//------------------------------//
// Secrets Encoded 
// Story: Of Robots and Those Who Make Them 
// by Valtyra 
//------------------------------//

Celestia turned around once her operations had been realigned and started to move towards the door. She loved Twilight more than anything, but this was hidden and locked away for a reason. She needed time to figure it out.

Keep Twilight away from her basement

It seemed simple enough: keep the mare entertained until she fell asleep. Several ideas passed through her head how to accomplish this, and one by one were written off due to varying factors.

Eventually, Celestia decided on a nice dinner then a cuddle in bed.

Ascending from the basement, she made sure to turn the light off and close the door. The electronic lock snapped shut as if she had never opened it.

Celestia took a second to lean against the door, her horn tapping against the bare iron as she closed her eyes and took a deep simulated breath.

Pulling back, she brought her damaged arm up and slid her digits back in, still able to feel the soft flesh as she laid upon the couch. "What am I?" she asked, turning her attention to the core that was still firmly held in her hand.

"We'll meet tonight, Luna."





Just as Celestia was placing the last of the cutlery down on a fully set table, she heard the door click open. "Celestia, I'm home!" she heard Twilight call out, causing her to smile wide.

The table was covered with a pure white tablecloth, upon which sat a bouquet of flowers, some dishware and the cutlery. The room’s lighting had been dimmed ever so slightly as well to make it more romantic.

One benefit of being a robot was the ability to compartmentalise and she was using it to its fullest extent. She showed not a hint of what she’d done or learned that day, none of which mattered at that moment. She only needed Twilight.

"In the living room, my love!" she called back, moving around to pull Twilight's seat out. "Dinner will be ready shortly."

Twilight trotted in and slowed to a stop, confused at the scene. "Celestia? What's the occasion?" she asked, raising a brow.  Her expression quickly turned into shock upon seeing Celestia's arm.

"What happened?!" she gasped, dropped her saddlebags, rushed over and used her magic to turn it this way and that.

"I was moving your terminal and I was shocked by a loose cable. My apologies, Twilight. I was careless," Celestia lied. "You put so much work into my body and I go and do this," she finished, looking away. Her expression was one of shame - for breaking something Twilight was working on, and unknown to Twilight, for needing to lie about it.

Twilight shook her head and lit her horn up to gently turn Celestia to look at her. "I'm thankful you're okay," she said, reaching up with a hoof and placing it on her chest, over her core. "I don't know what I would do if I lost you. You mean more to me than anything else in this reality."

Celestia stared down as Twilight continued to look her arm over, still with a look of worry and shock. "I believe you, Twilight," she said, reaching out with her other hand and caressing the mare's cheek. "It will help to have dinner, plus I wish to hear about your day at work."

Celestia pulled back, plated up Twilight's food, then sat it down in front of her at the table. "Enjoy, my little sparkle," she whispered, causing Twilight to flush.

"Thank you," she stammered, using her magic to lift the fork and start to eat. Letting out a hum, Twilight closed her eyes and smiled as she slipped the first mouthful past her lips. "This is delicious!"

"I'm glad. Now, how was work?"





It was a little after dinner and Twilight was seated on Celestia's lap, cradled by Celestia as she gazed up with a tired smile. "You're too nice to me," she whispered, leaning in. Her eyes flicked aimlessly down to Celestia's lips for a second before they made contact.

Celestia felt a shock of delight pass through her from the action, her hands sliding around to hold Twilight tighter and eliciting a short moan. She felt Twilight press a little harder; she allowed her creator her fun and leaned back on the couch so Twilight was straddling her. "Is my technique satisfa-"

She was cut off by Twilight's hoof pressing against her mouth, then the mare leaned down. "That was my first kiss," Twilight whispered, then giggled as she pulled back. "You're perfect, Celestia. I..." she paused, circling her hoof around gainst Celestia's chest. "I can't wait until my work is finally complete. Everything will be exactly like it was."

"Whatever do you mean?" Celestia asked, her smile fading ever so slightly as she took hold of Twilight's hoof.

Twilight hummed, and shook her head. “Oh, nothing. Just an old mare's ramblings," she replied, waving her other hoof and smiling. "Anyway," she mumbled, looking up at the clock. "I think it's time for bed. The council waits for no mare!" she laughed, pulling herself off of Celestia. "I assume you'll be out on the balcony calibrating?" she asked, with a hint of faux-annoyance mixed in.

"For a short time, yes," Celestia replied, standing up and looking over to the table. "But first I shall clean and make sure everything is ready for you in the morning."

"Of course," Twilight said, nodding. Her expression turned to one of embarrassment as she brushed her carpet with a hoof. "You know," she whispered, sighing. "I wouldn't mind if you joined me in bed afterwards... I'm sure it would be warmer with you there," she muttered, looking down to hide her flushed cheeks.

