Log 1: Part 3
Log 1: Part 3
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Seconds later--fine, not seconds. Hours later, I finally drew my first breath of consciousness. The blackness that had clouded my sight with pain and icy coldness was beginning to melt away and return my vision to me. My thoughts, for now, were still in the deep crevices of my throbbing head, hiding from my waking mind in fear. But like a machine I stood, a bit shaky at first, though after a few seconds, I was pleased to find that the vertigo was gone. So pleased, in fact, I managed a small smile.
A nightmare. That’s what it was. A horrible nightmare that had stemmed from that pill I took. Nothing but a horrible, acrid nightmare from the black depths of my mind that everypony had. I must have been on a bed, yes, that was where, and a soft bed to. Very soft, with, hmm, a velvety feel. I supposed I must have kicked my sheets off during my frightful fits, as they weren’t there. Well, parts of them were at least, two very warm strands still draped themselves over me, holding me close to the bed. Very, very soft...
And was that music? Yes, it was, nice soft music, almost a hum, coming from a radio I thought. Had I left mine on? Well, I didn’t think so. Oh well, it could be dealt with when I was finished here. I was so relaxed, so fine and comfortable, until... well, until my “bed” started talking.
“Mmm, sleeping well Octy?” Vinyl hummed. All too suddenly my tempered blood ran cold. I remember a violent spasm overtaking me as I slowly looked up at my predator, this beast that had overtaken my friend.
I opened my mouth, but only a tiny squeak came out. Eyes locked, my purple eyes into her own crackling fires. “Hey, Octy, you don’t look so good,” said the machine. I could see its wires through its fur, the straight, perfect lines that mocked veins, the glow of her horn that simulated unicorn magic. I had seen this thing come free of its perch; this was no pony.
As soon as my hooves would obey me I began to thrash and squirm to free myself from her mechanical clutches. Yet, as soon as I tried, I saw those veins light up and a metal vice kept me in place like the hoof-cuffs of the guards. Didn’t stop me from trying, though; I’d not be defeated, I would not give up to this thing! So I continued to squirm and struggle.
I think it lasted for a few minutes, my worthless struggle against her machinery. Eventually I had worked up a storm of a headache as well, and the vertigo was returning. I had to submit; to not do so would mean another blackout.
“Octy, Octy, shhh,” this not-Vinyl cooed. She brought her “lips” to my ear and began to hum again, and I admit it was a beautiful tune. Beethooven’s Fur-Elise, I recall, and I figured that then would be as good a time as ever to surrender my life. So I relaxed, let my hooves go limp, and sunk back down on the machine who held me tight.
We were still in the viewing chamber, I saw, and she had perched herself beneath the windows, facing the elevator, and wrapped me in her forelegs. I thought that if I could free myself, if just for a moment, then I could rush to the doors, but then what? So I chose the next best thing, which, as it turns out, was probably the best thing.
“You,” I said as best I could. My voice wouldn’t come to me. It had abandoned me. “You’re not Vinyl.”
The humming had left my ear instantly; I wished I could suck the words back up. This thing was going to tear me to pieces. My life story continued. Look, there went my first Hearth’s Warming Eve without my parents. And there’s the time I accidentally lit my cello bow on fire. That was one interesting night.
Vinyl’s eyes flashed a dull red, and retained the color for a few seconds.
“Memory chip affirms VINYL SCRATCH to be VINYL SCRATCH,” she said. Her tone was so robotic, and yet it sounded quite like her. I felt sick.
“O-oh yes? Is that so? W-well then what did Vinyl get me on my birthday last year?”
Vinyl grinned and, just like before, her eyes retained life, but flashed a strange, dull red. “VINYL SCRATCH imparted one PACK OF STRAWBERRY POPTARTS to OCTAVIA.”
That was true. She then proceeded to call me Octotart for a few months. “F-fine,” I spat. “What about the first place we met! Where was that?”
“OCTAVIA was drunk in DOWNTOWN MANEHATTAN and decided to attend a DJ-PON3 concert. OCTAVIA was rescued by DJ-PON3 when OCTAVIA fell off of the DJ PLATFORM after DANCING TOO HARD.”
A deep heat flushed through my cheeks. “Fair enough...” I muttered, thumping my head back on her chest and sticking my lip out in a pout. She giggled (a surprisingly warm, pony-like giggle) and held me closer. We were silent for a while.
