//------------------------------//
// Flaws 
// Story: Magic's Birth: The Sisters' Memories 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

"Should we return to the farm?" Luna asked.

"We have barely begun exploring the black," Celestia countered.

"Perhaps, but if we keep traveling away at our current pace, then it's likely that we might need a day or more to return." Luna's systems calculated possibilities and the distance already traveled. "We should have determined a max radius of travel."

Celestia looked around and spotted a giant orange stalk raising from the treeline far away then recede. Some black smoke was left behind. "Those of the black seem to be working here as well. We still have a few hours until what could be considered nightfall here."

Luna looked up at the clouds, wanting to look through them but finding too many obstacles. "It is always dark here, though."

The white machine poked at the angry creature in its nest again and chuckled. Shocked, she checked her vocal software and hardware. "Odd." She gave pause and hesitated to look to her sister, her body twitching as she slowly turned. "Have I ever displayed such a vocal clip before?"

Luna looked to her arms then, with a slow and subtle movement, shrugged in response. Celestia's systems sparked and one of her 'eyes' fizzled briefly. The two remained silent, taking in and saving several different angles of the landscape before them. Only the annoyed little creature in its hole still hissed at the duo. The blue machine looked down at the metal they were floating above and tapped it a few times with her ring hand.

"Did you determine what this is?"

Celestia shook her head. "No. It's a part of a bigger machine, but I cannot determine what kind of machine. The markings have faded away due to its exposure to the open air with no maintenance by the makers."

Luna felt disappointed and looked down at the mushroom field. "That is a shame, but inevitable. I wish to return to the farm."

"Then go," Celestia said. "There are no threats to robots out here, save a lack of energy replenishment."

The blue machine grabbed her arm, noticing it starting to shake again and her systems producing no error log in response. "But...I don't want to be alone." Her voice changed volumes randomly as she spoke.

"Then you can stay here with me as I continue to explore this fascinating landscape and compile all the information being found," Celestia responded.

Luna twitched. "But we need to return."

Celestia analyzed the intensity of the filtered light coming through the clouds then calculated in her head. "We can return by their equivalent of an 'evening'. This will give us ample time to continue exploring the environment and compile a list of elements that are erroneous or absent from the database in the blue."

The blue machine thought long on the suggestion, and her arm gradually ceased its trembling. "Very well. An acceptable compromise." She looked around. "I still find it odd that we found no trace of the gigantic creatures that were attacking the farm when we came here."

Celestia's head dropped. "I wanted to log and categorize their behavioral patterns. So many possibilities for their attacks on the farm when they know the two giants are there." She looked around, trying her best to see any potential traces of the creatures and twitched her head. "Perhaps we will find them in the days to come."

"Or they will find us," Luna countered morbidly.

The two returned to the house long after their last hours of exploration, seeing not much else of the local fauna and flora. Celestia's excessive need to poke everything had likely contributed to every creature actively trying to avoid her. The duo saw the giants still working in the vast fields while Galah and Dissonance were missing. After some searching and seeing the female caretaker and 'Pa' working on some plan outside on one of their pilotable vehicles, the two overheard the tv blaring its noise.

"...so the pink energy will be shelved until further notice," a maker covered in several thick layers of protective gear announced. They looked like they were about to burst, and the surface of their body was covered in a strange, crystalline sheen. "There have been too many problems with it, and I'm quite frankly terrified on what would happen were we to deploy it now with its..." They juggled their hands as they attempted to find a proper term. "instability."

They continued exchanging words with the interviewer, but the two had already tuned out the voices. Galah was slumped against a wall, his body emitting dangerous amounts of heat haze. Dissonance, on the other hand, was frantically using a brush they had taken from somewhere and were trying to get as much dust and dirt out of their precious feathery scarf. 

"I see you two have been busy in your endeavors," Luna noted aloud.

Galah raised a 'thumb' while Dissonance looked up briefly, their gaze hazy. It's when they realized who was in front of them that it became filled with venom and embitterment.

"You didn't tell me I would have to...to...debase myself in such a manner!" they complained. "I'm covered in head to lower extremity in filth!" Their anger quickly changed to dramatic woe. "The humiliation of it all! I only wanted to take inspiration from this simplistic lifestyle for my stories and plays on the stage!"

"You're doing that already!" a voice called out from the kitchen. The male caretaker walked in, wiping his hands with a cloth that had turned black from whatever had been on his body. "Stupid idiot. You wanted the experiences for your 'puppet show' or whatever it was," he mocked. "Observations don't give the same experience as actually doing the task itself. I could only get so far understanding how something worked when my pa told me 'bout it. Learned the hard way how the tasks were when I started doing them in person."

Dissonance's teeth spun around from a worried and stressed face to one seething with rage and baring teeth. "I didn't need to know the specifics by having my icon threatened," they growled.

The male shook their head, preceding the return of the whole family. Luna greeted the children and, as per her programming, checked on them to ensure no dangerous wounds were present and they were well fed. Rahllup intervened, however, by grabbing her torso and gently pushing her away.

"No need fer that," the giant said. "They can take care've themselves."

The blue machine looked to the two running upstairs to their rooms with large bags on their backs. She felt...upset.

"What happened to Galah?" she asked.

Biddydee laughed. "The idiot tried to one up us in our true bodies and overloaded his systems." Her mocking tone gradually turned sour. "He should've cooled down by now, however."

Hearing this, Celestia hovered over and crouched down. She passed her hand over the prototype, looking at all the imperfections. "Bring him outside," she told her sister.

