Chapter 11 : Reboot
"Baaaaahh!" The goat rolled its eyes to and fro, taking in the countryside with its head stuck out of the vehicle's window.
Stephanie fumed quietly, steering with one hand and holding a leash she'd slapped onto Jeffrey with the other. "Alright buster, you had your fun, now be a good boy and calm down."
The goat craned its head around and back inside out of the rushing wind in order to stare at Stephanie. It blinked slowly with one eye, then the other, and proceeded to lunge up to the front seat to bite part of the woman's shirt.
Stephanie reacted too slow. "Gah! Hey, drop it! Out out out!"
Moving the fearsome goat back with one arm was a little difficult, but she managed with only a minor swerving. Her opponent bahed back in objection. "Dangit, Jeff. In hindsight I really should have named you Discord, you little sh—"
The weather outside was beautiful and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky. The day was really shaping up to be what many would call picturesque.
Steph's van crunched over the gravel driveway, coming to a stop parallel the wooden fence that encircled a good portion of her house's property. Now parked, Stephanie led Jeffrey—mostly by dragging—back towards his pen, where he was safely secured again and making presumably happy goat sounds in short order.
"Well, there's my exercise for the day." Steph exhaled and leaned on a fence post for a much needed breather. Heaving a goat across a corn field, into a van, then back to its pen had taken the wind out of her sails, to put it lightly. Not that she had possessed much wind the last couple days, anyway.
"Now I just need to stay on my toes with a certain other four-legged headache." Stephanie pushed herself up off the fence and trudged towards the house. "And worse, this one can talk back, and somehow only listens marginally better." A little voice in the back of her head brought up that Sweetie was just very, very innocent, and not to blame for her behavior. "Excuses aside, I still haven't thought of how exactly I'm going to deal with Sweetie, let alone this apparent aptitude for magic she has."
Stephanie called out, hoping to at least get a response straight away. "Sweetie Belle? Hey, are you still out here?" She climbed the stairs to her porch, scanning her yard and the side of the house.
The area appeared to be devoid of a metal pony running around or getting their head caught in a bucket, but she already knew enough not to assume with Sweetie. Whatever drove the runaway machine's decisions, other than curiosity, anyway, she had figured out they were severely impaired by Sweetie's attention span.
"Sweeeetie. Come oooout! Hello?" Steph didn't see any sign of her. While not quite discounting the idea that Sweetie had actually gone inside, for some reason it did not seem very likely to her.
The animal yard seemed quiet and peaceful, so for now she ruled out giving the sheds a closer inspection.
Steph frowned and turned to go inside. Whatever her newest responsibility was up to, she just hoped it was innocent and indoors, for starters, or at the very least easily repairable.
However, once inside she did not see Sweetie waiting in the kitchen for her.
"Hm..." Steph gave the immediate area a scrutinizing eye. "Did she go downstairs?" She would have fully expected Sweetie, given how she hadn't wanted to be left alone, to be waiting at the door.
"Come on, I know I wasn't just imagining you the last two days, so come on out." With the memory of the basement incident still fresh in her mind—all flashing lights and full of the impossible—it was all too real. "I’m going to count to ten, and you had better be out here by the time I’m finished!”
Steph paused at the basement stairs, then groaned and stomped a foot. "Sweetie!? You had better be in here somewhere or... or you are grounded!" She paused. “Or… something.”
Giggling in an out of control way from sheer thrill alone, Sweetie Belle finally poked her head out of the giant pile of leaves. She watched with twinkling eyes as Stephanie went inside, apparently searching for her.
"She didn't fiiind me," she sang, giggling some more.
Still laughing, Sweetie Belle jumped out of the leaf pile, then turned around in a tight circle and dove back in. The pile of soft foliage exploded in the air and engulfed her, then was further ruined as she raced out the other side back into the yard, and through another pile. All the while she laughed harder than she ever had before.
Fun! I'm having so much fun. Sweetie Belle grinned, feeling as though she understood the word and its intricacies completely now, almost as if she were born to it.
And then there was the mischief of hiding from Stephanie, which had come out of nowhere. The idea had just popped into her head—despite always listening to Steph before—and she hadn’t been able to resist.
This is great! Sweetie thought. She turned her head, still running at full speed, and spotted yet another pile of leaves. "Target acquired!" With a cheer her legs sprang her successfully up into the air, and ust before impact with her leafy target she curled her body into a ball.
Muffled sounding giggles filled the air around the yard’s remaining leaf pile, until finally, flailing little robot limbs and the cute face that went with them reappeared at the surface.
“Wow,” Sweetie remarked, nestling into the pile and reveling in the oddly satisfying way that it felt. The leaves were crunchy, sometimes damp, and even a little scratchy, but they were soft, too. The leaf piles and the running had been amazing, even irresistible, and the hiding thing had been even better. There was also a twinge of guilt—like from when she had hurt Stephanie's poor house and Hal—but it didn't seem quite as bad as then. In fact, that was even fun too, which seemed odd.
Sweetie sat still, thinking. Her metallic eyelids absently blinked up into the sun as she considered her actions. “Shouldn't guilt feel bad, always? And why couldn’t I have done stuff like this before? I guess I couldn’t have. I wasn’t as smart or something before I changed. Hmmmm...”
All of her was so confusing.
As she thought, Sweetie Belle looked to her side, eyes scanning over the leaves and their myriad of colors and textures. Her hoof pushed them around idly. She even made a funny little pattern in the leaves that she decided vaguely looked like a smiling face.
"Oh well!" The uncertainty over how she changed didn’t bother her much like it seemed to bother Stephanie. Sweetie briefly pondered if maybe she should worry about it more. Should I? Logic directs no... But maybe. The uncertainty she felt was what bothered her the most. For some reason, she didn't think that coming to a decision about her own thoughts on something should be so difficult.
She rolled over in the leaf pile, and her eyes settled on the sky above once more.
“Hm, sky: the region of the atmosphere and outer space seen from the earth. Atmosphere…? Ozone layer, stratosphere… clouds, sun, crepuscular rays…” Sweetie’s mechanical irises expanded as she looked out toward the horizon.
“So pretty.”
Suddenly, as if by a switch, Sweetie Belle felt entranced by the sight, almost as much from the puzzling information she had about it. Her information said that the sky led out into an ‘outer space’ but she couldn’t see it, or the edge of the sky no matter how much she zoomed or focused her sight.
"Maybe I need an upgrade," she pondered, frowning.
The information she had in her memory wasn’t nearly enough to explain, just like with so much else. Some more information for context that could be viewed as pictures to go with the words would be nice, but she had so few of those to look at for reference.
“Hmph, how… irritating.” Sweetie Belle did a quick imitation of Steph—when she was annoyed—by making a huff sound. She then, reluctantly, continued her literal stare off into space.
Throughout, her thoughts resumed about how it was exactly that she had come to act differently.