“So how’s the club?” Vinyl (yes, I could call her Vinyl by now) asked, perhaps a bit tentatively. She really did still sound like Vinyl...
I looked up to her eyes, but immediately turned away. I wasn’t ready for those glowing orbs. “It’s... gone.”
There was silence. Slowly I turned my eyes up, careful to avoid hers. It wasn’t a challenge; she was not looking at me any longer. Her eyes were cast away, as if, somewhere in that machine, there was emotional thought. I thought I saw her lip quiver. Of course, then she said, “Emotion processor emphasizes SADNESS.”
Watching, waiting, I could see true emotion in that face, almost a teary one. It was now I decided to glance into her eyes; they still hadn’t returned to a pony’s, but there was definitely something in there that read: alive.
A sigh escaped my throat, and I didn’t even mean for it to. My hoof, also revolting, pressed itself to this mare’s chest as if to feel for a heartbeat. It was there. Yes, there was a heart, thumping away silently in that probably metallic cage of hers. “Is it,” she asked, “completely gone? Is there nothing left...?”
“No,” I said quietly. “Nothing.”
She was silent for a bit, and then suddenly, in the midst of the quiet, I felt her forelegs tighten up ever so slightly, making me “eep”. “Emotion processor emphasizes HAPPINESS for OCTAVIA’S safety.”
I looked up to greet a smile with a smile. A pony smile. A genuine smile. There was nothing robotic in that face anymore. For the first time, I felt secure about where my head was laying. “Aww. You know, when you’re not being an imbecile, you can be kind of sweet...”
“Sarcasm defenses activated. Retaliating with: OCTAVIA is so smart.”
“Really Vinyl? That’s all you’ve got?”
“Sarcasm defenses are out of date. Please insert new update.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, I still don’t trust you. Not one bit. But... let’s pretend you are Vinyl. Why have you never acted like this before? Why just now am I seeing these red lines? And how did you conceal the... things, on your back and head?”
Again I felt distrust welling in me as I remembered where I was: in the grasp of a machine. It looked down to me and frowned. “It was simple. First off, these ‘things’ on the back of me are ports, and they are retractable, thank you very much. Secondly, these ‘red lines’ are circuit boosters, and you’re just seeing them now because I just got unhooked. They’ll be gone soon, and they only really show up when I either want them too or need some incredible surge of magic. And I’ve just never acted like this before because I had my pony functioning chip active.”
Logical explanations, but I still wasn’t buying it. “How can you drink alcohol? Why doesn’t that short your circuits or something?”
Now, she grinned. “I’m a cyborg you doofus. Not a robot.”
“And how did that come to be?”
“I’ll tell you later. You wanna get out of here and get some breakfast? My internal clock is telling me it’s, like, eight in the morning.”
I gasped. “What? Really?”
“Yep, you were out all night,” she said with a chuckle.
I eyed her over with a squint. I’d be keeping my eye on her, and that was if I did say yes! But first... “Could we stay here a bit longer? I’m still tired,” I said, a yawn morphing my voice.
Vinyl smiled and settled in, shutting her eyes and holding me close. “Companion cube is HAPPY.”
Honestly--and I’m sure this is everypony with some hint of sanity left in them--I never expected to share an omelette with a robot. Ahem, cyborg, my apologies. I still never saw it coming. And I still didn’t, even when I was sitting there, with said cyborg right in front of me. At least the day was nice, with a breeze too. I always did prefer this little bistro over the major eateries. This place was quaint, quiet, calm, and always had outside sitting areas to enjoy the sun.
Wait. Forgive me; I should fill in the gap, shouldn’t I? Well, after I had finally had enough of resting on the soft metal beneath me (this sickness made it hard to ever get more than a few hours of sleep at once, so the rest was welcome), I asked to be shown out of the haunting facility. I didn’t even feel like asking questions about it; I just wanted to get out. She escorted me back up the elevator--how she found a button to it is beyond me--and to one of the side rooms. Turns out that the hallway I had landed myself in was one long U-shaped corridor that wrapped itself around the sepulcher of the collapsed Levitation elevator.
