As the night falls, bringing the rain with it, I watch the city of Manehatten and its citizens open their black shields of fabric, protecting them from the water that descends down from the sky. As the rain continues to downpour, I can feel the change in the temperature rapidly decrease as the night goes on. The clock behind me should read about 10:00 at night, but I refuse to look as I keep a watchful eye down on this city. The city that had gutters full of blood of the innocent, rights that had been trampled on and wrongfully stolen property that could change forever, and sins from the monsters of the past who had caused those deaths.
And, unfortunately, I later found that I had become one...
It isn't until I hear the sudden bell of the elevator that I am drawn from my thoughts and into the world of the present. From the frame of the elevator comes a pony, with a mane as black as coal and a coat that is as grey as the clouds above.
I dare not look at her. She knows what had transpired here on this night. The event that had changed my life, and the event that I knew I would never be able to go back to what I had considered a 'normal' life.
"Astra..." She begins, "Manehatten Police Commissioner Igneous and his partner are here. They wish to speak to you downstairs."
I'm not at all surprised that the Commissioner and his partner are here, rather I had expected they would come. But part of me believes they're here for discussion about the event. That, or they wished to speak about a disobedience among the members of the mafia. Either way, I'm glad she isn't going to make me discuss this yet.
"Very well... Please let them know I will arrive in a short time." I say, monotone, hoping that she knows that I don't wish to speak anymore then I need to for now. It appears as though she is about to leave, however, before she enters the elevator, she turns back to me.
"Astra."
Damn...
"Yes, Octavia?"
"Once this is over, I expect you to come home. You need rest."
I turn my head to see Octavia in my peripherals, opening my mouth to argue against it, but finding no words coming out of my mouth, nor any coming to mind.
Perhaps she's right, I think to myself.
"Okay... I will." I say, giving her the magic answer she wished for to go into the elevator and leave.
It's a beautiful night...
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5 years earlier
***************************************
"Hey! Hurry up Astra with that compound! We're gonna need it if we're going to finish this!"
"Alright! Alright! I'm almost there!" I scream down the hall as I carry the compound we need to finish this experiment in a carful manor to avoid having to go back and grab another.
Or worse... The compound having an unstable reaction once it is freed from its metal chamber. Resulting in cataclysmic events that I would rather not think about.
As I walk into the room, I barely get a look at the mare's face before I have to keep my concentration on the tube of energized magic, but I get enough of a look at her to see the smile on her face and the look of pure determination in her perfect blue eyes. What I would give in order to see her like this everyday...
"This is so exciting! Equestria's very first cyborg is coming right out of this laboratory center! All of our research has been leading up to this moment!!" She exclaims, now beaming like a filly or colt who had just received their cutie mark for the special talent they display. "I'm counting on it Minuette, we can't have another disappointment like last time." I reply as I carefully place the energized magic into the frame of the android itself. With one last firm push, the tube is placed into the frame, a few beeps coming from the machine in response to the tube entering and filling the frame with power. "Alright, it appears as though we're ready to go. Would you like the honor?" I ask as I trot to the side of Minuette and extend my right arm to her, the controls to the cyborg in my hoof.
Eagerly, Minuette takes the controller from my hoof and leads us off behind the blast wall. The smile on her face never dims as she stares at the robot's frame behind the glass. "In three..." She begins as she envelopes two pairs of goggles, placing one pair on herself and the other on myself.
"Two..." She says excitingly as she turns the key in the controller, watching it spark to life along with the robot, a big red button indicating a direct communication between it and the robot. Gently she works her hoof to the button that will activate either a scientific revolution, or jump start us to restart the entire experiment. Her hoof now resting on it, Minuette motions for me to place my hoof on top of her own, to which I gladly take the opportunity to do so.
"One!" We say together as we activate the robot and watch as it's brilliant lights come to life in a blue hue. The light makes its way to the eyes, and I find myself on the verge of tears as I watch the eyes come to life in the same blue hue as the lights adorning it's beautiful metallic frame. This is it... I think to myself as I continue to watch this spectacle unfold in front of my eyes.
But the spectacular sight comes to an end as signs of an immediate threat comes to the surface in the form of a black smoke rising from the body of our creation.
"Uh... Minuette... Should that be happening...?" I ask extremely concerned and afraid in an almost whisper tone, as the smoke begins to rise. I try to turn my head from this, but to no avail, and instead opt to face her through the peripherals of my eyes.
She looks just as concerned. Terrified.
"Minuette..." I say as the smoke continues to fill the room, the only signs of our project being the dimly fading lights on its body. However as on cue, I quickly realize what is about to come next.
