“I'll make sure to let him know.” Bun retorted another one of Disarray's barrage of questions and requests.
“But, but, make sure that he knows about how Odin can operate without an atmosphere, that means they can have him go outside into space and fix stuff on the outside of the ship, that's important and he'll, he'll really like th-”
“DISARRAY.” She stopped the blubbering pony, “I will make sure to tell him.”
She patted him on the shoulder with the pretentiousness of an elegant feline who just had used the bathroom. Bun then turned to her other colleagues down the hall, failing to cleanly carry a long wooden pony storage unit - which was in reality a repurposed, cubic coffin - but Bun thought that it seemed a bit grim to describe as such, containing Odin. “Be careful with him!” she yelled over as she saw Goldwing stumble under the weight of it, using her wings as a fleeting platform that kept the whole operation going.
“I GOT IT! I mean, it's fine!” she spilled out a reply, standing back up and hoisting the not-coffin, which contained their not-pony back to what some ponies, specifically blind ones, could call a horizontal level.
A lot of ponies stared.
The halls of the Nexus Institute were filled with young and eager engineers - drinking coffee as dark as their thoughts when reminded of student debt - and gruff security agents with slightly too tight, matching uniform shirts which looked as if they were to burst at the buttons if any of them puffed their chests out. And both groups looked on at the six clumsy robot scientists stumble to the front desk where they confirmed, with the aid of a distressed secretary, that somehow they were indeed scheduled to be here, and proceed to push past a set of guards and a pair of now swinging double doors towards the meeting room.
“Come on, guys, you’re doing great!” Bun lied to make them feel better, the not-coffin bumping off the edge of the doorway and swaying back and forth for a few moments. Bun averted her eyes as surprised and concerning remarks came from G-wing and friends behind her. “Array, what room we in?”
Disarray popped his head out of the worrying cloud of thoughts he silently suffered in after Bun telling him off. “Meeting room... Theta?” He read off of the card he was given by the receptionist.
“They can't just use regular numbers and letters can they?” She complained, trying to figure out which direction they were supposed to be going. “Fucking millennials.”
“Whatnow?” Disarray questioned.
“I heard somepony call "the youth" that somewhere, but I'll admit it sounds dumb... Ah, over there!” she saw a room marked with the theta symbol on a jutting out plaque past one corner.
“This way!” Bun motioned with her hoof to her friends as she turned the corner’s ninety degrees.
A scene of the same comedic value as the "stupid and stupider" movie, which released in the latter part of this decade with reviews as terrible as its premise, was left in her wake as Goldwing and her motley crew broke the corner like a race car lacking both tires and pilot.
Bun - regardless of the carnage behind her - had a smile on her face, and it was only growing once she peeked her head to peer through the glass door of the meeting room and saw the blacksuits sitting behind their mahogany table, sipping their Apple Acres apple flavoured still water™ from flat, fancy looking glasses.
“They're waiting for us, guys! Come on!” Bun called out, being heard by the ponies inside the meeting room which straightened their ties and sat up in their chairs.
“Bun, are you sure you’re ready?” Disarray projected his stress upon her.
“Ready?” She remarked enthusiastically; she had never been more prepared for anything in her entire life. “I've never been more prepared for anything in my entire life! I'm telling you.” she told him.
“Well, do you think they're ready?” He motioned towards the speeding collage of pony trying to figure out how to pull the breaks on the pain train that they accidentally created when they tried to sprint towards Bun. They then collapsed with the still-not-a-coffin falling from their backs to lay against the wall. The noise drawing the worried glare of a guard coming down the hall, who Bun swayed off with her hoof.
Bun helped up her friends and gathered them for a quick pep talk. “Just leave this to me, if you guys set up and then stay quiet, we'll be fine. Disarray, you’re on slides duty.” She placed the laptop from her saddlebag into Disarray's wobbly hooves, then she proudly slid through the door of the meeting room.
“Good morning Mares and Gentlecolts...” She greeted the great council of cautious bewilderment.
Although there was one pony who sat in the very centre which seemed to not be fazed by Bun's confidence or the mayhem now occurring behind her as her colleagues threw together the pieces to Bun's presentation. Bun recognised the middle aged yet defined stallion from pictures online, and if she was correct, this was the head of the company and Princess Twilight's son, Matrix Sparkle.
Interesting.
He spoke up, addressing her personally with a striking stare. “Bun Button is it?”
“Yes, it is.” She smiled.
“I am Matrix Sparkle as I assume you know, and these are my associates. I believe you have something to show us... Where is it?” He eyed the several ponies behind Bun in their toil.
“Well, it's right here but I was hoping to do an introduction and all first...” She politely suggested.