Well to my great horror, it seems that I didn’t have to creep through Canterlot’s garbage after all. In the room farthest away, at the complete back of the hallway, was a little lift that opened up on the side of the mountain, just next to this little dirt path that would lead us straight back to Canterlot. And that’s where we went, she in the lead, I watching closely as the red streaks across her body and glowing steel ports that laced her spine retracted beneath her white fur. Her eyes flashed once, then were that of a pony, and her hooves eventually quit glowing. She looked just like Vinyl. She was Vinyl.
I looked her over as I sipped on my coffee, my appetite completely gone. Her muzzle was deep in the cheesy dish; I was pretty sure her “eradication device” or something, was going strong. Eyeing her over, I came to the decision that yes, this was Vinyl; I could tell by her eating habits. But that still raised other questions. Many other questions.
She must’ve noticed my inspecting eye, because she stopped mid bite and returned the gaze. “Um, you okay?”
“What?” I shook my head. “Yes, fine. I’m just waiting for the coffee to kick in.”
“Mhm...” she hummed, slowly returning to her food. My thoughts, however, began to wander. I’d need to go back to Mallow as soon as possible and inform her of my blackout spell. Then I’d have to find out why the guards know about Vinyl. And of course, I wanted to know about Vinyl.
“How did you become a robot?” I blurted out. Her eyes flashed red and she whipped her head up to glare at me.
“Shh! Keep it down, will you? I said I’d tell you later,” she scolded, quickly returning to her food to finish licking the plate clean.
I, too, was sipping the last of my coffee. “Yes, yes, fine. But would you at least hurry up? I... don’t like being out here.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Why not? I thought you liked sitting outside. All fancy and tame and stuff?”
“Vinyl,” I whispered, looking around, “It’s a miracle we made it inside the city without getting in some sort of trouble.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, scanning me. “Why’s that?”
“Because! The guards are looking for you!”
“What?” She smirked. “Nah, and even if they were, it’s probably just because they want to see the owner of Levitation. Damage control and stuff...” Her expression then grew solemn, but I couldn’t kindle her spirits, not now.
“Vinyl,” I said, slowly, articulating precisely. “I think the guards know about that place. The place I found you. I think they know something’s down there, and they aren’t too keen on letting that slip by. They’re all over Levitation.”
She coughed, sending bits of egg everywhere. Bluntly glaring, I wiped them from my face, but her eyes were locked in the direction of her lost club. “W-what?” She chewed on her lip and remained petrified for minutes, no doubt doing some core processing or whatever it is computers do. “Well...” she eventually muttered, turning back to me. “They’ll probably find themselves in the subsystems. I have a private club down there, you know, just beneath the floor. I’d be a fool to just open up the lab like that.”
“So you’re saying the lab is safe?”
“For now, sure,” she said, gulping down some water. “I still don’t like the fact that their grubby hooves are all over my club!”
“Calm down Vinyl. First things first; what is that place?”
Sighing, she set the glass down and leaned across the table. A waiter came, interrupting us to ask if we were fine and well. I said yes, and he left us. “That place is some freak lab.”
My eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets. “And I’m a cellist, did you know that?”
“No, seriously! Look, you saw me hooked up to the mainframe,” she explained. “I was in control of the systems. That’s why those doors popped open even though they shouldn’t have, and it’s also why you only saw what I wanted you to see. When I fell in there as a filly, I didn’t have that kind of security.”
“So then, what happened?” I whispered back.
“I went down, further than you. That place goes deep into the mountain, I swear. My ears were like, popping left and right. It was a freakin’ popper party. I mean, seriously, pop pop pop pop--”
“Vinyl!”
A sheepish grin took her face. “Heh, right. Well eventually, I hit the bottom, where the big lab is. The screens were all off, the lights were off, everything was off, and so I couldn’t see, right? But--”
The waiter dropped the check off, and I deposited some bits on the table to encourage his leave. He nodded, swiped up the check and bits, and let us be. Head shaking, I told Vinyl to continue. “Right,” she said, “so as I was saying... I went into this huge dome place. I swear it was where I got the idea for Levitation. Three floors, all like doughnuts, hovering over the bottom. Well there was this little on-off switch thing, and when I pressed it...” She paused, no doubt for “dramatic effect”. “Guard symbols. Guard symbols everywhere. On the screens, on the walls, on the floors.”
“You mean the shield and pony?”
