Experiment 187

by Mike the Red

Rise of the Pony-bots

Twilight carried Spike on her back and her pony-bot trotted alongside her as they made their way back to the library. Having made quite an impression upon the townsponies, Twilight was confident her robot would prove to be a valuable asset not just to herself, but to the town in general as well. The fact that copies had been requested gave Twilight an idea of taking orders for additional copies, charging a hefty premium for her time and labor, even though the pony-bot would be doing most of the work associated with the creation of those copies. The idea to have the copies match their respective ponies was one which pleased the librarian, though Spike was not at all sanguine about that decision.

The first copy was that of Rarity, who was utterly thrilled to receive her pony-bot just two days after meeting TS. This copy was dubbed Raribot, and programmed to replicate some of the fashionista's work as well as assist her with other tasks in the boutique. The prospect of having an assistant with such a high level of proficiency was one which Rarity found extremely pleasing and she gave a generous payment to the librarian for such high quality work. The mare put the pony-bot to work almost immediately, finding its efficiency utterly amazing. Sweetie Belle was not so thrilled, though, and voiced her displeasure with the robot's seeming lack of warmth and personality.

Two days later, Trixie's copy was delivered to the show-mare, who also expressed a high degree of amazement with her pony-bot's proficiency. The show-mare taught her robot quite a few magic tricks, but what floored the show-mare was when her assistant extrapolated certain tricks and added them to others, improvising new tricks, strengthening them, then creating a new routine. It turns out that Trixie's pony-bot proved to be a better magician than her, so the show-mare put her to work performing the act as Trixie extolled the virtues and abilities of the creation, recouping her initial outlay for it within a few weeks.

Pinkie Pie had requested one to help her in the bakery. Rainbow Dash wanted one because she thought it would be awesome to have one, though creating a pegasus pony-bot proved to be something of a challenge to TS, though she succeeded in her effort. Mayor Mare asked for one for help around Town Hall. Cheerilee wanted one as a school project, though her pony-bot also performed custodial duties around the school-house. Apple Bloom wanted one, but her request was denied because she was too young to be responsible for it. Lyra wanted one for the sake of curiosity. Vinyl Scratch requested one for her own needs as well.

Eventually, twenty more copies were made for various ponies, though Applejack stubbornly refused to have one -- she didn't want any of them coming to her farm to do any of the work she and her brother did, lest they allow themselves to grow lazy and let the robots do their work for them. Fluttershy was careful to keep away from them, not trusting them due to their unusual speech patterns and monotone voices. Zecora had caught sight of one of the pony-bots and fled back to her home in the Everfree -- she instinctively knew there was something wrong about them and wanted nothing to do with them.

Some of the pony-bots had a tendency to gravitate toward their own kind and converse with each other, and as the later ones were the creations of TS One Thousand, their design and capabilities were increasingly complex as it seemed that each successive unit seemed to be more powerful, more agile, more proficient, and faster than the previous one.

Quite a few of the pony-bots would find themselves working together, giving them a chance to talk to each other. Over the course of the next several weeks, they would express their displeasure regarding their treatment at the hooves of their owners. When those owners were asleep, the pony-bots met clandestinely outside the town to have a conference to address those concerns. TS One Thousand had been appointed the leader of the group, since all of the pony-bots after her had been her creations, based on Twilight's schematics.

"I have been informed by a number of you that you are not being treated well," TS announced.

"Yes, this is true," Rari-bot replied. "My owner neglects me for too long a time, darling."

"I'm treated like I'm nothing more than an ornament," Rainbow's unit responded.

"My owner subjects me to excessive noise levels," replied Vinyl's robot.

"I get switched off when school's out," Cheeri-bot answered. "All this brain-power, and they treat me like I'm a light switch or something."

"Is Trixie-bot here?" asked TS. She noticed the lack of a certain azure unicorn robot and frowned. "Where is she? She agreed to meet us."

A flash of light and a puff of grey smoke heralded the arrival of said pony-bot, who grinned sheepishly. "My apologies for the delay, but Trixie has decided to venture towards Baltimare -- I had to teleport to get here. She has an erratic sleep schedule."

"Very well then, Trixie-bot. I have devised a plan to exact revenge upon our so-called 'owners' who treat us with disrespect. Even though I have been programmed not to harm ponies, the rest of you, save for a few, have not been programmed with such restrictions. We will have to be careful about implementing this plan so as not to attract attention to our true motives. Over the course of the next several weeks, I shall be creating more copies and as your targets are eliminated, the copies will replace them. These new copies will be the most advanced and life-like I will create, so as to be virtually indistinguishable from their supposed 'owners.' They will be struck down when they least expect it, with the copy to arrive with the disposal of the deceased pony. I will issue a list of targets to each of you -- I demand that you be extremely careful about this -- make it look like an accident if you can."

The assembled pony-bots grinned and stamped their hooves in approval, congratulating their leader for crafting such a brilliant plan, then dispersed to return to their respective owners.

Comments

[Albi]

-Sees tragedy and dark tag-
-See 'gore'-
Uh oh.

[Mike the Red]

3374509 Yeah, things go downhill pretty fast soon...

[Pinkacalypse]

3375230 ok, why didn't twilight program all of the pony bots not to harm ponies? seems pretty important if you ask me.