"Oh man. I just can't do it. It's been days! Why can't I decide on whether to use the body or not? It shouldn't be that hard! It's just machinery and gears. Just because they were made to look like a male or female doesn't mean they are a male or female. Grrr. I MUST try it...Mmmm."Louis just couldn't contain his changing facial expressions as he stayed in deep thought.
Everywhere he'd go, the student would see people with their old models continuously going about their business and performing their usual tasks. The streets surrounded by the enormous buildings of the city weren't helping, and Louis felt like the whole world was staring at him when nobody actually cared, but the inner-conflict he was having was more than a simple solitary turmoil. He had to decide soon, or he would explode.
Hands in his pockets, the man walked down the street, a face of concern and stress masked his usual calm and pensive demeanor. That is, until he heard a bizarre voice. It was rather young, but it hinted at an older age, and it was coming from below.
"Hey, you okay?"
Looking down, Louis took a sudden gander at what was in front of him. It was a neuropony, and a unicorn at that! Its mane was frozen upwards and downwards to make a weird, gothic-like appearance with two long films pointing downwards along the face and the rest to point upwards and gradually bend back along the neck. Its eyes had a reddish tint to them, and they seemed to be covered by a protective lens as well, adding to their shininess. Like Louis' own, this one seemed devoid of much coloration besides a turquoise coloring on the joint pads. Many people who walked by would snicker or add a comment in whisper to their friends, but this person didn't seem to even be aware of the surrounding world.
"N-no. I..."
"You got a neuropony and you hesitate to use it? I know how that feels."
"No! It's not that...I asked my mother to help me order my own custom model, but..."
"But?"
"She kinda...messed up the...gender."
"SHE WHAT?! SPEAK UP, MAN! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" the neuropony yelled as he put a hoof to his false ears.
"Not so loud! She messed up the gender I wanted for it."
"Haha! So? That shouldn't stop you. It's only a neurobot, much less one with an actual gender. If you get past the obvious personal modesty problems, you'll find that these things are awesome."
"You think so?" Louis answered as he rubbed his shoulder in uncertainty.
"I know so! Hey, you see those five over there? You see that fountain?"
The neuropony pointed towards a group of five teens standing next to the entrance of a large mall. They were right next to said mall's giant, stone fountain. They were clearly mocking the unicorn.
"Watch this."
The student watched carefully as the neuropony stuck his fake, mechanical tongue out and pointed its horn towards the group. They were oblivious to what he was doing, but they were still laughing at the bot. However, with deep concentration, they began to yell as they were gently lifted several feet off the ground and tossed into the freezing waters of the fountain. The neuropony just laughed at the reaction, his mechanical voice box impeding the laughter in just a slight tone.
"Well, they'll be coming after me now. You do whatever it is you want with that custom neuropony. Just remember that it's just metal and wiring and some other...bits and bobbles...I don't know. See ya!"
The unicorn ran off into the streets whilst the teens began swearing and yelling as they hoisted themselves out of the fountain. Louis gave himself a silent chuckle, then started to think. His home wasn't far from where he was standing, and that was his destination anyways.
"It's decided. I'm transferring into that neuropony and seeing how it works." the student thought to himself.
Louis put his fist in his palm and ran to his house. His mother was currently out looking for some parts for their car, so he would have the whole house, however small it was, to himself. The second he arrived at his house, the student locked the door and ran to his room. He swiped the remain of the previous neurobot off the table and painfully hoisted the heavy neuropony onto it. He then plugged the connection cable into its head by lifting a plate on the back of the neck. With a click, the man opened the door to his capsule, letting the door slide open while mist bellowed from within. The student cracked his neck and climbed within the tight confines and sat on the tilted seat. He placed the neural-transfer helmet on his head and shut the door. He waited patiently for the prompt but heard a voice instead:
"We see that you are new to the neuropony models. Would you like to see the tutorial on how to use the pegasus model?" a robotic female's voice said in freezing tones.
"Sure. Why not."