“So, why did I change? I don’t know. Steph seems to think about it enough for the both of us. I’m just glad I now know… That I am… Hm.” Sweetie wasn’t sure about how she was different either. Stephanie hadn’t really said. “Oh, I can ignore my program! That’s how I’m different, yeah. I think… Not sure why I can do that now, though.” Steph's explanation had been confusing, mentioning lightning as the cause, but also how that was impossible, which seemed counter-intuitive by proxy
Sweetie rolled side to side in the leaf pile, thinking about why everything was the way it was—not just herself—and still looking up at the sky. “Anyway, I should have enjoyed doing activities of this nature much sooner.” She paused. “All the things I can remember doing from before is…” Sweetie Belle looked internally at the images of her past.
They were her memories. Her old ones. At least, they loosely matched the definition of a memory.
They weren’t all there, she noted. There were gaps, and the dates of the ones she did have seemed to be pretty spaced out over several years. They all varied in… resolution scale, and some of the memories were audio only, but in the ones that did move, she was almost always in the house.
Sometimes the house was decorated in them, and sometimes there were other people, besides Steph. There were even a few of Sweetie Belle being elsewhere, but not many. She wondered where those memories had taken place.
As for what she used to do with her time, after some inspection on her memories, it didn’t seem like she did very much.
“I did a lot of walking,” Sweetie stated, then hummed. “Around the house. And I spoke to Stephanie. And I… recharged.”
Sweetie rolled over. “Well, that stuff doesn't seem like much… fun. But it wasn’t bad, at least. Just boring. Things are much more better now. Well, except that thing with Hal… and the exploding-magic thing I did on accident in the basement...” The thing that had happened in the basement, that had been scary. “I don’t want to do that again anytime soon. Or anything boring, either.”
Although she said that, a lingering curiosity about the phenomena called 'magic' still floated around in her head.
"I think that I could do it again... though..." Sweetie Belle squinted her eyes and looked up at her horn. It was there that the energy build up had originated, at least as far as she had felt. "But it was dangerous. No, I shouldn't..." A sigh—again in imitation of Steph—leaked out of her as she nestled into the leaf pile, mind made up on the matter.
A few minutes passed as Sweetie took in the nature all around her. Then, a little bit of movement caught her eye, and her little mechanical head swiveled toward it. As she did, a small and curious something from within the leaf pile moved again.
“Oh, wow! You're..." Sweetie Belle searched for an appropriate definition that matched her feelings at that moment for what she had found. "You're so cute!"
At the same time, after a quick scan and some thought as to whether or not to trust her brain dictionary, she identified the ‘something’ as a slug. "Huh, is that why Steph always called me cute, because I evoke this current feeling? Am I also slug-like?" That didn't seem particularly likely. "Well, anyway, hello there! Who are you? Oh, can you talk?” When no answer came, she cheerfully added, "I'm gonna call you Mr. Slug!"
The slug didn't answer, rather, it began to extend itself, then scrunch again, slithering across the surface of a leaf.
"I am not surprised that you can't speak, Mr. Slug. It seems like a lot of somethings cannot communicate efficiently... Or too efficiently, in Hal's case." Sweetie sighed at finding another one-sided conversation partner, but smiled all the same from the thrill of the new experience. "I think... I'm gonna pick you up! I hope you don't mind." She really couldn't tell if Mr. Slug would, but she decided she would be gentle, which should be enough.
Once Mr. Slug was up, Sweetie Belle turned her hoof over, getting a better look at the strange creature.
The slug moved slightly, confirming that it was still active, but did not otherwise respond. Unless creeping sideways slightly was some kind of slug sign language.
Sweetie hummed, then sat up and place the slug on her shoulder. “I don’t mind if you’re quiet. Almost everyone around here is, except for me and Stephanie.”
The slug streeeetched out, then moved a bit more across her shoulder.
Sweetie giggled. “Haha, you tickle.” A thought occurred to Sweetie, and she looked down at the pulverized leaf pile scattered around her, then gasped. "Oh no! Was this your domicile?"
The slug failed to answer, but her conclusion seemed likely.
Sweetie set a determined expression, and shouted, "I can fix this!" Helping Mr. Slug seemed imperative now, if Stephanie being upset over her own home being wrecked was anything to go by.
The wind whistled in Sweetie’s ears as she ran across the yard, seeking more piles of the fun leaves, as well as a new home for the Mr. Slug. She ran and ran, and eventually spotted a big patch of… trees. They were trees, and the patch of vegetation they formed was called a forest.
Sweetie Belle zoomed in her lenses at the trees, humming. "Habitation levels? Appropriate, given the density of the plant of growth that— oh!"
Another little something had come out of no where, only to full on land upon Sweetie Belle's nose apparatus.
"Ohhh, what are you?" Sweetie Belle's smile grew more and more as she looked at the new stranger, until she couldn't make it bigger. Then, just like that, the fluttering little thing—which she had thus far only confirmed as an insect—took flight once again and began to spiral away from her.
"Hey, wait, come back!" Sweetie Belle called. "Please?"
The little winged thing didn't listen—which really didn't come as a surprise given how well everyone else besides Steph listened. Instead, it flew erratically with strange and inefficient loops through the air. Its path took it further from the house, and out towards the large collection of trees. Along the way, there was also a strange black and grey surface with colorful lines on it, which acted as a divide from the trees.
Where's he going!? Sweetie thought, her eyes tracking and even trying to predict his path.
"If you don't want to talk, that's fine! I just want to see you up close again. You're so pretty!" Sweetie Belle hummed and squinted her eyes while searching her brain-dictionary for whatever it was she chased.
Butterfly popped up, eventually.
"AW! Butterfly even sounds pretty!" Sweetie Belle lamented, and worked harder to catch up. Actually, she was surprisingly having an easy time catching up to the butterfly, even though it could fly, but the little guy kept hastily changing its direction. In addition to the butterfly, she identified the weird dark-shaded surface between herself and the forest as a...
A road or street.
"Almost—! Got you—! Aw, you're good at this!" Sweetie Belle giggled as the butterfly evaded her latest attempt at catching up to her-him-it. She didn't really want to catch the butterfly, just see its wings again. When they were open, they were full of colors and patterns in a design unlike any she'd seen before; really, that went without saying, but she really liked this pattern.
Her body had a definite edge as she ran across the road, but it was lost again as soon as they reentered a tall grassy area.
Through the chase, Sweetie bounded over tall clumps of grass, rolling after she'd land, before clambering back up just as quick to continue her chase. Her metal hooves left impressions in parts of the soft earth, and her path was marked by a curvy and loop-de-looped line through the field grass that would make any who followed it dizzy.
Eventually, the butterfly's path took them both over a hill, then down the other side and towards the forest.
