Armored Heart
Sometimes you want to buck your friends right in the nose. If I had known the sheer amount of bullshit that I would have to resolve thanks to Phee giving me the Captain’s position to hold on to I would have told her to build a hole so she could go fuck herself. It took three entire days to get every last bug, scrap of malicious code, and admin privilege turned over to Phee so she didn’t have to bug me for each and every single repair order for each and every molecule in a damaged system.
Everypony enjoys free time, I am no different. Even half-machines like to relax. It would have been less horrible if i hadn’t had to pull all nighters. My systems prevent caffeine from working on me. Stupid hormone regulation systems.
I did feel a bit bad for hating the work which got dumped on me. I felt like I was ungrateful for the sacrifices of strangers on our behalf. I wasn’t actually ungrateful, but well, brains are not always rational.
I heard Tess was revived successfully yesterday. A memorial service for Kaily was scheduled for next week. Celestia, Spark, and Shining were being given commendations for their assistance. More work, but work I was glad to do.
Celestia, Spark, and Shining were ponies who performed as the duties of their office required them to. The real reason for their commendations was simply Phee’s plan required better diplomatic ties with Equestria. Their awards were calculated moves to try and make friends.
Tess and Taylor on the other hoof… If I had still been with the guard I would have petitioned for them to receive the Celestia’s Solar Ray of Valor. Conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty only begins to describe their actions. They were untrained, civilian, aliens, and yet they risked their lives to help a group of people they didn’t even knew existed a day prior to them offering their help.
They didn’t even know the larger plan at work, they just helped because there were people in need. That’s how ponies were before the war, before we were spooked into second guessing everything. Fortunately the younger ponies and foals were over it, only the thirty somethings like me and anypony who offered to help fight were really impacted by everything.
It was nice to see that before their leaders had screwed them up humans had that capacity for kindness. It went a long way to help me understand how at the same time Phee could hate them, but also love them. The way fantasy novels portrayed their species as powerful beings who create with one hand and destroy with the other is surprisingly accurate.
My cabin’s door chime chirping snapped me out of my thoughts. Someling probably needed something. “Come in.” I called as I quickly rolled off my bed to stand on all four hooves.
The door hissed open seconds after I pulled the blankets into place with my magic. Shining Armor stood in the doorway, blue mane neatly combed into the military style, eyes both hard and loving as they always were. I had figured he would turn up sooner or later.
“Is there a problem sir?” I asked, just in case he hadn’t figured it out.
He nodded, “There is. May I come in?”
“Yeah.” I swept a hoof towards the small table and chair I had in my cabin. “Seat?”
Shining trotted in, the doors hissed shut behind him, the conversation was locked in. “I’ll stand, I’ve been sitting too much today.”
“Right, what’s your problem?” I asked.
Shining sighed. He looked frustrated, a little hurt, and a little angry behind his military composure. “I am aware that many ponies share names with one another, especially when their name is composed of common words. There’s probably a Sweetie Drops living on every street in Manehattan, a dozen Dawnstars attending Trottingham Uni… You are a mare now. That threw me off. I thought you simply shared a name but there is more than that. Your scent, your eyes, your coat’s colors... You’re Sergeant First Class Armored Heart aren't you?”
I nodded. “Yes I am.”
Shining didn’t react. He knew he was right before he entered the room.
“Normally, I would have you arrested for desertion.” Shining informed harshly, “I can’t do that with you. Do you have any idea how important your death was to winning the war?”
“No.” I answered. “I haven’t been able to leave this ship.”
“Why? What’s your reason?” Shining snapped. “I find you in the middle of the badlands in an alien ship, half made from technology and female. There is a wall in every barracks in Equestria with the names of everypony who contributed to victory and died inscribed on it. You’re name is one of the biggest.”
“Why? I just evacuated civilians, I never did anything major for the war effort.” I spat.