Leaning down, Celestia gently inched Twilight's chin up so she would look at her. "I would love that. I'll try to be as quiet as possible."

"O-Oh, uh..." the purple mare stammered, nodding. "Oh gosh, um... I'll go make sure the bed can handle your weight," she said, before realising exactly what she said. "Not that you're overweight, I just mean that your composite frame isn't the lightest that I could have made it and please stop me from talking I can't stop," she gasped, pressing her own hoof against her mouth.

Celestia giggled and ran her hand down Twilight's neck, before using her other to move her hoof. Slowly, she leaned in and pressed her lips against the suddenly frozen mare to quiet her. "Mmm," Celestia hummed, pulling back, a twinkle in her eye. "Better?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Much," Twilight whispered, actually having calmed down. "I'll just... yeah," she said, gesturing then turning and trotting down the hall to her bedroom.

Celestia's smile was glued to her face while she wandered around the living room to clean up. She knew that Twilight would be waiting for her and the sooner she got the mare to sleep, the more time she would have to transfer her own core over to the new one and crack the azure core's secrets.





Placing the last plate on the dish rack, Celestia's attention was quickly pulled over to the cupboard where the sleeping pills were sitting. It wasn't as if it wouldn't work a second time and now she would have a plausible reason as to why Twilight had fallen asleep.

"Now what to use it in..." she hummed, grabbing an empty glass from the rack.

Quickly pouring a glass of water, Celestia used her rough graphite fingers to grind two pills into the drink, checked to make sure it was all dissolved, and swiftly made her way around to Twilight's bedroom.

Walking in, she saw Twilight laying in bed, nervousness clear as day on her face. "Hey, my little sparkle," she giggled, moving around and placing the water on the bedside table.

She walked around the other side of the bed and pulled the covers open, mindful of Twilight's watchful gaze but appearing to ignore it. "Drink up, Twilight," she said, climbing into the bed which creaked under her weight before it settled uneasily.

Sliding over, she couldn't help but notice how Twilight was curled. It was clear she was nervous at having someone else in her bed - even someone whom she created. "Twilight, please try to relax. Otherwise you won't be able to sleep.”

While her body was naturally cold, the bed slowly warmed her up and it wasn't long before Celestia scooted over and took hold of Twilight's hoof. "Come, my love. Let me hold you," she whispered as the mare finished her drink and placed the glass down, replying with a shy nod.

Twilight turned away from Celestia, her cheeks flushed crimson, and moved back until she was the little spoon. Celestia's arm wrapped around the mare and held her tight as her digits idly brushed through Twilight's chest floof, causing her to wriggle.

"How are you feeling?" Celestia asked, despite being able to feel her sparkle’s beating heart. "I'm not holding you too tight, am I?"

Twilight shook her head and held that arm close to herself. "No... of course not," she replied, humming contently. "I've, uh... only had one pony hold me like this before..." she whispered, holding Celestia's arm tighter. "Remind me..." she continued, letting out a yawn, "to install heaters."





Celestia opened her eyes as she felt Twilight's breathing slow. Hesitantly, she brushed her hand down the mare's leg, picked it up and let it drop, testing to see if she would wake up. Satisfied upon seeing no reflex, she leaned in and pressed her lips to the back of Twilight's ear, hummed, then rolled over to climb out of bed.

The room was dark, but it wasn't exactly a hard task for her to navigate using her own internal map of the house and she quickly entered the living room to grab both cores from under the couch. Walking into the workshop, Celestia made sure the door was closed, then placed the cores down on a light metal table next to the terminal. Once she booted the terminal up, she pulled a chair over and sat down to begin removing her chestpiece.

Inside, Celestia felt nervous at what she was about to do. The process was relatively simple and had been planned out numerous times, but the thought of her consciousness moving into a new core was something that couldn't help but frighten her.

"Alright," she whispered, placing down her chestpiece, picking up one of the transfer cables and sliding it into a trident-socket in her chest. The outer casing expanded to create a seal around the socket and then slid itself further inside to facilitate the connection. With a slight buzz, she felt the acknowledgement pings and sent a reply, allowing the terminal to connect with her.

Diagnostics began to scroll down the terminal in bright green font, ranging from her hardware's state all the way to her core stability and everything in between. Sending a request ping to the terminal, the screen was cleared and a line of text appeared.


Core Transfer.
Please connect secondary core.


Celestia leaned over and picked up her new core and placed it on her lap. Rolling it over to expose the underside, she grabbed the secondary trident cable and lined the male jack to its female socket. "Here goes nothing."

With a hum, the jack slid into the socket effortlessly and the second line changed to an unfilled progress bar.

