open Mechquestria: My Life As A Equine Robot (00110010)

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

@@Denim&Venom,

 

Emerald hovered there slack jawed. "Um that's mine..." She raised a hoof in objection. "I've had that for a 117 years give it back." 

 

"Yeah good luck with that Emerald, she dose not give things back."

 

"...But...but it's mine, not her's and it's not a toy it's deadly weapon to something living at least."

[Denim&Venöm 19,035]

@@Aurora Lights,

"I'll, turn off my hearing then." She tapped on her ear piece and adjusted the volume accordingly. She then began pushing down on the needles, gradually ramping up the pressure.   

 

@Mentis Soliloquy,@Randimaxis,@reader8363, @@Shadow Dancer,@@bronislav84

 

.

 

"Oh ho! I'm not living now? At first I was just gonna go with 'You hit me with it, I get to keep it.' but now you and any chances you had of ever getting it back can go f##k yourselves! Ha!" She looked up at her new acquisition. "I'm going to name you Silvia. I'll hang you over my fireplace when and if I get one. I will never wash the blood off of you. " ​She said as she started stroking 'Silvia'

 

She then heard Lekrta. "111 years? F################k. That's... a long time to be offline. S##t. Imma need upgrades."  A lot was goign through her head now. 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Denim&Venom

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@Denim&Venom,

 

Drone growled in pain as the needle pressed into his spine and then clicked, making her take her hoof off of it, the pin popped up and had blood on the end of the spike, As she did more of the Pins, he seemed like he was in agonizing pain, though she couldn't hear him, his yells and screams were ear splitting.

[Shadow Dancer 111]

@@Denim&Venom,@@bronislav84,  

 

Marcus eventually made it to the triple layered steel blast door and with a sigh took a hilt from the inside of his chassis and activated the blade and to any who played the old Halo titles they would easily recognize the weapon. (As mentioned Marcus is a nerd) Marcus used the slightly over four inch blade to cut his way through the blast doors and withing about fifteen minutes he finished and put the Energy Sword back inside his chassis hidden away from even the best x-ray scans and continued down the hall.

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

@@Randimaxis,@@Denim&Venom,

 

"I did not mean that!...Sliva, no that is mine I made that its mine I'll steal somthing of yours you put me in hospital for a month last time, you are heartless." She landed and walked to the lounge found a couch and lay on it on her tummy she mopped she was going to get her weapon back...

 

Crystal just stayed near twitch. 

[reader8363 1,281]

"What words of wisdom to you have for our friend Luster?"

@@Denim&Venom,

Shadow leaned back in the chair and said,

"Nope. Even if she was royalty, I wouldn't have listened to her."

Shadow turned to Professor Bolt and said,

"Well, it doesn't work for all magic, I can make tentacles out of shadows and I can hold her with it. It's a pleasure to meet ya, Professor Bolt and Sparky, name's Shadow Beast and I'm a guard here."

 

Feeder got up and said, "How about you attack one's that are trying to destroy Equestria and not Equestria. Just a suggestion. Name's Feeder."

Edited February 26, 2016 by reader8363

[Denim&Venöm 19,035]

@@Aurora Lights,

"Um d-d-dont' worrry! I think we're almost done!" she said in a panicked tone. 

 

 

 

@Mentis Soliloquy,@Randimaxis,@reader8363, @Shadow Dancer,@bronislav84

 

.

 

 

This. Was quite a bit for luster to process.

 

"111 years. Nearly everypony I knew was probably dead. The friendship council areprobably gone. The crusaders must've been ancient at this point. All those that took the time to be my friends? Lyra, Bonbon, Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy, Minuette, The Berries, The Doctor. All gone. The other ponies that helped make me are either dead or withered. Everyone on the human staff? They're all gone as well. I actually would've spared them." 

 

"And now I'm obsolete. Obsolete. Ob. So. Lete. That's a term I would've never ascribed to myself. I was the pinnacle of technological excellence. Now I'm a dated relic of the past. I invested time and resources in repurposing myself to fight. To protect a nation that believed in love, tolerance and friendship, against a world that didn't. And now those investments are no longer paying off. A soldier with no war to fight. What the f##k am I supposed to do now? 

 

No. There has to be more. How can they be certain we won't be attacked? How will we know they won't change their minds? How will we knwo they aren't trying to develop a way around Equestrian magic? No no. I'm not wholly convinced yet."

 

Luster just sat there. Looking at the ground. Lost in thought. 

[Shadow Dancer 111]

@@Denim&Venom, (just gonna pop in now)(if I replied to a thought sorry)

 

Marcus having cut through the doors walked down to the end of the hall to where a lone office with its light still on was located. As Marcus approached it he heard the familiar voice of Luster speaking. 

 

"And now I'm obsolete. Obsolete. Ob. So. Lete. That's a term I would've never ascribed to myself. I was the pinnacle of technological excellence. Now I'm a dated relic of the past. I invested time and resources in repurposing myself to fight. To protect a nation that believed in love, tolerance and friendship, against a world that didn't. And now those investments are no longer paying off. A soldier with no war to fight. What the f##k am I supposed to do now? 