She nodded. “Everywhere. It was, like, the freakiest thing in the world. And then, down on the bottom... oh, you’ll never believe this. Down there was a platform with a big freaking sun painted on it. Celestia!”
I blinked, my jaw tight as a rock. “Are you saying those labs belonged to the Princess?”
“Exactly!” She leaned back in her chair, and I did as well. This news was... unsettling. Perhaps not so much to her, but to me, yes. The guards knew it was there, and they didn’t want Vinyl in it. Yet, the labs looked abandoned, sealed for a reason. The air was even stale, I remembered. Stale and thin. It must have been sealed for a while.
They must have wanted it to stay that way.
I could feel the warmth in my cheeks fade. The weight of the situation was literally squeezing the air from my lungs. In a mist of fear and confusion I began to hyperventilate, taking sporadic breaths and swaying in my chair.
Before I knew it, Vinyl was at my side. “Okay, okay, deep breaths,” she said as she lifted me onto her back. “C’mon, let’s get you home. Things’ll be alright, okay? Octy, you gotta answer me.”
It took me a moment. “Okay,” I eventually panted.
“Alright. Let’s go. Thank you!” she called to the waiter.
He only watched, eyes blank and unreadable, as Vinyl carried me away.
After taking another pill, and after resting a bit, on my couch (which was quickly becoming by new bed), Vinyl stepped back in from the balcony, poptart in hoof. I rolled my eyes and let her invasion of my stash slide this time; she had just carried me home, after all. This would, however, come with a price. I wanted the answer she’d not given me yet, and by Celestia and her secret lab, I’d get it.
“Vinyl,” I said, “could you come here?”
She stuck the tart in her mouth and brought it to my side, sitting down beside the couch and cocking her head inquisitively. “Hmm?”
“We’re here. Alone now. In private...” I hinted. The medicine, that’s what did it; it made me lethargic and slow.
And thanks to it, I found Vinyl grinning at me. “Well Tavi, feeling better? Mmm, Vinyl can ‘light up your world’ if you--”
“No!” I cried, plugging her mouth with a hoof. “No.”
“Mll mm m-mh mhph!” she groaned, rolling her eyes. Squinting a glare, I popped my hoof free. “Well it’s not my fault,” she repeated with a snort.
“Vinyl...” I sighed and let my eyes wander to the ceiling. My hooves fell limp at my sides, and my body became numb. “How did you become like you are? When did you stop being a pony?”
I could see those ears flatten against her head. “I never stopped being a pony...”
Ouch. Curse the mental lethargy this medicine brought on! I brought my hooves back to life and pressed them beneath Vinyl’s chin, tilting it up from the ground so that she locked eyes with me. “I didn’t mean it that way, I promise,” I cooed.
She took her chin back and sighed. Moments passed in silence, and deep in me I began to wonder if I had really touched a nerve. I still feel a little guilty for it. “Remember that platform I told you about?” she eventually said. “The one with the sun on it?”
I nodded.
“Well, I thought it was weird to see Celestia’s butt half a mile inside a mountain, so I went down to check it out. It was pretty big, like, taking up the whole floor, and when I stepped on it, I could feel the magic. I think the whole place is run on it. Anyways, I started trotting around and looking at all the neat little things on the ground, when my hoof stamped on one of the sun rays. The whole place started shaking, pretty violently too, scared the hay outta me.”
“Then,” she continued, “this big glass tube came down from the ceiling and trapped me on the thing. Before I could even bang my hoof against it, the sun started shifting. The rays sank into the floor and these thin metal things with claws on them came out. I fainted when I saw them. When I woke up, they were gone, and I was on the sun, alone. It was quiet again, and I ran back to the elevator and got my flank out of there. I didn’t know how I knew where the exit was, but I just did.”
I finally saw a smile on her face now. “Hah, I was a freakin’ genius. My grades rocketed. I never had a problem again. Heck, I saw them before they came. Things were weird, though, thanks to it. Had that logistics core and the sarcasm defenses going off so much, my parents almost put me in an asylum.” She laughed, and I could see life in her eyes again. “You should’ve seen it, the first time those defenses activated! Priceless. Worth the month of grounding!”
I smiled. “So eventually things just fell into place?”
