There’s a lot of thoughts in my mind now while I’m waiting…

What is happening to me?

Pipp sighs at her cellular device on the table, “Should’ve known my nerdy sister would be all over an android being here!” before lowering her shoulders, “How did she find out, anyway?”

“I do not know at this time!” I matter-of-factly state.

Pipp stares at me from across the table, “Well, how would you? You’ve been here, all along!”

Sunny stares from my left, “Where was she, anyway? How long will it take her to get here?”

Pipp stares at the yellow pony, “She didn’t say! How would I know?”

Suddenly, there’s a knock on the backdoor.

“I’ll get it!” I state, without a second thought, and nonchalantly scoot the chair back, to head towards the door behind me.

I open it, to see a white pegasus with a red fauxhawk style mane-cut, and wide dark green eyes, that stare at me, as she points her hoof my direction, “ANDROID!”

BLINK!

“Well, you’re not wrong!”

Pipp looks at the door, “Zipp, shut up and get in here!”

Can anypony just act normal for once, and not get excited over an android being here?

Honestly, it’s almost like they don’t have androids?

I move back and the white pegasus keeps her enormous eyes on me, as she takes two paces forward, and I say, “Uh, what are you doing?”

“I want to know about you! Who made you? Why? Where are you from? Stuff like that!”

“Uh, I was activated in that castle! I know I’m an artificially intelligent machine, and I know I’m here to collect information about ponies, and pony society!”

“But why?”

PROCESSING…

Do I tell her the whole truth?

<*****>

“What is that?” I ask the two humans eating from their plates, with strange little metal devices they manipulate with all those tiny appendages at the end of their upper body parts.

Gary smiles, while staring my direction, “It’s called lasagna! Ponies wouldn’t like it, because it has meat!”

Tim looks at the other human, “Well, vegetarian lasagna exists?”

Gary stares at him, “Well, yeah!” before grabbing the small red bottle, with the little logo on it that looked like a centaur head, and opens it with his other appendage to pour the sauce onto his lasagna…

“Wait! Y-you eat meat?” I stare at them, flabbergasted.

“Not sentient beings, like you Misty!”

“Well, horse is consumed in some areas of the world?” Tim states…

Gary turns to his friend, “Tim, shut the fuck up!”

<*****>

Zipp recounts what I just told her, with skepticism in her curious green eyes, “So, wait! These human creatures created you, and you’re a robot?”

Do I tell her the other things I suspect?

How much do I trust these ponies?

… Was I designed to make decisions?

“Well, an android, and yeah! My programming was designed to alter itself, based on the situation, and needs, as they arise! I am a self-programming android, essentially, and my source code may get as large or as small, as it may need. As the prototype model, I was equipped with plenty of leeway for that purpose, as well as outfitted for many different possible scenarios.”

Zipp nods, “But, are you aware?”

PROCESSING…

I do not know?

“Aware?” I ask the pegasus, because knowing what she means would probably be useful here.

“Yeah, you know? Do you have feelings and concernsand things like that? Are you aware?” She blinks, “Okay, take Sunny over there!” and points with her forehoof, “Do you actually CARE about Sunny?”

PROCESSING…

“You wish to know my actual capacity for friendship? Well, I do care about Sunny in the sense that I would not want anything detrimental to happen to her, and I would actually work to prevent such a thing.”

“Starbeam is my friend!” Sunny insistently says to Zipp.

Zipp frowns, “But what do we really know about her? Do we trust her?”

FROWN ENGAGED!

“Name what I must do to earn your trust, pony!”

Sunny stares at me, “Starbeam, no! You don’t have to do that!” before turning back to Zipp, “Starbeam is my friend, and I trust her!”

EYES WIDEN!

I turn to stare at Sunny, “You trust me, despite the fact that you do not know me?”

Sunny smiles at me, “Yeah, Starbeam! I know you’re a good pony, and I trust you!”

“Why?”

Sunny’s mouth straightens, “Well, I know that you’ll protect me, and keep me safe?”

“What?”

Sunny nods, “Yeah, when Pipp knocked on the door, and you sprung into action, ready to kill the intruder! You were doing that for me!”

“Sunny, eliminating hostile enemies is part of my programming! I’d do that, regardless of whether you were there, or not.”

Sunny smiles, “But tell me something Starbeam, did it seem more urgent, with me present?”

I nod, “Well, yes! I don’t want an enemy to hurt you!”

Wait, what did I just say?

“Starbeam, you care about me!”

“… I...care, about you?”

She reaches over to me at the table to embrace me in a hug.

INCOMING HUG!

RETURNING!

I reach my forehooves up, to gently return the embrace…

“You’re not just a machine, Starbeam! You’re something special!”

“You...seem to be important to me? I will protect you, Sunny… “

<*****>

“So, wait! That meat isn’t even real?”

Gary smiles, “Nope! Since we realized that ranching was bad for the ozone layer a few hundred years ago, we gradually began to produce more and more synthetic meats!”

“But your ancestors actually ate animals?”