 

No. There has to be more. How can they be certain we won't be attacked? How will we know they won't change their minds? How will we knwo they aren't trying to develop a way around Equestrian magic? No no. I'm not wholly convinced yet."

 

Marcus was a bit interested in the reason for her creation, then listening in to the conversation further he frowned and decided that he might as well answer the question seeing that his only obligation was to not give the reason he was actually in Equestria or that there were more then just him.

 

"As a human myself I can easily give you a very simple set of reasons. It's not worth the effort and time it would take to attack and take over. It is much more profitable and beneficial for both humans and ponies to trade goods and share tech then to kill each other in a war that would end in heavy losses on both sides." Marcus leaned against the wall habitually.

 

"To add to that there are already conflicts going on in the human Earth with the aim of cutting down terrorist cells who are anti tech, anti western, anti pony, anti human, or a combination of the four. Hell a few of those cells are even in Equestria if the rumor mill or news is anything to go by. Anyway sorry to intrude I was just seeing what was going on and found this place, and to those that don't know me you may call me Indicus."

 

(Damn it if that was a thought sorry)

Edited February 27, 2016 by Shadow Dancer

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

@@Randimaxis, @@Denim&Venom,@@bronislav84, @@reader8363,  @@Shadow Dancer, 

 

"I don't need to say who I am, after today I just want to retire more now...Lektra can you tell your 'child' to give my 'toy' back it will be a family heirloom when I die from somthing, whenever that happens." She kept moping on the couch.

 

"Well my name is Crystal Note must call me Bass some of you may of heard my music if you listen to techno but I do lots of stuff." 

[Randimaxis 8,652]

@Mentis Soliloquy - @Denim&Venom - @reader8363

 

 

Who are all of you, and what do you do?

 

 

 

Sheesh - if everypony talked to her like that, no wonder Luster went a little nutty; she's obviously not a baby, and the idea of Artificial Intelligence and 'sentience' being hand-in-hoof isn't THAT hard to accept... but Professor Bolt DOES know what's going on here, at least more than I do.  Then again, it seems like everyone knows more about what's going on than I do.

 

Scary, but simply because of the amount of Magitek I'm seeing here, that pony could pull Twitch into pieces easily... I hope they let us leave soon - the longer I spend here, the more I chance getting made.

 

Twitch was expected to respond; he'd stick out like a sore thumb if he didn't.

 

Okay... you can do this.  If you can't, they'll pull Twitch apart, and you'll be a case of frizzle-fried S.O.L.; so you have to, no bones about it.

 

"Twitch Glitch.  Uhm... hi.  Enrolling."

 

Short words; no need to call attention to yourself.  Hopefully, you'll just be another weird bot tagging along... but just in case...

 

Very specific sets of sensor packets began analyzing each and every pony here, searching for something absolutely innocuous to anyone who didn't know what Twitch was capable of:

 

Vibration frequencies.  

 

Simply recording the extremely minute, specific frequency that each and every pony here naturally gave off, be they organic or metal - even if the scans were detected, there would be very little idea as to what their overall purpose would be.  Yet, this was something Grant both hoped he would never have to use... and was practically chomping at the bit to use, too.

 

Regardless, Twitch would make no waves... and Grant's heart would beat a steady staccato as he gritted his teeth and hoped for the best.

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@Denim&Venom,

 

Drone placed his face in the carpet as the pain finally stopped, the last pin out of it's locked position. He slowly pushed himself up with shaking hooves, he sat on his hind end as his back bled from the open gash in his back, Angel could see the bones in his spine, they were obviously modified to fit with the armor he had. He growled as blood slowly dripped down and he picked up the augmented spine, pressing a button and the armor formed the exo- skeleton he had used for years. Very rarely had he ever taken this machine off, but he had work to do, so he can't use his normal attributes. He looked at Angel and smiled at her slightly, "Th-Thank you, Angel...That hurt, but, I'm ok...I just...can't walk very much." he said and he started to take off the huge exposed cannon on the armor's back, the cannon extended as he unbolted the gun barrel, it clanking to the ground hard with the firing mechanism. He sighed and placed his face on his armor's shoulder, his face showing obvious pain.

[captainborgue 343]

"CAMPUS EVACUATION ORDERS SUPERSEDE LECTURE REQUIREMENT, VLAD SEES NO POINT IN BROADCAST," VLAD protested, as Bee set up the SMARTboard in the now deserted lecture hall.

 

"One of the advantages of a student body as integrated into the network as ours, is that attendance is not required. They will still get the lecture, and thus be better prepared for the exams next week. The order was to evacuate the premises, not to cease all educational activity," Bee explained, reviewing the last of the material she intended to review.

 

"THAT... IS VALID POINT."

 

"Oh, good, glad you approve," Bee said, sarcastically, as she finished her outline and set up the holo-recorder. "Record the lecture material, but don't stream it- I want to go over over the full video before making the feed live. Understood?"

