestrian nation without all of them to act together, which was the only way to function. Without all of the Bearers present, they were useless, nothing more than decorative stones. As such, you could imagine Haysworth’s surprise and pleasure when the princess had offered to support him by funding his experiment, as she put it, ‘’for the greater good.’’
Now that he had taken what he needed from the original body, he had sent her back to the mortuary for having her burial planned. As Haysworth understood it, Fluttershy had made arrangements to be buried at her animal sanctuary, to forever be around the animals she loved and adored like they were her own children. Mother Nature belongs with her children, be they small, large, hairy or bald, land-goers or amphibians. All of them had a place in her heart.
The very last sample that he had collected from her were pockets of amniotic fluid left behind in her uterus after her childbirth. It was the only choice he had, and the easiest, which, given the circumstances, proved to be incredibly vital and helpful. Amniotic fluid contained fresh, undeveloped stem cells which were useful for programming what they shall become. If one had the correct amount of stem cells and the know-how and resources to grow them, then they could practically create any organ they desired!
Stem cells, that gooey, undeveloped, juicy goodness of the kiss of life! They were an absolute godsend! Lose a hoof? Let me grow you a new one, factory fresh! Need a new eyeball because your old ones have clonked out due to old age and are now rendering you blind and helpless? I’ll grow you a new peeper! Perhaps you’re suffering from lung cancer or you have a faulty or damaged digestive tract? Give me some time and I’ll whip you up a new pair! Oh, glorious stem cells, how they do make a day in the lab like a day in a sweet shop for a young colt or filly!
While the original mare was being laid to rest once and for all in the place she loved to spend most of her time, a new one was being born. Currently, Haysworth had created a stem cell stew of sorts, using the samples from the left over amniotic fluid to develop and mature all of the internal organs from the ground up. Given that they contained Fluttershy’s DNA, they should be compatible with her new body. She’ll have a new heart, a fresh set of lungs, a new digestive track, fresh eyes and even a fresh set of ovaries in a plush, new uterus. He was going to have to regrow every single part of her from her original double helix, akin to that of beginning a labyrinth of a jigsaw puzzle, only difference being you have to grow the parts yourself before figuring out where they go.
Professor Haysworth was no biologist, but he had some experience on the topic. He had always been intrigued by the workings of living creatures and other organisms, wanted to figure out how they function by dissecting them for inspection. Such practices were not agreed on due to massive moral and ethical objection, especially on those amongst the living, but there was no rule against it on the dead, given that they have signed up as an organ donor, naturally. Any other practice without a legal documentation declaring it was in the deceased’s wishes was illegal.
In this case, it was a special exception given the importance of the pony in question. As such, it was important to have no set-backs or screw ups. There was no room for error in science, otherwise, the results are quite disastrous.
Professor Haysworth stood at the tank where his specimens were growing, forming very gradually but surely. That was the thing about growing new internal organs, vital or non-vital; they required a great deal of time in order to fully develop and become stable enough to be inserted into a host and then permanently implanted so that they function accordingly.
They all sat their in their private tanks, plexiglass walls surrounding them while they bubbled in a stew of Fluttershy’s recovered DNA. Their genetic sequences were forming day-by-day, building more tissue as time passes by, and they so far appeared to be forming properly with the protease to allow them to be healthy. There was only enough stem cell matter to have this work this once, so there was going to be no second chance at this. Nothing can go wrong, otherwise, Fluttershy will have no choice but to remain a memory upon paper and photographs. A thing of the past.
‘’Vat of stem cell fluid is bubbling nicely,’’ Professor Haysworth spoke into his personal recorder as he observed the pink-coloured, bubbling liquid in the large, stainless steel vat before him. The plexiglass tubs containing individual internal organs and other vital parts, including reproductive parts and her eyes, were sitting in the centre of the stem cell bath while the fluids soaked them and submerged them, massaging them, building them up, creating enzymes, such as lipids, protease and carbohydrates.
‘’Her heart, lungs and intestines appear to be forming well, and so do her reproductive organs. It should only take at least another few days for her organs to develop their full strength, enough for them to be surgically implanted into her new body. Once that’s out of the way and checked off the list, then the DNA I gathered from her blood that was placed into cold storage can be used to generate a new epidermis. It wouldn’t be any harder than wrapping a blanket around a mannequin if it all goes as smoothly as this stem cell bath. Once all of her skin is placed correctly along with her internal organs, both vital and non-vital, then the time will come to insert her memories. Trick is, while her brain, with its soft, delicate tissue and fresh synapses is grown, it will have to be inserted last. Reason being, it acts as a nexus for all activity within the body, so the other organs won’t understand what to do without the brain there as an instruction manual of sorts, if you want to call it that.’’
‘’As far as I can summarise, once the brain is inserted and the synapses are fully connected and corresponding to all of her internal organs, then there’s no telling how this will play out. Unlike with the robot variants of our previous subjects, this won’t be as simple as flicking on a light switch, but my best guess is that she’ll wake up like any other pony in the morning, in a dreamy state, unaware of what had happened to her. She likely won’t have a clue that she’s actually deceased. It’ll be like a bad dream, so the emotional strain on her fresh and connected organs might prove too much if she reacts badly. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.’’
Professor Haysworth stared into the bubbling soup of stem cells that were working their magic. He was intrigued by how stem cells functioned, and it made him feel giddy on the inside, so childlike and anxious for results. His optimism was there to see, but he had his doubts, even if they were minute at this time. He would only allow himself to be doubtful when the time came for her to wake up.
Fluttershy will be as she always was, made out of flesh and bone, guts and blood, but she’d be supported entirely by metal innards. Again, Haysworth was not sure of what effect this might have on her body, and, of course, Fluttershy wouldn’t know that she was a cyborg developed in a lab. She’ll have no memory of that because her memory stopped the day she died, so that’s as far as she can remember.
When it comes to the effects on her future body, considering she’ll be half-and-half, it was hard for Haysworth to say what it’ll be like for her when it comes to foal bearing. The trauma of her memory of her childbirth and the fact that it caused her to pass might dissuade her from trying again, but Haysworth knew that with her new reproductive organs, she would undoubtedly be capable of being fertilised through insemination through traditional means. Only difference, the unknown variable, was how the child might grow with her metal endoskeleton alongside her natural bone structure.
It might very well cause some complication, but that’s only a theory at this point. Sadly, Haysworth would be as clueless as anypony else until she hypothetically became pregnant again and he was there to observe her progress. The last thing he wanted to see was a dejá vu event of her death, but, this time, she not only dies herself, but her child along with her. Nobody, human or pony, needed that.
So, although she’ll be capable of conception, with some potential anomalies, that aside, everything about her should be no different than the pony everypony remembers and loves. She might even turn out better than her original self, with the added bonus of not being able to age. That was the only upside of being part-mechanical. There are routine check-ups to ensure that all internal parts and mechanisms are functioning fully, and that was a thing for life, but it doesn’t mean that Fluttershy will be immortal. That was virtually impossible unless you apply dark magic that contains age-ignoring properties at the cost of a personal sacrifice, and it defies and insults the very concept of death.
It sounds grim, and it is, but ponies need to be able to die. Without death, the world would be a terrible place. Picture it - a land where ponies never die and are forced to live an endless life. The world would be overrun with ponies before anypony knew it! Generations would see no end, and that was something that could not be allowed to take place.