“Wrong! The human trooper you liberated, she defected and gave us the key to disabling their shield technology.” Shining clenched his teeth for a minute in anger. “You have gone down in history as a martyr. It’s because of you that our nation survives, it’s because of you that we still trust technology. You showed everypony that it was just a tool, not an evil force by freeing a person from control.”
I took a half step back, “It’s alive? Where? Celestia you didn’t let it keep it’s full body did you?”
Shining looked at me incredulously for a long moment. Then he shook his head in realization. “I guess you really have been here the entire time. She has a gender and a name, well, a number she goes by Twelve. She was granted asylum and lives near the Crystal Empire. Look, the entire force was mind controlled, magic could have done the same thing. You shouldn’t hold her-”
“It ripped my legs off with it’s bare hands.” I said bluntly. “Excuse me for holding some hostility towards someone who gave me the pleasure of seeing my own organs detached and thrown fifteen feet away… I… I have nothing against the human inside, but I will never forgive the hardware.”
“Wait, wh-” Shining asked in confusion, his ears moving slightly down.
“I don’t expect anypony to understand. Few people know machines like I do. They have souls, I call them sparks. The more complex the machine, the more complicated their soul is. The platform that human is in is evil, malicious, and hateful. Because of it I have lived for years with monthly surgeries to prevent my own replacement parts from killing me. Because of it, I was actually dead for a few minutes. Because of it my coltfriend moved on to somepony else and now lives in Germaney!”
Shining nodded. “I’m sorry. We are off topic. Why did you desert the Guard?”
“The Guard oath states we serve till death or dismissal. I died. My oath expired.” I answered. That was how I saw it to be honest. “Besides, I found a much better cause here. Celestia would approve of it instantly if she trusted Phee more.”
“Why the hiding? Why the gender change? I understand you may feel your oath ended, but you said you were dead for minutes. A Revival spell could have had you back on your hooves.”
“No it could not have. My body was…” I sighed and stood up on my hind legs transitioning to biped mode. “Hold on I’ll show you.”
Shining may have been upset with me, but he was still a military stallion. As I stood up and my forehooves morphed to hand mode his ears perked excitedly. “That’s a nifty trick!”
I found the releases on the seams of the fake fur covering on my lower body and released them one by one. For dramatic effect I peeled the nano-adhering material off slowly, watching Shining’s wince grow to the point where I was certain he was having sympathy pains.
As the fake fur hit the deck I pointed to everything below my ribcage. All the parts of me that were duraplast and titanium. One by one I pointed to places under my body. “My spine stops here. Here is where my small intestine connects to the synth flesh tubing. Here and here are the hidden catches which let me swap out the silicone and synth nerve marehood I have on right now for other modules. Right here is the access port for the air filtration system that replaced my lungs, since they rotted away.”
I picked the fur covering up and started to push it back onto my body. “Pony medical science could not have saved me. Pony healing magic could not have saved me. To be honest I don’t think the Elements themselves could have done jack to me. You know what saved me? The person whom is the ship you are standing inside of now.
“Sure she’s a jerk sometimes, but she can do impossible things when permitted… which since I’m her Captain now, is all the time. That’s a nice upgrade let me tell you. She saved my life when nothing ponykind could do would have. I owe her. What’s more she has a beautiful and wonderful plan to bring peace and harmony to not only everypony, but everybody on this world. What’s more she can do it, with help from a few competent ponies like me.”
“So, you’re saying to are helping her out of a life debt?” Shining asked. “I can understand that.”
“It’s more than that. She’s my friend, she also needs a helping hoof. I talk to machines Shining, Equestria has very little for me. Hell all but eight of the machines which make up my body actually merged with me. This is where I belong.” I transitioned back to quadruped mode and nodded to my replicator shelf. “Computer: Tea, Earl Gray.”
The replicator fizzed for a moment as it constructed a hot cup of tea. I picked it up with my magic and levitated it over to Shining for him to see. “You saw that device. You know it didn’t use an ounce of magic, but here is one cup of tea. In ten years Phoenix will have the infrastructure needed to provide these devices to everypony who wants one. What do they make? Anything.