 

VLAD pinged an acknowledgement rather than vocalize it, as Bee had initiated the recording process. "Hello, everypony, I hope you are all well. Given today's events, holding live class is not currently feasible- but we have a great deal of material to cover in a limited time frame, so I am broadcasting today's lecture to you all directly to peruse at your own recognizance. Keep in mind though, there is an exam next week, and today's lecture will have topics present on the exam. As you'll recall, we have been studying defensive strategies in eusocial insect colonies- last time, we examined in depth the chemical responses eusocial insects use to communicate defensive orders as well as ward off attackers and the efficacy of such methods. Those of you concurrently studying emergent behaviors should take particularly careful notes- today's topic involves naturally occurring emergent behavior in eusocial insects. Namely, bees. Yes, Professor Danger Bee is going to talk to you about how bees are dangerous, so I'll give you a minute of silence to get all your laughs out before I continue," Bee said, smirking at the last comment. She had been trying to think of a funny quip about today's topic for almost two weeks, and sadly, that was the best she came up with.

 

"Now then, we are going to examine non-hybridized, non-africanized honey bees, as a control group to eliminate the possible genetic tampering effects on emergent behavior. Those of you with weak constitutions, be advised the video segment I am about to present may be considered graphic," Bee said, initiating a video feed. In it, a trio of giant wasps had pushed their way into a honeybee hive, and were methodically cutting the worker bees in half with their impressively large mandibles, completely unaffected by the workers' attempts to sting as a defensive method."As you can see, the stings of the defending workers have no effect whatsoever on the attackers- they simply continue systematically bisecting workers, almost like an assembly line. They are not agitated, they are not hurried. They are almost relaxed, effortless, in how they move from one worker to the next to the next. Clearly, the primary defensive method this bee species has evolved is utterly useless," she said, time lapsing the video by several minutes before resuming it, as the wasps now roamed the now entirely empty hive, pulling out larva and either eating them or flying off, before returning a moment later to continue. "This hive, of some 80,000 bees, was completely depopulated by a total of nineteen wasps over the course of one hour. That's an impressive feat by the wasps- but it begs the question, how are there still bee hives in regions where these wasps live? If we examine the anatomy of one such wasp-" Bee said, pulling up an enlarged slide showing a dissected wasp with various pointers highlighting anatomical features. "you can see that their physiological structure almost appears designed to attack bee hives. Their chitin is thicker than a bee's stinger can penetrate, but has these tiny empty air pockets embedded in it to reduce their weight, making long flights less taxing. We can see this region show signs of a stinger penetration, indicating that the air pockets also reduce chitinous fragmentation, which would mean a faster recovery time and less energy expended in regrowing the chitin layer. Their mandibles have this pointed segment midway up the mandibular arch, which is what actually does the bisecting- and corresponds precisely to the narrowest section between the thorax and abdomen of the bees they prey upon. This strongly implies an evolutionary progression specifically aimed at bees- namely, bees of a certain size, which limits the range of species they can feasibly consume. Now, a predator that is as efficient and successful as this wasp would quickly exhaust its food supply- but that has not been the case, as in the three research papers I am linking in the sources section, the number of confirmed wasp hives in each of six regions has remained constant- and in one case, has actually fallen, while the number of confirmed beehives has fluctuated within the same tolerances consistently," Bee said, pulling up relevant charts from each study as she spoke.

 

"For those of you who haven't spent a lot of time buried in entomological papers, here's the takeaway: where there are wasp populations, there is a drop in bee populations, but only a temporary one. We've seen how easily these wasps can utterly destroy an active hive, so what prevents them from doing so on a larger scale? One possibility is that they simply don't need to eat much- but again, we can look at their physiology- they have a large body size for an insect, large enough that their wings are incapable of producing dynamic stall as a primary means of locomotion, which means they have to work harder to maintain flight. By the way, anyone who can tell me where else I discussed dynamic stall in lecture without said lecture being specifically about dynamic stall gets an extra ten points," Bee said. she had gone over dynamic stall in a lecture about bumblebee physiology- which had been something of a lark, since she had not intended to talk about bumblebees, but some idiot had posted a meme on her faculty stream about how bumblebees were not shaped correctly to fly or some other such nonsense, and she had been so livid that she immediately spent the next lecture session, in every course she taught, explaining in excruciating detail that yes, bumblebee physiology is perfectly capable of flight.

 

"So the hypothesis that the wasps need to consume very little is on shaky ground, enough so that I feel comfortable dismissing it. That leaves a quandary- if the wasps can kill beehives so easily, and it isn't a lack of necessity that prevents them from doing so, what else could be enabling beehives to either survive an attack or bounce back? and here, fillies and gentlecolts, is where we get to discuss Honey Bee Death Cuddles," bee said, pulling up another video. It started the same way, several giant wasps chewed their way through a hive wall, crawled inside, and began bisecting agitated workers. Only this time, the workers didn't fly in to try and sting, but crawled all over the wasps- many were easily pulled off and killed, but more and more and more workers continually piled on, on top of each other, several layers deep. Bee time lapsed two minutes on the video- showing each wasp killing dozens more workers- before resuming playback, right before the workers simply flew away from the now clearly dead wasps.

