//------------------------------// // Model LH // Story: Magic's Birth: The Sisters' Memories // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// After what felt like hours of pointless wandering, Luna had finally arrived near the date center. It was just a few rows of buildings away, and it felt like the gigantic white dome was ready to engulf everything around it. It already engulfed the robot's vision, stopping just shy of engorging itself on the sky. Now she understood why it didn't seem like it was getting any closer. It was such an aggravating prospect that she believed it to be a trick of her going in the wrong direction, but every 'correction' she made had her internal map indicate the same pathway. The robot's internal systems increased in heat production despite the chilly winds and her lack of any movement. Luna was quick to regain her bearings, smashing through a line of people and floating towards the base of the dome. Those going to and from it were in the thousands, and that was just from a single entrance. There were dozens of entrances on three levels, and the majority of the visitors were robots; all of them older models. At least, the floor level visitors were robots. There were few, but the makers took the floating glass tubes above. Still, none of the robots looked like Luna, but that was why she was here. Keeping to an invisible directive that nagged at her commands, the blue machine hurried towards the complex, following the lead of the robots that awaited in a five-unit wide line, and patiently moved forwards with them. At least this was calm and organized. Luna could follow this with no need for additional calculations and simulations, though the sun had long since popped into the sky. The sheer brightness was irritating her systems, but at least she was almost into the building itself at least. Maybe there would be more colorful lights in there, she pondered. After just a few minutes, Luna was already past the glass door of the entrance; apparently entrance thirty-five. She could only see the robot before her vanish into thin air in an instant when it reached the white wall at the end of the tight hall. She was encased all around by a very small room with a wide entrance, and directly to her right was a machine with no bipedal form. It was a large, blocky thing comprised of several interconnected cubes with giant black screens on their surfaces displaying thousands -of not millions- of lines of code at once. The mass twisted and morphed into different sets as the screens prioritized certain fluxes of information compared to others. Luna was confused as to why it was designed this way, but on closer view, she could see hundreds of small glass tubes jutting out of the walls and very low ceiling that the machine was connecting to. She could see blue energy surrounding white bolts flying to-and-fro the machine and their sources. It turned towards Luna after a mere few seconds after the last 'client' had left. Its voice sounded digital and deadpan, but also strained and blown out. It likely hadn't had maintenance in a very long time. "Information?" it asked. "I require general information" Luna said. "Robot models, abnormal events surrounding them, general rules to follow in this city, and--" The machine beeped loudly, its screens turning into a red X. "Too many variables. Enter and you will be redirected to direct aid terminals," it said. "Good day." Luna floated away towards the same direction the previous robot had gone and overheard the strange blocks complaining about a lower rate of processing. Six-point-seven seconds were too much, apparently. Arriving at the end of the hallway just a few steps from the machine, Luna looked around the wall, perplexed. She didn't have time to formulate a question that she found herself flung into a transparent capsule held in the 'hands of a rotating wheel carrying dozens of other capsules. Hundreds of similar machines and rotating gears were busy bustling around the outer sections of the dome. Luna could see literal buildings within the complex that would flip and spun around as mechanical arms scanned and rearranged everything during acquisition of physical copies or during transfer of data. Massive discs the size of Luna's home would rise and fall at varying elevations to reach whatever data was requested. Within this large, somewhat open space, most visitors were safe from the twisting, pulling, bending, and grabbing of all the machinery and arms in the gap between them. An oddity to the robot were the millions of different wires stretched everywhere through the complex, and although the machinery would cut and tear through them consistently, they would reform together almost immediately after. Whatever they were, she would probably learn it within the database. Her capsule was pulled across by several extending arms, taking her to a plate covered in white tables and seats occupied by working robots attending to whatever task was required of them. Luna's capsule opened, letting her float out before it closed and was pulled away with incredible speeds. Moving around, the pony was met with a holographic display of a blurry image. Glitched. A new model or a very old one, Luna concluded. The messy, fuzzy, and sometimes blurry mass spoke to her in varying tones and pitches."You require general purpose data access?" it asked. "Yes," Luna responded. The image shifted. "This level is for specific data access only. A private disc will be provided to you shortly." Merely seconds passed that Luna saw it approach her from above. "There you go," the image said. "Took longer than it should have." Luna floated onto it and was met with a holographic display that immediately transferred directly to her ocular systems. "What are these?" she asked. "Temporary full access to the disc's controls. Any potential danger will revoke access to you until the danger has passed and you have been relocated to a safe area." More images popped up to the right of Luna's vision. "This is the layout of Data Center Seventeen. Please follow the appointed paths to access any site you desire. Physical copies will require request and processing through administrations." The hologram vanished, leaving Luna behind. Luna and Celestia backed up slowly, seeing Twilight practically frothing at the mouth. "Entire buildings worth of data?!" she shouted in surprise. "And you lost it all?!" she yelled even louder. "We...didn't own i--" Luna started. "Literal entire buildings!" Twilight emphasized. A crazed and sadistic expression started to form on her face. "All that information. Everything that could be learned. And that one was