Exploring in the Sun
"You got a map of the city?" Twilight asked.
"Only a section," Luna corrected. "The cities of the blue were absolutely massive."
Celestia scoffed and crossed her arms. "So were the cities of the black," she said despondently.
Luna's eyes faded briefly in their luminosity. "I...don't disagree, but those that functioned on the black energy weren't always--"
"I know," Celestia interrupted. "She'll learn about them in due time with your story." The white a machine let a surge of magic pulsate through her, calming her systems. "Now tell her about what you did next," she said enthusiastically.
Luna gestured her arms in downwards motions. "Alright, alright. Calm down."
Celestia chuckled. "You can't fault me for wanting to see the reaction of one of our newest audience members in millennia."
Luna found the streets to be too randomly organized despite her new internal map displaying the precise to go and her ocular systems displaying the direction to go in active time. Everything felt worse than when she was in the house. At least there everything was mostly organized and spacious. In these streets it alternated between too much space, too little, in-between, and somehow neither. She tripped over several containers containing garbage on more than one occasion because their white bodies were indistinguishable from the white stone floors and walls.
More people like those at near her home were gawking at her as she moved around. The blue robot couldn't fathom why such a group would exist. Technicians were trained for maintenance. Several gawkers in the darker, quieter streets were bolder: Attempting to grab Luna and physically dismantle her hull and chassis and see what materials she was made of. Many wanted to attempt to replicate her levitation and functions and figure out what else she could do, judging by their excited commentary, but the robot would always float just out of reach. One group was assailed by public aid robots that warned them of tampering with property of another household without the express permission of its owner or owners.
"Where am I supposed to go?" Luna wondered. She looked to the mostly clear sky, noticing it beginning to orange. "I could fly...I do not know the restrictions in place. I require additional information," she said aloud. A hovering vehicle flew overhead, throwing her auditory sensors off.
Flying was right out for the time being. She could get destroyed and harm makers in the process, and she didn't even know what it was she was supposed to expect in flight. Such things were excluded from her database. A few hextuped, furry creatures jumped from the roof of a building to her right, landing in a gruff screech and rolling around all over the place in response. The robot leaned over to see the creatures covered in stripes of yellows, browns, and oranges, the lines broken occasionally by some spots of blue.
"What are these?" Luna wondered aloud. She reached forwards to grab one and get a better analysis on it, but the target creature splayed its three-jawed mouth at her and ran off with the others.
The robot ran a diagnostics run. She was getting distracted by the overload of things in the city before her. She peered through an alleyway, seeing a much grander open space, like everything had been wiped away, leaving only a flat land broken up by roads flanked by elevated barriers of hard light. Several patches of the land between the streets had been dedicated to green grass species, colorful flowers, bushes, or trees. Panels were located everywhere, either displaying some manner of boisterous imagery with flashy colors and big letters, or rules of the area. Rules that were upheld by the transport vehicles on the ground. A transparent tube held a very long vehicle high above that bolted past everything in nearly the blink of an eye. The sound it made barely had time to even reach anyone that the source had already long since vanished behind a mountain of buildings.
A few nearby infants were pointing at the tube, jumping excitedly and wanting to ride on it, but denial led to the same reactions as the two that Luna was supposed to be caring for.
You must return to them. You're meant to be with them.
They whining children quieted when they watched her float into view, stopping in front of the blue walls of light. The people walking all around, accompanied by their children and...animals? It seemed that the blue robot had been left without information concerning secondary companions. Several other robots were standing about alongside the humans carrying large packages, aiding the elderly, or simply waiting for something Luna wasn't aware of. She was pushed aside by a quadrupedal, scaly creature with expanding and contracting holes in place of a mouth, three eyes, and a tail that ended in a sharp spiral. Several more of it were being walked by an older, bulkier model of machine that was still having a tough time holding them. It had to lean back a little to prevent itself from flying forward.
