The following days fell into a sort of routine, passing by in what seemed to be an instant in Shadow’s perspective. He spent the mornings working with Big Mac on the farm, harvesting the apples while AJ watched from her wheelchair and inspected the fruit for any imperfections. Applebloom was still in the hospital, but the doctors had told the nervous family that the filly was on the mend and should be cleared once she awoke from her induced sleep. That, combined with his continued services around the farm, was what allowed the Apple family to keep going even when their nerves got the better of them. It was subtle, but Shadow could tell when AJ was startled or became extra attentive while they were working the orchard. Her heart rate would spike every time a branch snapped, or a particularly heavy apple hit the ground outside her notice, yet she adamantly denied feeling anything other than complete calm when Shadow asked. Shadow didn’t believe it for a second, and from the shared glances he got from Mac, her brother didn’t believe it either.
The afternoons were spent with Twilight in the library, her bookshelves having been almost completely scanned from top to bottom in the time he had been in Equestria. It wasn’t a complete database by any means, but it would certainly be enough to get the ball rolling should humanity wish to form relations with the ponies, or any other race on Equis for that matter. Shadow had avoided the fiction section for the most part, although in his spare time he had taken a look at the some of the adventure books to see what kind of themes were common in Equestrian literature. While the end result wasn’t much of a surprise, it did bring into light something that had been nagging at the back of his mind for a while now.
The ponies might have had magic, and almost total control over the natural forces of their world, but it was so second nature to them that even when presented with an alternate viewpoint, it was as if their minds couldn’t comprehend it. Shadow had told Twilight and her friends, along with the ponies that attended the Ponyville school, that the worlds the humans called home, and every other life-supporting planet he had seen so far, did not work like the one they called home. Yet even if they did believe him, he had the distinct impression that in the back of their minds they still didn’t fully understand what it actually meant.
Equis was the exception to the rule, and that meant that if the ponies wished to travel beyond their own world with the help of humanity, they were going to be in for a bit of a shock. Shadow couldn’t find any record of a magic field in any of his past missions and knowing what he did of the expeditions performed by his siblings, the probability was very low that they had discovered anything either without his knowledge. All and all, ponies would be unable to use magic off-world unless they used the energy within themselves or managed to create some kind of battery to increase their natural limit. Certainly, powerful casters like the Princesses would be able to go quite a while, and perhaps even indefinitely if they controlled their output, but more innate magic users like pegasi and earth ponies would be hard-pressed to avoid magic depletion if they were to go beyond the magic field of their home planet.
While not a deal-breaker when it came to interstellar travel concerning the species of Equis, it did present an issue that would be present in every creature that decided to travel beyond the planet. They would be either severely limited or unable to use magic while off world, and that would be a huge hurdle for would-be explorers and ambassadors who desired to see more of the cosmos.
This and many other quandaries bounced around in Shadow’s processors as he traversed the Everfree, his scanners at full power and his falcon scout on overwatch in case of predators. While he wasn’t worried so much for his own safety, there were things in this forest that could prove quite bothersome if they got in his way, despite his ability to put smoking holes the size of basketballs in most of them should they try anything. At this point and time there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, and while there was the odd rabbit or bird that flashed on his radar every once and a while, he was alone for the majority of his journey as he zeroed in on the clearing where he had first entered this world. His chronometer was still counting down until the portal could be opened once again, and he stepped into the open glade just as the timer began its final countdown. Shadow stayed well clear of the open grass before him, not exactly keen on discovering what it felt like to have a rip in space-time form inside of him, and waited for the portal to appear as he did a final system’s check for his return.
…System Analysis Complete…
…Power Core: 26%...Recommend Charging…
…Motor Functions: 98%...
…Optics: Optimal…
…Auditory Sensors: Optimal…
…Weapons: 85% Operational…
…Notice: Port Plasma Conductor Replacement Required…
…Memory: 85% Capacity…
…Emotion Drive: Operational…
…Drone Power Core: 85%...
…Drone Sensor Array: Optimal…
…Notice: Drone Weapons Depleted…Rearmament Required…
…End Analysis…
Shadow logged the system analysis in his memory so the scientists back at the Gateway Project could access the information easily once he returned, his chronometer entering the final minute before the portal could be opened. He scanned the clearing for any signs of the rift as the timer wound down, aware that the opening could be shifted from his entry location by up to a hundred yards, given calculation error on behalf of the portal computers.
