After commissioning the clothes for the golem he was planning on building, Gerhardt left the Carousel Boutique and instead of heading back to his lab he made his way into the Everfree Forest. While Rarity was already going to make the golem’s clothes, since the ponies obviously lacked feet there were no cobblers in this town that he could hire to make the golem’s boots. He knew that sometimes shoes were made out of some sort of thick and durable fabric, however he didn’t know where to buy such fabric and he didn’t want to waste materials building a device specifically to make shoes since the only ones in the world that actually needed shoes would be him and that golem. So he was going to need to make them himself by hand and for that he needed leather. The ponies obviously weren’t carnivores so he highly doubted leather was sold anywhere in Equestria. As such he needed to go hunt an animal, take its hide, and make the leather himself.

Taking out his teleportation pistol as he entered the forest he switched the safety off and increased the range of his sensors from 50 to 100 feet. With that, his hunt was on. After about an hour into his hunt he had accidentally stumbled across a bog and saw several crocodiles. He had been planning on hunting a bear or something but a crocodile would work just fine. Grabbing one with a telekinetic spell he lifted it into the air and shot it in the head, killing it instantly. Drawing the combat knife attached to the belt of his pants, he levitated the crocodile’s corpse over to himself and proceeded to skin it. Once he had its hide, he opened a portal to one of the rooms on the second floor of his lab, used telekinesis to fold up the skin and levitated it through the portal before closing the portal behind it. He would head back to his lab and begin treating the crocodile hide to turn it into usable leather after he disposed of the now skinless carcass.

With a simple but powerful fire spell he quickly incinerated the crocodile’s corpse and let the ashes fall to the ground in the forest. The ashes would serve as fertilizer for the plants, which would serve as food for the herbivores that inhabited the forest, which would serve as food for the other crocodiles. It was just the basic food chain and humans were apex predators, so while he personally didn’t need to eat he felt zero remorse over killing a single animal. He needed its skin so he took it, then he discarded the rest of the body so even in death it could continue to perpetuate the cycle of natural selection. Thus the nature spirits that inhabited the Everfree shouldn’t have any issue with his actions. Especially since it was a one off. He had no intention of having to come back and do this again at any point. Once his lab was more set up he could simply grow any animal hides he needed in vats.

With that done he returned to his lab and began treating the crocodile hide. He didn’t have the right materials to do so and he didn’t know where to buy them, so he was forced to use magic as a substitute. It took about half an hour but he finally had usable leather. Now he just needed to cut it into the shapes he needed and then wait until he had the machine to make metal thread and fabric so he could use some steel thread to sew it all together. He would be making the soles out of hard rubber and would be giving it snap on straps since the only boot laces in this world were his and he sort of needed them for his own boots. He would make a better set of boots for the golem at some point later on.

Technically, it’s feet would be made of metal so it could walk around barefoot just fine. However that risked causing them unnecessary damage which would mean he would have to conduct maintenance on it more frequently. So while it could walk around barefoot giving it boots was simply the best option for both it and him. One could never say that he didn’t try his best to take as good of care of his machines and subordinates as he possibly could. Many technomancers he had met in the past wouldn’t bother going this far for a golem, even if it were sapient like this one would be. Either way he had to wait until he got the materials to make the rubber and black shoe polish before he began making the actual boots themselves. Until then, he got back to work studying the black crystals that King Sombra had made.

The next day his materials arrived and he got to work building that machine to make metal fabric for Rarity. That took about two and a half days. When it was finished he loaded it with a bit of steel and made the thread he would need for the golem’s boots. Then he loaded it with some gold and silver and made two spools of metal thread for Rarity. Opening a portal to the Carousel Boutique, he informed Rarity that he had built the machine to make metal fabric and thread. He then handed her the two spools of gold and silver thread as samples. Those two were free since she offered to repair his robes essentially for free, but he fully planned on charging her for any more than that. She thanked him for the thread and immediately ordered several lengths of gold and silver fabric.

He informed her the fabric would be ready in two days and immediately returned to his lab and loaded the machine with the materials it would need to make the fabric. Then he got to work building the golem and improving upon the design of the love generator for the changelings. Currently he would be working on building the golem’s body. Its brain would come last after he figured out just what the hell was up with these “Elements of Harmony”. First Twilight Sparkle was talking about them as if they were philosophical concepts, then he learns they’re actual physical artifacts. He was confused and he hated being confused. He was going to get to the bottom of this one way or another.

To that end, after the lengths on metal fabric that Rarity had ordered were complete and he had delivered them to her, he then took a few minutes to head to Golden Oak Library to read any books Twilight had on these “Elements of Harmony”. It only took him about three and a half minutes to read every book that was in the library on the subject. Apparently they were both powerful magical artifacts as well as philosophical concepts. That was frustrating, but at least he wouldn’t have to change his plans of including the “Elements of Harmony” in the golem he was building.

Twilight came over a few times for more lessons in technomancy, so he was forced to hide the body of the golem he was working on in the rooms on the second floor whenever she was there and work on the love generator for the changelings instead. He would hide it in the lower floors, but the first room was less than a quarter of the way finished. He still had a lot of digging to do, a lot of dirt to turn into granite, and lights to make before it was ready for use.

Then one day his sensors detected a surprisingly large number of Earth ponies approaching his lab. Opening a portal to the second story floor of his house, he carefully set the body of the golem down in the room before closing the portal behind it. Then before he could make his way over to the front door to his lab to see what in the world was going on, both the front and back doors burst open and a horde of Pinkie Pies came swarming in. Blinking in surprise, he demanded, “What is the meaning of this?! How are there so many of you?! Wait, don’t touch that!” The Pinkie Pies began messing with his equipment chanting, ““““Fun! Fun! Fun!””””

“Stop! Stop touching my equipment! Alright that’s it!” Gerhardt shouted at them before drawing his teleportation pistol, switching the safety off, and pointing it at them. “ALL OF YOU GET OUT OF MY LAB THIS INSTANT, OR SO HELP ME I WILL MAKE YOU ALL LEAVE BY FORCE!” His voice was heavily distorted by his sheer outrage over their complete lack of respect for him and his property.

All of them paused and gave a collective disappointed ““““Awww…”””” before making their way out of his lab. Detecting one upstairs in the room his golem’s body was located he switched the safety back on and put his pistol back in its holster before immediately marching upstairs. Aggressively grabbing the Pinkie Pie by the scruff of her neck and carrying her back down stairs, he cast a mental illusion spell on her to make her forget the last five minutes so she wouldn’t go talking about his golem since it was supposed to remain a secret until he was ready to unveil it. Then he threw her out the front door of his house before slamming it shut and locking it. He then proceeded to do the same to his back door.

He had no idea what was going on or how on earth there were so many Pinkie Pies but he assumed some sort of magic was involved and either way he wanted absolutely no part of whatever this was. So with both of his doors now locked, he proceeded to survey the damage that had been done to his equipment. Fortunately nothing was broken but now his lab was a gods damned mess. As such he spent a few minutes using mass telekinesis to clean everything up and put everything back where they belonged, then he got back to work on his golem. Fortunately it’s body hadn’t been damaged.

He continued working for a few more days and one time actually had the Changeling that was currently staying in Ponyville come over to test his new iteration of the love generator. It functioned well enough and apparently the taste was now bearable but it was still taking damage far too quickly for it to be useful. By his calculations it could survive maybe a day or two of being fed on before requiring maintenance. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he got that up to several months at least. He did not make machines that were anything less than the highest possible quality.

Eventually, however, Rarity came by and delivered the clothes she had made for the golem he was building. She also informed him that she absolutely loved the gold and silver metal fabrics that she bought from him and as such ordered four more lengths of both, two of each.