Very few were similar to Luna, at least in chassis build. Most had a bulkier frame that just barely surpassed that of the nearby makers. The map's path indicated that the blue robot needed to cross the flat, empty space. She wasn't sure why the people and robots around weren't moving anywhere and yet the city was becoming louder and louder with the brightening of the otherwise dim blue sky. She floated above the barrier, oblivious to the dangers, stunning the makers nearby and prompting them to call out to her. Unaware of what they wanted, she continued forward when her threat indicator blinked to the left of her vision. The robot bounced up, floating flat in the air after a vehicle zoomed past her. Luna herself and slid back when another passed by. To the makers, she was dancing between everything as she twirled and flipped in the air, landing gently on the other side of the street.
Several of the vehicles had stopped just short of crashing into each other, causing a blockage. With no movement, Luna could better perceive them. All the vehicles had different designs, but most followed the same pattern: Rounded, low-profile vehicles with three flat, sharp fins growing past the vehicle's rear. Some were far bulkier, but one of them stood above the rest with a pentagonal shape. A strange design, to the machine. Several of the free robots hurried to the accident zone to render aid to the potentially wounded makers while said victims yelled and cursed at Luna who just stared silently at them.
She wasn't sure what they wanted, and they didn't interest her. The colors she liked weren't around either, and the blue curtains that once painted themselves across the skies were all mixing up together with the immobile vehicles, creating a wild vortex that punched and pulled at itself.
Twilight and Celestia stared at Luna contemplating the next best way to resume her story.
"You didn't tell me you caused a traffic accident, dear sister," Celestia said behind non-existent clenched teeth.
The moon princess raised a 'finger'. "Almost, caused an accident. Almost," she stated proudly.
"Oh wow. What a difference! Good thing you also didn't almost fully crush somepony with that little stunt," Celestia mocked angrily. "Only partially," she mused.
Luna gestured like she was sticking out her tongue but realized and drooped. "I forgot. No tongues when we're like this."
"Ha," Celestia laughed.
"You act very...sisterly when you're like this?" Twilight pondered.
"Oh, we're always like this," Celestia said.
"It's just that you don't see it when we're alone," Luna mused.
Twilight was left to creating what she saw as very amusing scenarios in her own mind of the two arguing and it ending in pillow fights or using the guards as swords to duel each other in the halls.
"I should be getting there in the next few hours if I can increase my speed," Luna processed. "I need to hurry to the data center and download regulations for this area. The path says to go through here, but I don't see any direct routes except..." Her body twitched. "Back through the buildings."
Somewhat...bothered by impeded progress, Luna moved forward as fast as she could, whizzing past the makers standing around in the flat area. The robot spotted a hole in the ground where the bipeds were entering and leaving, but she paid it no further mind. She needed to get to the data center and outside of this mess. An area bustling with information would be calm and organized. A place to rest her sensors and maybe the rest of her systems from this loud mess.
Looking up after taking a momentary break in the flat place, Luna could see the clouds breaking apart and fragmenting, showing the biggest curtain of blue Luna had after seen. It stretched far, far away both wide and long. It seeped and permeated into the air and clouds, creating rivulets of sunlight pouring down at an angle. The makers around looked in awe, saying that it reminded them of being under the 'sea', but Luna felt...Her circuits were sparking in protest of the curtain. The smaller ones were pretty to her. They added to what she could already see, but this one.
"I...don't like it..." she said aloud.
Her comment didn't go unnoticed by the closer makers who started whispering to each other about her comment. Most just chalked it up to it being an audio modification or an added program for her to say that whenever this event occurred. Was the curtain by the immense horror that lurked above the clouds? The curtains usually dissipated in an hour max.
The robot hurried past the crowd, nearly causing another accident further down and disappearing between the wedges of the buildings. Some of the alleys were wider, and Luna crossed paths with several other robots in their daily tasks. One passed her and dropped several crates of black metal in front of a restaurant where the owner thanked it, and the two started bringing everything back inside while a male set up tables outside.
While the immense curtain remained in place, Luna's sensors were disoriented, throwing off her pathfinding. She found herself coming to a dead end and yet another restaurant: This one's motif being sea food. A grimey old maker was sitting in one of the many black chairs on the outside, apparently waiting for something.
"Maker," Luna started as she slowly hovered towards the male. She realized that his face was adorned with a wispy blue trail. It ebbed to the sides and billowed like smoke, but the biped could still grasp and stroke it.