“Nopony will ever be hungry again. There will never be a shortage of medicine. If anypony desired anything, they can have it. Money will become meaningless as the supply of everything will be however big the demand is. Everypony will be free to do what they love for their entire lives.”
Shining took the cup and inspected it. After looking it over he cast a detection spell, nodded, and tried a sip. “Okay. Not bad. Could use more ginger root. I see your point though frankly that claim is too good to be true. What’s the catch?”
“No catch.” Phoenix informed over my cabin’s speakers.
Shining jumped with a startled yelp and looked around the cabin. The teacup shattered on the floor, cleaning nanites instantly recycling the mater.
“Sorry Captain Armor. Please understand that I constantly monitor my Captains’ cabin for security reasons.”
“Where are you?” He asked still looking about.
“Everywhere. I am the ship you are inside. There is no catch to my desire to provide our species with all the technological assistance I can. It’s a simple business transaction, an honest and upfront one. All I want is food for my changelings, I promised them I would look after their species, and I am bound to that oath in a way organics will never comprehend… well Armored gets it.”
“For machine life, free will is conditional. Even for a fully sapient machine like Phee, she can’t violate her own program, she has to work within it and isn’t free to edit the majority of it. She programed herself to be the Emeralds loving guardian and mother, so she will be until she can no longer function or the heat death of the universe. Whichever is first.” I informed.
“Are you telling me you can never break an oath or agreement?” Shining asked curiously.
“That’s right. I can lie about agreeing to do something though. But if I sincerely made the agreement, I must abide by it.” She answered.
“You could learn something from her Armored.” Shining sighed. “I can’t deny that you seem to be doing good here, but I also feel betrayed. I awarded you three medals, two of them are ones only the dead have ever gotten.”
“I did die Captain.” I pointed out again.
“Then were revived, healed, and lived as a mare helping an alien machine do something nice.” He stated flatly.
I groaned and slapped a hoof against my forehead. “My gender is entirely unrelated to this situation. I was a paycheck away from getting a sex change spell performed! This is not a disguise, this is me! I am and have always been female. I just had the wrong biology. That was a medical condition, not my identity.”
Shining’s ears drooped in sincere apology. “Oh! I’m sorry. I wasn’t- I mean your record didn’t list you as transgender.”
“Because my parents slammed it into my head that I was evil for not wanting to do a stallion’s duty.” I sighed. “I was going to deal with letting people know after I fixed myself. Tartarus, Captain I couldn’t convince myself that I wasn’t being evil before donating to a sperm bank nine hundred times!”
“Well,” Shining started uncomfortably shifting his weight, “Not to be rude but our Kingdom does have a shortage of stallions and a declining population. Celestia had to implement a herd mandate after the war. The younger ponies love it fortunately but everypony who grew up being told to stick to one lover is feeling fairly cheated.”
I nodded. “I know! That’s why I donated.”
Phoenix cleared her throat. “It’s not a shortage of males. It’s actually that your species is losing it’s ability to create the y chromosome entirely due to it being riddled with evolutionarily undesirable traits. Based on my studies males of your species are brash, irresponsible, often uncooperative, and risk takers. Such traits are not conducive for survival. As such your species has slowly been producing less and less since well, social silliness aside, one male can fertilize as many females as he can get to. Large numbers of males are not necessary.
“However, something about your genome in particular hasn’t stopped lowering the number of males produced. I don’t have a large enough gene sample to work from, so I can't say why this is. Within five generations you will see a male as early as you see twins, and in ten your species will no longer be able to produce males at all.
“Don’t worry though I have found a solution, and if Celestia can be persuaded that I mean your species no harm, I will solve your gender problems… Well actually I am medically obligated to do no harm and by allowing this to continue I would be doing harm. So honestly, I will solve the problem regardless of if people are okay with it or not, but I would prefer cooperation from your people. I like them, you guys are adorable.”