All the while, Sweetie Belle barely had a thought other than, I gotta catch up! After wondering how something as simple as chasing could be so captivating, she thought of the experience itself. If I didn't want to catch her-him-it so badly, this would actually be kind of fun...! Oh, maybe this is why Mr. Cat was chasing me? She thought about that, and wondered briefly if she should try that apologizing thing Steph had explained to her... then shook off the idea entirely. No way, Mr. Cat was meeean.
After what seemed like ten minutes and thirty-two whole seconds, but was actually just ten minutes and twenty-two whole seconds, the butterfly finally landed upon a small tree, just at the edge of the forest.
With a gasp, Sweetie Belle screeched to a halt at the sight of her quarry finally stopping. "Oh wow." Just as the cats in the house had taught her—mostly by example, rather than a proper curriculum—she crept slowly and cautiously up to the gently waving tree branches.
There, the butterfly slowly closed and opened its wings as it bounced on its little branchy landing zone.
Sweetie Belle smiled, and sat down beside the butterfly, just watching. She saved several high definition picture memories of the butterfly for later; it was so pretty that she couldn't resist. Funnily enough, her space for stuff like that said that it was four-hundred and twelve percent out of one-hundred percent full.
She had never considered it before, but Sweetie wondered how good at mathematics she really was, because that computation made absolutely no sense. Stupid brain! Why do you not seem to work right? She huffed at the apparent shortcomings she possessed, and resolved that later she would have to ask Steph about that.
"I wish I had wings," Sweetie lamented abruptly. Once her eyes were finished clicking shut and taking pictures, she craned her head around to look at her back.
A mostly white, but also partly smudged with grey-paneled back looked up at her. The gaps in between her metal plates would slide and shift with her every movement, grinding softly. Her own construction once again intrigued her, both with its uniqueness and how inefficient it seemed, at least compared to the designs of the animals around the house.
While humming a song—some very bizarre tune called 'Byte Block'—Sweetie Belle carefully considered just how a pair of wings might look on her. Funnily enough, the idea of wings like the butterfly's didn't seem like they would ever work.
At least, not for her.
"Yes, I see, Mr. Butterfly flies with those wings with the help of the air and its own light weight, not so much air resistance or air flow. Aw, that means I couldn't fly with butterfly wings... even if they were my size." Sweetie Belle sighed and slumped to the ground, once again gluing her eyes to the little insect above her. "I wonder what kind of wings I would need."
She searched her thoughts and found several definitions of words that seemed like good clues, but without pictures to go along with them she didn't want to assume anything just yet. Flying seemed hard.
As she searched, Sweetie spotted a slimy green trail on her back, and remembered her other strange living friend: Mr. Slug.
Suspiciously, he was no where to be seen. The trail led around her side and down towards her front chassis, then underneath what her information from Steph had strangely labeled as her ‘adorable widdle belly’.
How odd. Shouldn’t it be the ‘lower chassis carriage’? Or abdomen… stomach… And just what makes it adorable? Hm, this falls under the ‘cute’ enigma that I still need to ask Steph about. Sweetie had concluded 'cute' was derived from the feelings of the person making the observation, at least, so that was a start.
“There you are!” Finally, Sweetie spotted her runaway friend. “Hey, you should meet my other new friend.” With a carefully calculated movement, she slid her first friend onto a hoof, then deposited him on a nearby leaf, right beside Mr. Butterfly.
She studied them a moment, then determined they likely wouldn’t have much to say to one another, and gave out a despairing hum. If they can’t talk, I wonder what they think about.
"I need to ask Stephanie about that, and—” Sweetie Belle abruptly sat up, gasping. That was right, Stephanie had been looking for her. “Oh no! I hadn't meant to be gone so long. It’s been so many milliseconds since I hid! I forgot to go back! I hope that—"
As if on cue, Sweetie Belle heard the loud, anxious sounding cries from her taller, two-legged friend.
"Sweetie Belle, I swear if you don't come out right now—! Look, I don't know what, okay? I haven't decided yet what exactly the bounds of this relationship are! But so help me if you don't come out, then I—"
Sweetie Belle whipped around and looked back towards the house. She couldn't see Steph, but boy could she hear her.
Panicked thoughts about why Steph was searching for her cropped up. Stephanie wants to find me. Is looking for me, but I hid because it was fun. But wait, when I wanted to see Stephanie, and was sad because she wasn't there—! That means Stephanie is sad! She wants to see me!
Sweetie Belle kicked all of her motors into high gear, dashing back towards the shiny black surface and her house.
Then she screeched to a halt again and turned back around.
"It was nice meeting you both, Mr. Butterfly and Mr. Slug! I really hope that you'll wanna talk if we meet again!" Sweetie Belle watched them with a satisfied smile, then sped up her motors again and raced for... home, was the best word to choose from, she concluded.
Sweetie Belle wasted no time calling out as she ran. "Hey, Steph! Stephanie! Please don't be sad, or scared! Or anything like I was last night! At least not because of me, I would gain feelings of guilt, if you did!" The emotions at risk weren't pleasant ones—for either her or Steph—and even though they were definitely confusing, and didn't make sense at all from certain perspectives, like mathematics, she had learned enough over the last several dozen hours to have some vague idea of how they worked. Once again, she wondered if maybe she was just really bad at her calculations, and that maybe emotions did translate perfectly mathematically.
But what formula would calculate emotion from a default level? Would it even work in base-ten? Uggh, I just— Sweetie gasped as she peaked the hill with the funky black surface.
Stephanie was over by the house, and she certainly looked both upset and distraught.
Sweetie could tell easily, seeing as Steph's hair was spread out and frazzled at a random space coefficient thirty-point-seven percent higher than usual. She smiled at seeing Steph, her best... friend in the whole world again. Glados and Hal could be her friends too, she decided, even if they weren't nearly as nice.
But not the cat.
"Sweetie, I mean it!" Stephanie yelled. "No more questions if you don't come out right now!"
Sweetie Belle gasped a second time, eyes widening to their fullest upon hearing that. "Uh oh." She raised her speaker's volume to their loudest, maximizing their efficiency. "Wait, Steph, here I am!" she shouted. "I'm very sorry for hiding!"
Stephanie's head swiveled around to look straight at her.
Much to Sweetie's relief, Stephanie put on a look of matching relief upon seeing her.
Though, oddly it shifted to some other weird Stephanie-expression a split second later. Only one-point-seven seconds later, to be precise, which was a whole new record.
Right after that, Stephanie also screamed something peculiar. "Sweetie, look out!"
Sweetie Belle quirked an eyebrow, confused, then turned her head left to follow a noise that was slowly getting louder and—
Stephanie screamed.
And then she was running. Mud and dirt was kicked up in her wake.
But by the time she reached the road, it was far too late.
There was a car stopped at the side of the road, the driver standing outside and rubbing a guilty hand behind their head. They were looking down at the thing they had hit.
Stephanie knelt down as soon as she reached the scene and gasped. She laid a hand over her mouth, unsure of what exactly to do.