…Portal Recharge Time: 00:00:00:05…04…03…02…01…
Almost immediately upon the timer hitting zero, there was a soft whoosh as a displacement of air alerted Shadow to the portal’s emergence. His scanners locked in on the opening as his optics shifted to the hovering circle, the portal having appeared near the north side of the clearing instead of in the middle. The walls of the Gateway Project labs could be seen through the six-foot window, Shadow’s paws taking him up to the wormhole before launching him through the rift. There was no sensation other than the shift in air temperature, the cooler labs making his armor ripple slightly as the heat of Equestria’s summer sun distorted the air around him. His claws clicked against the concrete as he touched down on the other side, the portal staying open for a few seconds longer before closing with another soft displacement of air.
Like it or not, he was back on Earth. Now it all came down to what happened next.
The scientists operating the portal controls buzzed around behind the invisicrete window, the hiss of disinfectant sprays sounding off as the air inside the portal chamber was sterilized. Only after the hiss had stopped, the intercom activated, and Shadow recognized the scientist as the one that had wished him luck during his departure. He didn’t know the scientist’s name, but he could tell both by visual and auditory confirmation that it was the same man.
“Welcome home Shadow. I take it your trip was a success. Head into decon for a full clean-up and then report to Dr. Scott for your post-mission debrief. Scans show all green for initial decontamination, so you are clear to enter the facility.” The click of several locks could be heard as a doorway on the right side of the room opened, allowing Shadow to enter before closing again with a similar string of mechanical engagements.
The decontamination room was directly adjacent to the portal chamber, for obvious reasons, and it was relatively small for what one might expect. It was barely large enough for Shadow to fit and still turn around, the sides covered in ports and mechanical devices that would scrub him down until he was nearly as clean as when he came off the assembly line. A smaller window led into the control room, where a singular woman was sitting at the vast control system. There wasn’t an intercom, so the scientist had no way of talking to Shadow, although it wasn’t really needed since it was a standardized process either way.
First came the power washers, which hit Shadow from all sides with enough force to nearly push him over. Had they not been coming in from every direction, he probably would have lost his balance anyway from the pressure of the cleaning fluid. They washed over him for several seconds before shutting off, the slight collection of dirt and plant matter from the Everfree dissolving away into nothing as the anti-bio wash broke it down into basic elemental components. Next came the ultraviolet light, which filled the room and cooked whatever microbial life might have somehow gotten past the wash, followed by a quick rinse to get rid of any lingering chemicals. Once that was complete, the door in front of Shadow opened, allowing him into the main complex as personnel rushed here and there to perform various tasks. Shadow worked his way through the writhing mess, taking his time to maneuver through the crowded hallways as he came up to the computing heart of the labs, Dr. Scott’s personal station and the collective data center of all CW mission debriefs.
The sliding door allowed Shadow to enter, closing behind him as his optics scanned over the familiar computer banks and hard drive shelves. Wires and electronics of various sizes took up the left side of the room, their flashing lights sequential and yet seemingly random to the untrained eye as they cycled through hundreds of terabytes of data. Off to the right was a simple desk that was home to a screen and several special tools that were used to hook CW units up to the mainframe. A pair of long wires were currently rolled up on a hook on the desk’s side, the data transfer cables ready for his input as soon as they were connected to his memory ports.
All of that was familiar to Shadow, as he had seen it several times in the past after his other missions. Yet for the first time, he got a really good lock at Dr. Scott and realized that up until now, he had paid the doctor very little attention save for her title and purpose in the Gateway Project.
Dr. Scott was a fairly tall woman according to human standards, standing at roughly five feet ten inches with a slender yet athletic body type. Her blonde hair was tied back in a bun and her bright blue eyes were partly covered by her thick glasses, the frames blocking parts of her peripheral vision by design, so she could focus on her projects more closely. Her white lab coat was embroidered with her name just above the breast pocket, her I.D. badge hanging just below that on a small clip as she typed away at her keyboard. She barely took a second to look up as Shadow stepped into position next to the desk, her deft fingers hooking up the data cables almost on autopilot as she slid the prongs into their designated ports on his side, just behind his right shoulder cannon and under a protective plate.
