The waking moment, just sitting there frozen in time. My natural reaction is, of course, to fling my eyes open to welcome the new day. However, I can’t feel anything and there isn’t anything to see except for the red. I can neither hear nor move any part of my body. All I can feel is the empty feeling of eternity as all I have to listen to or think about is the mechanical grinding within my chest.
I feel a rush of movement in the space surrounding me. Suddenly my vision fades away and breaks into blocks of varying shades of red. The red blocks fall away to reveal a golden sun with a white banner going across it: Solaris Inc. Which then rotates faster and faster as the banner fades away to expose lines of scrolling text which fill my vision:
Primary Power Cell: Status Fully Charged
Movement Core Drivers Loading from Drive L:\
Loading driver list: L:\fnct\drivers\
L:\fnct\drivers\motorfnct.inf
L:\fnct\drivers\wavefileconv.inf
L:\fnct\drivers\gyroaccell.inf
L:\fnct\drivers\internal\bldprssrreg.inf
L:\fnct\drivers\internal\gryomotorsync.inf
Primary Drivers Loaded
Secondary Drivers Uploaded To Secure Maneframe: RETRIEVING
[-> ]
[---> ]
[-----> ]
[------->]
FILES RETRIEVED
OS UPDATE COMPLETE
Solaris Cybernetic OS .2a Updated to .4b
New Update size: 216kb
GUI FILES PRESENT
Loading Targeting Parameters
Loading Biometrics Data
Starting HUD
eyeCAM(s) online...
Then everything goes black. At the center of my vision, four diagonal lines all pointing towards the center appear, followed by a rectangle in both the upper left and right corners of my vision. The blackness behind all of that has become a blur; a white blur that slowly starts to focus.
Along with my vision, I begin to hear my environment. Trying to move again lets me know that I am restrained. The ponies seem to be swarming around me as if panicking about my awakening. The image is finally focused enough for me to pick out five ponies in the room. The four in lab coats start retreating away from me to the corner with the one in the suit.
The stallion in black suit approaches me slowly with a smirk on his muzzle. His walks past me and starts typing on the terminal beside me. Lines of text start to roll over my eyes again as he types.
A weight is lifted from as I feel the different parts of my body start to come alive. I squirm as the electricity of the moment lights my nerves on fire. Something isn’t right yet. The muffled sounds in my ears clear, and I can hear everything. The whirring of the computers surrounding me in the room, the rush of people moving around, and the voices of the other ponies in the room all sound so vibrant.
“Well good morning!” says the pony in the suit as he waltzes into my field of vision, “You woke a bit earlier than expected.”
“Huh?” I say, a bit confused.
“I’m sorry for the restraints, but they made it easier to work on your body while it was upright,” he explains as one of the ponies in lab coats start to work on removing them.
“I suppose I had better explain what’s going on here. Do you remember anything before you woke up here? Anything at all?” he asks as the lab coat pony finally finishes removing the restraints.
I think back for a moment, trying to recall who I am. What was my name? Name. Name. Oh no. What is my name?
“No actually…I thought I had and that’s why I never panicked, but now that I actually think of it there isn’t anything I can’t even remember my name.” I reply.
“I figured as much. Well let me go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Edge, and I am one of the supervisory staff here at this facility. As for you, there isn’t much I can actually tell you other than your name is Circuit, and before this you were in a terrible accident. It involved a magical explosion in a lab at Hoofington. There you were one of the only ponies that survived that incident for any length of time. You are the last of them that is still living.”
He pulls up some pictures of a charred building that had glowing bits scattered out of the front with a rainbow colored liquid pooling on some places in the ground. There were charred bodies of other ponies, and then in the end of the slideshow the picture of where they found me, or what was left of the old me, in the on the other side of the wall where the blast seemed to have generated from.
“According to our records on the facility’s operations you were there that day as an inspector,” he says as he pulls up the ordered invoice to a contractor named Revelations LLC. and pointed a hoof towards my name and picture, “This is you right?”
“Yea, or at least what I remember of myself at least.” I replied.
“Do you want to learn more about who you were?” I stop and think for a moment, then I nod. “Then the best place to start looking is probably at one of their offices. I’ll upload the coordinates into your memory.” He pauses while he types something on his terminal.
“Oh, also if you don’t mind sticking around for a bit I would be very pleased to discuss what your new body is capable of. I’ve just enabled the ability to set waypoints in your heads up display, but that’s not all your new body has to offer,” he says.
“Sure. It’s not like I need to go anywhere this second,” I reply as I sit down.
