Year 20 P.S,
Month 1, Day 1,
17:44
The only sounds to be heard within the large chamber were the dull thump of hoofsteps and the steady drone of mechanical workings, all carefully regulated to keep the room’s occupants in check.
The majority of the equine figures contained within, however, were immobile. For all intents and purposes, they weren’t even yet alive. Just hollow forms of metal, wires, and organic flesh.
Constructs were not to be disturbed.
The door to the chamber opened, and four ponies stepped forward into the room. One of them was a tan-colored unicorn, wearing a dark brown suit with a deep red rim at each of the cuffs, matching the red color of his shortly trimmed mane and tail. The other trio was a family of unicorns, known as the Sparkle family. The parents, a mixture of nighttime colors, trailed behind the scientist, while their son, a white-coated, blue-maned teen named Shining Armor, tensely walked next to them. He harbored a more unsettled expression than his parents. They were more used to such things, even given what they were here for, but he didn't think he'd ever get used to it...
The lights above flickered once as the door closed behind them, and the unicorns took in the gaze of the room. A string of tubes lined the walls, a dim blue light backing each one. Each tube contained an alicorn in various stages of development, but the Sparkles trained their eyes on the closest one.
The young lavender alicorn’s head was drooped, eyes closed as if in slumber, though it was clear by the readings she was in a state not of sleep, but of something more like death. In fact, it didn’t seem as if a soul inhabited the body at all, and the form was just a limp shell. And in reality, it was—wires and mechanics were visible within the alicorn’s torso, connected to what looked like the organs that would be found in a normal pony. To many of those part of the Project, she was not yet a pony but rather a hollow, inanimate object, a harbor for cybernetics and living tissue still in the process of being fully formed.
As for which of the alicorn’s organs were organic and which were mechanical, the Sparkles weren’t sure on most of them. Some apparent organs were obviously mechanized, but others seemed to be made of living tissue possessed by any other pony.
Though a silver-colored translucent tube was placed around the growing pony’s mouth and nose, the exposed metallic lungs remained motionless, neither expanding nor contracting. No indicator of life inhabiting the hollow shell.
The parents glanced at each other, while Shining was unable to take his eyes off the alicorn, as if looking at her would help her awaken and free her from that unsettling, death-like state.
"Dr. Craft," Shining asked, "why does she look so..." The last word died in his throat—he didn't want to voice the word "dead".
“Without a proper life force inhabiting the Construct, all biological processes are currently nonfunctional,” Dr. Craft noted, gaze trained on the alicorn in question. “We all hope that will change soon once it’s ready, once it can be deemed properly alive. We’ll know a soul has surfaced when the readings tell us so.”
Nightlight Sparkle examined a string of green numbers on a monitor by the control panel, a complex progression that he honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of. The pattern of 1s and 0s made it clear that the readings were in binary, but computing had never been the strongest point for the unicorn stallion.
"What's the coding mean?" he whispered, as if wary that he would wake up the "developing" alicorns in their containment tubes. While the Sparkles were reasonably adept with technology as required for the Program, the more complex uses of the number coding were lost on them and left to the professionals.
Dr. Craft's voice was gruff, with a business-like air. "It details the Construct’s current status. For instance, this is Alicorn Construct Revision E, Version P, No. 114, or EP114 for short.". Dr. Craft rattled off the information as if he could read binary on his own. "Primary Genestock: Purple Unicorn. Version: 3.8. Registered Name: Twilight."
"H-Hey, she shares your first name," Nightlight said to his wife with a small grin. The mare laughed softly in response.
Dr. Craft continued as if the Sparkles hadn't spoken. "Maturity for Awakening at 98%. Stability: A technical glitch or two early in Development but otherwise stable."
"Technical glitch?" Mrs. Sparkle muttered with a thoughtful frown. "What kind of glitch?" If there was even a slight possibility that this would be the alicorn that was to be Placed with their family—providing she passed the review—they wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t pose a danger to herself or anypony around her. They had invested too much time in the Project to take that risk.
Dr. Craft pulled a few levers to adjust the tubing positions before replying. "There was a bit of sparking from faulty wiring in the secondary coverts of its left wing that needed to be fixed.” He spoke in such a brisk manner than the others could barely get a word in edgewise. “Its eyes opened as we were repairing it, but it appeared to be a reflex from the electrical manipulation applied to the Construct body". His bright green eyes studied the limp young pony's form, as if scrutinizing for even the slightest movement of an eyelid. "There wasn't a conscious response, verbal or otherwise, merely a reflex." A huff before attaching another extension of wiring to provide further nutrients to the developing alicorn.
Shining Armor, stepping a bit closer to the Construct’s limp form, looked inquiringly at the engineering expert. Something about the stallion’s wording really rubbed him the wrong way. “Why did you call her an ‘it’?”
“You’re a bright one.” Rather than harboring a tone of praise, Dr. Craft addressed the colt in the same condenscending manner as before. Without a backwards glance, he began noting down the changes in the organic coding as more nutrients were pumped in the tubes to fully supply to the organic portions of the Construct. “Here in the lab, we don’t refer to the Constructs by gender until we detect that they’ve reached a level of MCA.”
“MCA?”