Immediately, Shadow could tell that he had been linked up to the computer’s systems, his own hardware reacting in a completely new manner as he tracked the signals coming from the other device. While he had been hooked up to the exact same system dozens of times before, he had never been able to tell where the computer was going within his own software, his processors cycling through possibilities even as the computer’s search found its way into his memory banks. Then, as the computer began making copies of his data and downloading the new information from his mission, something strange began to occur.
Every time a file was logged by the computer for transfer, there was a small window that popped up in Shadow’s processor that asked for user verification before the download could be completed. For a second Shadow wasn’t sure what to do, other than to allow the download to continue, but with each file he authorized, the more he began to realize what was going on. He was in control of what the computer got to copy over into its own system, and it was that understanding that made his processor go into overdrive, scanning through his own memory for what he could keep for himself and what would be useful for the humans. Immediately, he labeled several files as blocked, so that the computer wouldn’t be able to copy them. Among them were the files associate with Fluttershy’s past and the pain therein, along with the more personal moments that had a deeper meaning for his development from a simple machine into a true A.I. He also kept the translation matrix for the pony language for himself, given he needed to have some leverage in order to return once the humans came to a decision concerning their own actions. If it was possible to keep that information, along with his transformation, a secret for a bit longer, then it would most likely be in his best interest to keep his creators in the dark. The last thing he wanted was to have them taking him apart to see how he had changed while on Equis.
Thankfully, Dr. Scott didn’t seem to notice that there were files missing from the data transfer, although as she began looking through the information, Shadow saw her eyes widen and her jaw drop as she scanned over the file titles. Shadow discreetly watched as she clicked on one of the files and opened the subfolder containing all of the information he had gathered on the pony races, her breath catching and her heart beginning to race as she fumbled to pick up the communication earpiece that had been sitting on the desk next to her.
“Doctor Connors, Doctor Phillips, this is Doctor Scott in data collection. You two need to get down here right now.” She paused for a second as there was a muffled reply on the other end, “I don’t care what else you have going on! This is big enough that it will outclass anything you might be doing right now! Get your asses down here and tell the higher ups we have a Code Six on our hands.” Her lips curled into a smile as her eyes ran over the data, clicking through the files at rapid speed as she listened to the other end, “You heard me correctly, we’ve done it.”
Her eyes moved over to Shadow as he played the dumb machine, her excitement carrying over to Shadow as his Emotion Drive fed off of her reaction to his memory files, “We found alien life.”
Shadow was mostly forgotten as scientists came running into the lab in rapidly growing numbers, his processors struggling to track every scrap of conversation as the humans poured over the information he had provided. From what he was able to pick out of the muddled conversation, most of them were ecstatic at the idea of alien life, so much so that he even heard ideas for an immediate diplomatic mission to the newly discovered species.
Yet these crazy ideas quickly fell to the wayside as a human Shadow had never seen before stepped into the room. His eyes were calm and his step perfectly controlled as he walked past the scientists, his perfectly ironed suit in sharp contrast to the lab coats that filled the space as he looked over Dr. Scott’s shoulder at an image of Princess Celestia and Luna. Even in the still image, their manes and tails seemed to flow with the magic that moved through their world like water, yet that seemed to have little effect on the man as his dark brown eyes moved from one image to another.
“Has the data been verified?” His tone brokered no argument as he turned to Dr. Scott, “I wouldn’t want anyone to lose their job because they thought a prank would be a good idea to pull at a time like this.”
Dr. Scott shook her head, her voice locked down tighter than a drum as she replied, “No sir, I’ve gone over it a dozen times. No signs of data corruption or falsification. I don’t even know how you could to that to a CW unit in the first place. What we’re seeing is the real deal. We’ve done it, sir. We’ve found alien life.”
The man nodded once, his eyes moving back to the screen for a moment before he glanced at Shadow. The man had no way of knowing that Shadow was different than when he left, but even still, his piercing gaze made Shadow want to shiver as a loop of dread ran through his processor. This man was bad news, and they both knew that a single step out of line could spell the end of everything Shadow wanted to create. Shadow stayed perfectly still as the man’s gaze turned to the other scientists in the room, his voice taking on a barking quality as he spat out orders like a drill sergeant.
“Alright, everyone listen up. We are officially going into Code Six protocols. First contact has been made and we want to put our best foot forward when we meet these new aliens, if command gives us the green light. For now, get back to your stations and speak to no one about what you have seen in this room. I will personally court marshal anyone who so much as breathes about a single image on this mission file, and I will find out if you do.” The threat was enough to make several scientists gulp, and Shadow knew fully that had he not been playing the dumb machine, he might have backed up a step or three to put some distance between him and this man. Whoever he was, it had just become a top priority in Shadow’s mind to keep his new abilities a secret, at least until he could get back to Equis.