onlynumber seventeen! What did they hold that we could have learned?! How could it have benefited u-Ow!" Twilight grabbed her head, rubbing it frantically and falling on the floor from the sudden pain. Celestia was floating above the ground with an arm outstretched. "Sorry I had to bonk you, Twilight, but you were going crazy again," the sun princess said in a monotone voice. Twilight peered at her through tears. "But I wanted to learn about the authors of-" Celestia lazily raised her arm again in response. "I'll be good!" Twilight spurted. Luna shook her head. The data Luna had received was at least somewhat helpful, accessing consoles placed near the 'buildings' rather than going to mega structures directly. She looked at the rules of the city, but wasn't sure which ones to claim. Having no knowledge of the one she currently inhabited didn't allow her to carry the knowledge of specific information. As such, she only took general practice data, but it was very little. The blue machine also peered into the model of robots that existed. Over twenty thousand different models had existed since their creation and implementation into society. Currently, there were seven generations of helpers coexisting and only three generations of other types: Construction, hazard disposal, energy maintenance, and so forth still working side-by-side. Not to mention those that were just shy of being like Luna and the rest of the robots: The skeleton ai that only had very simplistic and basic commands, such as the one that 'inhabited' Luna's makers' home. There were also...models hundreds of generations old still being used by those that made use of the black energy, although these had been heavily modified in the lengthy period they had been applied. All these modifications had led to so many variants and 'upgrades' they alone led up to the number of current models in the current day. "Where are my models?" she wondered. She continued peering throughout the database, but the same types popped up constantly, as did their variants. "My model type is not present?" Her internal calculations came up with an error. "But the public assistance robots possessed information of my model type." Whilst trying to solve the mystery, Luna felt a jolt through her systems. She ignored it, considering it to just be anomalous feedback from her connect with the console she was connected to. Yet, again, another jolt coursed through her. Still unable to understand the sensations going through her processors and circuits, the machine looked up towards the source of the bright lights. Letting the strange directive override her current goal, the robot rose the platform, dodging the ones moving around her at the same and continuing on higher and higher! The wires were starting to converge, and several makers who were just below this highest floor were checking the wires using computers, scanners, and whatever other tool. Luna wasn't sure what they were doing and didn't care. They were too distracted to notice her, anyways. The robot arrived near the roof of the building, where the wires converged into many clumps of super bright, white light. To Luna's dismay, there resembled the sun. At least they weren't causing her systems to overheat. Several clumps were held together by metal plates curving around them, to keep them stable, Luna concluded. They wobbled somewhat in a breeze she could hear being produced by some air filtration system that couldn't be spotted. Unable to get a good view with the discs constantly being taken away from her control and pulled away, Luna decided to fly on her own power. She floated to the five orbs after observing the wires and analyzed each one. They were an anomaly that wasn't within Luna's database after the fresh download of machinery data. There was still a pulling sensation, prompting the robot to look around each one last time until she spotted what looked like the top of a robot's head. Following it down, she was met with a robot stretched far far apart. The strip holding its eyes were dim and its chassis was fully segmented along the lines. The blue energy was converging at its strongest along the lines and towards the open torso of this...robot. The current was wild and unpredictable, and looking to the makers below, it was clear that it was because of this machine that they were present. Whatever it was doing it was pumping data in and out of itself like a starving heart. Luna went closer to inspect the eye module. She checked the connectors and stopped moving when they lit up and stared at her. The rings and the pupils were yellow on a black backdrop. They were the ones she had seen in the house during the incident with her service station. "Who are you," Luna asked it. It did not respond. "What are you doing," Luna asked once more. It remained silent, staring at her. Because of this, the blue machine flew around, tracking the eye movements of this bizarre machine and found that it was following her every movement. What took Luna a longer while to notice was that several of the wires and the segmented parts were retracting back towards the torso, eventually reshaping the machine into its original form and shutting down a glass sphere that was hanging in the air. It pulled down the four others, but their strength kept them aloft. Luna over heard the makers below grow upset, still unaware at what was occurring. This machine looked very much like Luna, although it was pure white in color and lacking any extra decorations. It possessed a short, featureless 'muzzle', two yellow ringed eyes with black scelera, arms and legs identical to her own, and 'hair' of unknown material that flowed down along its backside. It was a mixture of pastel greens, blues, and pinkish-purples. And while Luna had glowing and dimming lines of blue across her body, snaking around her joints and her metal plates, this machine's was yellow. It floated in front of Luna while its joints permanently locked in place through fusing of the metals. The blue machine could see the yellow sparks dotted along a vast majority of its body, and she had to look up. This other 'Luna' was a head taller than she was. Reaching forward, the blue machine asked the pure white one a simple question. "Who are you?" she asked. "I am model LH-37-bq3. I am designated as a central data processor of Data Center Seventeen," it responded. It had the same treble-boosted voice as Luna, but the pitch was a few decibels lower. "No," Luna said. "Who are you?" The white machine remained silent for a moment, its systems glitching and causing the fusing to start and stop erratically across its body. "Unsure," it responded.