It was a calm night, like any other night before it. Stars dotted the sky, a full moon revealed the landscape in its dim light, and as far as the Apple family was concerned, everypony was fast asleep.
That is, until pans started banging.
The noise of pans clanging together outside jolted Applejack awake and she quickly sat up in her bed. Only a moment later, Apple Bloom came walking into Applejack’s room, just as confused and trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
“What in the hay…?” Applejack idly muttered to herself.
Just as Applejack hopped out of bed to go open her curtains to see what was making all that racket, the floor began thumping beneath her hooves, followed by the sound of creaking wood.
“Looks like Guy’s awake, too…” Apple Bloom mumbled, still rubbing her eyes.
Applejack threw open the curtains and looked outside. The source of the commotion didn’t exactly make itself difficult to spot.
Granny smith was running back and forth in front of the house with pans attached to strings all over her, yelling, “The timberwolves are a howlin’! The timberwolves are a howlin’!”
Big Mac opened his own curtains and poked his head out of the house’s adjacent window next to Applejack’s, looking just as tired as his two sisters. Just as Granny Smith was claiming, a long, drawn out howl could be heard in the distance. Big Mac bobbed his head. “Eeyup…”
Downstairs, the front door eased itself open and Guy carefully squeezed himself through, just as curious to see what all the commotion was about. At his full height, Guy’s head almost reached the second story windows of the house. “Granny? What’s going on?”
Granny Smith continued her running and pan banging. “The Zap Apples are comin’! The Zap Apples are comin’!”
The other Apple siblings looked at each other with sudden realization and simultaneously cheered. “Yay! The Zap Apples are comin’!”
Guy looked up at the others with his usual, yellow eyed expression. “The Zap Apples?”
Applejack chuckled to herself. Despite being on the farm for almost two months, there was still a lot Guy didn’t know. “Ah’ll explain ‘em to ya in the mornin’, Sugarcube. Granny Smith does this every Zap Apple harvest…”
Guy seemed to accept this and looked back to Granny Smith, who was still fervently banging pans. “Granny, please, come back inside and get some sleep.”
Granny Smith looked over at him with wide eyes and continued to bang pans between her hooves. “Ah can’t! Ya gotta make a lot of noise, or the timber wolves will come ta getcha!”
Guy’s yellow eyes blinked once before his entire face changed to a solid red color and he clenched his fists. “I can deal with them. You go ahead and get some sleep.”
Granny Smith stopped banging her pans for a moment and tilted her head at him. “Are ya sure? Ah can keep goin’!” She banged once more for emphasis.
Guy smashed his fists together, causing a loud metal clang, and slowly walked toward her. “I can handle it. Besides, all I have to do is make a lot of noise, right?”
“That’s the idea!” said Granny. Guy ushered her back towards the house, although he didn’t take the pans from her.
Guy turned toward the direction where the howling was coming from. “Then allow me.” Guy spread his legs and bent both of his arms against his sides in some sort of fighting stance. His chest slowly began raising up as if he were inhaling a large gulp of air, and a low pitched hum that started emanating from him was slowly raising itself in pitch.
“Uh… What’s he doin’?” asked Applejack, despite the fact that she full well knew that nopony knew the answer.
Apple Bloom was the only one to cover her ears.
Alex made one final stretch in front of one of his many large bedroom windows. It had been a long day; putting together his new anti-gravity propulsion system. The facility’s new above ground extension had been progressing nicely too, even if it did mean both the workshop and above ground manufacturing stations had to be displaced. But alas, now was the time to give in to that ever present bitch: sleep.
In Alex’s personal quarters situated above the garage, an entire wall was devoted to windows which could allow light to pass through whichever way was desired, simply by applying the proper electric current. From where Alex was standing, he could see over most of Ponyville clearly, but to an outside observer, the windows were perfectly opaque.
The rest of his living space, however, was barren. Aside from a queen sized bed – fit for a human, of course – with a nightstand sitting next to it, and a small wardrobe near the other side of the bed, the entire room was completely empty. Even what furniture was present was simple: the nightstand and wardrobe were simply white, rectangular prisms that opened up.
The only notable decorations were the timberwolf replica Alex had built for Nightmare Night, and the macabre display on the wall next to it: a large, light blue holographic display of the human body. Hovering within special transparent containers in their anatomically correct positions were an eye and a heart, the latter of which was still beating.
Trophies, of a sort.
Alex let out a breath as he gazed over the town. He hadn’t made the effort to build a new vehicle from scratch since the Scorpion, but building the Raptor was certainly an experience worth having. “You know, Rose, I’d say today was a very produc–”
A loud noise suddenly blasted through his ears from somewhere outside. Alex’s bedroom windows vibrated lightly against the wave of sonic pressure. Everything about it described power beyond measure and the ability to end entire worlds.
