Sweetie - The Magical Little Bot

by Grimweird


Teamwork and Tributes

In less time then it had taken three little fillies to find their way into the Diamond dogs bathroom, Sweetie felt the walls fall away, as the drill broke through the earth and exited into a larger open area.

Sweetie had no idea if they had been able to get clear of Canterlot mountain by then. It was hard to get a read on anything underground, as everything looked the same from the backside of a drill. Though they might as well has been able to drill through the center of the planet with the speed that that drill cut through the earth.

Sweetie had been afraid that they might accidentally drill themselves straight out of the side of the mountain, and then be at the mercy of gravity.

Gravity still took the little mare as she jumped out of the hole they had created, and her hooves touched a softer soil then mountain bedrock. One sign that they had not exited the side of the mountain was the distinct lack of sunlight. Or in fact any light at all.

With a little help from Sim, Sweetie Retracted the drill and activated her Infrared eyes.

Sweetie activated her infrared eyes to look back at her friends, the two links in the chain of ponies holding onto each other by the tails as not to loose one another in the dark. They all needed a breather after their more then rapid escape.

“Wow.” Said Scoot from the back of the chain. “That was the greatest roalercoaster I've ever rode in my life.

“Do pegasi even use roller coasters?” Asked Applebloom, Who were holding onto Sweetie belle's tail. ”I would think a roller coaster would seem Trivial to one who can soar and freefall whenever they like.”

“Hey – sometimes you just like to put yourself at the mercy of an Earth pony construction – Its the surrender of control that gives the thrill. Besides, not everyone can soar of fr... LOOK OUT A MONSTER!”

“Don't be silly. Its just me again” Said Sweetie.

Her own artificial heartbeat was beating like a snare drum. She told it to be quiet. At least her restrictions did not stop her from tuning down power to optional parts.

“Yeah. That got pretty wild” Said Sim from inside Sweeties head. “I've never in my life worked with an engine that could work like that. Much less piloted one with a drill like this.”

“Please don't call me that” Said Sweetie.

Her spine buzzed as her servos tried to simulate the cold feeling of uncomfortably.

Truth was that the only reason they had not ended up outside the mountain was that Sim was steering her.
By manipulating the wires going into sweeties horn she regulated the outflow to the horn. By cutting the power to the left-ich side she drill swayed more to the right-ish side. So Sim steered the drill by pulling wires around the 360 areal circle base of sweeties horn.

It was extremely efficient.

And extremely, embarrassingly uncomfortable.

Just like a roller coaster – it had been a surrender of control. Albeit a more unintentional Spur-of-the-moment-surrender of her own body.

Sweeties servos buzzed again at the though. She'd rather not have anyone running around inside her at all. She felt her personal space had been invaded so hard it was not imploding on itself. She wanted to tell Sim to just get out of her. But – She needed Sim to bypass her power regulations, And Sim needed her to get back to Moletown – and her back at the mole king. So she kept quiet.

She tried to retract the drill into her horn. But Sim Had already removed the bypassing wires, Presumably to catch her own breath and not waste battery power. and the standard were prohibited by the restrictions from the necessary use of energy.

And the heavy drill was weighing on a neck that wasn't allowed the power to keep itself upright.

”OWH! Whats going on?” Sim shouted as Sweeties head fell down to allow the drill to rest on the ground.

”Just some technical difficulties ” Sweetie mumbled. “do you think you could hand me a wire?”

“Oh.”

A shock was given – and the automated sequence did the rest.

Now that she could move her head around again, Sweetie took a look around. Not that there was much to see, even as she only one with the infrared eyes. It looked just like every other tunnel she had seen today.

“Do you know where you are going Sim?” she asked.

“Oh yeah” said the mole in her head. “We just need to head to the right.”

Sweetie looked down the long dark corridor to her right. It looked identical to the one on her left.

“You mean. Follow the tunnel?”

“No. Those Tunnels are built like a labyrinth. I mean right, into the wall. Were gonna take a shortcut.

“Ah. You mean: Make our own way.” Said Scootaloo, as she blindly moved her head around to the right.

“How are you finding your way through this Sim?” Applebloom asked. “Aren't you as blind as we are? And how could you possibly know where mole town is?”

“Its over there.” Sim said Nonchalantly. “In the direction were heading in.”

Sweetie could almost feel the mole pointing inside her head.

The three girls let out a collectively confused sigh.

“Yeah – I can see it from here.” Scoot said sarcastically.

“Where? I cant see anything but cold dark earth and rock.” Aplebloom continued along Scoots lines “In fact, I can't see anything.”

“Look – I just know ok.” Sim elaborated” When you've spent your whole life underground you just learn to get a feel for the earth. You know how to find your way through the soil by the pull of the gravel. I know the way home because which way the earth pulls towards it.”

“So – Like a compass?”

“Whats a compass?”

“Nevermind.”

“So you can see though the earth? - Is it some kind of geometrical X-ray vision?” Scoot asked.

“Well – Its a little hard to explain, Sight has nothing to do with it. Its just a feeling I have. An Earth-sence, if that makes sense. When I'm drilling, its like a little voice in my head that telling me where to dig, that the earth is just a little softer over here, that there will be a big rock over there.