"What do you need, robot?" he spat angrily. He was busy observing his own fingers. "I don't need customers who don't eat nothin' but tha' blue energy." He waved the back of his hand at Luna. "Go on and leave now. S'already tough to keep this old accent up without bein' interrupted by a robit."
"I require directions to Data Center Seventeen," Luna insisted.
The maker groaned and dropped his arms to the sides of his chair. "Look, robit, I--What in the world." His jaw dropped and he slowly got himself up from his chair, nearly tumbling over. "Consarn old body." He twisted himself and looked back at Luna. "What in the world kinda robit are you? I didn't know they were already gettin' a new model out. The other 'un just now came out. What designation are you?" he asked.
"I am designation LN-1a, custom model," Luna answered. She stayed at a distance from the maker, wary of his intentions. He could damage her and possibly cause chaining troubles for her owners.
The maker scoffed. "LN? I don't recognize that one. Thought the CHs were the newest. Barely came out a year ago." He hummed. "Custom models can't be made like you," he said thoughtfully. Luna noticed that his fake accent was gradually disappearing. "What does a robot that can fly need again?"
"I require directions to Data Center Seventeen," Luna repeated. She raised an arm and pointed her 'ring hand' at the sky once it detached. The male was amazed. "That...curtain is throwing off my sensors and guidance systems."
The maker scratched his chin then stroked his wispy beard. "Really? That's not supposed to happen." He wanted to poke Luna in the head, but she was too far away, so he just mimed the action. "If you go too fancy then this happens." He pointed to the wall of a building behind Luna. "Follow that sign that says 'DC17'. You're going to reach it eventually, robit. Not sure why you need to go to it physically, though, nor how you don't know something so simple."
"The network is down at our habitation," Luna quickly answered.
"Huh. That's also not supposed to happen." The maker stroked his beard and looked at the undulating blue energy high above. "My great great grandfather warned me about technology becoming too 'fancy'." He remained silent for a moment. "Wonder if maybe he was right." He snorted. "Then again, he couldn't boil an egg without causing the whole power system of a building section to short out." The maker noticed Luna was still standing in place, staring at him. "That's all, now git, you creepy no-face thing."
"Good day," Luna replied.
She was finally going to reach the data center and find others. Maybe she would know more about...herself. Now that she was aware of their existence, the robot could distinguish the rectangular signs planted on the walls of the buildings. Odd that the makers would still do this with the advanced path finding technology they had, Luna thought, but it was a good thing they were present regardless. She looked back up at the curtain before vanishing down the lowering street and out of sight of the grisly old male. The dome was nearby, and Luna could easily distinguish the rich blue energy trails coming from it. They were strangely unimpeded by the ocean above. Maybe it meant something, but here database had no answers. Luna was going there anyways. She would know soon enough what was lurking within the walls of something that took the space fifty sky piercers, at least in width.
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so from this old men luna get his... way of speak?
machines are quite stupid, they only do what their design and existing programming tells them to, even when this leads to glitches and damage. damage can cause al kinds of odd behaviors on top of that. even the intelligent machines fall victim to this, they just have the capacity to learn new reactions to avoid the situation in the future, not so different from most life really.
En garde with my guards!
I'm ready with the crushing dad jokes already.
Not using them as proxy champions, mind you. Bodily grabbing them and lightly bumping them against one another.
You do a great job of capturing Luna's disorientation in a world her internal database was never meant to cover. Plus, the glimpses of the wildlife hint at what evolution has in store once the blue and black redefine themselves into rainbows.
10447716
*throws house-sized spider at you*
EVOLUTION!
10447716
Also, no one is curious about the massive thing that flew above the clouds and left behind that trail?
10447956
That's the other edge of the sword when it comes to Luna's naivete. It's not always clear what's unusual versus what she just doesn't recognize.
10447979
No! Using my own writing against me! implodes
To get.
It is annoying that apparently she was not loaded with standard datasets. Granted there was never intent for her to leave the domicile, but it's not like it would have been a particularly large pack.
10447956
The observed event is not immediately apparently relevant to the current goal, in context.
However, as reader we expect it to be a transport of some kind running off the "black energy", perhaps carrying important people or objects.