Population 1

Sunny followed Hitch and Winter into the space craft. It was strange inside, the walls were curved and extremely smooth looking. Not at all what she had expected. Wires, pieces of metal, and tubes, dangled from the ceiling here and there, as well as the walls. Every now and then, her horn-light would reveal strange symbols on the wall, put in various places. Such as beside doors, at the end of a hallway, etc... it was almost like they were signs.

"Hey Winter, what do these symbols mean?" She asked, running her hoof over the rusted metal.

"Those?" The cyborg turned, "they're clearly signs. But they're written in a language I can't decipher. Maybe one day I'll get around to learning it. But this chip and getting Snowdrop back is my priority."

Sunny nodded and continued following him down a long hallway to what seemed to be the center of the craft. As the trio stepped through a half collapsed doorway, Hitch and Sunny gasped. This must have been the bridge or.. control room or whatever. Along the walls were various panels with no keyboards, in the center of the room sat a chair, and to the left and right of the chair were two consoles one on either side. On the far end of the room was a giant screen embedded in the wall.

The three of them split up, looking around the room as Winter trotted to the console on the right of the command chair. Tapping on it a couple times, he blew the dust off and kicked it with a hoof, making the screen flicker on.

"Gotcha" he said to himself, smiling as he began typing away on the panel. Pulling out a cord he had brought along with him, he connected one end into the console and the other into his leg. Hitch looked over at him.

"Uh.. Winter? Are you sure that's such a good idea? Who knows what kind of viruses and shit could be in there?" Hitch said.

"Relax Mr. Sheriff, I've interfaced with these things before. I can't read their language but the code used is universal. I'll hack into their computer system and get the core to eject the microchip." Said Winter, closing his eyes and focusing.

"But I thought you said we came here for the technology? Why take the chip when we can take the technology they used to make it. Then you'd be able to make an unlimited number of them."

The white stallion sighed.

"There are some things in life Hitch, that you shouldn't question. Now let me do my work please."

Sunny trotted over to Hitch and laid a hoof on his shoulder.

"Come on, let's give him some space," she said. Hitch huffed and nodded.

"Fine.."

"There's a good Sheriff," the alicorn said smiling and rubbing his chin. She then looked to Winter.

"Hey, Hitch and I are gonna talk a walk okay? We'll be back in 5 minutes."

"Okay, don't get lost." Winter said.

Sunny turned with Hitch and trotted out of the room.

~~~~~~~

Winter focused on his hack, watching the screen flicker and run code across it at lightning speed. It was some pretty advanced software, but not too difficult for him to crack. He was more worried about the chip inside the computers core. There was something he never told Sunny or Hitch. The truth about him and the microchips. Something very scary and very disastrous if let loose. The microchips used to give him and Snowdrop a consciousness, had a backdoor system.

You see, the original function of the M98 Microchip was to efficiently and properly upload orders into the aliens technology. In the storage compartment of this spacecraft, we're hundreds of robotic drones. All equipped with the M98 chip. Killer drones. Built and designed to do one thing and one thing only. Terminate all life on whatever planet they were deployed to, and collect its natural resources.

This was the reason the chip was so dangerous in the wrong hooves. But how does that effect Winter? Sunnys grandfather had re-programmed the chip used in him and later Snowdrop, to construct an artificial intelligence that learnt and adapted to its surroundings. When Winter was powered on for the first time, he had the metallic body of a full grown stallion, but the mind of a newborn foal. Over the years he was put into special schooling with Sunnys grandfather, and later on given a mate, Snowdrop. Now Sunnys grandfather knew that he didn't have years to wait for Snowdrops mind to develop, so he worked for 5 months to bypass the rudimentary coding in the Artificial Intelligence he had created and modified Snowdrops consciousness to be that of a 21 year old mare. The equivalent to Winter at the time.

Still confused at why Winter is so dangerous? How could he be if her grandfather had re-programmed him? I'll tell you why. Winters memory bank and AI are protected by a super complex anti-virus and malware program. A program so advanced, no other pony besides Sunnys grandfather could crack it. The problem begins, with the backdoor. The Aliens had designed the backdoor of the microchips software to be so easily programmed, it was a threat to Winter. If somepony were to hack into Winter's chip through the backdoor, it would trigger a complete reboot of the M98 chip. Thus returning the chip to its original programming... kill every living thing on whatever planet it landed on.

When her grandfather developed the AI, he had overlooked the backdoor and died before Winter discovered it and was able to warn him. The cyborg lacked the hacking skill to crack into it as his main programming skills were computers and not cyborgs of his own kind. Meaning, he couldn't hack into any other cyborg like him or programmed like him. But what about Snowdrop's chip? It was destroyed right? So wouldn't that mean he would have to reprogram this new one? No, not at all. Her consciousness was uploaded into the mainframe back at the facility. So her life was preserved the moment the chip shattered. Luckily she was hooked up to charging pod when it happened.. or she would have been gone forever...

As he thought about this however, his focus on the code slipped and he entered in a wrong sequence. Immediately, his cord shot out of the console and he was shocked.

"Zzzzzzzzrrrrrtttttgbbbbbbb!!!" He shouted, twitching on the floor for a moment as the electricity passed through him, causing a malfunction in his joints. The hud on his optical sensors flickered as warning alarms began blaring around him and red lines of systems checks began popping up in his viewscreen.

WARNING: ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED. BEGINNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS TEST.....

CPU: 100% EFFICIENCY
QUANTUM POWERCELL: 83%
PROCESSING UNIT: 100%
MOTOR FUNCTIONS: COMPROMISED FOR 2.5 SECONDS AT 13:32:23 HOURS.
WEAPON SYSTEMS: ONLINE
POLARON QUANTUM SHIELDS: 100%

SCANNING FOR MALWARE/VIRUS.....

NONE DETECTED. ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.

Winter panted, or did the cyborg equivalent of panting, and slowly stood up on shaky legs. His joints were still adjusting from the shock but he was lucky the discharge wasn't strong enough to damage any of his systems. Covering his ears, he looked around as a red flashing light pulsed throughout the room, the siren blaring around him.

"Well fuck... that's not good."

