Coded Purpose

by Mei Rummy

Chapter 4

--
DATE: Sunday, 12th of May, Year 1004 L.B
TIME: 11:30:30 AM
--

The following day after the court, Sparkles was busy searching for Royal Guard recruitment centre. For one whole day. He heard that there’s at least 4 of them in Canterlot, but he couldn’t confirm either deny that. But he didn’t need to confirm or deny. After all, he finally found one.

Before he entered the building, one thought occurred to his artificial brain.

Applying for guard meant at least 4 to 6 months long training, proving to be suitable enough to be in guard, and also that he’s probably gonna end up with another recruit or recruits in one room. That would be difficult for him.

But he decided to keep going, Sparkles believed that he wasn’t quitter, maybe he was, but he decided to keep believing.

And there it was, Canterlot’s Royal Guard recruitment centre, final change to change his priorities

Last chance, Sparkles, quit or keep going?

--
CHANGE PRIORITIES?

YES or NO

NO
--

And with that, he went into the building.

Opening one of the doors, he scanned the area with his eyes and his scan tool. This place wasn’t thriving with life, but it wasn’t dead either.

There were some chairs near some walls, some of them were occupied, reception with one working unicorn at the moment. Besides that, the place looked clean and almost empty.

Well, at least funding is okay.

While looking around, he noticed that one working unicorn kept her eyes on him, and then he approached reception, and he already prepared what he’s going to say.

And his prepared request went out of the window because the unicorn asked him a question first.

“You’re here to apply for Royal Guard, right?” - The Mare, Faith Library, as said her ID tells, asked.

“I… Actually, yeah. What do I need to do?”

“Well, At first, you need to fill this form right here,” - as she said that, she levitated some papers with a spot of ink and feather - “after that, you’ll take the test that will determine if you’re good enough as a pony to be a guard.”

“Okay, I see… As I understand, the test is just… a test, like one that teacher gives in school?”

“Nope! You’re going to drink a special potion that’ll make you see one of the random situations and then It's going to decide if you pass or not.”

So, a potion that makes you see one of the situations… Wait a minute, are they even gonna work on me?

“Seems strange, but efficiently.”

“And by the way, fill up these forms already.”

Ooops, I forgot about them.

He quickly levitated mentioned early form that asked his name, age, the exact date of birth, name of both parents and so on. Lucky for him, he didn’t need to fill in every field, like a field that asked his parent’s name, but some fields still was a problem.

Like Date of Birth and Age.

Doing math inside his head, he wrote that he was 18 years old and that he was born on 21st of March, 986. After that he filled in the field that asked his hometown(Canterlot, duh) and what species he was(unicorn, at least I was modelled as one)

After that he decided, that this was enough. After checking everything, he handed this form back to the mare that he met.

She scanned filled in forms with her eyes and was surprised when she noticed that he was, apparently, a stallion. With how he looked like a mare, it was hard to identify which gender he was.

“Wait a minute, you’re a stallion?”

What? Of course, I am! Where did that even come from?

“Yes? I don’t look like a stallion or what?” asked confused Sparkles, because no one really asked him that sort of questions before. To be fair, he hadn’t been asked a lot of questions in his life in general, but that was still a surprising question to him.

“No…? Yes…? just you look more like a mare with that form or face… Thought, looking closely, it’s almost impossible to say who you really are…”

“Okay… That’s confusing, but is that going to mean anything to me in the end?”

“Not really.”

“Then why bother with it?”

“It’s just a protocol. And about protocols… Now, you’re gonna drink this.” and with that, she showed him a glass bottle with a red-coloured potion in it.

Without saying anything, Sparkles slowly took a bottle of potion from mare’s magic grasp, and then asked a question.

“Do I need to drink all of it?”

“You could, but you don't need to.”

“Alright… whatever you say...”

And then he opened the bottle with a potion, and then drank some of this potion. The effect wasn’t immediate. But it after all worked.

And also it overloaded his processor, which wasn’t good.

He was standing in reception like nothing happened, his LED glowed red, but Sparkles himself saw a vision,

He looked around and noticed that he was on one of another’s street in Canterlot, everything was crowded, peaceful and sunny.

And it looked like the person who brewed this potion was a little bit of cheater, because one pony could be seen twice, which was funny, but whatever. Soon, Sparkles heard a sound of robbery, store of expensive decorations appeared out of nowhere, with three ponies in fully clothed suits that covered their faces and cutiemarks.

Oh boy, this is bad, in general, my brain feels like it’s gonna melt, and this unrealistic situation is gonna just shut me down slower or faster, I need to act quickly, and smart

They threatened everypony to get out, so they could start what they planned in the first place.

When he saw that almost all ponies escaped the shop, robbers started the planned robbery without paying attention to anything, which was stupid, he quickly sprinted towards them and just kicked them in the head, one by one.

It wasn’t hard for him after all, but it felt… too easy…

And apparently, this test was over, and his artificial vision returned to early mentioned recruit station where he was.

“Alright, you passed this exam, congratulations!” said the mare behind reception while looking at somewhat surprised Sparkles.

“That… was… a ride… I’m never drinking something like that again, and I’m really not gonna try alcohol anytime soon.”

