Do Metal Hearts Beat?

by Tekket

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, Rarity, Applejack, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Sweetie Belle
Length: 3081

Rarity and Applejack have a very personal conversation.

With airships flying around, automatic houses catering to every whim, and ponies getting the latest models for their bodies, Applejack and Rarity have a conversation over the changes in their lives.

Written in 36 hours for the Quills and Sofas Positive Technological Equestrian Future speedwriting contest.

Artwork by baroquedavid.

Published 2021-09-29 12:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-09-29 12:30:00 UTC

Under That Metal Skin

Rarity awoke, the sunlight streaming through her huge bedroom windows telling her it was time to start the day. Sliding out of her silk sheets and placing her polished hooves on the floor, she picked up the sound of their soft click-clack as she walked over to her wardrobe, a smile flickering across her features.

Opening the doors and looking through her outfits for the few seconds it took her to decide, she settled on a light blue frock with sparkling pink overskirt. Examining herself from every angle in her full-surround mirror, she decided it would do and made her way downstairs, knocking on the door to her sister’s room and calling out her name as she did so.

Whatever response the other unicorn had was lost behind the thick sliding door as Rarity moved to the kitchen, and began preparing breakfast. Reaching behind her head, she flicked a small switch and soothing music began to emanate from hidden speakers, filling the air.

Turning on the meal steamer, she relaxed to the music and drew open the blinds on windows that spanned the whole length of the kitchen. Humming to herself in time with the music, she eventually heard the telltale clicking that announced Sweetie Belle coming down the stairs.

She felt a smile flicker onto her face before staying there while she looked over her younger sister. The unicorn’s coat was, surprisingly, clean for once, and shone with the same bright white as her own, while her vibrant - nearly glowing - green eyes gazed about full of energy.

“Morning Rarity! What’s for breakfast? Pancakes? Ooh, can I help you make them!” The excitable little filly jumped up and down, her hooves making little clicks on the metal floor before bounding over to see what Rarity was preparing.

“Now, now, Sweetie, you know you haven’t eaten pancakes since your operation. They’re not good for you, and in a few years you’ll be getting much bigger; we can’t have something like pancakes slowing down your system if you want to be like your big sister someday.” Rarity tutted good-naturedly before patting her sister on the head, and just for a moment, remembered how her sister’s original mane felt. In a flash the memory was relived and then gone again, stored somewhere in the back of her mind as she turned back to the task at hoof. “I know you don’t enjoy the new power meals you get now as much as the food we used to eat, but I’ve noticed you’ve got more energy than ever, and your studies have picked up too, so it’s clear your body’s using it well.”

“Aww, but sis…” Sweetie groaned, looking at her sister and making her eyes shimmer with unshed tears.

“No buts, Sweetie, now sit down and try to enjoy your power meal.” Rarity poured the mostly-liquid green sludge onto the bowl and placed it on the table in front of the smaller unicorn.

Sitting down opposite her sister, she watched as the young unicorn began slowly spooning the gunk into her mouth, grinding it up before swallowing. After just a few bites though, the younger sister pushed her plate away and made a quiet gagging noise, looking up at Rarity with a pleading look on her face.

“Do I have to eat this stuff sis? It’s so bland and feels like I'm eating mud.”

The older unicorn, for her part, merely placed a hoof to her forehead and sighed.

“Sweetie Belle, I know it must be hard getting used to nothing but power meals and unicorn supplements ever since your operation, but they’re for your own good. Think of your body like an airship; do you want fuel that will give you the power to go where you need to go, or fuel that will slow down your engines?” Stepping around the table, Rarity lifted up her sister’s chin with a shining hoof. “Tell you what, when I get home today I’ll see if I can’t make a few adjustments and make that green gunk taste a bit better for you? I know it certainly doesn’t look terribly appetizing.”

“Thanks sis… I’d like that. Trying to make it taste better can’t hurt, can it?”

