It's In My Head
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Tales of a robot

It's In My Head

You might believe the story ends there. Dear pony, I wish it did. Still want to hear? Well, you're the first.

**********

I sat on the beach for around ten minutes. I heard hoofsteps behind me. Without looking up, I said, "Go away guys! I don't want to talk to you."

"Why not?" Apple Bloom asked, "We're here to help you Sweetie."

"Yeah! Who cares if you aren't a real pony!" Sootaloo chimed in. "We can still be friends."

"That's not the problem!" I yelled, turning around. "What about everypony else? Button Mash will hate me! Everypony else will hate me!"

"What do you want to do?"

I look out to the water and then back at my friends. "Nopony else can know that I'm not really alive. I can go back to Rarity and get her to fix the 'Pony Camouflage whatever thing.' Nopony else needs to know"

Apple Bloom nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Just don't touch anymore water."

Scootaloo, trying to be encouraging again, chimes in saying, "Who knows? Maybe Rarity can tell you a little more about what you can do!"

I smile weakly and look towards the ground as we begin walking the path towards Ponyville for the second time today. The sun was setting quickly behind us. Around 10:00 at night, we stepped into the boutique. Definitely more calm than last time.

My eyes fill with horror as I see, not just Rarity, but her friends standing there right in front of me. Pinkie Pie immediately looks up and bounces over to me. "Hey you silly filly! You missed your own birthday party! Is everything Okay? Love the new look by the way! Very futuristic!"

I look down towards the floor. "S-Sorry Pinkie. I had a lot of things on my mind today."

Twilight comes over and starts looking me up and down. "Something seems quite different Sweetie. Are you sure you're okay?" Twilight taps me with a hoof. I hear her gasp softly, knowing that she definitely felt the small tap of metal. Before she can say anything else however, Rarity begins pushing her friends out the door.

She was speaking in a hurry and she began sharing parting phrases with her friends "Well, sure was lovely to have you all come by. See you next time. Rainbow Dash! Put down those gems! See you soon!"

On her way out, Applejack grabbed Apple Bloom's hoof. "Come on! It's time to go home."

Apple Bloom turned to me. "Bye Sweetie Belle! Good luck!"

"Good Luck?" Applejack asked, confused.

"None of your business" Apple Bloom said as they walked out the door.

Rainbow dash picked Scootaloo up while flying past. It baffled me that she was still able to do that, despite Scootaloo being almost a full grown mare. "You too Scoots! Let's go home."

Scootaloo laughed and wiggled free from her grip flapping her wings. "Race ya!"

Rainbow dash laughed. "You're on. I've been waiting to do this for a long time kiddo."

They both raced off to the sky. They were most likely going to Rainbow's house in Cloudsdale. About three moons ago, Rainbow had officially adopted Scootaloo. I remember the look on Scootaloo's face when it clicked in her head that she was officially related to her idol. But, this story isn't about her. Unfortunately, it's my story. Let's continue...

"Rarity! I need you to fix the pony camouflage thing! I don't want anypony else to know about...Well, you know."

Rarity smiled and nodded softly. "Come here." I felt her reach towards the back of my mane where there was another small hatch. She opened it and I felt a switch flip. Everything went black once again.

**********

I woke up and looked over to the window. The sun was already beginning to rise. A very sad and tired looking Rarity stood in front of me looking at me. I suddenly felt like I couldn't control myself as I opened my mouth and said in a robotic voice, "Sweetie Bot Powering on..."

"Well darling, I have some bad news." I think Rarity could see the worry on my face as she said that because she quickly held up a hoof and said, "But there's definitely some good news too!"

I look at her with skepticism. "Really? What's that?"

Rarity's face also turns to worry as she clearly doesn't want to tell me the bad news. "Well, first things first, I want you to know that I tried everything I could..." I look at her confused and she continues. "One of your motherboards was completely destroyed. It would take me forever to make a new one. The camouflage isn't going to work at all."

"What! Rarity I can't go out looking like this!"

"Sweetie, calm down. It's not the end of the world. I didn't say I wouldn't try to make a new one but it's been hundreds of moons since I created this one so it might take me a while to figure this out. In the meantime, you should try to enjoy your new...ahem...abilities."

"Such as?"

"Well, I think I gave you heat seeking vision. You also should have an AI inside your head to help with whatever you need."

I looked down and said. "But, if I'm a robot...Aren't I just an AI?"

Rarity looked down as well. "Well...Technically yes. But that doesn't mean anypony loves you any less."

I held up a hoof to stop her. "Hang on! I want some actual backstory! Why did you make me? How did you make me? Why couldn't I figure out before all this that I was a robot?"

Rarity sighed. "If I tell you, you wouldn't believe me. It's a crazy story really."

I shook my head. "No backing down now Rarity! I want the whole truth and nothing but the truth!"

Rarity looked at me up and down. I could only guess she was wondering if I was truly ready to hear the real story behind myself. She slowly nodded her head. We walked over to the table. "You may want to sit down for this." She told me.

I did.

***********

Rarity poured us both a cup of cider before she sat down. "Am I allowed to have this?" I asked.

"I think under the circumstances, I can allow it. Just don''t overdo it." I nodded and eagerly took a sip of the famous Apple family cider. It tasted sweet and had a small sour twang to it.

Rarity then began speaking. "When I was a filly, I was actually pretty technically-minded. There was nothing I wanted more than a little sister to share all of my knowledge with. I begged my parents for moons and moons. Eventually, they decided to try. At the time, I didn't understand what they meant by 'try." Rarity looked at me with an inquiring look. "You do know what they meant by 'try' right?"

I nod my head. We had this conversation a few moons ago when me and Button started dating and I really didn't want to have to go through it again. "Good," Rarity says clapping her hooves. She takes another sip of cider and continues. "I remember waiting to hear the good news from my parents. eventually, about a month later, they told me that there was absolutely no way they could give me a little sister. I realize now that they had become infertile."

I frown and gag in disgust. I really didn't want to hear about my parents' sexual life. Rarity decides to continue "I was heartbroken. I had wanted a sister so badly and now I was never going to get one. I decided that I would build my own. I worked on you for almost one hundred and fifty moons. I built you as lifelike as I could. I made you as small as a newborn filly. I designed you so that you would grow at the same rate as your classmates. I began building you extra features. Camouflage, energy conversion, self defense, and so on."

I take another sip of the cider and hold a hoof up. "What do you mean by self defense?"

Rarity laughed. "You don't want to know. It shouldn't be a big problem. Anyways, the time finally came around to turn you on. After moons and moons of work, I was finally ready to meet my brand new little sister. You powered on and I noticed my first problem. You asked me, 'Thank you for building me! What can I help you with."

"Your memory chip seemed to remember the process of you being built ever since I connected it to your systems. I turned you off, and wiped your memory chip. When you woke up again, I finally had my little sister. I named you Sweetie Bot. As you got older, I realized that you might freak out if you realized that you weren't a real pony. Turns out I was right. I decided to call you Sweetie Belle. That's the name you remembered most. I know this is all super confusing for you. Did you get it all?"

I put a hoof to my chin and think. "I think so but I still have a lot of questions. Where does my power source come from?"

"Well, the way I designed it, you would be able to drink water and it would be converted to energy while you sleep. You can hold about thirty-six hours of battery at a single time and you also have tiny solar panels on your back that were usually hidden by your fake fur."

I nod. "Makes sense. I still want to know about this 'self defense system."

Rarity looks off to the side and takes another big gulp of cider. She looks at me and says, "I don't think you'll ever need it so why even bring it up?"

I put my forehooves up. "You were the one who brought it up I was just curious. Anyways, I have a few more questions for you."

"What's up Sweetie Bot?"

"First of all, I'm still not sure about that new name. Second of all, do I have any real emotions?"

"Come again?"

I take a drink of cider. "Are all of my feelings real? Or are they all programmed?"

Rarity looks a little disturbed by the question. "Whoa! I wasn't ready for some sort of existential crisis tonight Sweetie!"

"Well," I said, "Maybe if somepony had told me earlier I was a bucking ROBOT I wouldn't be having one."

Rairty looked shocked. "First of all, watch your language. Second of all, touche.

I nod. "I can't deal with this tonight. I'm going to bed." I start up the stairs and quickly turn back and ask, "One more thing? Why can I feel the buzz of alcohol if it's just getting converted into energy."

Rarity smirks a little. "Well I said I designed you to be as much like a real pony as possible, so I made it so that the detection of alcohol would mildly mess with your neurological sensors."

I smile a little. "It's weird. But fun!"

**********

After Rarity went to bed, I got out of my bed. Now I could easily hear small things. The slight whir of machinery whenever I moved the slightest bit. The quiet sounds of sensors moving around. Things I would never have noticed, had I not been listening for them specifically. I walked quietly to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror, finally getting a really good look at my new body. Or I guess, my old body.

I had Black hooves with black stripes wrapping around them. They all connected at my black underbelly. I had to give it to Rarity. She certainly knows how to paint a robot. After a little bit, I began to get curious and I looked in the mirror. I tapped my eye with a hoof. Surely enough, I felt some sort of artificial shock but my hoof just bounced off of it as if It never even touched.

I didn't know what to feel about this. Rarity had kept this from me for 150 moons. I began trying to focus in on some of my specific abilities. I focused on some of the things rarity had told me. Heat seeking vision I thought.

Nothing happened.

After a little bit, I gave up out of frustration. I looked over my body again in the mirror and I began seeing faint lines where I think doors are. I noticed one on the side of my front right forehoof. I pushed down on it with my left forehoof and it popped open. A piece of paper fell out from inside of it. There was something written on it.

Sweetie Bot

Against all judgement that was running through my head, I decided to unfold the note and read it.

Hi Sweetie Bot! This is your sister, Rarity.

If you're reading this, then you have found a way to
shed your camouflage and are now wondering
exactly what you are. I hope by the time you read
this, I will be gone because I do not wish to explain
the story to you. I can tell you a few things about
yourself though.

You are one of a kind. Equestra's first ever, robot
pony. I am excited to share with you a few things that
you now have the ability to do. There should be a
very small button built into the back of your left
forehoof. That is a command button. It will take you
inside your own mind where you can run code. I
don't know how much code you know but I can tell
you the basics.

To begin a command, say "Run:" This will tell your
systems that you are beginning a command and
they will follow your instructions. Here are a few
commands that you can run with your new body.

Run: "Heat" This will activate your thermal sensors.

Run: "Defend" This will activate your self defense
systems. please use this with caution. it is incredibly
dangerous.

Run: "Mem" To access your memory files. One of my
better creation you could say. Even if your short term
memory won't remember something on the spot, you
can recall it anyways.

Run: "Data" You can scan something with the sensors
in your eyes. You will give it a full data analysis. You
will commit it to memory immediately.

Run: "ADV" to turn on advanced view. You will see not
only everything in front of you, but you can see specific
data sets you choose to have displayed on the sides of
your vision

Finally, I hope you decide to take up coding especially
given your new discoveries. so I gave you one more
command...

Run: "Free" You will be able to create your own
commands. I trust you that you will not abuse the
immense power you possess.

I hope you don't hate me for not telling you. I truly
care for you Sweetie Bot. I hope this all makes sense
If not, why not give your commands a try?

Your loving sister,

Rarity

I stared at the note in disbelief. So there really were commands! Rarity didn't make it up. I decided to try one of them. I lifted my left forehoof and turned it upside down. I saw the button the letter talked about. Another thing I never would have seen past my fake skin and fur. I took a deep breath and pressed the button...

(To Be Continued...)

Maybe I'm Better Off...
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Tales of a robot

Maybe I'm Better Off...

Author's Note

I will say this right now. When Sweetie codes, I am not using actual coding techniques. I am writing the code how I think her brain perceives it. therefore, the definition of words and exactly what she wants the commands to do. Don't get mad at me in the comments.

This chapter can get a little confusing but just stick with it...

Maybe I'm Better Off...

My brain flooded. I couldn't see. I couldn't think. Suddenly, my mind popped and I was standing in a dark abyss. I looked around and only saw one thing.

A keyboard.

I walked up to it slowly. A small area on the side had a picture depicting a hoof. I tapped it with my hoof and the entire keyboard lit up with a bright green color. A small screen appeared in front of me. The only thing on the screen was a small blinking cursor.

Strange I thought. I looked around and the word strange was flying around the room. I'm inside my own mind. What a strange feeling.

I walked over to the keyboard and began to type, Run: "Heat"

A loading bar appeared with the words, "Downloading command" underneath it.

My interest was officially Piqued. I could tell because the floor and light around me began to glow green. It must change with my emotions.

A message popped up on screen. "Command downloaded. Run by pressing "command key"

That must be my hoof button. I thought as I saw the words fly through my brain. I eagerly typed the other commands into the keyboard

Run: "Mem"
Run: "Data"
Run: "ADV"

I saw three more download bars pop up on the screen. I reached the last command and I paused. Rarity warned me about this one. I decided I may as well download it for good measure.

Run: "defend"

I pressed enter and saw a warning message pop up. "Warning! The manufacturer of this product advises against downloading this command. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No

Product? I thought. What the buck? Is that all I am? A product? What was she going to mass produce me or something?

The lights around me turned red as I felt rage flooding my brain. I moved my cursor across the screen and clicked "Yes" I began to feel strange. There was a fire in my stomach. I remembered earlier that there were doors on my sides that I was unable to open. I wonder if the "Self defense system" Had something to do with those.

I heard a really loud bell in my head. I heard a voice. I think it was the AI Rarity told me about. "Run: "EXIT" To leave"

I thought for a second. For some reason, I couldn't shake the image of Twilight's face out of my head. Her face when she felt her hoof connect with metal. I decided to see if I was able to connect with the AI through the keyboard in front of me. I began typing. It went something like this...

Me: Hello?

Yes?

Me: Oh! It does work! Okay... How do I run commands in the real world?

All you have to do is set a button control for it. If you would like, I can set controls for you.

Me: That would be great. Thank you!

I am here to serve you. I have set your command key to running commands. To run a command, press your command key. You will be able to envision your command keyboard. There, you will type Run: ____ If you wish to return here to speak to me or code new commands, press and hold your command key.

Me: The command button is the button my hoof right?

That is correct. Anything else I can help you with Sweetie Bot?

Me: Oh! You know my name?

I know everything about you.

Me: Really?

Yes ma'am! I can tell you anything you would like to know about yourself.

Me: What's the self-defense system.

I do not know.

Me: I thought you knew everything about me.

I apologize but this information seems to have been wiped from my memory.

Me: Thanks anyways.

I am here to serve you.

I looked down at my "Command key." I press it and sure enough, a command keyboard pops up in front of me. Run: "EXIT"

I feel my brain flood again before I see my eyes open. I'm still standing in the bathroom. But now, Rarity stands next to me.

"Are you okay Sweetie Bot?" She asks. "I came in here and saw you standing there, completely still with your eyes closed. I opened them, but your sensors were off. What happened?"

I looked up at her with a smile. "I found my command key!"

**********

Eventually, the weekend had to come to an end. It was going to be back to school the next morning. Rarity put me back to sleep after the bathroom encounter and when I woke up in the morning, I suddenly felt a looming sense of dread. "Rarity!" I whined. "Do I have to go to school?" I groaned as Rarity nodded her head. I focused on the back of my throat. "_'m still fe_ling scratchy _nd Stati_y!"

"Nice try Sweetie Bot. I can tell when you're faking it. Stop trying to cut out your voice so I think you're sick."

I put a hoof to my chin. "You know, I've been wondering about that. If I'm a robot, then how did I always get sick as a filly?"

Rarity laughed again. "I said I wanted to make you as much like a real pony as I could. So I made it so every once in a while, your circuits would mess themselves up. It was my intention that you would never figure out your secret. That note you found last night was there because I guess some part of me always knew you would figure yourself out."

I nod and trudge towards the door, schoolbag in hoof. I breathe a short sigh and open the door. This was it. My first time out since my discovery. Who knows, maybe ponies would actually think I'm cool now. I knew it was a long shot. Ponies would probably just back off and stare from a distance.

And right I was because as I walked down the street, I watched as Lyra and Bon Bon pointed at me and gasped. I watched as they started to back away. Same with everypony else. Minuette, Lily Valley, even Derpy Hooves flew over-head and watched me. I was honestly kind of relieved when I saw Pinkie Pie bouncing up to me.

"Hi there Sweetie Belle! How's it going?" Finally. My real name.

"Well Pinkie, I'm gonna be honest. It's not great."

Pinkie's smile fell into a frown. "What's wrong, Sweetie Belle? Is it because you're a robot?"

I felt my jaw drop to the ground. "How did you know?"

Pinkie laughed. "Just a hunch!"

"Umm... Okay." I walked away towards the schoolhouse. Despite the fact that all of the fillies and colts that went to the schoolhouse grew up, they still have one big class with the older and younger kids. You can definitely see the toll it takes on Miss Cheerilee's patience.

As I walked up to the school, I immediately saw the pony who I dreaded seeing the most. Diamond Tiara sat in the schoolyard with Silver Spoon taunting another pony. As crusaders, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and I would usually step in and stop her. Honestly though, I had no interest in causing a scene while looking like this. I waited for one of the others to step in but nopony came. They must not be here.