“Yep,” she said. “Though I had to go back to the facility like, every two months or something to make some updates for my systems. But don’t worry, I’m at my peak, so I can make your updates while you get used to everything, no sweat.”
My throat was acrid. Dry. I coughed, thumping my chest. “W-what?”
Vinyl stood and set the poptart on my table. In her eyes was a strange little flicker, and I couldn’t quite tell what it was. Until, of course, she blurted it out. “Diagnostics memory running. Processing... Memory found. When I was a filly, I had problems. Not the normal ‘everypony hates me’ stuff. I mean I was sick. Like you, ‘cept I didn’t have years to live.”
She stood and arched her back in a stretch. “Well, doctors said so, anyways. But when that thing at the sun happened, I found myself running a diagnostics on, well, me. Whatever I had that was going to kill me before I learned my a-b-c’s was gone, and I was a genius. Worked out in the end, I think.” Laughing, she snatched up the poptart and devoured it. For all the smarts bestowed upon her, the trajectory of her crumbs was uncouth to say the least.
Hoof brushing them from my fur, I huffed and glared at her. “So you want me to... in order to...”
“Be like me to save your flank, yes! Then you won’t have to take anymore of these pill things.” She nodded to the kitchen. “What’s even in those things?”
“I don’t know,” I said,” but they work.” But to the topic at hoof: was she seriously suggesting I trade my ponydom for metal and wires? Absurd! And besides, what if it was painful? What if it snapped me like a twig? That’s right, it could go wrong! Especially with Vinyl at the helm. Last time, she’d nearly killed us in an elevator!
I decided I’d bring that up. “Vinyl, last time you were in charge of anything, you nearly killed us in a fireball.”
“Oh come on Octy! Think about it. I’ve been like this for years, and I know the systems inside and out, literally! You’d be in good hooves. I ran it over a few times, and the likelyhood that anything will go wrong is less than eight percent. Can’t beat that number,” she said. A huge smile spread across her face.
“Vinyl, I...” I paused and sighed. Where was I to go with this? I didn’t even know what to think. Honestly, what kind of options were these? Become a robot or die. Well, die in a few years. Or painfully become a machine. Machine, or die? Die? Machine? Lovely choices.
Admittedly, dying sounded a lot less fun, even if it was about two years off. And... being an android, or robot, or machine-thing--whatever it was Vinyl had become--being one couldn’t be so bad. Vinyl seemed to enjoy it quite a lot, and the wealth of knowledge would have been quite the boost...
She was staring at me, I finally realized, with an almost pained look, one of what I guessed to be anxiousness. Her eyes scanned me up and down my length, observing me, waiting for me. Biting her lip she stood there before me. I stared at her in silence, still mulling over my thoughts. I’d be insane if I just let myself die; I’d be insane to become a robot. It was just a matter of how insane I felt like being.
Eventually, I let my head drop in defeat. “When were you thinking about doing this?”
I swear, she just about tackled me. I say “just about” because what she actually did was more of a leap-and-pounce move. The air from inside me was being squeezed out like a water would be rung from cloth as Vinyl’s forelegs crushed me in a hug. Eyes closed, she nuzzled her head deep into me, and I couldn’t help but wrap my own forelegs around her. “I knew you’d be up for this!” she said, muffled by my fur.
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?” I asked.
“No. My logistics core predicted a seventy seven percent rate of failure.” Her head dug down even further.
“Vinyl...” I coughed. “Not a robot yet. Not... a... robot.”
“Heh, sorry,” she muttered, pushing herself off of me. “Cyborg, by the way. Trust me, it’s kinda weird when somepony calls you a robot.” Her flank scooted to the edge of the couch and sat beside me. Eyes fixed on me and tail draped across me like a blanket, Vinyl continued, “I have this all mapped out. We should leave before sunset, which looks like it’ll be coming soon, so we might want to be going now. Now, once we get there, we’ll--”
“Will it hurt?” I blurted, eyes fixed dead on hers. I saw them flash that same, dull color.
“I don’t know. I woke up sore, but like I said, I was out of it. It shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll be there, you know. I’ll have everything under control for once.” She wrapped her hoof around my own and pulled on me, urging me up. Reluctant though my body was, I stood to my hooves with her aid. “We should get going now, though. We have to go get Mallow before this goes down.”
