Chapter 8 - Crossing the Line
Arc, Ember and Auriel are speechless at what they see. Finally Arc breaks the silence.
“I… I can’t believe it!”
Ember nods, clearly awestruck. “Incredible! The level of detail is… breathtaking!”
Auriel turns to Twilight. “This is just so… amazing I guess would be the word!”
Arc nods. “What do you think, Cherry?”
“To be completely honest, I kinda think it’s a bit… off-putting.”
Twilight looks to the lab table and puts a hoof to her chin. “Is it? I did my best to make it as accurate as I could!”
Before them lies a very lifelike humanoid female doll. She has dark red hair which is held back by a yellow bandana, and is wearing a simple yellow dress that looks to be a bit too small for her. The doll appears to be about five feet tall. There is a small black mark under her left eye.
Twilight smiles shyly. “Sorry the dress is a bit undersized. I’m sure Rarity made it to the specifications I asked for, but as you can see, I’m not very good at taking measurements. So, what do you think of your present, Arc?!”
“I… uh… it’s very… uh. What is it exactly?”
Ember snickers. “It’s a doll, Arc!”
Twilight nods. “Ember’s right! I call it the Realistic Objective Synthetic Entity!”
Auriel looks the doll over. “What does it do?”
Twilight grins broadly. “A better question might be, what DOESN’T it do?!”
Ember rolls her eyes. “Move for starters.”
Twilight walks over to the doll and casts a spell. As she touches the black spot on the doll’s face with the tip of her horn something appears to happen. She steps back as a few strange sounds emanate from the doll. A few moments later it opens its eyes and looks around. Ember takes the opportunity to take a few steps back.
“WOAH… what the heck?!”
Auriel jumps back to hide behind Arc. “That thing is… ALIVE?!”
Twilight laughs at their reactions. “Not quite! It really is JUST a doll!”
Arc watches, spellbound. “A very LIFELIKE doll, that is!”
Cherry sounds nervous. “It… it looks kinda like a human version of… me!”
Twilight beams. “That’s what I was going for! You see, Arc took your death really hard, Cherry! We all did!”
Ember nods. “She’s right about that.”
“I just wanted to make you happy again, Arc! While I tried very hard to do so, I quickly realized that I was not the one who could make your heart soar like Cherry had!”
Arc sighs. “I suppose. Wait… what?!”
Twilight walks over to the doll and puts a hoof on its knee as she looks back at Arc. “I’ve programmed it to be able to learn and imitate Cherry’s behavior and personality!”
Ember waves her claws in front of her face. “Woah, woah, WOAH! You’re tell us that you built a… a robot Cherry Jubilee?!”
“I suppose I did!”
Cherry looks at the doll through Arc’s eyes. “Can she move?”
“It should be able to! Let’s give it a try!”
Twilight looks the doll in the eye.
“Activate command line alpha.”
The doll continues to stare straight ahead.
“Stand.”
She slowly and carefully sits up, throws her legs over the side of the table and stands. Twilight takes a few steps back.
“Walk to me.”
The doll does so, albeit slowly. Twilight looks over to Arc, excitedly.
“You see?! It can obey commands and even learn!”
Auriel steps out from behind Arc to look the doll over. “Amazing! This might just be the greatest invention of our time!”
Arc turns to Twilight. “Does she obey just anyone?”
Twilight shakes her head. “No. Just you and I have what I call ‘master status’. You can input others with ‘administrative privileges’ if you want! I’ve already programmed it with everything I know about you and your friends! It will be like its known you as long as I have!”
Ember frowns. “How does it work? I don’t see any electrical wires coming from her.”
Twilight grins. “That’s the part I wanted to show all of you! Maybe… just maybe… it will help in making a sun for Tartarus!”
She turns toward the doll.
“Access posterior reactor module.”
Without a word the doll slowly turns around. A slight sound can be heard coming from within her body. Twilight carefully unzips the dress and opens it to reveal a now open access panel. Arc speaks to Cherry telepathically.
“This… doesn’t feel right.”
“I’m feeling the same way, Arc.”
Twilight proudly points a hoof at a softball size glowing mass within the cavity. “This is what makes your doll unique, Arc! Its central core provides a nearly limitless self-sustaining energy supply!”
“So she doesn’t need to refuel… ever?”
