[In the Castle of Friendship]
Twilight was having a nice morning. She had woken up, took a shower, eaten breakfast, had her morning coffee and was currently looking over her daily schedule. Or she was until Spike came running into the castle library carrying a scroll.
"Hey Twilight, you've got a letter!" He said as he came running up to her.
"Oh. Thank you, Spike." Twilight stated, taking the scroll from him and unrolling it.
Reading it she was immediately surprised to find that it was from Princess Luna. Apparently she had encountered an incredibly lonely creature by the name of Gerhardt Mechanica in the dreamscape the previous night and not only was he in desperate need of friendship but he was stuck in the Everfree Forest. Thus Princess Luna wanted Twilight to go find and help him if at all possible. She also warned Twilight to be cautious as Gerhardt seemed to be a bit aggressive and had threatened to outright kill anyone who tried to take his daughter from him. She also informed Twilight that he was incapable of trusting others and would be extremely difficult to get through to. Finally she informed Twilight of the daughter he was building and her concerns with how he planned to raise said daughter.
"I see… Well it seems I'll be heading into the Everfree Forest today to deal with a friendship problem. Spike, you wait here while I'm gone." Twilight said before rolling up the scroll again and setting it off to the side. She then got up and started making her way to the map room. Judging by what princess Luna had said she suspected that the map would show her exactly where in the Everfree to search and that would save her quite a bit of time. And she was proven correct as the map displayed her cutiemark hovering above a specific area of the Everfree.
After doing her best to memorize the location she made her way out of the castle and flew off in the direction of the Everfree. About half an hour or so later she found the area the map had indicated and was surprised to see a large metal building in the middle of a clearing. Landing next to it she saw a spot on the ground that appeared to be scorched and covered in a fine white ash. It also smelt like something burning so that had to be very recent, so whoever made that fire was likely still there.
Looking around she spotted what appeared to be the main entrance of the building and was surprised to see that the door was broken and was just leaning loosely against the door frame. Approaching it she looked inside and immediately spotted a large bipedal creature in tattered and crudely patched black robes working on what appeared to be a machine of some sort.
[In Gerhardt's Workshop]
Gerhardt woke up and immediately burst into a fit of coughing as he tried to get up off his bed. When that was over he frowned and used telekinesis to lift himself the rest of the way up to his feet in an attempt to mitigate his pain. He wasn't in any immediate danger of dying but he would have to open himself up and fix his damaged parts soon. First, however, he needed to finish his daughter. She was just so close to completion.
After putting his boots back on he proceeded over to the little golem and immediately got back to work. Suddenly as he was working he heard a knock on the frame where his front door used to be. He quickly whirled around and pointed a hand at the source of the knocking in preparation to kill whoever or whatever it was with a combat spell. He saw that it was some sort of mutant equine creature with the horn of a unicorn from Elven mythology and the wings of a pegasus from Dwarven mythology similar to the one he had seen in his dreams the previous night but smaller and purple instead of blue. It appeared quite surprised to see the copper aura surrounding Gerhardt's hand.
"Uh… Hello. I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. I don't mean you any harm. Princess Luna sent me." The creature said in a placating tone.
"So it really... w-wasn't just a dream after all…" Gerhardt muttered between a few short coughs, letting the aura disappear and lowering his hand. "Hmph… Fine. She said that she would be… sending someone to talk to me. I hope you don't… m-mind if I continue working while we talk." He said as he turned and continued working on his daughter.
"Oh, uh… That's fine I guess…" Twilight said as she approached him before stopping just a few feet from him. She didn't want to be rude and talk to him from across the room but neither did she want to be within arms reach of him in case he got angry and decided to lash out, thus she determined that this was the optimal distance.
"So, why are you here specifically? I understand… t-that the princess wants me to sell your k-kind… augmentations but just confirming your existence would have been e-enough for me to agree to that. So if that's all... y-you can leave. The augmentations will be ready by this time next week." Gerhardt stated as he worked.
"Well, both Princess Luna and the Friendship Map indicated that you were having a friendship problem and sent me here to try to help fix it." Twilight explained.
Gerhardt gave her the most deadpan stare that he had ever given anyone. "If this is some sort of joke it isn't funny... W-why are you really here?"
"I'm not joking, I really am here to help you with your friendship problems!" Twilight exclaimed, sounding slightly frustrated.