As Gerhardt examined the clothes, it was clear to him that Rarity had apparently used some of that gold and silver fabric in its construction. The robe had a silver trim and golden pentagrams surrounded by gears on either shoulder just like Gerhardt’s robe — though it lacked the runes that were beneath the gears on his robes. It also had several beautiful blue sapphires sewn into it near the cuffs of the sleeves and inside the points of the pentagrams on the shoulders as well as a bit of beautiful gold and silver scrollwork in several places, though it didn’t look gaudy like Gerhardt’s old formal uniform. There was also a small silver gear surrounding a stylized golden heart near the cuff of either sleeve between two of the sapphires, as what Gerhardt could only assume was some sort of joke or play on words about his name. The buckle of the belt that would hold the robes closed was also made of gold and had some beautiful scrollwork engraved into it.

All in all, the robe was more ornate then he would have liked considering these were clothes meant for everyday use, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as he had feared. It was somewhere in between the two. The pants were pretty much the same as the robe, up to and including its belt.

Having received the clothes he folded them up and set them in one of the rooms upstairs and got to work making the boots for the golem. He had already made the rubber for the soles, the black shoe polish, and the steel thread so all he had left to do was cut the crocodile leather into shape and put it all together. He finished the boots in a few hours. He probably could have gotten it done faster if he really wanted to, however he was a master technomancer not a master cobbler so he took his time to ensure his work was as perfect as it could possibly be.

With the golem’s clothes done he went back to the main work area of his lab and got back to work on the golem, only to hear a knock on his door a few minutes later. With a sigh he set down his tools and walked over to his front door. Opening it up he saw a grey pegasus with eyes that were not perfectly aligned. Apparently her name was Derpy Hooves and she had heard about how he had fixed Scootaloo’s wings, so she had come over to see if he could fix her eyes. As such Gerhardt offered her the same choice that he had offered scootaloo and her parents, he could either replace one of her eyes with an artificial one or he could try to realign them with biomancy. She was surprised by how cheap his prices were just like Scootaloo’s parents had been, and unsurprisingly she requested that he just realign them with biomancy.

Creating an optical illusion of a white square with a black x in the middle, he had her look at it and had her help guide him in the realignment. The process was far simpler than fixing Scootaloo’s wings had been so it only took about five minutes. When it was done she paid him and thanked him for his assistance before leaving. When she was gone, he wondered if this would start becoming a regular thing. Ponies coming over to have him fix their defects with biomancy. Not that he would be opposed to such a thing as it was another source of income and it cost him nothing which meant he could purchase even more materials, but he wasn’t a medical mage or biomancer.

This made him wish that Isabel or at least one of the other professional medical mages were there with him so they could deal with the medical side of things while he could just focus on the technological side of things. He was glad that neither Isabel nor any of the other medical mages were there with him, of course, as the Human Kingdom needed them now more than ever, but the point remained. Naturally they were far better suited to such tasks then he was while he was far better suited to dealing with technology then they were.

Eventually, however, he ran out of materials to work with and as such he had to inform Twilight that his schedule was finally free, as per their deal. His storage shed was also starting to fill up with empty crates so he decided to take them apart and use them to create a bit of furniture. Mainly tables for him to put more tools and machinery on. Though he did make a bench for ponies to sit on during biomancy procedures and a couple of smaller tables which he placed in the recreational lounge of his lab to display his wares on when his business was fully up and running.

Twilight informed him that his second friendship lesson was with Pinkie Pie, and he was already dreading it. Out of all of the ponies he knew, she was probably the one he liked the least. Regardless, on the date and time that Twilight had scheduled Gerhardt took a moment to mentally prepare himself before opening a portal to Sugar Cube Corner and stepping through it. As soon as he was on the other side Pinkie Pie all but appeared in front of him as if from nowhere. Once again his sensors failed to detect her approach, which still perturbed him.

“Hiya Gears! Are you ready for your super duper funerific lesson in friendship and laughter?” Pinkie Pie asked cheerfully.

Gerhardt sighed and closed the portal behind him. “Let’s just get this over with…” He muttered, his reluctance very clear in his voice.

“Aww… Don’t be like that, Gears. It’ll be fun, and that’s a Pinkie Promise!” Pinkie stated happily.

“Miss Pie… There is an old saying in my kingdom. That saying is: don’t make promises you can’t keep. I believe I have completely lost the capacity to have “fun” centuries ago during my time as a High Lord. In all my years of living there has only ever been one thing that I have ever truly enjoyed. That being my work as a technomancer building, repairing, improving upon, inventing, and experimenting with various machines. Unfortunately my duties as the High Lord of the R&D branch has sucked all of the happiness, enjoyment, pride, and satisfaction out of my work leaving nothing behind but stress and anxiety. In the past eight hundred years there have only been two things I have legitimately enjoyed, the first was building Goldy the sentient golem I made for Miss Fluttershy while the other is building something that shall remain a secret for the moment. So I sincerely doubt that there is absolutely anything you can do to make this experience “fun” for me. Nor should you even bother trying as, if I’m not mistaken, this is meant to be educational not “fun”.”

Pinkie Pie was actually tearing up a little as she heard Gerhardt say this. “Gears… When was the last time you even so much as smiled?” She inquired sadly.

“A few seconds after Goldy was first activated. Before that, however, the last time I smiled was exactly 642 years ago after learning that the individual who started the First Necromantic War had been killed in battle by a Combat Mage from the Army Branch. The last time I smiled before that was before I became a high lord 807 years ago. Why?” Gerhardt asked, not understanding how him smiling was even remotely relevant to anything.

Pinkie Pie looked absolutely devastated by this news, though for the life of him he couldn’t understand why. “That’s horrible! This is way worse than I thought! That settles it. I’m going to teach you how to have fun and smile again!”

Gerhardt sighed in frustration and inquired, “Miss Pie, what in the world does this have to do with friendship?”

“What does it have to do with friendship? It has everything to do with friendship!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Then she proceeded to break out into a song about smiling, laughter, fun, and friendship. Oddly enough it was even accompanied by music that seemed to be emanating from nowhere. Even stranger, Gerhardt felt a very strong compulsion to sing along with her for some reason but managed to resist it. However he was forced to lock his jaws shut and shut down his vocalizer and completely cut off his ability to speak at all in order to do so. Pinkie Pie tried to convince him to sing along with her but failed miserably. Other than humming his lullaby to himself whenever he was alone in order to help himself relax, he simply refused to sing. Thus Pinkie Pie’s song very quickly came grinding to a halt.

The majority of the rest of the day was spent with Pinkie Pie trying everything she could think of in an attempt to get him to loosen up a bit and laugh or even so much as smile in an attempt to teach him the value of laughter. All of her attempts failed miserably. The sun was starting to set by the time she finally ran out of ideas. She apologized for failing to teach him how to have fun and smile again but declared that she wasn’t going to give up. The only thing that had been even remotely productive about the day was that he had managed to convince her to let him scan her so he could learn how Earth pony magic worked.

Like pegasi and unicorns magic was constantly flowing through their bodies via a system of nerve-like structures. Similar to how pegasi had denser clusters of these structures in their wings to allow them to fly, the earth ponies had denser clusters of them in their legs which granted them super strength and abnormally high endurance. Also similar to how the pegasi’s structures were “tuned” in such a way as to grant them some level of control over the weather, the earth ponies’ were tuned in such a way as to grant them some level of control over plants.

With nothing else to do until his next shipment of materials arrived, Gerhardt got back to digging and turning the walls, floor, and roof of the underground level of his lab from dirt into solid granite. This process was sped up and made significantly more efficient by the fact that he had ordered the materials to make the alchemical reagent that was normally used with the spell to convert dirt into granite. Or at least a very simplified and primitive version of the alchemical reagent. It wasn’t nearly as fast or efficient as it would have been with the real thing but it was still far more efficient then just using the spell on its own.

Once he got his next shipment of materials he spent a few more days working on the golem before it was finally finished at which point he put all of its clothes on its body for it. With that done he opened a portal to Golden Oak Library and proceeded to knock on the door. “Miss Twilight, are you home?” He asked.

“Yes, feel free to come in.” She called back to him from the other side of the door.

“Actually, Miss Sparkle, as per your orders I have made a new friend before the end of this month and if you aren’t too terribly busy at the moment I would like to introduce you to them. They are currently waiting to meet you in my lab. It should only take a few minutes but if this is a bad time, I can introduce you to them at a later date.” He said, keeping the fact that this “friend” was a golem that he had built a secret for the moment.