Sweetie Belle had been hit by the car, of that there was no doubt.
Stephanie had seen it happen clearly from her porch, but she hadn't believed it even as she ran closer. Seeing it now, up close, didn't help her to accept it either.
Sweetie Belle was limp, laying on her back, and worst of all, unmoving. At a glance she looked mostly intact, except for the left side of her head. That may have been where she'd been struck by the car, or perhaps she had hit it on the pavement, but her left ear and most of her face and head plate were gone, nowhere to be seen. Her left eye-lense was shattered, as well.
"I'm so sorry, Steph! I wasn't looking, I-I was turning off my music and getting ready to pull into your driveway, and then, I looked up and hit her. Oh no... Why was she outside even?"
Stephanie had tears in her eyes so bad she couldn't see anything anymore. Still, she felt the fringe of colored mane left over on Sweetie where she cupped her head in one hand. She didn't understand the person speaking to her anymore. After they stopped talking, she finally wiped her eyes clear with her sleeve. When she looked up, she was surprised to see it was Alice, whom she hadn't even registered yet as the voice's owner.
"Oh my gosh, Alice. It's—" Stephanie swallowed, unsure of what to say. Speaking was a struggle. "Are you alright?" she finally managed, aware that her friend might have gotten hurt in the accident.
Alice turned her wounded look to the mangled machine on the roadside. "Nuh uh, I'm fine. I just got a scare is all. Is... will Sweetie Bot be alright?" She winced hard, her sad look deepening. "...I totally trashed her, didn't I? Look, I'll totally pay for her. I know robots and all your stuff is super expensive, but I've got some money saved up and—"
Stephanie choked a laugh and shook her head. "No! No, you don't need to do that at all, Alice. Look, it's— Sweetie Belle’s more complicated than... that..." She trailed off, unsure of how to put it, or even if she should.
I can't just tell Alice... the whole story, that Sweetie is alive. Could I? Well, Sweetie is almost practically or certainly self-aware. I— Stephanie cut off, looking back at Sweetie's limp form. She silently hoped to any greater power in existence that such was still the case.
In return to Steph's refusal, Alice shook her head resolutely. "No way, you love that little pony, I gotta pay you back." She did her best to give a comforting look.
"Don't. Worry about it. Thank you though," Steph replied sharply. She kept her eyes glued to Sweetie, and could feel tears fighting their way back into her head. "It'll be fine." Her hand started to hover over Sweetie Belle. "I just gotta... just gotta fix her. Yeah."
Stephanie was pretty sure that wasn't the case. More sniffling and a sob broke back out of her. She wasn't the type to get emotional, or she at least wouldn't have thought so, but so much had happened the last couple days and it had been a complete roller coaster the whole way.
In a flash, Alice knelt beside her friend and grabbed her in a hug. "Steph? Hey, it'll be okay! Come on, let's pick her up and bring her inside to see how bad it is?" She frowned weakly as she helped her stand up. "I'm sure you've got a spare flux capacitor in there somewhere, right?" She could tell completely that her friend was a total wreck, but after a thought it didn't make much sense. Sure, Sweetie Bot was probably her favorite machine, but Steph wasn't known as the sentimental type around her social circles.
Alice flashed an encouraging smile. "We'll even break out the wine and ice cream, okay? It'll get better, I promise!"
Stephanie clenched her eyes shut, and gathered her strength. Alice's comforting words weren't exactly helping her, considering she didn't know the whole story.
It wasn't just a matter of a broken machine, it was so much more.
She felt alone.
More alone than a person that lived in a house by themselves with animals and robots typically felt, anyway.
"Yeah, you're right," Stephanie managed, her distraught turning into resolution. "Help me put her in your car. I'll grab her forelegs and support her head on my front. You get her hind hooves."
Alice nodded stoically, and followed the instructions. A moment later and they were both buckled up in the vehicle, a Sweetie Belle look-alike machine in the back seat.
"So, why was Sweetie outside? Didn't you used to brag about how great her location para-whatzits are, or whatever?" Alice glanced over at Steph, then focused on parking.
Stephanie took a tense breath, and lept out of the car the second it was close to stopping. "Parameters!" She shouted over the car roof. "You mean parameters! And look, it's complicated, she's been malfunctioning since that storm. Remember that?"
Alice watched in amazement at the speed with which her friend was moving, and struggled to keep up. "The storm? Oh, right! That's why I swung by, cause I've totally got her new mane and tail, and some accessories! Tee-hee." She had actually said tee-hee, and made a cutesy face over the broken robot at Steph as they carried it up the stairs. "Look, I brought a fez! and a little smoking pipe! No bathrobe, though. Not yet anyway..."
Stephanie gave her friend a quick, withering smirk, but shook her head and refixed her serious expression right away. "Right, the mane and tail... Thanks, Alice, I appreciate it." Alice was a weirdo, of that there was no doubt, and Steph felt she did a good job of keeping up with her weirdness. At least, she felt like she did most of the time. "And I'm sorry this went and happened. I should have taken more care to keep an eye on her after Jeffrey got out."
"No way! No getting to say sorry for you, this is all my fault... And Jeff's here?" Alice tilted her head, then looked around the house as they entered it. "Oh, the animal Jeffrey. For a moment I thought you meant Jeff. Uh, so which one is animal-Jeffrey again...?" She asked the question while also stepping over a stray cat, lazily stretched out in a sunny ray on the floor.
"The goat," Steph said, opening the basement door. "Hey, Glados!" She searched around for her remaining assistant, only to be greeted by the other.
"Stephy-baaaby, welcome home, sweet-cheeks!" Hal's optic beamed alive, only in a vibrant shade of purple, rather than his typical deep red.
Stephanie stopped at the foot of the stairs to look with both anger and impatience at Hal, then groaned and moved on. "I could have sworn I turned you off."
Hal laughed, sounding like some manifestation of a slimy realtor or a random jerk at a bar. "Baby, you do the exact opposite to—"
Alice interrupted, and broke into hysteric chortles. "Stephy-baby!? Oh my gosh, Steph, what did you do to Hal?"
Stephanie groaned. "Don't shake Sweetie so much. And what I did? I didn't do anything! Sweetie Belle's the one that—" She bit her lip and cut off her explanation. "Nevermind, just help me set Sweetie over here on the table."
Alice quirked an eye at Steph, but acquiesced.
"Glados, get down here, please," Steph called out.
"Steeeeph, you don't need her, you got me! Listen, let's you and me—"
Steph flipped a switch on the wall, and Hal's obnoxiousness cut out. "Oh thank god, I couldn't take another second of that." She busily did her hair up with one hand while gathering tools with another, already hard at work.
Alice, meanwhile, collapsed against the table in fits of laughter. "Wow, what was all that? Why did you change him? Huge improvement though, I can tell."
