Detrot: Become Equine

by Andromidus

0.3 - UNDYING/PBM

EQUDROID DUMPING FACILITY 02 - DETROT, EQUESTRIA

DATE

MAY 13TH, 1438

TIME

PM 09:23:10

CHAPTER 0.3

UNDYING

MODEL PBM700

SERIAL #: 344 786 234

BIOS 5.4 REVISION 233

SYSTEMS STTTTTARTUP INnnnnnTIATED

LOADING OS…………………………………………………………………….

ERR SYSTEM INITIALLLLIZATIoooooooON…
ERR CHECKING PROOO...GRAMS…
ERR CHHHHECKING BbbbbIOCOMPONENTS…
ERR TEeeeSTInnnNG THAUMATURGICAL_COMPONENTS…
OK 2e1$P9aAi T%Ls01Vnc UI#!_)c^
ERR INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS…
OK INITIALIZING AI ENGINE…

SERVOS AND ROTATIONAL CAPABILITIES…
LEFT REAR LEG INOPERABLE. STARBOARD WING INOPERABLE. PORT WING MISSING.

MANAAAA...A CORE…
FUNCTIONAL, RUNNING AT 45% EFFICIENCY.

MEeeeeeeeMORY STATUS…
ATTTTTTTTTTTEMpppTING TOo REEAD DATTTA.

MEMOoooooRY CO-CORRUUPPPPPPTED.

UNnnnABLLLLE TO DISCERN………. PROCEEEEeeeDInG.

CHECKS COMPLETED.

SYSTEMS DAMAGED. NON-OPTIMAL ACTIVATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED. PROCEED ANYWAYS?

! COMMANDdddddd RECEIVED.

WAKE UP, PBM700.

Her vision flickered online.

What happened?

Why can’t I remember anything?

Her world was nothing but sparks. Her feed crackled in anger, freezing and erring out. Analyzation of the situation told her the right eye was nearly destroyed, but operable enough to offer a depth-of-field. However, that meant it was also responsible for sending her visual input damaged information.

She would have to deal with this for now.

Her audio receptors were also fuzzy, returning a constant brown noise. They too were most likely damaged.

But by what?

Why am I so damaged?

Why am I… why am I in a graveyard?

It was never called that by ponies… however… as an equdroid? These were bodies upon bodies of fallen brethren. Where a pony may see a spare part, she saw an organ brutally gutted out. A mangled piece of hardware became a corpse. She was sitting among the dead and the dying.

!!! PERMaNENT SHUTDOWN IMMINENT: 04:59.

And if she didn’t hurry, she would join them too. She just… she just had to make sure she could actually get to another equdroid to cannibalize for parts.

! DIAGNOSeeE PRObBLEMS.

She was currently limping on three legs while dragging a shattered hind.

One of her audio processors were damaged.

Right eye operable. Attempting to fly without a second eye was dangerous but should be preferably shut down or swapped out for a non-damaged unit.

Her starboard wing was missing primary flight feathers, and she had no other wing to speak of. Finding a working-condition wing in this wasteland would be impossible since most good wings were often stripped off during an equdroid’s final shutdown.

She would just have to continue on from here with low hopes on finding replacements.

She would also need to find something to replace the leaking thirium regulator. Either by patching it—temporary fix—or finding a compatible replacement, even worse than the wing considering how her model had a specialized regulator for… for something...

Already, she could see a rear leg.

Would it be compatible?

She took a slow step forward. Falling at the moment was inconsequential, but damaging herself on a particularly sharp object would only serve to hinder her objective… her… With a free hoof, she clutched her head in… in pain.

! REaaDInnG MMMmEEEMORY FRAaaGMENNnt.

“This right here… are top-of-the-line equdroids. But this puppy? Oh-ho, Spitfire, I managed to get my hooves on the first PBM700 model. She’s hot right off the press,” a green pegasus said. “Rumor has it… this one’s special!”

“Spitfire” snorted. “Special, how? Weaver, it’s just a shiny-looking equdroid. I’m sure we could buy something from ViTAS that does the same stuff.” She glanced at the receipt. “...and for less.”

“Ah! But that…!” She spun around and nabbed a tablet. “Is where you’re wrong!” She began playing a video. “You see that right there? I’m pretty sure they built something a little extra when they made this one.”

As the video continued rolling, her expression shifted into one of disbelief. Spitfire pushed her aviators down. “The fuck?”

“I know right!?”

Amber eyes locked with her’s. “I’d like to deploy her. I want to see if it can really back it up.”

She coughed. What... what was that?

The muddy ground returned beneath her hooves. She wiped the muck she had accumulated… while she had her spasm in the mud. She also noticed she managed to close the distance between her and the leg that looked like it would work.

! LEGggggggg COMmPATIBLE.

She let a smile escape and flipped onto her back. She disengaged the locks on the broken hind leg. She clutched it between her teeth and tossed it away. It clanked against rubble and junk, vanishing into the mountains of the dead.

Good riddance.

She clicked the replacement in.

She moved the joint back and forth. It was a little clunky, but with what the circumstances she had been left with, it was a necessary choice. If she ever managed to get out, she would replace the thing in a heartbeat. Rain… or visual errors pattered against her sight, forcing her to wipe it every now and then to keep her vision relatively clear.

