"Connor! Isn't it great?!" I heard Celestia's voice cheer, as I sat at the dining table, gulping down a few cups of Phazon.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, as my body got rid of the temporary blue eyes, and replaced them with my usual electric yellow. Celestia threw a newspaper over to me, which I caught, and unfurled, before reading.
All Major Illnesses Cured! Pony Plus, the Future of Ponykind!
A company that only showed up a month ago, Pony Plus, has since made groundbreaking work as they worked nonstop to help Ponykind. They've recently released the cures for every single major disease that has plagued our kind for generations. With the cures being spread to ponies world-wide, especially with incredibly cheap prices, we might be close to becoming immortal. In a recent interview with the CEO of this futuristic company, we learned about the pony behind all of this. The pony's name? Dr. Benevolent.
Dr Benevolent: "I believe that by science, ponies as a species can greatly advanced than the measly amount we've advanced by just using magic. Technology is the future."
You've read it yourself, loyal followers! This company does not use magic in any way, shape, or form, and instead uses the relatively new idea of electricity to power it's entire operations.
Find out more on the next issue of Canterlot Daily!
I blinked in surprise, before quickly rereading the newspaper. "I know! Isn't it great?!" Celestia said, as she noticed my shocked expression.
I stood up, and slammed the paper against the table. "I don't buy it. No way a company that is only using electricity can develop all of these cures, especially without magic and the actual technology needed to make the cures. You ponies have just now started building room-sized computers!"
Celestia was shocked by my reaction. "Are you sure you're just not jealous? My little ponies are starting to take away one of things that made you seem so much higher than everypony, and you don't want them to have that?" She said with a big smile.
"I'm not jealous, it's... you know what? Screw this overused plot line. I'm just going to go and prove my suspicions." I took another look at the paper, specifically the part that tells me that the main building is in Manehatten. "Now, time to meet the good doctor."
I promptly fell over onto the floor, laughing at what I just said. "'Good doctor! Oh man, that's funny!"
"I don't get it? Why is it funny?" Celestia asked confused.
"Because the CEO's name is Benevolent, which means good. So, basically with his title, it's saying his a good doctor, if you look at it a certain way." I got to my feet, and grabbed a full pie, before gulping it down. "Well, time to get going." I jumped into the air, before flying at the ceiling, and phazing through it. While I was quickly flying to Manehatten, my brain decided to play some music.
"...Highway to hell. I'm on the highway to hell. On the highway to hell." I started singing under my breath, as I quickly arrived in Manehatten, and found the large building with the words 'Pony Plus' in bright neon letters on the side of it. I smirked, as I landed in front of the main doorway, shocking all the ponies nearby.
I gave them a non-threatening wave, and some of them waved back, before I entered the building, and felt the familiar feeling of air conditioning hitting me. 'That's something I haven't felt for a long time.' I walked up to the reception desk, noticing the lack of security guards nearby.
I rang the bell, and the mare at the desk turned around in her swivel chair (one of the bestest inventions EVAR!), before looking at my torso. "Yes, how may I hel..." Her gaze moved upwards to my face, before she fell to the ground, and started bowing, even though she was behind a desk. "I'm sorry for not noticing you, your highness! Please forgive me!"
"Rise." I said, and the pony did. "I'm here to see Dr. Benevolent. Is he in? We happen to be old friends." The mare quickly nodded, and pointed to an elevator on the left wall.
"Go to the 25th floor. You'll know where to go from there." She stated nervously. I blinked, surprised at the sudden silence, and walked over to the elevator, before pushing the 25th floor button. 'Huh, 30 floors? Then why have an office on the 25th floor? Oh, it's in case of an aerial attack. That makes sense.'
As I was waiting in the elevator, a blast from the past came up. 'Please don't have stupid sliding floors.' The elevator dinged, and I quickly stepped out, only to be surrounded by ponies (actually robots in disguise) pointing laser rifles at my head. I noticed the purple lights glowing in them, and decided to not attack.
"Come with us." The most gruffy 'pony' said. I gave him a glare, and started following them down a hallway, until we reached a massive door. The lead pony knocked on it, before a voice was heard from inside
"Come in." I instantly recognized the voice, and as we entered the room, I looked straight at the backside of the chair sitting behind the desk. "Why Connor, so nice for you to join us."
"You said the exact same thing first time I met you. Cut the crap Malicious." I said, as I crossed my arms. "Now, why are you curing all these diseases? You know as well as I do that the future of the ponies revolves around magic and technology working together, so why are you trying to get rid of the need of magic?"
"I could ask you the same question. You hate magic as much as I do. I want to get rid of magic in this world. Much like what happened in both of our respective home universes. Besides, I REALLY want payback for this!" He spun his chair around, and I took a step back in surprise. He looked radically different than he used to. Which makes sense when you think about what happened to him the first time I met him, and the last time he met me. His head was slightly deformed, most likely from when I fractured his skull, he had huge tufts of hair missing, his skin was mostly red and peeling from burn marks, and I could barely see some messed up stuff on his torso underneath his shirt. He was also missing an entire leg, and a few fingers. But they were all replaced with metal parts similar to my own, but much more human-designed than mine (I made mine with the sciences of countless different races).
"Holy crap! You actually healed from most of that damage? You're lucky to be alive! I thought you died after activating that bomb!" I yelled, surprised. I honestly expected him to look a lot worse, considering that he was caught in an explosion the first time I encountered him.
Malicious was surprised by my response, before he chuckled a bit. "Well, after I activated the bomb, and fell down, I passed out, then...