Stephanie growled. She almost answered, again, that she wasn't responsible, but quickly decided otherwise. Deciding how or if she even should tell anyone else about Sweetie had barely even occurred to her yet; she was still coming to grips with it herself.
"Well, I didn't. He— The storm— Uh..." Steph frowned. "I don't really know why he acts like that now. His attitude keeps changing though, randomly. Last night he was doing Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, uggh. Uhm, right, but why? Maybe he got... hacked, I don't know."
Alice again quirked an eye at her friend, watching as she gingerly, almost lovingly began taking apart the casing around Sweetie Belle. "I... see." Her suspicions grew a bit from Steph's behavior, but she couldn't tell what for. Why would Steph hide something? "So, professor, what are we looking at here? I'm afraid I don't know anymore about gizmos since the last time I stuck my nose into your business, but I at least promise not to touch any big red buttons laying around."
Steph managed a weak laugh. "Mad scientist one-oh-one, never leave big red buttons laying around. And I'm not sure what— I mean, I don't know exactly if we can even do anything."
"You called for me, Stephanie?" Glados drawled, finally rolling in.
Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief. "There you are, I need the—"
"Glados! Hi there!" Alice bounced up to the glowing orange eye, immediately distracted by her second favorite thing to annoy at Steph's house. "Manage to catch and kill Chell yet?"
Glados swung to the right, honing in on the approaching guest confirmed as nuisance: Alice. "Oh, hooray, it's you..." The machine drew upon one of several withering remarks that Unit Stephanie had written for it to use just for Alice. "Chell? Interesting you bring her up. Out of all the people in this world I most wish I could give a fitting end, you're the only one that could come close to second. I think I have a little second place red ribbon for you somewhere around here..."
Alice chuckled. "Even more than Wheatley?"
Glados heaved a faux sigh. "Well, he isn't a person, not that I'd expect you to—"
"Quiet, both of you!" Steph cried out. "I am trying to save— I mean, I'm trying to fix Sweetie Belle..." She held Alice's stare for a second—not Glados', because there was no point—and tried to communicate the severity of the situation. "Glados, bring me the circuits tester."
"Of course," Glados responded.
Alice watched as the robot and person duo went to work, keeping her lip buttoned as she'd been requested. Still, she kept up her observations.
"Stephanie, what's the rush?" Alice leaned onto the work table and peered around at the ruined little filly. "I know Sweetie’s great, but..." She trailed off, taking in the serious air that her friend positively exhumed.
"The rush? I need to hurry or she could—!" Stephanie bit her lip, having almost slipped yet again. She wasn't good at secrets, or focusing on more than one thing at once. She did have to hurry though, as well as do something about Alice's curiosity.
Steph looked up as smoothly as possible. "It's important that I... inspect certain parts straight away, Alice. Like her battery cells? What if they start leaking?" A wave of panic rose in her as she realized she really did need to check those.
"And I really, really kind of need some peace and quiet... and solitude in order to focus. Hint." Steph jerkily gave a not-so-subtle motion upstairs with her head. Having Alice there would be too distracting, and would complicate things, whether or not Sweetie would be alright.
Alice blinked, then ohhed thoughtfully. "So I don't get to play lab assistant, eh?" she asked, already backing up the stairs.
Steph gave her a flat look, with just a hint of a smile with some effort.
Alice took the hint, which really was pretty blatant. "Okie dokie! You got it, boss. In that case, I'm gonna go make something upstairs as an apology." She grinned ear to ear and clapped her hands together in a show of excitement. "Is that okay?"
Steph smiled a little bigger. "Yeah, that's fine, Alice. Thank you. Just... wait up there until I come up."
"Whoo!" Alice bounded her way up the stairs. "Glados, come on, we're doing cake!"
Glados had finished setting up the circuits tester for its creator, and acknowledged with programmed efficiency its disdain for subject 'cake'.
"I just want you to know, that if I could fill the premises with nerve gas in order to end you, I would. And it would be so sweet... Sweet. See what I did there? But yes, let us make cake. I'll get the rat poison..."
As the voices decreased in volume up into the rest of the house, Stephanie was left alone downstairs.
Any silence after Alice left a room was deafening, but with the addition of Sweetie Belle there, motionless and broken, it was even worse.
Stephanie groaned and pressed her hands to either side of her head, then quickly got to work. Alright, let’s do this. She started by inspecting her little friend, whom she had failed, as carefully as she could.
“Sweetie, can you hear me?” she tried once, to no luck.
Things looked both horrible and not so bad at the same time. The area that had been struck was Sweetie's head, it seemed, which for a person would be devastating, but for a machine with its processors elsewhere, might have been lucky.
The paneling around the left side of her head was torn off, revealing the inner mechanical and electrical workings.
Steph ran a hand around her friend’s head. Luckily the external damage seems to end here, and her body at least seems alright. She began removing the side panels on Sweetie’s flanks, deciding to confirm whether there was further, internal damage.
Stephanie kept working gently, carefully, not taking any chances as she looked.
What am I doing? I don't understand Sweetie, and I don't know what exactly to even do if I did find something! Rebooting Sweetie with her computers may be a possibility, but Steph couldn't even begin to consider what to do if that didn’t work, or something in Sweetie needed replacing. How would that even work? Can Sweetie even use parts that weren’t hers when she got… uhm, zappified? Dangit that isn’t a word.
Despite her loss for what exactly to do, and her fears, Steph kept at it.
Maybe if I ran a diagnostic, and separate her motherboard from her mechanical parts. But would that do damage? I don’t know! I— What was that? Steph blinked, then had to keep from collapsing in relief when she saw a flicker of light from Sweetie’s head.
Or rather, from inside the hole in Sweetie’s head.
Steph dropped her screwdriver and stopped her efforts on Sweetie’s flank panel. She looked into the cracked open cavity, and just in time to see a purple spark leap between two components.
After a moment, and after nothing else happened, Steph said, “Sweetie? Are you there?” There wasn’t an answer, and she had to force herself from getting her hopes up.
A bit of light and some sparks could mean anything.
Steph inspected where she thought it had come from. Once she’d spotted something, she squinted her eyes, looking in disbelief at what she’d found. Inside Sweetie, and... attached to the mechanisms and motors in her neck, were lines of a light purple crystal. They were even surrounding a couple of the wire bundles further in.
"And what exactly is this stuff?" she murmured.
Curious, and not really thinking about it, Stephanie poked her screwdriver at the crystals. She had repaired a lot of machines or appliances in her day, and poking randomly in them when you didn't know what you were doing was the quickest way to ensure you didn't fix it, but she couldn't help trying.
Shockingly, a little jolt of electricity rippled over Sweetie Belle's chassis, making Stephanie jump.
"AAAAH!"
Screaming voices filled the basement; two of them, to be precise. One was Stephanie, surprised and caught off guard while the second from Sweetie Belle was loud, pained, and terrified.