“Oh, of course! Give me a minute and I’ll be right out!” Twilight responded, sounding quite excited. After exactly two minutes and fifty one seconds the door opened up and Twilight came walking out of the library. Gerhardt walked back through the portal and waited for her on the other side. Once she was inside his lab, Gerhardt closed the portal behind her as she began looking around. “Where’s this friend you wanted to introduce me to?” Then she spotted the currently inactive golem sitting on the new wooden table in the middle of his lab.

It was about the size of an average four or five year old, so it was a little under half of Gerhardt’s height. The exterior of its body was made of the purest silver that Gerhardt could get his hands on. Despite the fact it was made out of metal, however, it still looked far more human than Gerhardt himself did. It had two of the clearest and most perfect sapphires Gerhardt could find for eyes (which just so happened to have been pink), a small nose, and the plates that made up its face were specifically designed to look exactly like an androgynous human face save for the fact its mouth had clear separations in between the plates that made it up so as to allow the plates to slide in many various ways so the golem could make expressions. It had steel teeth that were exactly like Gerhardts, except it actually had a throat, tongue, and small ducts that would produce a mostly harmless chemical that would help prevent its teeth from rusting and would help it break down food.

Considering Pinkie Pie’s issues with him being unable to eat, he had included features in this golem that would allow it to eat. It even had a small artificial stomach that would break down anything it ate before incinerating the left over mush in order to convert it into extra energy. Furthermore considering Princess Luna’s issues with him being unable to sleep he had even given it the ability to sleep, though it didn’t actually ever need to do so. He had also considered building it with the magic of the ponies, but had ultimately decided against it for the moment since the materials he could spare were limited and he had already granted it extra features that it didn’t really need.

“Oh…” Slapping a hoof against her face she groaned in frustration and said, “Gerhardt, you know full well that this isn’t what I meant when I told you to make a friend.”

“It isn’t? Oh. My mistake.” Gerhardt said, playing ignorant despite the fact that he was indeed fully aware that this isn’t what Twilight meant. “Regardless, I have followed your orders to the letter and made a friend before the end of this month. So, I would like to introduce you to it all the same. Please wait for a moment.” He said before raising his hands. One of them was surrounded by his usual copper colored aura as he cast the spell to activate the golem, while his other hand was engulfed in an ethereal green aura as he used necromancy to ensure the conditions present when its soul formed would make it a mage, and a very powerful one at that. The golem was engulfed by both auras which seemed to meld together for a moment before its near perfect pink sapphire eyes snapped open and began to glow and it looked straight at him before giving him a large toothy smile.

Once the golem was active Gerhardt released his spells and opened his mouth to speak, but the golem cut him off before he could by shouting, “Daddy!” It’s voice sounded surprisingly feminine and child-like, and its mouth moved perfectly in sync with its words. It then jumped off the table and ran over to him before wrapping its tiny arms around his legs in a big hug. Its movements looked completely natural and not unsettling in the least, unlike Gerhardt’s.

Gerhardt didn’t even blink in surprise, instead he just completely froze up having absolutely no idea what to make of this situation. Had it just called him, “Daddy”? Taking a couple of microseconds to play and replay that particular memory inside his head, he confirmed that it had indeed called him that. He found this both completely baffling and absolutely terrifying. He had programmed it to recognize him as it’s creator and its friend, but he most certainly had not programmed it to think of him as it’s father. Then again, he had created it so he was indeed its father in a certain way. Its soul was new, it had knowledge but absolutely no memories, and it was small so he could save materials on building it. He had just built a gods damned child! This realization terrified him even more. How had he not considered this possibility before he began building it?! He was completely overwhelmed as a million different thoughts began running through his mind all at once.

Twilight looked just as surprised as Gerhardt felt for a moment before her expression changed to a warm smile. “Awww! That’s so cute! Though I will admit I’m a bit surprised but it’s still really cute. So what’s this adorable little golem’s name?”

Hearing Twilight’s voice the golem turned its head and looked at her, though it continued to hug Gerhardt’s legs. “Daddy, who’s this? Ooh and what is my name?!” It asked excitedly.

“Uh… Apologies but both of you please give me a moment. I’m afraid that I need to consider a few things.” Gerhardt said before he overclocked his brain and drastically sped up his perception of time so as to give himself time to consider his options and figure out what he should do about this situation. This was bad, very bad. He had no interest in taking care of a child, he knew he would be a terrible father, and he didn’t want to have such an easily exploitable weakness as family but what could he do about it? It wasn’t like he could just kill the golem and try again. Well, technically it was well within his power to do so, however such a thing would be morally reprehensible so he simply refused to do so. He was a soldier not a murderer.

He couldn’t just kill it, he couldn’t just manipulate its mind to force it to stop considering him its father, he couldn’t just abandon it, and he couldn’t just put it up for adoption since he was the only one in the world who could actually take care of it. What options did that leave him with...? He honestly couldn’t think of anything. No options that he liked anyways. The only thing he could think of was to keep the golem and allow it to continue to consider him its father. However if he did that then he would have no choice but to lie and pretend that he loved it, which he obviously did not. He was very accustomed to lying, however this golem was just as immortal as he was. So how long could he possibly keep up the deception? Because if he went down this route then he very well might have to try to keep up the lie for the rest of eternity if someone or something didn’t kill either him or the golem in the meantime.

Keeping up a lie for weeks was a matter of simplicity in and of itself. Keeping up a lie for months was a bit more challenging but was still extremely easy for him. Keeping up a lie for a few years was not difficult but it wasn’t easy either. Keeping up a lie for decades was quite challenging but still possible. Keeping up a lie for anything over a century or more was extremely difficult if not damn near impossible. So keeping up a lie for an eternity — even a lie so simple as this — would be effectively impossible and the resulting fallout once it was inevitably discovered would be disastrous.

With his brain overclocked as it currently was time seemed to stretch on for hours upon hours for him as he wracked his brain trying his damndest to think of a solution to this conundrum, however in real time only ten seconds had passed. Unfortunately as a full ten seconds had passed according to his chronometer, Gerhardt was forced to let his perception of time return to normal. It seemed that he was just going to have to pretend for now until he could find another more permanent solution.

“Thank you both for your patience. This is Twilight Sparkle, an acquaintance of mine. Unfortunately I am having a bit of trouble thinking of a name for you, little one.” He lied. He hadn’t been thinking about a name for it at all, but he wasn’t about to inform them what he had actually been thinking about for those ten seconds. He knew that it probably wouldn’t go over well if he were to inform them of the truth, which was the very reason that this was such a problem in the first place. “Well, you are able to talk so how about I let you name yourself?”

The little golem gasped excitedly. “I can choose my own name? Then I choose Gerhardt!” It said before hugging his legs even tighter.

“No no. That’s my name. You should choose your own original name. It would be hard to differentiate us if we both had the same name” Gerhardt stated, still trying to think of a solution for this problem. He hated the fact that he had created this golem in the first place. Not because he hated the golem itself, not even close. He was actually quite proud of his creation. It was likely the best work he had ever done, especially considering how limited his current tools and materials were at the moment. The reason he hated the fact that he had created it was because he knew full well how awful of a father he would be, especially considering the fact that he honestly couldn’t bring himself to actually love the golem as a parent should. A child like it deserved far better than him.

The golem pouted and looked up at him. “But… I want to be just like you, daddy…” It said sadly.

Those words actually hurt somewhat. He knew how awful of a person he was, how unhealthy his lifestyle was, and how terrible his life had been. He was very aware that many individuals in the human kingdom — especially in the R&D branch — saw him as a role model and some one to look up to. He had always hated that fact ever since he first learned of it. As such he hated the fact that this little golem also looked up to him and saw him as a role model. He didn’t want anyone to try to be like him, especially not children like this.