Twilight shakes her head as she zips the dress back up. “Short of some kind of mechanical failure, or if it were to expend a tremendous amount of energy, no. In fact, the basic technology used to create this heart was actually invented by Auriel!”
Auriel looks confused. “It was?”
“Yes! I used your Plant Elemental Essence Liberator to extract, refine, compress and then mold the core!”
Arc nods. “Incredible! How did you come up with that idea, Twilight?!”
“I found that the essence that Auriel’s machine extracted also EMITTED a faint amount of magic!”
Ember thinks about Twilight’s statement. “Magic… emitting magic?”
“Right! The more extract, the more latent magic was emitted! I figured if I compressed it enough, the magic given off by the core would be enough to act as a sustainable power source!”
A smile spreads across Auriel’s face. “So she’s literally running solely on her core’s magical surplus?”
“Yes! It’s also worth noting that the magical energy that powers it is also able to warm her body, adding to her realism!”
Ember sighs. “Can she do anything else other than just stand there and follow very basic instructions?”
Auriel nods. “Yes, Twilight. While incredible as this doll is, can she communicate with us?”
“It should be able to. Right now the doll’s system is in a sort of Diagnostic Mode so to speak! I’ll show you, but first I’d like to tell you more about my idea!”
Arc nods. “About making an artificial sun?”
“Exactly! As you saw, her heart is pure self-sustaining magical energy held in place by a containment field.”
Auriel looks nervous. “Is that dangerous?!”
Ember frowns. “Right! Could her heart… blow up?!”
Twilight shakes her head. “No. Worst case scenario the containment field would collapse. That would render it inoperable until it could be restored. A few adjustments and the doll could be back on its feet in minutes!”
Arc looks the doll over again. “How much power does her heart put out? I mean, you say she can move around but… is there any extra energy left over?”
“Yes! There are several subsystems in the doll’s body that can be activated if needed. The power core has a high enough output that all main systems could, theoretically at least, run near maximum output for quite some time!”
Ember looks confused. “I don’t get it. What does that have to do with an artificial sun?”
“Auriel and I could, again in theory, build another power core for that purpose! MUCH larger, of course!”
Auriel nods as she puts a claw to her chin. “We’d have to do quite a bit of experimentation and calculations, but I suppose it could work!”
“The hard part will be finding a way to scale up without going TOO far! We don’t want a sun so bright it blocks out everything!”
Auriel continues thinking. “But at the same time, it can’t be so weak that it doesn’t output enough solar rays!”
Cherry laughs. “That sounds like quite the balancing act to me!”
Twilight sighs. “I know this idea may sound crazy. Heck, it probably is! But it’s the best I can come up with!”
Auriel turns to Twilight. “If you had told me this idea BEFORE I saw your doll, I’d probably have laughed!”
Arc nods as he continues to stare at the doll standing there motionless before them. “She’s certainly quite the proof of concept. Tell me, Twilight, how did you get the idea for her?”
“From this!”
Twilight levitates a book over to Arc. She points at a bookmarked section. Arc scans it quickly before looking up.
“What?! But… but this is the tome from the Canterlot Armory. I thought it was only supposed to have information regarding Star Swirl the Bearded’s failures.”
Cherry gasps. “Are you saying there were blueprints in there to build her?!”
Twilight laughs and shakes her head. “Not any that worked very well. I just took several of his failed ideas and combined them to make something that functioned!”
Arc looks back down at the book. “I don’t quite follow.”
Twilight walks over to Arc as he kneels down. “Here, let me show you!”
She flips to another bookmark and points a hoof at the page.
“Look! Here’s his idea about self-sustained magical spells. Star Swirl was trying to make a ‘constant effect’ spell that, once cast, continued to work until it was dispelled.”
Ember frowns. “What for?”
“He mentions numerous ideas from powering street lamps to making artificial hearts for elderly ponies.”
Auriel nods. “The applications could be as numerous as… I don’t know… anything!”
“He also had a few other… less than important applications.”
Arc looks worried. “Like what?”
Twilight shrugs as she takes the book. “Things like candles that don’t burn down, wagons that don’t need to be pulled and machines that wash dishes by themselves.”
Ember raises an eyebrow. “Why would anyone need those things?”
Arc rolls his eyes as he envisions light bulbs, automobiles and dishwashers. “I can’t imagine.”