“We are busy ponies, Miss, would you mind if we skip to the product?”
“Ugh... Well...” She turned to Disarray, who tried to turn on Bun's slideshow with the painful concentration one would undergo to build a house of cards, and as he got ready, Bun cut across her neck with her hoof, getting across the idea that they will be skipping that part. “Alright, if you wish. I present to you... Odin.” Bun turned to Goldwing who was prying open the casket, revealing a spaghetti mesh of robot parts thrown about despite their once organised state.
She quickly received the detached chrome skull of Odin and then plopped it down onto the table.
Immediately every single one of the ponies behind the desk leapt forward to get a closer look, making Bun feel a little flattered from getting so much attention as she showed off her moneymaker.
“Odin is a fully intelligent, independent and self sustaining robotic life-form. He is able to process information at the speed of any modern computer while being able to act indistinguishably from a regular flesh and blood pony. It has taken years of work to build his intelligence to be as sophisticated as it is...” Bun over exaggerated, but only slightly.
“And where is the rest of it?”
“The... The rest of... Oh... Yeah.” Bun went over to the container where the disassembled amalgamation of Odin's parts were being stored, and with G-wings help, she hoisted it onto the table. “Legally, we cannot have him assembled while he is outside of containment.”
“And... It can hold up in a vacuum? And it's completely self sufficient?” Matrix Sparkle inquired as he scanned over each and every part of Odin, he found the whole to look quite promising.
“Y-yes! Of course.” Bun politely smiled then nudged a few parts around in the case; she enjoyed seeing her hoofywork admired.
“We'll have to get the papers done to begin testing it, but if everything you have claimed holds through, we'll happily take it off your hooves for a very generous price.”
“T-take him..? Off our hooves... R-right... Yeah. Of course.” Bun giggled through the embarrassing realisation that selling Odin meant selling him... For good.
“Is there something wrong, Miss Bun?” Matrix politely inquired.
“No... Nothing wrong, Sir... I guess I've just never came to grips with the fact I'm going to lose Odin with this...” She softly whimpered after saying it aloud.
“What were you expecting then?” He asked in pure curiosity.
Bun's head fell from a sigh, “I dunno... I think I was hoping we'd build a copy for you, but now I understand that would only be an inconvenience for everybody involved.”
Matrix grew a tender, genuine smile. He watched her with nostalgia and great empathy, then took the two steps towards her and placed his hoof against her shoulder in a strong show of sympathy. “I understand, Bun, when I was a young, bright-eyed engineer, I grew attached to my creations as well... The first car I ever built was so precious to me; the day I sold it, I went back to my garage and cried, looking at the empty space where she used to be... I called her Azzy, and I never loved a material object more than her...” He took a breath and stepped back from Bun's personal space. “But the pain faded... And cars eventually just became cars to me... Well, that was until they became spaceships.” He let out a hearty chuckle to himself, he had let out his emotional side for that brief encounter, being more than just his business.
His fellow workponies gazed upon this more casual side of him until they drowned it out with their deadly cold eyes. He straightened his tie and cleared his throat. “So... Are we in business?”
Bun went to say yes, and bit her tongue before she did. She dreaded the thought of losing Odin and couldn't bear accepting this. Bun's ear was caught by the noises of her crew behind her, squee's of excitement and hums of encouragement were sent to her.
Bun sighed and nodded. “Y... Yes. We're in business.”
“I'm very glad to hear that.” Bun snorted out at Disarray like a wild boar, “In fact, because they're offering five million bits, that makes the pain of losing Odin all just magically fucking disappear!” She thrusted her hooves into the air in powerful motions, trying to punch her anger out against the air.
“Come on, Bun... You know I don't like losing him too... But you have to look on the bright side of things.” Disarray sat down beside her, on the adjacent lab seat, and rubbed her back. “And we'll still have the program, we'll be able to make an heir to Odin with that money.”
“I...” She took a deep and resentful breath, not letting her emotions control her. “I know... It's just going to be really hard to let him go... After all these years...”
“Yeah... I understand. But hey, think of it like this, our robot will be going to space! And even hopefully survive up there. He'll be a hero.” Disarray smiled like a bright star in Bun's interpersonal emotional void.
Bun nodded with humble spark of optimism. “I'll be very proud of him...” Her cheeks pinched up upward in a soft smile just as she checked the time on her laptop. “Hey... it’s late... We should call it a night.”
“You, are... Correct, my boss and good friend Bun Button, let's blow this joint.” He softly chuckled, “I'll go deactivate Odin, he should be done reading over the contract.”
Bun instinctively had her eyes skip up to his and catch him in place, “A-actually... I can go deactivate him. You can go home.”