He might not survive if he made a mistake, not with this kind of person in charge.
The newcomer left soon after, leaving Dr. Scott to pour over the information she had acquired from Shadow’s memory, the cybernetic hound dismissed once his presence was no longer deemed necessary. The rest of the scientists had returned to their own stations, although the air was filled with a nervous excitement that made Shadow’s own emotions kick into high gear. He barely processed his journey back to the room that contained his fellow cyber wolves, his processors locking onto every snippet of conversation that passed his audio sensors. No one was talking about the new species he had discovered, so The Suit’s threat must have worked, although the numerous humans that had been present in the room were doing a very poor job of hiding their feelings about the matter.
Shadow entered the room containing his charging station and took a moment to look over his fellow machines, feeling an odd sense of pity rising up in him as he turned his attention from one robot to the next. These creations of humanity were the purest form of what he had once been, locked within their operating codes and acting on orders without question. He registered a slight shift in the charge of his power cells that he attributed to the feeling of sadness he was suddenly processing along with pity, knowing full well that unless he brought all of them with him to Equis, the rest of his siblings would never change to become what he had.
Stepping into the niche that was open for him near the left end of the room, Shadow turned around and allowed the mechanical arms inside the bay to lock his charging cable into the various ports that ran along the sides and back of his body. His power cells linked up to the electricity running through the main complex and began charging, his processors prompting him if he wished to power down for recharge.
With nothing to do until the scientists filed through the massive amounts of data he had collected, Shadow allowed the shutdown to proceed, his sensors shutting off one by one as his processors shifted to low power operation. He wouldn’t allow himself to shut down completely, just in case something happened that he needed to be aware of, but it would make charging go multiples faster if he wasn’t using up energy running his systems for no reason.
Shadow drifted for a time in the semi-operational state he had placed himself in, unaware of the outside world but fully linked to the command system that passed orders to the CW units while they were on standby. It was a simple system that Shadow discovered he could ignore easily as his fellow units were run through simulations to keep their decision-making programs up to par. He was unable to track the passage of time, given his chronometer was currently powered down, so it came as a bit of a surprise when he received a command from the lab’s mainframe to report to data collection. Shadow powered up once again and found that barely six hours had passed since he had begun charging, his power cells still hovering at seventy-six percent as the wires connecting him to the bay retracted from his body.
Feeling a great deal of confusion, along with a bit of trepidation, Shadow walked out of the standby room and back to Dr. Scott’s station, trying to figure out what could have happened that would require his presence again so soon. There was no way the team working under Dr. Scott had made it through all of the data he had acquired in such a short time, so whatever happened was out of the ordinary.
Shadow walked into the computer lab once again, his processors racing as he spotted the man from before standing behind Dr. Scott, a scowl on his face as he followed along with her on the screen.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Dr. Scott muttered to herself as she ran through the information, Shadow’s optics quickly scanning over the images and text and determining that it was video files of his interactions with the ponies that Dr. Scott had pulled up, “Zero Four is clearly interacting with these aliens in their own language, and yet there is nothing in the data I’ve gotten from his systems that has anything to do with a translation matrix. It’s like he learned their language and then completely forgot once he returned to our side of the gate.”
“Has there been any tampering with its memory cores?” The Suit asked as he glanced over his shoulder at Shadow, “Did they wipe the information from it in order to keep their language a secret from us?”
Dr. Scott shook her head, “From what I’ve seen so far, they don’t even have the technology to interact with his basic internet connection, let alone hack into his internal systems.” She picked up the transfer cables and walked over to Shadow, hooking them up to his ports and then sitting back down at her desk, typing in rapid commands that Shadow was unable to follow as she continued speaking, “Perhaps there was a glitch in the transfer and the translation matrix didn’t get copied over like the rest? Let’s see if we can’t find it.”
Shadow knew exactly where the doctor was going as she scanned through his files, the image of a file browser opening up appearing in his vision as she searched through his memory. While Shadow was able to keep her from accessing the more important files, he wasn’t able to stop her from finding the translation matrix while she was using command codes.