"Ow— Ow! OW! Aaah! It hurts, it hurts!" Sweetie Belle reach up to her head instinctively with both front hooves, trying desperately to relieve the pressure that was built up in her head. Actually, it was just one hoof, because her left one was in almost as much pain as her head, and didn't seem to want to move right.
"Make it stop, Steph! Steph, make it stah-hap!" Everything felt wrong and bad and hurty. She wasn't even sure if Steph was there—her vision was messy for some reason—but she called out for her and cried, not even knowing what crying was until then.
"Sweetie! Sweetie Belle, it's okay, I'm here! Hold still, hold still and try not to move! Oh my gosh I'm so sorry—"
Sweetie could see and feel the breaks in her left front leg, the end of which hung limply as her shoulder's motors tried to pick it up. The rest of her seemed less damaged, at least as far as she could see with oddly messy vision. Her head hurt though, and it hurt the worst. For that matter, she noticed finally noticed one of her eyes' lenses was damaged.
Stephanie was there though, and talking to her. It sounded like she was trying to calm her down.
Sweetie was barely aware of it, even as Stephanie held her down with her hands.
All Sweetie could focus on was her head, and whatever that splitting pain was, and the last thing she could remember. What had happened? She had been hit. But why? By what? A car, automobile: a large device used for traversing great distances across roads.
Sweetie understood finally, but that didn't help her any. The only thing offering her any comfort was Stephanie.
"Sweetie, please, you're damaged! Lay still for me? Come on I can help but—" Steph struggled to keep Sweetie still and from falling off the table.
Sweetie kept trying to get her head to stop hurting, despite Steph’s pleas to stop moving. She tried applying pressure, or shaking her head, and even wanted to try running away from it, but the last one would be kind of hard with Steph laying over her.
There was something making her head hurt, she had to find it!
"Steph! Make it stop! Make it— Oh, that's better." Sweetie Belle stopped struggling about. After deactivating something, somewhere in her body, the pain went away entirely. She wasn't sure what she had done, but was reasonably sure she could undo it. The important thing was that she had made all of the... pain stuff stop.
Unfortunately, it also seemed that all of her sense of touch had left. She couldn't feel a thing anymore.
"I'm better! Well, relatively..." Sweetie Belle raised her leg up again, looking sadly at its crushed plating and sparking interior workings. "Numb. Hm, odd word."
"Oh my gosh, Sweetie. You're alright? Oh thank goodness, I thought that the worst had happened." Stephanie leaned down beside Sweetie. She wanted to hug her, but didn't dare move her yet.
"The worst had happened? I don't understand." Sweetie studied her friend, but nodded slowly.
"It’s… I’ll explain later. Just stay still, we don't know everything that's wrong with you yet and we don't want you to get hurt more."
Trying to gather her senses, Sweetie head tilted, and felt something loose in there. "But I stopped the hurting Steph. Oops, I moved again. Oh, Steph, it hurt so bad! At least I found the off switch... but why did I hurt? What makes hurt? My information says neurons firing electrical pulses!" Fresh sobs leaked out of Sweetie, remembering the feeling too well. She didn’t like crying, either, she decided. She figured out that she couldn't even cry in the literal sense after a moment, but the pained reaction aspect of crying was certainly not beyond her. "Why are they so meeean?"
"Sshhh, it's okay now. You... turned it off? That's good, I guess. Look, I can fix you so don't worry. It's just going to take time, okay? I don't have spare parts or anything. Assuming those will work…” She hoped they would, but they would be used on a machine that was currently crying, and while she wasn't an expert on the matter that seemed like it would complicate things. “Oh gosh this is too much. What were you doing out there? No, wait, never mind that, it’s fine, I’m getting ahead of myself."
Sweetie Belle stared at Steph, trying to follow everything she said without interrupting. All the while, she felt her 'sad' building up, for some reason. When Steph was finished talking, Sweetie grabbed at her arm as it neared her stomach, and held onto it. She had stopped her crying out and the hurting already, so she was forced to conclude that Steph being upset was what still had her scared.
Stephanie stared down at Sweetie, just watching her. She comfortingly ran her free hand over the machine's side, trying to think of what exactly to do. She'd never had to care for someone else like this after an accident.
“It’s alright, Sweetie—” Steph had begun to say.
“Hey, Steph! You want chocolate or lemon!?” came an an interrupting shout from Alice, upstairs.
Sweetie Belle looked up towards the sound, at the top of the stairs, noting sadly that her neck's motors seemed damaged. “Oh, who’s that, Steph?” she murmured.
Stephanie felt the hair raise on her back. “Chocolate!” she shouted, hoping that Alice hadn’t heard anything else.
After a moment, Alice returned with, “Okay!” and Stephanie relaxed.
Sweetie Belle blinked up at the person leaning over her protectively. Judging by Steph’s posture and subsequent expression, she was a bit high strung, too. “Who was that?” She thought that the voice had sounded familiar.
Stephanie looked at Sweetie, considering what was best to say. “That’s… Alice. She’s my friend, and comes by to visit a lot along with our other friends.” At seeing Sweetie’s blank look, and after a thought, she added, “Do you... remember Alice? She’s the one who always calls you ‘Sweetie Bot’ and tries to teach you things. You haven't seen her since before your... change.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened at the words. That is, her remaining one did. “She teaches things?” she asked dreamily.
Steph blinked, then recognized she may have made a mistake. A sentient machine learning things from Alice would no doubt end up acting like Bender from a show called Futurama in no time. “Uh, well… some things, but not a lot. You already know them so there’s no sense in asking her questions about it, right? Eheh... Forget I mentioned that, Sweetie. For right now, I’m restricting you to this table, do you understand? You’re hurt and we don’t know enough about you for you to risk moving.”
Sweetie almost opened her mouth to object to the idea of staying in the basement again, but kept it closed. There was a feeling growing again in her, and she quickly realized it was her old not-friend: guilt.
“Stephanie, I may be wrong, but I think I should apologize. I need to! I disobeyed you… and hid from you… but I was just trying to have fun!”
Stephanie smoothed Sweetie’s mane as she spoke. “It’s fine. You’re forgiven, okay? The same as with the mess you made a little while ago. But you need to start thinking more or asking me before you do things, at least… until you know better yourself. Does that make sense?”
Sweetie nodded ferociously, or tried to. “Affirmative! So much affirmative, Stephanie, thank you! I feel better already. Emotionally, anyway… And I was having so much fun outside, too, and I even met two friends.”
“Whoa, wait. You met people?” Stephanie blanched.
Sweetie Belle paused, then weakly shook her head. “No, not people, or humans, they were a butterfly and a slug. They didn’t like talking, just like you said things that are not-humans would, but I tried to get them to anyway. I figured it couldn't hurt to try.”
While working, Stephanie listened to her machine regale her with the tale of meeting insects, and had to actively resist face palming the whole way through.
