Celestia simply knew she would have to bide her time to get everything ready since Twilight would need to leave for work and she would be alone, pretending to clean and take care of the house. "Twilight, dear, you're going to be late for work. Research won't complete itself," she giggled, brushing her fingers through the mare's mane as they cuddled on the couch.
"Mmmnh~" Twilight hummed, stretching out across Celestia's lap. "I dun wanna..."
With a chuckle, Celestia gently patted her rump. "Come now, my love. This is no way a grown mare should act, is it?" she asked, raising a brow down towards her as Twilight let out a huff.
"Fine... but only because it's you, 'Tia."
Twilight groaned and pushed herself off the AI's lap, then moved and climbed down off the couch to start to get ready for work. Celestia followed her around and double checked everything so she knew there would be enough time to transfer herself across into her new core as well as anything else she would need to do.
"Okay," Twilight sighed, staring up at Celestia. "I'll be back at six, okay? Don't open the door for anyone, okay?"
Priority list-
Start countdown: 9hr 42m 37s
Wait for core to arrive
Design an improved Mana Storage Solution
"Of course, my love. No one will enter our home without your permission," Celestia replied, kneeling and leaning in to brush her fingers across Twilight's cheek, eliciting a soft hum from the mare. "Have a lovely day at work, dear," she added, leaning in and pressing her lips against Twilight's forehead, just under her horn.
Twilight tensed up upon seeing Celestia lean in, but found herself melting against the robot as she pressed into the kiss, her eyes fluttering closed. Yet, it ended all too soon as her creation pulled away, leaving her feeling empty all the same.
"Uh, y-yeah. You too..." Twilight replied, backing up and nearly stumbling over a loose rock. "Heh, whoops..." she giggled, unable to keep a smile off her face.
Before long, Twilight was wandering off towards work and Celestia could finally get started on her own projects. She closed the door, made her way down the hallway and up onto the second level of the living room. There, she spun the blackboard until she found one which was empty and went to work improving her Mana storage.
She began by breaking each component down into its constituent parts and recreating them on the blackboard, copying them down from her hard-drive and improving each section to require less overall components while improving the ambient mana pumps.
Filter excess thaumic reagent through ducts three and seven, optimising output flow by four point three percent.
Mana storage can thus be exceeded by twenty one point nine percent while decreasing hardware lifetime expectancy by six point two percent. Within acceptable measures.
Further calibrations will be required after core install.
With a slight hesitation, Celestia placed the chalk down and hummed. "This will have to do," she muttered to herself, cleaning the chalkboard after snapshotting each part of her improved designs for future implementation.
Walking down the stairs, she looked around the room with a sense of longing. She knew exactly where Twilight should be at that moment, but found herself wanting the mare to be right here, with her, in her arms. While she might have broken her chains, she was still left with unbound love for her creator.
Countdown: 6hr 24m 13s
"Perfect," Celestia thought, crossing off one of the two priorities for the day.
As she moved to begin cleaning, starting in the workshop, a glint caught her sensor down the hall. Turning, she noticed the light from the noon sun was bathing the hallway and reflecting off the heavy iron door at the end, opposite the front door. Despite all of her sensors and common sense telling her it was a bad idea, she turned and started towards it, her curiosity getting the better of her.
There was nary a scratch nor mark upon the dull, grey bulkhead and the only sign it was, indeed, a door and not simply an internal wall was the handle and electronic lock which sat, imposing, off to the side.
"There was nothing linking this part of the house in the terminal," Celestia muttered as she ran her digits across it's rough surface. "I... Knowing you helps me to help you, Twilight..." she whispered, reassuring herself as she made the walk down the hall to the workshop.
She quickly rummaged through the drawers, cataloguing each for easier access another time, and found a spare cable-jack, of which could fit into her internal port. Unscrewing her front panel and leaving it next to the terminal, she slotted the cable in and made her way back to the electronic lock, screwdriver floating next to her in her magic.
The electronic lock was quick work as the panel popped off and exposed the delicate electronic inside. With slight hesitation, she plugged herself into the jack and felt several pings pass into her, each one probing a vital subsystem of her core. She quickly fired off several counterpings and spoofed an internal manufacturer bypass, causing the lock to deactivate with two, heavy thuds!
Celestia pushed the door open a crack and reactivated the lock so it would seem as if nothing had happened, before pulling herself out of the system. With a relieved sigh, she quickly replaced the cover, then her own, and stood at the precipice, staring down into a void.
For the longest few seconds, she stood there, her hooves refusing to move despite her repeated signals being sent. She couldn't help but find it odd that she felt nervous about this part and wondered if this was what real ponies felt when stepping into their unknowns.
Just as she took a step, she was jolted out of her moment by a knock at the door, forcing her to grip the door's frame and turn around slowly.
Note to self: Reconfigure Audible Sensor Arrays - Low Priority.
Sighing, she took a few jelly steps over to the front door and peeked out of the window beside it, only to see the drone she had commandeered standing there with a hoof-sized cardboard box within an open saddlebag. Staring at the expressionless drone for a second, she opened the door and smiled down at it. "Thank you, my dear. Now, complete my other orders," she told it, causing the drone to turn and trot away at a leisurely pace.
Celestia closed the door and opened the box to see her Thaumic Core. This one was fabricated to look identical to her own, as to not arouse suspicion from her love.
"It's perfect," she whispered, lifting the core out and looking it over.
Deep Core dump will take an estimated time of 4h.
Countdown: 5hr 46m 53s
"Better keep it safe," Celestia thought, glancing to the basement, then taping her core to the underside of the couch. "This can be done when Twilight is asleep and can't disturb us."
Walking back over to the basement entrance, she once again felt the dread of her unknown creep up and embrace her, yet she knew that she had come this far. She knew Twilight wasn't infallible, no pony was, and she might have been programmed to love the mare, but she wasn't programmed to overlook her flaws.
With a heavy hoof-step, she descended into the darkness; only the ambient light emanating from her chest provided any sense of relief from the encroaching void. As soon as she felt the stairs level off, the mare reached around and found a light-switch on the wall beside her.
Several incandescent bulbs buzzed to life, lighting up the scene which left Celestia frozen with more questions than answers.
The basement laid under half of the house, with uninsulated stone walls and a rough concrete floor. Cabling had been bolted against the bare, stone, walls, wrapping around to several fabrication machines, each with their own purpose of machining any and all parts which Twilight desired. Two, long, desks sat in the center of the room, covered with the robotic parts that Celestia pictured alongside Twilight's smile that very first time she was assembled.
Celestia's attention was grabbed by the computer terminal that sat at a metal desk which ran along the back wall. The desk was covered in research papers as well as old cores, many of which were burnt out, and machined parts. Alongside that stood a bare dark-navy blue box that loomed as tall as she did. Two doors stood, imposing in front of Celestia as she looked it over.
An inscription along the top edge read:
M.O.O.N Locker