‘’Everything appears to be well on this end. Only time will tell how it will pan out once I’ve hooked up her internal organs and I’ve attached her brain. I’m no doctor by any means of the word, there being a definitive difference between the practice of medicine and science, but it won’t be an easy task. If one thing goes wrong, then I could very well kill Fluttershy all over again. This will be a trial and error situation in any event, and nopony’s ever done this before, so, given I succeed, others may learn from my mistakes and know what not to do if the worst happens.’’
Professor Haysworth glanced across the room towards where a section of his lab was purely dedicated to his robotics experiments. There was a miniature production line with empty shells of robots he liked to refer to as ‘’Personal Duplicates’’, or ‘’PDs’’, and they were the same as those he used for his previous subjects.
He had begun work on a specialised frame for Fluttershy’s new body. He had taken his standard PD body and hollowed out the midsection to make way for her internal organs to be placed, and the eyes were hollowed out, the digital eyes empty to make way for the natural eyes. The area which the motherboard controlling all emotions, feelings and general functionality of the body was taken out, removed to make way for Fluttershy’s fresh brain. Once they were inserted and fitted, the skin would be snugly fit around the contours of the body, of which was designed to Fluttershy’s original body, making her indistinguishable from her, and it would undergo a similar treatment to the stem cell bath in which her internal organs were grown.
This treatment was using the DNA recovered from her blood sample, and it would basically ‘’knit’’ her skin back over her body, fur and hair included. She should be stimulated by that point through a series of electrotherapy, enough to kickstart her heart, and that hopefully will be the end of the process. Fluttershy should be alive by then, once again breathing and very much healthy. A second chance.
Day 30
‘’This is the creepiest experiment I’ve ever had to run. Any day of the week, I’ll have no issue tearing out the personality of one pony and then slotting it into a robot host, but when it comes down to flesh and blood…it scares me,’’ Professor Haysworth said as he began to record his audio blog, his hooves working on the brain segment of Fluttershy. He had already long-since completed work on her internal organs and he was no working on inserting her memories to her plugged-in brain.
‘’Blood is one of those things that doesn’t come out. It’s the life of everything in this land that has a pulse and a beating heart, and it stains. The stain you get from blood reeks of iron and it is impossible to get out without getting one’s hooves dirty. But, when you’re trying to insert blood into a pony, your hooves get even dirtier, and that means that you, yourself, are the stain. You can’t wash the blood off your own hooves once they get dirty, so if this experiment goes wrong and Fluttershy’s new body rejects her new organ and brain, I’m guilty of involuntary murder. However, that’s a part of the trial and error phase, so there is bound to be a few set-backs.’’
‘’By no means is she alive yet, and I’m getting closer and closer to my goal, but what I’m doing here, I am no stranger to deny that it’s not natural. I know that it’s playing around with the sacred rules of life and death, and it almost seems to me like a form of sacrilege, which I know most ponies frown upon. ‘Oh, you can’t choose who lives and who dies!’, ‘Who appointed you judge, jury and executioner?’, ‘What you’re doing is wrong! Won’t somepony think of the children?!’, ya-da-ya-da…’’ Haysworth mimicked. ‘’But what if the life you create brings back the memory of somepony who’s dead? A second chance at life? What if somepony died and they didn’t deserve it, and there was the option of bringing them back to life, in an even better form?’’
‘’Point is, some ponies who were not as fortunate deserve a second chance to start anew. Loved ones deserve to be remembered, but I know it’s not good to toy around with everypony that dies. Those who hold an important place in our society, I.E, Fluttershy and The Element Bearers, we can’t do without them, and what makes this experiment more arguable is that Fluttershy was a mother and a wife, a mother whom had no chance to say ‘’hello’’ to her baby daughter upon birth because she died. How is that fair to deny her a second chance? Is that really the world we’ve made for ourselves? And what of her husband, Liam the Human, the widower and now-single-parent? Doesn’t he deserve a chance to say goodbye to his beloved? Does nopony deserve that much?’’
Professor Haysworth liked to do this as he worked, putting himself in this philosophical mood to help him concentrate. He often liked to ramble about his thoughts against those that despised his work, deeming it ‘unfit’ and ‘unethical’. He didn’t hate the ponies for saying these things, he did understand why they feel that way, but when it comes to science, a scientist’s job is to prove that the impossible is possible, no matter how daunting the task is. Toying with life and death happened to be the latest thing.
Oh, sure, back in school, he was mocked relentlessly for his gift in the field of science, which was his strongest subject. Always the one with the highest marks, always the one with the highest praise and sense of punctuality and matter-of-factness. Who’d want to be his friend? Friends with a nerd? Ew, that’s disgusting! Who’d want to be friends with an egghead like Haysworth? The ridicule, contrary to what you might think, never bothered him too much. In fact, it only pushed his motivation and caused him to over-achieve and surpass his personal goals and ambitions. He has since become recognised as one of the best minds in all of Equestria.
If this was going to be proven as a possible experiment, then it was Professor D. Haysworth to have it to his name!
‘’Alright. I’ve got her memories from her original body’s hippocampus on standby with the Memory Bank Collector Machine connected to her new brain in reverse mode. This will implant her memories exactly in the same way they were extracted, but because this has never been attempted with a brain before, there’s no way to know what will happen. Praying for the best, I’m beginning the transfer now.’’
Haysworth flicked the ‘engage’ switch on the device, and the blue-green aura of Fluttershy’s memories, emotions and thoughts began to pump into the new brain which was now inserted into the metal bowl of the robotic host’s cranium. It began to infuse itself with the freshly-grown and matured synapses in the brain, writing all of the emotional data into them in the same way it would be downloaded onto a data storage device if this were an operation about converting thoughts and emotions onto a disk for a robot’s brain.
Fluttershy’s mechanical body remained still during the entire process, but Professor Haysworth was constantly on-guard for the body to twitch and tense, as with the extraction process. Any movement now in the sudden fashion could rupture the connection of the memory bank machine and fry Fluttershy’s new brain, which would be a massive set-back. Growing and maturing a new brain or any internal organs at this point would take at least a month!
‘’Steady, dear, steady,’’ Haysworth whispered to himself over and over as he prayed that nothing went wrong with this memory transfer. ‘’Come on, don’t die on me now,’’ He said, his gaze locked onto the robotic frame. It was a marvellous spectacle that tickled his funny bone for science, being able to marvel and witness first-hand an untried, untested, unpredictable procedure be carried out for the first time!
For the very first time in the history of Equestria, Professor Haysworth will have found a way to not only resurrect the dead, but also how to create living, functioning, feeling cyborgs! Think of the possibilities! Mechanical or digital augmentations were one thing, such as with replacing a hoof with a robotic one, but this, machine and flesh, intertwining to become one? Now, try and beat that!
The body of Fluttershy gave an odd spasm here and there as her new nerves twitched and tensed, like watching a pony considering giving a powerful, muzzle-rupturing sneeze during the dead of winter, and her spine gave a visible tingle. It appeared to be really strange, a very odd sight, considering that this wasn’t even a living pony yet, but the reactions it was giving appeared to be indistinguishable from that of a true flesh and blood pony! Fascinating!