Alex took several frightened steps back until he fell against his bed. “What the fuck was that?!”
Rose replied in her usual calm and collected manner. “Based on the direction and volume of the sound, I’d say Guy has learned how to use his intimidation horn.”
Alex mouthed the words to himself. “The intimida… Fuck, I didn’t make it that loud… Did I?”
“I thought you knew.”
Alex blinked as lights outside suddenly caught his attention. Ponyvillian homes were lighting up like Christmas trees as their residents were rudely woken up. Alex groaned. “Ah fuck berries… And guess who’s gonna get the ass end of the noise complaints.”
Now that it was morning, the sun shone over the farm, without a single cloud to impede its warming rays. Guy pulled along a pair of wooden carts out into the Zap Apple orchard, each one carrying stacks of apple bins that were to be placed at the trunk of each tree. Applejack and Big Mac were also pulling their own carts, with Big Mac’s being just as large as the ones Guy was pulling.
Out in the field proper, Guy surveyed the Zap Apple trees themselves. He had never been in this part of the orchard before and couldn’t but notice that, while the rest of the orchard had grown their leaves, this plot of land still looked to be in the grasp of winter.
Letting go of his carts, Guy moved to more closely to examine one of the trees. “They look dead,” he commented aloud, grabbing a branch and taking a closer look at it.
“They ain’t dead,” Applejack mumbled around bin’s handle that was still in her mouth. She chucked the bin to the base of a tree and briefly rubbed her head. They were okay now, but Applejack could swear her ears were still ringing from last night. “They’re magic trees. Just don’t worry about ‘em.”
“Hey, silly goose! Quit yer gawkin’ and move yer caboose!” Granny Smith yelled from one of the farmhouse’s second story windows.
“Eeyup!” Big Mac called back, just before throwing one of his own bins at a tree.
Reorganizing his priorities, Guy stopped looking at the trees themselves and immediately set out to work. He grabbed an armful of stacked bins and began placing them one by one at the base of each of the leafless Zap Apple trees.
Guy had always been happy to help with anything that needed it on the farm, but apple harvesting was still new to him. But it was strange… He had never done it before, and yet he already knew how hard the trees needed to be hit with his fist for the apples the get jostled loose. He already knew a lot of things, but he didn’t know where he learned them.
Placing the last bin in his stack down, Guy started making his way back to the carts for more when a deep rumbling sound from somewhere above caught his and his siblings’ attention. Before Guy knew what was happening, the wind picked up violently around him and dark storm clouds moved in overhead, seemingly from out of nowhere. The trees themselves started to shake with unknown magic, releasing electric sparks that circled their branches and jumped from one tree to another.
Guy backed away from the trees as the larger bolts of electricity began jumping between them. Electromagnetic disturbance detected. Type: Lightning. Origin: unknown. Precaution: avoid if possible – lower height. Guy immediately crouched down. He didn’t know how he knew to do this.
The electric sparks circled the branches of the Zap Apple trees until they reached the very tips. When they did, their dark purple leaves practically exploded out of their buds, with newer leaves already starting to grow in new spots. Almost as soon as they had arrived, the storm clouds above the orchard dissipated into nothing.
“There’s the Zap Apple leaves!” cried Applejack. “Right on schedule!”
Guy glanced around at all the trees with curiosity. Where there was once nothing, now they all bore leaves. Except for one… “What about that one?” said Guy, pointing at the tree in question.
Applejack looked to the tree Guy was pointing to. Its branches were still bare, and now that she really looked, its bark was a little off. She trotted up to it and held a hoof against its trunk. “Ah shoot… Big Mac, come over here!”
Big Mac dumped another bin off trotted over to his sister to examine the tree. No words were exchanged between them as Big Mac scrutinized the sickly tree for himself. After a minute, Big Mac faced Applejack and shook his head sadly. “Nope…”
Applejack sighed. “Figured… You and Guy keep movin’ the bins, Ah’ll go get the shovels. If we’re lucky, we can get ‘er outa here by noon.”
As Applejack moved away from the tree, Guy approached it. He eyed its bark carefully, trying to differentiate it from the other trees, memorizing what made it different, and unwanted. After a few moments, Guy gazed down at its roots and moved his feet around them before wrapping his arms around the trunk.
Applejack, unable to ignore Guy’s heavy steps, trailed her eyes toward what he was doing. She wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to do at first, but it became much more obvious once he started tugging. Applejack let out a laugh. “Guy, just what in tarnation are you tryin’ to do?”
Guy stopped tugging and looked at her. “Doesn’t it need to come out?”
Applejack shook her head and chuckled at his naivety. “It does, but that ain’t how you go about doin’ it. You can keep tryin’, but even you ain’t strong enough for that.”