“You want to chat with him don't you?” Disarray grinned, sly as a fox.
Bun nodded with her eyes shut and head low, trying to hide an all-to-obvious smile from him.
“Have fun, just don't bore him until he self destructs, please.” He hopped from the seat and skipped out of the office.
Bun's heart faintly skipped a beat as she felt nearly naughty for keeping Odin online just to spend some more time with him, but this didn't cause any hesitation in the pink mare. She leapt out of her seat the moment Disarray had gone. She trotted hastily right down to Odin's containment facility, past the locks and doors, and right into his cosy cabin room.
Odin's head gracefully lifted up to warmly smile at her. “Good evening, Bun.” He sat on his rug in the center of the room, a slip of paper between his hooves that he's been reading over thoroughly. “I will be going to space it seems.”
“Y-yeah... You are, aren't you..?” Bun grew a defeated smile and then she sighed it away as she sat down opposite to Odin.
“Are you excited in regards to this matter, Bun?” Odin's calm voice settled some of her nerves.
“Of course... Of course I am... I just... I'm going to miss seeing you.” A sniffle helped her keep composure.
Odin's eyes dropped a notch and his lower lip depressed slightly. “Are you okay, Bun? I have not made you sad, have I?” He places an unshaking metal hoof against her shoulder, warming her heart deeply.
“N-no... You did not, Odin... D-don't worry...” She wraps her foreleg around his gentle metallic embrace. “I just don't... Don't know what I'm gonna do without you around...”
Odin leans over and slips his forelegs around Bun to clasp around her back and she lets his chassis keep her safe, she melts into his forelegs. Odin's processors sparked heavily with the scraps of an idea that could help her. “What if... You come to space with me, Bun? Then we will still be together with one another, and you will not have to contemplate what you would do without me.”
Bun smiled and giggled to herself. “That's not possible, Odin... I wish it was, but I can't go with you... Despite that I wish I could...” Bun tried to set aside the thought, though it grew too enticing not to entertain it. “M-maybe I could be with you in some other way... H... How far do you think you can send a video feed..?”
“My current transmitter can broadcast a video to a receiver up to a maximum of fifty meters.” Odin responded as politely as he always does.
“Oh bugger...” And just like that a little shift occurred in Bun's head; brooding wasn't doing her any good and now she had a problem, but she was a scientist, fixing problems was her natural gift. “Right... I'll be fixing that right away.” Bun stood up and smiled with great anticipation towards Odin. “I'll be right back.”
Odin nodded. “Understood.”
Bun dashed up to the labs, not bothering to lock the doors behind her as she brushed off her care for the containment laws as easily as the dust from her schematic designing equipment. After a few key purchases for parts online - which she had to make out of her personal spending account - she was ready to start her transmitter design.
Of course she would have no issue building a regular old transmitter, she was the most experienced technological engineer in Manehattan for Celestia's sake. The fun part about this little challenge was creating a transmitter that could reach from Equestria's surface to the outer reaches of space and fitting it inside of Odin.
Once the parts arrived, Bun was confident she'd have it done before the workweek was over.
Tonight she designed it, sketching ideas for hours past midnight without a breath of reluctance or fatigue. When she did go home to rest, it was only because she had already three and a half potentially functioning prototypes drawn out to the maximum of potential detail, and she had gotten bored of waiting any longer for the parts to arrive.
The next morning, bright and very early, Bun found herself at the office to pick up her package and hide the components of her little scheme from the others. Mainly because she really didn't feel like being aggressively sighed at by Disarray about how dumbly childish she's acting about losing Odin. And the rest of the team had already gotten over it in favour of the large money settlement waiting for them on the other end.
So, Bun went to work, the days passing like fleeting shadows running from a flame; every nightfall spent inside her little workshop crafting her little device.
Odin was in on it too, he found the whole escapade quite riveting, and not just because a long-distance transmitter was literally being riveted into him under his chassis. He kept the whole thing a secret for her, even practicing his lying ability when Disarray went asking questions about why Bun somehow forgot to shut his doors that night and about the loose screws around his lower abdomen.
That Friday night, Bun had both the transmitter and receiver finished, the two items linked to a specific wavelength and ready to be tested. She retrieved her visor-looking device, like a biker helmet made of loose techno-guts and a plasma screen TV which sat two centimeters from the eyelids when worn.
She brought it down to Odin's room with a skip, “Odin! It's time!!!” She pranced past the security locks and wagged her tail in Odin's room. “Are you excited?!” She looked to him laying on his bed with a fiery explosion of emotion.
Odin nodded once, and very softly. “This is the most exciting event in my memory, so yes I am, very much.” He smiled without the slightest hint of irony.
