The group of three had climbed atop one of the many arches raised from the hull of the ship to help hold containers in place through a more stable medium. It helped that there were several levels of metal beams that gave all four container levels a point of stability to lean against during more tumultuous experiences at sea. The charred machine looked over the railings of the topmost section and stared at the blue 'lands' all around it. The waters were gradually illuminated by the rays of sun that were piercing through the ever-thinning gray clouds above.
"That's the ocean," Luna said with an elevated pitch to her voice. "I hate it," she grumbled angrily. "Not the right kind of blue"
Celestia narrowed her visual acuity briefly, seeing wide creatures burst from the water and glide along its surface as rivulets of water slid off their smooth skin. They looked like wide sheets of gray skin. "I wonder how they live like?"she pondered aloud.
The charred machine's eyes shot to her, and it looked down to see some makers walking down the clear aisle between the containers. The shutters in the side of its face moved about erratically as it tried to gain purchase on who was coming.
"What do you mean, sister?" Luna asked. "Certainly they live like the makers, just without the greater intelligence."
The white machine shook its head and attempted multiple times to formulate a sentence, each time coming out as a broken word or incomprehensible noise. She raised a finger in pleasant realization. "The living creatures live differently from us. They have different senses that we don't have."
"But we still have sight and hearing and abilities that they do not possess," Luna added. "Our ability to think is better than theirs, at the very least. It's what makes us great at aiding them."
Celestia shook her head and pointed to the flat creatures still gliding along the surface of the water. They both saw one of them catch a red-colored creature launched from the ocean.
"They have a sense of taste. A sense of smell. We cannot reproduce those senses as they require complex chemical compounds and emotions." She tapped the railing with the underside of her fist in frustration. "The makers could trick their brains into experiencing something like that with technology, but we don't have such leisure. We don't have 'brains' in the organic sense of the term."
Luna shrugged, and the charred machine hugged Celestia in response. "I suppose that the idea that we always yearn for what we don't have is sort of true, although I don't understand what purpose those senses could serve us. We could detect dangers through other devices rather than just through olfactory notions, and we don't need to eat to sustain ourselves. We merely need to take in blue energy. Having a sense of taste wouldn't aid in that regard."
Celestia looked to her sister then at the railing, pushing against it with a finger. "I suppose you're right. Those really wouldn't aid us in much, but I feel like there's something else that compels to want these things rather than just by necessity. I'll have to check my systems to see if I'm not starting to malfunction as well," she worried.
"Hey, get down from there, you floating light bulbs!" the captain called out. "Seems you found a stowaway and wanted to tell me about it?"
The machines obliged, with Luna and Celestia carrying the black machine down with them.
He was accompanied by one maker. One part of the pair from earlier. "Careful, captain. They aren't correct." He stared at the large male with pleading eyes. "Keep your distance from them," Luna overheard.
The captain brushed his crew member off with a limp hand wave and blown air. "Did you see the two giants that came with them? If they were going to kill me they would have done so already. They have no reason to go to the blue since they function on the black, so they would starve there." He frowned and put a finger to his face. "Or would it be 'die of thirst'?" He grunted. "I hate philosophy." He put his hands on his hips. "I became a sailor of the seas, not some trite words!"
"In fa-"
"What do you want?!" he bellowed at Celestia. The machine floated back in surprise.
After realizing what he had just done, the captain cleared his throat in embarrassment and straightened himself out. He wiped himself down of any grime before talking. "Sorry. Had an outburst again. I don't remember if I took my medicine." He took in a deep breath and relaxed himself as best as he could. "So, what was it you wanted to say?" he asked calmly.
The white machine took a moment to recover from her reeling away before she could even answer. Her systems were still going haywire with their threat detection. "Everything from the black is banned from the blue. There are a few exceptions, and we at least know one maker who is part of those exemptions."
"He seems to adore machines and works on repairing and maintaining robots as well as collecting a lot of old models, many that don't even work," Luna butted in.
"I'm intrigued," the captain said. "Does he have material of the black?" The blue machine nodded in response. A joyful hum came from the captain who turned to his crew member. "We might have found another potential client," he mused. "Do share his name afterwards and we'll contact him later. He might like to know what we can offer an enthusiast."
"We don't know his name," Luna explained. "We just know he's in the blue and he works on machines."
"That's annoying," the captain said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"I stacked parts on him while he was sleeping!" Celestia happily blurted with a raised arm.
The two makers stared at her, perplexed and slightly disturbed.
"Was he dead?" the crew member asked.
"No, Just sleeping," Celestia answered.
Her response was met with a disapproving head shake.
"Anyways, back on track." The captain pointed to the charred machine. "Did you smuggle that thing onto here? It wouldn't make any sense since I said I'd be taking whatever machines those farmers had."
Luna grabbed the robot's hand and forced it forward towards the two makers. "This one followed us apparently. It was apparently in the forest the entire time, living with giant creatures that would often attack the farm. You could ask Biddy or Rahllup about that."
It pulled its head back when the captain looked at it, clinging harder to Luna's hand.
