Chapter 13 : Hooray Shopping!
October 9th Monday, late afternoon.
.
“St-Stop! Please! I can’t take anymore!” Sweetie Belle struggled fiercely and fought as if her life depended on it.
Steph grunted, one hand doing its best to hold down the filly-machine squirming atop the work table. “Sweetie, you— Watch it with the tail! Look, you gotta sit still; this is really delicate work that has to be done and I don’t want to have to tie you down if you don’t behave.”
“B-But it tickles!” Sweetie tried again not to thrash about, and harder to not laugh, but it was a struggle. Why do I have to be so ticklish? She groaned as she continued her fight against her desire to wiggle free.
“Well, try to ignore it. I don’t think there’s anything I can do about ticklishness in a robot.” Stephanie rolled her eyes at the mere thought of such a thing and stood up to relieve the neck pain of leaning over for twenty minutes.
She surveyed her work thus far.
The exchanging of the parts in Sweetie’s broken and numb leg had gone without a hitch. Once it was all set to be tested, however, Sweetie had found trouble trying to get her leg to move. As a result, Steph was now poking around the servo, trying to hunt down the issue.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, doing maintenance on Sweetie felt a lot different from how it used to, and even if Steph was still working on machine parts, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was instead performing a surgery that came with all the possible consequences of the former.
Reassuringly, the rest of Sweetie’s internal parts besides her leg seemed alright, at least lacking any breaks, bends or shattered circuits. This had made most of Steph's job a lot easier, even if she wasn't quite finished yet. After the leg, the worst of the damage was cosmetic stuff done to her paneling. Sweetie’s ears, most of her plating, and her face was chipped, scored or cracked open, and would need replacing to fully restore her cuteness.
Or, as Steph had in mind, upgraded, rather than just replaced.
Steph exhaled a tired breath and picked back up on Sweetie’s word game from before her giggle attack. “Alright, now what was the last equation you gave me?” She also got back to work.
Sweetie giggled, repeating, “The. Magic. is. great! And great is the sum while the, magic, and is are the summands.”
Steph scratched the side of her head abruptly, trying and failing to solve the alphametic puzzle while also working on her friend.
"Oh. Here we go.” Steph found something that should have been an obvious fix. I’ll just blame the word game… “There. It was a loose connection was all." Steph snapped a wire down, then wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. "Try moving your leg now, Sweetie."
Sweetie Belle sat up. "Okay!"
With little effort Sweetie proceeded to slightly bend her left foreleg a little. A smile grew as she lifted it up and down, then rotated it up one-hundred and eighty degrees. "Everything seems to work great, Steph! Thank you so much!" She looked up and poked her hoof at Steph in between some lingering giggles. "Although... it still feels numb in places. Like, on the outside."
“Hmm. Odd. I think, anyway.” Leaning over, Steph squinted her eyes and scrutinized Sweetie’s leg carefully. “Can you feel this?” She gave the leg a gentle poke with a finger.
Sweetie moved the leg in response, but she hadn’t felt anything directly. “Uh, kind of? I felt the pressure on my… shoulder, but not on the spot of contact.” A frown worked its way onto her face. “Steph, can you fix it? I don’t… I don’t think I like not being in control of something to do with me.” After thinking on it she couldn’t piece together precisely why, but the thought of losing full functionality in some way bothered her greatly.
Sweetie frowned, thinking on her newest feelings. Worry. Longing. Regret…
Steph easily saw the worry on her charge’s face, and began rubbing the robot’s leg in hopes of maybe working feeling back into it, or something. “Sweetie, while I look at this how about you try and focus on something else?”
Sweetie Belle winced, again trying her best not to move while Stephanie worked. “Something else? Like what?” she murmured.
With her tools already back in hand, Steph paused in rotating a screw in Sweetie’s leg. “Like… uhh… How about Glados. Did you talk to her about anything today?”
Sweetie Belle grumbled at the irony inherent to having a meaningful conversation with Glados. Still, she relaxed in the brief moment of respite. “Oh, a few things. Like I said before, she helped me plan out some new schematics of myself which I’d love for you to look at. And I know you didn’t like my great hang-glider idea, but I had an even better great idea for a jet pack!”
Steph blinked at that, but managed to keep her focus on task. “Jet pack?”
“A jet pack is like something called a backpack, which is a pack you wear on your back, but even better because it can make you fly!” Sweetie nodded thoughtfully, her brief bout of perkiness fading out once she recounted the rest of the boring monday afternoon. “That was fun, but I couldn’t figure out a viable means of production from available data or Glados. So, once I finished I was bored again...”
Steph looked up briefly, mostly concentrating. “Oh… uh, well, that’s… interesting, Sweetie… It’s probably for the best. Something like that wouldn’t be safe. I meant it when I said flying should probably stay on the idea backburner… indefinitely.”
The brief image of a rocket-powered robotic filly flitted through her mind, and she had to suppress a shudder.
“Weeell, okay.” Looking up, Sweetie studied Steph’s expression for a moment. An old thought occurred to her while she watched Steph work… and Sweetie adopted her best voice of pleading to yet again make what she considered to be a reasonable request. “Are you surrre I can’t come with you to work, Steph? I don’t like being cooped up here! I’ll be so quiet! And you said yourself no one will think I’m not just another machine if I meet anyone so please please pleeeease-please-please-please-ple—?”
“Sweetie.” Steph closed her eyes a moment, unable to withstand the sudden verbal barrage. “Come on, not this again. I’m sorry, but I can’t take you to work!” She chuckled nervously at the very notion, picturing her little trouble maker running amok at the office. “It… I just couldn’t keep an eye on you and still get work done… and that’s not to mention all the questions that people might ask about you if they did notice that you’re… you’re…”
“Special?” Sweetie finished.
Steph cleared her throat. “Yes, that you’re special. For a robot, I mean… you know, that you’re different from others… Well, we’ve been over this already. Even though nobody would in all likelihood think twice about you, taking you with me to work just wouldn’t be… reasonable.” She could feel her foot struggling to enter her mouth everytime she broached the subject of Sweetie’s state of being with her. It wasn’t something she felt particularly qualified to talk about; certainly not in a reassuring way.
Over on the table, Sweetie watched the shifts in Steph’s features carefully. It was easy to tell she was really nervous about the subject of her existence in relation to other people, and machines.
“Okay,” Sweetie answered dourly. “But if I can’t go to work, what about somewhere else? Like a park? Or an institution of learning like a school? I saw one on television earlier.”
Steph hummed, pausing to swap her current tool for another nearby one. “Well, maybe…”
Sweetie was getting better at judging Steph’s personality, and the moment she saw an opening in her friend’s defenses, she attacked.