Choked up, I could only blink. “Mallow? My doctor? Whatever for?”
“Because if there’s one pony who knows what your insides look like, its her. Now c’mon!” she said. She was already at my door.
“M-my insides! Why should we be concerned about them so much as to have a doctor on hoof?”
“Because,” she huffed, rolling her eyes, “turns out you’re supposed to input some stuff before you flip the switch. I came out of it with some... extensions. Gone now though. Don’t worry, that won’t happen with you, now let’s go!”
I felt her magic envelop me and whisk me off the floor, out of my apartment, and down the street. The trip to Mallow’s office was... not hard, surprisingly. Vinyl didn’t have to explain to me just how her magic was holding up so strong for so long; I could faintly see the magical wires beneath her fur. However they worked, they did so well, though a few eyes were drawn to the famous, levitating cello player and the DJ as the latter hovered the former down the street.
By the time we stepped into the small office building, just down Mane Street, my cheeks were hotter than a furnace, and redder than the sun. Vinyl decided now would be a fine time to set me down in a waiting chair, and the moment my flank hit the seat, I sunk away and crossed my forelegs in defiance. Yes, I looked very much like a filly, but I was blushing so hard I was a practical torch.
Thankfully, the office was closing, and so the last patient was just now making his way out. Now alone, I could finally feel the tide of heat retreating as Vinyl marched her way to the registry. I couldn’t quite hear her when she whispered to the registrar, but whatever she said turned a light on in the stallion’s head. He nodded and stood from his desk, only to retreat into the back of the building. Moments later, I spotted Mallow’s orange mane through the slit in the door.
She stepped out and glanced very briefly at Vinyl, then fixed her gaze on me. To my side she ran, immediately running her hoof over my forehead to check my temperature, then sticking it on my neck to check my pulse. We sat there for a moment, before she finally lowered it and smiled, seemingly satisfied.
“Everything seems normal,” she muttered in that hard Germane accent of hers. “How did you sleep? Still very little, ya?” I nodded. “Vell... and vhat of ze spinning?” I told her of my... episode. Her face contorted with widened eyes and a frown. “Vhat? No! Zhat is not good! No, no, no! Did you take ze medicine? Have you been resting like I told you to? Vhat about your diet? Have you been eating those nasty poptarts again? Ick! Octavia!”
“Doc,” Vinyl said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “She’s gonna be fine.”
Mallow stared at Vinyl for a moment, then paled and froze. “You... you vant to do zhat now?” Vinyl nodded, and it then dawned on me; Mallow was in on it all. Which of course made sense, now that I was thinking about it! How else could that note have slipped into my medicine? “But she is not vell right now. I do not zhink...”
“I don’t think we can wait,” Vinyl said. “Octy says the guards are poking around. Some unpleasant stuff. Right?” She looked at me.
I swallowed stiffly; it was almost as if I had lost control of my entire body. Nothing responded, not my lips nor hooves nor eyes. Too lost in my thoughts now that the embarrassment had died down, it clicked in my soon-to-be memory port that I had actually said yes to this whole fiasco. Me saying yes was disastrous. Me saying yes to Vinyl, even more so. Me saying yes to Vinyl, a cyborg, to give her control of my body’s future... I shuddered.
“Hang on,” Vinyl muttered. She reached behind herself, and I heard a hiss. Only vaguely did I see a little piece of her right side slot out, revealing a metal pouch. From within it she pulled something that shimmered and crinkled before sliding her... fur, back over the little cubby.
Before my eyes she wafted a shiny rectangle with my favorite label plastered on front of it. I blinked--roughly, and my eyes burned--but I blinked finally. Vinyl tore open the pack and retrieve one, only one, poptart from it and landed it straight in my hooves. Doctor Mallow glared, appalled.
“Vhat! Do not let her eat zhose! They are not helping!”
“Chill Mallow, look.” Vinyl conked one hoof on my doctor’s chin, and the other on her forehead, before forcing her gaze to me. I, by now, was drawn from my stupor into a fit of hunger, devouring the menacing little rectangle with a fervor and a frenzy. The jelly within, strawberry or hayberry I thought, danced on my tongue. I was alight with the blaze, and... alright, fine, fine, I’ll calm down. Point was, it was good, and it kicked me out of my stupor.