Guy quickly resumed his efforts and Applejack chuckled to herself as she left to go get the shovels. However, the sound of cracking wood immediately silenced her. The sound entered her ears like a whip, causing her heart to skip a beat and forcing her to spin around to see what caused it.
Guy had shifted his grip lower down the trunk and had dug one of his hands in the ground to grab at its roots. Guy poured all the strength he possessed into this single, long, upward pull: all four metric tons worth of force.
In only the span of twenty seconds, both Applejack and Big Mac watched as Guy heaved up, tearing the entire tree and its roots from its anchor in the ground, the sound of snapping roots and shaking branches the only one filling their ears. At last, the tree ripped free, the trunk’s base resting on Guy’s shoulder. He shrugged the tree into a better spot to more evenly distribute its weight on his body and looked to his siblings with his usual yellow eyed expression, waving the entire tree as he turned. “Where should I put it?”
Applejack’s eyes bugged out as she forced herself to close her jaw. “Did… Did he really just do that…?” she muttered to her brother, who also had his own look of surprise on his face.
“Eeyup…” he replied, keeping his wide eyes locked on Guy and the entire dead Zap Apple tree he held over his shoulder.
Guy tilted his head. “AJ?”
She suddenly snapped to attention, forgetting for a moment that Guy could actually talk. “Oh! Yeah?”
“Where do I put the tree?”
Applejack blinked before shaking her stupor away. “Right right… Just put it by the barn, we’ll deal with it later.”
“– AND by capturing the wholesale market, purchasing in bulk, and slashing our prices, we undermined every other gift market in town. And that’s how Rich’s Barnyard Bargains became the cornerstone of retail in Ponyville.” Diamond Tiara’s little pink hooves were the only ones to applaud her father as he finished his presentation in front of the rest of the class at Ponyville elementary.
Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was trying her hardest not to fall asleep, along with the rest of the class. Even as Ms. Cheerilee thanked Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich, for his presentation during this particular family appreciation day, everypony was miles away as far as Apple Bloom’s brain was concerned.
It wasn’t until Apple Bloom suddenly heard her name that her mind suddenly snapped to attention. “Sorry, Ms. Cheerilee?”
Cheerilee frowned slightly. “I said, it’s your turn to bring in a family member for next Monday’s family appreciation day.”
Apple Bloom’s heart skipped a beat. Next Monday?! But next Monday was Zap Apple harvest day! Everypony would be too busy! The only pony that wouldn’t be working the harvest would be… Apple Bloom shuddered at the thought of having to bring in her silly and embarrassing grandmother. “But Ms. Cheerilee, Monday is Zap Apple harvest day, and everypony will be too busy workin’ harvest to come!”
“What about Guy?” Scootaloo suggested from the next desk over. “Applejack and Big Mac have worked harvest before. They could do it without Guy for an hour or two.” Many of their other classmates agreed with the sentiment. Most of them had never seen Guy personally, though they did hear stories of the metal giant that carried entire plows over his back and shoulders.
“Guy? You mean that machine you keep on the farm?” Diamond Tiara spat from the desk right beside Apple Bloom’s. “It’s not a family member, it’s just a tool that that human made to help your actual family with work!”
Apple Bloom ear twitched and she glared at the student sitting at the desk next hers. “Guy is not a tool! He may not be a pony, but he has feelings too, ya know!”
“As if! It’s just a machine like all those other ones! It’s not alive like us! Its ‘feelings’ are just fake! It doesn’t even have a soul!”
“You take that back!”
Cheerilee slammed her hoof on her desk and the entire class snapped to attention. “Enough! Both of you!” Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara continued to glare daggers at each other as Cheerilee stood up and walked in front of them. “Both of you calm down!”
Apple Bloom turned pleading eyes towards her teacher. “But didn’t you hear what she said about Guy?”
“Apple Bloom, that’s enough,” Cheerilee told her sternly, although her eyes suddenly turned painful. “I’m sorry, but Diamond Tiara has a point. As much as you clearly care about Guy, he doesn’t qualify as a family member you can bring in on family appreciation day.”
Apple Bloom’s heart sank and she stared at her teacher in shock. “Wh… what…?”
Cheerilee shook her head. “I’m sorry. Is there anypony else you can bring for family appreciation day?”
Diamond Tiara raised a hoof smugly. “Granny Smith isn’t working harvest. She could come.”
Cheerilee began making her way back to her desk. “Very well. Apple Bloom, you shall bring in Granny Smith on Monday.”
The school’s bell suddenly rang and the students automatically began collecting their things to leave for the weekend. Apple Bloom, however, didn’t move, and remained fixed to her chair.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got up from their desks and made their way over to their friend, a look of concern growing on their faces. “Hey, are you okay?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom simply stared at her desk and sniffed, tears beginning to well around her eyes. She spoke in a faint whisper, barely audible against the bustle of all the other students.
“Not… family…?”