“Well you really are the pinnacle of my success here. The only ‘survivor’ out of the accident was a bit of an overstatement. You were the most intact. You were still alive enough to be kept in a comatose state until we were ready to begin the operation. The truth is that you are way more machine now than pony, but you are also our only successful subject. You don’t feel any kind of pain right now do you?” He asks while looking me over.
“No. I’m not cringing or anything am I?” I retort sarcastically.
“No, but my experience with other ponies shows that some are extremely capable of internalizing pain.” He replies.
“Anyway, to continue. I personally oversaw this project, so I feel personally responsible to explain your body works, and at the very least get you fitted with production model parts,” he says as a cart was rolled into the room.
“Wait a minute here, what production parts?” I say wide-eyed.
“Well, the cybernetic pony frame that we’ve designed was originally designed for military use.” He pauses as the cart’s cover flipped open with a pneumatic hiss. “These are the parts that we didn’t bother to install because they weren’t necessary while you were in a coma.”
“I don’t really think I’ll be needing any of this... stuff. I’m supposed to be an engineer. Or at least that’s who you told me I was. All I want is to return home and figure out who I was, and maybe try to return to a normal life,” I say as looked over the contents of the cart.
“You won’t even let me go into details with any of this will you?” he asks as he raises an eyebrow. “Don’t actually answer that. I’m sure you don’t even know where home is.”
He really strikes a chord with that one. If crying could have been possible at this point, the feelings would have burst out all over the floor, but it seems that there isn't a limit to the dam blocking my emotions. I look at him in shock for a few moments.
He breaks the silence first and holds up a piece of paper and says, “Here is the address to your old home. It’s in Canterlot. Don’t worry, we kept up on the rent for you. All I really want is for you to stay long enough for us to properly acquaint you with your new body. It’s not our job to keep you locked up in here. So, please will you stay long enough to hear it?”
“Yeah, sure I’ll stay....Thanks for this. I suppose I should be a bit more grateful for all you've done for me here,” I reply.
“Look, you don’t owe us anything. You've helped us as much as we've helped you,” he says.
“Follow me out here and we’ll go to the design room.” He says as he starts to walk towards the door.
Getting off of the table, I put my weight on my hooves and feel as the limb responds by making the hoof widen to stabilize me. I force the rest over the edge of the table and take a few steps. They felt oddly natural as my weight shifts evenly between my hooves as I make my way to the door. I once I make it through the doorway, I spot Edge walking into another office a few doors down the hall.
Once inside the office, I shut the door behind me. Edge is waiting on the other side of the office. He has something in his hoof: a round object that glows with a red warmth.
“What’s that?” I ask as he brings it my way.
“This is the permanent core for your body. It should be able to last nearly infinitely, barring that you don’t do anything stupid with it. Hold yourself very still for a moment,” he says as he touches my chest. I feel a plate slide away as warnings started to stream across my field of vision.
Then he pushes until my chest clicks, and he proceeds to remove a glowing blue orb from my chest.......
Nothingness. No feelings whatsoever.
Another awakening. This one feels much more natural than the first time, though I think that this red backdrop is still a little creepy to wake up to.
Primary Power Cell: Status OK
Loading Previous Power State From Drive L:/
OS Up To Date
GUI FILES PRESENT
Loading Targeting Parameters
Loading Biometrics Data
Starting HUD
eyeCAM(s) online
Life comes flooding back as my nerves set ablaze once again. The feeling of falling backwards makes me start to fall forward. Luckily, Edge is right there to catch me as I start toppling to the ground.
“Whoa there, calm down. You’ll get used to waking up. It shouldn’t always hurt the more you get used to it,” he says as he helps me back to my hooves.
“Thanks, but can I ask what was wrong with that one?” I ask as I point to the glowing orb that he sets on the desk.
“This one was just a test-output level of power. It was mostly just to ensure that your living parts were kept alive as we tested various parts of your body for movement and responsiveness when hooked up to our computers. It was never really meant for long term use. At the rate of use it probably would’ve lasted another week or so, but that’s assuming that you knew how to manage the amount of power output that you used,” he says as he unrolled the blueprints for what looked like a cross section of the orb itself.
“The one that I just powered you back on with should be self sustaining as long as you eat and satisfy all of your proper bodily functions. It also, in theory, has the ability to do a burst peak of energy of several hundred times the normal output, but you would need to use it sparingly due to the stresses exerted on the joints.” he continues as he shows the efficiency at different levels of power on the graphs.
“Your new eyes are capable of fully augmented reality. For the military applications, we made a face shield with similar functions so as to protect the sensitive parts of your eyes, but seeing as you weren’t interested...”
“Yea, yea I get it,” I interrupt. “If I want any of the military applications, I’ll be sure to ask.”
