The vehicle bumped and bounced a bit on the rocky road leading to Calicut. The surrounding environnement was similar to a cross between great plains and an arid desert which, by consequence, created a painful heat and bright sun. Luckily for the travelers, neurobots did not feel heat, and the sun provided the play group with much needed light to play their game.
"And I got States Avenue, giving me a full monopoly on the violet squares," Sour smiled wickedly.
"Ugh. I hate Monopoly. I never win," Louis whined as he smacked his head on the bed, "So...none of you really introduced yourselves."
"What do you mean?" Redmint asked.
"Well, you told me your names and why you're doing all of this, but you never explained to me what your back stories were."
"Like?"
"Well, I told you mine. I told you why I'm a pegasus mare and what I'm doing, but that's it."
"Then what were you doing before all of this?" Raspberry asked while smoking a fake pipe and rolling through her fake money with a forehoof.
"I was a student studying for robotics because I wanted to work for Roborganics. That's pretty much it."
"Really. Awwww. I am disappoint."
"Wha--"
Before Louis could ask, Raspberry interrupted him by recounting everything she had been doing before being trapped in her new body.
"I was a toy maker. I tested toys in my office as a living and said if they were good or not. Like you can tell, it was a very stress-free working environnement. Did you know that kids love building blocks and army toys? It helps with their destructive tendencies and imagination. Ahahaha! I didn't believe it when I heard it. I thought they preferred to just create. I mean, building blocks of 'life', am I right?"
Raspberry just continued chatting like this without end. Louis just stared at her with his mouth agape. How was she capable of talking for so long on ONE subject?! It was mind boggling. Redmint leaned towards the robo-mare and said:
"She's not going to stop anytime soon. You want to hear of our back story while we wait?"
"But shouldn't we wait until--"
"No. No. You wait and we'll be telling our tale in a week."
Louis looked back to the talking mare and a look of despair crossed along his face. She was talking about a moment in her childhood that involved a stick, a wild boar, and...coffee?
"Okay. Go ahead."
"Well, I was an average man with a rather average job. I heard about the neurobots and wanted one, so I saved up as much as I could and bought one. Starburst here was my quadriplegic sister. I wanted to use mine so much, but I wanted her to feel what it was like to be able to move. She had a neural disease early in her life that destroyed the neural pathways in her spine. It's already a miracle she was alive for so long with those problems. You should've seen her when she was able to move again. Anyways, I entered a contest soon afterwards and won a new neurobot. Then, well, things happened and here we are."
"I thought you two were lovers."
"Ew. No. What's wrong with you?"
"I just assumed that. I mean, that's what Licorice said..."
Redmint just pouted and looked away from the mare. Starburst just remained in her spot on the bed and just looked at Louis with an expression of...actually, she had no expression. She just seemed to stare at the pegasus without any reason, and it was creeping Louis out. He started to move from side to side, hoping she was actually looking past him, but the silent mare just followed the neuropony intently. She seemed to be exactly like a cat. I, fact, the man seemed to be having more and more fun moving about very quickly to watch her follow him like a homing missile.
"Louis, stop that," Licorice scolded.
"Stop what?"
"You think I can't see you?"
Licorice gestured to the rear-view mirror above him. He was glaring.
"Oh. It seems we're running low on gas."
"I thought you filled the tank." Redmint said.
"I thought so too. Hey, is Raspberry still talking?"
"-so I thought it would be great to get a cat, but my mother--"
"Yup," Louis tiredly answered.
Once he saw that Redmint returned to occupying Starburst, Licorice gestured to Louis to get closer. Hesitantly, the neuropony slowly slid off the bed and crawled carefully to the front of the mobile home.
"Don't trust everything that Redmint says. He lies and changes his back story as many times as his heart beats. He isn't bad, but we don't know what or who he is and if Starburst is actually alive like us."
"He did say she was quadriplegic nearly her whole life. Maybe she still thinks she's paralyzed?"
"No. She's done plenty of work when we needed some help and hasn't shown signs of 'regressed paralysis', if that's a term that can be used and makes sense." Licorice shrugged.
"Hey, look. A gas station," Raspberry suddenly said.
The energetic mare had just broken out of her dialogue trans and scared Redmint. While the road they were on was rather empty, the gas station nearby was the type to welcome very few customers but still somehow stay in business. Louis always wondered how they were capable of such things.
"I'd watch out if I were you. In movies, this kind of place always leads to something weird happening," Raspberry said.