Fortunately, once the tank in which Fluttershy’s memories was depleted and the transfer finished without a hitch, the machine turned off, the blue aura of Fluttershy’s personal, unique energy dimming before evaporating. Her body appeared to be adjusting well to the change, too, with no more rhythmic twitches or tensed muscles pulling her fabricated skin taught.
Now that he was looking at her for the first time how she was planned to leave the factory, fresh off the assembly line and prepared to be delivered as a surprise to Liam the Human, there was a sense of accomplishment in Haysworth’s heart and mind. This was not simply an average, every day pony, this was a fully-fledged, machine-and-flesh pony, and he had created it with his bare hooves!
However, there was only one small issue with her - her cutie mark. Given that she was fabricated from DNA which was then fused with metal in order to bring her back to life, all entirely developed and grown inside of the confines of a laboratory, Fluttershy hadn’t earned her cutie mark. She was born again, and it was not simply an aspect of somepony’s life that one can just fabricate, even with science to recreate their unique mark to identify their special talent that made them truly a unique individual that was separated from the rest of the crowd.
Professor Haysworth hadn’t actually given this much thought, far too occupied with the problem of finding stable, untainted and relatively fresh DNA to grow new flesh to create another being. Cutie marks were not of his concern at that moment, until now. How on earth was he going to—-wait, what’s that?
There was a brief flash of golden light that circled around the yellow-furred hindquarters of Fluttershy’s cyborg body, lasting only a few seconds before it dispersed in a flash. The light was so bright that Haysworth had to quickly snap his science goggles over his eyes to prevent distorted vision. Once the lab was clear again, Haysworth gasped in amazement and natural scientific curiosity at what he was seeing.
A cutie mark had appeared on Fluttershy’s flanks!
Three small butterflies with pink wings in a loose triangle formation were now adorning her flanks, as with her original self! This was uncanny!
‘’New development: subject appears to have developed unpredicted anomaly, having earned her cutie mark, exactly the same as the pony she is a clone of,’’ Professor Haysworth spoke quietly into his personal recorder, astonished and still trying to process this turn of events. ‘’But how is this feat possible? Could it be, perhaps, cutie marks do not lie truly in our achievements in our daily lives, but, once they have been earned, they live inside of our very souls? They are forever embedded on a permanent basis into our genetic make-up, a magical force that cannot be stripped nor separated from whom has earned it, even after death?’’
‘’Is it possible, Fluttershy’s brain, once she had passed away, held onto her natural talent, her unique ability to communicate with animals and wild creatures? If so, this is a fascinating discovery in the fields of our roots as ponies! Equestrian society has just learned yet another mystery about themselves, and it was I, Professor D. Haysworth, who has discovered it!’’ He said triumphantly. ‘’Well, at least that takes care of one problem, but I—-‘’
One of Fluttershy’s eyes opened, slowly and low-energy. It appeared as if she was waking up from a peaceful sleep, one of her turquoise eyes shifting up to gaze around her. Her other eye opened once she had taken the time to inspect her surroundings. Her face was discreetly showing signs of panic, the type of face one makes when they are lost and confused, similar to what a pony suffering with amnesia might show after awaking in a hospital bed with no sense of identity.
Her eyes began to dart, cheeks pulling as her lips clenched a couple of times, slowly and shakily, as if in deep, growing pain. Her eyes clenched again and she gave a pained whining sound, akin to that of a sad and wounded puppy, and it was then that Haysworth noticed a couple of tears leaking through her tightly-clenched eyelids, dripping and rolling down her cheeks.
‘’A-Ah! Mmm-A-A-Aoowww! Ow!’’ She gave a high-pitched whine, ears plopping back over her head. ‘’No, Liam, d-don’t leave me! Come…Come back! I love you, don’t leave me!’’
Professor Haysworth stared in shock at this. He had no idea what was happening or what he was witnessing. He was clueless on what to do, which placed him in an awkward predicament because this design of his, made by his own two hooves, should have something he knew about that could be done in order to stop this. He was, sadly, helpless.
Things got dramatically worse as Fluttershy began to give a loud, ear-splitting howl of pain, a cry so blood-curdling it was like hearing a pony being murdered at knife-point.
‘’Aaaaah! AAAAAHHHH!’’ Fluttershy screamed in agony, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
Professor, think! Think now! Do what you do best and think! For Celestia’s sake, think of something, anything, before she ruptures your eardrums or she suffers a catastrophic malfunction! If she fries her new brain and ends up shorting out, then this experiment is over!
‘’F-Fluttershy!’’ Haysworth managed to gasp out, snapping his hooves over his ears as he fought to block out her screams. ‘’Fluttershy! Please, stop!’’ But she didn’t.
‘’Oaaaaowwww!’’Fluttershy continued to screech.
‘’Flutter…Fluttershy!’’ Haysworth tried to get through to her, but nothing could pierce those howling wails now bouncing sharply and incredibly loudly from the metal walls of the lab. There was only one solution left, the last resort that Haysworth refused to use unless absolutely necessary. He uncovered his ears, stood firm and stared at Fluttershy before speaking loudly and firmly.
‘’Kindness is Key, Fluttershy, 07023,’’, He recited. ’’Command: shut down!’’
Once those words were spoken, Fluttershy eyes peeled open in a startled manner before her eyes shrunk and rolled back into her head. Like that, she went limp and her head hung down, her pink mane flopping with it in the air, shielding her facial features. Thankfully, he body hadn’t been released from its locked position, so she didn’t tumble to the floor and damage herself. That would have been terrible.
‘’Blimey,’’ Haysworth spoke. He turned on his personal recorder and he spoke. ‘’Another unpredicted event. Once memory transfer from her old brain to her new brain was complete, Fluttershy awoke of her own accord and began to scream in pain and she cried. The cause of these…complications is unknown, but an educated guess should surmise that certain, strong emotions shortly before Fluttershy’s death linger prominently in her brain, and the impressions of said emotions gave way to a wall of pent-up stress, anxiety and pain that needed to be released. As of now, this is the only logical explanation I can conclude this event with.’’
Professor Haysworth sighed defeatedly as he stared at the now-silent and unmoving form of Fluttershy. There was a pang in his heart.
‘’I had to resort to using her Recall Code and phrase in order to get her to stop. Unless the situation is dire, use of her personal code isn’t recommended. Her programming will not allow for such abusive use of her code, as each use will degrade segments of her brain that causes irreparable damage. In small uses, it will be completely harmless and safe, but even still, there are limits. The only event in which I guarantee it is necessary to use her code is during a catastrophic episode where she is a danger to herself and or those around her. That is literally it.’’
The code used was a reference to the happiest day of Fluttershy’s life. Haysworth knew her before she was married, and she had once told Haysworth during a friendly conversation that she had dreamed of settling down with somebody and getting married. Having a child was only another segment to said dream, but she was sadly absent for that part, the poor mare. The code, ‘07023’ was the date she was married on. It seemed naturally fitting for the code Haysworth was to program her to respond to.
Personal Duplicates, for as long as he has built them, have always had Recall Codes. They render the one the assigned code is set for to be inert, unresponsive and completely disabled. It sends a shut down signal to their brain and allows for them to be transported back to the lab where they will be reprogrammed and fully reset, their brains recalibrated and wiped clean of any anomalies. In a sense, they start anew.
With Fluttershy’s Personal Duplicate, it was an option that was not to be taken lightly. That goes especially for her case because there are more than a few unknowns with the process of piecing her back together, even more steps if she fries herself and her new brain, or even died during a catastrophic episode. Without a doubt, getting her to work correctly will take some recalibrating.