“Please-please-please-plea—!”
“Alright! We’ll go somewhere soon. I promise.” Steph couldn’t stop her grin, and chose to hide that grin behind a hand before setting back to work. “Now hold still, I think I’ve got something here.”
“Hurray! Well, then we should visit—” Sweetie gasped, cutting her idea pitching short. “Oh! Steph! I felt something! I can feel my leg’s paneling now! What’d you do?”
“You did?” Steph held back further objections, and instead gripped her hand around Sweetie’s leg again. “How’s this? What did you feel?”
Sweetie squinted her eyes, as if trying to think of something. “Uh… it… feels weird?” She tossed her head and mane. “It’s… like tingling, but also sharp and pointy? Ow! But all over! Ah!”
“Whoa, easy, Sweetie!” Steph barely had time to steady Sweetie with a hand on her back.
“But it stings!” Sweetie tried thumping her leg on the table to make it cease tingling, but she did at least stop moving when Steph held her again. “And now my whole leg feels like tingling, not just where you were pressing! I guess it isn’t too bad but make it stop please!”
“I’m sorry, Sweetie, I’m thinking, but I just don’t know what to do or… wait.” Steph frowned, then smirked. “You said it’s an annoying tingling?”
Sweetie looked up with her saddest eyes and nodded vigorously. “Ahuh!”
Steph started to laugh in spite of herself.
Sweetie looked up with sadness on her face. “Why are you laughing?” She suddenly felt a strange, but somewhat familiar pressure around her eyes, too. It was different from the ghostly prickling in her leg. Her only consolation was that neither of the sensations seemed to be too awful.
Steph managed to calm down to reply to calm Sweetie down. “Aw, it’s okay I think, Sweetie. Pins and needles. It’s just pins and needles.”
“Huh?” Sweetie pressed her prickly leg against the metal table hard, which seemed to lessen the feeling, but it still wouldn’t go away completely. She gave it a couple thunks, too. “Needles? I see no thin metal tubes, Steph! Though I don’t think those wouldn’t be any danger to me… Would they? Then again, for some reason they do make me nervous...”
“It’s an expression, Sweetie. Uh, I don’t know the technical term, but pins and needles is a sensation that people can get. But why did you feel it?” Steph crossed her arms and shrugged. “I still don’t really understand what we’re dealing with where your body’s concerned.”
“Ohhh.” Sweetie nodded in understanding as she located the term of what she felt in her dictionary. “Another word for it is paresthesia. Interesting.” She looked up with interest at Steph, smiling with relief at the same time. “So I’m okay then?” As if on cue, the sensation in her leg all but vanished.
Steph patted the soft synthetic mane atop Sweetie’s head. “I think you’ll be fine, Sweetie. Just let me know if it changes.”
“I will!” Sweetie let out a breath, or a fake one, anyway, but it had the same effect that it seemed to when Steph did it.
“Okay, now that the crucial part is taken care of, are you okay to get the rest of you worked on?” Steph paused wearing a thoughtful, unsure look. “Now, I’m not sure if you need time to heal…? Or something? But usually when I’m working on a project I sorta get on this kind of roll and just keep working until finished.”
Sweetie giggled. “Whatever you want to do, Steph. I don’t get tired much, so I’m fine with it!” She liked when Steph talked about work, or was eager to do something. It always seemed like when she was at her happiest.
“Alright, awesome.” Steph smiled, thrilled to keep going. “So then for your outside we’re going to replace all of your old plating, and that way it’ll match your shiny new leg!” She gave the leg a poke and was reward with a giggle out of Sweetie for it. “And we’re also going to replace all of the parts around your— Uhm, well I was going to say upper chassis, er, I mean your head, but—”
Steph paused at the topic, realizing she hadn’t yet thought of a clever way to broach the subject to her infant A.I. companion.
“You’re going to replace my face!?” Sweetie stared wide-eyed, then smiled. “Awesome! But how come? Is it not still functional?”
Steph’s worried look evaporated. She let out a deep breath she’d taken suddenly. “So you’re okay with it? And this was going to be a surprise. I just needed to first find out whether replacing things would work on you, and since they apparently do and it seems safe... well, trust me, I think you’ll like this when I’m done. Do you want to do it?”
Sweetie hummed, thinking on it. She had looked at herself in a mirror a couple times, but she felt more inclined to be cleaned and fixed up than stick with her damaged parts. “Well, I agree that I do think I really like surprises…” She could already feel her excitement building. “Okay, Stephanie, let’s do it!”
Steph smirked. “Alright, first we’ll do the necessary part of getting this plating off of you. Just let me know if you feel anything painful, okay, Sweetie?” She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow as she started to remove the first screw.
“Okie dokie!” Sweetie chirped. It felt right to sound confident and carefree. After a moment, she realized she felt that way as much for her own sake as she did for Steph’s. Even if it was Steph working on her, she was still undeniably worried on the inside over matters of her being.
Sweetie tried not to sound nervous while listening to Steph once again working, although this time where she couldn’t see. “S-So far it just sorta tickles a bit…”
“Good,” Steph replied simply, and kept on working, but obviously not picking up on the nervousness from her patient.
The silence in the air began to stretch on. Sweetie’s eyes roamed the room in an effort to distract herself while the tension seemed to build more and more. She could see Steph’s concentrated look in the corner of her eye, so the thought of singing to lighten the mood was put to rest.
“Everything alright?”
Sweetie almost jerked away at the sound of the sudden question. “Wha— It’s fine! I’m fine. Uhm, it just feels… a little weird.”
Sweetie scrunched her eyes closed, thinking on how to describe what the procedure felt like. She wasn’t sure of the vagueness of the word weird’s appropriateness, but it functioned well enough.
“Doesn’t hurt?” Steph asked again, confirming.
The clink of another screw and a battered plate of metal being set on the table made Sweetie’s ears twitch. She tried looking to the side to see it, but couldn’t quite catch it.
“N-No… It doesn’t.” Sweetie tried to think of a good descriptor for the screws that were being taken out of her face. “Actually, it just feels kinda scratchy?”
Steph leaned forward momentarily to look Sweetie in the eyes while wearing a calm and reassuring expression.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. Anyway, you’re doing great. Try to bear with this a little longer.”
Sweetie returned the smile with what she hoped was something bordering on confidence. “You can count on me!” After a moment, she added with earnest gratitude, “Thanks, Steph. For all the help and stuff you do for me.”
Steph tittered in response, but it sounded a little nervous as she finally removed the front face plate. “You’re welcome, Sweetie. I mean, what are friends for? One moment while I get your new parts. Don’t move too much.”