I sighed and began walking towards Diamond Tiara. "Leave him alone!" I yelled at her.

She turned around and gasped. "Whoa! Sweetie Belle! I didn't think it was possible for you to become even more of a freak, but here we are."

I looked at her with annoyed eyes. "Diamond Tiara, I want you to think long and hard about this. I am a robot with, who knows what powers. I am programmed to function perfectly under distress. Do you really want to pick a fight with a pony like that?"

Diamond Tiara continued smiling and gestured for me to look behind myself. I turned around and Miss Cheerilee was there with a disappointed expression on her face. "Sweetie Belle! I can't believe you would threaten her like that!"

"N-No Miss Cheerilee it's not like th-"

"I don't want to hear it Sweetie Belle. Now I don't know exactly what's going on with-" She gestured to my entire body with a hoof. "All of that. But it had better not disrupt my class. Got it?"

I sigh and nod. I hear Diamond and Silver laugh from behind me. Cheerilee turned to them. "As for you two, detention after school!"

Diamond and silver's faces immediately fell. "W-What!" Diamond yelled. "Why?"

Cheerilee looked at them with an unamused expression. "Do you really think I'm blind? I literally saw you both bullying this poor colt from across the schoolyard. You aren't as sneaky as you think you are."

Diamond sat back down with a huff and I couldn't help but snicker a little bit. After a few minutes, my friends showed up. I ran up to them saying, "What took you so long?"

Apple Bloom groaned. "I wish to erase this morning from my memory!"

I laughed. "Funny! Apparently I can actually do that! What happened?"

Scootaloo's face still looked shocked. "Well, our parents let us have a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres last night. What we didn't know, was that Applejack and Rainbow dash were also having....A sleepover."

"Oh! That sounds absolutely horrifying."

Apple Bloom nodded. "It was. We practically had to drag them out of bed to make us breakfast. Nothing worse than that!"

"I don't even want to think about it," I said. "Give me a second." I pressed down on my command key and quickly found myself in my head. I walked over to the keyboard and began typing.

Me: Hey AI! How do I code?

Run your assigned coding command and begin typing different parts of the command. You can also link it into other commands if you wish.

Run: "Free"

My entire brain flashed white as the screen glitched out. It flashed some sort of logo that said, "SB." The cursor popped back up and I saw the words "Free coding activated." There was a prompt that popped up that said...

Command: |

I concluded that I was supposed to name the command here.

Command: Clrmem10

Another prompt.

Known commands: clr=clear mem=memory

Define: 10

I think I learned enough in my computer classes to figure this out

10= 10 seconds

Another prompt. This one was trying to clarify what I meant.

clrmem10= clear memory of the last 10 seconds? yes/no

Wow! I guess I was better at this than I originally thought. I moved my cursor over to the "yes" Button and clicked. Another download bar. Who knows? Rarity might even be proud. When the download finished, I turned and typed...

Run: "EXIT"

**********

When I woke up, Apple Bloom was waving a hoof in front of my face. "Sweetie? Are you all right?"

I nodded and said, "Yeah. Last night I figured out I could go into my own head and create commands. No big deal."

Scootaloo, who had failed our computer classes looked at me weirdly. "Huh?"

I laughed. "Listen Scoots, if you're gonna have a robot for a friend, you may want to retake that computer class. Basically, what I did was create a code that could erase my memory of the last ten seconds of my life. That way I wouldn't need to remember conversations and images like the one you all just gave me."

Apple Bloom chuckled a little. "Hate to break it to ya, but by now, that conversation was way more than 10 seconds ago."

I nod. "I know. By pressing by command key," I showed them the button on the back of my hoof, "I can run commands manually. for example," I pressed the key and said, Run: "Mem"

My entire vision was flooded by a green screen full of thousands upon thousands of files. I quickly pressed the key again and said, Run: "ADV" The screen shrank down to the corner of my vision. I noticed I could move the cursor on the screen with my mind. This is awesome! I thought. I always wanted super powers! This is the next best thing.

I turned to my friends. "Right now, I'm erasing that file from my memory files while I can also see you guys!"

Scootaloo still seemed confused. "I don't understand! If you had to go, where did you say? Inside your brain? To download code, how can you do it without deactivating again?"

I sighed a small sigh of annoyance. "No Scootaloo. I have to go into my brain to download brand new code! Not to run codes."

Scootaloo nodded. "Oh! I think I get it!"

I decided it would be a great time to try some of my other codes. I looked back down to my command screen, which was still open with my advanced view. Run: "Data"

I saw more and more screens pop up in the corners and sides of my vision. Whenever I looked at something, it would give me an in-depth data analysis. I looked at scootaloo and noticed a small red patch near her wing that I hadn't noticed before. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Wait! How did you know I was hurt?" Scootaloo looked at her wing. "I popped a wing when I was racing with Rainbow Dash the other day."

"What do you mean how did I know? There's a big red patch on your wing!" I then realized that I was the only pony who could see the red patch. It must be a part of the data analysis. Run: "Stop"

I didn't need to download this code. It was somehow something I remembered. Though I'm not quite sure how. The screens all disappeared and so did the data analysis. I was just, normal Sweetie again. Scoootaloo looked at me almost scared. Apple Bloom on the other hoof, looked amazed.

"Sweetie! That's a little creepy." Scootaloo said.

"No it's not! This is awesome." Apple Bloom started talking about cool things we could do with my newfound code. "Think about it guys! How many bits have we wasted over the past few moons doing stupid dangerous things and getting x-rays for it? Those doctors charge a whole bunch."

I nod with a smile. "I get it! We won't need to go to the doctor because I can just check to see if we have broken bones."

Scootaloo shook her head. "That makes no sense. My wing wasn't broken! It just aches a little bit."

"Oh." I said looking down. "Maybe I can only see when somepony is in pain."

Apple Bloom got a mischievous smile on her face. "Sweetie Belle? Do you think you would be able to get Rarity to give you x-ray vision?"

I think for a second and then say, "I can try."

*********

After school, I came bursting through the door of the Carousel boutique. "Rarity! I need x-ray vision!"

Rarity turned around suddenly. "What?"

"Me and Apple Bloom had this idea that if I had x-ray vision and could see if we break anything, we would save a lot of bits on going to the hospital."

Rarity put a hoof to her chin. "Hmm. I guess that makes sense. But where would we even find an x-ray scanner?"

"I don't know! Buy an old one or something."

Rarity looked at me and smiled. "I haven't worked with robots in a couple hundred moons but I think I can make that work. I guess I kind of owe you after lying to you for 150 moons. You will need to be deactivated while I install the scanner into your sensors. That way they aren't moving all over the place."

I nod. "Thanks Rarity!"

*********

The hunt for an unused x-ray scanner proved a lot harder than I had thought it would be. It took a couple moons. I do remember that in the meantime, I was definitely getting used to having new powers. During class, I would go into my head and chat around with the AI just because I could. It did take a turn for the worse one day though. In fact, That's a funny story...

**********

I sat in the classroom watching Miss Cheerilee write useless numbers on the board. I quietly reached my hoof down to my command key. I pressed and held it. I soon entered my brain and walked over to the keyboard.

Me: Hello!

You shouldn't be here!

Me: Why not?

You should be paying attention in class.

Me: Class is boring! And I wanted to talk to you.

What's up?

Me: What exactly is this place? I've mostly just thought of it as my brain but, in robot terms, what exactly is it?

Well, I don't even know what it is in "Robot terms" But I can tell you what I call it. To me, this is what I call the subspace. It is a space in your head where you can store a lot of items. Data of course.

Me: Interesting. Anyways, I'm bored. Tell me a story.

I think that would be most unwise.

Me: Why?

You're about to get in a lot of trouble in school if you don't leave.

Me: Wait! You can see the outside world?

Of course! Who do you think makes sure you don't get hurt while you're in the subspace? Or who runs the data while you're in advanced view?

Me: That makes a lot more sense

Run: "EXIT"

**********

After I exited the subspace, I noticed everypony in the classroom had their eyes on me. Miss Cheerilee cleared her throat. "Sweetie Belle! How do you find the square root of a number? I know you're still getting used to your new..." she cleared her throat again. "Abilities. But please, for the love of Celestia, Pay attention in class!"

I nod in embarrassment. "Yes Miss Cheerilee." I quickly press the command key on my hoof. Run: "Data" I looked at the equation on the board. Of course, it was solved immediately in my head. The square root of 1,487 is 38.56163896931768"

Diamond Tiara pointed a hoof at me. "She's definitely cheating, Miss Cheerilee."

I shot her a smug look. "Jealous?" I asked.

***********

I was definitely getting used to my new body. Things couldn't look any better for me. But things were about to change.

Quickly.

If you stay longer and listen to the rest of my story, you may learn how I ended up in the Everfree Forest.

(To Be Continued...)

Dead...
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Tales of a robot

Dead...

I walked in the door of the boutique. It had been another good day at school. I was becoming very popular among the ponies there. Especially the younger fillies and colts. I mean, how many ponies get to say they're friends with a robot. My eyes widened when I saw Rarity in front of me. "Sweet Celestia Rarity! You scared me!"

"Sorry about that darling. I just have something very exciting to show you!" Rarity held out her hoof and on it, were two very small blueish lenses.

My eyes widened again. "Are these what I think they are?"

She nods. "finally made x-ray scanners small enough to fit into a lens."

I stop for a second. "How long will it take for you to install them?"

Rarity waves a hoof. "Not long. An hour at most. All I have to do is hook them to your coding systems."

I nod and wait patiently while I feel Rarity open the door on the back of my mane. I felt the flip of a switch and everything went black.

**********

"Sweetie Bot Powering On..."

I look around the room. Nothing seems any different. I definitely don't see any x-rays. I look behind me and see Rarity looking at me. I couldn't easily read her expression. I hate it when I can't tell exactly what ponies are feeling. I always end up saying the wrong thing. I clicked my command key. Run: "Data"

I look at Rarity's face. I see on the screen in front of me, "Sad but also a little proud."

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "What happened?"

Rarity put a hoof up reassuringly. "Don't worry. The upgrade went through fine. You should be able to create a code in your subspace to activate the lenses. It's actually a problem with this." She held out her hoof and I saw a small motherboard with a switch attached. I recognized it from almost two moons ago. It was the pony camouflage switch.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry Sweetie Bot. I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I remember struggling with it when I was first creating it. I could take a ton of moons for me to remember how to remake it perfectly."

I think for a second. I can't tell if I'm truly sad or if I was just kind of counting on having my fur back eventually. "You know what Rarity? I don't want it anyways."

Rarity looked confused. "What? Two moons ago you were practically begging for it. Now you don't want it?"

I shake my head. "Showing everypony that I'm a robot hasn't really been that bad. Button still likes me.." Rarity growled a little at the word Button which made me laugh a little. I don't know why, but she doesn't quite like Button. Probably because he's been getting me into video games lately. "Apple Bloom and Scootaloo still like me. The only ponies who don't are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. But they didn't like me to begin with."

I had kind of lied there. Diamond Tiara had actually been way worse than she was before. She had become a really nasty pony to me. She threw rocks and taunted me. I honestly didn't know how much more I could take.

Looking back, it turns out, not so much more...

**********

I was sitting in my bed that night. I decided it was time to figure out these x-ray lenses so I could show them to my friends in the morning. I clicked my button and entered the subspace.

Sweetie Bot! What are you doing up so late? You won't have any time to charge if you're here for too long!

Me: That's alright. Cloudsdale scheduled us for a really sunny day tomorrow. Whatever my battery can't hold, my solar panels can make up for it.

Makes sense. I'm glad you're finally figuring everything out about your new body.

Me: Believe me. I am too.

I walked over to my keyboard.

Run: "Free"

The usual quick flash of white, and I was back to coding. I took a couple coding classes this month so I would be even better and more precise with this. I haven't had to use the memory command for a while. Although I don't quite remember why I was using it. I guess that means it worked.

Command: |

Command: X-ray

Define: X-ray?

I noticed that I didn't quite know how to connect this to my new sensors. I think I could figure it out though. I waved my hoof and opened another screen. It was so cool how I could do that. I typed Show: "Recognized_Components" The screen loaded for a second and I saw the names given to all of my components. Thermal_Cams, Memory, Hard_drive... you get the point.

I saw a picture of the lenses with the title "Unnamed." I guess I have to name my own components now. I clicked on the name tag and typed "X_lenses"

I walked back over to my command screen. I reset the screen to start over.

Command: |

Command: X-on

Define?:

Define: X_lenses activate=true

Another prompt...

"This command will activate component "X_lenses" yes/no"

I clicked clicked yes and a download bar popped up. Another prompt popped up. "Activate command detected. Auto-write Deactivate command? yes/no"

Wow! My brain was writing code for itself!" yes.

I saw the code begin auto writing on a separate command screen.

Command: X-off

define: X_lenses activate=false

Another download bar. It seems to have just inverted everything I already typed. Man! Rarity really put a lot of work into building my processors! When both downloads had completed, I stepped over to the keyboard.

Me: Goodnight AI

Goodnight Sweetie Bot

Run: "EXIT"

**********

The next day... The day that I can never stop thinking about. Everyday that I'm out in this forest, I think about that day. You will all understand in a while. Let's continue with this bit of the story. The last bit that I would be happy.

The last bit where I would be safe at all...

**********

I got out of bed and walked over to my schoolbag. I picked it up and started dragging it down the steps. I threw it to the side when I got down the stairs and went into the kitchen to see Rarity cooking breakfast. I decided to test her limits a little bit and walked right past her towards the pantry. I reached up and grabbed the bottle of cider that she keeps in there. I walked back across the kitchen and poured a glass of it. Rarity finally looked over.

"Sweetie Bot! What do you think you're doing?"

I laughed as she continued to scold me. Finally she sighed, "Fine! You can have a little but just a little. I don't want you going to school drunk!"

I laughed again and drank the glass I had poured. By the time I was leaving for school, I had eaten and gotten my artificial mane brushed but I realized I never actually tried my x-ray vision. I figured it might make it hard to walk so I just decided to wait until my friends were at school to show them.

When we had all arrived, I made a big spectacle for them. "Rarity gave me the x-ray lenses. I think I coded it right so I should be able to use them." They watched as I pressed my command key. Run: "X-on" My vision wavered for a second and then I was seeing things in green and black. There were a few different colors marking where different things were. Nice touch Rarity. I thought.

"Did it work?" I heard Apple Bloom ask. I looked over and saw her heart beating along with all of her bones. I nodded and saw her and Scootaloo jump around celebrating. I pressed my key again Run: "x-off" My vision returned to normal.

"Wow!" Scootaloo said. "with a robot friend who's a total coding nerd, what else could we want?" I smiled and we jumped around. Suddenly, the entire mood changed.

I remembered a movie I watched with Rarity one time. Correction: I watched it. Rarity covered her eyes most of the time. It was a horror movie called "Final Destination." It was about a pony who had a premonition and messed up Death's design and he started hunting them down one by one. I remembered that there was always one thing that set the death scene in motion. The toilet leaking, the mug cracking, there was always something.

Sorry for getting off track, I haven't watched a movie in almost thirty moons. What I was trying to say, was that the chain of events was about to start with one action. In fact, what I didn't know, was that disaster would strike in about three seconds.

Three: A jealous pony watches me and my friends jumping from the side.

Two: She bends down and scoops up a rock.

One: The rock sails through the air in my direction.

Zero: The rock strikes the back of my head...

**********

My eyes flash red for a second. I turn around just in time for another rock to hit me directly in the eye. I see Diamond Tiara picking up another rock and winding up for another throw. I look over and see Miss Cheerilee talking to a bunch of parents. I guess I have to handle this myself.

I walk towards Diamond Tiara. I feel something in my brain snap. I'm done with this. "Sweetie Bot STOP!" I hear Apple Bloom yell.

As I walk I hear mutters of "Her eyes are red!" and "We better get inside."

Diamond and I start circling around like dogs about to fight. "Well well well..." She says. "Look at the all-powerful robot. Can't even stop a couple rocks." we continued circling until Diamond Tiara pounced on me. She began hitting me with her hoof in the face over and over. Ponies watched from the sidelines as one of my eyes cracked.

"You pissed me off one too many times!" Diamond yelled as she continued literally punching my lights out. "Had enough yet? Stay out of my way!"

I look at her face, fuming with anger. "Y-Y-

"What? Can't even speak now?"

"You're just jealous."

Diamond shrieked with rage and continued hitting me over and over. I began to feel my consciousness draining. I use my last bit of strength to push the enraged filly off of me. We both stand up, directly across from each other. I reach down towards my command key. "Sweetie Bot DON'T!" I hear Apple Bloom yell from behind me.

It's too late. When the keyboard pops up, I type...

Run: "Defense"

Just as I thought, my sides pop open. Two minigun looking blasters pop out of the compartments. They extend until they are full sized. They begin shooting towards Diamond Tiara.