‘’Ugh. Time to reset her brain and start again,’’ Haysworth sighed. ‘’It’ll take perhaps an entire year or two just to get her memories all smoothened out so she doesn’t clonk out like this again,’’ He said to himself beneath his breath. He then activated his personal recorder. ‘’Subject Fluttershy is to undergo protocol factory reset, after which she shall be activated properly this time. I’m still unsure of how she switched herself on once the memory transfer was completed, seeing as she should have been enabled until her start-up sequence command code was spoken. This is an anomaly to work on, but, for now, my main focus is to wipe clean Fluttershy’s brain and make sure she didn’t rupture anything.’’
Year One, Day 5
‘’How are you feeling today?’’
‘’I feel fine, Professor Haysworth. How about you?’’
‘’Oh, I’m quite fine, I assure you, Fluttershy,’’ Professor Haysworth said as he sat beside Fluttershy, the mare in question sitting in a chair across from her on the operation table her deceased body had been resting upon during the first day. ‘’Tell me, how have you been sleeping? Any trouble at all?’’
‘’No, I’ve been sleeping fine. Better than usual, actually,’’ Fluttershy said with a smile. So warm and inviting, as Haysworth remembered it. It was so intoxicating it could light up an entire room and make all others in her presence smile along too, melting their hearts.
Of course, Fluttershy hadn’t really been sleeping. If she wanted to, she could, but she didn’t require sleep. While the organic part of her required a certain period of hours of rest in order to take a break so that they function without overclocking themselves and causing severe health problems, her mechanical part disabled the need for sleep in the long run. Her hours of being awake for longer were heightened in this respect, meaning she could spend a maximum of an estimated couple week’s-worth not sleeping.
‘’Ah, that’s great to hear. How about your eating habits? Any change in your diet or your lifestyle? Not spending too much time at Sugarcube Corner on those carbs, I hope! It’d be a pity to put such a trim and splendid example of a well-put-together mare to waste, wouldn’t it?’’ Haysworth said with a joking grin and wink. Fluttershy giggled, flattered. Her cheeks even managed to blush softly.
‘’Oh, you!’’ She said. ‘’You know how to charm a mare, don’t you?’’ Fluttershy giggled again. ‘’No, everything’s fine. I’ve not been eating too much sweet things. Pinkie Pie’s baking is delicious, but I do my best to eat healthily,’’ She informed him. Haysworth scribbled a few notes down on a clipboard he had by his side.
‘’Great, that’s great,’’ He said, placing his pen down before gazing up at her. ‘’And how are you feeling in general? Not too sore, are we?’’ He asked curiously, and Fluttershy bit the inside of her lip in thought, her eyes becoming tentative yet full of wonder.
‘’Um, I don’t know,’’ She said softly.
‘’Hmm? How so? Is anything wrong medically?’’
Not that she knew, but Fluttershy was medically incapable of catching any common illness or form of ailment. Her modified immune system saw to that.
‘’I wouldn’t say medically, but…’’ She trailed off for a moment. ‘’I always feel really…sad, I guess? I don’t know why.’’
‘’Huh, is that so? Do you care to elaborate on those feelings, my dear?’’ Haysworth requested, noting how uncomfortable the mare looked as she began to scratch at the back of her leg.
At least her emotions have sunk in well. After the last previous tests, she’s really shown signs of improvement! By the end of this, running a simple diagnostic on future candidates and subjects will be a breeze!
‘’Well, it’s…strange, Professor, but I can always hear a person call my name. A stallion’s voice. He always sounds really scared and sad, and I can hear him crying. I don’t know who it is or why he’s calling my name, but…I feel as if I, um, do know him. If you know what I mean? It’s like I recognise who’s voice it is but I can’t think of their name or why they’re calling me!’’
Haysworth was now intrigued by this. Memory relapses were a common problem when it came to full-robot PDs, so there was always a glitch or two with emotions being transmitted, but this was a little bit different. It was a common event with amnesia patients, too. They recall certain sounds, smells, environments and people’s facial features, but they’ll not know where or who it is they remember it from. Close yet so far, as the saying goes.
‘’You said you feel like you know this stallion? What kind of connection do you feel? Is it personal to you, do you think?’’ Haysworth inquired. Fluttershy’s eyes squinted for a moment as she thought deeply on it.
‘’Oh, I, um, y-yes, I think so. It feels like we’ve known each other for a long time. Similar to how long I’ve been friends with Rainbow Dash. It feels to me like we share a connection only best friends share, but it makes me sad because I don’t know his name or who he is, but I know that his voice makes my heart ache. I always get butterflies when I hear him speak,’’ She said that last part with a rosey blush, face briefly flustered and dreamy before she held a hoof to her heart. ‘’But he’s so sad. I want to know why he’s so sad. I want to help him.’’
‘’It’s alright, Fluttershy, don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry too much about. So, is that all you’ve been experiencing?’’
‘’No, I keep getting these…flashes, in my mind. It’s like getting my photo taken, but each time I see a flash, I’m somewhere I know I’ve been before but I don’t know where I am or who the ponies there are,’’ Fluttershy explained. ‘’I saw a white rabbit inside what I think to be a cottage with a bunch of other animals, then I saw a town with market stalls, then I was somewhere in the clouds and a bunch of foals were pointing and laughing at me. That last one was awful!’’ Fluttershy gave a visible shiver and she sniffled softly.
‘’Hey, hey, shh, shh, it’s okay, Fluttershy. Relax for a moment, clear your head. We can leave it there for a day, if you’d like to,’’ Haysworth soothed her.
Impressive. Her comprehension skills are developing nicely and she’s getting my attuned to her emotions on an advanced level. This is indeed very promising, and it shows great merit for her future. If I can get her to relay her memories as perfectly as the day she died, then I know she’ll have no doubt returning to her normal life again. Fluttershy is certainly on her way to living again.
‘’Y-Yes, thank you. That would be nice,’’ Fluttershy smiled gratefully.
‘’Very well, if that is what you’d like to do,’’ Haysworth smiled comfortingly at her. ‘’How about we have some tea? I know how much you like Darjeeling, so I have some brewing right now. We can always carry on where we left off whenever you’re ready.’’
‘’That sounds wonderful.’’
Year One, Day 30
‘’Today is the biggest test of all. Today, we will be testing Fluttershy’s emotional stimuli by subjecting her to another subject. Since her last factory reset, Fluttershy has shown more dramatic signs of control and promise over her strongest feelings when introduced to stressful situations. If all keeps heading in this direction, then the subject should be ready and more than capable of being reintroduced to her old life where she left off.’’
Professor Haysworth was watching Fluttershy through an observation window in his laboratory. He was in the basement of his lab, where he conducted his test of various forms in order to test the emotional strain on increasing and more demanding levels with his latest creations. Currently, Fluttershy was waiting inside of the experimental observation cell, with its concrete walls and floors, bare and colourless. Haysworth could see Fluttershy through the plexiglas, but she was unable to see him.
Fluttershy’s face was confused but patient, wondering what was about to happen. She had been in this room a number of times before, but she was unclear of what happened. She had no memory of leaving because Haysworth was forced to shut her down by force due to mental stability issues which caused her to conk out and throw a fit.
