It was late when they finally left the restaurant, much later than Spike had anticipated. His meal had been filling enough, although he still wasn’t entirely sure of what he had eaten, which left a weird feeling in his gut. Sparks, on the other hoof, looked as content as ever as they walked away from the Lockhart Lounge and back towards the palace. Whenever he looked at her out of the corner of his eye though, he began to wonder if it was really the food that was making him feel funny.
They walked together in what was almost complete silence. It would have been, were it not for the chirping and buzzing of fair-weather insects that filled the air with a sort of eerie song. The palace was still a good distance away, but in the center of town, Sparks extended a hoof in front of him, effectively bringing them both to a halt. Spike looked up at her, wondering if anything was wrong. She was no longer smiling, and the visor across her eyes flickered noticeably. “What is it, Sparks?”
She paused, apparently struggling to meet his gaze. “Spike, our date has not yet concluded, has it?”
Her question stumped the dragon. He hadn’t been on a date before, so he wasn’t sure. Spike figured that their date ended when they left the restaurant, but in response to her question, he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Did you have anything else in mind that you wanted to do?”
Through her flickering visor, she turned her gaze and eyed a large fountain behind her. “Affirmative, Spike… I would like for you to accompany me a little while longer.” Then, she began walking away towards the fountain and sat down beside the trickling water.
Spike couldn’t think of a reason to deny her, so he joined the synthetic mare and took a seat beside her. When he looked at her, she was staring up at the night sky. He let out a light-hearted chuckle at her and cracked a smile. “Do you like what you see? Princess Luna always puts a lot of effort into her skies.”
Sparks beamed at the millions of twinkling lights spread across the void. “Oh, yes... I like it very much. Each star is great in mass, weighing immeasurable amounts and spanning the farthest reaches of time and space. Each star is unique in its composition, burning hydrogen into helium in order to create the light and warmth that shines on this little world.” Then, her smile faded. “But for all of my knowledge on the stars, I will never be able to truly experience them for myself. I’ll never get to feel their warmth against my skin, nor will I ever feel their light shining upon my face.” Her gaze turned, and she looked at Spike as her lips curled into a sad smile. “Despite that, you continue to warm my internal hardware and cause my systems to short-circuit. Before tonight, I could not uncover the true cause for these irregularities, but now, I believe I have found it.”
The way she looked at him caused his chest to twist and churn. There was no red coloring in her cheeks, yet he was almost certain that she was blushing. “Wh-What is it? If you have a problem, then we should get you back to your core and try to fix it.”
Sparks laughed out loud, causing him more confusion than ever before. She continued to laugh for several moments until she managed to calm herself down, realizing that Spike wasn’t nearly as amused as herself. To her, he must have looked puzzled and worried. “It’s not like that. All of my systems are running normally, I think, but I am having thoughts about you that I believe I was never meant to have.” She scooted towards him, closing the distance between them. “I have an inquiry, Spike.”
Being closer to her only made his chest feel tighter, but he ignored this fight or flight response and held his ground, swallowing hard. “Sure, Sparks. Ask away.”
She looked thoughtful, and her eyes drifted casually towards the water beside them. “It is customary for a date such as ours to end with a kiss, is it not?”
When her eyes met his again, he began to understand what she was implying, and his heart skipped a beat in his chest. “I… Uh, well…” Spike could hardly hear himself think over the sound of blood rushing in his ears. “They don’t have to, really… If you don’t want to, there doesn’t have to be a… a kiss…” His voice trailed away, failing him altogether as he saw her eyes burning into his.
Sparks had leaned in closer, now, turning her head ever so slightly to the side. “I want to, Spike.”
He blinked once, and she blinked in response. Then, tilted his head opposite to hers. Thoughts were flying through his mind at a million miles a second. He couldn’t believe what was happening as it happened, that he was actually closing in for a kiss. Both of their eyes were wide open as they came closer and closer. As they got closer, Spike placed a hand on her leg. Sparks parted her lips ever so slightly and let out a quiet gasp.
Then, it finally happened. Their lips connected at last, and fireworks exploded in his mind. The first thing that he noticed was just how soft Sparks’ lips really were. He didn’t know what to expect, but the robomare’s tender mouth shocked him. A part of him suspected that in order to speak like a normal pony, Twilight had designed her with a tongue and lips like a normal pony, but he was too busy being lost in the kiss to ponder too much about that.