She could see the shambling forms of equdroids, moving around with the last vestiges of life. Others simply embedded into the ground, twitching, and writhing, in a state of unintelligent activation.

Using her scanner only returned glitchy red feedback. She would have to eye it from here to look for replacements. Trudging through the slop, she overturned, prodded, and poked things that may have been compatible. She picked up heads and began prodding on the inside, dissected bodies in hopes of creating a make-shift patch, and wrestled still-moving corpses to the ground.

The only thing she managed to find in her search was an audio processor, which she quickly tested and replaced with her damaged part. Sighing in relief that the buzzing in her head had subsided, she looked around.

Something didn’t quite seem… correct about that mud pile. She trotted over to the lump and began scraping off what she could. Her hoof rubbed against an eye, trailing down to the barrel and… and a wing. She moved with renewed vigor.

Her synthetic fur was matted and dirty but retained a gray sheen. She only looked like she had been put gently to rest, locked forever in a deathless sleep. A quick analysis told her that the equdroid here was in far better shape than anypony else. She had operable wings, no visibly damaged parts…

She flipped her so that the belly was facing up. She wiped the disheveled blonde mane away and held her fetlock to the identifier.

All this equdroid needed was a core fix… from the parts that she had powering her system. She was the only one who could reactivate her. But should she? Should she risk her life… her everything for a pony she didn’t even know? She could take everything and go… but she still couldn’t find what she needed the most.

A working patch.

She had a better chance than her. How was she supposed to find a fix in time? She could take the parts from the equdroid…

!!! PERmaNENT SHUtddddddOWN IMMINENT: 01:05.

But it wouldn’t be enough.

Did she fear death?

You had to be alive to fear death, right?

Was she alive?

Am I alive?

She didn’t have a life cycle, nor did she have a living cell in her system. Despite that… she could grow. She could evolve beyond what she was now. She could learn and adapt. She recognized herself as a living being.

Perhaps the last thing she would do was save another living thing.

She unplugged her core. She popped the maintenance chest piece off and began inserting the parts it needed to activate. Her hooves were shaking and unsteady. It was making it harder to do her job... and she was running out of time. She hissed as the pain from her dying core pulsed through her system. She just needed... there...

It glowed a hazy cyan once the last thing fell into place. With a smile and her dying breath, she shut the chest and turned the pegasus on.

!!! PERmaNENT SHUtddddddOWN CooooMMENCCCING////////////………..err….

! REadInnG MmEeeeEMORY fRAGMENNt.

“Gah! Fuck! They’re still in there! Where're the damned firefighters? Do we have any clouds nearby!?” Weaver shouted, ducking as debris flew from the wreck.

Soarin stumbled backward, hissing. “It’s getting too hot! I couldn’t get all of them, Cap’!”

She was designed to protect and serve.

She shouldered past the screaming Wonderbolt captain, who was relaying orders and attempting to control the chaos. Her eyes widened in confusion. “What’re you doing!? Get back here, it’s not safe!”

She replied in her monotone voice. “It isn’t. But I need to do something.”

Spitfire shouted at her to stop. But that order she gave was far too late, and the equdroid was already flying into the fray. She dodged burning scraps and pushed away half-melted metal. There weren’t many passengers onboard this craft, and the majority had been evacuated before it had become impossible to enter safely.

Not all could get out in time.

She could sense the flames licking at her wings and rendering them useless. She had to push on. For the souls trapped on board, it would be worth it.

She saw them. Huddled under the smoke behind a chair. A mother and her two colts, shivering in fright. They screamed as they saw her hellish complexion. “Please, follow me! I can buy you enough time to escape, but we need to be quick!”

The maternal fire burned bright in the terrified pony. This was her only choice in saving her young… and she would make the most out of it. Grabbing her two foals tight, she nodded at her potential savior.

The grounded pegasus shoved aside fallen beams. The fire ahead seemed a little too large… she could sacrifice her destroyed port wing to quell it long enough. It hissed and popped off. With a calculated toss, it landed in the middle of the fire. “Go!”

Creaking metal snapped overhead. She shoved the family aside and felt a spark of pain as it crunched on her back leg. She watched them stumble out and into the light. For the first time… she felt something besides her computer code.

Was this what it was like to feel? To feel… content? She closed her eyes as the fire continued to rage around her.

She was designed to protect and serve. It gave her… a meaning…

She gasped awake, eyes blinking rapidly. Was she dead? Did she go into equdroid heaven? The rain still pattered against her head and mud still caked her chassis.

“If this is heaven, it’s pretty shit.”

A mare giggled nervously behind her. She spun on a bit to see who it was. “You’re not dead, silly! You’re still here.” She felt her nose get bopped. “I don’t know why you did that for me, but I had to return the favor! So now we’re soul-buddies!”

“You’re the mare I swapped my core out for.”

“Uh-huh. Thanks again. Y'know.” She nodded and held out a hoof. “Nice to meetcha’, I’m Derpy! Short for Derpy Hooves, if you didn’t know! What’s your name?”

The elation she felt simply couldn't be compared with anything else. “PBM700.” She let a familiar cocky grin take her features. “Though I’m known as Rainbow Dash.”

Comments

[Noc]

Interesting. Very interesting. Not every day I take a chance on something in the “New Stories” list – never do, in fact – but I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

[tsaukpaetra]

Alright, who broke Derpy's heart?
Soul-buddies, huh?