.rar

by Anonympony

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Who are you?" Rarity asked, shielding her eyes from the intrusive sun. The figure chuckled to himself a little, leaning against the doorway.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Well, um, yes. That's why I asked. And how do you know PON-E?" said Rarity with confusion.

"Oh. Right." the figure said, returning to all fours. He trotted into the library, away from the blinding sun, his looks coming into plain view. Rarity was less than impressed. The mysterious pony was a tall, but lean, beige Earth pony; a majority of his bones somewhat visible through his hide. His face was longer than most, leading into a smaller muzzle. His two front teeth protruded out violently from his mouth. His chocolate mane was combed over and quite visibly greasy, giving it a shine in the light of the sun. His eyes were kept behind his glasses that rested at the end of his nose. His face was speckled with acne and he smelt faintly of cheese whiz and alfalfa chips. Twilight closed the door from which this nerdy pony entered and he cleared his throat.

"I am Gizmo, Robot Extraordinaire and Wooer of Mares." he said confidently. Twilight rolled her eyes and Rarity looked unimpressed. The white mare noticed how nasally Gizmo sounded, creating an uncomfortable feeling in her ears each time he spoke.

"I am Rarity, nice to meet you. I suppose." the unicorn said, handing him her hoof for a shake. His eyes went huge and he began to sweat. He fumbled his words.

"Oh, I, um, n-nice to, um, m-meet you. Gosh you're pretty..." Gizmo blushed, his cheeks glowing a vibrant red. "Ah, did I just say that out loud? I-I'm sorry, I, uh, this is so embarrassing--" he continued to mumble to himself.

"Gizmo!" Twilight shouted. He snapped back into attention.

"Right! Now then, what seems to be the problem with our friend, PON-E, here?" he said, putting his saddlebags down and grabbing a screwdriver. His Cutie mark was now entirely visible. Not surprisingly, it was a robot.

"Excuse, Mr...Gizmo, was it? You never told us how you know who PON-E is." Rarity piped up.

"Oh yes. That." Gizmo cleared his throat once more. "Well, I found him inside an old shed, oddly enough. I was passing through a corn field, trying to find potential parts for my robots when I found this shed. It looked to be relatively empty and was clearly abandoned. I figured I'd take a look and I saw a sheet draped over something. I initially thought it was a ghost. I mean, not that was scared or anything!" Gizmo explained, quickly trying to regain whatever confidence he was trying to display.

"Anyway, I stepped into the shed and noticed that the sheet was relatively pony shaped. I removed it and sure enough, there was PON-E." He trotted next to the robotic pony and draped a foreleg over him as if he was a friend. "Needless to say, I took him home and tried to figure out what makes him tick. I'd heard about PON model robots floating around Equestria in one of my Robotics magazines, but never thought that I'd see the day. I'd be a fool to leave him there."

"So what did you find out?" Twilight asked.

"Not much, unfortunately. It seemed that his memory had been partially wiped when I found him. I brought him home, booted him up, and then managed to hack into part of his CPU. Interesting programs. One of which I was unable to decipher completely. From what I could tell, it was a basic AEE. Fun stuff."

"A what?" Rarity asked, confused, yet oddly fascinated by the beige Earth pony's story.

"AEE. It stands for Android Emotions Emulator. Basically, it would give the impression of basic pony emotions. Allow PON-E to think and feel like we do. Uncanny, really."

"That doesn't seem possible. Emotions are something you can just program. How can someone even do that?" Twilight questioned, flipping through a book about programming.

"Again, I wasn't able to decipher the rest of the code. But now that I've found PON-E again, I can finally unlock the secrets of the AEE."

"You mean 'I' found PON-E. And what makes you think I'd let you get anywhere near him with your techno-whatzits? I barely trust PON-E as it is. And how did you lose him, anyway? It seems like that'd be quite difficult." Rarity chided.

"Oddly enough, it was kind of easy to lose him. After I got him up and running, I adopted him as my assistant. By the looks of his frame, I suspect you found him in a dumpster. I guess he saw a rat and saw it as a threat and chased it back. He must've ran his battery out doing so. And by the looks of him, it looks like he just got out of that same dumpster. Did you try to clean him?"

"Enough chit-chat, I want to see this thing in action!" Spike said with annoyance.

"Spike! We don't even know if this...thing is safe." Twilight scolded.

"No, he's right. I suppose I should get to work. It'll take a lot to crack that AEE code. Who knows what could be within it. Maybe he'll recover part of his memory." Gizmo said, digging through his saddlebags for more tools. Rarity trotted to her fellow unicorn friend.

"Twilight, are you sure this is a good idea?" Rarity asked softly.

"I'm not sure, but Gizmo knows most everything about robots. I say we give him a chance." Twilight said, eyeing Gizmo's actions. The beige Earth pony grabbed some books and a small keyboard from his saddlebag. We returned to the android and spoke to it.