The golem released him as he knelt down and placed his hands on its shoulders, looking it straight in the eyes. “No… Please… For the love of the gods don’t be like me… I’m… I’m an awful person and you deserve to have a far better life than mine… I am not someone you should try to emulate… So many bright young engineers and technomancers have tried and — aside from a few notable exceptions — it has almost always ended in disaster for any who have ever attempted it. Instead always strive to be better than me in every capacity, little one. Strive to be a better technomancer, to be a better mage, to be a better person, and to live a far better life. You deserve so much more than to live in my shadow forever trying to emulate an ancient failure like me...” He pleaded in a very tired tone as he suddenly felt every bit his age, metaphorically speaking. Physically he felt just fine, but mentally and emotionally he felt absolutely ancient.

As soon as he was finished speaking the little golem wrapped its arms around the back of his neck and said, “No! Daddy is the best in the world! You made me after all, so you have to be the best person ever! Why are you being so mean to yourself, daddy?”

Twilight watched the scene with a large smile on her face, trying her best to remain silent so as to not ruin the moment despite the fact she couldn’t understand a word they were saying considering the two of them were speaking in the Human Language. Eventually Gerhardt released the little golem, and tried to stand back up. This time, however, the little golem kept its arms wrapped around his neck so he ended up picking it up off the ground. Seeing as it seemed like the golem was going to let go any time soon Gerhardt sighed before putting one arm beneath its legs and beginning to carry it in earnest, much to it’s delight.

Looking at Twilight he said, “I apologize Miss Sparkle. This is not how I expected this would go. If I knew that I had built a child rather than a friend and lab assistant, I would not have interrupted whatever you were doing and brought you here.” He left unsaid the fact that if he had known that this would be the result, he would have just dismantled the golem before he ever activated it and would have repurposed the materials for some other project.

Twilight just smiled at him and said, “It’s fine, Gerhardt. I’m glad you brought me here to introduce me to your new daughter! Speaking of which, what do you say I go get the others to introduce them to her?”

“Daughter…? Her…?” Gerhardt inquired in confusion.

“Well, of course. We can’t just call her “it” now can we? Besides, she’s obviously a girl. Just look at her eyes and listen to her voice.” Twilight pointed out.

“I suppose…” Gerhardt said somewhat hesitantly. He did see Twilight’s point but he still found the idea of a golem being either male or female to be extremely odd. Then again, he was male and he was just a step away from being a golem himself so perhaps it wasn’t really that strange. “Is that fine with you, little one? You technically have no sex since you’re a golem and I did not build you with any reproductive parts.”

“Mhm!” The little golem nodded with a large smile on its face.

“Very well. Then it is decided, you are my daughter. Now to answer your question, Miss Sparkle, I suppose they are going to learn about her sooner or later, so we may as well get it over with.” Gerhardt stated, hiding how extremely reluctant he was to call the golem his daughter.

“Alright then! I’ll be back in a little while. In the meantime you two should talk and get to know each other.” She said before turning and walking to Gerhardt’s front door.

“Good bye, Miss Twilight!” Gerhardt’s new daughter exclaimed cheerfully.

“Good bye, I’ll talk to you later!” Twilight responded just before she walked out the door and closed it behind her.

“Shall we take this into the recreational lounge?” Gerhardt inquired, looking down at the golem. “I feel like I need to sit down for a moment… This is… It's a lot for me to process...” He sighed tiredly. This was not something he ever wanted to deal with, but now it seemed that he had no choice but to roll with the punches.

“Okay!” She said happily, leaning her head into his chest with a large grin on her face.

Gerhardt carried her into the living room and sat down against a wall with his daughter sitting in his lap with her arms still wrapped around his neck. He would have sat on the wooden bench he had made instead of the floor, but it was much too small for him considering the fact he had built it for the ponies rather than himself. Both of them were silent for a solid five minutes before Gerhardt finally said, “Well little one, I downloaded some information into your memory banks but not much so I assume you have quite a few questions for me. You may ask whatever you wish and I will answer you to the best of my abilities.”

“Oh alright… Daddy, do I have a Mommy?”

“No, little one. You do not. I do not have nor have I ever had a wife and I made you by myself. I’m sorry but I’m afraid that I’m the only family you have. However, the same can be said for me. You are the only family that I have as well. I hope this fact does not upset you, dear.” Gerhardt said in a slightly apologetic tone. He was actually somewhat sorry for that fact because if she had a mother then it was possible that she would have at least one parent who actually cared about her. As it was though, Gerhardt didn’t love her in the least even if he tried his best to pretend to.

“Nope! I don’t need a mommy as long as I have you!” She said cheerfully, hugging his neck a bit tighter.

Trying his best to pretend that he actually gave a damn, he gave her a small smile. Wrapping his arms around her to return her hug he said, “Thank you, dear. I’m very glad you feel that way.”

“I love you, Daddy.” She said happily.

“I love you too, little one.” Gerhardt lied to her with a perfect but completely fake smile on his face. He didn’t love her in the least, but he could at least tell her that he did just to make her feel better.

“Daddy, what’s the Human Kingdom like?” The golem inquired.

This time Gerhardt’s smile became at least partially genuine. He was actually somewhat glad that she was taking an interest in the place that he had dedicated the vast majority of his life to defending. He then proceeded to explain to her what he knew of the cities, the people, and the culture of the Human Kingdom while trying his best to leave out any of the darker things he knew about his world. This went on for a while before Gerhardt eventually heard her muttering some incomprehensible. Releasing her and examining her in slight concern he saw her eyes closed. Quickly establishing a wireless connection with her brain, he began running a systems diagnostic on her to see what was wrong with her. Apparently she had just gotten so relaxed that it had ended up activating her sleep function. She was currently dreaming. Deciding to respect her privacy, he disconnected from her brain rather than watching whatever she was dreaming about.

Well he couldn’t really move without risking waking her, but at least this gave him a bit more time to try and think of a solution to this little conundrum of his without any distractions. So that’s just what he did, continue to think about possible solutions to this unfortunate situation.

[Meanwhile in the Dream Realm]

Princess Luna was currently tormenting herself with nightmares about Nightmare Moon, as a form of penance for what she had done and to ensure she would never do anything so foolish ever again. That was until she sensed another presence that she had never felt before entering the Dream Realm. It was unusual for individuals to sleep during the day, unless they were herself or bat ponies. However this presence didn’t feel like a bat pony. It didn’t feel like a pony at all! It was a presence unlike anything she had ever felt before.

Curious, she temporarily banished her self imposed nightmare and went to investigate this unexplained presence. Quickly locating the dream in question, she entered it in order to find out who it belonged to. As soon as she did, she found herself in the middle of what looked like the living room of a small house. Except the living room was strangely barren of any furniture except a couple empty wooden tables and a wooden bench that sat up against one of the walls. Seeing nothing in this room she looked around and saw an entryway leading to another room, past a small set of stairs. So she very quietly walked over to these stairs before cautiously peeking her head into the next room. There she witnessed the last thing she expected to ever find within the dream realm.

The next room was what appeared to have once been a kitchen but had been converted into something else entirely as it was crammed full of all these strange tools and machinery the likes of which she had never seen before. However, while it was indeed odd that in and of itself wasn’t what caught her off guard. It was the fact that she saw Gerhardt leaned over a table working on some machine or another, and he was smiling as he talked and laughed with somepony else. Leaning a bit further into this strange scene to see who he was talking to, Luna was shocked to see another smaller being that looked extremely similar to him except a lot smaller, a lot less unsettling, and made of silver instead of copper. Plus it had pink eyes instead of Gerhardt’s blue eyes. It was standing on a small wooden box to help it reach the top of the table as it helped Gerhardt with whatever he was building. Unfortunately they were speaking to each other in a language that Luna couldn’t understand so she had absolutely no idea what was going on.

For a moment she wondered if Gerhardt had given himself the ability to sleep once again. However, she very quickly dismissed the idea as completely ridiculous. She knew him well enough to understand that he was far too invested in his work to ever spend even so much as a few minutes away from it if he didn’t have to, so the thought of him sleeping was absolutely ludicrous. Especially since she knew that it was currently the middle of the day. But the only other pony that was in the dream, except for her, was the smaller creature that was standing next to him. Thinking about this for a moment, her eyes widened in realization as a thought came to her mind. However, what she was thinking sounded even more far fetched to her then the idea of Gerhardt having granted himself the ability to sleep.