"Minuette, get down!" I exclaim, breaking from the trance of the smoke and tackling Minuette to the ground. It appears as though I respond appropriately as I watch the head of the robot fly through the blast window and into the wall. The cyborg's head hitting the wall with a metallic clank, pieces of debris flying from it in all directions as its charred heads hits the wall and floor.
Simultaneously, we both raise our heads to see the carnage that had unfolded before us. Rising up from the ground, I begin to make my way to the place our creation had once stood. As the smoke cleared, I was afraid to see what had become of it, but I had already anticipated what I would see next...
The android itself was in almost complete disrepair. It's right foreleg was blown straight off, resulting in a great big hole where it's arm should have been. As expected, the head as well suffered greatly, as half of the neck had been remains and a gap had been open as well. It laid on its side, like a dead animal after a predator had finished cleaving it of its meat and left it to the insects to do as they pleased with the carcass.
"Son of a bitch!!" I had exclaimed, throwing a loose piece at the wall, watching it ricochet off the wall and hit a near by tool case. I was angry. Extremely so. Nearly eight to ten months of work and funding for a pathetic conversational piece. I wanted to cry, scream, hit, and swear all at the same time, but I couldn't. And even if I could, it would serve me no good, aside from venting my anger out.
"Damn..." I heard Minuette say behind me as her magic aura enveloped what was left of the head. Two halves and its jaw were floating in the air, enveloped by her blue hue, it's left eye attempting to spark any form of light, but to no avail, and thus it shut off completely. She was almost as upset as I was, something that never happened...
"I don't even know where we would BEGIN to rebuild this..."
"We can't. Not with anything here at least... There's practically nothing to salvage..." I say, cooling down as much as possible from this embarrassing loss. "Not even the energized magic?"
"I'm certain it will either be destabilized, extremely dangerous, or burned out. My knowledge of something like energized magic isn't my specialty." I say begrudgingly, kicking myself for not taking the class offering subjects like that.
"Let's just both go home and rest on this..." Minuette says after a moment of silence for the fallen. "When we get back, we'll see what went wrong. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out and get this fixed."
"Maybe..." I say, my concentration still on the cyborg, more or less what is left of it. With a nod in agreement, Minuette begins to trot out of the science wing, but takes a look back at me, and immediately trots over to me. Though most of my concentration is on the carcass, not all of it is specifically reserved for it as I can feel the blue unicorn wrap her forearms around me in a warm embrace as she lays her head upon my neck.
Time stands still as she rest on me. Her warm body though keeping the rage in me going also gives me a refreshing feeling of hope. "It'll be okay..." She says to me in a whisper before placing a small kiss on the back of my head. This is what I have wanted now for the past year I have worked here, just her and I together with one another's company, mostly seeing how most have left home. Maybe she is right, maybe things will get better.
"Thank you, Minuette..." I say as my wing comes up to her hoof, giving it a comforting squeeze of both affection and genuine sincerity.
"Your welcome. Good night Dr. Aqueduct..."
And with that, Minuette's warm body leaves my own and proceeds to walk out of the laboratory, taking whatever warmth was left with her.
I continue to sit and watch the android, thinking of different ways that I could possibly have avoided this, but finding that nothing immediately comes to mind. So instead, I begin to search for a clock, and low and behold, I find one outside of the lab in the hall. It simply reads 10:36 at night, though I had expected it to be much later than that. Quickly checking the android one last time, I decide to throw a simple tarp over it and get home soon.
My body and mind are too tired to deal with this anyways.
On the way out, I am greeted by the ponies and stallions I call my peers and mates, some of whom attempt to ask me about the android, others who wished me a goodnight, and mostly those who had genuinely asked how my entire day was. Though my day did go to hell, I simply decided to nod and say fine, often ending the conversations completely with that.
As I walk out of the building, the cold winds begin to blow harder and harder. Winter is coming more quickly than I thought it would. With a jacket strapped on me, I find the closest thing to a grocery story and pick up anything I made need for a dinner tonight.
In this case, a simple salad...
With my dinner in tow, I quickly return home to the residential district of Manehatten, thankfully not too far from my place of work, and enter my fairly large apartment. The dinner I have acquired may have been cold, but it was tasty nonetheless and served a fairly adequate meal, though in retrospect, I didn't think too much of it due to the thought of the android on my mind. There has to be a way to fix it, I think to myself, or at least a way for me to have avoided it.
The failed android seems to be a recurring monster to me, seeing as how I find myself waking up more times than not that night because of it. Dreams of it actually working but it becoming a deadly creature hell bent on destroying Equestria, or worse, dreams of the head coming through and killing the mare I care for. The dreams only seem to end as soon as I wake, but some of them, far fetched or not, actually do affect me. Both psychologically and physically.
One thing that definitely did stay, however, was my constant need to fix it. I needed to...