My poptart-giving rescuer sat beside me. “So, Tavi. You said the guards were all over the place right?”
I looked at her, my mouth stuffed with the last bits of my pastry. Gulping them down, I nodded, and looked to Mallow. “They were at my door last night, asking questions about Vinyl and her elevator. They... they even knew I had a terminal disease...” I squinted at Mallow. “Did they come visit you?”
“Wait, they visited you?” Vinyl interjected.
I nodded, but kept my gaze locked on Mallow, scouring her for any hint of betrayal. But she seemed deadlocked, her eyes searching the floor for nothing. “No, I did not. How they could know zhat is beyond me. Vinyl here has told me of ze situation and her plans; I was expecting you. I vas not expecting zhat. Ve... should probably be going zhen, yeah?”
Vinyl nodded in agreement. “Right. C’mon Octy, there’s another poptart waiting for ya.”
I scowled. “I am not a dog, Vinyl.”
With that, I stood and marched out, the first of the pack, with my chest puffed out. Because I could do this. I knew I could do this. Nothing would stop me now.
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Oh jeez. So many favorites and nice comments, you guys make me afraid to post this chapter, lest I let you all down
Oh my... So! Weekly updates, every Monday. Sound good?
Also, I highly suggest reading the GDocs version of this. The text is more formatted, and not as harsh on the eyes. Trust me, I think it makes a world of difference. But then, I am the author...
so octy is gonna be a cyborg... fricken awsome
*Saint face hoofs*
Not sure if funny or bad.
OLD JOKE IS OLD!
What's a companion cube? ._.
独創性に欠けるが、陽気な。
1958821 Old
But I couldn't help it.
Vinyl responsible for a potentially lethal medical process? Nothing can possibly go wrong!
1958757
I actually vastly prefer Fimfictions view to gdocs. I do not know if it is because I have a 1920x1200 monitor, or because I have the text set to big, but I would eyestrain on gdocs if I read things enough there.
Interesting story you have going though. One thing they are not considering is that if the guards totally take over the lab, then what would happen to updates? I mean they would be stuck in a bad way. Seeing Celestia could be either really good, good, or really really bad. What we will do on our deathbed to avoid the reaper....
Interesting... Keep going.
I imagine Vinyl running through the streets with this giant grin and Octavia just floating around all indignant with a "yes, this is happening" look. Laughs were had.
Please let them have weapons systems, lease let them have weapons systems, please let them have weapons systems!
In other news, Octavia just payed fate to slap her.
I kinda screamed a bit at this. Like gyyyyAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. Earned me some looks in our library.
This. Just this. 25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5p1juztUA1r6tv0ro1_400.gif
This story is friggin amazing. So unique, and the characters are spot on.
One typo: "...quite glowing..." -> quit
Terminator 4: Equestrian Panic lol
Celestia has a large, secret underground facility that tests and changes ponies?
In all honesty....it makes perfect sense. I mean, what kind of leader would she be if she didn't have one, right? All leaders had/have some kind of facility which shouldn't ever see the light of day.
Must've taken a good number of years to get it up and running...not to mention another amount of years to get it to work properly. I am now giddy with excitement and hope to eventually learn more of this...facility
I always loved that cube and was heartbroken to destroy it. I love it whenever I see it again.
'hippoid', technically. 'equinoid' or 'ponyoid' would also be acceptable.
An eye tentacle penis?!
1959042 Someone's having strange thoughts...
1958977 Who would be a ruler without such a facility? All great rulers have such a thing!
1958847 Hmm, well it's basically the text format that's different, as I mentioned. Less blinding red, and a different font. (Though, with the same sized monitor as you, I agree with the layout here. I prefer reading FIMFiction over Gdocs.)
1959067
FINALLY! Somepony who understands!
1959067
That was a Project Horizons reference. You should
read itwrite this fic to the end, and write the Lyra one, and then read it because you'll be lost to the world for weeks when reading it.I just read this 15 minutes ago and was sad that i'd have to wait for an update, your sir/madam are a divine being xD
My lITTle CyB0rG! mY LIttLE cYboRg!
seriously great story though.
Another great chapter
....vinyl got tore apart as a filly
1959067
Extensions. I am so Pming you with my thoughts on that stupid foreshadowing
every Monday? that mean tomorrow to? .