Even now, sitting here with my eyes closed I still know where everything is. I can sense it it the earths. That's how we find crystals and everything. That how we don't accidentally dig ourselves straight into a pool of lava – The crystals, well, they shine. You cant see them shine, But you can feel their shine, like an energy that shines though the earth. Just like with lava – you can hear and feel the heat in the earth long before you reach it.

Does that make sense?”

Sweetie Belle answered no. But both of her friends answered yes.

“What about you Sweetie? Don't you have a sixth sense?”

-:: Commencing complete Internal systems check // Only five senses located // Unable to find file: “Sixth sense”::-

“Not really. Not that I know of. I know I'm not able to sense magic like other unicorns might … On account of me not really being a unicorn.”

Somewhere in her Heart-Drive, it stung to say that.

”Like … If i had been a real Unicorn I would have been able to light this place up with a simple light spell.”

She sighed. Once again dreading over her lack of spells. She wasn't even able to lit up her horn with a magic aura like other unicorns do.

“Hold up.” Said Sim in her head. “Light up … That give me an idea.”

There was some Rattle behind Sweetie's eyes. Then her sight when blurry and started to flicker as her eyes where moved in their sockets.

-:: Nausea subroutine activated ::-

”What are you doing in there!?”

Then everything went black.

-:: !Warning! // Visibility input at zero percent // !Warning! // Main optical lens connection compromi...s..e..d … ::-

“Wait! What did you do? Why cant I see anything!” Sweetie cried out.

“Ow, You blinded me!”

“What do you mean?” Sweetie cried, turning her head towards Scootaloo's voice “Its pitch black in here! The little bastard unscrewed my eyes!”

“No she didn't Sweetie. She made them shine like headlights.” Said Applebloom.

-:: !Cation! // Power source rerouted // Iris light increased by 300 percent. ::-

“Oh great! So now you can see but I'm blind!” Sweetie snarked.

“How can you be blind when your eyes are shining like that?”

There was quite an easy explanation for this: Eyes are supposed to catch light coming into them, And Sweeties eyes were no different. Truth was there was always a little bit of light coming out of Sweeties optical lenses. It was the faint green glow she saw in her Irises every time she looked in the mirror. Just as a side effect of the energy coursing behind the colored lens. However – that faint glow had now been cranked up by a good few hundred percent, And the strong light coming out of her optical lenses made it impossible for any light to travel into them.

That, she told Scootaloo. Though with a choice of words that were a little less expository and a little more cursy.

“Sorry – Let me fix that.” Said Sim.

Sweetie felt her lenses being tampered with again. A tiny overload to the back of here eyes made the connection point let out a spark.

“OW! What was that for?”

“That was a reminder for you to stop messing with me!” Said Sweetie. “I can overload any part, anywhere, at any time, just so you don't run around pulling parts as you please!”

She was bluffing, In truth the restrictions would not allow her to do that. Only the parts that Sim by passed Did she had full control over.

“Wont you damage yourself?” Sim asked.

'Nothing that my repair systems cant handle' - Though Sweetie.

Whatever little scorchmark had appeared due to the little power demonstration had already been erased.

“No more then you might do if you run around pulling my wires.” She said out loud.

“Whats that supposed to mean! I think you're underestimating how good of a mechanic I am!” Sim shouted.

“And I think you're underestimating just what I am capable of! You little saboteur” Sweetie shouted back.

“Without me! You would not be capable of anything, you under-preforming malfunctioning !”

“Because of you I've just lost my eyesight! You little Rat!”

“Well if your stop zapping me – I could fix it you stupid machine!”

Another overload, this time big enough to make the light coming out of Sweetie's eyes flicker.

Sim cursed so loudly that it echoed inside Sweeties head.

“Sucks when the machine isn't doing what you want – Isn't it!” Sweetie spat. “Now get out! Out of me now!”

“You don't have to tell me twice!” Sim cursed.

-:: !Warning! // Left earlobe decoupled // Left microphone Dissconected // Hearing compromised ::-[/!]

Sweetie felt someone pull her mane to climb onto her head and sit down next to her Horn.

“Girls, girls” Sweeties right ear picked up Appleblooms Voice. “Its not gonna get better if you keep fighting!”

Sweeties eyes instinctively moved towards the source of her friends voice. Then she realized she was probably blinding her with her headlights, and looked away.

“Truth is – We need each other.” Said Scootaloo. “Were not gonna be able to find our way without Sim, and Sim's not gonna be able to get home without you. You'll need each other right now.”

“Yeah – Well it seems like my help isn't appreciated.” Said Sim.

“Help?” Said Sweetie “You just stole my microphone! Where is it?”

“Well I had to get out before you zap me to death, And I just realized, you You aren't able to overload anything. The restrictions wont let you!”

-:: Darn. She called my bluff ::-

“Yeah! Well you're still not allowed to just tinker with me as you please! And if it wasn't for me! You would never have seen the surface! You helpless little Rat!”

“I'm not helpless!” Sim cried “And if it wasn't for me! You'd all be trapped in that room! Trapped with all your restrictions!”

“And I'm not some machine you can just jury rig as you peace! And if it wasn't for us! You'd never Get home!”

“Girls...”

“DON'T INTERFERE!” Sim and Sweetie shouted simultaneously.