“Well, ok if you insist. Anyway continuing on, next up is in fact your body as a whole. You should be able to function absolutely normally. By that I mean that you can eat, drink, walk, trot, or whatever suits your heart’s desire,” he says as he demonstrates each aforementioned action.
“However, due to you being a cyborg, you are able to draw simply off of your core for about a month before it is depleted. You should also sleep because your mind is still organic and needs that time to shut down. However, to sleep or otherwise you do not need to power yourself off. Nor would I suggest that you do. It’s much more efficient if you simply try to fall asleep like a normal pony should,” he says as he starts to bundle all of the papers back together into one disheveled pile.
“So basically I should be like normal?” I ask.
“Yes. The next step here is to get the rest of your cybernetic body coverings fitted. Come with me and I’ll get you set up with those,” he says as he proceeds to walk out of the room. He then waits for me just outside the door.
I step out of the office and wait for him while he locks the door behind us. He then gestures to a hallway off to the right of us, and begins leading the way. At the end of the hallway is a square opening taller than me with a platform sitting on the floor.
“Go ahead and step on the platform and I’ll set the parameters for you,” he says as he starts tapping away at the terminal.
“Alright. Don’t freak out now, that platform will take you through the fabrication part of productions. The machines that I’m using...”
“Hey now! Do I look like I’m in any sort of panic right now?” I interrupt a bit tired of him jumping to conclusions.
“Well...no. I suppose not,” he replies.
“Look, I trust you right now. There isn’t much sense in trying to be meticulously careful about hurting my feelings.” I say.
“Well then here we go!” he says as he makes a final tap on the terminal. The platform jerks forward, and lights in front of me flicker to life as I start making progress through the tunnel. Panels in the walls slide open and mechanical arms come to life. The arms work in symmetrical unison to attach the coverings onto each part of my exposed frame.
The machines retreat back into their little slots once they were done. The platform that I am standing on speeds up and gets to the end of the tunnel where it lowers. Edge is there waiting at the end. He has a pleased look on his face as he looks me over.
“Well?” he asks as he points a hoof at the mirrors to my left.
The fur-like panels actually match really well with the rest of my grey coat. The orange lines that separate the panels kind of stand out, but in the good way. My guess is that he designed it that way so that it would mesh with my orange mane. It’s a good look.
“No complaints here,” I say.
“Good, it all looks functional. You don’t feel any sort of restrictions do you?” he asks while he watches me move my limbs.
“No. I can’t really tell any difference,” I reply.
“Great! I was hoping it would bond naturally, but we never actually got to that point in a moving production model. The synthetics should act as a natural skin once the bonding is complete. We designed it out of living tissue from your original coat so it should behave like a normal coat of fur.” he says.
“Wait...this is mine?” I ask as I feel the fur.
“Yes. Well... mostly,” he says hesitantly.
“I’m just going to leave this conversation right there. Thank you,” I say.
“Well I guess there isn't much else to get you set up and ready to go. Do you want an outfit to uh...cover your chest area?” he asks while gesturing to my...my oh wow I hadn't looked down.
My chest is glowing! There are little lines that lead out of the core that disrupt the smooth fur and then abruptly stop. I guess it would be a good idea to cover this up so I don’t freak anyone out.
“Yea, It would be a good idea wouldn't it?” I asked rhetorically.
“Don’t worry. We have something you can take,” he says.
He motioned to the door across the hall from us. The door opened up into an office. I reached up and gave me the the dark blue coat that was hanging on the coat rack.
The coat fit well enough. It has a nice feel to it. It isn’t as restricting as it first looked. I rolled the sleeves up a bit to make the sleeves shorter than my leg. Once I finished this I turned to him.
“I suppose that you want to get to your business now, right?” he asks as he pulls something out of his suit pocket and puts it in my hoof.
“That’s a train ticket back to Canterlot. Don’t worry about your expenses for now. You’ll have to make a decision on whether or not to stay with the company. Until then, I’ll go ahead and let you get on your way home,” he says.
“Take the elevator just down the hall to the 1st floor. That’ll be the lobby. Once you make it down there I’m sure you can make it out on your own.” He says as a marker in my vision appears pointing to my left.
“Thank you again. I’ll be sure to call you once I’ve made my decision,” I say.
I turn to follow the marker out the door. The elevator was only a couple of doors down from the office. Once inside I pressed the button for the 1st floor.
Once the elevator arrived the doors opened to a huge room. I spot two huge glass doors that the marker designated as the exit. I walked through the room collecting stares from the ponies in the room as I passed. The giant door frames loom over me as I walk through them into the outside world. The only thing I need to do now is follow the marker to the train station.
Author's Note
I would like to thank Moowell for all of the edit's and proofreading he did for me on this one.