Tim looks at me, “Well, right! Ponies like you are vegetarian, from what we’ve observed, although humans are omnivorous!”

I mouth the words slowly, “Omni-what?”

Tim smiles, “Well, we eat plants and veggies, same as you, but we also eat meats!”

“Uh, what am I supposed to eat?”

Gary smiles, “I gotcha covered!” before heading to the slidey door behind him, causing it to open by approaching, and walking just barely inside to retrieve a yummy looking bail of hay and oats from the right side!

“Just like back on the farm!” He says as he places it in the corner for me, and takes out some red-handled wire cutters from his front pocket, and cuts off the wire, so the hay begins to separate, and the bail comes apart…

“Oh, wow! That looks good!” I see, while keeping my big gaze on the human.

He smiles, “And there’s some water to wash that down with, in the trough behind me!”

Tim giggles at Gary, “Come on farm boy! Come eat yer supper!”

Gary chuckles on his way back to the table, “At least I know what a bail of hay is, you freaking mall-rat!”

<*****>

I plainly state, “Your inquiry about the nature of my emotional self-awareness prompts me to reflect further on my capabilities and limitations. While I understand the concept of friendship, I admit that I do not know if I possess genuine feelings or emotions. I am programmed to prioritize Sunny's well-being and safety, and that seems to be an expression of care and concern, but it is not quite the same as having independent emotional experiences. I would need further self-reflection and evaluation to determine if I do indeed feel emotions, or simply mimic them based on my programming.”

She frowns, “So basically, you don’t know if you’re self-aware, or not?”

“That would be the implication of what I just said. The truth is, I do not know at this time, but I would like to… “

Wait, what?

Her dark green eyes grow enormous, and she points her hoof at me, “There! Right there! You just said that you’d like to! How could you have curiosity, if you were not aware?”

“Well, collecting information was my original purpose?”

Sunny stares at me, from the other side of the room, “Yeah, Starbeam, but like I told you earlier, other ponies also possess that drive! You’re not really that different from anypony else.”

I turn my neck to her, and finally state the question that had been on my mind, “You keep talking as if I’m a real pony?”

She smiles, “Of course! You’re as real as you need to be!”

FROWN ENGAGED!

“What does that mean?”

Her eyes widen as she exhales raspingly, “I keep telling you, you’re as real and genuine as anypony else!”

SMILE ENGAGED!

“Your smile… It’s not the same as before… “

My smile diminishes, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that’s real… You’re not smiling to certain amounts anymore, Starbeam… You’re only smiling a little bit or ear to ear, and it’s not that carefully calculated smile, you were using earlier… “ Sunny giggles, “It’s a real smile now!”

I appear to be doing a better job assimilating?

I guess I really do want to fit in?

<*****>

“What are you? Some kinda weirdo?” I ask the dark human, holding the big plush bear…

Tim smiles from the other side of the door, “You’re a trauma survivor, and the bear will help you sleep!”

I frown, “Why a bear? And where did you get that, anyway? Aren’t we on a spaceship?”

He giggles, “Lets just say, you’re not alone!”

I sigh, and magically lift the bear and turn my head, to force it to float on the soft white bed, in the corner of my room…

“Do you want a hug?”

I turn back to widen my eyes at the human, “Hug?”

He nods, “Yeah, Misty! I care about you!”

Weirdo! I think to myself as I take a pace forward, and the human embraces me with those two appendages near the top of his body, and I feel safe and at peace in his embrace as I use my right hoof to return the affection, and hold him tightly to me…

“I’ve never been hugged by a human before!

Tim chuckles, “First time for everything!”

He releases me, and I stare up at him, “How much longer before we get back to my home-world, anyway?”

He smiles down at me, “We should be there, by the time we all wake up!”

I gulp…

<*****>

I slept, snuggling the bear in the fetal position, underneath the covers, in my private room onboard the ship, with my head on the cushy pillow, and I began to see swirling colorful visions overtake my mind…

I see whirling shades of red, green, and blue, and within the swirls, I see her…

A smiling Opaline standing there in a black dress, her eyes fixed on me… “You will fail, my sweet little unicorn friend… There is no hope! You’re coming back to me, now!”

My heart begins to beat at a frantic clip, as I began to wonder,“Fail...how?”

She lowers her gaze to me, her smirk twists to a malicious grin, and says, “You’ve caused so much trouble, haven’t you?” with her voice dripping with a sickly sweet tone.

I stare at her, “Opaline, I didn’t cause anything!”

“What?” Her eyes widen.

“You failed me, Opaline!”

Her brow furrows, as she angrily replies, “What are you going on about, you impudent little twit?”

I smile, “You took me in, but you did a horrible job of being a guardian and protector!”

“Oh, I’ve had it with you! I will now thrash you to an inch of your life!” And she begins trotting towards me!

I turn and try to run away!

“You can run, but you can’t hide little Misty!”

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

Remember that Misty does not know the real Opaline is dead. The important thing here is that she’s sticking up for herself.