“How could Ms. Cheerilee just let Diamond Tiara say that about Guy!” Apple Bloom cried in front of her friends as she paced back and forth inside of their tree house. “Of course Guy has a soul! Y’all have met him before, right?”
“We’ve met him,” confirmed Sweetie Belle, “but nopony else has.”
“Not after Winter Wrap Up, anyway,” Scootaloo threw in. “As far as they know, he is just another machine that Alex made.”
“But he’s not!” Apple Bloom dropped to her haunches and threw herself onto her back to look up at the ceiling. “How are we gonna convince everypony that Guy deserves the same respect as everypony else?”
The other two fillies hummed in thought before the metaphorical light bulb lit up over Sweetie Belle’s head. “What about Rose? She’s just like Guy, and nopony I know questions her about whether or not she has soul.”
Apple Bloom sat up and looked at her friend with wide eyes. “Hey, you’re right! We can ask her for help!”
Scootaloo scoffed at them. “Are you kidding? Rose doesn’t care about anything that isn’t… you know, sciency stuff. Why would she help us?”
“Oh come on, she helped with Winter Wrap Up, right?” Sweetie Belle countered.
Apple Bloom fell down onto her stomach and rested her head on her hooves. “Nah, Scootaloo is right… I overheard her conversation with Twilight… She only helped with the snow ‘cus Twilight couldn’t do it on her own…”
“Well we have to think of something! If Granny Smith does the presentation, who knows how much she’ll embarrass you!”
Apple Bloom pulled her ears down with a groan. “Ugh… don’t remind me…”
The trio fell into silence again until a familiar thumping sound could be heard from outside. Apple Bloom’s ears perked at the sound and she immediately shot up and rushed to go open the clubhouse door, with her two curious friends in tow. Standing just outside their clubhouse, with his chest easily reaching the balcony, was Guy. He delicately held a small basket with a trio of freshly picked, bright red apples in one hand, which clashed well with his bright green eyes.
“Hey there, Bloom,” he said, depositing the basket on the balcony and then proceeding to scratch Apple Bloom’s tiny head with his oversized metallic fingers. “I brought you and your friends a small snack before supper. How was school?”
Apple Bloom eagerly moved her head into Guy’s fingers as he scratched, though her newfound smile faltered at the mention of school. “It was alright… Nothin’ special, really.”
“Nothing special?” said Scootaloo. “But what about– oof!”
A swift kick from Sweetie Belle silenced her.
Guy blinked at their display and his eyes turned yellow, though he continued his scratching. “Is everything okay, Bloom?”
Apple Bloom forced her smile to return. “Everything’s fine, Guy.”
Guy stared at her for a few seconds before giving her a final pat on the head. “If you say so. I have to go back to watering the Zap Apple trees. You three have fun.”
Apple Bloom accidentally released a barely audible whine when Guy’s hand left her head. “Alright. See you later.”
The three of them watched as Guy’s imposing figure made its way back to the orchard. When he was finally out of sight, Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom and asked, “So how good does it feel when he does that, anyway?”
Apple Bloom gave her a smirk. “Y’all have no idea.”
Alex fitted the last control panel into place and sighed. “There we go… Alrighty, what’s next?” He hopped out of the cockpit of the half built Raptor, which was currently just a partially completed frame hanging from the ceiling of the garage via chains, and made his way over to the nearby holographic projection of the vehicle’s blueprints. “Hey, Rose, do a response check for me, would ya?”
“Already done. Everything is responding properly.”
“Awesome.” He played with the hologram until he got a better look at its innards. “How’s that magneto wing coming along? What about the hangar?”
“Construction is proceeding as scheduled. The second wing will be completed in two hours, and thirteen minutes. The hangar should be completed within three days.”
“Good, good…”Alex nodded to himself. Trying to build the first wing by hand had been absolute hell. It worked in the end, but with the amount of difficulty he had making it, Alex didn’t trust himself enough to attach it to the final product. He was glad he let Rose build the other one this time, along with rebuilding the first.
Alex’s thoughts shifted when the front door whirred open. He instinctively looked over in that direction to see Applejack and Apple Bloom, the latter of which looking dead tired and resting on her older sister’s back. Alex froze the hologram in place and went over to greet them. “Oh hey, AJ. What’s up?”
For some reason, Applejack looked nervous. “Hey there, Sugarcube. Listen, Ah need your help. It’s about Guy.”
Alex frowned. “Right. Okay, two things. One, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about him. And two, if it’s about Guy, why is your sister here? And why does it look like she stayed up all night?”
Applejack sighed and nuzzled her sister awake. “Apple Bloom and Guy are pretty close, and she kinda needs some help comin’ to terms with somethin’. Ah figure you know enough about it to help ‘er out. And why did ya want to talk to me about Guy?”
Alex turned to go examine the hologram some more. “I wanted to set up an appointment with him. I’m sure you remember that uh… loud noise from a couple days ago, right?”