"Hmph, in that case I don't h-have any friends to be able to… h-have a problem with to begin with and… I-I most certainly don't need them… S-so, if that's all then you can go away now." He huffed in annoyance.
"I see… Well, would you mind me asking why some of the things in here look like they've been destroyed?" Twilight inquired.
"That's because they are… Someone sent a group of thugs to try a-and… kill me recently. They decided to break my things in the p-process. I haven't had the time to fix them yet. I haven't… had the time to fix myself yet either s… so please excuse the coughing… M-my ribs are broken and I think my lungs might be slightly damaged. Fortunately my… l-life isn't in any immediate danger so I can fin… finish building my daughter before I get around to working on myself."
"Wait what?! There's a hospital in Ponyville not too far from here, we should get you there as soon as possible!" Twilight exclaimed.
"No. There's no point. There's… n-nothing they can do for my ribs and m-my lungs are artificial. I just need to g... get around to opening myself up and fixing them." Gerhardt responded dismissing the idea entirely.
"If you can fix yourself why don't you? I understand that you're building yourself a daughter but this is ridiculous! I'm sure she wouldn't mind her activation being delayed slightly for you to take care of your own health." Twilight said in a slightly frustrated tone. She found his willingness to effectively conduct surgery on himself rather odd but she was in fact paying attention. And judging by his metal hands and the fact he claimed his lungs were artificial she had to assume he was telling the truth and he genuinely could do so. She had no idea what sort of technology he had or what he was capable of especially since he was apparently building a true artificial intelligence as a daughter so she simply had to go off of what he told her.
"She takes priority…" Gerhardt stated simply. He wanted to meet his daughter and with her so close to completion he wasn't going to let something so minor as a few broken ribs and a painful cough get in his way.
Twilight sighed. He was proving to be just as stubborn and difficult to work with as Princess Luna had suggested. "Alright, I suppose I can't force you to fix yourself if you don't want to… Anyways, I'm sorry for bringing this up but Princess Luna really wanted me to talk to you about the fact that you apparently don't plan on letting your daughter have any friends…" She paused to see how he would react to that.
"My daughter is none of her fucking business…" Gerhardt growled.
"Be that as it may, as the Princess of Friendship it is my business… Well, sort of anyway. I suppose you don't have to listen to me but it is my duty to at least try to change your mind." Twilight stated.
She was trying her best to choose her words carefully so as to not risk provoking him as per Luna's warning. She didn't want to risk letting him think she was going to attempt to take his daughter from him if he didn't listen to her. Not that she really could anyways even if she wanted to. Under any other circumstances she almost certainly would have taken her away or had Foal Protective Services take her away for the foal's own good. However this wasn't a normal foal. It was an artificial intelligence and Gerhardt was the only one who knew how to fix her if she ever got damaged or needed maintenance. Furthermore, not knowing exactly how unstable he was just yet and thus not knowing how far he was willing to go, there was a serious risk that he may have installed something in her so that if she was ever taken from him she would self-destruct thus killing her. So it was genuinely too dangerous for his daughter to take her away from him after he finished building her.
Thus she needed to convince him to do what was truly the best for his daughter despite his inability to trust others. She knew full well that this would be exceedingly difficult but she still had to try.
Gerhardt scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Princess of Friendship…? So, what? You're in charge of wh-who… can and can't be friends or something?"
"Not quite… More like I'm in charge of helping ponies get along and mending friendships and friendship problems. Things like that. Anyway, first things first. May I ask how your own parents raised you? Did they allow you to have friends as a colt?" Twilight inquired.
"I'm human, not an equine s-so… the word 'colt' doesn't apply to me. The terms for… m-male and female human children a… are boy and girl. I am male so when I was a child I-I was a boy. The terms for adult… hu-humans are men and women. I am a… m-man. But I know what you mean. Y-yes, I was allowed to have friends as a boy." Gerhardt stated.
"Then why wouldn't you let your daughter have friends?" Twilight asked.
"They'll just be… betray her. They will all stab you in the back the first ch… chance they get like the selfish greedy bastards they are."
"Did your friends ever betray you when you were a foal?"
Gerhardt shook his head. "They never got an opportunity otherwise they would have."
"So that's a no. Did they ever betray you later in life?" Twilight inquired.
"One of them, yes. I stopped speaking t-to… the rest when I went to college. We ne… never saw each other again so they never got an opportunity."