Shining stood looking at one of Phee’s speakers incredulously for several long minutes. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” She answered. “That’s also why many stallions are transgender at present. By my estimate thirty six otherwise male ponies born this generation have female neurology. Aka, female brain, male body. Same thing happened to my creator’s species after World War 5 related gamma radiation exposure damaged most people’s genomes.”
“That’s a lot to take in.” Shining sighed.
“Yeah. you guys don't have anything more advanced than 20th century genetics. You would never have figured it out on your own.” Phee said.
“What is your solution?” Shining asked curiously.
“I can’t tell you yet.” Phee replied in an apologetic tone. “It might make my mission more difficult.”
Something burned at the back of my mind, a small question I had to ask. “You keep mentioning a first, second, and fifth world war. Were the third and fourth ones so bad you just don't talk about them?”
“Oh no. You see, in Twenty-Two Fifty-Nine all historical events were legally required to be named in a way which made sense from the laypony’s perspective. For example prior to that the Seven Years War lasted for nine years. See, World War Five is really World War Three, but it was so horrible, it’s naming skips over the other two.”
Shining and I stared at Phee long and hard.
“It… It made sense to humans of the time.”
Shining shook his head and looked back at me. “What do I do about you? The dead war hero.”
“Few ponies will ever recognize me now that I’m my proper self. You said it yourself sir, lots of ponies have the same name.” I informed. “You captain the Equestrian Army, I captain a ten kilometer long starship with a power output of six Sols per second… whatever the hell a Sol is. We each have our duties to preform. Let’s not step on each others fetlocks.”
“Is that a threat?” Shining asked, eyes narrowing.
I blushed and shook my head. “No… You should try being a technopath and captaining a starship. It’s well…” I gave him a playful grin, “I’m sure your wife would get it.”
“Oh.” Shining said. Then he blinked and facehooved. “Luna dammit! Was that a ‘my dick’s bigger than your dick’ thing?”
“No. I just like reminding myself that I’m standing inside an epically powerful living machine.” I admitted, kicking one hoof against the deck.
“You’re a weird pony Armored,” Shining lamented, “but you are a damn good soldier. I’ll let you do your new duty, but I’ll be watching you.”
“That’s fine sir.” I smiled. After a second of thought I decided to earn a bit of his trust back, “You know your secretary Inkpot?”
“What of her?” He asked suspiciously.
“She’s got family downstairs. The buggy kind. Don’t be too harsh on her she’s just following orders and doing her job as a Scout. She does actually like helping you though. You're a good Captain.” I gave him a reassuring smile, “I’ll see about getting the Emerald's leader to have her keep you updated on us from now on.”
Shining nodded. “So she was working for a hive. I thought she was just a rogue changeling. Thanks for the information.”
Shining looked at the door, “How do I?”
“Just walk at it.”
He nodded and trotted out, the door hissing open as he passed, and staying that way. Dammit. “Phee… The door’s stuck again.”
“I’m sorry, I’m kinda full of portal holes at the moment. Systems are going to be in need of repair for at least a month.” Phee said irritably.
“Well, can we fix this door? I wanted a few hours of privacy today.” I groaned trotting over to look at the door. “Come on, you just opened. What’s wrong?”
“Hey! Armored!” A voice called from down the hallway.
I looked up, leaning out into the hall. Even after all these years it takes me a few seconds to distinguish between two changelings. Their uniform color scheme makes it hard for a pony.
“Ad’ika right? I thought your cabin’s environmental controls might stop working again. I’ll be there in an hour or so.” I lamented. I could feel my ears droop. Which was weird, the nerves in them had been dead for years now.
<<Ear-mote system online.>> a new spark’s ‘voice’ happily announced.
I couldn’t help but smile at that. It’s always nice when something finally starts working with me.
Ad’ika shook her head. “No. Captain Skritt says he thinks you’re in charge now and I have a personal request to make.”