Sweetie grinned, but otherwise stayed still. “Ohhh, an old saying and a rhetorical question. Do I answer it, or do I think on its deeper meaning? Or maybe I should give a rhetorical answer?”
Steph blinked into space a moment after that one. “Uh, I can’t really say for sure about that.”
“Ah-hah!” Sweetie’s cameras swiveled up to look at Steph. “You fell into my trap. That, too, was a rhetorical question, Steph. Hehe.”
“Heh. R-Right. Good one. Now, I’ll be right back with the next part.” Steph cleared her throat while she stood, and hurried off toward the far side of the basement where the massive box filled with parts and packing peanuts was sitting.
Sweetie hummed. What was that look for? Before Steph had stood, Sweetie could have sworn she’d seen her friend flinch. She turned around to watch as Steph knelt and began digging around in the box.
Sweetie tilted her head idly, thinking. Was it because I—
A strange sight in Sweetie’s peripheral vision registered to her, and she swung herself to face it.
Staring back at her from the largest monitor on the wall was the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen. Which was interesting, as she hadn’t really seen scary before, just felt it. Still, she recognized the feeling in what she saw and wasted no time thinking about her fright in order to react appropriately.
“AH!” With a scream Sweetie stood in a flash, hooves banging on the metal tabletop, then stumbled backward in short order. The panicked movement put her hind legs over the edge and her front leg motors started to whir loudly as they struggled to hold her up.
“Steph! Help!” Even as the ceiling lights danced in Sweetie’s unstable vision, she felt soft hands grip her sides and lift her up onto the table.
“Sweetie, are you okay? What happened?” Steph grunted slightly as she lifted her still somewhat flailing friend.
Sweetie didn’t stop kicking until her hooves clanged onto the table again.
“I’m sorry, Steph. I looked over at that big computer screen over there and— AH!” She stumbled backward again, but this time into Steph’s front. She turned away instinctively to hide from something so scary, but stopped. Instead she stared in confusion at what she finally deduced was actually her reflection.
Steph leaned down quickly and hugged Sweetie. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just you. See?”
Sweetie could hardly believe it, but nodded to her friend absently. “So this is what I really looked like?” She frowned, surveying herself, and goggled at the freakiness of her own appearance that was apparently underneath her covering.
“Sooorta?” Steph paused, trying to think of responses that were both diplomatic and reassuring, but without sugar-coating things too much. “Sweetie, we all have different sides to ourselves that others never see. Figuratively and literally… In your case, you have the unique ability to actually see underneath, whereas most creatures that aren’t machines can’t without being hurt.”
Steph frowned, unhappy with leaving it at that. “But, hey, it’s what we have on the inside that counts.” Sweetie turned to look at her, one eyebrow gizmo raised. “Uhm, well, not the literal inside… I mean, like, our metaphorical inside. What defines us is our character, not what we were born as. Just remember that you’re you, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Sweetie Belle nodded dumbly, trying to understand the familiar explanation and what she was discovering about herself. “Oh. I see.” She remembered her own research in addition to Steph’s informative lectures. A machine, like her, wasn’t as at risk in the same ways like so many others where maintenance was concerned.
Although, rust was apparently a thing she really needed to watch out for.
“Okay,” Sweetie responded simply, but wasn’t sure of what else to say. “I understand, Steph… Thank you.”
Steph watched her robotic charge while feeling some worry over the way she stared at herself in the monitor so quietly. Still, Steph couldn’t help but smile from the thought of what Sweetie’s reaction would be after all was said and done. She waited for Sweetie for a full minute to maybe stop staring at herself.
Finally, Steph let out a sigh, saying, “I’m gonna go get your parts then, Sweetie. I think you’ll like what I’ve got in store. After the big stuff, the rest of your casing should only take a few minutes to switch out.” When another answer didn’t come, she rolled her eyes again and set back to work. “Oh, uhm, some of these might not be compatible, but I’m pretty sure they’ll work. Just bear with me. I sorta ordered anything custom online I could find that might fit the bill with—”
Sweetie sort of zoned out while Steph once again left to fetch her parts, then stayed that way well into the work that was being performed on her. She heard Steph explain that the changes would be really nice and add more functionality which excited a part of her to no end, and yet she didn’t respond in a way that would be telling of such emotions.
On the bright side, Sweetie did find the rest of the maintenance far more interesting now that she had found a sort of front row view to all the action. On top of that, the trepidation she’d felt about her under-chassis disappeared about halfway through the work, and was replaced by the more familiar sense of wonderment at seeing something new.
“What’s this?” Sweetie blinked as Steph began lowering something over her still exposed inner workings. She paid close attention as Steph hooked up new connections, and small motors her old face hadn’t even had before buzzed to life.
"Hold on, not done yet."
Little green lights blipped to life in her mind’s eye.
“Hey Steph, is this the upgrade you mentioned?” After she spoke, Sweetie was stunned as her new parts reacted to her speaking towards the end of her sentence; it was completely unlike how her old face had worked at all. And she liked it. Whatever was different about these new parts, it was a good kind of different. “Huh?” She reached a hoof up and poked at the new movement she could detect there.
“Hey, no touching. I’m not done yet.” Steph chuckled as she lightly swatted away a metal hoof from colliding with her pliers. “Just hold your horses.”
Sweetie blinked and acknowledged with a quiet ‘uhhuh’. The sophisticated movements that her new face seemed capable of in the computer screen's reflection looked very, very close to those that Stephanie herself could pull off…
“Awesoooome.” Sweetie knew it would interfere with Steph’s work, but for the remainder of the work she giggled uncontrollably and made silly faces at her reflection in the monitor.
Sweetie galloped about the house from one end to the other, occasionally stopping to poke at her new plating or admire her newly shiny self in a mirror.
Steph, meanwhile, had something else on her mind. She sat at the kitchen’s bar-counter and flipped through tech articles on her tablet with one hand while sipping a much needed mug of coffee with the other. Occasionally, her gaze would stealthily slide towards the door, contemplating how she could make a getaway from ‘Stephanie-time’ to run some shopping errands.
I spent all of my free time over the weekend, and most of the week before that, with Sweetie. It’s no surprise most normal things like getting food have completely slipped my mind. Steph smirked at the thought. But really, in my defense, how often does a person have to drop everything normal in their life in order to help a newly arrived magical-being suddenly staying in their house? Not very often I’m willing to wager. Gosh, it is so weird to think about how I'm the first and only person to ever even be in this situation.
Steph frowned and wiped a hand down her face. Still can’t believe that even when I remind myself of it. What is my life coming t—
“Hm?” The sudden feeling of something wrapping itself around her leg made Stephanie look down.