Applejack wiggled her ears. “Right. That.”
“Mmmmmmmmmmhmmm,” Alex hummed. “I want him to come in so I can, oh you know, turn it way the hell down. I swear, at least half the town came knocking on my door because of him...”
“How is he even able to do that, anyway?”
Alex waved his hand. “Guy’s a prototype for other models we’re working on. It was an idea. An idea I probably should have tweaked before installing it...”
Applejack shook her head. “Ah’ll get Guy over here pronto, then. Anyway, Apple Bloom’s got a serious question, and Ah think you’re the only one who can answer it. Ah know Ah can’t.”
Alex never strayed his gaze from the hologram. “Is it about cutie marks?”
“Nope.”
Alex let out a short huff. He wasn’t exactly expecting much to come from the little filly, if past experiences were any indicator, but if he was the only one who could help… “Alright then, let’s hear it.”
Apple Bloom had barely gotten any sleep the previous night, but she forced herself to stay awake for a little bit longer. She looked up at Alex with half lidded eyes. “Does… Does Guy have a soul…?”
Alex froze, trying to comprehend what he just heard. What the fuck…? He turned to look at Apple Bloom more clearly. Both of her eyes were bloodshot, caused by either tiredness, crying, or quite possibly both. And yet despite that, Alex could see the desperation behind them. “Does Guy have a soul?” he repeated with a much quieter voice than usual.
Apple Bloom simply nodded from her spot on Applejack’s back.
Alex bit his lip. For fuck’s sake, I’m an engineer, not a philosopher. Alex inhaled deeply and sighed. He slowly approached the two sisters and placed a hand on Apple Bloom’s head, taking care to scratch behind her ears. The pleading look she was giving him simply broke his heart. It was a look that said: “there can only be two answers to this: one will fix me, the other will break me, and I’m afraid to know which one is true.”
Alex placed a hand under her chin and smiled at her. “It doesn’t matter.”
Apple Bloom blinked at him. “What? Of course it matters!”
Alex shook his head and moved to stand in front of the partially built Raptor with his back to them. “Look, I’m someone who doesn’t think the soul actually exists, simply because the science doesn’t support it. But whether or not the soul exists doesn’t matter.” Alex turned to face them with crossed arms. “After all, Guy thinks for himself, doesn’t he? He’s curious; he asks questions. He rips entire trees out of the ground despite the fact that another option has been chosen by others already.”
Applejack raised a brow at this. She hadn’t told anypony that yet. “How’d you know about that?”
Alex waved her off. “Not important. The point is, he’s independent. He has his own opinions, and commits to ideas in spite of others. An intelligence is an intelligence, no matter what its brain is made out of. Neurons, circuitry, it doesn’t matter either way. A brain is a computer the same way a computer can be a brain.” He slowly made his way toward the pair and cupped Apple Bloom’s cheek with a smile. “That’s why it doesn’t matter. It’s not just that he thinks like us, but that we think like him. Guy is, for all intents and purposes, both sentient and sapient, just like us. Take away the machine bit, and you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between him and someone else. That is what matters.”
Apple Bloom stared up at Alex with a teary smile. However, after a moment, she looked away and her smile vanished. “Ah’m happy to hear that, but… Ah ain’t the one that needs to be convinced…”
Alex blinked at her. “Wait, you’re not?”
Applejack shook her head. “That’s why she’s been up all night. She wanted to bring Guy to school for family appreciation day on Monday, but her teacher wouldn’t allow it because she thinks Guy is ‘just a machine,’ and ‘doesn’t have feelings’. At least, so Ah’ve been told.”
“Reeeaaaly?” Rose suddenly interrupted. “I find that rather… interesting. Does Guy know about this?”
Both Apple sisters shook their head.
Alex scratched his head. “Huh… So that’s why you wanted to come see me? To prove your teacher wrong?”
Apple Bloom slowly nodded her head before finally conking out, lightly snoring on her sister’s back with a smile slowly returning to her.
Alex smiled at the sight and briefly glanced at a nearby camera. He knew Rose all too well. She wouldn’t have said what she did without a reason. “That’s adorable. Now then, AJ, would you like to lounge about here for the next… Oh, let’s say, thirty seconds or so?”
Applejack quirked a brow at the unquestionably odd statement. “Uh… okay… why, exactly?”
Alex chuckled and returned to examining the hologram. “Heheheh, you’ll see…”
"Okay..." After a few seconds of awkwardly standing around, Applejack said, “So whatcha workin’ on there, anyway?”
“Something that can presumably keep up with Dash…” Alex muttered, though kept his attention fully fixated on the hologram.
“So you’re sayin’ it can fly?”
“That’s the idea.”
The elevator door suddenly opened and Rose’s civilian chassis came walking out. Completely expecting it, Alex quickly waved over at her. “Hey, Rose! You going out for a walk?”
