Norrath, Earth, Equestria. A Construct's Journey

by Nimnul


First Impressions Still Hard

Celestia and Luna had both agreed that Ponyville would be a great place for Landshark to get to know more ponies. Even the diarchs appeared a bit cynical about Canterlot citizenry, it seemed. Landshark suspected Luna agreed to the Ponyville suggestion because Princess Twilight and her friends would easily be able to dismantle the construct if it turned on the ponies. She thought that most ponies would be able to do that. She had out-massed humans of similar size due to her greater density, but compared to them she had been of slight build and not particularly tall, so the average pony was still probably a match for her. A humanoid torso was comparatively smaller than an equine barrel. She had a great advantage in height, of course.

She turned the unfamiliar term over in her mind. She had never needed to talk about horses with anyone less ignorant than herself before, so she hadn't known that a barrel wasn't just something to store things in.

Landshark had no ill intentions, although having the great majority of her belongings stored at the fancy crystal palace in Princess Twilight's care did annoy her on a basic level. She wasn't going to complain about that, though. She had undergone a crash course in the basics of Equestrian culture and recent history at Celestia's palace to prepare her for moving out into the world, or at least Ponyville. That had been useful, but Landshark was still expecting to be socially inept because she had never just been a citizen.

Of course she expected that the knowledge she had been given access to was carefully selected. It was what she would have done after all. But at least she now knew what fetlocks and withers were. She hadn't been a horse person in the past.

The construct had been displaced wearing cargo pants, a hooded sweater, a windbreaker, and a large backpack. When not armored up, she preferred generic apparel, with at least one item of clothing providing pockets enough to store a range of minor charms and knick-knacks. Hoods were generally useful, as long as she kept her head down, she was usually able to move among humans without causing a scene. This was not going to be relevant in the future, she suspected.

She had also carried a selection of good luck charms and protective tokens to ward off magic. Amused unicorns had assured her that the great majority were completely useless, which had not surprised her. The reason she and her comrades had carried so many was because no one was sure which ones actually worked, if any. There had been few enough occasions to do empirical testing in a world nearly devoid of active magic. She hadn't needed magic equines to tell her that human magical artifice was woeful due to the extremely limited theoretical underpinnings. She'd contributed what knowledge she could, but her limited crafting talents required magical materials that weren't available, and she wasn't cleared to know whether the organization's crafters had been able to make substitutions.

It was all moot now, she supposed. She was trapped in a world of colorful ponies and was going to make the best of it. She hadn't expected or planned to retire, but perhaps it would help if she thought of it that way. No more fighting, just living out a quiet life among talking ponies. Her train of thought slowed to a stop. She wasn't convinced she could relate to civilians or ponies. But she also didn't have any way to compare human civilians to colorful ponies, really.

"Yoohoo! Anyone home? Are you wool-gathering or just in stand-by mode?"

Landshark blinked once, twice, then focused her eyes on the pink mare who had been frantically waving a hoof in front of her face. "Yes." She noticed awkward silence around her.

They had gathered in Twilight Sparkle's throne room to meet Landshark. There was even a 'Welcome to Ponyville' banner, along with some streamers and balloons. Landshark wasn't sure most of the six ponies, or the tiny dragon, considered this a party, but one of them must have. The pink one, if she remembered correctly, was the likely culprit. She swept her gaze over them. "I apologize. I wasn't listening, did you ask me anything?"

"We were trying to have an introduction, silly!" The pink mare bounced in a circle around the construct. "But I guess we already know your name since Twilight got a letter from Princess Celestia!"

The six mares exchanged glances. Landshark began to wonder how long she had zoned out. Finally, the one with the colorful mane spoke up, striking a pose in the process. "I'm Rainbow Dash! I'm the fastest pony alive!" Rainbow Dash grinned and gave the construct an appraising look. "Not to embarrass you, but how fast are you? I mean obviously you're not going to be nearly as fast as me but maybe you were good compared to others like you?"

Landshark looked at the pegasus and tapped her fingers against her chin. She noticed one or two of the other mares rolling their eyes at the question. "Well," she started. "My internal structure has been reinforced by steel, which might have slowed me down a little compared to my sisters of identical make and model. I'm not a short distance talent." She paused. "I'm a little faster than average organic beings of my size and build, I think. I can maintain my top speed for many hours. Days, even. If someone tires, I will beat them in a long race."

"That sounds cool!" Rainbow looked suitably impressed before catching herself. "I mean, that's pretty nice. Endurance is a quality all its own, I suppose. But I can keep going for longer than most ponies too, you know!"