"I'm certain that most of your old friends would not have betrayed you even if given an opportunity. The one who did is just a bad pony. Not everypony is out to get you. I am friends with plenty of ponies and they have never once betrayed me. The only one who has was Discord but even he apologized for it and admitted he was wrong afterwards." Twilight stated.
"Oh, good for you… If only we could all be so lucky." Gerhardt said in a blatantly sarcastic tone.
Twilight could see that she wasn't getting through to him. So she decided to pull out the big guns, so to speak. "When your daughter is fully built, will you love her?"
Gerhardt's head immediately snapped towards Twilight. "What?"
"Will you love her?" Twilight responded.
"What sort of question is this?! Of course! Sh… She's my daughter! I already love her, even if she hasn't been a-activated yet! How dare you question if I wo… would care for my own daughter or not?!" Gerhardt shouted furiously between particularly violent coughing fits. It seemed that shouting was making his cough worse but he didn't care. He was highly offended that she would even think to question his love for his daughter.
"Relax, I'm just trying to make a point. I wasn't genuinely questioning you. Since you love your daughter you only want what's best for her, right?" Twilight inquired in a cautious tone.
Gerhardt relaxed slightly upon hearing that she wasn't genuinely questioning him. "Obviously."
"Well, I can promise you that keeping her completely isolated and not allowing her to have any friends whatsoever is one of the worst things you can do for her as a parent. It will have a very serious negative impact upon her mental health. Not only would it just lead to her being a lonely shut in, but it could also lead to things such as depression or worse. I'm sure you already know how loneliness and isolation can negatively impact one's psyche. Furthermore, judging by your appearance you are quite old. Considering your advanced age what will she do once you die? She'll be all alone and without any friends she'll be in the same predicament that you are currently. Only she will never die of old age considering the fact she's an artificial intelligence." Twilight explained.
"I can ma… make technology to make me immortal… A-all I need to do is make brain… augmentations and replace what little org… organic matter I have left, then I would be just as immortal as her… A-and failing that, when she’s older she could make a child of her own. So even if I do die of ol… o-old age, she will never truly be alone." Gerhardt commented.
"You're missing the point. Being close to and reliant upon only a single pony is not healthy, period. And you would be teaching her outright paranoia which just makes it all the worse! Do you want her to live in constant fear of others for eternity? Because that's exactly what you'll be doing to her by teaching her never to trust anypony. Then will come all the other mental illnesses associated with isolation and cutting oneself off from everypony around them."
"What's your game?" Gerhardt demanded.
"What? What do you mean?" Twilight inquired, confused by this.
"I mean, what do you get out of this? You're obvi… obviously after something otherwise you wouldn't be... p-pushing so hard for this! Why would you care if my daughter has friends or not?!" Gerhardt growled.
"Nothing. I don't get anything out of this. I'm pushing so hard for two main reasons. The first and least important is that it's literally my job as the Princess of Friendship. The second is that even if you don't believe me I genuinely care. I don't want to see you ruin your daughter's life because of your inability to trust others. All I'm asking is that you give her a normal foalhood. One sort of like your own. You said it yourself, you didn't have a bad foalhood. You were allowed to have friends and it was perfectly fine until later on in your life." Twilight suggested.
"Alright, let's assume I believe that you... a-are telling the truth, which I don't, if I do as you say she... w-will eventually be betrayed by those she befriends." Gerhardt stated firmly.
"Not necessarily. You don't have to keep her completely isolated to protect her. You can just teach her to be careful and what to look out for. Besides, sadness and pain are simply a part of life and I am talking about a lot more than just betrayal. You can't prevent her from experiencing those things all together without depriving her of so much more. Happiness, companionship, laughter, love, an actual foalhood." Twilight told him.
Gerhardt's grip on his tools tightened and he clenched his jaws. Slamming his tools down on the work table he turned to face Twilight. "Do you think I don't real… realize that?! She is not the first child I have… r-raised! I tried that with the first child I raised… a-and do you know what fucking happened?! HE BETRAYED ME! HE... W-WAS THE ONE WHO SENT TH… THOSE THUGS TO FUCKING KILL ME... J-JUST YESTERDAY!" Gerhardt roared. When he finished shouting he burst into his most violent coughing fit yet and collapsed to his knees from the pain as he proceeded to actually cough up blood. He regretted saying any of that almost immediately but Twilight's words had just gotten under his skin enough that he hadn't been able to restrain himself.