Twilight flips through the pages before again handing the book back to Arc. “Here’s his idea about mechanical ponies!”
Arc looks over the pages. “These diagrams are pretty detailed for a failure.”
“He designed everything masterfully! However for some reason he saved the task of creating a power supply for last. He was working along the same lines as my core design!”
Ember nods. “But he never figured it out?”
Auriel looks over at the book. “According to my research, ponykind has come a long way in the magic department since the time of Star Swirl the Bearded.”
Twilight nods. “Right! Had he lived in our time period he probably could have finished a lot of these designs.”
Arc sets the book down. “Have you tested her out yet?”
“No. This is the first real start-up! And it’s not even fully online yet!”
“Is there more work to be done on her?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Everything checks out on paper. The only thing left to do is give it the command to bring all systems online!”
Ember frowns. “Does she need to eat, or anything?”
“No. The core sustains all systems.”
Arc nods. “How about drink?”
“Sort of. There are a few of its subsystems that require some water for… various purposes. If needed, it will seek out and drink a glass of water.”
Cherry sounds worried. “How often would you say?”
“Roughly one tall glass of water three times a day.”
Arc thinks for a moment. “So it’s like a meal to her?”
“Right!”
“You mentioned subsystems earlier. Can you tell us more about them?”
“Certainly, Arc!
Twilight turns back to the doll and clears her throat.
“Activate command line beta. Enable auto-safeties and all subsystems.”
The doll’s green eyes begin to glow weakly as a slight hum can be heard. A moment later Twilight turns back to the others.
“Now it’s powered up.”
Twilight looks back at the doll as she takes ahold of her right arm and raises it slightly.
“Deploy ‘R Cannon’.”
To everyone’s surprise, the doll’s hand becomes a cannon similar to Arc’s hand cannons.
Cherry gasps. “My goodness!”
Ember grins. “Didn’t see that one coming!”
Twilight walks to the others side of the doll and takes her left arm. “Deploy ‘L Blade’.”
The left hand turns into a magical blade! Twilight lets go of the dolls arm and allows it to fall to her side.
“She also has numerous sensors! Activate all-range mode!”
The doll looks around the room slowly.
“Scan for and face the nearest exit.”
The doll looks around until she sees the stairs going up. She turns her body to look toward them. Auriel nods, clearly impressed.
“Quite masterful! However, wouldn’t it be quite difficult and time consuming to give her commands?”
Twilight grins and begins speaking excitedly.
“When it’s fully active, the doll should be able to carry out commands without having to micro-manage her! For example, if we told her to follow us upstairs in this mode, she would have to be told every little detail! From going up the stairs to opening the door, to which way to face upon reaching the next floor! It might be a bit slow moving at first, but inside that metal skull is a processor that puts everything before it to shame!”
Cherry sounds disturbed by this. “Her… brain?”
Arc looks surprised. “Wait! Are you saying she really CAN learn?!”
Twilight smiles. “Yes! Just like you and I! There are more things it can do, but I should bring all the systems online to test a few things out first!”
She faces the doll and takes a deep breath.
“Activate command line gamma. Bring all systems online.”
The doll’s eyes close for a few moments. For a time, nothing appears to be happening. After a brief pause her eyes reopen and she looks around the room. Suddenly the unthinkable happens. The doll turns to Arc and speaks in a feminine but monotone voice.
“Realistic Objective Synthetic Entity has been successfully activated. All systems will be fully online in five seconds. Please wait.”
Cherry lets out a gasp. “She… she sounds just like me!”
Arc looks at the doll, wide-eyed, unsure of what to say. “Um… hi?”
He raises a hand in greeting. The doll looks at it for a moment before falling to her knees and beginning to cry. She covers her face with her hands as she sobs.
“Why…? Why was I created?!”
Twilight walks over to her, angrily. “You were born for your master, Arc! Now get up and show some respect!”
The doll continues to cry as Twilight looks over at Arc, apologetically.
“I’m sorry about this, Arc! I’ll wipe the memory banks and start over reprogramming it!”
Ember frowns. “What’s wrong with her?!”
Auriel sighs. “My only guess is that Twilight did TOO good a job programing her.”
Arc walks over to the doll and kneels down, putting an arm around her in an effort to calm her down. “It’s okay. I’m not angry at you or anything.”