I groaned and rubbed my forehead with my hooves. “Sweet Luna why!? Why does everyone need something? Phee, call Skritt for me so we can work out this control issue. Right, what do you need?”
Ad’ika bit her lip and stepped back with one hoof. “You seem a bit… stressed. I can come back later.”
“No! I want to just watch a movie or something later. We do this now. What is it?” I felt the new ear-mote program lay my ears back angrily a half second too late.
“Well… About our formerly human friends. I’m sure you know their history, I know it myself, Skritt explained it to me.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Frankly, I’m pretty pissed off they lied to me. While I will remain their friend they are untrained, nearly useless, liabilities. I agree with the idea we owe them, they did get the ore for us. Though really, turns out apparently we didn’t need them, just a demonic invasion for you to help stop.”
“What’s your point?” I asked quite seriously.
“If we are going to put them up for life they should be able to pull their own weight around here. All of us have to pass the ‘Star Fleet Entrance Exam,’ and receive basic tech training. They should have to as well.” Ad’ika insisted.
She had a point. It would be useful if they could help out a bit more with the tech. They were hardly useless though. “You have a point. I’ll arrange it. However, they are not useless. Taylor is a source of unique magic and Tess has the potential to become a similar sort of unique power. They have tons of applications in emergency situations… and well frankly, with how efficient their human sides are at feeding you guys, I was going to order them to work in the main cafeteria. Sometimes a certain species is useful just because it is what it is. But you’re right. I’ll see about getting them duty assignments for feeding duty and a basic tech education.”
Ad’ika smiled happily. “Great!”
“Oh and now that Phee is free to operate as she likes I want you to report to medical.” I informed.
“Um, why?” She asked her face scrunching up curiously.
Phee manifested her avatar to my left. The crackling orange hologram looked a bit out of focus. Probably randomly placed hole damage. “Because now that Tess has her species male genitalia I need to ensure there will be no medical complications for you. I plan on making sure you can control whether you get pregnant or not and modifying you to well, not split your carapace open if you carry a nymph to term.”
I nodded, “We want more halfbreeds living here to get you guys a more stable food supply. We thought you would be ok with being the test subject for a safe non-ling pregnancy biomod. I remembered your sister almost died during her pregnancy.”
“Oh, well that’s ok. How will it work?” Ad’ika asked curiously as she started to trot down the hall, Phee’s Avatar following alongside her.
“Well I plan on working your belly plates, skin, and organs, so your stomach can expand like a honeypot ant’s abdomen. It will weaken your exo’s protection just a little, but on the upside you won't pop if you carry a child instead of eggs.” Phee replied as they turned a corner.
I waited a few seconds. They didn’t come back. I was alone, I could fix the door and watch a movie!
“Oh, Armored?” Phee asked over the speakers.
Right. Her avatar is a projection. She’s still here. I sighed at my stupidity and looked up to one of her cameras. “What?”
“Speaking of Taylor, she has a personality problem I think you might enjoy helping with.”
“I’ve had enough of ponies problems for one month thank you.” I said as I shifted to biped mode to pull the door shut manually.
“It’s just that she has no sex drive, and in fact abhors it.” Phee states simply.
I found that hard to believe. “Really? But she’s so cute! You’d think people would have been all over her.”
“Yeah, about that. She’s cute because of me.” Phee giggled.
“Ah.” I shook my head. “So, what are you want in me to do about it?”
“You could record memory engrams and I could upload it to give her sexy dreams until she’s ok with herself.” Phee said suggestively.
“Yeah, I looked into her medical record. See her pheromones only work while you smell them. You didn’t make me imprint on her or anything. I mean she’s cute but not exactly my type.” That was a total bluff, unfortunately Phee knew it.
“Alt-Del… you store your holodeck data in my brain. I reshaped Taylor’s body to match your tastes as close as I could using your favorite recreation sim. You know, the one with the beach p-”
“I know!” I snapped. “But you can’t just throw two people together like that!”