“Well, we can certainly try and find out, now. But you’ll have to eat something on the way to class, otherwise you won’t have enough energy to get through the day.” A very stern look crossed Rarity’s face as she stared at Sweetie, and the smaller unicorn, for her part, looked away, embarrassed.

“Yeah, alright sis, I know.”

“Here Sweetie,” activating her horn, Rarity directed the blue, telekinetic glow towards the freezer and pulled out a small packet, “take a power burst and go get ready, or you’ll be late for class.”

Dejectedly taking the smaller meal packet in her own telekinetic field, Sweetie Belle trotted up the stairs back to her room, before coming down a minute later, her academy badge and bag clipped to her barrel.

Nodding to herself, Rarity activated her horn and turned off the music that had been playing in the kitchen with just a thought, before retrieving her favourite saddlebag. Levitating a select few outer coverings from her workroom and a purse of bits into her bag, she snapped it to the outside of her dress, where it stayed magnetically attached, and trotted with her sister to the front door.

“Sweetie, I’ve got a few designs I need to drop off and a few errands I need to run today, but do you want me to walk you to the academy today?” Rarity asked as the two left the house and she pressed her hoof up to the automatic latch, locking it behind them.

“No thanks, I’m gonna go on up ahead and catch up with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. See you later!” With that, the little filly’s body sped down the lane while her sister simply smiled after her, turning to walk down the lane towards Ponyville’s main square.

***

Ponyville’s main square was a bustling center of attention. Ponies, both natural and remodelled, walked in every direction, going about their business while any voices were drowned out by the churning of machinery from the large surrounding buildings. Though the small town was rural by most modern standards, it was still far more advanced than what Applejack’s grandmother had grown up with, though the fact that the old mare had decided to stay home today meant that the young earth pony was spared any of her grumblings about the town’s current state. As it was, Applejack tried her best to enjoy the day, sitting behind her food stand and greeting ponies as they walked by, trying to entice them to buy something.

“Apples! Get’cher fresh juicy apples here! We got Fuji, Gala, Ambrosia, you name it! You there, ma’am, would you like to buy something sweet fer yer little ‘un? Ah’ve got Apple Fritters, Apple Pies, Apple Turnovers and more!”

The mare Applejack was yelling to could barely hear her over the sounds of pegasi zooming through the square, and the thundering rumble of airships moving overhead. She shook her head and declined politely, calling her foal from where he stared at all the confectionery sweets.

She waved to the two as they left and sat back in the chair beneath her stand’s awning, doing her best not to hang her head. Not everypony could be expected to stop and buy something from her, but she hadn’t sold a single thing yet that morning. She looked up at the crowd and forced a smile back onto her lips, but she saw far more shiny, reflective, metal coats than those made of fur. The farm was struggling, she knew that, but as she looked around she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d need to give it up and finally move on from it.

The fact of the matter was, there were fewer and fewer ponies with natural, Faust-given bodies; more and more were remodelling, moving themselves over to machine pony bodies, ones that didn’t need to, and in fact couldn’t, eat something organic like apples. Her customer base was shrinking, and it didn’t look like it would stop.

Hearing the sound of a screaming thunderclap overhead, Applejack looked up and sighted a blue streak materialize across the sky. In another second the sound had crescendoed to a peak, deafening the whole square before fading away once more.

Shaking her head to try and clear the ringing left by the blue comet’s passage, it wasn’t until a familiar, white coat and dazzling purple mane moved into her vision did she realize somepony was saying her name.

“Applejack, darling, are you alright?”

Turning to face the pony, Applejack saw that her friend Rarity was standing there, looking concerned. Flicking her ears a few more times and shaking her head once more, she finally responded, putting on as genuine of a smile as she could.

“Morning Rarity! What can Ah do ya for?”