Twilight was very worried to see him actually cough up blood for the first time since they started talking. However this was the first time he had shown any sort of crack in his resolve so she knew she had to continue pressing on for the moment. She would make sure he was alright after that, as much as she wanted to confirm he was alright at that very moment.
"I see… So that's why you want to keep her isolated. You aren't actually worried about her being betrayed by her friends. Rather you want to make sure she is totally reliant on you as her only real connection so she can't betray you like your son betrayed you." Twilight said.
At this point Gerhardt's shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground in shame. Tears were welling up in his eyes from a mixture of both physical and emotional pain. He wanted to deny it, to say that Twilight was wrong, but he couldn't. He knew it was the truth no matter how much he had been lying to himself up until this point. "A bit of both, actually…" He muttered. "I could program her to be completely… l-loyal to me, but I feel like if I did that I wo… would be stripping her of her free will… I can't do that to her. This is the best alternative I… h-have and protecting her is the only way I can really justify it... t-to myself."
"I understand… But you know as well as I do that this is wrong. I know you're lonely and you're afraid of betrayal but you can't just completely ruin your daughter's life just because you're afraid that she might betray you. If you really want to be a good father to her, you're just going to have to accept that risk. And I promise you that it's not even that much of a risk!" Twilight told him.
"I can't… I can't let myself be betrayed by some… someone I care for as my own child again… I can't…" Gerhardt muttered.
"You won't be. Just have a little faith in her and in your own ability to raise her better than your son. I promise you won't regret it. You'll only come to regret it if you keep her completely isolated from others because you know that it's wrong and that you're actually hurting her mentally." Twilight said, taking a couple steps closer to him but still keeping some distance. She was pretty sure that she was past any real danger at this point but she couldn't be certain so she was remaining cautious.
Gerhardt remained silent for a few moments save for a coughing fit. Eventually he forced himself back up onto his feet and said, "You're right… I-I know you're right. I can't keep her isolated… What sort of father wo… would I be if I did? I can't do that to her… F-fine… she can have friends…"
Twilight smiled up at him and said, "I'm glad you can see reason. Now, are you okay? I saw you cough up blood just a few moments ago. I would have asked sooner but…"
"I think shouting as loud as I did ex… exacerbated the damage to my lungs… F-fortunately my lungs are compartmentalized… s-so even if they're punctured or torn the internal bl… bleeding is mitigated slightly. That blood just managed to escape… b-before my blood stopped flowing through th… the wounded section. I'll live." Gerhardt explained.
"Oh. Well, I'm glad it isn't serious… So, when do you think your daughter will be finished?" Twilight inquired.
"At my current rate? This afternoon… T-this evening at the latest. But…" Gerhardt trailed off before shaking his head and dismissing the thought.
"But, what?" Twilight inquired.
"Well… I sort of wanted to buy her a cake fo… for her activation day since I designed… h-her to be able to eat." Gerhardt stated.
Twilight's face brightened up upon hearing that. "Oh! You wanted to get her a birthday cake?"
"Yes, but I doubt human currency is… v-valid here, so that idea is out the window until I can… s-sell some augmentations. Oh well, I suppose." Gerhardt stated in a slightly disappointed tone before shrugging.
"Interesting… And how long would it take you to fix your lungs after she's fully built?" Twilight inquired.
"Hm… About an hour on my own. Thirty min… minutes if she helped me, which I'm hoping she… w-will. I have a couple spare lungs… t-that I was planning to sell in storage. It's as simple as removing… m-my current lungs and installing the new ones." Gerhardt said.
"Perfect! Well, it was nice talking to you but I need to go do something. I'll be back later this evening after I'm done." Twilight said.
Gerhardt grunted in acknowledgement. He honestly couldn't care less where she went or if she came back so long as she didn't do anything directly detrimental to him or his daughter. And since he was extremely new to this country he could only assume that whatever business she had to take care of had absolutely nothing to do with him.
With that, Twilight teleported out of the workshop and left Gerhardt alone to keep working.
Gerhardt spent the next several hours working on his daughter. Once he was finally finished he went and retrieved the clothes he had bought for her and put them on her. Finally he took a step back from the work table before casting a spell and activating her.