 

"what happened here, is that the workers covered the wasps in what I will henceforth refer to as a Bee Ball, covering the attackers with bodies, and covering those bodies with more bodies, and covering those with still more. Remember- arthropods don't have lungs, they breathe through pores. so what happens when those pores are covered? They begin to suffocate. Combine that with the increased body temperature created by so many tiny bee bodies all cuddled together, and this beehive survived the assault by simultaneously cooking and choking their attackers. Or, to put it another way, cuddling them to death."

 

Bee stopped for a moment, and took a sip of water. She waited a full two minutes to give her students time to process the bizarre thing they had just seen and heard. "I don't need to tell you that honey bee evolution did NOT grant them killer cuddles. their physiology is clear- defensive capacity centers entirely around a venomous sting, which results in death of the individual who uses it to prevent an injured individual from draining hive resources. Cuddles are not a factor in their physiological design- especially if we note at timestamp 14:05:37, where we can see a dozen or so dead workers remain near or atop the wasp bodies after the Bee Ball disperses, implying that even some of the workers are choked and cooked in this strategy. Which means if it was not an evolutionary adaptation, then it could only be an emergent behavior. These bees devised the method, entirely on their own, and devised a means of communicating their coordinated efforts with the other workers- and possibly with other hives, as well. As we've seen, it is a Pyrrhic victory- the bees lost enormous numbers of workers- but for eusocial insects, any victory where the Queen survives enables the hive to continue. And in this case, with the scouting wasps killed, there was no way for them to communicate back to their hive the location of this food source, eliminating the possibility of reinforcement. This, then, is why the predator-prey balance is maintained: the wasps do not have the resources to send significant numbers of attackers, and the bees that can muster a defense bounce back from the assault, while smaller, less developed hives are destroyed too quickly for the Death Cuddle attack to be utilized. This serves to eliminate small hives that would compete for resources with larger, well developed hives, and reduces the population of large hives without compromising survivability. The behavior is emergent, but the effect is still the primary developmental feature of evolution: the Red Queen Law in action," Bee said, trying not to sound proud as she wrapped up the lecture. She had spent two years compiling study after study in an effort to elevate the Red Queen concept from mere Hypothesis into provable Law, and though there was not yet consensus on the scale of, say, Law of Gravity, there was enough of it that she did not mind using the terminology.

 

"You must run as fast as you can, to stay where you are. In this case, the Evolutionary Arms Race had left the bees at a marked disadvantage, but they adapted behaviorally to compensate, and in so doing the predator-prey balance is restored and equilibrium maintained. Now, you all got the study guide last time, so if you'll look at the glossary of terms, the ones covered today in lecture that you will need to review are "Bee Ball", "emergent behavior", and it would be a good idea to review "dynamic stall", both the benefits of it and the effects of a lack of it. Regular classes will resume as soon as the campus-wide lockdown is lifted, so I will hopefully see everypony here next time. That will be the last session before the exam, so we'll focus on review. Now, some of you anxious ponies may already be freaking out, but remember this is NOT a make-or-break exam like finals, so chill out," Bee said, giving the recorded a smile before shutting it off.

 

"Did you get all that, VLAD"?

 

"YES. WAS BORING. VLAD ADD SMOOTH, SEXY JAZZ TO SCENES OF BEE BALL DEATH CUDDLES TO STIMULATE HUMOR RESPONSE. EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS SHOW THAT SMOOTH SEXY JAZZ INSERTED INTO NOT SMOOTH OR SEXY CONTENT IS SEEN AS FUNNY. TRANSMITTING NOW," VLAD said, sounding a little bit smug.

 

Bee facehoofed. "Dammit, VLAD. You're going to make me a meme again, and I'm just not ready for that kind of attention, ok? And what happened to waiting for me to review the content before transmitting? You pinged me an acknowledgement and everything!"

 

"VLAD ACKNOWLEDGED REQUEST, BUT DID NOT AGREE TO IT. VLAD SCANNED RECORDING BEFORE TRANSMISSION, NO ERRORS IN VIDEO, AUDIO, SYNCHING, HOLO IMAGING, OR EMBEDDED CONTENT DETECTED. WAS NO NEED FOR SLOW ORGANIC REVIEW PROCESS."

 

"Semantics? are you seriously arguing semantics with me?"

 

"IS NOT ARGUMENT IF VLAD IS CORRECT AND ORGANIC IS NOT."