She decided she needed to investigate this further and paused the dream. The only ones who would be able to move would be herself and the owner of the dream. The little creature standing next to Gerhardt turned out to be the owner of the dream as it was the one who kept moving. They seemed confused as to why Gerhardt had suddenly frozen in place, and somewhat distressed by this fact.

Luna quickly approached the little creature and said, “It’s alright. Mr. Mechanica is perfectly fine. You’re currently asleep and this is just a dream.”

The creature turned and looked at her in surprise and asked, “It is? Wow…” Her voice was very child-like and feminine, and was laced with child-like wonder as she looked around at everything. “It all looks so real!”

Luna chuckled and said, “That it does. Now, allow me to introduce myself. I am Princess Luna, diarch of Equestria and ruler of the night and dreams. What’s your name, little one? Also, if you don’t mind me asking, what is your relationship with Mr. Mechanica here? Did he build you?”

“Hello, Princess Luna! You’re so pretty! I haven’t thought of a name for myself yet, since Daddy won’t let me name myself “Gerhardt” after him. I’m Daddy’s daughter! He first activated me only a few minutes ago. I think I might have fallen asleep in Daddy’s arms while we were waiting for Miss Twilight to come back with her friends in order to introduce me to them.” Gerhardt’s daughter explained.

This information caught Luna completely off guard. Gerhardt had never struck her as the type to ever want to be a single father yet here she was speaking with his newborn daughter. “I see… Well thank you very much, little one, I think you are quite pretty yourself” She replied with a friendly smile. She then spent another minute or two conversing with Gerhardt’s daughter before leaving and resuming her dream. Instead of going back to her own self imposed nightmare Luna let herself wake up. Getting up out of her bed, she proceeded to start running to the throne room. Celestia was going to be so surprised when she learned Gerhardt of all ponies had a new daughter.

[Later in Ponyville]

After about an hour of sitting there with the golem in his arms thinking about what he should do he finally had an idea. He wouldn’t have to lie and pretend that he loved her when he really didn’t if he actually did love her.

Gods he didn’t want to do this because he didn’t like doing anything to any part of his brain and him loving the golem would mean he would have a weakness that could be used against him. He hated that fact with every fiber of his being. However, doing so would likely be the best for both of them. He wouldn’t have to lie to her and pretend he cared about her — quite possibly for the rest of eternity —, he wouldn’t have to constantly stress over the fact that he had built a child since he would actually love her, and she would have a parent that actually cared about her. He would still always hate the fact that he loved her but it was still far better than pretending that he loved her for who knew how long before she inevitably learned the truth and the resulting fallout inevitably blew up in his face. As such he very reluctantly proceeded to take a few milliseconds to reconfigure a few things in his E.P.U.

More time passed and Gerhardt had been sitting there with his daughter sleeping in his arms for a few hours now and the sun had set and the moon was starting to rise. By this point he believed Twilight had completely forgotten to go get her friends and was not going to be coming back. So at this point he was just waiting for his daughter to wake back up as he felt that it would be rude to wake her when he didn’t have to. Plus, after what he had done to his own E.P.U. he was actually sort of enjoying holding her like this for some reason. However, now that he actually loved her the fact that he had a daughter now was very close to as terrifying to him as his first time fighting demons had been.

What if something happened to her? What if someone tried to hurt her or hold her hostage to get to him? What if he made a mistake that unintentionally ended up hurting or killing her? What if… What if… What if… There were so many gods damned what ifs. So many possible scenarios that could end up with her getting hurt or killed. Plus he knew that he wasn’t fit to be a father. He was far too laser focused on his work and research and he didn’t understand the emotions of others and had no idea how to deal with them. How was he supposed to deal with any of this? He was a technomancer, a military leader, and occasionally even a teacher. He was not a father. Though he supposed now that his daughter was already built and activated and he had already altered his own emotions he would have to find some way to adapt to being a father and very quickly at that.

Unfortunately for him, he did not like the fact that he now loved her in the least. He honestly wished he didn’t love her and that he didn’t have to love her. His feelings were somewhat conflicting as he did love her now and was glad he had made her, but he hated the fact he felt that way in the first place and that he honestly had no choice but to feel that way. He debated whether to reconfigure some things in his E.P.U. even further in order to get rid of these conflicting feelings. On the one hand they were how he actually felt if he hadn’t modified his own emotions and he didn’t want to alter his mind any more than he already had, on the other hand they were a nuisance and would likely cause him more trouble than they were worth. That debate would go on for quite some time after this.

His thoughts were interrupted by his front door opening back up and Twilight walking in. “I’m so sorry it took me so long! The others had a million questions for me when I told them the situation. Well, either way they’re waiting for us back at the library and they’re all very eager to meet her! Also, has she decided on a name yet?”

“She is asleep and has been for several hours now. So, no. She has not decided on a name yet.” Gerhardt informed her. For some reason Twilight didn’t seem even remotely surprised by this information, which Gerhardt found rather odd. Deciding he was probably just being overly suspicious, he proceeded to gently shake his daughter and said, “Wake up dear. Miss Sparkle has finally returned.”

“Mmm…” His daughter groaned as she slowly woke back up. Looking up at him she smiled and said, “Good morning, Daddy!”

“Actually, little one, it’s night time right now. You slept through the entire day. Regardless, Miss Sparkle has returned and the others are waiting to meet you at her library. I don’t know why she didn’t just bring them here, but I suppose it doesn’t matter either way.” Gerhardt explained.

“Oh. Alright!” She said with a happy smile.

Gerhardt waited for a moment but she continued sitting on his lap. “Uh… Dear, could you please get up?” Gerhardt inquired.

His daughter pouted but reluctantly said, “Yes, Daddy…” She then proceeded to get off of him and stand up.

With her no longer sitting on his lap, Gerhardt also stood up before looking at Twilight and asking, “So, should I open a portal or should we walk there? Personally, I think it would be a good idea to walk so she can learn the route there.”

“That’s a good point. Walking should be fine, though it is a bit dark outside right now.” Twilight stated.

“That’s no issue. Both of our eyes are capable of functioning as flashlights.” Gerhardt stated. As he started walking over to the door, his daughter tried her best to keep up with him and took hold of one of his hands. He looked down at her and smiled slightly, before they both continued towards the door. Once all three of them were outside, Gerhardt and his daughter’s eyes both grew much brighter until they were emitting light like high quality flashlights. Though the light did have a tint to it due to the color of their eyes. The light Gerhardt’s eyes emitted was blue and green whereas the light his daughter’s eyes emitted was solid pink. With that they set off towards the library. It only took them a few minutes to get there.

Twilight walked inside first, but as soon as Gerhardt and his daughter walked in Twilight and her friends all shouted, ““““Surprise!”””” That was when Gerhardt noticed all the strange decorations, including a large paper banner that read ‘Happy Birthday!’ with ‘Congratulations, Gerhardt!’ written beneath it. He was also quite surprised to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were both present for some reason. Equally surprising was the presence of Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. It also seemed that Fluttershy had brought along Goldy for the occasion, who squeaked happily upon seeing him.

“Alright, I may not have been entirely honest when I said they had a million questions for me. I mean pretty much everypony did have at least a few questions since this sort of caught us all off guard but not that many. The real reason I took so long to come back was because we were setting up a small party for both of you. After hearing you had a new daughter Pinkie Pie insisted we throw you a party to celebrate, and I agreed to host the party here in the library. We would have done it at your house instead but everypony wanted it to be a bit of a surprise and we had no way of getting you out of there for long enough to get everything set up.” Twilight explained.

“I see.” Was the only thing Gerhardt said in response to this.

“Hello everyone! I hope we can all be friends!” Gerhardt’s daughter exclaimed with a large grin on her face as she waved her free hand in greeting.