Suddenly her eyes snapped open revealing two glowing pink sapphires. Other than that she looked like a relatively normal little girl about the size of an average six or seven year old with pale white skin and perfectly straight silvery hair that reached just a few inches past her shoulders. Gerhardt had gone all out when making her and purchased some artificial skin to cover her exterior with and had created his own synthetic hair in order to make her look perfectly human, minus her eyes. This had actually ended up costing quite a bit as he had gone for the best artificial skin on the market. He refused to abide substandard materials when it came to the construction of his daughter. She was wearing clothing very similar to his own, just smaller and in better condition as they were brand new.
Sitting up she looked around and spotted him almost immediately. As soon as she did she gave him a large toothy smile. "Daddy!" She exclaimed before hopping off the table and immediately wrapping her tiny arms around his legs in a big hug.
Gently grabbing her by the shoulders he pulled her off of his legs. He then kneeled down and returned the embrace. "Hello, little one. I'm so glad... t-to finally meet you."
"I'm glad to meet you too!" The little golem said happily. "Um, daddy? Why are you coughing?" She asked curiously.
"Ah… I was attacked yesterday. One of th… the people who attacked me kicked me in the solar plexus... a-and broke a few of my ribs. My lungs we… were damaged in the process. I need to fix them bu… but you were so close to completion that I… wanted to finish building you first. I'm trying t… to ignore it, but this hug is actually incredibly painful." Gerhardt explained.
Hearing that the golem immediately released him and said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, daddy!"
"It's fine, dear." Gerhardt said, releasing her and standing back up.
"You should have fixed yourself before working on me, daddy." the golem stated in a slightly stern tone.
Gerhardt chuckled. "I can deal with a little cough… N-now that you've been activated though I co… could actually use your help replacing my... l-lungs. I could do it myself but it would… b-be a lot harder and more awkward sin… since I can't exactly see inside my own chest cavity."
The golem shifted uncertainly. "But, I don't know how to do that… What if I make a mistake and end up hurting you even worse?"
"You won't. I'll guide you through… t-the entire process." Gerhardt reassured her.
"Alright, daddy… If you say so…"
"Thank you, dear. Now before we ge… get to that, we should give you a name. I thought of… a-a few myself but you can decide yo… your own name if you wish. The names I thought... o-of are: Silver, Sapphire, Pixel, Elizabeth, Sophia, and Alice."
"Mmm… Silver and Alice sound nice… but I think I like Pixel the best!" His daughter said with a large smile on her face. She was very excited to be given a name and she really liked the name Pixel a lot.
"As you wish. Your name is… o-officially Pixel Mechanica." Gerhardt stated definitively.
After that the two of them got to work on replacing Gerhardt's lungs. As he predicted it took roughly thirty minutes with Pixel's help.
When it was over Gerhardt got up off the work table they were using as a makeshift operation table and put his robe back on. "Thank you for your assistance, Pixel. And I'm so sorry one of the first things you had to do after your activation was help me replace my lungs. This really isn't how I wanted your activation day to go, but such is life I suppose."
"You're welcome! And it's fine, daddy. I'm happy I was able to help you!" Pixel said with a large smile on her face.
Gerhardt smiled back at her and patted her on the head. "Well… Unfortunately since the entire workshop got teleported to the middle of a forest the gods only know where most of my plans for today are shot. I was going to take you on a tour around the City of Copper and buy you a cake to celebrate your activation day but we can't really do either of those things out here. So what else could we do to celebrate…? Hm…"
"We could go for a walk through the forest!" Pixel suggested.
"I suppose that's one idea, but apparently there are some very dangerous plants and animals in this forest. I would have to take a gun but the only ones I have readily available are the shoddy crap those thugs tried to kill me with. Though one did have a military grade combat rifle. As flawed as the design may be it should still be more than capable of killing large animals if they attack us. Hm… Very well. I know you can—" Gerhardt was cut off by a flash of purple light as Twilight teleported back into the lab.
"Hello again, Gerhardt!" Twilight stated after she reappeared. She then spotted Pixel and smiled at her. "And hello to you as well! Have you decided on a name for yourself yet?"
Pixel smiled back and nodded. "Yup! My name is Pixel. What's your name?"
"I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I'm happy to meet you, Pixel." Twilight responded.
"Excuse me, but do you often barge into other people's property like this? I realize the door is missing but at least the first time you had the common courtesy to knock before entering." Gerhardt said disapprovingly.