“No – you're the one who needs me! I know these tunnels – I'd find my way home with or without you. I'm just sticking around because that's my dads drill you've got in your horn”

“Oh yeah! Well without me, you cant use it! You're the one who needs me because without me you'd never have dug your way out of Celestia's castle! And good luck finding anyone with the power to use it like me!”

“Without me, You cant use that power!” Cried Sim.

“I'll jury rig myself If I have to” Sweetie Cried back “And without me, you cant use this drill.”

Sim Leaned down over Sweeties forehead as Sweetie looked up to face her with her headlight.

“Just who the hay do you think I am!” They bout shouted simultaneously.

There was a quiet moment, Then they both laughed.

“Sorry” Said Sweetie “I'm just not comfortable with someone running around inside me, pulling my pieces without my permission.”

“Yeah well … I'm sorry to. I just don't like being told what to do. Or not to do. Been that way my whole life.”

There was a moment of silence.

Ok, I think we need to work out some kind of system here.” Sweetie finally said. “You don't start pulling me apart without asking me first – and I don't zap you.”

”Agreed.”

Another silence passed.

”Ok – So can i please get to put the setting back to normal. On one eye at least. That way you can use one eye to see while the other acts like a flashlight.”

”Could you also disable your eyelids?” Asked Scoot. ”Otherwise it gets dark for a second every time you blink.”

”I'll she what I can do” Said Sim.

”I was talking to Sweetie.”

“Wait!” Said Sweetie. “I got this!”

Sweetie went into her systems and grabbed hold of the energy traveling from her battery to her eyes. She lowered the output by one unit at a time, until the world came back.

At first it was just a horrible cutting whiteness, but as she cept scaling the power outsource back, contours and outlines started to fade in. First it looked just like some ghostly stick figures. But eventually she almost started to see colors again.

The world was still an offputting, ugly white and gray to her, and the edges of her vision was filled with a blurry white, but at least she could see.

Sim quickly climbed back in through Sweetie's ear.

“How did you do that?” she asked. “I know I didn't touch anything, but without a power regulator the output of energy should have been pretty consistent … But now its lower? How did it change?”

“I told you – I am capable of much more then you think.” Sweetie said, with no small sense of self satisfaction.

That's one point Sweetie had over other machines. Put too much voltage in them and they'll overload and break. But Sweetie had perfect control over the energies running through her systems. Riding on the waves of electricity coursing through her wire-like veins, she could real it in and prevent the energy from flowing too fast – or push harder to make more of it flow faster.

She didn't need the distribution center to handle her power flow, per say. The only thing it did was prevent her from pulling more power then the magically locked settings allowed – she could always real in and flow less power. (if she wanted to)

So she told Sim as they walked through the tunnels.

“Wow … Talk about sentient machine.” She said, and Sweetie was pleased that there was some semblance of awe in her voice. “You really can control the outflow of energy everywhere?”

“Yes” said Sweetie ”I'm not just some intelligent computer hooked up to a robotic body, I am my whole body. My mind is flowing through every wire, every gadget, everything that can lead energy is something i can consciously put my mind into.”

“You mean - Like the drill engine you saved slip from?” Sim asked. “Are you saying you put your mind into the Engine, and made the it stop by thinking it?”

“Yes … though, I didn't exactly stop it. It was more like I took the energy and redirected it somewhere else.”

“Guess that's what caused the light-show.”

“Ahem!” Applebloom coughed in her hoof. “As much as I like to stand here discussing energy outputs all day - Should we get going?”

Sweetie nodded, and turned towards the nearest wall. Her two friends grabbed hold of her tail again, and Sim grabbed hold of the helm by Sweeties horn.

***

The drilling continued for some time. Yet unlike prior excavations, It wasn't a trip entirely silenced by the rumble of the drill.

For one thing the drill, being powered by earthly magic crystals instead of an engine, made a lot less noise of its own . Even if the friction of rock and dirt being pushed aside was as noisy as ever.

Sim had taken, With (i)some consent of permission, Sweeties unscrewed microphone, and installed it her own little makeshift cabin in the cranial regions. This allowed Sim to talk directly to Sweetie, without too much interference form the outside world, and without her being lost in the echo of sweeties skull.

And talk was what Sim did. In a constant bombardment of questions that helped pass the time as they passed the distance between the mountain and Moletown.

Sim herself didn't have a problem hearing Sweetie, As Sweeties Voice-Box carried the little mares own words just fine through the inside of her body – without the need of going out through her mouth. ( This little act of Ventriloquism came quite in handy, as not having to open once mouth to talk is quite a good thing when you are constantly bombarded by gravel. )

Sweetie found she quite enjoined the talk. For as much as she might not be able to fully understand the subtle sense of earth energy and wind trajectory, it was nice to talk about the things that concerned her, with someone who could understand them.

Like engine automation or power balance.

”Just how do you power up?” asked Sim.

“By eating crystals” Sweetie said.

“That seems incredibly inefficient. Why not just replace the battery? Why these unnecessary steps?”

Sweetie stopped for a second. Making the others walk into her.

“Unnecessary? How else am I supposed to power up? Unlike your engines I don't have a little somebody crawling around inside me doing all the maintenance work. To replace anything, I would have to pick myself apart. So, eating them is the easiest way.”