‘’Subject is calm and patient, awaiting for the test to begin,’’ Haysworth spoke into his personal recorder. ‘’This test includes a special introduction from all of the rest which included testing her interaction skills with robot ponies, mainly young foals. In this test, I will be conducting the same test but with a child much younger. My daughter.’’
Professor Haysworth glanced to his side where a robotic PD was standing by, waiting his command. She was the same model of robot hosts that the scientist build for his general personality transfers, but she was modified. Instead of being a robot with the memories of a living pony in a metal shell, this particular model had built-in holographic projectors which illuminated the outside perimeter of the PD with the shimmer figure of a young female pony.
Her coat was a heavenly white colour, her mane a sweeped-back curtain of two-tone white with sky blue streaks. Her eyes were a match of her father’s, being a lake placid blue in colour. Of course, being that her features were copied from her original self and they were projected to mimic her appearance, the wind never rustled nor disturbed her mane or fur. It was a tad bit eerie, and it had taken some adjustment for Haysworth to get used to himself once she was first switched on, but the idea that this could be his little girl pushed his unease aside.
‘’Alright, sweetheart, you may enter now,’’ Haysworth then told his daughter, to which she acknowledged him with a nod and she began to enter the experiment room through a pair of automatic sliding doors. ‘’Sweet Treat has entered the experiment room, observing now,’’ He then spoke into his microphone.
Sweet Treat approached Fluttershy, the older mare watching her all the while from the moment she entered the room. At the sight of her, Fluttershy’s lips curled into a small smile and her eyes gained a pleasant warmth at the young filly. She had always had a soft spot for younger children, and there was a certain aspect of their adolescence that warmed the mare’s heart with a toasty radiance, an adorable flame.
‘’Oh, my, you’re so adorable!’’ Fluttershy exclaimed over the filly’s young, smooth and innocent features. ‘’What’s your name, sweetie?’’ She asked, kneeling down to the foal’s level.
‘’I’m Sweet Treat, Professor Haysworth’s daughter,’’ The filly said with a smile of greeting.
‘’Aw, you’re Haysworth’s baby girl? That’s so sweet!’’ Fluttershy said. ‘’How are you? I never knew Haysworth had a child.’’
‘’I’m alright. It’s a bit cold in here, though,’’ The filly said, although she was incapable of feeling temperature. The only way she had an idea how humid the environment was came with the aid of an internal climate scanner. Nonetheless, she managed to give a shiver for emphasis.
‘’Oh, you poor girl. Come here, I’ll see you warm,’’ Fluttershy offered, kneeling on her hind legs as she opened up her hooves to offer a friendly hug to the filly to heat her small frame up. Obliging, Sweet Treat accepted and entered a gentle cuddle with the mare. While in her embrace, the butter mare rubbed at the filly’s white ‘furred’ back to generate friction.
‘’Feeling better?’’ Fluttershy asked.
‘’Yeah, that feels nice,’’ Sweet Treat said gratefully, melting into the affection. ‘’Your hooves are so soft and warm. And you smell really nice, too. Like a gingerbread cupcake.’’
‘’Oh, why thank you,’’ Fluttershy giggled at the childish comparison. ‘’So, if you don’t mind, what’s your daddy up to?’’ She asked curiously, hoping to enter a pleasant conversation.
‘’Dad works too much. Mum used to tell him that all the time, but he never listened to her,’’ She said sadly. ‘’Daddy’s been more quiet since mummy died,’’ The filly said with a sad frown, and she would have shown signs of tears if her holographic projection allowed it. Fluttershy’s face became horrified.
‘’Oh, my, that’s dreadful!’’ She said with sorrow. ‘’You poor thing,’’ She nuzzled the imitation of Sweet Treat and she felt great sadness in her heart for the filly, an incredible amount of sympathy that pulled at her heartstrings. Although it hurt to know that the filly was motherless, there was a twinge in her heart.
The twinge was there with a subtle start, hardly any more than a light tremble that made her feel a wave of anxiety, then it began to ring, as if being squeezed tightly, prompting her to want to cry. Fluttershy wasn’t able to explain this emotion, but there was an a far away tone of recollection in her memory banks to this emotions, as if she’d experienced it before. She felt so accustomed to it, so very sure that she knew something had happened in her past to make her experience it, however long ago, but she found it impossible to place it or identify said experience.
Hmm, she’s crying. And there’s no signs of disruption yet, Haysworth thought calmly to himself, silently observing the scene. This is very pleasing news, indeed.
‘’Fluttershy’s interaction with Sweet Treat is going off without a problem,’’ He spoke into his recorder’s microphone. ‘’Not signs of disruption, no memory bank back lashes of imprinted emotions or visible signs of anxiety. She’s taken to Sweet Treat’s arrival most unexpectedly but rather pleasingly. Standby for further results,’’ He said, turning his attention back to the experiment room.
That’s my little girl, Haysworth thought for a moment. Your mother would be proud, but she’d tell me to stop working so much if she were here. Never could get her to stop begging me to come home for the night to sleep in the same bed or to join you and her for dinner. I’ve lost that chance forever, and I regret not being there to see you grow up. This is the best I can come up with to make up for all that lost time.
‘’Fluttershy?’’ Sweet Treat asked, wiping the metal tip that served as her nose.
‘’Yes, Sweet Treat?’’ The mare sniffled herself, wiping away some of the tears that had formed around her eyes.
‘’Do you have children?’’
Fluttershy froze in an instant. Her eyes became still and neutral as her mind became blank at this inquiry. She tried to think about that question, trying to recall a single memory where she remembers holding a child in her hooves that was of her own flesh and blood. Her mind suddenly triggered back to her flashes, those briefly-lived memories she had of places she felt she had been before but never had any clear memory of, not enough to make her sure that they were truly her memories she was witnessing.
However, despite all of this, there was one memory, the one she recalled from her earliest flashback, the one of the stallion calling her name. She recognised the voice, as she knew who it was, but she didn’t know the name of the owner of the voice, but she still felt a strong connection to it. It seemed to her that she’d heard it before, and it brought a heavily-weighing pain to her heart and chest at how desperate, so very desperate and unwilling his voice sounded to leave her, and she could hear the tears and sadness stain his voice.
She tried so hard to remember what imagine flickered before her eyes when she recalled that memory, where she might have been. She remembered a tension on one of her hooves, the feeling of it being gripped tightly but lovingly, clamped firmly with a reluctance to let go of her, the warm and tender touch of skin to her cheek, either a nuzzle or a kiss, and she recalled the frantic beeping of a heart monitor. Perhaps that what it was, a heart monitor? Was it not? Could she have been in the hospital when this happened?
Then she had the distinct memory of hearing a baby crying.
That sound, it was so resonant with the same type of connectivity that she felt with the voice of the stallion. It felt like it held a bond with Fluttershy on a maternal level, the only type of connection a mother and daughter might share. It was fuzzy to her at this point, but the signal in her brain in response to that crying demanded a type of comfort, the need to soothe it, tell it that it’ll be alright and that mummy was here.
There it was again. The pang in her heart. So strong, so much of a strangling ache of desperation, a sense of longing. Ever since she had recalled those memories of the stallion’s voice calling her name along with the sounds of a baby foal crying for attention, Fluttershy’s mind was set on one question - ‘’Who are you?’’