As she sat there, she found it harder and harder to concentrate on any single thing and, slowly, her attention drifted off the bar and over to the Azure Core, pondering its mysteries. Her vision eventually ebbed, and she slumped forward.

Several hours later, Celestia awoke with a start due to a harsh repetitive beeping coming from the terminal. Looking over, she found the progress bar blinking at one hundred percent and upon pressing enter, it changed.


Core Transfer Complete
Remove empty core and replace with new primary core.


Looking down, she found that the core already in her body was loose as the locks had been retracted for removal.

Reaching out to each part of herself, she provided specific instructions for her body to follow when installing the new core and then yanked the jack out of her new core - her consciousness falling into the void as the connection cut off abruptly.

It was only three seconds, but Celestia let out a harsh gasp upon waking up, her body tingling as each piece of hardware reconnected with her newly installed core. She was flooded with pings and port connections and even had to restart her left leg several times to get it to play nice before she sat there, feeling whole again.

Letting herself sit there and simply take in the feeling, Celestia found it... odd. It wasn't a bad feeling, by any means, but being inside a new core - an improved core - was something she would have to get used to. She felt like there was more room to expand and grow, as if a cage had been expanded, a cage she hadn’t even realized existed until that moment.

She closed her eyes and accessed her deep core subroutines and started her diagnostic tool. Soft pings rang out across her body as her servos, sensors and general hardware were tested. There was a hiss and a feeling of pressure dissolving somewhere inside as her Mana pumps released a dark blue mist from her back.

As her body processed the diagnostics, she opened her eyes and lifted her old core, still gripped tightly in her hand from where she removed it, to look it over. It looked practically identical to the Azure Core, except for the tell-tale signs of manual machining, several scratches and welding marks visible on the outside, and the lack of any female port on the underside. Clearly Twilight had poured her heart and soul into it, and Celestia felt it would be too much of a waste to simply throw it off the balcony.

With a ping, she turned her attention to the text scrolling across her vision and placed the core down on the table.



Diagnostics
Estimated processing increase: 27.4%
Live processing increase: 32.8%
Errors found: 4

Attempted Core repair... successful.
Errors remaining: 1.



Celestia took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "That will have to suffice for now," she said to herself, sliding the chair closer to the metallic tray-table. A soft flick of her attention to the time showed that she had only been transferring for just shy of four hours, causing her to sigh in relief. Celestia glanced at the door and upon hearing no movement outside, she decided it was time. 

Picking up the azure core from the table, she replicated her actions and carefully inserted the trident jack into its socket. "Alright. Let's find out what she was doing with you," Celestia whispered, preparing herself. 

Pinging the terminal, she blinked and found herself in the dark void of the network she was connected to, and that familiar wave of warmth flooded across her.

Dropping to her knees, she wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, revelling in the feeling. Her revelling suddenly changed to confusion as she  pulled her arms out to find them with a light covering of extremely light grey fur. "Why am I covered in this now?!" she gasped. She experimentally pressed her digits against her fur and shivered as it reacted as expected with a soft tingling. "Am I complet- yeah, I am..." she muttered, patting herself down to find her entire body was covered in fur.  She then asked herself how she knew there would be tingling, pondering a moment before pulling her concentration back to the task at hand.

"Oh, right." Celestia reached up and opened a request to connect to the Core and opened ports 26, 57 and 87 to allow communication.

Suddenly, the world shifted and knocked Celestia off her hooves. She fell to her knees as reality warped, the ground bubbled, and a dark red oily sky shifted into focus. Trying to grasp at the ground, the mare waited for it to finish then opened her eyes.

The ground she was trying to hold onto was the bank of a small pond. Reeds and lillies grew around the sides. The pond was covered by an aging cherry blossom tree that overhung the water's edge. Picking herself up, she looked around and froze as a charred and wartorn castle loomed in front of her.

There were gaping holes in the walls of the main building, and several spires appeared to have been torn from their bases. Starry smoke poured out of the side of the castle, with red, violent flames licking at the edge of the holes.

Celestia stumbled back, shocked at such a sight. She tried pinging to terminate the connection but received no response from either the terminal or herself. She was at a loss. "What do I do, what do I do," she muttered over and over. Suddenly a strange feeling emanated from her hand, and she realized it had dipped into the water’s edge.

Celestia brought her hoof up and found her digits completely missing. Her off-grey coat ended with a hard keratin hoof at the end, providing no indication that she was anything but flesh and blood. She felt her heart thump quicker and quicker in her chest, heaved for a breath that felt like it would never come and keeled onto her side as her head began to throb painfully.

Her vision began to darken as a void began to envelop her, but not before a pair of Azure legs stomped down violently in front of her and kicked up a plume of dirt.

"You took your time."