"Oh… Uh… Sorry about that. I guess I didn't think about it…" Twilight apologized sheepishly. "Um… Anyways I'm glad to see Pixel is finally activated and you fixed your lungs. Now, if you wouldn't mind coming with me I actually have a small surprise for you two."
"No." Gerhardt stated firmly. The timing was far too convenient for his taste and this "surprise" thing was suspicious as hell. Besides which he didn't exactly appreciate the fact that she had interrupted right as he was about to go for a walk with his daughter.
Twilight was taken aback by this. She honestly hadn't been expecting him to outright refuse, though in hindsight she supposed that she should have. "Come on, please? It will be fun!"
"Daddy and I were about to go for a walk in the forest… Will it be more fun than that?" Pixel inquired.
Twilight nodded. "Oh, definitely. The Everfree Forest isn't really a fun place to go for a walk. In fact it's usually pretty scary. It's full of dangerous animals like timberwolves, manticores, and cockatrices. As well as dangerous plants like poison joke."
"That's why I would be bringing a weapon to kill anything that attacks us." Gerhardt stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I have military grade guns from the thugs who tried to kill me yesterday. I am not worried about animals. And neither of us are particularly susceptible to poison of any sort, especially if it's contact based. My arms and everything below my chest are made of metal and Pixel is fully artificial."
"Hm… I'm really curious what the surprise is, and I don't want you to have to hurt innocent animals if you don't have to. Plus Princess Twilight promised it would be fun! So could we go see the surprise? Please, daddy?" Pixel requested looking up at Gerhardt.
Gerhardt sighed reluctantly and glared at Twilight in suspicion. "You understand that if this is a trap, I will not hesitate to defend myself and my daughter by any means necessary. I refuse to allow any harm to come to her under any circumstances."
"I understand that and it's fine. You don't have anything to worry about." Twilight responded.
"I see. Then in that case I suppose you wouldn't mind if I brought a weapon." Gerhardt said before casting a spell and levitating the pistol Markus had been using the previous day over to himself. "After all, if there's no danger then there will be no reason for me to use it."
Twilight eyed the pistol for a moment before saying. "That's completely unnecessary but go ahead." She had no idea what his "weapon" did or how it worked but she was confident that he wouldn't use it as long as there wasn't any danger. She was also confident in her own ability to defend herself and her friends even if she was seriously misjudging him and he really did try to use it.
Gerhardt nodded before shoving the pistol underneath the belt of his robes like a makeshift holster. The belt was tight enough that he knew the gun wouldn't slip out so it would work just fine in place of an actual holster. "Very well… I don't know what your goal here is but fine. I suppose we can come with you, at least for a short while."
Twilight smiled at that. "You won't regret it!" She said, a purple aura then surrounded her horn as she teleported them out of the workshop.
The three of them then found themselves in what appeared to be a dining room made entirely of crystal. Gerhardt and Pixel didn't know this but they were inside Twilight's castle.
"Surprise!" Shouted another pony. This one was pink and lacked either wings or a horn. "Happy birthday and welcome to Ponyville!"
Gerhardt and Pixel looked around and saw what appeared to be a bunch of party decorations, a large cake, and a handful of other ponies all of whom were looking at the two of them curiously. A banner was hung up in the room with the words "Happy Birthday!" and "Welcome to Ponyville!" written on it.
"What is this?" Gerhardt inquired, squinting his eyes and looking around in suspicion.
"A surprise party, of course!" The Pink one stated. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! I'm super duper excited to meet you both! What are your names? Oh, and since it's your birthday, how old are you?!"
"Hello! I'm Pixel Mechanica and this is my daddy, Gerhardt Mechanica! I'm happy to meet you too! As for how old I am, daddy finished building me and first activated me just a few hours ago. So I suppose I'm only a few hours old!" Pixel explained cheerfully.
"Whoa, hold on… What do you mean by 'built' and 'activated' and how can you only be a few hours old?" An orange pony with a strange hat inquired.
Gerhardt crossed his arms. "She meant exactly what she said. She is a fully functional and fully sapient artificial intelligence. She wasn't born in the conventional sense, but she is just as intelligent as you or me if not more so and her thoughts and emotions are just as real. She may be made of metal, silicone, enchanted crystals, plastic, ceramic, and rubber rather than flesh and bone but she is very much alive and conscious." He explained in a slightly hostile tone. He knew that many people from all around the world would just see his daughter as a soulless automaton even though he knew for a fact that it was the furthest thing from the truth. He always assumed the worst of others so he assumed that these creatures would only see his daughter as a machine rather than a person, thus his hostility.