“Yeah, usually ponies don’t react badly to it, though you looked like you were ready to pass out… and that thing on your… temple... started glowing red like it was trying to warn about something. Also, why do you have it?

Oh, she’s talking about my LED. How do I explain to her that it’s literally part of me?

“It’s a gift!” - quickly said Sparkles - “Gift from my father.”

“Umm… I guess… It totally makes you stand out… Anyway, we got distracted, welcome to Royal Guard! Your training will start tomorrow.”

Finally
.
.
Fast-Forward
.
.
--
TIME: 02:02:56 PM
--

Now he was in the castle, in chambers specially made for new recruits. And it turns out that Sparkles was right about sharing a room with somepony. He was with another recruit, a bat pony, which was a little surprising, but he decided not to question it.

It seemed like they both silently agreed to stay silent at the moment when they both entered their room, and confusion entered into his code again.

I have a bed.

Having a bed wasn’t strange, it was just strange to Sparkles himself. After all, sleep is something he couldn’t replicate for some reason, probably because he was a prototype and because he didn’t needed to.

It’s going to be a problem, isn’t it? I also don’t need any sort of food or water. I clearly wasn’t created to integrate into society at all. That’s kind of sad.

And at this moment, his roommate called him

“Hey, brown-haired! You okay over there?”

“Yeah, I’m alright, just thoughts.”

"What kind of thoughts?"

"Not really bad ones, but aren't good either."

“Oh… I know that we just met, but if you need to talk, I’ll be there, the name’s Starry Night by the way.”

Starry Night had Dark Light Blue colour of her coat with almost the same colours in mane and tail and golden - like eyes.

“I’m Sparkles.”

“Cool! What’s that glowy thing near your right eye?”

“Ah! It’s a gift from my father, a LED… or glowy thing for normal ponies.”

“Awesome, does it change colours?”

“Yea, but I don’t really control it, It just corresponds to my emotional state.”

“You had problems with emotions as a kid?” - assumed Night

“... You could say that. I decided to keep it because it looks awesome.” - Back at it again with lying?

“Okie!”

“Also, I think we should head out, we’re supposed to meet someone around this time.”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to meet some guy named Onyx Armor, he’s gonna teach us how to do the guard thing properly and so on! It’s like PE in school, but harder and longer.”

“I see, so let’s head out, then.”
.
.
It was about 2:30 PM when all recruits came to the training field, everypony lined up in one, long line and then Onyx Armor himself started talking.

“Greeting, everypony! My name is Onyx Armor and I’m gonna make sure that all of you will be one of the finest guards in Equestria, I hope everypony’s gonna cooperate. I see that some of you look confused because today we’re not supposed to train and that’s true. Today we’re just going to see what we got and how good everypony is in their fields. How good unicorns with magic, how fast winged creatures are and how strong are earth ponies, you get what I mean?”

“Sir, Yes, Sir!” - came reply from all recruits that were standing on the field.

Onyx Armor had a greyish coat with snow grey mane. His eyes were dark blue and his CutieMark was a shield in colour of almost - black.

Joy, it’s gonna be awkward, I just know it.

“Alright, that’s the spirit! Now I need you to sort into different tribes, do you understand?”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

After that everypony went to their comrades in tribes and Sparkles followed the unicorns, he was one of them after all. He decided to look around and noticed that bat ponies, which were standing with pegasi, were fine in daylight, after all, He searched for his roommate and noticed her. She was fine just like the others bat ponies. Sparkles made another mental note to ask about that later.

Then Onyx Armor said that unicorns are gonna be tested with help of rings that restrained their magic, Pegasi and Bat Ponies are gonna do some timed labs in air, same for earth ponies, but on the ground.

And so everypony started showing their best.

But back to our hero.

“Alright, so this is a magic restraining ring. As the name suggests, it restrains magic. There are 7 settings of restraining, 1st being very weak and 7 being extra powerful. Nowadays, normal unicorn’s limit at 3-4, sometimes 5, if you can score higher, then you should have applied for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but that usually never happens, but who knows… Okay, let’s begin! Your mission is just to levitate this object over here with that ring and if you can play with it.”

Some unicorn went first and Sparkles observed how Onyx Armor put on unicorn’s corn restraining magic ring.

Unicorns that went before Sparkles mostly had troubles at 3rd setting, which was usual. Two of unicorns had problems at 2nd setting, but Onyx said that was okay, they had from 4 to 6 months to train and fix that after all.

And then, Sparkles was next.

“Alright, let me just put that thing on and we can begin!”

Thus, Sparkles started levitating the object, his LED started flicking between its usual Blue and Purple, the color of Sparkle’s magic.

To be fair, Sparkles didn’t saw any differences when he was using magic at level 1.

“Okay, good to know that you can do magic after all. No offence, but you looked like you couldn’t cast anything.”

If Onyx were truthful, he would have said that he didn’t felt his aura that everypony had, but that information was for another day.

At level 4, Sparkles noticed that his battery started aiding him in levitating, so it was slowly draining, but overall he felt and looked fine.