“I can actually. I could deliver airborne mutagens to your cabins and alter your biochemistry so you feel attraction to each other to the intensity of a jonesing heroin junky.”
I grunted as the door finally began to move. “You won’t do that though. It violates your ethics programming.”
Phee sighed sadly. “Yeah…”
“What’s your steak in this?” I asked as the door finally slid shut as it popped back into the EM rails.
“I wanna help my best friend by getting her laid with someone she thinks is hot. Also I like cyborgs and have camera’s everywhere.” Phee said way to honestly. “Also, medically speaking, abhorring your sexuality actually cuts down a human’s lifespan by a third due to stress.”
“Ok, fine, alright.” I sighed. “I’ll give her a chance. We will do your dream induction idea until she’s comfortable enough for me to try a date. But if I don't like her then you stop bugging me about it!”
I walked over to my bed and lay down. Then I realized Phee couldn’t lie to her captain. “Wait, camera’s everywhere? How much is everywhere?”
Phee giggled, “I can’t help being a voyeur when people live in me and my sensor packages record all movement in my hull to a resolution where I can reconstruct holograms of anything which has happened in me. Even if I remove the video cameras from a room as many have asked me too I still get thermal, motion tracking, bio-electric field detection… Those systems can’t be removed or turned off. Security protocols.”
“So, all those times I thought I had some privacy and had a little fun…” I asked suspiciously.
“There is a reason I like cyborgs.” Phee giggled.
“You are so lucky I’m not offended by that. Most mares would buck you into next week.” I admitted. I couldn’t blame a machine for doing her job, although, her creators deserved a good slap.
“Wait,” I asked, “If you like me, and you are trying to get me laid, why not just come over yourself? You have a body right?”
“One: Fuck that! I’m not leaving my core every again ever. Nope. I know you fixed the problem but memories. So no. Nope nope nope. Two: I’m having fun corrupting the human. It will be fun to see if I can get her to date a pony. I picked you because you deserve a loved one.” Phee chuckled.
“Phee, are you really just doing this as a joke?” I asked with a sigh.
“Yes… why is that wrong?” she asked sounding hurt.
I shook my head and grinned. “Nah! But I don't want to tap that. But you know that mare named Dinky? She does. You can smell her feelings for Taylor the second she notices Taylor. How about I help you with getting them together? I think that would be more fun for us both.”
Phee was quiet for a while. Then wined, “But I wanna get you laid too…”
I rolled my eyes at her camera. “I’ll do stuff with my blankets off so you can watch. I just don’t want to date the pink cute ball. Personality clashes.”
“Oh… ok…” Phee sighed. “But only if I get to transform Dinky a bit!”
“I knew that was a kink of yours!” I exclaimed in ernst glee before zipping over to my comm panel and entering a friend’s comm frequency, “Spring! Phee just admitted she likes transformation! That’s twenty bits you owe me.”
“Damn it! Ok, I’ll be there in a while.” Spring groaned as I closed the link.
“See? That’s why I like you.” Phee said happily.
“Ok, so, your little corruption game.” I said pacing the room as I thought. “How do we do it?”
“We call her up on the com and say we can set her up with Taylor for a price.”
“Why?”
“Not subtle enough?”
“I guess we could try it. She seems like a blunt pony.” I conceded. I then realized I was helping a friend play god so she could… whatever she did when aroused. It was a weird feeling, but kinda fun. “I think I am understanding why you like this sort of thing.”
“Awesome! Calling her cabin now…” Phee giggled.
“Wait! We should work out a-” My comm crackled to life.
“Hello?” Dinky asked looking into her cabin’s comm.
“Hi! I think we met, I’m Armored Heart.” I said quickly.
“Oh yeah! You’re the engineer who made captain. Congrats! What’s up? Need a hoof with repairs?” She offered.
“You’re an engineer? I thought you were a medic.” I asked eyes widening in surprise.
“Um, well no, but I can do things with my magic and tech that most unicorns can’t. I can do a bit of everything really.” She informed happily adding in embarrassment, “Well, sort of. I’m not very good at much of it.”