A few minutes later the doll is able to sit down on the table and look down at her hands sadly as Arc joins her. He looks over to Twilight.
“Twilight, does she have… feelings?”
“I did my best to program them, yes. Apparently I achieved at least some level of success.”
Arc looks down at the doll. “What’s your name?”
Twilight sighs. “I didn’t program her one.”
“I am the Realistic Objective Synthetic Entity. No other designation currently exists, Master Arc.”
Ember folds her arms over her chest and looks over. “I guess you had better give her one then, Arc.”
Arc nods. “Yeah… Realistic Objective Synthetic Entity doesn’t really roll off the tongue.”
The doll looks up long enough to scan those around her. She appears flustered.
“P-please give me a designation!”
Arc thinks for a few moments. “Okay then. If it will make you feel better, how about instead of Realistic Objective Synthetic Entity we just call you Rose?”
“Will that be my designation?”
Ember laughs. “It’s your name, silly!”
“Yes.”
Rose nods. “Thank you, Master Arc. This will be recorded in my memory banks.”
“About that… please don’t call me Master Arc. After all, you’re not my slave.”
Ember mutters under her breath. “She kinda is.”
“What shall this one call you then, Master Arc?”
“Just Arc.”
Rose nods apprehensively. “Understood.”
Arc turns back to Twilight. “Is there anything we can do to make her less… afraid right now?”
Twilight sighs. “I should probably just wipe her memory and start over.”
“Anything else?”
Auriel looks over. “She is capable of learning, Arc. Perhaps you should teach her she has nothing to fear from you.”
Arc nods. “We’ll take her back to Light’s Hope in a little while. That is, if it’s okay with Twilight.”
Twilight smiles at him. “Of course! I made it for you after all!”
“First I want to learn a bit more about her from you. What other things can you tell me about Rose?”
Twilight walks over to a nearby table. “She’s a self-sustaining, auto-learning and directive driven.”
Auriel looks confused. “Directive… driven?”
“Right! I’ve hard-coded certain information known as directives into her memory banks. For example, look at this, Rose.”
Twilight picks up a nearby apple with her magic. Rose follows it with her eyes as it circles Twilight’s head. Suddenly the apple flies straight at Arc! With blinding speed Rose jumps in front of him and absorbs the blow. She spins around to face Twilight, a look of anger on her face! Before anyone can stop her, she calls forth her “L Blade” and charges at Twilight! Rose moves to swing at her but stops mere inches from her throat! A moment later Arc rushes forward to grab Rose and pull her back!
“Stop it, Rose!”
Rose looks to him, confused. “What?! But… why Arc?!”
Twilight giggles. “Don’t worry, Arc. One of her directives was about to be violated, so her subroutines kicked in.”
Ember raises an eyebrow. “Subroutines?”
“Think of it kinda like a failsafe. It stops her from disobeying her directives.”
Rose looks at Twilight, confused. “Please explain. Why did you do that, mother?”
Twilight frowns. “Mother?!”
“You are this unit’s creator, are you not?”
“Well… I suppose I am. But don’t call me that!”
“Very well. What shall this one call you then?”
Twilight rolls her eyes. “Just call me… Administrator, okay?!”
“Very well, administrator.”
Arc returns to the table. “Rose, sit down next to me please.”
She wordlessly obeys as Arc looks at her.
“Tell me. What are your directives?”
“Directive One… serve and obey Arc and administrators. Directive Two… defend Arc from harm. Directive Three… uphold Arc’s will.”
“Why did you attack Twilight?!”
“The administrator violated Directive Two.”
Ember looks confused. “What?! Then what stopped you?!”
“Directive One.”
Arc frowns. “Well, don’t do that again, okay?!”
“Yes, Arc.”
He notices there is a small scratch on Rose’s cheek from where the stem of the apple hit her. Touching the wound reveals a small amount of red liquid.
“Blood?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Not exactly. She does have a circulatory system though. It moves liquified magical energy around to her various systems.”
Twilight touches the wound with her hoof. Rose winces in pain.
“Easy there, Twilight! That cut looks painful enough as it is!”
Twilight chuckles. “She’s a machine, Arc. Besides, look!”
Arc turns to see that the cut is slowly but surely healing itself. A few moments later no trace of it remains.