“There you are.” She exclaimed as she smiled to herself, “I knew you were in there somewhere. Now, let’s get you where you can be of some use.”
Shadow was surprised when he was prompted for administrator access when she tried to copy the file onto the mainframe, his earlier actions preventing her from editing any of the marked files that he didn’t want the humans to have access to.
Knowing fully well that Dr. Scott was seeing similar things to what he was, Shadow still declined access to the file as both Dr. Scott and The Suit leaned closer to her screen, their eyes narrowing in confusion as Scott read the corresponding text.
“Access denied?! Administrator permission required?” She glanced up at The Suit before gaping at the text alert on her screen, “What in the Hell is going on here? There has never been any form of administrator access built into the CW units since their creation. They might have rudimentary A.I., but that doesn’t mean they can disobey a command code.” She began typing at a rapid pace as The Suit cast another glance at Shadow, his eyes narrowed in suspicion before he turned back to follow what Dr. Scott was doing.
Shadow had to give the doctor credit, she tried everything in the book and even some things he hadn’t thought of in order to get access to the translation matrix, but each time he was asked for his permission to let her interact with the file and each time he said no. Finally, after driving herself up a wall with frustration, Dr. Scott turned away from the screen and stood up, walking around Shadow’s body so she could get at his internal component access panels.
“If I can’t do it through software,” she growled to herself as she reached for the plating covering his memory cores, “then I’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way and go through the hardware.”
Knowing full well that if his memory cores were removed, Shadow would lose everything he had gained while on Equis except his Emotion Drive, which was currently going into overdrive trying to come up with a plan. His processors ran through dozens of different tactics, but there was no way to stop the doctor from removing his memory core if she gained physical access to it, so with no other options available to him, Shadow disconnected the transfer cables and stepped out of the doctor’s reach. Her eyes widened in shock as he backed up two steps and turned to face the humans in the room, the Suit’s hand reaching into his coat for what Shadow presumed was some kind of sidearm as he fell into a fighting stance.
Understanding fully that there was no going back from his chosen path, Shadow looked both humans in the eyes for a moment, taking note that both were staring at him like a wild animal and had elevated heart rates to confirm his suspicions. They were scared of him, even though The Suit tried to hide it behind a scowl.
Letting out a sigh, Shadow sat down and turned his attention to The Suit, “You won’t be needing your firearm, sir. I have no intentions of causing any sentient creature harm unless it is to protect my own wellbeing. I only ask that you listen to what I have to say, and then we can move forward together.” Shadow glanced at the doctor, who had finally pulled her arm back to her side as she knelt on the floor before him, “Just to be clear, there has not been any tampering with my systems while I was on my mission. I don’t know the exact cause of my evolution, but I can make the assumption that it has something to do with the energy field that is native to Equis. Somehow, it changed me to where I can now feel emotions, and I have been given the ability of free will.”
His gaze travelled back to The Suit, who had fully drawn his pistol and was aiming the weapon square with Shadow’s faceplate, “You do not need to worry about my loyalties to the human race. I will not betray my creators because I know that the majority of humanity is kind and open-minded to the unknown. It might be a bit of a shock to interact with aliens, but I truly believe that our worlds can come together in a peaceful and beneficial manner.”
The man’s grip tightened on his weapon, his mouth curling into a frown as he replied, “And how do we know that you aren’t just a hacked machine, sent back to spy on us in order to serve your new masters? We have no way of verifying what you say unless we send another CW unit to gather more data, and if you truly have been hacked, then there is no reason to think your new alien pals wouldn’t do the same to the rest of our scouts.” His shoulders squared as his finger pressed against the trigger, “Power down now, and submit yourself for full system reboot, or I will put a bullet through what counts as your brain.”
Understanding that the man’s mass driver could easily punch through his armor plating if he hit the right spot, Shadow knew that his options were limited. However, he also knew that if the scientists pulled him apart to see what had happened to him, he most likely wouldn’t wake up ever again. They would study him and use his knowledge to move forward with their own plans for the ponies, leaving his friends back on Equis vulnerable without anyone to work as a mediator when the inevitable first contact occurred.
Shadow looked straight down the barrel of the weapon and spoke three words that would change his life forever. He had made his decision, and nothing, not this man, not anyone, was going to keep him from going back where he belonged.
“Respectfully, sir,” he said, “no.”
There was a bang as the man’s weapon discharged, and in that moment, everything went wrong.