//------------------------------// // The Canterlot Prince // Story: A Cybernetic Life // by AxtontheMechanist //------------------------------// “Alllll aboard the Canterlot express, we leave in five minutes! I repeat, All aboard!” The conductor of the one and only Canterlot express yelled at the top of his voice, stomping his foot once in a loud and authoritative manner, before pacing up and down the station like a predator. Trixie had just boarded the train, me close behind with her luggage. I, being a robot, meant that I did not actually need luggage; I had my weapons, my disguises and my source of power all inside of me. Oh yeah, and my badass toy Mister Fluffles (which I took from Trixie, don’t tell her) is stored in my chest’s secret compartment. Don’t hate on the little guy. I had everything I needed stored within my finely made body. On the train, I couldn’t find any familiar faces, apart from the odd guard who was off duty. It wasn’t a particularly tiring task; it was just that every time I bumped into someone’s seat, they gave this irritated look, as if someone had thwacked them over the head with an equally irritating object. Like a rubber chicken. One of them even went and told me to ‘buck off’. At the time, I had no idea what this meant, so I ignored it. After what seemed like hours, I sat down on the seat finally able to relax as I closed my eyes to recharge. Only to be jabbed in the face by Trixie, who motioned for me to get up. Ok, first I lug not one, not two, but five suitcases into this train’s overhead compartment. Then, when I finally get to rest and recharge; she goes and jabs me in the face to try telling me to get my chromium ass out of my seat? Nope, not happening. You had your chance to go to the loo before this, Trixie. I was then broken out of my reverie by yet another jab from Trixie. FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, MY FACE IS NOT ONE GIANT BUTTON! I was immediately awakened by the second jab, now irritated myself. “For all that is science, please let this be important.” I muttered to myself as I turned to face Trixie, who had a small smile on her face, as if she secretly hoped for something. “Could Tri- I mean, could I speak to you in private for a moment?” She asked, as she gave me the puppy dog eyes. No. Not the puppy dog eyes. I felt my AI core slowly submit to her as I nodded against my will. How do girls do this to me?! Damn you, puppy dog eyes, you have won this one, but not the war! Ranting over, I stood from my seat and let Trixie up from hers, allowing her movement. She nodded in thanks and walked off in the direction of an empty carriage, again motioning silently with her hands to follow her. This is very strange behavior to me; as you know, Trixie tends to strut around like she either; a) Owns the place. Or, b) Knows she can beat you and or/has ultimate power over you. So naturally, I followed her to the empty cabin where she was waiting patiently. Again, weird behavior on Trixie’s part. She looked at me, before indicating a train seat opposite her. Again, following her instruction, I sat; my curiosity was the only thing that made me follow her. Then it hit me; she was here to speak about that. Oh bugger, why I hadn’t thought of anything to say was beyond me. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap! My panic must have caught on to her, as she looked at me strangely. Then, realizing that I had caught on to what she was going to speak about, she blushed as bright as beetroot, contrasting against the small amount of silvery and ice blue hair she hid behind. “Trixie wanted to ask you something very important to her... do you think Tri- I am pretty? Good looking to you, I mean.” She blushes, hiding a little shyly behind her hair. Even though I had seen this coming, I could not help being at a loss for words as I stood there, red lights in my cheeks flaring up. Why the hell would a robot need to blush? Damn you, Director, damn you and your haughty airs. Before I could stop myself, however, my mouth and AI core decided to take leave of their senses as I blurted “To be honest, I think you’re beautiful.” I then proceeded to clamp my hand over my mouth as I looked around for the exit to the cart. The only possible exit was exactly where Trixie was standing. Honestly though; she was beautiful, and I liked her a lot, I just didn’t want her... well, jumping on me as soon as I said it. I prefer there to be actual romance in a relationship, not all ‘play’ and no speak. Moreover, here I am being soppy. Again. Back to the story. Trixie looked at me, eyes wide as she suddenly danced for joy right in front of my eyes. It would have been cute if it weren't so out of character for the woman. Just as she had begun dancing, Fate decided to troll me. And by that, I mean that the train went over a very large bump on the tracks, making all the carts jolt for a few seconds. Naturally, we stumbled, trying to grasp some sort of handhold for stability. Or rather, I stumbled and stabilized myself with the pads on the underside of my feet while Trixie fell towards me. Time seemed to go in slow motion as she stumbled and fell onto me, the stabilizers I had activated turning off due to surprise, leaving her lying on top of me in a very compromising position. I swear, if I blushed any brighter, I would have resembled a red sun; blinding bright red lights came alight on my cheeks, as I noticed she was pressed very tightly against my metallic body. When she shook her head to clear her blurred vision, I found I could not move; my feet stabilizers were now stuck to the floor, seemingly in possession of a life of their own and my feet with them. Tried as much as I could to get them off, they were in lockdown and thus proved impossible until I could get my head straight and punch in the access code via my processor core. I looked back up to Trixie, who began looking deeply into my mechanical LEDs that served as my eyes, her dark grey-violet eyes meeting my blue ones. She slowly leaned in, lips puckered (almost, rather bizarrely, reminding me of a duck) as I just did what was natural, kissing her lips, metal meeting skin. I’d just like you to know that I have never kissed anything other than a test bot (and she was damn ugly); this was a completely different experience. Her lips were warm, for one and she moaned lightly as she began to kiss me more, looking to get purchase with her tongue inside my mouth. Before we could go any further, a large and sonorous cough came from the carriage door as we both froze in place, lips now apart from each other. I looked past Trixie’s shoulder to see a smirking Simon standing there, arms crossed and with a look that said ‘Is this what I think it is?’