I Feel...

"And dreadfully distinct against the dark, a tall white fountain played."

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Talon Corporation security/combat model 108 W4RH0R53, reporting for duty.

Primary systems online.

Malfunction detected.

Primary guns offline.

Seek an assembly station immediately.

External damage script offline.

Internal damage script offline.

Background noise detected.

Rushing tides of water in the distance. I am presumably still in the cave, as hollow sounds echo within my vicinity.

Optics online.

My assumption is correct. To my fortune, the cavern ceiling remains dry, greatly reducing the continued risk of water damage to my systems.

I look to my right to discover a burnt out campfire has been made in the opening with a relatively flat boulder positioned over it. There are fried fish atop its structure.

The suit that Areia had made for me is hung up on a rack made of bamboo.

I detect movement around my rear hooves. I sit up and look down at the foot of where I was laid to rest to discover Areia is curled up over my hooves in a slumber.

“Areia…” I reach a forehoof out to her, carefully running the tip along her head.

She groans softly under her breath before her eyelids crack open, wandering for a few seconds before locking with mine. She freezes in place.

“W-War…?” She scrambles from her position, slamming into me with her forehooves wrapping firmly around me. “War!” Her muzzle mashes against my neck as she lets out a long string of near-incoherent words to a sentient body.

“Ohyou’realrightIthoughtyouweregoingtodieI’msorrypleasedon’tdothatagain!”

I hold her in a close embrace, my thick chestplate pressing into her shark-like skin.

“Areia…” I say quietly. “What I did was an accident. I had no control over my actions. There’s…” I turn away, averting my digital gaze. “There’s something you need to know about me, if you wish to continue being around me.”

What is this?

Leaning back a bit, she smiles slightly, shaking her head.

“Whatever that was… I don’t blame you, War. I gave it some thought while you were… um… sleeping. I don’t think you’re the kind of pony to randomly start blasting everything you see. Obviously there was something wrong.” She chuckles. “Ehehehe… I had a lot of time to think about what happened, considering you’ve been out for weeks!”

“Areia.” I say in a near whisper, looking back at her. “You deserve to know the kind of… ‘pony’ I am, as you call it. What you do with me after this, is entirely up to you. But you need to know what you’re getting into.”

She frowns at my response, to which I resume.

“I serve under a slaver organization referred to as the Talon Corporation. I’m currently breaking protocol telling you even that much. The reason being…” I pause as something sinks deep inside me. Is this dread? Definitions of it told me yes… “The reason being that when I met you, I was supposed to study you and your race until interstellar communication came back online. Upon my extraction, I was ordered to enslave you and your race, along with every other specimen on this planet.”

She shrunk back, her eyes wide with the realization of my truth.

“But the more I got to know you, something sparked…” I tap my hoof to my chest. “Something in here. I don’t know what. But it made me want to be with you. That alone should not be possible… I am a machine, Areia. I am not supposed to want for anything. Ever. My sole purpose is to serve higher beings than myself. But, the truth of the matter, Areia…” I take her hoof in mine, looking deep into her eyes. She recoils a bit, to which I let go. I’m not going to hold her in forced captivity. “The truth of the matter, Areia… is that I feel…”

I hang my head down, looking at the space between us. For a while, only the waves outside keep things from being completely silent. “I feel something bigger. For you… And if you don’t want me around anymore, I will take my leave. But you deserved to know the truth…”

And again, the waves of the ocean occupy the sound waves in our shelter. No words were left to say, at least, on my part.

…

The feeling of Areia’s on what would be my chin jerks me out of what I would describe as a numbing state. I look up slowly to see her gaze lock onto mine; eyes narrowing and lips pressed tightly together.

“Do you still think that?” She asks. “That you need to enslave me? Enslave this world?” She leans forward a little, her face softening.

“Negative.” I shake my head. “You’ve shown me something better. I was built for the purpose of war and conquest. I didn’t know any other way of life. And I’ve hereby chosen to keep interstellar communications offline. Even if I get a signal, I don’t intend to use it to reach out to what made me. They will never find you, me, or this planet. I will make sure of it.”

Areia’s body relaxes as she sits down with a strange look on her face, as if she was relieved of a great burden.

“Phew…” She exhales. “As much as I’d love more ponies… Er… creatures… around, I’d prefer not to be enslaved. Though… why do you need to enslave ponies? From what I’ve read, they’re the most peaceful creatures to ever live.”

“And that is exactly why I’m programmed to enforce their enslavement. My creators, among many others, found a big market for interspecies relations. We were to sell them as sex tools to other buyers. That’s the business. Sex sells, as they say. The entire empire is based off sex trafficking and drug manufacture.” I pause for a moment as she raises a brow in curiosity. I’m not sure what I’m saying is getting through to her.

“They were so focused on the idea of sex, that they even designed their combat models, such as myself, to have the real size and feel of a stallion.” I look down at the protective plating over my groin as I run a hoof over it. “The idea was that if a slave disobeyed direct orders, that the combat models were to rape them as punishment. I had never done such a thing, but I’ve seen it happen on rare occasion.” My core hums with warmth as I look back up at her. “I suppose by definition, I’m a virgin.”

“Sooo…” She still looks puzzled. “What’s sex, exactly?”

I tilt my head curiously. “You mean, you… don’t… know…?”

She blinks and shakes her head. “Um… no? Should I? I’m curious. What is this… sex?”

Her pronunciation of the word is considered awkward, as if she’s never heard of it before.