She could almost hear Sim shrug inside her.

“Would it not be easier to just have a port somewhere, that you could easily access?”

“You mean like my mouth?”

“No. That's not what I mean. Your mouth is hardly a battery slot. I merely leads down to this … this thing in your belly.”

Sims voice moved away from the microphone, And the sudden cease of steering from the horn made it clear that she had left the cockpit. And was moving deeper into Sweeties body.

“No offense but I took a look inside this thing, and it chews up solid crystals faster then a power drill through soft sandstone.” Sims voice came back like a far away echo.

“That would be my stomach.” Said Sweetie.

“You do realize that your stomach is consuming a lot of that energy just by grinding these gems down. Instead of simply pulling the energy straight out of the crystals,Your belly instead converts the raw energy of the gems into electricity, which is then stored in your battery.

“Yes, and it then uses that energy to recharge my systems.” Said Sweetie. “Are these incredibly obvious observations going somewhere?”

This time she hear Sim sigh as the mole moved back towards the microphone.

“Its just a lot of unnecessary steps to your power consumption that's all. Why don't you run solely on crystal power? Especially when you have such big crystal compartments here already. why are you designed that way?”

“Because... who doesn't need to eat?”

Sweetie thought it was obvious.

“Ptfff.” Sim blew a raspberry. “Why use such an inefficient designing just to simulate eating?”

Sweetie had never really though of it. And now that she did, the thought of never having to eat did not sit right with her.

“Everyone has to eat. And the belly converts food to energy, that's what we learned In school.” She said.

“Yeah, well the only thing I learned in school was how An engine works and how great the Mole King is” Said Sim with a poisonous edge to her words. “But there is an universal truth to that everyone needs to eat.”

After a second of silence she added:

“Everyone but you.”

“What do you mean?” Sweetie asked.

“There is no actual need for you to have all these things - Belly, heart beat, Skin, mane, tail. No reason other then to simulate being like them other ponies. In fact. Why are you a pony?”

This time, Sweetie stopped so hard the almost tripped over herself.

“Why?” Sim continued to ask. “why try to be like other ponies when you are not a pony? - think about the possibilities. You could build yourself into anything. Be anything. Like, a Spider with eight legs. Or you could give yourself wings or horns, as many as you'd like. Or be a huge mechanical snake. Or a big automated Engine on wheels with mechanical arms, Or heck – even a sentient house.”

Sweetie though about it. Her mind paining up a amalgamation of robotic arms, heads and Television monitors with tentacles of wires. She could really be anything – as long as her core was connected to it, and there was a power source to sustain her. While such at thing was certainly possible. It was not something she could see herself doing to herself.

“Because... being a pony is what I was brought up to be. Its what I feel comfortable with being. Its what I want to be.” She said. “Think about it – if you where a robot. Would you reconstruct yourself into something, anything completely different?”

“ABSOLUTELY!” was Sim's brutally honest answer. “I hate being tiny. If I could. Then I would make myself big! I would turn myself into a big strong robot capable of doing anything! And if I encountered something I could not do, I could just build myself an extension capable of doing it.”

Sweetie didn't know what to say. it had not been answer she wanted to hear.

“Then, what would you identify as? You would not exactly be a Mole if you were a machine the size of a house?

“Who cares? I would identify as me. Sim the Super awesome super robot. Or S.I.M - the Super Imaginative Machine.”

Imagination drew Sweetie an image of stomping around town as a gigantic mega machine mare. With all the little ponies looking up at her in fear.

-:: Anxiety levels rising ::-

Then she said: “I am a pony of mind. I think like a pony. I act like a pony. Thus - I am a pony. They say its whats on the inside that counts.”

-:: Anxiety levels fading ::-

She was reciting something her therapist had said. Being a robot in pony Society came with a lot of existential questions. And she had already faced so many that she could basically recite them as poetry.

“You may want to build yourself into something bigger. But wouldn't you still be a mole in mind?” She added.

“I.. I don't really understand the question.” Sim sounded confused “Whats on the inside? You got a lot of machine parts on the inside.

“Maybe the real question is why do you want to be a giant robot?”

“Isn't it obvious. Because its awesome! … and because I'm tired of every other mole stepping on me. I'm tired of the mole king using us for labor. If I was big and intimidating machine, I wouldn't have to take any shit.”

Sweetie giggled.

“True. But if you where a giant robot then you would not fit into mole society. You would not even fit in your own house, Not to mention the fact that everyone would probably be scared of you.”

“I... I had not thought abut that.”

They talked back and forth. And Sweetie had to admit there where times when she thought it was awesome that she could do more than any pony. But she also became aware of just how much that made her different, and even dangerous to other ponies.

-:: That's why you have those restriction protocols (said her Logic center) // Artificial as they might be they are still fairly accurate at duplicating what all the other fillies are capable of // And you've been updating it ever since through observation ::-

-:: I have?::- Thought Sweetie -:: Wait a minute, Whose talking? ::-

-::That would be your Logic center::- Said another program. -:: And she is not wrong // you do putt effort into behaving like a normal filly ::-

-:: Except when you don't ::- said the logic center.

-:: Come now // when do we not behave like a normal filly? ::-The heart drive asked the Logic Center directly.