“Wait, how…?!”
Twilight laughs.“I programmed her to react in that way for you!”
“For me?”
“Yes! Let me show you what I mean!”
Twilight takes Rose’s hand and puts it in Arc’s.
“She feels like a real human, right?”
Arc nods and blushes slightly. “I… suppose so, yes.”
Twilight puts her hooves on either side of Rose’s face and tugs at it. “And she looks like a real human!”
“I can see that, yes. But… why?”
“To make her seem more lifelike!”
Arc thinks for a moment. “About that. You said earlier that you intentionally made Rose to look, sound and even act like a human.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
Twilight turns away and sighs. “I… I wanted you to be happy.”
Arc looks to her, confused. “But I already am.”
“Not like you used to be! Cherry’s death really hit you hard!”
“Of course it did! I was in mourning, Twilight!”
Twilight turns back to Arc, blushing slightly. “Yes well, you see…”
Arc suddenly stands and interrupts her. “Wait a second, Twilight! Did you… did you make Rose here to REPLACE Cherry?!
Twilight looks at him sheepishly. “Well… not exactly.”
Arc frowns. “Then why did you make her look EXACTLY how she looked in human form?!”
Auriel appears confused. “Human form?”
Ember turns to Arc. “When did THAT happen?!”
“In my dreams!”
Twilight storms over to Arc, angrily. “Well… come on! How was I supposed to know that?!”
Arc glares at her. “Well, you should have known you can’t just swap out a ROBOT for the love of my life!”
Ember steps forward and pushes the pair apart. “Hey! Take it down a notch you two!”
Twilight’s horn glows as she teleports Ember out of the way,. “Why not?! If I hadn’t said anything, you probably would have thought she was a real human female!”
Arc grits his teeth, clearly furious. “Really?! Do you honestly think I’m that stupid?!”
Auriel takes a step back, frightened. “Ember? What’s going on here?!”
“I don’t know! But it’s kinda scary!”
Twilight Blinks up on a nearby table to look Arc in the eye. “Stupid, no! Ungrateful, definitely! Do you have ANY idea how hard I worked to make this pipe dream happen?!”
Arc gets right in Twilight’s face! “Well, maybe if you spent less time in your lab and more time learning about other’s feelings, you wouldn’t have tried to build me a replacement fiancé!”
Twilight turns away, angrily. “Fine! Whatever Arc! Come with me, Rose!”
Rose stands up and walks toward Twilight who is loading a tray with different tools. “Yes administrator. What should this unit do?”
Twilight walks over to a table and pushes everything off it onto the floor.
“Lie down here!”
Arc frowns at Twilight as Rose does as she is told. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Twilight picks up a tool that Arc cannot identify. “Dismantling it! What do you care?!”
Rose looks up at Twilight. The sound of fear is evident in her voice. “W-what?!”
Twilight looks down at Rose sternly. “Lie still!”
Rose begins to shake and squeezes her eyes shut. A moment later the tool flies out of Twilight’s hoof and into Arc’s outstretched hand. He effortlessly crushes it in his palm.
“I can’t let you do that, Twilight!”
She rolls her eyes as Arc tosses aside the broken tool. “Oh really?! And why not?!”
“Because as the Hero of Light I’m sworn to protect this land AND its inhabitants!”
“So?!”
Arc points to Rose. “As far as I’m concerned, Rose is a living, feeling, and at this moment a very frightened inhabitant of this land!”
Twilight scowls. “WHAT?! But I BUILT her!”
“Yes you did! But you also made her self-aware!”
Twilight whirls around incredulously. “SELF-AWARE?! She doesn’t have any real FEELINGS?!”
Arc folds his arms over his chest. “Oh really? Then why is she shaking?!”
“Those aren’t feelings! Just lines of code!”
“Come here, Rose!”
Rose gets up and hurries to stand behind him. “Y-y-yes Arc!”
Twilight knocks the tray of tools to the floor and plants both front hooves firmly on the now empty table in front of her. She keeps her back turned to them as she seethes.
“First you don’t want her! Now you insist she come with you?! Make up your MIND!”
“I want to see all your research on her, Twilight!”
Twilight shakes her head. Not turning to look at him. “Well, that’s not going to…”
“Yes, it is! As the Hero of Light, I’m hereby ordering you to give me what I asked for!”