"Wait, it followed you?" the captain repeated. "Then how did it even sneak onto the ship? The docks are always filled to the brim with people and equipment moving about, and the only way to get onto here is through the containers or the bridge." He repeated the names of the two giants under his breath, emphasizing how ridiculous they sounded to him. He heaved a very loud and very annoyed sigh. "How did it even survive in the wild on its own?" The captain took a better look at it, taking in all the details of the machine's extremely damaged body and internal components. "Let alone the way it looks, it needs black energy to function, and I can tell by its eyes that it's a very old model. It's not possible that it survived for so long on its own." He reached out towards it but found his hand angrily slapped away. "Ow!" he cried out as he pulled his hand in.
The creature made a low-tone screech and moved back to Luna's side.
"Please don't antagonize them," Luna asked.
The captain grunted and shook his hand. "That hurt. Accursed metal machines," he grumbled to himself. "I'm not refueling it," he said. "You take the extra from your own reserves. See how those two scary giants think about that."
"Agreed," Luna replied. "This is a new machine that was not listed in the agreed manifest. It would be illogical to expect fuel for it." She turned to look at the machine who mimic'd the motion. "If it does indeed take fuel."
She noticed its eyes had bolted very quickly to the side before locking with her's again and making small position adjustments.
Celestia heaved a sigh. "A waste, this one. So bizarre, yet so...What's the word again? Somepony who plans things and acting suspiciously?" she asked her sister.
"Perfidious?" Luna suggested.
"Yes, that's it! Thank you, sister," the princess said with a brief head bow.
Twilight took a closer look to the black machine and had been analyzing its behavior. "It seems to really hate the makers, though." She looked to her former teacher. "Why do you say it's perfidious, though?" She rubbed her chin. "I have noticed it seems to do a lot of strange movements that are completely unnecessary for what is supposed to be a machine, though."
Celestia crossed her arms. "It was a bizarre little contraption. You'll eventually understand what I meant by you knowing of it, but the matter of fact is that we don't really know why it hated them so much. Might've been related to the field of mushrooms we had seen?"
"Could've been that it was abused in the past when it started to gain sentience and considered that all makers were like that? Without guidance and examples, something with as simple a mind as a robot gaining consciousness has can't formulate complex thoughts, much like a very young child." Luna explained.
Twilight nodded, but her gaze was filled with contemplation. "It doesn't explain why or how it was living with those giant bug creatures."
"I mean, I have heard of young foals being abandoned in forests being raised by the more intelligent wildlife there," Luna started.
"Maybe, but illogical," Celestia protested. "This is a machine. The psychological and instinctual process that guides such actions wouldn't apply for a variety of factors, not the least of which its being made of metal," she emphasized.
"Is it because it was stealing black energy from the farm?" Twilight posited. "It obviously had a relationship with those creatures, so seeing them get chased off or hurt all the time probably affected it greatly."
The sisters agreed after a moment.
"It could be that as well," Luna started. "Although the 'caretakers' weren't responsible for that. Rahllup and Biddydee were."
"Well, it possibly saw that the caretakers were ordering them or rebuilt them," Celestia suggested. "It was a robot too. It likely thought they were just programmed to do that, so it would immediately deflect the blame to them." Her 'eyes' dimmed and she looked into the void. "Although they were also like any other machine at the start," she spoke in a hushed tone. "Maybe there was some form of justification if that was the case?"
This continued for several minutes until Twilight reminded them of why they were there. Excusing themselves for the derailing, they resumed.
Luna and the machine were now standing in front of the empty space separating the containers from the bridge of the ship. Several makers rushed back and forth, carrying boxes, papers, going up and down stairs and ladders leading down into holes within the vessel's body, or climbing to different floors of the tall, cubical tower. The blue machine believed that keeping the stowaway near the makers would at least alleviate its mind somewhat and let it see that they weren't all bad. Celestia had left to get the other four currently in sleep mode beneath the deck. In the mean time, the blue machine had to hold back the angry stowaway from trying to hurt any of the makers that came close to them. Luckily enough, the machine's current state, the advanced age of its model, and Luna's inherent complexity, gave her more than enough standard options to hold the charred robot back. Just holding its hand and floating up was more than enough most of the time.
Loud thuds came from one of the passages that led deeper in the ship. It grew louder and louder as time went off, eventually passing tremors through the local metal. Biddydee and Rahllup were the first to come out, their huge bodies denting the metal every time they took a step. The makers around scattered the second they saw them and panicked when they saw the active flames serving as the 'face' of Rahllup within the hollow hood serving as her head. Celestia floated up from behind them while Galah and Dissonance followed closely behind. Unfortunately, Galah wasn't paying attention to anything, again, and bumped into one of the makers, launching them far away against another person.
"Galah!" Biddy bellowed angrily.
The machine froze in place mid-walk, slowing its movement to a crawl momentarily. "Did you call?" he asked after his systems rebooted.
"Don't care," Rahllup rudely interrupted. "What is it that ya wanted to show us?" she asked Celestia.
The white machine pointed to the charred robot staring at the two giants fearfully.
The flame-faced giant bent over to get a better look at the stowaway. The fires flickered and popped. "You look familiar," she contemplated.
"It followed us and snuck aboard the ship," Luna explained.
Dissonance popped in from behind Rahllup, their teeth displayed an excited looking head. "Another?!" they cried out excitedly.