The yellow pegasus made a noise of concern. "Doesn't it hurt to carry around all that extra metal?" She ducked her head. "Or cause other problems?" The idea of fixing metal to bones wasn't unfamiliar to Fluttershy, who knew more about treating injuries than her friends, but the thought was anything but pleasant to her. "Oh! I'm Fluttershy, by the way."

"I don't feel physical pain the way you do," Landshark explained. "It's just information." She put in the effort to sound friendly while talking to the timid pegasus. "I prefer to be intact but I don't mind taking a hit for someone who can actually hurt." She paused and twitched her jaw. "I can't smile like you would, but your concern is touching. Thank you. Sentiments like that are always appreciated."

Fluttershy ducked her head nervously, but offered a smile. "You're welcome."

Applejack shook her head. "'Course you don't get tired or feel pain. Ya'll aren't real alive. A machine. Like that cider squeezin' machine a while back." She didn't sound impressed. "And we remember how that turned out, right girls?"

Landshark gave the stetson wearing pony a blank look, then tilted her head. "I don't know what you mean by that, Miss, but I like to think I'm pretty good at being alive." The sentiment expressed by Applejack wasn't anything new to Landshark. "Kick a hole through my chest or pull my limbs off, I'll still be just as alive. And you can glue me back together too." She wondered briefly if this world had already invented epoxy resins. "Yep, good at being alive. Or at least stubborn about it."

Some of the ponies present looked uncomfortable with Applejack's statement, or perhaps the construct's words, but Twilight mostly looked barely able to contain excitement. "Could that be true? Are you a thinking machine?" She paused and got a far away look before continuing. "Are you a learning machine? Oh, I can hardly imagine how that would work. You could digest input using some kind of Markolt chain approach and tag everything in some sort of internal database of tags and probabilities for later use! If you tag based on positive sentiments using tone of voice and facial expressions..." She trailed off briefly.

"That sort of tagging must be fussy but if you evaluate enough situations correctly over a long enough span of time you'd get pretty close to properly interacting with ponies! Is that how you can function in a normal setting? Making approximations based on hundreds or thousands of previous interactions? The technical challenge alone ... it'd be a logical nightmare even if you had the technology to do it!" By now she was frantically scribbling notes onto a piece of parchment.

Landshark slowly scratched her head. It seemed like the thing to do. She was just as confused as the other beings in the room looked. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not a simulated intelligence. I have a soul. It seems the boring answer is that it is magic. I have no physical brain, technological or organic. A god crafted my sisters and me."

Princess Twilight seemed briefly disappointed, but then smiled ruefully. "Ah, well, sorry for getting carried away. I couldn't imagine how all the machinery needed for what I described would fit on a being of your size anyway. You'll have to tell me more about yourself later." She shot Applejack a slightly disapproving glance before continuing. "So, how are you feeling...non-physically?"

Landshark emitted a small sigh. "I am feeling a little adrift, exiled as I am in a foreign nation, an alien world. I will miss my job and my comrades." She made a fist to pound it into her palm. The sound served to remind that her outer shell was ceramic of some type. "I do not know how your people handle loss, but it steels my will! I am curious what the future holds."

She seemed to surprise the assembled mares by gesturing up at the banner. "Is this supposed to be a party? Are there more people invited?" She made sure to sound eager.

"Well, no," Twilight admitted. "We thought it would be best not to overwhelm you or anything."

"Besides," the unicorn without wings spoke up for the first time. "would you really want to make a public appearance dressed like this? Whoever last mended your clothing did a simply dreadful job of it!"

Landshark looked down at herself. She had actually been pretty impressed when she had found her clothes intact. Magically mended by unicorns, she had been told. She wasn't precisely sure what this particular unicorn was seeing now. "I don't see what you mean. I'm surprised they were fixed so well." She shrugged and snapped her jaws. "A less obvious job than I could have done with needle and thread. The jacket would have been beyond my skills to save anyway."

Landshark paused and locked eyes with Rarity, who shifted slightly in discomfort. The doll-like face didn't change, but the stare still seemed to feel intense. "So, this is your field of expertise, Miss?"

Rarity couldn't resist looking pleased, despite the disquiet she felt at being the focus of the construct's attention. "Rarity, my dear. My creations have been worn by some of the most prominent ponies in the whole of Equestria. Beauty is my talent, you know."

"Excellent." Landshark put real enthusiasm into her voice. "One day I may be one of your customers. If I settle in somewhere close enough." She nodded. "I have no physical needs, but I do enjoy whatever luxuries I have the senses to appreciate, Miss Rarity."