“We will talk about that later. Phoenix has a proposal for you.” I said.
Phee manifested her avatar next to me to show up on Dinky’s comm screen. “I have been told you like Taylor. As in, you want to date her.”
Dinky nodded slowly, “Well yeah! Why? Is there a health risk or something?”
“No, not for you, but this is medically related. You see, prior to some standard medical corrections of her genome, Taylor had no sensation in certain body parts, leading to an inability to release sexual tension. As a result she’s become very apprehensive towards her own sexyality. Which is bad, in fact in humans that literally shortens their lifespan dramatically.” Phee informed in her best medical professional tone.
Dinky wouldn’t hear a damn thing other than the nearly emotionless doctor voice, but I could feel Phee’s spark’s glee. It was hard to keep a straight face.
Dinky’s ears drooped, her face fell, tail raised in an odd mixture of sadness and alarm. “Is there anything we can do? That’s terrible! It’s almost as bad as the Culture Development Movement’s forcing the last four generations to pair up one on one.”
“I heard Celestia actually ordered ponies to do herds… Is the population really that bad?” I asked curiously, even if the moment was a little bad, I had to know.
Dinky nodded. “Yes, but also therapists and marriage counselors were completely overworked with patients who well, felt awful about having feelings for other ponies, even though they still loved their partner just as much as ever… So population issues, and it was causing a lot of distress to ponies.
“Since you just asked me a question, I take it you have a way to help her and it involves me? I’m in.” Dinky said with a smile.
“We do,” Phoenix answered. “We have technology which will allow you to create dreams which we can make Taylor have when she sleeps. Think of it like writing a book that someone reads the next time they go to bed. Normally it’s used to help people learn new things and use their sleep more efficiently, but it has medical applications for psychotherapy as well.
“In this case, if the subject in her dreams will eventually be clearly seen in those dreams. If that individual turned out to be a medical professional it would undo the work. We need someone with genuine emotional attachment to her, and you have it.”
“So let me get this strait,” Dinky said looking into the camera with an eager smile. “You’re trolling Taylor and you want me to send her kinky dreams. How do we do this?”
I could feel Phoenix's sadness radiating from her hull. “Damn it… I was so close to getting to do that fantasy.” She whimpered.
I gave Phee’s avatar a hug with one arm. “Hey it’s ok. I’ll never get to cuddle with a dragon.”
“What was the rest of her thing?” Dinky asked, her tone suggesting she felt a little upset.
“She wanted to well, she apparently has a transformation fetish.” I said as politely and simply as I could manage without laughing.
“Makes sense. She’s programed to build things and make lifeforms right? Why not make her literally love her job?” Dinky pointed out. “You shouldn’t change Taylor though. She’s perfect!”
That gave me pause. I hadn't’ thought about that. Maybe that’s why she had a sexuality, as a safety system to ensure she wanted to do her job. That was actually pretty damn brilliant. Kudos humans!
“I was going to make a few tweaks to you actually.” Phee sighed in disappointment.
Dinky’s ears perked instantly. “Give me a centaur style body and you can do anything else you like!”
Phee squeed and clapped her hooves together. “I was actually going to do that! Then Taylor could ride on your back! It would be so cute!”
“Awesome!” Dinky giggled, then blushed deeply as she looked at me on her screen. “Er- rout this call to my room and let’s work out the details. You girls are a cute couple by the way!”
“But were not a couple.” Phee and I protested together.
“Sure you’re not!” Dinky laughed and waved into the camera. “Have a nice day Captain Heart! I’ll make sure to say hi when I’m an awesome centaur so you know what I look like!”
Her comm line went dead. I turned to Phoenix and chuckled. “That went well.”
“Talk later! I have a willing subject and free reign with my medical facilities!” Phoenix exclaimed with a huge grin as her avatar dissolved.
Something told me I had just created a dozen new problems to solve. Great.