My eyes shoot open, and I start breathing heavily. I looked around my surrounding area, and notice I seemed to be in some sort of hospital, with all kinds of scientific instruments along the sides. Then, the pain kicked in. I involuntarily screamed as loud as I could, and I managed to raise my head enough to see my body. My right leg was cut off, and the stub was bandaged, and most of my body was wrapped in casts. I tried moving my hands and fingers, and I realized I couldn't feel some of them.
"Calm down boss!" I heard a familiar voice yell out, and the brown-feathered eye-patch griffon entered the room, before walking up to my bed, and pressing a few buttons, and I felt the pain dissipate. With the pain gone, I started to think clearly.
"Connor. Where is he?" I said, gritting my teeth together.
"I'm sorry, but Connor survived. Just barely too. His heart stopped, and he crashed into the planet, but his pony friends managed to restart it." He pressed a few more buttons, that I couldn't see. "Now, here's an important question. Do you want to receive metal prosthetics?"
I sighed, and laid my head back down. 'If I get metal appendages, I'll be more like him. That monster took me away from everything!' "Give me some metal limbs, but make sure they look nothing like Connor's. I want you to only use human tech and no magic."
The griffon (I really got to find out his name) saluted. "Yes sir! I'll let the doctors and scientists know right away!"
I stopped him before he could go too far. "Make sure they make a temporary model. I'll be creating a more permanent design myself." The griffon nodded, before leaving the room. I looked around, noticing how there was no one else in the room, before quickly reaching over to my ruined clothes, and pulling over my over-shirt. "Come on, please be there."
I felt inside one of the hidden pockets, and pulled out a slightly singed folded piece of paper. I quickly unfolded it, being careful not to rip it, and looked into the picture. 'It's still okay. The edges are a bit singed, but the picture is still good. I looked deeply into the picture, before closing my eyes, remembering when the picture was taken.
A tear drop fell onto the face of the woman in the picture, and rolled down, eventually sliding down a picture of a young child, before finally falling off the picture.
"So, why did you use metal prosthetics? Why not just use cellular regeneration? I know your tech is advanced enough for it." Right as I said that, Malicious' jaw dropped.
Malicious sighed, before face palming. "This world's idiocy is slowly affecting me."
"So, how did you know I was coming?" I asked, gesturing to the ponies standing around me, and Malicious looked up, before snapping, and the ponies turned into humanoid robots.
"I spy on you." He stated. "Now, I imagine you want to know the reason why Creatures for the Destruction of Ponies decided to help create Pony Plus?" I raised an eyebrow. "Well, you know how much I like monologuing, so I'll take this time to tell you my master plan."
"You put some kind of virus, nano-machine more likely, in the medicine, which would most likely kill the ponies that take it. If not kill, then take control of." I said with a smug smile, as his jaw dropped again. Before he could even ask, I spoke up again. "It's the kind of thing I'd expect from you."
"Well then, would you expect THIS!" He yelled, as he pressed a button on his desk, and I quickly looked down, expecting the floor to give-way, but while I was looking down, the robots around me grabbed a hold of me.
"Well, that was unexpected. I kinda thought you would have gone for the falling floor trick." I tried to move my arm, only to find that it wouldn't budge. "Huh, you're using Cosmic Energy now? Explains why I can't escape. So, what are you going to do now? Slowly pull me apart?"
"Nah, I was thinking, something like this." He smiled, as one of the robots kicked me in the spine, breaking it, before putting their hand against my back, and using their cosmic energy to stop my regeneration.
"GAH!" I screamed in pain. While my kind are made out of Cosmic Energy, we can use our energy to give us physical forms, and while I don't need my spine, it still HURTS! I spat out some blood on the floor, before chuckling. "Is that all you got? I take more damage from falling off a cliff."
"I'm not done yet." With a semi-audible humming sound, all the robots glowed purple, before sending the purple energy straight into me, causing me to scream as the new energy fought with my body's energy. "Have a fun trip." He pushed another button, and the robots let go of me, only for me to fall through a hole in the floor.
"I KNEW IT!" I yelled, as I fell down the tunnel, and it closed above me. As I fell, I quickly picked up speed (no idea why my body does that, but I pick up speed really fast while falling, and don't even have a terminal velocity. My body quickly started to repair itself after getting rid of the foreign cosmic energy, and I felt my spine crack back into place, just in time for me to splat against the ground, cartoon character style.
'I think I am quite a ways below the building.' I thought, as my arms inflated, and they pushed against the ground, allowing me to remove my head from the ground, and it too inflated, before I managed to get back to my feet, and crack my repaired back. "That always hurts, but it's always so much fun!"
I looked around, noticing the room was dark, before the lights turned on, and the hole above me closed up. I appeared to be in a grey and white room, which was rather sizable, so I should be expecting a fight. High up on one of the walls across the room was a window, where I could see scientists examining me.
"Welcome Connor, to the very first test of our latest machine." A small part of the ceiling in front of me opened up, and a small metal box fell down, impacting the ground, before the hole closed up. "Now, let's see how you fare against this machine."
The box quickly started growing, as appendages grew out of them, until it started to resemble a humanoid robot. As it took on a more defined shape, I heard a faint humming coming from inside it, as I sensed it starting to generate Cosmic Energy. I heard several more clicks coming from inside it, as it was building itself internally as well. After building the body, which I realized looked a lot like mine, complete with robotic vest and t-shirt (both had a faded color of my clothes), it started defining my face, which caused me to gasp, as I realized it's face looked exactly like mine, except robotic, and the eyes were glowing red.
"Now introducing the Robo-Connor! It's designed to combat you, and we've made it faster, stronger, and better in every way, shape, or form than you!" I heard Malicious yell on the intercom.
I took a step back in surprise, as a memory came to the surface. "How did you make this! I thought I destroyed the schematics last time I attacked your base?!"
The Robo-Connor took my distracted moment to attack me.