"Oh my," Rarity smiled and touched a hoof to her chest. "I do suspect we may get along quite well, given the chance, Miss Landshark."

The construct nodded once more before picking up a previous thread of the conversation again. "Princess, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm a social creature, I would not have minded a crowd." It would have been a good way to get a quick impression of which ponies would give her the time of day and treat her as a person, and for which she would be too weird to deal with, after all. "Besides, I'd like to make new friends and, without wanting to offend, I'd like to meet members of your society that aren't personal friends with royalty."

"Ohohoh! Are you a party machine?" The pink one bounced up and down in excitement. "And see? I told everyone we should have a big party but noo, everyone had to be a bunch of sticks in the mud."

"That is not my primary function," Landshark stated in droning monotone before chuckling. "At my old job there was a nasty rumor going about that I once willingly skipped a party, but I assure you, there was no basis to it. You throw a party, I'm there if I am physically capable of attending." She paused. "I am exaggerating, of course. Emergencies happen."

"YAY!" The pink pony blew into a noisemaker, then reared up and rested her forelegs on the construct's shoulders. "We're going to be the best of friends with an attitude like that! I'm Pinkie Pie, you know! I'm the foremost authority on throwing parties in Equestria. Perhaps the world!"

Landshark was glad that Pinkie was happy. She really was. But the pony wasn't all that light and was putting a noticeable amount of weight against her. The construct took a step back before crashing backwards, sitting on the ground. There was a cracking noise that caused the assembled mares to express concern. "Just a crack in my shell. It'll mend." She shook her head. "I'm afraid you should handle me with care." Should she be this weak? It was a magical world, she could sense that, and she hoped that in time she might return to her old strength, before the human world had diminished her to a barely superhuman level.

"Oops! I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm super duper sorry, Shark!" Pinkie seemed upset. "I just thought that would be a great way to hug someone on two legs because with ponies you kind of need to tell someone beforehand you want to go chest to chest but I guess I should have warned you too."

Landshark reached out and patted Pinkie's head before she stood up smoothly "I've been hit harder during rowdy parties, don't worry about it. As long as my joints aren't damaged I don't care." She paused. "It will be strange to not be stronger than anyone I meet." She wasn't totally sure about this, but earth ponies were supposed to be rather strong.

"You really don't care about being damaged?" It was the first time the tiny dragon had actually spoken up. "I mean, dragon scales are pretty tough but I still wouldn't like to get banged up."

Having only just stood up, Landshark squatted down to be closer to Spike's height before answering. "As I said, I don't feel pain, and I don't need my skin to be pristine to function. I care about real damage. I could have tried harder to support Pinkie's hug, but I was concerned my joints would give out, and that would take time to fix and hinder me. So I let myself fall." She shrugged. She hadn't wanted to put the recent repair job to the test already. "It's important to know when to yield, if you're like me. My joints are not reinforced. Not precisely fragile, but I must be aware of how much they can stand." She paused in thought. "I do not need air, food, or water. I do not physically tire in any fashion. Give me about eight hours of rest a week and two-year check-ups, I'll go on for ever." She chuckled. "I once had to spend a few hours walking along the sea floor after going overboard. I'm a little too heavy to swim. Quite an ordeal!"

"Wow, that sounds awesome! I mean, being able to stay under water forever and all. You could be a super hero or something." Spike grinned. He was an imaginative kid, after all. The idea of an unstoppable robot was exciting.

"Yeah, Ah can see how that's real useful," Applejack nodded. "Ya don't seem like much of a party animal to me, but I guess Ah only just got to know ya." She eyed the construct warily. It didn't sit right with her at all. She considered herself a good judge of character but she wasn't getting much from the machine. "So what do ya do at parties?" This thing seemed dead inside. It seemed like an automaton, trying to act like as if it was alive. The effect was unsettling. There was something in everything it did that was just a little bit off, even though Applejack didn't even know what species this thing was emulating.

Landshark stood up again and shrugged while turning her palms up, indicating confusion. "What do I do? I participate. I don't get to enjoy food or drink but parties are more than that. I'm sure your foremost party authority here can tell you that much." She snapped her jaws. "When you're as confident as I am, you don't need alcohol to make an entertaining fool of yourself." She looked around as if checking for eavesdroppers. "Don't tell the cops but I'm a fair hand at various sorts of illicit liquors, so I guess I can contribute, as well."