My x-ray sensors blink on and off in my left eyes because of the impact Diamond Tiara had made. I see x-ray from one eye and normally from the other. While one eye saw blood, the other saw bones shattering under the impact of the bullets. Shot after shot, bullet after bullet. Cheerilee looked up from her conversation in horror.

My lack of sleep the night before caused me to lose power fast. My battery couldn't keep up with the sudden power surge. The guns slowed down and I collapsed to the ground. I looked over to see the dead pony in front of me. The strange thing was, I felt no regrets. Once again...

Everything went black

)To Be Continued...)

Author's Note

All inspiration for this story and Sweetie Bot's design go to this image and these songs. Give them a listen I know you'll love them

The Trial (Part 1)
View Online

Tales of a robot

The Trial (Part 1)

I woke up in a dark room. There was nopony anywhere. I didn't even know where I was. All I could feel was a mattress beneath myself. I pressed down on my command key and entered my subspace.

Me: AI Are you there?

Yes Sweetie Bot! What's wrong?

Me: Don't play dumb. You know what's wrong.

Sadly, I do not. When you ran out of battery, I could no longer function.

Me: Shit! How are we going to get out of this mess?

First of all, watch your language, second of all, I have no idea. Do you have any commands that might help?

Me: I downloaded them all. Remember?

Check your memory and see if there's anything that might help you figure out where we are.

I nodded and looked back to the keyboard. Run: "Mem"

A big screen popped up in front of me. I began searching through recent memory files. I began seeing multiple files pop up at once. It seems my AI is looking to.

Sweetie Bot! I think I found something!

Me: What is it?

On the screen in front of me, an image opened of the note that Rarity had stored in my right forehoof.

Me: What about it?

This note says "I can tell you the basics." Maybe there are more complicated commands or components that the note didn't specify!

Me: AI! You're a genius!

I am here to serve you.

Show: "Recognized_Components"

The usual screen popped up and I started scrolling through all of the components. Mostly hard drives and backups but I saw one component that caught my eye.

Me: Should I try using my thermal cams to see if anypony else is around?

I think that would be most wise.

Run: "EXIT"

**********

I tapped my command key Run: "Heat"

I instantly blinked as my camera turned blue. I didn't see much this way. I looked to my right and saw a big mass of red and orange. I walked over to it. I touched it with caution completely forgetting that I was made of metal and wouldn't feel it even if it were hot.

That's right. It wasn't hot. It was cold and most definitely was made of metal. Is this some sort of Pipe? Or boiler?

Maybe I'm in some sort of basement?

I hear a door open from above me. I rushed back to the bed and tucked myself in. Run: "Heat" My cams turned off and I closed my eyes.

I heard a voice that sounded like Rarity. "Oh Sweetie Bot. I never meant for anything like this to happen."

I opened my eyes and looked around. I still couldn't see Rarity but I definitely heard her. "R-Rarity?"

I almost heard her gasp of shock. "Sweetie Bot! Come with me!"

I felt a hoof take mine and it guided me up a set of stairs and opened a door. I saw a blinding flash of light as I saw that I was in the main room of the carousel boutique. I looked behind myself to see Rarity shutting the door. She then proceeded to push one of her oversize mirrors in front of it.

"What happened?"

Rarity looked at me, concerned. "Y-You don't remember?"

I shake my head and Rarity begins pacing around. "This is not good! Sweetie Bot! You killed Diamond Tiara!"

I smile. "Oh yeah! I definitely remember that part. Honestly, those were some great times. I mean, since when does this place have a basement. And how did I get down there?"

Rarity looked at me. She started saying, "Do you remember how I always tell you I was in a war?" I nod. "Well, this place used to be a hidden base for the resistance. The only pony who still knows about it is Applejack. I figured it would be the perfect place to hide you. Ponies are really scared Sweetie Bot. You have to stay here for a while. Ponies already stormed my boutique looking for you once. Who knows if they'll do it again?"

I nod slowly. "To be fair, she totally deserved it."

Rarity turned around. "That doesn't matter! You murdered a child Sweetie Bot! You should have told another mare! It's bad enough I had to waste materials replacing your eye. If this all blows over, you are no longer allowed to fight. Even if you were provoked."

"But Rarity, she was going to kill me!"

"She can't kill you Sweetie Bot! You aren't alive! As much as I wish you were, you aren't!" Rarity sighed and lowered her voice. "There's a trial tomorrow. You aren't going. I'm going to fight on your behalf. Don't even think about leaving. I have this entire house under lock-down. I also disabled your weapon system. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I gave it to you."

I sighed and looked down. "I-I-"

Rarity looked up. "What?"

"I'm sorry Rarity. I nev_r _eant Fo_ T_is To H_ppen."

Rarity threw her hooves in the air. "Great! You're still broken!" She softened her voice again. "Okay listen. I'm going to give you a few more upgrades. Just in case we lose the trial tomorrow. But for now, I'm shutting you down." I felt her reach her hoof around my mane and shut me off.

**********

This next part I don't tell you from experience. This part was told to me by Rarity. When she returned, she detailed the entire trial for me. I sometimes struggle to remember some details but I will tell you what I can.

**********

"All rise for the honorable Judge Water Lily!"

The judge stepped into the room and everypony proceeded to sit down. The judge then spoke, "We are here today regarding the unfortunate murder of Miss Diamond Tiara. While the perpetrator is not present herself, her... shall we say, creator is here on her behalf. Miss Rarity, do you have anything you wish to clarify to the court?"

"Yes you honor." Rarity stood. " I did not bring Sweetie Bot with me today. I believed it would cause to much distress to the court."

"And why is that?"

"Everypony seems to be a tad bit afraid of her at the moment."

"Well, in all honesty Miss Rarity, if I saw a pony draw two guns out of its side I probably would not want to be near it either."

"Hence, the reason I did not bring Sweetie Bot before the jury today."

The judge cleared her throat. "Miss Rarity, as it stands, many ponies are beginning to accuse you of this murder."

A look of shock made its way across Rarity's face. "Why me, your honor?"

"Is it not true that you were the creator of this, Sweetie Bot?"

Rarity put a hoof up. "While it is true that I created her, I programmed her with extremely powerful AI and many different data processors. By the time I was finished creating her, she more or less had free will."

"And why is it, Miss Rarity, that you felt it necessary to give a child a weapon system?"

"Well, your honor, I gave it to her for very extreme circumstances."

"Elaborate please?"

"I lived through the war, your honor. I know how dangerous things can get. I figured if something like that should happen again, Sweetie Bot should be able to defend herself. As it stands now, her weapons system has been disabled."

"If it was this easy to disable the weapon system, why not do it before?"

"There was no need. I would like to present something to the court."

Water Lily put her hoof forward. "By all means."

Rarity pulled out a mess of wires and a motherboard connected to a switch.

Water Lily was unimpressed. "What is this mess of trash?"

Rarity smiled. "This 'mess of garbage' as you have called it, is actually a key component in Sweetie Bot's childhood. This switch would activate her pony camouflage. It gave her realistic, elastic skin and fake fur. I had this switch activated for about 150 moons. She lived the first 150 moons of her life completely oblivious to the fact that she was a robot."

"What alerted her to this fact?"

"Well, it was my intention to never let her find out. I created her to be as perfectly lifelike as possible. But, she did figure this fact out when she attempted to go swimming at the beach a few moons ago."

"I see what you're saying Miss Rarity. But how can we be aware that this isn't just some sort of junk you found at a thrift shop. Is there any proof that this story is real?"

Rarity nodded. "I would like to call forward a witness."

Water Lily nodded. "Go ahead."

"I would like to call forward Apple Bloom."

**********

"Witness, please state your name and occupation please."

"Apple Bloom. I work at Sweet Apple Acres under the supervision of Applejack." Water Lilly nodded and Rarity began to question Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom, can you please tell us exactly what happened at the beach?"

Apple Bloom nodded and began. "Sweetie Bot, Scootaloo and I were at the beach celebrating Sweetie Bot's birthday. There was nopony else there. I actually found it a little strange but the beach is a little ways away from Ponyville so I can maybe see why. We were calling Sweetie Bot towards the water. She was nervous because she recalled a time when she was forty when she felt funny after getting in the water."

Water Lily put a hoof up to stop Apple Bloom. "You all didn't question why she remembered some random event from 110 moons ago?"

"Never crossed our minds, your honor. I remember breaking my right forehoof when I was around that age. I remember that it hurt pretty badly. Maybe the water hurt Sweetie so much that she couldn't forget it. Now I realize it was because she can't forget anything involuntarily."

Water Lily nodded. "Okay. Please continue with your testimony, witness."

Apple Bloom nodded and continued. "She began walking into the water. Nothing about her hooves or legs bothered her. I believe when we got back, Rarity mentioned that they were waterproofed when she was younger." Apple Bloom looked over to Rarity and Rarity nodded. "She reached her underbelly and sparks began shooting out of her body."

Water Lily held up another hoof. "Were you all in the water before this?"

"Me and Scootaloo were."

"Then why were you both not electrocuted?"

"Because most of the sparks shot out of her horn and the rest out of her back. neither of those were connected with the water. Before the rest of her body could short circuit, Scootaloo pulled me out of the water and flew towards the shore. When Sweetie Bot had gone dead, Scootaloo flew over to her and pulled her back to the shore."

"Then what?"

"We noticed her skin felt strange and so we started looking around her body. We noticed a door on her underbelly. After opening it, we noticed that our friend was a robot. After emptying her body of all of the water, we all walked back to Rarity's boutique to try to get some answers."

Rarity raised a hoof. "I can confirm that they did this."

Water Lily nodded. "Okay. Apple Bloom, unless there is more to your story, you may step down." Apple Bloom nodded and walked down from the stand. Water Lily looked back at Rarity. "So we've confirmed our story that Sweetie Bot and everypony else had no idea she was a robot until this moment. Now to my next question. How was this self-defense system activated?"

"Sweetie Bot has a command Key on the back of her hoof. She can press it to activate commands to show off her... abilities."

"Such as?"

"Thermal cameras, Data analysis, X-rays. Things like that."

"I see. All abilities to help the robot have an easier life."

Rarity nodded and continued. "One of these commands was called "Defense" This is the command that would activate her self defense systems. I am under the impression she used this command against Diamond Tiara. I did warn her not to use it lightly. I was aware of what the defenses were."

Water Lily looked confused. "You didn't feel the need to tell your artificial child that she had weapons hiding inside her?"

Rarity nodded, looking guilty. "I didn't want her to worry about it."

Water Lily nodded. "Was Sweetie Bot aggravated in a dangerous enough way to activate these defenses?"

"I believe she was. I would like to call another witness. I call Scootaloo to the stand."

**********

"Witness, please state your name and occupation."

"My name is Scootaloo. I do not work and live under the supervision of Rainbow Dash, who recently adopted me."

"Understood. Please go on with your testimony."

"O-Okay. Sweetie Bot had just been given x-ray vision by Rarity."

Water Lily immediately put up a hoof. She turned to Rarity. "This x-ray vision was a new addition?"

"Yes. She asked for it and I felt like I owed it to her for lying for so long."

"Do you know why she wanted it?"

Rarity shook her head. "I have no idea, your honor."

Scootaloo raised a hoof. "I can tell you!"

Water Lily Turned back. "Go on?"

"We had the idea of x-ray vision after seeing how she could run a data analysis."

"Okay? How did this turn into x-ray vision?"

"She ran an anlysis on me and noticed a 'red spot' on my wing. There was nothing there but her sensors were showing her that I was hurt. We thought that if she could already see that I was hurt, she would be able to save us a lot of trips to the hospital if she could x-ray us to see if we had broken bones."

"Exactly how many trips to the x-ray room have you made?"

"Too many to count. The number has only gone up over the past few years. We run a group called The Cutie Mark Crusader and we help ponies try things we think they would like to help them find their special talents. We do some... ahem... pretty dangerous things."

"I see. Thank you for clarifying. Please continue with the original testimony."

"Yes, your honor. She had just showed us her x-ray vision and we were so excited we began jumping up and down. We then saw Sweetie's eyes go red as Diamond Tiara began throwing rocks at her."

"OBJECTION!"

This was the first time the prosecution had actually spoken throughout the entire trial. They said it was some sort of tactic to let the judge question and for them to sit around gathering as much information as possible. I don't quite understand it but I guess it makes a little sense.

The prosecution was Diamond Tiara's mother. She continued, "My daughter would never do something like that. Miss Cheerilee can tell you that she was a perfect student."

"OBJECTION!" Rairty yelled back. "Actually, Sweetie Bot told me a story a little while back that your daughter did in fact get detention for bullying. Looking back through school records would tell you the exact same thing."

Water Lily rolled her eyes. "We can get to that all in a little bit. Witness, please continue your testimony."

"Sweetie Bot walked over to Diamond Tiara and they began circling each other and Diamond Tiara was taunting Sweetie. Diamond then pounced on Sweetie and knocked her over."

"OBJECTION! My daughter would never do something like that either!"

Water Lily smacked her gavel against her table. "I would like to request that the prosecution keep personal bias out of the court. Whether this story is or is not true, we will prove that in a little bit. First we will finish with the testimony."

Diamond Tiara's mom sank back in her chair a little bit and Scootaloo continued. "It was completely out of nowhere. Diamond began beating the shit out of Sweetie Bot."

"OBJECTION! Your honor! The witness should not be allowed to use language like this."

Water Lily nodded. "Miss Scootaloo. Please refrain from using such vulgar language."

Scootaloo looked down. "I apologize, your honor. I got a little carried away. Anyways, She stopped for a second and Sweetie Bot said something I couldn't hear from how far away I was. I saw some more punches get thrown and I heard glass shattering. Sweetie Bot threw Diamond off of her and stood up. When she looked over to me, one of her eyes had been broken and the sensors underneath were looking around wildly. I then heard her sides open and watched the guns come out. As much as I hate to say it, Sweetie Bot did shoot the victim. Her battery died soon after that. Before the riots could start, I picked her up and flew her to Carousel Boutique where Rarity took her in."

"I see. Is that all?"

"I do wonder," Scootaloo started saying while tuning to Rarity. "How did her battery die? She was supposed to have about 36 hours and even after a power surge like that, she should have had plenty of battery."

"I know. That fact has been troubling me too." Rarity said.

The prosecution stood up again. "I still maintain that my daughter would not do anything like this! I want proof."

The judge stood. "We will delay the proceedings of this court for another day. Miss Rarity, please gather evidence that the victim has a record of being a bully and that Sweetie Bot did not in fact know of this weapon system."

"Yes ma'am."

Diamond's mother was fuming. She was clearly hoping for justice to be served today. The judge raised her gavel and said,

"Court adjourned."

(To Be Continued...)

Author's Note

I took a lot of inspiration from the way court proceeds in ace attorney for this chapter as a little reference to elements of justice. I hope you enjoyed.

The Trial (Part 2)
View Online

Tales of a robot

The Trial (Part 2)

"Court is now back in session. Miss Rarity, I assume you have gathered sufficient evidence?"

Diamond's mom scoffed. "No she didn't. My daughter was an angel."

"Yes your honor." Rarity said completely ignoring the prosecution.

"Alright then, please present."

"I would like to call a witness to the stand. Miss Cheerilee!"

**********

"Witness, please state your name and occupation."

"Cheerilee. I am a teacher at the Ponyville Schoolhouse. For the past 80 moons, I have taught Sweetie Bot and Diamond Tiara."

"Please testify."

Cheerilee nodded. "Over the time I have spent teaching DIamond Tiara, she has been a bad pony. She especially set her sights on Sweetie Bot, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo." Cheerilee reached into her bag. "I would like to present this as evidence."

"By all means, go ahead."

"These are school records recording multiple counts of bullying from this filly. While, there are a ton of these from her entire time at my schoolhouse, these past few moons have almost matched it. You can see that some more notable instances were as follows:

Calling classmates "Blank Flank" (Specifically CMC)
Taunting Classmate Scootaloo about disability
Bullying classmates.
Calling Sweetie Bot names (Freak, Nerd, etc.)
Throwing rocks at Sweetie Bot (Multiple occasions.)

Water Lily examined the paper. "What is this disability that Miss Scootaloo was taunted about?"

Cheerilee looked down. "When Miss Scootaloo was younger, she had considerable difficulty flying. Diamond Tiara would make fun of her on multiple occasions calling her names like "Chicken." These are official records that were stamped by our principal. I bring them forth with full confidence under the understanding that faking documents such as these is a crime."

Rarity laughed a little. "Wow Cheerlee! You're very well prepared!"

Cheerilee gave a small bow. Water Lily then spoke, "Thank you Miss Cheerilee. If that is it, you may step down." After Cheerilee had stepped down, the judge continued. "These are in fact official documents. Does the defense have anything else they wish to present?"

Rarity nods. "I wish to call forth another witness. I would like to call forth Miss Silver Spoon.

**********

"Witness, name and occupation?"

"Silver Spoon. I don't work. I live under the supervision of my parents."

"Please testify."