“Applejack, is everything alright? You look disoriented.” Surprise and concern flickered over the unicorn’s visage, before settling in place. Applejack knew that the unicorn meant well and was genuinely concerned, but the look of her friend still threw her off.

The pony in front of her, while seemingly hiding beneath a sparkly blue-and-pink dress, couldn’t hide her waxed and polished white plastanium coat. Her face, with a bright smile and attentive eyes, was completely fake to Applejack; the hundreds of tiny lights that made up her face were embedded just underneath a transparent shield in the shape of a normal pony’s head and muzzle, but her jaw never moved, her mouth couldn’t open. The unicorn’s eyes were just there for show, since the dozens of cameras that made up her sense of sight were expertly hidden between the lights. The click-clack of her gold-coated hooves striking the concrete ground were a far cry from the normal clopping sound of a natural pony’s, and the unicorn’s mane was entirely composed of solid light, moving in a nonexistent breeze as if it were real hair, but giving off a dazzling purple glow that nature couldn't ever provide.

Applejack took in her friend’s appearance in an instant, and just like every other time she saw her, her face only cracked for a moment before she remembered that this was still the same pony she knew. She allowed herself to relax after a moment, and her smile became genuine.

“Ah, no Ah’m alright, sugarcube, it’s just Dash again. I swear, that filly doesn’t care about civilian flight laws. She nearly blew mah eardrums out again, and those of everypony else in town, but Ah’m fine, really.”

Rarity huffed, her voice tinged with the barest musical melody, but all it did was grate on Applejack’s ears.

“I’m sorry Applejack, I tuned out the sound of her new hyperjets when she first got them, I didn’t even notice her as I was walking up the street. I was making sure to stop by the square so I could come talk to you before I went to run a few errands today.”

“Really?” the orange mare’s face blanked, “Ya can do that? Ya can just get rid of the sound of Rainbow’s obnoxious engines? But yer hearing’s so good with those new ears o’ yours!”

“Oh well, yes it is, but adjustmenting isn’t difficult, you just need to figure out the frequency and then tune down sounds at that level. You’ll learn all about how to adjust your body when you get your new one. Er, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, darling.”

Applejack sighed and sat down on her wooden chair once more, her face having fallen with what she knew she needed to tell her friend. The pony of flesh and blood watched as the crystal-inlaid lattice that made up Rarity’s horn glowed, and the unicorn caught another chair, dragging it over in her telekinetic field.

“Applejack? What’s wrong? Come, you can tell me.”

Applejack waited until the scream of an airship turbine passed on overhead before speaking.

“Listen Rares, Ah know you were so excited ta get a new body, and you’re faster, and tougher, and stronger and smarter and everything’ because of it, but… I’m not gonna be remodellin’ mahself.”

“What? But Applejack, it’s easy, and painless! Even Sweetie Belle went through with it and got the Racer Plus body model she wanted, and she’s just a filly!” The unicorn’s facial lights rearranged and lit up in such a way that the unicorn was projecting a look of confusion, but it was Rarity’s words next that hit the farmer like a punch to the gut.

“Darling, we’ve been discussing this for so long though! You even enjoyed looking at the models with me in the lightmag brochure just a few days ago! Is it… is it too expensive, darling?” The unicorn’s facial lights imitated a pair of brilliant blue eyes searching between Applejack’s green ones, though the earth pony couldn’t bring herself to look back, because she knew they weren’t real. She’d just waste her time looking for the cameras that Rarity really saw the world through.

“Applejack. Look at me,” the unicorn commanded, activating her horn and letting the electrically-powered crystals use their magic to pull Applejack’s chin up from where it rested on her chest. “If times are getting tough for you, I’ll be happy to help you afford your remodelling. You, Granny Smith, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, whoever in your family wants one.”

Rarity’s words were kind, but the mechanized timbre in her voice only reminded Applejack of why she had to refuse.