She was draped in window curtains and was motioning her hoof as if to imitate the 'wavy fingers' motion. Licorice just shook his head in frustration. Just a few short seconds later, the mobile home parked in front of one of the gas pumps and let its engine quietly purr into a sleep. Licorice got off of his uncomfortable make-shift driver's seat and stretched painfully.
"I hate driving like that. At least I get to lie down while doing it."
"Did you even think on how we're going to explain our...current predicament" Louis gestured to his whole body, "to the station owner?"
"Yes. I did," Licorice answered with certainty and a certain bravado.
"Oh yeah? Let me guess...you know this guy or gal?"
"No. That sounds awfully cliché."
Licorice lowered the window of the driver's seat and called out to a person sleeping on a plastic chair near the store entrance. The person reacted and got up, immediately arousing suspicion in Licorice and Louis...and excitement in Raspberry.
This man was of a rather...'large' build, if only by his beer belly. He wore blue overalls and no shirt underneath. He was balding and had poorly kempt brown hair on the sides of his head. Walking towards the vehicle, the man took a bit of chewing tobacco out of his pocket and chomped into it, shoving the remainder back from whence it came. As he came closer, it was revealed that he seemed to also have a lazy right eye. His chewing of the tobacco in front of Licorice and apparent disregard for body maintenance, coupled with his look of suspicion and all around unfriendliness gave the atmosphere a meek feeling.
"Yeeeessss...I was wondering if you could...um...help us fill the vehicle? We don't really have hands to do it..." Licorice said while Raspberry bounced eagerly in the back to say hello with a waving hoof.
She was annoying Louis who was trying to get her to stop.
"Ah don't know if ah wants ta help some shady folks like yous," the man spat some tobaccy on the floor as he spoke.
"Wha...You're infinitely shadier than we are!"
"Yet ah'm a human. How'd ah know y'all ain't just tryin' to keep yer idzntites a secret wif 'em fancy robot things?"
"What? How would that even work? We don't have hands or fingers. See?" Licorice said as he showed his hooves over the window hold.
The man seemed to squint even more, as if showing some sort of distaste for the neuroponies. He then suddenly burst into laughter and looked back at Licorice with a smiling face.
"I was just messing with you is all. Ah ha. Haven't gotten to laugh like that in awhile. Don't get many folk around here, so I like to leave a lasting impression. I'll fill your tank up, no problem. Ah, provided you have the money," the man said with a lifted eyebrow.
"I have...How much for a full tank?"
"Well, I would say it would probably cost about fifty bills."
"I have that."
"Then I'll fill 'er up. Diesel?"
"Yes."
As the bizarre character took the pump out and plugged the nozzle into the gas receiver, he asked:
"So...why are you neuroponies?"
"You...You know about them?"
"Just 'cause I live in the middle of nowhere don't mean I'm not with the times."
"Well...we're kind of stuck like this. We're becoming...organic..." Licorice trailed off.
"Really? Now that I didn't hear."
"Oh good. Then it was only in our city," Louis whispered to Raspberry.
"Yeah. We were going to the next city because ours was having...erm, some trouble," Licorice explained.
"The city...Calicut? You'll have to be careful, then. The road is rather damaged. Erosion and whatnot."
"That kinda sets things back quite a bit."
"So, tell me. Are you okay with this 'transformation' thing?"
"Yes. We've all learned to accept it."
"I didn't--"
"It's awesome! All the things we'll get to do as ponies! A new way of life! A new lifestyle?" Raspberry gasped, "Maybe even a new finally with tiny ponies and little hoofsies!"
"I DIDN'T WANT IT! I'm trying to figure out how to find a cure and get back to my old body."
The man lift an eyebrow.
"I see. Well, I can get you food and water, if you need them."
"No. We don't eat...yet."
"Okay then."
After a few minutes, Louis and Raspberry returned to their game of Monopoly, with the energetic mare slapping Redmint across the face for stealing some cash from her. Sneaky sneaky. Licorice payed the kind man and drove off, with the apparent owner of the station waving goodbye. Once they were far enough, the station owner wiped his forehead and chuckled to himself as he shook his head and walked towards a telephone attached to the station's wall. He took a key out, placed it in the apparatus, then began to type a number, eager to tell to whomever what was on his mind.
"Yeah? Hey Jame. Guess what. I think the great evolution has started. No. It wasn't rats or dolphins or Jim Carrey. It was the neurobot thingies. Yeah. No. The new series. I couldn't believe it either. They're going to Calicut. Yeah. It'll take them at least a day and a half of constant driving. Three, if they stopped for food 'n whatnot. No. They looked gruesome. Machines with organic materials expanding upon their metallic surface. The great steps to a higher existence are starting! Thank mother nature!"