“Wow, metal head. When I heard you had built yourself a daughter I had been expecting a miniature version of you, but just from that I can already tell she’s nothing like you at all.” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Of course she’s not. After all, I did my very best to give her some initial programming in such a way as to have the philosophical concepts behind the “Elements of Harmony” form the very basis of her personality. Honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and even magic. I realize that magic isn’t exactly a personality trait. What I mean by magic is that she can actually use magic as she is a mage like me. Though, unlike me, I have ensured that due to the conditions present during the formation of her soul she is far more powerful then I will ever be. That was the green spell you watched me cast, Miss Sparkle.” Gerhardt explained.

“Ah ha! So that’s why you came over and read all of the books we have about the Elements of Harmony!” Spike said in sudden realization.

“Wait, he did?! When?!” Twilight asked, clearly caught off guard by this information.

“Uh… I don’t know, like, a little over a week ago or something?” Spike said a bit uncertainly. “You were out taking care of some chores at the time when he came by. It only took him like five minutes or something like that to read all of the books we have about them, then he just left.”

Twilight sighed in frustration. “Well… There goes quite a few of my future lesson plans…” She muttered. This caused more than a few giggles from the other ponies.

“Oh-oh-oh! Twilight told us, you haven’t decided on a name yet! If you’re still having trouble deciding, I can help!” Pinkie Pie offered excitedly.

“Okay. Daddy’s being mean and won’t let me name myself “Gerhardt” after him, so I still haven’t decided on one yet.”

“I’m not being mean. Trust me, little one, if I let you name yourself after me you would come to regret it later on in life. Besides, Gerhardt is a male name.” Gerhardt stated.

“I never said you were being mean to me, Daddy. You’re being mean to yourself. Remember what you said after I told you that I want to be just like you?” His daughter refuted his words.

Gerhardt blinked in surprise. He had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that so he just remained silent.

Pinkie thought for a moment and said, “Hmmm… If you want to be named after him but he’s not letting you name yourself “Gerhardt”, then what about “Gear Heart”? It’s the first nickname I ever thought of for him but I decided it didn’t really suit him so I shortened it to just “Gears” which suits him waaay better, so the name should be open!”

“Okay!” Gerhardt’s daughter said with a large grin on her face.

Gerhardt just sighed and said, “Ugh… Fine… She was made here in Equestria with Equestrian materials so I suppose it’s fair that she should have one name that fits Equestrian naming conventions. However, she isn’t actually a pony and that’s still far too close to my name for my liking, so she’ll still need another official name. Little one, can you think of any Human names that you would like to be called, other than mine? Hell, at this point I’d even settle for Elven or Dwarven names.”

Gear Heart raised a hand to her chin and thought about it for a moment. “Hm… Nope!”

“Gods above… Why does this have to be so damn difficult? Fine. If you can’t think of one then I suppose I will have to do so myself. Hm… I’ll let you choose. Which of these names do you like the best: Silver, Sapphire, Pixel, Elizabeth, Sophia, or Alice?” Gerhardt asked.

“Mmm… Silver and Alice sound nice… but I think I like Pixel the best!” His daughter said.

“As you wish. Your name is officially Pixel Gear-Heart Mechanica.” Gerhardt stated definitively.

“Yay! Thank you Daddy!” Pixel exclaimed with a large grin on her face before releasing his hand and hugging his legs.

“Aw! This is so sweet!” Pinkie Pie stated happily.

“Ah yes, speaking of sweet, Miss Pie, I think you’ll be happy to know that due to your concerns about me not being able to eat, I have built Pixel so that she actually can eat and drink, unlike me. She even has a tongue so she can actually taste her food and drinks. Also, Princess Luna, since you were so upset about the fact that I neither sleep nor go out at night I have also granted her the ability to sleep.” Gerhardt explained.

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Really?! That’s awesome! I can’t wait to show her all kinds of yummy foods! In fact, I brought some cake and cupcakes to celebrate so she can try some of those! Ooh, if I had known you made her able to eat I would have brought even more! Oh well. I made extra anyway!”

“What’s cake?” Pixel inquired. The information that Gerhardt had downloaded into her brain did not extend to food since he himself didn’t know much about food and didn’t really care to learn about it.

Both Pinkie Pie and Princess Celestia gasped in horror. “You don’t know what cake even is?! You need to try some, stat!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed before retrieving a slice of cake and handing it to Pixel in a few milliseconds. Gerhardt wondered just how in the infernal realm she had managed to do that.

Now holding onto a plate containing a slice of cake but lacking a spoon or a fork to eat it with, a silver aura surrounded one of Pixel’s hands and the slice of cake as she picked it up with a telekinetic spell and levitated it closer to her mouth. She then proceeded to take a small experimental bite and as soon as the cake touched her tongue her eyes started glowing brighter and a surprised expression engulfed her face. She then proceeded to absolutely devour the rest of the slice of cake. Gerhardt was almost surprised she didn’t end up eating the plate it was on as well, he was pretty sure he hadn’t even seen her chewing her food. When she was done, her face was a mess but she had the largest smile on her face that Gerhardt had ever seen. He cast a quick spell and cleaned her face off for her.

Luna chuckled to herself and said, “It seems young Pixel and my sister have something in common, their intense love of cake.” Celestia shot Luna an annoyed glare, which Luna completely ignored. “Anyways, I already know that you gave her the ability to sleep, Mr. Mechanica. I met her in the Dream Realm a few hours ago. Imagine my surprise when I learned you had a new daughter. In fact, that’s the reason why my sister and I are even here right now. When I told Celestia about your new daughter she wanted to meet her. She wrote a letter to Twilight asking if she knew you had a new daughter and Twilight sent one back informing us that she was there when your daughter was first activated and that she and her friends were planning on having a small party for both of you to celebrate. The time she estimated that everything would be set up — around now to be precise — fit perfectly into both of our schedules since neither of us are usually very busy around this time. So we decided to attend so we could both meet her in person.”

“Yes. When were you planning on telling us that you had a new daughter, Gerhardt? If Luna hadn’t met her in her dreams, then we would never have known about her in the first place.” Princess Celestia inquired.

“Never? You are the rulers of this kingdom. I used to be a High Lord of the Human Kingdom but now I am merely a civilian. So why would I bother you about the fact that I had built a daughter? You both have far more relevant things to focus on than the family of one simple civilian.” Gerhardt explained.

Both Celestia and Luna gave him a withering look before Celestia said, “A simple civilian? Gerhardt, you single handedly stopped the Changeling invasion of Canterlot and brokered a peace treaty between our kingdoms. You have written a book that will greatly benefit every unicorn in Equestria and thus Equestria as a whole. You have built machines for our hospitals that make it possible to completely sterilize entire rooms including the air inside the rooms, the doctors’ tools, and the patients wounds reducing the chances of infection during surgery very nearly all the way to zero. You have helped us defeat King Sombra and made me realize just how poorly I handled the situation in the Crystal Empire. And from what I’ve been told, you’ve even been using some strange form of magic from your world to fix a couple of ponies deformities which even our most skilled doctors could do nothing about. I believe it is safe to say that you’re a bit more than just a simple civilian. Besides, personally I like to think we’re friends. Perhaps not particularly close friends but friends all the same. So if a major event like this happens then you’re more than welcome to at the very least write us a letter if nothing else. In fact, please do! I would enjoy getting more than just business letters from you every week or so.”

“While I view you more as a close acquaintance and ally rather than a friend, after everything you’ve done for Equestria I do have to agree with my sister in this regard.” Luna stated.

“I suppose I shall keep that in mind, Princesses. Anyways, Pixel, how about you go introduce yourself to everyone. I’m sure they would all like to get to know you a little better and I’ve taken up enough of everyone’s time trying to speak with everyone all at once.” Gerhardt stated, looking down at his daughter with a smile.

Seeing Gerhardt smile caused Pinkie Pie to gasp in shock and elation, but before she could make any comments about it Pixel said, “Alright, Daddy!” She then let go of his hand and walked over to the ponies and began talking to them. After that, everyone quickly began grouping up and having their own conversations.