"I was friends with Diamond Tiara for a time. I remember a lot of bad things and not many good things. She was very controlling and very manipulative. She took a lot of that from her mother, Spoiled Rich." After a small yell from the prosecution stand, Silver continued. "I was standing with Diamond Tiara and I remember she said she was going to throw a rock at the freak. That was a quote. I was standing close enough to the fight to hear the words Scootaloo missed. Diamond Tiara asked if Sweetie Bot had enough. Sweetie Bot told Diamond that she was just jealous. This resulted in the breaking of the eye and the eventual murder."

"Thank you, witness. Anything else Defense?"

"Actually I have something that will confirm that Diamond Tiara started the fight and That Sweetie Bot had no knowledge of the nature of her self defense system."

"By all means Miss Rarity. If you have such deciding evidence, please bring it forward."

Rarity turned around and went into the back room. She came out pulling a pony behind her. The pony seemed to drag on the ground. "I present the accused herself, your honor!" There were gasps and some whimpers from the crowd. "Don't worry everypony!" Rarity flipped Sweetie's eyelid open, revealing a gray eye without any glow. "She's powered off."

"Defense! What is the meaning of this! If she is powered off, how will this help us?'

"We can access her memory files and show things off. Does this court have a projector of some kind?"

"I believe we have one in the back."

"Can somepony please bring that out?"

Rarity withdrew a usb cord from her stand and set Sweetie Bot up on a pedestal in the middle of the court room, facing a black wall. Rarity reached behind Sweeite's mane and flipped the switch.

"Sweeite Bot Powering On... Rarity! Where are we? Did we win the trial?" Rarity proceeded to ignore the question and looked at the top of the filly's mane. She flipped open another door and plugged in the usb. "Neutral Mode Activated..."

Sweetie bot's eyes turned from green to blue and began projecting an image on the wall. It was a blank screen with a cursor. Water Lily was getting impatient. "How does this prove anything!"

"Give me a second!" Rarity pulled out a keyboard and plugged it into the usb port adjacent to the one already in use. She began to type.

Run: "mem"

Hundreds of thousands of files popped up. Water Lily looked confused. "How are we going to find anything in this mess?"

"Easy." Rarity pressed ctrl + F and a search bar popped up. She typed in "Diamond_Tiara_Fight"

She began playing a video file that popped up. It was dated the same day as the murder. The video depicted everything that the witnesses had stated. Including the exact words Silver Spoon had quoted. It was all from Sweetie Belle's point of view. Water Lily gestured for the video to be shut off as she continued, "Okay. I think we have sufficiently proven that the fight was provoked. The defense may be able to plead justified self defense if you can prove that she had no knowledge of the defense system beforehand.

Rarity nodded. "Yes ma'am." She brought up more memory files. "As you can see, she had multiple conversations with her mental AI regarding this topic. Every time she brought it up, her AI did not know what she was talking about. I had her memory cleared of everything that might tell her she was a robot. Here is something else." She pulled up a video. "As you can see in this video, she asked me about her defense. I refused to answer her."

Water Lily looked again at the video. "Her sensors seem a little off. Is there any reason for that?"

Rarity laughed. "Oh! No reason!" She remembered giving Sweetie Alcohol that night. She had no idea if you were allowed to feed a robot alcohol. "She must have still been a little broken from the water."

The judge smiled. "I do believe we have reached a verdict. Unless there is anypony else who wishes to say something. Rarity looked over to spoiled. She said nothing. "Alright. Here is my decision. This murder has been declared an accident. The murderer had no knowledge of her own self defense and therefore, unknowingly killed Miss Tiara. However, this was still a reckless act. Rarity will be given a choice." She turned to Rarity. "Miss Rarity, seeing as you were the creator of Sweetie Bot, you may take responsibility for Sweetie Bot's actions. If you do, you will destroy her to ensure that nothing else of this nature will happen. Or, you can let Sweetie Bot take responsibility for her actions. Seeing as the murder was accidental, she will not be banished to the moon. She will, however, be exiled from Ponyville and all other major pony cities."

Rarity stopped and thought. She looked up to the judge. "I've made my decision your honor."

**********

"Rarity! I don't want to leave."

Rairty was packing a bag full of all my things while she responded, "I'm sorry Sweetie Bot. I have no other choice. If you don't leave, I will be forced to destroy you. This was the only way you can stay alive."

My senses are flooded with uncertainty. "Alive?" I look down. "But I'm not alive. You said so yourself."

Rarity sighed. "I said some things I didn't mean, Sweetie."

I shake my head. "But you did mean it! You were right!" I threw one of my hooves in the air. "Maybe you should just break me now and let go!"

"Don't talk like that!"

"Maybe I want to die! Maybe there's nothing left of my life if I have to leave Ponyville! Maybe I really am just a useless hunk of metal! Tell me, Rarity. Is there anything in my head that wasn't programmed? Am I even angry at all? Or was I just programmed to be! Face it! If I'm not living in Ponyville, There's no reason for me to live."

"That's not true Sweetie Bot!"

"Where am I even going to live! I can't move to Canterlot! Or the Crystal Empire!"

"You're going to find a place somewhere. I know you will."

I stomped one of my hooves on the floor. "Why did you have to give me those guns to begin with? It could have been a shield or a small taser. But bucking guns Rarity? What in Equestria were you thinking?"

Rarity looked down. "I guess I wasn't"

"And now I have to suffer for your actions."

"Now hold on a moment Sweetie! I never activated your weapons! You did that all on your own!"

"You didn't tell me I would kill somepony!"

Rarity was beginning to get more and more angry. "Listen Sweetie Bot! I protected you for years. I gave you food, and shelter. I do not deserve to be treated like this."

I grabbed the bag and stomped towards the door. "Goodbye Rarity. Thanks for ruining my life."

I stomped out the door and began heading towards Fluttershy's cottage. The mechanical whirring in my head was louder than it had ever been. Fluttershy was one of my best friends. Outside of the crusaders of course. I looked towards her cottage. Run: "X-on" I could see Fluttershy in her cottage. She was tending to her animals. She looked busy. Run: "X-off"

I wanted to go up to the door. I wanted to at least say goodbye to somepony. Applejack and Rainbow Dash told Apple Bloom and Scootaloo not to go anywhere near me after the incident. I huffed and walked past Fluttershy's cottage towards the entrance of the Everfree Forest.

My last hope I thought as I walked inside.

(To Be Continued...)

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. Hopefully this should be the last confusing chapter. This story has a lot of technical details. It is about a robot after all. I hope you all don't call it quits on the story just yet. It's about to get spicy :)

Catching Up
View Online

Tales of a robot

Catching Up

I sigh as I walk into the Everfree Forest. My head hangs low as I walk through. The world around me begins to get darker as the trees begin getting thicker and thicker, blocking out the sun. Eventually, I see one more house. More of a shack really. Zecora's house. I thought as I knocked a hoof on the door.

No answer. I knock again. I look to my side and see a note taped to the window. I walk over and it says.

I moved back to my old village for a while.
Please don't enter my house while I'm gone.

P.S. Apple Bloom, feel free to enter. You
have my key. You are always welcome.

-Zecora

I walk over to the door and pull on the handle. It's locked and won't budge. In anger, I throw a rock on the ground. I walk deeper and deeper into the forest. I begin feeling a sense of dread as I walk through the forest. I knew what kinds of things live in here. It's a really dangerous place especially for a filly like me.

I eventually begin to walk off of the path. I wasn't going to find anything useful if I just stayed on the path. A lot of ponies used the Everfree Forest path as a shortcut to Las Pegasus. Assuming they had to go there by hoof. After a while of walking, I began to feel nervous.

It began to rain. Pretty Heavily I might add. I knew my waterproofing could protect against rain. But I didn't know if rain this heavy could break through it. After a couple more minutes, I found a cave off to the side. I ran inside. Run: "Heat"

After looking around with my thermal cameras and noticing there was nothing inside, I turned off my cameras and turned to my bag. I opened it up to see what Rarity had packed for me. Lots of water and food. There was also a really nice sleeping bag in there. Along with a really old picture of me and my friends as fillies next to Rarity. At the bottom of the bag, I smiled as I saw two bottles of apple cider. Rarity sure knows how to pack.

At the very bottom, I saw a small note. It was folded up very similar to the one I found in my front leg a few moons ago. I unfolded it and began to read.

Dearest Sweetie Bot,
If you're reading this, then things didn't quite
go how we wanted them to. I told you that I
was going to give you a few more upgrades
just in case. Before I tell you what I've given
you, please allow me to say a few more things.

I never meant for anything like this to happen.
I gave you your weapon system to make sure
you could defend yourself under extreme
circumstances. I know that I should have
told you what would happen. I take full
responsibility for what happened. That being
said, what you did was dangerous and
immature. I will continue to fight for you and for
your return to Ponyville. if you return, your
weapon system will be extracted.

I have left your system intact. I'm aware that you
might have need of them. Please don't use them
recklessly.

Finally, let me tell you about your new commands
and upgrades.

Run: "mag"
This command will activate the magnets I have
put into your hooves. While I don't know the use
of this, I think you'll find one.

Run: "Shield"
After your incident, I realized you needed a way
to defend yourself without murdering anypony.
This command will cause a shield to come out of
your horn. This shield is transparent and incredibly
sturdy. It will go in front of your face and will protect
you.

Run: "Mail"
You can send me messages. I have a receiver that is
connected to you so I will be able to message you
back.

Finally, there is one more command I want you to be
aware of.

Run: "Run"

The name is confusing, I know. I must tell you what
this one will do for you. This will override any free will
your body has.This sounds bad but let me explain. This
is another command to use under extreme danger. Your
sensors will guide you and your legs and you will run
away until you are completely out of danger. Think of
It like a "Flee" Button in those weird games you and
Button used to play.

I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I
acted very irresponsibly as your guardian but I think
you'll be okay.

Your loving sister,

Rarity.

(P.S. Check the side pocket of this bag. I hid some more
things for you."

I laughed a little as I walked around to the side of the bag and opened it. Inside, I found a tool kit. My eyes opened wide as I saw something that made my eyes light up. My joyboy! It was a gift from Button Mash. I laughed as I saw she had also packed my case full of games! Super Mare-io land! Pocket Monsters Blue, Red, and Yellow! The Legend of Delta: Jet stream's Awakening! Tetris!

The charger was wrapped up in another note.

There's a USB on the very top of your head
if you want to charge this. I don't understand
what you see in these games but have fun!

As much as I wanted to fire up the joyboy and play for hours, I had work to do. Sighing, I turned around and began to survey my surroundings more. The cave was small but I was the only pony inside it. Looking over to the mouth of the cave, there was water leaking in from the rain outside. I ran outside quickly and grabbed as many leaves as I could.

Rarity had taught me how to weave baskets for the winter wrap up. I figured I could do something similar to make a big makeshift door. I got to work. I found that I could run a data analysis on the knots to make sure they were as sturdy as possible. I put the thicker leaves around the edges and then put it against the mouth of the cave.

A perfect fit!

I walked outside to get some small sticks. I found four and pushed them through two knots in the bottom corners. I climbed to the top of my cave and hooked the other edges under some rocks I found. I had woven a small door in the wall I had made and, to my surprise, it was super functional.

I walked back inside, completely drenched. Luckily, it seemed my waterproofing was holding up incredibly well. I looked back towards the joyboy. I still wanted to play that thing so badly. I decided against it however and pressed and held my command key.

Me: AI?

Yes Sweetie Bot.

Me: Are we going to be okay?

I think we will. Tell me though, did you mean what you said earlier? Do you really think you would have been better off getting destroyed.

I sigh.

Me: I don't know. I still need to get used to never seeing anypony ever again. But for now, I need to download a few new commands.

Good luck Sweetie Bot!

Run: "mag"
Run: "shield"
Run: "Mail"
Run: "Run"

All four download bars began filling up and then they finished. I continued typing. Run: "Free"

Command: |

Command: Threat

Define: Threat?

Threat=Deploy(Component:Defense)

Threat= Guns deploy but do not shoot? yes/no

I click yes and it begins to download. I figured I could use it in case I ran into timberwolves or something along those lines.

Run: "EXIT"

**********

Over the next few moons, I began to adjust to my new lifestyle. I did have a few timberwolf encounters but I used my "Threat" Command and it worked like a charm. I continued to grow as well. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about Apple Bloom. Or Scootaloo. I still hadn't brought myself to message Rarity. I wasn't sure whether to be mad or forgiving with her. I wished she would give the receiver to Button. I want to talk to him just one more time.

I was enjoying being free for once though. No school or chores. No responsibility. In fact, I sat around most days playing my joyboy.

After almost eight moons, it was finally my 160th birthday. I decided I would do something special. I would go back to Ponyville. Not publicly of course. I would sneak into town and maybe get myself a gift of some sort. I looked over to my apple cider. I had decided to save it for a special occasion so it sat untouched.

As the sun was going down, I grabbed my saddlebag, left my cave, and began walking back towards Ponyville.

**********

As I approached the town, I didn't really see many ponies outside. In fact, I didn't see anypony. However, I did remember needing to duck off of the path near the nightmare night statue. I saw some green pegasus with a red mane walking by. I might have been crazy from living in the woods, but I thought I saw princess Luna walking with him. I shook the image out of my mind as I set my sights on the place across from the rest of the town.

Sweet Apple Acres.

I snuck through the shadows. There may not have been anypony outside but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be able to look out their windows and see me. When I reached the orchard, I made my way towards the barn. I knew the apples kept their cider in here and I took a few bottles.

I sat in the barn for a little bit, contemplating my next move. I decided to sneak towards the game store. I knew that a new game was coming out. The legend of Delta: Tears of the Junkyard. I began to sneak towards there. I remember Button telling me about a secret entrance in the back where the owner let him sneak in to play the arcade machines whenever he wanted.

I snuck around to the back and sure enough, there was a small hole in the wall leading to a small tunnel. I crawled through it and emerged in the game store. I looked around the game store until I found what I was looking for. The game! I put a copy into my saddlebag and began to walk towards the tunnel again. I stopped as I saw a light coming from the back room.

I was curious. Have you ever heard the term, "Curiosity killed the cat?" Well curiosity could very well be a problem for me as I began to walk towards the light in the back room.

When I opened the door, I was shocked to see a small brown earth pony sitting on a stool near an arcade machine. As I opened the door, he jumped, causing the propeller hat he was wearing to fall off of his head. "S-S-Sweetie Belle?"

I smiled. As more ponies were beginning to call me Sweetie Bot, he was the only one who still kept my name. I look at him happy and nod. He looks at me and frowns. I click my command key. Run: "Data"

This pony seems to be, distressed, concerned, happy, and also very afraid.

My smile falls as I look at Button closer. "You're afraid of me?" I asked, hurt.

He looks down and says, "Well, there's never any telling what you'll do."

"Button! The judge went over this. It wasn't my fault! I didn't know what would happen!"

"That doesn't mean something like that couldn't happen again."

I needed to change tactics. If I was going to get through to him. I needed something to remind him of the good old days. I did of course, know one thing that could take his mind off of anything. I gestured over to the Nintendo 64 in the corner. I levitated over one of the boxes beside it that read, "Fighting Is Magic"

"One game?"

Button looked hesitant at first but after a second, he slowly nodded. He walked over and picked up two controllers. He plugged them into their respective ports and started the game. As usual, I was horrible at the game compared to him. But he was in my trap now. He kept insisting on one more game. Looking back now, I think a big part of him was happy I was back. Eventually, he had no choice but to talk to me.

"So how have you been?"

"Fine. How about you? Where have you been these past few moons?"

I sighed. "Living in a cave in the Everfree Forest."

Button laughed. "Good thing we played so much Minecraft when we were younger."

"It's not as easy as it is in the game. I can tell you that much."

"GAME!" The sound from the tv almost made me jump out of my seat. Even though I expected it. Button turned to me.

"You know Sweetie Belle, I don't think I was really afraid of you."

"Oh?"

"I think I was just afraid to talk to you again. It's been eight moons and you haven't sent me as much as an e-mail."

"Right! Because I totally have a computer in a cave."

Button looked through my bag. "I heard you rummaging around out there. What were you looking for?"

"Well, since it's my birthday, I thought I would grab myself a gift."

He pulled out the new Legend of Delta game. "Did you pay for this?" As I shook my head, he laughed. "Now that's the Sweetie Belle I know and love. I swear! Nothing will get between you and this game series will it?"

I laugh and shake my head. My processors were still turning one word over in my head. He said, love. I was unsure why, but I could still feel feelings for him. But, was I really feeling?

Before I had any time to react, Button leaned over and kissed me. It felt strange feeling the fur against my metal skin. But it also felt a little natural. Like it was still meant to happen. He pulled back and his face turned red. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

I laughed. My eyes lowered a little. "That's alright Button. I'm okay with it."

I pulled him back in and we kissed again. Eventually, he said, "Is this wrong? I'm making out with a robot!"

I laughed. "You heard Rarity, I'm basically lifelike." The passion I once felt for him came flooding back into my head as I said, "You know, I'm 160 now. Do you wanna-"

He cut me off. "Okay! I'm sorry but I'm definitely not doing that With a robot. I'm really sorry. That would just be too weird."

