Where do Robot Ponies come from?
Timeline TSM stands at the far end of this multiverse. Standing for Twilight, Sun, and Moon, it was the decaying corpse of a timeline caught in an inescapable cosmic event. The event in question being two timelines coming close to one another and colliding; A “binding” as it’s called. Just like how your planet orbits a sun, timelines orbit around one another within a pocket of the multiverse. A multiverse is just a cluster of timelines from at least three or more different dimensions.
After the binding almost all life, both mortal and immortal, was either erased or... worse...
Excluding three powerful princesses.
Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna only barely survived thanks to their immeasurable power. For the first hundred years, they fended off against the amalgamations that survived and mourned their fallen world. After two hundred, they began to build a new castle to live in, as plant life finally began to return. It was after three hundred that Twilight discovered the power to transcend timelines.
With this, TSM was truly born. Watching over the small slice of infinity, using parts from across the multiverse, they created a technologically advanced city. They began to let in those without universes to return to live among them. As they grew, so did their perceived responsibilities. Soon, a new royal court would be founded, and over time the MMD (Multiverse Monitoring Department) would be born and expanded.
At first, all the MMD did was monitor timelines for educational purposes and to find those in need of a new home. After some voting, they created a subdivision for combating anypony who maliciously traveled to another reality with the full intent to destroy it. Then, after failing to be voted in numerous times, a subdivision for monitoring natural and unnatural tears within alternate realities was opened the same day a law passed that allows individuals with a home timeline to return to the ability to work or live within the city.
A department that almost failed its vote and just barely got legalized was the “Robotic Doppelganger Initiative”. This sector was dedicated to searching for timelines where a notable individual was missing in an unnatural means, never existed, or was erased from time and then deciding on if that timeline would get/need a robotic replacement. If given the O.K, a robotic doppelganger of the missing individual would be created, given false memories, and then placed into the timeline they were approved for. These doppelgangers range in quality based on the severity, time sensitivity, and commonsense of the timelines they are built for.
Some could grow up, some looked more organic, some could even bleed, and almost all had a soul... almost...
At the top of a lofty silver building, the sounds of machinery and hard work could be heard. It was located practically next to the left side of the Three Princesses Castle, only being blocked by the Royal Laboratory.
Within this building, Doctor Time Turner was finishing up his latest robotic doppelganger, or RD for short. She was a young orange filly with yellow hair, freckles, and pre-programmed to get a cutie mark of an apple in the future. She was an advanced RD being that she looked almost organic and had the ability to grow. If he had more time, he would have worked on the insides, but having a deadline of one week forced Turner to cut the usual corners.
Next to him was a list of RD to make next; three Rainbow Dashes, a Twilight, and twelve Sweetie Bells. All in all, he was making a lot less Sweetie Bells than normal. He never understood why it was so common for Sweetie Bell to have complications within the timeline, resulting in his sector’s constant creation of her. Perhaps it was just a cosmic quirk.
He furrowed his brow and he picked up a strange-looking pink and black device shaped like a camera with a handle. The “Pinkey Face Traner” was a tool designed to test out how well the Pinkie of a set timeline could tell she was looking at a robot. Just punch the timeline code in and it will tell you what gives the machine away. if the timeline had no Pinkie, it would just rely on preprogrammed standards. Soemtiemliens require more work than others.
[EYE COLOR IS TOO UNNATURAL, ONE LEG {F_L} IS .001% TOO LONG, FURR IS TOO NATURL.]
Turner sighed and looked at his clock. half an hour until he needs to take this RD to an escort. He could do about two of those and he was fortunate the Pinky Face Traner ordered things from most obvious to least.
Taking out a laptop, he could redo the eyes quickly and then shorten the front left leg if he worked quickly.
As he worked, he thought about his job. He was one of the ponies that voted against this very department, seeing it as immoral. He was also one of the ponies that was specifically requested to work here, as before the binding, this timeline’s Doctor Whooves was apparently very close to Celestia. This caused a lot of the Time Turners/Doctor Whooves to be offered the job.
He wanted to decline, but the pay was just too good. The first year he worked here was a moral nightmare for him... that changed after he was shown the fruits of his labor. He had asked about the first RD he built, a Twilight Sparkle to replace the one that accidentally fell outside of reality, wanting to know how she was doing. He was permitted to view her within an MMD monitoring room, and he saw her putting her life on the line to keep Canterlot safe from invaders. He saw her protecting the citizens in a battle that would have been one-sided had she not been there... and a few stray tears rolled down Turner’s smiling face.
Back to now, Turner wiped the sweat off his face as he turned to the clock; a minute to spare. He smiled and began preparations to take this RD to her new home. He pulled out a stretcher-like cart and carefully placed his latest creation atop it. He then took out a white paper tag and scribbled on a series of numbers and letters so that the escorts would know what timeline to enter.