~~~~~~~

Sunny trotted with Hitch along the quiet corridor. He was still kinda grumpy from his and Winters exchange earlier.

"Hey," she said, softly booping him. "Cheer up Hitch. At least he didn't mock you. If I'm being honest and pardon my language, he could've roasted your ass if he wanted."

Hitch groaned and huffed. Sunny lay a wing over his back and stopped trotting. The sheriff stopped and looked at his best friend.

"Its true you know, he is pretty good at comebacks," she said chuckling. Hitch continued to frown however.

"Oh he's soooo much better at everything. Why don't you laugh with him then?" He retorted, turning and sitting on haunches. Sunny was completely taken aback by his response. She'd seen this before though when Sprout was around and trying to "constantly impress her". Sunny had never been attracted to Sprout in that way, so she always turned him down when he asked her out to dinner saying, "Im sorry Sprout. I don't want to be with you. You're a really good friend and I love having you around because of your occasional wise cracks. But there is a better mare than me out there for you." And she had been right. After Sprout had met Izzy, they were inseparable. But Hitch only acted this way when he felt threatened by someone.

"Hitch.. do you have feelings for me?" She asked softly, wrapping a wing around his back and sitting next to him. The stallion sighed quietly and whispered under his breath.

"How did you know...."

"All those times when Sprout hit on me and you got jealous and argued with him about something." She replied, smiling softly and giggling quietly.

"You probably think it's stupid... a macho pony like me who's supposed to get all the mares wanting a relationship and not a one night stand... the truth is. That's never the life I wanted. And you get me Sunny, more than anyone else." Hitch closed his eyes, tears dripping down his face.

The alicorn softly lifted up his chin and planted a kiss on his lips. Hitch's ears folded down and his eyes shot open, but they soon closed again as he kissed her back. They broke the kiss after a few seconds and Sunny smiled at him blushing.

"I was honestly hoping that's how you felt Hitch. I've done a pretty good job at hiding my feelings for you until earlier today. It's one reason I never let Sprout date me. I've always had a crush on you. Since high school when you stopped those bullies in Mrs. Hoofingtons class. I looked up at you standing there over me after beating them up, and I've never felt more loved by anypony since my dad passed..."

It was Hitch's turn to blush.

"Sunny I..." but he was cut short when the sudden blaring of sirens pierced the quiet. Hitch and Sunny looked at each other then got up, heading for the control room. When they arrived, they found Winter beating on the console.

"WINTER! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!!?!?" Sunny screamed over the piercing noise.

"I DON'T KNOW!! BUT I THINK YOU SHOULD HOLD ONTO YOUR FLANKS!! ITS ABOUT TO GET BUMPY!"

As if he was a gypsy predicting the future, the whole ship began shaking and creaking as it slowly lifted into the air.