Fluttershy blinked before she looked down softly at the patiently waiting filly in her hooves. Her lips pulled into a small smile, so motherly and radiant, and she spoke softly, ‘’Yes, Sweet Treat. I do have a child.’’
Incredible! Fluttershy managed to surpass her most deepest emotions and control herself before thinking coherently and giving a response! This is an astonishing achievement considering the previous months of tweaking and calibrating! Haysworth thought to himself.
‘’Conclusion to experiment - Fluttershy’s thought processing skills have improved significantly and she now is able to ponder on her thought and question her feelings with in-depth precision before giving a response. This makes her seem more like a pony than a mere automaton, and it will, without a doubt in my mind, allow her to reintegrate with her old life and the aspects within said life. Further tests shall be ran to ensure that this is not an off-chance event, and this will take perhaps an extra year, possibly two, to rule out and troubleshoot any small anomalies within her memory. Until next time, this test is terminated.’’
Year Two
‘’Alright, let’s try this one again: ‘’How are you today?’’’’ Professor Haysworth said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, running and then re-running the exact same vocal test fo what seemed to him like the umpteenth time.
‘’Uh…how is yourself today?’’ The robot in front of him attempted again, still failing to pronounce it correctly.
‘’Oh, for…’’ Haysworth groaned loudly, bashing his head against the table. ‘’No!’’ He slammed his hoof against the table, his ground-down mental gears hardly capable of being able to rebound any further frustration than that which had already been dealt. ‘’No, no, no!’’, He then leaned forward and pushed up his goggles. ‘’Why can’t you get it right?!’’
‘’Ze brain as fried. E-ror. Convezation term-nated,’’ The robotic PD spoke before the blue-coloured lights that served as its eyes began to fizzle out and it powered down. Haysworth screamed in a catastrophic meltdown of backed-up anger and frustration with this side-experiment and he picked up a nearby wrench before slamming it into the side of its head.
‘’Oh. For. Pete’s. Sake!’’ He uttered between ragged, raspy breaths with each blow he delivered, sparks and metal plating flying about while he groaned and grunted. ‘’Why. Won’t. You. Work?!’’
‘’P-Professor?’’ The soft voice of Fluttershy asked from behind him as she entered the room. Her face was concerned as she caught sight of the professor beating the head of his PD to shreds with his giant adjustable wrench.
‘’Why. Won’t. You. WORK?!’’ He continued to scream, and Fluttershy swore that she saw a sparkle forming in and around his eye. Was he crying?
‘’Professor!’’ Fluttershy spoke a little more firmly, but the professor continued acting out his fit of rage. Panicking and acting without thinking before he could hurt himself, Fluttershy rushed up behind Professor Haysworth and she grabbed his hoof firmly to force him to stop swinging down his wrench, and he finally snapped out of it.
His green eyes were small and dilated, dimmed and confused for a moment. They were glossy from his tears and the grey-coloured fur of his fur under his eyes and around his cheeks was slightly matted, and he glanced from Fluttershy’s comforting turquoise eyes to the wrench a couple of times.
‘’Fluttershy?’’ He asked in a hollow voice, and he glanced from his wrench slowly before gazing down at what he had been destroying in his violent rage. Once he saw the carnage he had unleashed against the PD, he dropped the wrench from his grasp and his jaw hung open for a moment, quivering in the air as Haysworth’s face was overtaken with instant regret.
‘’What’s the matter, Professor? Is everything alright? I heard you screaming from the other room and wanted to see what was going on,’’ Fluttershy explained, obviously concerned about the screams and endless shouting followed by the ear-splitting thwacking and bashing. Now, staring at the scene before her, cracked glass, mashed-up metal shards and circuitry, Fluttershy was utterly perplexed.
‘’M-My…’’ Haysworth barely managed to utter. ‘’Sweetheart!’’ He squeaked out, instantly dropping to his knees and trying to scoop up the metal shards and broken glass and destroyed circuitry with his bare hooves, clinging onto a vain, fruitless hope that he could somehow piece it back together. He even tried to clack two pieces together and tried to mesh them together, as if they would fuse and bond, but he had no such luck.
He began to whimper like a foal that had broken one of their parent’s lamps in the home whilst playing and attempting to sweep the evidence beneath the rug, hoping they wouldn’t notice. To Haysworth’s mind and heart, he was startled and broken inside, feeling as if he’d just committed murder or something so similarly criminal and sinister that he couldn’t tell the difference. What was worse than murder, anyway? Roboticide? Surely, you can’t kill a machine, can you?
‘’Oh, dear Celestia, I didn’t mean to—-‘’
‘’Um, Professor? What’s going on?’’ Fluttershy asked again, this time holding a hoof to Haysworth’s shoulder, hoping to coax him out of his momentary episode of regret and self-pity. ‘’What were you doing? And why were you screaming like that?’’
‘’Oh, Fluttershy…’’ He muttered. ‘’Fluttershy, m-my…my wife…’’ He mewled. He tried to scrape up more pieces, the sharp shards cutting into his hooves. His blood stained the bottom area of his hooves, cutting him deeply enough to cause severe pain, but not enough to warrant stitches. ‘’This was my wife. Well, it was supposed to be,’’ He informed his little clone of a dead pony. ‘’She malfunctioned during a vocal test and nothing has worked so far to make her work, so I just…’’
‘’Hey, hey, shh,’’ Fluttershy shushed him in that soothing way only she could pull off. ‘’It’ll be okay, Professor,’’ She assured him, giving his shoulder a tender rub. It appeared to do the trick, bringing him out of his drowning sorrow, but glimpses of the pain remained. ‘’Come on, get up,’’ She lightly tugged under his right shoulder to pull him up.
Haysworth accepted the offer and pulled himself back onto all fours. Once he was fully stood, he flinched visibly from the twinge of pain that shot up his front hooves, and he lifted one up to inspect the wounds he had sustained. He had several small-to-medium-sized slashes and gashes all over it, all oozing and leaking with his life force. He might require stitches for maybe one or two of the cuts that were deeper than the rest, but he didn’t care about that right now.
He stared down at the wreck of the PD, the one which held the designation, ‘’Sweetie Pie’’, but Haysworth always called ‘’Sweetheart.’’ He lovingly adopted that name because that’s what he used to always call his wife in place of her actual name. It was partially for fun and partially because it was true. Before he met Fluttershy, there was no sweeter mare he knew than his own, dear Sweetie Pie.
‘’She was my wife,’’ Haysworth told Fluttershy. He slowly turned his head to face her and his eyes and face were hollow. The grief was plain to see, and it just made him appear like a soulless entity without a place to go and be at peace after an eternity of searching for a sweet release. ‘’That was my last chance at fixing her. Now she’s gone.’’
‘’What happened to her?’’ Fluttershy asked, but when he sighed, she instantly felt a twinge of guilt in her heart. ‘’Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be insensitive and hurt you! I—-‘’
‘’No, it’s alright, Fluttershy,’’ Haysworth told her, tapping her shoulder a couple of times to let her know it was fine. ‘’I suppose it doesn’t matter now, anyway. She used to always tell me that I worked too much, her and Sweet Treat. I hardly spoke to her during the weeks that I was down here working, and she used to always beg me to come home, or she’d come here and try to drag me out by herself when I was right in the middle of a project. I kept telling her I’d be home later that night, but I kept her waiting,’’ He explained, wiping his watery eyes. ‘’Some husband and father I turned out to be, huh?’’
