//------------------------------// // But // Story: Digital Effigy // by Starscribe //------------------------------// What was it like to live as an intelligent machine? Never a question that Sweetie Belle had ever thought to answer—or anypony else she knew of, for that matter. It wasn't even a question she could've known existed until the moment she woke up as one. How could a machine be alive? That was the question that troubled Apple Bloom. Once introduced to the idea, it became a hostile pattern in her mind and troubled her as well. She asked Lucid Storm during his next visit only a few days later. He came with another cart full of equipment, and a long list of things to check and changes to make. "Amazing news!" he exclaimed, when he had finally finished with his annoying checklist. "We got our first sponsor! There's an older gentlecolt out of Canterlot, one with some concerns about legacy in mind—he connected me with some banker friends of his, and next thing I knew—well, it's all very complicated, but good news! The best news!" Sweetie hadn't known this thestral long, technically speaking. By some metrics, he was the first pony she had ever met, present at the very instant of her birth. They had one thing in common—once he got fixated on something, he would focus on it at the intense exclusion of all others. That probably made him a good engineer, but it didn't make him good at helping others understand. Her room was different now, transformed over the few weeks since she arrived. Her bed had been shoved into a corner, made into a storage shelf. She had only tried to use it twice, both times unsuccessfully. That meant there was more room to walk around, which was good since she could only leave it for short periods at a time. Thus was life when your batteries only lasted a half hour. "Right, sorry. I forget that you're... quite young." He dropped to one knee, so he was at eye-level. "I'm going to tell you like a grown-up, miss. You had your cutie mark, so I'm assuming you're able to understand. Is that okay?" She nodded. "Better than lying to me. Doctors spent months telling me how everything would be all better... but they knew it wouldn't. They'd rather lie than tell me the truth." He looked away, unable to meet her eyes at first. Most adults had done that when she was dying, and they still did it now whenever her past came up. "When you were an ordinary pony, everything was natural for you. Living creatures have something called homeostasis—it means that your body can regulate its own growth. But you aren't a pony like that anymore." Sweetie nodded slowly. "My friends are older than me now—bigger. I bet by next year they'll have some special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day. I didn't grow up." "Right." He straightened, then tucked the tablet away. "Part of that is your biggest advantage—but it is also a vulnerability. Your body cannot heal itself—that technology is out of reach." "I know!" Sweetie exclaimed, bouncing past him to the desk. "I've been extra-careful since the last time! I won't let anything break!" Lucid sighed. "I'm afraid it isn't that simple. Being alive wears you down. Caution keeps that process at a reasonable pace, but it can't be stopped." Maybe he could see the way her expression sagged, because he stretched one wing briefly over her shoulder, grinning eagerly. "But there's no need to worry! The partnership I just secured means that there will soon be many ponies working to improve and innovate on the technology used to make you." He hurried back over to the tablet, flipping through it for her. "You were a prototype, Sweetie—the first of your kind. But the next generation of artificial pony will solve many of the issues with yours. Future ponies won't be tied to physically limited power supplies, or vulnerable to moisture and dust. In time, they will probably exceed the endurance of earth ponies, or the flight of the fastest pegasi. Their growth is unbounded!" With each line, Sweetie sunk lower and lower into her slouched position, touched against the bed. Her ears folded backwards, and her tail would've too, if it could do anything more than slightly change angle. "So I'm... obsolete," she finally said. "I'm gonna run down and break forever, and—" "No!" He nudged her chin with one wing. "Sweetie Belle, why would you think that? You're not a body, you're the mind living in it." He turned back to his toolbox, shuffling around inside it for a moment. Eventually he found what he was looking for, and he settled it onto her desk in front of her. It was a glass sphere, about the size of a hoof. It wasn't a single mass, but laced with many thin wires, and countless little imperfections and grooves. A few little green wafers bisected it down the center, with connectors on either side. "This here—this is you. The genius of Moss Flower. Obviously not this one exactly, there's... another one in your chest. So long as it survives, so do you. It will take a little time—but time is the one thing you have in abundance. When our technology improves, we can transfer you safely into the superior replacement. It will only take minutes. "Which is... why I mention this at all." He took a stylus in his mouth, then tucked it behind one oversized bat-ear. "What have you noticed needs the most improvement? What kind of changes would you make, if you had the choice? There's no better pony to ask." "I..." Where could she even begin about a question like that? Ponies didn't usually get to just choose how they would grow up. But most ponies didn't need engineers to make their bodies work properly, either. "I just..." She tried to levitate the group photo from her desk. As usual, nothing happened. "Can I have my magic back? I was never very good at it—but you don't know how much you relied on something until it's gone." She pawed at her horn with one hoof. The shape wasn't even a very good match. She'd take a longer or shorter horn if it actually worked. Lucid winced, along with a high-pitched, anxious sound Sweetie could now just barely hear. She was fairly certain that other ponies couldn't, from the way her sister never reacted to it. Even her ears didn't work quite the same anymore. "Anything else? That may be some years away, unfortunately. Magic is mechanically complex. Are there any other enhancements you would make?" "I... older. Definitely. A little older than my friends, that way it can work for a long time. And make sure you make room for my soul in the next design. I dunno where that goes—but it's important." While she spoke, he scribbled onto the surface of his tablet. Until she said that last part, and he spat it out. "The... that's, uh... that's been there since the first prototype." He nodded towards the crystal device on her desk. "We can talk about that when you're older." She flicked it with one of her hooves, making the crystal slide across her desk. She caught it with her other hoof, then sighed. "If you already have my soul in there, could you... maybe make the batteries better? I want to be out there with my friends—but I can't even go to Cheerilee's class anymore. As soon as I walk there, I have to turn around and come back." "We have been discussing that," said another voice, speaking from her doorway. Sweetie looked up to find Rarity standing there, watching. There was no telling exactly how long she'd been there. Maybe she listened to everything they said. "With Miss Cheerilee, and some others. I know a summer trapped indoors may be awful for you—but by the time the next year arrives, arrangements will be made. Power arrangements, that is, at those places you visit most often. The schoolhouse, the homes of your two good friends, and Twilight's castle to start. You won't be trapped here forever." Sweetie hurried over to her, fast enough that the charging cable pulled tight where it connected to her back leg, then clicked out. "Really? I get to..." She sniffed, but the gesture was only a reflex. She could not cry anymore, from happiness or sadness. "When? Can I go right now?" Rarity pried her off, incredibly gentle. "Not quite yet. But soon. How soon depends on Mr. Storm here. No doubt he's hard at work." The thestral tucked his tablet back into the toolbag, then slung it over his shoulder. "Full time as of today. We're making the future, starting with one life. I'll be back next week for your next check-up!" And just like that, he was gone. He had left so quickly that he left the little crystal brain behind, sitting on her desk. Rarity didn't seem to notice it either. Sweetie did—she couldn't look at it without thinking about how there was something just like that inside her somewhere. It was her, in whatever strange way life worked for creatures like her. When her sister left again, she tucked the little brain-machine away in a box of her other old things, wrapped in a layer of protective cloth. She had to protect it, if only as a constant reminder of what she really was.