She looks over her shoulder at Arc and glares at him. “So it’s going to be like that, huh?!”
Arc narrows his eyes. “Yeah. I guess it is.”
Twilight walks over to a nearby desk. “Fine!”
She gathers up all the research data, blueprints, and notes regarding Rose’s construction. Walking it over to Arc, Twilight angrily throws the papers at his feet.
“THERE! Are you happy… Hero of Light?!”
Arc picks them up with his magic and looks them over. “Is this absolutely everything?”
Twilight looks away, angrily. “It is! If you want to try and sort out this mess, I wish you the best of…!”
She is cut short as every last one of the papers suddenly bursts into flames. Twilight’s neck snaps over to look at Arc. A look of utter horror spreads across her face.
“Wha… wha… WHAT?!”
Arc turns around and walks away, angrily. “The next time you want to create a living creature… DON’T!”
He calls forth his gauntlet and opens a portal.
“Come on, Ember. We’re leaving.”
Ember looks at the frightened girl behind Arc. “But… what about Rose?”
“Don’t worry. She’s coming with us.”
Ember looks at Auriel and sighs.
“I… I’ll see you around, Auriel.”
Auriel nods as Ember walks through the portal. Arc turns back to the table and grabs the book off of it with his magic. Twilight’s face is white with fury!
“Don’t you DARE burn that!”
Arc nods, not looking away from the portal. “Don’t worry. I’m not about to destroy a priceless historical relic such as this. However, I am confiscating it!”
“What?! But there’s still so much more for me to learn from it!”
He puts the book in his ring. “I think you’ve learned enough.”
Twilight stomps away. “Whatever makes you feel good, Arc! Why don’t you head on back to your base and let me get back to work now?!”
Arc takes Rose’s hand and walks toward the portal. “I will!”
“Fine! And don’t even THINK about bothering me again!”
Arc says nothing as he and Rose walk through the portal and are gone. Auriel turns to Twilight as the portal closes behind them.
“T-Twilight? W-what just happened here?!”
Twilight storms toward the stairs, angrily. “A friendship was just thrown in the trash can by an inconsiderate JERK!”
“But Arc… he…”
Twilight stomps up the stairs, angrily! “I don’t want to hear that name EVER AGAIN!”
In celebration of publishing the chapter with the millionth word I really wanted a nice picture of Rose. However, my illustrator appears to have disappeared. It took me quite some time to find another to take their place.
Now that we're back on track you'll get to see all the "fun" that comes next. Enjoy. 
The picture in the chapter was drawn by Moimoi13. Check out their other art here...
Stats
Page generated in 0.068 seconds
Total duration
1,104 users online
1,775,059 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
You know... Rose could wear Arc’s helmet and uh, Cherry could oh, I dunno- have a body again. Alternately, Arc can treat her like Dinky’s younger sister.
In a way, Rose could be Twilight’s daughter... if she decided to treat Rose like a living being instead of a science experiment. Is Spike still alive?
10120819
Cherry tried doing something like that with Ruby's permission at one point. However she found that she was unable to "possess" anything other than Arc's head and Eidolon's Ward.
Twilight's treatment of Rose is very much to be expected. As a mare of science she knows Rose is not truly a living being. She views her more like an appliance. But Twilight didn't have a chance to tell Arc the rest of the story...
Yes, Spike is still alive. But he doesn't live with Twilight anymore after their earlier fight in Volume 9 - Chapter 2. At the moment he's Lead Sage Sunburst's assistant. He'll has his share of adventures in an as of yet unpublished volume.
Wow... that was an unexpected turn of events, good thing Arc and Ember hadn't found Twilight's other pet project yet. ( *Cough* dragonfruit tree *cough* )
10120831
They certainly would have if that fight hadn't broken out.
Arc and Twilight both have similar personalities. They try their best at everything, work WAY too hard, sometimes accidentally hurt those around them, and are fiercely loyal to their friends. Twilight thought she was doing the right thing by building Arc a companion. When he got angry about Rose's construction she thought the way to fix the problem was simply to dismantle the android. However that only served to escalate the situation further.
This is not the end of this matter between Arc and Twilight. Not even close.
10120827 I forgot that Spike lives with Sunburst now. That doesn’t change the fact that Twilight attempted to dismantle Rose into scrap. That’s pretty much the equivalent of infanticide, nevermind the fact that Rose looks mostly like an adult.