“That sounds… great, Sweetie. Remind me to explain to you in better detail what separates lower life forms from higher ones.”
“Oh, okay!” Sweetie chirped, then asked, “And I am not a life-form, because I’m not alive?”
Stephanie raised a finger, said nothing, then managed, “That’s complicated, Sweetie.” She was regretting her earlier, less thought out explanations already, it seemed. “Let’s just call you a robotic life-form for now.”
The sound of some pans crashing upstairs made Stephanie look up, and away from her childlike friend.
“Uhm, listen, Sweetie, I’m going to go talk to Alice now—”
Sweetie gasped. “Can I come too!? I want to meet her!" The idea of a new conversation partner was so very enticing, and made her so very excited. "I bet she even has favorite things like you and me! I’ll ask her what her favorite color is, and then her favorite—”
“Sweetie, no. No no no.” Stephanie shook her head calmly, and cupped a hand under Sweetie’s chin. “First of all, you are not moving right now, remember? And secondly…” Her gaze slid sideways towards the floor. “I don’t know if I want anyone else knowing about you just yet, alright?”
Sweetie Belle studied her friend’s tired and sort of confused looking expression, which clearly displayed how hard her human processors must be working to think.
“Why?” Sweetie asked simply. Don’t want Steph to overheat… Oh, wait, humans don’t have processors? Alright Mr. Dictionary, I’m really starting to question just how well informed your sources are—
“Well, it’s complicated,” Steph answered, interrupting Sweetie’s thoughts against herself. “It has to do with that talk we had about you being special, and unique, and… impossible. Basically, we might have to protect you with secrecy. I mean, I can probably tell my friends, I guess, and some people, but let’s not rush it, okay? Robots, cyborgs, and drones are kind of a big deal in the media right now.”
Sweetie furrowed her brow, or what passed for one. What Steph said wasn’t making much sense. Protect me? What does that mean? “Like… from... the noisy metal machine that hurt!?” Her eyes widened in panic, suddenly remembering the event. She couldn’t remember it happening fully; she had... blacked out? Yes, since she had somehow lost consciousness, but the trauma still instilled fear in her once again.
“Whoa, easy there, Sweetie. It’s alright now, nothing’s going to hurt you here.” Stephanie steadied the little body with a hand and kept her from wiggling her way off the table or kicking anymore tools about. “Sort of, maybe. Just trust me, okay? Stay here, and stay quiet, I’ll be right back and we’ll talk more.”
Sweetie Belle let out a groan of sadness. “Okay… I will, Steph. I trust you.” She then more hastily asked, “How many seconds will you be gone?”
A reassuring smile worked its way onto Stephanie as she finally stood all the way up again, and worked her way towards the basement staircase. “Less than twelve-hundred, more than six-hundred.”
Sweetie heard Steph giggle a bit with laughter, and thought about what she’d said that was funny. She didn’t get it, but added in her own bit of giggles.
She watched her friend ascend the staircase swiftly, but called out for one last question.
“Steph!”
“Yes?” Stephanie stopped mid-step and smiled back down.
“I have one more question. I wanted to know about the thing you said earlier. It sounded important.” Sweetie Belle dragged herself slightly around, angling to get a better look.
“Okay..." Steph answered reluctantly. "But just one, and then I’ll be right back.”
Sweetie Belle continued. “What was the ‘feared the worst’ that you mentioned earlier, about me?”
Stephanie blinked. She struggled finding an answer for that. “I… was afraid that I had lost you, Sweetie, because you got hurt. I’ll have more for you about that later, I promise. Now wait right there.”
“Okay,” Sweetie acknowledged, and watched as her friend rounded the corner. Lost me? I wasn’t hiding that good… Oh, wait, I get it.
Despite feeling no physical pain, Sweetie sort of felt like crying again.
Steph walked into a kitchen filled with singing, laughter, and an obnoxious friend that was literally spinning as she stirred a bowl of cake mix.
“Be our guest, be our gue—! Oh, hi Steph! How are things downstairs? And how are you feeling?” Alice slowed her spinning, and set the bowl on the counter, where a ready and waiting Glados scooped it up for use. “Is Sweetie going to make it?”
Stephanie had been about to reprimand her friend for slinging cake batter everywhere, more likely than not, but at hearing her friend’s reminder that she had almost just lost the single most confusing, weird, bothersome, and altogether wonderful thing in her life, she instead collapsed into giving a full-body hug.
“Yes, she totally is. At least she’s, uhm, online again.” Steph laughed with relief.
“Whoa! Easy there.” Alice laughed as well and returned the gesture, squeezing her friend with equal gusto. “Great! But does this mean we don’t get to drown our sorrows with wine? Because I was looking forward to calling over Dale and Penny and Jeffrey—not goat Jeffrey—and having a good time to cheer you up!”
Steph exhaled hard and stood up straight again. “Alice, it’s Sunday. I’ve got work tomorrow, and I still need to fix Sweetie. I’m actually going to have to ask you to go, if you don’t mind. But thank you a ton for the offer, and no” —she could already see the sad look on Alice’s face— “I am not mad at you. But I really don’t want to, and really can’t party tonight. I’m willing to bet our friends couldn’t, either.”
Alice folded her arms and promptly began to pout. “Bah, being an adult sucks.” She then shifted gears, smirking. “Alright, I guess there’s no fighting it then. So you really want me to take off straight away?”
Steph nodded. “Yes, I think I’d better square things away if that’s alright.” She walked along with her friend towards the front door.
Alice made a final desperate groan of disapproval, looking back at the still heating oven and the cake batter. “Well, alright, suit yourself. And sorry again for almost— that is, sorry for the property damage.”
Stephanie giggled, brushing back some brown curls that had fallen out of her hairband. “It was no more than usual, Alice. And thanks for coming by with Sweetie’s mane.”
She almost added that she would let her know first thing when it was replaced, but held back.
“Then, if I am no longer needed, I am off!” Alice winked, stepping outside onto the porch and the sounds of the outdoor animals. “Take care, Steph.” She then added, “And say hi to Sweetie Bot for me!”
Stephanie almost choked on air. “O-Oh. Of course!” She waved good bye. “Haha, bye now.” She closed the door, maybe a bit too quickly, and let out a huge breath of relief. “Thank goodness that’s over with. Alright, now to… well, bake a cake, I guess.”
The cake was unexpected, but easy to deal with. Still, Steph wasn’t looking forward particularly to everything that Sweetie Belle should probably be told about.
“I wonder if there’s a book somewhere about teaching robots about… well, everything. I doubt it… but at least Alice isn’t here to complicate things.” Stephanie could rest assured with that much, at least.
Alice stared at one of her best friends’ home for a minute, hesitating from driving off just yet.
“Oh yeah, you’re definitely hiding something, Stephanie Speck.” Alice grinned as she turned the key to her car’s ignition, starting it with a rumbling vroom. “And I am totally gonna find out what! Muahaha!”