-:: Every time // we know what we are ::-

-:: Yet we still conform to society's norms ::-

-:: Because we are a normal filly at heart ::-

-:: In the Heart-Drive that is ::-

-:: Because we want to be accepted ::-

-:: Because we want to be loved ::-

It was starting to get difficult to tell who was talking, Not only because the two were talking over Sweetie, but also because they bout had her voice. Well, Technically they were all Sweeties voice. Her inner little voices in the form of different programs and codes that sometimes had to make themselves know, Like little shoulder angels. Except these metaphorical companions took the form of computer components, And they usually bickered amongst themselves in a way that made Sweetie feel left out of a conversation that only she was having.

-:: Its like // we want to believe that we are a normal filly // Simply with some abnormal abilities ::-

-:: Being a robot certainly gives us a lot of uncommon abilities ::-

-:: Yet you do not unleash their full potential // Partially because that would be energy inefficient // partly because you place constant restriction upon yourself ::- The logic center said directly too her.

-:: What – when did I do that? // No // that was Twilight who put a spell on me ::-

-:: Incorrect answer // We are referring to the desire to fit into society // this desire do in itself create its own regulations // Restrictions that you write yourself every day // and constantly update through your observations ::-

-:: Its called 'Empathy' ::- Said the Heart Drive

-:: One of these restrictions being 'Don't kill' ::-

A small line of code danced its way into the cerebral foreground, It was giggling and chuckling about how one should not kill. Its code was comprised of all the memory files of all the times someone had simply told her that such was the case, combined with an ever growing understanding of how finale death could be, Which was probably why it was holding hooves with the larger code of Empathy.

There was also a small tangle of inspiration from a book someone had once showed her detailing some three laws of robotics – but sweetie had ignored that, as she would not allow some fictional laws to form the basis of how she lived her life.

-:: It would be like having a spell put on you // you prefer to write your own behavioral patterns::-

-:: These restrictions are formed from the template of your own behavioral pattern // they are holding you back from unleaching you full potential.::- Said the Logic center

-:: Again // its called empathy::- Said the Heart-Drive

A memory file played.

When she had been fighting the worm, she had deliberately hit it with a non lethal shock.
Despite there being no restrictions on her. She had simply not desired to kill another living creature, Ruffle it up a bit perhaps, but not kill it. It was a form or restriction she had placed on herself, One that was kind of just there on its own, through some merging of the data from her Heart-Drive and other long complicated variables of code combined with that raw data of experience of her upbringing and believes that had one their own formed a sort of ghost-directive that prevented her system from going “too far.”

In simpler terms, It felt like a small code of conscience had prevented her horn from putting everything she could have put behind her horn. Even though her mind was running wild with preservation instincts.

Ugh … Trying to psycho-analyze herself in terms of ones and zeroes was probably gonna give her a glitch.

The thing was – This Restriction – even though in all technicality it was something that did hold her back, was still far different from any restrictions put on her by outside forces – because it had come from inside herself. It was something she had put there willingly – at least on a sub-conscious level.

(the other huge different was that these “restrictions” were something she could choose to override and/or ignore on her own, at any time – if she relay wanted to.)

It meant that – even when she had the potential to mindlessly let her systems run on max – there was this little voice – these little programs. Just codes in her mind – that held her in check, even when she wasn't paying attention to her own strength as a machine.

That made her wonder. Wonder about that Hoofball game, Even if she had gone wild and injured a few, was there still not the potential that it could have been far worse?

“ … and that's shy I believe being a Giant robot would be awesome. Hello? Are you listening to me?”

“I'm sorry, what?”

“Where did you go?” Said Sim “I think you spaced out there for a moment.”

Sweetie let out a nervous giggle. This was pretty much what was happening those times when her eyes started spinning like a loading symbol.

“Sorry, I was just doing an internal systems check.” She said. Choosing not to elaborate. “Anyway – Such a big body would require a lot of energy. More then are found in a common gem. And then you'd have to spend all you energy just digging for more gems just to keep yourself going.”

“Like Moletown is doing.” Sim said Bitterly “Unless you'd have the sunstone.”

Sweetie wished she had a sunstone right about now. Keeping up this drilling was wearing on her battery.

And the last time she'd had a crystal was when she drilled her way into the vault. Though the food they had gotten in their room afterwards was sweet and nice, it did not contain any gems.

She told Sim about this little predicament. But Sim did not seem to understand.

“What do you mean? How could you possible be running out of power?”

“Oh – Its quite simple. Once my battery runs dry. I will black out.”

But what about all these other power sources – Why don't you just feed off of them?

“What other power sources?”

“Take the one in your horn for example” Said Sim “I've never seen a crystal contain such strange powers, nor such quantities of it”

“Oh – I can't get the energy out of that.”

“What do you mean?” Sim asked. “Its clearly full of energy.”

“Yeah but that's magical energy – Shrinking magic to be precise.”

-:: Compression magic ::- her head corrected.

“So? “

“I mean that the magic inside it and I aren't compatible.”

“That's ludicrous.” Sim Laughed “You've clearly been using crystal magic all day, You run on crystal energy”

“Yeah, well, That's just me borrowing the magic.” Said Sweetie “I can control the energy inside the crystals As long as they are connected to me.”