“Hi.” Sweetie Belle grinned up at her friend, and it really was a grin now thanks to her upgrade. “Thanks again, Steph, this is great!”
“Heh, no sweat.” Steph reached down and affectionately ruffled Sweetie’s mane.
Sweetie stuck out her tongue and wiggled away from the attention. “So now that I’m fixed up, wanna play some games? I’ve been reading about so many! We didn’t have any at first, but while you were at work today I fashioned some rudimentary lawn darts—”
“Whoa, hold on, Sweetie, I need to step out for a bit, first.” Did she say lawn darts? Better make a note of that. Steph frowned as she set her coffee mug in the sink, then muttered, “I hate leaving you alone like this… I dunno how this upcoming business trip is going to work out…”
“What was that, Steph? I only caught a bit of what you said.” Sweetie stood up on her hind legs to rest one forehoof on her friend’s leg. “Is business trip a game like Monopoly? They sound about the same.”
“Uh-h, no, Sweetie, it’s just…” Steph swallowed, and said the first thing to come to mind. “I was just getting ready to go to the mall, and—”
Sweetie’s gasp was sudden enough and loud enough that every animal in the room quieted its chittering to stare at the loud pair talking in the kitchen. “The store!? Ohmygosh can I go? Please!” Before even she realized it, she was pleading while hugging Steph’s leg. “I want to go see news things so bad!”
Steph cut off her return chuckle. “Hey, whoa, ow, easy there, Sweetie!” She knelt down and rubbed where she was certain she’d be getting a bruise soon. “Yikes, you gotta wait and get a feeling for your own strength. Those new parts are— wow.”
Sweetie zoomed and unzoomed her vision on where she’d hugged. “Oh, sorry Steph.”
“It’s okay. Now, feel free to roam around the house and get a feel for things while I’m gone, aaand I’ll be right back in a jiffy with—” Steph had begun casually walking towards the front door, perhaps unrealistically hopeful of her chances of making a getaway… but stopped with a sigh as soon as Sweetie rushed back in front of her, blocking the door.
“Oh! Ohooh! Steph, no, please let me come with you! Please!” Sweetie couldn’t contain her excitement at the prospect of seeing some of the things she’d seen on Mr. TV.
Steph raised a hand, effectively cutting off Sweetie in return. “Sweetie, we’ve talked about this. I’d really rather you didn’t.” The pout that lept onto Sweetie’s face and her crossed forehooves caught Steph off guard.
“Hang on! Yeah we have talked about it, and you said it would probably be fine, and the biggest reason I couldn’t go with you was because I was damaged, and I’d be a hassle at your work! But you aren’t going to work, I’m fully repaired, and this is just a place of communal purchase for creature comforts, appliances, and or other day to day needs! I should be allowed to accompany you!”
Steph blinked for a moment, but her stern look had remained. “Now hold on, it still isn’t—”
“No buts!” Sweetie jabbed a hoof at her friend.
“But it could be dangerous!” Stephanie plead back.
Sweetie stomped a hoof. “No. Buts.”
Stephanie felt her chest tighten, trying to come up with a response that would win this argument for her.
Stephanie tried for a good ten seconds to stare down the foot and a half tall filly glaring daggers at her, but in the end, she said...
“Alright, I’ll go get the van keys…”
“Yay!”
Sweetie was seated in the van in a fashion vaguely mirroring Stephanie’s posture. Unlike Steph, she was busy looking every which way out of the windows at the landscape rushing by. The only thing holding Sweetie in place despite her excited movement was the ‘seat-belt’ fastened in place over her front.
“Wow! So much green! So much blue!” In the rearview mirror, Sweetie caught sight of Steph smiling to herself while driving. She leaned as far forward as she could, and addressed her friend.
“I know the Earth is seven thousand nine-hundred and seventeen and a half miles in diameter, but right now it feels like the world goes on forever! I’m glad I managed to cajole you into taking me with you on this trip, Steph. Seeing the outside is way-way better than just looking at pictures and reading about it.”
“I guess I take it for granted, but your excitement over this little trip for groceries and electronic supplies is giving me a pretty good idea.” Steph glanced back at Sweetie with a grin. “I’m a little surprised you’re this eager again to go exploring though. Just a couple of days ago I could still find you hiding under the bed during the day.”
Sweetie shifted uneasily in her seat and looked down at the floor of the vehicle. She tried immediately to think of something other than the fact she was in a large, fast moving object the likes of what had hurt her a week prior.
“W-Well I’m better now... so… So, this is actually kind of a dermal outer-layer, huh?” Sweetie laughed nervously as she changed the subject. “It’s almost like what you have, right?” She rotated her front hooves around the outside of her face in slow circles, still testing it out. “It feels so weeeird and mooshy.”
Stephanie made an unsure face, but chuckled at Sweetie’s antics. “Well, not exactly like what I have, but it’s the best stuff the market has to offer right now and it’s way better than what I’d had you set up with before. With the robotics revolution going on there are a lot of cool advancements coming out every day. And are you sure you’re alri—”
“This new acrylonitrile butadiene styrene casing smells funny…” Sweetie wrinkle her new snout where Stephanie could see in the rear-view for visual emphasis. “I like the carbon fiber base, though. I can already tell it’s much tougher than the last casing.”
“Oh? I still don’t understand how you can smell anything without a nose… a real one, I mean. And let’s tone down on the big science words while we’re out in public, hm?”
“Affirmative! Phew.” The subject successfully changed, Sweetie let out a faux breath—it was habit at this point—and turned her gaze back to the window. Sweetie glanced away from the scenery flickering by in the van window. “Shall I refer to it more simply as my new polymer chassis casing, then?”
“Heh, sure, Sweetie.” Steph gave Sweetie another glance in the mirror, then shrugged.
The two drove in silence a ways, until Sweetie noticed that more and more vehicles were appearing on the road. “This really is a lot of automobiles… cars… trucks… traffic,” she whispered. “Increasing exponentially in number.” She had been able to deal with just one or two passing them occasionally, and riding in one… After she’d gotten used to the sight she’d even stopped tensing up. But this was a lot to handle.
Once they took an exit off the larger road, they seemed to enter what her memory informed her was a densely inhabited city due to the number of buildings and shops everywhere.
“Sweetie, are you alright? You look spaced out.”
“Huh?” Sweetie jerked her head forward, and found Steph craned around in her seat and looking back at her. They had stopped in the middle of the road of all things, and there were even more vehicles criss-crossing the road just in front of them. Her eyes darted over the scene, spotting a series of red lights hanging above the road and more traffic stopped across the street.
Stop-lights… so this is normal, okay, sure. “Acknowledged, Unit Sweetie is functional. Systems are optimal.” Normally, she was quite embarrassed when her programing leaked out like that, but she was too tense currently to care much.