Rose looked at him and smiled. “Of course! It’s a remote unit, mind you, so I’m still working on construction.”
“Thanks! Have a good walk!”
Applejack looked between them in confusion until Rose, or at least her physical surrogate, walked out of the garage. “Uh… Since when did Rose go for walks?”
Alex simply winked at her.
It was a lovely Saturday afternoon, hovering just around lunch time, and Cheerilee spent it doing what she loved to do most: reading a good book while lying down on her couch. She glanced up at the clock, which read 12:13.
Perfect, she thought. I’ll keep reading for another 15 minutes and then I’ll go get some lunch. Then I can finish up those corrections and have tomorrow all to my–
Cheerilee’s thoughts were cut off by a trio of sharp knocks on her front door that caused her to immediately perk up and glance at it. She wasn’t expecting any visitors today. Curious as to who it could be, Cheerilee placed the book down and trotted to answer the door.
Opening it, Cheerilee found herself forced to look up to see who it was, and came face to face with a pair of glowing blue eyes. “Rose? What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Cheerilee,” the cybernetic started with a smile. “Would you mind if I came inside to speak with you with private?”
Cheerilee blinked at her in confusion. Rose had earned quite a specific reputation in Ponyville; one that meant that, if you weren’t Alex or another close friend, her personal attention meant something either really special, or really serious.
She doubted that it was the former.
“Um… sure, come in,” Cheerilee finally stammered.
Rose walked past Cheerilee with her hands held behind her back as she scanned the room with her optics. “I’m not one for beating around the bush, Cheerilee, so I’ll get right to the point.” She spun in place to face the pony and stared at her with a neutral expression. “I’m here to talk to you about Guy.”
Cheerilee nodded as she closed the door. “Yes, I had a feeling that would be why you’re here…”
“And do you know why I would be coming to you about this?”
Cheerilee moved to sit back down on her couch and wordlessly offered Rose a seat as well, though the AI declined with a brief shake of the head. “I take it you heard about the small piece of drama that occurred during my class yesterday?”
“I caught wind of it. I would like to know your exact reasons for your decision concerning Guy and this ‘family appreciation day.’”
Cheerilee sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t want to have to do it to poor Apple Bloom, but… I just don’t see Guy as a member of her family.”
“Why?”
Cheerilee looked back up at her in confusion. Rose’s neutral expression hadn’t changed at all. “Why? Didn’t you have a hoof in making him? Isn’t he just another one of your machines?”
“No,” Rose answered bluntly before walking over to her window to look outside. “Guy is the only other Artificial Intelligence in the entire world, besides myself. An Artificial Intelligence, mind you, is no different from an Organic Intelligence in terms of function, and are only differentiated to distinguish the medium in which they are functional.
“If you believe organic beings are the only ones capable of having their own thoughts and opinions, then I’m here to tell you otherwise. Guy genuinely sees himself as a part of their family, and more likely than not, cares for them as much as they care for him—especially Apple Bloom. He has to capacity to do so, after all.” Rose spun around to look Cheerilee in the eye. “We believe that participating in this ‘family appreciation day’ of yours would do quite a bit of good for him. I highly recommend that you reconsider.”
Cheerilee bit her lip. It sounded like a lot more than just a simple recommendation. “If you really think I should then… I’ll allow it.”
For the first time since she walked in, Rose smiled. “Excellent.” Not wanting to linger any longer than she already has, Rose immediately made for the door. “I’ll go alert him right now. Your understanding is very much appreciated.”
Before Cheerilee could say anything more, Rose was already out the front door and long gone.
“Huh…” Cheerilee muttered to herself, slumping on the couch. “She really doesn’t waste any time… I probably should have told her to talk to Granny Smith, too...”
“It’ll be fine, Guy! Ya got nothin’ to worry about!” Apple Bloom said as she patted Guy’s head from atop his shoulders.
It was finally Monday, and Apple Bloom made sure to enjoy every moment of her newest way of getting to school: riding on the shoulders of her giant metal brother. When she heard that Guy was allowed to come in on family appreciation day, Apple Bloom was ecstatic, as well as relieved. Not only had Guy been given a chance to show everypony just how special he was, but Granny Smith didn’t need to come in and embarrass her in front of the whole class with her silliness.
Of course, Apple Bloom didn’t know how it just suddenly happened, but she wasn’t one to question a good thing.
“But Applejack and Big Mac still need help harvesting the Zap Apples,” said Guy as the two of them cut through the east apple orchard. “Don’t they need me to be there?”
“AJ and Big Mac have been doin’ this for years! They can do it just fine. Besides, you’ll only be gone for a couple hours, there’s plenty of time for you to get back and help!”
“If you say so…” Guy continued to march in silence before asking, “So what am I supposed to do for this family appreciation day, anyway?”