The orange pony seemed unsettled by this. The rest had their own reactions. The ones who appeared to have the least reactions were Twilight, Pinkie Pie, an oversized bipedal lizard, and a yellow pegasus. Granted the yellow pegasus seemed intimidated by them anyway but still.
"Calm down, no one was questioning that. Anyways, you said you wanted to buy a cake for your daughter's birthday but didn't have the correct money. So I bought one for you as a sign of good faith. And of course after hearing about you and your daughter Pinkie Pie wanted to make it a surprise party. She was actually going to invite more ponies but I convinced her to keep it limited to my closest friends." Twilight explained.
"Why? What do you gain from this? If you expect me to be in your debt you can forget it. You might as well take my daughter and I back to my workshop right now. If the cake is poisoned, both my daughter and I are immune to such things. My daughter is artificial and thus cannot be poisoned anymore than any machine can and my digestive system is fully artificial and is designed to filter out and destroy any toxins that could harm me. If this is some sort of bribe it is completely unnecessary. The one and only thing I am good for is my machines and I was already planning to sell them to begin with. The only thing I refuse to sell is my daughter and the technology I used to create her and no amount of bribery will convince me otherwise. So, tell me what the point of all this is." Gerhardt demanded.
"Wow, Twilight. You really weren't kidding when you said he was paranoid. I mean, I believed you but dang… I wasn't expecting it to be this bad." A blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail stated. She then looked at Gerhardt and said, "Is it really so hard to believe that she's just doing this out of the kindness of her own heart?"
"Yes." Gerhardt stated bluntly. "I refuse to fall for such obvious deception."
At this point Twilight sighed and said, "I'm sorry girls, I warned you he'd be like this… He's simply not going to believe anything we do doesn't have an ulterior motive behind it no matter how harmless it may seem to us. I hope this makes it clear to you all why both the Friendship Map and Princess Luna sent me to talk to him. Anyways, Gerhardt, if you really need a reason then I'll tell you. It is indeed somewhat of a bribe in a way to help myself and the others get on your good side. Does knowing that help you feel better?"
"No, because I still don't know what your true intentions are or why you would want to 'get on my good side'. But I suppose I can accept that answer for the moment… barely. Now, assuming you are telling the truth and this truly is a bribe of some sort, I assume you wouldn't mind if my daughter were to get a slice of cake?" Gerhardt inquired. He didn't trust this but it was the best option he had to celebrate his daughter's activation at the moment.
"Ooh! On it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed before zipping over to the cake at seemingly impossible speeds, slicing off a piece and setting it on a plate, then zipping back over to Pixel and holding out the plate for her to take.
At that point, Gerhardt teleported a clean fork to his hand from his workshop and handed it to Pixel as she took the plate and thanked Pinkie Pie for bringing it to her. "Here you go, dear. Enjoy. Happy activation day."
Pixel smiled up at him. "Thank you, daddy!" She then looked at Twilight and said, "And thank you, your highness, for setting all of this up! I really appreciate it."
"Oh, it's no trouble! And you can just call me Twilight if you want. There's no need to be so formal with me." Twilight told her with a smile. "So, how about you introduce yourself to everypony? I'm sure they're all eager to speak to you."
"Okay! Will you come with me to speak to everyone, daddy?" Pixel asked.
Gerhardt shook his head. "No, dear. You go ahead. I'll be here watching. If anything happens just call out to me and I'll take care of it."
"Alright, daddy." Pixel said before taking a bite of her slice of cake as she walked towards the others.
Gerhardt just stood there with his arms crossed, watching Pixel like a hawk. He was ready to either draw his pistol and start shooting or cast a spell to teleport them away at the first sign of danger.
As he stood there watching Pixel interacting with the ponies some of the other ponies started approaching him one at a time. The first was the orange pony with the strange hat. "Howdy." She greeted.
"Hello." He responded, not taking his eyes off his daughter.
"I'm Applejack, and I guess your uh… your 'daughter' already introduced you, Mr. Mechanica."