‘’Aw, Haysworth, I’m sure she didn’t take it personally,’’ Fluttershy tried to reassure him against the facts, no matter how much it might backfire. Then again, she didn’t rightfully have a place in being a judge in this circumstance she knew nothing about, so anything she might say could be equally as hurtful or helpful, whether or not it was her intent.
‘’Fluttershy, my dear, you have no idea how wrong you are,’’ Haysworth told her, turning back to face her, his neon green eyes so dull and marble-like that Fluttershy mentally questioned if there was still anypony home in there. ‘’Sweat Treat and Sweetie Pie, my wife and only daughter, died because of me.’’
Fluttershy’s face fell blank, her emotions slipped off of her face entirely. She patiently waited for the professor to continue, wondering what he meant by that.
‘’It was Sweat Treat’s birthday and I was working on a project at the time. My wife kept begging me to come home, but I told her that I couldn’t because I was far too busy to leave the lab, and so, as you might expect, if I couldn’t come home, then they decided they’d come here instead, so they did,’’ Haysworth’s face gave a slight tremble and he forced himself to remain composed, possibly recalling some terrible, mind-scarring thought.
‘’When they came in, I was conducting an incredibly dangerous experiment involving flammable fluids, the likes of which hold enough toxic properties to decimate a city the size of Canterlot. Thankfully, I was only using a small batch, hardly enough to destroy half of Ponyville if they caught fire in an uncontrolled environment, but one of my Personal Duplicates, a very early prototype, malfunctioned,’’ He shuddered. ‘’And I was still trying to calibrate the systems and their detection scanners, and I wasn’t counting on my wife and daughter coming to visit me in the lab that day, so when I was testing the detection parameters of the Personal Duplicate, it viewed my wife and daughter as threats and it…it attacked them,’’ He finished quietly, sniffling.
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide and her blood chilled. She didn’t know what she thought she’d hear, but it certainly wasn’t that! Her heart went out to Haysworth, shocked and sorrowful for his loss. It had clearly left a deep, unforgiving impression on his heart, a disease without any cure and a sore that poured out a bitter sting with a lasting bitterness.
Fluttershy felt like she wanted to cry, to mourn along with Haysworth, a widower and a mourning parent. She may not have known them, but something about his story about them struck a note with Fluttershy, striking something within her brain, something…familiar. Her memories still housed many areas to be explored, and she didn’t know any better as to what they might contain, but this moment, this very moment upon hearing Professor Haysworth’s tragic loss of his family, it felt reminiscent of an event in Fluttershy’s own life that she could only barely recall. She would cry about it, too, but she knew too little of it to cause her to cry. All she could do was emphasise.
‘’Professor,’’ She cooed. ‘’You’re still working too much, aren’t you?’’ She said, rubbing the distraught stallion’s shoulder. He looked up brokenly and nodded.
‘’It appears so. All those missed birthdays, missed events and celebrations, times I’ve gone away to world fairs to showcase my work, heck, even my anniversaries with the most loving mare I’ve ever met and whom I pledged my life to, I’ve missed. Sometimes, I think her not having to deal with a lousy husband like myself is a kindness,’’ He said sadly, his inner-sorrow so deeply embedded that it glowed through his eyes.
‘’I’m sure she loved you, Haysworth. Both Sweetie Pie and Sweat Treat. If they were both here right now, they wouldn’t want you to be feeling sorry for yourself. You can’t change what’s in the past, and you’ll have to accept that,’’ Fluttershy told him, and Haysworth listened carefully to her words.
On one level, he was taking her advice on-board, comprehending each word that was formed and processing them separately, but on the other, he was fascinated by her progress. He often had to remind himself that this wasn’t the real Fluttershy he was conversing and confiding in, but rather a clone formed from her own ribonucleic acid, a poser and a cyborg, an automaton. Her personal thoughts, feelings and memories have implanted and matured nicely within her artificially-grown hippocampus, and they had merged so smoothly and flawlessly that it was getting harder and harder for Haysworth to tell himself that he was speaking to a clone.
And here she was, a dead mare, revived and now living and breathing, confiding within him and giving him comforting and friendly advice. Always a shoulder to lean on and an open ear with a friendly heart and a box full of empathy and sympathy to offer, that was just like Fluttershy, exactly how she would act. He, as a betting pony, would put his money on that this is what her widowed husband missed about her, too. Oh, how dreary and lonely life must be without this beaut of a mare around the house to keep him and her daughter company…
‘’I know she’s not really my daughter,’’ Haysworth said to Fluttershy as his tears began to fade away. Fluttershy cocked her head at that, curious, but before she could say anything, Haysworth spoke again. ‘’Sweat Treat, I mean. She’s a Personal Duplicate I built in order to try and make things right. That’s why I was also trying to rebuild my wife. I’ve ran out of useable, untainted DNA samples to work with, so now I’m left in the dark. That was my one chance, as close to the real deal as I was going to get, but I know I’ll never get to hold the real deal ever again, not my daughter nor my wife.’’
‘’I know she’s only a robot, Fluttershy, and that’s all she’ll ever be, but that’s as close as I can get to her. The memories are hers, of course, but what does that matter if it’s not really her? I’ll be telling a machine that I’m sorry instead of my baby girl, and that won’t do. It just won’t.’’
‘’Your heart’s in the right place, Professor,’’ She briefly hugged him with a single hoof. ‘’I know it must feel awful to lose your family like that. I don’t know why, but I can kind of relate, you know? I can’t explain it, but I feel as though I went through a similar experience, but I don’t have any memories of a family of my own. I don’t remember, but I can feel it. Do you know what I mean?’’ She asked, and Haysworth gave a smile, albeit, a mix of sadness of happiness, a ‘sappy’ smile.
‘’Yes, I think I do, Fluttershy,’’ He stated, mentally relieved to have spoken about this to another ‘living’ pony. ‘’And thank you. It clears my head enough to think clearly to have confided within you, so you have my gratitude.’’
‘’Oh, my, Professor, your hooves,’’ Fluttershy pointed at his bloodied hooves, noticing how much they were oozing blood. ‘’We should get those disinfected and treated right away! Come on, let’s get you fixed up,’’ She said, her mother-like concern flooding into her mind and kicking her into action.
‘’Alright. I can clean this up later, I suppose. There’s no rush,’’ Haysworth said as he glanced down for a final time to the mangled wreck of his Personal Duplicate wife, and it was for the first time that he convinced himself that this truly was it. He wasn’t ever going to get to say goodbye, but his wife couldn’t rest in peace if he tried to rebuild her, so this was perhaps for the best.
I’m sorry, Sweetheart. I’ve failed you yet again. I love you so much, you and our little girl. One day, when my time is up, I’ll finally come home to see you. For now, please forgive me, my love, He said mentally to himself, a silent prayer to whatever powers sit above the world after the living had parted to pass into the great beyond.
He had started to let go.
The End of the Fourth Year
‘’The development and testing phase of creating the perfect Personal Duplicate, the very first meshing of flesh with metal to create a pony cyborg, was, without a doubt, a complete success,’’ Professor Haysworth spoke into his personal recorder.
