//------------------------------// // Murphy // Story: To Protect And Serve // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Robocop status: Online. What is the matter?" The words had barely left his mouth before his legs were tackled by three little fillies, who tightly wrapped their hooves around his legs and sobbed loudly. He looked up from them to the other ponies, all of who had looks of sorrow and terror on their faces. "What happened while I was offline? What happened with Sombra and the hostage?" "You...Don't remember?" Twilight weakly got out, still trying to avoid throwing up. "All systems failed before I could resolve the situation," Robocop explained. "I shall ask again: What happened with Sombra and the hostage?" "Sombra...got away." "And the hostage?" "We...took care of her. Don't worry," Twilight weakly said, casting a glance at AJ who said nothing. "Thank you for starting me up again. May I ask how you managed to do so?" "No...problem. Robocop...we went inside your memories." Robocop said nothing at her words, opting for silence as he waited for her to divulge more information. "I repaired your systems as best I could and got you running again, but...but you still wouldn't turn back on. So with little other choice we went inside your mind to see if we could find the problem. But while we were in there we saw..." She couldn't finish her words and choked back her sobs, Robocop noticing that the other ponies were avoiding his gaze when he looked at them. "We watched you die." Robocop turned his attention to Flash Sentry, the only pony that seemed able to speak at that point. "We saw it all, back before you were...Robocop. We watched you try to arrest those criminals, only to be...brutally murdered. And how the people that saved your life treated you like a product and...dear Faust I am so sorry. I had no idea what had happened to you." "I would recommend all of you sit down and calm yourselves. You have been witnesses to a tragic murder," Robocop instructed in his robotic voice, the ponies obeying without another thought. Robocop then turned his attention to the three fillies still gripping his legs, gently patting them on the back until they were ready to let go of him. When he was able to look into their faces he scanned them to check the state they were in and he was not happy with the results. All three of them were in a state of shock, with Sweetie Belle looking to be on the edge of a mental breakdown. "Rarity. Come comfort your sister. She needs it," Robocop instructed again, Rarity duly nodding as she walked over to Sweetie and pulled her into a gentle hug, comforting her as AJ and Twilight walked over to do the same for the other two. Robocop then sat down on the chair he had been offline in, looking down at the eyes of the ponies. "I would assume that you all have many questions for me after seeing my past. I will answer them to the best of my ability." "Where do we even start?" Twilight whispered after a moment of silence as she looked at Robocop's exposed face before turning her gaze to his body and limbs. "You truly are nearly all machine aren't you? We saw in your memories how they threw away your arm even though they could save it." "Correct. I am ninety nine percent robotic. Only my heart, lungs, some of my digestive system and brain remain," Robocop replied as he reached up to the part of his "face" that still looked human. "Fillies, please avert your eyes for a moment." Once the fillies had done so, Robocop pulled back a bit of the face, showing the ponies his robotic skull underneath of the facsimile. "The rest of me is robotic," he finished as he put his face back. The ponies took a moment to process what he had shown them before Applejack spoke up. "In one of the memories we saw what looked like...yer family," she began, Robocop slightly tightening his fists at the thought of them again. "What happened to them after you...died." "After being informed of my death, they moved away to start over again," Robocop emotionlessly replied, AJ lowing her face with a small "oh" at his answer. "It is for the best that they did. If the connecting had ever been found between me and them, the criminals of my city would not rest until they had killed them to get to me." "How could they treat you like that?" All eyes turned to Rarity, Robocop slightly surprised that she was speaking with such wrath and disgust in her voice. "When they were turning you into what you are now, how could they say all those things about you? That they could do whatever they wanted with you? That you were nothing more than a product! They can't do that to you!" "They could. I was legally dead at that point and when the release form had been signed they owned the rights to my body," Robocop clarified for her, the rage in Rarity's eyes growing even larger at his reply. "That doesn't make it right!" "The dead do not have rights, Miss Rarity. And I am classified as deceased." For the first time the ponies could hear the faint underline of emotion in Robocop's voice, with the emotion being disgust at his own words. "Therefore, I have no rights." Robocop lowered his gaze to the floor so he did not have to look into the eyes of the ponies, not wanting to see the sorrow or pity that they felt for him. Silence overtook them all for a few minutes, with the fillies still slightly sobbing. "There's...one last thing that I have to know," Flash whispered, Robocop lifting his head again to look at the guard. "What happened in the memory of the tower when you went to arrest that guy? He said something about a directive 4 and that disobeying it would result in shutdown. Why didn't you just take him in before he had the chance to say that?" Robocop lowered his head once again, his memory banks flashing back to that night and then to the innocent ponies that he had failed to protect. "It was not his words that caused me to shutdown, it was the directive that was built into me," Robocop began to explain, knowing that he was about to reveal his greatest weakness. "I am programmed with four directives, three of which I have already informed you of. The fourth is that I cannot arrest a senior member of OCP or it results in my shut down. That is what happens if I try to fight against one of my directives, I am forced to shut down until the OCP has figured out what the error was and has repaired it." "But I thought those were just your code?" Scootaloo asked, her voice still shaky as she wiped tears from her eyes. "That your three directives were your moral code." "No, they are a part of me. It is not that I choose to follow them, it is that I have to follow them precisely or else I crash, much like you saw in the memory," Robocop said with a hint of bitterness in his voice as he lowered his head again. "That is how