Edited March 5, 2016 by captainborgue

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@captainborgue, @@Denim&Venom,

 

Drone sighed as he finished his work in a pained fashion, He looked over and saw Angel snoozing away. He sighed and looked at his armor, softly placing his hoof on the chest, He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, he then said in a soft voice, "Excalibur...Can you...Can you, you know...think for yourself? Wh-what I'm asking is...Are you sentient? Do you know what you are, or who you are? I mean, with that much processing power, you can't not have a sentience to you..." he asked the machine, the glowing red eyes resting on Drone, "​Operator...I do have sense of what I am...I am a Mark VII Heavy Combat Mech Prototype. I know how to process complex questions that the Operator asks. I have a large Database Matrix, Thus I can Answer any question the Operator has. But, as for true sentience...I do not believe I have such complex Matrix Software. " ​Drone sighed softly and looked down, " Excalibur, run software update." the machine nodded and it stood stiff for a few minutes, then he reported, "Software Updated. Advanced Question Matrix updated. Target acquisition updated. Revival Procedure Updated. Full Hard Drive Reboot..."  ​Drone smiled slightly as the machine came back on and it stood on it's hind legs, the machine's physical posture shifting asit looks at Drone, " Scanning Lifeform...Sentinel Drone...Database updated...Professor Drone, Pleasure to meet you. I am Excalibur Advanced Combat Armor. " Drone Smiled slightly before his armor walked over to him and opened it's anterior armor plating, allowing him to enter his armor and Cybernetics again he slowly made himself stand on his rear hooves, pain written all over hi face as he stepped backwards into the armor and he gasped as large needles entered his vertebrae again, the needles locking into place and injecting a pain suppressor, the armor closing him in the machine, he looked down at his hooves and smiled, "Well, now that I can walk like this, I can be a lot more effective in combat." he nodded and fell back to all four as his armor retracted and he walked out the door, soon after walking a few blocks he decided to visit the college again.

 

He walked into the school almost unnoticed by anyone, He sighed as he walked through the empty halls, though he stopped when he heard a voice, a female. He stopped outside of the door before she finished speaking, he smiled slightly as he listened to the voice of Bee. He slowly opened the door and looked at the mare, He then spoke up, "Hi...I don't think I've seen you here before...I mean, when I was working here anyway." he blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his neck, He smiled sheepishly and looked at her then he gulped softly before he spoke up again, "I'm Professor Drone...Uh Sentinel Drone....It's nice to meet you, Oh, and uh...All my friends just call me Drone." he said and looked around at the classroom.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Aurora Lights

[captainborgue 343]

@@captainborgue, @@Denim&Venom,

 

He walked into the school almost unnoticed by anyone, He sighed as he walked through the empty halls, though he stopped when he heard a voice, a female. He stopped outside of the door before she finished speaking, he smiled slightly as he listened to the voice of Bee. He slowly opened the door and looked at the mare, He then spoke up, "Hi...I don't think I've seen you here before...I mean, when I was working here anyway." he blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his neck, He smiled sheepishly and looked at her then he gulped softly before he spoke up again, "I'm Professor Drone...Uh Sentinel Drone....It's nice to meet you, Oh, and uh...All my friends just call me Drone." he said and looked around at the classroom.

 

"INTRUDER DETECTED!" VLAD declared, as it tried to initiate defensive measures. Bee was barely able to restrain it, though she managed to retain control considering that, in a classroom after a lecture, the odds of an actual threat appearing were minimal. Bee figured VLAD was on high alert from all the craziness from today and was just being paranoid. Of course, had she checked the preliminary readouts from VLAD's passive sensor array, she would have seen that the reason VLAD was trying to initiate defense measures was the presence of a augmented combat skin. At the very LEAST a mark five, possibly even higher than that.

 

"Oh, hey! Yeah sorry about VLAD. There's been some weird crap going on today, so everypony is on high alert. Including, sadly, my onboard AI," Bee said, apologetically. "I don't remember seeing a combat skin around- I mean, I know there's somepony in there, so maybe we've met before. I usually stick to the entomology lab or my office or whatever classroom they give me. Today, though, just... ugh. There's a reason I stick to bugs. If a bug injures anypony, it's that pony's fault for not understanding how the bug works. Bugs aren't malicious, they aren't vindictive, they don't have jealousy or fear or rage or shame. Bugs are easy. Ponies... ponies are much more complicated," Bee said, sighing heavily.

 

"Well on the chance we legitimately haven't met yet, it's a pleasure to meet you, Drone. And also, I like the name on multiple levels. I'm Bee, Danger Bee. You've heard VLAD, I;m sure- it occasionally likes to seize control over my vocal subroutines, along with everything else. Price I have to pay for still being alive, I guess," Bee said, and confirmation pings started coming in verifying that students had received the transmission. "So, just out of curiosity. VLAD's passive sensor array picked you up as a potential threat, since it's paranoid like that. And, see, my normal pony ear tells me you're a stallion in that rig, and not here to deliberately hurt anypony. I've been wrong about things all day today, while VLAD has been on its A-game. So, which of us is right?"

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@captainborgue,

 

Drone smiled and blushed lightly at the compliment, He shook his head softly and looked up at her with his eyes before he looked into her eyes, "Well, Your both right...I have Heavy Assault Exo-Armor Mark 7. But, No, I'm no threat. In fact I try to defend the world from danger...Well, I used to anyway. But, uh, thanks for the compliment, I like your name too." He looked at her chest and cybernetics before advancing closer to her, stopping about 3 feet away, he had already closed the door, so it was quite hard to focus on anything else but her and the Cybernetics she had. He smiled slightly, "Yeah, Ponies are uh...Strange... I prefer robotics and cybernetics. I can work on anything you put in front of me, and yes, that includes you, Bee." he smiled a little more, " But, I am sorry you had to have those modifications. I can tell you've been through a lot..." He paused a moment and listened to the loud ring of silence in his ears before he broke the deafening silence, "My cybernetics keep me stable. I can survive without it, but...It makes life hard. I can't really walk without it, and if I do manage to walk without my cybernetics, it's in a lot of pain." He looked away as he started thinking about the Lab again, his mind flashing images of the dark memories.