She sounded almost wistful. "We once spent like three month stationed out in the frozen tundra with nothing to do but kill time and guard some do-nothing installation. Someone in logistics kept pinching the alcohol from our shipments so we started fermenting fruit juice into hooch just so the lads would have something to drink. We started trading with the eggheads, turns out they'd set up a still to cook up whiskey from corn starch." She laughed quietly. "Learning experience all around. Nothing helps being accepted like free alcohol, it seems."

Landshark started poorly imitating voices to make her point. "Hey, you guys got stuck with one of those Outsiders on the team? She on the level? Can we even trust her if she's an alien?" She changed her pitch. "Oy, lay off'er, bruv. She's a pal and no mistake. Plus, she whipped up that bathtub gin everyone's drinking, know what I'm sayin'?" "Ah, can't be too bad then I guess." Landshark shrugged, returning to her normal tone of voice. "It's an icebreaker."

Rainbow Dash laughed. "Hah, I guess you've had to deal with eggheads too, huh? Twilight here is one of the best of those, trust me. But you probably won't need to brew up booze for anyone, AJ here and Berry Punch, one of the locals, got the market pretty covered." She paused. "Change of topic, but you don't seem real broke up about being stuck here with all your friends left behind. You sure you're okay?"

"Good question." Applejack nodded slowly. "Do ya make friends like ponies do or do ya just do things ta get along with 'em better, like the booze thing?"

"That's NOT what I was getting at!" Rainbow Dash glowered at Applejack. She definitely had not intended to question the weird construct's loyalty to her old comrades, and she did not want anyone to think so, either. Rainbow Dash was often rude, in her own way, but that had seemed downright insulting. Rainbow Dash had plenty of experience doing or saying thoughtless things herself, and this instance was easy to spot.

Landshark's arms dropped to her sides. The implication had been quite upsetting. She stood still as a statue, ceasing all the little shifts and shuffles and other movements she used to seem alive and people generally only noticed once they were absent. She snapped her jaws shut with great force, startling the ponies, before opening them just enough to speak. She put all the frost she was capable of into her voice. "I'll thank you to watch your tone regarding this topic."

She was a little too detached to get truly angry at regular folks, really, but she was upset and wanted to nip this in the bud, so she made use of the fact that she had full control of voice. She added venomous disdain. "It's not for civilians to question whether I was truly loyal to my brothers and sisters in arms." She suddenly snorted, a loud, angry noise, something one would expect from an angry bull. "I have always tried to take the brunt of the enemy's punishment without complaining so that my friends might survive and thrive. I've led the charge, no matter how strong, how numerous, how frightening or how deadly the enemy was. They could try to pin me down, weaken me with magic, or try to leave me bleeding out, hah. No matter how dire the effect, I would find a way to shake it off and defend my people."

She paused for effect, flattening her voice to droning monotone. "Of course, I could not protect all of them. I have to continue knowing that others died and I lived. Not my fault, right? I did not kill them. The enemy did. I have to continue knowing that attacks that may have merely slowed me down have destroyed the lives of my people." Landshark now put real loathing into her voice. "Never, and I mean never, presume to speak to me of this again, Miss Applejack."

She sighed, sounding tired. "And now they will think me dead. Inscribe my name in a vault somewhere among the other fallen. I can't be with them any longer, but I would not be true to myself and the people I served with if I did not hold my head high and tackle this new life with an open mind and optimism. Put me where you will, there I stand."

She rammed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "I appreciate your concern, Rainbow Dash. But as I said, loss steels my will. Adversity cannot touch me. It is now my duty to be the person my friends came to trust. I can't let this situation change me for the worse." She strode towards the exit. "Goodnight ladies, Spike. We will speak later, Princess."

Applejack had listened, of course. And she supposed she had been out of line. But she couldn't feel strongly about it. Listening to the construct seemed to leave no particular impression on her. An essential component was missing. It didn't seem really real. "Looks like she was wound up tighter'n a pig's tail, huh?"


Landshark was not heading in any particular direction, or even very far from Princess Twilight's castle. Most of her belongings were there, after all. She was simply walking. However, she soon decided to stop. She had not been in town for very long, it would be prudent to stay near the castle in case a local citizen grew concerned by her presence. She'd then be able to refer them to the Princess.

She was vaguely surprised about how upset she was. Before she could consider the matter further, she heard the sound of wingbeats and the sounds of hooves connecting with pavement as a pegasus alighted near her. She turned her head. It was Rainbow Dash.

"Hey," the pegasus started. "You know Applejack didn't mean to upset you so much, right?"