Apple Bloom squeezed his head as best she could. “Just talk about yourself!”
Guy blinked at the thought. Talk about himself? What was there to talk about? His name was Guy. He worked on the farm with his family. What else could there be?
Eventually, the two of them arrived at the school and Guy carefully picked Apple Bloom off his neck with both hands to place her down. Nopony was sitting around outside, as everypony had already arrived and were no doubt waiting inside for Apple Bloom to arrive.
“Wait out here, Ah’ll go get everypony,” said Apple Bloom before rushing inside.
Inside the classroom, students were talking amongst each other with their usual energy. Apple Bloom’s entrance almost went unnoticed. Unfortunately, Diamond Tiara did notice.
“Well, look who finally showed up,” Diamond Tiara said with a malicious grin. “Where’s Granny Smith? Did she forget to show up?”
Diamond Tiara’s voice was enough to get all the other students’ attention, and cause them all to quiet down and focus primarily on Apple Bloom, who simply looked back at her with a smug smile.
“Now now, Diamond Tiara, don’t use that tone of voice,” Cheerilee interrupted from her desk. She looked at Apple Bloom in turn with a curious smile. “Who have you brought for family appreciation day, Apple Bloom?”
Apple Bloom looked Diamond Tiara square in the eye.
“Guy.”
The rest of the class suddenly lit up in excitement, though Diamond Tiara’s eyes bugged out in disbelief. “What?”
Cheerilee rapped her desk in an attempt to keep order. “Settle down, everypony, settle down! Apple Bloom, is Guy waiting outside?”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Yup! He doesn’t wanna come inside, though.”
“And why not?”
“He doesn’t really like goin’ into buildings that have a basement.”
Cheerilee nodded in understanding. “I see. Alright, everypony, let’s go outside for Guy’s presentation, shall we?”
All the students eagerly got up from their seats and resumed their conversations from before. As for Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were the first to run up to her and greet her.
“Hey! How’d you get Ms. Cheerilee to change her mind about Guy?” asked Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom shrugged. “Ah dunno. Applejack just took me to go see Alex and Rose to talk about whether Guy had a soul or not, and next thing Ah know, Guy could come!”
Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at her as she started to make her way outside with the other students. “See! Told you they would help.”
“You don’t know if they actually did anything,” said Scootaloo, following after her.
“Well there has to be some connection!”
Upon exiting the school building, however, Guy wasn’t where Apple Bloom had originally left him. Guy had wandered over to the school’s playground and had been taking a closer look at the various play sets that occupied it. However, like any other Liandri, Guy immediately noticed when they started filing out of the building, and turned to look at them.
Many of the little fillies and colts “oohed” and “aahed” at Guy’s impressive size compared to the rest of their play sets. While all of them had heard tales of the metal giant among them that lived on the Apple farm, few of them actually had the opportunity to see him in person, since very few of the children were actually around Guy during Winter Wrap Up. To some of them, it was like something that only existed in legend suddenly became reality.
But to Apple Bloom, he was just her other big brother. She ran up to him with a smile plastered on her face. “Aight, everypony’s here! Go ahead, tell ‘em about yourself!”
Guy lowered himself to one knee as all the other children eagerly sat in front of him with wide eyes and perked ears, most of whom were smiling eagerly. Guy looked over them with his yellow gaze before speaking in his deep, slightly synthetic sounding voice. “Hello, everyone. My name Guy. I’m Apple Bloom’s brother and I work on the farm with Applejack and Big Macintosh.”
He paused, blinking twice. “I don’t know what else there is to say, really.”
Another short pause, during which many of the students’ smiles suddenly disappeared and they began awkwardly glancing at one another. Apple Bloom nervously bit her lip. This isn’t how it was supposed to go! He was supposed to tell everypony all sorts of stuff!
“That’s it?” came Diamond Tiara’s shrill voice. “That’s the entire presentation?”
Apple Bloom’s heart skipped a beat and she rushed to stand in front of them. “No it ain’t! Guy, tell ‘em some more stuff!”
Guy shrugged at her. “Like what?”
“It doesn’t have anything else to say!” Diamond Tiara yelled in objection. “See? I was right! It is just another machine!”
The biting comment hung in the air as the other students started muttering amongst themselves. Apple Bloom’s ears glued themselves down as tears began to well around her eyes. Cheerilee bit her lip, afraid that anything she wanted to say to try to fix things would somehow end up making the situation even worse for somepony.
While he wasn’t an expert on social situations yet, Guy could tell he had done something wrong, especially after witnessing Apple Bloom’s own expression. For the first time ever, Guy’s eyes turned blue and the allusion of eyebrows formed above them – perfectly straight lines angled up toward the middle of his face. “I’m sorry, Bloom. I tried.”