Gerhardt just walked to a space near the side of the room that was relatively out of the way and just stood there as he personally had nothing to say to anyone else. However, Rarity approached him and said, “So this is what you wanted those clothes for, Mr. Mechanica. I must say that I am quite surprised, I never expected that you might be building yourself a daughter of all things. Regardless, you did an excellent job in designing her. She looks positively gorgeous! And I do believe those clothes do look quite excellent on her too. Although if I knew you were building yourself a daughter I would have tried to convince you to allow me to make a nice dress for her instead.”

“To be perfectly honest with you, Miss Rarity, I never expected that I might be building myself a daughter either. I legitimately thought I was building myself a friend and lab assistant as a sort of work around to the first “friendship lesson” Miss Sparkle assigned me. She told me I was to make a friend by the end of this month so that’s exactly what I thought I was doing, making a friend. Thus why I included all of the “Elements of Harmony” into her personality. The possibility that her mind would be so childlike and that she might consider me her father rather than just a friend is not something I anticipated. That she might be female was even more unexpected. I legitimately thought she would be completely androgynous considering the fact that she is a golem and is thus technically sexless, however her voice and personality seem to be those of a little girl. The color of her eyes was pure coincidence. Those pink sapphires were the only corundum crystals that I could find that were large and clear enough to serve as functional eyes so they are what I used. However, very rarely does fate do as one expects.” Gerhardt replied.

Rarity chuckled and said, “My word. Now that is significantly less surprising. Though, I sort of think I prefer this outcome. When you looked at Pixel when you sent her off to introduce herself to everypony, that was the first time I have ever seen you smile. Don’t take this the wrong way but until now I actually thought you were incapable of doing so.”

“Understandable, I don’t often use body language or make facial expressions unless it is very intentional and I usually have no reason to smile, so until very recently I never did. For reference, before building Goldy for Fluttershy the last time I smiled was 642 years ago and the last time I smiled before that was 807 years ago. So I am not the least bit offended by the fact you thought I was physically incapable of smiling. I’m sure that many people from my world thought the exact same thing.” Gerhardt told her.

Rarity frowned. “Well that’s quite sad. I’m sorry, Mr. Mechanica, I didn’t mean to bring up such a depressing topic. This is a night for celebration, so let’s put such depressing matters aside for the moment. Anyways, I believe I have taken up enough of your time for now. So if you’ll excuse me, I would very much like to go meet this lovely daughter of yours. Congratulations on becoming a father, Mr. Mechanica, even if it was unintentional on your part.”

“Very well. Have a good night Miss Rarity.” Gerhardt said as she turned and began walking away.

A couple minutes later the next ones to approach him were Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Well it looks like yer daughter’s already hit it off with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, Mr. Mechanica. I managed to talk with her a bit and she seems like a nice filly. Seems to think the world of ya too.” Applejack said as they approached.

Gerhardt sighed and said, “I know, and I really wish that she didn’t. One of the first things Pixel said to me is that she wants to be just like me… Gods… That’s the last thing I want for her. I am an awful individual and have led a very hard and grueling life over these past centuries. If anything I want her to be a far better person than I am and to lead a far better life then I have. If she ever becomes just like me then I will have failed her.”

“Eh… Don’t be so hard on yourself, metal head. I mean, I still don’t like you all that much but you did fix Scoot’s wings and saved her and her friends from the timberwolves so I guess you can’t be all that bad.” Rainbow Dash told him. “Anyways, Pixel’s a pretty cute filly. I talked to her for a bit and she ended up challenging me to a hoof race later on, so of course I had to accept.”

Gerhardt looked at her for a moment and said, “Miss Dash, I’m afraid that is a challenge that you are inevitably going to lose. Unless you cheat and use your wings then there is no possible way for you to win.”

“Oh yeah?! And why’s that?! I mean, she’s just a filly so how fast could she possibly be?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“Miss Dash, are you capable of running faster than one hundred miles per hour and can you drastically speed up your perception of time so that you can react to turns and obstacles in a matter of microseconds to nanoseconds? Because Pixel can. She’s a golem made from military grade augmentations so her physical capabilities are far superior to those of organic beings. She will never grow fatigued and would win in a foot race against a cheetah with ease. So could I for that matter. I’m actually slightly faster than her since I have longer legs, though it does balance out fairly well as she is much lighter than I am and thus has less weight to contend with, but I digress. The point is that unless you possess some form of super speed on land and can react to things at a supernaturally fast rate, you are inevitably going to lose. That’s not me speaking as a father boasting about my daughter’s abilities, it’s just an objective fact.” Gerhardt explained.

“Oh…” Rainbow Dash muttered, now looking significantly less confident than she did before.

Applejack chuckled and patted Rainbow Dash on the back. “Well, good luck with that race RD. It sounds like you’re gonna need it. Anyways, Mr. Mechanica, I just came over to say congratulations on your new daughter.”

“Yeah… uh… Congratulations…” Rainbow Dash muttered, clearly still thinking about what Gerhardt had just told her about Pixel’s capabilities. With that both of them turned and walked away.

A couple more minutes passed and the next two to walk over to him were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “Gerhardt, you have really outdone yourself! Pixel is an absolutely wonderful little filly! Having spoken with her and watched her interact with the other foals I can guarantee that your implementation of the Elements of Harmony into her personality has worked very well. She is quite possibly one of the friendliest individuals that I have ever met! It's actually quite jarring how different her personality is from yours.” Celestia said with a friendly smile.

“Indeed, she is quite the delight to be around!” Luna agreed.

“Thank you. I always strive to ensure my work is of the highest quality it can possibly be. Though I will admit I did go all out in building Pixel. She is by far the finest work I have ever done. I certainly consider her my greatest masterpiece.” Gerhardt stated. There was much more he could say about the differences between his and Pixel’s personalities, but he chose not to comment on it at all.

“Well, I am very eager to see what she will be able to accomplish when she is older! Considering who her father is and everything he has managed to do in just a few short months, I have very high expectations for her. To that end, I would highly recommend trying to get her enrolled into the local schoolhouse as soon as possible.” Celestia suggested.

A small frown formed on Gerhardt’s face. “Why? That would be both redundant and a complete waste of her time. I have already downloaded the vast majority of my own knowledge directly into her memory cores. Furthermore I will already be teaching her myself and I’m certain that I can give her a far better education than anyone else in this world considering my world is far more advanced than this one. Besides which she can read every book in this entire library in about an hour or two at most. After all she can read just as fast if not slightly faster than I can. Most likely faster than I can considering the fact that her entire brain is made up of augmentations whereas my frontal lobe is still organic. Plus I gave her slightly upgraded versions of my current brain augmentations, which I just recently designed specifically for her. So she’s already easily one of the most intelligent beings on this planet. Or are you trying to imply that I have done shoddy craftsmanship or that I am not intelligent enough to give her a proper education on my own?” Gerhardt asked, taking some personal offense over Celestia’s recommendation..

Both Celestia and Luna looked quite surprised by Gerhardt’s reaction. Celestia shook her head and said, “No! Of course not! I know your work is likely flawless and that you are highly intelligent! I simply believe it would be better for her overall if she were to attend a public school. It would be good to interact with other foals and I believe it would help her make friends.”

Hearing that Gerhardt started to calm down a bit. He still found the idea of his daughter attending a public school highly insulting since he knew that he would be a far better educator for her, but he was no longer quite as offended that the princess had recommended it. “I’ll consider it, but I make no guarantees.” He stated in a gruff tone.

“Ehem… Moving on, Celestia and I just so happened to overhear your conversation with Rarity a little while ago.” Luna stated, trying to change the subject.

“Oh? And what of it?” Gerhardt inquired.

“I just wanted to applaud you for the amount of effort you put in to not having to try to make any friends by turning Twilight’s words against her and literally making a friend. Had your plan worked as you had intended, that would have been a very clever method of circumventing Twilight’s lesson. A bit rude, but still quite clever.” Luna said with a slightly amused look on her face.

Celestia just sighed in frustration and rested her face in one of her forehooves. “Yes… Very clever indeed… Please don’t try to do something like that again. I suppose in the end what you did this time actually ended up working out extremely well considering the fact that it resulted in the creation of Pixel, but that’s completely besides the point.”