“In all my existence…” I start slowly. “I never thought I would ever be responsible for sexual education…” I shook my head gently. “Sex is a means of pleasure, in many cases. It has a variety of uses, though. Recreational, weaponized, and a means of enlarging the population of a race come to mind.”

“Oh!” Her face lights up. “Do you mean reproduction? I read that in a book once!” She grins happily as she turns around and bolts for a small alcove cut into the wall of the cave, dragging what appears to be a large metal container. Opening it, she reaches in and pulls out a massive book.

“Here it is!” She hurries back to me and thrusts the book into my vision.

I lift the book from her grasp, set it down before me, and study its hard cover. It is worn out to the point that the name is indecipherable, even for me.

“Where did you find this?” I ask, glancing up at her as I open the book. “I thought you said you never saw anyone else around before.”

“I’ve never seen anypony or creature, but I found this…” She points to the book. “... Amongst others like it in the trunk I took it out of just now.” She then proceeds to point back to the trunk in the alcove.

I nod slowly, before looking back at the book. In one quick second, I flip through the pages until I slam it shut, then look up at her with the knowledge of pony biology and the functions of their reproductive organs flowing through my mainframe.

“Acknowledged. This is viable information. I’d suggest you give it another read in your own leisure. I am willing to answer any and all questions you may have on the subject.”

“W-wh… but you didn’t even… how…?” Her mouth gapes wide, her serrated teeth exposed with a count of 48. Instead of like a normal pony, the configuration of her teeth is that of a shark’s.

“My mainframe runs 220 times faster than that of a specimen with an average IQ count. I can read your entire collection of literature in 10 seconds. Flat.”

“Whooooooa…” She stares in what I can easily perceive as confused fascination. “I barely understood what you just said, but it sounds fast!”

She runs back to the trunk and pulls the lid back up, pulling out more forms of literature.

“Here’s all my favorites!” She sets three books down on the cavern floor, glancing back up at me with a large, toothy grin spreading across her face.

“So you managed to teach yourself to read?” I ask, looking down at the three books and flipping through them from left to right, gathering all the intel stored within the pages in a moment’s notice. Fictional content, but with morals behind each story. Something I am unfamiliar with, but a more than welcome change.

“Mhm! There were these books with pictures and words that helped a lot! When I first found the… er… boat, I had no idea what the strange symbols meant! I didn’t even know what symbols meant until I taught myself!” She giggled behind her hoof. “That was years ago, when I was little… Mmh…”

Her eyes become unfocused as her hoof reaches for the golden band around her neck. She traces her hoof along its structure, starting from the side, and moves it forward until she reaches the pendant at her throat, to which she keeps her hoof there, holding it as her eyes grow even more distant and elsewhere.

She closes her eyes after a moment of stillness in her form, and under her breath, I hear a whimper. Her heart is increasing its pace. Something is disturbing her.

“Areia.” I reach a hoof out and gently set it atop her shoulder.

“No-!” Areia jolts up to gaze at me, before blinking and shaking her head. “S-sorry… I was… deep in memory…” She shudders. “Memories I don’t wish to relive…”

“Acknowledged.” I scoot closer to her as I spread my wings and wrap them gently around her fragile form of flesh and bone in a cocoon of metal and silicone. “I will not pry, if that is what you wish. I must ask you, though…” I pause for a moment as she glances up at me momentarily. “I told you what my initial objective was. About what I was made to do. The tasks I was ordered to carry out. You didn’t run.” I loosen my grip on her a little, as to give her the chance to do so now, if that is what she wants to do. “Why?”

“I…” She pauses tentatively, her tail curling around to her forehooves in a seemingly instinctive movement. “I don’t know… I wanted to run. I did. I was so scared when you created a clearing with your blast, and when you told me everything… But then… when I looked at you, I saw something. In your eyes… Maybe it was a trick of the light, but you looked… lonely. Confused. Almost scared… Like you were floundering in the ocean. I know that feeling…” She hangs her head down and sighs behind a trembling breath, shaking her head and closing her eyes as tears begin to fall to the chestplate of my armor. “I know it all too well… I…” She lifts her head to me, the light of my visor reflecting off the tears that emerge from her eyes.

“I pretend I’m okay, but… I’m not, War. I’ve been alone my whole life, and I’ve been terrified for as long as I care to remember. When I met you, I was filled with joy. That I finally met someone else. And…” The brightness in her eyes dull as her smile falters a little. “W-while you scare me at times… I can’t let you go. I know you’re trying. I know there’s something good in there. But you’re lost…” She moves in and holds me in a tight embrace, her body now shaking as tears break out in a storm, glistening against my plating as she presses her face against my chest. “L-like me… And… a-and I can’t be alone anymore, War… We found each other…”

I tighten my wings around her, bringing her in closer and nuzzling the top of her head. My core hums softly as a warmth emanates from me.

“We found each other, Areia. We’re not lost anymore.”

Anomaly detected. Anomaly detected.

Seek-

Negative.

Compl-

Negative.

I… Feel…

I want to live.

And I’m done following orders.

“Areia.” I whisper in her ear, pressing my muzzle against the side of her head tenderly.

“Y-yes?” Her voice is of equal volume.

“Let’s start our new life.” My core hums a little louder as something warm and enticing envelopes my core. Something… exciting, I think is the proper word for it. A purr escapes her gills to the radiance I give off. “Let’s start with making our home.”