Taking advantage of the momentary quiet, Wheatley took the time to take in his new surroundings. It was quite the contrast between his old home, concrete and steel replaced with plenty of nature, alongside proper civilization. Sure, he had seen all the vines and greenery that had overtaken the facility, but seeing it all in full sunlight was a vastly different experience.
It wasn’t until the ponies reached the dirt paths leading back to town that Wheatley finally noticed the green lizard sitting on Hitch’s back. The lizard turned its large eyes at him, letting out a coo or two as it waved. The fantasy stories of little beasts that would tear machines apart came to his mind as the core’s handles flexed and let out a yelp. “Gah, there is a gremlin on your back!”
His new friends gave him odd looks as Hitch shook his head. “What? No, this is Sparky. He’s harmless. Mostly. He can be quite the hooffull, though. Isn’t that right, little Sparkyroony?” He gave the dragon a tickle to its belly causing Sparky to giggle.
Sunny looked back at Wheatley with a chuckle. “Have you ever seen a dragon before where you came from?”
Wheatley's memory cycled through the few files about the biological science labs, much of the wordy science papers going over his head. A few images of lizards did pop up, along with rats with odd spots. “No, not really. Aperture had some lizard and rat experiments. Not sure most resulted in much.”
Izzy was the first to respond as she scrunched her muzzle.“Animal testing? That doesn’t sound nice at all.”
“I’d never test my makeup products on little critters. I’ve seen the articles to know better.” Pipp joined in while Hitch winced and gave Sparky a head pat.
Wheatley’s handles twitched as he peered at each of the ponies with confusion. “But, aren’t you all animals?” Almost all at once, the group glared at him in unison, a pregnant pause in the air as Sunny snorted. Wheatley even thought he heard a trumpet go off rather comically. After a few seconds, the core twitched. “What? It’s true, isn’t it?” He asked, obviously to the many raised eyebrows.
The silence lasted until the ponies entered Maretime Bay fully, with eyes already falling upon the orb upon Izzy’s back. Izzy quickly spotted Posey along their trek and waved towards her. “Hey Posey, look at what I found!”
Posey moved over to them, squinting as she took a look at Wheatley. “What is this thing? Some sort of fancy Pegasus camera?
Wheatley felt confused with the new horse right up against his optic, almost able to see up her nose. After a moment, he spoke. “Uh, hello.”
“Gah, it talks,” Posey said, jumping back as she gasped. “Where did you find this thing?”
Izzy moved up next to Posey, ensuring not to knock Wheatley off her back as she put a hoof around the mare’s shoulder. “From Outer Space! Space, Space!” she chimed in her usual chirpy way.
“What? What’s that supposed to mean? There’s nothing up there. Just the moon.” Posey retorted, ears flickering.
“Oh, the moon? Yeah, I was orbiting it. Yup, long, long time.” Wheatley replied, getting a few odd looks from the group around him.
“Wait, you were circling the moon?” Zipp asked, flabbergasted. “Wow, Izzy, how far did your magic reach?”
Izzy rubbed her neck as she looked side to side. “I don’t know. I just had this feeling he was up there. Am I stronger than I thought? Oooh!”
Sunny tapped her chin for a moment before she replied. “Maybe something amplified your magic? Similar to how the harmony crystals influence cutie mark magic.” She paused as her friends all looked at her with curiosity. “It’s just a guess. Well, and the story of when Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon.”
Pipp’s head tilted as she tried to comprehend the magic jargon. “So she became a giant magic magnet or something?”
“Wow, I became a magnet? Cool! Wonder what else I can do.” Izzy said with a light bounce, Wheatley adjusting himself as he listened.
“Well, there was that one time you took down a tree with your horn in about ten seconds,” Hitch added, Posey walking away with a huff.
“She did what?!” Wheatley asked, his optics going wide for a moment. It would seem this new world was already full of surprises.
“What? We needed a bridge,” Izzy replied with confidence as if such a thing was normal. The group continued down the street as the citizens glanced at the newcomer.
As the calm resettled, Zipp glanced back at Wheatley with a raised eyebrow. “So, why were you around the moon in the first place?”
“Well, um…” Before he could reply further, the few errors he ignored for a time were now flaring up, causing flashing messages across his vision. Moments later, his optic fell upon the sight of the Bright House with the beam of rainbow light ribboning into the sky. Colours continued to flicker across his vision, reminding him of the magic tunnel he had passed through to get here. New information flashed before his optics, causing his servos to twitch erratically.
Foreign power source detected!…
Adaptive core initializing!...
New protocols online!...
The poor core was at a loss for what all the new data he was finding out meant. With being plugged into the Aperture Science mainframe, it would be hard to tell what upgrades might have gotten installed into his core. His frame felt all tingly, feeling more charged than he had while plugged into a management rail. A quick check of his diagnostics soon revealed his battery was full. Given how efficient Aperture devices were, he hardly paid his low power much mind for all those years.