Sweetie glanced out the side window again, then flinched as a massive vehicle with a door taller than a person and towing a huge trailer pulled up alongside them. “B-Battery level at nine thousand and eighty-nine percent, processo—”
Steph’s unsure look took on a quality of understanding. “Hey, easy. It’s okay to be scared, Sweetie.”
“It is?” Surprised, Sweetie blinked at her friend.
“Yeah.” Steph turned around after returning a quick smile. “But just remember, sometimes you gotta face those fears to move past them.”
Sweetie smiled and looked back out the window, feeling reassured.
“Steph’s right, I just gotta… Oh, come on!” Another giant truck pulled up alongside them, and this one was towing even more, smaller vehicles on its back.
Sweetie groaned and opted to put her forehooves over her eyes. I’ll face it later… yup. Procrastination is my friend.
“Oh my gosh. Is that it?” Sweetie struggled to stand up against her seat-belt, and pressed her face up against the cool window glass to peer outside at the immense building.
Steph nodded. “Haha, yup, that’s the mall. Biggest one in the state, too, I think. The mall revival rush in 2020 really caught everyone off guard… Anyway, it has some great robotics and accessories departments. Uggh, I used to love coming here as a little kid with my parents… But they got rid of my favorite restaurant over a decade ago. What was it called, again? Kahuma-mille? No... it was more like—”
Sweetie sorta tuned Steph out, taken in completely by the view. They had passed a bunch of absurdly scaled structures already as they drove further into the cityscape, and many looked as if they could house thousands of humans, or tens of thousands of Sweetie Belles.
Sweetie imagined the latter was far less likely, since she was supposed to be pretty unique according to Steph, but the thought of so many of herself did make her lean off the window and tap her chin in thought.
The sudden stopping of the van, and the fact that Steph was hopping right out, brought Sweetie back out of her imagination.
“Steph, wait for me!” Sweetie leaned down and fumbled at the seat belt buckle with her hooves. Unfortunately, they were too clunky to depress the release sufficiently. “Errr, this is most inefficient.”
The arm reaching around her made short work of the buckle with a welcome click, and right after she was being lifted out onto the pavement of what she identified quickly as a parking lot.
Sweetie frowned the whole way through the air. “Hmph, I need to modify these hoof things and pronto.” She shot them a quick glare, then looked up to see Steph snickering at her. “Stoppit! It’s not nice to laugh at others, Steph!”
Infuriatingly, Steph only laughed harder. “I know, but you’re cute when you’re upset. And friends can laugh at each other a little bit.” She kneeled down and gave Sweetie’s mane a ruffle.
“I guess… ugh, friendship is complicated.” Sweetie recalled the detailed explanation of the term that described interpersonal interactions, as well as all the seemingly contradictory nuances Stephanie explained on a daily basis.
Steph winked, and stepped off briskly down the parking lot lane. “You’ll get the hang of it. Now, come on, we don’t want to hang around out here all day. And stay close.”
Sweetie had almost forgotten where she was, and looked up at the building looming over them with awe as she walked in a trance behind Steph. She also started taking note of all the different people that were walking to and from the building, too.
“Eeee!” The excited sound that leaked out of Sweetie was a new one to hear, but she could tell right away what it was.
Her excitement was at such a level that it almost made her suffer a terrible lapse in judgement.
“Whoa! Wait, Steph!”
Stephanie jumped half a foot, her hand even leaping up to her heart. “Wha—! What’s wrong?"
Sweetie frowned and jabbed a hoof out across the last street separating the lot and the mall. “We need to look both ways before crossing!”
“Oh. Right...” Steph chuckled and watched as Sweetie did an exaggerated reenactment of her teachings about looking both directions down a road. “All safe?”
Sweetie stood up straight, and nodded straight ahead. “The way is clear! Let’s proceed, Steph.”
Steph followed, feeling something welling up inside her akin to pride.
Steph paused at the door to the mall. “Sweetie, hold up,” she called ahead of herself.
“Hm?” Sweetie’s eyes reflected her excitement back at her in the huge glass entryway of the mall as she stopped before it. She clambered up and gave the door a light push, like the screen door at home, but it didn’t budge. “Wow. Heavy…” She looked up and down at the door again, this time doing less admiring and more evaluating. Her eyes scanned its material and promptly gave her an estimated solution for the force she’d need.
Steph suppressed more giggles as she watched Sweetie fail to open the door. At least she’d stay put while she got a quick reminder on her rules. “Now remember, what don’t we do in public?”
Sweetie paused in her next attempt at opening the great big door before her and sighed as she sat down on the pavement. She adopted a rigid posture and recited the rules Steph had drilled into her on the way there. “No talking to strangers. No wandering off. No excessive shows of strangeness. No touching things. No breaking things. No running. No magic, not that I ever want to try that stuff again... and… uh…”
“And have fun.” Steph chuckled and uncrossed her arms as she reached for the door.
“Have fun!” Sweetie cheered, and charged towards the mall entrance. “How could I forget the most important rule!”
The door gave way and thumped loudly as Sweetie jumped into it with both forehooves stretched out, then banged louder as it careened inside into the wall.
“Whoa, Sweeti— Oh my God.” Steph put a hand over her eyes, then double-taked. She had expected her little robot to hurt herself trying to open the heavy door, not hurt the door itself. “Hey, come back here! Remember rules two and six!”
If Steph was thankful for anything, it was that on a Monday evening there was almost no one at all in the mall. That certainly made keeping sight of Sweetie Belle as she looked to and fro at the various shops a pretty easy job.
“Wow, so that’s a movie theater. I wonder if they’re playing Iron Gia—”
“Halt, unidentified machine detected.” A burst of static and a few numbers were blurted and followed up the demand. “Please reply in kind.”
Sweetie had stopped in her tracks, and peered up curiously at the source of the voice. “Hal? Is that you?” Some strange information scrolled across her vision, data that was apparently translated from the staticky sound the voice had also made. Her processor seemed to know what it was, but Sweetie herself was out of the loop.
A spherical glass shape protruding from the wall, and an adjacent speaker was what had made the voice and transmitted the weird data.
“Negative. The speaker represents security for this premises. Please identify yourself.” More static followed, and this time Sweetie saw more data that matched what it was saying.
“I’m Sweetie! Hi there—”
“It’s okay, tin can, she’s with me.” Steph sighed as she caught up to Sweetie, and quickly swiped her Driver’s license over the mall cam’s oculus, letting it scan the barcode.