 

He seemed to be in a trance like state as he thought deeply, His mind racing with thoughts and emotions and feelings as he saw the images. He finally came out of his entranced state with tears in his eyes and his body shaking, He looked confused for a moment before he wiped his face and blinked a few times, "I-I'm sorry...I don't uh...I don't normally do that..." he said in a soft, quivering voice, trying to stabilize his emotions and breathing and heartrate.

[captainborgue 343]

Bee tried not to stare after his comment on fixing things. Was that... was that flirting? She hadn't really dated much since being augmented- stallions didn't usually care for VLAD chiming in with helpful suggestions on everything from cuisine to recreational activities to romantic techniques. "Oh, that's a bit cheeky," Bee said, grinning. "But alas, there's nothing to fix, really. I just had a major diagnostic done about an hour ago and everything is functioning at expected capacity and within prescribed tolerances. Or as VLAD would say, ORGANIC DEGRADATION IS PROCEEDING AT EXPECTED RATE or some other such thing," Bee said, trying not will herself to not feel awkward at the fact that there was a stallion in a very impressive piece of hardware standing very close by.

 

Bee thought she heard something in his voice, before he went all far away for a minute anyway. It almost looked like an AI had exerted autonomy, like VLAD did to her all the damn time, but as far as she knew most ponies- even augmented ones- didn't have onboard AI constructs. Heck, most vehicles and buildings didn't have onboard AI, just simple programming and network connectivity. So either she had more in common with Drone than entomologically derived names, or she was seeing something that wasn't there. Which, given her track record today, seemed the more likely explanation. Bee waited patiently for whatever minor fugue state issue had occurred to pass.

 

"DETECTING ELEVATED CORTISOL LEVELS AND INCREASED HEART RATE. EITHER SUBJECT'S FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE HAS BEEN TRIGGERED OR SUBJECT IS EXPERIENCING EXTREME STRESS," VLAD said, with its usual lack of anything resembling tact. Bee just waited for Drone to snap out of whatever was going on- she had a feeling she knew what it was, as it sure seemed like a flashback. She'd had lots of those just after the incident, it had almost turned her away from bugs entirely. It took a lot of effort to come to the realization that it wasn't their fault, they were just doing what they always do. And neither was it her fault, it was an accident. Nopony was to blame, especially not herself.

 

She scooted a little closer to him, so that her face was about a foot away from his- or, the face of his combat skin, anyway. "Hey now, it's all right. You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault. I mean, unless I'm totally misinterpreting what just happened which looked like a flashback. But I'm pretty sure it's not your fault. Now then- I have two questions for you, are you ready? Ok, I guess 'are you ready' technically makes it three. Anyways, one- what brings you into this particular classroom at this particular time? And two- and before I ask I want to make it perfectly clear that this is in no way a reaction to the loaded comment about working on me even though that was kinda sexy- do you want do go grab a cup of coffee with me?"

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@captainborgue,

 

Drone listened to her talk carefully before he looked down and his armor slowly shed away, retracting into the composite metal spine he had, he was quite a handsome fellow, his eyes were blue, his mane was white with one bright blue streak in the middle, his fur was solid white with no other markings, his tail also matched his mane. He smiled slightly, " Well, I thank you for not making fun of me and helping me calm down... Like I said, I don't normally do things like that, crying I mean... But, as for the first question, I was just wandering around. I had nothing better to do and I was here earlier. Just wanted to see if anypony was still around inside of here. I was right." he said and thought about the answer to the second question, but in his mind he said to himself, 'Drone...She just asked YOU out... But what about Em, and Angel?...Actually...Screw it, they are better off without me anyway, they were just fine for five bucking years without me...'  ​Drone smiled at Bee kindly as he said, "Sure. I'd love to have a cup of coffee with you." he then blushed lightly as he gazed into her eyes almost in a trance like state, but this time, his mind was at peace. 

[captainborgue 343]

Bee watched with interest as the combat skin retracted- it was fascinating that his spinal implants could store the entire thing, there must have been some kind of quantum interphasing going on, or maybe the implants served as micro-teleportation devices, converting the armor to energy and storing it digitally. Either way, it was neat as hell to watch- and the fact that afterward there was a fairly attractive stallion standing in front of her didn't hurt either. Let alone one who didn't seem grossed out by the fact that half her face was cybernetic. Her ocular implant whirred and clicked quietly as the aperture switched between lens types- it was a habit she'd gotten into over the years, and it served as a means to both better study what she was looking at, and a handy distraction if she needed it.