“Sweet! Run program 'Target Audience'.” Odin nodded and sat up, shutting his eyes and booting up his transmitter.
She grabbed a chair and sat herself firmly down, equipping her amalgamation of wires over her skull and pulling the screen almost painfully close to her eyeballs as she turned it on and squinted at the static flashing her.
“O-okay! Are you ready, Odin?” She giggled like a school filly.
“Yes, Bun, transmitting signal now.” Odin opened his eyes as the signal began to pulse out of the small steel box in her lower gut, and to Bun's marvel, her screen caught the waves and an image emerged.
“I-I... I can see! I can see through your eyes! Haha! Yes! It works!!!” Bun waved to Odin, watching herself wave through his eyes.
After several minutes of girlish giggling and playing with the cool vision trick she had managed to create for herself, she regained her composure and took off her helmet. “Okay... I'm going to lock you up now for tonight and go home, but don't shut down tonight, and don't turn off your transmitter, I'm going to go see if I can get a stable connection from my apartment... And if that thing can get through these concrete walls, I'm sure it'll work while you’re out in space.”
“Sounds like a plan, Bun. This is ever so exciting. Ha ha ha.” He laughed as genuinely as he knew how to.
“Awesome! See you!” She hugged him with the passion of a party pony, and then skipped almost the entire way home, hopping up and down on the spot on the train while wires drooped out of her saddlebag.
The moment she got through her apartment door she bolted to her bed and sat down, kicking at the covers as she put on the visor helmet and turned on the screen.
Within a few split seconds, she screamed in delight as she saw Odin's room once more as if she was right there in the flesh, seeing right through Odin's robotic eyes as he patiently waited away the hours of the night, softly gazing around with complete complacency.
She then let herself fall back into her bed - just like Odin was laying in his - satisfied that in about a months time when Odin would be sent to space, she would have first class tickets. She gazed through Odin's for as long as her ever drooping eyelids let her. Then, she fell asleep, somehow both in her own bed, and in a small way, Odin's at the same time.
Which was really freaking weird to be honest.
“-but it went beautifully! We're clearing for launch this upcoming week. Now that Odin has passed all the tests, he'll be flying into the great void incredibly soon... They're estimating this weekend!” Goldwing spun around the room in a flurry of joy.
Bun's shoulders jumped up and down in laughter, “That is great to hear, G! Haha...”
“Come on! Let's all celebrate! I say a round of cider at the Free Spirit! What about you guys?!” Goldwing's eyes bounced around the lab, getting nods from each and everypony. “Yay!!” She hopped out the room, quickly bringing her friends out of the droopy old lab and out into the bustling streets, Disarray hanging in the back with Bun to exchange dumb sly glances back and forth.
“Haha... You know, you've been acting quite a bit more chirpy than you did a month ago when we first decided to sell Odin.” Disarray lifted his chin up, holding something in his head with great dickish pride.
“Y-yeah...” She blushed lightly and averted her eyes, being the least suspicious. “I just got over it... I guess. Looked on the bright side of things... You know.”
Disarray smiled and solemnly shook his head, “If you say so, I thought that it was the fact you were sleeping regularly again now that you’re finished your transmitter.” He stuck his tongue out at her, not bothering with even the bare concept of elegance.
Bun lightly jumped, but then giggled, “So you know huh..?”
“Odin isn't a very good liar.” He smirked devilishly.
“True...” Bun sighed with the intensity of a butterfly flapping its wings. “You're not disappointed in me because I can't let Odin go?” She asked with genuine unassurance to what he'd answer.
“Nah... I'm not disappointed, son, I'm just mad at you. Hehe...” He shook his head playfully, “But in all seriousness, I don't really care as long as it doesn't hurt the job, and it was kind of fun to watch you completely forget security cameras exist. I thought I'd just let you enjoy having ‘gotten away with it’ for a few weeks.”
Bun flushed red and lowered her eyes down to the pavement as they walked to the bar, “Well... Thank you then.”
“Just promise me you wont do anything dumb, cause I'm keeping an eye on you.”
Goldwing whinnied at the front of the pack as they came up the final paces to the bar.
Bun smiled gently and kindly peered up to the heavens above, “I promise... I won't do anything dumb.”
Disarray watched her intently and erupted in a laugh as she finished, “Holy shit! Did you have to say it in the most foreshadowy way possible? Like, that tone was like, straight out of a movie or something where they just cut to you immediately planning something dumb, Fucking Celestia... Haha...”
“Hehe... I'll try to be less dramatic next time then.” Bun stuck out her tongue at him as they entered the bar, now wondering if she would manage to keep her promise.
“Good... Now let's get some drinks.”