Landshark tilted her head and considered this. "Probably true, she did not start talking intending to upset me. But I don't think it bothers her one way or the other. I know her, I know her type. She doesn't see beings like me as people." She paused, raised a hand and scratched one of her eyes with a fingertip. "Why'd you come after me?"

Rainbow Dash had frowned, but did not deny Landshark's assessment. Now she shrugged. "You know I'm like, the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, right? I mean we're not wearing the fancy gear anymore but it's still kind of true."

Landshark nodded. "Sure. I've seen you on stained glass windows. And now you're compelled to make sure your friend isn't in trouble with me, huh? No worries. Impulsively lashing out is never the right solution. I'll get my own back in a manner that is calm and levelheaded." She snapped her jaws. "Joking aside, she's no one to me. Her words should not touch me."

"Well, I mean she wore Element of Honesty and her family owns Sweet Apple Acres, so she's kind of a big deal around here I guess." Rainbow Dash frowned. "But no, that's not what it's about. I guess I just wanted to say that I get you, kinda. I didn't really listen to the whole thing when Twi explained it but you don't want anyone to try and get you home because your bosses are real twitchy about ... other worlds, I guess. But it also means you can't be around your friends anymore and take hits for them, right?" The pegasus ran a hoof through her mane. "So you're loyal to your job and you know your friends are too but you can't be real loyal to them personally and it sucks. Am I right or what?"

Landshark thought this over. Rainbow Dash was mostly right, but the construct had not expected her to be so perceptive after her initial questions had been about how fast Landshark could run. She was just as prone to snap judgement as anyone else, after all. "Pretty much right except for details. I'd already stopped going out in the field regularly a couple of years back. My new job also helped keep people save, indirectly. I think I started worrying about that back then. Anyone could learn to do my new job, I thought, but few people were as resilient as I was. Your friend just pushed buttons you lot didn't know were there."

"Well, did you do a good job of it?"

"We did. No more supply shipments someone had picked through ahead of time. Fewer corners cut on new equipment purchases. Better communication, better coordination. More accountability for people in command." Landshark squared her shoulders and spoke with enthusiasm. "It was a lot of work, but we made the organization better, and it made things better for the grunts on the ground as well." She shifted her weight, shuffling awkwardly. "I am sorry to be vague, but I can't help it."

"Well," Rainbow Dash reasoned. "I'm a mare of action, obviously. But I can totally see how the things you say got fixed in your new line of work are really important for folks doing the hard work. I mean, the Wonderbolts need their sweet uniforms too. And..." She paused. "All sorts of other important things I wouldn't want to worry about? That ended up coming out pretty lame."

Landshark had to chuckle. "Look, you're clumsy at this and you don't know much about me, but you're concerned for me and you think about me like I'm real and that's great. Kind sentiments are all I really need." She gestured back towards the castle. "Just between you and me, though. I'm not so good with authority. I'm more drawn to the folks living or serving under the authority."

"Yeah I get what you're saying, but Twi hasn't been a princess for long, she likes to ask people to treat her normal-like." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "She kinda earned it, I think. More than all those Canterlot nobles anyway. Almost as much as I earned all my adoring fans!" She struck a dashing pose, then turned serious again. "Don't suppose you see yourself patching things up with AJ, then?"

Landshark shifted her weight and ran a hand through her hair. "I won't make an issue of it. Plenty of ponies in the world, no need to worry about the ones who just see a fancy puppet that thinks it's real. Waste of effort to try and change their minds. Folks like that, they'll come around or they won't." She twitched her jaw. "Look. I'm a machine to you, I get it. That's what I am. Some folks just don't grant me a Who, and that's fair enough. Let's not worry about it."

Rainbow Dash wasn't entirely happy to leave it at that, but sighed in resignation. "If you're sure. She's stubborn, but I bet she'll come around eventually. You know, unless you really do turn out to be trouble. Then we'll all kick your flank!"

"Yes, well. Obviously. Once again, I really do appreciate your concern. But don't strain your friendship by advocating for me. I'll get along fine." Landshark twitched her jaw and made sure to sound optimistic. "I'll finish my walk. Please tell Princess Twilight I'll be back later." Without waiting for a response, the construct strode off again.

Rainbow Dash was not really sure what it was that Applejack saw to make her act like a jerk to the construct. But the pegasus did take note of how Landshark moved. There was little life in that. It was like watching a door open and close. Her walk cycle was always the same and always without error. Only during conversation did the being appear really alive. She shrugged the thought away and returned to the castle.