“No. Rarity, you don’t understand. Things are hard on the farm, Ah won’t deny it. With more ponies turning metal, less ponies need ta eat, and we’re not sellin’ enough to keep doin’ what we’re doin’. But I don’t want ya ta spend a single bit on me or mah kin fer this. Truth is, I’ve done some more thinkin’ about it lately and… I don’t want no remodelled body.”

“What!? But darling-”

Applejack placed a hoof on where Rarity’s mouth would be if her muzzle were real and shushed her.

“Rarity, Ah appreciate your generosity and you looking out fer us, but Ah don’t know. Seeing all these metal ponies… it makes me feel like we’re giving up a part of what we are. Forgettin’ a part of who we are. Ah’m an earth pony, and even though there’s all sorts o’ fancy gadgets for farmin’ and ploughin’ to go along with the earth pony models, it wouldn’t be the same. Me and mah kin are all Apples; we’re earth ponies. We came from this land, we work this land, and then we’ll return to this land when we’re gone. You’re gonna live longer than me with that remodelled body o’ yours, but fer me, if remodelled… it wouldn’t be livin’.”

Applejack heaved another dejected sigh and stared at the ground. What once had been soft earth and cobblestones in her childhood days had been replaced with painted-over concrete slabs and the gleaming shine of hoverwalkways. Even the ground, like so much else, had changed here in Ponyville.

After a few seconds, something brushed against the earth pony’s side and she felt a touch on her shoulder; not a warm touch coming from a living creature, but cold and hard, and made of metal. Glancing to her side, she saw Rarity had scootched her chair over and laid a golden hoof on her shoulder. Despite the inflexibility of the solid surface, the touch was gentle, and light, and made Applejack remember the days when Rarity’s hoof had been warmer. Even after all these years, and after transferring her mind to a mechanical body, the beautiful unicorn mare was just as gentle and understanding as always.

“Applejack… if you really feel that way, then I won’t lift a hoof to get you any remodelling done. You have your values, and you stand by them; I can understand and respect that, and I will. But… if you or your family ever need assistance, or perhaps a way to expand into new territories with the family business, give me a call. I’ll always be happy to help.”

The unicorn’s smooth, featureless face lit up in a warm, understanding smile, and though Applejack understood that the smile itself was fake, she knew that the pony behind it was genuine, and so she smiled back.

“Thanks fer understanding, Rares. It means a lot to me. Ah’ll still be your friend for as long as Ah live my natural life, and Ah’ll be your friend for as long as you live your remodelled one.” Getting back to her hooves, the farmpony wiped her eyes, surprised to find them wet. “Now, Ah’ve got ta get back ta work, but I’ll see you around!”

“Well in that case, I simply must buy one of your delectable treats, dear.” Rarity said, flashing images of fluttering eyelashes.

“Wha- Rarity, you can’t even eat it. Ah don’t want you to buy something just to help me out, and Ah don’t want the food to go to waste. You don’t have to do this, sugarcube.”

A very credible imitation of a wink flashed across Rarity’s face. “Why darling, I’m simply buying a divine little treat for a friend of mine! Besides, Pinkie Pie is never going to remodel either, she loves sweets too much to ever give them up!”

A mischievous smile affixed itself to the unicorn’s face while her horn’s power levitated a few bits from her bag.

“You wouldn’t want to let Pinkie Pie down, now would you?”

Applejack smiled, despite herself, and motioned to the many pastries laid out on the stand, still warm and filled with delicious apples. The odd double-vocal of Rarity’s voice no longer grated on her ears, and when she looked at her friend, sparkling mane blowing in an artificial wind, all she saw was her friend.

And Applejack felt okay.

Author's Note

Hope you all enjoyed this small foray into technological advancement featuring ponies! I would have expanded upon some of the story, but there was a hard cap of 3000 words (I know it says the chapter is 3003 words, google docs counts words differently than Fimfiction). As it stands, I still had to get rid of nearly 500 words, though it mostly just changed the beginning scene a bit.