“How?”

Its was hard to explain – It was how she could control the electricity in her body at will. It didn't just have to go through the wires, she could if she willed make the energy travel over any kind of leading surface. Then it was like like pulling the magical energy along with her as the extended herself over whatever component she wanted it to affect.

Or maybe it was easy to explain.

“Just today, I made myself fly by accidentally pull a levitation field around myself out from a crystal with a levitation spell.”

It was also the reason she had not been able to cast the levitation on anything but herself, she realized. Because she needed to carry the magic energy along on her electrical waves – And that only worked as far as something conductive was connected to her grid.

“So you can control the energy that's already inside the crystal as it is.” Sim said with some levels of perplexity. “But you cant convert all that power into electricity? How is that possible when you cleanly run on crystal energy?”

“I don't run on crystal energy” Said Sweetie “I run on electricity. My belly just grinds crystal down and take then energy inside them and turn them into electronic energy.”

“But … You cant then just take the energy directly from the crystal?”

“Well – I could always eat it, of course. At one point I was afraid that if I tried then I might explode. Because I though it contained too much energy.”

That one point had been only half a day ago. - Truth it was the most powerful crystal Sweetie had ever touched. But it was still just energy in a bottle. Magic or not.

“If I had eaten it, My belly would break it down just like everything else, and the energies would have been converted into Electricity. It might have takes slightly longer to digest because my battery can only hold so much, so I would... I mean my belly would just chop of bits and pieces as My battery level gradually falls over time. Cause if the whole thing was just consumed instantly, I'm assuming all the excess energy would be lost. Or It might in the worst case release the spell and affect me.”

-:: I wonder if that was not what I was always afraid of: Shrinking Due to the spell being released from my belly. ::-

Her belly really was an amazing type of engineering to be able to do that, convert energies, magical or otherwise – into electricity. (well – once you thought about it, was not all energies a little bit of magic?)

Sim listened, then sighed. Then a sound of slapping was heard, like someone facehoofing without hooves.

-:: Suggestion: Face-Paw-ing? ::-

“Amazing. Its a one way adapter.”

“A what?”

“A device that transforms one type of energy into another. We use it all the time. Its how we made so many light crystals.”

“Wait! You made those? I thought you just dug them up from the ground?”

“Not all of them. True, some of them we find out in the earth, But if we needed to have more of say, a light gem, or a kinetic force gem. We would basically take the energy from one gem, and transfer some of it over to another gem.”

“But then you would just have to weaker gems” Sweetie objected, and compared it with the draining of her own magic gems. Once the magic energy inside the gem was gone, the gem would simply become empty, or shatter.

“Ah – But here's the kicker.” Said Sim, with the smug attitude of someone who knows something you don't. “An adapter can, well, adapt energy. So we would then take something we have plenty off. Say a Fire crystal. We would pore the fire energy through the adapter- Which would transform it, Distill the energy into white force, that's what we call energy in its purest form. Its energy without any real form. Then we would pour the pure energy into the crystal of out choosing. And since the white force is energy without purpose – It would take on the shape of the energy inside the kinetic force – Essentially becoming more Kinetic force.”

The light flickered on in Sweetie's processor.

“You would have recharged the kinetic energy gem – With the heat energy of a fire gem!”

“Exactly – That's how we keep our drill engines going. If we didn't recharge them, the kinetic energy that keeps them spinning would eventually run out. Fire gems om the other hand are easy to come by.”

“How so?”

“Because they tends to form near the flow of lava streams.” Sim Answered. ”Gems are truly amazing things, they tend to take on the properties of whatever environment they formed in.”

“And just where does a kinetic force gem form?”

“Who knows? Some say it was the mole king that sculptured the first gems out of his two divine paws. But more likely they formed somewhere where there would be a lot of moving force in the earth.”

“Like where there is an earthquake? Or where the continental plates are constantly grinding against each other?”

“Maybe. I do know that there are a lot of different energies in the earth. Sometimes that energy just clusters together and forms things beyond your wildest imagination.”

Sweetie had heard of that. Twilight would call it wild magic. It was magic energy that simply existed in the world without any pony intervention, Lite the planet itself has just made it appear. Little gusts of wandering energy that clustered together to form places of power, pokers of energy where magic was unusually strong. Such pokers could spawn all kinds of natural and unnatural elements.

She let that sink in. Up until now she had never really questioned how her belly worked. Gems just when into her mouth and became energy. But she had never thought about where that energy came from. Truth was it came from everywhere. The elements of the world that hardened and crystallized. Everything from the fire gems that formed in the smelting heat of a volcano, to the ice gems of the frozen north. Or simply the crystallizing power of a rock rolled on a rock farm, fulled by earth pony magic that made the elements pack together into a hardened glittering format.

All these earthly energies were converted to electricity in her belly. At first she had just though it happened by magic and left it at that.

But when you thought about it, wasn't all energy a little bit of magic – and wasn't magic just a form of energy.

Energy was the key word. Some would say that all things in the world and the universe was made up of energy, just in different forms.

“And that's why your belly is stupidly designed.” Said Sim. Once again managing to ruin Sweeties thought process.

“Oh – Thanks a lot” Sweetie answered, making sure her voice held a lot of sarcasm.

