EQUESTRIA: 15th OF TWILIGHT FADES, 1215
Frigid Gear sat there. His father had been gone longer than usual, if he didn’t return by tonight he would have to go search for him or suffer extreme anxiety. He sighed, picking up his satchel and leaving through the door going off to find something to do, to wait for his father to return. He walked through tall grass and looked at the couple of other ponies that lived this far away from the city. Some would wave, but he hardly noticed from his constant worrying. He really wished he didn’t have this sort of problem, but so far it had been three years since it developed thanks to his mom-. He shook his head striding faster to distract himself, he was getting farther than usual, but he didn’t stop he didn’t want to think he needed something to take his mind off of things. He face planted, his muzzle being shoved into the dirt, he struggled to get up, but his front hooves ached as if they had hit something. He looked behind him, before a horrible shriek left his mouth
“What even is that thing?!” he screamed, scrambling back in a rush and as far away as far as he could manage. All thoughts grinded to a halt as he stared at a mechanical head, one red eye and a cracked lensed eye staring at him. Its mouth filled with sharp, broken, or missing teeth. Frigid Gear felt sick, it was pure nightmare fuel. He tried to get to his feet, but his body wouldn’t respond, the thing was horrifying. After a moment he was able to stand, albeit his shaky legs were barely supporting him. He looked around finding it to be some sort of dump with a special logo he had never seen before with a simple sign reading, Private Property, No Trespassers. Frigid Gear swallowed tightly getting ready to leave when he passed the head he paused, he felt he must be going insane, but he didn’t want to leave the robotic head there. He shook his head
“What am I thinking, that thing is scary, why would I-...” he turned to look at it, before stretching out a shaky hoof and picked it up, putting it into his satchel and kept going. He didn’t want to be caught here and be making two stupid decisions within the past ten minutes. He kept walking not recognizing his surroundings, but took notes on it so he could do it best to come back if he had to. He sighed in relief as he came into familiar territory, even waving to one of his neighbors. He took stock of his situation as he approached his house, he was absolutely crazy for all he knew the robot head could be a dangerous weapon he could have a secret agency hunt him down for. He laughed a tight laugh
“Okay, now I know I’m stressing myself out. Really a secret agency, I’ve been watching too many movies.” he muttered to himself grabbing some blankets from his house. He was planning on sleeping outside that night and needed to prepare, it got quite cold at night in the summer. His satchel his his side hard reminding him of the head within. He paused, he had no space in his room, his room was too tiny for much other than a bed, chest, desk, and a bookshelf. His father tried his best to support the both of them and there was really only so much he could do. He looked out the window and spotted his father’s workshed. His father had recently been working with another pony in the village so they could help one another to make more in less time to sell in the city. So the little shed now stood abandoned. He slowly nodded, his mind made up at his decision. He opened the door and went straight for the shed. He opened the door and walked inside. It was actually kind of spacious, he hadn’t been in there for a couple years, his father’s creations hung from their strings of sat on the counter painted faces smiling at him. He shivered a little, he hadn’t grown over his fear of grinning dolls, but at least it was becoming better. He walked to the other side of the room, plopping his satchel onto the counter. He scooted a chair closer and sat down on it, looking at the satchel as if it had a snake within. He slowly pulled out the mechanical head, almost slicing his hoof on the sharp teeth. He then set it down and started a staring contest, not feeling comfortable with turning away from the metal.
“Ugh, why did I even bring this?!” he groaned thudding his head onto the table. It jostled the head, causing it to roll almost off the edge. He panicked and grabbed it, holding it in his outstretched arms. He sighed in relief, when he stared at the mismatched eyes. He tilted his head thinking for a moment, before a simple question passed out of his mouth
“I wonder if it still works?” he slowly set down the head and looked around for the spark plugs, when he found them he hooked them up and pulled them out and stared at the robotic head. He immediately felt threatened, but took a deep breath, putting down the spark plugs and turning the head to the side so it could see the insides. He knew a little, his father had dabbled in building small mechanical toys for young kids who were interested. He recognised the wires going to the eyes, mouth, and what he could assume was a type of brain. He hooked it up and got electricity running to the brain and sat back staring at it. He heard a couple of gears whirring and things grinding, when a small hollowed metallic voice stated a series of numbers, it’s voice fuzzed with a sort of static. Frigid Gear sighed, putting his hand on one of the spark plugs, about to unclip it when the quiet count of random numbers stopped and something intelligible came out.
“CR55-HR, status all c-r-nt syst-m-: Dead.” Frigid Gear’s breathing stopped at the sound of the word ‘dead’, from the robot’s mouth. It sounded almost hopeless and just for a lack of a better word dead. Frigid Gear shook slightly, before unclipping the spark plugs and shoving them off the desk, the eye of the robot losing the few sparks of light in it. He sat there staring at the metal head, what was he supposed to do, it was just so-. He sighed, sitting the head up so the wires were hid. Even if he wanted to do something, what would he even do? He didn’t know anything about robotics, he wasn’t even sure if he could find enough metal to fix it, not mentioning his dad and him were scraping by as is. He thudded his head on the desk, he could always put it back, but his conscious wouldn’t let him. He sighed pulling his head up and stared at the never blinking gaze of the robot.
“I’ll fix you up, but it may take a while. Sorry I can’t promise more than that.” he promised, placing his hoof on the robot’s head in a sort of hoof-shake without one of them having hooves. He scooted the chair back, taking one of the blankets he had brought and threw it over the robot. He didn’t want someone to steal it or if it was something important he didn’t want his father to get involved and blamed. He walked out the shed locking it and started heading back to the private property, hoping to find more parts of the robot. He was unsure of what he was going to do, this project seemed impossible, but he had already made up his mind and promised. He tilted his head up and continued on unwavered, never realizing he had stopped having unease about his father’s return after finding the broken robot.