A small screen folded down from above and turned on right in front of Louis' face. It was showing a variety of freeze-frame pictures and drawings. Instructions on how to walk and how to feel extra appendages, amongst others, were placed in these instructions. It took around fifteen minutes to fully explain the abilities these things possessed and the way to move as quadrupeds. Finally, Louis felt his mind get sucked away into a tight abyss and suddenly, darkness. It was like this every time during a transfer. It's a feeling similar to death, but Louis and many, many others did not mind this. It would scare the unprepared, however. This is why the users detected as being first users would be strapped onto the tables as they exited their 'panic mode'.
Finally, Louis' thoughts returned to him slowly but steadily. He opened his new eyes to see the world from his new perspective. Unsurprisingly, these bionic eyes were perfectly adapted to sight and allowed him to see even better than before with his real eyes. These were clearly upgraded variants from their predecessors. The boy even felt lighter than before...even though it was a bit smaller than previous default models. The legs felt splendidly slim, but it also felt very wrong. After all, this was a female body, and for a man, that felt wrong. Louis had already told himself he would go through the thought no matter what, but he still couldn't get used to this new...shape just yet.
"Oooo. Feeling...uncomfortable...and that's my new voice..." he frowned with an ear droop. "Okay then. Let's see. One foot forw-And I'm falling."
A loud crash resonated through the house, frightening birds from the trees nearby.
"Gonna try that again. It's somewhat good that they put the sensory detectors only at places needed, like the base of the hooves, otherwise that would've really hurt. Alright, let's try again."
Many times Louis' legs wobbled and he stumbled onto the ground before the rotary gears kicked in to ease up his movements. These rotary gears usually were only implemented to serve as temporary replacements were broken primary gears, but sometimes they would automatically kick in as "training wheels". The student was somewhat insulted as he knew full well what these were. Atleast they helped him walk but readjusting his leg positions.
"Well...let's go outside for a walk..." he bowed his head in shame and embarrassment.
After somehow locking the door with his teeth and hiding the keys under some rocks in the nearby shrubbery, the neuropony did as intended and went on for a stroll. Louis was embarrassed to the highest degree. Fortunately, the neurobots could not blush, but they could still show facial expressions.
"Aw. How cute. Look at it. It's a little walking toy." a women mocked.
"Toy?"
"I know, right? I mean, what kind of idiot would have released ponies as a neurobot? I know Roborganics is the creator of all of this, but I think they're slipping. What can measly pony models do?"another said.
"I bet that pony thing is actually some man baby trying to live his childhood dreams of being a horse."
"Hahahahaha!"
These sort of comments were stretched all the way to the city, where Louis finally blew his top. He couldn't deal with this anymore. It was too much. He had to take care of these judgmental pricks the best way he can; By showing off the neuropony's abilities. It the videos on the net were anything to come by, then he was certain he catch them all in awe.
"Alright! I've had it! You think these neurobots suck? You think they're terrible? Yet none of you even bothered to test them! Roborganics has helped us all out since it was created. Now, I don't know where they are now, and I don't rightly care, but I'll show you that when they make something and send it out, it's for a reason!" he shouted.
Thinking hard, Louis found the wings on his back and unfolded them. They stretched open like shining aluminum tubes and stretched widely to give off the illusion of blades protruding at regular, increasing lengths. He could already hear those whose attention he garnered to be commenting on the impossibility of such a heavy thing flying even with the 'air compression' system. Such a thing would require immense quantities of air, but the second the student flapped his wings, he was already several hundred feet in the air and still rising!
"W-woah! How do I steer this thing?! What if I tried to do like this..."
He tried to put a hoof forward like Superman, but this only made him drill forwards at incredible speeds.
"GaHaHahaHAHA! It's a good thing I don't have a stomach or the crowd below would have to use umbrellas. What if I put my legs out like this."
Trying to take better control, the neuropony thrust both forelegs forward. This made it much easier for Louis to control 'her', although he couldn't do it completely. In fact, he was merely trying his best to avoid everything appearing in front of him. He would fly towards buildings and sharp-turn around them, then he would perform deadly slaloming through the crowd and assorted streets objects. This continued for around half an hour before the student finally managing to land, but not without sliding a bit on the concrete and falling on his head.