“Acknowledged!” The wall beeped, then flashed a green light. A strip of paper began printing out from a receptacle also in the wall. “Please, have a good day, and enjoy your stay at the mall, Ms. Speck.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Steph sighed as she slowly led Sweetie away, a hand near her back guiding her towards a nearby wall. She chuckled, attempting to sound lighthearted, as they moved “Hey, you, I told you not to rush ahead like that.”
“I’m sorry, Steph. I got a little carried away there…” Sweetie blinked repeatedly, trying to shake away the scrolling text the wall-eye’s funky noise had created in her vision. How do I turn this off…? And what was that all about? The data seemed to be a repeated request for identification of some kind, but she didn’t know what to do about.
"Steph, I think I need to get my visual sensors looked at.. Hold on, I'm restarting them."
"Whoa-stop, look out for that—” a loud clang sound bounced off the wide hall’s surroundings. “—bench..."
Stephanie sighed, and took a seat on the bench next to Sweetie. “Are you okay?”
“Affir— Yes, I’m okay. Just a little confused, actually. Who was that?” Sweetie blinked more as her vision returned, and rubbed the sore spot on her face. Thankfully, the scrolling data was gone and she could see unobstructed again.
Steph smirked. “Good, and that—” She held up the scrap of paper in her hand, “—was just mall-security. This is your identity receipt saying you’re mine while we’re in here. I’ve never brought a robot to a public place like this before, so I’d forgotten they started doing that. Sorry, Sweetie, that was my fault back there.”
“Oh.” Sweetie stared up at the piece of paper, then clambered up onto the bench alongside Steph to get an even closer look. “That makes sense, because other machines aren’t aware like me, and they’re just things.” She nodded to herself, making sense of it. Lost property needed an owner or property to be returned to, after all.
Steph let out a pensive sigh. “Yes, correct, Sweetie. Look I’m really sorry about this. We can go back home right now if it makes you uncomfortable or—”
Sweetie jerked her head up, eyes widening. “What? No! Go? But we just got here, Steph! You said you’d absolutely show me that funny store with all the antiques and vintage electronics you talked about!”
“So you’re not upset?”
“Nope. I mean, I know I’m different, and you know I’m different, and who cares what anyone that isn’t properly informed of our current status thinks?”
“...Very true.” Steph had to actively suppress that funny welling sensation of pride reappearing in her chest. She surveyed the desperate look in Sweetie’s eyes, and had to smile at how earnest she was about staying. Whatever the case, she was also extremely glad Sweetie hadn’t turned out upset over the incident.
“Alright then, down you go!” Steph energetically stood up, and swooped Sweetie, despite her considerable forty or so pounds of now mostly metal.
“Whee!” Sweetie held still as Steph’s arms wrapped around her own middle and deposited her on the ground. “Again!”
Steph chuckled. “Maybe later. Now, come on we’ve got a lot to see and I have errands to run, too.” She let out a breath and she took up a steady pace alongside Sweetie, and quietly thanked nothing in particular that things were staying simple.
“Alright! Then I want to go see a Roboticist’s store, first!” After a passing glance at the mall-map, Sweetie veered toward the direction of said store. "I bet there will be so many intelligences there to talk to!"
“Oh. Good, we’ll get those parts for Hal bought first, then.” Steph silently uttered another prayer to anyone that might be listening. And, after a moment, she uttered one to anypony that might be listening, too.
“Whooooa.” Sweetie stared up at the other robot standing before her… and up, and up, and up. “What’s your name?”
The gigantic robot's head craned downward until its own eyes and soft expression locked with Sweetie's. “Hello, little bird. I am designated android sixteen, and I am for sale as a house-work assistance model. If you wish to know my full list of capabilities, please ask. It is nice to meet you.” The giant robot’s gears and servos audibly whirred as its legs bent enough that it could hold out a hand gingerly towards Sweetie.
“Bird? I’m not a bird. I’m Sweetie Belle!” Sweetie raised an eyebrow at both the mandroid, his outstretched hand, and then at Steph, who for some reason was giggling up a storm from where she stood, over by a rack of ram.
“It is good to make your acquaintance, Sweetie bird.”
“Seriously?” Sweetie half frowned, half pouted this time. “Steph, are you over there laughing because of another case of friendly schadenfreude? And what’s this guy talking about? Or even doing?”
Steph cut of her laughter quick with a cough, but her grin remained. “Sorry… and he wants to shake your hoof, Sweetie.”
“But why would he— Oh, it’s a polite sign of greetings!” Sweetie smiled, and promptly accepted the gesture, though she was still unsure as to why Steph had been laughing so hard. “Nice to meet you, sixteen.”
“Affirmative, little duck.” The android smiled down at her as he stood again, and resumed his stance at the head of the aisle.
“Hmph. Not a duck...” she muttered to herself.
Looking elsewhere for more intrigue, Sweetie hummed and trotted off in search around the store. “Going over to the designer parts section, Steph!”
“Okay, I’ll be here. Uh, excuse me, sir, but do you guys carry anything like server strength pa—”
Steph had told her that she could wander about the store and look at everything, surprisingly, so long as she stayed within said store. Sweetie guessed the assumption was that it wasn’t so large that they would get separated.
That, or Steph has a lot of faith in this tracking device in my leg panel she forgot to mention to me. A ways off, Sweetie found an aisle that sported every sort of optical sensor and custom lense there must be in the world. Wow! Shiny! Impressive. Dazzling.
Another person walked around her—and without even saying hello!—and was followed closely by a shiny looking copper-plated robot that seemed to be carrying her bags.
“Hurry up you bucket of bolts. We’re going to be late! Oh, my goodness that is just the cutest little machine right there! So adorable.”
The bag robot responded flatly. "Of course, madam."
“Hmph.” Sweetie turned her nose up at the woman scurrying away towards the entrance. “Super rude. If that was me then I’d… make her carry her own bags. Yeah.” The thought of being used as a bag carrying appliance doesn’t really appeal to me. With a sigh, she stepped into the lense aisle and tried to put out of mind the ogling she kept getting from other customers that thought she was quote-unquote cute.
But for that matter, I guess the fact I used to just walk around and say one-liners means I didn’t do much else. Sweetie shook her head and resolved to put the thought-line out of mind pronto, and focus on the shiny things instead.
“Ohhh. Very shiny.” The shelves, glass compartments, and metal hangers had all sorts of colors to choose from for lenses, and Sweetie wondered how anyone could make a decision on just one set. “And what if the robot has multiple eyes? Do they accessorize with multiple colors, or go uniform?”
Sweetie hummed at the thought, then gasped when she looked at the price tags. “Two hundred dollars! Wow, that’s a lot judging by Steph’s gasoline receipts she brings home. Drat, and here I wanted to see everything in pink…” The styles were interesting, but perhaps more interesting were the names that the lenses all sported. “Hm, who’s Adam Jenson? Sonny? Chi… and Kusanagi.”