Alice then turned her music on shuffle for a song, which turned out to be ‘The Pink Panther’ track, for some reason.
“Why do I even have this…?” Alice frowned and selected a better song, instead. “Now we’re talkin’! Heut' Ist Meeein Tag! Heut' Ist Mein Tag!”
Goooat!
Byte Block by Fear Factory is a weird song choice for Sweetie Belle, isn't it? It's not the kind of music I listen to(anymore), but I was on my computer looking for tunes she could hum, and when you try and hum that song it's ironically quite cheerful sounding. So, I'm a sucker for irony and a joke, hence why I chose it over other songs. I've had schemes surrounding her taste in music for some time, hopefully I'll get to cover them soon.
Now then, on to serious business, I'm really super sorry for taking so long with this chapter, everypony. I really kinda lost the ol' flare for writing, and I'm not good at focusing on writing without a partner while lots of cool video games eagerly try to distract me. :x Anyway, hope you liked the chapter and didn't find it too awful or scary or something! And no, this isn't the end (see how the story is incomplete still? Nope, lots more to come.) So, why did I finally start writing this chapter? Well, it's been half done for ages... but earlier this week I had a slight car accident myself, and hit an aminal. :/ Anyway... I got home and started writing to get my mind off it, which now that I think about it makes no sense when you consider that I'd already written this for Sweetie. Uggh
Well, enough unpleasantries, thanks for coming back for more story, everyone. I'll try harder, I promise!
Oh, and please don't kill me for hurting Sweetie Bot. >.<
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An update!
You magnificent bastard, I thought you died!
Welcome back!!
~yaaaaaaaaaay~
5564774
You asked for this.
It's back!
Holy crap you updated. Everyone, go to the casinos!
I SAW that this updated and went
bookriotcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/gasp.gif
IT HAS NOT DIED!
no2minutewarning.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/tumblr_inline_myye7yJhbL1qbvt58.gif
bla bla bla goat goat goat
pancakesand evil cars.I likes this chapterz.
Good to see you back in the ol' writin' saddle, as it were. Cute chapter
Good to see you back boss.
Update, Yay! This made my day^^
Somehow I felt obligated to read this... I don't know why...
5564975
Hm, yeah I couldn't rightly say, either. ^^
I saw the blog post saying this would update, but I didn't expect it so soon Merlos you magnificently mad magician.
Loved the bits with Sweetie Bot interacting with the slug and the part where she realizes her storage is over 400% full.
5564993
Ah, Mr. Slug, yes. Truely he is a staple character. You can look forward to more of him in the future! No you won't. :P
And yes, 400% full! A hint that she is more than she was previously.
Yay! Also, noo! Also, yay, Sweetie is okay!
Now I might not be the best at math...but I have a strong feeling that something doesn't quite add up here.
// Sphex
I guess this means that you're Still Alive
.
...Did Sweetie call neurons mean? Oh no, this could be the start of war on flesh.
5565081
ponybot.net/pix/6980.png
5207638
Also
At first I was like
i.imgur.com/G9aZ12u.gif
Then I saw the update and knew
i.imgur.com/nxF2dTU.gif
finally happened and everything was K.
Alice!
5565103 She's obviously attacking miniatures, in the vein of a Godzilla set. I'm pretty sure that Sweetie would prefer a campaign of roboticization.
5565017
I demand more slug, good sir.
you call that German Music!?
this is German music
5565155
I've heard a lot of Germans have a lot of disdain for Rammstein. <.< Not sure if it's true, but that's what I've heard.
5565174 I wouldn't know, I'm British, i just love Rammstein and other Metal bands
I don't think Sweetie Bot is gonna handle the relative fragility of living bodies very well. Especially the idea that everything we are is stored in a three-pound lump of meat, barely protected by a thin bone shell, that can't even shut down without all data being permanently lost.
5565174 They're not that good or thoughtful when compared to a LOT of metal bands of other genres. Still catchy.
Little purple crystals, hmm?
Just how close is this happening to the other stories, I wonder. Distance-wise, I mean.
It is now that Sweetie's machinery begin its slow self repair.
As for authors notes, you had me at video games... GABEN!!!
On a related note, homeworld hd remake is in prepurchase on steam. #Excited
I still think a crazy animal hoarding lady who also happens to be a brilliant roboticist is packing too much into one package, but you do a pretty good job of it. I really identify with Sweetie more than I did that other movie about a crazy animal hoarding lady who makes friends with a robot created by brilliant roboticists. Sweetie seems less "forced" because she was originally designed to be adorable, instead of for instance, having this dark malevolent bass voice that suddenly turns to a constricted tenor for no other reason than to force us to be sympathetic. and in the sequel replacing his killer death ray with a family friendly box o' japes Plus you can get to an introversive perspective that a movie can't approach. The story stands just fine on its own though.
5565391
Heh, thanks, Ferret. ^^ I actually find tech-heads—at least those that I've met—tend to love animals. So when I initially thought of using Stephanie, it seemed all too perfect. I see where you're coming from though.
Feels like there's a sentence missing around here.
I'm just going to squeal like a rabid fangirl now.
*SQUEEEE*
Hooray! Sweetie Bot lives again!
Or does she....
Fuck. I was screaminv no multiple times in a farmer boys..... WJAT WERE YOU THINKING!!??
Its good though
5565017 It turns out that Mr.Slug is really... LORD SLUG!!!
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110730124944/dragonball/images/1/1d/Lord_Slug.jpg
What a twist!
Creator...
Does this unit have a soul?
img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101101235028/masseffect/images/8/82/Legion_Loyalty_Choice_Made.png
I get it now! You're a wizard of feels!
A Mad Feelomancer!
5566033
Howitzerrrr! Nice to see you. I should update more so I can see you talking more.
5566041
If it gets me more of your magical wordage, then I'm all for it!
5566043
It's not all that magical.
Hug the bot, pet the goat.
You hurt Sweetie Bot, but that's okay, because she didn't cry.
...
God help you if you make her cry.
People have issues with hiding things and trying to solo everything.
5566296
More like design her to be able to cry, but eh, details.
SlugXButterfly OTP
Glad to see this back and to see you working again, dude! :D
You're in cahoots with Wanderer D aren't you?
I have a feeling, its more than a feeling really.
Ties in very nicely.
I am excited for a yes and also kinda thingy about a no.
heh
I'm glad you didn't end the chapter before letting us know that Sweetie was okay. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
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iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/25599__safe_animated_cake_ninja_mulia-mild_mmmystery-on-the-friendship-express_katana.gif
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When Sweetie saw the road I was already imaginating what was going to happen. And I was right! Yay!
But I thought that Sweetie would be torn to pieces and would somehow rebuild herself with her magic, like a timberwolf! I can totally see that happening in the future
5566985 My thoughts exactly.