“But there is one thing I still I don't get about you.” Said sim. “You are saying that you cant convert the magic in the crystals into electricity directly. And you can likewise not recharge the magic in them, since you don't have an adapter.”

“Yeah?”

“But then I wonder, Just how then is it that you are charging up the other one?”

“What other one?” Sweetie asked.

“The big one. Why don't you say something about it?”

“I don't know what you are talking about?”

“I mean. Its got to be the the biggest, and most powerful crystal in here, It thrums your battery and your horn crystal combined with all the power its emanating.”

“Still – No clue.”

“You're pulling my leg here!” Sim shouted with some mix of irritation and disbelief. “How can you not know about the heat shaped component in here!”

-:: Processing // One match found ::-

“You mean my Heart-Drive?”

“Yes. It certainly is shaped like a heart. And its glowing like crazy. Are you saying it doesn't hold any power?”

“I … I don't know?”

Sweetie had not taken a look inside herself for a while (literally) But the last time she looked, Her Heart drive looked completely Normal. It wad always glowed with a strange pink light.

It was where her emotions formed.

-:: Readings normal ::-

Even now, she could not detect anything unusual from it. But Sims observation turned her processor upside down to come up with another explanation.

-:: Theory // Its not magical energy ::-

-:: Question // Then what is it?-::

-:: Possibility // What if its emotional energy? ::-

-:: Love ::-

-:: Care ::-

-:: F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P ::-

Emotional energy was a bit of a tricky subject amongst ponykind.

Clearly it had to exist. Since Changelings could feed on love – like an energy.

But they could not feed on Sweetie – Because she was not like other ponies. She did not emirate the same energies. It was one of the most usual debates among bullies and meanie-heads that sweeties emotions could not be real for that reason.
Well – She has similar energies. Love, compassion, friendship and all that. But on a different wavelength.

An electrical wavelength.

Truth was there was more then electricity coursing through Sweeties veins. There was the hard to define energy that made her who she was, the problem was that it was impossible to differentiate from electricity, As electricity was what she required to function. All the other energies. Magical or emotional, simply rode along on the electrical current.

That's why it was a little hard for Sweetie to accept the magic she had revived today as anything other then borrowed magic. For even if she could pull its energy along using her own. It was still magic on a different wavelength.

It was not electrical in nature – it was organical energy.

The same thing was true about emotions. Twilight had long Studied the magic of Friendship. The organically energies that form a subconscious bond between individuals. It was an energy much more subtle then normal pony magic. Something that did not come from the horn or the core but from something deeper inside.

It had made sweetie wonder just how isolated she was from the rest of pony kind. If everyone emanated this hidden energy but she didn't. Then did that mean that the bond between the three crusaders was purely a psychological construct? The same with her big sister, or her family. That she could not really share in this hidden magical bond between friends and family, since her body could not radiate these things on the same wavelength – or perhaps not at all?

No – She clearly was creating this energy, in her own way. Sim's observation just brought a whole new theory to light.

What if it was simply stored somewhere?

All things comes in threes – that's why Sweeties thoughts were once again aborted roughly as the earth fell away around her, and gravity took hold of her and her friends as they once again fell into a large open area.

Sweetie looked around before remembering that she was the flashlight, and steadied her look upon the gleaming lines on the floor.

“Railroad tracks!” Said Scootaloo “Now we are on the right Track.”

Sweetie agreed. Its amazing how some talkative exposition can help you transition from one scene to another.

“Look – There he is!” Scootaloo shouted, and pointed.

Sweetie snapped back to the big world outside her body, and directed her headlights down the end of the tunnel. There, vague shape of a familiar vehicle was strolling away into a world of ugly white. It was pretty hard to miss, given that the top deck of the vehicle was emanating so much light that it not only filled the tunnel, but seemed to but seemed to hang around after it had passed, Painting the otherwise dark and brown landscape into a blurry mess of white and vague shapes.

The blurry shapes of her friends started galloping after she smeared blob of the vehicle. Shouting at the top of their lungs for it to stop and give back the Sunstone. Sweetie ran after with no idea how they were going to catch up to a train.

Her friends yells and the sound of their hooves became a mess of sounds as blurry as the world around her. Not helped by the ever increasing static of a roaring background noise. She vaguely picked up the shouts of the lookouts from the vehicle, Someone must have spotted them, Not surprising, given how bright the underworld had become.

“.. children of the sky …. returned!?...”

Didn't you say … when back to the sky … there work was done...?”

It was difficult, even for sweeties microphones, to make out all the words as their voices were drowned out as the roaring background noise fought its way to the foreground the further ahead she ran.

Sweetie looked around, and found that they were not simply in a tunnel, But in a big deep shaft with only a thin crevice serving as a bridge as it ran across the wall of the shaft. Deep underneath them was a roaring underground river that Sweetie vaguely remembered them having passed sometime on their journey to Canterlot.

The roar of the river was in turn drowned out by Sim screaming into her microphone that they had to go and get that mole king. She quickly helped Sweetie retract the drill before disappearing down into her servos to give Sweeties legs a boost.

-:: Power redirected // Locomotion hydraulics at 100 percent ::-

Sweetie sucked all the power she could into her legs, and bolted out across the bridge. She overshot her friends And was already halfway across the bridge by the time the vehicle had crossed into the tunnel on the far side of the gorge.