1959276 Tomorrow? Nope, just on Mondays. Unless you're in New Zealand, or someplace like that. Then it's either Sunday or Monday. Early release. Because Christmas never comes too soon.
1959290 it's sunday here. Live in Canada!
also -hopes crushed-
This is awesome and deserves the front page. ^_^
I wonder if vinyl could toast the poptarts for Tavi, or does Tavi prefer them raw
Celestia is a robot! CELESTIA IS A ROBOOOOOOOOT!
I knew there was something funny about that mare. No one can eat that much cake in a sitting and not have a tummy ache!
Coolest. Fic. Ever.
1959130
...Well, it finally explains Sweetiebot.
Yup, it's cannon now, Octotart, aka Poptavia.
I'll have to make room in the pantry for poptarts, next to all those bananas.
p.s. This story feels like a long lost companion to another fic about fusion powered ponies. Oh yeah, this one... Days of Wasp And Spider
This is my new favourite story
Nice job with this chapter!
Don't worry about people being disappointed, this is amazing!
1959423
Dude. It's "cyborg". Saying "robot" is like calling a black person the "N" word.
Loving the story, brah. Great chuckles are had at every chapter. It is making up for all of your great unfinished stories just like each one before it. Then you stop them to start a new one. O vell. Keep it up. Glad for weekly updates. My Mondays just got 20% cooler.
1960332
No. Vinyl is a cyborg, Celestia could be a robot.
ok a couple things first what did vinyl mean
second portal reference!
three why is her doctor Russian?
and lastly you don't like write as guys do you because every character except the guards is a girl
1960374
Was trying to find the part from The Grim Adventures of KND where they are saying "ASSIMILATE". I couldn't find it. I guess we're just gonna have to see what Lynked has in store for us, huh?
1960382 Are you saying I don't have the style of a guy?
And I had imagined the doctor as German, but Russian works. (Also, the extensions part is a secret 
)
1960332
That, right there.
I hope to keep Mondays interesting
1960306>>1959726 Thanks for the comments!
1960332
Actually, there's a difference between the words "robot" and "cyborg."
Robot is a machine that resembles a human (or pony in this case) and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.
An example of a robot could be Atlas and P-body from Portal 2.
---
Cyborg is a living person who's physiological functioning is aided or dependent on a mechanical or electronic device.
An example of a cyborg could be, well... many things, such as a person with a prosthetic implant (mechanical leg, arm, etc.), or could be something like the Master Chief from the trilogy of Halo, who has the aid of his armor for enhanced movement and protection.
Therefore, calling a robot a... uh, robot is like calling an African gentleman as an African. It isn't derogatory, like the "N" word for African persons or the word "machine" for robot. Although, being called a machine is a little more offensive than "robot." That's just my opinion.
But you can't call a robot a cyborg, because a cyborg is NOT a robot.
I hope I'm not offending with my butting-in of information that I felt I had to point out.
1960547 I'm actually a little confused. Calling a cyborg a robot is offensive, which is the ploy used in the story. Not the other way around. Unless I'm missing something
1960565
Of course...
Well, I didn't read the story, but I was just explaining the difference between the two. I thought is was a common mistake to think one was the same as the other.
What's funny is that when I posted the comment, I thought, "Should I read the story first to make sure I'm not doing something stupid?"
And you kinda... answered that question.
On another note: I like the picture you used for the story. I actually saw that particular pic of Vinyl a day or two prior to my discovery of the story.
1960582
Well it's all fine. I do hope you enjoy the story. Also, that picture was what inspired me to write this story. I saw it and thought, cyborg Vinyl. Why is this not a thing?
MOAR!!!!
Why does Vinyl keep saying "logistics"? It seems to be doing general reasoning, not managing resource flow.
1960582
As Lynked said, its the same because each one finds it insulting. I know the difference between the two.
Octavia: “Did they come visit you?”
Mallow: “No, I did not.”
Mallow's acting guilty. She answered the wrong question. I don't trust her.
Companion Cube...
...So much win...
COMPANION CUBE YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS *ahem* yes well good story so far keep it up
DON'T STOP WRITING! ok?
i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tevorisz/whos-awesome.jpg
Story is very well written and no errors I caught while reading. You do a very good job of painting the scenery with words. Keep up the great work sir/madame