Inspired by the Sweetie Bot Project, a team of alleged scientists build a robot modeled off of a character from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. They also programmed an AI network, which is multiple AI's working together as if individual parts of a whole. The Core AI is modeled after the same pony that the robot was, and for good reason.
After finalizing the AI network, the team begin to realize just how advanced this AI program would be. Did this team develop a simulation of life so advanced that it's a perfect replication, or did they actually create new life through purely synthetic means? What even is life? And whether it's new life or just a simulation, should it actually matter? After all, what is the brain other than an organic supercomputer, and the body and organic machine?
How many people will be accepting of Sweetie Bot? How many will just disregard her as a walking talking computer? And how many people will be... more malicious?
This is a story of a fictional character made real. This is the story of a Sweetie Belle AI doing her best to find her place in a world that is not her own. This is the story of the Sweetie Bot Project.
I've never seen a Sweetie Bot story that doesn't take place in-universe. So I when a different route. I chose to make MLP a fictional Universe, and Sweetie Bot simply being based on a fictional character. This is intended to exist in the real world and as removed from fiction as possible.
This story is more or less My Little Dashie meets Sweetie-Bot Says... meets the real-world Sweetie Bot Project.
This is actually the 2nd Sweetie Bot Project I've worked on. I just forgot that I had a first one until now. Special thanks to Matthais Unidostres and their story, Low Battery for giving me the proper kick in the butt to encourage me to make this.
I am dubbing this story with the added sub-genre "Meta-Fiction". Yes, it's not an official genre, but I think it should be since other forms of official media have used a similar format. What I call Meta-Fiction is a sub-genre of Fiction that, is as close to reality as possible. The old Hercules show and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had episodes like this, where they had an episode that took place in the real world, and the show was just fiction. They both included the concept of actually writing the show. These episodes were themselves fictional. But they almost reflect what reality could've been.
In the case of my story, it's a full story with the genre of Meta-Fiction. Though it does have Sci-Fi elements to it, most of the concepts may actually be within the realm of possibility. This isn't like other Ponies IRL concepts where they come from another dimension, or just don't exist IRL. The fictional character in this case never actually leaves the fictional universe, and the AI is simply a recreation.