While Sweetie poked at the lowest row of boxes near the floor with a hoof and read the lens designs aloud, a shadow crept up from behind her. Sweetie’s ears registered the approaching sounds, and determined by their rate of movement that whoever was making them was attempting to be stealthy.
But why would anyone sneak up on me? Sweetie shrugged as she turned around, already readying up a nice big hello for whoever was coming to—
“PIGGYYY!”
Sweetie’s eye twitched as she felt something leap up on her back, wrap its legs around her middle, and take a firm hold of her mane.
Nope!
“H-Hey, get off!” Sweetie immediately tried to back up and look at who it was on instinct, but they were firmly in place and in her blind spot. “Who is that!? Steph! Help!”
“Hi-ho piggy! Away!” A pair of little hands—although they looked like tiny misshapen paws—suddenly covered Sweetie’s eyes and obscured her vision.
“Hey, would you listen to m—” Sweetie gasped as she felt a kick at her sides, and then she launched herself forward down the aisle in a gallop. “This is most unkind!”
The voice responded back with, “WHEEEEEHEHEHOO! Faster, piggy!”
“Grrr! Not a piggy! Am Sweetie Belle!” Sweetie growled and tried to shake off the firm grip the assailant had on her, but who or whatever it was held on tight, and seemed to be steering her. “I can’t see where we’re going! Get off of me or… I’ll have to take drastic measures!”
Sweetie had felt the floor change twice, but she had no idea where she was anymore. Ignoring that, she could hear all kinds of shouts at her as she ran, including several yelling for her to, “Stop playing!” and “Watch where you’re going, rust-buckets!”
“Faster!” the mystery voice shouted, and still cackled crazily.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Sweetie screeched to a halt, and an actual screech of the stone floor from her hooves did bounce off the walls. “Are you gonna get off or do I have to make you?” She pouted her lip out in an angry scowl, but the answer she got back from her mystery attacker wasn’t exactly sensical.
“We should go get some tacos, piggy! Food court’s thataway!”
Sweetie lowered her chassis to the ground and her leg motors revved up to maximum. “Wrong answer, buddy!” A wicked grin spread over her muzzle.
She reared back, then rocked herself forward at full tilt and kicked her legs up and out behind herself. Sure enough, just as Sweetie had hoped, she felt the hitchhiker on her back become dislodged, and he was launched forward and sent careening through the air.
“Wheeee!”
A crashing sound came from somewhere up ahead, but Sweetie’s mane had become disheveled to the point that it was covering almost as much of her vision as before.
“Well that was bothersome…” Sweetie sat down and reached up with both hooves to try and fix her mane. Doing so on her own would be difficult. “Now I’ve gotta get Steph to help me comb this mess... Oh geez, where am I? She’s going to be upset about this, I just know it.”
Wherever she was, it didn’t look familiar right away, so Sweetie concluded that her attacker had taken them somewhere she’d yet to traverse yet. More disturbing about her surroundings, perhaps, was that the thing that had ridden her halfway across the mall was nowhere to be seen. This part of the mall seemed to be empty, with the exception of a couple of bored looking employees that she could see through some shop windows.
Sweetie Belle thought she heard a sudden rustling to her left, and she jerked her head towards a garbage can that was adjacent to a nearby fountain. “Hello?” she called tentatively, unsure as to whether she ought to just get away while she could, or find out who was responsible for accosting her and mussing her mane up.
Two thin, but long and droopy black ears popped out of the top of the garbage, followed by a bulbous green head and two unfocused, cartoonishly large eyes.
“What the heck is that thing?” Sweetie Belle knew it was wrong to judge someone based on their appearance, as Steph had pointed out, but the creature suddenly staring down at her was pretty bizarre looking. It almost looked like a sort of cartoon dog stuffed toy, but only if it had come from a manufacturer of inferior make.
“Piggy! Lookie this, I found a taco!” The miniature dog-bot, whatever its intentions, had to be malfunctioning, Sweetie concluded, because it wasn’t exactly getting its evaluations correct.
“Alright, you, listen up. I’m a pony, and that—” Sweetie jabbed a hoof at what the stranger held, “—is an old soda can. Now tell me why you attacked me!”
The robot’s silly giant eyes took on a sad look as soon as Sweetie yelled. “Awww. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, Piggy! Here, you can have the taco as my way of saying sorry!”
Sweetie backed up further away from the machine as it hopped down off of the can, and its feet squeaked audibly as it hit the floor. She was about to object once again to being referred to as such, but a sudden exclamation of joy from behind cut off her words.
“Gir! There you are. I told you not to run away. Mom’s gonna be so mad at us, and then she won’t let me bring you with us anymore, no matter what dad says to defend you! Why didn’t you listen to me? Are you malfunctioning again? ”
Sweetie turned around to face the sweet sounding voice. Upon doing so, she made eye contact with possibly the most adorable thing she’d ever seen. “Oh my gooosh, you’re like a miniature Stephanie!”
The girl facing her was about half Steph’s size, and the frizzy brown hair she had was uncannily similar.
Sweetie put her hooves up to her face and struggled to contain a soft squee of joy. Oh, geeez. Something dawned on her. This must be what all those people felt like when they saw me and say that I’m being adorable… Turnabout for certain. Karma even?
Sweetie’s thoughts ceased as she was addressed by the stranger.
“Hi, I’m Suzy.” The little girl, which of course she must be, tilted her head as she knelt down and lifted up the miniature dog thing designated by her as a ‘Gir’. “Your mane’s really messy, but you’re still pretty.” The girl smiled and tried to pet Sweetie’s head, and the weird robot-thing in her arms made as if to do the same.
Sweetie backed away again, but the little girl didn’t seem to notice and kept right on talking and approaching.
“So what’s your name?” she asked again, still trying to pet Sweetie’s mane. “What model are you? Can you sing?”
“It’s, uhm, Sweetie, and I don't have a model designation.” A sort of constant dance began between Sweetie and Suzy, with Gir the middle, mumbling nonsense. “Look, could you stop that, please? I'm not even supposed to talk to strangers, let alone let them touch me.”
Suzy did stop straight away, and she looked genuinely surprised at being asked to. “Oh, sorry.” She looked down at Gir then, as if suddenly remembering something. “And sorry about Gir, too. I think he mistook you for our dog. Dad’s got him programed to ride him like a horse. They even have a cute little saddle!” the girl giggled, then leaned over and held out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Sweetie!”