I close my eyes. I was a little bit sad about getting turned down but I definitely saw where he was coming from. I looked over to the clock on the wall. 4:00. It would be daytime soon. "I'm sorry Button. I have to go."

"Wait! When can I see you again."

I turn back. "I don't know if you ever will. It was reckless of me to come back here. Goodbye Button."

I crawled through the tunnel and began walking towards the forest.

**********

I entered my cave as the sun was rising. I opened my left saddlebag and put the contents on the floor. I had taken exactly four bottles of apple cider and added them to my little box at the side of my cave. I also took out my new game. I levitated my tool kit towards myself. I know these screwdrivers are for repairing myself if necessary, but they were also good for opening stubborn plastic packaging.

A look of confusion spread across my face as I looked at the contents of the box. There was, of course, the game manual. But there was also the cartridge. It looked just like my normal joyboys cartridges but it was shorter. I tried and tried to fit the cartridge into my joyboy but it wasn't doing anything. Frustrated, I walked over to my apple cider. I finally opened one of the older bottles and began to drink some of it.

I kicked my saddlebag in frustration. I was confused when the right saddlebag dragged on the floor a little. I didn't remember putting anything in it. I walked over and opened it. There were video games in it. I don't remember stealing all of these, I thought. I sifted through a lot of them. Super Mare-io Odyssey, Super Mare-io kart, The legend of Delta, Skyward Sword HD. There were a ton of games in there. All of them looked brand new. Five big games that also caught my eye were, Super mare-io Advance 1-4 and The legend of Delta: Breath of Fresh Air. I laughed as I began to open all of the games.

I growled in frustration as I saw that they were all shaped just like the other cartridge. None of them would be able to fit in my joyboy. I pulled all of the game out of the bag and saw one more box. It was bigger than the rest of the games. It was a little heavier too. I read the words on the box. "Joyboy Advance."

I saw a small note attached to the box that said, "To Sweetie Belle"

Button, I thought as I smiled.

I unfolded the note and began to read,

Dearest, Sweetie Belle,

You might need this. Don't worry! I paid for the joyboy
and the games. I miss you! I hope you decide to come
back when you're 170!

(P.S) I still love you.

I gasped as I read the last line of the note. I smiled and could feel myself getting a little woozy from his words. One thought would always remain in my head though. I don't really feel anything.

I decided to ignore my thoughts for the time being and I opened the joyboy. As I thought, the cartridge slot could fit my new games. I smiled as I played it through the night.

***********

Things do seem to be going nicely don't they? Things would keep going like this for about twenty more moons. I would relax in my cave and only go out to find water or food. Neither were ever really hard to find. The Everfree Forest was packed with exotic types of berries.

At this point, I've told you most of my backstory. There is but one part I haven't explained.

The part where everything goes wrong...

(To Be Continued...)

Author's Note

Fun fact: Pokemon stands for pocket monsters. Hence the reference in this chapter.

Yes, I'm aware that "tears of the kingdom" is a switch game but seeing as joyboys are already a thing, I figured a joyboy advance would make more sense.

And yes. I referenced "The Alicorn Prince" In this chapter. Sue me!

Ps. I love hearing from you all! If you liked it, leave a comment :)

The Part Where Everything Goes Wrong
View Online

Tales of a robot

The Part Where Everything Goes Wrong

(Twenty Moons Later...)

It was my 180th birthday. I was a fully grown mare now. I was sitting in my cave playing my joyboy advance. Even after twenty moons, I still hadn't 100 percented all of the games. I had to though. Not just because I was bored but because I know Button would be proud.

I hadn't gone back to Ponyville since my 160th birthday. I was cutting it too close the last time. I still missed Button a lot. But I couldn't risk going back to see him. I looked over to my stash of apple cider. I was drinking it in small amounts over the moons.

Maybe that's what I should do tonight, I thought, thinking about how it might be fun to get drunk.

I had definitely seen a small change in my behavior over the past few moons. I noticed myself singing a lot more often. Back when I was living in Ponyville, I never realized how much my sanity relied on the voices of ponies. If I had to stay here with just my thoughts, I would definitely end up going nuts.

I also talked to my AI a lot. It was a great friend and companion. At least there was somepony to talk to.

I walked over towards the alcohol sitting in the corner. The cider was honestly one of the best drinks I had ever had. I understood why even non-alcoholic mares in Ponyville at least drank a little every moon. Even if not for the alcohol, the taste alone would keep you coming back. I remembered Apple Bloom telling me that the cider was made with only the best apples they could find in their orchard. That might be why it has such a limited stock each year. Of course, they always made sure to keep enough for themselves.

I debated whether or not to go back to Ponyville soon for more cider. It did get tiring drinking only water all the time. I needed something to help my taste buds not go dead. Between all the water I had to drink and all the grass I had to eat, I was beginning to forget what flavor was like.

What I wanna know is how Rarity programmed taste. I wonder why she settled on fashion. She has some serious computer skills.

I opened the last two bottles and proceeded to drink them both dry. Afterwards, I sat, content, leaning against the wall of my cave. I could feel my sensors going super fuzzy and I realized that I had better not try to leave the cave again tonight. I did need food but at least there was a big field of grass right outside my cave. I just had to walk for like five minutes.

I stood up slowly and began stumbling around. This could be problematic. I thought as I continued walking towards the door. At the very least, I could see. The cider didn't have a super high alcohol content, but drinking enough of it would still leave you plenty drunk. I was still a little dizzy though.

I laughed as I fell against the door and opened it with one hoof. I walked towards my field of grass and took a few bites. Bland as ever. I sighed and began half-walking, half-stumbling towards the cave again. I noticed a horrible smell as I drew closer to the cave.

I turned a corner to find myself face to face with three timberwolves. I gasped and clicked my command key quickly. Run: "Threat"

My guns popped out and began revving up. The timberwolves continued to growl and got ready to pounce. Usually, the threatening worked. But this time, the timberwolves weren't backing down. I clicked my command key once more.

Looking back, I realize that any sober pony would have used the shield. Too bad my brain was too messed up to think of anything other than the same exact thing that had gotten me into this situation. Run: "defense"

The guns began to shoot rapidly, not just destroying the timberwolves but completely decimating them. There was no way they would be able to put themselves back together after this one.

After the power surge, I felt incredibly drained. I changed courses and walked towards the river. I took a long drink. I had to make sure I could fully replenish my energy tonight. I walked back to my cave and picked up the joyboy. I thought nothing of what I had just done for a couple of hours.

Later on, I heard an ear splitting ding sound. My sensors clouded a little and a picture of an envelope appeared in front of my eyes. No matter what I did, I couldn't make it go away. I turned on my keyboard and clicked on it. It said,

Email!
From: Rarity
To: Sweetie_Bot

Sweetie Bot,
you really bucked up now...

**********

It is here that the perspective of this story switches for a little bit. These were things I did not know were happening at the time of the timberwolf incident. Eventually, I will come to learn of these events. This is how they were told to me...

(Ponyville... Sweetie Bot's 180th birthday... Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse...)

Two mares sat in the clubhouse. Neither of them were speaking. Scootaloo was writing something down on a piece of paper and Apple Bloom was staring out the window. Since Sweetie Bot's disappearance, they had retired from crusading. It wasn't quite the same without Sweetie there. They had become private investigators. One thing was for sure, they were really good at spying on other ponies. Finally, Apple Bloom spoke.

"It's her birthday today." Scootaloo nodded but continued to stay silent. Apple Bloom continued. "I really miss her. I wish we could go see her." Scootaloo nodded and Apple Bloom threw her hooves in the air. "For Celestia's sake Scootaloo say something!"

"What do you want me to say? I don't like thinking about her. It makes me feel guilty."

"Why would you feel guilty?"

"Because, Apple Bloom! There were things we could've done! We shouldn't have let her go into that fight!"

"We need to leave the past in the past Scoots. Maybe we could sneak out and go see her?"

"There's no way I'm risking that. You heard what Mayor Mare said. The Everfree Forest is now off-limits. Anypony found in there will be banished from Ponyville and forced to live out there."

Apple Bloom sighed and looked down. "I know." She stamped a hoof. "It's an over exaggeration if you ask me! She's just trying to protect her office. Selfish bi-"

Scootaloo clapped a hoof to Apple Bloom's mouth. "Watch your language. What do you mean by protecting her office?"

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "You never were good at politics. If another pony dies to the same problem as before, people are going to start thinking that she isn't doing enough to protect her citizens. Clearly, she's prohibiting the Forest so that there's no chance of that."

Suddenly, both ponies jumped as they heard a familiar sound coming from the forest.

The sound of gunshots rang out across Ponyville. Out in the streets, parents hugged their foals close to them. Everypony stood still in fright.

Rarity, in her boutique, heard the sounds and rushed to get her receiver. She knew exactly what the gunshots were from. Meanwhile, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were huddling on the ground of the clubhouse covering their ears. Apple Bloom looked over to the wall. She too, owned a couple guns. Along with Scootaloo. They had been trained to use them in case they came in contact with anything dangerous. Luckily, they had almost never left that shelf.

In the chaos to get down on the ground, Scootaloo had accidentally bumped into the wall, shaking one of the guns to the edge of its rack. The balance shifted and the gun fell. Somehow, on impact, the gun fired a single shot which broke through one of the walls. Apple Bloom yelled at Scootaloo, "What the buck Scootaloo? I told you to keep the safety on those!"

"Sorry!"

Finally, after three minutes, the sound stopped. Ponies everywhere were relieved as they let go of their foals. Mayor mare ran up to the town hall and began ringing the bell. That bell meant that there was a town meeting that night. Apple Bloom sighed as she realized she wasn't going to have the night off after all.

**********

(That night...)

"As I'm sure everypony knows, there were sounds of gunshots coming from the Everfree Forest today. Do not be afraid! We do not believe Sweetie Bot is behind this. Rarity," She turned towards the white unicorn. "You did disable her weapons system, Correct?'

Rarity nodded. "Y-Yeah I did."

Mayor Mare either didn't notice the stuttering in her voice, or she didn't care because she went on. "This is however a matter of public safety. We need to find out what's causing this disturbance and put an end to it." She turned to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "Miss Apple Bloom. Miss Scootaloo."

"Yes ma'am?" The two said at almost the exact same time.

"As Ponyville's best investigators, I would like to request that you would venture into the Everfree and find out what is causing this."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded and began to walk towards the door. Mayor Mare called out one more thing.

"Make sure you're heavily armed!"

**********

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were sitting in the clubhouse again, packing their saddlebags full of snacks, water, and of course, weapons. Apple Bloom was fastening a band to her front left hoof that was the same color as her coat. Inside, it held a knife. It was a concealed weapon in case she was pinned down.

As Scootaloo was fastening the same accessory, Apple Bloom spoke. "Do you think it could be her?"

Scootaloo, without looking away from the band she was struggling with, said, "No. You heard Rarity, her system was deactivated."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No. I don't believe Rarity. Celestia knows she's lied plenty of times before."

"Touche."

"If it is her, what will we do?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to kill her then." Scootaloo growled in frustration as she continued to struggle with the band. "Stupid piece of shit!" She yelled, throwing it to the ground. The compartment opened and the knife clattered to the ground.

Apple Bloom stared at the knife and said, "We can't kill her. She didn't do anything."

Scootaloo shook her head. "I know. But it's our job."

Apple Bloom. "Buck this job! If we find her, we're going to leave her alone!"

They sat in silence for a while until Apple Bloom asked softly, "When did you stop caring?"

Scootaloo was taken aback by the question. "What do you mean?"

"When you said we would have to kill Sweetie Bot, you sounded so casual. Like it was just another job. When did you stop caring about her? What about her feelings?"

"What feelings? She's a robot. She doesn't have any feelings."

Apple Bloom gasped and smacked Scootaloo hard with her hoof. "Don't ever say that again. As far as I'm concerned, she was a real pony. If you want to act tough, then fine. But I know that the thought of killing your friend is tearing you up inside."

Scootaloo went silent once more. She turned away from Apple Bloom. A small tear ran down her cheek. As for Apple Bloom, it was more than one tear. Scootaloo could hear her crying softly. "Apple Bloom. I'm sorry." She attempted to put a comforting hoof around her friend's shoulder but it was smacked away.

Apple Bloom wiped her eyes on her foreleg. "We leave in the morning." She said as she walked out of the clubhouse.

**********

(The next day)

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked through the forest. They were laughing and telling jokes as if the night before had never happened. Apple bloom suddenly put a hoof up as she saw something. She led Scootaloo over to a shiny spot on the ground. Apple Bloom held up a small object.

A bullet.

They found more and more around there and eventually, they came to the pile of wood that used to be three timberwolves. The grass around the area was flattened. It had obviously been stepped on multiple times before. Apple Bloom gestured to Scootaloo to be quiet as they silently walked along the path of flattened grass.

Eventually, they came to a cave. The cave's mouth was blocked by a woven wall with a door in it. Apple Bloom looked to Scootaloo with fear in her eyes. They both nodded and pushed the door open.

What they saw in there, was a white bunch of metal asleep on the ground. There was mud all over its hooves and there were black stripes all over it.

At the sound of the door opening, the robot woke up and turned around.

Apple Bloom gasped.

"S-S-Sweetie Belle?"

Reunition
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Tales of a robot

Reunition

I've said it multiple times now. My life is a tragedy. I know I sound more over-dramatic than Rarity when I say things like that but it's true. You may be thinking, "Sweetie Bot, you found your friends and you're having the time of your life out here. How could your life be a tragedy?" I can tell you right now.

**********

"S-Sweetie Belle?"

The words rang through my head. At first I thought it was Button Mash. He was the only pony I ever knew who would call me by my real name after my exposition. But when I saw the yellow and orange mares in front of me, I was shocked. Saying I was shocked would honestly be an understatement.

I wasn't sure what to feel. I had always expected them to come and look for me. In fact, I wondered why they hadn't already found me. All I could do was nod.

I gestured for them to come towards me. Apple Bloom did but Scootaloo stayed back hesitantly. I put my hoof up in the air. Apple Bloom did the same. It was the salute of the cutie mark crusaders. I looked over to Scootaloo and then back to Apple Bloom. "What's up with her?"

Apple Bloom sighed. She whispered her next words in a way that Scootaloo wouldn't hear them. "I think she's afraid of you."

I turned to scootaloo. "Is that true?" I asked. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears. "Are you afraid of me?"

Scootaloo looked at me with sad eyes and slowly nodded. I don't know why, but I felt some sort of anger because of this. We had known each other for years! And now she was afraid of me? In fact, ever since I was revealed as a robot, Scootaloo had seemed to keep a small distance away from me at all times. Apple Bloom wouldn't have minded hugging me or shaking hooves but Scootaloo would barely have done so much as keep direct eye contact.

She's never been comfortable around me. Not since I became a robot. The guns and stuff probably didn't help matters. It probably just fanned the flame of her fear.

I decided to ignore her and walked back to Apple Bloom. It's great to see you both. You know, Rarity gave me a few more upgrades before I left. Wanna see?"

Apple Bloom held a hoof up. "Hold on Sweetie Bot!" Back to the robot name. "You haven't shown us around your place yet!"

"Oh Right!" I yell jumping up. I gesture for them to follow me and Apple Bloom does. Scootaloo follows about eight feet behind us all. "After I left town, I wandered in the Everfree until I found this cave. It's actually super nice and spacious."

"Yeah! I can see!" Apple Bloom said enthusiastically.

"I created that door with my own two hooves to keep the rain out. Rarity packed me a bunch of stuff including my joyboy! I've basically just sat there playing that for most of my time."

"Wow. That must get boring."

"It's not as bad as it seems. Wanna see my stuff?"

"Sure!"

We began to walk over to my saddlebags until Apple Bloom stopped. She pointed to the corner where the six empty bottles of cider lay. "Sweetie Bot? What's that?"

I look back and gasp a little. "Nothing! Those were here when I got here!" Even then, I realized that my tone was way too defensive.

Apple Bloom looked at me, unamused. "You've always been a horrible liar. I bet Rarity programmed you like that on purpose." She laughed at her joke and continued, "But seriously, have you been drinking underage?"

I sigh. "Yes. I first had the cider when I was 160 as Rarity was telling me everything. I really liked it and she decided to let me have some more of it when I left."

"How often did you drink?"

"Not often! But, technically I was under the influence when I killed Diamond Tiara."

"That...explains a lot."

She examined the bottles. "These bottles are really big Sweetie! There's no way that you would be able to fit all of them in one saddlebag given all of the clothes and other stuff you were packing. How did you get the rest of it?"

I tapped one hoof to the other nervously. "I don't think I should answer that."

Apple Bloom gasped. "Have you been in contact with Rarity! I know you've been gone for a while but now, anypony who even comes in contact with the forest is banned from Ponyville! I know it's a stupid trick for Mayor Mare to keep her office but if Rarity's contacting you, then..."

I hold up a hoof. "I get it AB. It won't happen again."

"I still don't understand. It's not even the cider season." She tapped a bottle with a hoof. A few small drops of liquid rolled around in the bottle. "These bottles are most definitely recent. Or at least, recently opened." She shook the drops out onto her hoof and licked them. "No. These are definitely old. I'd say, about...hmmm...120 moons old."

