Bit's of Tomorrow's Future

by No one is home

Day One

“What the hay are we are we watchin’?” Apple Bloom really wanted to know the answer to that question.

“Alternate reality,” Gallus hastily explained as Discord “prepared” the next reel. “Ponies have sci fi movie stuff and set fire to literally everything with it.”

“No Name is a giant blue pony with lots of scars,” Ocellus volunteered, “I’m pretty sure you’ll know him when you see him. We still haven’t decided exactly what’s going on with the snakes in his mouth…”

“I know, right?” Silverstream's smile was only a little forced. “Are they part of him, do they just live in his mouth… is it him or the snakes talking… no one’s quite sure…”

“New reel class!” Discord announced cheerfully as his eyes flashed a test pattern counting down on the screen.

-=-=-=-=-

She walked down the hallway in a tense semi-trance. Everything was almost unnaturally clean. It was always like that in the cities. But even more so here. She could hear the whispers. She could understand why her mother always avoided steel hearts. She wasn’t one of them… whatever ponies thought… and they knew it. They were not all, but enough to let everyone else know she wasn’t one of them.

“Are you a clockwork or a steel heart?” A cheerfully dangerous voice drew her attention to a impossibly pink filly with an imposingly straight crimson mane. The filly grinned with a smile that split her face, filled with rows of shark like teeth “Sorry… seriously can’t tell? I’m Diane. Diane Sweet Tooth. Good to see another ash-lander.”

“I come from a little scavenger village, you prolly never heard of it, a place called Trainwreck,” the filly with the shark’s smile said cheerfully as Z arched a metal eyebrow, “Used to be a depot town back before the Big War. Just close enough to the front line to dump anything that wasn’t bad enough to put in a bomb. That’s why the empire gave us the bunkers. It’s why we’re still a town at all. Didn’t keep out the raiders though… like my dad…”

“I am not a steel heart or a clockwork, if you’re just going to keep asking!”, Z stamped a hoof in annoyance, “My mom and dad are both of those things, and I am neither!”

“Whoah, you’re a cross-breed steel heart/clockwork? Lashtada be praised… or maybe scolded, I’m not sure. So you’re, what? A tiny clockwork tree that rides around in power armor?” At Z’s glare Diane simply shrugged. “What? My foster mom’s a steel heart, I know how steel hearts work. So you’re a steel heart frame, with a clockwork brain… so basically your a robot? Heh, I always wanted a sentient robot pony friend. What’re the odds, right?”

“I am not a robot!” The metal filly glared at her new… friend?

“Okay, jeez,” Diane said with an eyeroll, “I get it’s a touchy subject, but lighten up. I’m a mutant and your a robot, just sayin’. Unless you want to have this whole conversation with every sentient creature that asks, ‘What the hell are you?’, at least in my experience, it’s easier to just say, ‘I’m a mutant’... well ‘robot’ in your case.”

“I… you… urrgh!” Z focused her anger into a laser of rage. That instantly dissipated into a fit of giggles.

-=-=-=-=-

“And then it just went sideways…” Sandbar droned.

“Wait is that a different robot… I mean different from the Sweetie Bot…” Scootaloo questioned.

“I am not, nor have I ever been a robot!” Sweetie Belle protested.

“Not in this reality… maybe,” Discord winked at his peer’s sister.

“I told you, it’s all about mutants, robots, changelings, and clowns,” Gallus huffed irritably, “Honestly, not seeing the clowns… but that’s oddly specific!”

-=-=-=-=-

“Wow, he’s cute.” Diane flashed her metallic friend an unsettling shark toothed grin. “What do you think?”

“I do not have biological functions, Diane,” the filly huffed, “My mother liked to play with ‘romantic notions’, but it is not a thing that I do.”

“What’s that got to do with nuthin’?” The pink mutant countered. “You just decide who’s visually appealing and call them ‘cute’. Come on, try it, it’s fun.”

“That one,” the metal filly nodded her head, “that one is… ‘cute’.”

“Uh, not judging, Z,” Diane chuckled mirthfully, “But she’s a female.”

“I do not care, she is aesthetically appealing to me,” Z insisted.

“She’s also an orc, Z,” Diane replied skeptically.

“I like the color green.” Z stamped a hoof with finality.

“Why do robots gotta make it weird?”

-=-=-=-=-

“SHUT UP!” Smolder screamed. “You guys are talking through all the good parts, she’s about to…”

“You talked through that one, just saying.” Galus rolled his eyes.

-=-=-=-=-

“I AM NOT CUTE!” The orcish girl screamed adorably. “I am Blood Orchid, the daughter of Flame On Wounds, Doctor of three tribes! And I will leave your equations in pieces! In. Bleeding. Pieces.”

“YOU ARE A PLEASANT SHADE OF GREEN AND YOUR BODY STRUCTURE IS AESTHETICALLY PLEASING, YOU ARE CUTE!” The metal filly shouted back. “I am Z-978 Pastel-Lefaux, and… You. Are. Cute!”