Apple Bloom clenched her eyes for a moment and inhaled a deep breath. With a stomp of her hoof, Apple Bloom’s eyes shot open, wearing a new look of determination. “No!” Apple Bloom immediately tried to jump up onto Guy’s propped knee, though couldn’t quite manage it. After Guy helped her up, she turned toward her fellow students.
“Y’all got it all wrong!” she started. “Ah’ve only lived with Guy for a couple months now, and sure, he’s quiet and awkward at times, but he’s also modest as hay and just doesn’t want to admit it!”
Guy’s eyes blinked yellow again as he gazed down at the little filly curiously.
“Look, Ah know he ain’t a pony, and Ah know he has a machine for a body, but Guy is one of the kindest ponies- er… people Ah know, and Ah know he’s an Apple at heart.” Apple Bloom looked up at Guy with sad eyes and a ghost of a smile. “Every day, he’s out in the fields helpin’ AJ and Big Mac, from sunup till down, but he always manages to find time for me. He always asks me how my day was after school, he always makes sure that Ah’m happy, and if Ah’m not, he tries to make me happy.”
She let out a brief chuckle and looked back at the other students. “It doesn’t always work, but he at least tries. He cares about us! He tried protectin’ us from timber wolves the other night, even if they never came out of the forest. He ripped an entire tree out of the ground with his own two hoo- er, hands, just so AJ wouldn’t have to dig it out herself!”
“Guy isn’t just another machine. He’s one of the most special machine’s there is, and one of the most carin’ people Ah know.” Apple Bloom finished by attempting to hug Guy around his midsection. Guy responded by lightly scratching the top of her head. “And Ah wouldn’t trade him for anythin’. That’s why Ah appreciate him as a member of my family.”
Silence.
All the students sitting before them simply sat in complete silence, allowing Apple Bloom’s words to sink in. However, it wasn’t long before Sweetie Belle broke that silence with a loud “Aaaaawwwwwwwww!”
From there, the applause started. It was slow at first, with only a few students clapping their hooves together, but it soon snowballed from there. It didn’t turn into anything raucous or too energetic, like if their favorite sports team won their entire series, but it was a respectable applause nonetheless.
Guy and Apple Bloom shared a look, with the former’s face now a green smiley and the latter mimicking it. Guy even gave Apple Bloom a quick rub on the head, and for a few moments, everything seemed perfect.
“Well bust my bunions, I completely forgot!”
Almost perfect.
Apple Bloom’s heart froze at that oh so familiar voice, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a surprised look. All three of them muttered the exact same thing. “Uh oh!”
Of all the ponies that could have walked past the school yard at that exact moment, the last pony Apple Bloom wanted to be there was the one that did: Granny Smith; who, for some reason or another, was accompanied by Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich.
“Granny?!” cried Apple Bloom as Guy placed her back down on the ground. “What are you doin’ here?!”
Granny Smith trotted up to her and ruffled her mane. “Oooh, Ah was just out for a little stroll with Filthy Rich over here, and Ah completely forgot about your little family presentation! But don’t you fret none! Granny Smith’s here for story time!”
Apple Bloom’s irises shrunk to pin pricks and she waved her hooves in front of her. “No no! It’s okay! We don’t need–”
“Oh fiddlesticks,” Granny interrupted as she sat herself down in front of all the other students, “of course ya do! Now everypony just sit back while Ah tell y’all a little story about when I was a little filly…”
As Granny Smith started her story, despite Apple Bloom’s constant attempts to stop her, Filthy Rich walked up to guy and nudged him with a hoof to get his attention. Guy divided his processing power and leaned down to listen to him.
“Would I be mistaken in assuming you’re somehow related to that… Oh, what do they call him… human?” Filthy Rich asked quietly, so as to not disturb Granny Smith’s story. “Perhaps that assistant of his?”
Guy turned his head toward Filthy Rich and dug through his memory. Guy spoke just as quietly. “They… made me.”
Filthy Rich nodded with a sly smile. “I see… They seem like a rather bright bunch if they’re able to build things as, dare I say, impressive as you.”
Guy shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Tell me… You wouldn’t happen to know if they were running some sort of business, would you? I can’t imagine how they could possibly sustain themselves without some sort of income.”
Guy looked away for a moment. “I don’t think so, but Rose told me that they were thinking about starting some sort of private security business. I don’t know what that exactly means, though.”
Filthy Rich patted Guy’s leg and looked briefly over at Granny Smith. “Don’t you worry, big boy, because I do. Give Granny Smith my apologies once she’s done with that story of hers. I have an errand to run.”
With that, Filthy Rich walked off, leaving them all to their own devices. After all, he was a busy pony, and there was a certain somebody he wanted to pay a visit.
Guy hardly thought much of Filthy Rich’s questioning and diverted the rest of his processing power to paying attention to Granny Smith’s story. She was talking about Zap Apples.