He was in the middle of his laboratory, seated at his research desk, a table spread out with masses of theorems, hypotheses and draft concepts, an organised disaster of his ideas for the project he had just completed. Fluttershy was in a small room that he had made for her as a temporary sleeping area. While she did not necessarily require sleep, it was an open option as a mask for posing as a genuine pony, so she still possessed the free will to do so.
‘’The tests were conclusive, what is referred to as a ‘qualified success’, and the road in getting to this point was no easy feat to accomplish. It’s been rough on Fluttershy’s mind, creasing out all of the imperfections and pneumonic impressions left scarred on her brain at the time of her unfortunate death, and it gave me no pleasure in being forced to use her Recall Code and reset her mental workings. Nonetheless, her hippocampus has adjusted well and absorbed all of her memories to the point where I’m confident in saying that Fluttershy can pass off as her old self,’’ Haysworth glanced down to his notes and he sighed as he shuffled through a couple of sheets of paper with concepts drawn in detail.
‘’The Personal Duplicate Program is, to date, the single-most tasking and challenging project ever taken on by anypony, and it makes it all the more unique that Princess Celestia offered funding for the experiment, aiding me in bringing back to life one of the most important ponies to ever walk Equestrian soil. Robotics and flesh are perhaps two things that were never meant to intertwine, but being a scientist means that, whether or not it is necessary or even ethical, it can be done. Nothing is impossible, and I proved just that today. I’ve brought Fluttershy back from the dead, and the sweet, young thing is very much alive, in the strongest sense of the word. I’d dare stretch that claim to say that she may also have been improved, too,’’
‘’As a Personal Duplicate, being part-cyborg, she’ll no longer be vulnerable to communicable diseases, be it catching it or spreading it, rapid age progression, terminal illness, sleeping or even mortality. She can still die, mind you, but her augmentations prevent her from heightened possibility of a premature death, in other words, she will surpass the average lifespan of most creatures. She will need to come in for monitoring and fluid exchanges every so often, at least until I can build some improvements to make her system more independent, but there’s no issue with it at the moment.’’
Professor Haysworth slid a couple pages’ worth of information in front of him, staring down at the pieces and skimming over the words. He had written this letter shortly after conducting his very final test, straight after making his conclusion that Fluttershy was healthy enough in the mental department and well enough to re-enter society.
He had written down explicit details on the pieces of paper, scribed in his unique black-inked cursive, a steady hoof describing the intimate details and explanations of Fluttershy’s rebuilt mind and body, a full analysis of her psyche for reference. All of her new features were explained upon the faces of these pages, information found out through each individual test through thorough investigation.
‘’Finally, seeing as this experiment as now complete and Fluttershy is functioning, I have taken the time to write explicit instructions, an owner’s guide, if you will, for Liam the Human’s eyes only. This is still what can be considered a beta test, a trial run of how she’ll return to her own life, picking up where she left off, so there are still an abundance of unknowns and possible anomalies that might make themselves known. As such, I’ve come prepared with her Recall Code, along with the highly-stressed plea that it should not be used unless the situation is dire.’’
‘’I’m unsure of how this will pan out once I take her back to her home at her cottage that serves as her family residence, but I sincerely hope that Liam takes this information on-board and is not too shocked about what I have done. However, I’m confident he’ll be at ease once he sees the face of his beloved wife. I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow, but I’m going to be sad to see her go.’’
Professor Haysworth glanced around his lab for a moment, observing the fast openness of the perimeter. It was so cold and lonely in here. So metallic and concrete, so dark-coloured and ominous. Fluttershy’s presence here had managed to distract him somewhat from how lonesome it could be to be a scientist working all by himself all year around.
‘’I had forgotten what it was like, to have a family. I may not have been home that much with my wife and daughter, but I used to be able to go back to them at the end of the day as an option. Now that they’re both gone, there’s nowhere for me to go back to, nopony waiting for me anymore. With Fluttershy in my life again, it’s reminded me what it was like to have somepony to talk to and somepony to confide with. With her and the PD of Sweat Treat, I felt like I had my family back, the way it used to be. But I know that this cannot be,’’ Haysworth wiped his eyes, feeling tears form. ‘’Fluttershy doesn’t belong here, and I know that. She belongs with her own family, at her own home with her own daughter and her husband. It would be incredibly selfish to deny her a second chance at happiness.’’
Professor Haysworth pulled up the pieces of paper he had written and he folded them, stowing them into a manilla envelope to hand to Liam the Human tomorrow morning when he was planning on delivering Fluttershy back home. He was already feeling a pit form in his heart, an oozing wound, but that might have just been his anxiety.
He hadn’t thought he would be so emotionally affected by all of this time spent trying to perfect Equestria’s first, official cyborg, not thinking of it any differently than his previous PD tests, but here he was, proven to be wrong. And he was never wrong. Haysworth mostly always got his theories correct, but this was an unforeseen event that troubled him.
‘’She’s got to go back home,’’ He said. ‘’She needs to go back to her family. After four years apart, it’s time for them to all reunite, but, more importantly, it’s time for her to have a second chance at restarting her life and getting to be the loving mother she never could be. It’s about time for her to meet her baby girl and to pick up where she left off with her husband. She can’t stay here anymore. She needs to get back to her life, the one she never should have been denied. It’s going to hurt, but I’m going to have to say my goodbye’s in the morning before sending her off.’’
‘’I know there’s no need in feeling sorry for myself. Look at me, I’m a Celestia-damned fool. My family died due to my own mistakes, so I can’t ask Fluttershy to give up hers to rebuild mine. I’m not selfish. I’m a scientist, and a scientist’s first love is his craft. Science is an art, a passion, a sweet serenade of love and progress, not for one pony, but for all of ponykind! I can’t choose between family and love, especially when the love in front of my eyes isn’t mine to take. It belongs to Liam and Fluttershy, not me.’’
Haysworth leaned back in his seat and he gave a content sigh, the accomplishment in his chest heaving as he gloried in having pulled of an astonishing feat. He had made history here today, and it made him proud that he could have been a part of something so amazing, granting back life to a dead pony whom was tragically taken too soon. He may have bent he rules of mortality a little bit, but you have to fight fire with fire from time to time, and he was willing to pull a few strings to get it done.
He hadn’t felt it in years, but Fluttershy’s presence here had been, for lack of a better word, humbling. He felt so at peace with her around, so relaxed and content with his inner turmoils, and that was the natural effect she had on ponies, being comforting and motherly, able to soothe the most painful and sorest of aches. She had, in a sense, made him a better pony, allowing him to see light in his errors down the road from the past, prompting him to do better in the future, like he knew he should have done from the start when he had a family to go back to. She reminded him not to repeat that mistake and open his heart up to regret that’ll lead to further suffering.
Fluttershy had done so much good to his old, tainted heart, and he was beyond grateful for her friendly ear. Cyborg or not, he found her to be as comforting, sweet, caring, generous and as lovely as the original Fluttershy. He couldn’t possibly pay out his debt to her.
‘’If I can’t have my own family back, I can at least give back Fluttershy’s to her. She deserves that much. As for myself, now that this test is officially terminated and concluded, I can return back to my usual studies in the scientific field and pursue my calling. As for Fluttershy, no matter what the future brings, I hope for the best, for herself and for her family. A man deserves his wife as much as a child deserves their mother. A life without either won’t do. For a pony raised from the dead, brought back to life in an improved form, she indeed has twice the personality.’’