Onyx at this point was surprised, almost not believing his eyes. The brown-maned unicorn looked totally unfazed by magic ring, unlike others. It was nothing to him. It was time to try the 5th level for Sparkles.

“Alright, you’re a surprise, not gonna lie, but can you do 5th setting?”

The Equidroid just nodded and after that, Onyx proceeded to set up the ring to level 5.

His batteries were draining faster, but he still could do that for at least 80 years.
80 years was a lot of years.

“You’re an enigma, that’s for sure.” Armor chuckled while setting up the ring to the 6th setting

Everything was the same for Sparkles on the 6th setting, just now he could stay for 70 years.
Still a lot.

While doing some tricks with a levitated object, his mind decided to wander a little and just try to piece why he was so powerful, maybe it was just an effect from him being Equidroid? He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out.

I guess that’s cool that I can do magic on such high level, but why would I ever do magic that advanced?

“Okay, nice job, kid. You can be a magical prodigy, yet you’re here, how that happened?”

“I just never thought that my magic was something special, that’s all. Plus, I was never interested in becoming The Very Best.”

“That’s a shame, you know that? Anyway, the last setting! I hope you won’t pass out because the element of Magic itself had problems with that setting!”

Oh boy, It’s a side effect of my artificial nature, after all

“Bring it on, then!”

The ring was on it's last setting, and the moment the ring was on Sparkle’s horn, he immediately noticed that his systems started slowly going haywire, but he was still operational, he wasn’t feeling great if

--
WARNING: MAGIC CORE OVERHEATING
WARNING: CPU OVERHEATING
WARNING: BATTERY DRAINING
--

Thought warning messages in his vision haven’t really helped him at all, and he pushed himself beyond his self - preservation protocol, and lifted the object once again, his LED was now flashing red with occasional purple, his systems didn’t liked that at all

--
!WARNING!

SYSTEM OVERLOAD

SHUTDOWN IN 2 MINUTES
--

When that popped in his vision, he just dropped the object he was levitating and playing with. Onyx was impressed and thought of reporting this to Shining, that would make a chemical reaction for sure. For now, Armor proceeded to take off the restraining ring and immediately Sparkles noticed that shutdown message disappeared from his field of view.

“Congratulations, kid, you better go and catch your breath, now shoo!”

After hearing that, he noticed that he was the centre of attention of every recruit possible, and he disliked being the center of attention. He also heard that he was the talk of ponies again, just like in the library, but he paid no attention and went to the nearest bench.

“I know that was a great show, but we’re not done yet!” said Onyx again and everypony went back to the thing that they were doing before Sparkles caught everypony’s attention.

--
TIME: 02:51:11 PM
--

Noticing that it was almost 3PM, he decided to find his roommate, Starry Night, just to see what was going on.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Oh boi

I think my pace is kind-of bad, rushed even, too fast or something ig

UPD after 1 month probably: KAy i fixed some stuff

Comments

[Fleety]

This story has so much potential and I look forward to reading more of what will happen next.

[Mei Rummy]

9665838
Thanks!

[Andy Ray]

I've been itching to write a robot story myself... Your robot is, if I may, adorable ... But it needs a personality. Also your writing isn't solid. I'm not a professional editor, but I flatter myself to write decently. I could help .

[Mei Rummy]

9683189
Thanks for the feedback! I would accept your help if I had a something resembling schedule, but I sadly don't have that and I feel that would be unfair to you
And thanks for pointing something that I probably wouldn't have noticed!

[Andy Ray]

9683245
You are welcome !

Despite the update schedule not being there, I would find it splendid, even if I had to edit an unexpected chapter... But it should be a conversation then... You see, I might want to ask you questions regarding what you'd have written, as not always is it clear, what the writer wanted to say .

So... If you end up writing one more chapter and decide you might use a helping hand -- or if you just decide you need what you've got of your story already revised and edited -- then you might want to ask me, and we'd talk about the ways to improve !

I am capable of noticing things others wouldn't even know to have been existing . I do let some slide, because editing/pointing it out for the others may be a hard work, when I'd rather read it like an ordinary guy -- but robots make me excited to Pinkie's levels of excitement ! To have a decent robot story on Fimfic? Sirs, you may not have any idea, what excitement truly means !

So... whenever you might want to use an editor .

[Mei Rummy]

9683341
All right! I'll ask for your help when I'll get something then!

And again, thanks for the feedback!
I don't think it's possible to describe how feedback motivates me to start writing a new chapter

[EpicMuttonChops]

it's a shame you cancelled this, it's a fun little story!

nice detail with the different settings on the inhibitor. it's not something i could've come up with

[Mei Rummy]

9950238
Heh, thanks! Thought the inhibitor/LED was mostly borrowed from Detroit: Become Human and tweaked a bit.

And about cancellation: Well... I just didn't knew where to really take the story and I guess I have some ideas/scenes that I still want to do, but setting them up isn't easy.

[Andy Ray]

So, apparently, it is really cancelled... And I've never got to edit...

There could have been a story... Oh, well. We'll remember what exists, still.

[Mei Rummy]

10771070
Yeah, it's cancelled sadly
I didn't really had it fleshed out when I started writing and that became a problem