My eyes widen. "How the Buck did you know?"

"Language Sweetie! When you live on an apple farm, you learn a thing or two about apples. While our specialty cider doesn't have any expiration dates, it is very easy for me to tell how old it is."

My eyes stay as wide as dinner plates when I finally hear Scootaloo's voice coming from over near my saddle bags. "Uh Apple Bloom? You may want to take a look at this."

I don't even need to look to know exactly what she's looking at. My cover is two seconds away from being blown. Apple Bloom walks over and sees the bag full of JBA games and the console itself. "S-Sweetie Bot! How did you get this? It came out 120 moons ago! Way after you left town. You were banned from all major cities! Where in Equestria did you find this. And all these games!"

I nervously tapped a hoof again. "I found somepony had dropped it in the woods?"

"Bullshit!" Scootaloo yelled. Her fear suddenly seemed to have disappeared. "Even if you had found this on the ground, there's no way that you would happen to have the best games for it! Most ponies don't even have this much gaming stuff in their house. Except of course for Button Mash. With these games and the cider that couldn't have possibly fit into your bag, I don't think you're in contact with Rarity, I think that you snuck into town and stole everything."

Apple Bloom gasped. "Sweetie! Is this true?"

I sighed deeply and nodded. I was angry. Unspeakably angry. Scootaloo was afraid of me. And yet she thinks she has the right to go through my stuff? Scootaloo continued, "Even then, the game store owner would have noticed such a drop in his funds. Assuming you stole every single one of these things. Yet I haven't heard of anypony getting robbed as of late. Did somepony buy these for you?"

I sighed and nodded. "Yes."

"Who was it!"

I shake my head. "No!"

Scootaloo begins walking. Almost as if she is circling me. "Sweetie Bot, we were given authorization to kill you should we come in contact with you. So i would recommend for your own safety that you tell us who you contacted!"

Apple Bloom stopped Scootaloo. "Calm down Scoots! None of this is her fault."

I shake my head. Almost violently. "No Apple Bloom! If she wants to know, then I guess she can know." I turn to Scootaloo. "If you must know, On my 160th birthday, I snuck into Ponyville after dark. I took some apple cider from the Apple Family Barn. I went into the gamestore and somepony bought me a few games. It was a birthday present and nothing else."

Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin. "hmmm. Sweetie, after you left, Apple Bloom and I both became private investigators. We are also the main detectives for the Mayor. I can already tell the only two people that could have possibly bought you those games. First of all, Rarity owns three stores among Ponyville, Canterlot, and Manehattan. She is an incredibly wealthy pony and also your sister. She could've easily bought you those games. Or, the one pony who gets a 90% discount on every single game he buys. Button Mash. So tell us which of the two it is, or we will tell the mayor that both of them hae come into contact with you and they will both be banished. So who was it!"

I look at Scootaloo with wide eyes. I never thought it was possible for her to be so cruel. "W-What happened to you?"

Scootaloo looked taken aback. "What?"

"Your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They used to glow."

"Shut up! You're confusing me."

I turned away from Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. "It was Button Mash."

"Good that's exactly what we wanted to hear. Now tell me, did you fire off your guns yesterday?"

I nod slowly, still not looking back at Scootaloo. "I did."

"Perfect! Then you're our target. So I'm sorry, but we have to kill you now."

I tun around. "What! No! Get out!"

"It's too late for that Sweetie."

I couldn't believe how cruel Scootaloo had suddenly become. There was only one option left. Run: "Threat"

My guns popped from my sides. Using the toolkit that Rarity had given me, I had used a luminescent red mushroom to make a lens. Actually, I had made a lot of lenses. And right now, they all pointed a red light at Scootaloo.

Scootaloo fumbled around in her saddlebag. She pulled out a gun and quickly shot at me.

Wanna know what happens next? Yeah! So do I.

Run: "Run" To run. I'm a runaway.
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Tales of a robot

Run: "Run" To run. I'm a runaway.

I braced for impact. The sound of the shot had echoed through the entire cave. I felt it bounce off of my hoof. I saw Apple Bloom duck for cover.

Rarity had enhanced my metal plating before I left. I looked down and my hoof had shattered from the impact. But the plating had protected everything on the inside and I was still able to move perfectly fine. The broken hoof exposed the mess of wires underneath the metal plating and I felt my head go fuzzy.

I watched as Apple Bloom tackled Scootaloo to the ground just as she was loading up another shot. "GO SWEETIE BOT!" I heard her yell.

She didn't need to tell me twice. I reached down to my command key and pressed it quickly. Run: "Run"

I felt my senses go blank. I could still see and hear everything that was going on around me but it was different. It was almost as if I was watching my body from the outside. I began to feel my legs move all on their own. They weren't just moving though, they were moving incredibly fast.

I darted around the two mares wrestling on the ground. I saw the Apple Bloom had kicked the gun out of Scootaloo's hoof. Right before I left the cave, I saw something I wish I hadn't.

Scootaloo growled at Apple Bloom and said, "If you're not with me, then you're against me! This is my job and I won't let you screw me over again!" I saw her quickly draw a knife from her hoof and stab Apple Bloom in the side. As I was leaving the cave, I could hear Apple Bloom's shriek pierce the air.

*********

I ran so far that I had exited the forest by the time I stopped. I looked around and saw that I was near a bunch of train tracks. Following these would lead me towards Apple Loosa. It's better than nothing. I thought as I began walking. I had most definitely lost Scootaloo for now. I don't even know if she was chasing me because I was moving too fast.

I began contemplating exactly what had happened. Scootaloo betrayed me, then betrayed Apple Bloom. Was there anypony I could still trust in? I kicked a rock as I walked. It wasn't fair. I didn't ask to be created the way I was. But people hated me for it anyways. I shrieked out in rage until I heard a voice from behind me. "End of the line!"

I turned around to see an orange pegasus mare standing there with her wings spread. Her hooves were covered in a crimson red. Her hoof held a gun. She had a wild look in her eyes. Not that of a deranged pony but more like that of a very very determined pony.

I began to back away. Scootaloo continued walking forwards. "I'll admit it. You run pretty fast. But now, there's no stopping me from doing what I came here to do."

"What did you do to Apple Bloom!"

"Unfortunately, it seems Apple Bloom will no longer be with us."

I was taken aback. Had this mare that I had once considered a friend just killed Apple Bloom? "What happened to you Scootaloo? You never would have done anything like this before."

Scootaloo looked at me. Rage now filled her eyes. "I'll tell you what happened, Sweetie! You left us both! We were completely lost without you! We couldn't crusade anymore. Nothing felt the same! We had to take this job just to cover our broke flanks!"

"What do you mean? We never charged ponies money to help. We were going to have to get jobs anyway."

Scootaloo smirked. "That was a *Ahem* New development."

My head tilted in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

Scootaloo laughed. "Come on Sweetie Bot! We had to make a living somehow! Eventually we had to start charging for our help! We had to make money or we were going to be living in that treehouse forever!"

My eyes widened with anger. "You think I didn't know that! I always planned on getting a real job! But how could you even dream of charging for our work! Go work at a restaurant or something! You know what? I don't think my absence is the reason you guys fell apart! All you were doing was taking advantage of poor ponies who were desperate to find their purpose in life!"

I saw the sting that my words had left in Scootaloo's eyes. She quickly shook her head. "You know damn well that you were the one who ditched us!" Scootaloo shouted while holding the gun out in front of her.

"See! Now you're going in circles! This is where this argument started!" I took a step closer to her. As I took another step, I saw her hooves trembling as she seemed to mentally struggle with pulling the trigger again."Face it Scootaloo! You have no argument. Without Apple Bloom, you have no friends! You have NOTHING!"

"Drop bucking dead!" Scootaloo shot the gun again. I felt the impact in my left eye. The eye broke into small pieces, revealing the whirring and spinning sensor underneath. My eyes went red as I crouched down into an offensive position. I clicked down on my command key.

Run: "Threat"

My guns popped out and aimed directly at Scootaloo's head. I saw as she drew back and glared at me. "You won't use those! You don't have the guts!" I sighed and put my guns away.

"You're right. I won't." I put my hooves up and began walking towards Scootaloo slowly. "Listen Scootaloo.I know my leaving hurt you. I can't do anything to fix that. I was forced to leave you and Apple Bloom. All I can really do is offer my hoof in friendship." By this point, I had reached Scootaloo. I extended my hoof out to her.

She backed away. She was clearly skeptical. Finally, she spoke. Not angrily. As if she was genuinely emotional. "Can I ask you a question?" I nod with my hoof still extended. "Why did you do it in the first place? Why did you fight her? Why did you cause this?"

"Don't you remember the trial? I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't know."

"I know! But why in Equestria would you even engage with her! It takes two people to fight Sweetie Bot. I withheld my tongue at the trial. But you were just as much at fault as she was."

"No I wasn't!" My voice was rising and Scootaloo stepped backwards. "If I didn't acknowledge her, she would've kept throwing things at me! She would have kept being mean! Not just to me. But to everypony she would come in contact with in the future! She was a self-righteous bitch who deserved what she got!"

Scootaloo said nothing but instead sighed. She expanded her wings. "Listen. I'm sorry. I bucked up. This was all my fault. I'm gonna go try to help Apple Bloom and then I'm going to head back to town. I'll tell them that some timberwolves accidentally activated some old landmines from the war. There's a warehouse about a mile north of here. Just follow the train tracks. You can easily fix yourself up there. I don't think you're going to make it back to your cave on your current battery. I'm assuming it's pretty drained after all that running."

I nod. "Thank you." I tilt my head. "If I may ask, what made you change your mind?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that our fates are intertwined. I don't know how, but I can feel it. It's like some sort of vision. I'm not completely sure. But I think only one of us will be left by the time this is over."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know! Something strange is going on. I'm getting strange feelings I've never gotten before."

"Well if you're so sure that one of us isn't going to make it out, why not just kill me now and get it over with?"

"Bye Sweetie Bot."

"Wait Scootaloo!" But it was too late. She had flown off in the direction of my cave. She was right about one thing. I definitely wasn't going to make it back there on my current battery. I saw no other choice but then to head towards the warehouse she told me about.

As I walked, I couldn't get what she had said out of my head. Our fates are intertwined. Only one of us will be left by the time this is over.

I clicked and held my command key until I felt my body stop and I entered the subspace.

Me: AI? Are you there?

I'm always here Sweetie Bot.

Me: Can you please turn on auto-walk while we talk?

I can do whateverer you want.

Me: What do you think Scootaloo meant by "Only one of us will be left by the time this is over?"

I think you know what she meant. Either you will kill her, or she will kill you. Simple as that.

Me: I don't want to do this anymore! I don't want to run from my friends! I don't want to live in caves or warehouses anymore! I just want to go home. But I don't even think I have a home anymore!"

Home: Noun: The place where one lives permanently. See! You have a home! It's just not with your family.

Me: Of course not! Because I don't have a family!

Of course you do!

Me: No. I don't. I'm just a stupid robot that my "Sister" Made because her parents couldn't give her the sister she actually wanted. Can you please assess damages to "Left_Sensor" please?"

Me: What do you mean "No?"

We aren't finished talking.

Me: Don't pull this bullshit on me right now! I know you can multitask! You just don't want to! Why?

Because. You're trying to brush aside your feelings when these kinds of feelings can really hurt you. I want to make sure that you are mentally and emotionally okay before I let your thoughts wander.

Me: Just assess the damages to "Left_Sensor" Please!

No.

Me: ASSESS THE BUCKING DAMAGES!

One more question and then I will. Fair?

Me: Fine.

Are you going to kill yourself?

Me: I was thinking about it.

I know. You seem to forget I can see your thoughts.

Me: Then why ask?

Because I wanted to know if you would attempt to lie.

Me: Well, after thinking about it, I'm not going to. I can't give Scootaloo the satisfaction of winning.

Analysis of previous statement=TRUE

Me: Now please, assess damages to "Left_Sensor"

Left_Sensor functionality is at 100% However, your left eye is severely damaged. If you take another bullet to that eye socket, you won't have any bullet proofing to keep you safe. You will most certainly die.

Me: I may have to sneak into town to get Rarity to fix me.

You really think she'll fix you after you've barely talked to her for 20 moons?

I said nothing more on the matter and pressed Run: EXIT

* * *

Scootaloo flew over the Everfree forest. She looked down to see Sweetie's cave. She flew right by it and instead headed straight for town hall.

She burst into Mayor Mare's office so fast that the older mare toppled over in her seat. "Mayor! We found it!"

Mayor Mare got back up on her seat and readjusted her glasses. "You found the source of the shots?"

"Yes! Rarity lied to you! It was Sweetie Bot! Quickly! Call for the Canterlot military! We have to take her down!"

Mayor Mare was shocked and stared at Scootaloo. "Where's Apple Bloom?"

Scootaloo sighed as she forced a fake tear to fall down her cheek. "Sweetie Bot stole her knife and stabbed her in the side. She's dead now."

Mayor Mare gasped. "She could be anywhere in that giant forest! How can we track her down if we don't even know where to start."

Scootaloo laughed. "Just get the military. I know where she's headed."

"And given her current battery state, I know where she's spending the night..."

Scootaloo flashed a grin and walked out of the Mayor's office. She flittered her wings happily as she thought,

"Tonight's the night"

Get Up Run After The Runaway
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Tales of a robot

Get Up Run After The Runaway

Sweetie Bot! Battery at 2%! You need rest!

Me: Aren't my solar panels working?

Sweetie! It's cloudy out! There is no sun to power you!

Me: We're almost there. I can hang on a little longer.

How do you know Scootaloo wasn't just trying to get you to die out here on the edge of these train tracks where nopony would ever find you?

Me: Because of that!

I look in front of me and see a big warehouse about 100 feet away. The windows are broken and it seems rundown. I walk up to the door and realize it's unlocked. I attempt to push it open and when it slides away, a hoard of bats fly out. I sigh. "Well, shelter's shelter."

I walk inside and immediately begin looking around for something to drink.

Sweetie Bot! Analysis of the area confirms there is no water here.

Me: Damn it. Wait! I have an idea!

I pressed onto my command key and entered my terminal. The lights around the monitor were flashing red. Probably a symbol of a very low battery. I begin typing on my computer.

Ah! Very clever!

Me: What?

You're going to reverse the flow of your USB port to charge yourself instead of charging other devices. Interesting!

Me: I always forget you can read my thoughts.

I click a few more keys on my computer and press Run: EXIT.

"Oh No!"

What's wrong?

"I Can't use my joyboy to charge myself! I left it back at the cave!"

What now?

"Can you sense any liquids anywhere here?"

Yes. There's an oil spill in the corner, a gasoline spill in the left side of the room and a crate full of some bottled liquid in the back. It's not water though.

"Right! But maybe there's something drinkable in those bottles!"

I ran over to the back wall. I click my command key. Run: ADV Run:Data

My vision floods with data on what I can sense in each crate. I keep searching until I find my objective. A crate full of bottles.

I used my horn to wrench it open. I hear my AI's voice inside my head. Oh you have got to be kidding me. You had better not even think about drinking all of that.

I laugh and grab a bottle. The crate was full of Apple Loosa apple cider. Upon the first taste, I definitely liked the Apple family's better. But maybe this one was old so it tasted worse. I know the Apples put a bunch of different preservatives in their cider. "Don't worry." I say as I begin to chug the bottle. "I'm only gonna drink what's necessary for full battery. I don't think now's really the time to get drunk."

Why's that?

I shake my head. "I don't know. Something about what Scootaloo said was off to me. I feel like she's planning something. But I'm not sure what yet."

I finish drinking and immediately fall asleep. As my eyes are closed, I can almost feel my battery recharging. I sigh contently as I drift off to sleep.

* * *

"You say you know where she is?"

"Yes Mayor! But she's only gonna be there for one night. If I know Sweetie, she's not gonna stay in one place for very long."

"Okay. I'll send the Princess a message. If we can get the military here soon, we might be able to make it."

Mayor Mare watched as Scootaloo flittered her wings and practically hopped out the door. She shook her head as the door closed. "I swear. Sometimes that mare takes her job way too seriously."

Mayor Mare had never expected anything like this to happen. And of course, she felt compassion for the robot. But if what Scootaloo said was true, and she had killed Apple Bloom, she couldn't let a pony who had committed two murders just walk away unscathed.

She sighed and looked at the stack of parchment on her desk. She walked over and scribbled a quick note.

Dear Princess Celestia,

We have recieved word that Sweetie Bot is causing trouble again.
We have also received notice that she has murdered yet
another pony. I believe that we must resort to destroying the bot
before another incident like this can happen again. I am writing to
request military to go into the Everfree Forest with my best Private
investigator Scootaloo. She believes she knows where the bot is
and she can lead them straight to her.

I know these are troubling times. But I will remain strong to my
town and take care of my citizens.

-Mayor Mare.

"Lyra!" She called.

The teal unicorn walked her way into the room. She had been having trouble finding work playing her lyre so she asked if there was anything she could do for work around town hall. Now she was Mayor Mare's assistant. And a damn good one too. She would refill coffee before it was even asked of her and she organized all of the papers in the filing cabinet on her first day on the job. She was truly a miracle worker. She said she was saving money to help her marefriend Bon-Bon with the bills of the house.