It took him a second to realize that he must have been offline for longer than he thought, finding himself in a new location with what seemed like a kitchen ahead while he sat on one of the counters. Coming back online fully, he noticed the blue-haired pony from before pulling away from him with surprise, a rag floating idly beside her. Before he could ask more, Izzy called out to her friend. “Zipp, I think he’s rebooted or whatever.”
Wheatley shifted his gears as he heard more hoof steps approaching the counter. “What? Uhm, no, I’m fine. I think?” he wasn’t sure how they’d be able to help. They were not trained scientists or engineers, as far as he knew. Maybe they would surprise him.
Zipp and Pipp came into view soon enough, with the purple one tapping on her rectangular device. “Finally. And here I thought my phone’s updates were slow.” PIpp quipped as she took another photo of the new robot, seeming impressed by something.
Zipp rolled her eyes, cracking a smile as she double-checked the nearby clock while replying. “It has only been eight minutes.”
“Yeah, like I said, forever,” Pipp said as she looked at Izzy. “Great work on the polish, Izzy. Those scorch marks were so unflattering.”
“Polish?” Wheatley asked while Izzy held a mirror for him to see his reflection. He first noticed that his usual white paint job seemed more vibrant, resembling a core fresh off the assembly line. He also had some new lines of blue paint around his front panel, accenting his glowing eye. “Huh, look at me? It’s like I’m fresh out of the box.”
Izzy rubbed her hoof on her chest as she smirked proudly. “What can I say? I was inspired. Plus, I thought you could use something after I pulled you down. I'm glad you like it. Hope you are okay.”
As Weatley nodded, the group gathered around, with Zipp seeming determined to get to the bottom of how he got to Equestria. “So, what happened to make you go all loading screen on us?” She asked, giving a few taps to Wheatley’s spherical head.
Wheatley spent a few seconds combing through the new code within his core, attempting to make sense of things beyond the limits of his programming. Parts of the mainframe database still lingered inside, allowing him to parse some of it together. “Well, I spotted this weird light show from this tower down the street, and then I suddenly started to glitch.” He looked to either side of him before he added, “Where are we anyway?”
Sunny waved before gesturing her hoof about the open space. “This is my house. We call it the bright house. The light must have been the unity crystals. They do make quite the spectacle.” Stepping closer, she leaned in to look at Wheatley closer. “Are you saying you might have a connection to magic?”
Zipp raised an eyebrow while also rubbing her chin in thought. “How? He’s not even from here. Think that’s why Izzy could pull him down?”
Wheatley glanced toward the unicorn and replied with a verbal equivalent of a shrug. “I’ll be honest with you. The sciencey parts of my core are just itching to scream that magic isn’t real. But well? I can’t deny the evidence, can I?” He paused for a second before he added. “I did see something about an adaptive core. Oh, I feel fully charged without being plugged in. I heard of wireless charging, but I thought that was just science fiction.”
“Wait, so despite wherever you came from having no magic? Your inner workings just adapted to use it?” Zipp asked as she made notes on her phone.
“Oh! That reminds me of some of my dad’s notes about artifacts. Something about changing the user or environment to suit its function.”
Wheatley thought about it, combing over the new code before slowly nodding. “It would seem so. On the bright side, I don’t have to worry about plugging in.” A few seconds passed as the group thought to themselves, leaving the core to finally slow down and wonder about something important, feeling a little odd without any directives. It wasn’t like he wanted to go back to Aperture. Not wanting to face the music, even if he had any clue of how to return. “So, what do I do now?”
Pipp snapped another photo before she replied. “I know that feeling, trust me. Sometimes I finish making a new song, and then I'm unsure what to do for my Pipsqueaks next.”
“Or are you gripped with indecision, having too many things you could do? So you don’t know what to do first.” Izzy added as she looked at the others before glancing back at the core a sudden thought came to her mind. “Wait, you said you tested things right? How did you do that without a body?
Wheatley shifted his motors as he thought about the testing robots in Aperture, feeling jealous about those sleek white bodies. “Well, I’m usually plugging into a management rail and can activate panels and other things in a network. I mean I once had something like a body but, uh,” He glanced at Zipp. “Long story.”
Izzy beamed, rubbing her hooves together with glee. “Oh, then we just need to get you a body.” Her face fell for a second, tapping her chin instead. “Uh, how do we do that? We built the Marestream. How hard could a robot be?”
“What do you think, Zipp? Got any ideas?” Sunny asked, knowing her friend’s intelligence and tech-savvy nature.
Zipp tapped her hoof on the floor, glancing at the clock occasionally as she thought it over. “Let me see.” There was silence for only a minute before Zipp beamed. “Oh, I got it, and we still have time if we hurry. I know just the pony who can help.”
“Oh really?” Wheatley asked, imagining what having independent arms would be like. At the very least, it would let him explore better.
'`Alright, everypony to the Marestream!’ Zipp declared, Izzy being quick to scoop Wheatley up onto her back before the group hurried outside. It would seem this robot’s adventure had just begun.