As he exited his workspace into the long door-filled hall, another of him did the same... only they had a very robotic-looking Sweetie Bell on their cart.
“I can’t believe they stuck me with nothing but Sweetie Belles!” He complained, “It’s not fair, they know I hate repetition!” Turner chuckled, realizing why he had so few Sweeties on his list.
“I’d guess you’re stuck doing that because of your... ‘sick day’”. Turner said with a sly grin.
The other Turner was flustered as he screamed out “I swear I was sick!” He then became a little quieter as he added “A fair happening the same day and me going was... coincidence...”
Turner laughed a bit as they both came to the end of the hall in front of an opening elevator. Out the doors came three ponies in white coats. One seemed to be a Lyra, the other a Bonbon, and the third a Starlight. They thanked the Doctors before taking the carts with them. Lyra and Bonbon returned to the elevator with the carts. They could be seen checking the tags as the door closed, leaving Starlight with the two Doctors.
Starlight growled as she spoke, “Is she going to be late EVERY time?! How has she NOT been fired yet?! I have things to do later!” She leaned up against the wall. “Like, me and the girls are trying to get a medical center for curing diseases across the multiverse legalized, and I got to get at least a dozen petitions signed by tomorrow! For the love of Celestia, if that airhead makes me wait for two hours again I’ll-”
“SORRY!” Screamed out a soft voice. Both Turners winced with sorrow as the third of the twenty RD makers on the floor came by. A gray pony with yellow hair, a green bowtie, and crosseyes... Ditzy Doo. As per usual, she had an astonishingly crafted RD on her cart, this one being of a young Princess Luna. Ditzy was very talented, to the point she would be given some very important ponies to make... but she was also a perfectionist. In her home reality before it... broke... she was Dr. Whoove's personal pupal, and was set to take after him when he retired.
At present, she is very well known around the MMD for both making every RD as lifelike as possible... and for her bad timekeeping.
“I know I’m a little late, but look! I had to completely overhaul her snout because despite the Pinkey Face Traner saying it was good, I jsut felt it was a little too much and then I saw her eyes and I felt I could have done better and-”
Starlight shushed Ditzy. Turner looked to his other self and saw him walk away awkwardly. It felt wrong to be near Ditzy considering they still missed her, so Turner knew not to judge. The only reason he didn’t walk away was because it felt like his Derpy was still here near Ditzy.
“Ditzy, no excuse! You know you only needed to give her minimal attention! She has way too much detail for a timeline that gets fooled by paper masks and saying things like ‘Hello, my name is Not Starlight!’” Starlight complained. Turner wanted to step in, but then the illusion of Derpy would be broken... after all his Derpy hated when he fought for her.
“I’m sorry...” Ditzy softly said... With that, Starlight took the Luna away. As the elevator went down, Ditzy finally noticed Turner. She didn’t say anything. She just looked at him the way he looked at her. They both finally stopped starting as they felt their eyes tear up.
Turner and Ditzy walked side by side until he reached his workroom, and then he split off from her.
He had always been tempted to build a Derpy for himself... but he could never do so. It felt immoral, selfish, unhealthy, and cruel to try and replace her. He gave a long sigh before sucking up his tears.
He checked the age of what his next RD was expected to be, pulled out boxes with labels like “Filly Age 6 Left Legs” or “Filly Head Size Medium” and began to work the pain away.
Doctor Clockwork crept into the timeline of the RD he had been assigned to. Unlike the other Doctor Whooves, he was never very smart, so the job of an escort was all he could get. They gave him a black coat, pants, and sweater for a uniform and a toolbox to help him get his job done. Nothing more, nothing less. He stood outside a red barnhouse, ready to deploy. He set down the orange “filly” and rummaged through his toolbox.
He pulled out a wireless tablet and began to search for the assigned memories. The RD are designed to automatically wake up the moment they are given memories, and this one was no different. The tablet Clockwork uses could wirelessly transmit memories to or take control of any RD within range. The ability to take control was the compromise that got the whole doppelganger thing approved.
He found the folder and began to send the memories over. Everything up to the point where this world's Applejack existed was true, but everything after Aj walked into the Everfree, saw a cave, found a powerful rune, and got erased from its power was made up. This Aj would believe she walked into the Everfree, got scared, got lost for a few days, and finally ran back home only to pass out from fear in front of her barn.
As she woke up, Clockwork steadily snuck behind a tree, wishing the budget could afford some kind of invisibility as he normally did.
Aj jumped up and began to breathe heavily as she looked around. The memories came flooding to her as she began to cry. Without a word, she booked it back to the barn, where she never even questioned why she was clean despite getting lost in the forest for days.
Clockwork sighed in relief before heading back to the pickup point. Now he and the rest of the MMD just had to hope this RD never found out what she was.
Author's Note
Inspired by things like Sweetie-Bot and the Omega Timeline!