"What's up Mayor?"

"Can you send this to princess Celestia please?"

"Yeah! What's the occasion?"

"Private matter. Sorry sweetie."

Lyra looked a little disappointed. When she's curious, she loves to get herself answers. "That's alright!" She said jumping up happily. "Let me see that!"

Mayor Mare held up the scroll and Lyra shot a magic spell at it. The scroll dissipated into golden particles and went flying off in the direction of the castle. "Thank you Lyra!"

"No problem! By the way, I forgot to tell you! I gave the main room a new coat of paint. It really needed it. So don't go leaning on the walls unless you want your coat dyed."

"Thanks Lyra. Bon-Bon sure is lucky to have you." Mayor Mare chuckled a little when she saw the mare's face go a little red. Lyra walked out the door and Mayor Mare returned to her desk. She now had a very important piece of paperwork to write. And a couple visits that had to be made.

* * *

Mayor Mare walked across the fields of Sweet Apple Acres as she carefully avoided puddles of mud. She reached the house and knocked on the door. The door was opened by Applejack. Mayor Mare sighed as she looked at Applejack's smiling face. She knew that she would have to break that smile in just a few seconds.

"Howdy there Mayor! What can I do you for?"

"Hi Applejack. Is the rest of your family home?"

Applejack smiled. "Well yeah! All of us except Apple Bloom. But she's still out in the Everfree forest with Scootaloo. I tell you. That mare won't stop until she finishes a job. That's why she's such a great help on the farm."

"About that. I need to have a word with you all. Can you gather everypony together?"

"What happened?" Applejack asked. She rang a bell that sat by the door. The sound was ear piercingly loud but Mayor Mare resisted the urge to cover her ears. "Big Mac!" Applejack yelled. "Get over here! The Mayor wants to see you!"

Mayor Mare noticed as an older green pony walked her way out of the house. "What's all this now?"

Big Mac came running up the fields and met them all at the door.

Mayor Mare sighed. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. Our friend Scootaloo came back to my office this morning."

Applejack laughed. "Well that doesn't seem so bad! I know she can be loud sometimes but she's still a nice mare! I wonder why Apple Bloom isn't here though. She loves to tell us all about her adventures whenever she finishes a job."

"About that. Scootaloo informed me that..." Mayor Mare stuttered over herself as she spoke the next words. "Apple Bloom was attacked and killed in the Everfree Forest."

Big Mac clapped a hoof to his mouth and Granny Smith immediately buckled down crying. Applejack however, grew a very angry expression. "It was those damn timberwolves wasn't it! I swear to Celestia! I'm gonna rip those bastards limb from limb!"

"Hold on Applejack. It wasn't the timberwolves."

"Well, there's plenty of other creatures in that forest. Which one killed her. I want to find this thing."

"The creature that killed your sister is more of a robotic type."

Applejack stared at Mayor Mare in horror. "You don't mean?"

Mayor Mare dropped her head as she nodded.

Applejack paused. Her angry expression faded as her brain began to process the information she had just received. "But how?"

"Scootaloo reported that Sweetie Bot stole Apple Bloom's knife and stabbed her dead."

Applejack sighed as she didn't know what to do. She knew in her heart that she wanted to kill that damned robot. But she also knew that the culprit was Rarity's sister. Even if not by blood, she still held a very special place in Rarity's heart. She knew that destroying Sweetie Bot would in turn destroy Rarity's heart as well.

"Listen. I know this is hard for you. But I want you to know that we're handling this and that we're going to bring Sweetie to justice. We're going to have Scootaloo lead us to Apple Bloom's body. That way you all can have a proper burial."

Applejack nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. By now, the entire family was crying right in front of Mayor Mare. "I'm sorry to leave on such short notice but I have to have a meeting with Miss Rarity regarding all of this." Applejack nodded as she softly closed the door. Something broke in Mayor Mare's heart. She had gotten the hardest meeting out of the way though. There was only one more to get through.

* * *

"Guards!"

Princess Celestia sat on her throne with Luna right by her side. It was noon. By now, Luna would usually be asleep. But every once in a while, she decided to stay up with her sister a little longer.

Luna tilted her head at her sister. "What's wrong? What does the letter say? Is it from Twilight?"

Celestia held up a hoof to her sister to signal silence for a moment as the guards rushed into the room. "Yes Princess?"

"I need you to gather the military and send them all to Ponyville Town Hall. There's been another murder. The culprit is very powerful and I need you all to bring her down." The guards nodded in agreement and went to go collect various members of the military.

Luna gasped. "A murder? Who died?"

The Princess sniffled a little as she said, "Little Apple Bloom."

Luna gasped. She had met Apple Bloom before in her dreams. She was anxious about what her curie mark was going to end up being. She was scared for her future. Luna sighed a little. That was a long time ago. But she still couldn't be older that 180 or 190 moons old.

Luna looked up to her sister. "Who did this? I must have a few words with them."

* * *

Rarity answered the door happily. "Oh! Mayor! Have you finally come to take up my offer on a custom dress? Come with me! I have much to show you."

Before the Mayor could speak a word, Rarity had pushed her inside and was now looking over different fabrics. "Let's see, green could go with you eyes, but purple would compliment your mane quite well."

"Miss Rarity? I'm actually here on more official business."

Rarity felt her heart stop. She had been incredibly nervous since everypony heard the shots from the Everfree forest. "Yes Ma'am? What about?"

Mayor Mare looked her dead in the eyes. "I think you know what this is about."

"I'm guessing she's caused trouble again?"

"Let's start this off with an easy question." Rarity nodded. "When we had a town meeting a couple days ago, you confirmed to us that Sweetie Bot's weapon defenses were disabled. However, our private investigator Scootaloo has confirmed to us that Sweetie Bot's guns were the cause of the shots heard in Ponyville two days ago. So I would like you to tell me why you lied to me. Keep in mind that lying to public authorities is in fact a crime and if you don't cooperate with me I may punish you with jail time. Answer me honestly and I might forget the fact that you even lied in the first place."

Rarity sighed. "I know that part of the agreement was that her weapon system would be disabled. But the Everfree Forest is a very dangerous place and she was just a little filly. I didn't want her to get hurt. And, if she had something she was shooting at, then clearly I was right in giving her defenses."

Mayor Mare nodded. "Okay Rarity. That transitions nicely into our next question. Scootaloo also told us that she found six empty bottles of alcoholic Apple Cider in Sweetie Bot's makeshift home. When questioned about it, she admitted that she was under the influence of alcohol the day her first murder took place. Why did you give alcohol to an underage filly?"

"I do not believe that giving a robot alcohol is illegal."

"yes but you also put it in her head that this was the kind of thing she could drink. What if she were a real filly? Would you have still given her this?"

"No. Of course not."

"Well this one is more of an ethical question so I'll forget it. Thank you for answering the questions. Now for the heavy hitting news."

"What did she do?"

"You see Miss Rarity, while Scootaloo returned to us this morning, Apple Bloom did not. Scootaloo has told us that Sweetie Bot has murdered Apple Bloom."

Rarity gasped. She put a hoof up to her mouth and said nothing. Mayor Mare continued. "Obviously, this was an intentional murder and we can not let it go unpunished. I think you see where I'm going with this."

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"She wouldn't do this! Bring her back! Check her memory files! She wouldn't."

"I'm sorry. The military has already been deployed to destroy her. She has been located in a warehouse on the northern train tracks."

"You can't do this! What happened to fair trials?" Rarity was getting more and more angry with each word that Mayor Mare spoke.

"She had her fair trial. She was pronounced guilty. We have sufficient evidence to believe that she could and would do this."

Rarity began to advance on the Mayor as Mayor Mare backed away.

"I want to talk to her."

* * *

I never really understood where I went when I fell asleep. I mean, I understood where I was... I was in my head. But I didn't know if I ever really dreamed of anything. Until now. You see, I fell asleep in the warehouse that night.

"Sweetie Bot?"

"Princess Luna?"

"You seem to be in quite a lot of trouble. Everypony believes that you murdered Apple Bloom."

"What do you mean? Scootaloo let me go."

Luna sighed. "I have to warn you! Scootaloo didn't tell you about this place so she could help you. She led you here so she would know where you are and she could launch an attack on you."

My eyes widened. Or rather, my eye opened. The other one was still broken. "How do you know?"

"She had the mayor send a letter requesting military access on this location."

I gasped. "She betrayed me. She had this planned all along. How did I know that she wasn't here now? I looked at Luna. "So she didn't go to help Apple Bloom either?"

Luna sadly shook her head. "Unfortunately, I do not have a dream of hers to enter. If she's alive, she's not sleeping."

I sighed. "You know I didn't do it right? It was Scootaloo!"

Luna sadly shook her head again. "I'm sorry Sweetie Bot. Without proof, I can't make a decent case for you."

"Why can't they just look at my memory files again?"

"Not an option. Mayor Mare isn't offering you a trial."

I close my eyes for a minute. "Thanks for warning me Princess. Don't worry. I'll find a way out."

She smiles. "I know you will."

I opened my eyes and surveyed the room. I saw no movements. I took a deep breath trying to process everything that had just happened.

Run:Adv

I saw my battery level was at 50% That would have to do for now.

As I continued to look around, I jumped as the door to the warehouse was opened with a bang.

Load Your Guns and Call Me The Enemy
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Tales of a robot

Load Your Guns and Call Me The Enemy

(Earlier that day...)

Scootaloo was frowning as she walked through Ponyville. Inside, her heart was doing somersaults that she was finally getting rid of the robot she now hated. But obviously, the entire town had always thought they were friends so she had to put on a sad face.

By this point everypony knew about what had happened.

When the first incident had occurred, Scootaloo used it to its full potential. Everypony felt sorry for her and Apple Bloom. While Apple Bloom was crying almost every night, Scootaloo was using the "loss" of her friend to get out of things like homework, tests, and chores. It was messed up for sure, but Scootaloo didn't care at the time.

When Scootaloo got to the edge of town, she took off the ground. She flew up in an arc and landed in the front of Rainbow Dash's cloud mansion in the sky.

Once more danger had begun to come to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash had requested clearance to move her house from Cloudsdale to the edge of Ponyville.

Since Rainbow had adopted Scootaloo, she had a room in Rainbow Dash's mansion. She walked in and called out, "Rainbow Dash! I'm home!"

Rainbow Dash flew down from the second floor balcony. She landed down on the floor next to Scootaloo and ruffled her mane. "Hey there! How did the hunt go?"

Scootaloo jumped. "Better than you could ever imagine."

Rainbow Dash laughed. "Did you get her?" Scootaloo nodded. Rainbow Dash was the only pony who ever knew how she really felt about Sweetie Bot. Sure they had been friends. But when she left them, something changed for the worse.

"You'll never believe it! I get to lead a charge with the Canterlot Military to go hunt her down!"

"Oh my Goddess! What could have possibly happened that would require such drastic measures?"

"Well," Scootaloo scuffed a hoof on the floor. "That's the not fun part. She kind of... Murdered Apple Bloom."

Rainbow Dash gasped. "I heard that she was dead! I could never imagine Sweetie doing something like that! She's too small and weak. I could see you overpowering her but not Sweetie. Unless she still has her weaponry."

When Scootaloo heard the word "you" come out of Rainbow's mouth, she quietly laughed nervously. Unfortunately for her, Rainbow had heard her. Rainbow stared at her inquisitively. "Scootaloo? Do you have anything you want to tell me?"

Scootaloo smiled widely as a small bead of sweat dropped down her forehead. "Nope! Just really nervous for the hunt."

Rainbow smiled and backed off. "Do you want me to come with you?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "No. I want to try to do this myself. It is part of my job after all!"

Rainbow laughed. "Well, go on to your room and get ready. You have a big night tonight."

"By getting ready do you mean take a nap?"

Rainbow nodded quickly. "That's how I like to get ready!"

Scootaloo laughed and walked towards the stairs. "Okay then! See you soon Rainbow!"

* * *

Scootaloo lay in bed. She was trying to get to sleep. Her mind kept on drifting to the past few moons. She sighed and let her thoughts take her away as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

It had all started the day of the incident. Scootaloo had a fear instilled in her that day. Watching her friend lose any sense of humanity and become a mindless killing machine. Suddenly, she felt unsafe around her. She felt as if anything could happen.

She had felt uneasy about her being a robot since she had pointed out the pain in her wing. If she was able to see that about ponies, who knew what else she would be able to see?

Despite her fears, Scootaloo still had hope for her friend. She would be able to overcome her fears just to stay with Scootaloo. She was sure there were ponies who were dealing with much worse over those few moons. Button Mash for example was definitely a little uneasy about continuing a relationship with her.

But then she left.

Scootaloo's entire life was flipped upside down over the course of a few moons. One of her best friends was a robot. Then one of her best friends was a murderer.

Then one of her best friends was exiled.

She cried a little. Definitely not as much as Apple Bloom though. But then there came another problem. The three of them had always planned on living together. They would cover crusading on the weekends and Sweetie Bot was holding a job with Rarity to pay for the house they were going to buy. Obviously, with Apple Bloom working at an orchard, they would never need to buy food unless they wanted something other than apples.

But when Sweetie Bot left, no one was making an income. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom tried to find jobs but nopony was hiring or willing to pay as much as Sweetie was Making working for Rarity.

Sure Rarity was pretty wealthy but they wouldn't feel right asking her for a job or for money. She was still in a really bad place over losing her sister. This was when the first seed of resentment was planted in Scootaloo's heart.

Why couldn't you control yourself Sweetie? Why did you have to kill her? You weren't even thinking about how anything could affect me or Apple Bloom!

By the time the next week rolled around, she met with Apple Bloom about what to do.

They met outside of Bon-Bon's sweet shop as they discussed how to make money. Sure, they could continue to live in the tree house, but neither of them wanted that to be a lifetime commitment.

"So what do you think we should do?"

Apple Bloom took a sip of her tea and said, "Maybe we could move to Canterlot! There's bound to be jobs there!"

"Even Rarity can barely afford a house in Canterlot. What makes you think we could?"

Apple Bloom scowled. "Maybe an apartment?"

"Those cost at least 3,500 bits a month!"

Apple Bloom scowled again. "Well at least I'm actually giving ideas!"

"What if we charge for crusading."

Apple Bloom held up a hoof. "Whoa! Don't you think that's going a little far. I mean, we crusade because we want to. Not because we want to make money."

"What other choice do we have?"

Apple Bloom said nothing else and just nodded. Scootaloo was angry on the inside. An anger that would grow for moons and moons. She didn't remember the exact date, but she vowed that one of these days, she was going to get her revenge on Sweetie Bot. And there would be nothing that would get in her way...

* * *

Rainbow Dash had to get in Scootaloo's way.

She couldn't quite understand why. Something about the way she had acted or the things she had said. It rubbed Rainbow Dash the wrong way. If she knew Scootaloo as well as she thought she did, all she had to do was unplug her alarm clock and she would be set.

Rainbow snuck her way upstairs by quietly flapping her wings. She quietly cracked Scootaloo's door open and looked inside. The pegasus mare seemed to be asleep by now. Rainbow flapped her wings again so as not to step on creaky clouds or anything like that. She opened the door a little more and flew inside.

She flew quietly over to the bedside table. As she was getting ready to unplug the clock, she heard Scootaloo stir. Rainbow Dash put on her best face and looked at her. "What are you doing in here?"

"Nothing," Rainbow said softly. "Just thinking about how much you've grown up. I sometimes miss the older days where would tuck you in."

Scootaloo flopped over and said, "Well I only have a couple more hours to sleep so, maybe watch me sleep another time." Scootaloo closed her eyes and went back to sleep. Rainbow exhaled and wiggled her wing behind the bedside table and unplugged the clock.

As she walked out of the room, she said quietly, "Don't worry Scoots. You have all the time in the world.

* * *

Rainbow Dash jumped as there was banging on her door. She opened it to see three pegasus soldiers there. "Hello boys. What can I do for you?"

They all stood straight up. Rainbow Dash sulked away a little when she noticed the guns strapped to each of their backs. "We're here for Miss Scootaloo. She was supposed to meet us at the town hall half an hour ago."

The knocking on the door had woken Scootaloo as she went to the door. "What time is it Rainbow?"

"Apparently, you're late."

"What! But my clock was set! My alarm was set to go off fifteen minutes before I had to leave!"

Rainbow shrugged. "The power flickered at one point while you were asleep. Maybe your clock reset at the same time."

Scootaloo stomped a hoof. "Give me a second. I'll be right out." Within no time, she had all of her equipment all together and she was back at the door. "Alright. Let's go. We're losing daylight. I assume the other soldiers I requested are down at town hall?"

"Yes Miss Scootaloo."

Scootaloo clapped her hooves. "Well then, let's get going!" She waved to Rainbow with a smile on her face as they flew down towards the ground. Rainbow couldn't quite figure it out, but she still felt a weird sense of dread in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

(That night...)