Sweetie’s lenses zoomed in on the offered hand. She recognized the gesture, considered ignoring it, but decided to be polite, like Steph had told her. “It’s… nice to meet you, but I wish it was under different circumstances. Still, I suppose your explanation makes sense.” She still eyed Gir warily, but given the empty look that was on the other machine’s face, it seemed harmless enough now that its owner had appeared.
Not wanting to wait around, and despite finally finding someone else to talk to, Sweetie turned to go. She couldn’t be away from Steph for so long. “Well, if it’s all the same to you, I need to get back to Stephanie pronto, and before she notices I left the store, or I’m in trouble.”
Sweetie trotted down the wide mall hallway a bit, but a strangled sound from behind her made her stop and look back.
The little girl had a mixture of uncertainty, and distress on her face the likes of which Sweetie had never seen before.
“You appear worried.” Sweetie felt compelled to see what was the matter. “What’s wrong, Suzy?”
“It’s— Uhm…” The little girl looked left, then to her right, then exchanged her distressed look for a sheepish grin. “I think I’m lost. I don’t suppose you know the way back, do you? You and Gir did, like, three laps back at the food court.”
“Oh, well…” Sweetie Belle blinked, and a wave of uncertainty suddenly filled her as she came to a realization. As she looked around at the shops surrounding her, it became increasingly apparent she didn’t recognize any of them. “Huh, that’s a good point.” She stared a bit longer, then abruptly returned the girl’s sheepish grin with one of her own. “Actually I think I’m lost, too. Hah. How about that...”
Gir chimed in, shrugging while in Suzy’s grip. “Ohhhh, if only I hadn’t made room for the tuna!”
Steph grumbled to herself while she browsed a catalogue. "I can't believe how expensive the same stuff I used for Hal from four years ago is, let alone upgrade parts! This is crazy. No inflation in the market my left butt cheek..." She glanced down to her left. "Sweetie, go ask the cashier if— Sweetie? Ah well, good thing I planned for this." Quickly, she glanced at her phone to check on Sweetie's location for where in the store she must be. She had just checked two minutes prior, but she had made a habit of checking constantly already, it seemed. "Oh, she's across the mall at the other end."
Steph fast walked towards the exit. "How did she get that far away in a matter of minutes!?"
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7520892 Isn't it likely because Past Sins wasn't posted here originally, so by the time it was, a lot of people had read it, so they knew they liked it, but they didn't re-read it?
Huzzah! Updates!
i thought you were dead, but now i realise that the men in the white suits found you and it took you a while to escape from their clutches. Right?
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAA!
UUUUUUUPPPDATE!
WO!
Where is my goddamn popcorn!?
Dis gon B guud!
Oh my god... an update...
And here I was wondering if Merlos really had managed to open a portal to Equestria and slipped through without telling us.
Though... I can see why he wouldn't want me to know. (The powers... all mine...)
ITS ALIVE! ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but seriously, over a year of awaiting.
Merlos lives! And the rest of us are dead of diabeetus. Welcome back, sir!
I do hope the combined cute-power of Sweetie and Suzy isn't so much that they leave a wake of keeled over adults clutching their hearts...
Adam Jensen? She lookin' for armblades now, hanzer?
hellonwheels.com.au/bmxshop/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/alive.jpg
really glad this fic has not died :D
7578040 That image...
This fic is alive... unlike Gene Wilder.
...
- Christian 'Okay, I'm just going to go take a timeout forever' Harisay
Welcome back!
It's always nice to see a story updated.
I hope you are doing well, and it seems you are, judging by that authors note :P
IT'S ALIIIIVE!
Nice to see you are still alive there. Good to see the story continuing as well.
The real question is, how long until Sweetie figures out how to upgrade herself.
I've been waiting a LOOONG time for your return... and I'm glad to say that you've still got it after all this time!
Happy anniversary!
how did get to the other side in minutes? teleporting of course
(Sweetie didn't teleport)
well, the she just run
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy, update =)
Yay, update!!!!!!
Hahaha, dramatic irony.
They also have other models on request (though no-one seems to like the Android Fifteen).
7578420
Hah, no way, android 13 has the lowest popularity.
"Look at my trucker hat!!!"
7578438
Right, it was 13 that had the trucker hat. 15 was the... alcoholic purple midget? Or was he the one with the corrupted sound drive?
One of the two.
This chapter was worth the wait.
no, this is too much cutenesss-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d0/b1/04/d0b1043e4e34be337aa44671a22c95b4.jpg baby marmoset are so f*****g CUTE!!!!
by Celestia i want more of this cuteness...
Yay
Just as good as it used to be.
7578711 Thankies ^^
Wow, I had forgotten this story existed, thanks for reminding me
Hey, welcome back! Nice update
Glad to see you again Merlos! i do hope life hasn't been too hard on my favorite author!
And huzzah, more Sweetiebot ;u;
7578751
Hoopy Senpai! Heh, and thanks. ^^ I was very tempted to make Suzy into Dani, by the way. xD
Welcome back to the land of the living. Glad you finally got out of your Sweetie Bot cuteness induced coma. I think.
7578877
Haha, not too far off I guess. ^^
7578751
7578726
Greetings to both of you! Merlos, we thought you perished in some magic mishap. And Hoopy good gracious if I haven't heard from you in a while! How is life for the both of you?
BWAHAHAHA!!
Sweetie duck... I'm using that someday...
Merlos after posting.
Man I miss this story. So glad your updating it again! The more sweetie becomes aware of the world the better it becomes. Good job, and looking forward to next week!
I have a question. What about Stephs friend who hit Sweetie Bot with her car? Surely shed have been asking questions by now? that aside this chapter was awesome and I look forward to more!
7578528
D'aww. It's adorable and vicious as all get out.
I'll take a dozen.
it lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I dropped everything to read this. Holy macerolli am I glad this is back!
Oh, she got that technology. She's the most different. Wonder if it looks better or worse. It's harder to make high-precision shell look good than simple metal.
Too. Many. References! I can't keep track of them all.
7579359
<.< I'm not sorry.
Y U TAKE SO LONG TO UPDATE?! YOU SCARED THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF ME I THOUGHT IT WAS DEAD!
Thank god its not though... BUT DONT EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!
Holy shit an Update!!!
And it's still awesome after all this time. Wow. You most certainly haven't lost your touch Merlos.
Also "once per week" will definitely get you out of the "dog-house", especially since you were never in it (for me at least). I look forward to the next chapter whenever it comes out.
7579473
Shhh shh, it's all okay now. I have returned to fimfic.
7579476
Thanks! ^^ That means a lot to me to hear that sort of praise after all this time.
I think you should upgrade the mall security bot to...
[youtube=fH3X2U9t2P0](t=9m8s)