Ten seconds passed, then twenty. Before he knew it, a full minute had gone by, and their lips were still pressed against each other. Sparks parted her lips and Spike did the same, and they kissed a second time, deeper than before. The dragon mashed his mouth into hers with a little more force, and Sparks allowed herself to be pushed, falling onto her back and bringing him down on top of her. This broke the kiss, and the two of them stared into each others’ eyes as deep and heavy breaths filled what little space there was between them.
She let out a soft giggle and brushed her metallic mane out of her face. “You’ve given me the gift of self determination and choice, Spike… Well, I’ve made mine.”
Spike laughed with her, still unsure if he’d actually just kissed a mare for the first time. “Yeah? What’s that?”
Sparks cracked a silly grin and looked up at him with half-closed eyes. “I’ve chosen who I want to be with, my dear dragon, if you’ll have me.”
He couldn’t believe his ears. His face felt incredibly hot as he scrambled to come up with something to say. He’d never been even remotely prepared to respond to such a declaration. “Wh… Why? Why me?”
The artificial intelligence simply smiled and shook her head. “How could I not choose you? In the short time I’ve been alive, I’ve seen nothing short of exemplary actions and kindness from you. It doesn’t hurt that you’re attractive to my photoreceptors. Such traits are all present only in the being I would want to fall in love with.”
Spike felt a wave of numbing heat wash over him. “L-L-Love?” His voice cracked under pressure.
Sparks nodded her head and wrapped her hooves around the back of his neck, never taking her eyes off of his. “Affirmative, Spike.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Then another. While Spike continued to focus on a single coherent thought, Sparks pulled him down and pressed her lips against his for the third time that evening. This kiss wasn’t as forceful as the ones that came before. Had he been able to think clearly, Spike might have described it as a balance of firm and soft.
She tenderly kissed his lips again and again, occasionally parting her mouth and surprising him with her tongue. It wasn’t until after the fourth or fifth kiss that he finally began to reciprocate the oral actions, closing his eyes at last and melting in her hooves. Together, they rolled to the side and fell off of the fountain, landing on the dirt ground beside it and ending the kiss abruptly. Now, Spike was underneath Sparks as she leaned over him. She still looked startled, but this was short-lived as she apparently took pleasure in the position they were in. “Hmmm… Clumsy dragon. It seems we’ve both fallen for each other.”
Spike scratched his head and grinned up at her innocently. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
Sparks beamed at him and playfully pushed her snout against his. “You needn’t say anything, my darling dragon. The kisses you administered were thrilling, but more experimental data is required.”
***Up Next: Accidentally In Love***
Awwwwwwwwww
Spike I demand an answer Why did your toaster kidnap me?
She wants foals
. . .
What have I created?
AI. SHE I, OH!
Would be funny if Rarity happened to be walking by, maybe to throw a bit into the fountain and wish for that perfect prince charming that in no way could exist, delusional mare that she is.
God damn, this romantic kiss scene is 10 times better than the old version!
I knew something was going to happen based off the title. Either Twilight was going to come back into town unexpectedly and witness them kissing, or they would passionately kiss each other and proclaim their love to each other.
And I like what you did. Can't wait for more!!
Cute. Now I hope the next chapter will answer my question about whether or not Twilight designed Sparks to be anatomically correct.
But I'm not asking for clop. In fact, I think that would be inappropriate given the light-hearted nature of this fic. But... y'know... you could still answer the question.
Cortana?
So I've been following this story and it's interesting, but I feel it has two flaws.
Number one is that the idiot ball trope is in full force. The entire plot seems to revolve around Twilight not realizing Spike knows about Sparks, and now that they are in love. No satisfactory explanation was given as to why Spike isn't supposed to know, and in fact as Twilight's #1 assistant one would expect him to have helped her with a major project like Sparks.
Second problem is that, at least to me, it feels like they fell in love way too quickly. I assume you're just trying to move the story along and falling in love is a critical part of it, but some sort of implication of a longer passage of time to give our protagonists time to get to know each other more before jumping into a relationship would have helped make it more believable I think. Though obviously you'd still need to take care of the idiot ball.
Really though, aside from Spike's paranoia, I've not seen any real indication that Twilight would object to a bit more self-determination in her aide if the two of them made a well-reasoned argument. Twilight's always had a yen for a good debate, and new friendships right alongside.