. We quickly readjusted ourselves, standing up and brushing ourselves off, while Simon continued to stand there, stifling his laughter and putting on a serious face. “Are you two done yet?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and dusting some muck of one of his golden shoulder pads. “Uh, yeah, of course” I managed to stammer, still comprehending what had happened between Trixie, a light pink glow still faint on my cheeks. Trixie simply nodded, placing her hat that had fallen onto one of the seats back onto her head. “Good” He flicked his head in the direction of the carriage behind him “Prince Blueblood and some of the other nobles have requested to see you. You coming?” His tone was slightly friendlier as he held the door open for us. We followed suit and walked through the door as Simon escorted us into the Royal Carriages. For some reason, he had his sword drawn when we approached two guards who donned purple and black armor, with a white crescent moon on their chestplates. “This is the Royal Prince Blueblood’s carriage, under the protection of the Night Royal Guard. Direct orders from Princess Luna are that no one is to enter without-“ He stopped his monotonous rule yammering as Simon put a seal of approval from both Luna and Celestia in front of his face, sword still drawn as he held the papers at eye height in front of the two impervious guardsmen. They looked at it for a moment, before nodding and stepping aside with a small ‘humph’. We stepped into the carriage, to see a few nobles sitting around a large table, chatting animatedly and sipping tea. Christ this was so stereotypical I was half expecting one of them to jump up and go ‘Tally ho, gentlemen!’. One of the nobles noticed us and nodded to Blueblood, and muttered something along the lines of ‘The metal man is here’. This prompted Blueblood to turn in his seat and smile, small greedy eyes registering my appearance. “Good to see you have arrived in this luxurious carriage of ours of ours, Mister...?” Blueblood inquired, smiling lightly. His hair was perfectly coiffed into a blonde quiff, reminding me of a slimy and disgusting version of Elvis. Not only this, but his voice reminded me of all the smarmy guards that had hit me in the back with their stun batons back on the Omega Facility. For fun. So naturally, I took a disliking to him and thus replied as so “Zero. Why did you want to speak to me?” My tone was flat and calculating, offering no warmth to the Prince. His smile disappeared as soon as it had come onto his face, his eyes narrowing “Now why would you be named after a number?” He frowned at me, looking unimpressed. I replied evenly “I do not know, Blueblood. If I do, it’s locked and classified in my memory banks, so you would not be able to know even if I wanted to. Only The Director knows the password to all my most secure memory banks.” He looked me up and down before he angrily whispered, “Know your place, robot. You will address me as Prince Blueblood, My Prince, or your highness. Got that?” He snorted, frown creased even more. “I will reply to you as I wish for there is nothing that you can do to hurt me in any physical way. Capiche?” I walked a step closer to him, dwarfing him in height. Even with his coiffed and elevated hair did he only come up to my shoulder. He quivered, before pulling out a leather glove on me, smirking like a kid who had just won an argument with his older sibling. He then proceeded to slap me across the face with the glove, once and only once. The glove flopped onto the surface with a dull ‘flup’, which made my processor core go up in a sea of laughter. Of course, this affected me too, and I roared in laughter, my bright silver teeth glinting in the light of the carriage interior. This confused Blueblood, who snarled and said “Well, scrapheap, do you accept my challenge? Will you fight my champion?” He attempted to look down his nose at me, which failed. Trixie was looking with absolute horror from Blueblood to me, then back to Blueblood, before pulling me aside. “Do you know who his Champion even is?” She whispered fearfully “He’s a fully grown minotaur, about half as tall as an average sized house! He’ll crush you, please, just forget it!” I looked at her and shook my head and replied “Trixie, I always have an ace up my metaphorical sleeve. Let’s just say the fight will be ‘quick’” I grinned, kissing her lightly, before turning to Blueblood. “Alright Prince Weed, I accept” I made a mock bow, jibing him just a little as the other nobles looked on in wonder at me. What can I say? People just love me. He made a ‘Harrumph’ before he decided to walk off to the other side of the carriage. He plonked himself down, pouting like a three-year-old child who had been denied his toy. I turned to Simon and Trixie, who simply shook their heads, smiling a little as if to say ‘Brave, foolish and ever hilarious’. I nodded to them, and winked at Trixie as the train came to a halt and the conductor on the platform called “Welcome to Canterlot, Ladies and Gentlemen! Please exit the train in an orderly fashion!”