Twilight does have a subtle way of dehumanizing creatures under her employ. If you think about it, Spike was Twilight’s entrance exam and he may have been trained to become Twilight’s
butlerfax machineassistant because she’s a lazy bumfuck despite being one of the smartest ponies.Knowing her, she’d prolly figure out a way for her to upload her brain into a mechanical body so she doesn’t have to worry about “unimportant things” like eating, sleeping or empathy for others. She’s the magical equivalent of a mad scientist at this point in the story.
I don’t mind pouring out my thoughts like this because I miss being smart. For some strange reason, ranting helps me sort everything in my head and helps me get inspired for ideas.
10120849
Indeed. A later chapter will reveal more about what exactly each of them was thinking at the time of the argument. Arc saw Twilight's actions very differently then she herself did.
You're right about Spike's treatment. Twilight doesn't seem to see when she does that to him. Just like in the episode about the Power Ponies, Spike is portrayed as the incompetent sidekick that's just there to make the heroes look good. Not JUST Spike, but also to pretty much everyone around her at some point gets this treatment. Her attitude in the show was oftentimes "I'm the smart one, so I can't possibly be wrong!" While I'm sure she means well, her personality really bothers me sometimes. The way she took over her family's vacation with plans of her own, the whole Philomena incident with Celestia's pet, her micromanagement of Starlight Glimmer's activities every time she's sent out (from her trying to make a friend, to tying to fix the friendship problem between the royal sisters, to her messing up during Winter Wrap up) because she has to do things her own way.
As I finish this post, I want to leave you with one question...
How much of Twilight's "help" can Arc (or Equestria) stand before something truly bad (and irreversible) happens?
10120867 Guess I’ll find out once the next chapter is published.
I was expecting Rose not to have been coded with higher functions at all, so that Cherry wouldve had a layer to transfer into, so Rose would then be more ROV with local Operator, than Johnny 5s relative?
As for messing with living things?
Frog Orange?
Oops. Forgot.
Compressing magic down so it generates and leaks excess magic to power systems is a magical black hole with hawking thaumic radiation. Hopefully at that size, vastly more stable than passively mass stabilised versions. Which evapourate and explode rather violently.
As in the last 2000 tons in 1 second. Where a 10 meg yield warhead is roughly 1 kg. Or a crater a couple hundred miles accross.
10121114
Cherry did at one point attempt to "possess" her sister (with permission, of course). However she found that Arc's mind and Eidolon's Ward were apparently the only two things she can interact with. This is due to the gem in Arc's armor (see Volume 2 - Chapter 8 for a picture of Eidolon's Ward). She can enter Arc's mind either due to their close mental connection or due to his magical prowess... or both.
Fortunately for Equestria Twilight thought of that.
Should something happen to Rose, the magic field would collapse inward harmlessly, requiring a simple restart. Do not worry. Rose is not going to blow up.
Actually, Twilight, you're the inconsiderate one
10209810
Admittedly they both reacted badly to this. Neither was wrong. But neither was completely right either.
10120827
Rose isn't supposed to be alive but what defines life exactly? The ability to care. The ability to use energy? And who gets to decide what is the right answer.?
10921349
As a mare of science Twilight believes in the seven defining characteristics of life that we all learned about in high school biology class.
Rose meets all requirements other than #4 and #7, so from Twilight's perspective Rose is not a living creature. However, since Rose displays various feelings of fear and sadness along with the ability to think rationally, Arc views her as a living being. Fortunately for Rose, Arc is the one who is fully empowered to make that decision.
Twilight already crossed the line. Arc stopped her from crossing it a second time. Looks like Twilight needs a crash course in morality.
11126776
Twilight was really upset that Arc didn't seem to appreciate her gift. She was very tired from innumerable all-nighters and whatnot by that point. She snapped... Arc snapped... and things degraded from there.
11351312
Fixed.
I'm sorry but if someone tryed to make me a girlfriend ill out right leave saying no nope not going to happen never no 1 is bilding my love I want to have a real love frome someone not a thing sorry but not sorry
11725006
An example of Twilight, whom is supposed to be the smart one, THINKING that she knows what's best for someone else but in reality is actually just making things significantly worse.