“No, no. I have already learned my lesson. Considering how hard my plan has backfired on me, I can assure you I will not be trying anything like this ever again.” Gerhardt stated.

After that, the three of them continued to speak for a few minutes before the princesses had to head back to Canterlot. Just a few minutes later both Applejack and Rarity had to leave as well, since it was late and both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle needed sleep. Rainbow Dash was the next to leave. That just left Gerhardt, Pixel, Twilight, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Goldy. Fluttershy had a short and very timid conversation with Gerhardt, telling him how much she liked Pixel and congratulating him on his new daughter before both she and Goldy left.

Gerhardt and Pixel both offered to help Twilight and Pinkie Pie clean everything up. They accepted the offer, so that’s what Gerhardt and his daughter spent the next few minutes doing before heading back to Gerhardt’s lab. They spent the rest of the night working together to improve on the design of the love generator for the Changelings.

[On Earth]

Silvanus was recovering from his battle with Lanius within the capital city of the Serpentine Republic, one of humanity’s greatest enemies. Having already heard about his efforts to exterminate the humans the serpents had happily welcomed him to their country with open arms. From what he understood, their priesthood was even considering adding him to the very short list of deities that they actively worshipped, Deimos the lesser god of war that declared genocide on humanity twenty thousand years ago being the god that was at the very top of that list. Silvanus was always open to gaining more worshippers and he had a somewhat friendly relationship with Deimos so he had no reason to object if they did decide to do so, in fact he encouraged it. Their best priests were attending to him daily to heal his wounds.

Lanius had also been severely injured in his battle with Silvanus and was currently recovering in the Human Kingdom and was being attended to by their best medical mages, including the High Lord of the medical branch herself. The many churches in the Human Kingdom were already worshiping him alongside the other gods they worshipped for helping the military fight off Silvanus. He had informed the high lords that he absolutely hated how they had made an exception to their laws surrounding golems and necromancy to allow the R&D branch to build a sapient golem that was a perfect mind clone of Gerhardt to replace him as high lord. However he also forgave them for doing so as these were exceptional circumstances and thus they were well within their rights to make minor exceptions to their laws to ensure the survival of their species as long as they didn’t go overboard with doing so. He was very strict when it came to laws but he was not completely unreasonable.

Currently Silvanus was watching what was happening to Gerhardt with vested interest. Apparently Gerhardt had been building himself a “friend” as a way of getting out of his “friendship lesson” one of the mutant horses had given him, however it turned out he had accidentally ended up building himself a daughter instead.

A malevolent smile spread across Silvanus’ face as he saw how Gerhardt treated the little metal freak. At first it was clear to him that Gerhardt had only been pretending to love it, but he had apparently done something to himself and it seemed that he now actually legitimately loved the worthless bucket of bolts. It was the first thing he had truly loved in centuries, other than Humanity and the Human Kingdom. As such, it was a very major weakness he had not previously had and one Silvanus had never expected him to have. Well, he wasn’t one to pass up the chance to exploit such a rare opportunity no matter how unexpected it may have been. Perhaps the tin can would actually be useful for something after all. It would be instrumental in helping Silvanus shatter the metal bastard’s will. All he had to do was tell the greater spirit of nature that was trapped within the Everfree forest that it had another target to destroy once he finally managed to free it from its restraints, and the rest would take care of itself.

After all he had already made contact with the spirit and had found what was restraining her. It was a spirit of harmony who’s physical form was some sort of crystalline tree. There were also a few other much older and much stronger restraints that had been placed on her by what he could only assume had been some very immature spirit of chaos. He was currently working on undoing the restraints placed on her by the spirit of chaos since those weren’t currently being maintained like those of the spirit of harmony and they were the largest hindrance of the two. She had agreed to try her best to assist him in dealing with the spirit of harmony after the restraints placed on her by the spirit of chaos were gone and she had regained most of her power.

The main issue was that it was a greater spirit of chaos who had made the restraints so they were particularly difficult to get rid of because they were constantly changing in ways that were completely random. This made it particularly difficult for him to remove since he was neither a god of chaos nor a god of order and he was unable to bring his full power to bear upon it unless he wanted to get caught in an instant. He was making progress but it was slow. It would take him quite a while to free her but he couldn’t wait to see the metal bastard crumble as everything burned down around him. It was going to be absolutely beautiful.

Author's Note

Edit: Alright, they say the third time's a charm, but they also say three strikes you're out. So this time I refuse to delete and reupload it, since to me doing so feels like it would be really scummy to keep reuploading the same chapter over and over again. Regardless hopefully this version isn't as forced as the original or as bad as the second version. Feel free to tell me which version you think is the best, also I'm not rewriting this again so if you don't like this version then as the author I say that you can consider whichever of the three versions you like the best or that you hate the least as cannon. After all, they all end the same way anyways so it hardly matters. Anyways here's the links to the previous two versions, please feel free to tell me which version you like the best.

Link To Original Version
Link To Version 2

It's done! Sooo... uh... Yeah... Gerhardt has a daughter now... Can you see why I originally wanted to hold off on him building this golem until later on in the story? Well whatever, I'll find a way to make it work.

Also, in the poll I posted about this golem in my most recent blog, 10 people voted. Of those ten: 5 people voted for Gerhardt to add the biological traits of the three types of ponies to Pixel over time without her becoming a demigod like the alicorns, 2 people voted for Gerhardt to add them to her as upgrades over time before she does eventually become a demigod like the alicorns, 1 person voted against it ever having any of those augmentations, and 1 person voted for it to be built with all of those augmentations and for it to be born a demigod like the alicorns.

So, it seems pretty clear that most people want the augmentations added to it as upgrades over time, so that's what I'm going to have him do. However, 5 people wanted it to remain mortal (6 if you count the one who didn't want it to have any of the augmentations) while 3 people wanted it to become a demigod. Personally I think that's a pretty close split with so few people having voted, so I've decided I'll just hold another poll about whether or not it should become a demigod at some point later on once the story actually gets to that point.

Fun fact: Generally speaking greater spirits are as powerful as lesser gods, spirits (no prefix) are as powerful as particularly powerful demigods, and lesser spirits are only a bit more powerful than mortal mages. However there is occasionally some variation where they can be slightly more or less powerful than usual. Also there is only ever one greater spirit of a particular concept per world. The ranking system works differently in the MLP universe, but I'll explain how in a future chapter.

So, knowing all that, given the fact that the nature spirit that Silvanus is trying to unleash upon Equestria is in fact a greater spirit by Gerhardt's universes classification... Well... I'll just let you imagine how bad it will be if it were ever to get free, given what we already know about it and nature spirits in general.

Fun Fact#2: Gerhardt built Pixel to be the least unsettling she could possibly be with the tools and materials he had. He would have even given her artificial skin and hair if he currently had the means to do so. As such, unlike him, she is very expressive, does in fact display body language, will use her eyelids to help make expressions, and will even blink every so often. So essentially just imagine a perfectly normal human but made of metal.

(Oh and on a side note, despite the poll I made I can't actually guarantee that Pixel will actually survive long enough for Gerhardt to give her all of the augmentations. That poll is just a rough idea of how I might progress the story assuming she does end up surviving. However there is a very real chance that Pixel will actually end up being killed by the nature spirit once Silvanus manages to free her. But until we actually get to that point in the story, I'll just let you guys imagine how such a thing would affect Gerhardt and the ponies were it to actually happen. Just remember, not all stories have a happy ending. 😊)

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!

Stay safe out there everyone!

Edit: I forgot to add this into my notes before uploading, but from this point forward I think I will occasionally be switching perspectives between Gerhardt and Pixel depending on which one of them has more interesting stuff going on at the time.

Edit #2: ~~I am now strongly considering unpublishing this and rewriting it. I don’t like it when anything I write feels even the least bit forced and I sincerely apologize to all my readers that this chapter does.~~ I have officially finished rewriting it. Again, I'm sorry to all my readers that the original version felt so forced.