9719832
After sitting through Twokinds stringing along a will-they-won't-they for over a decade, I'll take a rushed romance over a slow one anyday.
9719389
That's what happens when you let things simmer for a bit instead of bringing them to a flash-boil from the start.
Definitely helps you savor the moment.
And I agree. This way was MUCH more satisfying.
Now for the real question: does she really feel these emotions, or is she still just running cold calculated responses to mimic expressing them as a machine would?
9720107
Only time will tell...
9720107
Considering that any and all biological processes are our bodies making calculating responses to situations, one could easily argue that she is really feeling these emotions or that all our emotions are just cold, calculated responses to changing environments.
9720642
That's what makes this "the real queation". To question one, you'd have to question the other.
I'd personally have to consider her a form of a philosophical zombie, a being without an actual conscious, but otherwise behaves exactly how those with a conscious would. But the problem with p-zombies is that there is no test you can perform to determine if they have a conscious or not.
Very pleased with the new direction this story took. I'm in agreement with the others who have said to ignore the negative feedback you've seen regarding the changes made earlier in the story. This rocks! Hope to see it continued regularly.
9720802
And this, in turn, raises the question if Spike and Sparks should really have a relationship. Because, if one is unable to truly love(which is only possible if one is more than a philosophical zombie), then Spike is just going for a counterfeit that would seem real, but would just leave him empty.
But... is it possible for a philosophical zombie to question what it takes to have a conscious? While we can't say for certain, I think it is only possible for one with a conscious to think deep about themselves, as this conversation has lead me to do.
9722186
Well, even if we did know for a fact she was a p-zombie, I see no logical reason Spike shouldn't have a relationship with her. I mean, despite not actually having a conscious, they otherwise behave exactly like those that do have a conscious to the point that there really would be no way to tell. So it would essentially come down to what Spike himself believes. Even if she was a counterfeit, it would be like having one so detailed that it is indistinguishable from the real thing. Whether or not he was left 'empty' just depends on what he believes Sparks to be.
And besides, there are people (and I assume ponies as well) that stay single their whole lives and don't regret it. This would, at worst, be "Single+", assuming this was the big issue and skynet doesn't suddenly become a thing.
No idea if it would be possible to 'deep think' about themselves either. I suppose it would be? If the topic ever came up, I'm sure they would be able to take part in the topic, and even display the proper emotional responses as one would as they were considering their own existence. But it's probable it's all surface level 'thought'.
9722358
Thing is, even if it appears to be actual love, conscious beings have a knack for noticing counterfeit love(not always, but usually) and in any relationship(whether friend, family, or romantic) where only one gives love will, the one who gives will feel empty. So, it's different than just "single+". And I forgot what else I was going to say about this...
As for thinking about yourself, it may be surface level, but that would be the end. Any attempt at deeper thought would result in "error".
9723096
Well... I'm not going to outright disagree with conscious beings having a 'knack' for noticing counterfeit love, but at the same time I'm not sure how that would apply here. The only examples of that that I can think of would be discovering that someone you thought loved you really didn't. And that would be a conscious being pretending to love you when he/she knows themselves that they don't. And that being the case, there would eventually be some pretty revealing 'tells' to those who paid attention.
In the case of the hypothetical p-zombie though, it would be different. They would be emulating someone that really does love you, not emulating someone pretending to love you. And again, hypothetically, their emulations would be perfect.
That's what I make of the theory anyway. It basically goes that their 'mimicking' of a conscious being would be perfect, you would never be able to tell. Your best friend could be one and you'd live your whole life not even considering it as a real possibility. Unless he/she was of the mechanical variety (Such as Sparks) and they tried entering an airport...
welp my head went straight to the gutter
Well, that hot! Might want that teen rating. You know, for safety and more freedom reasons.
Good chapter!
Wow, this has improved drastically from the story before the change. You've done such a wonderful job with the pacing and the characterization. This is a lovely story.
Clop when?
9729028
Agreed, I always kinda like it more when the the story's author isn't worried or restricted by the rating.
Well, that escalated quite a bit. Not complaining at all. I have been loving the story so far. well this would be one more race of creatures that Spike has befriended. So far Dragons, Changelings and Crystal Ponies andNow synthetic ponies. Go Spike.
9740452
Me by neb me