 

Problem was, the EM, infrared, and MR lenses all showed the same thing as her regular, meaty pony eye did- he was really cute. And according to the infrared, he was blushing too. Bee was stunned- was he blushing because of her? Was that even possible? "FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION NECESSARY TO CONFIRM HYPOTH- yeah, thanks VLAD, I got this," Bee said. Her idle speculation must have been enough to tap VLAD's processors, so it was trying to form a conclusion based on available data. And as much as Bee wanted to know what made Drone tick, she also didn't want him to know that her AI construct was even know designing a series of compatibility experiments. and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

 

 

 

"Well, I thank you for not making fun of me and helping me calm down... Like I said, I don't normally do things like that, crying I mean... "

 

"Why the buck would I make fun of you? I've had... some issues that crop up unexpectedly sometimes. Heck, I've had the retracting spring on my ocular implant snap before, so the damn thing would pop out to the maximum limit of the telescoping hardware, a good eight inches, and bobble up and down when I talked. That was very embarrassing. And disorienting, too, come to think of it," Bee said, as she recalled the most unpleasant sensation of seeing two VERY different sets if stimuli from an eye that was in her head and an eye that was not- and the latter bobbing about on top of that. She'd been nauseated for weeks before the spring could be replaced, which had led to the rumor that she was pregnant- and that had been the first time she'd been made into a meme.

 

 

 

"Sure. I'd love to have a cup of coffee with you."

 

"SCENARIO CC348 CONFIRMED," VLAD bellowed, before Bee could reassert control. "I mean, awesome! You doing anything in about, oh.... now-ish? Which the evac order I've got the rest of the day with precisely buck-all to do. Oh, and there's a fun freaking story, too. Did you hear about the quasi-pornographic flashmob on the quad earlier? And not just one, but two of the faculty were encouraging it! Oh, I about blew a gasket. Not that it would have mattered, since right after that the staff decided it would be a fantastic idea to go bucking about with century-old AI containment devices. I swear, sometimes I wonder if they are all being remote piloted by hormonal teenagers," Bee said, as she trotted towards the door. "Where was I going with this... oh yeah! Coffee,  nothing else to do today, that was it. I mean, assuming you're not busy or anything. You're not busy, are you?" Bee asked, raising her one remaining eyebrow. Technically her ocular implant had an eyebrow ridge, but as it lacked any hair and served as ablative armor to protect her eyepiece's service port, it wasn't something she could dramatically raise for emphasis anyway. Which left just the one genuine eyebrow.

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@captainborgue,

 

Drone smiled slightly as she talked about her mechanical failure, he shook his head softly and said, "Well, I've had my servo motors go out, the wiring was cut because of an accident I was involved in, needless to say, I couldn't move a single muscle in my body for a few hours, so I was basically a plank." he chuckled as he recalled the moment.

 

Drone listened to her babble on about the strange rally he hadn't even heard of. He then sighed softly and shook his head, "Unfortunately, No I have not heard of any major occurrence-or any occurrence for that matter- in five years...I've been cryogenically frozen, and just recently did I escape." he said and walked beside her, "But, no I have nothing to do today, so, lets go get some coffee." he said and lead the way out. 

[captainborgue 343]

@@captainborgue,

 

Drone smiled slightly as she talked about her mechanical failure, he shook his head softly and said, "Well, I've had my servo motors go out, the wiring was cut because of an accident I was involved in, needless to say, I couldn't move a single muscle in my body for a few hours, so I was basically a plank." he chuckled as he recalled the moment.

 

Drone listened to her babble on about the strange rally he hadn't even heard of. He then sighed softly and shook his head, "Unfortunately, No I have not heard of any major occurrence-or any occurrence for that matter- in five years...I've been cryogenically frozen, and just recently did I escape." he said and walked beside her, "But, no I have nothing to do today, so, lets go get some coffee." he said and lead the way out.

"Wow, really? You move really well for having just emerged from cryosleep. No freezer burn, I take it? That's lucky. Ugh, I know that paralysis feeling too well. VLAD has to shut down most of my systems to run diagnostics, so I get to sit there like a sack of potatoes until it's done. Sure, I can upload into my holo emitters and project a hologram of myself if there's a lecture I need to do or something, but it still sucks," Bee said, as they made their way across campus. The coffee shop on school grounds was closed, but the one just across the street was open, so they made their way there.

[Aurora Lights 206]

@@captainborgue,

 

Drone smiled as they crossed the street together, he listened to her talk. He liked the sound of her voice for some reason, and her quirky nature, not to mention she was kinda cute, even if half of her face was metal. He thought about what Angel said, and she was right. Maybe it was better if he didn't lie.

 

They arrived to the coffee shop and he pulled out her chair for her, letting her sit down first. He then sat across from her and smiled at her, "So, how long have you had your enhancements?" he asked her, he didn't know if it was a sensitive subject for her, but he wanted to know quite badly.

[Denim&Venöm 19,035]

@Mentis Soliloquy,@Randimaxis,@reader8363, @Aurora Lights, @captainborgue, @Shadow Dancer,

 

​Ever since the security alert was issued, somepony was watching all the events transpire. 