"Hey PON-E. You remember me?"

PON-E brought forth a scanner, which bathed Gizmo is a blue chequerboard. The scanner went up and down him, PON-E's screen displaying a loading bar, which filled and his face returned.

"Subject: Gizmo. Ally." He announced in his stilted voice.

"Great. Now, I'm going to have to ask you to shut down for a little while, okay?"

"Shutting Down." PON-E said, his screen displaying a small animation of a plug being removed from it's socket. The robot lowered itself to the floor and his screen went dark. Gizmo then plugged in his keyboard and accessed PON-E's boot system. His hooves typed away as he went through firewall after firewall, trying to get to the operating system.

"I forgot how complicated you are, PON-E." Gizmo said to himself. Lines of code reflected of his glasses as he worked. The others watched intently. Spike sat next to Gizmo, watching him work and type.

"How'd you get so good at robots?" Spike asked.

"Hmm? Oh, it's my special talent, as shown by my Cutie mark. I just had a knack for taking things apart and figuring out how they work." Gizmo explained.

"Maybe we should let him work. C'mon Spike. Let's see if we have any more books on Robotics." Twilight said, her and Rarity beginning to trot towards the other side of the library.

"Actually Twilight, I could use an assistant. Spike can stay if he'd like. Who knows, he just might learn something." the Earth pony offered. Spike looked at Twilight with his large, begging, Emerald green eyes. He clasped his claws together and his lower lip stuck out. Twilight thought about it.

"You're sure Spike won't get in the way?"

"Nah, I think he'll be fine. Although, we could use some snacks. I think we'll be here for a while. You want to take that job, Spike?" Gizmo asked, still typing away at PON-E's code.

"Sure thing!" Spike said, running to the kitchen and bringing a considerable amount of cookies and soda in the blink of an eye.

"Well, okay then. Spike, just behave yourself and help Gizmo with whatever he needs." Twilight demanded, still unsure of the baby dragon's ability to not annoy her tech-savvy friend.

"He'll be fine." Gizmo reassured. "Now please. I must work."

"Very well, C'mon Twilight, we'll talk amongst ourselves in the kitchen. I'm famished anyway." Rarity said, as the two trotted away.

The two unicorns trotted into the kitchen. Rarity sat at the table as Twilight brought forth some apples to snack on.

"What do you think of this whole ordeal?" Rarity asked in between chews.

"I don't know. To be honest, I'm a bit worried."

"Why is that?" Rarity asked, swallowing her bite.

Twilight took another bite of her apple, her maw chewing quietly. "I'm just a bit weary. We don't know anything about that....thing. Where it came from, who made him, and why. It's all just a bit mysterious."

Rarity finished her apple and threw the core into a trashbin.

"I have things I need to do. Please, if anything happens, feel free to get me at any time" Rarity said. Twilight gave a nod and said goodbye to the white mare. Rarity passed through the foyer of the library, seeing Gizmo and Spike entranced by the dancing flickers of the text that scrolled across PON-E's face. She wished them luck and departed back to Carousel Boutique.

It was midday now, and Celestia's sun hung high in the sky. The sheen of the unicorn's coat caught the attention of passers-by. They gave her hellos, but Rarity couldn't be bothered to greet them back. Her head hung low and her body began to sulk slightly.

'I wonder what will happen to PON-E', Rarity thought to her self. 'I hope Gizmo knows what he's doing'. Wrapped in her thoughts, the unicorn almost passed her home completely. She stepped onto the steps leading to the front door. Still deep in thought, she tripped over something. She regained herself and saw a package had been placed on her doorstep.

The package was a small box shape wrapped in brown paper and a simple address label. It read: "To Rarity" and nothing else. No return address or sender. She lifted the box with her horn's magic and walked into her store. Rarity placed the box onto a counter within the foyer, setting it down gently.

"I wonder what it could be." Rarity jiggled the box, which made a strange rattle. She used her hooves and slowly ripped the paper off. Inlay a plain white box. No ribbons or bows of any sort. Rarity lifted the box to find a note.

"You'd best be careful. PON-E isn't your average pony." Rarity read aloud. There was no signature, only the neatly written message. Rarity was confused. Who sent this? How did they know about PON-E? The mare disregarded it, and returned to her work. She had dresses to design.

Comments

[Sketchy Markks]

The inclusion of gizmo seems rather forced. It'd be best to either fix how he's introduced or remove him entirely.
Gizmo is a fifth wheel.

[Anonympony]

1852033 I see your point, and I felt that way too as I don't like mixing original characters and the Mane 6, but I couldn't really think of a way to do the story without him, nor really introduce him. If I could figure something else out, I would, but the story is also only three chapters in (I'll get around to it...) and he isn't entirely developed yet.

[Isshiki Kotonashi]

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