A bit disconcerted at how the event portrayed itself, he got back up and looked upwards with worry at the whole crowd staring down at him. He was expecting laughter, but, instead, he heard cheering. The neuropony's false ears perked up and the sadness made way for a happy confusion. Many helped him up, and then he started to get questions like:
"That was amazing! How did you pull that off?"
"The pegasus models are really capable of such feats?! What else can they do?"
"What can unicorns do if the pegasuses are that amazingly fast?"
"It's pronounced 'pegasi'."
"Whatever."
These questions were constantly met by 'um's and 'er's as they kept coming too fast. Luckily, other neuropony users were nearby and watched the whole scene. It was a couple of earth ponies and unicorns. One of the bigger ones, an earth pony, said:
"If you want to know what it's like to use one of these neuroponies and want to see what the other two models do, follow us."
The whole crowd did so, increasingly interested in the feats performed by one machine. Surprised by what he did, Louis was certain that he probably saved his favorite company, but the influence of a single person is not enough to change someone's destiny. Happy but also sad, the student walked home at increasing speeds. One hoof in front of the other. That's how it worked. Once back home, he felt a strange tingling in the robopony, but brushed it off as a possible error. He would check it later after he dug out the key.
Even though he wanted to be alone, his mother had gotten back from wherever it was that she went, and nearly screamed when she saw the neuropony come in.
"Gah! Who are you?!"
"Mom, it's me! Louis!"
"O...oh..." she started to gasp as she leaned against a shelf."You tried the new bot?"
"Yeah. It's awesome, and I think people are starting to like it."
"I do hope so. Now please get back in your REAL body before I have a nervous breakdown. I can't deal with seeing this thing in front of me talking with a girly voice."
"Okay, okay."
Obeying his pleading mother's needs, Louis went back into his old body. He felt invigorated as well. To provent atrophy of the muscles, stimulants were frequently applied to bodies in the capsules. Many would be basic, harmless muscle stimulants whilst others would be vibrating cuffs that would wrap around the arms and legs. Uncertain of the effects, Louis went online to see if anything had changed? It may have only been a few minutes, but you never know. And, indeed. Nothing had changed, so Louis set about studying for his future tests. The next morning he saw on his monitor that he and many others had been filmed performing the extraordinary feats offered by the neuroponies. It was so exciting to see himself portrayed like this that he felt all giddy. He was going to use this bot for many fun things. All through the days he could see an impressive change in neuropony sales and so forth. Did it really just take the outburst of a single person to break the chains and drag everyone else out? Whatever the case, more and more people were using the bodies. In fact, new models, that were fully painted, were flown in. These ranged from default models of foals, to teenagers, to young adults, and older. Perhaps to have everyone feel comfortable? Whatever the case, it was a great feel, although something didn't feel right.
Every day the itching felt more powerful, and no matter what he did, Louis couldn't find the source in the suit. It wasn't a malfunction, so what was it? Perhaps because his model was an early version? Nevertheless, three weeks passed and the neuropony 'fad' had become common place around the world. In fact, Merripol and many other of the select few cities were considered the 'Birth place' of neuroponies, and those with the early models were somewhat praised as showing the courage to stand up for what they liked.
One day, Louis couldn't stop scratching his right foreleg and the left part of his face was hurting intensely. He decided to shorten his flight training and hurried back to his house, flying through his bedroom window as he did so. The young adult moaned in pain as he, for some bizarre reason, walked towards the only mirror in his room. He couldn't see right, and he did notice that there was some strange red moss that had a tendency to grow on the metals. Using antifungal cream didn't work, but carving it off did. However, it would grow back the next day.
"My face hurts. Why? The model is defective? I'll have to...send it for repairs...if I could stop swaying from side to side!"
Louis put his fore-hooves on the counter of his furniture then looked up, wiping his bionic eyes in hopes that the sight would restore itself.
"Ah. Finally. It's restoring itself...Wh-wh-what?!"
Looking at his hooves and face, the neuropony saw that the left eye and the left portion of his face had begun to change...they were becoming...organic? Even his leg!
"Wh-what is this? What's going on? Ow! My eye! My..."
The eye that Louis had poked suddenly began watering and stinging in pain. It was a real eyeball. It was no laughing matter that day, when Louis yelled at the top of his synthetic lungs. Something was happening, and it was happening around the entire world.