 

From the moment Luster walked out into the hall, her attention was raptly held. 

 

Passive listening fromCaptain Emerald's com link, caught Drones voice. Another alert sounded. Another point of interest. 

 

Luster by this time had reunited with Lektra Bolt. Drone was now conversing with a faculty member, Entomology professor Miss Danger Bee. 

 

Two figures from her past have now made themselves present. Now was a chance to right the wrongs. 

"Spike. Cancel all my appointments for today. Also, take a letter please." 

[Randimaxis 8,652]

Okay... terror notwithstanding, this place is actually really advanced.

 

Grant kept tracking the input across the entire field of Twitch's vision, yet the bot himself didn't move a servo.  All this Magitek... it was extremely disconcerting, yet it was also the first time he'd seen any of it up close; the pics from the 'Net didn't do them justice.

 

To a tech-head like Grant Edison House, this was both a smorgasbord AND a minefield; any number of wonders within his reach, yet one wrong word or deed would put poor Twitch in dire straits.  Still, he was fairly certain he could look without any problems - he just didn't think it'd be safe for him to do much else.

 

The various devices within sight held metric tons of future fascination for him, though - his mind reeled at the idea of what would possibly remain behind closed doors here.  Scary, yeah - but what sort of advances could he pick up from what was here?  Would he be able to upgrade Twitch with what Equestria had to offer?  He was eager to find out... but first thing's first; he didn't even know if he was IN the college yet, much less where to start his studies.

 

Then, there's Luster...

 

Grant had listened closely to the whole tragic tale, taking in information and pondering the point of it all.

 

I feel bad for her.  I feel bad because it seems like she still needs purpose... and defending this world is all she's ever known.  That's not fair.  I mean, yeah - destroy all humans; that's scary stuff - but maybe that's just because humans back then didn't even try to see her as a living thing.  Hell, I know how people can be to each other - doesn't surprise me that she sees us as threatening.

 

Maybe I could change that opinion?  Do you think you've got a shot at it, Grant my boy?  Kill the problem with kindness?  

 

Why not?  

 

In his grimy cot, he grinned from ear to ear.

 

Besides, how many people do I know that can say they had a chance to make friends with the first ever AI?

 

Still, he had a quandary: Who would bother taking Twitch seriously?  So far, Crystal might be the only one here who would even listen to him; he didn't even think Luster would - especially considering he'd told her he was human.

 

In retrospect, maybe not one of my brightest moments.

 

But, she knew and hadn't outed him yet.  Technically, so did Crystal... though he hadn't confirmed it directly yet, he had all but done such after her message to him earlier.  Two possibilities; two other beings who held his future in their hooves.  He didn't feel so good about all this anymore... but it was obvious he'd passed the point of no return when he'd started building Twitch.  Now it was just a matter of learning the tech necessary to build the transfer system, then constructing it on both ends, then powering and activating it, then...

 

I swear, I believed I'd thought this through already...

 

Still, that comes AFTER I get into the college... IF I get into it in the first place; their messenger system must be tied up... or I may have to come back tomorrow.  Or the next day.  Or next week.

 

His spirits fell a bit, but he was still determined to do something... he just wasn't sure of what that could be at this point.

 

Right now?  If I want to stay out of the spotlight, I should keep quiet... but...

 

"If you say-ay-ay Luster is a living weapon,and she's no longer needed in that capacity, then whaaaaaaaaat else do you expect her to do?"

 

It was all he could come up with, but he was putting aside his safety to ask about Luster's possible future; it was something.  He both cursed himself for speaking up, and praised himself for having the chestnuts to speak up for the AI - SOMEone should, he thought.

[Shadow Dancer 111]

(Just going with the assumption he kinda quietly entered the room but remained quiet or nobody really paid too much mind.)

 

If Marcus was honest with himself he was kinda just there it seemed that nobody really paid him much mind even in the human shaped combat form but that probably was a good thing let him find things out with little problem or even risk to himself. He honestly hoped that the bit of magic streaming into him would not negatively react. Though the idea did make sense seeing as it was like a diver having to depressurize after a long dive so their lungs did not deflate with the sudden introduction to non-pressurized air. So the steady exposure to magic might actually reduce or eliminate the shock that made going to Equestria so deadly without a android proxy.

 

It was weird thinking about the fact that magic was slowly being fed into his human body to hopefully let it slowly adapt to magic which most human scientist agreed was more of it's own force with it's own rules around it much like gravity and other such forces so did not fit the human definition of magic. Marcus got away from his thoughts and started to tune into the conversation once more wondering when and if he was going to be noticed.

[reader8363 1,281]

@@Randimaxis, 

Shadow looked at twitch and said,

"Hey do ya still have the schematic for the ball?"

 

Feeder finished the head of the animal and started on the body, he slipped in a powerful emp and tazer into the body and made it remote detonation, so he can make it go off, but it is short ranged, so it can take out an army of crazy robots all at once

Edited March 3, 2016 by reader8363