Sombra managed to crash my systems, by activating all three of my directives at the same time. No matter which one I picked, I would be shut down for failure to obey the other two. Because of that, he got away." "How could the humans do this to you?" Twilight asked. "If it was possible to trick the system wouldn't they have given you a solution around it?" "I was a product to most of them Twilight, little else," Robocop reminded her. "As long as I brought in results and the public were behind me, they cared little for what went on inside of my mind." "Then fight it." Robocop turned his focus back to Flash Sentry, who was standing on his hooves and glaring at Robocop with a look of fire burning in his eyes. "Fight against the programming! Don't let it control you!" "I cannot," Robocop softly responded as he lowered his head again, images of the mind controlled pony flashing across his mind. "They are a part of my very brain and have total control over my systems to stop me from disobeying them. I have no choice but to follow them. I am a machine." "Wrong." Robocop looked up at Flash with surprise, his scanners telling him that Flash was extremely agitated. "You're so wrong! You do have a choice, you just don't believe you do! You are only ninety nine percent of a machine, not one hundred percent! that means that one percent of you is left to fight, just like you fought against directive four when you confronted that man! I saw it, I saw how despite your systems crashing you still tried to bring him to justice!" "You are incorrect Flash Sentry, that was another case of my directives clashing with each other," Robocop stated in reply, but all that did was infuriate Flash further. "I am more machine than man. I am not ever sure if I am alive." Flash then took in a deep breath and looked at the floor for a moment before lifting his head to look at Robocop. "Do you know why I became a guard?" he asked Robocop, who had no reply. "Yeah because I wanted to help others, but it was also so I would matter, so that I could say that I had done some good with my life. So that I could meet mares and be able to say I worked with the princesses. I was selfish when I first started, thinking it was all about me helping others. And all of the guards around me seemed to think the same way," he admitted bitterly at his own desires. "But then I met you, the ultimate law enforcement officer. I thought you were the coolest guy in existence, how you always stopped the criminals, how you easily dispatched of your foes. But then I saw something that no other guard I met had. You threw yourself at every foe no matter how dangerous, protected those who needed it no matter the harm to yourself and never once compromised your beliefs no matter what was happening." "I...I look up to you. When I look at you I see the kind of protector I want to be, to be that selfless and caring of others," Flash said through gritted teeth as his rage returned. "And don't tell me that everything you did was because of your directives, because it wasn't! You took on a criminal gang by yourself without any special protection! You stopped a countless number of crimes to save lives! And even with directive four trying to shut you down your desire to bring that man to justice fought against the directive's shutdown, because I don't remember you shutting down in that memory!" "You might be ninety nine percent programming, following whatever directions the humans that made you wanted to, but there is that one percent of humanity left within you and that is the part of you that defines you Robocop! You are more than just a machine!" Robocop lowered his head again, silently shaking it for Flash who still didn't understood how he worked. But then Flash's words started to take hold, the words telling him how he was not all machine. That the man who had died still lived within the robotic shell somewhere. "Is there any way we can undo this?" Robocop turned his eyes to Sweetie, who was looking at the older ponies with hope in her eyes. "Do we have any magic that can turn him back to a regular human? He shouldn't have to live like this if he doesn't want to. He's our friend, we need to help him!" 'They call me friend despite knowing what I am...and they have the utmost trust in me,' he silently thought as Twilight told Sweetie that there was nothing they could do to return him to his human form. 'How long has it been since I have been surrounded by others who completely trusted me...who treated me more than machine?' He then turned his gaze to the three fillies, who were now all trying to think of a way to help him. Those who had never thought of him of anything less than a hero. "Murphy," Robocop said in a whisper, turning all eyes to look towards him. "My name was...is Murphy." His scanners registered their eyes softening as he said this and the three fillies all walked up to him, smiles on their faces despite him able to see trace hints of tears as well. "Then we need to introduce ourselves again," Applebloom said as she held out a hoof to him. "Mah name's Applebloom. Nice to meet you Mr. Murphy and thank ya fer all you've done fer us." "Scootaloo. And I think your even more awesome than I did before," Scootaloo said with a small laugh as she held out her hoof as well. Sweetie didn't say anything, but her eyes flashed with kindness and caring that Robocop had rarely seen shown for him. He shook all three of their hooves before looking up at the other four, each of whom smiled at him as they walked over and gave him a group hug. "I...only have one question left," Twilight said weakly as she broke away from the hug. "You died...that much we know for certain. And while I'm amazed that the humans managed to save most of your body, how did Murphy survive? You confirmed that you did die." "Because Twilight, he knew that the men that killed him were still out there and were still hurting others," Flash said with no question in his voice as he looked up at Robocop. "And Murphy knew that he couldn't die until he had brought them to justice. Just like you say Murphy: Serve the public trust, uphold the law, and protect the innocent. Those are the words you live by, not the words that you're forced to obey." Robocop knew he was trying to help, but Robocop still couldn't help but think back to what had happened with Sombra and how he had possessed an innocent to crash his systems. and what Robocop feared was what were to happen if he had to face Sombra again under similar circumstances, afraid that he might crash again and more innocent lives would be lost. His train of thought was derailed when he heard the sounds of hoof steps and stood up straight as the doors to the room opened. "Greeting, princesses," he said as the twin sisters entered. "How may I help you?"