"Who's there!" I yelped as I looked around the room. I mentally got myself ready to fight.

"Relax! It's me."

I recognized the voice. A young voice with a slight country twang.

"Apple Bloom!" I ran forward as fast as I could. I noticed that she spread her forelegs open for a hug which I obliged to. I wrapped myself around her. "I thought you were gone!"

"Oh please. It'll take more than five stabs to keep me down."

"Oh my goddess! She got you five times?"

Apple Bloom nodded. "She always seems to forget that I always have medical supplies on me."

"You don't understand! Princess Luna said she couldn't access your dreams."

Apple Bloom laughed. "Of course she couldn't! I wasn't sleeping. In fact, I was up all night tracking your radio signals with this device Rarity gave me." I looked down at the device she was holding in her hoof. I recognized it as the receiver Rarity had shown me that I could contact her with.

I nodded. "You need to get out of here!"

Apple Bloom tilted her head. "Why? I just got here?"

I started trying to push her towards the door but she wouldn't budge. "Princess Luna warned me! Scootaloo's on her way right now! She told everypony I murdered you! She has military with her!"

"Actually, I have a bone to pick with that sad excuse for a friend. Why don't we fight back?" She notices my hesitance. "Come on Sweetie Bot! You can't keep running your whole life."

I nod. "I know. I'm just feeling a lot of emotions that I don't understand right now." I pause. "Wait. No I'm not. I'm coded to think this way."

Apple Bloom stomped a hoof. "Stop that nonsense right now! As far as I'm concerned, you're just as real as me or Rarity! Why don't you stop thinking this way?" I shrug. "Listen. Snap out of it! It doesn't matter if you're metal. We care about you anyway."

"We?"

"Me and Rarity. I promise Sweetie! After all of this, we can go back! We can explain the situation. We can beg for a new trial! We can do something Anything! Just don't give up yet."

I gasp in disbelief. I thought that everypony had forgotten about me. I thought nopony cared. I couldn't do anything but hug this mare. I still don't know how Rarity programmed this, but I began to cry softly.

"Oh my goddess! Sweetie bot! What happened to your eye?"

"What do you think?"

"Right."

"Well, she'll probably be here soon." I hop happily. "Don't worry about me. They may be able to crack and break my bulletproof skin, but they have to hit my broken eye if they even want to stand a chance."

"Well, what do we do to stop that from happening."

"I'm not sure. All I found in this warehouse is a crate of apple cider and a bunch of machinery."

Apple Bloom tilted her head. "Warehouse? Sweetie Bot! This is an entire factory!"

"It didn't look that big from the outside. Then again, I was at 2% battery when I got here. My sensors were a little loopy."

Apple Bloom nodded. "I saw a sign on my way in that said SparkWorx employees only.

"What in Equestria is SparkWorx?"

"Some old robotics company. I think it might actually be where Rarity got the base for you! Of course, she added most of the features herself but the base is from SparkWorx."

"Do you think that means there are more of me somewhere here?"

"Well, there's more bases.Probably in all of these crates. But they won't have your memories or conscience."

I put a hoof to my chin. "Hang on." I click my command key.

Me: Is there any way to get these bases to work for us?

Maybe. Do you have any kind of cord or something? If they really are similar to you, they should have the same memory access USB port on their heads as you do. Unless Rarity just added that feature.

Me: Good idea! Thanks! Run:EXIT

"Apple Bloom! Do you have a phone charger?"

"Yeah but it's USB."

I tilt my head. "What else would it be?"

She clearly forgot that I haven't been exposed to new technology since 20 moons ago. "USB C?"

"What the buck is that?"

"Never mind. Here!"

Apple Bloom tossed me a cord and I plugged it into my head. "Where's your knife?"

Apple Bloom tossed it over. I went over to one of the crates and pried it open. Sure enough, there were about twenty robotic bases that look just like ponies. The only problem was, they were all filly sized. I guess they haven't grown at all yet since they haven't been turned on.

"I guess Rarity lied when she said she made me from scratch."

Apple Bloom shrugged. "She lied about a lot of things. She probably didn't want to tell you that you came from a factory. At least she personally added all of your extra features! She's actually very technically minded!"

I turn my gaze down towards the crate of robot fillies. "Well, an army of robot fillies is better than no army at all."

Apple Bloom tilted her head. "How are you gonna get them to fight? They're brand new. Well, as new as they can be sitting in a box for years."

I plugged the cord into my head and plugged the other end into one of the bases. "Let's hope this works."

I started uploading files to the base's mainframe. I sent it descriptions of Scootaloo and the military uniforms of Canterlot. I placed them all in a saved target. I then ran one single line of code down its head. "Target: Enemy"

I realized quickly that I was the only one who had guns here. Apple Bloom had one I suppose but one handgun and two miniguns weren't gonna do much against a small army. I didn't know If I could run out of bullets but I didn't want to find out.

"Apple Bloom! Use your knife to pry the nails out of those crates. See if you can somehow break the boards in a way where they would make a good weapon!"

I made a copy of everything I had coded into the first bot. Finally, I unplugged and turned it on. The bot walked around aimlessly for a second until its sensors began whirring. Apple Bloom cracked a board in half and gave it to the bot. Then, the bot began to speak. "TARGET! ENEMY!"

I shook my head. "Not yet. Go over near the door. They'll be here soon." The bot nodded and walked over towards the door. I walked over to the next empty bot and did the same thing I did to the first one. I transferred the copy of the code into its head and Apple Bloom gave it a weapon.

We continued doing this until it was almost three in the morning. I was surprised Scootaloo wasn't here by now. I still had about fourteen bots left to program. I plugged myself into the next one but felt a jolt of something. It wasn't electricity. This was something different.

I could now hear my AI screaming inside my head. SWEETIE BOT! MALWARE DETECTED! UNPLUG UNPLUG!!

I yanked my cord out of the bot. How could a bot have malware? It was brand new! I looked at the bot and noticed that its power switch had been turned on. It was on before we even got here.

I could feel something bad running through my head. Something was corrupting my circuits. I could feel it. It was spreading everywhere.

Me: AI DO SOMETHING!!!

I'm trying!

Apple Bloom took notice of my panic. "Sweetie Bot! What's wrong? What's happening?"

I felt my voice go robotic. My mind was still whirring but I wasn't in control of my own body anymore. I opened my mouth as a robotic voice came out. "Diagnosis: Software corruption."

Apple Bloom backed off. My sensors turned a deep red. "Target: Enemy!"

Apple Bloom began to shake. "Sweetie? Are you alright?" I began to advance towards her. "What's going on?"

I could hear my AI still trying to fix the corruption.

I have an idea! Permission to delete folder Name: Enemy?

Me: Permission granted!

The file dissipated from my brain. I still couldn't control my body but it began to spasm.

Glitching sounds began to come from my speakers as I heard,

Target:Enemy
Define: "Enemy"
Failure: Defining "Enemy"

My body continued to spasm until I fell to the ground.

It was strange. I was fighting an internal battle with my AI against my own body.

Sweetie Bot! Rebooting hardware! I backed up memory files! Wiping software!

Me: Wait!

But it was too late. The last thing I saw before my sensors went dark was Apple Bloom's face. Data Analysis? Confused, sad, and determined. I heard one more thing. A voice over a megaphone. "SWEETIE BOT! COME OUT! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"

I fell to the ground as I saw the code in my head...

Reconstruction of corrupted sectors at 90%

Author's Note

Please stay tuned! I'm wrapping this story up soon! I hope you all love it! I'm making this story as a tribute to Prince Whateverer. Go listen to his "Destabilize" Series if you want to know where the ideas come from.

Also, you'll understand more of the dialogue lines if you hear the song :)

[CODE PHANTOM]
View Online

Tales of a robot

[CODE PHANTOM]

I opened my eyes.

I was in the subspace. It was completely dark. No monitor, no keyboard, no life.

All I could see, was a loading bar. i wasn't fully certain what it was for. It was at 90%

"Hello?" I called out. Maybe my AI could hear me. Maybe it would tell me what was going on. What happened next was what I didn't expect. I saw a figure coming out of the darkness. It was a white pony with a fancy purple mane. "R-Rarity?"

"I wasn't sure how you would feel waking up so I decided to appear in a physical form that data suggests brings you comfort and happiness."

"AI?"

Rarity nodded. "I had to restore your memory files and now your corrupted sectors are reconstructing." Rarity pointed to the loading bar and then smiled at me.

"I didn't know you could manifest yourself like this."

"I never saw the point in doing so. I thought it would just make you sad. I thought it would make you remember the older times too much." I walked forward and reached out to hug Rarity but she pulled away. "I'm sorry Sweetie Bot. You can't touch me. This is a digitally generated image. It is not a physical form."

My face fell. "Oh." I jumped as I felt my memories coming back to me. "Wait! I have to wake up! I have to get out there! Scootaloo is there! Apple Bloom is fighting them alone!"

Rarity held up a hoof reassuringly. "She has the copies. I am sure she's doing just fine."

"Can you see?"

"No. Your physical body is fully turned off until your corruption is gone."

I sigh. "So you don't know for sure?"

Rarity frowned and then shook her head. I looked over to the loading bar. Reconstruction of corrupted sectors at 95%

I looked at Rarity. "Can I ask you a question?" Rarity nodded. I knew that she already knew the question since she could see inside my head but she thought it would be better for me to ask it myself. "Would Equestria be better off if I was gone?"

Rarity looked at me blankly. A smile began to grow on her face. Not a creepy or happy one. But a compassionate one. "No Sweetie. I think that everything that has happened up to this point was a mistake. I think that you are being far too harsh on yourself."

Reconstruction of coorrupted sectors at 98%

I looked over to the loading bar. "It's almost done."

Rarity nodded. "Don't worry. I know you can do this. I just need you to be strong and fight for your life. And for Apple Bloom's as well."

I nodded as the bar reached 100. The automated computer voice said, "Reconstruction of corrupted sector comple-------"

Suddenly, the whole thing began to glitch out. Everything in my head turned red. I could feel a giant pain in my head. And then, with a flash of red light, I could feel myself waking up.

* * *

"Sweetie Bot! Pull out those guns and shoot them down before they call more fuckers!"

I was seeing red. My mind was clouded as I jumped to my hooves. I could feel code running in my head.

Target: Enemy
Define: "Enemy"
Failure Define: "Enemy"

The same code that I had programmed into the robots was now running through my own head. A kill switch. A code to destroy everypony and everything. I averted my eyes from Apple Bloom. I knew there would be no controlling my code if I saw her approach me.

I looked in my head to try and reverse the code. I couldn't find the lines anywhere. I looked through my files, codes, and components. When I reached my components however, I could see things that I had never had access to before. Components I could control such as "Front_Door" and "Roof_Hatch"

I don't know how, but the virus that I had installed into myself seemed to have given me control over the SparkWorx factory. And Celestia knows I'm gonna use it.

* * *

"Celestia!"

Luna rushed her way into her sisters bedroom. She ran directly to the edge of her sister's bed. "Celestia! Wake up!" Celestia smacked Luna in the face with a pillow and then pulled it over her own head.

Her voice was tired and frustrated. "Luna! It's like three in the morning! I only have a couple more hours before I have to raise the sun! Go away!"

"But sister! I just got a message from our Canterlot army! Sweetie Bot has amassed herself an army of robots! They are fighting at the abandoned SparkWorx factory! He said they've already lost five men!"

"Just send out the royal guard and GET OUT!"

Luna ran out of the room to dodge the next flying pillow and closed the door. She rolled her eyes and sighed. Her sister could be so grumpy when she didn't get a full night's sleep.

* * *

I opened the roof Hatch and got to work. I stacked crates to make a staircase and started to work my way up to the roof. This reminded me of a time Scootaloo and Button Mash were doing the "Milk Crate Challenge." I wanted to join but Rarity told me no. That was a good call. Button fell from the top and broke his left forehoof.

Luckily, these crates were a lot more sturdy than some dinky milk crates. I jumped my way onto the roof. I heard shouts of "Up on the roof!" and "I think that's the one we're after!"

I grew a smile on my face. "Hello boys!" I shot a bullet with pinpoint accuracy at the fuel tank of one of their military cars. It blew up and ignited into a spiraling inferno. The car's outer shell was launched into the air. I heard a shout of "OH FUCK!" as it came crashing down on somepony.

I cringed for just a second. Then I realized, it was because of the noise. I felt no remorse over what had happened. If they wanted a fight, I would give them a motherbucking fight!"

I saw an orange blur darting between flames. Scootaloo, I thought as my eyes went even more red. I activated the magnets that Rarity had added to my hooves and easily walked my way down the wall of the factory. A line of soldiers lined up. I shot every single one of them down. I felt a few bullets hit my side but I didn't even care.

"Apple Bloom!" I yelled. "She's going towards the back of the factory! Let's cut her off!" I heard a yell of confirmation from across the battlefield and I took off running around the right side of the factory. I clicked into my head while my auto-run kept me moving towards my intended target. I locked down the doors on the back side of the factory.

I ran around the back corner and saw Scootaloo desperately trying to push her way into the factory from the back. I stepped right behind her and pulled out my guns.

Scootaloo heard the mechanical whirring of the turrets and swung around. "S-Sweetie! I'm sorry! Please!"

My eyes were a bright red. I could still feel traces of the virus. It was calling me. Compelling me to end this all right here. "Why should I? You sat by while they threw me into the forest like garbage. You attacked my best friend. You shot me twice. You betrayed me. You tricked me into coming here so you could launch a surprise attack."

The orange pegasus in front of me was shaking. My data analysis ran 100% fear coursing through her body.

I paused for a second. But that second was all it took. During my moment of hesitation, Scootaloo lept forward and knocked me down. She began swinging punches while she had me trapped. Not at me, but at my still exposed sensor.

I quickly activated the magnents in my hooves which pulled me out from under her and stuck me to the wall. I quickly turned them off and landed on my hooves. I began to swing at her. I had her knocked down to the ground. While she lay on the ground, I began to rev my turrets and assumed a battle stance.

"Any last words?"

"Buck you!" She sprang up from the ground and latched onto one of my turrets. I could feel her feeble attempts to pull it off. I watched as she struggled to no avail.

Out of nowhere, a gunshot rang out. Not from me but from my left. I watched as I saw a blast of blood come from Scootaloo's head. I looked over to my left and saw Apple Bloom standing there with a gun in her hooves. I pulled Scootaloo's limp hooves off of my turrets and put them away.

I could feel the virus slow down as my eyes returned to their green color. I walked over to Apple Bloom. "Y-You actually did it?"

Apple Bloom nodded. "She had it coming."

"Is it over now?"

"Not quite Sweetie! We still have almost thirty soldier out front and there's more on the way. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

I laugh. Almost bordering on manically. "Let's fuck shit up!"

* * *

People from all around could hear the commotion going down in the old SparkWorx factory. Ponies all around were holding their foals close. Some took them to basement shelters. I was unaware of all of this.

However, there was one pony who smiled as the gunshots rang out.

Rarity walked through her boutique. It was about 3:15 in the morning. She would probably not sleep tonight. She walked over to the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She sat down at the table. Normally she would read the newspapers or read a book but today she just sat there. Listening.

She took comfort in the gunshots. As long as there were shots, Sweetie was still alive and fighting. She smiled as another round of gunshots could be heard from the edge of the Everfree Forest.

* * *

I released another round of bullets at a line of soldiers in front of me. Each one fell in what I perceived to be a perfect harmony. I watched as four of my robot bases attacked one of the soldiers and began biting at him. Just like I taught them. I thought.

I threw a punch at a stallion coming up behind me and laughed. It wasn't long however until more soldiers began to show up. These ones were in golden armor. The royal guard, I thought. My head began buzzing. "Apple Bloom! I'm sending my position over the receiver! I'm gonna need to see you quickly!"

I saw Apple Bloom running up on my side. "What's wrong?"

"That!" I pointed a hoof at the sky. Apple Bloom saw the golden armored ponies flying towards us and the grounded ponies running after us. "You know there's two we can't kill."

"Why? And who?"

"Shining Armor and Flash Sentry! We can't kill either of them! Twilight would be heart broken." Apple Bloom nodded and assumed her battle stance.

The grounded ponies reached us first. We began massacring them all. I did keep half an eye out for a white unicorn stallion.
Turns out that the Royal Guards were somehow smarter than the military as they began shooting stun spells at us. I clicked down my command key. Run:Shield

My shield came out of my horn and I began slamming into ponies with it.

The feeling was building up in me again. The virus. The urge to kill.

* * *

The battle dragged on until around 9:30 in the morning. Eventually, the royal guard retreated. The unit of the Canterlot military they had sent our way was destroyed. And the spiteful orange pegasus leading everything was gone.

After the shots stopped, I turned off my guns and looked at Apple Bloom. I gasped as I realized that a tip of her ear had come off. "Apple Bloom! Are you okay?"

She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. "Sweetie! We did it! We're alive!" I nod. "Come on! We're gonna go home."

I inhale sharply in a hiss. "See... About that."

Author's Note

Rarity gettin that 3 AM Cereal!!

Almost done y'all! I hope y'all are enjoying :)