Equestria, Year 567 After Luna’s Banishment
Somewhere in Underground Laboratory in Canterlot
“...and this, Celestia, is what I worked on for last seven years! Meet the SPK Model 900! The first intelligent and working prototype of Equidroid!”
Unknown Figure said while pointing out at something that looked like a pony with a simple brown mane and same-colored tail and almost-white coat, it was almost identical to normal pony, except one little detail that was placed somewhere on right temple
“It was built to help our society in workplaces like mine shafts and farms and more! It can do everything that pony can and more!”
Said Electric Spark, the engineer, professor and innovator that was way ahead of its time, who built a lot of things in last three decades.
“This… is interesting, I will say…” said Celestia, while looking quite unsure, like she didn’t knew how to react to that. “I must note, it looks a lot like pony, except that…”
“Oh! It’s Light Emitting Diode, or LED for short.” Explained Electric Spark while pointing at mentioned LED.
“That little thing tells us it’s current status. Blue means everything is alright, Yellow means it’s processing something, and the last one, Red, tells us either processing something really serious or it’s badly damaged.” Finished explaining the Innovator.
“Then why it’s not… doing anything?” asked the Alicorn
“That’s easy, because it’s turned off! Give me a moment, I’ll boot it up.” Said Mr.Spark as he proceeded to press some buttons on device that Celestia didn’t knew about.
Minute later, the engineer said “There it is! The moment why I actually called you in my labs today!”
--
DATE: Tuesday, 14th of May, Year 567 L.B
TIME: 9:21:32 PM
MODEL: SPK900
SERIAL#: 000 000 001 -32
BIOS 3.2 REVISION 0001
PROCEED TO LOADING OS
.
.
LOADING OS…
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION…
BATTERY… 100%
MECHANICAL PARTS… OK
SCANNERS… OK
BOOTING UP AI ENGINE… OK
MEMORY STATUS… OK
INITIATE FULL START UP
--
The previously-blank LED now started to emit a little glow of yellow, while the Equidroid opened up it’s eyes and looked around creator’s lab, scanning and taking in all information that it could
“Hello. I’m Equidroid, Model SPK900. I'm first working prototype that can do work in different existing fields, Do you want to know about what I can also do?"
“No, Thank you.”
“Isn’t it great, Celestia?” asked Electric Spark “It could replace ponies in dangerous workplaces and it will never complain! Plus! its replaceable!... Well… Will be replaceable… if you allow me to get funding so I… uh... could replicate them.... hehe”
Celestia looked troubled for a moment, thinking about positive and negative sides of allowing that… thing to replace ponies in all sorts of fields
And thought of replacing ponies didn’t settled with her at all
“Mr.Spark, I’ll admit, this is really advanced piece of technology and It’s great opportunity to help our kingdom, but I cannot allow them to replace ponies in farms and other places, these ponies need income and thought you didn’t said it, you implied that it doesn’t need any sorts of income, unlike ponies.”
Smile that was on engineer’s face fell in a moment, and disbelieving look settled into his eyes
“But… Celestia! Please think about it again!” pleaded Electric Spark
“My decision is final!” said Celestia in Royal voice. “We cannot let ponies be replaced! With… this thing doing all the work there would be a lot of unemployment! Something we can’t afford in our kingdom!”
All hope washed away from Electric Spark’s face and silence settled in the laboratory of mentioned early engineer
“What’s going to happen to it, then? I worked on him for seven years…” asked the innovator
“Nothing,” - answered Celestia - “It’s better off here, underground, just leave it here to the rest… and disable it, please”
“Alright, I’ll disable it… Just… give me a moment…” - weakly said the inventor as he proceeded to shut his greatest creation off
“SPK900, Proceed to shutdown.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes”
“Initiating: Shutdown. Have a good day, Mr.Spark” - it said, closed its eyes and started to lose all movement until it froze in one position… presumably forever
And silence settled in again in doors of underground laboratory
“Well, guess that’s it, Celestia.”
“It is, My little pony, it is…”
.
.
.
“I think you should go and I need some time to fully proceed what happened here. Thank you for coming here today”
“You’re welcome and you’re right, I should go, I have court to attend, have a good day.”
Said The Princess as she teleported away, leaving our inventor alone with different thoughts.
“Maybe… you’re really better off here… forever…” said professor as he walked around his laboratory and examining his latest creation that sat on the floor, motionless and lifeless
Electric Spark took a step back and headed to lab’s exit.
He decided that he’ll go home today, he experienced too many emotions for one day.
He was still disappointed in how things turned out, this entire underground laboratory was built for this creating only, and now he’s gonna lock it, forget it and move on.
Sure, abandoning this prototype hurt a lot, but he can’t let that slow him down, there’s other things to invent after all.
And with that thought, he made his final decision as he was leaving seven years of work behind.
Years will go on, and this prototype will wait here
--
...437 years after…
Electric Spark’s Abandoned underground laboratory in Canterlot
Everything was covered in dust, a lot of cobweb was around
Something fell out of roof, this place was slowly falling apart
Bits of roof pressed some buttons, triggering long-forgotten Equidroid to boot up once again
--
DATE: UNKNOWN
...
--
And so his journey begins…
To be continued…