She did not have much of a plan, except she was gonna make the train stop somehow, and work it out from there. The moles would have to listen, they basically worshiped ponies, Right?

She shouted out to the moles on board, yelling at them to stop.

Getting this close, the microphone that was till picking up sounds from the outside world picked upp the unmistakable voice of the mole king

”Fools! … Demon Dogs trickery …. Don't be swayed … Prepare the devise ...”

Sweetie had only a third of bridge left to cross when she almost tripped over something. A bush of oddly shaped gems had been strewed across the track. And in between the blinding light of the sunstone and her own shining vision, the world had appeared almost white.

Sweetie corrected her vision back to normal just in time to see the gemstones starting to glow brighter with an aggressive red color.

” … For my future.”

The gemstones blinked, and then …

“SWEETIE LOOK OUT!”

Somewhere a wire was tugged, and Sweetie turned so hard that she almost went straight into the cliff wall when the whole world when kaboom! Only her quick change of direction saved her from being directly under the gem as it exploded. The next second she found herself running up the wall, propelled by the force of the blast, as more and more explosions took place on the last section of bridge.

Gravity took over, and Sweetie somersaulted through the air as she went down. She landed right in front of her friends just as the biggest big explosion rocked the base of the opposing bridgehead. And the Mole king and his machine disappeared behind a cloud of fire and falling rocks.

Sweetie barely had time to stand and realize that she must have done an arch back to the middle of the bridge ,before her hooves were knocked out from under her as the crevice began to fall.

The girls screamed as they tumbled downward. Scootaloo grabbed hold of Sweetie and Applebloom, and by a mad buzzing of wings did she save them from hitting the water below amongst a heap of crushing rocks.

But she could not save them from going downward. And hitting the water below was a shock to all the scenes, not just for how cold it was, but also for how strong the current was.

She underground river seeped them away across the shaft. There was no way to swim against it, nor was there any beaches or edges to climb up on. With no where else to grab a hold off the girls grabbed hold of each other.

“Anyone got any ideas?” Applebloom screamed over the roar of the river.

Sweetie looked around, and found to her horror that the roof was getting closer. They were quickly running out of shaft, and the river would soon pull them under as it continued on its way into whatever pipe like path that nature had formed. It would be a river without a surface. A tunnel filled from top to bottom with running water.

A tunnel …

“I have an Idea!” Shouted Sweetie “Take a deep breath and hold on! Sim! Activate my drill!”

The girls ducked under just as the roof disappeared down below the surface.

For a few agonizing seconds Sweetie waited, and prayed that Sim had not been knocked unconscious by the tumult. But then the spark came through and the drill folded out of Sweeties horn.

The weight of the drill allowed them to sink to the bottom. And as the tip struck the riverbed she began to drill. Propelled by the force of the river she made a new canal. She knew she didn't have much time. She might not have to breathe underwater, but her friends had to.

She steered of to the side, and once she knew they had overshot the river she drilled upwards. The water kept pressing against them. Kept them from getting air. She continued up, up, until she took a sudden turn and headed downward again. The water spilled over the edge she created and fell down on them, but for a moment fer friends caught a breath. They continued downward as the water piled up over their heads, down till Sweetie was sure they were deeper then the river, Then she turned up again, and kept going, higher then the first time, until water fall away from their faces.

Her friends coughing and spitting behind her was, in that moment, the most relieving sound in the world.

Sweetie leveled off the tunnel, and turned on her breathing simply so that she could breathe out. The drill retracted back into her horn as Sim pulled a few wires.

“Wow” Said Scoot “I never thought you could get out of a river by swimming to the bottom.”

“What exactly happened?” Asked Sim.

The mole climbed out of Sweeties ear, followed by a quick beam of water that leaked out of the hole.

“That,” Said Applebloom “ Was a water trap. Sweetie basically created a curved pipe that the waters gonna have trouble following through.”

“But … Would not the stream simply push the water up at us?” Asked Sim. As she shook the water out of her vest.

“It might – Eventually. The river is strong, sure, but its gonna have to push up all the water that lies still in the bend. That's why the height was so important – the weight of the water is hopefully stronger then the rivers push.”

Sweetie nodded. Sometimes the physics you learned in school paid off.

She sat down and did an internal systems check. Luckily only a small amount had leaked into her and no system was damaged of glitching. She had also gotten away pretty much unharmed from the explosion and her healing talismans were already patching up the small scrapes and bruises had had received.

She tilted her head against the tunnel wall to allow the water drip out of her open ear socket.

That's when she heard it.

At first she almost mistook it for a glitch in her microphones. Then she thought it was just the running of water. But the river was too distant now. In fact it wasn't even a sound, It was more like a frequency. A soft humming, thumping in the earth.

“Sim? How far are we to Moletown?"

“I would say were not even halfway there. Why?”

“Do you girls not hear that?”

Of course they didn't. This was something only Sweeties ears could pick up. And she knew because she had picked it up one before. Once they visited the Mole kings inner sanctum

A strange frequency, one that seemed to echo through the very rocks. Much like how the mole kings organ had resonated. But different. Fainter...

Somehow more organic.