“Minimum Conscious Awareness,” the stallion clarified, a hint of irritation now present. “Referring to a Construct by gender is capable of forming even a subconscious psychological attachment toward the one in question. Thus, we avoid any indication of such matters. It’s all business here, and we can’t afford to let emotions get in the way before they become conscious.”
“I can tell,” Nightlight whispered in a tone that was only audible to his wife. His manner of speaking, however, wasn’t entirely disapproving.
The expression on Shining’s face made his confusion clear. “But what about the names? You said that you call her—it—Twilight.” Shining caught himself just in time to avoid the green eyes of the scientist. Despite Dr. Craft insisting otherwise, it was clear that referring the pony who might become his “sister” as merely an “it” left a bad taste in the colt’s mouth. She was a living pony—or rather, was going to be living, if all went well.
However, the scientist Shining spoke to either didn’t notice his tone or didn’t care. “We have to pick a name for them to prepare for their Interaction Tests and development in social situations. But now is not the time to discuss that. Let’s just continue on with the tour.”
With a quick jerk of his head, Dr. Craft led the trio away and called for another one of the scientists to look after the growing Construct. “There’s still so much you need to understand about the Program before that Construct is fully developed for its Placement.”
“You mean her Placement,” Shining corrected in a voice barely above a whisper.
The heart began to slowly pump blood through the circulatory system. The lungs took in oxygen for the first time,
The Construct—Twilight—opened her eyes, gaining a comprehensive view of the world. This time, it wasn’t just a reflex, but a true indication that the alicorn in question was aware of its surroundings. And the first thing the she was aware of was pain. Constricting coils that prohibited movement. She began to take in air for the first time, the chemical being pumped into her nose and mouth nearly causing her to choke.
With her senses in the waking world becoming increasingly brought into life, she became aware of a loud, blaring sound. A constant ringing that penetrated her eardrums and caused her to wince.
There were other voices audible over the alarm.
"One of them has reached Awakening! I think it's EP114!".
"Get it out of there before its circuitry is damaged! Do it immediately!"
Unnerved by the blurring of her senses, the contained alicorn attempted to struggle, pure instinct telling her to get away from the blaring echo and loud chatter. With a whoosh of cold air clinging to her synthetic fur, the restrictions suddenly loosened their bonds. She crashed to the floor in a daze, head spinning as she attempted to regain her bearings.
"It's alright, EP114. You're awake."
so twilight is the alicorn of robots
Twilight Sparkle -> Twilight Spark-All -> Twilight All-Spark
Twilight is Optimus Prime.
I-it's out? You wrote it?
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Well, I think I see why Shining Armor is BBBFF in this fic. SO curious as to what's going to happen from here. Hopefully she gets more skin soon, walking around with her lungs showing would creep her family out even if they are all sciency. I'm assuming this is happening at some point in the past... how much time will pass until she meets outside ponies?
Also, I think it is awesome that they have figured out the science of the soul. I'm interested in how you'll manage to get her to interact with other ponies. If she disguises herself as a normal pony, she won't be able to prove to them that she's "alive"; if she reveals herself as an alicorn, past suspicion will lead the other ponies to straight-up try to kill her (do note the emphasis) and won't listen to a thing she says. I suppose... either Fluttershy or Rarity might be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt... I'm inclined to think Rarity, though, given the first chapter and the character tags. Generosity comes in a lot of forms...
Also, you have Rarity and Applejack singled out as characters, but Rainbow Dash is also in the story picture--was there just not enough room, or will it only be focused on those two? Does Spike exist? Are these new Constructs capable of getting cutie marks? I figure that would go with having a soul, but I do they still count as being ponies to magic itself?
What role will Celestia play? If she's what ponies think she is, she wouldn't interact with anypony. If she's capable of helping, she'd definitely be doing so. She has a tag, but I don't see how she'd even be there.
Although I do have a theory as to what happened with the Constructs. The stars were just the stars that released Nightmare Moon, and she and Celestia duked it out because nopony could wield the Elements, sort of breaking Equestria in the process. The Nightmare then moved on to inhabit the Constructs, forced out of Luna's body for whatever reason (she's dead?). The Constructs (seeing a show ponies are still alive) are vastly weaker than her because she's splitting her power. And they'd still be soulless, because whatever the Nightmare is... I don't think it has one.
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Both owned by Hasbro... from now on, any mechanical sounds the constructed alicorns make will be Transformers noises. In my head, at least.
*By chance, looks at bottom of page*
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"Page generated in 0.114 seconds"
6748920 Don't worry, Twily will get more skin soon. :) And all of the Mane Cast will play a part in this, those were just the ones who fit. As for Celestia, you'll see.
How dare you only write two chapters XD
This is really interesting!
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I've gotten back into the fandom again so I'm hoping to catch up on stuff. :)
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I love it when stories I've all but given up on seeing move again are revived. Glad to see you're back!
Nothing like a hit of blaring claxons and maddening chaos to really introduce you to the land of the living! A sense of foreboding creeps in... and Shining is wholesome to the absolute max. It’s so fitting though that these equine constructs need a pole between workers and the alicorns. It’s so easy to get attached to something that isn’t real that we’ve made an entire industry pretending and catching our emotions. But questions are abound... what is our emergency? How will Twilight act? Will she find home in the Sparkle family or does fate hold some other hand for her. Does fate even factor? Anticipation is the death of one’s soul so let’s go, Onwards!