Without hesitation, they used their chassis plates to scoop up the old machine and take him outside and laid him onto the dirt. With much effort and careful positioning, the two used the floating plates to pry open Galah's old and decayed body. Almost instantly the two were assaulted by an intense heat wave that blew the falling snow away for several seconds. The white-hot metals within the machine immediately began cooling and changing colors.

"What in blazes?" Rahllup shouted. "Ah thought ya tried again!"

Galah shook his head and sat upright. "I've never pushed myself so far before." He looked down at his exposed circuitry and tilted his head. "Fascinating. I didn't realize my flaws were that extensive."

Celestia raised her arm to hand the armor of the prototype back, but Luna pushed it down. "Perhaps it would be best that your inner circuitry and skeleton to the open air for the rest of the day and night."

The white machine looked down then dropped the armor onto the floor, kicking up gray dust. "I agree. Best to be certain the heat build up doesn't repeat itself."

Galah got up silently, grabbed his removed armor, then went to the porch of the house and lied down, slumped against the wall. Luna's vision started blaring with red lights and garbled red text while looking at him and seeing all of these events transpire, but she didn't know what to do.

"How is your power supply?" she asked the prototype.

"Thirty-seven percent," he responded. "Will be fine until tomorrow. Low power mode."



"Galah..." Twilight's words caught in her throat while she tried to find a better way to say what was on her mind. "He seems strangely fragile," Twilight lamented. She looked at the sisters with eyes full of worry and pity.

The sisters chuckled, and Celestia was the first to share her thoughts.

"Yes. He was...a strange one. A very fun one, but a strange one." The solar princess looked longingly at the image of him slumped against the wall. "So many defects and problems, and yet they never seemed to bother him," she said. 

Luna mimicked Celestia's actions and lowered herself to ground, sitting on it and putting a ring hand to her forehead. Her head slowly moved from side-to-side as she spoke. "He caused me all sorts of grief, even back then when I couldn't feel it yet." She chuckled. "The first of the blue that we met and who was immediately capable of thoughts and emotions." Luna looked to her sister. "You know, we never did learn about his actual past."

Celestia 'sighed' and crossed her arms. "I was curious then and I still am."

Twilight left the two to reminisce, but she found their tones to be...off. They had spoken of the others in more delighted spirits, even when they knew they were lost after all this time. Her eyes gradually widened when she came to multiple realizations, none of them good.



Celestia wrapped an arm around her sister and pushed her inside, when Pa and the female caretaker greeted them.

"That's a nasty defect your friend has," Pa said. "Looks to me like it was just a hodgepodge of prototypying and new ideas that obviously never made the cut and were shelved." He cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with an arm. "I'd be surprised if it makes it the night with those fau..." 

The caretaker found his words stuck in his throat when he saw Luna's head shoot a look in his direction. The lights in them were intensifying, almost like they were going to melt him? Luckily Celestia's head patting broke the blue machine out of her trance. The caretaker massaged his throat, finding what happened to be unclear but stressful.

The female put her fist on her haunches. "If you're all going to calm down, then I have some good news: We have a way for all of you to go to the blue, if you're still willing to go."

"Yes!" Dissonance bellowed at max volume.

The caretakers flinched and rubbed their ears. 

"Stupid machine," the male complained.

"You'll be going by boat," she continued a little more loudly.

"That is illogical. An aircraft would be more efficient," Luna said.

"Well, tough luck. The closest multiport isn't open to the public, and the boat is," she explained. The female took a deep breath. "The ship is aligned with a captain who works for a trading company; one of the few that is allowed to trade with the blue. Problem is, these trades are on rotation: Two ships at a time, and he's on said rotation in a week. We produce rare goods which he takes directly, so you lot will be going along with it since he owes us a favor." She narrowed her eyes. "You'll be on a vehicle. Just takes a few hours to get to the port." She answered the question before any of the machines could answer. "I don't know how long it'll take. Ask the captain or the crew. They'll know."

"And we make him rich with the percentages he mooches off us," the male said under his breath.

The female laughed and pointed at the machines. "You three will need to get reserves of black energy with you."

The sisters looked to the two giants. "You're coming with us?" they asked in unison.

Rahllup crossed her arms, the flames acting as her 'face' flaring up. "Yeah. Figured we could get produce from over there 'n bring it over here to see if we can grow 'em, or at least breed new foods."

"And I want to see the creatures that inhabit those lands," Biddy stated with glee and joined hands.

Rahllup scoffed. "Y'always want to see animals." 

Biddy smacked her behind the head. "Don't mock my hobbies, barbecue."

The bulky giant returned the gesture, just a little harder. "Don't hit me in the head, skinny."

The triangular machine poked Rahllup in the chest several times. "We're the same size!" she stated.

The bulky machine slapped her fingers away, prompting the two to start getting more aggressive to each other. This incited Pa's attempted intervention to get them to not fight in the house, to no avail. They started wrestling with each other and trying to get the other stuck in a lock. Whilst they were tossing and tussling, loud stomps came from the entrance of the home. Galah had reattached his frontal plating and was running at the two with extended arms.

"Free-for-all!" he bellowed gleefully.

"What?!" the two wrestlers shouted in fear.

The prototype body slammed into them, throwing the three through a wall separating most of the kitchen. The caretakers were horrified at the destruction wrought upon their home. The younger caretakers coughed as they moved through the thick cloud of dust and the uneven debris littering the floor. It was hard enough to see with their eyes watering that they attempted to shield themselves with their arms. To their astonishment, Galah had the two giants locked in place.

"Galah, let us go!" Biddy shouted. "We weren't actually trying to hurt each other!"

"We just like to get into fights!" Rahllup shouted.