"Indeed she did. Don't think I didn't notice that hesitation or your tone when you said 'daughter'. Let me guess, you think I am insane and my daughter is just some sort of soulless automaton. Ah, ah. That was a rhetorical question, I already know the answer. Of course you do. Hmph… The parts of her brain that control information processing and higher thought processes are based on the function of an organic human brain meaning they function in almost exactly the same way. The only part of her brain that is truly different from a normal human's is the memory center as I altered the design to make her memory truly perfect and to allow me to upload some very basic knowledge into her brain prior to her activation. So to argue she lacks self awareness or intelligence or that she doesn't have a soul is to argue that all organic beings, including yourself and everyone you know or have ever seen or spoken to, lack all of those things which is patently false." Gerhardt explained.
"Hm. Well, I can't say I know enough about that sorta thing to argue with yah. So I suppose I'll have to take yours and Twilight's words for it. It's just… odd. The idea that you can build a pony like a cart or a barn." Applejack said a bit uncertainly.
"It's a significantly more complex, time consuming, and delicate process than building something so simple as a cart. For example, it took me eighteen and a half years to build her brain, even using magic to speed up the process drastically. Otherwise it would have taken me more than my entire lifetime. And I had to ensure I got everything perfect down to the last neuron, of which there are about a hundred trillion, so it would work perfectly the first time otherwise I would have wasted millions of dollars and would have had to start all over from scratch. That being said, I don't exactly blame you for finding it strange. She is the first of her kind and I would assume you aren't familiar with neuroscience or technomancy, correct?" Gerhardt inquired.
Applejack shook her head. "Nope. I'm just a farmer. I ain't got the first clue about either of those things. Never even heard of technomancy."
"I thought not. Though I am surprised you haven't heard of technomancy. That's tantamount to having never heard of Scientia, the Goddess of Science and Technology." Gerhardt stated.
"Nope, never heard of her neither." Applejack stated.
This caused Gerhardt's head to jerk towards her. "What?! How could you not have heard of Scientia? She is one of the gods who interacts with mortals the most frequently."
"I ain't never heard of any gods actually interactin' with ponies either. Well… Unless you count Princess Celestia and Princess Luna since ponies used to consider them goddesses a long time ago but nah… They're just normal ponies like us and Twilight. Powerful and I guess immortal considerin' they've lived for over a thousand years but definitely not goddesses." Applejack explained. She considered mentioning Discord for a moment but ultimately decided against it. She knew that he would be aware of it if she talked about him and that comparing him to a god would just fuel his already over inflated ego.
"Hm… How odd…" Gerhardt muttered,
"Well it was, uh… interesting talking to you, Mr. Mechanica. Now I suppose I should go meet your daughter." Applejack said.
"Remember what I told you. She is alive so treat her as such." Gerhardt responded as Applejack turned and began walking away.
Next he was approached by the white unicorn. "Good evening, Mr. Mechanica. I am Rarity."
"Good evening." Gerhardt responded.
"I just spoke with your daughter a bit. She's a lovely little filly. I'm sure she will make lots of friends here in Ponyville."
"Mm…" Gerhardt hummed in disapproval. He still didn't want to let Pixel have friends.
"Just so you know, I am a professional tailor and designer. So if ever your robes are damaged again or you need some new clothing please feel free to stop by the Carousel Boutique. I've never made clothes for somepony with you and your daughter's body structures and I would more than welcome the challenge! And given the rather poor state of your current attire I would be happy to give you a fair discount on the first outfit you commission." Rarity told him.
"I'll keep that in mind." Gerhardt stated. That was actually somewhat useful information considering he knew that he would have to buy more clothes at some point. Both for himself and for Pixel. "Forgive me, what was the name of your store again?"
"The Carousel Boutique." Rarity reiterated with a friendly smile.
"Thank you." Gerhardt said.
"Of course! I look forward to making something for you. Well, I won't bother you any further. Please have a good rest of your evening Mr. Mechanica." Rarity said before turning and walking away again.
After that the remaining ponies would come up and introduce themselves to him and would exchange a few words before leaving him alone again. All except for Pinkie Pie who was alternating between talking to Pixel then rushing over and talking to him as well. He tried to indicate to her that he wasn't really in the mood to talk but she didn't seem to get the hint, thus he was forced to just put up with her antics.
About an hour passed and it seemed like the party was starting to wind down. At that point he approached Pixel and said, "I think it's time we go."
"Oh, alright Daddy! It was nice to meet all of you! Good night, everyone!" Pixel said right before Gerhardt teleported them back to their workshop.